David Carradine’s unfinished film Mata Hari has been film and internet lore for quite some time. Now, filmmakers Joe Beshenkovsky, James A. Smith have taken the footage and used it to tell the story of David Carradine’s relationship with his daughter Calista and it will have its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 4th.
In 1975, television star David Carradine came up with a novel way to forge a relationship with his estranged daughter Calista: he would make a movie with her. Our documentary tells the story of David and Calista’s relationship through the lens of their unfinished, years-long film project, an epic telling of the life of the Dutch courtesan and spy, Mata Hari.
From the filmmakers:
When we began to unravel the mystery behind David Carradine’s unfinished film, Mata Hari, what immediately attracted us was Carradine’s intention to shoot the film over the course of fifteen years, watching his daughter Calista, playing the lead role, grow up over the course of the project.
But as we reassembled the dailies from the film and learned more about their relationship and the events surrounding the making of their dream project, it became clear how their real lives began to mirror the characters and events of their film, sometimes with tragic outcomes. The film we set out to make was the story of a father and daughter seeking to communicate through art, and the story of Calista, determined to find closure with the role that once defined her.
Here is a clip from the film:
David Carradine died in 2009 at the age of 72. He was primarily known for the television show Kung-Fu, but also starred in the film Bound for Glory and in The Long Riders. Mata Hari was never finished and never released. Now it will finally have a chance to be seen.
Mata Hari was planned to be a bit like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood where he would begin filming his daughter at the age of 15 then keep filming it as she aged into adulthood. From Wikipedia:
Carradine later said he got the idea to make the film when he was living with Barbara Hershey. A Dutch director wrote a film for her and they want to make it in Holland. While there, Carradine started steeping himself in the Mata Hari story. He originally intended it to be a vehicle for Hershey but then they broke up.
Carradine became interested in the project again when his daughter expressed interest in being it. He decided to shoot the film over the years, so Calista could age. He hired a writer and started filming it in 1977 when Calista was 15. He said at the time he expected it to take 17 years to finish. He said it was about “Mata Hari the dancer, Mata Hari the liar, Mata Hari the spy, Mata Hari the free spirit.”
They went to India for two weeks with about 12,000 feet of film stock and shot some footage. After that, they would film for about two weeks a year every year.[4] In 1979 he said he had shot seven hours of footage. “I’m really excited about it,” he said. “It’s the high point of my life these days.”
In 1981, he said “the film will probably not exist at a single level of reality. It may be three movies.”
In 1989, he said “She’s always loved it… It was created for her and at certain times in her life it’s been the most important thing in her life. We shoot one or two weeks every year and I edit it in my spare time and write it in my spare time. The writing stays just a little ahead of what we’re shooting. The original end date was 1992. We might make that, but we might stretch it out a little longer.”
In 2004, he said “I’m just about done with the first film. Maybe one more scene to do.”
