Chris & Don: A Love Story

It looks like we will finally be able to watch this masterpiece documentary in theaters as distributor Zeitgeist has picked up the Miami Festival winner for a limited release. Produced by Guido Santi and Tina Mascara, a team of longtime documentary authors whose "Mandala" revealed a few years ago a very sophisticated talent in visual storytelling, "Chris & Don" is the love story between famous playwright Christopher Isherwood and artist Don Bachardy in the golden years of Hollywood, with exclusive interviews and footage with actors and other personalities. Although Isherwood and Bachardy's was a homosexual love during a time when these relationships were looked at with criticism even in the more liberal California, the movie is somehow capable of setting the sexual factor aside and focus instead on the depth of the protagonists' personality. By the end of the movie you feel so intimate with both, that it is almost natural to want to know more about them and their art. A refined, well directed portrait and an opportunity for exemplary film-making that should easily captivate audiences.

Portrait artist Don Bachardy, still active in his seventies, reflects on his 30-year love affair with British writer Christopher Isherwood, who was 30 years Bachardy's senior. Meeting in early-1950s Southern California, the bright-eyed, star-worshiping young man and the immigrated author-turned-screenwriter seemed to have little in common, yet their attraction and devotion to one another proved all their naysayers wrong. Although intriguing as both a microcosm of homosexuality in the '50s (and the ways in which it was greeted by the heterosexual community) as well as an enduring love story, this exquisite documentary also touches tenderly on age, on talent, on family and friends, and on reflections of the past from a still-sharp and brilliant mind. Bachardy is a colorful character, a sweet and sentimental fellow, and his thoughts are heightened visually by wonderful home movies of his journey with Isherwood, days both blissful and turbulent. Michael York narrates succinctly from the diaries Isherwood kept from 1939-1960, and several celebrities and biographers recount their experiences in knowing or researching the two men. This is as complete and satisfying a documented memoir as you're likely to see. It's also an extraordinarily moving testament to the human condition. ***1/2 from ****

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.

This movie can easily be seen as a meditation. It is a kind of wonderful meditation on impermanence, the transient nature of youth, beauty and health, on the inevitability of loss and finally on the Triumph of Death. An art of losing and dealing with sorrow.

It is not often in our days that someone has the time and is being allowed a slow pace when talking to you as in this film. Especially not on very subtle and intimate matters. That is praiseworthy. Not often either do you see love treated spiritually. Not often do you see someone follow a life partner to the very gate of Death and past. Making drawings of the corpse, lovingly, without disgust or even crying. That is an impressive remaining within reality.

Highly recommendable.

This is a very, very interesting documentary about two of the 20th century's most engaging people: Novelist/diarist Christopher Isherwood & Painter Don Bachardy - both of them being avowedly gay!

In 1952, Isherwood met a handsome young man named Don sunbathing on the beach in Santa Monica, California. As it turns out, that particular stretch of beach was the "gay beach". Christopher was quite taken with the lad, but accurately perceived that he was "quite young," so he merely engaged in a short, friendly chat with him. This chat formed the unlikely genesis of a decidedly successful, 34-year-long Love romance.

Now Mr. Isherwood was unapologetically gay, but he was also a man of discernment. Chris correctly estimated Don's age, which was 16. Isherwood chose the wise & virtuous course of action, even though he already knew that Don was "the one" for him. Isherwood restricted himself to a friendly "Hello" & occasionally engaging in some small-talk with Don whenever they encountered each other on the beach. Chris cultivated a seedling of affection for Don in his heart & mind. He waited, & gave Don Bachardy the personal space & the time to mature - Nature was taking its course.

Now, in "Chris & Don: A Love Story", an elderly Don Bachardy proves to be an excellent host & "tour guide." He relates that, when he turned 18, he & Chris "spent the night together" for the first time. Regarding Don's sexual initiation, the fact that Chris was 30 years older than Don was bound to raise some eyebrows; yet Bachardy himself asserts with a smile in this documentary, "It was exactly what the boy wanted, and he flourished!" So much for trying to smear the character of Christopher Isherwood! Isherwood had known precisely how to conduct himself from the moment he first met Don.

This documentary is a treasure trove of priceless, archival footage & photographs of the cream of the crop of gay high-achievers: 1) Christopher Isherwood himself, one of the most important, queer novelists in the world: 2) Truman Capote, the highly accomplished queer non-fiction & short-story writer; 3) E. M. Forster, pre-eminent novelist & queer; and 4) Tennessee Williams, queer and probably the greatest playwright in the English language in the 20th century.

So Christopher Isherwood & Don Bachardy loved each other dearly, and their relationship exhibited authentic staying power, lasting from 1954 until Isherwood's death in 1986! That's no small accomplishment, folks!

One sour note must be mentioned in this review, and that is the way the gay V. I. P.s who visited Isherwood treated Don Bachardy. Isherwood sometimes invited "the best of the best" over to dinner, but when they were engrossed in stimulating dinnertime conversation, they completely ignored Don, who was also eating at the table. I mean, he was right there! Don had opinions & ideas all his own, and he was becoming an accomplished painter of portraits. It would have been so easy to involve Don in dinner conversation. Don couldn't help it if he looked younger than he actually was, and it was cruel & false of the assembled gay intelligentsia to paint Don as Chris's "trophy boy."

Although this documentary is superb, one must note that it is overly brief - truncated, in fact. Here is a list of content this reviewer thinks is missing from "Chris & Don: A Love Story": 1) Christopher Isherwood underwent a spiritual crisis, probably brought on by the fact that he was gay & loathed The Church of England (which, at that time, prohibited homosexuality as an "unnatural sin"). Where is the account of Chris's conversion to Hinduism?; 2) Don Bachardy never says a word about what it felt like to be intentionally ignored by Isherwood's "friends"; 3) Don & Chris were lovers in the 1950s - not a safe time to be gay in the U. S. A.! This documentary mentions nothing about whether or not Chris & Don were ever harassed, threatened or assaulted by gay-haters; and 4) Christopher Isherwood died of prostate cancer, & experienced a long demise before death, yet Don Bachardy never breathes a word about what is was like to help nurse & care for the declining Isherwood. Perhaps the memories were simply too painful for Don.

So, this film is excellent, but it should not be regarded as an exhaustive treatment of the love story between Christopher Isherwood & Don Bachardy - two talented, interesting human souls.