CONRAD BLACK: THE LAST PRESS BARON
Rick Caine & Debbie Melnyk, Canada, 2004 BBC Two: Monday 9 May 2005 11.20pm-12.20am
Part travelogue, part investigation, this film sets out to examine Black's globetrotting newspaper deals and the controversy and resistance he has encountered along the way.
STORYVILLE
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Nick Fraser
Storyville Series Editor
The great corporate downfall of this year was the unseating of the neo-conservative press mogul Conrad Black. On the whole, coverage of Black's demise has been packed with schadenfreude. What is appealing about this Canadian film by Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk is its lack of judgement.
The two filmmakers began their pursuit of Black when he was at his zenith, and they were able to follow him around a book tour in which he plugged his massive biography of Franklin Roosevelt at the very moment when his own giant empire was falling to pieces.
This gives the film a hilarious quality, but it also shows Conrad Black to be an estimably outsized figure, both physically and through his overbearing, pompous, but nonetheless charming manner.
