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OT: Some Books Out Right Now on Three "Landmark" Films

posted 7 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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I was bookstore browsing the other day, with a somewhat forlorn attitude.

Whereas once, the "movie" shelves in bookstores were filled to the brim with new books about movies and movie makers and stars every few weeks...it seems to have slowed to a trickle. Oh, there are plenty of "tie-in" books to the comic book and SciFi epics of our time, but much less in the way of "film history" books.

Especially lacking: books about "the making of" a famous movie. Perhaps the most famous of these books is Stephen Rebello's "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho," which provided such a rich trove of trivia that I'd be hard-pressed to name a BETTER book in that regard. I will note that books about the making of Vertigo, and the making of Frenzy, have been written,but they aren't quite as good as the Psycho book. And this: a collaboration was announced years ago between Rebello(who wrote the Psycho book) and Dan Aulier(who wrote the Vertigo book) to co-write a book about North by Northwest. But it never happened. Perhaps those two auteurs should not have been paired.

The last best book I had about the making of a movie was one about the making of Network, which was a fine book indeed. The most interesting thing about that book(to me) was how many actors DID NOT WANT the role of mad newsman Howard Beale. Folks from Paul Newman to George C. Scott to Henry Fonda turned it down, and the role was cast just as production was about to start: Peter Finch, not much of a name. Finch would famously die of a heart attack (at the Beverly Hills hotel, right in front of "Network" director Sidney Lumet) and famously win the Oscar posthumously.

Anyway, with this forlorn feeling in my mind, I bookstore browsed the other day and found three new books about the making of three famous films:

Casablanca
The Graduate
2001

Such riches! I flipped through all three of them. I found the Martin Balsam references in the 2001 book(only three pages, devoted to his hiring and then Kubrick not using Balsam's voice work -- "too much emotion.") I read that Kubrick himself mouthed HALs lines to his actors during production.

The Casablanca book was good, but perhaps too far back in time and too much about things I already knew.

The Graduate book contained material that had already been covered in a book of a few years ago about the five Best Pictures nominees of 1967 (Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Dr. Doolittle, and the winner, In the Heat of the Night), but The Graduate had only gotten one-fifth of the book -- here it gets everything.

I chose -- for now -- to buy only The Graduate book. I suppose it is because of the three films in question, that's movie "of my time" that was, frankly, a bit more hot-blooded than 2001.

Reading the Graduate book, I was struck by how much it had in common with Psycho as a "landmark film." Again, a rather smallish, not-well-known novel. Again, a certain reaction against filming a story with "lurid" content(a young man conducts a sexual affair with a woman old enough to be his mother, and then falls for the woman's daughter.) Again, a placement of some images on film that hadn't been allowed before -- flash cuts of Mrs. Robinson, nude; the use of a church cross as a defensive weapon.

But The Graduate also shares with Psycho the fact that both movies rather "split into two parts." Psycho: Marion's story, then Norman's story. The Graduate: part one: Ben's affair with Mrs. Robinson; part two: Ben's romantic pursuit of daughter Elaine Robinson.

As with David Thomson and other critics' views of Psycho ("Part one with Marion is better; Part two with Norman, Arbogast, Sam and Lila is mundane mystery stuff) are criticisms of The Graduate("Part one with Mrs. Robinson is sexy, ground-breaking and deadpan hilarious; part two with Elaine is gooey romantic pap.")

I think my issue is that I disagree about Psycho -- but I rather agree about The Graduate. The second half is generally more mundane than the first half of The Graduate. But that's probably why it made a zillion dollars: the boy races to the altar and gets the girl. Of course, he gets the girl AFTER she has been officially married, but: details!

And this book on The Graduate has all sorts of people debating just how happy the ending is: Ben and Elaine board that bus to their future and...suddenly don't look all that happy. Will they be the next generation's Mr. and Mrs. Robinson? Or will they do things a new way? As a new generation of married couple? Will they get married at all?

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

The second half DOES have some good stuff:

Ben announcing to his mom and dad that he's going to marry Elaine ...but noting that she doesn't know it yet, and that, actually, she hates him and wants nothing to do with him. Great exchange:

Ben's dad: Ben...don't you think this plan is a little....half-baked?
Ben: No, dad. Its completely baked.

I love the line, but I especially love Dustin Hoffman's deadpan reading of it.

(Note in passing: Ben's mother is played by Elizabeth Wilson -- who is also the waitress at the Tides diner in The Birds. From Hitchcock to Nichols, not bad.)

I also like, in the second half, how MR. Robinson(Murray Hamilton, the mayor from Jaws) turns up in Berkeley to finally tear into Ben: "I think you are filth! I think you are SCUM! You are a degenerate!") Ben's reply doesn't work: "I don't love your wife, Mr. Robinson, I love your daughter." And Norman Fell kicks Ben out of the boarding house. And Richard Dreyfuss asks "Should I call the cops?" (One line for a movie debut -- and hey, Hooper and the Mayor in the same scene!)

---

But the real juice of The Graduate -- the queasy fun -- is all in Part One, you ask me. That's were you find "Plastics," and the Scuba Suit scene(one that uses Hitchcockian POV as a classic touch in an otherwise hip movie.)

And that's where you find Mrs. Robinson.

C'mon, she's a hell of a character, ain't she? So predatory in coming on to Ben, but so tantalizing in what she offers: all sex, only sex, all the time.

Its what makes the scene in bed where Ben tries to get Mrs. Robinson to TALK...about something, about ANYTHING, both funny and as tantalizing as the sex: what is the DEAL with this woman? What's her past? What were her hopes and her dreams?

Nah...its the sex thing. The way she guides Ben through the hotel liaison. The way she has to hold the smoke in her mouth when Ben suddenly kisses her -- but she's not angry, just a bit annoyed. The way she initiates the sex, "Maybe it would be best if you watch me."

The Graduate came out a year ahead of the MPAA GMRX, but in matters sexual, the days of suggestion were over. We might be unsure if Sam and Marion were "doing it" at the beginning of Psycho(we come in after whatever it was), but we KNOW Ben and Mrs. R are doing it. A lot. The famous cut from Ben jumping onto a pool raft and...landing in bed on top of Mrs. Robinson....gets a lot said.

The Graduate came out in late 1967...not much after that famous LA broadcast of Psycho, to tell you the truth. For this young lad in that formative year, the two films were rather of a the same ilk: both forbidden to me, both deemed "adult in content." But both alluring.

Consider this: Anthony Perkins as Ben. Dustin Hoffman as Norman. I suppose both castings are possible, or at least, both characters are SIMILAR: shy, slight, socially awkward young men trying to deal with more experienced women(Marion, Mrs. Robinson) . And both men are dominated by their Mothers(though in Ben's case, Dad's very much dominating, too -- and Mrs. Robinson is much like a sexually dominating version OF his Mother -- Norman had incestuous thoughts about Mrs. Bates in Bloch's book, and there is a suggestion of incest in Hitchcock's movie)

Like Psycho, the megablockbuster The Graduate got several re-releases before it hit CBS around 1973 or so.

I recall a re-release IN 1973. Which was the first time I saw The Graduate. And a very happy experience at the movies that I remember warmly today.

The deal: I was a short distance into my first really serious relationship with "a girl" at the time. Puppy love plus. A couple. And we went to the movies a lot. And one time, this exchange:

Me: You wanna see a movie tonight?
Her: Sure. The Graduate is in town.
Me: Oh...that would be good. I've never seen it.
Her: YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT? I can't believe that, you've seen everything.
Me: (Now sheepish, revealed as uncool) Well, no, it came out years ago, I didn't get to see it.
Her: Well, I've seen it. And I tell you what.
Me: What?
Her: Its my favorite movie of all time.

This was a "dawning moment" for me about this girl. First of all, she proved to be more sophisticated about movies than I thought she was. Than I was! Second, about all I knew about The Graduate is that it was "a sex movie" and this was her FAVORITE movie?

Hoo boy. We went that night. And its the first time I saw The Graduate and I saw it with a girl I really liked...and she liked ME(this relationship went on for a few years) and...

....well, let's just say that among the movies of our life, there are the really SPECIAL movies of our life. The right movie at the right time with the right person. The Graduate is such a one.

And I will stop there.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

But one more thing:

The bookstore browse revealed one more book: a new book about Nick Nolte. BY Nick Nolte.

Flipping through the pages of the book, I did find it rather amazing: He was a tough guy actor in his youth, but with a handsome, pretty, boyish face.

Now...about forty years past his peak...Nick Nolte has a huge head, a mottled face, white hair and beard and the look of a department store Santa Claus given to too much hard living. You literally cannot find the movie star he once was in that face. Hard times even for rich stars, I guess.

Back in the day, I was a big Nick Nolte fan. Its always fun watching a star BECOME a star, and Nolte did it with a one-two punch: the TV mini-series "Rich Man, Poor Man"(where he was the "bad boy" of two brothers but clearly the tough guy and loved by all women on screen and off) followed by the Jaws follow-up The Deep. Of the three stars of The Deep, Nolte came off the worst: we had Jackie Bisset in her wet T-shirt and Robert Shaw doing Quint again(but nicer) and ...Nick Nolte as "the guy," kind of a John Gavin role, I guess, but he was handsome and tough and the movie made $100 million and -- from my bookstore browse reading Nolte's own thoughts -- though Nolte himself thought The Deep was bad, it made him very, very hot as a star...and he rather immediately parlayed his heat into movies HE wanted to make.

Like Who'll Stop the Rain. And the Jack Kerouac story.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

And his personal favorite..."North Dallas Forty." Hey, that's my personal favorite Nick Nolte movie, too. In fact, its my favorite movie of 1979, period. So it was a pleasure to read the few pages Nolte wrote on how it was his personal quest to get THAT movie made, with THAT plot, and with him as the star. The biggest photo in the Nolte book is of him in North Dallas Forty, and he has the "actor's ego" to re-print the New York Times rave about him as an actor in the film. Nolte is clearly proud of the film and of his performance in the film. I am too.

I flipped a bit further. Nolte made too many "personal films" after North Dallas Forty(which was a hit), and eagerly accepted "48 HRS" even though he thought the script was crap. Nolte was assured that the script would be made better, that improv would be allowed...and that he would like his co-star, SNL's Eddie Murphy. It all came true.

Nick Nolte perhaps "front-loaded" his career as a movie star. The important stuff is up front: Rich Man, Poor Man; The Deep(a big hit if nothing else, and a fond 1977 memory of Jackie Bisset); North Dallas Forty, 48 HRS...and a lot of near indie-film stuff. Plus that one with Real Old Kate Hepburn where he's a hit man(in a role Steve McQueen turned down years earlier after having Kate out to his Malibu house for a chat.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

But Nolte worked on for decades, reliably, and had a comeback in 1991, when he did The Prince of Tides with Streisand and almost won the Oscar for it(that Hannibal Lecter guy beat him.) Also from that year is the Scorsese remake of Cape Fear, in which Nolte(now a second-tier guy) took the good guy role originally played by Greg Peck and now turned down by Robert Redford and Harrison Ford among others. Robert DeNiro's southern-fried psycho was the main attraction(as Bob Mitchum had been in the original)....so Nolte knew he was taking the weaker part. Amazing: Nolte PLAYED the character as weak, and he looked physically thinner than ever before, slight and a weakling against the trim but muscled DeNiro.

Cape Fear and The Prince of Tides were over 25 years ago, but Nolte still works a little.

With his new "Grizzled Santa Claus" look, Nolte was great a coupla years ago paired with Robert Redford, who looks pretty old himself now. " A Walk in the Woods" I think it was called. For a few years there in the 70's, Redford and Nolte were Hollywood's Sexy Blonds, and to see them as old men was truly touching(with Nolte in a role once sought for Paul Newman.) Nolte also did a scene with Redford in ANOTHER movie about old campus radicals reunited years later.

I ALMOST bought Nolte's book. Maybe later when its cheaper. But from the pages I flipped through, he seemed like a pretty levelhead guy...for a nut.

He did a documentary a few years ago about himself where I found him pretty self-deprecating. And defensive: about that famous disheveled DUI photo he said:

"I was in character for The Hulk when they took that picture. And I wasn't drinking that much. Hell, these reporters....isn't reporting the only profession with more drunks than acting?

I always found that line pretty funny.

I like Nick Nolte.

Anyway, some books out there on the movie front. Casablanca, The Graduate, 2001. Nick Nolte. Sudden riches.

[–] swanstep (2715) 7 years ago

A couple of other Nolte keepers: as the lead in Scorsese's 'Life Lessons' segment of New York Stories (1989), and as the lead in Schrader's Affliction (1997).

Oscar Nom'd for the latter in the following year, Nolte lost to a controversial winner, Roberto Begnini in Life is Beautiful. I never saw LIB and didn't know anyone who did. Its reviews from top critics on the East Coast were mostly terrible at the time so I never seriously considered seeing it. Checking now, I see that LIB gets an 8.6 score on IMDb, about the same as Psycho (and way above crowd-pleasers of the time like Titanic, LA Confidential and Good Will Hunting), so it's officially now one of the most beloved movies of all time. Amazing. I should probably give it a look sometime.

Update: I also liked Nolte a lot in Neil Jordan's The Good Thief (2002), a movie I liked a lot more than most did (lots of critics could't seem to get over its status as a remake of Melville's Bob Le Flambeur from the '50s. But in my view BLF wasn't prime Melville, and Jordan's much more romantically shot (in color) version with Nolte struck me as superior).

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

A couple of other Nolte keepers: as the lead in Scorsese's 'Life Lessons' segment of New York Stories (1989), and as the lead in Schrader's Affliction (1997).

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Yes, I remember those. I can certainly be a "movie star fan," and Nolte is one of mine. I showed up pretty loyally to movies he was in, certainly from North Dallas Forty on.

Life Lessons no doubt got Nolte his lead in "Scorsese's Cape Fear"(which, along with Prince of Tides, helped revitalize his career for awhile there.) Affliction was the "next best chance" for Nolte to win an Oscar. His co-star, the Great James Coburn, DID win(Supporting, for an AWFUL father to Nolte and Willem Dafoe.)

----

Oscar Nom'd for the latter in the following year, Nolte lost to a controversial winner, Roberto Begnini in Life is Beautiful. I never saw LIB and didn't know anyone who did. Its reviews from top critics on the East Coast were mostly terrible at the time so I never seriously considered seeing it. Checking now, I see that LIB gets an 8.6 score on IMDb, about the same as Psycho (and way above crowd-pleasers of the time like Titanic, LA Confidential and Good Will Hunting), so it's officially now one of the most beloved movies of all time. Amazing. I should probably give it a look sometime.

---

Hmm...those doggone IMDb ratings....well, I saw LIB and I recall liking, not loving it. I remember one key heartbreaking shot involving Begnini....probably the shot/scene that won him the Oscar.

His antics at various awards shows enraged one name of the time -- good ol' William Goldman(screenwriter of Butch Cassidy and All the President's Men), who landed a "column on movies" at some magazine and lost it within a few months, for Goldman insulted Begnini's Oscar speech, LA Confidential and(the ultimate crime) Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. The Oscar-winning screenwriter was no longer hot enough to survive insulting such sacred cows. "Out."

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

About Begnini, Goldman said as an Oscar winner he made the rounds of all the awards events that Begnini went to, and "Begnini's act was always the same" -- too much the clown/mime for Goldman's taste and too fake as to his language difficulties. Hell, I remember Goldman attacking Begnini more than I remember Life is Beautiful.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Update: I also liked Nolte a lot in Neil Jordan's The Good Thief (2002), a movie I liked a lot more than most did (lots of critics could't seem to get over its status as a remake of Melville's Bob Le Flambeur from the '50s. But in my view BLF wasn't prime Melville, and Jordan's much more romantically shot (in color) version with Nolte struck me as superior).

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Here's a funny one: I've seen Bob Le Flambeur...but not The Good Thief..and I WANTED to see The Good Thief, but it got away from me at the theater. Off to streaming (or my good old fashioned DVD habit) I go.

Nick Nolte sustained over a long career, and I'm not sure where it goes given how he looks now. There is terrible "amateur footage" of Nolte at some Hollywood/Malibu(?) supermarket taking ten long, slow agonizing minutes to get his aged body out of the store with bags and into his car; commenters suggest maybe Nolte was putting the paparazzo on, but maybe not. He lived a hard life, I guess.

I may yet buy his book....

PS. One that popped into my head was the film of "Cannery Row," with John Huston narrating John Steinbeck's lines with wry humor and Nolte very well matched with Debra Winger(a favorite of mine back in the day) for a cockeyed love story(she's a hooker, he's a marine biologist.)

[–] swanstep (2715) 7 years ago

Here's a funny one: I've seen Bob Le Flambeur...but not The Good Thief..and I WANTED to see The Good Thief, but it got away from me at the theater. Off to streaming (or my good old fashioned DVD habit) I go.

I hope you enjoy it.

A caveat: The Good Thief transplants BLF to the south of France and all the frothy, sexy To Catch A Thief fun that that location always promises to film fans. I thought it delivered on that promise but you probably do have to be in the right mood to appreciate it. A good Friday Night movie with a little liquor perhaps!

Another light movie from around this time that I really enjoyed (and consequently rate more highly than most do) was L'Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) set in Barcelona. It's probably fair to say that I have a weakness for sunny, smokey, boozy, sexy stuff set in that arc of the Med. from Italy round to Spain.

[–] swanstep (2715) 7 years ago

But in my view BLF wasn't prime Melville

I just rewatched BLF for the first time since the '90s, and I guess I stand by my previous impression: notwithstanding all of its nice touches including its basic tone anticipating Breathless, Vivre Sa Vie, Shoot the Piano Player, Reservoir Dogs, the Oceans films et al., BLF's story, characters, visuals, and action are only good not great. Unless one is prepared to value discovery of an influential new playful tone above all else, I think one has to rate crime flicks like The Killing and The Wrong Man ahead of BLF for 1956, and Rififi and Kiss Me Deadly and To Catch a Thief are all better overall from the previous year too.

For me, then, BLF is probably the fifth best Melville film I've seen after his 4 stone-cold classics: Le Doulos, Le Samourai, Army Of Shadows, Le Cercle Rouge. Neil Jordan was right to spot a remake possibility with BLF which doesn't exist with Melville's big 4, and with Nolte he had a nice acting and star-power upgrade from Roger Duchesne to get things off on the right foot.

[–] Garibaldi (36) 7 years ago

I always say that The Gradute is half of a good movie."Part 1" is a witty and sharply observed piece of social satire. On the other hand, "Part 2" is a frantetic, self-indulgent mess typifying much of the flim-making of that period of film history.