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entertaining u newspaper: your monthly guide to entertainment
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by jon bosworth
jaxvillain@yahoo.com
The challenge of a movie review is always the same. You want to give the reader enough of the plot points to pull them into the story, point out the featured actors, in case that is what draws the reader to a film, and carefully distinguish the type of film it is through its unique qualities. Doing all this without giving away the surprises of the film can sometimes be difficult, but in the case of Crazy Love, the documentary about a love story that started in the 50s, this task is very complicated.
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There are no stars in this film. It is a traditional documentary that starts off telling the story of Burt and Linda Pugach.
“She was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen,” the aged Burt Pugach tells the camera as he describes their first meeting.
But what starts off as a middle-century story of courtship and romance turns into a tale you can hardly believe to be a true story. But it is the type of true story that found its way to the front pages of newspapers several times over the torrid twenty plus years of their love/hate affair. Of course, the limelight of media attention is an understated (if not altogether ignored by the documentary) aspect of this couple and what draws them to each other, and then to cameras and interviews.
The way this story unfolds is brilliant. Directors Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens deftly tell the story from the separate perspectives of Burt and Linda, incorporating the testimonies of their friends to provide perspective. Burt was rich, but he was a dog. Linda was beautiful, but she wasn’t a very good mistress. How these two found each other is a beautiful story, what split them up is a terrifying tragedy, and how a documentary can have the twist ending that this one has just proves how brilliant Klores and Stevens are as filmmakers. That’s all I can tell you without revealing too much.
Burt Pugach was a lawyer in New York in the 1950s. He was rich. He ran with a Hollywood crowd, owned his own nightclub, and even had a private jet. Linda Riss was a Bronx girl from a broken home, an unusual thing in middle-century America, so she was tough as nails. But she was also gorgeous, so boys always noticed her. Burt was no exception. He noticed her as he was driving through town and he tenaciously approached her. Thus began his pursuit of the beautiful Linda. Before long, the band in his nightclub was striking up ‘Linda’ every time the couple walked in. But this was only the bright shiny start of their affair, because a dark cloud soon loomed over their romance. This love story quickly twists into an insane and turbulent downward spiral as Burt’s practice comes under scrutiny, Linda learns the whole truth about Burt, and Burt’s affection turns into obsession.
He takes Linda to the doctor to prove that she is still a virgin, she proves that his divorce papers were fake, and then when a normal relationship would crumble and the parties would move on, Burt refused to move on.
What follows is the story of a match made in hell and perhaps a window into how bloodthirsty and narcissistic love can be.
Crazy Love had its world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and earned the Best Documentary award at the 2007 Santa Barbara Film Festival. Friends of the Festival brings it to the San Marco Theatre on July 30th at 7:30 pm. Don’t miss this film. Bring a date, preferably an ex-girlfriend that thinks you’re obsessed. She’ll see.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
