Seduced & Abandoned

After facing James Toback’s 100 minute documentary, the audience have experienced a wealth of overwhelming feelings. Toback has made a film about making a film, but Seduced & Abandoned is not as familiar as its premise may first sound.

Shot during last year’s Cannes Film Festival, this documentary follows actor Alec Baldwin and director James Toback in their quest for investors to fund a potential new movie.

In front of the friendly yet disconcerting camera lens, famous actors and directors lift the veil on aspects of their real selves, and for once the audience is invited to share some human feelings with these usually mysterious and artificial stars. Realism is certainly a pervasive feature of the film’s journey in which money reigns and art doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

Some protagonists such as Coppola and Scorsese could almost sound crazy when they talk about their passion for cinema, especially when their words are put in parallel with their sponsors. The movie’s strength is the editing together of these different views, which helps provide the perspective that Toback is hoping to achieve; cinema is made of dreams, but dreams are crushed by cinema.

As Baldwin states at the beginning of his interview, it’s a world of perpetual seduction and abandonment which can last a lifetime for those who have the strength and courage to pursue their goal.

Baldwin gives the best performance of his career as he stays humble and resilient in front of people who seem to enjoy putting a label and a price on his name. Ryan Gosling’s appearance is particularly delicious as it deconstructs the myth of a star’s less glamorous but much more amusing reality.

Everyone who loves cinema should see this piece of real life that tastes as bittersweet even hours later.

Liloïe Cazorla

Seduced & Abandoned is released on 8^th November 2013.

Read more reviews from Cannes Film Festival here.

For further information about the festival visit the official website here.