The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Directors:

Nanette Burstein
Brett Morgen

Writers:

Robert Evans (book)
Brett Morgen (adaptation)

Release Date:

7 February 2003 (Sweden)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Tagline:

The Story Of A Man Who Seduced Hollywood.

Plot:

Documentary about legendary Paramount producer Robert Evans (the film shares the same name as Evans's famous 1994 autobiography).

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | Film Making | Corporate Mogul | Movie Producer | Based On Autobiography

Awards:

3 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Robert Evans	...	Himself - Narrator (also archive footage)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eddie Albert	...	Himself (archive footage)
William Castle	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Bill Castle)
Francis Ford Coppola	...	Himself (archive footage)
Catherine Deneuve	...	Herself - Golden Globe Awards (archive footage)
Josh Evans	...	Himself - Robert's son (archive footage) (as Joshua Evans)
Errol Flynn	...	Himself (archive footage)
Ava Gardner	...	Herself (archive footage)
Ernest Hemingway	...	Himself (archive footage)
Henry Kissinger	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jack Nicholson	...	Himself (archive footage)
Tyrone Power	...	Himself (archive footage)
Roy Radin	...	Himself - Murdered acquaintance of Evans (archive footage)
Irving Thalberg	...	Himself (archive footage)
Darryl F. Zanuck	...	Himself (archive footage)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some brief violent and sexual images.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-11 (2003) (video rating) | UK:15 | Brazil:12 | Sweden:11 | USA:R | Spain:13 | Australia:M | New Zealand:M

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills Hotel & Bungalows - 9641 Sunset Blvd., Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Highway Films

Trivia:

The title comes from Darryl F. Zanuck's response to executives wanting to fire Evans from the lead role of The Sun Also Rises (1957).

Goofs:

Factual errors: The closing credits say that Evans has been at Paramount for over 35 years, "more than any other producer on the lot." However, A.C. Lyles has been with Paramount for 75 years (as of 2003), though he is no longer actively producing.

Quotes:

Robert Evans: There are three sides to every story: Your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each differently.

Movie Connections:

References The Moon Is Blue (1953)

Soundtrack:

Wild World

like Evans himself, this documentary isn't as great as it thinks it is, but it is watchable throughout

Robert Evans's book version of this documentary, The Kid Stays in the Picture, is still un-read by me. But I have read much about him from other movie books from the 70's, and so this film does illuminate certain aspects of him that I already knew- his huge ego, his drug addiction, his proclivity to lots and lots of women, and having some part in the more outstanding films of the 1970's. Sometimes with Evans himself narrating throughout two things become apparent as peculiarities that keep it from being great- 1) the filmmaker's style is rather repetitive and, aside from some flourishes of talent, isn't anything too grand for the material, and 2) the three sides to the story that Evans is quoted with at the beginning become rather blurred as one full-on nostalgia (for bad and good) comes out. What makes it captivating, however, is that Evans is the kind of guy who will be honest about being full of crap and will even call on himself for his past troubles. Rarely has one man's achievements gone neck and neck with his flaws, and let out in a filmic, grandiose style such as this.

Evans is shown to have, basically, a lot of luck as someone getting into Hollywood (as many of these stories go). He starts out as a so-so actor and tries desperately to establish himself as a producer. He becomes more apart of the development side of the pictures, and ushers through Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, and even the Godfather to an extent. As his story includes the personal side (his rise and fall in the relationship to Ali McGraw, the cocaine, the other tabloid stuff), the other side of his professional accomplishments still gears in for room. By the end, one can see that the man has gone through enough to have his rightful reputation as Paramount's longest remaining producer, and will likely hold onto his ego of being the head-cheese kind of 'creative producer' so many directors like or dread till the grave. If anything, the film is actually too short, as at 93 minutes (a brilliant Dustin Hoffman imitation over the credits included) we only get glimpses that are further expounded in the book. Therefore its already subjective viewpoint becomes even more crunched into one all-too-simple story on such an interesting case study.

The Kid Stays in the Picture, despite not being as terrific as the filmmakers might think it is by their sleek camera angles and typical interludes of montage, is as close to being as honest as it could be. Honest, in the sense that Evans doesn't hide much in his story and how his own way of speaking about it, in its deep-sounding and straight-forward Hollywood way, is what film buffs look for. He may have been and done a lot of things, but as he says at the end, "I enjoy what I do, which most people can't say that they do."