'birds' of a feather

Alfie: You're not entitled to secret thoughts!
Annie: Everyone's entitled to secret thoughts!

'cloth ears'

that is perhaps my fave british expression. the thing is, you have to talk like michael caine to pull it off.

photos: one of 'alfie's' birds, the adorable and beautiful julia foster, who was also in the classic film, 'the loneliness of the long distance runner'/the 'hey, cloth ears' scene

where have all the good times gone?

i have been feeling remiss regarding mentioning movies i love. during the first year of writing this blog i was able to share all those great films that continue to mean so much to me. so, in an effort to be a good soldier, i sat down to watch 'alfie' just so that i could refresh my memory on its greatness and do a nice posting.

i would have bet my collie the film was in black and white. i have seen 'alfie' so many times and i still was shocked that it was in color. i was very glad no one took my bet, bad as my collie can be.

here is the problem, the movie is so flipping good that i had to turn it off. i am staying with dear friends and i was unable to relax alone in the t.v. room. i will save it for when i get home.

all i can say now is the screenplay is quotable from line one. michael caine had all the right ingredients: looks, voice, and the cockiness of a lad who you know is clueless. if you can accept the fact that he played a character who needed to seriously wake up one day, the experience is heaven. sixties cinema still rules.

photos: michael caine with jane asher in 'alfie'

stars in stripes

how amazing does sue lyon look here? maybe this was the photo elizabeth taylor was familiar with when she decided to stick close to richard burton's side when he and sue were making 'the night of the iguana.' just kidding. still, the girl was ridiculously pretty.

gene genie

like many others i thought gene tierney in 'leave her to heaven' was unreal special. she was such a gorgeous psycho tuna. she'd sit there looking absolutely heavenly and then bang! she'd come out of a bag at you and show her claws. once i got into watching her movies i took it upon myself to find a copy of the 1940 film, 'Tobacco Road', based on the classic novel. reading that book was a constant game of seeing how many pages i could read without shaking my head in bewilderment. the people were SO.... uneducated would be the nice way to put it.

i tried to watch the film but it was just terrible. AND beautiful gene was in it for about a blink of the eye. i never made it to the end so maybe she went out in a swell finish.

that said, i have seen her in many movies that i like, the best being 'laura.' i am now rereading 'the razor's edge.' gene starred in the film version of that novel with tyrone power who is just such a peach. they were both sublime in it and perfectly cast.

p.s. they made three films together.


photos: great poster/gene's one second in 'tobacco road'/with tyrone in 'the razor's edge'

a man and a woman

last night i had the great pleasure of speaking about john cassavetes to someone who has not yet seen his films. i knew an amazingly tender and insightful series of films was there for my friend to discover. while talking about the dream team of writer/director john cassavetes and his wife, the stunning and brilliant actress gena rowlands, i made a very simple realization. i could be wrong but it now seems clear to me that this man's films, which are so full of humor and sadness, confusion and trust, are essentially about one truth: man's valiant effort to understand women is exceeded by his continuing to love her when his efforts fail.

bette and pet

more 'lo'

James Mason & Sue Lyon in Lolita (1962, dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Q. In your last genuinely contemporary film, Lolita, you were frustrated in your efforts to make the movie as erotic as the novel, and there was some criticism that the girl was too old to play the nymphet of the novel.
Kubrick: She was actually just the right age. Lolita was twelve and a half in the book; Sue Lyon was thirteen. I think some people had a mental picture of a nine-year-old. I would fault myself in one area of the film, however; because of all the pressure over the Production Code and the Catholic Legion of Decency at the time, I believe I didn’t sufficiently dramatize the erotic aspect of Humbert’s relationship with Lolita, and because his sexual obsession was only barely hinted at, many people guessed too quickly that Humbert was in love with Lolita.
Whereas in the novel this comes as a discovery at the end, when she is no longer a nymphet but a dowdy, pregnant suburban housewife; and it’s this encounter, and his sudden realization of his love, that is one of the most poignant elements of the story. If I could do the film over again, I would have stressed the erotic component of their relationship with the same weight Nabokov did. But that is the only major area where I believe the film is susceptible to valid criticism.

photo: stanley and his star.

lo lee tah

painting by pal shazar

for love of lo

my first experience as a musician was in the band 'slow children.' my partner, andrew chinich, and i were deeply inspired by 'lolita', nabokov's classic tale of misplaced affections. the brilliantly funny and touching kubrick film adaptation was a great source of joy for us as songwriters.

in tribute to the actress sue lyon we wrote a song to illustrate what may have become of girl who played 'lolita' on screen. enjoy.

HASHSLINGER chinich/shazar


HASH SLINGER
Sure don’t see your name no more
No stenciled star up on the door
No agent, no silver screen
Just black coffee mam’ no cream
Reciting specials of the day
Reading menus not screenplays

Sweet Sue Lyon where’d you go
Stanley Kubrick ought to know
James Mason could not have guessed
You’d fall so quickly like the rest
Reciting specials of the day
Reading menus not screenplays

Well maybe I heard it wrong
Maybe you’re just where you belong
Happiness is what you perceive
Not what others would have you believe

Sad to think you were that girl
Skipping through that ugly world
Now you’re slinging all that hash
The tip jars where you get your cash
Reciting specials of the day
Reading menus not screenplays

Richard Burton took a shot
Introduced you round the lot
Sweet Sue Lyon had it all
But ran like hell back to the mall
Reciting specials of the day
Reading menus not screenplays

Well maybe I got it wrong
Maybe you’re just where you belong
Happiness is what you perceive
Not what others would have you believe


photo: james mason (humbert) telling sue lyon (lolita) she will no longer be performing in the school play.

ali's story

warren and ali in one week! birthdays are fun. ali turned 73 today. i adore her. so does everyone else. she truly defined 'je ne sais quoi' (literally ‘I don't know what’) and that gift of presence insured that no one seemed to care whether she was a 'good' actress. in salute to her brains and beauty, here are some extracts from a great 'vanity fair' article from a few years back. enjoy.


The actress Candace Bergen is rapturous about her friend—“You fall in love with her; she’s always been more alive than most others, so artistic and enchanted, with that refined, intellectual, bohemian glamour and a little bit of the Bedouin”

The 10 top box-office names of 1971 were nine men and one woman, and that woman was Ali. I can’t think of another movie star who became as big as she became overnight. 'Love Story' was a phenomenon. Aside from its seven Academy Award nominations, and its implantation of the kitschy motto “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” into America’s brainpan, thanks to its low budget it’s still among the most profitable studio movies ever made.



Steinem says, “Ali seemed unaware of being beautiful, though I remember thinking it was like living with the most magnificent and graceful cat. It was proof of her warmth and kindness that in those pre-feminist days, when we were all supposed to be in competition with each other, I don’t remember a female human being who resented her.”

regarding her marriage to steve mcqueen: Her big sin, she says, “was to be inauthentic at the beginning. I didn’t state my case: ‘You know, even though I told you I’d rather be on a motorcycle opening a can of beer, the truth is I’d rather go to Paris.’

Ultimately, McQueen’s paranoid possessiveness was unconquerable. He had already been having numerous affairs, according to MacGraw. “He had a suite in the Beverly Wilshire hotel, where he would go when we fought. It was a place I never went, which was stupid. I should have gone in, opened the door, and kicked the shit out of whoever was in bed with him.” She adds, “He would have enjoyed it!” In fact, the only infidelities that mattered to him were the ones he imagined her having. When she was at her lowest ebb, she was invited to be photographed by Francesco Scavullo for his book Scavullo on Beauty. She flew to New York, eager to feel what she hadn’t felt in a very long time: glamorous. There was a knock on the door of the apartment she had borrowed, and it was McQueen. Convinced she was having an affair, he’d taken the next flight to check up on her. He sprawled on the one small bed, she says, “and I sat on the bathroom floor all night, reading Freud to try to bore myself to sleep, but it didn’t work.” The next morning, the famous makeup artist Way Bandy had to Pan-Cake her dark circles for the photo shoot.

walkin'

walken from there to there