Bearing the unwieldiest of titles, Conversations with The Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age at the American Film Institute nevertheless deserves a spot on your summer reading list. AFI founder George Stevens Jr. collects interviews with many of Hollywood’s great directors, plus a handful of cinematographers and writers, and a few foreign directors as well. Drawn from the AFI’s renowned seminars, each is a delight. And I’m only thirty pages in so far.
I’d buy the book just for a particular gem from Raoul Walsh. While making In Old Arizona (1928), a freak accident resulted in the loss of his eye. When doctors asked if he’d like to have it replaced with a glass one, he snapped, “Hell no. Everytime I’d get in a fight, I’d have to put it in my pocket.” He wore a black eyepatch for the rest of his life. (Note to self: track down his autobiography, Each Man In His Time. He’s got a lot of great stories. Sadly, the book is currently out of print.)
Check out this great list of interviewees:
- Harold Lloyd
- Raoul Walsh
- King Vidor
- Fritz Lang
- Frank Capra
- Howard Hawks
- James Wong Howe
- Mervyn LeRoy
- Rouben Mamoulian
- George Folsey
- William Wyler
- George Stevens
- William Clothier
- Alfred Hitchcock
- George Cukor
- Billy Wilder
- John Huston
- Ray Bradbury
- Elia Kazan
- Fred Zinnemann
- David Lean
- Stanley Cortez
- Robert Wise
- Ernest Lehman
- Gene Kelly
- Richard Brooks
- Stanley Kramer
- Hal Wallis
- Jean Renoir
- Federico Fellini
- Ingmar Bergman
- Satyajit Ray
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Senses of Cinema article on Raoul Walsh by Tag Gallagher
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Last night we watched Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), one of director Peter Weir’s first films. It’s a strangle little film, about a group of Australian schoolgirls who disappear while on a picnic at a rock formation on Valentine’s Day, 1900. The first part of the film, before the disappearance, is charged with expectation. There’s an eerie feeling, but also a sort of sexual tension (it is the Victorian era, after all) that’s really powerful. It’s not a suspense or mystery film in the usual sense, and you never really know what happened, but if you enjoy creepy films, you might want to check it out. Peter Weir went on to direct lots of successful Hollywood films, including The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Dead Poets Society (1987), and The Truman Show (1998).
In other film news, today would have been Billy Wilder’s 96th birthday. I’m currently reading On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder, by Ed Sikov, and Billy was certainly a fascinating and brilliant man.
And tonight, our little film group will be screening The Sweet Smell of Success (1957), starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. Being a fan of great writing, I’m looking forward to hearing all of the great lines in this one. In Barry Levinson’s great movie Diner (1982), set around the same time, there’s a character who walks around only speaking in quotes from this film.
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I find it hard to believe that a giant dog turd of a movie called Scooby-Doo could sell more than $50 million in tickets on its opening weekend. The funny thing is that it cost $80 million to make it. Imagine!
I’ve just finished reading an interesting book by Peter Biskind called Easy Riders Raging Bulls, about how the culture of director-driven films of the 70s collapsed into the blockbuster-driven Hollywood of today. It’s really disheartening. Imagine taking the $80 million spent on Scooby-Doo and splitting it among ten hungry young independent directors. Even if half of the films weren’t that good, at least none of them would be Scooby-Doo!
Brooke and I watched the original Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936) last night. The reason this movie works and the new one with Adam Sandler probably won’t is that Gary Cooper is not winking at you the whole time. You really believe he is a decent human being. Adam Sandler will instead come across (as always) as a moron.
I also finally watched Harold and Maude (1971) and loved it. I’d heard that it’s been a big influence on Wes Anderson’s films and that was easy to see. There’s a sort of gentle affection for the strange, damaged characters on the screen, along with a large dose of black humour. A really touching film, and a great Cat Stevens soundtrack.
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