Chet Baker

Trailer for the documentary Chop Suey. Filmmaker Bruce Weber, whose last feature-length documentary was the award-winning Let's Get Lost in 1988 (about jazz great Chet Baker), returns with this fascinating look at his life and career. Starting off as a film about model Peter Johnson, whom Weber snatched from a high school wrestling team and turned into a star for Ralph Lauren and other fashionistas, Chop Suey is a tasty mix of vintage color and black-and-white footage, still photos of everyone from Alfed Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe to Montgomery Clift and Clark Gable, and insightful narration by Weber and Johnson about modeling, family, and the cult of celebrity. The film goes all over the place, but every side adventure is a worthy one. Teri Shepherd, manager and longtime partner of nightclub favorite Frances Faye, shares endearing stories of their exciting relationship; wrestler Rickson Gracie and surfer Christian Fletcher discuss what it was like becoming (homoerotic) sex symbols as seen through Weber's lens; aging explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger and his book 'Arabian Sands' are featured; and former Vogue editor Diana Vreeland allows Weber in to shoot her fabulously tacky apartment. Other highlights include Robert Mitchum singing a duet with Dr. John and Weber talking about working with Jan Michael Vincent.

Trailer for Piano, Solo. Piano, Solo is the passionate and haunting true story based on the life of jazz pianist Luca Flores. A tragic destiny already awaits Luca on a road in Africa when, at a very young age, he sees his mother perish in a car accident. The boy s obsessive feeling of guilt for the terrible loss, as inexplicable as it is unfounded, plants the seed of a torment that will pursue the fragile musician for the rest of his life. The family is shattered by the tragedy. Luca and his sister return to Italy where the boy begins to study music. At the conservatory in Florence, Luca s exceptional and precocious gift as a pianist soon becomes evident. However, the inspired rhythms of his boyhood Africa soon turn Luca from a conventional classical career and lead him to jazz. Luca Flores becomes an acclaimed figure on the Italian and international jazz scenes, appearing with legendary greats such as Chet Baker and Dave Holland. The beautiful pianist s music is spellbinding, irresistible, as inescapable as an obsessive theme. Seemingly golden years, he enjoys tremendous success, the warmth of a reunited family, a woman he loves even to devastating possessive rage. Yet, the unbearable sorrow and feeling of guilt for his mother s death when he was just a child, also grow to obsession. Each day, as he withdraws further into their prison, not even Luca s music has the power to redeem him.