Let’s face it, practically every queer person in show biz either has a Faye Dunaway story or wishes they had one. Gay gossip columnist Billy Masters even has an infamous feature called “Fayewatch” in which he more often than not details sightings of her erratic behavior. Instead of honoring the career of a true Hollywood legend, such reporting has made her the butt of a joke, the “crazy lady” trope incarnate. While misbehaving male actors often get a free pass, chatter about Faye’s difficult attitude reek of misogyny and sexism. This and more get explored in the candid and moving documentary Faye, part career retrospective and part deep dive into what makes her tick. Needless to say, this often remarkable film will serve as catnip to every Faye Gay of a certain age, and they’ll likely come out of it with a newfound respect for one of our greatest living stars.
Most actors would kill to have one classic film on their IMDB page, but Faye Dunaway has an undeniable three with Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, and Network, the last of which won her the Academy Award in 1976. Add to that stellar performances in Little Big Man, The Thomas Crown Affair, Three Days Of The Condor, Puzzle Of A Downfall Child, The Eyes Of Laura Mars, Barfly (one of her best and most overlooked), the blockbuster hit The Towering Inferno, and The Handmaid’s Tale, not to mention her iconic portrayal of Joan Crawford in the much-reviled camp classic, Mommie Dearest, and you have an unparalleled résumé. Every career has its ups and downs, but if a career damaging role still gets discussed to this day, you’ve done something right. Faye at her best gave us strong, brittle, captivating women you couldn’t ignore, and I have no doubt we will see more.
At 83, you can still see that fire in her right off the bat from Laurent Bouzereau’s (Mama’s Boy) lens. Before we even see her, we can hear her barking at the director to start shooting because she’s here and she’s ready to go. Once on camera, she complains about the terrible couch she’s sitting on as she fusses with her hair, her hand positions, and she even demands water in a glass instead of a bottle. Her conspiratorial eye roll, followed by a laugh and a sly, “See?” to the director, tells us she’s a handful and she knows it. Call this an apology tour or a mea culpa, because Faye cops to her behavior, but she also gets candid about her mental health struggles. In doing so, we see the lovely, caring, introspective woman underneath that reputation, and it reframes everything we may have thought about her previously.
Told chronologically, Faye could easily have served as a puff piece hopping from one great performance after another. Bouzereau, however, has found his way in by including Faye’s son Liam, who often sits beside her and feeds her photos from their lives. You can feel their deep connection and love for each other, giving us a glimpse of Dorothy Faye, her given name, a Southern girl raised by a headstrong mother and alcoholic father. She movingly talks about her late younger brother, who by her own admission had a warmth she wishes she possessed. Her fortitude and laser-focused ambition, however, served her well in climbing to the top.
Through archival clips as well as interviews with Faye, her son, film scholars, co-stars like Mickey Rourke, and friends like Sharon Stone, we get a well-rounded look at the talented, complicated, sometimes tortured perfectionist and devoted mother. We even get treated to heretofore unseen clips from her aborted feature directorial debut of Terrence McNally’s Master Class. I had the pleasure of seeing Faye onstage in the play and it’s truly a shame the rest of the world won’t get the chance to witness this magnificent performance.
Most of the juicy nuggets of her career get screen time here, including the infamous Roman Polanski hair-pulling incident on the set of Chinatown, her ex-husband Terry O’Neill’s iconic post Academy Award-winning photograph of her poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and even her thoughts on Mommie Dearest, which she has rarely discussed. Mara Hobel, who played young Christina, touchingly discusses how she wished Faye had enjoyed the experience as much as she did.
There is no doubt Faye has great beauty and an alluring mystery which draws audiences to her. At her best, she possesses a nervous energy, one shown to great effect in clips from Network. Her son posits that without her mental health issues, she might not ever have been so great. It is a fascinating and daring hypothesis, one you don’t typically see in documentaries of this sort. While we’re treated to quirky moments like her obsession with Blistex and judging people by their astrological signs, we also see a movingly proud mother and grandmother, and in one short but revealing clip in which we see her getting her hair styled for an appearance, someone actually goofy and fun…two words not often associated with Dunaway. She even jokes that Jack Nicholson dubbed her “Dread” on the set of Chinatown and that she learned to love the nickname.
It is so wonderful to learn that she mentored Sharon Stone at the height of her fame, making clear how important it is to give back to those who deserve it. In turn, Stone gets choked up discussing the love she has for her friend while also making us laugh when Faye tells her to get out of her eyeline at a photo shoot. This documentary also makes clear that Faye loves every aspect of filmmaking, studying other movies, directing her own short, and gobbling up cinema every year at the Cannes Film Festival, where this film world premiered in May. Moments like these go a long way towards making us see Faye in a different light. Like many icons, she has dueling personas, that of the star and the one pre-fame. Liam brought me to tears when he reconciles the two at the very end.
Is Faye a pain in the ass? Does she futz too much with hair, makeup and wardrobe? Undoubtedly, even by her own admission, but to distill her down to one trait and to put it under a microscope is what has allowed people to laugh at her for decades. She may have made her own bed, particularly with the details surrounding her recently getting axed from the Broadway-bound Tea At Five, but she has also had to protect herself in a male-dominated world. Faye brings us many facets of this complex woman and celebrates her rightful place in screen history.
By Glenn Gaylord, Senior Film Critic
FAYE debuts on HBO on Saturday, July 13th at 8pm ET/PT and will be available to stream on Max.
Leave a Reply