Frédéric Tcheng on celebrating Bethann Hardison: “I think it’s really important to see what Bethann did and the historical movement she created.” Photo: Oliviero Toscano, courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
When I spoke with Tribeca Film Festival Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer on Zoom from Paris, months before the 22nd edition, he noted Frédéric Tcheng and Bethann Hardison’s Invisible Beauty (produced by Lisa Cortes of Harold Crooks and Judd Tully’s The Melt Goes on Forever: The Art & Times of David Hammons) as one of the highlights to see and commented: “We play all the films by Frédéric Tcheng (Halston and the World première of Dior And I). He’s a great person, very elegant.” Frédéric also co-directed Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel with Lisa Immordino Vreeland and Bent-Jorge Perlmutt and was a co-editor with Bob Eisenhardt for Matt Tyrnauer’s Valentino: The Last Emperor.
Frédéric Tcheng...
When I spoke with Tribeca Film Festival Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer on Zoom from Paris, months before the 22nd edition, he noted Frédéric Tcheng and Bethann Hardison’s Invisible Beauty (produced by Lisa Cortes of Harold Crooks and Judd Tully’s The Melt Goes on Forever: The Art & Times of David Hammons) as one of the highlights to see and commented: “We play all the films by Frédéric Tcheng (Halston and the World première of Dior And I). He’s a great person, very elegant.” Frédéric also co-directed Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel with Lisa Immordino Vreeland and Bent-Jorge Perlmutt and was a co-editor with Bob Eisenhardt for Matt Tyrnauer’s Valentino: The Last Emperor.
Frédéric Tcheng...
- 10/14/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A feature documentary about Le Bal des Débutantes, a Paris-set fashion event, is set to be the first project as part of a new non-fiction slate from Boat Rocker.
The company, via its Maven banner, is producing and financing Le Bal Paris, a doc that goes behind the scenes at the world’s most prestigious debutante ball.
The event, which features around 25 debutantes from around the world aged between 16 to 22 has been held since 1958 and was first launched at the Chateau de Versailles.
The project marks the first-time cameras will be granted access to the annual invitation-only event which brings together international, high-profile Gen Z guests in the name of haute couture, couture, high jewelry and charity.
It documents the months long preparation process undertaken by the young attendees, as well as Ophélie Renouard, founder of le Bal Paris, and her team, including the intricacies behind invites, pairing guests with haute couture designers,...
The company, via its Maven banner, is producing and financing Le Bal Paris, a doc that goes behind the scenes at the world’s most prestigious debutante ball.
The event, which features around 25 debutantes from around the world aged between 16 to 22 has been held since 1958 and was first launched at the Chateau de Versailles.
The project marks the first-time cameras will be granted access to the annual invitation-only event which brings together international, high-profile Gen Z guests in the name of haute couture, couture, high jewelry and charity.
It documents the months long preparation process undertaken by the young attendees, as well as Ophélie Renouard, founder of le Bal Paris, and her team, including the intricacies behind invites, pairing guests with haute couture designers,...
- 3/30/2022
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Fundraiser
Concert for Ukraine, the fundraising event for the Disasters Emergency Committee (Dec) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal on Tuesday, saw £13.4 million ($17.6 million) raised from sponsorship, ad revenue, ticket sales and public donations. The two-hour event, which was live from the Resorts World Arena Birmingham, and broadcast exclusively on ITV and Stv, featured performances from Anne-Marie, Becky Hill, Camila Cabello, Nile Rogers & Chic, Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sandé, Gregory Porter, Jamala, The Kingdom Choir, Manic Street Preachers, Nicola Benedetti, Snow Patrol and Tom Odell.
A highpoint of the evening was a violin performance, which saw the recent viral video of young violinist Illia Bondarenko playing the Ukrainian folk song “Verbovaya Doschechka” from a basement shelter along with 94 violinists from around the world, joined up with a live performance in the room by Nicola Benedetti. There were testimonial readings by British actors Tamsin Greig and Eddie Marsan, describing the real-life experiences of Artem and...
Concert for Ukraine, the fundraising event for the Disasters Emergency Committee (Dec) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal on Tuesday, saw £13.4 million ($17.6 million) raised from sponsorship, ad revenue, ticket sales and public donations. The two-hour event, which was live from the Resorts World Arena Birmingham, and broadcast exclusively on ITV and Stv, featured performances from Anne-Marie, Becky Hill, Camila Cabello, Nile Rogers & Chic, Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sandé, Gregory Porter, Jamala, The Kingdom Choir, Manic Street Preachers, Nicola Benedetti, Snow Patrol and Tom Odell.
A highpoint of the evening was a violin performance, which saw the recent viral video of young violinist Illia Bondarenko playing the Ukrainian folk song “Verbovaya Doschechka” from a basement shelter along with 94 violinists from around the world, joined up with a live performance in the room by Nicola Benedetti. There were testimonial readings by British actors Tamsin Greig and Eddie Marsan, describing the real-life experiences of Artem and...
- 3/30/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
By Glenn Dunks
I think it is fair to say that Lisa Immordino Vreeland has a preoccupation with the upper class. Beginning with her feature debut in 2011—Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel about the famed French-American fashion editor (also her own grandmother-in-law)—and on through other titles about more mid-century well-to-dos, Vreeland has carved a niche out of documentary portraits that tend to coast on the infamy of the rich and famous. I have enjoyed some more than others (2015’s Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict).
Her latest is Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation, which finds Vreeland more or less still pre-occupied with high society. A slick twist to the structural formula casts Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto as unseen mouthpieces for the words of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams...
I think it is fair to say that Lisa Immordino Vreeland has a preoccupation with the upper class. Beginning with her feature debut in 2011—Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel about the famed French-American fashion editor (also her own grandmother-in-law)—and on through other titles about more mid-century well-to-dos, Vreeland has carved a niche out of documentary portraits that tend to coast on the infamy of the rich and famous. I have enjoyed some more than others (2015’s Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict).
Her latest is Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation, which finds Vreeland more or less still pre-occupied with high society. A slick twist to the structural formula casts Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto as unseen mouthpieces for the words of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams...
- 7/1/2021
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review on the new film “Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation,” a new documentary about the friendship and art history of author Truman Capote and playwright Tennessee Williams. In select theaters and through virtual cinema (click MusicBox.com or KinoMarquee.com) beginning July 2nd, 2021.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
This is a sensational tribute two of legendary artists, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. The “conversation” is an overview of their respective careers, intersecting both as artists and friends. Voiced by two actors … Truman is by Jim Parsons and Tennessee is warmly reproduced by Zachary Quinto … director Lisa Immordino Vreeland uses letters, interviews and writings to express their life and philosophies. Filled with amazing archival footage, especially side-by-side separate interviews by British host David Frost, on the same set, the two are astounding in their parallel virtues and key differences.
“Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation” is...
Rating: 5.0/5.0
This is a sensational tribute two of legendary artists, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. The “conversation” is an overview of their respective careers, intersecting both as artists and friends. Voiced by two actors … Truman is by Jim Parsons and Tennessee is warmly reproduced by Zachary Quinto … director Lisa Immordino Vreeland uses letters, interviews and writings to express their life and philosophies. Filled with amazing archival footage, especially side-by-side separate interviews by British host David Frost, on the same set, the two are astounding in their parallel virtues and key differences.
“Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation” is...
- 7/1/2021
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Tennessee Williams at his desk. Courtesy of Harry Ransom Center. The University of Texas at Austin. Courtesy of Kino Lorber.
Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams were literary giants of the mid-20th century but they were also friends. Truman And Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation is more a tandem biography of these legendary authors than a conversation, but the documentary’s use of only the authors’ own words, read by actors Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto, does give it a conversational feel at times. However that conversation is not between the two great authors but rather with us, the listeners, as they discuss their lives and their work. Truman and Tennessee talk about each other, rather than to each other, as this excellent, insightful and entertaining documentary explores their lives and work through the lens of their long friendship.
It was a friendship had its ups and downs, but it was a long connection.
Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams were literary giants of the mid-20th century but they were also friends. Truman And Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation is more a tandem biography of these legendary authors than a conversation, but the documentary’s use of only the authors’ own words, read by actors Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto, does give it a conversational feel at times. However that conversation is not between the two great authors but rather with us, the listeners, as they discuss their lives and their work. Truman and Tennessee talk about each other, rather than to each other, as this excellent, insightful and entertaining documentary explores their lives and work through the lens of their long friendship.
It was a friendship had its ups and downs, but it was a long connection.
- 6/25/2021
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Over the course of just three features, filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland has already made a stamp on that documentary subgenre culture hounds find most irresistible — the 20th-century personality portrait — taking names we know well and sharing the private realms of their creative worlds. With “Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation,” she delivers two titans for the price of one, drawing parallels between novelist Truman Capote and playwright Tennessee Williams, whose real-life friendship-cum-rivalry serves as a natural dummy on which to hang a tailored homage to this quintessential pair of queer literary pioneers.
The trouble — and it’s no small obstacle — is that unlike Immordino Vreeland’s previous subjects, Capote and Williams were wordsmiths, not visual artists, which makes them harder to represent on screen. As such, the resulting project feels better suited to book form than that of a feature-length movie, and the devices she uses, like hiring “The Boys in the Band...
The trouble — and it’s no small obstacle — is that unlike Immordino Vreeland’s previous subjects, Capote and Williams were wordsmiths, not visual artists, which makes them harder to represent on screen. As such, the resulting project feels better suited to book form than that of a feature-length movie, and the devices she uses, like hiring “The Boys in the Band...
- 6/18/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation director Lisa Immordino Vreeland on Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams: “He was always a mise-en-scène of himself, while Tennessee was just there.” Photo: courtesy of Getty Images
In Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s universal and revealing Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation, Truman Capote notes that Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde, Carl Van Vechten, Charles Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, and Cole Porter would have loved Studio 54, and Tennessee Williams states “I think the most moving writer to me that ever lived was Chekhov.” The director of Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, and Love, Cecil on Cecil Beaton captures the spirit of strong individuals of the 20th century like no other documentarian.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland with Anne-Katrin Titze on Dick Cavett and David Frost: “We had Truman first and when we added Tennessee in the mix, we saw that we had another great interview.
In Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s universal and revealing Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation, Truman Capote notes that Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde, Carl Van Vechten, Charles Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, and Cole Porter would have loved Studio 54, and Tennessee Williams states “I think the most moving writer to me that ever lived was Chekhov.” The director of Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, and Love, Cecil on Cecil Beaton captures the spirit of strong individuals of the 20th century like no other documentarian.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland with Anne-Katrin Titze on Dick Cavett and David Frost: “We had Truman first and when we added Tennessee in the mix, we saw that we had another great interview.
- 6/12/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
This documentary about two of the deep south’s most celebrated gay writers fails to illuminate their sometimes troubled friendship
A hushed tone of slightly maudlin reverence is the keynote of this well-meaning but somehow pointless dual-bio documentary from Lisa Immordino Vreeland about Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote: the two gay writers from the south who had colossal status in America’s artistic and celebrity circles in the 1950s and 60s when literature was taken very seriously and when homosexuality could be hidden in plain sight as part of the artistic temperament.
Related: Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto: ‘Truman and Tennessee were lightning rods’...
A hushed tone of slightly maudlin reverence is the keynote of this well-meaning but somehow pointless dual-bio documentary from Lisa Immordino Vreeland about Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote: the two gay writers from the south who had colossal status in America’s artistic and celebrity circles in the 1950s and 60s when literature was taken very seriously and when homosexuality could be hidden in plain sight as part of the artistic temperament.
Related: Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto: ‘Truman and Tennessee were lightning rods’...
- 4/30/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Dogwoof has debuted a new trailer for Lisa Immordino Vreeland documentary ‘Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation’.
Filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland brings the two forces together in a unique and fascinating tête-à-tête, comparing and contrasting their trajectories through duelling voices — the writers’ own, culled from archival footage, and the voices of actors Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto (The Boys in the Band) portraying, respectively, Capote and Williams at various stages of their lives. Both created rich, imaginary worlds and characters that left indelible marks on the era — and both paid the price of colossal success and fame through alcoholism and periods of artistic stagnation.
Directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Zachary Quinto and Jim Parsons provide the voiceovers.
Also in trailers – It’s time for the underdogs to shine in trailer for ‘Under the Stadium Lights’
The film will be available on Dogwoof on Demand and other streaming platforms April 30th.
The...
Filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland brings the two forces together in a unique and fascinating tête-à-tête, comparing and contrasting their trajectories through duelling voices — the writers’ own, culled from archival footage, and the voices of actors Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto (The Boys in the Band) portraying, respectively, Capote and Williams at various stages of their lives. Both created rich, imaginary worlds and characters that left indelible marks on the era — and both paid the price of colossal success and fame through alcoholism and periods of artistic stagnation.
Directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Zachary Quinto and Jim Parsons provide the voiceovers.
Also in trailers – It’s time for the underdogs to shine in trailer for ‘Under the Stadium Lights’
The film will be available on Dogwoof on Demand and other streaming platforms April 30th.
The...
- 4/15/2021
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Exclusive: Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s well-received documentary Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation.
The film charts the personal and professional journeys of iconic American artists and writers Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. Vreeland explores their loves, fears, artistic achievements, friendship and sexualities through archival materials and film clips. Voiceover comes from actors Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto, who give voice to Capote and Williams, respectively.
The 2020 Telluride Film Festival selection will be released in June 2021.
The deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber SVP Wendy Lidell and Ben Schwartz, Submarine Entertainment’s Director of Sales.
Lidell said: “With An Intimate Conversation, we spend 86 delightfully entertaining minutes with two of the most remarkably witty raconteurs of their time. By approaching her subjects as a duo and how their meaningful friendship and rivalry inspired each other, Immordino Vreeland’s film defines the meaning of “the...
The film charts the personal and professional journeys of iconic American artists and writers Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. Vreeland explores their loves, fears, artistic achievements, friendship and sexualities through archival materials and film clips. Voiceover comes from actors Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto, who give voice to Capote and Williams, respectively.
The 2020 Telluride Film Festival selection will be released in June 2021.
The deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber SVP Wendy Lidell and Ben Schwartz, Submarine Entertainment’s Director of Sales.
Lidell said: “With An Intimate Conversation, we spend 86 delightfully entertaining minutes with two of the most remarkably witty raconteurs of their time. By approaching her subjects as a duo and how their meaningful friendship and rivalry inspired each other, Immordino Vreeland’s film defines the meaning of “the...
- 3/18/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
They were two of the greatest writers of their age; two of the greatest writers that the US has ever produced. They were both gay and both had experienced family rejection, yet whilst US society generally rejected gay people it made room for them, celebrating them because of their talents and taking a prurient interest in their personal lives. They were both from the South and built new lives for themselves following early career success. It's the friendship between Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, however, that forms the focal point of Lisa Immordino Vreeland's latest documentary. Beginning when the younger Truman was just 16, it would last a lifetime - and highlight their differences.
With Vreeland no stranger to celebrity documentaries of a certain flavour, viewers will be unsurprised by - but nonetheless appreciative of - the impressive quantity and variety of archive material she has assembled here, with clips from.
With Vreeland no stranger to celebrity documentaries of a certain flavour, viewers will be unsurprised by - but nonetheless appreciative of - the impressive quantity and variety of archive material she has assembled here, with clips from.
- 3/14/2021
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Two of the most engaging and beguiling talkers—and, oh yes, two of the better writers—of the last century share the spotlight in Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation. Good friends in real life—both were from the South and gay, had difficult upbringings, made it big with early works that were made into popular films and battled drink and drug issues—the two men make for easy and natural stablemates in Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s sympathetic and nicely shaped documentary, which takes their great talents as a given and happily refuses to sensationalize their struggles. The film world premiered at the recent Hamptons Film Festival.
Vreeland, whose previous documentaries over the past decade have focused upon Diana Vreeland (her husband’s grandmother), Peggy Guggenheim and Cecil Beaton, is right at home with fashionable greats of the past century. But in addition to the usual archival material, which includes significant...
Vreeland, whose previous documentaries over the past decade have focused upon Diana Vreeland (her husband’s grandmother), Peggy Guggenheim and Cecil Beaton, is right at home with fashionable greats of the past century. But in addition to the usual archival material, which includes significant...
- 10/19/2020
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
The title of Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s documentary about two legendary literary figures of the 20th century proves a bit misleading. Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams only speak indirectly to each other in Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation. Nonetheless, this film composed entirely of the two men’s words, many of them read by actors Jim Parsons (Capote) and Zachary Quinto (Williams), is a fascinating portrait that astutely uses their decades-long, sometimes rocky friendship to shed light on their respective personas. The film was recently showcased at the 2020 Hamptons International Film Festival.
Interestingly, the documentary makes one not only ...
Interestingly, the documentary makes one not only ...
- 10/13/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The title of Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s documentary about two legendary literary figures of the 20th century proves a bit misleading. Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams only speak indirectly to each other in Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation. Nonetheless, this film composed entirely of the two men’s words, many of them read by actors Jim Parsons (Capote) and Zachary Quinto (Williams), is a fascinating portrait that astutely uses their decades-long, sometimes rocky friendship to shed light on their respective personas. The film was recently showcased at the 2020 Hamptons International Film Festival.
Interestingly, the documentary makes one not only ...
Interestingly, the documentary makes one not only ...
- 10/13/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Director Lisa Immordino Vreeland has taken the guard rails off of her newest documentary so that her audience is left only with the subjects themselves, a move that will confound those used to the spoon-fed style so prevalent in the genre (and delight those sick of just that). “Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation” discards the talking-heads so the subjects, two of the most celebrated literary minds of their generation, can unspool the mysteries of their lives in their own words.
Continue reading ‘Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation’ Is High-Wire Documentary Filmmaking Without A Net [Hamptons Ff Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation’ Is High-Wire Documentary Filmmaking Without A Net [Hamptons Ff Review] at The Playlist.
- 10/11/2020
- by Warren Cantrell
- The Playlist
Historical documentaries pose a unique challenge when it comes to dramatizing lives rarely captured on film. When it comes to literary figures, there’s no shortage of written records — whether by them or about them — to communicate the essence of a writer’s life. In the case of the new documentary “Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation,” filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland utilizes correspondence between the two monumental figures as well as public comments each made about the other to weave her tale. While the result is visually wooden, the friendship, rivalry, and musings on art and life in “Truman & Tennessee” coalesce into
Described in its opening shots as “an encounter between those lifelong friends in their own words,” “Truman & Tennessee” charts the parallel careers of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, contemporaries with similar backgrounds who faced many of the same personal and professional struggles. The film plays like a kind of...
Described in its opening shots as “an encounter between those lifelong friends in their own words,” “Truman & Tennessee” charts the parallel careers of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, contemporaries with similar backgrounds who faced many of the same personal and professional struggles. The film plays like a kind of...
- 10/10/2020
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
For the past 27 years the Hamptons Intl. Film Festival meant fancy cocktail hours, plenty of celebrity sightings and the unspooling of award season’s buzziest films. The 28th annual edition, like everything in 2020, will feel different.
The Long Island-based fest, which runs Oct. 8-14, will be virtual and offer a select number of drive-in screenings. In addition to scaling down the lineup from 120-plus to 51 films, only a quarter of the fest’s typical staff will be in attendance.
But what won’t feel different this year is the fest’s core — its content. Hiff will still offer the most eagerly awaited titles of the year so far, including Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” featuring Steven Yeun; Regina King’s directorial debut “One Night in Miami,” starring Leslie Odom Jr.; Francis Lee’s “Ammonite,” starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; Tara Miele’s “Wander Darkly,” with Sienna Miller and Diego Luna...
The Long Island-based fest, which runs Oct. 8-14, will be virtual and offer a select number of drive-in screenings. In addition to scaling down the lineup from 120-plus to 51 films, only a quarter of the fest’s typical staff will be in attendance.
But what won’t feel different this year is the fest’s core — its content. Hiff will still offer the most eagerly awaited titles of the year so far, including Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” featuring Steven Yeun; Regina King’s directorial debut “One Night in Miami,” starring Leslie Odom Jr.; Francis Lee’s “Ammonite,” starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; Tara Miele’s “Wander Darkly,” with Sienna Miller and Diego Luna...
- 10/7/2020
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
The 28th edition of the Hamptons International Film Festival will close with Regina King’s feature film directorial debut “One Night in Miami.”
The movie, which held its world premiere on Sept. 7 at the Venice Film Festival, is a fictionalized story of Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke gathering to celebrate Ali’s surprise title win over Sonny Liston.
Leslie Odom Jr., who portrays Cooke in the movie, will participate the festival’s in “A Conversation With…” event.
“We have long admired the work of Regina King — throughout the years she has given phenomenal and groundbreaking performances, and we look forward to being able to now spotlight her craft and skill behind the camera with her directorial debut,” said Hiff artistic director David Nugent.
The film is written by Kemp Powers and based off his 2013 stage play, “One Night in Miami.” Along with Odom, it stars Eli Goree,...
The movie, which held its world premiere on Sept. 7 at the Venice Film Festival, is a fictionalized story of Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke gathering to celebrate Ali’s surprise title win over Sonny Liston.
Leslie Odom Jr., who portrays Cooke in the movie, will participate the festival’s in “A Conversation With…” event.
“We have long admired the work of Regina King — throughout the years she has given phenomenal and groundbreaking performances, and we look forward to being able to now spotlight her craft and skill behind the camera with her directorial debut,” said Hiff artistic director David Nugent.
The film is written by Kemp Powers and based off his 2013 stage play, “One Night in Miami.” Along with Odom, it stars Eli Goree,...
- 9/10/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Three weeks after a spike in coronavirus cases forced the Telluride Film Festival team to cancel its 2020 event, organizers have announced the lineup that would have been.
“The Show,” as the festival refers to its annual feature program, planned to include “Ammonite,” a love story co-starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; “The Rider” director Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland”; contemporary Western “Concrete Cowboy” with Idris Elba; and Roger Michell’s heist movie “The Duke,” with Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent — all four of which will make their premieres at Venice or Toronto instead.
But many of the films in the documentary-heavy lineup were not selected for either of those festivals, which explains why Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger felt it was important to share their selections. The Telluride team typically keeps their selections secret until the day before the festival, which takes place over Labor Day weekend in the small Colorado community.
“The Show,” as the festival refers to its annual feature program, planned to include “Ammonite,” a love story co-starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; “The Rider” director Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland”; contemporary Western “Concrete Cowboy” with Idris Elba; and Roger Michell’s heist movie “The Duke,” with Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent — all four of which will make their premieres at Venice or Toronto instead.
But many of the films in the documentary-heavy lineup were not selected for either of those festivals, which explains why Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger felt it was important to share their selections. The Telluride team typically keeps their selections secret until the day before the festival, which takes place over Labor Day weekend in the small Colorado community.
- 8/3/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
It was announced last month that the Telluride Film Festival made the decision to cancel their event this year due to the ongoing pandemic and the more intimate nature of their festival. As Cannes did earlier this summer, they’ve now gone ahead and revealed what would’ve screened at this year’s edition.
Featuring tributes to Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, and Chloé Zhao, their new films were set to screen––Ammonite, The Father, and Nomadland, respectively––as well as new work by Werner Herzog, Liz Garbus, Gia Coppola, Gianfranco Rosi, and more. There was also a new documentary featuring interviews by Tarkovsky titled Andrey Tarkovsky. A Cinema Prayer.
“I know other festivals can do this and will pull it off great, and it’s very beneficial to their individual communities,” executive director Julie Huntsinger told THR. “But what we do is so about human intimacy. For us, it’s that alchemy.
Featuring tributes to Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, and Chloé Zhao, their new films were set to screen––Ammonite, The Father, and Nomadland, respectively––as well as new work by Werner Herzog, Liz Garbus, Gia Coppola, Gianfranco Rosi, and more. There was also a new documentary featuring interviews by Tarkovsky titled Andrey Tarkovsky. A Cinema Prayer.
“I know other festivals can do this and will pull it off great, and it’s very beneficial to their individual communities,” executive director Julie Huntsinger told THR. “But what we do is so about human intimacy. For us, it’s that alchemy.
- 8/3/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
“We still want to… bring attention to these brilliant films.”
The Telluride Film Festival, which was supposed to run September 3-7 but was cancelled due to Covid-19, has revealed the films that would’ve been selected this year.
“Though we aren’t able to present our program in-person as planned, we still want to announce the lineup to bring attention to these brilliant films,” said Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger. “We’ve listed everything we know about screening opportunities so that audiences may watch as many of these films as possible. The festival will continue to do everything in its...
The Telluride Film Festival, which was supposed to run September 3-7 but was cancelled due to Covid-19, has revealed the films that would’ve been selected this year.
“Though we aren’t able to present our program in-person as planned, we still want to announce the lineup to bring attention to these brilliant films,” said Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger. “We’ve listed everything we know about screening opportunities so that audiences may watch as many of these films as possible. The festival will continue to do everything in its...
- 8/3/2020
- by 1101184¦Orlando Parfitt¦38¦
- ScreenDaily
There will be no Telluride Film Festival this Labor Day in Colorado, but the programmers have unveiled what this year’s selections would have been. Much like the Cannes Film Festival’s 2020 lineup, this year’s Telluride films can at least carry the imprimatur of the festival as we head into the fall circuit. The 47th edition of the Telluride Film Festival was scheduled for September 3-7. See the full lineup, as revealed on Monday, below.
The idea in presenting the Telluride selections is to recommend the best in film this year in hopes that audiences will seek out these movies at other fall festivals (or what remains of them) down the line. With the 2021 Academy Awards pushed way out to April 25, there’s at once less pressure on these films to perform for awards but also a crush of movies backlogged since quarantine hit, making for a competitive season.
The idea in presenting the Telluride selections is to recommend the best in film this year in hopes that audiences will seek out these movies at other fall festivals (or what remains of them) down the line. With the 2021 Academy Awards pushed way out to April 25, there’s at once less pressure on these films to perform for awards but also a crush of movies backlogged since quarantine hit, making for a competitive season.
- 8/3/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
In Body Of Truth Evelyn Schels explores the lives and works of Marina Abramović, Sigalit Landau, Shirin Neshat, and Katharina Sieverding Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
As the tenth annual Doc NYC Closing Night selection, Ebs Burnough’s The Capote Tapes (based on audio recordings by George Plimpton of Truman Capote) was screening at Sva Theatre 1, I attended the international première of Evelyn Schels’ Body Of Truth, screening in Sva Theatre 2.
Shot by Börres Weiffenbach (Margarethe von Trotta’s Searching For Ingmar Bergman), edited by Ulrike Tortora (Nina Wesemann’s Kids) and with a score by Christoph Rinnert (Schels’ Georg Baselitz), Body Of Truth explores the lives and work of four artists - Marina Abramovic, Shirin Neshat, Sigalit Landau, and Katharina Sieverding.
Marina Abramović with Klaus Biesenbach at the Gotham Awards for Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
At Cinépolis Chelsea, Evelyn Schels and producer Arek Gielnik (Isabella Sandri’s An Uncertain.
As the tenth annual Doc NYC Closing Night selection, Ebs Burnough’s The Capote Tapes (based on audio recordings by George Plimpton of Truman Capote) was screening at Sva Theatre 1, I attended the international première of Evelyn Schels’ Body Of Truth, screening in Sva Theatre 2.
Shot by Börres Weiffenbach (Margarethe von Trotta’s Searching For Ingmar Bergman), edited by Ulrike Tortora (Nina Wesemann’s Kids) and with a score by Christoph Rinnert (Schels’ Georg Baselitz), Body Of Truth explores the lives and work of four artists - Marina Abramovic, Shirin Neshat, Sigalit Landau, and Katharina Sieverding.
Marina Abramović with Klaus Biesenbach at the Gotham Awards for Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
At Cinépolis Chelsea, Evelyn Schels and producer Arek Gielnik (Isabella Sandri’s An Uncertain.
- 11/18/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
James Crump, in his documentary Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco, shows Karl Lagerfeld acting in Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol's obscure fashion film L'Amour: "Karl would send little personal notes and was always an extraordinarily supportive person."
Karl Lagerfeld died today at the age of 85 at the American Hospital in Paris. Lagerfeld, never shy to be caught on camera, had a cameo in Julie Delpy's Lolo and was seen in Fabien Constant's Carine Roitfeld documentary Mademoiselle C with Sarah Jessica Parker. Frédéric Tcheng, editor of Matt Tyrnauer's Valentino: The Last Emperor, co-director with Lisa Immordino Vreeland of Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, and director of Dior And I, sent the following remembrance in honour of Karl Lagerfeld.
Dany Boon with Karl Lagerfeld in Julie Delpy's Lolo
"What news! I thought Karl was going to live forever. I guess he died on stage,...
Karl Lagerfeld died today at the age of 85 at the American Hospital in Paris. Lagerfeld, never shy to be caught on camera, had a cameo in Julie Delpy's Lolo and was seen in Fabien Constant's Carine Roitfeld documentary Mademoiselle C with Sarah Jessica Parker. Frédéric Tcheng, editor of Matt Tyrnauer's Valentino: The Last Emperor, co-director with Lisa Immordino Vreeland of Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, and director of Dior And I, sent the following remembrance in honour of Karl Lagerfeld.
Dany Boon with Karl Lagerfeld in Julie Delpy's Lolo
"What news! I thought Karl was going to live forever. I guess he died on stage,...
- 2/19/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Maria By Callas director Tom Volf at Bar Fiori in Langham Place on Cecil Beaton and Maria Callas: "They had photo shoots together. It's so interesting to notice all those people who were part of the same era." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second half of my conversation with Tom Volf, the director of Maria By Callas and author of Maria By Callas: In Her Own Words, the two sides of the coin of Maria Callas were explored. Callas working on Pier Paolo Pasolini's Medea, why her favourite role is Norma, calling her toy poodles "my babies", Lisa Immordino Vreeland's Love, Cecil, Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite, and Kevyn Aucoin transforming Isabella Rossellini into Maria Callas as seen in Tiffany Bartok's Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story, all came up, taking us into a kind of time travel back to the golden age.
Maria Callas...
In the second half of my conversation with Tom Volf, the director of Maria By Callas and author of Maria By Callas: In Her Own Words, the two sides of the coin of Maria Callas were explored. Callas working on Pier Paolo Pasolini's Medea, why her favourite role is Norma, calling her toy poodles "my babies", Lisa Immordino Vreeland's Love, Cecil, Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite, and Kevyn Aucoin transforming Isabella Rossellini into Maria Callas as seen in Tiffany Bartok's Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story, all came up, taking us into a kind of time travel back to the golden age.
Maria Callas...
- 11/21/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Lisa Immordino Vreeland on Rupert Everett as the voice of Cecil Beaton for Love, Cecil: "I always wanted him. That was my first instinct. I love him." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second half of my conversation with the director of Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, Lisa Immordino Vreeland discusses more about her latest documentary Love, Cecil and the connections to Rupert Everett, Robin Muir, and Paul Lyon-Maris.
We also spoke about Cecil Beaton as the production and costume designer for Vincente Minnelli's Gigi with Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan, his stormy relationship with George Cukor on My Fair Lady, a Manolo Blahnik comment quoting Beaton on a Gary Cooper photograph, and an upcoming Truman Capote project.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland on Cecil Beaton: "What interested me was that he really wanted to put everything on a stage. His whole life...
In the second half of my conversation with the director of Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, Lisa Immordino Vreeland discusses more about her latest documentary Love, Cecil and the connections to Rupert Everett, Robin Muir, and Paul Lyon-Maris.
We also spoke about Cecil Beaton as the production and costume designer for Vincente Minnelli's Gigi with Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan, his stormy relationship with George Cukor on My Fair Lady, a Manolo Blahnik comment quoting Beaton on a Gary Cooper photograph, and an upcoming Truman Capote project.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland on Cecil Beaton: "What interested me was that he really wanted to put everything on a stage. His whole life...
- 7/18/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
by Glenn Dunks
Cecil Beaton was a dandy. He was an elegant fop, an aesthete, a bright young thing, a (mostly) homosexual. These are all words used to describe him in Love, Cecil, a charming bio-doc from director Lisa Immordino Vreeland. They are words not used in malice, but in reverence to a man whose singular attitudes flew in the face of what men were ‘supposed’ to be. Cecil Beaton had about him an air of posh aristocracy that belied his place in society, but which would ultimately allow him to become ingratiated into the inner-sanctum of Britain’s upper-class (including right up the Queen herself), the world of celebrity, and even the Academy as the Oscar-winning designer behind Gigi and My Fair Lady. He also just happens to be one of the great photographers of the 21st century
Love, Cecil is Vreeland’s most accomplished film to date...
Cecil Beaton was a dandy. He was an elegant fop, an aesthete, a bright young thing, a (mostly) homosexual. These are all words used to describe him in Love, Cecil, a charming bio-doc from director Lisa Immordino Vreeland. They are words not used in malice, but in reverence to a man whose singular attitudes flew in the face of what men were ‘supposed’ to be. Cecil Beaton had about him an air of posh aristocracy that belied his place in society, but which would ultimately allow him to become ingratiated into the inner-sanctum of Britain’s upper-class (including right up the Queen herself), the world of celebrity, and even the Academy as the Oscar-winning designer behind Gigi and My Fair Lady. He also just happens to be one of the great photographers of the 21st century
Love, Cecil is Vreeland’s most accomplished film to date...
- 7/3/2018
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
limited
Dark River
Clio Barnard writes and directs this mystery drama about a woman (Ruth Wilson) who returns home to claim her family farm.
find cinemas
Summer of ’67 [pictured]
Sharon Wilharm writes and directs this historical romantic drama about three women coping with the social upheaval of Vietnam-era America.
find cinemas
Leave No Trace
Debra Granik writes and directs this drama about a teenage girl (Thomasin McKenzie) who lives off the grid with her Ptsd-afflicted veteran father.
find cinemas
Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story
Tiffany Bartok directs this documentary about the legendary makeup artist.
find cinemas
Love, Cecil
Lisa Immordino Vreeland directs this documentary about Oscar-winning Hollywood costume designer Cecil Beaton.
find cinemas
Woman Walks Ahead
Susanna White directs this historical docudrama about portrait painter Catherine Weldon (Jessica Chastain). (male writer)
find cinemas
Hover
Cleopatra Coleman writes and stars in this sci-fi thriller about a woman investigating mysterious deaths in an ecologically ravaged future.
Dark River
Clio Barnard writes and directs this mystery drama about a woman (Ruth Wilson) who returns home to claim her family farm.
find cinemas
Summer of ’67 [pictured]
Sharon Wilharm writes and directs this historical romantic drama about three women coping with the social upheaval of Vietnam-era America.
find cinemas
Leave No Trace
Debra Granik writes and directs this drama about a teenage girl (Thomasin McKenzie) who lives off the grid with her Ptsd-afflicted veteran father.
find cinemas
Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story
Tiffany Bartok directs this documentary about the legendary makeup artist.
find cinemas
Love, Cecil
Lisa Immordino Vreeland directs this documentary about Oscar-winning Hollywood costume designer Cecil Beaton.
find cinemas
Woman Walks Ahead
Susanna White directs this historical docudrama about portrait painter Catherine Weldon (Jessica Chastain). (male writer)
find cinemas
Hover
Cleopatra Coleman writes and stars in this sci-fi thriller about a woman investigating mysterious deaths in an ecologically ravaged future.
- 6/30/2018
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
“Love, Cecil” demonstrates how a documentary can be a magical experience. I went into the film barely having heard of Cecil Beaton, who (as I learned) was one of the most incandescent photographers who ever lived. The reason I state my ignorance in such blunt terms — hey, I’m a film critic, not a photography scholar — is that for me, as I suspect will be the case for many others, the movie’s splendor lies in the sensation of being washed over by an elated experience of discovery.
The documentary tells the story of Beaton’s life, and it’s a moving and majestic one that spans many of the revolutions in perception that defined the 20th century. Yet “Love, Cecil” is rooted in the mind-bendingly eclectic splendor of Beaton’s images. He was a visionary fashion photographer, a fearless journalist of war, an indelible chronicler of celebrity, and — through...
The documentary tells the story of Beaton’s life, and it’s a moving and majestic one that spans many of the revolutions in perception that defined the 20th century. Yet “Love, Cecil” is rooted in the mind-bendingly eclectic splendor of Beaton’s images. He was a visionary fashion photographer, a fearless journalist of war, an indelible chronicler of celebrity, and — through...
- 6/30/2018
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Lisa Immordino Vreeland on Cecil Beaton: "It was something that he was born with. That he just needed to create on multiple platforms. He's known as a photographer but he was so much more than that." Photo: Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's
On-camera interviews with David Hockney, Leslie Caron on Vincente Minnelli's Gigi, Isaac Mizrahi, Hamish Bowles, Manolo Blahnik, David Bailey and Penelope Tree, and terrific archival footage that includes George Cukor on My Fair Lady, Truman Capote and Diana Vreeland on their take on Cecil Beaton, are skilfully combined to show us a great deal about the photographer, costume and set designer and his complicated personal life, that included a marriage proposal to Greta Garbo.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland, the director of Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, in her latest documentary, Love, Cecil, shot by Shane Sigler (Elaine Stritch...
On-camera interviews with David Hockney, Leslie Caron on Vincente Minnelli's Gigi, Isaac Mizrahi, Hamish Bowles, Manolo Blahnik, David Bailey and Penelope Tree, and terrific archival footage that includes George Cukor on My Fair Lady, Truman Capote and Diana Vreeland on their take on Cecil Beaton, are skilfully combined to show us a great deal about the photographer, costume and set designer and his complicated personal life, that included a marriage proposal to Greta Garbo.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland, the director of Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, in her latest documentary, Love, Cecil, shot by Shane Sigler (Elaine Stritch...
- 6/27/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber have picked up U.S. rights for Matt Tyrnauer’s “Studio 54,” a documentary about the club that was at the epicenter of New York city nightlife in the 1970s.
The deal between Kino Lorber and A&E IndieFilms, the company that produced the film, was finalized during Cannes Film Festival. “Studio 54” will be released in theaters in the fall of 2018. The companies are planning to campaign the film for Academy Awards consideration.
Tyrnauer, a Vanity Fair editor-at-large turned filmmaker, previously directed “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City,” and “Scotty and the Secret of Hollywood.” He’s shown a knack for getting under the skins of iconoclasts and myth-makers. He hit pay dirt with Steve Rubell, the flamboyant outer-bourough social-climber who created the ultimate playground for the rich and glamorous with his partner co-owner Ian Schrager. Over the course of a mere 33 months,...
The deal between Kino Lorber and A&E IndieFilms, the company that produced the film, was finalized during Cannes Film Festival. “Studio 54” will be released in theaters in the fall of 2018. The companies are planning to campaign the film for Academy Awards consideration.
Tyrnauer, a Vanity Fair editor-at-large turned filmmaker, previously directed “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City,” and “Scotty and the Secret of Hollywood.” He’s shown a knack for getting under the skins of iconoclasts and myth-makers. He hit pay dirt with Steve Rubell, the flamboyant outer-bourough social-climber who created the ultimate playground for the rich and glamorous with his partner co-owner Ian Schrager. Over the course of a mere 33 months,...
- 5/21/2018
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Lisa Immordino Vreeland presented Love, Cecil at Sotheby's in New York Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
On a stormy spring Saturday night, Art Agency, Partners and Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino Lorber hosted a reception and preview screening of Love, Cecil at Sotheby's in New York.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland, the director of Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, presented her documentary on Cecil Beaton narrated by Rupert Everett and edited by Bernadine Colish (Absolute Wilson).
Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts - Coco on Broadway, costumes by Cecil Beaton Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Through on-camera interviews with David Hockney, Leslie Caron, Isaac Mizrahi, Hamish Bowles, Manolo Blahnik, David Bailey and Penelope Tree, and terrific archival footage, including an exchange between Truman Capote and Diana Vreeland on their take on Cecil Beaton, we...
On a stormy spring Saturday night, Art Agency, Partners and Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino Lorber hosted a reception and preview screening of Love, Cecil at Sotheby's in New York.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland, the director of Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, presented her documentary on Cecil Beaton narrated by Rupert Everett and edited by Bernadine Colish (Absolute Wilson).
Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts - Coco on Broadway, costumes by Cecil Beaton Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Through on-camera interviews with David Hockney, Leslie Caron, Isaac Mizrahi, Hamish Bowles, Manolo Blahnik, David Bailey and Penelope Tree, and terrific archival footage, including an exchange between Truman Capote and Diana Vreeland on their take on Cecil Beaton, we...
- 5/14/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Exclusive: There have been a couple of feature doc acquisitions to report. First up, Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber have acquired Lisa Immordino Vreeland's feature documentary Love, Cecil about production designer Cecil Beaton (Gigi, My Fair Lady). The film premiered at 2017 Telluride Film Festival. It will get a June 29 showing at the Film Society of Lincoln Center before it rolls out nationally. Next, Virgil Films acquired Augie from Oscar nominated director James Keach…...
- 3/13/2018
- Deadline
The films are Abacus: Small Enough To Jail by Steve James, Love Cecil by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, and Ethan Hawke’s Blaze.
Cinetic International has licensed three titles at the Efm to Scandinavian distributor NonStop – Abacus: Small Enough To Jail by Steve James, Love Cecil by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, and Ethan Hawke’s Blaze, which screened at the market on Friday.
Cinetic’s head of international Jason Ishikawa negotiated the deals with NonStop CEO Jakob Abrahamsson.
Blaze premiered in Sundance last month and earned the special jury acting prize for newcomer Ben Dickey as musician Blaze Foley. A Us deal is expected shortly.
Financial crisis documentary Abacus earned an Oscar nomination last month and has also sold to Dogwoof in the UK.
Costume designer Cecil Beaton documentary Love, Cecil premiered at Telluride and was released by StudioCanal in the UK and Germany.
Jason Ishikawa said of the deal, “NonStop Entertainment has been a great partner who is attracted...
Cinetic International has licensed three titles at the Efm to Scandinavian distributor NonStop – Abacus: Small Enough To Jail by Steve James, Love Cecil by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, and Ethan Hawke’s Blaze, which screened at the market on Friday.
Cinetic’s head of international Jason Ishikawa negotiated the deals with NonStop CEO Jakob Abrahamsson.
Blaze premiered in Sundance last month and earned the special jury acting prize for newcomer Ben Dickey as musician Blaze Foley. A Us deal is expected shortly.
Financial crisis documentary Abacus earned an Oscar nomination last month and has also sold to Dogwoof in the UK.
Costume designer Cecil Beaton documentary Love, Cecil premiered at Telluride and was released by StudioCanal in the UK and Germany.
Jason Ishikawa said of the deal, “NonStop Entertainment has been a great partner who is attracted...
- 2/19/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The films are Abacus: Small Enough To Jail by Steve James, Love Cecil by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, and Ethan Hawke’s Blaze.
Cinetic International has licensed three titles at the Efm to Scandinavian distributor NonStop – Abacus: Small Enough To Jail by Steve James, Love Cecil by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, and Ethan Hawke’s Blaze, which screened at the market on Friday.
Cinetic’s head of international Jason Ishikawa negotiated the deals with NonStop CEO Jakob Abrahamsson.
Blaze premiered in Sundance last month and earned the special jury acting prize for newcomer Ben Dickey as musician Blaze Foley. A Us deal is expected shortly.
Financial crisis documentary Abacus earned an Oscar nomination last month and has also sold to Dogwoof in the UK.
Costume designer Cecil Beaton documentary Love, Cecil premiered at Telluride and was released by StudioCanal in the UK and Germany.
Jason Ishikawa said of the deal, “NonStop Entertainment has been a great partner who is attracted...
Cinetic International has licensed three titles at the Efm to Scandinavian distributor NonStop – Abacus: Small Enough To Jail by Steve James, Love Cecil by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, and Ethan Hawke’s Blaze, which screened at the market on Friday.
Cinetic’s head of international Jason Ishikawa negotiated the deals with NonStop CEO Jakob Abrahamsson.
Blaze premiered in Sundance last month and earned the special jury acting prize for newcomer Ben Dickey as musician Blaze Foley. A Us deal is expected shortly.
Financial crisis documentary Abacus earned an Oscar nomination last month and has also sold to Dogwoof in the UK.
Costume designer Cecil Beaton documentary Love, Cecil premiered at Telluride and was released by StudioCanal in the UK and Germany.
Jason Ishikawa said of the deal, “NonStop Entertainment has been a great partner who is attracted...
- 2/19/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Taraji P. Henson, Sienna Miller, Queen Latifah, Heidi Klum, Adrien Brody, Halsey, Rachel Brosnahan, Sara Sampaio, Hailey Baldwin, and Kenneth Cole were among those gathered at the 20th annual amfAR Gala New York at Cipriani Wall Street to pay tribute to writer, producer, and director Lee Daniels and W Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Stefano Tonchi for their longstanding commitment to the fight against AIDS.
The event raised $1.6 million for amfAR’s life-saving AIDS research programs.
Other guests included Alexander Vreeland, Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Caroline Vreeland, Leelee Sobieski, Serayah, Olivia Culpo, Joan Smalls, Lais Ribeiro, Alexandra Daddario, Odeya Rush, Coco Rocha, Karen Elson, Georgia Fowler, Nina Agdal, Sofia Resing, Alina Baikova, Ashley Graham, Justine Skye, Nicola Peltz, Anwar Hadid, Lucy Hale, Devon Windsor, Hailey Clauson, Sailor Brinkley Cook, Martha Hunt, Andreja Pejic, Blanca Padilla, Sistine Stallone, Gala Gonzalez, Valery Kaufman, Helena Borden, Jessica Hart, Paige Reifler, Sanne Vloet, Lala Anthony, Grace Elizabeth,...
The event raised $1.6 million for amfAR’s life-saving AIDS research programs.
Other guests included Alexander Vreeland, Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Caroline Vreeland, Leelee Sobieski, Serayah, Olivia Culpo, Joan Smalls, Lais Ribeiro, Alexandra Daddario, Odeya Rush, Coco Rocha, Karen Elson, Georgia Fowler, Nina Agdal, Sofia Resing, Alina Baikova, Ashley Graham, Justine Skye, Nicola Peltz, Anwar Hadid, Lucy Hale, Devon Windsor, Hailey Clauson, Sailor Brinkley Cook, Martha Hunt, Andreja Pejic, Blanca Padilla, Sistine Stallone, Gala Gonzalez, Valery Kaufman, Helena Borden, Jessica Hart, Paige Reifler, Sanne Vloet, Lala Anthony, Grace Elizabeth,...
- 2/14/2018
- Look to the Stars
Rupert Everett narrates designer Cecil Beaton’s diaries in Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s sympathetic study of his life and influence on British style
Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s previous documentary was a portrait of art patron Peggy Guggenheim, and this study of Cecil Beaton is in the same celebratory mode. This was the British designer, photographer, social alpinist and Bright Young Thing who suffered a scandal after making an antisemitic slur in the 1930s, but after his craven, miserable (and sincere) apology for this silly shock tactic, he enjoyed royal patronage from the then Queen Elizabeth and was rehabilitated with the approach of war, during which he took valuable reportage pictures for Life magazine. He went on to create the look for the movie version of My Fair Lady, and maintained his own slightly quaint neo-Edwardian aesthetic for fashion magazines well into the swinging 60s. The film is intelligent, thorough and sympathetic,...
Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s previous documentary was a portrait of art patron Peggy Guggenheim, and this study of Cecil Beaton is in the same celebratory mode. This was the British designer, photographer, social alpinist and Bright Young Thing who suffered a scandal after making an antisemitic slur in the 1930s, but after his craven, miserable (and sincere) apology for this silly shock tactic, he enjoyed royal patronage from the then Queen Elizabeth and was rehabilitated with the approach of war, during which he took valuable reportage pictures for Life magazine. He went on to create the look for the movie version of My Fair Lady, and maintained his own slightly quaint neo-Edwardian aesthetic for fashion magazines well into the swinging 60s. The film is intelligent, thorough and sympathetic,...
- 12/1/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
It’s that time of the year again. Every fall, New York City becomes the focal point for any and every fan of non-fiction cinema, as one of the year’s most prestigious documentary festivals is finally, again, set to take the city by storm. Doc NYC is now in its eighth edition, and this is one of their best, and largest, lineups to date.
Broken down into over 15 different sections and sidebars, Doc NYC 2017 features everything from short films to films looking at art, design, music and social activism, just to name a few. There are sections like Metropolis, a competition sidebar featuring films set in and about New York City, as well as the Short List, a section of the best documentaries curated from the year so far. It’s a dense, broadly reaching festival with films from across the globe and that defy definition.
Besides films from...
Broken down into over 15 different sections and sidebars, Doc NYC 2017 features everything from short films to films looking at art, design, music and social activism, just to name a few. There are sections like Metropolis, a competition sidebar featuring films set in and about New York City, as well as the Short List, a section of the best documentaries curated from the year so far. It’s a dense, broadly reaching festival with films from across the globe and that defy definition.
Besides films from...
- 11/9/2017
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
New York City’s annual Doc NYC festival kicks off this week, including a full-to-bursting slate of some of this year’s most remarkable documentaries. If you’ve been looking to beef up on your documentary consumption, Doc NYC is the perfect chance to check out a wide variety of some of the year’s best fact-based features. Ahead, we pick out 14 of our most anticipated films from the fest, including some awards contenders, a handful of buzzy debuts, and a number of festival favorites. Take a look and start filling up your schedule now.
Doc NYC runs November 9 – 16 in New York City.
“EuroTrump”
Donald Trump may seem like a sui generis figure, a one-of-a-kind monster who was forged in a perfect storm of racism, tweets, and chaos, but history suggests that he’s really just a new breed of an old type. You don’t even have to look...
Doc NYC runs November 9 – 16 in New York City.
“EuroTrump”
Donald Trump may seem like a sui generis figure, a one-of-a-kind monster who was forged in a perfect storm of racism, tweets, and chaos, but history suggests that he’s really just a new breed of an old type. You don’t even have to look...
- 11/7/2017
- by Kate Erbland, David Ehrlich, Jude Dry, Anne Thompson, Chris O'Falt, Michael Nordine and Jenna Marotta
- Indiewire
The Hamptons International Film Festival announced that audience awards for its just-concluded 25th edition went to French comedic drama Mr. and Mrs. Adelman and Cecil Beaton bio-doc Love, Cecil. Long Shot, directed by Jacob Lamendola, captured the audience prize for best short film. Nicolas Bedos directed Adelman, while Lisa Immordino Vreeland directed Love, Cecil. The festival ran Oct. 5-9. Artistic director David Nugent said the festival had “a diverse lineup that was…...
- 10/10/2017
- Deadline
Most younger audience members probably would draw a blank at the name Cecil Beaton, but he was a major figure in the arts for almost 60 years. Love, Cecil, one of the most engaging documentaries shown at this year’s Telluride Film Festival, should help to restore a bit of his reputation.
Director Lisa Immordino Vreeland made earlier docs about fashion maven Diana Vreeland (her husband’s grandmother) and art collector Peggy Guggenheim, so she’s revisiting comfortable terrain here and trains an affectionate but unsentimental eye on Beaton. He is probably best known for designing Oscar-winning films Gigi and My Fair Lady,...
Director Lisa Immordino Vreeland made earlier docs about fashion maven Diana Vreeland (her husband’s grandmother) and art collector Peggy Guggenheim, so she’s revisiting comfortable terrain here and trains an affectionate but unsentimental eye on Beaton. He is probably best known for designing Oscar-winning films Gigi and My Fair Lady,...
- 9/6/2017
- by Stephen Farber
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The RiderThe lineup for the 2017 Telluride Film Festival (September 1st - 4th) has been announced:
Arthur Miller: Writer (Rebecca Miller, U.S.)Battle of the Sexes (Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton, U.S.)Darkest Hour (Joe Wright, U.K.)Downsizing (Alexander Payne, U.S.)Eating Animals (Christopher Quinn, U.S.)Faces Places (Agnès Varda & Jr, France)A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio, Chile/U.S./Germany/Spain)Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (Paul McGuigan, U.K.)First Reformed (Paul Schrader, U.S.)First They Killed My Father (Angelina Jolie, U.S./Cambodia)Foxtrot (Samuel Maoz, Israel)Hostages (Rezo Gigineishvili, Georgia/Russia/Poland)Hostiles (Scott Cooper, U.S.)Human Flow (Ai Weiwei, U.S./Germany)The Insult (Ziad Doueiri, France-Lebanon)Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, U.S.)Land of the Free (Camilla Magid, Denmark-Finland)Lean on Pete (Andrew Haigh, U.K./U.S)Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia/France/Belgium/Germany)Love,...
Arthur Miller: Writer (Rebecca Miller, U.S.)Battle of the Sexes (Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton, U.S.)Darkest Hour (Joe Wright, U.K.)Downsizing (Alexander Payne, U.S.)Eating Animals (Christopher Quinn, U.S.)Faces Places (Agnès Varda & Jr, France)A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio, Chile/U.S./Germany/Spain)Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (Paul McGuigan, U.K.)First Reformed (Paul Schrader, U.S.)First They Killed My Father (Angelina Jolie, U.S./Cambodia)Foxtrot (Samuel Maoz, Israel)Hostages (Rezo Gigineishvili, Georgia/Russia/Poland)Hostiles (Scott Cooper, U.S.)Human Flow (Ai Weiwei, U.S./Germany)The Insult (Ziad Doueiri, France-Lebanon)Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, U.S.)Land of the Free (Camilla Magid, Denmark-Finland)Lean on Pete (Andrew Haigh, U.K./U.S)Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia/France/Belgium/Germany)Love,...
- 8/31/2017
- MUBI
Now in its 44th year, Telluride Film Festival provides the launching pad for many of the fall’s biggest films and, as usual, we don’t know the line-up until right before it kicks off. Beginning this Friday, they’ve now unveiled the full slate, which features much of the expected players — new films from Guillermo del Toro, Greta Gerwig, Alexander Payne, Joe Wright, and Todd Haynes — as well as the latest work from Paul Schrader, Andrew Haigh, Agnes Varda, Ken Burns, Errol Morris, and more.
Check out the line-up below.
Arthur Miller: Writer (d. Rebecca Miller, U.S., 2017)
Battle Of The Sexes (d. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, U.S., 2017)
Darkest Hour (d. Joe Wright, U.K., 2017)
Downsizing (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2017)
Eating Animals (d. Christopher Quinn, U.S., 2017)
Faces Places (d. Agnes Varda, Jr, France, 2017)
A Fantastic Woman (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile-u.S.-Germany-Spain, 2017)
Film Stars Don’T Die In Liverpool (d.
Check out the line-up below.
Arthur Miller: Writer (d. Rebecca Miller, U.S., 2017)
Battle Of The Sexes (d. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, U.S., 2017)
Darkest Hour (d. Joe Wright, U.K., 2017)
Downsizing (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2017)
Eating Animals (d. Christopher Quinn, U.S., 2017)
Faces Places (d. Agnes Varda, Jr, France, 2017)
A Fantastic Woman (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile-u.S.-Germany-Spain, 2017)
Film Stars Don’T Die In Liverpool (d.
- 8/31/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Telluride Film Festival has announced its 2017 lineup. As usual, the exclusive Colorado gathering features a range of buzzy fall season movies, including many films also premiering in Venice and Toronto as well as others resurfacing from earlier in the year, just in time for awards season. Filmmakers in this year’s program range from Alexander Payne to Angelina Jolie. The festival will also honor cinematographer Ed Lachman, actor Christian Bale, and screen a new cut of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1984 Harlem musical “The Cotton Club.”
One of the bigger films to make the cut in this year’s lineup should take no one by surprise: “Downsizing” (12/22, Paramount), Payne’s long-gestating near-future workplace satire starring Matt Damon, will screen at the festival where Payne has been a regular for years (both as a filmmaker and audience member). The movie opened the Venice Film Festival earlier this week, and was followed...
One of the bigger films to make the cut in this year’s lineup should take no one by surprise: “Downsizing” (12/22, Paramount), Payne’s long-gestating near-future workplace satire starring Matt Damon, will screen at the festival where Payne has been a regular for years (both as a filmmaker and audience member). The movie opened the Venice Film Festival earlier this week, and was followed...
- 8/31/2017
- by Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Cinetic’s international sales division led by new arrival Jason Ishikawa has launched sales in Cannes on Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s upcoming Love Cecil.
Roghts have gone to Studiocanal for the UK and Germany on the project, which presents a portrait of famed photographer and Oscar-winning costume designer Cecil Beaton, who shot iconic images of celebrities and also won two Oscars for costume and set design.
Cinetic is also handling world rights on a documentary in post about Franca Sozzani, the famed editor of Vogue Italia. Francesco Carrozzini directs and Amy Berg produces.
Cinetic is screening two Tribeca documentaries: Obit, directed by Vanessa Gould, and Betting On Zero, directed by Ted Braun. Cinetic said Us buyers were in talks on both titles.
The Us sales division is handling Below Her Mouth, which Elle Driver sells internationally and screens in the market.
Roghts have gone to Studiocanal for the UK and Germany on the project, which presents a portrait of famed photographer and Oscar-winning costume designer Cecil Beaton, who shot iconic images of celebrities and also won two Oscars for costume and set design.
Cinetic is also handling world rights on a documentary in post about Franca Sozzani, the famed editor of Vogue Italia. Francesco Carrozzini directs and Amy Berg produces.
Cinetic is screening two Tribeca documentaries: Obit, directed by Vanessa Gould, and Betting On Zero, directed by Ted Braun. Cinetic said Us buyers were in talks on both titles.
The Us sales division is handling Below Her Mouth, which Elle Driver sells internationally and screens in the market.
- 5/14/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
“I’m not gregarious. I’m a lone wolf.” Such is the bold statement of the central figure of Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s sophomore doc, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict. Guggenheim may claim to have been a lone wolf but Vreeland gives us a stunning, delightful character study of a woman positively surrounded and celebrated by people her entire
The post Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The post Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 12/8/2015
- by Allie Gemmill
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Totally and tragically unconventional, Peggy Guggenheim moved through the cultural upheaval of the 20th century collecting not only not only art, but artists. Her sexual life was -- and still today is -- more discussed than the art itself which she collected, not for her own consumption but for the world to enjoy.
Her colorful personal history included such figures as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp and countless others. Guggenheim helped introduce the world to Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko and scores of others now recognized as key masters of modernism.
In 1921 she moved to Paris and mingled with Picasso, Dali, Joyce, Pound, Stein, Leger, Kandinsky. In 1938 she opened a gallery in London and began showing Cocteau, Tanguy, Magritte, Miro, Brancusi, etc., and then back to Paris and New York after the Nazi invasion, followed by the opening of her NYC gallery Art of This Century, which became one of the premiere avant-garde spaces in the U.S. While fighting through personal tragedy, she maintained her vision to build one of the most important collections of modern art, now enshrined in her Venetian palazzo where she moved in 1947. Since 1951, her collection has become one of the world’s most visited art spaces.
Featuring: Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Vasil Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Fernand Leger, Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Jean Miro, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Kurt Schwitters, Gino Severini, Clyfford Still and Yves Tanguy.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Director and Producer)
Lisa Immordino Vreeland has been immersed in the world of fashion and art for the past 25 years. She started her career in fashion as the Director of Public Relations for Polo Ralph Lauren in Italy and quickly moved on to launch two fashion companies, Pratico, a sportswear line for women, and Mago, a cashmere knitwear collection of her own design. Her first book was accompanied by her directorial debut of the documentary of the same name, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012). The film about the editor of Harper's Bazaar had its European premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, going on to win the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival and the fashion category for the Design of the Year awards, otherwise known as “The Oscars” of design—at the Design Museum in London.
"Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict" is Lisa Immordino Vreeland's followup to her acclaimed debut, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". She is now working on her third doc on Cecil Beaton who Lisa says, "has been circling around all these stories. What's great about him is the creativity: fashion photography, war photography, "My Fair Lady" winning an Oscar."
Sydney Levine: I have read numerous accounts and interviews with you about this film and rather than repeat all that has been said, I refer my readers to Indiewire's Women and Hollywood interview at Tribeca this year, and your Indiewire interview with Aubrey Page, November 6, 2015 .
Let's try to cover new territory here.
First of all, what about you? What is your relationship to Diana Vreeland?
Liv: I am married to her grandson, Alexander Vreeland. (I'm also proud of my name Immordino) I never met Diana but hearing so many family stories about her made me start to wonder about all the talk about her. I worked in fashion and lived in New York like she did.
Sl: In one of your interviews you said that Peggy was not only ahead of her time but she helped to define it. Can you tell me how?
Liv: Peggy grew up in a very traditional family of German Bavarian Jews who had moved to New York City in the 19th century. Already at a young age Peggy felt like there were too many rules around her and she wanted to break out. That alone was something attractive to me — the notion that she knew that she didn't fit in to her family or her times. She lived on her own terms, a very modern approach to life. She decided to abandon her family in New York. Though she always stayed connected to them, she rarely visited New York. Instead she lived in a world without borders. She did not live by "the rules". She believed in creating art and created herself, living on her own terms and not on those of her family.
Sl: Is there a link between her and your previous doc on Diana Vreeland?
Liv: The link between Vreeland and Guggenheim is their mutual sense of reinvention and transformation. That made something click inside of me as I too reinvented myself when I began writing the book on Diana Vreeland .
Can you talk about the process of putting this one together and how it differed from its predecessor?
Liv: The most challenging thing about this one was the vast amount of material we had at our disposal. We had a lot of media to go through — instead of fashion spreads, which informed The Eye Has To Travel, we had art, which was fantastic. I was spoiled by the access we had to these incredible archives and footage. I'm still new to this, but it's the storytelling aspect that I loved in both projects. One thing about Peggy that Mrs. Vreeland didn't have was a very tragic personal life. There was so much that happened in Peggy's life before you even got to what she actually accomplished. And so we had to tell a very dense story about her childhood, her father dying on the Titanic, her beloved sister dying — the tragic events that fundamentally shaped her in a way. It was about making sure we had enough of the personal story to go along with her later accomplishments.
World War II alone was such a huge part of her story, opening an important art gallery in London, where she showed Kandinsky and other important artists for the first time. The amount of material to distill was a tremendous challenge and I hope we made the right choices.
Sl: How did you learn make a documentary?
Liv: I learned how to make a documentary by having a good team around me. My editors (and co-writers)Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng were very helpful.
Research is fundamental; finding as much as you can and never giving up. I love the research. It is my "precise time". Not just for interviews but of footage, photographs never seen before. It is a painstaking process that satisfies me. The research never ends. I was still researching while I was promoting the Diana Vreeland book. I love reading books and going to original sources.
The archives in film museums in the last ten years has changed and given museums a new role. I found unique footage at Moma with the Elizabeth Chapman Films. Chapman went to Paris in the 30s and 40s with a handheld camera and took moving pictures of Brancusi and Duchamps joking around in a studio, Gertrude Stein, Leger walking down the street. This footage is owned by Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art. In fact he is taking a sabbatical this year to go through the boxes and boxes of Chapman's films. We also used " Entre'acte" by René Clair cowritten with Dadaist Francis Picabia, "Le Sang du poet" of Cocteau, Hans Richter "8x8","Gagascope" and " Dreams That Money Can Buy" produced by Peggy Guggenheim, written by Man Ray in 1947.
Sl: How long did it take to research and make the film?
Liv: It took three years for both the Vreeland and the Guggenheim documentary.
It was more difficult with the Guggenheim story because there was so much material and so much to tell of her life. And she was not so giving of her own self. Diana could inspire you about a bandaid; she was so giving. But Peggy didn't talk much about why she loved an artist or a painting. She acted more. And using historical material could become "over-teaching" though it was fascinating.
So much had to be eliminated. It was hard to eliminate the Degenerate Art Show, a subject which is newly discussed. Stephanie Barron of Lacma is an expert on Degenerate Art and was so generous.
Once we decided upon which aspects to focus on, then we could give focus to the interviews.
There were so many of her important shows we could not include. For instance there was a show on collages featuring William Baziotes , Jackson Pollack and Robert Motherwell which started a more modern collage trend in art. The 31 Women Art Show which we did include pushed forward another message which I think is important.
And so many different things have been written about Peggy — there were hundreds of articles written about her during her lifetime. She also kept beautiful scrapbooks of articles written about her, which are now in the archives of the Guggenheim Museum.
The Guggenheim foundation did not commission this documentary but they were very supportive and the film premiered there in New York in a wonderful celebration. They wanted to represent Peggy and her paintings properly. The paintings were secondary characters and all were carefully placed historically in a correct fashion.
Sl: You said in one interview Guggenheim became a central figure in the modern art movement?
Liv: Yes and she did it without ego. Sharing was always her purpose in collecting art. She was not out for herself. Before Peggy, the art world was very different. And today it is part of wealth management.
Other collectors had a different way with art. Isabelle Stewart Gardner bought art for her own personal consumption. The Gardner Museum came later. Gertrude Stein was sharing the vision of her brother when she began collecting art. The Coen sisters were not sharing.
Her benevolence ranged from giving Berenice Abbott the money to buy her first camera to keeping Pollock afloat during lean times.
Djuana Barnes, who had a 'Love Love Love Hate Hate Hate' relationship with Peggy wrote Nightwood in Peggy's country house in England.
She was in Paris to the last minute. She planned how to safeguard artwork from the Nazis during World War II. She was storing gasoline so she could escape. She lived on the Ile St. Louis with her art and moved the paintings out first to a children's boarding school and then to Marseilles where it was shipped out to New York City.
Her role in art was not taken seriously because of her very public love life which was described in very derogatory terms. There was more talk about her love life than about her collection of art.
Her autobiography, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict (1960) , was scandalous when it came out — and she didn't even use real names, she used pseudonyms for her numerous partners. Only after publication did she reveal the names of the men she slept with.
The fact that she spoke about her sexual life at all was the most outrageous aspect. She was opening herself up to ridicule, but she didn't care. Peggy was her own person and she felt good in her own skin. But it was definitely unconventional behavior. I think her sexual appetites revealed a lot about finding her own identity.
A lot of it was tied to the loss of her father, I think, in addition to her wanting to feel accepted. She was also very adventurous — look at the men she slept with. I mean, come on, they are amazing! Samuel Beckett, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and she married Max Ernst. I think it was really ballsy of her to have been so open about her sexuality; this was not something people did back then. So many people are bound by conventional rules but Peggy said no. She grabbed hold of life and she lived it on her own terms.
Sl: You also give Peggy credit for changing the way art was exhibited. Can you explain that?
Liv: One of her greatest achievements was her gallery space in New York City, Art of This Century, which was unlike anything the art world has seen before or since in the way that it shattered the boundaries of the gallery space that we've come to know today — the sterile white cube. She came to be a genius at displaying her collections...
She was smart with Art of the Century because she hired Frederick Kiesler as a designer of the gallery and once again surrounded herself with the right people, including Howard Putzler, who was already involved with her at Guggenheim Jeune in London. And she was hanging out with all the exiled Surrealists who were living in New York at the time, including her future husband, Max Ernst, who was the real star of that group of artists. With the help of these people, she started showing art in a completely different way that was both informal and approachable. In conventional museums and galleries, art was untouchable on the wall and inside frames. In Peggy's gallery, art stuck out from the walls; works weren't confined to frames. Kiesler designed special chairs you could sit in and browse canvases as you would texts in a library. Nothing like this had ever existed in New York before — even today there is nothing like it.
She made the gallery into an exciting place where the whole concept of space was transformed. In Venice, the gallery space was also her home. Today, for a variety of reasons, the home aspect of the collection is less emphasized, though you still get a strong sense of Peggy's home life there. She was bringing art to the public in a bold new way, which I think is a great idea. It's art for everybody, which is very much a part of today's dialogue except that fewer people can afford the outlandish museum entry fees.
Sl: What do you think made her so prescient and attuned ?
Liv: She was smart enough to ask Marcel Duchamp to be her advisor — so she was in tune, and very well connected. She was on the cutting edge of what was going on and I think a lot of this had to do with Peggy being open to the idea of what was new and outrageous. You have to have a certain personality for this; what her childhood had dictated was totally opposite from what she became in life, and being in the right place at the right time helped her maintain a cutting edge throughout her life.
Sl: The movie is framed around a lost interview with Peggy conducted late in her life. How did you acquire these tapes?
Liv: We optioned Jacqueline Bogard Weld’s book, Peggy : The Wayward Guggenheim, the only authorized biography of Peggy, which was published after she died. Jackie had spent two summers interviewing Peggy but at a certain point lost the tapes somewhere in her Park Avenue apartment. Jackie had so much access to Peggy, which was incredible, but it was also the access that she had to other people who had known Peggy — she interviewed over 200 people for her book. Jackie was incredibly generous, letting me go through all her original research except for the lost tapes.
We'd walk into different rooms in her apartment and I'd suggestively open a closet door and ask “Where do you think those tapes might be?" Then one day I asked if she had a basement, and she did. So I went through all these boxes down there, organizing her affairs. Then bingo, the tapes showed up in this shoebox.
It was the longest interview Peggy had ever done and it became the framework for our movie. There's nothing more powerful than when you have someone's real voice telling the story, and Jackie was especially good at asking provoking questions. You can tell it was hard for Peggy to answer a lot of them, because she wasn't someone who was especially expressive; she didn't have a lot of emotion. And this comes across in the movie, in the tone of her voice.
Sl: Larry Gagosian has one of the best descriptions of Peggy in the movie — "she was her own creation." Would you agree, and if so why?
Liv: She was very much her own creation. When he said that in the interview I had a huge smile on my face. In Peggy's case it stemmed from a real need to identify and understand herself. I'm not sure she achieved it but she completely recreated herself — she knew that she did not want to be what she was brought up to be. She tried being a mother, but that was not one of her strengths, so art became that place where she could find herself, and then transform herself.
Nobody believed in the artists she cultivated and supported — they were outsiders and she was an outsider in the world she was brought up in. So it's in this way that she became her own great invention. I hope that her humor comes across in the film because she was extremely amusing — this aspect really comes across in her autobiography.
Sl: Finally, what do you think is Peggy Guggenheim's most lasting legacy, beyond her incredible art collection?
Liv: Her courage, and the way she used it to find herself. She had this ballsiness that not many people had, especially women. In her own way she was a feminist and it's good for women and young girls today to see women who stepped outside the confines of a very traditional family and made something of her life. Peggy's life did not seem that dreamy until she attached herself to these artists. It was her ability to redefine herself in the end that truly summed her up.
About the Filmmakers
Stanley Buchtal is a producer and entrepreneur. His movies credits include "Hairspray", "Spanking the Monkey", "Up at the Villa", "Lou Reed Berlin", "Love Marilyn", "LennoNYC", "Bobby Fischer Against the World", "Herb & Dorothy", "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child", "Sketches of Frank Gehry", "Black White + Gray: a Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe", among numerous others.
David Koh is an independent producer, distributor, sales agent, programmer and curator. He has been involved in the distribution, sale, production, and financing of over 200 films. He is currently a partner in the boutique label Submarine Entertainment with Josh and Dan Braun and is also partners with Stanley Buchthal and his Dakota Group Ltd where he co-manages a portfolio of over 50 projects a year (75% docs and 25% fiction). Previously he was a partner and founder of Arthouse Films a boutique distribution imprint and ran Chris Blackwell's (founder of Island Records & Island Pictures) film label, Palm Pictures. He has worked as a Producer for artist Nam June Paik and worked in the curatorial departments of Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, Mfa Boston, and the Guggenheim Museum. David has recently served as a Curator for Microsoft and has curated an ongoing film series and salon with Andre Balazs Properties and serves as a Curator for the exclusive Core Club in NYC.
David recently launched with his partners Submarine Deluxe, a distribution imprint; Torpedo Pictures, a low budget high concept label; and Nfp Submarine Doks, a German distribution imprint with Nfp Films. Recently and upcoming projects include "Yayoi Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots", "Burden: a Portrait of Artist Chris Burden", "Dior and I", "20 Feet From Stardom", "Muscle Shoals", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Rats NYC", "Nas: Time Is Illmatic", "Blackfish", "Love Marilyn", "Chasing Ice", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Cutie and the Boxer"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Wolfpack, "Meru", and "Station to Station".
Dan Braun is a producer, writer, art director and musician/composer based in NYC. He is the Co-President of and Co-Founder of Submarine, a NYC film sales and production company specializing in independent feature and documentary films. Titles include "Blackfish", "Finding Vivian Maier", "Muscle Shoals", "The Case Against 8", "Keep On Keepin’ On", "Winter’s Bone", "Nas: Time is Illmatic", "Dior and I" and Oscar winning docs "Man on Wire", "Searching for Sugarman", "20 Ft From Stardom" and "Citizenfour". He was Executive Producer on documentaries "Kill Your Idols", (which won Best NY Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival 2004), "Blank City", "Sunshine Superman", the upcoming feature adaptations of "Batkid Begins" and "The Battered Bastards of Baseball" and the upcoming horror TV anthology "Creepy" to be directed by Chris Columbus.
He is a producer of the free jazz documentary "Fire Music", and the upcoming documentaries, "Burden" on artist Chris Burden and "Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots" on artist Yayoi Kusama. He is also a writer and consulting editor on Dark Horse Comic’s "Creepy" and "Eerie 9" comic book and archival series for which he won an Eisner Award for best archival comic book series in 2009.
He is a musician/composer whose compositions were featured in the films "I Melt With You" and "Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Radiant Child and is an award winning art director/creative director when he worked at Tbwa/Chiat/Day on the famous Absolut Vodka campaign.
John Northrup (Co-Producer) began his career in documentaries as a French translator for National Geographic: Explorer. He quickly moved into editing and producing, serving as the Associate Producer on "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012), and editing and co-producing "Wilson In Situ" (2014), which tells the story of theatre legend Robert Wilson and his Watermill Center. Most recently, he oversaw the post-production of Jim Chambers’ "Onward Christian Soldier", a documentary about Olympic Bomber Eric Rudolph, and is shooting on Susanne Rostock’s "Another Night in the Free World", the follow-up to her award-winning "Sing Your Song" (2011).
Submarine Entertainment (Production Company) Submarine Entertainment is a hybrid sales, production, and distribution company based in N.Y. Recent and upcoming titles include "Citizenfour", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Dog", "Visitors", "20 Feet from Stardom", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Muscle Shoals", "Blackfish", "Cutie and the Boxer", "The Summit", "The Unknown Known", "Love Marilyn", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Chasing Ice", "Downtown 81 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Wild Style 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Good Ol Freda", "Some Velvet Morning", among numerous others. Submarine principals also represent Creepy and Eerie comic book library and are developing properties across film & TV platforms.
Submarine has also recently launched a domestic distribution imprint and label called Submarine Deluxe; a genre label called Torpedo Pictures; and a German imprint and label called Nfp Submarine Doks.
Bernadine Colish has edited a number of award-winning documentaries. "Herb and Dorothy" (2008), won Audience Awards at Silverdocs, Philadelphia and Hamptons Film Festivals, and "Body of War" (2007), was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. "A Touch of Greatness" (2004) aired on PBS Independent Lens and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Her career began at Maysles Films, where she worked with Charlotte Zwerin on such projects as "Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser", "Toru Takemitsu: Music for the Movies" and the PBS American Masters documentary, "Ella Fitzgerald: Something To Live For". Additional credits include "Bringing Tibet Home", "Band of Sisters", "Rise and Dream", "The Tiger Next Door", "The Buffalo War" and "Absolute Wilson".
Jed Parker (Editor) Jed Parker began his career in feature films before moving into documentaries through his work with the award-winning American Masters series. Credits include "Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart", "Annie Liebovitz: Life Through a Lens", and most recently "Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides".
Other work includes two episodes of the PBS series "Make ‘Em Laugh", hosted by Billy Crystal, as well as a documentary on Met Curator Henry Geldzahler entitled "Who Gets to Call it Art"?
Credits
Director, Writer, Producer: Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Produced by Stanley Buchthal, David Koh and Dan Braun Stanley Buchthal (producer)
Maja Hoffmann (executive producer)
Josh Braun (executive producer)
Bob Benton (executive producer)
John Northrup (co-producer)
Bernadine Colish (editor)
Jed Parker (editor)
Peter Trilling (director of photography)
Bonnie Greenberg (executive music producer)
Music by J. Ralph
Original Song "Once Again" Written and Performed By J. Ralph
Interviews Featuring Artist Marina Abramović Jean Arp Dore Ashton Samuel Beckett Stephanie Barron Constantin Brâncuși Diego Cortez Alexander Calder Susan Davidson Joseph Cornell Robert De Niro Salvador Dalí Simon de Pury Willem de Kooning Jeffrey Deitch Marcel Duchamp Polly Devlin Max Ernst Larry Gagosian Alberto Giacometti Arne Glimcher Vasily Kandinsky Michael Govan Fernand Léger Nicky Haslam Joan Miró Pepe Karmel Piet Mondrian Donald Kuspit Robert Motherwell Dominique Lévy Jackson Pollock Carlo McCormick Mark Rothko Hans Ulrich Obrist Yves Tanguy Lisa Phillips Lindsay Pollock Francine Prose John Richardson Sandy Rower Mercedes Ruehl Jane Rylands Philip Rylands Calvin Tomkins Karole Vail Jacqueline Bograd Weld Edmund White
Running time: 97 minutes
U.S. distribution by Submarine Deluxe
International sales by Hanway...
Her colorful personal history included such figures as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp and countless others. Guggenheim helped introduce the world to Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko and scores of others now recognized as key masters of modernism.
In 1921 she moved to Paris and mingled with Picasso, Dali, Joyce, Pound, Stein, Leger, Kandinsky. In 1938 she opened a gallery in London and began showing Cocteau, Tanguy, Magritte, Miro, Brancusi, etc., and then back to Paris and New York after the Nazi invasion, followed by the opening of her NYC gallery Art of This Century, which became one of the premiere avant-garde spaces in the U.S. While fighting through personal tragedy, she maintained her vision to build one of the most important collections of modern art, now enshrined in her Venetian palazzo where she moved in 1947. Since 1951, her collection has become one of the world’s most visited art spaces.
Featuring: Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Vasil Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Fernand Leger, Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Jean Miro, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Kurt Schwitters, Gino Severini, Clyfford Still and Yves Tanguy.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Director and Producer)
Lisa Immordino Vreeland has been immersed in the world of fashion and art for the past 25 years. She started her career in fashion as the Director of Public Relations for Polo Ralph Lauren in Italy and quickly moved on to launch two fashion companies, Pratico, a sportswear line for women, and Mago, a cashmere knitwear collection of her own design. Her first book was accompanied by her directorial debut of the documentary of the same name, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012). The film about the editor of Harper's Bazaar had its European premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, going on to win the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival and the fashion category for the Design of the Year awards, otherwise known as “The Oscars” of design—at the Design Museum in London.
"Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict" is Lisa Immordino Vreeland's followup to her acclaimed debut, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". She is now working on her third doc on Cecil Beaton who Lisa says, "has been circling around all these stories. What's great about him is the creativity: fashion photography, war photography, "My Fair Lady" winning an Oscar."
Sydney Levine: I have read numerous accounts and interviews with you about this film and rather than repeat all that has been said, I refer my readers to Indiewire's Women and Hollywood interview at Tribeca this year, and your Indiewire interview with Aubrey Page, November 6, 2015 .
Let's try to cover new territory here.
First of all, what about you? What is your relationship to Diana Vreeland?
Liv: I am married to her grandson, Alexander Vreeland. (I'm also proud of my name Immordino) I never met Diana but hearing so many family stories about her made me start to wonder about all the talk about her. I worked in fashion and lived in New York like she did.
Sl: In one of your interviews you said that Peggy was not only ahead of her time but she helped to define it. Can you tell me how?
Liv: Peggy grew up in a very traditional family of German Bavarian Jews who had moved to New York City in the 19th century. Already at a young age Peggy felt like there were too many rules around her and she wanted to break out. That alone was something attractive to me — the notion that she knew that she didn't fit in to her family or her times. She lived on her own terms, a very modern approach to life. She decided to abandon her family in New York. Though she always stayed connected to them, she rarely visited New York. Instead she lived in a world without borders. She did not live by "the rules". She believed in creating art and created herself, living on her own terms and not on those of her family.
Sl: Is there a link between her and your previous doc on Diana Vreeland?
Liv: The link between Vreeland and Guggenheim is their mutual sense of reinvention and transformation. That made something click inside of me as I too reinvented myself when I began writing the book on Diana Vreeland .
Can you talk about the process of putting this one together and how it differed from its predecessor?
Liv: The most challenging thing about this one was the vast amount of material we had at our disposal. We had a lot of media to go through — instead of fashion spreads, which informed The Eye Has To Travel, we had art, which was fantastic. I was spoiled by the access we had to these incredible archives and footage. I'm still new to this, but it's the storytelling aspect that I loved in both projects. One thing about Peggy that Mrs. Vreeland didn't have was a very tragic personal life. There was so much that happened in Peggy's life before you even got to what she actually accomplished. And so we had to tell a very dense story about her childhood, her father dying on the Titanic, her beloved sister dying — the tragic events that fundamentally shaped her in a way. It was about making sure we had enough of the personal story to go along with her later accomplishments.
World War II alone was such a huge part of her story, opening an important art gallery in London, where she showed Kandinsky and other important artists for the first time. The amount of material to distill was a tremendous challenge and I hope we made the right choices.
Sl: How did you learn make a documentary?
Liv: I learned how to make a documentary by having a good team around me. My editors (and co-writers)Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng were very helpful.
Research is fundamental; finding as much as you can and never giving up. I love the research. It is my "precise time". Not just for interviews but of footage, photographs never seen before. It is a painstaking process that satisfies me. The research never ends. I was still researching while I was promoting the Diana Vreeland book. I love reading books and going to original sources.
The archives in film museums in the last ten years has changed and given museums a new role. I found unique footage at Moma with the Elizabeth Chapman Films. Chapman went to Paris in the 30s and 40s with a handheld camera and took moving pictures of Brancusi and Duchamps joking around in a studio, Gertrude Stein, Leger walking down the street. This footage is owned by Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art. In fact he is taking a sabbatical this year to go through the boxes and boxes of Chapman's films. We also used " Entre'acte" by René Clair cowritten with Dadaist Francis Picabia, "Le Sang du poet" of Cocteau, Hans Richter "8x8","Gagascope" and " Dreams That Money Can Buy" produced by Peggy Guggenheim, written by Man Ray in 1947.
Sl: How long did it take to research and make the film?
Liv: It took three years for both the Vreeland and the Guggenheim documentary.
It was more difficult with the Guggenheim story because there was so much material and so much to tell of her life. And she was not so giving of her own self. Diana could inspire you about a bandaid; she was so giving. But Peggy didn't talk much about why she loved an artist or a painting. She acted more. And using historical material could become "over-teaching" though it was fascinating.
So much had to be eliminated. It was hard to eliminate the Degenerate Art Show, a subject which is newly discussed. Stephanie Barron of Lacma is an expert on Degenerate Art and was so generous.
Once we decided upon which aspects to focus on, then we could give focus to the interviews.
There were so many of her important shows we could not include. For instance there was a show on collages featuring William Baziotes , Jackson Pollack and Robert Motherwell which started a more modern collage trend in art. The 31 Women Art Show which we did include pushed forward another message which I think is important.
And so many different things have been written about Peggy — there were hundreds of articles written about her during her lifetime. She also kept beautiful scrapbooks of articles written about her, which are now in the archives of the Guggenheim Museum.
The Guggenheim foundation did not commission this documentary but they were very supportive and the film premiered there in New York in a wonderful celebration. They wanted to represent Peggy and her paintings properly. The paintings were secondary characters and all were carefully placed historically in a correct fashion.
Sl: You said in one interview Guggenheim became a central figure in the modern art movement?
Liv: Yes and she did it without ego. Sharing was always her purpose in collecting art. She was not out for herself. Before Peggy, the art world was very different. And today it is part of wealth management.
Other collectors had a different way with art. Isabelle Stewart Gardner bought art for her own personal consumption. The Gardner Museum came later. Gertrude Stein was sharing the vision of her brother when she began collecting art. The Coen sisters were not sharing.
Her benevolence ranged from giving Berenice Abbott the money to buy her first camera to keeping Pollock afloat during lean times.
Djuana Barnes, who had a 'Love Love Love Hate Hate Hate' relationship with Peggy wrote Nightwood in Peggy's country house in England.
She was in Paris to the last minute. She planned how to safeguard artwork from the Nazis during World War II. She was storing gasoline so she could escape. She lived on the Ile St. Louis with her art and moved the paintings out first to a children's boarding school and then to Marseilles where it was shipped out to New York City.
Her role in art was not taken seriously because of her very public love life which was described in very derogatory terms. There was more talk about her love life than about her collection of art.
Her autobiography, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict (1960) , was scandalous when it came out — and she didn't even use real names, she used pseudonyms for her numerous partners. Only after publication did she reveal the names of the men she slept with.
The fact that she spoke about her sexual life at all was the most outrageous aspect. She was opening herself up to ridicule, but she didn't care. Peggy was her own person and she felt good in her own skin. But it was definitely unconventional behavior. I think her sexual appetites revealed a lot about finding her own identity.
A lot of it was tied to the loss of her father, I think, in addition to her wanting to feel accepted. She was also very adventurous — look at the men she slept with. I mean, come on, they are amazing! Samuel Beckett, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and she married Max Ernst. I think it was really ballsy of her to have been so open about her sexuality; this was not something people did back then. So many people are bound by conventional rules but Peggy said no. She grabbed hold of life and she lived it on her own terms.
Sl: You also give Peggy credit for changing the way art was exhibited. Can you explain that?
Liv: One of her greatest achievements was her gallery space in New York City, Art of This Century, which was unlike anything the art world has seen before or since in the way that it shattered the boundaries of the gallery space that we've come to know today — the sterile white cube. She came to be a genius at displaying her collections...
She was smart with Art of the Century because she hired Frederick Kiesler as a designer of the gallery and once again surrounded herself with the right people, including Howard Putzler, who was already involved with her at Guggenheim Jeune in London. And she was hanging out with all the exiled Surrealists who were living in New York at the time, including her future husband, Max Ernst, who was the real star of that group of artists. With the help of these people, she started showing art in a completely different way that was both informal and approachable. In conventional museums and galleries, art was untouchable on the wall and inside frames. In Peggy's gallery, art stuck out from the walls; works weren't confined to frames. Kiesler designed special chairs you could sit in and browse canvases as you would texts in a library. Nothing like this had ever existed in New York before — even today there is nothing like it.
She made the gallery into an exciting place where the whole concept of space was transformed. In Venice, the gallery space was also her home. Today, for a variety of reasons, the home aspect of the collection is less emphasized, though you still get a strong sense of Peggy's home life there. She was bringing art to the public in a bold new way, which I think is a great idea. It's art for everybody, which is very much a part of today's dialogue except that fewer people can afford the outlandish museum entry fees.
Sl: What do you think made her so prescient and attuned ?
Liv: She was smart enough to ask Marcel Duchamp to be her advisor — so she was in tune, and very well connected. She was on the cutting edge of what was going on and I think a lot of this had to do with Peggy being open to the idea of what was new and outrageous. You have to have a certain personality for this; what her childhood had dictated was totally opposite from what she became in life, and being in the right place at the right time helped her maintain a cutting edge throughout her life.
Sl: The movie is framed around a lost interview with Peggy conducted late in her life. How did you acquire these tapes?
Liv: We optioned Jacqueline Bogard Weld’s book, Peggy : The Wayward Guggenheim, the only authorized biography of Peggy, which was published after she died. Jackie had spent two summers interviewing Peggy but at a certain point lost the tapes somewhere in her Park Avenue apartment. Jackie had so much access to Peggy, which was incredible, but it was also the access that she had to other people who had known Peggy — she interviewed over 200 people for her book. Jackie was incredibly generous, letting me go through all her original research except for the lost tapes.
We'd walk into different rooms in her apartment and I'd suggestively open a closet door and ask “Where do you think those tapes might be?" Then one day I asked if she had a basement, and she did. So I went through all these boxes down there, organizing her affairs. Then bingo, the tapes showed up in this shoebox.
It was the longest interview Peggy had ever done and it became the framework for our movie. There's nothing more powerful than when you have someone's real voice telling the story, and Jackie was especially good at asking provoking questions. You can tell it was hard for Peggy to answer a lot of them, because she wasn't someone who was especially expressive; she didn't have a lot of emotion. And this comes across in the movie, in the tone of her voice.
Sl: Larry Gagosian has one of the best descriptions of Peggy in the movie — "she was her own creation." Would you agree, and if so why?
Liv: She was very much her own creation. When he said that in the interview I had a huge smile on my face. In Peggy's case it stemmed from a real need to identify and understand herself. I'm not sure she achieved it but she completely recreated herself — she knew that she did not want to be what she was brought up to be. She tried being a mother, but that was not one of her strengths, so art became that place where she could find herself, and then transform herself.
Nobody believed in the artists she cultivated and supported — they were outsiders and she was an outsider in the world she was brought up in. So it's in this way that she became her own great invention. I hope that her humor comes across in the film because she was extremely amusing — this aspect really comes across in her autobiography.
Sl: Finally, what do you think is Peggy Guggenheim's most lasting legacy, beyond her incredible art collection?
Liv: Her courage, and the way she used it to find herself. She had this ballsiness that not many people had, especially women. In her own way she was a feminist and it's good for women and young girls today to see women who stepped outside the confines of a very traditional family and made something of her life. Peggy's life did not seem that dreamy until she attached herself to these artists. It was her ability to redefine herself in the end that truly summed her up.
About the Filmmakers
Stanley Buchtal is a producer and entrepreneur. His movies credits include "Hairspray", "Spanking the Monkey", "Up at the Villa", "Lou Reed Berlin", "Love Marilyn", "LennoNYC", "Bobby Fischer Against the World", "Herb & Dorothy", "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child", "Sketches of Frank Gehry", "Black White + Gray: a Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe", among numerous others.
David Koh is an independent producer, distributor, sales agent, programmer and curator. He has been involved in the distribution, sale, production, and financing of over 200 films. He is currently a partner in the boutique label Submarine Entertainment with Josh and Dan Braun and is also partners with Stanley Buchthal and his Dakota Group Ltd where he co-manages a portfolio of over 50 projects a year (75% docs and 25% fiction). Previously he was a partner and founder of Arthouse Films a boutique distribution imprint and ran Chris Blackwell's (founder of Island Records & Island Pictures) film label, Palm Pictures. He has worked as a Producer for artist Nam June Paik and worked in the curatorial departments of Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, Mfa Boston, and the Guggenheim Museum. David has recently served as a Curator for Microsoft and has curated an ongoing film series and salon with Andre Balazs Properties and serves as a Curator for the exclusive Core Club in NYC.
David recently launched with his partners Submarine Deluxe, a distribution imprint; Torpedo Pictures, a low budget high concept label; and Nfp Submarine Doks, a German distribution imprint with Nfp Films. Recently and upcoming projects include "Yayoi Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots", "Burden: a Portrait of Artist Chris Burden", "Dior and I", "20 Feet From Stardom", "Muscle Shoals", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Rats NYC", "Nas: Time Is Illmatic", "Blackfish", "Love Marilyn", "Chasing Ice", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Cutie and the Boxer"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Wolfpack, "Meru", and "Station to Station".
Dan Braun is a producer, writer, art director and musician/composer based in NYC. He is the Co-President of and Co-Founder of Submarine, a NYC film sales and production company specializing in independent feature and documentary films. Titles include "Blackfish", "Finding Vivian Maier", "Muscle Shoals", "The Case Against 8", "Keep On Keepin’ On", "Winter’s Bone", "Nas: Time is Illmatic", "Dior and I" and Oscar winning docs "Man on Wire", "Searching for Sugarman", "20 Ft From Stardom" and "Citizenfour". He was Executive Producer on documentaries "Kill Your Idols", (which won Best NY Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival 2004), "Blank City", "Sunshine Superman", the upcoming feature adaptations of "Batkid Begins" and "The Battered Bastards of Baseball" and the upcoming horror TV anthology "Creepy" to be directed by Chris Columbus.
He is a producer of the free jazz documentary "Fire Music", and the upcoming documentaries, "Burden" on artist Chris Burden and "Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots" on artist Yayoi Kusama. He is also a writer and consulting editor on Dark Horse Comic’s "Creepy" and "Eerie 9" comic book and archival series for which he won an Eisner Award for best archival comic book series in 2009.
He is a musician/composer whose compositions were featured in the films "I Melt With You" and "Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Radiant Child and is an award winning art director/creative director when he worked at Tbwa/Chiat/Day on the famous Absolut Vodka campaign.
John Northrup (Co-Producer) began his career in documentaries as a French translator for National Geographic: Explorer. He quickly moved into editing and producing, serving as the Associate Producer on "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012), and editing and co-producing "Wilson In Situ" (2014), which tells the story of theatre legend Robert Wilson and his Watermill Center. Most recently, he oversaw the post-production of Jim Chambers’ "Onward Christian Soldier", a documentary about Olympic Bomber Eric Rudolph, and is shooting on Susanne Rostock’s "Another Night in the Free World", the follow-up to her award-winning "Sing Your Song" (2011).
Submarine Entertainment (Production Company) Submarine Entertainment is a hybrid sales, production, and distribution company based in N.Y. Recent and upcoming titles include "Citizenfour", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Dog", "Visitors", "20 Feet from Stardom", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Muscle Shoals", "Blackfish", "Cutie and the Boxer", "The Summit", "The Unknown Known", "Love Marilyn", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Chasing Ice", "Downtown 81 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Wild Style 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Good Ol Freda", "Some Velvet Morning", among numerous others. Submarine principals also represent Creepy and Eerie comic book library and are developing properties across film & TV platforms.
Submarine has also recently launched a domestic distribution imprint and label called Submarine Deluxe; a genre label called Torpedo Pictures; and a German imprint and label called Nfp Submarine Doks.
Bernadine Colish has edited a number of award-winning documentaries. "Herb and Dorothy" (2008), won Audience Awards at Silverdocs, Philadelphia and Hamptons Film Festivals, and "Body of War" (2007), was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. "A Touch of Greatness" (2004) aired on PBS Independent Lens and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Her career began at Maysles Films, where she worked with Charlotte Zwerin on such projects as "Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser", "Toru Takemitsu: Music for the Movies" and the PBS American Masters documentary, "Ella Fitzgerald: Something To Live For". Additional credits include "Bringing Tibet Home", "Band of Sisters", "Rise and Dream", "The Tiger Next Door", "The Buffalo War" and "Absolute Wilson".
Jed Parker (Editor) Jed Parker began his career in feature films before moving into documentaries through his work with the award-winning American Masters series. Credits include "Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart", "Annie Liebovitz: Life Through a Lens", and most recently "Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides".
Other work includes two episodes of the PBS series "Make ‘Em Laugh", hosted by Billy Crystal, as well as a documentary on Met Curator Henry Geldzahler entitled "Who Gets to Call it Art"?
Credits
Director, Writer, Producer: Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Produced by Stanley Buchthal, David Koh and Dan Braun Stanley Buchthal (producer)
Maja Hoffmann (executive producer)
Josh Braun (executive producer)
Bob Benton (executive producer)
John Northrup (co-producer)
Bernadine Colish (editor)
Jed Parker (editor)
Peter Trilling (director of photography)
Bonnie Greenberg (executive music producer)
Music by J. Ralph
Original Song "Once Again" Written and Performed By J. Ralph
Interviews Featuring Artist Marina Abramović Jean Arp Dore Ashton Samuel Beckett Stephanie Barron Constantin Brâncuși Diego Cortez Alexander Calder Susan Davidson Joseph Cornell Robert De Niro Salvador Dalí Simon de Pury Willem de Kooning Jeffrey Deitch Marcel Duchamp Polly Devlin Max Ernst Larry Gagosian Alberto Giacometti Arne Glimcher Vasily Kandinsky Michael Govan Fernand Léger Nicky Haslam Joan Miró Pepe Karmel Piet Mondrian Donald Kuspit Robert Motherwell Dominique Lévy Jackson Pollock Carlo McCormick Mark Rothko Hans Ulrich Obrist Yves Tanguy Lisa Phillips Lindsay Pollock Francine Prose John Richardson Sandy Rower Mercedes Ruehl Jane Rylands Philip Rylands Calvin Tomkins Karole Vail Jacqueline Bograd Weld Edmund White
Running time: 97 minutes
U.S. distribution by Submarine Deluxe
International sales by Hanway...
- 11/18/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
What single person could, when a documentary about their life is made, see as wide a net cast for interview subjects as to include names like art dealer Larry Gagosian and actor Robert De Niro? This person would undoubtedly be at the height of their respective field, and a voice in that field whose repercussions are still being felt to this day. And thankfully, folllowing up her personal 2011 film, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, director Lisa Immordino Vreeland has found that subject for her newest feature.
Entitled Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, Vreeland tells the tale of the titular art world icon. A child of wealthy immigrant parents, Guggenheim (yes, part of that Guggenheim lineage) inherited a great fortune from her family, only to use it in part to help her float through the greatest artistic movements of the twentieth century. Close friends with and critical champion of legendary...
Entitled Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, Vreeland tells the tale of the titular art world icon. A child of wealthy immigrant parents, Guggenheim (yes, part of that Guggenheim lineage) inherited a great fortune from her family, only to use it in part to help her float through the greatest artistic movements of the twentieth century. Close friends with and critical champion of legendary...
- 11/14/2015
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Following "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel," which chronicled the life of the famed fashion director of Harper's Bazaar, filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland is back with another illuminating documentary about singular creativity and passion in the art world, this time focusing on one of the most famous art patrons. "Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict" is an intimate portrait of the woman whose passion for art and life helped to create one of the most immense and respected art collections in the world. Guggenheim's undying support for fledgling artists like Jackson Pollack gave rise to some of the most important American artists and artworks of the 20th century. Read More: Meet the 2015 Tribeca Filmmaker #37: Profile of the Ultimate Art Patron in 'Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict' Indiewire sat down with the Vreeland to discuss Guggenheim's legacy, her dark past and her love for the finer (and sexier) things of life.
- 11/6/2015
- by Aubrey Page
- Indiewire
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.