Cult/ Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? (18)

Polly Maggoo is the world’s hottest model; an American icon worshipped at the altar of Parisian haute couture at the height of the cultural revolutions of the 1960s.

Polly is pursued by everyone. Fanatical men, the love-struck prince of a faraway land, and now a documentary crew who want to profile her as part of the vapid celebrity series, Qui êtes-vous?

By the mid-60s, William Klein was well-established as one of the most distinctive, subversive figures in fashion photography. With his feature filmmaking debut, he took things to the next level. Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? is an outrageous satire of the fashion world and an excoriating takedown of celebrity culture and media mania.

While the proponents of the French New Wave were breaking stylistic boundaries and crafting an image of Gallic cool, Klein was completely turning cinematic convention on its head and ruthlessly skewering glamorised notions of Parisian sophistication.