Tag Archives: Woody Allen

Ronan Farrow Publicly Slams Woody Allen Golden Globes Tribute

Posted on by

Not everyone was happy that Woody Allen received a Cecil B. Demille award at the Golden Globes last night. In fact it sparked some controversy and even Allen’s ex-wife Mia and her son, Ronan, had choice words to say about it. Allen did not attend the ceremony but Diane Keaton accepted the award for him.

Allen married his adoptive daughter with Mia Farrow, Soon-Yi, and has been with her for 12 years. Allen has been accused of abusing his daughter, Dylan (who has since changed her name), when she was seven-years-old. The allegations have been going for years and the allegations flared up in a recent Vanity Fair article. See the tweets below.

Ronan Farrow Publicly Slams Woody Allen Golden Globes Tribute

What do you think?

Famous People Who Didn’t Go To University

Posted on by

Zac GoldsmithI have a confession to make. I find the whole snobbish going to university thing stupid. If you want to actually study something or be a doctor, then obviously go and reach your potential, but one of the things I find most stupid about social pressure is that everyone should go to university. At least if they want to be middle class.

Tuition fees are now appallingly expensive, and the most annoying thing I found about the recent BBC class calculator is that they still put going to university and owning a home as an indicator of class. Even though people buying homes they could not afford was one of the factors in the recession, and a recent study said that most students would never be able to pay of the debts they had incurred.

I recently saw an interesting meme on Facebook. It said, “Modern education: creating people who are smart enough to accurately repeat what they are told and follow orders.”

You don’t have to agree with me. I know it is a controversial thing to think. However, have a look at just a few of the famous people who did not go to university.

Apple founder Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College.

TV host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres dropped out of the University of New Orleans after one semester.

The creator of Tumblr David Karp never even graduated from high school.

Walt Disney left school at 16 to join the Army. He couldn’t get in because of his age so he joined the Red Cross and left for Europe.

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard but later got an honorary degree.

Paul Thomas Anderson dropped out of NYU film school.

Zac Goldsmith MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston did not go to university, instead deciding to travel the world. He told the Financial Times: “I think university is hugely overrated for most people,” he says, insisting that a wide range of good apprenticeships is more useful than three years of light work and heavy drinking. “I would not encourage my children to go to university.”

Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to work full time on Facebook.

Yoko Ono dropped out of Sarah Lawrence College

Woody Allen was thrown out of New York University after one semester and later dropped out of the City College of New York.

James Cameron studied physics at Fullerton College. He dropped out to become a truck driver.

Thomas Edison left school to work on the railroad at the age of 12.

F. Scott Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton.

Coco Chanel dropped out of school to become a cabaret singer when she was 18.

Whole Foods founder John Mackey dropped out of the University of Texas.

Pablo Picasso dropped out of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

The founder of WordPress Matt Mullenweg dropped out of the University of Houston in 2004.

What do you think? Is going to university important?

Win A Copy of Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love

Posted on by

Packshot_5035822571334_52D633B6 2DFrost has another DVD giveaway: copies of Woody Allen’s latest film, ‘To Rome With Love’.

 

To win follow @Frostmag on Twitter and Tweet, ‘I want to win with @Frostmag’ or like us on Facebook.  Alternatively, sign up to our newsletter.

The competition is open to UK residents only and ends on the 22nd of March.

 

The All-Star Cast Includes Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, and Ellen Page

Experience the allure of the eternal city when Woody Allen’s
TO ROME WITH LOVE is out now from Sony Pictures Classics and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. This enchanting romantic comedy, set in Rome, features a star-studded cast including Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin (TV’s “30 Rock”), Academy Award® winner Roberto Benigni (Best Actor, Life is Beautiful, 1999), Academy Award® winner Penelope Cruz (Best Supporting Actress, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2009), Judy Davis (A Passage to India), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Greta Gerwig (Damsels in Distress) and Ellen Page (Inception). Alison Pill (TV’s “The Newsroom”) and Allesandra Mastronardi also star in the film.

 

TO ROME WITH LOVE is told in four independent vignettes about four characters whose adventures change their lives forever: an average Roman wakes up one day to find himself a well-known celebrity; an American architect revisits the streets on which he used to live as a student; a young couple on their honeymoon are pulled into separate romantic encounters; and an American opera director tries to turn a singing mortician into a star.

 

The DVD comes with the special featurette “Con Amore: A Passion for Rome,” providing a first time glimpse into the secretive world of Woody Allen’s filmmaking process featuring exclusive cast and crew interviews with Alec Baldwin, Penélope Cruz and Greta Gerwig.

The film, which opened the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival, was written and directed by Allen, produced by Letty Aronson (Midnight in Paris), Stephen Tenenbaum (Midnight in Paris), Faruk Alatan (Pope Joan) and Giampaolo Letta with co-producers Helen Robin (Midnight in Paris) and David Nichols (The Tourist), and    co-executive producer Jack Rollins (Midnight in Paris).

TO ROME WITH LOVE has a run time of approximately 107 minutes and is rated 12.

 

Damsels In Distress Film Review

Posted on by

Damsels in Distress is a quirky and funny movie about depression. Yes, really. It has a funny script. Whit Stillman’s first film in 13 years is a very original film about a trio of girls who try and rescue their fellow students from depression and general low standards. Love is won and lost, and because the film is about college students, this is all heightened.

With subtle humour and cracking lines through out, this film has a very Woody Allen-esque feel to it. It is a smart comedy with brilliant costumes and musical numbers. Yes, that’s right musical numbers. Even if musicals are not your thing, the sight of earnest Violet, played by Great Gerwig, trying to fix her fellow students depression through song and dance is endearing and fun to watch.

The characters are fun and well-rounded. I really liked this charming comedy. Watching Damsels in Distress is a fun way to spend an evening. It has a strong script and a wonderful vintage feel.

From Academy Award® nominee Whit Stillman (Best Writing, Original Screenplay, Metropolitan, 1990) comes the charming and witty comedy DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, debuting on DVD August 20 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film is a quirky tale of a group of beautiful, female college students and their misguided ways of helping to cure their depressed classmates with a programme of good scents and musical dance numbers. DAMSELS IN DISTRESS stars Greta Gerwig (No Strings Attached, upcoming To Rome With Love by Woody Allen), Aubrey Plaza (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, TV’s “Parks & Recreation”), Adam Brody (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, TV’s “The OC”, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World), Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love, TV’s “America’s Next Top Model”), Hugo Becker (TV’s “Gossip Girl”), Megalyn Echikunwoke (TV’s “House of Lies,” “90210”), and newcomer Carrie MacLemore.

DAMSELS IN DISTRESS follows a trio of beautiful girls who set out to revolutionize life at a grungy East Coast College – the dynamic leader Violet Wister (Greta Gerwig), principled Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and sexy Heather (Carrie MacLemore). They welcome transfer student Lily (Analeigh Tipton) into their group, which seeks to help severely depressed students with a program of good hygiene and musical dance numbers. The girls become romantically entangled with a series of men — including slick Charlie (Adam Brody), dreamboat Xavier (Hugo Becker) and the mad frat boys Frank (Ryan Metcalf) and Thor (Billy Magnussen)—who threaten the girls’ friendship and sanity.

A charming comedy starring Greta Gerwig, Adam Brody and Annaleigh Tipton, is out on the 20th August.In this stylish and quirky film Violet, played by Woody Allen’s latest leading lady Greta Gerwig.

Greta Gerwig has all the best lines. Check out the quotes from her character below.

Violet: [about their college] There’s enough material here for a lifetime of social work.

Violet: We’re also trying to make a difference in people’s lives, and one way to do that is to stop them from killing themselves.

Violet: I don’t really like the word “depressed”. I prefer to say I’m in a tailspin.

Caggie Dunlop On Spencer, Music and The Kardashians.

Posted on by

Caggie Dunlop and Catherine Balavage

I met Caggie Dunlop at the W Hotel for a VIP screening of the short film she is starring in for Impulse’s new fragrance ‘Loving Words’, which smells amazing and you can read about here. I had a brilliant, fun chat with Caggie. She is the kind of girl who you feel would make a brilliant friend: lovely, smart and talented. After the interview has finished Caggie says that our interview was the best of the evening. Shucks: thanks Caggie.

Catherine Balavage: You must be very proud of the film.

Caggie Dunlop: Yeah, I am really proud of it. I actually only saw it for the first time this evening just before everyone arrived so I was a bit nervous, but I really loved it. I thought it was great. I think it is a lovely story

Quite French

Very French. Well that’s the theme and my styling is very Brigitte Bardot. I think that really lends well to it.

What is your favourite film?

True Romance.

What are you wearing? You look Stunning.

Virgos Lounge. They are an online store which is kind of vintage inspired. They do really pretty little dresses. And this is from my clothing line. [points to necklace].

You are really branching out into different areas: you have a sex column for the Evening Standard, you have the clothing line, and the acting.

And music.

Yes, that is how we first saw you wasn’t it?

Yeah, I have a lot going on, but I am not doing the Evening Standard anymore. It was very fun doing it but I am not doing it anymore.

It was very Carrie Bradshaw

Yeah, and it was great and it was fun playing that role but I really think music is where I want to go.

What would you choose between singing and acting?

Everyone asks me this. It is like saying ‘choose between your mum and your dad’, but in terms of career I don’t know, but if you said to me: ‘you could never sing again’ I would have to choose that over acting because I love singing. It just makes me happy to sing on my own. It came about quite randomly. When I sang on the show that was the first time I had ever sang in public. I have had to decide what I really want to do.

How was the acting experience?

I went to drama school and I studied acting so for me it was kind of what I wanted to do, and then when Made in Chelsea came along I got side-tracked from the acting because that was what was available to me at that point in time. The acting world is quite a tricky one. You really have to work it out. I had a great opportunity on Made in Chelsea. The acting is definitely something I want to go back to.

What does your Tattoo mean?

Sanatana Jiva. It means the never-ending and the never beginning spirit, and this [points to tattoo, specifically to the ‘J’ bit] this was for a boy who I’m not seeing anymore! [No!] It’s fine, I’m not bothered. It’s a nice tattoo.

Are you seeing anyone now?

No. I am very very spinster single

Aw, you are too young to be a spinster.

I’m happy being single.

You have so much going on with your career….

Yeah, it’s kind of like I need to focus on that at the moment and I don’t have time to focus on a relationship unless I find someone who has a complete understanding about what I am doing.

What is your clothing line called?
ISWAI. [Spells it out] I.S.W.A.I.

How did you come up with the name?

It’s an acronym for ‘It Started With an Idea’. The idea of it is about starting something new and organic with new talent, so young designers who are at school or university are designing the clothes. They get involved and hen they design an idea that I give them.

It that your motto in life?

I think so, yeah. It’s a very good one. It’s a more business thing. Though maybe not in an ethical situation.

You were the first one to leave Made in Chelsea

Yes I was

You were the biggest star and the main focus. Do you think it was a good idea to leave?

Leaving? A lot of people would argue that ‘why would you leave something when you were the central character and it was at its height of popularity and you just walk away from it with no explanation’. For me I stopped believing in what the show was about. It was a very good opportunity but I always wanted to do different things. I am very grateful for what it gave me and what I gained from it. Now I can go and become my own person.

It really has an effect on your own life and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

A lot of people are leaving now. Hugo’s leaving.

Yeah, Hugo’s leaving. I don’t know how much longer it will last but I wasn’t enjoying it and my heart wasn’t in it anymore and if something doesn’t feel right you have to go with your gut.

Would you do anymore reality TV like Spencer is doing with The Bachelor?

I would never do anything like that show. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with Spencer doing it. We are very different people, but I actually value my privacy. That could be considered a ridiculous thing to say coming from a reality TV show. I would never close any doors but it’s not in my plan. If it was something more documentary, like my music, something like that.

Who is your favourite film director and if you could work with any director who would it be?

Woody Allen or Tarantino. I think that would be a pretty crazy experience.

Did you enjoy making the film?

Yeah, I enjoyed making the film. We had to do it in a day, and it was a full on day. It was raining really badly but morale was up.

Do you have any plans to go the Hollywood Route?

I haven’t been to LA yet. So I can’t really say whether I would end up there. Watch this space. Maybe in a few years time.

Do you think doing Made in Chelsea helped you learn how to be in front of a camera?

Yes, I mean I studied method acting so it was all about being private in public. With Made in Chelsea you are having very private moments with five cameras on you. It is more staggered than people imagine. If you know anything about filming you know that you can’t create those scenes just by us walking into a bar and following us. It is all quite organised. In that sense it was helpful but then reality TV doesn’t really help in acting. It’s probably more acceptable in America.

Do you watch any reality TV like Keeping Up With The Kardashians?

I do, I love the Kardashians. I am so excited. Has the new season started now?

I think so. I saw a poster.

I do love that and I like the American ones. I don’t really like the English ones.

What do you think of Kim dating Kanye West? Are they a good couple?

I think they are. It’s nice that they were friends for ages. They are the ultimate power couple.

They are.

I’m surprised but they seem really into each other.

What’s next for you?

I am realising an EP hopefully in September. So I am developing that at the moment, which is really exciting, because for once I am in the public eye for something that I am putting out. The music is taking centre stage at the moment, but I would love to do some short films on the side and slowly developing that on the side.

Grabbing it with both hands.

Exactly, you only have one life.

What are your musical influences?

Ah, I listen to a lot of Matt Corby, who is this Australian singer who is very singer/songwriter: guitar and vocals, but also there is something quite challenging about his music, it’s really quite beautiful. I also love Jessie Ware. I have been listening to her a lot.

Do you still spend a lot of time in Chelsea?

Yeah. I was in Sloane Square today. I do spend a lot of time there, but because of what I am doing I am kind of all over. If I am gigging [ I could be in] Manchester or Shoreditch. I do love Chelsea.

Who is your favourite actor and actress?

Michael Fassbender in terms of actual ability. I think he is amazing. In terms of who I fancy: Ryan Gosling, but he is also a very good actor. He is a bit more mainstream. An actress…who was the girl who was in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Noomi Rapace

Yeah, her. I watched that for the first time the other day and I was blown away by it.
She’s brilliant.

She is fantastic. She was in Prometheus too.

No! She’s not! I was watching an interview with her and she was talking about how Ridley Scott picked her, and she said something about the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was thinking ‘why has he picked this random women? ‘

She’s brilliant.

Yeah, She’s fantastic.

Are you going to do anymore writing?

Not in that nature. I would like to write a poetry book which is half poetry, half what is was like growing up. I’ve written poetry since I could write so I have volumes of poetry. Poetry is such an under-rated thing.

How do you keep fit?

I am quite bad. I go through phases of being hard-core. There is a place on the Fulham Road that I have joined called Lomax. I go there and they kick your ass, but in a good way.

What beauty products do you like.
Loving Word by Impulse, Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream.

Magazine Round-Up Part 2: Rihanna Takes Vogue Cover

Posted on by

British Vogue has Rihanna on the cover. She is interviewed inside and says ‘Whatever my mojo tells me, that’s what I’m going to do’.

Tilda Swindon is interviewed.

Scion of the fashion dynasty Maxmara, Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti is interviewed by Vogue and she tells them that ‘my mother impressed on me that to be elegant you have to avoid overdressing’.

Articles on Coco Chanel, Jean-Paul Goude, Bryce Dallas Howard on her, and her characters, style, director Martina Amati, Sylvia Plath’s daughter Frieda Hughes, Dolores and Carmen Chaplin, Miss V covers Mark Ronsons wedding, David and Serena Linley, Hannah Rothschild on Leonardo da Vinci, the new breed of entrepreneurs, Vogue dons white coats and learned how to give good facials, Norma Kamali – and doesn’t she look amazing! Katie Holmes gives her Style File.

Most magazines this month had at least one article on perfume.

There is a rise in vegetarians, but Vogue has a good article on people rediscovering meat.

Marie Claire has Reese Witherspoon on the cover. ‘I didn’t realise how anxious I was about being a single parent’ she tells Marie Claire.

There is a new column from writer Lindsay Kelk; a Northern lass turned New York singleton who will be charting her journey to find Mr Right.

Marie Claire reports on a beauty pageant for men to become the cover stars of romance novels, yes, really.

There is a really good article on the inspirational Mary Portas. Make your wardrobe fashion editor fabulous. Jamie Oliver, Are you the new Type A? , DNA Dating, Is it time for a career shuffle?, Martin Daubney gives it all up to become a full-time father, Dolly Parton, Gossip Girl Stylist Eric Daman, Tali Lennox, Nicole Roberts.

My life in books by Caroline Aherne.

Lionel Shriver, Rachel Evan Woods, perfume, save your skin facials, Christina Aguilera, curb your cravings. 12 reasons you’re tired all the time, Pixie Lott’s food heaven.

Marie Claire have a special sex section, ahem. No comment from me.

Vanity Fair has Johnny Depp on the cover. ‘Basically if they’re going to pay me the stupid money, I’m going to take it’ he says.

Florence Welch, Mario Batali, Amber Heard, Bobbi Brown, Tinie Tempah, Moby Dick, The Tea Party, Tailor’s Anderson and Sheppard, Marisa Berenson, Haruki Murakami, Michael Lewis asks if California will sink the US, Elisabeth Warren, gossip columnist Liz Smith, Milton Gendal, Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, Courtney Love unravels, Woody Allen, Ethan Coen, Elaine May, Desmond Tutu.

There is a free supplement: Vanity Fair On Couture with Rebecca Hall on the cover. Catherine Middleton is on their best dressed, Giorgio Armani, Nicky Haslam, Giambattista versus Azzedine Alaia, Karl Lagerfield, Chanel, Ann Bonfoey Taylor, Elie Saab, Daphne Guinness, Amanda Harlech, Lucy Birley.

Midnight in Paris – Review

Posted on by

It’s hard to go into a film fresh, viewing it as a single work, as opposed to comparing it to similar films or previous films from the creator. Especially when it comes to Woody Allen.

 

He is a writer/director who has had, in many critics’ eyes, a very specific golden age. There’s been many calls of a ‘return to form’, but these are often followed up by huge flops.

 

Sweet and Lowdown was followed by Small Time Crooks, Match Point by Scoop and Casandra’s Dream, Vicky Cristina Barcelona by Whatever Works.

 

Everyone wants to see him hit his heights again, and so are constantly comparing his recent output to early greats like Annie Hall and Manhattan. However, this is unfair to Allen, and it’s a point he makes well in his most recent ‘return to form’.

 

While many could see Midnight in Paris as a love letter to a bygone era, it can also been seen as a dig at critics who are always looking for something greater in the past.

 

After all, it’s about a screenwriter who has been successful in the Hollywood system but who is trying to break out in writing something real, a true work of art, his great American novel.

 

Allen has been doing this his whole career – yet he’s been trapped by mainstream success. Even in Annie Hall, Alfie suffered a similar problem.

 

Like the critics who endlessly long for the days of Hannah and her Sisters, Owen Wilson’s Gil longs for Paris in the 1920’s. And, through one of the most simple time travel devices ever, he manages to find it.

 

Hemingway, the Fitzgerald’s, Dali, Picasso and many more all happen to be holidays in Paris and Gil takes a tour of his dream world with the greatest hosts he could imagine. However, it’s when he meets Marion Cotillard’s ‘art groupy’ that things start to get real for him.

 

Not only does she highlight the problems he’s facing with his soon-to-be wife in the real world, she, too, also longs for a different era, declaring Paris in the 20’s to be boring.

 

As a movie, it’s the most fun Allen has been in a while. While not really touching upon some of the bigger issues Allen has handled in the past, it doesn’t matter as its so funny, charming, and beautifully shot.

Have You Seen… Five Documentaries To Seek Out (Part Two)

Posted on by

   

This is the second part of my list of five documentaries that I love and hope that you will discover and love too. The first part, in which I lurch from historical curios to sexual fetishes and underground comics, can be found here: Part One.

 

The Sorrow and The Pity (1969)

 

Perhaps due to its appearance as an anti-date movie in Annie Hall, Marcel Ophuls’ The Sorrow and The Pity is often unfairly relegated to the punch line of jokes about gruelling and dull ways to spend an evening. It’s true that Ophuls’ film is a pretty mammoth undertaking but for those willing to persevere it can also be an immensely rewarding one. Filmed in 1969 (although not released until 1981 due to objections from the French government) and clocking in at a mammoth 251 minutes, Le chagrin et la pitié (to give it its French title) is an in-depth look at the behavior of the inhabitants of the French town of Clermont-Ferrand during Nazi occupation.

 

In a sense The Sorrow and the Pity could almost be watched as a companion piece to Albert Camus’

A striking poster for the film.

powerful1947 novel La Peste, which deals with the same subject by using disease as a metaphor for occupation and I will admit that having this book in the back of my mind certainly helped me clarify my experience of this gargantuan film. There is a famously enigmatic quote at the end of this novel, ‘What we learn in time of pestilence [is] that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.’ It is The Sorrow and The Pity’s inability to either confirm or deny this statement that makes it so compelling and the audience is forced to try (and fail) to make the moral judgments that the film so stubbornly avoids.

 

     The Sorrow and The Pity is split into two parts. The first of these, entitled The Collapse focuses on the French Resistance and particularly on Pierre Mendès-France, a Jewish political figure who was a key member of this group. The second, entitled The Choice, presents us with the other side of the coin recounting the story of Nazi collaboration particularly that of Christian de la Mazière, a member of the upper classes who fought under the banner of Fascism. As well as these key figures and other well-known persons (including British primeminister Anthony Eden), Ophuls also spoke with the ordinary townspeople who were faced with the impossible choice of collaboration or resistance. This puts a very human face on this grueling situation and by the film’s close you really do feel as if you have lived among these haggard, corrupt, heroic and deeply relatable people in their little town of Clermont-Ferrand. Perhaps the most remarkable and uncomfortable thing about the film is it’s lack of moral judgments particularly given the film’s relative proximity (just over twenty years) to the events it describes. Anthony Eden provides us with perhaps the most useful way of processing this when he states that, ‘One who has not suffered the horrors of an occupying power has no right to judge a nation that has.’ By the end of The Sorrow and The Pity it is impossible to argue with him and we realize that this is perhaps the closest we’ll get to an understanding of Camus’ inscrutable sentiment.

 

The Sorrow and the Pity is currently available on region 2 DVD and is well worth setting aside time to watch.

 

 

Capturing the Friedmans (2004)

 

The Friedmans celebrate during happier times.

Arnold and Elaine Friedman and their three sons were pretty much your archetypal middle class family living in a small town in upstate New York in the 1980s. He was an upbeat and well-liked teacher who ran a computer class out of their basement while she was a hardworking housewife whose rather serious demeanour made her the butt of her husband and three sons’ high-spirited jokes. Like many upwardly mobile families of the period, their favourite pastime was recording their mundane yet happy lives on their personal video camera (a relatively new innovation at this time).  They were content, down to earth and almost aggressively normal, like a Jewish 80s Cleavers. All this came crashing down in November 1987 when their typical suburban house was raided after Arnold was accused of molesting several children in his computer class. Extraordinarily, the family did not give up their beloved hobby and continued to record every tense discussion and blistering argument on videotape as more and more allegations were made, son Jesse was accused and their family began to disintegrate.

 

Andrew Jarecki’s Capturing the Friedmansassembles this startling footage and intercuts it with interviews

The accusations tore the family apart

with the family, police and victims. What makes the films so gripping is that it is cast in the mould of a thriller with each new piece of evidence or witness testimony contradicting something that the audience had earlier been convinced was fact. The result of this is that you are never really sure of anything except the truly subjective nature of truth and, by the film’s close, it is almost impossible to make any definitive judgements about Arnold and, to a larger degree, Jesse’s guilt. This style is undoubtedly effective and makes the film breathtakingly gripping. However, its moral implications have opened it up to some justified criticism and it is hard to watch the film in the same way now that news has emerged that Jarecki (who had previously declared himself to be impartial) actually funded Jesse Friedman’s appeal.

 

What earns Capturing the Friedmans a place on this list though is it’s unique, self-documented insight into a family in turmoil; the way each family member deals with the traumatic events is a master class in psychology and it is staggering to consider why on earth they chose to film themselves going through this horrible ordeal. Elaine Friedman is perhaps the most fascinating character in this respect, the seemingly emotionally fenced-off wife who was oblivious to her husband and son’s crimes. She is also arguably the most sympathetic of the Friedmans and it is heartbreaking to watch as her family continues to favour their father, frequently taking sides against Elaine even after he is prosecuted for the most despicable crimes. A great documentarian will often start with one subject and allow it to develop organically into something entirely different. This is certainly the case with this film, which started out life when Jarecki interviewed son David Friedman, who is a clown by profession, for a documentary he was making on children’s entertainers in New York City. That this light-hearted film spawned  Capturing The Friedmans is as intriguing as it is darkly ironic.

 

Capturing The Friedman’s is currently available on Region 2 DVD and come with a wealth of special features including Jarecki’s ‘Just a Clown’, the documentary on New York clowns that introduced him to David Friedman, and a wealth of documents (including a psychologist’s assessment of the victims) which are provided as DVD-Rom content.

 

Read Part 3, in which I discuss my favourite feature length documentary.

Charles Rivington can be followed on Twitter at @crivington.