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Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel

A look at the life and work of the influential fashion editor of Harpers Bazaar, Diana Vreeland. A look at the life and work of the influential fashion editor of Harpers Bazaar, Diana Vreeland. A look at the life and work of the influential fashion editor of Harpers Bazaar, Diana Vreeland.

• Lisa Immordino Vreeland
• Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt
• Frédéric Tcheng
• Diana Vreeland
• Richard Avedon
• David Bailey
• 8 User reviews
• 41 Critic reviews
• 69 Metascore
• 1 win & 3 nominations

• (archive footage)

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Bayboodlesauntie
• Nov 17, 2015
• How long is Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel? Powered by Alexa
• September 21, 2012 (United Kingdom)
• United States
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• Official site (France)
• Diana Vreeland: La mirada educada
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• Sep 23, 2012

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• Runtime 1 hour 26 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Life Is a Feast, and She Wasn’t About to Starve

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By Manohla Dargis

• Sept. 20, 2012

While you’re watching the dizzily enjoyable documentary “Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel” you may find yourself thinking with an increasing fervor that, yes, wearing violet velvet mittens with everything is a fantastic idea, and that you’re just mad about rouge. Vreeland, a doyenne of 20th-century fashion and a paradigmatic self-made woman, had a genius for the inspirational, the gnomic and the divinely quotable . Atwitter before Twitter, she was a fabulous wit who brings to mind Wilde and Warhol even while being inimitably Vreelandesque: “The best thing about London is Paris.” “Fashion is not the same thing as style.” “I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.”

Vreeland, née Diana Dalziel, was born in Paris around the turn of the 20th century and died in New York in 1989. In between she lived an extraordinary life that, in classic American fashion, was a triumph of self-invention. Her father, Frederick Young Dalziel, was British and a stockbroker; her mother, Emily Key Hoffman (related to Francis Scott Key), was American and cruel, at least to her eldest daughter. “Parents, you know,” Vreeland says in “D.V.,” her compulsively readable autobiography, “can be terrible.” Certainly that seems true of her mother who, when Vreeland was a child, told her that she was “extremely ugly,” unfavorably comparing her to Diana’s younger sister, Alexandra. “It didn’t offend me that much,” she said. She just walked out of the room and, it seems, onto her own path.

That road is laid out in the documentary, which was written and directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, the wife of a Vreeland grandson, Alexander. (He runs the Diana Vreeland Estate, which supports the Web site dianavreeland.com .) Ms. Vreeland exploits the family connection smartly, sprinkling the movie with talking-head interviews with her relatives, including Diana’s sons, Frederick and Tim. Although both men are fairly discreet when it comes to their mother, there’s no denying the pain that edges into their faces when they discuss life with her. Diana Vreeland was mad (one of her favorite words) about her beautiful husband, Thomas Reed Vreeland , a banker and apparent philanderer whose goatishness is elided here, but she doesn’t appear to have been remotely interested in being a parent.

She says as much in the dialogue with George Plimpton recited by off-screen actors, Annette Miller and Jonathan Epstein, that’s taken from transcripts of the conversations they had while working on “D.V.” As Plimpton gently prods and coaxes, Vreeland parries and thrusts, digresses and dissembles, sometimes hilariously, narrating a life that became a vocation and included a quarter-century at Harper’s Bazaar and an influential reign at Vogue, where she was the editor from 1963 to 1971. Their conversation is the spine of the movie that also features many glittering witnesses, including an animated, funny Manolo Blahnik who proclaims and exclaims while next to a high-heel shoe. Ali MacGraw, a former Vreeland assistant, testifies in front of what looks like a statue of Buddha.

To judge from all these fond and jaundiced memories Vreeland’s life was a decades-long whirlwind of beauty and color, sustained by a deep, unquenchable hunger for life and a revolt against conformity and Mommy Meanest. Some of that life was ridiculous, yet it’s clear that when Vreeland pushed purple mittens, she wasn’t just doling out giddily eccentric counsel, she was also issuing a call for independence, individuality, nonconformity. Life is absurd, so just put on some chandelier earrings and rouge to greet it. There was, she knew, a wide wonderful world out there for the grabbing and tasting. So she asked in 1936 for her Harper’s Bazaar column, “Why don’t you paint a map of the world on all four walls of your boys’ nursery so they won’t grow up with a provincial point of view?” Why not indeed?

“Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Some adult language.

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Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel

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Rent Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel on Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

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An affectionate portrait created with visual flair, Diana Vreeland is entertaining, informative, and stylish, due in large part to its charismatic subject.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Lisa Immordino Vreeland

Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt

Frédéric Tcheng

David Bailey

Lillian Bassman

Manolo Blahnik

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Movie news & guides, this movie is featured in the following articles., critics reviews.

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel

Cast & crew.

Diana Vreeland

Lisa Immordino Vreeland

Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt

Frédéric Tcheng

Magnus Andersson

• DOCUMENTARY
• Average 7.2

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© 2012 BY Mago Media, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel – review

T his elegant, highly entertaining portrait of the influential American socialite and fashionista Diana Vreeland (1903-89), editor of Harper's Bazaar (1937-62) and Vogue (1962-71) and head of the costumes department at the Metropolitan Museum, is directed by her grandson's wife. It contains much rare archive footage, interviews with, among others, her two handsome, ageing sons, and clips from Stanley Donen's Funny Face , in which Kay Thompson plays a version of the flamboyant Vreeland, and Fred Astaire impersonates her favourite photographer, Richard Avedon. It's informative and not uncritical, touching as it does in an affectionate manner on her authoritarian personality and her somewhat cavalier attitude towards matters of fact and the history of fashion.

• Documentary films
• The Observer
• Diana Vreeland

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Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel

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This intimate and loving portrait of the legendary arbiter of fashion, art and culture illustrates the many stages of Vreeland's remarkable life. Born in Paris in 1903, she was to become New York's "Empress of Fashion" and a celebrated Vogue editor.

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Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel | reviews, news & interviews

Diana vreeland: the eye has to travel, pedestrian documentary about the new york fashion icon is still somehow thrilling.

It is said of many people, but for Diana Vreeland it was true: she remains fashion’s once and future queen. An enduring legend of a notoriously vicious and ephemeral world, the Paris-loving Anglo-American had a magical life as a heralded columnist and editor for Harper’s Bazaar , Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not blessed with what one may call traditional beauty, Vreeland understood style - proportion, colour, flair, flow and accent. She spoke the way we want all fashion people to speak: “Pink is the navy blue of India”, “Blue jeans are the most beautiful thing since the gondola,” and “You gotta have style. It helps you get up in the morning. It's a way of life. Without it you're nobody. And I'm not talking about a lot of clothes.”

Naturally, a documentary about such a women must be fun, inspiring and informative and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel has masses of the first two while being a bit shy on the last. No matter, though, because any mention of Vreeland is so über that you could put her sock drawer in a shop window and draw crowds.

Not that fashion docs need to poke at a gruesome underbelly. (We mustn’t believe Zoolander ’s Mugatu is fashion reality. Let’s opt for The Incredibles ’ Edna Mode.) Fashion is all about energy, curiosity and calculated risk. Only those evil fashion magazines equate style with money you have yet to earn. Feared, adored and respected, Vreeland may have brought those glossy mags into their glory but she never ever said it was about money or looks.

Working with stellar names like Richard Avedon, with whom she had a 40-year career, it may seem surprising at first that Vreeland was a truth bender. Despite her fame or perhaps because of it, she knew life is a better place with a little fantasy. So, do we believe her claims to have known Buffalo Bill or been a Tiller Girl in the Thirties or sold Wallis Simpson underthings for a royal weekend? Coming from the mouth of someone born in 1903, one just can’t be sure. However, one of Diana’s sons insists that his mother did like to “improve” her stories, much as so many modern journalists do. Yet again, Vreeland was ahead of her time.

Vreeland was never afraid to break rules and upset people

Never nasty, bitchy or crude, Vreeland did not mince her words. She may have been, at worst, to the point or unwavering. The freedom she had to say, “YES! THAT!” or “No, no, never that!” is even more refreshing in these days of taking all into maddening consideration. Elegance is, as she once said, refusal. Diana Vreeland was never afraid to break rules and upset people: once I read that she admired the “habit rouge”, the select, strictly dictated outfit of the foxhunting crowd. Knowing first-hand how stringent the dressing standards were, I thought her wise to admire the beauty of functional equestiran clothing, until I read the last line: “…but I would wear some large golden earrings.” That sums up Diana Vreeland entirely: she knew when breaking the rules would expand our notion of what looks good - indeed, the eye has to travel. She’s right. Large gold earrings do look quite nice with a black melton, buff breeches and an ivory ratcatcher, if only they weren’t foolishly unsafe in the field...

As for this frilly, unashamedly enjoyable documentary, it did win a Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival 2011 for best documentary. And why not? Silver’s divine.

Watch the trailer to Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel

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‘Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel”

Diana Vreeland changed the way we look at fashion — and femininity — forever. This documentary offers an intimate portrait of the former Vogue editor and larger-than-life personality, and it’s only on Netflix until May 5!

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'Conan O'Brien Must Go' is side-splitting evidence of life beyond late night TV

Eric Deggans

Conan O'Brien dresses as a Viking in Norway. Conaco/Max hide caption

Conan O'Brien dresses as a Viking in Norway.

To be honest, when I first heard Conan O'Brien was ending his TV talk show in 2021, I assumed news that he might turn to variety shows and online programs to continue his career was some combination of face-saving and wishful thinking.

But after watching the four episodes of his new Max series Conan O'Brien Must Go , it's now obvious — even to a thickheaded critic like me — that leaving late night TV really was liberating for O'Brien. He's leveraged his unique sensibility into several different podcasts, a deal with Sirius XM , specials featuring other stand-up comics and now this travel series for Max — which resembles jokey specials he did for cable channel TBS back in the day.

And as the late night TV genre crumbles under sagging viewership and the decline of traditional media, O'Brien's renaissance also provides an example for the future — where fertile comedy minds and talented performers can spread their work over a much larger canvas.

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Is conan o'brien the best 'hot ones' guest ever discuss., learning a lesson from 'hot ones'.

O'Brien already made a splash recently with his brilliantly maniacal appearance on the interview-while-eating-hot-wings show Hot Ones , slobbering over hot sauces while claiming, as he was checked over by a fake doctor, that "I'm fine! I'm perfectly f*****g fine!"

This is the place where O'Brien shines — he's called it "this strange phantom intersection between smart and stupid" — and it's on full, freakish, super silly display in every episode of Conan O'Brien Must Go .

The conceit of the show is pretty simple. O'Brien heads overseas to visit average folks in Norway, Argentina, Thailand and Ireland who had once Zoomed in to speak with him on the podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan . Sometimes the visits seem like a surprise — he catches one aspiring Norwegian rapper in shorts and Crocs after popping up on his doorstep — and others seem a bit more planned, including his visit to a radio show with about four listeners in Buenos Aires.

Each episode begins with a solemn monologue which sounds like it is delivered by the film world's most eccentric voice, German filmmaker and actor Werner Herzog (he's not credited in the show and when asked, a publicist at Max shared a quote from O'Brien: "I can neither confirm nor deny the voice in question.")

The torturous accent by "Herzog" makes every line sound absurdly hilarious, describing O'Brien as "the defiler ... with dull, tiny eyes ... the eyes of a crudely painted doll ... he scavenges in distant lands, uninvited, fueled by a bottomless hunger for recognition and the occasional selfie."

Now that's smart. And oh so stupid.

A funhouse mirror version of a travel show

O'Brien performs onstage with a fan in Norway Conaco/Max hide caption

O'Brien performs onstage with a fan in Norway

Fans of O'Brien's Conan Without Borders specials on TBS already know what his style is when he tackles a travel show — throwing himself into outrageous reactions and situations while working his quirky brand of improvised conversations with hapless bystanders.

In the Max series Conan O'Brien Must Go , that includes O'Brien offering screechy vocals onstage during a performance of a Norwegian emo/rap band. Or asking provocative questions of a couple therapist/sex expert. Or getting beat up in a "fight" with a 10-year-old boy in a bar.

It's all an excuse for O'Brien to unleash his energetic wit, taste for silly absurdity and skill at drawing laughs from sympathetic — if often befuddled — strangers. Whether you enjoy this special will depend on how you feel about O'Brien's style, which can feel a bit like the world's best class clown doing everything possible to make you crack a smile.

(Rent a family in Norway so they can say goodbye when he gets on a SeaCraft? Check. Get local artists to paint a mural of O'Brien, a soccer star and The Pope on the side of a building in Argentina? Double check.)

'Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend' Is A Joke Name For A Podcast — Sort Of

But what amazes in a larger sense is how O'Brien has turned his sensibility into a comedy brand to fuel work on many different platforms. And, at age 60, with more than 30 years as a comedy star, he's been released from the shackles of any genre to shine wherever he chooses — whether it's an episode of Hot Ones or a streaming service which sometimes looks like a collision between True Detective and 90 Day Fiancé .

Leaving late night TV as late night left him

I'm old enough that I started covering TV not long after O'Brien made his first move from the shadows of life as a comedy writer – he worked on Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons — to succeed David Letterman in 1993 as host of NBC's show Late Night (now hosted by Seth Meyers). Back then, NBC gave O'Brien years to figure out the show, honing his smartly serious comedy in a way that would inspire then-teenage fans like Seth Rogen and Bill Hader .

O'Brien left NBC after a disastrous deal where the network tried to make him host of its venerated late night program The Tonight Show and also keep its former host Jay Leno at the network. He moved to a late night show on TBS in 2010, but even then, there was a sense that his creativity was a bit hemmed in by the format.

After 28 Quirky Years, Conan O'Brien Is Leaving Late Night

By the time he left his TBS show Conan for good, it seemed O'Brien was already caught in a trend which would hobble other late night shows — as young viewers consumed his content online and ratings on cable dropped.

Now, with a podcast and digital media company worth many millions and growing status as a TV comedy legend still willing to do almost anything for a laugh, O'Brien is proving there is a successful life beyond late night.

Particularly, if you have the talent to play the fool while leaving little doubt you're also the smartest person in the room.