Brigitte Berman’s “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” (1985) is a portrait of the mercurial bandleader, clarinetist, composer and author. This new 4K restoration of the original film is returning to the big screen for a very limited time.
The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 1986. The film is being shown as a complete new 4K restoration and a brand new soundtrack.
“Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” is anchored by an incisive interview with its then 72-year-old subject, looking back on a five-decade career, along with interviews with Shaw’s contemporaries and a wealth of photos and archival film footage.
Born Arthur Arshawsky on New York’s Lower East Side, “King of the Clarinet” Artie Shaw (1910-2004), became one of the most popular stars of the 1930s and '40s Swing era — notably as rival to “King of Swing” Benny Goodman. In an era of separate white and Black bands, Shaw broke the color barrier by hiring legendary African American musicians like Billie Holiday, Oran “Hot Lips” Page, and Roy Eldridge for his bands.
Shaw’s restlessness and intellectual curiosity (he would author four books of fiction and non-fiction) led him to shun celebrity and retire from show business in the late 1940s, with only occasional comebacks after. Known also as a ladies’ man, Shaw’s eight wives included actresses Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Doris Dowling, and Evelyn Keyes, and Kathleen Windsor, author of the notorious racy novel Forever Amber.
In addition to Shaw, who tells his own story, Berman’s interviews include vocalist Mel Tormé, drummer Buddy Rich, and actress/ex-wife Evelyn Keyes (she played Scarlett O’Hara’s younger sister in Gone with the Wind), whose other ex-husbands included director John Huston.
“Dazzling. An unfailingly entertaining saga.” — The New York Times
“Shaw comes alive for you in ways that go way beyond his physical presence.” — Los Angeles Times
“Superb! A documentary masterpiece. Shaw’s life story is told in sensitivity and detail.” — POV Magazine