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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
CHRIS & DON: A LOVE STORY
The remarkable collection of 16mm home movies and stills showcase a who’s who of the 20th century: Igor Stravinsky, E. M, Forster, Bette Davis (again), and Raymond Chandler, to name a few. It was through his lover’s contacts that Bachardy began his artistic career. But celebrity takes a backseat to the relationship between Bachardy and the much older, British-born Christopher Isherwood. They met on a beach in Santa Monica in 1952, and remained a couple until the older man’s death in 1986. The photo of the two used for the film’s publicity (see above) encapsulates what raised eyebrows (as if being openly gay in the ’50s wasn’t enough): their 30-year age difference. Bachardy looks 15, not 18, and a sunburned Isherwood appears considerably older. Besides serving as Bachardy’s lover/mentor, Isherwood describes his role as also paternal in a clip from a BBC documentary. And his molding carried over to speech; listening to the extensive interviews with the engagingly upfront Bachardy, you would assume from his inflections and crisp diction he was English. A rich subject for a film, Bachardy candidly and impishly recounts their life together and his later years as a single man. His accounts are vivid enough without the occasional reenactment. While the history behind Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin (the inspiration for the musical Cabaret) are explored, his literary output is only summarized. Prater Violet, his novel on filmmaking, goes unmentioned. However, he does admit that his experience as a scriptwriter made him a better writer – it taught him the importance of economy. Fully out as a gay couple more than a decade before Stonewall, Isherwood and Bachardy were part of a social set that would rival any East Coast salon, yet both were fully aware of Hollywood’s gay double standards. (The verbally snide actor Joseph Cotton does not come off looking so good here.) As Bachardy recounts, it wasn’t unusual for the couple to attend a party and count the number of men either one had slept with, accompanied by his wife.
Throughout, images trump the written word, though many blanks are filled and eras spanned by actor Michael York’s narration from the writer’s
voluminous and illuminating diaries. (Isherwood thought York was good as his alter-ego in the film adaptation of Cabaret;
Liza Minnelli was too good, not the amateur singer that he had written). Besides the couple’s footage, directors Guido Santi and Tina Mascara completely avoid
any talking-heads doldrums by including animated sequences based on the pet names of Bachardy (“Kitty” and another obvious variation of that name)
and “Horse” (Isherwood). They would write to each other in the voices of these pets, bringing new meaning to the verb “mousing.”
The DVD extras add little to an already
complex and fascinating profile. (Unfortunately, the silent home movies
don’t ID the couple’s friends, although Tennessee Williams and Anna Magnani are easy to spot.) But provocatively, 90-something actress
Gloria Stuart champions portraitist Bachardy over David Hockey. And when
discussing gay marriage, Bachardy, to no one’s surprise, wouldn't dream
of getting hitched, never
needing anyone’s approval: “I never have, and why start
now?” Kent Turner
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Portrait artist Don Bachardy has any film fanboy beat. An LA kid, he would dress up in a suit and
tie, blend in at Hollywood premieres, and ask for an autograph while his brother took a picture. Among this visually-rich documentary’s gems are
photos of the grinning gap-toothed teenager with Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe (twice), and Leslie Caron.