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Sunday, December 19, 2010

R.I.P. Blake Edwards (26 July 1922 - 15 December 2010)

"Blake Edwards, the veteran writer-director whose films include the Pink Panther comedies, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Days of Wine and Roses and 10 and whose legendary disputes with studio chiefs inspired his scathing Hollywood satire S.O.B. has died. He was 88." Dennis McLellan for the Los Angeles Times: "Edwards, whose collaborations with his wife, Julie Andrews, included the 1982 comedy Victor/Victoria, died of of complications of pneumonia Wednesday evening."
His "reputation as a film director seems locked by some in the realm of lowbrow slapstick comedy and, in many cases, not particularly good ones, but Edwards's work as a director and a writer was more multifaceted than that," argues Edward Copeland. "True, at his heart he was a clown. A few years ago when the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences finally saw fit to bestow an honorary Oscar upon Edwards, he used his acceptance speech as an occasion for a gag, abetted by presenter Jim Carrey, showing up in a wheelchair with a broken leg and making it appear as if it went out of control and crashed through the wall of part of the awards show set." Still, his "resume was far more eclectic than you'd think and he did produce some classics."
Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961 established Edwards as a stylish director who could combine comedy with bittersweet romance. His next two films proved his versatility: the suspenseful Experiment in Terror (1962) and Days of Wine and Roses (1963), the story of a couple's alcoholism, with [Jack] Lemmon in his first dramatic role."
Updates, 12/17: "In effect, he gave the physical comedy of the silent era and the character-based humor of Hollywood forebears like Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder a modern neurotic spin," writes the Boston Globe's Ty Burr.
Julie Andrews with Director Blake Edwards filming "The Tamarind Seed" - 1974

Roger Ebert: "His life was filled with laughter, its end, shadowed by illness. He remained productive as long as he could. As Inspector Clouseau once observed, in words written by Edwards, 'There is a time to laugh and a time not to laugh, and this is not one of them.'"
Source: mubi.com

"The Great Race" Director Blake Edwards 1964 Warner Brothers

"As Orson Welles said, when I once asked him what he thought was the difference between cutting up a scene or playing it through in one shot, “Well, we used to say that was what separated the men from the boys.” Blake Edwards was definitely among the men—-a really terrific guy—- and with him goes one of the final examples of real, classic filmmaking". Source: blogs.indiewire.com

Saturday, December 18, 2010

My Humphrey Bogart collection


One of the best gifts what I could dream of arrived to my home address yesterday, "The Humphrey Bogart: The Essential Collection DVD box-set" which contains: 24 Warner Bros. Movies on 12 Discs starred by Humphrey Bogart. Bonus 13th Disc: Feature-Length Documentary The Brothers Warner, Chronicling the Fabled Family History of the Studio That Launched Bogart to Stardom. Petrified Forest/ Marked Woman, Kid Galahad/ Black Legion, The Roaring Twenties/ San Quentin, Dark Victory/ Virginia City, Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse/ Invisible Stripes, High Sierra/ They Drive by Night, Maltese Falcon/ Across the Pacific, All Through the Night/ Brother Orchid, Action in the North Atlantic/ Passage to Marseille, To Have and Have Not/ The Big Sleep, Dark Passage/ Key Largo, Casablanca/Treasure of Sierra Madre, plus a 48-page collectible book with rare photography --movie stills and behind-the-scenes photos from each film, Fifteen 5x7 cards of various one-sheets and correspondence including a telegram to Hal Wallis in which Bogart requested the lead in High Sierra.

Lauren Bacall with her husband Humphrey Bogart holding in her lap their kids Leslie and Stephen Bogart.

Humphrey Bogart Estate announced last week I was the winner of the "Best Bogie Character" contest (hooray!). Stephen Bogart (son of screen legends Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall) congratulated me personally on my entry, commenting how much he appreciates Bogie's fans outside the USA.

Honorable mentions for "Best Bogie Character" contest were to Todd Cleg, Helen Benty Ferguson, Bridget Dorsa, Becky Bryant, Matthew Hahn, Walter Thompson, and Rose Jaworski.

My box-set arrived signed by Stephen Bogart with a kind dedicatory for me and Spain. I'm really proud of myself in these special occasions!

So you can read the post I wrote participating in the Best Bogart character contest:
The winning entry: As character (which isn't exactly the same than performance) I have to say Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon", Bogart himself defined Huston's movie based on Dashiell Hammett's noir book as "a masterpiece" and said of his impersonation as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon: "I don't have many things I'm proud of... but that's one".
This character's influence has been so great that has extended even to this day, for example in the neo-noir "Brick" by Rian Johnson, the young shamus Brendan (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) cites as a homage to Spade some of his witticisms: calling "Angel" to the femme fatale [Nora Zehetner] or warning her "now you're dangerous"...
The chemistry between Mary Astor and Bogie was phenomenal, the fact that Brigid the femme fatale wasn't a bombshell made the story more realistic and believable, you could feel Spade's isolation through the master performance of Bogart, as at some times, he had to grind his teeth to avoid a faux step into the sentimentality growing towards Mary's Brigid. Also, Mary Astor admired Bogie deeply, she said of him that despite of seeming uncomfortable shooting love scenes, Bogart didn't need to kiss or touch his leading lady actually, just looking at her he seduced the camera. "The Bogart cult thast has emerged is very understandable. There he is, right there on the screen, saying what everyone is trying to say today, saying it loud and clear. I'm not a hero. I'm a human being. Bogie was for real".
Also, Bogie behaved chivalrously with Mary when she couldn't keep up with the rest of the crew's jokes, and he comforted her. Always a gentleman, but in the film, knowing that despite of his own desires towards this treachure creature (Brigid O'Shaughnessy) he must be faithful to his honor code (the same he was in Casablanca), painful as this decision is visible to the viewers, Bogie suggests a profound emotional effect but he coldly compounds himself when the police arrives to pick up Brigid from her fall. Their previous domino effect scene together when they talk about if their love was real keeps unsurpassed by noir films.

I had participated in a previous contest (take a look at the page, there are regular contest for all those interested in Bogart's career), Best Bogart's female co-star (excluding Lauren Bacall) and I also had the luck that time of being a finalist after having posting as entry:
We cannot choose Lauren Bacall, who was Bogie's true love, but we can cite her words remembering their timeless flame: "There was no way Bogie and I could be in the same room without reaching for one another, and it wasn’t just physical - heads, hearts, bodies, everything going at the same time", "What it felt like to be so wanted, so adored! No one had ever felt like that about me. It was all so dramatic, too. Always in the wee small hours when it seemed to Bogie and me that the world was ours - that we were the world".

These feelings can be appreciated in many of his scenes shared with brilliant co-stars, but I choose Claire Trevor in "Dead End" (1937), she was nominated for Best Supporting actress for a scene barely 5 minutes long, playing Francey, a devastated young woman who has fallen prey to sifilis due to her new profession as hooker. She had been engaged to Baby Face Martin (Bogart) and both find each other again in utter despair in the alley scene composed masterfully under William Wyler's direction and Gregg Toland's photography. This scene of doomed love fits perfectly with one of Bogie's philosophies: “Things are never so bad they can’t be made worse.” -Humphrey Bogart. My heart breaks everytime I see Baby Face Martin looking incredulous and desperate at beautiful but ravaged Claire Trevor in "Dead End".
Graham Greene wrote about Bogart's performance in "Dead End" : "Sentimentality turns savage in him. This is the finest performance Bogart has ever given -the ruthless sentimentalist who has melodramatized himself from the start up against the truth -his girl is diseased and on the streets"
As second runner: Mary Astor in "The Maltese Falcon", specially the scene when Bogart almost inadvertently touches her leg from behind whilst she is striking a fireplace. One of the most erotic moments ever.

From Stephen Bogart: "The TWO contest winners are Jay Ann Knox for her continued insightful comments AND her choice of Bette Davis and David Waldo for Gloria Grahame. I had no idea how many people joined me in loving Gloria. Honorable mentions to Mr. Mundy and Mses. Lehrer, Baptista, Murphy, Chagnon Seigle, Gonzalvo [that's me again!], and Hadley. Thanks so much to everyone for your interest in this page and your love of my father".

"Bogart spent his early twenties drifting aimlessly from one ill-fitting career to another, until, through a childhood friend, he got his first theater job. Working first as a stagehand and then, reluctantly, as a bit-part player, Bogart cut his teeth in one forgettable role after another. But it was here he began to develop a work ethic; deciding that there were “two kinds of men: professionals and bums”, Bogart, for the first time in his life, wanted to be the former.

After the Crash of ’29, Bogart headed west to try his luck in Hollywood. That luck was scarce, and he slogged through more than thirty B-movie roles before John Huston wrote him a part that would change everything; with High Sierra, Bogart finally broke through at the age of forty — being a pro had paid off". Source: www.nytimes.com

George Raft, Ann Sheridan and Humphrey Bogart in "They drive by night" (1940), directed by Raoul Walsh

"Unlike Raft, who was “half-German, half-Italian, and all low-life”, Bogart was born into high society and, while he rebelled against his parents and took several personal and professional downward steps on the social ladder, he always retained at least some of the proclivities of a gentleman, even if he did value whiskey and wisecracks over hauteur and social standing. He became a successful actor only after a long hard yomp through Hollywood’s nether regions, meaning that by the time he finally became a star, he had, as Thomson puts it, “the advantage of having failed.”
It’s possible to detect a sort of triangulation of sensibilities at work beneath the surface of The Big Sleep, between the character of Marlowe, the actor who portrayed him, and the author — Raymond Chandler — who created him. Bogart, says Thomson, was a “chronic dreamer”, a tag that could just as well be applied to Chandler, who Thomson describes as a “dreamy public schoolboy.” So when Marlowe meets General Sternwood in his fuggy greenhouse den, he’s there because his knowledge of the underworld will enable him to rid the General of the blackmailers who’ve been pestering him. But Marlowe (and Bogart, and Chandler) “knows Sternwood’s world, too, and he impresses the General as a man to be saluted.”
Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in "The Big Sleep" (pre-release version 1945)

One of the most quintessentially “Hollywood” films ever made, The Big Sleep, reckons Thomson, is “the film that most Bogart people would cling to at the day of judgement.” Who could argue with that? If Bogart went on to give better performances, later in his career — and he did — he never found himself in a more perfectly Bogartian film. It is a truly great movie, one of the jewels in the crown of the Golden Age; rather than having dated (as so many otherwise fine films have), The Big Sleep is “still as fresh as a Meyer lemon picked from the tree. Taste it.” Source: www.brightlightsfilm.com

Q: And your memories of Bogie?
A: I’m so lucky to have married Bogie and to have had such a fantastic relationship, even if it was so short [14 years]… I was headstrong and he was patient and so loving and funny and witty, my God! A man of honor and integrity and he lived his life by the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. And, by golly, if anyone lied to him, they were out. Most of the time I was in awe of him; he was the most incredible man who walked on earth…

Q: Sounds like you and Bogie did “have it all.”

A: Yes, we did.

Lauren Bacall with her son Stephen Bogart (1950)

Q: Any other memories?

A: I’ll have TV on and suddenly hear a familiar voice. I watch [ portions of ] “Casablanca” every time it comes on. When I see a certain scene it reminds me of a part of my life… I realize more every day how fortunate I was to have what I had. Bogie didn’t live long enough to know his children or for them to know him… The great thing about our marriage is whenever he wanted to teach me, he said, ‘Long after I’m gone you’ll remember me.’ And he’s become this incredible icon.

Q: Like you.
A: I’m not an icon. I can tell you my obit will only talk about him.

Q: How do you become inspired and unwind?

A: I have a hard time relaxing. There’s so much stress everywhere. The world has changed so much and I find the behavior of people has changed so much. There are no manners, no grace. I guess TV has a lot to do with it: that the standards have lowered and people don’t read books anymore. I wrote three books —all in longhand. I don’t understand the computer scene but I am trying to learn it from my iPhone. It’s fairly hopeless.
Q: When did you finally claim your feminine power?

A: I was brought up with a work ethic. It never occurred to me to go to college —we couldn’t afford it. So I decided to be an actress and my mother supported me every bit of the way.

Q: How about men?
A: I began to feel the power of women in the theater. We had great leading roles in big shows. That, I thought, was pretty damn good… I realized women could do anything a man could do. And so I always voiced my opinion… I found men so damned boring…

Q: What female star do you most admire?A: Bette Davis was my heroine. When I was 12 or 13 I could imitate her. I’d cut school and sneak into the movie theater because I couldn’t afford a ticket. Every waking hour, and in my sleep, I wanted to become like her.

Q: What other actors do you admire?

A: There are very few actresses that I would raise my eyes to… Once you’ve grown up and been exposed to James Stewart, Spencer Tracy, Katie Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, you say, ‘Excuse me? Why would you want to deal with what’s hanging around now?’ -Carmel magazine interview to Lauren Bacall by Susan Cantrell, 2009

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall on their wedding day (21st May, 1945)

Bacall: “In the bathroom I could hear the start of the Wedding March. Oh God, why hadn’t they waited? Later George told me Bogie looked up and said, ‘Where is she?’ George’s romantic reply: ‘Hold it! She’s in the can!’ I emerged - [the piano player] started again - and George and I started our descent. My knees shook so, I was sure I’d fall down the stairs. Bogie standing there looking so vulnerable and so handsome - like a juvenile…“When I reached Bogie, he took my hand - the enormous, beautiful white orchids I was holding were shaking themselves to pieces; as I stood there, there wasn’t a particle of me that wasn’t moving visibly… As I glanced at Bogie, I saw tears streaming down his face - his ‘I do’ was strong and clear, though. As Judge Shettler said, “I now pronounce you man & wife’, Bogie and I turned toward each other - he leaned to kiss me - I shyly turned my cheek - all those eyes watching made me very self-conscious. He said, ‘Hello, Baby’. I hugged him and was reported to have said, “Oh, goody.’ Hard to believe, but maybe I did.”“Everyone hugged and kissed everyone else and more tears were shed. Bogie said it was when he heard the beautiful words of the ceremony and realized what they meant - what they should mean - that he cried.” -excerpted from "By Myself and Then Some" autobiography by Lauren Bacall

"There's no sacrifice too great for a chance at immortality" -Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele in "In a lonely place" (1950), directed by Nicholas Ray.

Also, you can read my article Bogart: never damage your own character again!

Jake Gyllenhaal the ultimate seducer in Love and other drugs, Anne Hathaway invites school choir to Oscars

Jake Gyllenhaal stopped by M Cafe to have a sandwich for lunch in Hollywood, on 15th December 2010
Scans of Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in Premiere (France) magazine, December 2010-January 2011

"Jake recently spoke about the film, and how he felt it was one of the more 'real' films exploring human sexuality. The 29-year-old says: 'Jamie is the ultimate seducer and would have been perfectly happy to float through life minus the burden of responsibility or connecting to anyone - until he meets Maggie". Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Mrs Claus: Anne Hathaway will be hosting the Oscars on February 25 with James Franco

Tonight at PS22's 11th Annual Winter Concert, the children of the PS22 Chorus of 2011 got the surprise of a lifetime from Anne Hathaway & Bruce Cohen.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Jake Gyllenhaal had to practise a lot for "Love and other drugs" sex scenes

Jake Gyllenhaal playing Jamie Reidy in "Love and other drugs" (2010)

Your characters have to overcome a serious illness for their relationship to move forward. What wouldn’t you do for love?
Jake: I’m like Meatloaf… so that says it all! Anne: One of the things I love about the movie is it really explores the idea that true love demands a lot of you. Love requires you to become better and to go deeper, and I think that the movie shows us [that] when the stresses arise – in our characters’ case, it’s a degenerative illness that raises the stakes. I’ve never been challenged in that way. I hope I’m the kind of person that would, but I hope I never know what I would do.
What was your favourite scene to shoot?
Jake: I loved shooting every scene in this movie – that’s one of the rare experiences. I loved shooting the scene where Jamie says, ‘I love you’ to Annie’s character, Maggie. I thought that was a wonderful moment where we could have interpreted it in many ways. We found the humour in it and that was a real fun thing to do. She’s so funny, and she responds to me and I think I respond to her in a wonderful way.
Anne: I’m a big fan of scenes where I get to pretend to be asleep! And so I love the last scene. But each take took about half an hour to set up and, in between, I actually did fall asleep and I didn’t notice when we started to shoot! That tape did not wind up in the film because it was actually a real wake-up when you’re like, ‘Huuuhh?!’ It was really surreal because I was actually lying in bed with Jake Gyllenhaal!
Anne, what’s more terrifying – doing so much nudity in a film or the thought of hosting the Oscars?
I’ve done the nudity thing, and I can tell you the scariest part about doing nudity is having to watch it with an audience. And the second part of the nudity is talking about it – that’s a little scary, and all the attention it gets. But I’ve never hosted the Oscars, so I don’t know. I’m excited that I’m doing it with someone [actor James Franco] – that’s going to make it more fun than terrifying. I’m excited to have it be one more thing I can tell my grandkids I did.
Is it easier to shoot sex scenes with someone you find attractive?
Jake: I think it is easier to work with someone that you find attractive – I think it’s always easier to work with things that are actually occurring, and yet, there are boundaries.Anne: I actually do think that 65-70 per cent of my nude scenes have been with you, and you are very attractive, so I can safely say, yes!

What research did you both do for your roles?Jake: My character in this movie obviously has a lot of sex, so I had to practise a lot – that was very important! You have to devote yourself to your character, and I was fully devoted to research. Sacrifices, they’re sacrifices [laughs]! I can safely say I have never tried Viagra. Both Annie and I did a lot of genuine research for our characters. I met with as many pharmaceutical reps as I could, and it was really hard to get into that world. I found it much more difficult than even when I played a CIA agent in a movie. The guy who wrote the book that this is loosely based on, Jamie Reidy, I spent hours upon hours with him listening to stories, and even just stealing from him as a character. Anne: Because I was playing a character with early onset Parkinson’s disease, I obviously wanted to make sure I knew everything I could know about the illness. So I met with people with early onset Parkinson’s; people who had lived with the diagnosis for 20-25 years. I asked them a lot about their experiences with the illness, their experiences with their medication, their experiences with medical support. I tried to cover every base that I could. And I actually met with one of the women in the film, Lucy, who is the emcee at the Parkinson’s convention. And I was just blown away by people’s openness and their courage to share their stories with me, and my entire performance is totally indebted to that. One man said something that really put the whole experience of having Parkinson’s into perspective for me – I knew that I could never fully understand, but to understand the anxiety and the fear of it, this man said, ‘I miss being able to crumple paper’.
You two have already worked together on Brokeback Mountain. What was different this time around?
Jake: I got to be into her this time [laughs]!
Anne: It’s a wonderful thing, because Jake and I haven’t seen each other in a few years. We run into each other at a few things, but we haven’t really connected since the whole Brokeback experience. It’s a wonderful thing when someone you really admire and respect and really like has grown even more into themselves, and that’s what I witnessed with Jake. He was still the same person – he was just more grown up and his confidence had deepened. But all the good things, like how much fun we had together as people, were all still in place.

Love & Other Drugs is in cinemas nationally now Source: www.okmagazine.com.au



Love personality Quizz - I took the Love & Other Drugs “Love Personality Quiz” and I'm a DESIRE DABBLER.

Take the quiz yourself and find out what your love personality is. Go see Love & Other Drugs, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, in theaters November 24. loveandotherdrugsthemovie.com