We'll Take Manhattan [DVD]

This is the story of the whirlwind rise to fame of David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton. It takes us from their early beginning to the massive breakthrough of David Baileys photography, following the photo shoot in New York for Vogue.

Beautifully filmed, we are taken from the dusty photographs and fashion of the fifties, into the sixties style of bright young fashion and confidence, freed from the cliches of the past.

We see the youth, and indeed, arrogance, of Bailey (Aneurin Barnard) pursuing photography his way, pushing aside the staid Vogue editor who doesn't yet realise that times are indeed about to change.

Any film with Karen Gillian aboard, is almost bound to delight, and here she doesn't dissappoint as Jean Shrimpton - beautiful, stylish and vulnerable, finding her feet in a profession where she doesn't fit the model stereotypes; moving into the world of fashion which doesn't sit comfortably with the expectations of her family, eventually causing her to have to choose one over the other.

It's a wild exciting ride - tense from the break-through from old traditions, but then moving into the tension, war even, between Bailey and his well-to-do Vogue minder (impecabbly played by Helen McCory) desperate to maintain her authority and keep the status-quo in place.

Bailey is entirely infatuated with Shrimpton and their love affair forms the backdrop to the story and you are only too painfully aware that Shrimpton is the batlefield between the old and new, vulnerable because of her love for Bailey, and as a young model caught in the crossfire between the older rich and powerful paymaster and the young and relatively unknown photographer.

The fact that it's based on real people, supposedly as accurate as it could be and has received tacit approval from Bailey and Shrimpton, makes this story all the more remarkable.

If the story wasn't enough, the 1960's New York backdrop doesn't dissappoint, bringing sixties style to the screen in a way only New York could.

Not to be missed - witness the change from the old to the new, before your very eyes.

Great movie if you were around in the sixties like me you will love this movie,
A good story a about how David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton became sixties icons,
A golden decade of revolutiony youth fashions and music and this is where it all started a decade which lifted teenage fashion and music out of the doldrums and this movie does not a have dull moment in it !

I am a photographer who worked through the 60s and 70s. David Bailey was always my muse. Fantastic recreation of NY in the late 60s & 70s.. Added plus the actor who plays Bailey looks like he is taking the photographs.