Review
Heinz Bütler s documentary traces the career of Edward Quinn, a photographer who recorded celebrity life on the French Riviera in the 1950s. Quinn struggled as a pinup shooter until realizing that a magazine-buying public hungered for glamorous yet tastefully insightful images of stars from Hollywood and Europe. Quinn s discretion and knack for being in exactly the right spot at the right moment yielded a number of notable portraits and candid pictures. Featuring archival footage of the genial Quinn (who died in 1997) talking about his life and work, Riviera Cocktail looks at how the shutterbug established a network of contacts in service occupations (working in hotels, etc.), who helped him determine the whereabouts of Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, and other silver screen luminaries. On the minus side, the efforts to recreate a 1950s style and tone with a jazz score by Franco Ambrosetti (viewers also spend time watching Ambrosetti s band discussing in non-subtitled Italian Quinn s iconic subjects) is a distracting intrusion in an otherwise fascinating profile (the story of Quinn s adventures with Pablo Picasso should not be missed). Recommended, overall. --Video Librarian
Review
The name of Irish photographer Edward Quinn remains synonymous with a specific decade and region: the Cote d Azur of the 1950s. In launching his career, Quinn quickly recognized the public s twin fascinations with international celebrity and ritzy living, and thus spent years trolling up and down the French Riviera, capturing indelible images of the high life among the exorbitantly rich. Heinz Bütler s biographical documentary Riviera Cocktail: Edward Quinn, Photographer, Nice traces the life and career of this iconic figure and purveyor of pop culture, from his early days as a pinup photographer, through his celebrity liaisons and the images he captured on the Cote d Azur, through the relationships he forged with such giants as Baselitz and Picasso late in life. --Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
