If you were to judge Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful by its trailer alone, you would go into the theater — or, for now, your living room — expecting a shock-driven exposé of a photographer who exploited women for personal gain.
Instead, what you’ll find is a sympathetic, rather adorable portrait of an artist. Newton, molded in the crucible of German Expressionism, was a man whose art indulged strange delights and surely helped sell many magazines. Yet, the documentary is not about politics in the age of #MeToo, but rather about respect for photography itself — and it holds that line well.
Thanks to its lively editing, fun soundtrack and quality cinematography, Helmut Newton is not totally without a dose of gender-based self-reflection, and there’s a little bit of clumsy feminist psychoanalysis as well, for those interested in debating those points.
This documentary reminds you that it’s not only male gaze that determines what sort of bodies are used in advertisements or art gallery fare. There are also editors, marketers, agents, gallery managers and production people — and not all of them are men.
In doing the work of bringing all of these various stakeholders together for their opinions and observations, German director Gero von Boehm captures the real story behind not only Newton himself but also of the fashion industry, such as it was.
Actress Charlotte Rampling, one of the more sympathetic interview subjects, seems to be most on the money when she says, “Who cares about the man himself? We’re looking at his art.” To its utmost credit, the documentary accomplishes this feat accordingly, and the man’s art lies at its center.
Meanwhile, viewers are treated to hot shots and behind-the-scenes coverage of photo shoots in session, and the many painful contortions to which some models — both men and women — are driven to get the perfect shot.
Proving to be the most endearing segments of the film, Newton’s own recollections of his boyhood as a Jew in Nazi Germany and his early career nicely round out this portrait — and, like his own works of art, are worth seeing for yourself.
Available to rent starting July 24 via fineartstheatre.com
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