Bill Cunningham. The Man. The Legend

The forever adored fashion photographer, and longtime fixture of both street life and society events in New York, nabs a second documentary tribute in "Mark Bozek’s feature, narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker."

"The death of Bill Cunningham in 2016 marked the end of an era with the disappearance of his candid snapshots from the "On the Street" and "Evening Hours" Sunday columns in The New York Times. The self-effacing fashion historian's monastic dedication to his work, along with the unbridled joy he drew from it, were celebrated in Richard Press' gorgeous 2011 doc Bill Cunningham New York. First-time director Mark Bozek now takes an expansive view of the subject in The Times of Bill Cunningham, a captivating portrait built around a previously unseen interview he shot with the photographer in 1994.

Does this new film shine much fresh light on a life already so affectionately examined in the earlier close-up? Aside from the gratuitous dissing of the Press documentary — when Sarah Jessica Parker reads Bozek's scripted narration, making the unverifiable claim that the 2011 film's success and the public recognition it brought Cunningham made him uncomfortable — perhaps not. But if you have a subject as delightful and forthcoming as the self-invented shutterbug, not to mention decades' worth of fabulous footage and photographic records of high and low fashion, you really can't have too much of a good thing.

Bozek, whose background is in fashion marketing, television production and 20-plus years as a QVC exec (he was the basis of the Bradley Cooper character in David O. Russell's Joy), began work on the film the day Cunningham died, aged 87. He dug out the long-lost video interview, which had been planned as a quick 10-minute chat but ended up a life-spanning reflection that continued until the tape ran out. During production on the doc, Bozek scored access to Cunningham's vast photo archives covering six decades, including a wealth of previously unpublished material from the pre-New York Times years.

For someone inherently shy and unfailingly modest about his achievements, Cunningham is a brilliant interview subject. His words are buoyed by the infectious enthusiasm, the sense of gratitude even, that he shares about having been able to carve out a significant career doing something he loves. "A luxury," he calls it, bringing an exciting sense of discovery to each new day on the job. And he was always on the job. Parked on his favorite corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, or whizzing about New York in his customary uniform of a blue French sanitation workers' jacket on a series of 25 bicycles in as many years — "The cheaper the better. They're only gonna steal it!" — he was never without his camera.

With prompts from Cunningham at every step, Bozek guides us through the subject's life from his conservative Boston Irish-Catholic upbringing to his arrival at 19 in New York, where he worked in advertising at the chic department store Bonwit Teller. Having fooled around making hats since he was 10, Cunningham began sidelining as a milliner, fashioning fantasy headgear that was much in demand during the explosion of postwar fetes and costume balls. But Bonwits fired him when they learned that his attention-getting creations weren't being sold in their stores.

It's the chronicle of this period in particular that makes Cunningham's career such a wonderfully New York-centric story — of a creative artist propelled by drive, resourcefulness and fortuitous connections, though seemingly not by the usual fundamental quality of guile. He secured himself a small apartment to use as a studio, rent free in exchange for janitorial duties, earning a modest income delivering lunches on Madison Ave. and working nights at a Howard Johnson's.

He was drafted during the Korean War and stationed in France, where he attended the Paris fashion shows for the first time while also selling his hats to major designers like Schiaparelli. Back in New York, he started working for the influential couture salon Chez Ninon, where his association with future First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier began." - HollywoodReporter.com