that'll teach him

don't it look like someone was mad at frank and just photoshopped him in the back?

photo: Ocean’s Eleven, 1960

raquel

61 screen credits may not sound like a ton, but i don't think raquel welch is remembered for more than about two of those. maybe it isn't her fault! little did she imagine a cave man epic would solidify her in the world's consciousness. at the time of shooting '100 million years b.c.' she already had two children.

i know she is a beauty from head to toe, but let's not overlook her ridiculously great teeth.

those were the days

the burtons

mondays with moet.

r e s p e c t

126 soundtrack credits. no stopping the undisputed queen.

it's a big world

i never heard of kumeko urabe before today. what a glorious face! she made 195 movies!!

here's looking at you

the face of a working actress. Ingrid Bergman photographed by Yul Brynner in 1956.

polka dots and depp

funny

plus he wears kilts.

one of a kind

sweet charotte

johnny depp says he doesn't watch his movies. i don't either! (not the pirate ones, anyway) looks like he has a comrade in arms in charlotte rampling. this actress has made many cool films. she has 95 screen credits and has just completed a movie that includes james fox. i love james fox. is this woman just crazy terrific looking, or what?

'Doing cinema is not about watching yourself.'-Charlotte Rampling

room with a major view

this room may have been repainted since katherine hepburn slept here, but what a view from one's pillow! hepburn's estate in connecticut was, as her character in 'the philadelphia story, would say, 'yar.'

'eddie.....'

check it out! 'ed wood' is now on hulu.com. brilliant, black and white, and free. johnny's finest kooky hour.

mouth of babes

I am at heart a gentleman. -Marlene Dietrich

romy and son

'eddie.....'

happy 83rd brithday marty! martin landau will forever be 'bela' to me.

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: I met Bela Lugosi.
Dolores Fuller: Why, I thought he was dead.
Edward D. Wood, Jr.: No, he's very much alive. Well, sort of.

steel wheels

stanwyck of the sterling reputation.

sad sanda, beautiful berger

i would sure love to see this movie again. (and i will when i can find a dvd that is under 100 dollars!)

puzzling

they just don't make them like this anymore. helmet berger and charlotte rampling looking like they stepped out of the 'garden of the finzi-continis.' it is interesting that rampling is dressed for the part but she is not in the film!

guys can be dolls

i surely do not love musicals but 'guys and dolls' is a barrel of fun. sinatra and brando are both a joy.

la vie erotique

there may not have been major sex in 'blow-up' but then again, the year was 1966 and cinema was yet to drop the veil completely. i am of the school of thought shared by director neil jordan. in the commentary to his film, 'breakfast on pluto' he came to the scene where 'kitten' and 'billy' close the door behind them on the small trailer parked by the lake in the middle of nowhere. jordan said there was no need to show what was gonna happen because the viewer knew what was gonna happen.

the sexual flavor of 'blow-up' had less to do with the act than with the hands down sexy as all get out performance of david hemmings.

just sayin'

little white truths

“God knows, I’ve fended off my share of amorous men-attractive, desirable men. John Barrymore in all his glory stayed in hot pursuit during my early years at Warner Brothers. That was by no means a singular honor. He also pursued every other pretty young thing on the lot, and just because he felt like a little redhead now and then didn’t incline me to join the club. I sent Clark Gable flying off my back porch into the bushes one night, and, boy, did he punish me for that! Keeping ahead of Spencer Tracy wasn’t easy, either. He chased me for years, then sulked adorably when I married someone else. Leslie Howard wanted to whisk me off to the South Seas, and, believe me, that was tempting. But he happened to be married at the time-they all were-and that sort of thing never appealed to me.”- myrna loy

i just love how so many actresses agree on leslie howard.

beauty

tallulah bankhead

wake me when it's over

even though nicholson is as cool as a cucumber, even he probably can't simply wing it while filming, still, his body language here looks kinda down.

'On the set of The Passenger, Maria Schneider stares ahead and Jack Nicholson hangs his head low, humming one of the five easy pieces for piano he knows, while Michelangelo Antonioni gives the two direction down to the last detail.'

role model

egon schiele's paintings have inspired many. bowie was going to portray him in a film, i think. when i look at his work i can imagine no other artist i prefer.

images: schiele self-portrait (stunning signature)/depp's self-portrait

a girl called johnny...

and he picked up the phone! now they are tight and patti lee has yet another portrait to hang alongside her mapplethorpe's. team smith!

how does a non actor follow up getting to be pals with johnny depp? here is one answer:

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Patti-Smith-Law-Order-1034304.aspx

art by j. deep

mommie dearest

to garbo one says yes

when garbo lived with actor john gilbert in the hills above the beverly hills hotel (SWANK!) their neighbors were filmmaker king vidor and his then wife eleanor boardman. even in the years of garbo, eleanor was considered the most beautiful woman in hollywood. they all played tennis and i imagine pointed up at whatever stars they could see over their hillside property.

eleanor told a wonderful story to garbo's biographer, barry paris:

greta asked eleanor if she would take her downtown to buy shoes. at the time there were no shops in beverly hills (awesome) so they headed east. garbo tried on 'a thousand pairs' of shoes and finally chose one pair. they left the store with greta wearing the shoes. her friend told her that she would not be able to return them if she wore them out the door. after a few minutes walking garbo said, 'my feet hurt.' she wanted to take them back. her friend said they will not take them back now. garbo replied, 'they will take them back.'

they took them back. eleanor went on to say that after her chauffeur took them back home garbo never said one word of thanks for the afternoon's shopping. eleanor had this to add: "she was selfish but she was fascinating!"

max and his women

photos: maximilian schell/wife natalya andrejchenko/sister maria schell/marlene dietrich/angelina jolie

beauty fades

with the exception of Maurice Chevalier and Marcello Mastroianni, Maximilian Schell is undoubtedly the most successful non-anglophone foreign actor in the history of American cinema.

he began his film career in 1955 and has 102 acting credits. his last performance was as recent as 2009. his gorgeous sister maria is also a world famous actress. another beauty in his life is angelina jolie, his goddaughter.

he directed 8 films, including a documentary on marlene dietrich. in 1970 he starred in and directed 'first love.' for a man who grew up with beautiful women, it is no surprise that the female lead went to one of the most stunning actresses to ever grace a screen. dominique sanda is a personal fave of mine so i took a chance and bought this movie. it was only recently that i got around to watching it.

it seems that when writers (sam shepard) or actors (lots of them) choose to direct, the results are poetic. 'first love' was based on a russian story so the poetry is inherent in the tale of a teenage boy who falls for his new neighbor. i wanted to photograph every scene.

brando moment

“Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It's a bum's life. The principal benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for my psychoanalysis.”

imagine hearing those sessions.

gloria swanson

those eyes! she was always ready for her close-up.

heeere's johnny

while in malmo, sweden i discovered a copy of patti smith's book 'just kids' in swedish! translations are awesome. there was a quote from j. depp above the title. i have read johnny's prose before and wished he'd write a book. i didn't so much understand what he wrote for 'just kids' but i do understand the awesomeness of this:

On the set of the upcoming installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, Smith asks Depp what it’s like to play the iconic role of Captain Jack Sparrow. “Somebody once asked [Hunter S. Thompson], ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping, Hunter?,’ and he smacked him.

touche!

tuesday afternoon

"I should do movies worthier of my talent? You’re crazy! Do you think I want success? I refused to do Bonnie & Clyde because I was nursing at the time, but also because down deep I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of ‘Bob & Carol & Fred & Sue,’ or whatever it was called. It reeked of success. I turned down Rosemary's Baby because they asked me to test for it, and will not test.... To test is the ultimate humiliation. No, not quite: my daughter was very young then. Do you know what it is like, stuck in a house all day with an infant? Monstrous! Did you ever have to talk to a five-year-old, day in, day out? I did! I was suddenly playing this wife role, cooking, cleaning, mothering, it was worse than testing! I may be self-destructive, but I like taking chances with movies. I like challenges, and I also like the particular position I’ve been in all these years, with people wanting to save me from the awful films I’ve been in. I’m happy being a legend. I think the Tuesday Weld cult is a very nice thing."- tuesday weld

Roddy McDowell: "No actress was ever so good in so many bad films."

Astrid Berges-Frisbey

new kid in town. ain't she darlin'? she's in the new pirates film with johnny.

ICONIC

for two days i have been reacquainting myself with 'north by northwest.' i am sure i will have lots to post about hitchcock's most famous movie.
cary grant and hitchcock made four films together:

suspicion ( i love it)
notorious ( i super love it)
to catch a thief (fun)
north by northwest (hitchcock says there's no such thing as the title!)

little could they have known that the scene of cary being chased by a 'duster' plane would wind up being the most identifiable image in cinema.

with a little help from his friends

sweetie pie mickey rourke is either totally honest or a dang fine actor on and off screen. he had his dog 'loki' with him when he made his very first talk show appearance in '94. he had already made lots of films so i guess he was shy about this sort of thing. i think you will agree that he was doing his best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1OaeolcAUQ

'I just wanted to push a button and disappear....I think I hadn't left the house for four or five months, and I was sitting in the closet, sleeping in the closet for some reason, and I was in a bad place, and I just remember I was thinking, 'Oh, man,' then I looked at my dog, and he made a sound, like a little almost human sound. I don't have kids, the dogs became everything to me. The dog was looking at me going, 'Who's going to take care of me?'-mickey rourke

best buds: mickey with 'loki' (his dog of 18 years)/with johnny depp/John Enos and Mickey Rourke 1994