Review: Seduced and Abandoned

Although the central conceit isn’t remotely believable, this 2013 documentary directed and co-starring filmmaker James Toback (“Bugsy”, “Two Girls and a Guy”, “When Will I Be Loved”), is a fascinating, sometimes hilarious, ultimately incredibly depressing film about just how movies get made these days. Aspiring filmmakers beware, this film will tear your insides out, as it appears that movies get made these days with great difficulty, and with artistic merit not very high on the priority list of those who finance projects. Co-starring actor Alec Baldwin, he and Toback present the idea that they are attempting to pitch a movie loosely reworking Bernardo Bertolucci’s frankly overrated and off-putting “Last Tango in Paris” (But starring Alec Baldwin and Neve Campbell, and being a sex romp set during the recent Iraq war!). I was worried about that, because it sounded unlikely, and Bertolucci’s film is of zero interest to me in the first place. I pretty much loathed that film. But really, it’s just used as a way into the larger discussion about getting film deals made in today’s climate, as well as a discussion on Cannes Film Festival juries over the years (Baldwin and Toback take their pitch there, hoping to find interested parties in their project). The whole “Last Tango” thing really doesn’t end up being mentioned a whole helluva lot anyway, except as an entrance point.

 

The film is full of memorable, often jaw-dropping anecdotes and moments, the best of which are;

 

- Scorsese dishing on Cannes jury reaction to his “Taxi Driver”, with jurors Costa-Gavras and Sergio Leone very much in favour of the film, but jury head Tennessee Williams didn’t like it at all.

- The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy with a very interesting story about Robert Altman being upset with critic and Cannes juror Pauline Kael. If true, it makes Altman sound like a complete fucking idiot.

- Nu Image head honcho Avi Lerner being the most cynical person of all, claiming to not care about the creative side of filmmaking (If you’ve seen most of Nu Image/Millennium Films output, it’s believable). The guy is hilarious, and doesn’t give a flying fuck about anything except money.

- Truly genius offerings by actor Ryan Gosling. Seriously, aspiring actors will want to run out into open traffic after hearing his take on screen acting. It’s almost worth seeing the film just for his story about being on a plane possibly about to crash and all he cared about was finishing his meal (Toback asks him if he’s ready for death). Hey, I love my steak too.

- Further proof that Martin Scorsese is more fun and interesting to listen to than any other filmmaker, as he tells a story about Joe Pesci in “Goodfellas” that even I didn’t know: The ‘funny’ scene was Pesci’s idea and based on personal experiences.

- The unsubtle bemusement on Diane Kruger’s face as Toback and Baldwin pitch their film idea to her. She hates the idea, and has zero idea if they’re joking or not. It’s hilarious.

- Universal Studio’s Ron Meyer gets the film’s best and most depressing moment where he basically says it can be better to make a bad movie everyone sees than a great movie no one sees. Sad, but we all know it’s true, and some of your favourite filmmakers are pretty much to blame. Spielberg and Lucas essentially started the blockbuster era, and inadvertently created a monster (Or perhaps producers who tried to jump on that train time and time again, are to blame).

- A startling, seemingly out-of-left field moment where Francis Ford Coppola starts to talk about one thing (a film he had made fairly recently) and it ends up turning into an extraordinary confession from the man about a personal tragedy. Yes, that one. 

- I’m not remotely surprised to learn from Jessica Chastain that her acting teachers thought she was too serious and needed to play more. It shows in her acting, if you ask me.

 

The film also offers insights into just how some actors are viewed in terms of their ability to sell a film off of star power alone. To this end, I’m not sure if it’s intended or not, but Neve Campbell gets an absolute shit-kicking from most of the producers in this film. However, to be fair, so does Mr. Baldwin himself, who is seen as mostly a TV actor now, apparently. I’m surprised that he’s not also viewed as an absolute arsehole of a human being with too much baggage. But then, not one person in this film questions the marquee (or even artistic) value of Mr. Toback, which was the most surprising thing of all to me. I think he’s got the least cache of anyone in the entire film (Have you seen any of his films aside from “Fingers”? Didn’t think so!).

 

Whether you consider this documentary or pseudo-documentary, or something unto itself, there’s no doubt in my mind that this is one of the best films of 2013. It’s extremely depressing, but a must-see for any film buff.

 

Rating: B