Written by Sarah Boslaugh Wednesday, 10 July 2013 20:05
A more coherent discussion of why his work was groundbreaking would have been far more useful than endless discussions of his womanizing and drug use.
Photographer Bert Stern shot some of the most iconic advertising and commercial photographs of the 20th century, co-directed (with Aram Avakian) the classic documentary Jazz on a Summer’s Day, and led an interesting life that he’s more than happy to talk frankly about. So you might expect that a documentary about the man and his work would be both fascinating and illuminating. Such a film would be an especially nice tribute, since Stern died recently at the age of 83.
Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a sure bet when it comes to film, and Bert Stern: Original Mad Men is mostly an irritating mess. First-time director Shannah Laumeister, an actress and frequent Stern subject as well as his long-time girlfriend and recent wife (they were married secretly in 2009), has collected some interesting material, but seems unwilling or unable to shape it into a coherent whole. She also has the irritating habit of putting herself on camera for no apparent reason.
The biggest mistake Laumeister makes is not showcasing Stern’s work more efficiently: Take away his artistic talents and he’s just an irritating old guy, full of himself and with sexual attitudes decades out of date. But many of Stern’s photographs are shown only quickly, in passing, and are often shot with a shaky hand-held camera that doesn’t give you time to perceive—let alone appreciate—them.
It’s too bad, because Stern’s life is a classic American success story. Born in 1929 to a family so poor they rented out the main part of their apartment to another family, he dropped out of school at age 13 and got a job working in a candy store. From there, he moved on to the mailroom at Look, where he became friends with Stanley Kubrick. Stern developed his talent as a photographer and designer, and established himself as a commercial photographer by his mid-20s.
Among Stern’s most iconic images are the Smirnoff “Driest of the Dry” ad, a series of promotional shots for Kubrick’s film Lolita, and the series “The Last Sitting” of Marilyn Monroe (be warned, the latter is not entirely safe for work). More focus on these and other Stern photographs, along with a more coherent discussion of why his work was groundbreaking, would have been far more useful than endless discussions of his womanizing and drug use.
Even the title is a bit of a cheat. Obits of Stern say that his work revolutionized the advertising industry, but you’d never get that sense from this film, which is more about his fashion work. One of the many talking heads even says Stern was “the original mad man,” but the appearance of that phrase in the title seems like a blatant attempt to interest fans of the AMC show (it worked with me, I must admit). | Sarah Boslaugh