One, no one and one hundred thousand Jim Carreys. No one knows how to take off a mask and wear another one better than him, baring himself. The documentary on the backstage of Milos Forman’s Man On The Moon was presented at Venice 24 (out of competition).
The documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – The story of Jim Carrey and Andy Kaufman with a very special, contractually obligated mention of Tony Clifton, directed by Chris Smith, recalls Andy Kaufman’s personality, a sarcastic and irreverent character, musician and composer who died of cancer at the age of 35. The story tells what happened in 1999: Forman accepts to make Jim Carrey play Andy Kaufman in the biopic Man on the Moon. And this is how the ultimate anarchic American actor totally merges with Andy’s personality, where he lives together with his alter ego Tony Clifton, his most famous character, an unpleasant lounge singer. With the result of an explosive mix of two, no three winning personalities: Kaufman’s, Clifton’s and Carrey’s characters.
Critically acclaimed, the performance made him won a Golden Globe in 1999. The backstage is even more brilliant, if possible, which was shot by Andy’s ex-girlfriend Lynne Margulies and Bob Zmuda, Kaufman’s co-writer.
In the documentary, 18 years later, Carrey reflects on how he and Andy came out from incredibly similar and parallel universes, starting fromtheir will not to bow to the iron logic of the Hollywood star system.
