Faye Dunaway lets her diva flag fly, then and now, in the documentary ‘Faye’
Review by Brian Lowry, CNN
(CNN) — “Faye,” a documentary memoir of Faye Dunaway, begins with the “Chinatown” star barking orders at her interviewer, saying, “We need to shoot. I’m here now, come on.” It’s a perfect introduction to an actor who has worn the dreaded “D” word – “difficult” or “diva,” take your pick – throughout her career, in a film that serves as an unvarnished but appropriately laudatory tribute.
Few stars shone brighter than Dunaway at the apex of her career, highlighted by a decade-long span that began with “Bonnie and Clyde” – which helped usher in a new era of more edgy and ambitious filmmaking – followed by “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “Chinatown” (which recently commemorated its 50th anniversary), “Three Days of the Condor” and her Oscar-winning role in the dark satire “Network.”
At 90 minutes, “Faye” could have devoted the lion’s share of its time to that era and still been worth watching. But director Laurent Bouzereau (“Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind”) obviously has to go back to Dunaway’s upbringing, her personal life and the latter part of her career, punctuated by what she refers to as “mistakes,” from her much-lampooned portrayal of Joan Crawford in “Mommie Dearest” to her dropped attempt to turn her lauded stage performance in “Master Class” into a movie that she intended to direct.
Now 83, Dunaway spills a bit of tea about her various relationships, from a romance with Marcello Mastroianni (prompting her to dump director Jerry Schatzberg, who laughs about losing a woman to the dashing Italian star) to her marriage to Terry O’Neill, the photographer who snapped the iconic photo of her lounging by the pool the morning after winning the Oscar for “Network” in 1977.
Their son, Liam O’Neill, is also among those interviewed, along with Sharon Stone, who Dunaway befriended; and her “Barfly” co-star Mickey Rourke, who refers to her as “mesmerizing.”
Dunaway’s screen beauty, with a face made for close-ups, and abundant talent merely added fuel to her diva reputation, distilled into a memorable clip of Bette Davis telling “The Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson that Dunaway was the one actor she wouldn’t work with again.
Yet as director James Gray, who worked with her on the 2000 movie “The Yards,” notes in the film, the way Dunaway became characterized within the entertainment industry also represents “a comment on how women are in some ways treated and judged on a very different scale than men.”
Of course, “Faye” provides enough anecdotal highlights that it’s possible to enjoy strictly on that level, from Dunaway finally telling Jack Nicholson to go ahead and really slap her in a famous “Chinatown” moment to her insistence on applying Blistex to her lips between scenes.
Perhaps foremost, “Faye” allows its subject to be, or at least appear, as big, complicated and multifaceted as her life and career, in both the highs and lows, would suggest.
“I’m not happy with anything here,” Dunaway tells the interviewer during that setting-up exchange.
But if the goal was creating a document that offers a reminder of and testament to her talent, she – and those who make the time for “Faye” – should be.
“Faye” premieres July 13 at 8 p.m. ET on HBO, which, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.
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