Dan Klores Tagged Articles at Cinematical

My latest starting point is DVD Talk; their list is not comprehensive, but I appreciate the simplicity. Looking over what's out this week, I realized I need to watch more movies in theaters! I haven't seen any of these releases yet, but I plan to do some catching up. My rental picks begin with Patrice Leconte's My Best Friend. Monika Bartyzel called it "an entertaining, solid comedy." Daniel Auteuil plays "a completely conceited art dealer who is stunned to learn that none of his so-called friends like him" and is inspired to gamble on himself. The DVD from IFC includes a "making of" feature and the trailer.

The Trials of Darryl Hunt "tells the story of ... a black man who was tried and convicted for the rape and murder of [a] white newspaper reporter," according to Christopher Campbell. "Hunt was sentenced despite there being no physical evidence, simply off a testimonial given by a former Ku Klux Klan member." ThinkFilm's DVD includes bonus interviews and an "exclusive HBO featurette."

Another doc, Crazy Love, about a long-term relationship with, shall we say, questionable elements, made James Rocchi wonder: "What movie didn't get in to Sundance because this horrible, clammy, grim and pathetic tale of co-dependent madness did?" But Kim Voynar had a very different view, describing it as "an engaging, intelligent" film. Magnolia's DVD features an audio commentary by co-director Dan Klores and the couple, deleted scenes and other extras.

Other titles that sound intriguing include documentary Girl 27 (a woman hired as a movie extra in the 1930s is instead raped at an MGM party) and the box set Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy (including Blood Wedding, Carmen and El Amor Brujo) from Criterion.

Sundance had its first bidding war of the festival over the documentary Crazy Love, and Magnolia Pictures emerged triumphant. This is considered the first distribution deal to emerge from the festival -- a few earlier deals occurred before Sundance technically began. Magnolia purchased the North American rights to the documentary on Saturday for a mid-six-figure sum. Other companies involved in the bidding war included Netflix and ThinkFilm.

Crazy Love premiered at Sundance on Friday night, although industry pre-screenings supposedly occurred beforehand in New York and Los Angeles. The documentary was directed by Dan Klores and co-produced by Klores and actor/filmmaker Fisher Stevens. It's about Linda Riss and Burt Pugach and their tumultuous (to the point of incredulity) relationship. James Rocchi described Crazy Love as a "horrible, clammy, grim and pathetic tale of co-dependent madness," which actually makes me more interested in the film. I'm weird that way. But how successful are pathetic tales at the box office? At least three distribution companies seemed to think that audiences would love to exercise their voyeuristic tendencies with this twistedly romantic story. Magnolia hasn't yet announced a timeline for release.

Digital video technology presents documentary fans with a double-edged sword: Now, a filmmaker can bring almost any story to the screen without having to worry about the economy of film ... and, it seems, without having to think about the art of storytelling. I can't think of a better exhibit than Crazy Love; co-directed by PR maven Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens, it tells the story of Burt Pugach and Linda Riss. As Burt and Linda explain in interview footage looking back from the here-and-now, they met in the '50s; he was a well-to-do lawyer with links to the movie biz, and she was a striking and vivacious beauty with an effervescent spirit. Their relationship was whirlwind, glamorous, exciting -- and a sham, as Burt was already married. Linda left him and started dating, got engaged ... and Burt hired three men to throw caustic lye in Linda's face, reasoning that if he couldn't have her, no one else could or would.

The idea that Burt would be willing to speak about this on-camera is startling enough, but as the film unfolds, it's explained that after Burt's release from prison in 1971, the two got married and have been with each other ever since. I know that there are relationships in the world that are, at best, sick and delusional; at the same time, I don't want to hear about them. And, frankly, you have to wonder what light bulb went off over Klores and Stevens's heads that made them say This, this is a story we MUST bring to the screen! Crazy Love wants to be a portrait of obsession -- right down to the oh-so-knowing quote from Lacan that opens the film -- but it simply feels like a feature-length version of any episode of The Jerry Springer Show, where unlikable people demonstrate they have no shame by carefully detailing their twisting and idiotic hate-fueled squalid past and unhappy present.