There is no condescension quite like the left wing European kind toward America, huh? Certainly that is my main take away from this annoyingly dismissive and reductive documentary on Ava Gardner's long residence in Francoist Spain that manages to cast its subject as both victim and victimizer. This allows its director, Sergio Mondelo, to blame Hollywood for Ava's alcoholism and unhappiness while casting her as second only to Ike and Sam Bronston as Yankee enablers of the generalissimo/dictator. And so we have both the Ugly American Film Industry alongside The Ugly (if paradoxically gorgeous) American. I guess what I'm saying is that while Ava should be criticized for palling around with a fascist thug who disappeared and jailed people, for the film maker to see this as the defining moment of her life, as Mondelo does, is kind of silly, in my opinion. Ms. Gardner, like most of us, had many defining moments, several of which (like her relationship with Howard Hughes and her support for Civil Rights and Adlai Stevenson) go unaddressed in this documentary.
It also would have been nice if this hour long look at a Hollywood icon had featured at least one Hollywood talking head rather than the dull parade of French and Spanish film studies nerds we're presented with. Solid C.
PS...Top 5 Ava performances:
5) Mogambo
4) The Hucksters
3) East Side, West Side
2) Sun Also Rises
1) Iguana.