Want the real story on Johnny Cash? Try Matt Riddlehoover's new doc, MY DARLING VIVIAN

A wonderful, much-needed corrective to the overblown, over-rated, cliche-ridden 2005 bio-pic Walk the Line (that very nearly suggested sainthood for June Carter Cash, the second and hugely hungry-for-media-attention wife of country-western singer Johnny Cash), the new documentary MY DARLING VIVIAN, making its virtual theater debut this week, is a must-see for anyone who cares about something approaching the "real story."

Yes, Reese Witherspoon won a Best Actress Oscar for her work in the earlier film, and that movie had the usual Hollywood bio-pic gloss, but it is this little documentary that grabs you from its first frames, as one of Mr. Cash's four daughters by his first wife, Vivian Liberto, explains that, in a way, each daughter had a "different" mother, due to all the events/trauma going on as these girls grew up.

And while Ginnifer Goodwin, who took the role of Vivian in the bio-pic, is certainly attractive and talented, her beauty is no match for that of the real Vivian (shown on poster, top, and below), who more realistically might have been played by the likes of Angelina Jolie. Director Matt Riddlehoover, shown above, has brought together a wealth of archival materials -- photos and film -- of the early days of Johnny, Vivian and their girls, and what we see, coupled with what we hear from each of the daughters (now grown to adulthood), combines to make the documentary as full of pertinent information as it is riveting and moving.

While it is clear that the daughters certainly cared about and for their father (shown above, right), it is their mom and her mistreatment by Mr. Cash and his second wife, that is called to attention here. (You may be tempted to refer to this guy as Johnny Trash.) As we learn of Vivian's own family history and how this played into her fears and foibles, along with how her husband consistently put his own desires ahead of what might be best for the family, a not terribly untypical tale of mid-20th-Century male entitlement -- celebrity version -- unfurls.

To go into much detail will spoil the many surprises in store, so TrustMovies will just say that each of the four daughters proves a different yet equally interesting guide into the family history, with eldest daughter Roseanne Cash, herself a noted singer and musician, giving us the most time and information.

And yet it is all the fascinating specifics of this marriage (along with Vivian's second one) that make this movie so peculiar and so sadly believable. How June Carter Cash used every media opportunity to make it seem as though she had raised and mothered the four girls; how that Walk the Line movie distorted fact with easy fiction, and most disgustingly what happened to a song dedicated to Vivian at the special tribute to Johnny Cash and its TV broadcast. How the record of an entire life can be eradicated via those in power has rarely been so effectively demonstrated.

Although the film gives us all this, it never raises its voice or appears to demonize any of its subjects. In fact, Vivian herself is shown to be a very problemed person, greatly loved though she was by her family.

And if Johnny Cash seems pretty awful for much of the movie's length, by its finale, he has at least partially redeemed himself. How fortunate it is that Vivian was the kind of woman who saved so much of the memorabilia concerning the fellow she very much loved. And that her daughters were willing to speak so genuinely and tellingly about their rather special family.

From The Film Collaborative and running a perfect-length 90 minutes, My Darling Vivian opens today, Friday, June 19, in New York City at Film Forum and elsewhere around the country. Click here for more information about Film Forum's virtual cinema, and here for more info on how, wherever you live, you can watch the film at home.

NUMBER ONE FAN: DVDebut for Jeanne Herry's dark/funny/oddly real study of obsession

In NUMBER ONE FAN (Elle l'adore), her first full-length film, French writer/directer (sometimes actress, too) Jeanne Herry offers a very interesting and different look at obsession: that of a middle-aged woman fan's adoration of her "hero," a super-popular singer who is equally obsessed with his own career and reputation. What makes the film so unusual is Ms Herry's approach -- which is not from any of the usual angles we might expect.

The filmmaker (shown below) refuses to turn this into a comedy or a tragedy or even the

kind of mystery/police procedural we often see. And yet, as the movie moves along, it becomes, without seeming to even try, all of the above. And it does so while remaining, moment to moment, utterly real without ever resorting to any of the usual "movie" techniques (super-snappy editing and/or pounding music to ramp up the suspense).

Instead things stay relatively quiet and calm, even as they grow increasingly bizarre. This is an unusual "technique," to say the least, but in the end it pays off rather well.

In the starring roles, Ms Herry is fortunate to have two fine (and terrifically appropriate) actors: Sandrine Kiberlain (shown above) and Laurent Lafitte. Ms Kiberlain has always excelled (in literally every role she appears), especially when she plays the oddball outsider, as here. She captures that peculiar obsessive quality that fans bring to their adoration, which allows them to concentrate on their idol to the diminution of all else in their lives -- from their children to their employment.

M. Lafitte (above and below) brings his gorgeous face and physique to the fore, as a top-grade performer so used to the "entitled" spotlight that, when an accident happens that would have any remotely "normal" person calling for an ambulance and/or the police, instead reacts only in his celebrity "career protection" mode. On one level this is beyond crazy; one another, it is simply standard practice for the narcissistic celeb.

How events pile up and go quietly to shit is also somehow expected. But the manner in which Ms Herry handles it all is certainly not. One one level the movie becomes an oddball police procedural involving a pair of romantically involved cops (Pascal Demolon and Olivia Côte, below, respectively, left and right), one of whom is, as her lover describes it, a nymphomaniac. This provides not only some very weird-but-understandable plot points, but a chance for the two actors (below) to strut their stuff, believably and enjoyably.

How the movie winds up (and down) is low-key but effective, turning much of what we've seen on its head. Holding it all together is Ms Kiberlain, who has one scene toward the finale in which she is under questioning in the police station -- and allowing her character to give the performance of her life -- that should offer enormous evidence, were any still needed, of what a supremely expert actress she is.

From Distrib Films US and Icarus Films Home Video, the DVD hits the street this Tuesday, October 2 -- for purchase and/or rental.

STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE -- Maria Schrader's look at the Austrian writer

What a smart, resourceful and especially interesting idea it was for actress/filmmaker Maria Schrader to conceive of a film about the last years of the famous Austrian writer and public figure Stefan Zweig -- a Jew who had to leave Nazi Germany while there was still opportunity -- as a series of public appearances at various events around the world to which Zweig had been invited. This works better than one might imagine for several reasons. As director and co-writer (with Jan Schomburg), Ms

Schrader, shown at right, uses these settings as glorious visual set-ups (her opening is a knockout of marvelous color and surprise) that slowly allow us to enter the mind and heart of her protagonist, the very quiet and understated Herr Zweig, who was in his time and due to the popularity of his writings, a major worldwide celebrity. He also seems to have been, in the view of the filmmaker, a fellow who believed in peace and prosperity for all, as well as in the sanctity of Europe as a kind of nation unto itself. (How timely: Are you listening, Dictator Trump and would-be dictator Le Pen?) So strongly, in fact, does Zweig feel this that he refuses -- early on in the Nazi take-over of Germany and Austria -- to outright condemn the Hitler regime.

This makes for anger and resentment among some of his peers at the P.E.N. Congress that Schrader lets us attend, but as we come to understand Zweig's feelings and beliefs (he is played by that fine actor Josef Hader, shown below and at far left in the photo, right) and watch him in action and repose, this attitude makes more and more sense. The man hoped, past all hope, for some kind of peaceful conclusion to events in Germany, Austria, Europe and the world. He also, in his exile, never stopped longing for the Europe he so hugely missed.

In STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE, we travel with Zweig and his second wife, Lotte (Aenne Schwarz, below, right) to various spots in South America, to New York for a visit with his first wife and family, then back again to South America, where he takes up -- against his deepest wishes -- a kind of permanent residence that turns out to be far too temporary.

In New York we meet that first wife, Friderike, played with her usual restraint coupled to her classic beauty by Barbara Sukowa, below. The family scenes here, filled as they are with tinges of regret and sadness, are quietly fraught and seem particularly moving.

Each scene in Ms Schrader's movie is beautifully and delicately acted by the entire ensemble so that we catch the tiniest nuance, as well as much of the history/exposition embedded quite naturally and smartly into the movie's excellent dialog.

Consequently, we come away feeling as though we know this man, his life and surroundings, about as well as we could hope to, given the film's 106 minute running time.

The lushness and beauty of South America is also captured exquisitely. We feel Zweig's love and admiration for Brazil and elsewhere on this southern continent, even as we see his homesickness increasing and depression on the rise.

TrustMovies did not know much of anything about this author, prior to viewing Schrader's film, so he was surprised indeed by the movie's final scene, which the filmmaker handles with fine tact and grace. I suspect Zweig himself would understand and appreciate the actions of the loving maid at film's end. All told, this is a masterful and very beautiful piece of work.

From First Run Features, Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe , after playing the festival ciurcuit, opens in its U.S. theatrical premiere this Friday, May 12, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema. It will plays additional cities thereafter (in Los Angeles it opens at Laemmle's Royal on June 16). Click here to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.