TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL 2010: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY (1966)—Onstage Conversation With Eli Wallach

Continuing with its celebration of the nonagenarian spirit, the TCM Classic Film Festival paid tribute to 94-year-old Eli Wallach with a morning screening of Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (1966) at Grauman's Chinese Theater.

As the TCM program notes synopsize: "Often hailed as the greatest of all 'spaghetti Westerns,' this 1966 epic has become an indelible part of our culture. The title The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is now a part of the vocabulary, while Ennio Morricone's influential score created new ways of setting Westerns to music. Director Sergio Leone expanded writer Luciano Vincenzoni's idea for a film about three scoundrels looking for treasure during the Civil War to deal on a grand scale with the absurdity of war. For history buff Leone, that meant making the film as accurate as possible, from the Confederate uniforms to the design of the Betterville Prison Camp (modeled on Andersonville). He also planned it as the third film of his Dollars trilogy, following A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965), which meant getting Clint Eastwood back to star as the good. For the bad and ugly sides of the equation he jumpstarted Lee Van Cleef's career and gave Eli Wallach the role of a lifetime. The production in Spain was lavish and so chaotic Wallach and Eastwood were almost killed (Wallach more than once). But it also provided the epic canvas for Leone's vision of war, greed and personal demons."

The "role of a lifetime" was, of course, that of the scheming, scene-stealing Tuco. Eli Wallach and Robert Osborne introduced The Good, The Bad and the Ugly with an onstage conversation.

* * *

Robert Osborne: Tell us a little bit of how you first got involved with this?

Eli Wallach: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

Osborne: Yeah.

Wallach: Well, I didn't know I was going to wind up as The Ugly! I was in California doing a film and Sergio Leone came and said he wanted to meet me. I said, "All right. What for?" He said, "It's for what they call a 'spaghetti Western'." I asked him, "What is a 'spaghetti Western'?" I had no idea what the hell a "spaghetti Western" was; but, he showed me the credit at the beginning of his movie. He comes across and then a gun comes in and shoots him right off the screen and I thought, "Anybody who can do that, I'll work for him."

Osborne: What was that experience like?

Wallach: With Leone?

Osborne: Yeah.

Wallach: I'll tell one little quick story.

Osborne: You tell as many stories as you want.

Wallach: He said, "I don't want you to put a gun in your holster." I said, "Where do I put it?" He said, "Look, you have a rope around your neck and in your hand is a gun and when I say, 'Action!', you go like this [Wallach makes a whooshing sound]. I said, "Will you show me?" He said, "Don't put the gun in the holster. Don't." He put the rope around his neck, he had the gun, and he went like this and the gun missed his hand and hit him in the groin. He said to me, "All right, Eli, just put it in your pocket." For the rest of the movie I never had a holster. I kept my gun in my pocket.

Osborne: Problem solved! Was that a good experience over there in Spain? Did you love traveling to Spain and working over there?

Wallach: Spain and Italy. Yeah, I enjoyed it. Spain is a beautiful country, beautiful, and it was a joy to work there.

Osborne: And how about Clint Eastwood?

Wallach: Clint? He said to me, "Don't show off. This is my third Italian movie and I know it's very dangerous. Don't put events. Don't be showing off." I said, "What do I do?" He said, "Act." And so that's what I did.

Osborne: And you did it very well.

Wallach: Thank you.

Osborne: Your first role was in Baby Doll in 1956. Why did it take so long to get you to do a movie? And I've always wanted to ask: there's always been the story that you were the first one offered the role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity, which you turned down supposedly to do Camino Real on Broadway? Is that true?

Wallach: Correct.

Osborne: Did you ever regret that?

Wallach: No, because I chose to do what I did. I was in the Army for five years in World War II. I wound up as a captain in the medical administrative corps. I was in Berlin in 1945 two months after Hitler committed suicide and then they were going to ship me to Japan; but, then the bomb went off and I went home, after five years. Work is what intrigued me. As a matter of fact, in the hospital we put together plays and I always wound up as Hitler. It was very interesting.

Osborne: So movies didn't intrigue you that much then?

Wallach: No. For the first five years after I came out of the Army, I spent with my wife [Anne Jackson] on the stage doing the plays of Tennessee Williams. For 10 years I didn't do any movies. I wasn't involved with movies. The stage was what attracted me and what I needed to do. Then I got a job with Elia Kazan directing the play then the movie Baby Doll by Tennessee Williams. That was my first film.

Osborne: How did you like film acting once you started getting into it?

Wallach: Oh, I loved it.

Osborne: The process?

Wallach: Yeah. I made a movie here not long ago with a lady named Kate Winslett called The Holiday.

Osborne: You've never stopped working. You have two films coming out this year. You had two last year. Two the year before.

Wallach: I never stop. When I die, I'll stop. Though at my age I always say, "How old am I?"

Osborne: I don't know. I would have to look that up on IMDb.

Wallach: On what?

Osborne: IMDb.

Wallach: I'm 94 years old.

Osborne: As an actor, what haven't you done that you would like to do? You've done so many varied parts and characters....

Wallach: You mentioned From Here to Eternity. I was set to do a play by Tennessee Williams called Camino Real and they didn't have the money so I auditioned for the movie called From Here to Eternity. The producer said, "He doesn't look Italian enough." So I said, "I've been playing an Italian by Tennessee Williams for a year and a half. What do you mean I can't?!" He said, "You'll have to do an audition." I said, "All right." I did the audition and I got the job for From Here to Eternity. And then the money came through for the play. Now I had to choose. The play? Or the movie? And I chose the play. You know who played the role of Maggio in the movie? Frank Sinatra. Every time he'd see me, he'd say, 'Hello, you crazy actor!' " But we were good friends.

Osborne: You also made the famous The Misfits for John Huston with that incredible cast, you being one of them: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter. Incredible people. Tell us a little bit about that experience.

Wallach: I knew Marilyn. She had come to New York in a scubble with the movies here. She came, we met, and we learned about a relationship and she got the part in this movie that her husband Arthur Miller was going to put on. I was going to be under the type "A Marilyn Monroe movie", then Clark Gable came in so I moved over one. Then came Montgomery Clift and I moved over two. And then came Thelma Ritter. She said, "I'll do it but I have to be first under the title." I wound up on Third Avenue somewhere! I learned my lesson because they were a wonderful team of actors and John Huston was marvelous.

The first day I worked with Clark Gable, I was sitting in my truck and he was standing and leaning. John Huston said, "Action!" and I kept looking at Gable and I was thinking, "He's the King of the Movies! I hope he doesn't know I never saw Gone With the Wind." He looked at me and he went [Wallach imitated Gable garbling his words] and he couldn't remember what the hell I did or where I was from: Brooklyn. Right? So Huston said, "I said action!" Then he said, "Forget it" and he ordered a drink for each one of us. And we hooked together. From then on we were a great couple.

Osborne: What about Huston as a director compared with the other directors that you've worked with?

Wallach: He was the best. He was doing The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and his father Walter Huston was playing one of the big roles. I loved that John Huston said to his father, "Listen, you're going to be in this movie and I want you to take out your teeth." His father was a huge star on Broadway, right? But he took out his teeth. I wasn't going to take out mine.

Osborne: You say Huston was the best. What made him the best? Compared to the others?

Wallach: He didn't say, "You have to do it this way or that way or move this way. Impress me." And I worked to play that movie for a reason in dealing with the people in the movie, not with the director. But he was very helpful. Wonderful.

Osborne: Was Elia Kazan as a director on film different than when he directed you on stage?

Wallach: I wouldn't say that. But he did say a very interesting thing. He said, "In the movies, all the crew people who are making the movie, when they're ready they say to the director, 'We're ready' and then the director usually says, 'Action!' " Kazan said to me, "Listen. Let them take all the time they want to achieve what they want—the set, the scenery, and all of that—because when you're playing your scene where they burn down the cotton gin, you turn your back to the audience and take your time, the same amount of time they took, and when you're ready just signal with your hand and I'll say, 'Go ahead.' " That was the way he directed. He directed me and I played it and he didn't have to say, "This way or that way. Never." I loved working with him.

When I did my first movie with Clint Eastwood, Mystic River, he said to me, "I'm doing a movie up in Boston and I'd like you to be in it." I said, "All right. How many weeks?" He said, "One day." I said, "One day?!" He said, "Oh, c'mon, it will be a reunion." So I went for that one day and it was a great experience because—the way he directed me?—he said, "How are you, Eli?" I said, "Good." He said, "You ready?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "So do it."

Osborne: Any directors you wouldn't want to work with again? We won't tell them.

Wallach: I always made peace with the people I've worked with. I listened to what they had to say. But then I would adjust to what my needs were. And they were helpful to me. I've worked with some great directors.

Osborne: Who are some of the other favorites you've worked with?

Wallach: John Sturges on The Magnificent Seven.

Osborne: Not a bad movie.

Wallach: Oooooh, wow. [At this juncture Wallach asked Osborne if he could share something.] The music in movies always impressed me. Ready? [He pulled out a birthday card that—when opened—played Morricone's theme song to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.]

Osborne: That's great.

Wallach: [Coyly] You're a treat.

Osborne: You're a treat! My God. You're terrific, just terrific. I love your stories, we love your work, you've done such great work and we so appreciate you and appreciate your taking the time to come and join us and making this film festival so important.

Wallach: And I have a sharp thank you to Turner Classic Movies for a reason: they put the movie on! You don't have to sit through 18 commercials.

Osborne: I often think it's so unfair. I don't know why—when movies first went on television, back in the days when television needed movies terribly—why they didn't make a rule back then that they could only show a movie uncut. You could put commercials on before or after but not during the movie. But they let that get away from them and I think it's such a serious damage done to movies because of the rhythm of a movie. I'm very proud of that about TCM.

Wallach: Well, I'm glad you asked me to be here.

Osborne: We're thrilled to have you here and, again, we love your lovely wife Anne Jackson, and we love you, thank you.

05/11/10 UPDATE: "[S]o much of what we remember vividly from Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) can be traced to the words which laid the foundation for the imagery with which Leone and his stars fashioned this memorable movie," writes Dennis Cozzallio at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, as preface to his obit tribute to screenwriter Furio Scarpelli.

Cross-published on Twitch.

HOLA MEXICO FILM FESTIVAL 2010—San Francisco Lineup

In recent years Mexican cinema has had a tough row to hoe in the Bay Area. First, Cine Accion went anemic and died a slow, ignoble death. Then the International Latino Film Festival (ILFF) stepped in (only to overextend itself into oblivion). As Michael Hawley reported at film-415, a dedicated and committed group of left over volunteers from ILFF organized last November's brief run of the San Francisco Latino Film Festival and hopes are that they will return again this year come September. But other than for the random DVD projection at Galeria de la Raza or the Mission Cultural Center, Mexican cinema has had to content itself with its token Bay Area festival appearances, most recently the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF), which screened three films from Mexico in their 53rd edition: Presumed Guilty, Alamar and Northless. That's a respectable sampling given the fact that Mexican cinema competes for those SFIFF slots with the national cinemas of other Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Cuba at this year's edition alone).

Picking up the slack where our local festivals have not is the Hola Mexico Film Festival (HMFF), which—in its second year touring the U.S.—has included San Francisco among its roster of cities. And just in time, as 2010 brings about a monumental occasion for Mexico: the centennial of the Mexican Revolution and the bicentennial of the Independence movement.

Founded in 2006 by Samuel Douek with the express goal of exposing the international community to the creativity, ingenuity and charm of Mexican culture through film, Douek has organized a diverse but well-edited selection of films which allow viewers to experience the unique walks of life that characterize Mexican identity and culture and which exposes Mexican directors, producers and actors to the mainstream US market. At this stage, HMFF is the largest tribute to Mexican film in the world.

The Films

Alamar / To the Sea
DIR. Pedro González-Rubio (Mexico 2009, 75min, 35mm)

One of two entries in the current HMFF lineup that have just recently screened at SFIFF53, HMFF affords the opportunity to view González-Rubio's sophomore feature Alamar for those who missed it at the San Francisco International. I caught the film at its world premiere at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and wrote it up then. It's been picked up as Film Movement's July subscription film.

Bala Mordida / Bitten Bullet
DIR. Diego Muñoz Vega (Mexico 2009, 112min, 35mm)
Cast: Damián Alcázar, Dagoberto Gama, Octavio Castro

Mauro Hernandez is a young cop who believes he can make a difference. But when he gets caught in the middle of a drug deal that involves his commander, things start to fall apart. Now Mauro has to decide whether he'll become part of the system or if he has the courage to fight back. In one of the best performances by Damián Alcázar (La Ley de Herodes, El Crimen Del Padre Amaro), first time director Diego Muñoz Vega tells a chilling story that depicts how the police functions on a day by day basis.

As Dennis West writes for Cineaste: "Diego Muñoz Vega's ponderous and truculent police drama Bala mordida ... sketches such an unrelenting vision of ingrained corruption in the Mexico City police force that a foreigner may be left wondering just how that nation's levels of bureaucracy function and co-exist. Here we have one government agency, the Mexican National Film Institute (Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografia), a co-producer of this major feature film, using its funding to relentlessly criticize another government agency, a municipal police force. Both entities live in each other's shadow in the same city."

Perpetuum Mobile
DIR. Nicolás Pereda (Mexico/Canada/France 2009, 86min, 35mm)
Cast: Gabino Rodriguez, Teresa Sanchez

Gabino, a 24-year-old man, works as a moving-truck driver in Mexico City. He lives with his mother, Teresa, with whom he has a distant relationship. She wishes Gabino was more like Miguel, her other son, who she believes has a decent job and a good lifestyle. Miguel, however, doesn't care much about his family and never visits them.

As Neil Young dispatched from the San Sebastian Film Festival, Perpetuum Mobile "proved unexpectedly hilarious to many, though some were left bemused, baffled or bored by the quotidian verisimilitude of Pereda's approach. Every film festival has no shortage of these 33 1/3 r.p.m. enterprises among its selections these days, but the lo-fi, video-shot Perpetuum Mobile is executed with an unfussy panache that proves weirdly compelling—and, after the credits have rolled—hauntingly resonant." Dispatching to Twitch from the Guadalajara International Film Festival—where Perpetuum Mobile won Best Mexican Feature—Todd Brown wrote: "Anyone with a bit of Latin can explain to you the joke built in to the title of Mexican slacker drama Perpetuum Mobile. Because, despite what the title may imply, this is a film in which nothing ever happens. And that's kind of the point."

El Estudiante / The Student
DIR. Roberto Girault Facha (Mexico 2009, 98min, 35mm)
Cast: Jorge Lavat, Siouzana Melikian, Pablo Cruz Guerrero

Set against the colorful atmosphere of Guanajuato, this comedy captures the adventure of Chano, a retired 70-year-old man who decides—after mixed recommendations from his family—to enroll in college. His presence impacts on his classmates and breaches the generational gap. Chano gives his college classmates advice, and in the process learns a few lessons along the way.

Tres piezas de amor en un fin de semana / Love On A Wknd
DIR. Salvador Aguirre (Mexico 2009, 90min, 35mm)
Cast: Adriana Barraza, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Paola Núñez

Three social classes. Three different worlds. Three love pieces during a weekend prior to the most controversial presidential election in Mexico. Intimate stories of couples that did not change history. Starring Daniel Giménez Cacho (Arrancame La Vida) and Oscar®-nominated actress Adriana Barraza (Babel).

Vaho / Becloud
DIR. Alejandro Gerber Bicecci (Mexico 2009, 117min, 35mm)

Becloud is the story of Andrés, José and Felipe, three young boys facing post-adolescent limbo. The memory of a man's lynching—indirectly caused by them during their childhood—brings them together and at the same time separates them. The story takes place in Iztapalapa, a humble and forgotten area, lavish in its fervent demonstrations of faith but, undoubtedly, the most arid place in Mexico City.

As reported earlier on The Evening Class, Becloud was selected for the Global Lens 2010 series and—based upon that association—is being featured as HMFF's opening night film and toasted at HMFF's Opening Night Fiesta at Mexico DF with live music and cocktails (tickets for the film and fiesta are $25). Director Alejandro Gerber Bicecci will be in attendance to introduce the film and for a post-screening Q&A.

As Andrew Schenker writes at The Village Voice: "Bicecci's sophisticated flashback structure makes palpable the sense of buried guilt running through generations."

Naco Es Chido / Kitch Is Cool
DIR. Sergio Arau (Mexico 2009, 90min, HDCAM)
Cast: Yareli Arizmendi, Sergio Arau, Francisco Barrios, Armando Vega Gil

Directed by Sergio Arau (A Day Without A Mexican), Naco Es Chido is a rock comedy. In 1988, members of the famous Mexican rock band Botellita de Jerez disappeared along with the new record after a fist fight in a taxi cab. The story evolves 20 years later when the famous missing recordings are found in a junk yard. This incites the investigation to search for members of the band and the discovery of the plot that caused the disintegration of the group and that threatens them yet again.

Sucedio En Un Dia / It Happens In One Day
DIR. Julián Hernández, Gustavo Loza, Daniel Gruener, Mariana Chenillo, Issa López, Ignacio Ortiz Cruz, Alejandro Lozano, Beto Gómez (Mexico 2010, 102min, HDCAM)
Cast: Dolores Heredia, Irene Azuela, Dagoberto Gama, Adriana Barraza, Joaquín Cosio

Eight talented and experienced directors have 24 hrs to shoot and edit a short film in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Not your typical short film program, Sucedio En Un Dia, also known as Rally Malayerba PRO, show us a mix of short films that promise to make you laugh and cry.

La Mitad Del Mundo / The Half of The World
DIR. Jaime Ruiz Ibáñez (Mexico 2009, 92min, 35mm)
Cast: Hansel Ramirez, Paulina Gaitan, Ignacio Guadalupe, Fernando Becerril

Mingo is a young, shy and innocent young man with a mild mental retardation. He is a romantic and a kind of poet. After an unusual sexual awakening, he gets involved with an older woman who introduces him to the highest pleasures and introduces him to some of her friends, she makes a lover out of him; although he surrenders to such temptations, Mingo is secretly in love with a girl that lives near him. Soon enough his adventures become common knowledge and that awakens his mother's worries.

Norteado / Northless
DIR. Rigoberto Perezcano (Mexico 2009, 95min, 35mm)

For those who missed Norteado at this year's San Francisco International, HMFF provides a second opportunity. Andrés travels from Oaxaca to Tijuana to cross the US border. Things don't result as planned and he has to stay in Tijuana where he starts working in a grocery store; there, he meets Elia, Cata and Asensio. What Andres finds in Tijuana makes him think about what he's about to do and become aware of what he's leaving behind. Norteado talks about the illusion that the United States represents for those who decide to cross the border searching for a better life.

As Jay Weissberg details at Variety: "Rigoberto Perezcano's understated, warm, non-exploitative take on a young man's failed crossings, and the temporary life he has in Tijuana, reps an impressive debut and heralds a much-needed new voice." At the Village Voice, Melissa Anderson concurs that Perezcano's "deceptively modest first feature is expansive enough to focus not only on the frustrations (and perils) of wanting to be elsewhere but also on the pleasures, however fleeting, to be found in transitional spaces." And as synopsized at the LA Weekly: "With a mostly unadorned, documentary-like (but beautifully photographed) style that allows for the dignity of broken souls to rise above a harsh environment, Perezcano nudges his talented actors toward moments of quietly powerful clarity, without histrionics or predictably fated ends. What's left is a sobering, charming and ultimately moving depiction of the geographical and emotional spaces that exist between places left behind and the ones we're in a hurry to get to."

Northless has garnered several awards at the Rotterdam, San Sebastián, Thessaloniki, and Marrakech film festivals, including the FIPRESCI prize at the Bratislava International Film Festival.

Oveja Negra / Black Sheep
DIR. Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz (Mexico 2009, 85min, 35mm)

Two friends that work on a ranch herding sheep are fed up with their mistreatment by their boss. They come up with a plan to steal the sheep and sell them at the Mexican-American border. Jeronimo, the boss's son, will do anything in his power to catch them and not let them get away with anything that someday will rightfully be his.

Dispatching to Cineaste from the Guadalajara International Film Festival, Dennis West writes: "The best Mexican fiction feature I came upon was the young screenwriter-director Humberto Hinojosa Oscariz’s rural drama Black Sheep, set deep in the contemporary—and violence-prone—Mexican countryside. Many of the elements of this narrative hark back to musty Mexican melodramas and ranch comedies from the 1940s: the brutal and authoritarian hacendado (big landowner); his pampered son, a Mexican macho, who as a matter of course runs amuck; the thoroughly exploited peons who everlastingly toil on the ranch; and, of course, the inevitable class conflict in its many manifestations—from rustled sheep to affairs of the heart. Perhaps Hinojosa Oscariz's principal achievement is to creatively mix comedy and tragedy in order to make these characters well rounded yet unpredictable, and, even, human. The village priest, for instance, is not some sort of predictable stereotype. He routinely purloins funds destined for the poor to straightforwardly satisfy his selfish and all-too-human desire to buy himself the very latest model TV. In an unusual turn of events as far as the awarding of prizes at international film festivals goes, Black Sheep captured both the FIPRESCI Prize for the best Mexican opera prima and also the Prize of the Public. Seldom do the general admission ticket holders and the supposedly sophisticated international critics make identical artistic decisions."

Los Que Se Quedan / Those Who Remain
DIR. Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman (Mexico 2009, 96min, 35mm)

Those Who Remain is a film about the families of those who have crossed the border to the United States in search of better opportunities. A film that explores the melancholy, memories and identity of the families of those who have crossed the border. A film about absence, about the families whose lives are defined by the voids emigration has created.

Winner of the Mayahuel Award at the 2009 Guadalajara Film Festival and the Best Documentary Awards at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival and the 2009 Biarritz International Festival of Latin American Cinema.

Los Herederos / The Inheritors
DIR. Eugenio Polgovsky (Mexico 2009, DVCAM)

At an early age children begin to work in the Mexican countryside. The Inheritors is a portrait of their lives and their daily struggle for survival. These children work farming, sculpting, and laboring in a myriad of other activities. They have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, but they have also inherited their day-by-day hardship. Generations pass, and child workers remain captive in a cycle of inherited poverty.

Winner of the Silver Ariel for Best Editing and Best Feature Length Documentary at the 2009 Ariel Awards and winner of Best Documentary at the 2009 Lima Latin American Film Festival. At The Hollywood Reporter, Neil Young characterizes The Inheritors as an awareness-raising "indictment" of child labor practices in modern rural Mexico.

Sexo, Pudor & Lágrimas / Sex, Shame & Tears
DIR. Antonio Cerrano (Mexico 1999, 109min, 35mm)
Cast: Demián Bichir, Susana Zabaleta, Cecilia Suárez

Winner of six major festival awards, this Mexican blockbuster is an outrageous comedy that explores the battle of the sexes-and the exes! Sex-deprived Ana is nearly out of her mind with longing, until her wild ex-boyfriend, Thomas, shows up to visit Ana and her husband. Filled with outrageous humor and penetrating drama, Sexo, Pudor & Lágrimas is tantalizing from start to finish!

Asesino En Serio / Murder Seriously
DIR. Antonio Urrutia (Mexico/Spain 2002, 84min, 35mm)
Cast: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Jesús Ochoa

A Mexican entry into the "hip crime" genre popularized by Quentin Tarantino. Detective Martinez has been assigned to investigate a series of very unusual murders. It appears to the detective that a serial killer has been eliminating women by pleasuring them to death. Asesino En Serio is a sexy crime thriller with a heavily comic slant.

Hola Mexico Film Festival Schedule

HMFF will be venued at Landmark's Embarcadero Cinemas from May 6 through May 11, 2010. Be sure to check out HMFF on Facebook.

Thursday, May 6
7:30 PM Becloud

Friday, May 7
1:00 PM Perpetuum Mobile
3:00 PM Kitch Is Cool
5:00 PM Northless
7:00 PM Alamar
9:00 PM Half of the World

Saturday, May 8
1:00 PM Black Sheep
3:00 PM Becloud
5:30 PM Love On a Wknd
7:20 PM Bitten Bullet
9:30 PM Sex, Shame & Tears

Sunday, May 9
1:00 PM The Student
3:00 PM The Inheritors
5:00 PM Those Who Remain
7:00 PM It Happens In One Day
9:00 PM Murder Seriously

Monday, May 10
1:00 PM Love On A Wknd
3:00 PM Northless
5:30 PM Half Of the World
7:30 PM Perpetuum Mobile
9:30 PM Black Sheep

Tuesday, May 11
1:00 PM Murder Seriously
3:00 PM Bitten Bullet
5:15 PM Kitch Is Cool
7:40 PM The Student
9:30 PM Those Who Remain

Landmark's Embarcadero Cinema
One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level
San Francisco, CA
415-267-4893

Cross-published on Twitch.

TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL 2010: IMITATION OF LIFE (1959)—On-Stage Conversation With Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner

Ben Mankiewicz, TCM's weekend daytime host, introduced the screening of a new print of Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life (1959) in Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre. He emphasized that the film dealt with race in a way that few other films did in that era or—to be honest—even 51 years later, examining points of view about race not only from the inside—how African Americans perceived themselves—but how White Americans viewed that self-perception. Douglas Sirk's final film remains challenging to watch even aside from the fact that—despite its weighty issues—Sirk will make you cry.

Reciting from TCM's notes on the film, Mankiewicz noted that—according to an article in Daily Variety at the time—Universal-International encountered some resistance to the promotion of the film and tailored its advertising campaign for the South, where, as one studio representative explained, "White southerners avoid films that are advertised as dealing with the race problem." Hardly a surprise, to some extent those concerns cut both ways. On February 2, 1959, Hollywood Reporter reprinted the following wire sent by LA Tribune editor Almena Lomac to numerous white publications: "Imitation of Life ... is a libel on the Negro race. It libels our children and the Negro mother [and] should be banned in the interest of national unity, harmony, peace, decency and inter-racial respect." Lomac's opposition underscores that Imitation of Life was a bold and controversial film for its time and remains totally relevant for us to see and think about today.

Earlier in the day, Lana Turner's daughter Cheryl Crane told Mankiewicz that she felt Sandra Dee—who plays Lana's daughter in Imitation of Life—looked more like Lana's daughter than she did and admitted she was even a little jealous of Dee's relationship with her mother. Mankiewicz offered that anyone could acknowledge that it would be difficult to have Lana Turner as a mother, even though she was a great mother. About six months before her death in 2005, Sandra Dee phoned Crane to tell her how much Lana meant to her. "That probably bothered you," Dee conceded, "and I'm sorry that bothered you. But your mother wasn't just an inspiration to me from a career point of view, she was like a mother to me and she made me feel good and cared for and loved." Dee wanted Crane to know that and Crane said it meant an enormous amount to her to hear this from Dee. It eased some of her concerns that she had back when she was a kid. Though Sandra Dee planned to visit Cheryl Crane, she unfortunately passed away before that could happen.

As TCM synopsizes Imitation of Life at the festival's website: "Critics dismissed this film, a remake of a 1934 Claudette Colbert vehicle, on its original release—derisively labeling it a 'soap opera' and reserving praise primarily for the performances of Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner as a black housekeeper and her daughter who is trying to pass for white. Audiences ignored the critics however, making it Universal-International's top-grossing film to that time. Part of that success was the result of astute marketing. Realizing that African Americans accounted for 30 percent of the film-going public, Universal released the film simultaneously to white and black theatres in the segregated South, an unheard of distribution pattern at the time. In 1968, critic Andrew Sarris's influential The American Cinema listed Douglas Sirk among the second rank of film directors, launching a reappraisal of his work that has elevated Imitation of Life and his filmography. As in most of his romantic melodramas, Sirk undermines genre expectations. Although the plot stays true to the women's picture, rags-to-riches formula by making Turner pay for her success on the stage, her career is ultimately unbelievable as anything but an excuse for an increasingly sumptuous wardrobe. Instead, Moore and Kohner become the film's emotional center, with Sirk going for the jugular in powerful mother-daughter confrontations and a truly horrifying scene in which a white boyfriend (Troy Donahue) beats up Kohner after learning she's black. The result is a fascinating commentary on racial attitudes in the pre-Civil Rights era and a persuasive example of film as a director's medium."

I have watched Imitation of Life countless times and have wept my way through several boxes of tissues. It was one of my mother's favorite mid-afternoon melodramas and paved the way for my heightened appreciation of my generation's inflection of the story: Diana Ross and the Supremes' Motown hit "I'm Living In Shame." To this day, I view Imitation of Life with equal amounts of discomfort and fascination, still wincing each time at the scene where Annie (Juanita Moore) relays her plans for her own funeral, how she wants all her friends to come, and Lana as Lora Meredith responds incredulously, "Annie, I didn't know you had any friends!" The entitlement of her race and her class glitters in the jewels coiled around her throat and wrists and in her Jean Louis gowns (let alone her insouciant resistance to John Gavin's considerable charms).

Following the film, TCM host Robert Osborne took to the stage, calling out to Cheryl Crane in the audience; but—as hearsay later indicated—watching the movie upset Crane and she had already left the theater (which mercifully proved for the best). Osborne recommended Crane's 2008 book Lana Turner: The Memories, the Myths, the Movies, co-authored by Cindy De La Hoz before inviting Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner to join him for an onstage conversation.

Osborne began the conversation by wrly recommending to Susan Kohner that she tell Juanita Moore she loved her: "She can hear you now." [Referencing, of course, Imitation of Life's final scene where Sarah Jane (Kohner) interrupts her mother's funeral cortege to throw herself sobbing onto her mother's coffin.] Moore mentioned that she and Kohner have remained friends all these years since making the film.

Osborne asked if either of them had any idea when they made Imitation of Life that people would be admiring the film in 2010? Moore responded by joking, "Everyone is dead who saw the film 50 years ago!"

Asked if producer Ross Hunter advised either of them to see the original 1934 version of Imitation of Life (directed by John Stahl and starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers), Moore answered, "I didn't see it. He didn't want me to see it."

Osborne asked Kohner to relate how she came to the part of Sarah Jane? Kohner remembered exactly how it happened: she had been doing a play in New York called Love Me Little, which—she joked—summed up the critical response. Luckily, Ross Hunter happened to be in the audience and came backstage to ask her to test for the role in Los Angeles. She tested with Moore. Quite a few other young women were up for the role—including some strange choices, like Margaret O'Brien—but, as far as she knew, no girls of color were tested.

When Moore tested with Kohner, she didn't already have the part. In fact, Moore was convinced the studio execs didn't really want her. Originally, they wanted Ethel Waters for the role and the project was being conceived as a musical; but, Hunter chose Moore. He felt she had the talent and he won out.

Noting that the film's subject of "passing" was quite daring, particularly back in 1934 and even so in 1959, Osborne mentioned that previous films had dealt somewhat with the same subject—such as Lost Boundaries and Pinky, both from 1949—and though both left their mark, neither of those films had the influence of Imitation of Life. He wondered if either of them had felt going into the project that the film would be breaking ground?

"I didn't realize it," Kohner admitted, "I wasn't even aware of segregation as such at the time, not until we went on the road to publicize the film. I just saw Pinky the other day, as a matter of fact."

Moore knew the film was breaking ground at the time. "You see, my husband's mother was Caucasian and so I was living that kind of thing with my husband prior to Imitation of Life: one family Black, one family White. C'mon!"

As to whether their performances in Imitation of Life strengthened their careers and secured them better parts, Moore decried, "No, they were no better. I can't say that. I think I made less money after that, to tell you the truth, because I thought I was going to make more money with better parts and things like that but found myself right back making minimum. Eventually it paid off because I got other things from it. I got to go to London and Paris. So it paid off, it really did."

Osborne asked Moore if it had been tough for her working in the movie industry at that time? Had she felt any segregation as an actress? "You mean worse than it is now?" Moore volleyed. "Yes," Osborne answered. Moore leaned back and eyed Osborne incredulously. "Yes, of course. I wasn't Black enough. At the time you had to be black in color and all that sort of jive. So I was limited and that's why I moved to the stage. I got some great things to do on the stage. That educated me more and I traveled more and that was wonderful."

Kohner commented that her performance didn't really have much effect on her career. "I never got another role that was quite as good as this one. I know I didn't. I kept on playing, y'know, ethnic roles. I played an Italian, an American Indian. I did a few films where I played an American girl but this role was quite special. I was never offered another role like this again." After 10 films, Kohner pretty much gave up her career and married German novelist and fashion designer John Weitz, raising her two sons Chris and Paul Weitz. Enhancing Imitation's theme of motherly pride, Osborne asked Kohner to talk about the directorial careers of her two sons.

"They started with a film called American Pie. That was their first directing job. They had never directed anything before. Then things got a little more serious and upscale with About A Boy [2002, which earned them an Oscar® nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay]. Then they started doing their own material; Chris with The Golden Compass [2007] and Twilight: New Moon [2009], and he's now about to start a small-budget feature about a Mexican gardener called The Gardener. Paul is editing a film that he made with Robert DeNiro and Barbra Streisand, part of the Meet the Fockers franchise. He's got a play that's going to be done on Broadway starting in July."

Osborne pursued whether receiving Oscar® nominations for both their performances impacted their careers in any way? Again, Kohner replied no. "It didn't prove anything one way or the other," Moore added. Kohner continued, "We canceled each other out, being nominated for the same film." Shelley Winters won the honor that year for her performance in The Diary of Anne Frank.

Another interesting aspect about Imitation of Life for Osborne was that filming began four months after Lana Turner had become involved with the big tragedy and scandal in her life: the 1958 murder of her gangster lover Johnny Stompanato by her daughter Cheryl Crane. Osborne wondered what was it like to make a movie with Lana Turner at that time? No one knew what was going to happen with her daughter. Did they feel any tension regarding the scandal on the set? Did they feel any tension from Lana Turner?

"There was a lot of tension because she was so very upset," Kohner answered. "She was very emotional. Her crying in those scenes was real crying. She was very fragile and I think Juanita would know more about that because she actually saw her through a lot."

"Oh yes, she cried," Moore added. "We cried together. She had nobody to turn to. Her daughter was out there and she loved her daughter; but, her daughter was kind of on the wild side. Lana was so upset with her. She had no one to talk to except me, I guess, and she would talk to me about her daughter who was into some wild things at that time. So many young kids were doing that kind of thing, y'know, they were on the heavy stuff. They started out with marijuana and before they knew it they were on the heavy stuff. That's what happened."

Osborne commented that Lana and her daughter became very close as the years went on. "Not that close," Moore countered dismissively.

Osborne: Her daughter would probably disagree with that.

Moore: Her daughter was tall….

Osborne: Still is….

Moore: …and Lana was the opposite, y'know? She was so petite. I know that her daughter was very displeased with the way she looked, because we talked about it. She said she looked like a man and I said, "C'mon, you don't look like any man I know."

Osborne: She's a beautiful girl today.

Moore: She is?!

Osborne: Yes, she is. She was supposed to be with us today. She was with us this morning for the screening of The Bad and the Beautiful. She's beautiful, Cheryl Crane.

Moore: Oh! I'd like to see her. She's big and beautiful?

Osborne: No, she's just beautiful.

Moore: Not fat?

Osborne: No, she's tall and quite beautiful.

Moore: I wish Lana could have lived to see that.

Osborne: She did.

Moore: No, she didn't!

Osborne: I would never argue with you about anything.

Moore: I saw Lana three days before she died so I know she didn't live to see her daughter beautiful like that. I'm still living and I haven't seen her beautiful like that, though I hope to God she is.

At this amusingly uncomfortable juncture, I was grateful that Cheryl Crane had already left the theater. Osborne, likewise, opted to shift the subject to Kohner's current activities. Kohner advised that she lives in New York City where she loves the cultural life and the city's many challenges. Osborne found this of interest recalling that Kohner had grown up in Hollywood before moving to New York. "Your father was the famous agent/manager Paul Kohner and your mother is Lupita Tovar, who's still with us." Kohner boasted her mother is going on 100. She related that she moved to New York to study under Sandy Meisner, did some theater, met her husband, married and settled down. She's lived in New York for over 40 years now, though she often returns to Los Angeles to visit her sons and her three grandchildren.

Juanita Moore's grandson—actor/producer Kirk Kelley-Kahn, the CEO/President of Cambridge Players: Next Generation—was present in the audience so Osborne invited him to the stage to introduce himself and to talk about the documentary he is making on his grandmother due out in December. "It's an educational documentary that is mostly going to be introducing people who don't know Juanita Moore and her legacy, and the way she's paved the way for others."

"Tell us something about your grandmother that she wouldn't say about herself," Osborne encouraged Kelley-Kahn, "Something that you admire about her."

He answered: "She always wanted me to work hard and earn everything on merit. That I appreciate. She's also helped me to remain positive because—when you're in show business—it's not so easy. The one thing I admire about her is that she's always kept on me to stay focused; but, it's not always easy listening to her. What can I say?"

"You might want to finish that documentary first," Osborne quipped.

"Some of the things she says might hurt you but you come back the next day and smile."

With that, Osborne thanked Kohner and Moore for taking the time to attend TCM's first Classic Film Festival.

Moore: I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be anywhere.

Osborne: We're happy to have you.

Moore: Look at me, I'm old. Everybody knows that.

Osborne: Will you tell us your age?

Moore: [After a pause.] 94!

Cross-published on Twitch.

TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL 2010: The Hollywood Walk of Fame

Emerging from L.A.'s Redline station at Hollywood/Highland, I was reminded of Joseph Campbell's introductory comment to his classic study of the monomyth Hero With A Thousand Faces (1949:4): "In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream. The latest incarnation of Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast, stand this afternoon on the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, waiting for the traffic light to change."

Granted, Campbell was speaking of an intraspychic articulation of that archetypal (i.e., mythic) impulse—which, it could be argued, in contemporary psyches finds its flickering expression in cinematic dreams—whereas emerging onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame is an almost painful reminder of how Hollywood's Dream Factory has commodified not only our dreams but their mythic antecedents as well: externalizing and commercializing these mythic desires into a crass, if not hypnotic, cult of celebrity.

That's an observation more than a criticism as I—no less than any other tourist—couldn't resist glossing the stars embedded in the pavement though—slightly more privileged than most for the opportunity to meet talent—I felt no need to squat by the stars of my favorite cinema icons to have my photo taken, as if to simulate having my arm around their shoulder in feigned camaraderie. That, however, seemed the presiding recreation of the throngs on Hollywood Boulevard, along with passing coin to have their photograph taken with the costumed impersonations of Mary Poppins, Tinkerbell, Batman, Catwoman, the Predator, Spongebob Squarepants, the Mario Brothers, Wolverine, Bruce Lee, Michael Jackson, and the oldest, most haggard Marilyn Monroe I've ever seen in my life. We all want to rub up against the stars and walk away with a bit of their shine. We all crave our moment of luminescence.

As Leron Gubler has written in his essay on the Walk of Fame for the TCM Classic Film Festival souvenir catalog, no one is really certain where the original idea for the Walk of Fame came from; possibly from the historic Hollywood Hotel where stars painted on the ceiling of the dining room contained the names of celebrities. Demoted from the celestial to underfoot, these stars nonetheless radiate glamour, even as one considers all the practical complications of who gets selected to have their names on the Walk of Fame (Charlie Chaplin's estate sued for not being included in the inaugural set) and when (during the TCM festival Mel Brooks finally received his long overdue tribute), let alone who determines where the star is situated (wouldn't you rather be in front of Grauman's or the Roosevelt Hotel than Fredericks of Hollywood?). And like a starstruck teenager, who doesn't fantasize upon the empty stars waiting for a name?

Perhaps the closest I will ever come to such stature was the experience afforded by the TCM Classic Film Festival of walking the red carpet into the opening night premiere of the restored version of George Cukor's A Star Is Born (1954). TCM graciously comped me two tickets to the opening night premiere (otherwise off limits to press) so that I was able to phone my host Miljenko Skoknik to invite him to accompany me. He arrived looking like a movie star: ravishingly handsome in cobalt blue pants, a camel hair jacket, grey sweater and stylish shades. I was put to shame. As we walked into Grauman's Chinese Theater, it amused me that autograph hounds were pressing against the barricades. One woman I spoke to later in the festival stated emphatically that there was something "not right" about "nobodies" walking the red carpet; but, I appreciated the experience of this hierarchy of nobodies: nobodies walking the carpet and nobodies clamoring for their autographs. Irregardless, at least I can say it once in my lifetime: I walked the red carpet into a Grauman's Chinese Theatre premiere!

Inside was another matter altogether as that prestige crowd was peppered with the likes of Cher, Eve Marie Saint, Hugh Hefner, Alec Baldwin, Tab Hunter, Ernest Borgnine, Anjelica Huston, Peter Bogdonovich, among many others, including all those boys and girls from TV movies. For a moment I shared that sense of belonging. And I'm sure I overheard Cher whispering to her companion, "Who is that man in the cobalt blue pants and who is he with?"

Cross-published on Twitch.