David Bailey, Four Beats

to the Bad and no Cheating

 

2011 | Jérôme de Missolz | documentary | 90'

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Synopsis

David Bailey, a cultural icon, has been at the cutting-edge of contemporary art for fifty years. His life and work inspired one of the cult movies of the sixties, Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up, and he has constantly travelled the globe either with the most beautiful models or chronicling the contemporary reality of Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Vietnam and Afghanistan with ground-breaking reportages.
Above all, Bailey is a romantic with a delightful sense of humour,  showing no sign of slowing up. Director Jérôme de Missolz shuttles with him from his London studio to his country home in Devon, where, surrounded by family and friends, he continues to create one of the most varied and pertinent collections of any modern artist.
Featuring interviews with art critic Martin Harrison, Bailey's former wife Catherine Deneuve, his current wife Catherine Dyer, and his close friend Jerry Hall, Jérôme de Missolz's documentary is an engaging portrait of this very private man who bared the soul of the swinging sixties and seventies with his photographs and films. Grounded, honest, open and ferociously creative, Bailey makes art the way Count Basie played jazz: Four beats to the bar and no cheating.

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Director: Jérôme de Missolz

Producer: Laurence Uebersfeld

 

Co-production: Lufilms | White Rabbit | Sundance Channel | ARTE ZDF | AVRO

With the participation of:

Le Vision, CinéCinéma
NRK, YLE, TVO
Knowledge, SBS, MEDIA
Centre National de la Cinématographie / Procirep

 

Festivals / Official selections
IDFA (Amsterdam),
Planet Doc (Warsaw),
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (Montana, USA),
FIFA (Montreal)
Docaviv (Israel)