Two lovers. Same gender. Age difference 30 years.
CHRIS & DON: A LOVE STORY is the true-life story of the passionate three-decade relationship between British writer Christopher Isherwood (whose Berlin Stories was the basis for all incarnations of the much-beloved Cabaret) and American portrait painter Don Bachardy, thirty years his junior. From Isherwood’s Kit-Kat-Club years in Weimar-era Germany (the inspiration for his most famous work) to the couple’s first meeting on the sun-kissed beaches of 1950s Malibu, their against-all-odds saga is brought to dazzling life by a treasure trove of multimedia. Bachardy’s contemporary reminiscences (in the Santa Monica home he shared with Isherwood until his death in 1986) artfully interact with archival footage, rare home movies (with glimpses of glitterati pals W.H. Auden, Igor Stravinsky and Tennessee Williams), reenactments, and, most sweetly, whimsical animations based on the cat-and-horse cartoons the pair used in their personal correspondence. With Isherwood’s status as an out-and-proud gay maverick, and Bachardy’s eventual artistic triumph away from the considerable shadow of his life partner, CHRIS & DON: A LOVE STORY is above all a joyful celebration of a most extraordinary couple.
More info here >>
August 4th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Probably take a while to get to Sydney but I look forward to it.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:13 am
That looks wonderful…thank you.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I saw this film last week here in Los Angeles…a well made, unsentimental (for the most part) documentary about the truly
fabulous life of a talented couple. I certainly recommend it.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Talking about films, I also saw the Korean film “No Regret” mentioned on the blog last week - despite the quirky turn at the end, it is quite an achievement for a first-time feature film director and lead actor…not to mention lots of cute guys.
Am I becoming the (un)official film critic for GBT?
August 4th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
A quicki read of the Wiki entry on his life paints him in a much less flattering light. I don’t think I will bother, after all.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I think the film looks great…can’t wait for the DVD to come out.
bkkdreamer, lots of gay men love to sneer at the Isherwood/Bachardy relationship. I notice that the “impartial” Wikipedia article actually manages to drag in the term “child prostitute,” while Don Bachardy was neither a child or a prostitute, duh. I had a friend in New York who referred to Bachardy as “Mrs. Isherwood,” and flatly denied that Bachardy had any artistic skill at all. Note, once more, that the “impartial” Wikipedia article refers to Bachardy as a “draughtsman” — not an artist. Can you imagine a bigger sneer?
Of course, none of this could be envy or jealousy, because we higher human beings are all Angels.
And we’d rather come out with a big self-serving sneer than admit that we would love to have a gorgeous teenage gay boy fall in love with us, and come to live with us forever after.