Chop Suey [2008] [2001] [DVD] [2010]

“Chop Suey” is a scrap book in film format.I think you can see this film from two different perspectives:The one where you pay attention to the naked young men in the film and the one where you don't care about naked men and focus on enjoying the many other things that you can see in this film.The film goes on as an conversation illustrated by images.And the images are beautiful! You have photos by Edward Weston, including some of the absolutely unique and stunning nudes of Charis Wilson. On that, let me open a parenthesis here. Look for “Eloquent Nude: Edward Weston and Charis Wilson tvo” on youtube. Charis Wilson, then 90 years old, talks about photos that Edward Weston took of her. I almost cried, seeing her wrinkled hands browsing through her stunning nude photos in the book the was browsing through.Going back to “Chop Suey”, you also see Eduard Boubat and David Bailey. The film has Robert Mitchum singing,the explorer Wilfred Thessiger, a family of surfers and skate boards, the jiu jitsu master Rick Gracie who is one of the great champions in jiu jitsu’s history. It has the wit of Diana Vreeland. It has photos of John Huston’s “The Misfits”.It has female supermodels. And you have lots of labrador dogs in the beach!“Chop Sweay” is beautifully filmed and also has many archive images. I especially liked that when you see photos in the film they don't have that annoying zoom effect. The camera moves to show the photos . I liked that.The film does't have subtitles. The extra features are messy and I didn't like them anyway. One other thing I didn't like about this film is the repeated references to a singer, Faye something. I never heard of her before and, listening to her , I will certainly not look for her cds. Then again, the film is about things that BruceWeber likes. I didn't like Faye and didn't care for the guys. That didn't stop me of really enjoying watching this beautiful film.The cover of the dvd case has several photos of a wrestler who is also a model or something like that. He is the guy to whom Bruce Weber “introduces to his universe”.And he does need an introduction because he knows nothing about photography or cinema.But don’t judge a dvd by its case cover. There is much more in this film than the photos on the cover would suggest and Dorothea Lange’s quote right in the beginning of the film tells more about this film than the dvd cover: “One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind. To live a visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable.”Curiously, I came to this dvd because I read a review about a documentary on Diana Vreeland, “The Eye has to Travel”, where it says that this film has more information about her than that documentary. It is a complete misinformation but I ended up watching a very good and interesting documentary that I would not had watched.

I saw this when it originally came out. I took the trouble to book a seat in the small municipal run cinema in Croydon uk. Just like some of the other reviewers, it turned out to be my own personal viewing. What an absolutely exhilarating film, I could have jumped up and down - no one would have seen me. Have just found it here on Amazon and immediately ordered a copy. Looking to relive a wonderful afternoon of long ago.

Great

watchable

Excellent documentary film. A visual and musical feast that I enjoy again and again! "Chop Suey" by Bruce Weber is wonderful!(signed) A Customer.

It was described as a gay film... so no one in our town went....except me...and the girl from the box office....just the two of us in the whole cinema...what a sin. Chop Suey the most beautiful examples of human kind with fine music and poetry. Bruce Weber you are something else. I have waited so long for this dvd and can't wait to be able to watch this over and over again. Amen. Go watch It. Diane Bowman

This film is amazing. It's like hanging out with Bruce Weber and going through his photos with him.Not a lot of plot, but great to look at, and interesting to listen to as well. If you want some insight into what makes this great photographer tick, this is worth your time.

Really wonderful. A real chop suey mix. Swift pace moments mixing the beauty, the energy, the softness of youth and others of people getting old and remembering the times when they had theese qualities. So beautiful thoughts about the dangerous love between the photographs and his models. Contrast between moments seized in the immobilty of the pictures or the petrifying beauty of the models and places, and moments of diablous rythm of the music....Run fast and fast...The time catches up us.