WTF? The Sterile Cuckoo NEWS???
One of those times when I can honestly say "I wish I had thought of that!"
http://www.topix.net/movies/the-sterile-cuckoo
Terrific, Jon-- I had run across this a month or two ago, then couldn't find it again. Now I have it bookmarked, thanks to you! It appears to be the most likely spot to find out if Paramount ever announces a schedule for DVD release of TSC. At this point, there seems to be no way to determine if there is even the vaguest hint of a plan to do so. Paramount is more of a brick wall than a mountain.
Now, this is a mystery to me: where are the legions of Liza fans-- and they are legion-- who ought to be DEMANDING home video of the earliest of LM appearances on the bigscreen? "Cuckoo" went out of print on VHS many years ago, and "Charlie Bubbles" never even made it to home video at all, so far as I know.
http://www.angelfire.com/musicals/lizaminnelli/CharlieBubbles.html
Wouldn't a combo DVD of CB and TSC (with all the extras, of course) be a guaranteed hit? Albert Finney isn't exactly a no-name, either! Doesn't anyone see the dollar signs in such a project? I'd like to talk some sense to the people who put together these kinds of deals...
That was an awesome Charlie Bubbles page. Thank you again!!
The picture is such an underrated rarity that even James Lipton of the frickin ACTORS STUDIO skipped right over it while interviewing Minnelli last Sunday (or maybe it was edited for time--but why edit talk about her very first motion picture as an adult??). "Junie Moon" has also never been released to home video, making it the second rarity in the Minnelli catalogue. I once found a page, can't find it now, of a Liza fan who had some of her Tv appearances on tape for an outrageous price, but he did not have Charlie Bubbles. I saw it on the PBS Saturday movie around 1998-99 and reviewed it, but have not seen a hint of it since.
BTW, that long fall Liza sports in CB is just that, a hairpiece. While making love to Finney he passionately grabs her hair and is quietly stunned to see it all come off in his hand...
Not sure if it's good or bad news, Moonspinner, but I watched "Junie Moon" on VHS from Movie Madness only months ago, and the rental sure didn't appear to be any sort of bootleg... but a quick search revealed no copies available for sale anywhere on the internet. Not that I could find, anyway.
I wasn't too thrilled with TMTYLMJM. The entire movie seemed deliberately contrived, self-consciously offbeat, and heavyhanded to the same extent that TSC is understatedly quirky, sensitive and naturally seductive. Not enough Liza-- and it's not just the quantity: her performance appears to me on-edge, and straining under Preminger. If I could put words to her soul-wrenching scream at the end, they would be: "LET ME THE HELL OUT OF THIS CLUSTERF--- OF A MOVIE!!!"
It's true, Paramount has never officially released the thing, so consider yourself one lucky viewer! I loved the film (in a much different way than I loved TSC) and am surprised you didn't care for it (I was secretly hoping you'd seek out TMTYLMJM and find yourself a true blue Liza buff). It's such a dreamy, disconnected little movie about lonesome people, brilliant and sensitive outcasts, quirky but not obtrusively so, that--in its way--it becomes a magical and momentous little portrait, albeit in a minor key. To me, anyway.
shareBelieve me, Moonspinner, I really wanted to like the Junie Moon movie. I tried my best to like it. By the time I was about 3/4 of the way through it, I had given up, and was thinking: "Poor Liza! Showing up only here and there, merely to get pushed this way and that for no good reason... this must be hell for her!" When she screamed, I was thinking, "Let it out, Liza, let it out!!!"
I had very high hopes during the first fifteen or twenty minutes that this would be a deeply involving movie for me. Though the scene of her mutilation was utterly senseless and gratutitous, I thought, well, senseless things happen... what will this woman do? What does a party girl do after she has been senselessly disfigured by a psycho she was senselessly dating? That could be interesting! Ah, she meets up with a paraplegic homosexual who has a heart of gold and a mind like a steel trap, and he nurtures her, as she finds love with a tortured but nice-looking epileptic. Terrific! I could really get my heart wrapped around this trio, and I could cry my eyeballs out at what could happen in such an intimate and isolated scenario. I should have been deeply moved.
I wasn't.
Instead of following Junie Moon's odyssey to the discovery of depth and meaning and genuine healing in this new home made of other outcasts, the movie just collects more eccentrics and more oddball characters, as if it was a parade or a circus. Instead of focusing on the emotional dynamics of the trio, they go on strange capers and excursions... as if trying to avoid being alone together. In all the commotion and strange flashback effects and extraneous characters, I even lost track of Liza's role! The movie neglected her. At the end, it appears that Liza grieves bitterly for some sort of love affair which supposedly had developed between Junie and the Ken Howard character, somewhere in there. I guess I missed it...
And in the end, I think he died or something.
Oh.
Thus, TMTYLMJM failed to rise even to the level of being cloying or emotionally manipulative. One of the circus performers died, and I couldn't have cared less.
I came away feeling the whole thing had been a terribly unfocused waste of the talents of a great actress, all because of poor screenwriting and poor direction. I understand the author of the novel also wrote the screenplay, but maybe it was a crap novel in the first place... I don't know. I never read it, and having seen this, I'll never be tempted to. Further, I understand that Preminger is regarded as among the greatest of directors, but... what can I say? I read somewhere that, after completing "Junie Moon", Liza was reduced to tears, and swore she'd never work with a beast like Preminger again.
I wish she had gone straight back to Pakula, and asked him to tell her another story.
Extremely witty and amusing (I love a good cinematic putdown, even on a movie I particularly admired) but I really feel you missed the boat on this one. When James Coco touches Liza's face for the first time, or when Liza holds Ken Howard in her arms (under the tree with their friend, the owl), I was genuinely moved. The folk song opener is a charmingly odd touch, like so many that follow, and the dialogue is so nonchalantly blithe and offhand, I would think any intrepid movie lover would be enchanted by this rough jewel!
shareYes, Pete Seeger's roving "Old Devil Time" at the opening was one of the touches that made me think I'd love "Junie Moon". The darkly erotic graveyard scene, also... like the kite shown falling out of the sky during one of the otherwise hackneyed lyrical interludes in TSC, that sort of imagery serves to conjure the sense that something is very, very wrong. Things only fell off track for me sometime after the hospital scenes. Where TSC departed from viewer expectations of a light comedic romp and turned into a harrowing and deeply personal look at intimacy gone wrong, TMTYLMJM went off in exactly the opposite direction, then tried to force the issue at the end. Can't do that.
I realize most movie lovers think "Junie Moon" is a fine movie, but I make no claim to being a movie lover. For instance, another movie of the sort which everyone raves about, but which I despise, is "The Royal Tenenbaums". An endless and overpopulated whirlygig of odd characters and strange events and frenetic humor... and in the end, I guess, as a member of the audience, I'm supposed to have become emotionally attached and to care about what happens to them. Sorry. I found myself hoping a meteor would wipe the entire clan off the face of the earth, so that for a few milliseconds I could give a *beep*
I blame screenwriters and directors for this sort of thing. Directors in particular. While I hardly fault Liza for her performance in TMTYLMJM, it is far from my favorite. I think there are ways to direct a sensitive actress, and ways not to. Here's Preminger:
Otto: "CUT!!! THAT'S ALL WRONG! DO IT AGAIN! DO IT RIGHT!!!"
Liza: "But... *sniff* Why...?"
Here's Pakula (I'm not making this up, not much, anyway):
Liza: "Will you tell me the story again, Daddy?"
Alan: "Of course, Dear. Once upon a time, there was a girl. A very, very lonely girl..."
Guess which approach resulted in a performance I love?
This page has a neat picture at the bottom:
http://www.eloisewebsite.com/library/990426_intheater.htm
I've discovered the secret of life: a lot of hard work, a lot of sense of humor, a lot of joy, and a whole lot of tra-la-la!
-- Kay Thompson
obviously she never worked as a washroom attendent...
cool pic of Liza circa 1973, although I have to admit I initially thought she was a boy! Hey, maybe that's why her marriages didn't work!
TMTYLMJM certainly divides viewers (and professional critics) although Leonard Maltin gave it ***1/2 (perhaps one in a handful of times I admired Leonard Maltin).
I dug up this review of TSC by Steven Scheuer, author the now-defunt Movies on TV series (and later Us Magazine):
The Sterile Cuckoo
***1/2 (he did the star thing as well, perhaps before Maltin)
Touching romance of Pookie Adams, a kook who insists upon calling all those who won't participate in her world "weirdos", and the innocent straight she captivates. Miss Minnelli is quite remarkable in her heartbreaking portrayal of a neurotic college girl creating obvious ganes to shut out dealing with the world. Liza was nominated for an Academy Award for this one. The film often plods due to the first directorial effort by Alan J. Pakula, but it finally gets where it was destined to go. Even, quiet and touching.
Hmmm. He's big on the 'touching' thing, isn't he? Let's see what he said about "Junie Moon"....what?!? he doesn't even have it? That's funny, Pauline Kael never saw it either. Must've played a week...:)
It just occurred to me that I never voted on TSC! So maybe that Viewer Rating will increase once I give it a 10! We shall see...
shareThe picture is such an underrated rarity that even James Lipton of the frickin ACTORS STUDIO skipped right over it while interviewing Minnelli last Sunday (or maybe it was edited for time--but why edit talk about her very first motion picture as an adult??).
I'd like to hear about this program... do you recall what was said about TSC and how much program time was devoted to it? I missed this show... share
I saw it. James Lipton is actually quite shallow in his questioning, steering clear of anything really interesting. He went from Liza's youthful triumph in Broadway's "Flora The Red Menace" right into TSC. They showed the photo of Pookie and Jerry in the church pew, her back against him, and Lipton asked "how did that movie come about?" (hard hitting questioning!!). Liza smiled and said, "The director, Alan Pakula, wanted me for the part...and he believed in me." THAT WAS IT FOR TSC!
shareThat's pretty much accurate. The audience of students did applaud warmly when Lipton said "The Sterile Cuckoo" but he didn't even ask her about that Oscar night (which was quite dramatic, Liza had been in a motorcycle accidnet and was drugged with painkillers throughoutb the ceremony). My favorite part was the question and answer period near the end.
Liza, what is your favorite word? "I like the word 'swell'."
what is your least favorite word? "Pig."
what turns you on? "I've always said the brain is an errogenous zone."
what turns you off? "Cruelty...and making fun of people."
what is your favorite sound? "New York traffic."
what is your least favorite sound? "Ambulance sirens...makes me think someone's hurt."
what is your favorite curse word? (big smile, very nonchalant)) "m-f ck-skr"
what profession would you like to take part in? "Creating vehicles for other people."
what profession would you laest like to be in? "I would make a lousy ambulance driver."
what do you want God to say to you at the pearly gates? "Good job, kid."