Chris & Don. A Love Story (2007)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Directors:

Tina Mascara
Guido Santi

Release Date:

13 June 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | Romance

Tagline:

No one believed they could last so long...

Plot:

The love story between British writer, Christopher Isherwood (whose book 'The Berlin Stories' inspired the musical and film Cabaret) and Don Bachardy, American portrait artist.

Plot Keywords:

Art | Love | Portrait | Writer | Painting

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

W.H. Auden	...	Himself (archive footage)
Don Bachardy	...	Himself - Narrator (voice)
Ted Bachardy	...	Himself
James Berg	...	Himself (as Jim Berg)
John Boorman	...	Himself
Paul Bowles	...	Himself (archive footage)
Katherine Bucknell	...	Herself
Leslie Caron	...	Herself
Eduardo Correia	...	Ahmed
E.M. Forster	...	Himself (archive footage)
Chris Freman	...	Himself
Charlie Gordon	...	First Dinner Guest
Kenneth Grimes	...	Paul Bowles (as Ken Grimes)
Sara S. Hodson	...	Herself
Evelyn Hooker	...	Herself (archive footage)
Aldous Huxley	...	Himself (archive footage)
Christopher Isherwood	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dan Kael	...	Model
Matt Kelling	...	Ted Bachardy
Burt Lancaster	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jack Larson	...	Himself
Herbert Lom	...	Himself
Anna Magnani	...	Herself (archive footage)
Mike Makepeace	...	Model
James Malloy	...	Second Dinner Guest (as Jim Malloy)
W. Somerset Maugham	...	Himself (archive footage)
Liza Minnelli	...	Herself
Christopher Murray	...	Himself
Michael Norwood	...	Don Bachardy
Marisa Pavan	...	Herself
Swami Prabhavananda	...	Himself (archive footage)
Shayn Scott	...	Christopher Isherwood
Dodie Smith	...	Herself (archive footage)
Igor Stravinsky	...	Himself (archive footage)
Gloria Stuart	...	Herself
James White	...	Himself (as James P. White)
Tennessee Williams	...	Himself (archive footage)
Stefan Wills	...	Model
Michael York	...	Himself - Narrator

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Company:

Asphalt Stars Productions

Movie Connections:

Features Anders als die Andern (1919)

Touching story of a thirty-year relationship that outlasted many Hollywood unions...

I stumbled upon this documentary on the Sundance Channel and the name Don Bachardy sounded familiar to me so I began watching. Then I realized that he was the artist who authored a book called "Stars In His Eyes" that dealt with many famous film personalities that posed for him. Each actor/actress had their portrait sketched and he wrote interesting details about the experience of setting up these meetings and how the sittings went.

So I watched, and discovered that he was Christopher Irsherwood's lover since he was a youth, meeting the writer when he was an unformed adolescent and quickly becoming his lifelong companion. It's a touching documentary, detailing the closeness of their relationship which began in the Hollywood of the 1950s at a time when discretion had to be uppermost in the minds of anyone contemplating a same sex relationship.

Bachardy was fascinated by the many well-known people that Irsherwood's associations included--everyone from Montgomery Clift to Julie Harris to Leslie Caron--and quickly became a part of that world when Irsherwood sponsored his education as an artist. Later, he would be doing portraits of these famous people and have his own opening at a gallery.

But the story deals mainly with the intensity of their close relationship over the years despite some difficulties due to their age difference. However, I found some of Bachardy's choices rather morbid, such as the endless fascination with sketching the dying partner during his final months, again and again.

Bachardy himself does much of the narration and ends by saying that he's reading Irsherwood's diary from the back toward the beginning because he can't wait to get to the part where they first meet.

Make of it what you will--it's all there for the viewer to ponder.