Based upon the life of the legendary jazz musician Chet Baker,Born To Be Blueis a semi-fictional account of his tempestuous 1960s battles with drugs and the law, and his eventual comeback.
Writer, director and producer Robert Budreau explains that this is a story of ‘what ifs’, but it’s ultimately all about the music.
“I’ve long been a fan of jazz. The very first film I did at film school was a little jazz short film. When I dug a bit deeper into Chet Baker’s story, I was fascinated by his character, particularly the section of his career in the ’60s when he made a comeback. I just kind of got pulled in. He’s a mysterious and enigmatic guy and I think he has this power of people.”
This certainly makes the film fascinating for music-lovers, but will it have as much pulling power in 2016, when many people – in Australia especially – are more familiar with the name Chet Faker?
“I think the themes that we explore are still relevant today, especially addiction and race in particular,” says Budreau. “One of the things that attracted me to the story was this idea that he idolised his black idols, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Obviously in the ’60s it was a time of change for race relations in America and I think it’s still an important issue today.”
And that’s not the only topic that carries just as much weight today as it did in Baker’s time. “[Drug] addiction with artists and others are still very relevant,” says Budreau. “And hopefully at the end of the day it’s also just a story that speaks to an artist’s struggle, themes of love and all those things that are universal for people.”
Ethan Hawke is mesmerising in the main role, truly encompassing Baker’s character. Considering the actor’s penchant for playing complex, broken men, it’s no surprise he turned out perfect for the role.
“He was always my first choice,” says Budreau. “He had wanted to play Chet Baker for quite some time and had thought about doing a Chet Baker film in the past, so he came very prepared and knowledgeable.”
Born To Be Blue’s unique approach to narrative has seen it described as an ‘anti-biopic’. However, that doesn’t mean it’s entirely divorced from reality.
“I deliberately set out to make something that was not a traditional biopic and mixed fact with fiction,” Budreau explains. “This is partly because I think that traditional biopics tend to be very cliché and I also think there’s an inherent fallacy to them. People present these stories as if this is exactly what happened – inventing things about characters and presenting them as truth. I thought it would be more interesting to be upfront about that, especially when you’re doing a jazz movie.
“It was important to me to find a tone for the film that reflected jazz. For me, it was a good approach to take because in real life [Baker] was approached by Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis to make a Chet Baker movie where he would play himself. It happened when he was in prison, but it fell apart before they could shoot it. I thought it would be interesting to just pretend that the film did happen and use that as a way, at the start of the movie, to tell the audience that this is a mixture of fact and fiction – kind of like a Charlie Kaufman type of device. When I found out about that, it really excited me about creating an anti-biopic.”
Born To Be Blue [dir.Robert Budreau]shows atEvent Cinemas George Street Wednesday June 8 andDendy Opera QuaysMonday June 13, as part of the Sydney Film Festival 2016.
