Born into a wealthy Jewish family, Helmut Newton came of age ensconced in the seductive decadence of an 'anything goes' Berlin under the Weimar Republic. His teenaged apprenticeship under commercial photography pioneer Yva - who perished in the Holocaust - coincided with his family's persecution under the rise of the Third Reich and the emergence of the striking aesthetics of infamous Nazi propagandist, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. He escaped with members of his family in 1938... (Full plot summary below)
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Born into a wealthy Jewish family, Helmut Newton came of age ensconced in the seductive decadence of an 'anything goes' Berlin under the Weimar Republic. His teenaged apprenticeship under commercial photography pioneer Yva - who perished in the Holocaust - coincided with his family's persecution under the rise of the Third Reich and the emergence of the striking aesthetics of infamous Nazi propagandist, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. He escaped with members of his family in 1938 and met his life partner June while in Australia working as a commercial photographer. The couple eventually settled in Paris where Helmut's gradual evolution beyond the, then, conservative confines of fashion photography coincided with the radical political upheaval of 60s France. Interpreting the most traumatic political and cultural shift in German history, Helmut established his artistic legacy by effectively channeling his past into an erotically charged, highly-subversive portfolio dominated by bold 'Aryan'-esque women in stilettos navigating the shadowy past of Helmut's motherland. Replete with Helmut's arresting imagery, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL features creative accomplices Grace Jones, Charlotte Rampling, Isabella Rossellini, Marianne Faithfull, Anna Wintour and widow June Newton as they reflect on Helmut's life and legacy.
Leave your thoughts about Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful.
| Movie NationRoger MooreIt’s a fun, generally brisk biography, one whose tone might be the artist’s credo. Newton declared that there are “only two dirty words” in any of the three languages he spoke — “art” and “good taste.” He never let either limit what he was trying to say. |
| Original-CinKaren GordonWould his work, or any work that walks the line the way his does, be tolerated today? It’s not explicitly in this documentary, but perhaps something worth asking after watching a film about an artist who experienced fascism first-hand. |
| IndieWireRyan LattanzioWhile the film is hardly as transgressive as its subject, it manages to be unexpectedly moving, and a nostalgic time capsule of an art-world rebel whose unorthodox methods and decidedly politically incorrect vision couldn’t exist today. |
| The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeNever intending to rationalize away the seedier aspects of Newton's work, the film hopes instead to make us recognize the humor and inventiveness lurking there as well — and to persuade us that an artist's unruly erotic imagination doesn't necessarily tell us much about what he thinks of women. |
| VarietyOwen GleibermanAn engaging and surprisingly playful documentary about the man who was arguably the most transgressive photographer to emerge from the 1960s and ’70s. |
| Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerIf von Boehm adds anything to what's known of Newton's life, it's to explore his iconography, about which he was very honest. His dismissiveness of photography as insightful, his enigmatic storytelling, and the great contradiction of his work, of how a young Jewish boy who was almost murdered during Kristallnacht absorbed so much of the imagery of the Reich's most artistic propagandist, Leni Riefenstahl. |
| RogerEbert.comRoxana HadadiFor as incomplete as “The Bad and the Beautiful” feels in terms of addressing criticisms leveled at Newton, the inclusion of so many women’s perspectives is its own defensive statement. |
| The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisA gossipy portrait of a charmingly naughty boy whose genius is perhaps best appreciated on a second viewing with the sound off and the eyes wide open. |
