Linda Riss Tagged Articles at Cinematical
SIFF Review: Crazy Love
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Independent », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Seattle », Cinematical Indie »
Just how crazy can being in love make you? Just ask Burt Rugach and Linda Riss, subjects of the film Crazy Love, whose star-crossed, bizarre love affair has spanned more than 50 years. Starting with their magical first date in the late 1950s, through a first year of dates at glam nightclubs, to Linda's discovery that (oops!) Rugach was already married, to Linda's subsequent dumping of Burt, to Burt's stalking her relentlessly, the couple's love affair was fraught with drama.
Linda was both beautiful and insecure when she met Burt, who was a wealthy negligence attorney at a time when the term "ambulance chaser" was just coming into vogue. Burt wasn't particularly handsome, but he was rich and exciting; he owned a nightclub and his own plane, he had a new car every year, and he showered Linda with attention, even having the house band at his glamorous nightclub play the song "Linda" whenever Linda walked in.
Sundance Review: Crazy Love
Filed under: Documentary », Sundance », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Cinematical Indie »
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.
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