Faye: Entre luces y sombra

Documentary for HBO Films on American actress Faye Dunaway from director Laurent Bouzereau doesn't really ask "Who is Faye Dunaway?" as much as it does inform us "This is Faye Dunaway". Born in Florida in 1941 but transferred every two years with her parents and younger brother due to her father serving in the US Army, Dorothy Faye learned early it didn't pay to hang onto relationships for very long. Eventually settling back in Florida with her divorced mother, Dunaway had already caught the acting bug during a previous living stint in Utah before graduating high school, where she finally won a local beauty contest after several tries ("de rigueur" for any young lady hoping to make it in the arts). Dunaway's early acting life on the New York stage and at Lincoln Center may be surprising to fans not familiar with her salad days--but once she's brought to Hollywood, "Faye" falls into a typical biography pattern (selecting highlights of her movie career and skittering around her two failed marriages). As to Dunaway's reputation as a tyrant, she blames most of her bad choices and behavior on bipolar/manic depression (now being treated with medication) and alcoholism (which she inherited from her father). She says cruelty isn't a part of who she naturally is, though her temperament may be viewed that way by those in her line of fire during a film shoot. Of the co-workers, family and friends who give recent interviews, Sharon Stone's overdramatic gushing is the most embarrassing; however, Faye's now-grown adopted son Liam from her years with photographer Terry O'Neill is able to help show off his mother's heretofore unseen tender side. For fans, this is an enjoyable watch with film clips and vintage interviews (Bette Davis's complaints about working with Dunaway are shared but not acknowledged). "Faye" isn't a puff-piece, though it isn't overly insightful, choosing to let Dunaway remain an imposing enigma. *** from ****

A recent MAX documentary on the ever glamorous, ever cantankerous leading lady Faye Dunaway. Tracing her humble beginnings as a theater actress from the South, she soon found her way to film, being part of director Elia Kazan's acting troupe also helped, where not only did she have the acting chops but the drop-dead beauty as well which served her well during the late 60's w/output like The Thomas Crown Affair & Bonnie & Clyde. The 70's were arguably hers as she continued to nab high profile roles which would culminate in her Oscar win for Network in 1976. On the personal front she could not have a child of her own so her son, Liam, he being adopted, was welcomed w/open arms (his constant presence by her side at public functions illustrates their closeness) & her admitting her bi-polar status also humanized the actress who tended to be demonized as difficult. W/the usual talking heads of past co-stars (Mickey Rourke who worked on Barfly w/her) & ardent admirers like Sharon Stone make director Laurent Bouzereau's effort (Laurent has been a fixture in Hollywood's behind the scenes for years since I remember listening to his commentary on Criterion's edition of Carrie on laserdisc (!)) an easy one to document as long as Faye gets her water in a glass.

As "Fay (2024 release; 91 min.) opens, it is "March 28, 1977" and Fay Dunaway wins the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in "Network". We see the iconic picture taken the morning after as Faye lays poolside with newspapers spread out and laying about (perhaps the most famous Oscar photo ever taken). Various talking heads gush about Faye's most famous performances. We then go back in time as Faye talks about her upbringing in the deep South... At this point we are less tahn 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from director Lauren Bouzereau ("Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind"). Here, with a big assist from Fay's son Liam, he manages to have extended one-on-one sit-downs with Faye as she reflects on her life and times. She openly discusses her "difficult" reputation, but also her bipolar disorder diagnosis. I was most interested in hearing what became of this famous actress once she was no longer so much in the limelight (from the late 1980's on). Please note that this documentary is simply called "Faye" (as seen in the opening credits), and not "Faye: The Many Lives of Faye Dunaway" (as advertised on HBO and Max).

"Faye" premiered at this year's Canned film festival to positive acclaim. A couple of weeks ago it started airing on HBO and streaming on Max, where I caught it just last night. This documentary is currently rated 100% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. While "Faye" is certainly a worthwhile documentary, that rating seems a bit overly generous to me. In any event, if you are a fan of Faye Dunaway or of Hollywood in the 1970s, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

This is a slapdash, disingenuous, occasionally weird and ultimately unsatisfying portrait of Faye Dunaway. It is also, quite conspicuously, a partisan attempt to rehabilitate her reputation, which has suffered more than a few blows over the years. But if you're going to include that clip of Bette Davis telling Johnny Carson that Faye is the only actor in Hollywood she'd never work with again, then you really need to properly address the accusations of divadom at a monster level, to which this doco only fleetingly alludes. Faye's cover-all response to stories about her being difficult is that - news flash - she's bi-polar. Since this has never been mentioned before, it would seem to be a very late-life diagnosis, and Faye is curiously vague on the details. Nevertheless, she deploys being bi-polar like a get-out-of-jail-free card, as a means of not addressing or dismissing all those allegations of being difficult, unprofessional, unreasonable and infuriating. But since it's that behaviour that pretty much de-railed her career, this just leaves a giant hole in the story of her life. For this film to really change perceptions about Dunaway, it needed to delve deeper and demand a bit more of Faye. Okay, so she behaved badly because she was off-kilter; but how does she feel about that - about the consequences for her, and about the impact it had on others? It also has to be said that it's a strange and motley selection of friends and colleagues who have been curated to talk on Faye's behalf. There's Rutanya Alda, who has previously dished for anyone who asked about Faye in diva mode on Mommie Dearest. There's the always annoying Columbia film professor Annette Insdorf, who is as emphatic as she is vacuous. There are a few actors and studio execs you've never heard of. And Sharon Stone, who at least has some insight into what happens to actresses in Hollywood beyond 40. Other than Sharon, there's not much in the way of insight and illumination. At best, Faye is a reminder of what a magnetic and compelling actor Dunaway was in her prime. But the picture quickly goes blurry once we get into the What-happened-Faye? Years, post Network. In the end, we can only hope some future documentarian dares to tackle The Legend of Faye Dunaway with a clearer vision and significantly more guts.

This is one of the best documentaries I've seen in a long, long time. In my opinion, a good documentary must be honest, insightful and entertaining. All this can be found here.

Faye Dunaway's career has been long and rich. She may be unknown to many younger moviegoers. It's been a few years since she was an active movie star. This movie reminds us all of her greatness. And that at the height of her career she played in some of the biggest and most important films of the 70s, such as Network.

The documentary's great strength is that Faye herself is the narrator and contributes actively throughout the film, where she narrates in detail in chronological order about her most significant films, private life all the time seasoned with exciting anecdotes. In the documentary, she receives help from her own son, colleagues in the film industry and journalists with in-depth insight into her work. In sum, therefore, this film becomes very interesting and believable.

After seeing the film, I wanted to revisit many of her great achievements on the silver screen, and I think I'll start with Bonnie and Clyde, which gets a thorough review here.