Everything about The Devil Wears Prada Film totally explained
The Devil Wears Prada is a
2006 comedy-drama film, a loose
screen adaptation of
Lauren Weisberger's
2003 novel of the same name. It stars
Anne Hathaway as
Andrea "Andy" Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to
New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding
fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by
Meryl Streep.
Emily Blunt and
Stanley Tucci co-star, with
Adrian Grenier,
Simon Baker and
Tracie Thoms playing key supporting roles.
Wendy Finerman produced and
David Frankel directed; the film was distributed by
20th Century Fox.
Streep's performance drew rave reviews from critics and later earned her many award nominations, including her record-setting 14th Oscar bid, as well as a
Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Blunt also drew favorable notice and nominations, as did many of those involved in the film's production. While critical reaction to the film as a whole was more measured, it was well received by the public becoming a surprise summer box-office hit following its June 30
North American release. The commercial success and critical praise for Streep's performance continued in foreign markets, with the film leading the international box office for most of October. The U.S.
DVD release likewise was the top rental during December. Ultimately, it would gross over $300 million, mostly from its international run, and finish in 2006's top 20 both in the U.S. and overseas. It is also the highest-grossing film in Streep's and Hathaway's careers. A
television series is being developed.
Although the movie is set in the fashion world, most
designers and other fashion notables avoided appearing as themselves for fear of displeasing U.S.
Vogue editor
Anna Wintour, who is widely believed to have been the inspiration for Priestly. Many designers did, however, allow their clothes and
accessories to be used in the film, making it the most expensively-costumed film in history. saying she liked the film and Streep in particular.
Plot
Andrea "Andy" Sachs, an aspiring
journalist fresh out of
Northwestern University, lands the magazine job "a million girls would kill for": junior
personal assistant to icy editor-in-chief
Miranda Priestly, who dominates the fashion world from her perch atop
Runway magazine. She puts up with the eccentric and humiliating requests of her boss because, she's told, if she lasts a year in the position she'll get her pick of other jobs, perhaps even the journalistic position she truly craves.
At first, she fits in poorly among the
gossipy
fashionistas who make up the magazine staff. Her lack of style or fashion knowledge and fumbling with her job make her an object of scorn around the office. Senior assistant Emily Charlton, her coworker, is condescending to her. Gradually, though, with the help of art director Nigel, Andrea adjusts to the position and its many perks, including free
designer clothing and other choice
accessories. She begins to dress more stylishly and do her job competently, fulfilling a seemingly impossible request of Miranda's to get two copies of an unpublished
Harry Potter manuscript to her daughters.
She also comes to prize chance encounters with attractive young writer Christian Thompson, who helped her obtain the
Potter manuscript and suggests he could help her with her career. At the same time, however, her relationship with her boyfriend Nate, a
chef working his way up the career ladder, and other college friends suffers due to the increasing time she spends at Miranda's beck and call.
Shortly afterwards, Andrea saves Miranda from social embarrassment at a charity benefit when the
cold-stricken Emily falters in reminding Miranda who an approaching guest is. As a result, Miranda tells Andrea that she'll accompany her to the fall fashion shows in
Paris, rather than Emily who had been looking forward to the trip for months. Miranda warns Andrea that if she declines, it could adversely affect her future job prospects. Emily is
hit by a car before Andrea can tell Emily the next morning, making her choice moot.
During a gallery exhibit of her friend Lilly's photography, Andy again encounters Christian, who openly flirts with her, much to the shock and disgust of Lilly, who witnesses it all. After Lilly calls her out and walks away, Andy bumps into Nate, who, when she tells him she'll be going to Paris, is angered that she refuses to admit that she's become the girls she's made fun of and that their relationship has taken a back seat. As a result, they break up in the middle of the street the night before she leaves for Paris.
In Paris, Nigel tells Andrea that he's gotten a job as creative director with rising fashion star James Holt, at Miranda's recommendation, and will finally be in charge of his own life. She also finally succumbs to Christian's charms, and sees her boss let down her guard for the first time as she worries about the effect an impending
divorce will have on her twin daughters. In the morning, Andrea finds out about a plan to replace Miranda as
Runway editor with Jacqueline Follet, editor of the magazine's
French edition, later that day. Despite the suffering she's endured at her boss's behest, she attempts to warn Miranda but is seemingly rebuffed each time.
At a luncheon later that day, however, Miranda announces that it's Jacqueline instead of Nigel who will leave
Runway for Holt. Later, when the two are being driven to a show, she explains to a still-stunned Andrea that she was grateful for the warning but already knew of the plot to replace her and sacrificed Nigel to keep her own job. Pleased by this display of loyalty, she tells Andrea she sees some of herself in her. Andrea, repulsed, said she could never do to anyone what Miranda did to Nigel, primarily as Nigel mentored Andrea. Miranda replies that she already did, stepping over Emily when she agreed to go to Paris. If she wants to get ahead in her career, that's what she'll have to be willing to do.
Andrea gets out of the limo at the next stop, going not into the show with Miranda but out into the street, where instead of answering yet another call from her boss she throws her
cell phone into the
fountain of the
Place de la Concorde, leaving Miranda,
Runway and fashion behind.
Later, back in New York, she meets Nate for breakfast. He has accepted an offer to work as a
sous-chef in a popular
Boston restaurant, and will be moving there shortly. Andrea is disappointed but her hope is rejuvenated when he says they could work something out, implying that'll have a long-distance relationship in the future. At the film's conclusion, she's finally been offered a job as a newspaper reporter, greatly helped by a fax from Miranda herself who told the editor that Andrea was her "biggest disappointment ever", and if they didn't hire her they'd be idiots. Andrea calls Emily and offers her all of the clothes that she got in Paris, which Andrea insists that she doesn't need anymore. Emily accepts and tells Andrea's replacement she's some big shoes to fill. In the last shot, Andrea, dressed as she was at the beginning of the film but with a bit more style, sees Miranda getting into her car across the street. They exchange looks and Miranda gives no indication of a greeting, but gives a soft smile once inside the car, before sternly telling her chauffeur to "go!".
Differences between film and novel
While the basic plot elements of Weisberger's novel remain in place, many changes were made to the specifics.
Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna created an entirely different crisis at the end of the story, and this required changes to many of the characters.
Plot
In the novel, Andrea is forced into confronting Miranda at the
climax when, back in New York, Lily is involved in a
car accident, which leaves her
comatose. Andrea's friends and family challenge her via phone calls to stand up for herself. The conspiracy to remove Miranda as
Runway editor, and everything associated with it, was written entirely for the film. Andrea ends her time with Miranda by telling her, very publicly, "Fuck you, Miranda.
Fuck you."
To set up the climax, details along the way were changed or added. Irv Ravitz, head of Elias-Clark, was given a far bigger part in the movie. The scene where Andrea succeeds where the sick Emily faltered at the benefit was adapted from a similar scene in the novel which didn't involve Emily. Her inability to go to Paris in the novel is due to a bout of
mononucleosis. McKenna and Frankel decided to have her suffer the car accident instead of Lily to let Andrea out of a moral dilemma that could have made her less sympathetic in viewers' eyes.
Afterwards, the novel's Andrea sells her leftover clothing to a second-hand shop for $38,000 and finances her writer's life for the next year. She, too, eventually returns to publishing when she sells a
short story to
Seventeen, and then returns to Elias-Clark to discuss
freelance writing assignments with another of the company's magazines,
The Buzz.
Characters
All the major characters were revised at least slightly from their counterparts in the novel. Andrea was made a graduate of
Northwestern instead of
Brown, and from
Ohio rather than
Connecticut. Her career aspirations were changed from simply wanting to write for
The New Yorker to
newspaper journalism. Miranda's failing marriage was added, and overall her character is more sympathetic. Emily in the novel is kinder to Andrea and lives in just as much fear of Miranda, sometimes engaging in
passive-aggressive behavior toward her. Nate is named Alex and teaches
elementary school through
Teach for America in the
Bronx, rather than cooking, and doesn't live with Andrea. Instead of running an art gallery, she's a
graduate student in
Russian literature at
Columbia University.
Stressed from her studies, she starts to
pick up men in bars and develops a
drinking problem, which leads to her car accident and the climactic confrontation between Andrea and Miranda.
She, Andrea, Alex/Nate and Miranda are all depicted as having come from
Jewish backgrounds. The film makes no reference to any character's ethnicity.
Among the minor characters, James Holt and Jacqueline Follet, who figure prominently in the film's resolution, were created for it and don't exist in the novel. Likewise, several gay male
Runway staffers were combined into the film's Nigel, very different from the original in the book modeled on
André Leon Talley. Miranda's
nanny Cara and the Elias-Clark security guard Eduardo were also eliminated. Only Christian is similar to his text counterpart (and his name was changed as well.)
Production
Director
David Frankel and producer
Wendy Finerman had originally read
The Devil Wears Prada as a book proposal written by Weisberger. It was sent out to an
agent who sold it in under one minute. A hundred pages long, it dealt with what became the film's set-up, the story of Andrea's job search and how she ended up working for a fashion magazine editor.
Writing
Four
screenwriters worked on the property in the two years after the novel was published. None of them could quite achieve the
tone of the book that Finerman was looking for. Finally
Aline Brosh McKenna (significantly to Finerman, the first woman among the writers) came in and was able to combine elements of the previous drafts to build the story around a young woman's
coming of age on her first job, while retaining
humor that arose purely from the characters.
Weisberger nevertheless liked the script. "Much to Lauren's dismay", her website says, "[Aline] made every remotely entertaining scene from the book even funnier."
The dense storylines and realistic detail of the book made it necessary to cut a great deal of material for the movie. The screenwriter, however, says that wasn't as difficult during the writing process as keeping a story going. "The book has a very real, low-tech story so we wanted to find just enough story to propel you without having it get huge." Nigel filled the fairy godfather role, but for that reason the filmmakers insisted that his character not be so sweet. She also changed the accident so it affected Emily rather than Lily, in order to allow Andrea to "have her cake and eat it too" over the decision to replace Emily at Miranda's side in Paris.
At Finerman and Frankel's request, she'd toned Miranda down somewhat in the hope that doing so would attract a major, bankable actress to the part. When they did get Streep, however, she insisted the character be made meaner again.
Casting
When Frankel approached Streep about playing the part, describing the script as a story "about sacrifice and the price of excellence", she asked why he wanted her in the Priestly role. "It takes a legend to play a legend" he replied. She signed on the next day. Hathaway had taken the part to work with Streep, although a year after the film's release she realized it had been as much about herself: "I wanted to illustrate how dangerous it was to not make your own choices ... I'd been doing that for far too long".
"She really elevated the whole project and gave it the exact tone of intelligence and wit and depth that we all dreamed of", said Frankel. to achieve the right look for her character (although she's later denied doing so). The part wasn't written to be British, but according to Hathaway "When she was hired she said, 'You know, I can do the accent, but to be perfectly honest this girl is British' and she was right".
Sunjata had originally read for Tucci's part, rather unenthusiastically since he'd just finished playing a similar character, but then read the Holt part and asked if he could audition for it. Baker auditioned by sending a video of himself, wearing the same self-designed green jacket he's on when he and Andrea meet for the first time.
Vogue and other major
women's and
fashion magazines have avoided reviewing or even mentioning the book in their pages. Wintour's spokespeople deny the claim
Only
Valentino, who had designed the black
gown Streep wears in the museum benefit scene, chose to make an appearance.
Other cameos of note include
Heidi Klum as herself (behind Miranda and Valentino after his show) and Weisberger (a nonspeaking, uncredited part as the twins'
nanny on the train). Streep's daughter Mamie Gummer was to have made her film debut as a
barista at
Starbucks; however the scene was cut. It can be viewed as one of the
deleted scenes on the DVD.
Some smaller roles were cast right before cameras rolled. A former model who was out on a nearby street walking her dog was spotted by a crewmember and agreed to play one of the models at Holt's studio. Taylor Treadwell had been part of a
cattle call held the very morning of the shoot for the unspeaking, uncredited role of Miranda's new assistant, in the very last scene shot. The
extras in the restaurant where Andrea has dinner with her father were winners of a contest for
American Express cardholders. Nevertheless, the "that's all", "please bore someone else ..."
catch phrases; her coat-tossing on Andrea's desk and discarded
steak lunch are retained from the novel.
Her major preparation for the part, Streep said, was reading a book by Wintour protegé
Liz Tilberis and the memos of legendary
Vogue editor
Diana Vreeland. According to Field, Streep lost enough weight during shooting that the clothes had to be taken in. "There was a lot of anxiety in this character," the actress said later. "It wasn't enjoyable to be her". She likened it to her role in
Kramer vs. Kramer, in which she played a character she knew the audience would judge harshly from the beginning. Streep applied this philosophy to everyone else on set as well, keeping her distance from the cast and crewmembers unless it was necessary to discuss something with her.
While none appeared onscreen, designers were very helpful to Field. Her $100,000 budget for the film's costumes was supplemented by help from friends from throughout the industry. Ultimately, she believes, $1 million worth of clothing was used in the film, making it the most expensively costumed movie in cinema history.
Chanel asked to dress Hathaway for the film, and
Dolce & Gabbana and
Calvin Klein helped Field as well. Although Field avoids making Streep look like Wintour, she dresses her in generous helpings of
Prada (By Field's own estimate, 40% of the shoes on Streep's feet are Prada). Field added that much of the audience wouldn't be familiar with Wintour's look and that "Meryl looks nothing like Anna, so even if I wanted to copy Anna, I couldn't". a look she describes as "rich-lady clothes".
She contrasted Andrea and Emily by giving the former a "textbook" sense of style, without much risk-taking, that would suggest clothing a fashion magazine would have on hand for shoots. For her, Field chose pieces by
Vivienne Westwood and
Rick Owens, to suggest a taste for funkier, more "underground" clothing. (a similarity so marked Wintour had her office redecorated after the movie
She even chose separate
computer wallpaper to highlight different aspects of Blunt's and Hathaway's character: Paris's
Arc de Triomphe on the former's suggests her aspirations to accompany Miranda to the shows there, while the floral image on Andy's suggests the natural, unassuming qualities she displays at the outset of her tenure with the magazine. For the photo of Andrea with her parents, Hathaway posed with her own mother and
David Marshall Grant.
Products
Aside from the clothing and accessories, some other well-known brands are conspicuous in the film
- Apple computers are used in the Runway offices, consistent with many real publishing companies.
- Miranda drinks coffee from a nearby Starbucks.
- Andrea uses a Danger Hiptop 2 (or a T-Mobile Sidekick 2) mobile phone, and Miranda a Motorola RAZR V3 silver same as Nigel's (Seen in the cafeteria scene.) (At the end of the film, however, Andrea's phone displays the message "Connecting ..." as Miranda calls, which is actually the message displayed during an outgoing call).
- The two are frequently driven around in Lincoln Town Cars and Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedans.
- The green bottled drink shown often is San Pellegrino brand water.
Locations
New York
The McGraw-Hill Building on Sixth Avenue was used for the exteriors and lobby of Elias-Clark's headquarters.
747 Third Ave also used for exterior shots.
The Runway offices are partially corridors in the neighboring Fox building and partially sets.
His work was balanced with songs by U2 ("City of Blinding Lights", Miranda and Andrea in Paris), Madonna ("Vogue" & "Jump", Andrea's fashion montage & her first day on the job, respectively), KT Tunstall ("Suddenly I See", female montage during opening credits), Alanis Morissette ("Crazy", Central Park photo shoot), ("Our Remains", Andrea picks up James Holt's sketches for Miranda; Bittersweet Faith, Lily's art show), Azure Ray ("Sleep", following the breakdown of her relationship with Nate), Jamiroquai ("Seven Days In Sunny June", Andrea and Christian meet at James Holt's party) among others.
Frankel had wanted to use "City of Blinding Lights" in the film since he'd used it as a soundtrack to a video montage of Paris scenes he'd put together after scouting locations there. It became popular as a result of the film although the single didn't crack the U.S. Top Forty. It nonetheless became a popular radio hit.
Cast
Major roles
Anne Hathaway as Andrea "Andy" Sachs: A recent college graduate and aspiring journalist who, despite no real knowledge of fashion, is hired as the junior personal assistant to the powerful and demanding editor of Runway magazine.
Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly: The editor of Runway. Feared by her staff and many in the fashion world, and powerful enough that she can discard a $300,000 photo shoot with impunity and lead a designer to redo an entire collection with the pursing of her lips. Nevertheless she dotes on her twin daughters.
Emily Blunt as Emily Charlton: Miranda's haughty senior assistant, who tolerates her boss's rudeness and insults so that she may accompany her to Paris for Fall Fashion Week.
Stanley Tucci as Nigel: Art director for Runway and the only person at the magazine Andrea feels she can trust despite his sometimes cutting remarks about her wardrobe.
Adrian Grenier as Nate: Andrea's boyfriend, a chef at a Manhattan restaurant who eventually breaks up with her due to the strain her job places on their relationship.
Simon Baker as Christian Thompson: An up-and-coming magazine writer Andrea grows increasingly attracted to, especially after his connections help her get the advance Harry Potter books Miranda requests for her daughters and hints he could help her with her journalistic aspirations.
Tracie Thoms as Lily: Andrea's close friend, who runs an art gallery.
Rich Sommer as Doug: A college friend of Andrea, Nate and Lily who seems to work as a corporate research analyst.
Tibor Feldman as Irv Ravitz: The chief executive officer of Elias-Clark, which publishes Runway.
Daniel Sunjata as James Holt: An up-and-coming designer.
David Marshall Grant as Richard Sachs, Andrea's father.
Gisele Bündchen as Serena: An editorial staffer at Runway and friend of Emily's.
Notable cameo appearances
Valentino Garavani, Giancarlo Giammetti, Carlos de Souza, Charlene Shorto, Bridget Hall and Heidi Klum as themselves; Lauren Weisberger (uncredited) as the twins' nanny.
Prerelease and marketing
Two decisions by 20th Century Fox's marketing department that were meant to be preliminary wound up being integral to promoting the film. The first was the creation of the red stiletto heel ending in a pitchfork as the film's teaser poster. It was so successful and effective, becoming almost "iconic" (in Finerman's words), that it was used for the actual release poster as well. It became a brand, and was eventually used on every medium related to the film — the tie-in reprinting of the novel and the soundtrack and DVD covers as well. with audiences both inside and outside the U.S. Critics gave a fairly positive reaction to the film as a whole. Streep's performance drew universal acclaim, with some going as far as saying it was the only reason to see the film.
Critical
Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 62 out of 100, based on 40 reviews.
Initial reviews of the film focused primarily on Streep's performance, praising her for making an extremely unsympathetic character far more complex than she'd been in the novel. "With her silver hair and pale skin, her whispery diction as perfect as her posture, Ms. Streep's Miranda inspires both terror and a measure of awe," wrote A. O. Scott in The New York Times. "No longer simply the incarnation of evil, she's now a vision of aristocratic, purposeful and surprisingly human grace." Kyle Smith agreed at the New York Post: "The snaky Streep wisely chooses not to imitate Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, the inspiration for the book, but creates her own surprisingly believable character." "Wintour should be flattered by Streep's portrayal," agreed Jack Mathews in the Daily News.
David Edelstein, in New York magazine, considered the film thin but loved Streep as well for her "fabulous minimalist performance". J. Hoberman, Edelstein's onetime colleague at The Village Voice, called the movie an improvement on the book and said Streep was "the scariest, most nuanced, funniest movie villainess since Tilda Swinton's nazified White Witch [in2005's ]."
Blunt, too, earned some favorable notice. "[She] has many of the movie's best lines and steals nearly every scene she's in", wrote Clifford Pugh in the Houston Chronicle. Other reviewers and fans concurred.
Roger Ebert gave the movie "thumbs down," while Richard Roeper gave it a "thumbs up".
While all critics were in agreement about Streep and Blunt, they pointed to other weaknesses, particularly in the story. Reviewers familiar with Weisberger's novel assented to her judgement that McKenna's script greatly improved upon it.
But those who weren't and even some who were found it a predictable morality play that was enjoyable to watch for Streep if nothing else. David Denby summed up this response in his New Yorker review: "The Devil Wears Prada tells a familiar story, and it never goes much below the surface of what it has to tell. Still, what a surface!"
It had a very successful run in theaters, making nearly $125 million domestically and over $325 million worldwide, But in an interview with Barbara Walters that aired the day the DVD was released, she called the film "really entertaining" and said she appreciated the "decisive" nature of Streep's portrayal. "Anything that makes fashion entertaining and glamorous and interesting is wonderful for our industry. So I was 100 percent behind it".
International
Weisberger's novel had been translated into 37 different languages, giving the movie a strong potential foreign audience. It would ultimately deliver 60% of the film's gross.
The Devil Wears Prada topped the charts on its first major European release weekend on October 9, after a strong September Oceania and Latin America opening. It would be the highest-grossing film that weekend in Britain, Spain and Russia, taking in $41.5 million overall. Continued strong weekends as it opened across the rest of Europe helped it remain atop the overseas charts for the rest of the month. By the end of the year only its Chinese opening remained; it's was released there on February 28, 2007.
Most reviews from the international press echoed the domestic response, heaping praise on Streep and the other actors, but calling the whole film "predictable". The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, who found the film "moderately entertaining", took Blunt to task, calling her a "real disappointment ... strained and awkward". In The Independent, Anthony Quinn said Streep "may just have given us a classic here" and concluded that the film as a whole was "as snappy and juicy as fresh bubblegum".
In most markets the title remained unchanged; either the English was used or a translation into the local language. The only exceptions were Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela, where it was El diablo se viste de moda and El diablo se viste a la moda respectively. Both roughly translate to "The Devil Dresses Fashionably". In Poland, the title was Diabeł ubiera się u Prady which roughly means "The Devil Dresses At Prada's" rather than "The Devil Wears Prada". In Turkey, the title was "Şeytan Marka Giyer", roughly translated as "The Devil Wears Brand-Names". In Romania, the title was "Diavolul se îmbracă de la Prada", which roughly means "The Devil Dresses itself from Prada".
Awards and nominations
Three months after the film's North American release, Frankel and Weisberger jointly accepted the first Quill Variety Blockbuster Book to Film Award. A committee of staffers at the magazine made the nominations and chose the award winner. Editor Peter Bart praised both works.
The Devil Wears Prada’ is an energetically directed, perfect-fit of a film that has surprised some in the industry with its box-office legs. It has delighted the country, much as did Lauren Weisberger’s book, which is still going strong on several national bestseller lists
The film was honored by the National Board of Review as one of the year's ten best. The American Film Institute gave the film similar recognition.
The film received ample attention from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association when its Golden Globe Award nominations were announced on December 14 2006. The film itself was in the running for Best Picture (Comedy/Musical) and Supporting Actress (for Blunt). Streep later won the Globe for Best Actress (Musical/Comedy).
On January 4, 2007, her fellow members of the Screen Actors Guild nominated Streep for Best Actress as well.
Four days later, at the National Society of Film Critics awards, Streep won Best Supporting Actress for her work both in Devil and A Prairie Home Companion. McKenna earned a nomination from the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay on January 11, 2007.
The following day, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced its 2006 nominations; Blunt, Field, McKenna and Streep were all among the nominees, as were makeup artist and hairstylists Nicki Ledermann and Angel de Angelis.
On January 23, 2007 Streep received her 14th Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, lengthening her record from 13 for most nominations by any actor male or female. Field received a Costume Design nomination as well. Neither won, but Blunt and Hathaway presented the latter award, amusing the audience by slipping into their characters for a few lines, nervously asking which of them had gotten Streep her cappucino. Streep played along with a stern expression before smiling.
DVD
The DVD has, in addition to the film, the following extras:Unlike most blooper reels, it isn't a collection of sequential takes but rather a fast-paced montage set to music from the film with many backstage shots and a split screenshot allowing the viewer to compare the actual shot with the blooper. The many shots of actors touching their noses are, Rich Sommer says, a game played to assign blame for ruined takes.
Five featurettes
- "Trip to the Big Screen", a 12-minute look at the film's preproduction, discussing the changes made from the novel, how Frankel was chosen to direct and other issues.
- "NYC and Fashion", a look at the real New York fashion scene and how it's portrayed in the film.
- "Fashion Visionary Patricia Field", a profile of the film's costume designer.
- "Getting Valentino", covering how the designer was persuaded to appear as himself in the film.
- "Boss From Hell", a short segment on difficult, nightmarish superiors like Priestly.
Fifteen deleted scenes, with commentary from Frankel and Livolsi available (see below).
The theatrical trailer, and promotional spots for the soundtrack album and other releases.
Closed captions in French and Spanish are also available. The DVD is available in both full screen and widescreen versions. Pictures of the cast and the tagline "Hell on Heels" were added to the red-heel image for the cover. It was released in the UK on February 5, 2007.
A Blu-ray Disc of the film was released simultaneuously with the DVD. The featurettes were dropped and replaced with a subtitle pop-up trivia track that can be watched by itself or along with the audio commentary.
Reception
Immediately upon its December 12 release, it became the top rental in the country. It held that spot through the end of the year, adding another $26.5 million to the film's grosses. The following week it made its debut on the DVD sales charts in third position.. It stands as one of the biggest global selling DVDs in recent years, regularly entering Amazon UK's TOP 10 sales chart a year after its release.
Deleted scenes
Among the deleted scenes are some that added more background information to the story, with commentary available by the editor and director. Most were deleted by Livolsi in favor of keeping the plot focused on the conflict between Miranda and Andrea, often without consulting Frankel. "If they want a documentary, they can watch the History Channel," retorted Field. Another newspaper fashion writer, Hadley Freeman of The Guardian, likewise complained the film was awash in the sexism and clichés that, to her, beset movies about fashion in general.
However, Charla Krupp, the executive editor of SHOP, Inc., says "It's the first film I've seen that got it right ... [It] has the nuances of the politics and the tension better than any film - and the backstabbing and sucking-up". Her colleague Ruth La Ferla found a different opinion from industry insiders after a special preview screening. Most found the fashion in the movie too safe and the beauty too overstated, more in tune with the 1980s than the 2000s. "My job is to present an entertainment, a world people can visit and take a little trip", responded Field. In the novel, he, and the other male Runway staffers are very out, often described as flamboyant, freely discussing their sex lives, and sometimes checking each other out.
There is none of this in the film. Instead, Nigel tells Andrea that, as a child, he told his family he was attending soccer practice when he was really taking sewing lessons, and read Runway under the covers of his bed at night with a flashlight. Finerman also says that during his first scene in the film, his visit to Andrea's hotel room in Paris to celebrate his imminent promotion, they hadn't yet decided how "extravagant" he'd be. On the other hand, a gay viewer who blogs about gay content in movies as Queer Beacon, found Tucci's portrayal refreshingly free of overdone stereotypes, while another gay blogger expressed his displeasure that a movie about an industry well-known for its openly gay men seemed so determined to avoid the subject. Controversy notwithstanding, readers of Gay.com voted the film the best of 2006. William Maltese, from AfterElton.com, called it "refreshing that the jokes in Devil don't come at Nigel's expense or because of his sexuality". It is also mentioned that Nigel is key for Andy's transformation from ugly-duck-to-swan propels her into the second half of the film.
Queer Beacon also wondered if Doug might be gay, since he's more aware of Miranda's importance to fashion than Andrea; also, later, when Lily takes him from Andrea at the gallery to introduce him to "someone he might find interesting", she doesn't specify that person's gender.
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