I hope you’ve been enjoying HBO’s fall slate of documentaries, because tonight they have an extra special treat for us: an insidery look at the film marketplace from one of the all-time great Hollywood blowhards, James Toback (also Brett Ratner’s housemate, at one point). This time around, he even takes Alec Baldwin along for the ride. Oh man, this is going to be so awesome.
For ten days in May 2012, director James Toback and actor Alec Baldwin worked their way through the Cannes Film Festival in an attempt to secure financing for a proposed film project, a political-erotic Middle Eastern adventure inspired by Bernardo Bertolucci’s classic “Last Tango in Paris.” As they dashed around – hopeful against all odds – Toback filmed the hilarious and revealing proceedings, from pitches to billionaires, studio moguls, producers and international sales financiers, to intimate encounters with major movie stars and iconic directors whose passion for movies proves it’s still possible to transcend the madness.
The cinematic romp SEDUCED AND ABANDONED captures the tug-of-war between the eternal dream of creating pure art and the bracing reality of modern movie commerce. James Toback’s celebration of movie-making debuts MONDAY, OCT. 28 (9:00-10:45 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
Ah yes, Middle Easter politerotica, my favorite kind of politics, the erotic kind. Which I’m sure you’ve all previously gleaned from my US congressional sexual homage to Nine 1/2 Weeks, “John Boehner’s Boner.” (I wrote the part of the boner for Jim Carrey). I don’t think James Toback does anything without a heavy sexual component, not even when he was pitching Tyson.