The film paints Toback and Baldwin as semi- or slightly- or maybe not-at-all-serious filmmakers trying to scare up millions of dollars from producers at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival for an as yet unwritten project starring Baldwin and Neve Campbell. They pitch the movie as Last Tango in Tikrit

As Toback and Baldwin talk to each other about the concept and later interview a handful of great directors, we see clips from some extraordinary moments in cinematic history.

So there’s Roman Polanski talking about the Polish authorities’ reactions to Knife in the Water, before he made his way west.

And there’s Bernardo Bertolucci talking not only about filmmaking but about his youthful love for his mentor Pier Paolo Pasolini’s poetry.

Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola are interviewed as well, and so too is the much younger filmmaker Diablo Cody and a smattering of young actors, including Ryan Gosling.

All of these folks have some interesting stories to tell about the film business and about their success. Gosling is especially compelling as he talks about the endless stream of auditions that aspiring actors endure, all following the same vision of certain stardom.

“No one is sure if it was a premonition or a delusion,” Gosling says, in one of the documentary’s best moments.

Along the way, the story is propelled by a vast array of film clips: Last Tango in Paris, Harvard Man, Repulsion, State and Main, 1900, Taxi Driver, The Shining, The Conformist, and on and on.

I don’t know how some of this would play with viewers with limited knowledge of film history, but I found many of these passages were thrilling to watch.

Some Cannes insiders tell some great stories as well, like one about the time Robert Altman slung the “c” word at Pauline Kael in the airport after Kael and other judges had given no awards to 3 Women. I’m largely unfamiliar with the history of Cannes, so there are plenty of gems here.

But as it wears on, Seduced and Abandoned becomes less and less about the creative process and more and more about the problem of funding films.

Repeatedly, we see Toback and Baldwin talk to commonsense producers who don’t think that the Last Tango concept with Baldwin and Campbell would do well at the box office. So they start suggesting other stars and other concepts — of course they do.

These passages would have told us a lot more about the film industry if Toback and Baldwin had been pitching a strong concept, a finished screenplay, and obviously appropriate attached talent.

But, as it is, the conversations with producers largely ring hollow, since none of them even have a chance of signing on.

By this time, Seduced and Abandoned has started to get a little tedious, despite the winning personalities and on-screen personae of Baldwin and Toback.

Instead of then exploring other alternative funding sources and cheaper ways of shooting a film, the pair start interviewing the super-rich who could fund the entire picture with the wave of a hand. Of course, the likes of Taki Theodoracopulos and Denise Rich aren’t interested in Toback’s pitch either, and it’s unclear at this point if anyone’s interests are being served. (Although that sure looks like a nice lunch on Taki’s boat.)

So there are fabulously wealthy people out there who could fund lame movies, but choose not to. So what? We get the point early on, and none of the super-rich are given much to say.

At best, the latter stretches of the film feel a little redundant; at worst, self-indulgent.

I found myself wanting more of Gosling, Cody, and the younger interviewees. Baldwin told the Savannah Film Festival audience on Monday night that Seduced and Abandoned cost about $2.4 million; Cody’s Juno cost only three times that much and has grossed over $200 million worldwide.

Jack Frost comes to glorious animated 3-D life in DreamWorks’ upcoming Rise of the Guardians, which screened on Saturday for the closing night of the Savannah Film Festival.

As it turns out, Jack is a perpetual teenager who has spent several centuries having fun — starting snowball fights, leading kids on wild sled rides, stirring cold winds that blow books down the street.

Voiced by Chris Pine and created as a long-limbed, rangy youth, Jack is both emotionally undeveloped and a little world weary. He has no purpose, he has no friends, and he seems to have accepted his alienation from both the humans who can’t see him and from the supernatural creatures who can.

But all that changes fast, when the Man in the Moon (unseen, unheard) mysteriously elevates Jack to the level of “guardian” — a small circle of fantasy characters whose job is to protect children: Santa Claus (called North and voiced by Alec Baldwin), E. Aster Bunnymund (Hugh Jackman), Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), and Sandy the Sandman, who remains mute.

Jack’s skills are needed by the Guardians because of the resurgent power of the boogeyman, Pitch Black, voiced with slippery sinisterness by Jude Law, a perfect match for the character’s frightening formality. I have no idea how children think, but I’m guessing that some will be truly scared by Pitch, especially at moments when he and his nightmare horses — reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings — have the upper hand over the occasionally hapless, often bickering band of Guardians.

Jack Frost has an added burden that his fellow Guardians don’t: since no mortal really believes in him, no one can see him. Pitch’s goal is to destroy the wonder that children have for all the Guardians so that they will similarly vanish.

There are some particularly beautiful and disturbing moments, especially when Jack finally recovers his memories of how his mortal life ended and when the adorable Sandy is surrounded in battle, but under the direction of Peter Ramsey the film is dominated by humorous asides, well-drawn characters, sharp details, fast battle and chase scenes, and truly stunning animation. The legendary stories of the characters are given wonderful twists — the tattooed North’s workshop is staffed by useless elves and busy yetis, the Jackman-voiced boomerang-wielding Bunny looks more kangaroo than rabbit.

I watched the RealD 3D film from the front row of Trustees, and the overall visual effect was stunning.

The film’s official site has background on the Guardians plus some cool images and downloads.

Rise of the Guardians will be released nationwide on Nov. 21.

Here’s one of the official trailers, from which the image above is drawn: