Чет Бейкер: Жоғалғанға Кеттік

1988 documentary film

Let's Get Lost is a 1988 American documentary film about the turbulent life and career of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, who died four months before this film is released. written and directed by Bruce Weber. The title is derived from the song "Let's Get Lost" by Jimmy McHugh and Frank Loesser from the 1943 film Happy Go Lucky, which Baker recorded for Pacific Records.

A group of Baker fans, ranging from ex associates to ex wives and children, talk about the man. Weber's film traces the musician's career from the 1950s, playing with jazz greats like Charlie Parker, Gerry Mulligan, and Russ Freeman, to the 1980s, when his heroin addiction and domestic indifference led to a relocation to Europe. By juxtaposing these two decades, Weber presents a sharp contrast between the younger, handsome Baker — the statuesque idol who resembled a mix of James Dean and Jack Kerouac — to what he became, “a seamy looking drugstore cowboy cum derelict”, as J. Hoberman put it in his Village Voice review. Let's Get Lost begins near the end of Baker's life, on the beaches of Santa Monica, and ends at the Cannes Film Festival. Weber uses these moments in the present as bookends to the historic footage contained in the bulk of the film. The documentation ranges from vintage photographs by William Claxton in 1953 to appearances on The Steve Allen Show and kitschy, low budget Italian films Baker did for quick money. Musician Michael "Flea" Balzary appears briefly, discussing trumpet playing with Baker.

Bruce Weber first became interested in Chet Baker when he spotted a photograph of the musician in a Pittsburgh record store on the cover of the 1955 vinyl LP Chet Baker Sings and Plays when he was 16 years old; the film's title comes from a song from the album. Weber first met Baker in the winter of 1986 at a club in New York City and convinced him to do a photo shoot and what was originally only going to be a three minute film. Weber had wanted to make a short film from an Oscar Levant song called "Blame It on My Youth". They had such a good time together that Baker started opening up to Weber. Afterwards, Weber convinced Baker to make a longer film and the musician agreed. Filming began in January 1987. Interviewing Baker was a challenge as Weber remembers, "Sometimes we'd have to stop for some reason or another and then, because Chet was a junkie and couldn't do things twice, we'd have to start all over again. But we grew to really like him". "You'd decide that, when Chet finally gets up, you'll grab him and talk to him about the early days", Weber expanded to Time Out. "But then Chet gets here, and he's had a fight with his girlfriend, and he wants to record a song So what happens is that your world becomes like a jazz suite. You have to go along with him". In May 1987, when Weber's documentary Broken Noses premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, he brought Baker along to shoot footage for Let's Get Lost. Weber spent a million dollars of his own money on the documentary and filmed it when he had the time and the money, describing it as "a very ad hoc film". In her review for the Los Angeles Times, Carina Chocano wrote, "If there's a driving force to Weber's film, it seems to be delving into the nature and purpose of star quality and personal magnetism, which Baker had in droves but which didn't save him". In his review for The Washington Post, Hal Hinson wrote that what Weber "provides us is rapturous, deeply involving, and more than a little puzzling". Terrence Rafferty, in his review for The New York Times, wrote, "The enduring fascination of Let's Get Lost, the reason it remains powerful even now, when every value it represents is gone, is that it's among the few movies that deal with the mysterious, complicated emotional transactions involved in the creation of pop culture — and with the ambiguous process by which performers generate desire". A newly restored print was screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. The film was spoofed on the mockumentary series Documentary Now as Long Gone.

Let's Get Lost was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1989. It won the Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

The film score features performances by Baker from the 1950s and 1960s along with newly recorded performances from 1987 and the soundtrack album was released on the RCA Novus label (full title Chet Baker Sings and Plays from the Film "Let's Get Lost") in 1989. "Baker is my favourite vocalist of the century," Björk told Q. "There were two albums – both with the same title, ridiculously – which were released with Bruce Weber's film of his life, Let's Get Lost. One was recorded when the film was being made, when he was older, and the other with all the stuff he sung when he was young, which I prefer he's the only singer I've ever been able to identify with. I love the fact he's so expressive, so overemotional. It's classic stuff; it makes me soft in my knees He was so into it: like, 'Fuck those notes I'm singing, and fuck those songs I'm singing – what I want is the emotion.' That's how I feel about it too." Baker's recording of "Chetty's Lullaby" with Ennio Morricone as conductor of his orchestra was also featured in the film. Baker brought his 1985 recording of "So Hard To Know" from Brazil to include in the film.

Let's Get Lost was released on VHS and Laserdisc in Japan by Nippon Columbia on November 21, 1993. Let's Get Lost was originally going to be released on DVD in 2007 along with an expanded version of the film's soundtrack.