Review: 'Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's', directed by Matthew Miele

This year’s spring and summer movie season seems to have another trend besides bombast and explosions in time-tested franchises. If you look at what has already come out and what is coming out the other trend is materialism, money and greed. Spring Breakers, Pain and Gain, The Great Gatsby and soon to be released Bling Ring all have this in common, a celebration in balling out of control no matter how you get it. So it seems right that if you’re going to celebrate a lifestyle of money-fueled aspirations then a documentary about THE Department store in New York City, and it’s not Macy’s, is one made to order.  Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorf’s is a celebration and a very self-important look at the world of high fashion through the history of this iconic landmark NYC store.

So what is this movie about? For the most part it's celebrities talking to the camera about how amazing the store is and how beautiful the clothes are. Then there are the famous fashion designers, old and new explaining how much it means to them and how important it is to have their lines in Bergdorf-Goodman’s. You get these nice little stories from Michael Kors about how he was found by one of the higher ups in the store and how that basically put him on his path to success, which the filmmakers then force down your throat by showing his company’s stock offering on Wall Street.

The film also gives the audience a nice timeline on the history of the store, such as how the owners got together and how the building was built. They talk about all of the parties and famous special events thrown throughout the years. The real glue that holds the film together are when the filmmakers focus on Linda Fargo, a senior VP of Fashion Office and Store Presentation who describes going to meet designers to see what will be added to the store’s product line. Another standout figure in the film is David Hoey, the senior Director of Visual Presentation for the store. He designs all the store windows for Bergdorf’s, which are a major draw for the store and a tourist attraction for the city. The film follows him as he is setting up the big winter holiday display for all the windows on 5^th Avenue.

If the film focused on these two parts more it would have made this a much more enjoyable documentary. It seems like this is aiming to be thought of in the same realm as The September Issue, the 2009 film about Anna Wintour and her Vogue staff.  Other than an out of place part where they compare Linda Fargo to Glinda the Good Witch and Anna Wintour to the Wicked Witch of fashion it’s really far from it. The film really glosses over the history and spends completely too much time with people talking about how great and fabulous Bergdorf’s is. Then they show some Sex in the City images and few more celebrities talking and Barbra Streisand for good measure.

Another shining moment is when they show Betty Halbreich, the Director of Solutions, who the movie explained as being a personal shopper for the extremely rich. This is really good and quite entertaining because of Halbreich’s blunt personality. With her basically inventing the role and becoming a proto-stylist before there was such a profession, it was a very entertaining part that the filmmakers give annoyingly short shrift. Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s really started off pretty shallow but as time went on got more interesting as it showed you more of the inner workings but then lost it again to more shallow pat on the back material. Whoever decided on this really lost a chance to make a good documentary about the retail part of the high fashion world but just ended up making pretty average Style channel special for the big screen.