The Devil Survives This One. (Barely)
A requiem for what is passing
Devil 2 is pure joy threaded through with such a deep chord of sadness.
Times are a-changing. Irrevocably. Magazines are getting to be irrelevant. New technologies. New media. New audiences. Fashion remains, principles never waver, but things are on the edge. The old way of doing things is now beautiful flotsam floating beside the Titanic, still refusing to sink, though barely.
But slivers of the old remain. And they mean something. They still stand up to justification of existence - even if it is by the skin of one’s teeth.
And for that they are worth fighting for, worth saving.
Devil 2 becomes, then, a story about recognizing tough love, embracing it, and trying to save it. The fight is partly for one’s own survival (Andy here), yes — but more than that, it is an act of generosity.
Because the fact that something is becoming progressively irrelevant does not diminish its intrinsic value. Gold remains gold.
A thing of beauty will always be one.
A world where Miranda has to conduct meetings in the company canteen instead of Le Bernardin is not a world I would like to encounter on film.
But Miranda, Andy and Emily have taken 15 years to come to the edge of this precipice and have just about survived. And that’s enough. And for that reason, maybe (maybe) I do not wish for Devil 3.
So no, I will not listen to Emily when she says “Just hide a feeling for once, please.”
I already have enough of that in real life.
And perhaps that is why this song by Lady Gaga from the film captures its essence so perfectly:
“But lately, I’m missing all the signs
Blinded by the champagne lens
Running out of time —
should I watch it burn and start again?”
As Benji says “The future just comes rushing at us like... well, like the lava of Pompeii. Our job is just to let it take what it wants to take. One day it’s going to come and it’s going to smother us all.”
That, finally, is the ache at the centre of Devil 2: not simply the fear of becoming irrelevant, but the unbearable knowledge that something exquisite may no longer have a place in the world - and loving it enough to fight for it anyway.
Also -
A recap of the earlier film, and the trajectories of its iconic characters, in this lovely piece.
And I can’t help but show this superb conceptual poster by PosterSpy!
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