By : SETH MULLER
Source : http://azdailysun.com
Category : Film School Online
When it comes to Hollywood history, few directors stood on a major threshold between classic and New Hollywood in the way Peter Bogdanovich did.
His early movies of the 1970s rank as some of the most important in film history -- namely "The Last Picture Show" and "Paper Moon," as well as the comedy "What's Up, Doc?" His films carried the sensibilities of a new era of movie auteurs that includes Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
However, his filmmaking also bore similarities to classic Hollywood. And, as legend goes, Bogdanovich and Orson Welles were hanging out at the time the young director was filming "Last Picture Show."
However, Bogdanovich suffered a great loss following a famously known tragedy. A woman with whom he became romantically involved, Playboy model and actress Dorothy Stratten, was murdered by her estranged husband Paul Snider, who then committed suicide.
But for his great films and all of his contributions to cinema, Bogdanovich is to be honored at the Sedona International Film Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He will make an appearance on Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Sedona Performing Arts Center, where he will be part of a Q-&-A discussion following the screening of "Last Picture Show."
He also will appear at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19, for the screening of his personal favorite "They All Laughed," which co-starred Stratten. Learn more about tickets and pricing at www.sedonafilmfestival.com.
His appearance is one of several by famous and accomplished Hollywood personalities at the festival, which will run from Feb. 18 through Feb. 26 and includes the showing of 145 films.
On Feb. 3, I had the opportunity to interview Bogdanovich by phone from Winston-Salem, N.C., where he teaches film at the Winston-Salem School of the Arts.
Seth Muller: I wanted to start with the film that will open the Sedona Film Festival on Feb. 18, "The Last Picture Show." This movie is ranked in the 100 best films of all time by the American Film Institute and it's been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including one for you, and it won two. I was wondering if, while you were making the film, you had a feeling it would become an American classic?
Peter Bogdanovich: I don't think so. Maybe I did in the sense that I tried to make it as good as I could make it. I felt like "Targets," my first film, was more of a thriller. It had good acting but it wasn't about the acting. With "Picture Show," it did feel like we were making something very good ... All of the jokes and everything in it amused me, but I didn't know if they'd amuse other people. In the first 10 or 15 screenings, I thought it was going to be a flop. It was a small audience, and nobody laughed. Finally, we had a screening in New York at the Columbia studios projection room with 75 people. And they laughed.
SM: I have to ask this question because it seems to show up in footnotes of Hollywood's history. Is it true that Orson Welles was your houseguest at the time you were filming "The Last Picture Show," and, if so, did he have any influence over the film?
PB: (Orson Welles) was living in Hollywood at the time. He was a houseguest off and on for a few years, but that was later on. On "Last Picture Show," he was living in Los Angeles and we knew each other ... He didn't like the script. He thought the people were awful. But I was sitting and talking with him at breakfast one day and I was talking about depth of focus I wanted for the film. He said, 'You'll never get it in color. Shoot it in black and white' ... I told him they'd never let me shoot it in black and white. He said, 'Have you asked? Don't assume. You have to ask them.' Orson then said, 'You have a movie that's about actors, and every performance is better in black and white.' So, I asked and they said yes. That was an important turning point for the picture. The performances did look better in black and white because you're focused on the emotion.
SM: It also should be noted that the film festival will screen "They All Laughed" starring Audrey Hepburn on Feb 19. Can you talk about the significance of that film?
PB: Personally, it's my favorite film of mine. It was Audrey Hepburn's last role in a major film. And she is just luminous. And there's Dorothy Stratten, who also is luminous. It's all shot in Manhattan, so it's a love letter to the city of my birth. And, it's a comedy, but it's bittersweet. It's got a lot of pathos. Really, it's the kind of picture I like. I like a darker comedy.
SM: I want to ask you a few questions about my favorite movie of yours, "Paper Moon." Tatum O'Neal is so captivating in this film. I was wondering if you worried about a storyline that had to be carried by a 9-year-old. Or, did you already have a sense that Tatum was the amazing talent that she was and she would do great?
PB: I had the confidence in myself that I could get a great performance out of her ... She was very open to everything I told her to do and she got it. She often thought it was funny what she was doing. I helped her with the dialogue because she didn't read very well. I recorded the lines on a tape recorder so she could listen to them. We worked very closely on the film.
SM: Tatum, of course, made history when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as the youngest recipient. But do you think she was a little snubbed and should have won it for Best Actress? She was more than a support in the film, don't you think?
PB: Somebody asked me about that before and I can't remember exactly what I said. I know that Paramount's thinking was that they would never give the Best Actress Award to a kid. So they thought it would be foolhardy to try to push for that. They figured Ryan O'Neal was the star and she was in a supporting role.
SM: In talking about "The Last Picture Show" and "Paper Moon," I'm reminded of how your work is often seen as both part of the New Hollywood emerging in the late 1960s and early 1970s and characteristic of classic films, particularly Howard Hawks' movies. As a writer, director and producer, was this a balance you were striving for, or were you just trying to make the films the way you wanted to make them?
PB: I didn't think of it that way. I know that it's been interpreted that way. Really, I wasn't consciously aware of it, but what I realized was that I was doing something in American film that haven't been done before with sexuality and content ... But then the film is told in a classic style. I believe there is a certain vocabulary and grammar in filmmaking. I think there's a certain way of making films that has to do with clarity and unobtrusiveness. The New Hollywood had more to do with subject matter. I was part of that, but I told it in a more straightforward, classic way.
SM: One of your directing credits came with the 1985 film "Mask," with Eric Stoltz and Cher. It's a true story about Rocky Dennis, a teenage boy with a rare facial deformity known commonly as lionitis. What drew you to Rocky's story?
PB: I was living with Dorothy Stratten and we were working on "They All Laughed" together. And she saw the play "The Elephant Man." She loved the play. And I remember we were in a bookstore and she picked up a book about Joseph Merrick. I noticed she was looking at him with fascination. Me, I could hardly look at the guy. After she was killed, I saw "The Elephant Man" ... Dorothy was so striking. Pictures did not do her justice. Everyone would look at her. Even dogs would stop to look at her ... So she felt like an outsider because of her incredible looks and I guess related to Joseph Merrick in some way. Later, I read the script for "Mask" and thought of that. It wasn't a good script at all. But I remembered her fascination with the Elephant Man. So I did it for her. But we needed to do nine drafts to get it right.
SM: I did want to ask about your passion and interest in John Ford, given the documentary you made about him in 1971. His name is well-known in northern Arizona for the films he shot here. What are the things you love about his filmmaking?
PB: I wrote a book about John Ford, I did an article about him for "Esquire" and made two films about him. So that really says it all. He was Americana. He made the best Westerns. There was always a sense of authenticity with his films. I think he's the most American of directors because he's a first-generation American director with that kind of perspective on the country. He loved America, but also came to see the problems with the country as well.
SM: Are you working on any projects currently, acting, directing or otherwise?
PB: We're preparing to shoot a comedy in New York in the summer. It's called "Squirrels to the Nuts." It's a reference to an old film, "Cluny Brown." It's a comedy. Kind of a screwball comedy. It's pretty wild. It's in the vein of "They All Laughed" and "What's Up, Doc?" I also have a couple more I'm working on. I have a Western called "One Lucky Moon." It's set in a Western town that functions as a tourist attraction. And I'm writing a book called "Hollywood Diary: 1965 to 1971." It's some diaries I kept at a crucial time.
SM: Well, I wanted to let you know that everyone with the Sedona International Film Festival is excited to have you and to present you with the Lifetime Achievement Award. I'd be remiss in not mentioning here that you also are an accomplished actor and an author of a number of books on films and Hollywood, including one on Orson Welles. I wonder, what's it like to be where you're at now, where celebrators of film honor the best that you've done a have deemed some of your films as classics?
PB: It feels strange. Let's put it this way, though: I'll take it. I just don't feel like I'm finished with my achievements. I think I have two or three really great pictures to make before they take me to the great screening room in the sky.
Source : http://azdailysun.com/entertainment/movies/peter-bogdanovich-one-of-the-greats/article_99d73378-13ad-5f34-a0f0-e9f8e831401a.html#ixzz1mBUpxQQk
Source : http://azdailysun.com
Category : Film School Online
When it comes to Hollywood history, few directors stood on a major threshold between classic and New Hollywood in the way Peter Bogdanovich did.
His early movies of the 1970s rank as some of the most important in film history -- namely "The Last Picture Show" and "Paper Moon," as well as the comedy "What's Up, Doc?" His films carried the sensibilities of a new era of movie auteurs that includes Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
However, his filmmaking also bore similarities to classic Hollywood. And, as legend goes, Bogdanovich and Orson Welles were hanging out at the time the young director was filming "Last Picture Show."
However, Bogdanovich suffered a great loss following a famously known tragedy. A woman with whom he became romantically involved, Playboy model and actress Dorothy Stratten, was murdered by her estranged husband Paul Snider, who then committed suicide.
But for his great films and all of his contributions to cinema, Bogdanovich is to be honored at the Sedona International Film Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He will make an appearance on Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Sedona Performing Arts Center, where he will be part of a Q-&-A discussion following the screening of "Last Picture Show."
He also will appear at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19, for the screening of his personal favorite "They All Laughed," which co-starred Stratten. Learn more about tickets and pricing at www.sedonafilmfestival.com.
His appearance is one of several by famous and accomplished Hollywood personalities at the festival, which will run from Feb. 18 through Feb. 26 and includes the showing of 145 films.
On Feb. 3, I had the opportunity to interview Bogdanovich by phone from Winston-Salem, N.C., where he teaches film at the Winston-Salem School of the Arts.
Seth Muller: I wanted to start with the film that will open the Sedona Film Festival on Feb. 18, "The Last Picture Show." This movie is ranked in the 100 best films of all time by the American Film Institute and it's been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including one for you, and it won two. I was wondering if, while you were making the film, you had a feeling it would become an American classic?
Peter Bogdanovich: I don't think so. Maybe I did in the sense that I tried to make it as good as I could make it. I felt like "Targets," my first film, was more of a thriller. It had good acting but it wasn't about the acting. With "Picture Show," it did feel like we were making something very good ... All of the jokes and everything in it amused me, but I didn't know if they'd amuse other people. In the first 10 or 15 screenings, I thought it was going to be a flop. It was a small audience, and nobody laughed. Finally, we had a screening in New York at the Columbia studios projection room with 75 people. And they laughed.
SM: I have to ask this question because it seems to show up in footnotes of Hollywood's history. Is it true that Orson Welles was your houseguest at the time you were filming "The Last Picture Show," and, if so, did he have any influence over the film?
PB: (Orson Welles) was living in Hollywood at the time. He was a houseguest off and on for a few years, but that was later on. On "Last Picture Show," he was living in Los Angeles and we knew each other ... He didn't like the script. He thought the people were awful. But I was sitting and talking with him at breakfast one day and I was talking about depth of focus I wanted for the film. He said, 'You'll never get it in color. Shoot it in black and white' ... I told him they'd never let me shoot it in black and white. He said, 'Have you asked? Don't assume. You have to ask them.' Orson then said, 'You have a movie that's about actors, and every performance is better in black and white.' So, I asked and they said yes. That was an important turning point for the picture. The performances did look better in black and white because you're focused on the emotion.
SM: It also should be noted that the film festival will screen "They All Laughed" starring Audrey Hepburn on Feb 19. Can you talk about the significance of that film?
PB: Personally, it's my favorite film of mine. It was Audrey Hepburn's last role in a major film. And she is just luminous. And there's Dorothy Stratten, who also is luminous. It's all shot in Manhattan, so it's a love letter to the city of my birth. And, it's a comedy, but it's bittersweet. It's got a lot of pathos. Really, it's the kind of picture I like. I like a darker comedy.
SM: I want to ask you a few questions about my favorite movie of yours, "Paper Moon." Tatum O'Neal is so captivating in this film. I was wondering if you worried about a storyline that had to be carried by a 9-year-old. Or, did you already have a sense that Tatum was the amazing talent that she was and she would do great?
PB: I had the confidence in myself that I could get a great performance out of her ... She was very open to everything I told her to do and she got it. She often thought it was funny what she was doing. I helped her with the dialogue because she didn't read very well. I recorded the lines on a tape recorder so she could listen to them. We worked very closely on the film.
SM: Tatum, of course, made history when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as the youngest recipient. But do you think she was a little snubbed and should have won it for Best Actress? She was more than a support in the film, don't you think?
PB: Somebody asked me about that before and I can't remember exactly what I said. I know that Paramount's thinking was that they would never give the Best Actress Award to a kid. So they thought it would be foolhardy to try to push for that. They figured Ryan O'Neal was the star and she was in a supporting role.
SM: In talking about "The Last Picture Show" and "Paper Moon," I'm reminded of how your work is often seen as both part of the New Hollywood emerging in the late 1960s and early 1970s and characteristic of classic films, particularly Howard Hawks' movies. As a writer, director and producer, was this a balance you were striving for, or were you just trying to make the films the way you wanted to make them?
PB: I didn't think of it that way. I know that it's been interpreted that way. Really, I wasn't consciously aware of it, but what I realized was that I was doing something in American film that haven't been done before with sexuality and content ... But then the film is told in a classic style. I believe there is a certain vocabulary and grammar in filmmaking. I think there's a certain way of making films that has to do with clarity and unobtrusiveness. The New Hollywood had more to do with subject matter. I was part of that, but I told it in a more straightforward, classic way.
SM: One of your directing credits came with the 1985 film "Mask," with Eric Stoltz and Cher. It's a true story about Rocky Dennis, a teenage boy with a rare facial deformity known commonly as lionitis. What drew you to Rocky's story?
PB: I was living with Dorothy Stratten and we were working on "They All Laughed" together. And she saw the play "The Elephant Man." She loved the play. And I remember we were in a bookstore and she picked up a book about Joseph Merrick. I noticed she was looking at him with fascination. Me, I could hardly look at the guy. After she was killed, I saw "The Elephant Man" ... Dorothy was so striking. Pictures did not do her justice. Everyone would look at her. Even dogs would stop to look at her ... So she felt like an outsider because of her incredible looks and I guess related to Joseph Merrick in some way. Later, I read the script for "Mask" and thought of that. It wasn't a good script at all. But I remembered her fascination with the Elephant Man. So I did it for her. But we needed to do nine drafts to get it right.
SM: I did want to ask about your passion and interest in John Ford, given the documentary you made about him in 1971. His name is well-known in northern Arizona for the films he shot here. What are the things you love about his filmmaking?
PB: I wrote a book about John Ford, I did an article about him for "Esquire" and made two films about him. So that really says it all. He was Americana. He made the best Westerns. There was always a sense of authenticity with his films. I think he's the most American of directors because he's a first-generation American director with that kind of perspective on the country. He loved America, but also came to see the problems with the country as well.
SM: Are you working on any projects currently, acting, directing or otherwise?
PB: We're preparing to shoot a comedy in New York in the summer. It's called "Squirrels to the Nuts." It's a reference to an old film, "Cluny Brown." It's a comedy. Kind of a screwball comedy. It's pretty wild. It's in the vein of "They All Laughed" and "What's Up, Doc?" I also have a couple more I'm working on. I have a Western called "One Lucky Moon." It's set in a Western town that functions as a tourist attraction. And I'm writing a book called "Hollywood Diary: 1965 to 1971." It's some diaries I kept at a crucial time.
SM: Well, I wanted to let you know that everyone with the Sedona International Film Festival is excited to have you and to present you with the Lifetime Achievement Award. I'd be remiss in not mentioning here that you also are an accomplished actor and an author of a number of books on films and Hollywood, including one on Orson Welles. I wonder, what's it like to be where you're at now, where celebrators of film honor the best that you've done a have deemed some of your films as classics?
PB: It feels strange. Let's put it this way, though: I'll take it. I just don't feel like I'm finished with my achievements. I think I have two or three really great pictures to make before they take me to the great screening room in the sky.
Source : http://azdailysun.com/entertainment/movies/peter-bogdanovich-one-of-the-greats/article_99d73378-13ad-5f34-a0f0-e9f8e831401a.html#ixzz1mBUpxQQk
