Chop Suey was a nickname Weber gave to Johnson, inspired by an old cookbook. Johnson playing American football, Johnson fishing, Johnson in chaps, Johnson wrestling, Johnson as a sailor, Johnson surfing, Johnson dining with a monkey, Johnson with dogs. Documentary 1 h 38 min English audio CC Unrated For over four years Bruce Weber photographed one subject: Peter Johnson. The Chop Suey Club collects together three years of portraits of his muse. With portraits of a lesbian jazz singer and a 16 year old wrestler. Weber met Johnson in 1996 and became fascinated by his youthful physique and sense of being. 1h 38m IMDb RATING 6.7 /10 275 YOUR RATING Rate Documentary Biography A homage to Bruce Weber's Favourite things, these being mixing film, photography and classic movies. Was discovered at a high school wrestling camp when he was just sixteen, by famed photographer Bruce Weber.

Near fine, in very good dust jacket slight shelf wear, slight rubbing to spine ends and forecorners, small 0.5cm tear to lower edge of front jacket, small 1cm tear to lower edge of rear jacket.Ī photographic study of Weber's friend Peter Johnson, a young wrestler from Wisconsin. Illustrated throughout with b&w and colour full-page photographs. Multiple styles of dance were seen in the scene of the film that represent the concept of Chop Suey and aide in the idea that Asian peoples are easily. Hardback olive cloth-bound boards, blind-stamped with title and the words 'who touches this touches a man' (Walt Whitman), dust jacket. Thats a Larry Clark book.-Oh.-I just love the black and white, how rich it is. Edited and designed by Dimitri Levas.Īrena Editions. cookbook called 'Chop Suey.' I cant even fry an egg and I never read cookbooks, but I thought 'Chop Suey' was a crazy enough name for a camera club dedicated to making a photo album of a kid from Wisconsin.-I could use that. Its an eclectic film, held together only by Webers ironic voice-over narration and the endless shots of the. Weber's sheer rapture at physical beauty is overwhelmingly sincere, but nothing of much depth is revealed about anyone, and the parade of erstwhile personalities comes across as so much necrophilia, especially when it comes to the subject of gay supper-club singer Frances Faye, a minor figure on the subject of whom Weber is a monumental bore.Bruce Weber. Chop Suey strives to be avant-garde and trendy. Johnson - a married man with a daughter - is not asked for his opinion on being a gay icon, and is treated as a brainless beefcake throughout, rightly or wrongly. The premise of the film is that Weber creates a vast, campy portfolio of Johnson dressed up in various guises, and then takes him on a tour of his own portfolio of star interviews and photos, without really illuminating anything or anyone. Ruoyi Jiang runs Chop Suey Club, a Lower East Side boutique that sells Chinese fashion, home goods, and art and hosts neighborhood parties and mah-jongg nights. It manages to say a little, but not nearly enough, about himself, about the aesthetics of photography, about the handsome young wrestler and homoerotic icon Peter Johnson, with whom Weber is currently preoccupied, and about all the other characters that Weber has photographed, including Robert Mitchum, Diana Freeland and Wilfred Thesiger. L ike Churchill's themeless pudding, this gregarious autobiographical feature from photographer and film-maker Bruce Weber (who made the Chet Baker biopic Let's Get Lost) is lacking in focus.

Movie chop suey club