NEWS JUNKIE POST
Jun 10, 2010 at 1:02 pmNew Documentary “Smash His Camera” Takes Shot At Paparazzi, Fame
(Photo © Nick Stepowyj)
Celebrities have a contentious, but symbiotic relationship with the paparazzi. Without the scruffy photographers, who hustle, sweet-talk and trick their way into the stars’ inconvenient playgrounds, the celebs couldn’t bask in their stardom. This love-hate, give and take, is featured in the fascinating new documentary, “Smash His Camera,” that focuses on one of that dubious profession’s oldest and most notorious paparazzo Ron Galella. The film, which garnered filmmaker Leon Gast the Best Director Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is featured this month on HBO.
Galella has done just about anything to get a shot of a celebrity. He’s hidden for hours in bushes, dumpsters, warehouses. Always waiting for his celebrated prey. He’s gotten thousands of photographs, many have fetched him a pretty penny. And these days, Galella, who’s now 79, spends most of his time going to gallery shows of his work and hawking “No Pictures,” a book filled with his most famous photos of Jackie O, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Mick Jagger and a slew of other luminaries. Though as you’ll see in the film, he can’t resist stalking new targets like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Once a paparazzo, always a paparazzo.
Galella is probably the most famous paparazzo, even more famous than the fictional celeb photog in Fellini’s classic “La Dolce Vita” for which the low-rent profession was named. He started back in the 1960′s but really made a name fro himself in the ’70′s just as the whole Studio 54 Disco era launched the celebrepshere which has now morphed into a 24/7 multi-media matrix that includes entertainment celebrities and all those non-celebrity celebs who’ve found cheap fame on Reality TV and the Internet. And these days anyone with a camera cellphone can be an instant paparazzo.
Gast poses some intriguing questions about both Galella’s work and the concept of fame. Is Galella a legit photojournalist? Does what he resorts to to land a shot amount to stalking? The gig isn’t without its hazards. Galella has been embroiled in lawsuits with Jackie Onassis and Marlon Brando. Brando once punched Galella in the mouth, requiring the photog to have his jaw wired shut and undergo extensive dental work. He sued the star–the forerunner for Sean Penn’s recent antics–and settled for a $40,000 judgement, telling his lawyers he didn’t care about the money, only his right to work. And he continued to pursue the elusive icon.
The film’s title comes from a directive Jackie O allegedly gave a Secret Service Agent when Galella followed the former First Lady and a then ten year Jon Jon into Central Park. He filed suit, claiming she was trying to prevent him from making a living; she counter-sued on the grounds of harassment and breach of security. She got her restraining order, but he still maintained his professional right to snap photos from a distance.
In “Smash” Galella confesses to a near obsession with Jackie O. “I wasn’t married at the time. I didn’t have a girlfriend. I guess, in a way, Jackie was my girlfriend.” And he finally got his most coveted shot, the one he calls “Windblown Jackie,” as she smiled dashing for a cab in 1971. “If she knew it was me, she probably wouldn’t have smiled.”
Gast captures Galella at work and at home–a Sopranoesque, New Jersey McMansion, adorned with an artificial garden and rabbit graveyard( the gruff photog has a soft spot for bunnies). Does Galella’s archive of thousands of photographs–housed in his basement –contain anything of lasting cultural significance?
A collection of photographers, editors, writers and art world denizens offer opinions. Graydon Carter, the Vanity Fair Editor, is an enthusiastic fan, a Metropolitan Museum of Art honcho, not so much. Carter says Galella does for living celebrities what 20th Century crime photographer Weegee did for the dead. A trio of photographers evaluate the pics in Galella’s book, some giving him high marks, others grimacing, claiming they’d have tossed certain shots. That scene, dripping with sour grape juice, had me humming Van Morrison’s “Professional Jealousy.”
“Smash His Camera” is an intriguing glimpse of both the grit and glamour of the two sides of celebrity. Clearly celebrating one tough, hard-working paparazzo, Gast also casts a harsh patina on the arrogance of celebrities who want fame but on their own terms. If you want fame be prepared for the intrusion that comes with it. Want to be worshipped? Someone’s gonna take your picture.
Just don’t expect people to remember you forever. In one amusing scene, a young girl floats through a gallery show of Galella’s photos and struggles to identify some of the most famous 20th Century icons including Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, saying quizzically, “Taylor Burton?”
Fame may be fleeting, but persistence is ingrained in Galella. He shamelessly pursues Robert Redford at a charity event just so he can put a signed copy of his coffee table book in the star’s hands. That scene–and one in which he dogs Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.–are actually touching. Kennedy asks Galella how old he is and then says, “You’re too old to hide in the bushes anymore.”
Maybe so. But even if he has already harvested his bounty in bushes, dumpsters and alleys, Galella’s not quite done shooting off his camera. And people will always be star gazing.
“Smash His Camera” by Leon Gast. For air dates: HBO
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I was fortunate to have seen “Smash” and enjoyed seeing this man’s career. I understand that the photographer’s intrusion on celebrities private lives can be annoying and understandbly so, but I think it comes with the territory. It was a very interesting accounting of how they operate -Ron being a bit more pushy than others. Thanks for a wonderful article.
I just finished watching this film and it is quite interesting.