Monologue - White Lies

Jose here with the Monday Monologue.

James Dean would've turned 79 today.
The iconic actor left way too early, only showing glimpses of his immense talent in his three legendary performances.

As with all people who die young, the shock of the tragedy creates a conflicting image that sometimes benefits or hurts their legacy.

With someone like Dean we're left wondering if the three weren't just a lucky streak and his next movie would've been mediocre or showed his range was limited (allegedly it would've been none, considering he was going to quit acting and become a director).

For others, the performances are proof that perfection can be achieved by an actor in every movie they make.

Whichever your view of Dean is, the truth is that his films did define a generation, particularly in Rebel Without a Cause where the young actor epitomized the existentialist dramas of adolescence.

He might have been a few years older than Jim Stark-the character he plays-but dressed in jeans, white t-shirts and that look on his face, he encompassed the sort of lost youth he'd be forever associated with.

In one of the film's most stunning scenes, Jim confronts his parents (Jim Backus and Ann Doran) about a clandestine car race that has mortal consequences.
The scene might not be a monologue per se, but I dare you to notice the two other actors who appear with him (nothing against them, it's just Dean's power that overcomes them).

It was a matter of honor.
They called me chicken.
You know...chicken?
I had to go...

If I didn't I'd never be able to face those kids again

He explains.
Notice how he delivers the lines without a single sign of thespian self-consciousness. Whatever guilt is revealed through his words comes from his fear of having to own up such grave actions before he's due.

I don't wanna drag you into this but I can't help it he laments, I don't see how I can get out of that by pretending it didn't happen.

His parents watch in horror as they remember things they've endured in the past and in the scene's key moment Jim turns the tables on them.

Dad you told me, you said you want me to tell the truth, didn't you say that?
You can't turn it off.

Watching this scene again reminded me of how much this movie marked every teenage angst film to come. This last part especially made me recall a scene in An Education where Carey Mulligan's character confronts Emma Thompson's headmistress and asks her what's the purpose of life "It's not enough to educate us anymore, you've got to tell us why you're doing it" she says.

The headmistress looks in awe, thrown completely off base by the remark. Out of convention she might be forced to say "you'll learn when you're older kid" but the look in her face reveals she's still as lost as any teenager.

Likewise James Dean's performance might not contain the answers to all this but it's a heartbreaking, worthy reminder that someone else might want to know the point of it all one day.

Viva Jeanne!

Jose here to remind you that the magnificent Jeanne Moreau turns 82 today.

Go and celebrate by watching Elevator to the Gallows, Diary of a Chambermaid, The Lovers, Querelle, The Bride Wore Black, Jules and Jim, The Last Tycoon or my favorite La Notte.
Heck you can even watch Ever After if only to enjoy that smokey voice narrating a fairy tale.

If you've seen those and love Jeanne, today's a perfect day to revisit them and if you're not familiar with the woman Orson Welles called "the greatest actress in the world", what are you waiting for?

Jean Simmons 1929-2010

Jose here with some sad news.



British actress Jean Simmons passed away earlier today at the age of 80.
Over her long career she starred in more than fifty films and was nominated for an Oscar twice. Once for Best Supporting Actress in 1948 for playing Ophelia To Larry Olivier's Hamlet and then as Best Actress in 1969 in The Happy Ending which was directed by her then husband Richard Brooks.

Known for her angelical beauty she also proved her worth as a multifaceted actress playing an exotic native girl in Black Narcissus, her singing skills in Guys and Dolls (for which she won a Golden Globe) and the spoiled Estella in David Lean's Great Expectations.
She was rumored to be William Wyler's first choice to play Princess Ann in Roman Holiday but Howard Hughes-who owned her contract- kept her from doing it. One can only wonder what Simmons would've done in Audrey's iconic role.

The Assassination of Animal Rights by the Coward Jesse James.

Hello, Jose from "Movies Kick Ass" here. Have you ever wondered when animal treatment began being monitored in the film industry? Well, neither had I until the other day when I was browsing in YouTube looking for cinema urban legends.

I obviously started with the infamous Munchkin suicide from The Wizard of Oz and was amazed by how many people taped themselves examining the events a la Sherlock Holmes. Fortunately the whole thing is just a myth; it was proved that it's a bird and not a person. But this led me to feel sorry for the poor bird who was kept as an ornament inside a studio while they shot the movie (if studio bosses were mean to Judy Garland, I shudder thinking how they treated stock actors, extras and animals).

My search didn't lead me too far away from Emerald City because it was in 1939 when the American Humane Association began monitoring how animals were treated after a controversial
sequence in Jesse James where a horse was killed after falling off a cliff.

The horses were blindfolded (made me wonder about the poor horse in Gone With the Wind's burning of Atlanta) and when one passed away he was simply replaced by a new one (sums up the early film era huh?), incredibly even more animals died in the making of this movie and going back in history there's a large record of inhuman treatment onscreen (Thomas Edison was notorious for this).

Fortunately things have changed since (except in Lars von Trier land but that's another story...) and now all movies featuring animals have an AHA representative to make sure they stick to the rules. I guess 1939 was more significant in film history than just for the quality of the movies, but for the changes being made inside the industry.

Oh and no animals were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Two Ladies.

Hello, Jose from "Movies Kick Ass" here. On July 31st, 1919 the Weimar Constitution was approved in the German Empire giving path to one of the most complicated eras in European history.

Weimar was a limbo of sorts between both World Wars, time during which Germany sunk in political and economical problems, but flourished culturally; Brecht, UFA, Expressionism and Bauhaus were a few of the things that came out from this period.
But thinking of a perfect way to sum up the entire history of Weimar only two people come to mind: Sally Bowles and Lola Lola.

They are the "heroines" from their respective films. Sally in "Cabaret" and Lola Lola in "The Blue Angel".
They are linked by their profession (cabaret performers/aspiring actresses), their exuberant sex appeal and their love of divine decadence.

But beyond the obvious comparisons (it's obvious that Lola and UFA films inspired Christopher Isherwood who wrote the book "Cabaret" is based upon...) there is something fascinating about how both these women embody Weimar history.
Sally and Lola take special pleasure in luxurious goods. One fur coat in "Cabaret" goes through all the phases of hyperinflation; first it becomes an almost guilt-inducing device of desire and consequentially turns into a life saving object covering her medical expenses.

Then there's the whole issue of how cabarets blossomed amidst the upcoming political chaos brewing with the Nazi party.
Isherwood, who wrote about homosexual experiences from autobiographical facts, came to Berlin because being gay was still illegal in his home country.
Sally in "Cabaret" is involved in a love triangle with two other men who also have feelings for each others.

Sex got so out of control in Weimar that a law was passed forbidding pornography. This whole issue in fact triggers the plot in "The Blue Angel" as a bitter professor (Emil Jannings) visits a cabaret to prevent his students from visiting it.

Sally and Lola became iconic characters for the actresses who portrayed them, but more than that they should be seen as fascinating representations of history through different eyes. Lola was a portrait of her times, Sally is a postmodernist vision.

Interestingly enough the very nature of their professions announces their eventual cinematic relevance; the word "cabaret" comes from the Latin "camera" (which means "small room") which later gave name to the photographic device.
If their whole history is contained in something as elemental as a word, then a line from "The Blue Angel" sums up the way in which the characters' incite public reaction.
"You've got a false conception of your profession" says someone to Lola. He might as well have been talking about the way the modern world has come to perceive Weimar.

Captain Blood is Off Off Broadway

It's rainy days here in Manhattan, so you might want to find indoor events. If you're a movie nut but hanker regularly for live theater only to lament your lack of a Broadway budget --I'm describing myself but surely some of you, too-- I've got a fun suggestion for a night out.

I recently attendant an Off Broadway show called The Accidental Patriot: The Lamentable Tragedy of The Pirate Desmond Connelly, Irish by Birth, English by Blood, and American by Inclination (whew) which is playing at the Milagro Theater downtown. Like most small shows the run is short, there's just two performances left (tonight and tomorrow night, May 17th @ 8 PM). I'm going to be keeping an eye on this theater company Stolen Chair from now on.

I'm not sure where their cinephilia comes from, but love of the cinema snakes its way into their productions with some regularity... and not, if The Accidental Patriot is indication, in the dull copy & paste way it does when Broadway transfers a movie. In past productions they've apparently done stage interpretations of film noirs and silents. This one uses the dead swashbuckler genre as its jumping off point. The Accidental Patriot's primary influence is the Errol Flynn film Captain Blood (1935, but it's had a few movie versions) but it's not a straight adaptation. They've also mixed in some Greek tragedy. It's experimental theater but not self-serious and Jensen (my best friend) and I had a lot of fun watching it.

The thing I hate most about stage versions of movies is the set-changes. Stage plays are not meant to constantly have scene changes but film-to-stage properties often ape that standard movie structure and composition without realizing how awkward it plays in live theater. I worried during the first two set changes that The Accidental Patriot would annoy me in this same way but instead I found that the supporting cast was amusingly and increasingly grumbling about their set-shifting duties. The play was self aware enough to point out the awkward and in so doing, make it comedically entertaining.

Errol Flynn & Olivia DeHavilland in Captain Blood (1935)
The leads in The Accidental Patriot (2008)

My favorite flourish within the production was the continually amusing theatrical interpretation of "close ups" which the female lead in particular handled with go-for-broke humor and pre-method acting aplomb. I'd recommended this to any of you seeking a different sort of entertainment adventure this weekend. It's only a few bucks pricier than a movie ticket and it's freakin' live theater. Support!

pssst. Oscar-watchers take note. I was highly amused to read in the cast bios that one of the actors has his own Oscar prediction page. First time I've ever seen that in a bio. hee.
*
*

Links (Plus Bette Davis)

Overheard at the Movie Theater
After the trailer to Nicolas Cage's latest action travesty Bangkok Dangerous ended...

Smart Guy Behind Me: It's like an SNL skit.
Smart Girl Beside Him: Seriously

Oh, yes... links
A Socialite's Life something is very wrong with Lara Flynn Boyle's face. And not in the way that something is wrong with Nicolas Cage's face.
Kenneth in the (212) Cheyenne Jackson is on the cover of The Advocate. Mmmm, Cheyenne.
The Reeler rounds up the best of the New Directors/New Films series here in NY
Evening Class interviews the director of Sockets a new queer horror film hitting DVD that's got obvious Cronenberg influences
ScreenDaily talks to George Clooney about Leatherheads and Burn After Reading. I'm so happy that George is doing comedy. I think that's his true gift.
Moviehole Jason Biggs taking over as Spidey? Um...
This Distracted Globe on Blade Runner. I don't know what it is but every time I chance upon a review of Blade Runner I read it. I probably don't wanna know how many reviews of this movie I've read.

GreenCine Daily rounds up the blogs paying homage to Bette Davis as we approach her centennial (April 5th). You know. I think the first time you see a true star has a lot of impact on how you respond to their whole career. It took me a really long time to get over my early images of Bette Davis. When I was a wee kid you would sometimes see her on TV and she was this weird ancient chain-smoking lady... the first movie I saw her in was Return to Witch Mountain (1978) --I was really into those Witch Mountain movies. So when I started watching her movies, I went backwards. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, All About Eve. But I'm still not as well versed in classic Davis as I should be and whenever I see something really old like Three on a Match or especially Jezebel or Now Voyager I'm just thrilled to be looking at her. Can't pry my eyes away. Must see more. Soon.

Gold Diggers of 1953

Extremely random!

I missed my window to be a gold digger. You gotta do it when you're young and pretty. Sometimes my bank account regrets it.

I'm done sharing. Now, it's your turn... take a break from Oscar prediction thoughts and share something random
*

Giant "100 Times Better Than I Remembered"

I had the pleasure of attending a DGA event for Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood the other night. I was just as mesmerized the second time through this mysteriously potent monster and --oops, I didn't take notes. But a couple of things from the interview afterwards stuck with me.


Martin Scorsese was the interviewer, Paul Thomas Anderson the interviewee. Their conversation vacillated from working with Daniel Day-Lewis (both seemed rather awed by him and from the examples cited he sounds more than a little bit like a co-director on his films rather than just an actor) to the difficulties of location shooting and the complex tasks of cinematography, scoring and editing. Scorsese was such a fine choice to interview Anderson and he was well prepared with fascinating questions and anecdotes of his own. It was also amusing to see an old school filmmaking giant paired with a still rising young auteur, both coasts represented. NY: Scorsese; LA: Anderson. One of the draws for Anderson to make There Will Be Blood was that the history of California (his home) has always fascinated him.

They talked influences as artists often do. Robert Altman, to whom There Will Be Blood is dedicated, was cited (of course) and Anderson talked about his understudy gig on A Prairie Home Companion. Though he was there for insurance purposes, Altman too frail during filming to be properly insured, the young director didn't get to do anything but watch. During the conversation they name checked so many films I lost track but I remember hearing The Treasure of the Sierra Madre mentioned a few times and they spent some time discussing the great epic Giant (1956) which is also about oil men.


P.T. said that he rewatched Giant (1956) before filming and found it "a hundred times better" than he had remembered it being though he'd always liked it. I wanted to pop Giant in the DVD player right then and there. It's been ages since I've seen it, too. During the recent screening Anderson found himself most impressed by Rock Hudson. Liz Taylor was also praised but he revealed that he had, as a younger film fanatic, always been firmly focused on James Dean whenever he watched it.

The best movies always do that though, don't they? They shift and shape change, growing right along with us. The best ones reveal themselves anew whenever we pop in for a visit.

Jane Fonda: Awesome Then, Awesome Now

Happy birthday to the "Arguably Most Deserving Actual Double Best Actress Oscar® Winner Ever "


whew, that's quite a title. But it's so (maybe) true. I mean I love Bette Davis, Liz Taylor, Olivia DeHavilland, Ingrid Bergman, etcetera... Oh, yes. OK, OK. Vivien Leigh trumps her... Gone With the Wind and Streetcar Named Desire = probably impossible to beat from here until the apocalypse. But still... Coming Home and Klute? Yes please!

Jane, enough with the Georgias and Monster In-Laws. Please go win #3. You know you have (at least) one more classic in you.
*

20:07 (Bette Plays Hard to Get)

Screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing). I use a VLC

[knock knock knock knock]

Julie? Julie! It’s Pres. Open the door I want to talk to you. Julie, why don’t you answer? Now look here Julie, you and I have got to straighten things out. There’s no sense to all this!

20:07 (Moses Moses x 2)

Screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of movies
(can't guarantee the same results at home. I use a VLC)

Listen -- the trumpets tell all the world he’s come back to me! Hear them and all their shouts drowned by the beating of my heart

This first glimpse of Cecil B DeMille's eternal VistaVision classic The Ten Commandments is not at the 20:07 mark but I had to lead off with it. You see, my holy trinity of takeaways from this BIG movie break down like this:

1. Yul Brynner's commanding presence


2. The parting of the Red Sea (used to wow me as a tyke)


3. Anne Baxter's boo-hiss femme fatale Nefretiri. In the screenshot above she's all hot and bothered about what's happening at this, the 20:07 mark. Witness...

The looooooord Moses: Prince of Egypt. Son of the pharoah’s sister

Pomp and circumstance, 50s VistaVision style. Every time I catch a glimpse of this movie I desperately want to get lost in Baxter's über quotability or Yul Brynner's bald everything. I know it's not original or revelatory to announced that I adore Baxter's "Moses Moses you splendid adorable fool" but when it comes to bible epics, I'm but a member of the vast gay flock ... and Camp is my shepherd.

No other Moses movies can compete but here's DeMille's first try (They've already let his people go?!!! Bible speed reading I tell you. Or did I put in the wrong disc. wha...?)

[title card preceeding this shot] All the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. And they despoiled the Egyptians of jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and raiment. [Exodus 12:41-36]

The Legendary Max Von Sydow (Part 2)

In part one of The Film Experience interview with Max von Sydow we discussed The Diving Bell and Butterfly and his early days as an actor on the stage and screen in Sweden. Here's part two...

Nathaniel: Ingmar Bergman's films are still very much alive in public and critical discussion. What do you think is something about him, either as a filmmaker or as a person, that you think people misunderstand?

Max von Sydow: I don't know what people understand or misunderstand. But I presume that most people think that he was an awfully serious and difficult person as a director. Which he was not. On the contrary, he was—he was a man of great charm and great intelligence of course. Great charm with a very kind of fresh, direct sense of humor, creating a lot of fun and enthusiasm around the project whether it was a film production or on stage. He had the ability to really, how should I say this, make people feel that they were very important for his—for his art… and make them give their uttermost to together achieve something extraordinary. He was very inspirational in that respect.

Nathaniel: So in person there was humor there. That's actually one of the critiques people have of his films –not one I share, I think he's brilliant –that… that they're so serious that there is no…

Max von Sydow: Well, some of them are, most of them are. But making them was rarely a serious --of course making the serious scenes that was done with great seriousness and with enormous concentration. But inbetween there was a lot of joking.

Nathaniel: Interesting. Now, we always hear that Woody Allen doesn't communicate much with his actors. But I imagine with you when you did Hannah and Her Sisters… did he barrage you with questions about Bergman?

READ THE REST...
for more on Hannah and Her Sisters, the mysterious art of acting, religious characters, how typecasting happens and more...

The Legendary Max Von Sydow (Part 1)

I had intended for this interview to be in podcast format but had some audio problems in the noisy Pierre Hotel. Have transcribed for your listening reading pleasure.

I have shaken hands with one or two major stars in my time writing for The Film Experience but never before have I shared a banquette with a cinematic legend whose films have already survived the passage of time. If you think of actors as the characters they play --and the great Max Von Sydow suggests that you don't -- then you will note that I survived a chat with Jesus himself, the devil, Emperor Ming, Pelle the Conqueror and many more luminaries this Friday past.


As an icebreaker I greeted Mr. von Sydow and his wife, both of who were fantastically friendly and talkative, in my broken Norwegian and we discussed Sweden a bit. Much to my Nordic pleasure Mr. von Sydow actually said the word "uff" (one of my favorite Scandinavian words) within seconds. I can't possibly think of an intro that would do one of Ingmar Bergman's most important muses justice so let's proceed directly to the interview...

Nathaniel: Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. You're a legendary figure in cinema –I'm sure you've heard that over and over...

Max Von Sydow: Uff.

Nathaniel: I want to talk about Bergman –well, are you tired of talking about Bergman at this point?

Max Von Sydow: Noooo. I'm not tired of --I'm tired about talking about myself! [laughter]

N: All right. Well, let's start with Diving Bell and then we'll go back to some earlier work. First of all with The Diving Bell and Butterfly I wanted to say that I completely loved your performance. I'm not a big cryer in the movies...

MVS: No?

N: ...but you totally got to me. Lately I've been really fascinated with actors who can project backstory with family members –fictional family members-- onscreen. So I was wondering how you prepare for something like that? You only had a couple of scenes with Mathieu Amalric.

MVS: Two scenes.

N: So how do you project father/son?

MVS: Well, it's... it—it just happens to be a very good screenplay. And the scenes –my scene-- is wonderfully written. I get screenplays and I'm rarely happy reading them but this one was... it was a sheer pleasure. I was so excited after having read it, I wrote a letter to Ron Harwood. I've never done that. I met him later in Los Angeles and he told me 'I've never got a letter like this before!' [Laughter]

N: He's a fine writer.

MVS: He's a good writer, yes. What is beautiful with my character -- the things is, although it's a small part, I get a chance to show two things: The relationship between the characters under normal circumstances when he shaves me but then also after the catastrophe and the confusion and bewilderment --this awkward strange situation...

And how do I prepare? It's a matter of finding out: who is this character?

READ THE REST...
for more on his acting process, working with Sjöberg and Ingmar Bergman and acting styles in the 50s. Part 2 is now up as well. We go deeper into Bergman, Woody Allen and von Sydow's feelings about why acting is mysterious to the public and how actors get typecast.
*

Blogosphere Multiplex: Kim Morgan, Sunset Gun

It was high time to have another writer-to-writer chat. There are days in which Kim Morgan wants to be Tuesday Weld. There are days in which I want to be Kim Morgan. Her fine movie prose can be found at Sunset Gun and at MSN's Movie Filter and you may have even seen her on your television sitting in for Roger Ebert once on Ebert & Roeper. Chase any of the links in this article to some of her pieces. We're jumping right in since Kim has a lot to say about cinephilia, actress worship, classic films --I know my rental queue is already reordered after speaking to her....

10+ Questions with Kim Morgan of Sunset Gun

Nathaniel: How often do you go to the movies and/or watch at home?

Kim: If I'm out of a shut-in spell, I go to the movies about once a week. If there's a great film series going on or screenings I have to attend, more. As for in home viewing...I think (of late anyway, I've been watching movies like crazy) I average three movies a day, sometimes four. If I get anything that says "Film Noir Box Set" or "Women in Peril" I'm in trouble. And I always re-watch a movie I’ve seen a million times before I go to sleep. I go through phases. I used to watch Marnie constantly. And All the President's Men. And then I went through this They Shoot Horses, Don't They? obsession. Baby Doll was another. I'd wake up with Karl Malden screaming "Baby Dooolll" in a continual brain loop. I think that's slightly healthier than Gig Young's depressing, mocking "Yowza, yowza, yowza."

Nathaniel: I can't fall asleep if a movie is on myself (i need pitch black and silence... so fussy) but i envy you. ... well, not the Gig Young or Karl Malden hauntings.

Kim: I recently spent time in the desert and became reacquainted with darkness, silence and deep sleep so I really should change my habits. But then I live right off Hollywood Blvd. so it's never exactly quiet.

Nathaniel: Do you dream about movies too?

Kim: Unless the movie is bleeding into my sleep, I don't think I've ever had a dream about a specific movie. But since I always take a movie to bed, I'm not so sure. Maybe I'm never getting proper REM sleep. I have had two dreams about Gene Hackman though, those were good dreams. I wish John Garfield would find his way into my slumber.


Nathaniel: When and how did you first discover your cinephilia?

Kim: In terms of cinephelia, probably when I was seven-years-old and saw High Sierra on TV. I had to see every Humphrey Bogart movie after that. I also kept a journal listing actors, directors and movies (old and current) I liked. Oh god, and when I saw Rebel Without
a Cause at a revival showing, not only was I knocked out by seeing all those colors and angles and chicken races on the big screen but I had to find that red jacket James Dean wore. I wore that red coat all through middle school. I wish I still had that jacket.

Nathaniel: I think a lot of movie obsessives wait patiently (or im) for movies that remind them of those initial heady all enveloping thrills. Any recent movies or movie objects trip your switch in this way?

Kim: Whenever I see a movie I love on the big screen for the first time, it’s incredibly thrilling. Like when I saw Baby Face at UCLA a few years back or Cisco Pike at the American Cinemateque or nearly everything at the Noir Fest (The Crimson Kimono and Pickup on South
Street writ large? Watching close-ups the way Samuel Fuller intended? Richard Widmark and Jean Peters’ faces when Widmark’s lifting that microfilm from her purse? Chills). When I first saw Vertigo in re-release – I was in a state of total bliss. I wanted to pull a Mia Farrow Purple Rose of Cairo and step into the screen (though I don’t know if I’d want Jimmy Stewart following me outside and telling me how to do my hair. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I’d want Jimmy Stewart following me around and dressing me in crisp grey suits).

As per current films, I was nutty over I Heart Huckabees (if that counts as current). I went to that movie over and over and over again. It wasn’t just that it was brilliant, or that it merged some of my favorite things in the world: perfectly timed screwball comedy, existential philosophy and Lily Tomlin, but it was gorgeously filmed and scored in this bittersweet, off kilter way that got me in all these mysterious places. Zodiac, Bug and The Darjeeling Limited were also on that level. And I want that train car in Darjeeling. I’ve taken two cross country train trips this year in a sleeper car but to have a car that detailed and that beautiful, well, is it even possible? What other movie items have I recently coveted? More from Darjeeling, I want Adrien Brody’s sunglasses. I want the Dodge Charger from Death Proof. And I want any dinner Samuel Jackson cooks for Christina Ricci in Black Snake Moan.

Nathaniel: Hallelujah and amen. Listening to you I felt like I was in a revival tent just then. I believe! ...in the cinema.

Any thoughts on why it's such a challenge to get the industry or the public or even young film fans more interested in the classics? Why do you suppose film culture is so narrowly focused on the now?

Kim: Actually, I think it’s a pretty good time for classic film lovers. There’s some lovely restored pictures being released, things we’ve never seen on DVD (like Barbara Stanwyck and Ralph Meeker in the great John Sturges picture Jeopardy), there’s lots of film discussion, especially online, and obviously Hollywood, usually to their folly, looks to classics for re-makes. Like Michael Bay’s ridiculous idea to re-make The Birds. Ugh. Why is Naomi Watts agreeing to do that? But you are right -- living in Los Angeles, I’m amazed by how many people working in the film industry have either no interest or very little knowledge about older, classic cinema. There are exceptions of course, and there are those with a base knowledge, but it’s really depressing. I’ve met a few film majors turned “filmmakers” who’ve seen nearly nothing. They think watching Garden State is the kind of inspiration they need to make their first movie over say, I don’t know…the early work of Polanski (which every aspiring filmmaker should watch, in my opinion).


And kids, well, I don’t know what to do about kids these days. All the teenagers who went to Saw IV – go see Saw, but in addition to that, I really wish they’d watch Eyes Without A Face. Just observe how truly horrifying and weirdly poetic it is when you watch a face being ripped off (and in French). That might pique their interest. That, and anything with a young Ann-Margret. Ann-Margret in The Swinger? Or Kitten With a Whip? What kid could resist that? And it might lead them to Carnal Knowledge. And if Lindsay Lohan can watch all of Ann-Margret’s oeuvre (with all of her shit to deal with), I think other young ones can follow suit. Maybe then Fox will finally release The Pleasure Seekers on DVD.

Nathaniel: Good for you for avoiding my negativity. My brain got stuck there once I realized how many Montgomery Clift performances were getting hard to find.

Kim: Wait, you're right about that. There's so many movies not on DVD it's sickening.

Nathaniel: Popcorn or Candy?

Kim: I'll stay positive and say popcorn. Popcorn without a question.

Nathaniel: On Sunset Gun you seem to have no aversion to lists. I'm not going to torture you with something huge like a top ten that would make a big article on your on blog. But humor us a little. Name your favorite film, director, actor, and actress ... or if you're feeling really generous two for each (one classic, one modern)

Kim: Oh, you are trying to torture me here. I don't know if I can answer that! Hmm…well I just re-watched Bring Me the Head Of Alfredo Garcia, so at this very moment it would be Sam Peckinpah and Isela Vega, but then she’s made all the more powerful with wily Warren Oates at her side. (I have an enormous crush on Warren Oates which I’ve talked about frequently, probably too much.)

<-- Kim with Tuesday Weld... I couldn't resist

Also, have you ever heard the story about Peckinpah wanting to direct the adaptation of Joan Didion's great LA novel Play It As It Lays? It eventually starred Tuesday Weld (whom I worship) and was helmed by Frank Perry and turned out to be an intriguing picture that's now very hard to see, but imagine Peckinpah dancing with Didion. Maybe that would have been absolutely perfect, I'm not sure.

But anyway...back on track here, favorite director and actress. That's immediately making me think of all the great directors of women like Sirk or Cukor or Fassbinder or Robert Aldrich for Autumn Leaves alone, an incredibly sensitive look at female loneliness. I'm currently working on an essay discussing Sam Fuller as one of cinema's great, unsung directors of the female animal, from Thelma Ritter and Jean Peters in Pickup on South Street (Ritter is stunning in that picture and I love the part because it could have just as easily been played by a man); to Constance Towers in The Naked Kiss (how many films open with a bald sexy woman beating the crap out of some guy? And then that woman becomes the heroine? And in 1964?); to the extraordinarily adult, complicated and touching way he shows Victoria Shaw fall in love with James Shigeta in The Crimson Kimono. And then there’s Stanwyck in 40 Guns, where she’s this ass-kicking, whip wielding force of freaking nature.

Did I answer the question?


Nathaniel: You probably answered it in the only way you could have. A horrible Sophie's Choice question for cinephiles.

Of today's current directors or stars who do you think is doing the most interesting work --stuff we might still be talking about in years to come? Or, if you'd care to conjecture... who do you believe could really kick it up a notch if someone gives them the right opportunity.

Kim: With actors, for me at this moment, it’s all about Josh Brolin. He’s got this rugged 1970’s thing going on – great/weird looking (my favorite type), but quirky as hell and essentially a leading man character actor. He was hammy and hilarious in Planet Terror, and then soulful and subtle (while still being funny) in No Country for Old Men, so far the best picture of the year. He reminds me of a young Nick Nolte with a little Charles Bronson and not surprisingly, his father thrown in. But he’s all his own and was at times, brilliant in the four movies he appeared in. He was finally given a chance this year and took it up quite a few notches. The guy is needed in cinema – he’s a man!

And then of course there’s Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Paul Rudd – there’s a lot of great people out there. In terms of directors there’s the obvious The Coen’s, who made a masterpiece this year (why, they haven’t received an Oscar for anything other than the screenplay to Fargo further shows how stupid the Academy is), Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson – I think the term classic is used too soon for movies these days though. I might sound like a bitter, chain-smoking, 90-year-old motion picture actress but, it used to take some time for a picture to become a classic. I was just reading something that called The Polar Express a classic. Um, no. I think it’s interesting to speculate which pictures might become later classics – like all of the movies in Shane Black’s oeuvre (as both writer and director) – The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

Who else? I love the direction Gus Van San has taken – call me an aesthetic whore but I get chills just looking at the colors in Elephant or the way he follows the back of Michael Pitt’s head in Last Days. And unlike the detractors who think it’s so much arty, Bela Tarr posturing, the pictures really move me (especially Elephant). And I actually liked Gerry – I love a movie in which the sound of crunching rocks sends viewers states of apoplectic hysteria. I also think Gaspar Noe is savagely brilliant – both I Stand Alone and Irreversible – I wish he’d make other movie. God, I’m practically hyperventilating here. I didn’t even discuss The Rock, as in Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – I love him. He’s someone who, if given the right part could be absolutely brilliant. Seriously.

Nathaniel: I share the Brolin enthusiasm. At least as far as 2007 is concerned. I met him recently and I'm being totally presumptious here assuming this but I got the impression that he was pretty giddy about the work he's done this year. And justifiably so I should add.

If you ran Hollywood, name three things you'd immediately do.

Kim: Oh God, there's more than three things. But off the top of my head I would, come to an agreement with the writers. Lower ticket prices. And...require that all working in the business watch at least two classic movies a month -- and read a classic piece of literature. Except Beowulf.

Nathaniel: Hee. OK, last question.

They make a movie of your life. Who stars. directs. What's it called. Rating. Tagline? GO!

Kim: Jesus! No, not Jesus, the movie (exclamation point), Jesus Christ this is a tough one. Err…for some reason I immediately thought of Angel Dusted starring Jean Stapleton, but that’s not quite right. Then there’s the other PCP movie where Helen Hunt jumps out of window, Desperate Lives – PCP movies have great titles. OK, uh…I’m going to have to go with the old Susan Hayward drunk movie for title alone, Smash Up: The Story of a Woman with the tagline from that other harrowing Hayward booze-fest, I'll Cry Tomorrow: “Filmed on location; inside a woman’s soul.” It’s my movie so Warren Oates and Lee Van Cleef have to appear. Roman Polanski directs. I want this to be good, so Tuesday Weld stars, of course. I guess I better start drinking...

Nathaniel: Thanks again Kim for your illuminatingly thorough and movie drunk answers. Just the way we like 'em.

Readers, I hope you'll check out Sunset Gun if you aren't already a fan. And add some of these well-loved movies to your rental queue. I know I'm delinquent in getting around to 40 Guns and Pickup on South Street and especially Tuesday Weld's early filmography.

20:07 (Stanley, The Uncouth)

screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use a VLC

Stanley: Now will you just open your eyes to this stuff here. What -- she got this out of teachers pay? Will you look at these fine feathers and furs that she comes to preen herself with in here? What is this article? That’s a solid gold dress I believe.

Stella: Oh honestly

Stanley: And this one here and what –what is this a fine piece of genuine fur fox a half a mile long? Where are your fox pieces?

That Stanley. He sure doesn't like to get swindled.


He's OK with the sweating and the ogling, though. Feel free to stare.

20:07 (Two Kinds of People)

screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use a VLC


"I’m glad you come to me. As far as Paddy Ryan is concerned there’s only two kinds of people: right and wrong. And I think you’re right."

Deborah Kerr (1921-2007)

When I read that Deborah Kerr had died, a wave of guilt washed over me. I never knew her. (I mean that in the moviegoing sense of course)

As a child I connected Deborah Kerr only to The King and I and though I delighted in the "Shall We Dance" sequence and "Getting to Know You" I was, like those Oscar voters before my time, all about Yul Brynner. Well, Yul and Marni Nixon (but you already know of my fixation for that heard but not seen songbird)

As a seasoned thirtysomething awards nut, I've long since come to regard Kerr primarily through the mirror of her Oscar losses: 6 of them in the Best Actress category, the record. When it comes to movie stars only Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton suffered through more "we love you, but..." devotion from a teasing Academy. I am ashamed to say it but I even began to view her as a proxy jinx: Annette Bening keeps losing; Natalie Wood never won; Julianne Moore is forever a bridesmaid. All three of these lovely women -- three of my favorite actresses of all time -- have starred in Kerr's role in remakes of her films.

In truth the Oscars got in my way (as they do sometimes). I have never really given Deborah Kerr a fair shake. Maybe her passing can prompt Kerr agnostics like myself into a deeper investigation of her work. Help me along by sharing your favorite Kerr performances in the comments...

Related: From Here to Eternity & The Next Deborah Kerr?

The Montgomery Clift Blog-a-Thon

Montgomery Clift
(Oct 17th, 1920 - July 23rd, 1966)
Scroll down for links to 20 other participating blogs

I don’t remember when it happened or how it is I came to see A Place in the Sun for the first time. I do remember how thoroughly I was hypnotized by the film and its lead Montgomery Clift. It was the first time I'd ever seen him. I’ve long been of the mind that a movie lovers relationships to the most memorable of screen actors (everyone from Streep to Brando to Davis to Taylor etc...) is largely defined by their first encounter or two. Feelings about various character actors can mutate and evolve. Leading actors who are not, in the end, altogether peppered with stardust can fluctuate in their connective power with an audience, too: they surprise on occasion and extend their run of fame but just as often they falter and fade quickly in the public consciousness. But with the true Movie Stars, the select few who stay larger than life and heavily mythologized… well, the first potent encounter sticks.


How else to explain that Montgomery Clift will always signify A Place in the Sun to me even though I’ve seen several of his other films? I've found many of his other performances just as or more impressive -- Red River and From Here to Eternity come immediately to mind. How else to explain that whenever I begin to think of him my thoughts eventually and invariable jump ship to La Liz -- and vice versa, too. A Place in the Sun continues to occupy the most mental space in my Montgomery Clift fandom.

I’d intended to write about the offscreen relationship of Monty & Liz and their onscreen magic --that palpable flexible chemistry as witnessed in the three films they made together: For the uninitiated they were romantically paired in both A Place in the Sun (1951) and Raintree County (1957) and then played doctor and hysterical patient in the outré Tennessee Williams hit Suddenly Last Summer (1959). But the hard-to-find County conspired against my plans. So this will be the first edition of three Monty & Liz articles (the others will arrive in the distant future –as soon as I get my hands on a good copy of County... so, um don't hold your breath)

Monty & Liz: A Place in the Sun

I thought he was the most gorgeous thing in the world, and easily one of the best actors. And he wasn’t a bit snide about acting with a ‘cheap movie star'.

-Elizabeth Taylor on Montgomery Clift

“I’ve found my other half!”

-Montgomery Clift on Elizabeth Taylor

One of the first things you notice about Clift is the distinctive way he holds his upper body: all pinched, shoulders hunched, like his entire body hangs from the knots in his neck. The stance of someone not entirely at home in his own skin? This physical quirk sparks tremendously well with the fuel that's already embedded in his signature role, George Eastman the dark and brooding outsider in this George Stevens masterpiece.

When we first spot Eastman he's hitchhiking into town, the up and coming nephew to a rich businessman uncle. He's there to join the family business but he's still very much the outsider: ostracized from co-workers (nepotism you know) and received with less than open arms by the rich society types his bloodline gives him access to --that is, with the notable exception of local princess Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), heir to another fortune.

Despite rules about fraternizing with the staff of his uncle's business, George almost immediately goes into predatory mode. He quickly beds a frumpy lonely employee, a factory girl named Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). You can tell from the beginning that he's not thinking with his heart but somewhere south of there. George wants to get laid. It's a 50s movies but to its eternal angsty glory the sexual/romantic drives of all three principals come through loud and clear. George may be satisfying selfish urges with a worker bee but he's on his way up. The second he spots Angela, you know she's queen. His relationship with Alice is not long for this world.


Alice may be on her way out but boy is this movie on its way up. The yowza chemistry between the teasing trophy that is Liz Taylor and this fierce actor, all internal combustion and tragedy --notice that even his smiles are half-cocked... as if a full grin would cause pain-- sends A Place in the Sun into the stratosphere of 50s movie heaven. Their whirlwind courtship leads to one of the cinema's greatest screen kisses


...and tragedy thereafter.

You seem so strange... so deep and far away. As if you're holding something back.
-Angela Vickers (Liz) to George Eastman (Monty)

For those inclined to enjoy readings of star performances through the distorting prism of what we know of their personal lives --in Clift’s case: addictions, homosexuality, depression, and "pathological compartmentalization" of his social life-- this also makes George Eastman and A Place in the Sun an ideal vessel for carrying nearly all the crucial pieces of the Clift mythology. It's here in one classic package: implosive sensational talent (this was the second of four Oscar nominations) beauty you can drown in (boy is Shelley Winters is in trouble...in both senses of the word), self-destructive sexual behavior (George is living dangerously for an up and comer, isn't he?) and existential angst that doesn't overpower his charisma so much as inform it (check out how quickly Liz loses her ground as seductress to become both seduced and matronly, desperate to sex him up and save him). Just about the only missing piece of the Clift myth is the homo eroticism but there's always Red River for that.

A Place in the Sun also serves up a mirror of sorts in regards to Montgomery's place in the Hollywood firmament. The gorgeous black and white cinematography and machinations of the screenplay (both won Oscars) position George Eastman as a troubled and shadowy figure, a black sheep in this world of wealth and glamour. He unquestionably belongs there but is never fully absorbed into it, never at peace there. Isn't that Clift, too? Hollywood's ultimate troubled child is unquestionably one of the great film stars but he still exists somehow apart from the Brandos, Bogarts and even the Taylors in Classic Hollywood's pantheon.

the participating Clift-loving blogs

career overviews / his persona
Self Styled Siren "On the Manliness of Montgomery Clift"
The Sheila Variations A huge compendium of Monty related Hollywood quotes
My New Plaid Pants lusts for but doesn't quite love the man of the hour
Gallery of the Absurd 'If Montgomery Clift Were Alive Today' by "14" (previously interviewed right here) She always finds the details
Stinky Lulu 5 thoughts on the actor from fear to emotional adoption


individual star turns
Nick's Flick Picks looks deep into The Search
And Your Little Blog Too Monty's dexterous and intelligent work in The Heiress
Movie Morlocks "You would too recognize me" Monty in The Misfits
Peter Nellhaus on The Young Lions
Eddie on Film "Hidden in Shadows" (A Place in the Sun)
Moon in the Gutter Wild River and Freud, the "missing masterpieces"
Goatdog Monty's 7-minute solo in Judgment at Nuremberg
Rants of a Diva Falling for Monty in The Search
A Blog Next Door Queering and dequeering in Suddenly Last Summer
Strange Culture Clift @ Court (A Place in the Sun & Nuremberg)

photos & video tributes
If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger Great photos including one of my favorites of the actor taken by Stanley Kubrick himself
Ongoing Cinematic Education... YouTube -the Clash's "That's Montgomery Clift, Honey"
Boy on Film 'love of the pretty'
Stale Popcorn career cliff notes from YouTube
Rural Juror Saying goodbye to Monty

20:07 (4th Electro Shock Treatment)

By popular demand, the 20:07 series returns
screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use a VLC


[text prior to this image]

_____October 16th. Fourth electro-shock treatment.
_____Slight improvement noticed. Patient more alert,
_____but still confused in surroundings.
_____On the following evening about…

*
9:47 PM
*