“Let’s Get Lost,” Bruce Weber’s expressionistic portrait of tragic jazzman Chet Baker, is coming back to Film Forum after 25 years, as part of a retrospective of the filmmaker’s work. Never in vogue among jazz critics, who saw him, over the years, as holding on for dear life to the “cool jazz” style that had defined him, Baker became more well known for his life outside the smoky clubs. Plagued by addiction, the trumpet player would go through numerous wives, multiple drug busts, and one famous incident where his teeth were knocked out, allegedly by angry drug dealers. His bad-boy good looks — many would compare him to James Dean— hardened with age, and his renegade lifestyle hit the brakes on May 13, 1988, when he was found dead in the street outside a hotel in Amsterdam.
Photographed in gorgeous shades of black and white, Weber’s documentary is a meandering and nebulous film that formally attempts to mirror Baker’s hushed vocalizing and sinewy, focused horn playing — what the critic Dave Hickey called “subversive premeditation.” It’s also very much in line with Weber’s large body of work as a fashion photographer. “Let’s Get Lost” is a film of constant movement, nostalgic for a mythic time when everyone was cool and beautiful, living in a dream world of morning beach walks and nighttime convertible rides.
It’s clear from the beginning that what you’re getting is less an objective portrait — if an objective portrait is even possible — and more of a love letter. Weber hints at some of the trouble of Baker’s life, interviewing various wives, girlfriends, and children he left behind, and his conversations with Baker, who is often deep into a dope haze, reveal more about the musician than any amount of analysis could. But Weber’s overbearing interest in the glossy polish of Baker’s life hinders the film. It’s a film about loving the image, not the man himself.
But as a film of surfaces, “Let’s Get Lost” does the trick. It’s breezy, often funny, and beautiful to look at. It takes a man who, for the sake of his art, hurt a lot of people in his life, and cements his mythic status, while at the same time lamenting an era when all great artists were alluring and damaged. It’s a world that doesn’t hold up, but it’s nice to spend a day absorbed by its trance.
“Let’s Get Lost” screens now through November 21 at Film Forum.
