Documentary: Helmut Newton – The Bad and The Beautiful

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Helmut Newton (1920 to 2004) on October 31, 2020, the life story of the exceptional photographer is now told by those he portrayed: women.

Companions from film and fashion, such as Grace Jones, Isabella Rossellini, Charlotte Rampling, Claudia Schiffer, Anna Wintour, Marianne Faithful, Nadja Auermann and his wife June Newton, have their say.

In the 1970s, it was Helmut Newton who, as an avant-gardist, initiated a new era. For glossy magazines and fashion advertisements, he photographed women in provocative poses: in men's clothing, with bloody knives, in the company of large dogs, at swimming pools at night, or as an ageing nymphomaniac.

His oeuvre was the staging of female bodies, but his attitude towards this was not without controversy. Newton described himself as a feminist. He called the women in his work "triumphant" and rejected the claim that he often portrayed them absurdly or as objects.

3sat will show the documentary “The Bad and the Beautiful” by Gero von Boehm on Saturday, October 31, 2020, 20.15:XNUMX p.m.

How did Newton influence the way we view the female body? What perspectives and desires did he promote through the power of his images? Were the strong women he showed sex objects or sex subjects? What role does aesthetics play in this?

“The Bad and the Beautiful” follows Newton’s life through the different phases of his extraordinary, sometimes dramatic life and work: his childhood, his escape from Berlin, his private happiness, his professional beginnings and successes.

Audio and film documents recorded during Newton's lifetime with conversations, exclusive archive recordings and private material shot by his wife June paint a nuanced picture of the exceptional photographer and human being Helmut Newton.

© Photo: ZDF, A.Springs, HNEstate, Courtesy Helmut Newton Foundation