Escapes

Sometimes the role is a lot tamer than the reality. Hampton Fancher, now 77, ran away from home at 15 to be a flamenco dancer. Eventually, by his own telling, he would be in innumerable fights, sleep with many women, marry Sue Lyon (Lolita), and play plenty of villains (and other characters) on film and television. He would also be credited for writing Blade Runner.

Fancher is a prodigious raconteur. He tells many a story in Escapes, the new documentary by Michael Almereyda (Experimenter) that premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Fancher still knows how to hold an audience’s attention. So does Escapes, which illustrates Fancher’s reflections with an infinitely flowing stream of archival imagery. Essentially a one-interview film, it’s still a feast for the eyes.

And for cinephiles, we watch Fancher’s bumpy journey through odd jobs and odd women, to Europe, back to Hollywood, to TV shows like Paladin (remember that one?) and Bonanza. Agents at William Morris told him he would be the next Warren Beatty. Westerns were where Fancher got many of his parts. He was camera-ready for evil with an appealing face. Women were attracted to him, on screen and off.

Michael Almereyda knows not to have Fancher say too much in the 84 minute doc (hoping that the audience will want to hear more) and to let the pictures fill in the gaps. You leave the film knowing that these gaps are huge, and hoping for a director’s cut, a sequel, or a massive autobiography.

Michael Almereyda (b. 1959). A veteran of the US independent scene, Michael Almereyda is the director of many films, including Marjorie Prime (2016), and Experimenter (2015). He has filmed two adaptations of plays by William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (2014) and Hamlet (2000). Nadja (1994) is his stylish low-budget vampire film. He is also director of the documentary William Eggleston in the Real World (2005).

Filmography: Marjorie Prime (2016), Experimenter (2015), Cymbeline (2014), New Orleans, Mon Amour (2008), Happy Here and Now (2002), Hamlet (2000), The Eternal (1998), Nadja (1994), Another Girl, Another Planet (1993), Twister (1989).