About Town: "Model" @ MoMa

As a part of the yearlong Frederick Wiseman exhibit at the MoMA, a screening of his documentary Model will be on view at 8pm tonight. A synopsis from the MoMA Web site:

Model
1980. USA. Directed by Frederick Wiseman. Wiseman’s Warholian look at the modeling industry—in which Warhol himself makes a cameo appearance—reveals the tremendous expense, aspiration, and fuss that goes into selling sleek cars and couture collections. The film, structured around a television commercial for panty hose and an Oscar de la Renta runway show, is a riveting meditation on image making and fantasy. (One photographer demands of a confused and impressionable young model, ‘’A little more innocent! A little more sexual!”) Model was made in 1980 during a seemingly pivotal moment in the industry, poised between Hollywood’s ethereally glamorous and seductive 1960s portraits of the fashion world and today’s more populist (and somehow more tawdry) reality shows like America’s Next Top Model. 129 min.