Film

The First Monday in May

Name: The First Monday in May
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2016
Cast: Andrew Bolton, Wong Kar-Wai, Karl Lagerfeld, Rihanna, Anna Wintour

Workplace drama
Light-hearted

A backstage pass to fashion's biggest night: the Met Gala's 2015 China exhibition. Watch a museum curator, designers, and A-list celebrities navigate ego, artistry, and spectacle as they race toward opening day. It's part documentary, part fashion theater, entirely absorbing—even if you don't care about clothes.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like watching a creative project take shape behind the scenes, where the practical problems of mounting a big museum show matter as much as the glamour.

Skip it if you need a critical edge or a tight narrative; this is an affectionate, polished portrait that stays close to its subjects and rarely pushes back.

What it asks of you: Ninety-one minutes of an unhurried, observational rhythm, mostly in workrooms and meetings, with the people themselves doing the talking.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Iris2014

Delightful portrait of a fearless 94-year-old iris Apfel and her maximalist life in fashion and design. Celebrates eccentricity, creativity, and the refusal to dim yourself for anyone.

But If you want traditional biographical structure or neat narrative closure, this is a wandering, impressionistic film that doesn't follow a three-act path.

The September Issue2009

Anna Wintour at work: brilliant, exacting, kind in unexpected moments. A portrait of how serious fashion magazines operate when stakes actually matter, and why people devote lives to this.

But Heavy focus on magazine production logistics; if you expected pure glamour, the admin work might feel tedious. Also, Wintour's coolness can feel distant.

McQueen2018

Alexander McQueen's creative genius, darkness, and vulnerability. Gorgeous visual storytelling about a designer who treated each collection as art with a deadline—and paid a terrible cost.

But Haunting and occasionally bleak. If you came for fashion glamour, this is about the fragility underneath, and it can be painful to watch.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The First Monday in May

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Citizen Kane1941

Both watch a perfectionist at the height of power assembling a vision and controlling every detail. Both ask what happens to a person who can't compromise. Andrew Bolton is a gentler Kane, but the architecture is there.

A visionary collector assembles a private kingdom, shapes culture from behind, controls perception, chases beauty and power. Every shot is perfect. The template for how to watch ambition.

But 1941 filmmaking: slow, formal, in black and white. Requires patience and attention. Nothing moves quickly, and it won't feel modern no matter how influential it remains.

Halston2019

A designer at peak power, then abandoned by the industry he shaped. Beautiful, bitter, and surprisingly tragic—about genius, ego, and what happens when fashion moves on.

But It's more about decline than triumph. If you want fashion inspiration, you'll get obsession and resentment instead. Some might find it depressing.

Dior and I2015

Eight weeks to design Raf Simons' first haute couture collection for Dior. Watches a studio in controlled panic with extraordinary grace. Pure process, pure craft, pure tension.

But Very slow. If you want narrative twists or celebrity moments, it's just workshops, fabric, and the weight of tradition. Meditative rather than dramatic.

Diana: In Her Own Words2017

Archive of Diana's voice and her own footage exploring her life, choices, and relationship with image. The documentary steps back; she tells her story. Intimate and clarifying.

But Intimate rather than mythologizing. You'll hear sadness and doubt, not the icon. Some want Diana as a fairy tale, and this resists that completely.

In the Mood for Love2000

Wong Kar-Wai appears in The First Monday as himself. But more than that—both films are about how image shapes emotion, how clothes and color communicate what words cannot, how aesthetics are a language of their own.

Wong Kar-Wai's masterpiece about longing, beauty, and the spaces between moments. Every frame is a painting. Pure visual poetry about desire and the clothes we wear to hide in.

But Deliberately slow and abstract. No plot in the traditional sense, minimal dialogue, maximum atmosphere. If you want clarity and story, this will feel oblique and frustrating.