Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?

1966 fashion satire

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A television crew collects footage on a "Who Are You?" documentary on American-in-Paris fashion model Polly Maggoo. Meanwhile, a prince has fallen in love with her picture and tries to win her hand in marriage.

This is sort of a mixed bag, but it's every bit as audacious as the other William Klein movie I watched recently (Mr. Freedom) albeit in a completely different way. Stylistically, this has a little bit in common with Godard and the avant-gardists. When the satire comes visually, this is really cool. A fashion show unveiling ridiculously impractical metallic costumes and a great scene with Maggoo going through a series of absurd psychological tests were probably my favorite bits. I also liked a speedy model montage and a scene utilizing collage art where cut-outs are used to reassemble Polly's face. There are some really cool set pieces--the "Death of Paris" cemetery shoot, scenes in the prince's room with all his mechanical toys and a crotch rocket). Klein, who actually started as a fashion photographer, has a good eye and there are some fine visuals. Some hand-held camera stuff and use of plundered footage give parts of this a documentary feel, and that also works really well. At times, however, there's a bad case of logorrhea which bogs the film down a bit, and I'm not really sure the attempts to connect all this zaniness with Cinderella really works. Attempts to break the fourth wall add pretension, and weird noise assaults baffle, but a crazy scene in which some chimney sweeps randomly burst into song makes up for it. There's actually not a bad movie with chimney sweeps.