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To capture the reality of the process, Toback and Baldwin ("the Ed McMahon to his Johnny Carson," says Baldwin) last year went around Cannes pitching a film, to be directed by Toback and to star Baldwin and Neve Campbell. They proposed a version of Bernardo Bertolucci's notorious "Last Tango in Paris," to be titled "Last Tango in Tikrit" that would feature the same "exploratory sex" of the 1972 Marlon Brando original. (Although many later assumed the project was charade for the documentary, Toback insists he still hopes to make it.) They set out hoping to make the film for $15 million to $20 million, but most people they interviewed tell them it's more likely a $3-5 million project. ("I'm too old for that," says Toback.) It would be better, too, if they could get a bigger-name actress, they were told. One financier suggested that Baldwin go back to submarine films like "The Hunt for Red October." Another called him a "TV actor." "The film has to be two things," says Baldwin. "It has to be Jimmy and I humbling ourselves trying to sell a movie here
-- and it is humbling. And then some sort of homage to Cannes." It also pays homage to movies in general. Interviewed about their irrational love of film are Francis Ford Coppola (who says cinema is "given by the gods"), Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese, Ryan Gosling, Bertolucci and Cannes director Thierry Fremaux. They're all there to make a case for what Toback calls "the mysterious, intuitive process" of moviemaking. "Seduced and Abandoned" takes on an elegiac tone of nostalgia
-- complete with a booming score by the late Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich
-- for the older, more daring days of the movie business. Shot in a blitz at Cannes, Toback had to figure out much of the film once he got home. They did additional shooting to tie things together after being rejected from the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. But Toback says he can't imagine having a better time making a film. Baldwin says it was "exhilarating." "I would just assume go make more documentaries like this with Jimmy," says Baldwin, who also recently signed on as producer of "Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me," a documentary about his "30 Rock" co-star. "Let's take some iconic tableau in society
-- the Super Bowl, a murder trial . the Country Music Awards. We'll think of something that's just a world unto itself and go and make a documentary." "We'll see," he adds with a grin. "He and I have some ideas."
[Associated
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