Chris & Don: A Love Story

The lives of British Christopher Isherwood - perhaps best known as the author for the source material for Cabaret (1972) - and American portrait artist Don Bachardy, the latter who is thirty years Isherwood's junior, are presented, focusing largely on their thirty-four year relationship which ended with Isherwood's death in 1986. Their stories are told primarily through accounts directly by Bachardy, accounts by friends and official historians, passages read from Isherwood's diaries, and archival footage, including that from their home movies. Isherwood's pre-Bachardy life had him move from England to Berlin to New York to Los Angeles, largely to find a place where he could feel comfortable with his homosexuality. Bachardy's pre-Isherwood life was largely spent in Los Angeles, where he and his elder gay brother Ted were exposed to the gay life in the city together as they entered into their teen years, and where he dreamed of movie stardom. Isherwood and Bachardy met on Santa Monica Beach, and were slow to become partners. Their early relationship was that of artist and clay where Bachardy subconsciously took on many characteristics of his partner, including the British accent. Isherwood also had many famous friends to who he exposed Bachardy. But a situation concerning the filming of The Rose Tattoo (1955) would change Bachardy's interest away from movie stardom, and on Isherwood's urging, into portraiture. This career would be his calling and would bring Bachardy into being his own man for the first time in his life, which in turn would be the source of their potential split. Bachardy speaks of why he would understand that this career would be more than a suitable substitute to that movie stardom. Bachardy also talks of the animal personae he and Isherwood took with each other, with Isherwood the horse and Bachardy the pussy cat: the reason for it, and how these two personae often helped them through their difficult periods.