THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE
****
Directed by Jon Spira.
Starring Peter Serafinowicz, Harriet Walter, Joe Dante, John Landis, Peter Jackson.
Documentary, UK, 104 minutes, Certificate TBC
Reviewed as part of Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024
Every year FrightFest audiences are given the opportunity to choose from a number of excellent documentaries, this year being no exception. Perhaps the most high profile of these was Jon Spira’s innovative look at the life of horror icon Christopher Lee. This thorough exploration, which explains among many other things why he disliked being described as a horror icon, employs a large number of techniques to bring this giant of genre cinema back to life, including different animation techniques, puppetry and mimicry.
It may feel questionable to impersonate and use the voice of a deceased figure, especially in this age of AI and deepfakery, but Spira commendably puts his cards on the table in the films opening moments showing actor and impressionist Peter Serafinowicz in the recording studio warming up to deliver an excellent, and affectionate, impression of Lee. This voiceover is then delivered through the figure of a marionette puppet of Lee guiding us through a large volume of rare archival footage. Friends, family and
collaborators are also interviewed including his niece Harriet Walter, familiar to audiences as the flighty mother from SUCCESSION, and directors Joe Dante, Peter Jackson and professional loudmouth John Landis.
These voices, and many more, describe and illustrate the rich, and sometimes mysterious, life that was Lee’s. Descended from Italian aristocracy, Lee wandered aimlessly through public school only to end up abroad serving in the army during World War II. Reluctant to share what exactly he got up to, many rumours have abounded and are looked into here including the juicy tidbit that some of his exploits were the inspiration for his cousin Ian Fleming’s immortal creation James Bond; a figure Lee would face off against decades later as Scaramanga in one of the many interesting wrinkles and coincidences that pepper his life as he becomes an actor with a career that takes him across the globe and well into the twenty-first century.
Various animation styles are employed throughout as well as a marionette puppet delivering Serafinowicz’s voice over. For the most part the disparate styles are evocative as they are effective, especially the passage detailing Lee’s heart scare that found him seeking solace in the works of J.R.R.Tolkien,revealing the actor’s deep love for this particular mythology as well as his touching starstruck encounter with the man himself in an Oxford pub in the 1950’s. Lee’s desire to play a part in a film adaptation is something we were all lucky enough to see realised to such great effect, but to see Peter Jackson emotionally recall his working relationship and Lee’s own doubts about being unable to live up to the material, adds an emotional layer to an already affecting documentary.
As we all know the horror genre in all aspects provides fertile ground for documentary filmmaking and it feels strange to realise that a proper work about Lee is only now coming about. There is so much more ground covered here than the usual Hammer and Dracula beats that separate documentaries could be made for each section, especially his working relationship and everlasting friendship with Peter Cushing which provides such wonderful archive footage of them having fun together. Personally I would have loved to have seen Dante’s recollections on collaborating with Lee for his deadpan performance in GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH to go along with Dante’s keen insight into Lee’s other work.
This all leads to an emotional crescendo as Lee, after so many spectacular onscreen deaths, passes away to the great beyond, showing how missed he is as a performer and more importantly as friend and family. This is all bittersweet stuff, including a truly toe-curling BBC News interview with Lee after receiving his knighthood, where the interviewer carelessly refers to him as the “King of Horror”, showing the man's own complicated feelings to a genre that he often felt was beneath him. This is a fascinating aspect that is also explored smartly and contributes neatly to the layered portrait that is presented here in this involving documentary that makes you want to explore all aspects of his work, whether it is for the first time or the hundredth.
Iain MacLeod
