Review: Documentary on Helmut Newton shows the photographer's art, but leaves his muses to dissect his legacy

The documentary “Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful” is caught between its two conflicting attitudes: It wants to be as playfully mischievous as its bad-boy subject, the late fashion photographer Helmut Newton, while also appraising his work as serious, relevant art.

Newton, best known for his provocative images of naked and clothed women in Vogue, hated the word “art,” as much as he hated the phrase “good taste.” (He says so in one of the interview clips, shot shortly before he died in 2004, near the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, hit by a car at 83.) Surely one can argue whether his images are artful — and the fun of director Gero von Boehm’s documentary is diving into that argument.

Through a wealth of footage of Newton at work and at play, von Boehm (German-born, like Newton) shows the nuts-and-bolts of how Newton runs a photo shoot — bouncing around the location, constantly chatting with his models as he seeks the perfect image. It’s in these moments where we see Newton courting controversy, whether it’s showing an able-bodied model using canes or a wheelchair, or photographing millions’ worth of Bulgari diamonds by placing them on hands butchering a roasted chicken.

But it’s the interviews that are most fascinating. Interestingly, all the people von Boehm interviews are women, most of them models or actors who had been on the business end of his cameras. (The notable execeptions are his editor at Vogue, Anna Wintour, and his wife, June — also a photographer, working under the name Alice Springs.) 

Some of the subjects, like the supermodel Claudia Schiffer or the actor Hanna Schygulla, barely go deeper than recalling how fun it was to shoot with Newton. The best, though, go deeper, not just reminiscing about the experience but appraising the photographs for their symbolism and meaning.

The interviews that make “Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful” worth watching are of actors Charlotte Rampling and Isabella Rossellini. Both are not just performers but experts on their craft, and know about the significance of female iconography because they have been those icons. If Rampling and Rossellini ever team up for one of those Masterclass videos, tag-teaming a discussion of feminist film studies, I’m so there.

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‘Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful’

★★★

Available starting Friday, July 24, on virtual cinemas, including SLFS@Home. Not rated, but probably R for images of full-frontal nudity, and language. Running time: 93 minutes; in English, and in German with subtitles.