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SALES/PRODUCTION: EVA LINDEMANNLittle Bear Filmselindemann@littlebearinc.comtel: 447940993576 / 646 734 4211www.bruceweber.com

Let’s Get LoststarringChet Baker

Bruce Weber

Little Bear Films andNan Bush present

a film by

CAROL BAKER Born in England, the third wife of Chet Baker; estranged from Chet, but never divorced. Now lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with her three children by Chet

VERA BAKER Chet Baker’s mother; now lives in Stillwater

PAUL, DEAN & MISSY BAKER The three children of Chet and Carol Baker

DICK BOCK Founder of Pacific Jazz, the first label to record Chet

WILLIAM CLAXTON Photographer whose pictures of Chet in the 50s did much to promote the young musician’s image as “the James Dean of Jazz”

FLEA Member of the rock group The Red Hot Chilli Peppers; Chet Baker look-alike and fan

HERSH HAMEL Musician who played with Chet in the early days

CHRIS ISAAK Singer, sits in on the film’s recording session

LISA MARIE Voluptuous young actress/model; appears in the Santa Monica scenes among others

ANDY MINSKER Boxer and Chet Baker look-alike; subject of Broken Noses, Bruce Weber’s first film

JACK SHELDON Colorful trumpet player, knew Chet in the early days

LAWRENCE TRIMBLE Screenwriter and Chet Baker Fan

JOYCE NIGHT TUCKER Singer and early girlfriend of Chet

CHERRY VANILLA Former singer, conducts some of the interviews in the film

DIANE VAVRA Drummer, Chet’s most recent girlfriend

RUTH YOUNG Singer; Chet’s girlfriend for ten years

Seen in photographs only:

CHARLAINE BAKER Chet’s first wife

HALIMA BAKER Chet’s second wife, born of Pakistani and East Indian parents

CHESNEY BAKER Chet and Halima’s son

LET’S GET LOST will be re-released in the UK by METRODOME on June 6, 2008 and in France by WILDSIDE on July 23, 2008.1988, 119 minutes, 35mm, black and white, mono sound

To access press-ready stills from LET’S GET LOST go to: ftp.littlebearinc.comusername: lglpress password: imagination

Directed and produced by BRUCE WEBER Executive producer NAN BUSH Director of photography JEFF PREISSEdited by ANGELA CORRAOAssociate producer ITAKA SCHLUBACH-HICKS Line producer EMIE AMEMIYA Sound editor MAURICE SCHELLDialogue editor LAURA CIVIELLO

Music editor JOSEPH S. DEBEASIMusicians FRANK STRAZZERI/ PIANO JOHN LEFTWICH/ BASS RALPH PENLAND/ DRUMS NICOLA STILO/ GUITAR Re-recording mixer LEE DICHTER/ SOUND ONEProduced by LITTLE BEAR FILMS, INC.

AND CREDITS CAST

Internationally renowned photographer/filmmaker Bruce Weber’s second feature LET’S GET LOST received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary. The film presents the story of the late jazz great Chet Baker. Upon its release, LET’S GET LOST was a sensation at several international film festivals, including the 1989 “New Directors/New Films” series at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Critics’ Prize.

LET’S GET LOST, also the name of a long out-of-print Baker tune, aptly describes the driving force of this man and his music. His James Dean looks and cool sound set Baker apart from the other musicians of his time, but his ongoing issues with a narcotic addiction also gave a generation of jazz fans a “Doomed Youth” of their very own. Chet Baker’s life plays out like a Kerouac creation, as did his death (he fell out of an Amsterdam hotel window on Friday the 13th, 1988, at the age of 58). But out of his life came some of the most lyrical trumpet playing and jazz vocals ever heard.

Following the elusive and digressive nature of their star, Weber, cinematographer Jeff Preiss, and crew went on the road with Baker from the West Coast to the East

Coast to continental Europe, during what turned out to be the last year of the musician’s life. Weber captures some of Baker’s last recording sessions and weaves together excerpts from Italian B movies starring the handsome young Chet, rare performance footage, and candid interviews with Baker, musicians, friends, battling ex-wives and children. These varied elements comprise a visual dimension that is becoming the filmmaker’s personal stamp.

The soundtrack album, “Chet Baker Sings and Plays from the album “LET’S GET LOST”, has been released on LP and CD on the RCA/Novus Records label. This soundtrack, consisting of newly recorded music, may very well contain Chet Baker’s last recordings. Produced during the making of the film, the album was recorded in Hollywood and Paris and mixed in New York. Included are such memorable songs as “Imagination,” “My One and Only Love,” “Almost Blue,” and “You’re my Thrill.”

A Film Journal, Bruce Weber’s companion book to LET’S GET LOST, with photos by Weber, William Claxton (who first captured the jazz star in the 50s) and others, has been published by Little Bear Press.

LET’S GET LOST

“We didn’t sit down and say, ‘we’re going to do a two-hour film on Chet Baker’” says Nan Bush, executive producer of LET’S GET LOST. “The whole thing came about by accident...

“Bruce was having an exhibition at the Whitney Biennial and he wanted to include a picture of Chet, who was appearing at a little club in New York at the same time. So we went over and met him. We loved Chet and his music – idolized him, really. And when Bruce got the pictures back, he was so excited that he called his cameraman, Jeff Preiss, and asked if he could come up to Chet’s apartment and do a bit of filming with his Bolex.”

The spark of excitement caused by a second shoot at an L.A. recording studio led to their commitment to a full-blown project. It also committed Bruce Weber and Nan Bush to a most unreliable protagonist.

“It was always difficult to track him down,” says Nan Bush. “We had to line up a crew and a studio, plan the logistics, and we never knew if he was really going to make it. Chet didn’t live by the rules most people live by. We had a line producer whose patience was tested beyond all limits. She would be on the phone with him, sometimes all night, talking him through things, dealing with his girlfriend, whatever. One time the crew spent an entire day setting up for a shoot, only to have Chet came back from Europe a day late. Then at the end of our L.A. shooting, he said “to

hell with it,” and Bruce was ready to forget it, too. A moment later Chet tapped Bruce on the shoulder, looking amazingly handsome, all pulled together and ready to go. You could never tell from one moment to the next whether he was going to get up and leave, haul off and slug you, or if he was going to sit and be as charming as he could be.”

Baker’s unpredictability was compounded by his poor business dealings, which prevented the production from using several music tracks that Bruce Weber had selected for the film. Filming was even sidetracked sometimes by Baker’s selective memory.

“There’s one scene towards the end when we asked him whether his children had any interest in music,” recalls Nan Bush, “And he said he didn’t think so, but that his other son by another wife did. Bruce almost dropped the camera. No one ever told us he had a son by another wife. Chet had never told us about him. And those kinds of things were so exasperating, because we’d ask him over and over again, ‘Is there anyone we should try to find for the film?’ But Chet was not very giving of information.”

The problems of making LET’S GET LOST only pulled Bruce Weber further into the film and offered him the opportunity to make some unorthodox choices – much as Baker did with his music.

NOTESPRODUCTION

EVERYBODY HAS A STORY ABOUT CHETBill Claxton, the photographer, told me when Charlie Parker first heard Chet play, he called Miles Davis and Dizzie Gillespie and said, “There’s a little white cat out here who’s going to give you a lot of trouble.” Charlaine, Chet’s first wife, told us how Chet used to play the trumpet in the shower because he thought it was good for the sound. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell used to sit at the front table at The Haig in the 50s to hear Chet and Gerry Mulligan play together. Someone told me he used to walk from Paris to Rome to cool out. Sam Shepard told me how he walked into Charlie Mingus’ house and saw this man hanging out in jodhpurs and a crop with no shirt on. Of course, it was Chet. Supposedly he was once introduced to James Dean on the street in New York City in the early 50s. He just said “Hi” and walked away. I say in the film, “Everybody has a story about Chet Baker.” I made the film with Chet because I wanted to have my own story about him.

SOMETHING OF THE WAY HE MOVES AND TALKSAt first I wanted to do some more photographs of him, but he seemed kind of frail, so I thought maybe we should do a little three minute film on him, because you never knew whether you would see him again, from day-to-day. He’d just disappear, go on the road, with no phone number, no address, no way of reaching him. I thought making this film was a way to have something of the way he moves and talks, along with his music.

LOVE AND FASCINATIONI had know about Chet Baker since I was fourteen, when I bought the album “Let’s Get Lost & Other Songs.” The cover photo was taken by William Claxton. I was very familiar with the man and his music way before we actually met, so my approach to Chet’s story was alot like the song “Love and Fascination.” That’s what it ’s all about. The film was as much an involvement of the whole cast and crew as it was about Chet. It was about being illusioned and disillusioned and illusioned all over again by a hero. Nothing was what you thought it was going to be, but I think Chet’s main desire was to make beautiful music no matter what problems he had going on in his own personal life.

CHET WAS THE HISTORY OF JAZZDick Bock, the founder of Pacific Jazz Records, thought that Chet sounded like he was the history of jazz. He was Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Bunny Berrigan all rolled into one. His music brings you the romance of the beach, the sea, and the moonlight no matter where in the world you are hanging out.

TRUTH OR LIESI’m a big fan of some of David Wolper’s documentaries, and the whole idea that documentaries should be like features, that they

should entertain people and not just give fact after fact. Sometimes Chet would tell a story and we would be spellbound, but the next day we’d find out it wasn’t even true. And yet, I still believe some of those stories. Maybe he was a good actor, maybe it really was the truth, and maybe the person who said it was lying. I feel that sometimes documentaries are so based on fact and truth that there’s no mystery left.

LET THINGS HAPPENWe didn’t create events for Chet in the film; we let certain scenes happen. One time, we had planned to shoot on the beach, but Chet was so late that we found some stray pups and filmed them instead. They kind of reminded me of all those cool west coast cats who made such special music.

YOUNG AT HEARTWhy the kids at Venice Beach? You see Chet at the age of 24, was this hot young musician who played with Charlie Parker, and even at the age of 58, he was still 24 in his head. If I’d gotten together a bunch of old musicians to sit around with him, he would have walked right out. He didn’t see himself as a 58-year-old with lines on his face. He saw himself as one of those kids.

THE LOOKMy cinematographer Jeff Preiss and I worked closely to make the film a mixture of black and white reversal film and a little bit of 8mm. We wanted our film to fit with the look of the archival footage.

WILLIAM CLAXTONI’ve known William Claxton since I was nineteen and going to NYU Film School. He photographed me and put me in one of his short films. Chet’s early album covers introduced me to Bill’s photographs of the jazz world.

THE PROCESSPeople sometimes feel your photography and your film work shouldn’t collide. I always start a film by taking photographs and filming at the same time. It was my desire to make films like the content of my photographs – whatever that might be. Talking too much about it ruins it for me.

NEXT UPRobert Mitchum was Chet’s and my favorite actor, so when I finished LET’S GET LOST, I started to work on a musical film about Bob. The idea originated from a book by Bob and his brother John called Them Ornery Mitchum Boys! Marianne Faithfull, Rickie Lee Jones, and Dr. John joined us and it became a wild ride. Chet’s film was my Harvard and my Marine bootcamp – it got me ready to make a film about the original bad boy of Hollywood, my pal Bob Mitchum.

COMMENTSBRUCE WEBER

Bruce Weber was born on March 29, 1946 in Greenburg, Pennsylvania. An internationally acclaimed photographer and filmmaker, he has photographed for most major magazines and has 23 books to his credit. His work has been exhibited in over 60 gallery shows and museums around the world and his photographs are in the permanent collections of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum as well as in the Photography Division of the City of Paris.

Bruce Weber is equally acclaimed for his filmmaking and has produced a total of five feature length and short films. His first and second films, BROKEN NOSES and LET’S GET LOST won best Documentary

awards from the International Documentary Association. LET’S GET LOST was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Docu-mentary. The film’s soundtrack rose to number one on the charts and is the best-selling Chet Baker collection in history. He is currently finishing his long-awaited film about Robert Mitchum due to be released in late 2008. Mr Weber has also directed music videos for Chris Isaac and the Pet Shop Boys, the latter winning music week’s “Video of the Year”. He has directed commercials for Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, Jill Sander, Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie & Fitch, Volvo and Dior Homme.

Bruce Weber lives in New York City.

Broken Noses 1987Winner - International Documentary Association AwardSundance Film Festival 1988, Grand Jury Prize NomineeStarring Andy Minsker and the the kids from the Mt. Scott Boxing Club

The Beauty Brothers 1987 (short)Starring the Dillon Brothers

Let’s Get Lost 1989Academy Award Nomination - Best Documentary FeatureWinner - International Critic’s Prize - Venice Film FestivalWinner - International Documentary Association AwardStarring Chet Baker

Backyard Movie 1991 (short)

Gentle Giants 1994 (short)Dedicated to River Phoenix

The Teddy Boys of the Edwardian Drape Society 1996 (short)

Chop Suey 2000Winner - Teddy Awards Special Mention - Berlin Film Festival 2001Starring Peter Johnson and Frances Faye

A Letter to True 2003Starring True, Tai, Dirk Bogarde Voiceover by Marianne Faithfull and Julie Christie

Wine and Cupcakes 2007 (short)Starring Angela McCluskey and Paul Cantelon

Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast (in development)Starring Robert Mitchum, Dr. John, Marianne Faithfull, Rickie Lee Jones

FILMOGRAPHY DIRECTOR’S

BIOGRAPHY BRUCE WEBER

Even though Chet Baker made close to one hundred records, under his own name or as a sideman, and for years in the 1950s his name topped many of the international jazz trumpet polls, few Chet Baker records remain in print today. But the mythology that grew out of Baker’s troubled life through his 58 years has always been available, even when the man (and the artist) faltered later in his life.

Born in Oklahoma in 1929, the trumpeter’s early career was attended with phenomenal success. At the age of 24 Baker was playing as a sideman with Charlie Parker in Los Angeles, and in the same year he joined baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan’s famous piano-less quartet. Baker’s lyrical, skating trumpet lines and imitable plaintive were his strengths; when he formed his own groups, especially with composers like Russ Freeman and Dick Twardzik, Chet’s limited range and technique – musicians called him an intuitive player—expanded, and he reached his critical high-water mark in the mid 1950s, when he produced a number of excellent albums, including “Chet Baker in Paris” (1955).

Living in Europe, Baker’s career began to suffer from narcotics, arrests, failed marriages (which produced four children, none of whom he lived with) and a critical backlash against his “cool” sound. He attempted a number of comebacks, recorded some albums on European labels – presumably for expedient cash – and, in the late 60s, back in the U.S., received a solid blow to his career when his teeth were knocked out in a fight in San Francisco.

In his later years, Baker turned more and more to singing, and his vocals have the same plaintive and intimate quality that distinguished his trumpet playing, which he returned to as well. But the myth, inseparable from the man, continued intact. The good looks, youth, and fragile, introverted tone that attracted a cult following in the 50s – which his subsequent track record did nothing to dispel – brought filmmaker and photographer Bruce Weber to Chet Baker in 1987. The result is new Chet Baker music and myth in the form of LET’S GET LOST.

BIOGRAPHY CHET BAKER