By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Shannah Laumeister
Country: united_states
Year: 2013
Running time: 93
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1223411/
Chris says: “Bert Stern’s contributions to the art of photography are major enough to justify a feature-length documentary about them: for starters, look to his truly innovative Smirnoff Vodka ads that transformed Madison Avenue advertising in the 1950s, his portraits of every model and actress from Audrey Hepburn to Marilyn Monroe and the classic film he made about the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival, JAZZ ON A SUMMERS DAY. The guy was a genius in his medium, a celebrity playboy of a photographer in a time on the cusp of immense cultural change. His eventual fall from grace in the late ’60s via drugs and booze and subsequent recovery is the type of career trajectory most filmmakers dream of for their subjects.
“Still, something about it all feels a little hermetic and too self-congratulatory, acknowledging but not really reconciling the man’s private infidelities with his professional accomplishments. The fact that director Shannah Laumeister is Stern’s current (and significantly younger) longtime companion is a little distracting, though by injecting herself onscreen and confronting the audience with the role her life plays here, her presence is less awkward than it could have been. Now an octogenarian, Stern himself is appealing enough in a crusty, wizened sort of way and has no shortage of interesting stories to relay. However, regarding his personality and sheer likability, he’s no Bill Cunningham. 3 cats
“(This film screened at the 2012 Provincetown International Film Festival)”