In 1988 Nick Broomfield was asked by a Tele Munich, a German production company, to document the making of a musical show by Andre Heller, ´Body & Soul`, an all-black revival of the music, dance and songs of the thirties and forties. Broomfield agreed under certain conditions (concerning money and schedule) but when he arrived in New York to start filming everything had changed: the budget had been cut down, the time frame changed, and the producers were not willing to keep any of their promises. But instead of walking out of the job Broomfield stayed on and began making a film about his desperate attempts to produce the documentary: he filmed telephone conversations, meetings and verbal fights with his producers, each of his failed attempt to get in touch with the money people, and sometimes he even followed the progress of the show. He did that with a truly sardonic and unforgiving eye - and produced one of the funniest and most revealing films I`ve ever seen about showbiz. If you always wanted to know if all that gossip about showbiz is true or if Bob Fosse was a pathetic liar, then you should see that movie: a delight!
Reviews
2 Reviews
Les Destinées
(2000)
Brave try at a follow-up to Visconti`s epics
4 July 2000
For the first time Assayas has left the contemporary Paris settings of his films and tried his hands on a period picture, set in a small village in the South, a china factory in Limoges, the Swiss Alps and on the battlefields of WW1. The film is a brave attempt to revive Luchino Visconti`s lavish epics but unfortunately lacks the Italian`s breath. The story could have easily been told in 90 minutes (instead of 180!), and even if some scenes and locations look gorgeous (especially the ballroom-scene!) and Assayas` (and cameraman Eric Gautier`s) usual trademark, the nervous camerawork, goes down well with a period picture, all that isn`t enough to hold our attention for such a long time. Nothing in this films can really surprise us, not even the beauty of Emmanuelle Beart or the acting quality of Isabelle Huppert, and as the film potters along one hopes Assayas will rapidly go contemporary again. Not really bad but definitely ways apart from the quality of his earlier films.
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