REVIEW: Seduced and Abandoned (2013, Dir. James Toback)

For some reason, film maker James Toback (writer and director of a number of pre-reinvention Robert Downey Jnr. vehicles and the Oscar nominated documentary Tyson, and Oscar nominated screenwriter of Bugsy) and film actor turned television actor turned film actor, Alec Baldwin (star of Beetlejuice, The Hunt for Red October and TV's '30 Rock'), thought it would be a good idea to rehash Bernardo Bertolucci's Brando-stripping, masterpiece, Last Tango in Paris, relocating it to Iraq during Bush's warmongering era, with Baldwin starring as an FBI operative who starts up an exploratory, frontier-pushing sexual relationship with a left wing war correspondent, played by Neve Campbell (star of The Craft, the Scream series and TV's 'Party of Five')...

So, yeah, I've never been one for elevator pitches.

Toback and Baldwin (sans Campbell) travel to Cannes with the hope of financing their concept to the tune of $20M dollars. Part in-joke, part industry exposé, Seduced and Abandoned rips into the heart of the world film market in an attempt to unpack the difficulties facing film makers in this day and age. Financing is cinema's most necessary evil, and even though you may already know this, Toback and Baldwin collect together an impressive cast of Cannes luminaries to hammer the point home.

Our unlikely duo are small fry in this game, especially when their $20M concept only appears to be drawing down about $4-5M in interest from investors, but that's not the crux of the problem. If anything, the pair's hobnobbing interviews make it clear that film funding is not just an issue for the minnows. Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese and Bernado Bertolucci himself, put their financing issues on record and, as they do so, they highlight the creativity-stunting flow-on effects from not being able to find funding from the old school "champion" backers.

There's nary a dull moment in Seduced and Abandoned. Toback and Baldwin are expert schmoozers so it is easy to get caught up in their game. The pair coast around Cannes on the back of their charm and the Toback's smidgeon of industry cred. (I don't imagine the documentary camera crew hurts them any either.) Their film about financing a film gets them in front of some impressive producers, directors and moneyed-up personages. Everyone is happy enough to play along and it may not be revelatory material but it is fun to hear conventional wisdom (film as art, film as business) from the likes of Jessica Chastain, Ryan Gosling and, um, Brett Ratner.

It's also great to see the Toback and Baldwin scuff up the gloss and glamour up of Cannes with some vérité camerawork and b-grade split screens, even if it brings down the feel of the production as a whole.

Seduced and Abandoned is an interesting watch. Real insight into the workings of the film production machine may be thin on the ground but it's an enjoyable stroll down la Croisette nonetheless. Now, let's all join hands and pray to Kubrick that this is actually all a joke.

I really don't think the world needs to see Last Tango in Tikrit...

★★★

Trailer: