“The Look: Charlotte Rampling” is only partially effective biopic of the legendary international actress and cult figure (especially among gay men).
Paul Newman and Charlotte Rampling in Sidney Lumet’s courtroom drama, The Verdict (1982).
The docu is told through conversations with some of her closest friends and frequent collaborators, including Peter Lindbergh, Paul Auster, and Juergen Teller.
Charlotte Rampling was born in 1946 in Essex, England, and educated in Versailles, France, and Herfordshire, England.
She began her career at age 17 as a model and gave her first screen appearance in Richard Lester’s “The Knack…..And How to Get It” (1965), followed by roles in Silvio Narizzano’s “Georgy Girl” (1966) and Luchino Visconti’s lurid Nazi melodrama, “The Damned” (1969).
From early on in her career, Rampling has been willing to take on controversial roles: in 1974’s “The Night Porter,” directed by Liliana Cavani, she played a concentration camp survivor in a sadomasochistic relationship with her former guard (Dirk Bogarde).
In 1986’s “Max, My Love,” directed by the Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Ôshima, she played a woman in love with a chimpanzee.
She gained recognition from American audiences in 1975’s noir detective “Farewell, My Lovely,” and then in Woody Allen’s black-and-white self-reflexive “Stardust Memories (1980) and Sidney Lumet’s court melodrama, “The Verdict” (1982).
Over the last decade, she has continued to work with some of the world’s foremost auteurs, including François Ozon (“Under the Sand” (2000) and “Swimming Pool” (2003)), Laurent Cantet (“Heading South, 2005), Todd Solondz (“Life During Wartime,” 2009), Lech Majewski (“The Mill and the Cross,” 2011) and Lars von Trier (“Melancholia”, 2011), as Kirsten Dunst’ cynical mother.
Tom Courtenay and Rampling in the marital drama 45 Years, which earned the actress her second Oscar nomination and first nod as Best Actress.
She has two sons: Barnaby Southcombe, from her marriage to actor and publicist Bryan Southcombe, and David Jarre, from her marriage to French composer Jean Michel Jarre.
She has been engaged to Jean-Noël Tassez, a French communications tycoon, since 1998.
The feature is divided into chapters:
“Exposure” with Peter Lindbergh
“Stardust Memories” (Woody Allen, 1980)
“Age” with Paul Auster
“The Damned” (Luchino Visconti, 1969)
“Beauty”
“Swimming Pool” (François Ozon, 2003)
“Resonance” with Barnaby Southcombe
“Georgy Girl” (Silvio Narizzano, 1966)
“Taboo” with Juergen Teller
“The Night Porter” (Liliana Cavani, 1974)
“Demons” with Frederick Seidel
“The Verdict” (Sidney Lumet, 1982)
“Desire” with Franckie Diago
“Heading South” (Laurent Cantet, 2005)
“Death” with Anthony Palliser
“Under the Sand” (François Ozon, 2000)
“Love” with Cynthia Fleury and Joy Fleury
“Max, My Love” (Nagisa Ôshima, 1986)
Intercut with footage from some of Rampling’s bests known (and notorious) films, such as Liliana Cavani’s “The Night Porter,” Woody Allen’s “Stardust Memories,” Sidney Lumet’s “The Verdict” (opposite Paul Newman), and François Ozon’s “Swimming Pool” (in which she appeared fully naked)–this personal “self-portrait through others” tries—but doesn’t fully succeed–to throw a revealing look at one of the most iconic screen stars of the past four decades.
Credits
Written and Directed by Angelina Maccarone.
Produced by Gerd Haag, Serge Lalou and Charlotte Uzu.
Executive Produced by Michael Trabitsch
Cinematography by Bernd Meiners & Judith Kaufmann
Edited by Bettina Böhler
