The Kid Stays in the Picture

In 1966, at just 34 years of age with no major credits to his name, Robert Evans somehow found himself the head of production at Paramount Pictures. For the next eight years, Evans enjoyed a rollercoaster ride at the studio, nursing some highly influential pictures (Rosemary's Baby, The Godfather, Chinatown) as well as indulging his own taste for women and the high life. His fall, however, was to be as meteoric as his rise and a chronic addiction to cocaine signalled the beginning of the end for Hollywood's once invincible guru. Narrated by its subject, The Kid Stays in the Picture is a gloriously self-centred exercise in revisionism and myth building, but one which makes for extremely entertaining viewing.

As you might expect from one who made a career in Hollywood, Evans has a deliciously high opinion of himself and his talents (the most telling being his readiness to claim credit for badgering Francis Ford Coppola into re-shooting and editing The Godfather), while his eagerness to namedrop and show intimate photographs of himself and some of the most famous names in Hollywood suggests a man ill at ease with his own place in the greater scheme of things. Unlike most documentaries, there's a marked reluctance by the filmmakers to consult any of the other main players, and even if Evans briefly attests that perspective is everything, you can't escape the feeling that The Kid Stays in the Picture is a blustering exercise in self- promotion. It's bloody funny, though.