The Diana Vreeland Documentary Reminds Us All What a Real Editrix Looks Like

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The 2011 Diana Vreeland documentary, which debuted on the festival circuit last year but was never widely released in the US, will be hitting theaters in the UK this summer—which means that the Brits get not only the Olympics and the Jubilee this season, they also get to see the legendary Vogue editor out-Devil-Wears-Prada everyone on the big screen.

On a scale of one to Miranda Priestly, just how scary was she? The Independent reports that, "Invariably, half her staff was reduced to tears before the day was over" and Lisa Immordino Vreeland, the film's director and wife of Vreeland's grandson, admitted to the paper that Vreeland's "intimidating persona" is one reason why no one has ever had the nerve to try and make a film about her.

The film, which goes by the title Diana Vreeland: the Eye Has to Travel, has been congratulated for presenting an honest look at Vreeland's life and personality, including the not-so-flattering sides. For example, Ali MacGraw, who was Vreeland's assistant at Vogue before becoming a movie star, is on camera looking visibly alarmed as she discusses the way her former boss would storm into the office, bark orders, and hurl her coat, expecting MacGraw to hang it up.

Of course, when Vreeland wasn't busy terrifying her assistants, she was revolutionizing fashion. Immordino Vreeland thinks her grandmother-in-law deserves credit for creating the role of the modern-day fashion editor ("Before she arrived, fashion was the domain of 'society ladies' who would offer advice on how women could please their husbands or cook a nice pie"). Vreeland was also one of the first to embrace accessible fashion like denim and bikinis, which (in addition to coat-hurling and assistant-squashing) is something she has in common with Vogue's current editor, Anna Wintour.

Click over to the Independent to real the full profile, and cross your fingers that the film will head stateside, or at least to Netflix, sometime soon.

· Diana Vreeland: A Sacred Monster [Independent]
· This is Nicholas, Legendary Vogue Editor Diana Vreeland's Grandson [Racked]