SMASH HIS CAMERA Send This Review to a Friend
Some years ago in writing an article about paparazzi in Italy, one leading celebrity stalker took me on his rounds in Rome. I rode on the back of his motorbike as he raced to various parts of the city to show me how he worked in following tips on potential photo coups. He had various ploys, like going into a nightclub with a hidden camera and having an accomplice in a different part of the room use a flashbulb. While the accomplice was being tossed out, the mastermind would take a picture unnoticed in the hubbub. When we sped along on the Appian Way to one noted club, he showed me how he could drive no-hands while taking pictures of someone through the window of a car he was following.
This experience, and how comparatively tame the game was in those days, came to mind while viewing “Smash his Camera,” the film director Leon Gast made about the renowned and controversial paparazzo Ron Galella, against whom Jackie Kennedy sought a court order for him to keep a certain distance from her. He sued her for harassment. As the intriguing and well documented film shows, Galella has been intrepid in his pursuit of hot photos that would command attention and money.
He often angered subjects. Marlon Brando took a swing at him and he suffered a broken jaw and a loss of teeth. The stakes have escalated with various publications willing to pay top dollar for unusual celebrity shots, with certain celebrities becoming top targets. The situation raises ethical questions. How much privacy can a public figure reasonably expect? Where is the line between free press journalism and a transgressing invasion of privacy?
“Smash His Camera” tells the colorful Galella saga effectively, while at the same time posing the ethical questions to which there are no easy answers. Galella has plenty of stories to tell about his exploits, and filmmaker Gast taps into the subject matter with skill and insight. A Magnolia Pictures release.
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