![]() Weber's obsessions are illustrated by wonderful film clips, from Faye on the Ed Sullivan show and Dusty Springfield on Top of the Pops to Diana Vreeland discussing her boredom with the "Mona Lisa" and Robert Mitchum in a recording studio, wondering if his rendition of "Sleepy Time Down South" sounds "too Jewish." Amid the clutter, Weber — who narrates but never appears in front of the camera — occasionally allows a glimpse into his own mind. Weber flips through monographs on his favorite photographers discusses a few of his other subjects, including the Brazilian jujitsu champ Rickson Gracie and professional surfer Christian Fletcher and reminisces about meeting famous English explorer Sir Wilfred Thesinger. (The film's title alludes to an old-fashioned camera club Weber and his friends formed for the sole purpose of photographing Johnson in a variety of "artistic" poses and get-ups.) Weber takes Johnson on a virtual tour of his interests, starting with his mania for singer Frances Faye who, far more than Weber, is the film's real subject. Instead, it's about the people and things Weber loves, starting with the impossibly innocent teenage model Peter Johnson, whom Weber discovered at an Ohio wrestling camp. Assembled by Weber himself and overflowing with bits and pieces of his life and loves, this ditty box of a movie is a little like Maximillian Schell's 1984 documentary MARLENE, about legendary movie icon Marlene Dietrich it attempts a portrait of an artist who, aside from a few telling moments, is completely uninterested in self-revelation. The photos he took for Calvin Klein and Vanity Fair are still being copied — often by Weber himself — and his fantasies of highly eroticized boyish innocence are still raising a ruckus from within the pages of the notoriously racy Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue. ![]() Refining a homoerotic aesthetic previously restricted to physique pictorials and beefcake magazines, Weber shifted the camera's focus away from the girl and onto boys who invariably represented an impossible ideal of male beauty. John and Weber talking about working with Jan Michael Vincent.For better or worse, Bruce Weber is one of the more influential fashion photographers of our time. Other highlights include Robert Mitchum singing a duet with Dr. Teri Shepherd, manager and long-time partner of nightclub favourite Frances Faye, shares endearing stories of their exciting relationship wrestler Rickson Gracie and surfer Christian Fletcher discuss what it was like becoming (homoerotic) sex symbols as seen through Weber's lens aging explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger and his book ARABIAN SANDS are featured and former Vogue editor Diana Vreeland allows Weber in to shoot her fabulously tacky apartment. ![]() The film goes all over the place, but every side adventure is a worthy one. Starting off as a film about model Peter Johnson, whom Weber snatched from a high school wrestling team and turned into a star for Ralph Lauren and other fashionistas, CHOP SUEY is a tasty mix of vintage colour and black-and-white footage, still photos of everyone from Alfed Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe to Montgomery Clift and Clark Gable, and insightful narration by Weber and Johnson about modelling, family, and the cult of celebrity. Filmmaker Bruce Weber, whose last feature-length documentary was the award-winning LET'S GET LOST in 1988 (about jazz great Chet Baker), returns with this fascinating look at his life and career.
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