At times funny and other times sad, “Chris & Don: A Love Story” is an extremely touching documentary about the affair that began in the 1950’s between American teenager Don Bachardy and three-decades-older Christopher Isherwood.

In an era when most gay people were closeted and long before anyone was talking about gay marriage, that’s what British author Christopher Isherwood and American portrait artist Don Bachardy had: a long-term intimate relationship as an openly gay couple.

Christopher Isherwood, born in 1904, began to discover his homosexuality as a teenager and finally went to bed with another man when he was in college. On a journey of self-discovery in the gay underground of Berlin his adventures with a succession of working-class German boys later became the Berlin Stories, which inspired the 1972 film Cabaret.

With Europe facing war, Christopher Isherwood immigrated to America in 1939 with his poet friend W.H. Auden.

Don Bachardy grew up in Los Angeles, a handsome, gaptoothed artistic young man who loved the movies and was fascinated with Hollywood celebrities. When Don Bachardy was 16 years old, he and his brother met Christopher Isherwood on a Santa Monica beach, whereby Christopher Isherwood enjoyed a couple of one-night stands with Don Bachardy’s older brother, Ted.

It was in October 1952, when Don Bachardy was a youthful looking 18-year-old, that he kissed Christopher Isherwood at a gay dinner party. It was in February 1953 that they spent the first night alone and became lovers, staying together for more than three decades, until Isherwood’s death in 1986 at the age of 81.

Don Bachardy was ushered into a world of celebrities but frequently found himself dismissed or simply ignored by many of his older partner’s famous friends as just the boy toy until he developed his own identity and experienced professional success as a portrait artist.

Friends remarked on how quickly the California born and raised Don Bachardy adopted Isherwood’s British accent and mannerisms, with the tongue lifted aristocratically toward the roof of the mouth, and they were sometimes mistaken for father and son.

Don Bachardy’s vivid memory and his way with words make him a wonderful storyteller, particularly when he’s talking about how he fell in love not just with Christopher Isherwood but Hollywood as well.

Their lives, to judge by the array of film clips, were glamorous ones, surrounded by Christopher Isherwood’s high-profile friends: Tennessee Williams, E.M. Forster, Bette Davis, Igor Stravinsky.

“Chris & Don: A Love Story” is a beautiful story of men and romance.

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