VOLUME 19 - NUMBER 02 MARCH-APRIL 1983

The New Generation: Peter Del Monte For all its wealth of talent, today's Nina Scott. Sweet Pea. Italian cinema isn't exactly thriving. Of the Old Masters, Rossellini and De Sica hean, but I see no other way of work- there's the neurotic, whom I consider as are dead; Fellini and Antonioni must ing.\" scrounge for capital. Rosi is 60; Scola, a son ofsister: Aurore Clement in Invita- Ferreri, and the Tavianis are all in their Both Piso Pisello (Sweet Pea) and Invi- 50s; even Benolucci and Bellocchio are tation au voyage deal with what Del tio.n au voyage or Francesa de Sapio in well into their 4Os. And the popular Monte terms a \"modern reality,\" but in young comic-filmmakers are, almost a decidedly non-realistic manner. Both my second film, l' Altra Donna [1980]. without exception, playing with their pictures are fairy tales: the first, a sunny slapstick. \"Italians have always liked to comedy about a 13-year-old boy who fa- She plays a bourgeois Roman who takes laugh, from the time of the commedia thers a baby after a briefexperience with dell' ane on,\" notes 39-year-old director a buxom American; the latter, a night- on a black housekeeper and discovers Peter Del Monte. \"But this popular cin- marish punk drama about a brother who ema of vulgar comedies has stifled the refuses to accept the death of his twin another freer side of herself. \" other kind. You can hardly make a dra- sister. \"What I look for is a cenain atmo- matic picture anymore unless you have a sphere, a cenain sensuality that speaks Like the women in J'Altra Donna, co-production with television. And then to me,\" the director declares. \"I like to it has to be 'cultural' in a classical way, look at life with the eyes of a dreamer. Lucien (Laurent Malet) and his rock- which isn't cultural at all.\" These two movies depan from realistic situations. They're road movies, initia- singer sister Nina (Nina Scott) in Invita- Del Monte is one of the struggling tion rites, in which the characters change new generation of serious Italian film- their view of life. \" tion are essentially two halves of the makers, whose ranks includes Giuseppe Benolucci, Gianni Amelio, and Nanni Del Monte recalls that, \"Ever since I same character-and at once brother Moretti. When money's tight, directo- was a child, I was fascinated by taking rial careers are hard to launch. But Del trains and sitting by the window. You see and sister, husband and wife, just as the Monte; whose Piso Pisello (1981) was a things zooming at you, seducing you, commercial success in Italy, and whose and then abruptly disappearing. For me, young protagonists of Piso Pisello are as latest film, Invitation au voyage, was the sense of cinema has to do with that made in France, finds things easier than -and so does life. I see in it both beauty much brothers as they are father and when he started in 1974. \"Now they and sadness. The beauty is in the seduc- see me as an international filmmaker,\" tion, the sadness in its loss. Even in Piso son. But the director insists that \"I leave he says, \"and offer me projects.\" Pisello, my only comedy, there's melan- choly in the two children searching for the study of family relationships to my projects. \" the mythical female image, which for Del Monte, who tried his hand at one is the first desire of love, and for the friend Marco Bellocchio. What interests other, the call of the mother. Maybe that teaching literature and playing jazz be- little boy is me searching for my child- me is the search. For example, Irene, fore opting for filmmaking, explains that hood.\" And who is the mother? \"I ha- he \"wanted to say something but ven't found her yet.\" Irene is the story of a judge who, after 30 couldn't say it in words, so I searched for visual or musical ways to express it. My The director, however, has found a years of marriage, comes home one day films are always about a search for an way to express his fascination with identity.\" It's hardly a surprising state- women. \"I divide the women I like into to find that his wife has disappeared. He ment for a man who was bom in the two camps,\" says Del Monte. ''There's United States to an Italian father and a the mythical dream figure, who is as never discovers her or why she left. But German mother and who, at the age of unapproachable as a dream and as large 10, emigrated to Italy. \"I have devel- as an ocean: Liv Ullmann Angela Mo- his search for her makes him reassess his oped a sense of being a stranger, at home lina, the young Simone Signoret. And everywhere and nowhere. And when life: he's a judge who knows the 'truth' you don't know who you are, the point is to search, to have a passion for discovery, but can't see it anymore.\" regardless of whether you find your identity. Del Monte's search extends to his Each Del Monte film boasts a style method of filmmaking: \"I never go on and mood all its own. \"In my first film, Irene, Irene, I was very attentive to the the set knowing where to put the cam- question of style, and I think I overdid it. I realized that if you developed a era. The anxiety stimulates me. I like to recognizable style, you could become its prisoner. It takes people longer to dis- leave the door open for fate, for unex- cover you if you simply follow your pected things.\" Perhaps he sees this hu- man spontaneity lacking in the young American directors, whom he criticizes for being \"too cold, for having no sense of suffering.\" He feels closer to films such as Wim Wenders' The American Friend. \"I'm attracted to the terrain of the road movie,\" he says. ''That high- way is a no-man's land where the ex- traordinary is always around the next curve. I hope my movies offer that same promise.\" So do the rest of us-fellow travelers on the rocky, scenic road of Italian cinema. -DAN YAKIR 49

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Sam Spiegel and David Lean on the set ofThe Bridge on the River Kwai. by Harlan Jacobson been a Bacchus ofcigars and women and was later jailed for five days for a $6.25 parties, particularly on New Year's Eve. overdraft on a San Francisco bank. Lec- The story goes like this: It was a bright, (\"How does one penetrate a wall?\" he turing on Pirandello in an extension March, Saturday afternoon' in Berlin in asks. \"Gradually.\") But he was and still course at Berkeley, he was heard by Paul 1933. Sam Spiegel needed a shave and is a Daedalus of American motion pic- Bern, an MGM producer seeking suit- went to his barber, a Nazi, who during the ture production: four pictures-African able material for talkies, who employed course of the grooming leaned over and Queen, On the Waterfront, Bridge on the Spiegel as a reader until he started clos- whispered, \"Don't go home tonight.\" River Kwai, and Lawrence of Arabia- ing deals first, asking questions later. were comets in the night sky ofan indus- (Bern married Jean Harlow in 1932, then Spiegel went to a pay phone, called his try darkened by television and the sub- committed suicide.) housekeeper to meet him with an overnight urban exodus, and fifteen more all high, bag and the household money (the banks honorable shots at the sun, including his With Europe scrambling to fend off were closed), summoned Oscar Homollal, latest, Betrayal, his nineteenth. Hollywood's glittering production ma- who was to star in Spiegel's planned Invis- chine by enacting import quotas, Holly- ible Opponent, bought a ticket to a vil- Simon Spiegel, his father, was a to- wood decided to produce abroad. Carl lage outside Berlin, there to board another bacco wholesaler, Talmudist, and early Laemmle sent Spiegel to Universal's train for Vienna which crossed the Aus- Zionist who knew Herzl; his mother, Berlin office in 1930 to coordinate Lewis trian border at six a.m . That night, Spie- Regina, a daughter of a Bukovina farmer Milestone's workup of Erich Maria Re- gel's house was wrecked, his housekeeper who in her nineties in Israel \"waited up marque's All Quiet on the Western Front. beaten and Hitler elected Chancellor- for me till two a.m., when I came to visit At the film's opening, offended Nazis stunning Hindenburg and the world, and her, to give me a cup of tea.\" His elder released tear gas and white mice, caus- clamping down the border at eight a .m . brother, Shalom, \"the white sheep of ing a riot that killed three and injured a Sam Spiegel hadfour marks, a toothbrush, the family,\" he says, now ailing, was score. The Reich Film Censorship his script, Homollal, and the closest shave once a professor of medieval philosophy. Board banned the film. Closely ofhis life . guarded, Spiegel showed it to all 640 Other markers: economics degree, members of the Reichstag, including He stands now near 80, technically a University ofVienna, 1921; a year study- the 106 Nazi members (Goebbels, son of Austria but bearing the greater ing drama, then off to Palestine as one of Goering, and Hitler) in small groups to legacy of the Diaspora, maybe from no- Ithe chalutzim, the children of Europe circumvent the legal limits, forced a vote where. He was always a bit mysterious who traded certainty for swampland. and won the right to allow groups to in Hollywood: where did he come from? Then came the first of three marriages, a sponsor screenings. Two years later, he Where did his money come from? How daughter, malaria, divorce and a return showed the Italian version to Mussolini, did he advance like that? True, he had to Vienna, where he traded cotton. He \"who liked the film,\" Spiegel recalled entered the U.S. illegally in 1928, and 51

Bogart and Hepburn in The African Queen. ask about African Queen?\" Spiegel asks. Because it was a big picture for Huston, long ago. \"He congratulated Universal '42 for Fox's Joe Schenck, whom Spie- for United Anists (ennabling its passage and me, said it was the greatest film he'd gel rushed to see on borrowed gas from Pickford-Chaplin to Krim-Benja- ever seen. The next day.. . the film was money), contains the story, but the train min), and for Spiegel-all of whom banned without appeal.\" crossed the border at two a. m. , the bor- crossed the border into artistic freedom der closed at six, and again, no Ho- in its hold. Because, more importantly, There is very little written on Spiegel. molka. Also no lampshade kicker. It whatever Spiegel does as a producer was The libraries and news morgues contain isn't a matter ofone story, of Homolka or done there under the most adverse cir- scraps . What there is of Spiegel on the no Homolka, it's everything told many cumstances: sending such hothouse per- record has a quality of blown bubbles: times and each time a little differently. ishables as Bogart (and wife Bacall) and clear, round , shimmering and unique, Hepburn into the Belgian Congo to b~t always the same. The same stories Perhaps Spiegel exists most fully real- make a film for Spiegel's company, Ho- about himself reappear, as do obviously ized in Peter Viertel's White Hunter, rizon Pictures, capitalized by a $25,000 favorite responses on the high an of pro- Black Heart, a 1953 novel-seemingly mortgage on his house. Because Hori- duction, its debasing, on the picture at the only extant copy is in Pauline Kael's zon co-partner and Queen director John hand, on the role of the producer. library-about the filming of African Huston delayed the production, believ- Queen. Viertel did an uncredited rewrite ing himself to be a white hunter on a So, this February he tells The N.Y. of James Agee's script in Africa, after holy search for an elephant, a big tusker, Times an abbreviated version of his 1933 Agee was felled in New York by his first to face in his charge and bring down, escape, only in it he flees with a brief- heart attack. Shown a copy of the novel, knowing that \"It's a sin to kill an ele- case at five a.m., no mention of Ho- Spiegel shook his head. \"This is not an phant ... the only sin you can buy a li- molka. \"These are the accidents of life authentic story, this is a fiction:'(Viertel cense for and then go out and commit,\" that prevent you from becoming a lamp- told Rudy Behmer in America's Favorite or so says the Huston-clone in Viertel's shade,\" he concludes. Movies: Behind the Scenes, that \"the novel. Ironically, out there in the jungle, novel leans heavily on the actual hap- beating around the bush, Huston never He told Time the story in 1954 (which penings, although the talk and confron- saw that Spiegel was the big tusker he reviewed Waterfront and found it too en- tations were eighty percent invention.\") had been looking for all along. nobling of the common man) wherein But after \"he smiled for the first time his butler drives his Cord to Vienna, since he had arrived in Africa,\" Viertel's Above all, Spiegel exists in White gives Spiegel his clothes and retums to Spiegel-clone remarks, \"If I had always Hunter, Black Heart in a way that tran- the Nazi parry; this time Homolka ac- told the truth, Pete,J would now be a scends the ordinary relationship of press companies. \"That barber made the dif- cake of soap.\" to producers, who only surface to plug ference between my being a lamp shade their latest releases the way mechanical and not,\" said Spiegel. • hippos in Disneyland rise to menace tour boats. In the novel the director hu- His publicity biography for Tales of \"I have so little time . .. Why do you miliates the producer in front of the Manhattan, his first U.S. production (in backers in London, but the producer becomes \"a perspiring Napoleon\" in Stanleyville, helping the cast and crew cohere in the Congo heat, awaiting the renegade director's return. Hunting Spiegel now is to confront what is generically wrong with every in- terview or profile: the tacit assumption by both parties at the salt lick that what you hear has not all been said before- forry years ago, forry minutes ago-but is a creature of the moment hauled out to sell a picture and a magazine. It is what is ultimately wrong with big game hunt- ing and journalism: the elephant is an illusion, the hunter an angry joke. • Over the past forry years, Spiegel's work has demonstrated a subtext of alienation, paranoia, and struggle. You can't trust: college professors in Orson Welles' The Stranger in 1946; cops in The Prowler, Joseph Losey's last picture be- fore his blacklisting, 1951; politicians or revolutionaries in We Were Strangers, Huston's first work with Spiegel, 1949; the military in The Strange One or Kwai, both 1957; your brother or your friends 52

Hot Irons by Michael Bygrave Since his twin tour-dejorce as the re- Jeremy Irons . do and to be manifesting various kinds pressed Victorian naturalist risking all for of unhappiness. the love of Meryl Streep in The French reasons I was pleased to do Betrayal is Lieutenant's Woman and the passionate that it's a modern piece. Also Jerry is a That doesn't mean I'm deliberately observer of the Marchmain family in bit witty, a bit more outgoing, a bit fun- steering clear of Hollywood, by any Brideshead Revisited, Jeremy Irons, 34, nier than the other parts I've played on means. I'd love to work in America and stands to become the first English actor film. My only worry about Betrayal was in fact I am hoping to do a film with John . to make an international breakthrough that it might be too theatrical a piece. Frankenheimer. America is the country since the glory days of the Sixties. Irons However, in some ways I think it works that knows the movies, which is why has been ambitious and, he admits, better on film than it did on the stage. I'm so pleased Moonlighting has lasted as lucky enough to pull himself clear of the Betrayal itself is such a small thing, its long as it has there, even though it's an English acting world, with its twin pil- signs are so small, it helps to be able to \"art\" film. In England, where we had lars of a strong subsidized theater and see into the eyes. I didn' t make any massive publicity, it was in and out of quality television, where a film role is moral judgments on my character when the theaters very fast, because we don' t seen as the chance for a paid vacation. I was playing him. You don't, you have know how to market a film. I haven't to get so far inside someone's skin that moved to Hollywood, because I don't Articulate, nervously energetic, sarto- you like them. You have to say this is the think I'd find enough work there that's rially dramatic in neckerchief, riding way he is and this is why and I like him. stretching. The film business over the boots, and velvet smoking jacket, Irons Now that I've seen the finished film last few years seems to have become has a talent for giving his heroes a touch twice, I have made a moral judgment more international. I can go and do-as of asperity, even of ruthlessness. He and the interesting thing is that my judg- I'm just about to-a film of The Wild plays lovers, but lovers with a stropped ment changed. When I saw the film in Duck in Australia with Liv Ullman, fol- edge to them. Irons is close with play- England , I thought Jerry was quite lowed by a film of Marcel Proust's Swann wright Harold Pinter, whose perpetual funny; when I saw it in America I dis- In Love in Paris with Volker Schlondorff. menace hovers over the actor's best per- liked him intensely and felt embar- formances , and whose rigorous guarding rassed to have played him. He's a man I think I knew, when French Lieuten- of standards is in Irons' choice of projects not aware of the damage you can cause ant's Woman and Brideshead came along, for himself. by running through other people. that the opportunity was there, particu- larly with the coupling of the two parts Since French Lieutenant's Woman, he The Captain in Captain's Doll, espe- coming out together. Of course, both has played a Polish foreman in lerzy cially, has a lot of Charles Ryder in him , films could have turned out terribly Skolimowski's Moonlighting (\"I met An- so much so that I felt I was stepping over badly. But the likelihood was that they drzej Wajda in Paris and he said, 'tres old ground, which is something I hate to would make some sort of impact. Polonaise. ' I thought, ifWajda thinks so, do. I like to do things which are difficult it must be all right. \"), the captain in a for me. I'm very frightened of starting to I remember sitting with Meryl TVfilmofD.H. Lawrence's \"The Cap- live off the fat of the land, of doing work (Streep) near the end of French Lieuten- tain's Doll,\" and Jerry, the adulterous which pays me a lot but which doesn't ant's Woman and she said to me, 'You literary agent, in Pinter's Betrayal-all really keep me alive as a person or as an don't know what's going to happen to small films, all ofobvious quality -M.B. 'actor. It's a danger one is particularly you when this comes out.' I said, 'Oh conscious of if you're English, I think, yes I do.' But she was right. It's easy to Irons: Harold Pinter has done because you have the examples of Eng- be overwhelmed, but you have to say to more to help my career than anyone lish actors who have become big interna- yourself, 'Then I'll drown and what's else. We acted opposite one another in a tional stars-there are very few-who more I'll waste this opportunity.' And TV film of Langrishe Go Down, which tend not to be doing what they want to it's an opportunity that comes to very Harold also adapted from the Irish very few people. ~ novel. It was that performance which prompted Karel Reisz to cast me in French Lieutenant's Woman, which of course was written by Harold. Harold directed me in the West End, in The Rear Column, which was the play that brought me critical attention. So there has been a kind of unplanned but very generous partnership on his part. After French Lieutenant's and Brides- head I did worry about being classed as a period actor. If you have a long face , as I do, that is always a danger. One of the 53

Troops loyal to Nicholas and Alexandra. Spiegel & Harold Pinter . Patricia Hodge and Jeremy Irons in Betrayal. in Waterfront (slightly revisionist inter- written, a part is cast, a director thought going to do, to the day we finish every- pretation here), 1954; your mother and of.\" Twenty years later, he elaborated, thing,\" he says. He picked up a copy of maybe your doctor in Suddenly Last Sum- \"as long as you don't obscure the central Pierre Boulle's Le Pont de LaRiviere Kwai mer, 1959; the town you live in, The idea by embellishing it so that its spark is in the Paris airport and set about build- Chase, 1966; success in The Swimmer, extinguished ... that was my contribu- ing the bridge in Ceylon over a year 1968; your judgment in The Last Tycoon, tion to my pictures.\" before filming began. For five months 1976; and your wife or your lover in on Lawrence, Lean (who had wanted to Betrayal. Spiegel put forth these propo- He never interferes with his director, film the life of Gandhi but had been sitions invariably either at the most con- he says, preferring to fight it all out on spiegeled) never saw a footoffilm; Spie- troversial or timely of moments. It is paper before shooting begins, but insist- gel would view the rushes in London worth the reminder: \"spiegel\" in ing upon seeing the rushes the next and tell Lean what shots he needed. \"I German means mirror. morning. However, Time reported a new could rely on Sam to tell me whether I Hollywood verb back in 1963, \"to spie- was getting what I was after,\" Lean told Whether he was Spiegel or S.P. Ea- gel,\" as in \"Sam spiegeled.\" Meaning: Time. Shades of \"It'll be you at the tiller, gle, a pseudonym he gave up with the conned, cajoled, manipulated by and me at the engine, just like it was release of Waterfront in 1954, he was sleight-of-mouth. Invariably, when key from the start,\" as Allnut told Rosie in never retiring about his role as a pro- people threatened to abandon the ducer. He told Time (which subheaded plumbingless corner of the Levant to African Queen. its profile \"Next, Z.A. Nuck?\") in 1963, which he'd lured them, Sam would spie- Listening to Spiegel today about a \"The producer's job is to conceive a pic- gel, and they'd stay, muttering \"but I ture, to dream it up, to have the first gave him a piece of my mind.\" picture made a quarter-century ago clari- concept of what a film is going to be like fies Lean's confidence: \"Kwai had a when it is finished, before a word is \"My involvement in a picture is from theme that made me terribly excited: the day I decide this is the subject I am Man is bent on building monuments 54

rather than destroying them, even in the I FILM/VIDEO face of patriotic instincts like the war. It is terribly important to build a cathedral SUMMER/FALL '83 rather than destroy it. Man wants to build. Human beings should be con- Featuring: structive. And the destruction of (the bridge) means the death of genius ... \" • Four-year degree programs • Film/Video production and film studies Like an aging Odysseus, he is always • Graduate Studies (Master of Fine Arts) in film studies ready to relate logistics: the commuting between Ceylon and the troubled Flor- and production ida set ofThe Strange One in 1957, or the • Special SUMMER program: day courses in TV Production, endless aerial scouting of locations, or the moving of camels, horses, and tim- Film Production, and Editing; evening course in Screenwriting; ber, which he remembers better than May through August some names, better than so many \"un- pleasant things ... obliterated by some Courses also available in Dance, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts, kind of providential gift of forgetting.\" including SUMMER programs in New York, England, France, and Italy. Spiegel sought out locations, partly because he was an independent pro- For further information, contact: ducer, mostly because he believed in the concept. \"A location gives a certain Room 206T, Faculty of Fine Arts , York University, added halo-it's like what Renoir did to 4700 Keele Street, Downsvlew, Ontario M3J 1P3 (416) 667-3237 his peaches. In the completed picture I sense it; I cannot explain it in advance. The ordeal is enormous, and sometimes in the middle of it you say 'C'mon, let's finish it in the studio.' But you must resist the temptation.\" Almost without exception he has cast pictures with fresh faces, perhaps in some dark self-exaltation of playing pro- ducer, perhaps in some intuitive under- standing of who was right, or perhaps in the romantic risking of everything on a hungry actor while keeping costs under control. Of Ingrid Boulting in Last Ty- coon, he only says \"Sometimes you make a mistake, sometimes you suc- ceed.\" Brando was not Lawrence be- cause audiences would've spent half the film forgetting him; instead Spiegel cast O'Toole, who was too tall, over Albert Finney, who tested better but without the crazy fire. Bette Davis was expected opposite Bogart in African Queen, but \"I wanted the innovation of Bogart with Katharine Hepburn. Nobody'd ever seen these two together. \" Looking over the roster of Spiegel's pictures is like peering over the shoul- der of a horse player at the track. It's almost as if he went to the Academy Awards each year with a Daily Racing Form to claim the champions or spot the comers, even as his own stable was sweeping the field, accepting the gar- lands (34 in all) with thanks to Spiegel and their mothers, and being led off to bigger careers and endless feedbags of Polo Room oats. The highest domestic rentals a Spie- gel picture ever earned was Kwai with $17, 195,000 since 1957, according to Va- riety, a little more than Neighbors earned 55

in 1982 (much more in constant dollars). Play and script by Harold Pinter, who naive passion of the hunter, she has the The entire Spiegel oeuvre has earned adapted Spiegel's Last Tycoon . After cool reason and vision of the hunted. domestically perhaps only the $82 mil- Mike Nichols dropped out as director, lion Superman earned since 1978 (again David Jones, whom Pinter knew as an It is tempting to say of Betrayal, it is a more in constant dollars) , but Spiegel actor, was signed, having directed only writer's picrure. Spiegel says it, as we always owned a large share of the profits, television and theater. Ben Kingsley walk in the cold night air: \" Nobody which he spent. \"We had a fairly com- (cast while Gandhi was still being edited) writes dialogue like Harold Pinter. \" It is fortable upbringing through my teens is a husband with an unfaithful wife , well crafted. Pinter's reverse chronology until the devaluation of the Austrian cur- played by Patricia Hodge in a first film , frees the audience to concentrate upon rency after the First World War. All my and a bad best friend, Jeremy Irons. the subtext: that the age has sanctioned life, I never believed in the permanent Spiegel's test for the husband resulted in betrayal, that as betrayors we get caught value of money. When people were sav- rejecting one British stage actor because in a web of who knows what, when, and ing, I was buying paintings, which I he came across as gay, and Spiegel did that once the rules are broken, there is could ill afford. \" Picasso wanted one not want to subvert the theme. no one to trust. back, and Spiegel wouldn't budge. Hodge is a find. There's nothing un- But it is equally a producer's picrure. • complicated about her beauty, just as Aside from his two-foot high titles there is nothing trustworthy in Irons' (\"ONE YEAR EARLIER\" ) that announce And so it comes down to Betrayal, demeanor. Together, they look like a the central device, Sam Spiegel has ven- which bears all the Spiegel earmarks. breakdown of the rules. Neither faintly tured forth perhaps for the last time to suggests lost innocence, rather they make a film that is the producer's art , to Announcingl-Publication of all-new combine like a crime and a scene. She match a personal vision with the domi- has all the decadent beauty of a rotting nant contradiction of the culrure at the Canyon Cinema class, confected in department store moment: trading struggle for relief costs Catalog #5 colors to mask a soul that knows too too much. much. She is the aesthetics of narcotics Canyon Cinema is a Canyon Cinema -the pull of heroin calling to no adven- Few Spiegel pictures have ever been film distrtbution carries over 1800 turer on a boat, but calling to a man tired divorced from their moment; even Afri- films by 300 film of being strapped down to the mast who can Queen, maybe no more than an company specializ- artists: experimen- thinks he'll just slip this knot off here. Adam and Eve entertainment of inter- ing in indepen- tal/ art films, anima- When she smiles, the sun wobbles with class romance, begins with the torching tion, documentary- the theft-or so she makes it seem- of the village by Germans. Waterfront dently-produced current work and and the light from her cool fire cuts came at a moment when Spiegel and his short films jor the clasSic shorts by the across a room the way a beam leaps from friends were on both sides of the loyalty best artists in the the night safe into the flashlight of the issue. Lawrence warned of and wor- educational field thief and says, \"Steal me. Open me and shipped the charismatic personality, the (college/ university) , take what is in me.\" pure spark of reform. And The Last Ty- museurn and media coon is practically a ninth symphony on Irons may agonize over the world that the lost art of production and the vanish- center/ film society is lost to them-the honest hoisting of ing producer, who, wrote Fitzgerald, market. children into the air-yet remains him- \"beating his wings tenaciously... had selfa sad, perulant boy. She understands stayed up there longer than most of us, Canyon Cinema, Inc. and comforts him, and while he has the and then, remembering all he had seen 2325 ThIrd Street, Su1te #338 from his great height of how things were ... settled gradually to earth.\" San Francisco, CA 94107 (415) 626-2255 So, Betrayal, Sam? \"The importance of this picrure to me is its return to the Please call or write jor illustrated catalog. spoken word. People have lost th<e abil- ity to listen to words, because their aural ( F*!*L*M ) --A-U-R-A-L--capacity has been dulled by the noise, the shooting, the CRITICISM/BIOGRAPHY/REFERENCE _ _r- crashing of events . .. \" Good, but Spie- gel has given exactly that speech all over ON MOVIES _ THE NEW GERMAN town. The words are the wind of the big CINEMA tusker, who has whisked by this way by Dwight Macdonald before. New introduction by John Simon by John Sandford iv + 492 pp., 26 photos/ $9.95 pbk. 180 pp., 53 photos/ $10.95 pbk . e ' mon, Sam, deeper. \"If you don't have enough honesty to convert the sex- PICTURES WILL TALK: _ ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ual relationship into a great friendship, ANIMATED CARTOON it's doomed. If instead of betraying each THE LIFE AND HLMS OF other, they would have found some JOSEPH L. MANKJEWlCZ SERIES means of the honest transfer... to a de~per level of loyalty and friendship by Kenneth Geist by Jeff Lenburg and warmth and morality . .. \" He 458 pp. , 32 photos/ $9.95 pbk . 192 pp., 180 ilIus.l $14.95 pbk. stopped and looked out the window. Somewhere out there in the jungle, ele- ~------~--------------------~-~-------------~---~~----~ Free shipping & handling for all pre-paid orders: check or credit card. phants recognize elephant bones. ® Please check the number of copies you would li ke of each title. N=e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ Charge account name __________________ Street _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ #--------------------------- Cit y & State _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ Exp, dale _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ~p - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Signature _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ DA.CAPO PRESS 233 Spring St. New York , NY 10013 (212) 620-8000 56

Backwards and Forwards in Film Time The Altering Eye Contemporary International Cinema Robert Phillip Kolker. Focusing on those films \" made in a spirit of resistance, rebellion , and refusal,\" Robert Phillip Kolker investigates the stylistic innovations and the political and psychological concerns of the postwar international cinema. Encompassing directors from Rossellini to Godard to Fassbinder, the book shows how these filmmakers have used the medium to challenge society and provoke audiences. In exploring this cinematic revolution, Kolker's study is as unsettling, challenging, and rewarding as the films discussed. 416 pp., 50 iIIus., cloth $29.95, paper $10.95 Howard Hawks, Storyteller Gerald Mast. Hailed by Dwight Macdonald as \"brilliant and convincing, \" this lively, in-depth study reveals the complex art behind such Hawks classics as Scarface, Red River, Bringing Up Baby, and The Big Sleep. Gerald Mast shows how Hawks pulled together all the elements of filmmaking - from narrative construction to shot composition to orchestration of dialogue -to create an eminently American kind of art. \" Illuminating and fascinating ... One is grateful to Mr. Mast for his fight to place Hawks at the top among Hollywood directors. His case for Hawks is eloquent, exciting, often persuasive, entertaining and-yes, fun .\" -The New York Times Book Review 406 pp., 200 iIIus., cloth $29.95 Documentary A History of the Non-Fiction Film Revised Edition Erik Barnouw. A leading film historian has updated his pioneering work to encompass the wave of recent documentaries, including Life on Earth, From Mao to Mozart, and The Atomic Cafe. \" Richly researched and compactly organized into easy prose by Barnouw, writing at the peak of his competence .\"-Variety, of the first edition. 368 pp., 160 iIIus., paper $8.95 Propaganda and the German Cinema 1933-1945 David Welch. In the first comprehensive analysis of the film propaganda sponsored by Goebels, the author shows how the German film industry complied with the Nazi Weltanschauung and eventually was used as a trusted and powerful weapon. 420 pp., 16 iIIus., $34.00 Now available in paperback: r ----- Specl°al Offero'------, American Silent Film ;!,!;!,! William J. Everson. \"The ~ TO: Oxford University Press Dept. BN best modern survey of the si- !.!i 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Please send me the following books: lent period.\"-The New Re- - _ (:opies of HOWARD HAWKS, STORYTELLER - - copies ofTHE ALTERING EYE public. \"Everson is one of _ _ copies of DOCUMENTARY the few people in the world - - copies of PROPAGANDA AND THE GERMAN CINEMA who could have attempted - - copies of AMERICAN SILENT FILM [this J ambitious task.... In- Please enclose check or money order. SPECIAL DISCOUNT dispensable.\" -Take One. OFFER: Deduct 20 per cent from all total orders over $15. Please add appropriate sales tax. 474 pp., 176 pp. of photos, $8.95 NAME __________________________________ Oxford University·Press ADDRESS _________________________________ 200 Madison Avenue· New York, New York 10016 CITY ___________________________________ STATE - - - - - - - - - - - - -_______ ZIP ___________ \"'---------------~------------------J

by Carlos Clarens bly, he seemed diminished by age, yet ticular job. Cukor was very much star- it was heartwarming to realize that one's struck about writers, especially if they George Cukor had just turned 83 favorite director was in the process of were English. After all, Edith Sitwell when he gamely stepped on the stage becoming the oldest man ever to direct had dedicated Fanfare for Elizabeth to of the Palazzo della Mostra in Venice to a major motion picture: it was also reas- him,Cukor, Aldous Huxley, and Hugh receive an honorary Golden Lion for his suring to know that, regardless of the lifework. There, to share the limelight outcome, Cukor's worst film would not Walpole had been his friends and with him and to be honored on the serve as his valedictory. In fact, he had scriptwriters, and Somerset Maugham occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of followed The Blue Bird with a TV adap- had stayed in his guest house for many the Venice Film Festival were Marcel tation of The Corn is Green, a final tryst months adapting his novel The Razor's Carne, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, with Katharine Hepburn, a film that Edge, which Cukor wanted to direct. Michael Powell, and other pillars of leaves too light an impression due in world cinema. Of the three Hollywood part to Cukor's gentlemanly reticence Still, if I knew something of Lilyan directors who had been invited, King to risk a closeup on Hepburn's face. Tashman and Ina Claire, and their re- Vidor and Frank Capra had· declined to spective fortes and foibles, it became attend because of ill health, and their • obvious to him that I cared deeply awards were collected by Harrison about his films and that I had done my Ford, a man from another age. Cukor When we first met in 1968, I believe homework. He wouldn't have to ex- came to collect his personally; it was to he thought I was French: my name and plain, for instance, who Zoe Akins was. be his last. He took center stage, cling- credentials certainly seemed to indicate Also on that first meeting, I cheekily ing to the sleeve of a young usher, then so, and it was a Frenchman, Jacques interrupted him in mid-anecdote to re- stood there alone, a bit unsteady on his Demy, who acted as go-between. Cu- mind him that he had first directed Joan feet, to receive the first standing ova- kor invited me up to the fabled Cordell Crawford, not in The Women as he had tion of the evening. Drive mansion, surely the finest private just stated, but in a trifle called No More home in Hollywood, and we sat in the Ladies, for which he had shot additional Cukor died on January 24, a few living-room under John Singer scenes and received no screen credit. It short weeks after Vidor, who was three Sargent's lifesize portrait of Ethel Bar- was a calculated move that paid off, for years his senior, leaving Capra the sole rymore (which she had left him in her from there on he knew that I wouldn't survivor, at 85, of their generation. But will) discussing the state of French film settle for the tried-and-true anecdote while Vidor directed his last feature in criticism. Cukor was undeniably flat- and that I would force him to remember 1959, and Capra in 1961, Cukor practi- tered by all the attention he was then afresh. cally died in the saddle. Having out- receiving from Cahiers du cinema, but lived the studio system that had once only to a point. How could he rely on Cukor was a wily raconteur, espe- nourished him (and which his detrac- the critical acumen of people who in cially when tape recorders were off, but tors credited with his success), he con- the same breath professed admiration his repertory was very limited, after tinued to direct films (including two for for Nicholas Ray and Anthony Mann? I years of polishing and discarding anec- television) that-with the exception of can still hear the barbed hiss in his dotes. Intimate friends (including less his Russian folly, The Blue Bird- voice: Nicholas Ray? than famous actors like Grady Sutton seemed more and more like the handi- and Lon Mc allister) attended his tradi- work of a grand couturier in an industry When I told him that my intention tional Sunday dinners and supped not increasingly devoted to ready-to-wear. was not to do an interview but to write a only on left-overs from the glittering full book on his' work, he seemed dis- lunches but on the repartee of Garbo, Only two winters ago I watched him mayed. There had been no English- Mae West, and Cole Porter as retold by doze through some Manhattan location language books written about him at the host. Thus were stories tested for shooting for Rich and Famous. Inevita- the time, and I realized that, in his inclusion in the repertory; once ap- heart of hearts, he was expecting some- proved, they would be proffered (as the one like Kenneth Tynan to do that par- choice bits of character revelation they 58

were) to interviewer and casual listener End, did a wickedly accurate imitation most emphatically not. alike, but without altering as much as a of him before declaring that Cukor and Still, he wouldn't allow any bad- pause. Ingmar Bergman were the two best di- rectors of women ever: Cukor through mou thing to appear in print, not for fear They were meant to contribute to empathy and trust, Bergman through a of libel but to spare hurt feelings. This the Cukor legend, bolstered by the basic mistrust of the female character.) attitude accounts fO.r the frequent ru- hundreds of snapshots assembled in mors of an autobiography that some- photo albums-a candid gallery of Once Anouk said that she didn't feel how never materialized: it led Cukor to filmland, Broadway, and international the role that way; Cukor bawled her change collaborators more than once. personalities, from the Thirties to the out, four-letter words and all, in front of Mrs. Patrick Dennis got as far as a present. Simply everybody has posed the crew and sent her running to her mock-up of a coffee table book before at one time or another around the fa- dressing-room with a nosebleed. On Cukor realized that the tone wouldn't mous swimming pool. (I especially re- our next session he laughed the inci- be witty or charming or adorable call a wonderful pin-up shot of Robert dent off, explaining that he had inher- enough. John Russell Taylor worked Stack, circa 1940, in a bathing suit.) It ited the cast from Joseph Strick, the for months on Cukor's memoirs before was obvious to me that Cukor was just film's original director. One of the prin- it dawned on him that the juiciest bits as interested in having a book written cipals, he said, was \"wet spaghetti.\" would never be seen in print-that Cu- about such a dazzling social life as a He could be as bitchy as Rosalind Rus- kor's biograph y, although diverting Cukor and The Women: Florence Nash, Phyllis Povah, Rosalind Russell, Joan and Norma, Paulette Goddard, Mary Boland, Joan Fontaine. critical study of his film works. The sell when criticizing performers he enough, would therefore lack contrast latter, for one thing, entailed specula- didn't like, a tendency that had reached and spice, that it would drown in its tion on the part of the critic, something hilariously succinct proportions in Ven- own wit and charm. He was apparently that Cukor tended to discourage. I be- ice last summer. He could also rhapso- succeeded by Paul Morrissey, and there lieve I made him a little angry when I dize about those he loved: henceforth , were others before and after. Now that quoted Roland Barthes (that early?) to he announced, he would concentrate Cukor is no more , an unauthorized , un- the effect that an author could not pre- on Dirk Bogarde, who had been his expurgated biography seems inevita- sume to have the final word on his own Liszt in Song without End and had re- ble, alas. (Oh, Lord, don't let it be creation. mained a friend , and on Anna Karina, written by Garson Kanin! Five Garbo whose Hollywood debut this was and movies?) Nonetheless he agreed to a series of whom he found witty, charming and interviews, which was doubly gracious 'adorable. There were no higher words Cukor's sensitivity to the social since he was in the midst of directing of praise in the Cukor lexicon. Philip scene, to ritual game-playing, to the Justine at 20th Century-Fox. I visited Barry, Laurette Taylor, Vivien Leigh , uses and misuses of snobbery carried the set twice and watched Cukor act and Terence Rattigan had been witty over into his films . The French would out, literally, Anouk Aimee's role for and/or charming and/or adorable in argue that Cukor was 'chronicling the her. (Years after, Genevieve Page , their day, while Louis B. Mayer had changing morals and mores of Ameri- whom Cukor directed in Song without can society through his sharp observa- 59

The16th tion of women. (In France, to be a woman's director has no disparaging International connotation-quite the opposite, Tournee of given their admiration for Eric Rohmer, who was, incidentally, a Cukor stal- Animation wart.) Cukor himself would have in- voked the term marivaudage; he \" It's the most effervescent, brought it up in fact while discussing imaginative selection in the lighter works-Holiday, The Phila- years, with something to delphia Story, It Should Happen To You- intrigue all age groups in which, as with Marivaux, turn out to the family.\" speak most profoundly while sounding Judy Stone most frivolous. San Francisco Chronicle Just as Luchino Visconti was the one A festival of 20 award-winning animated films of fiction and fantasy from director who could make a film from around the world, highlighted by Academy Award Winner, THE FLY; Acad- The Leopard without betraying Lampe- emy Nominee, HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 3 MINUTES FLAT; Ottawa dusa's class (which was also his own), Festival Grand Prix Winner, the outrageous UBU; and winners from major Cukor seems the only Hollywood di- festivals at Zagreb, Ottawa, and Berlin. rector sophisticated enough to ap- proach certain material without malice A feature-length program available for rental from: (the view from below) or condescen- sion (the view from above). He never 4530 18th Street went slumming, and he never crashed a San Francisco, Calif. 94114 party either. Not that he was a trail blazer: in fact, John M . Stahl, Frank (415) 863-6100 Borzage, Gregory La Cava, and Ed- ORIGINAL AM ERICAN & EUROPEAN /'-+-+---+----+---+---1f--+-+--+--t-1 mund Goulding had tread the same ter- ritory before or concurrently, that of the MOVIE POSTERS \"sudser\", the woman's picture, the so- ciety drama, high comedy. One can eas- LOBBY CARDS AND PRESSBOOKS 4-1--!--I--I--!---+--+-+--+--+--+-1 ily spot a potential Cukor film in each of their filmographies (especially, La fll. . ~()11?/()1£1\\1~()411 Cava's Smart Woman: Cukorian before Cukor). They were movie-makers who 1111£11£()£I\\/f4SSI3I~()11? had begun their careers in the silent era and shared the plebian warmth and fUllll?/f()I?()/II?Uff4UI wisecracking energy oftheir audiences. ... MANy MORE Although dialogue delivery is one of the strong points of the Cukor style, HEAVILY ILLUSTRATED CATALOG FILLED WITH INFO what he brought from the stage to the For the Advanced Collector & Novice. $5. Walter Reuben/Box screen was not merely a gift for words, f-+--+-~2696, Dept. 1/Austin, TX 78768 but a sense of character interaction, of clashing temperaments that would be the theater's contribution to the talking film. He slowed the pace and was called stagey when in fact he was filling in detail and nuance. Lovely as they were, the films of Stahl, La Cava et al began to seem like quick sketches, deftly drawn but lacking depth and shading. In the long run, they may have trusted movies less than Cukor did, for he was quick to realize that most theat- rical effects-even that of an actor's spittle flying over the footlights: watch Ingrid Bergman's big scene in Gaslight -could be transferred to the film. And with this in mind, he could approach every genre. Well, almost. \"I could never do a gangster picture,\" he once said, \"I don't know how they behave.\" Cukor never tried to democratize his films; instead he aristocratized his audi- ence. ~ 60

Films & Video for Study from Direct Cinema Limited Direct Cinema Ltd. Teaching Film Film students under the direc- For more information contact tion of their teacher can create Direct Cinema. Educational Workshops for Mr. Preble their own versions from work- prints in 16mm film or on video. Filmmakers Ellen Hovde and Included in the teaching pack- Muffie Meyer have created a age are the Thurber short story and play, shooting script, story- , visually delightful, award win- boards, charts of camera posi- tions, script notes, teacher's ning dramatization of James guide, and approximately 3000 feet of selected dailies with Thurber's witty story, \"Mr. Preble sound track. Gets Rid of His Wife.\" Selections of all the shots taken and used in their film create a unique instructional package. FRANKFILMS Frank and Caroline Mouris have belongs in every audio-visual aspiring performers from all the expanded the art and craft of collection. arts. Frank and Caroline Mouris filmmaking. Their work has influenced scores of film and 9 minutes Color 1973 58 minutes Color 1978 video artists. La, La, Making it in Other films from Frank Films Frank Film Los Angeles Coney Winner of the 1973 Academy Award for Best Animated Short, Filled with advice, this docu- Impasse one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 70s, a mentary essay about the search Screentest classic exploration of creativity and intelligence. Frank Film for fame and fortune in Holly- Tennessee Sampler wood is skillfully edited from personal inteNiews with 55 Maurice Hatton Long Shot Praise Marx and \"One of the most astonishing The inside story of the adven- British Independent tures of two young men desper- Pass the Ammunition features to have been made for ately trying to set up an n independent film in England, This irreve rent political satire many years. \" New Cinema Club with Jon Boorman, Sam Fuller, Julie Christie and others. revolves around an ex-com- 90 minutes Color 1969 :' .. may become required view- munist who advocates total A New York Zoetrope Film 'og fm both a,p','og filmmake\" revolution by working as enthu- Release siastically in bed as in print, and .and studio execs.\" Variety forms an entertaining primer in 86 minutes Color 1978 Marxist theory. The Staged ••• No Lies cal implications of the film form A film by Barry Spinnello Documentary As a cinema-verite styled narra- tive about rape, \"... No Lies\" through a fictional portrait. 56 minutes B&W 1979 Video Verite poses the classic question of how far a filmmaker should go A film by David Rothberg Virginia Alan and Susan Raymond to capture the truth . 60 minutes B&W 1969 This provocative portrait of an A film by Mitchell Block 16 minutes Color 1972 Rushes elderly woman offers the oppor- My Friend Vince An intensive case study of tunity for analYSis of the relation- Like Godard and Vertov, Rothberg explores the ideologi- suicide is presented so skillfully ship of videomaker and subject. with documentary techniques A video/film by Alan Bloom that only after the credits roll is 20 minutes B&W 1975 one sure that it is not real but fiction. Alan and Susan Raymond :' . . produces a val uable per- :' .. illuminates with journalistic received the distinguished jour- spective on the state of both excellence ...\" Associated Press nalistic awards, Dupont. Pea- video technology and television 115 minutes Color 16mmNideo body, and Emmy, for \"Police journalisrp.\" New York Times Tapes\"-the first nationally 1978 televised verite video. 90 minutes B & W 16mmNideo Other films from Police Tapes 1977 Recording police life in the Video Verite: nation's highest crime area, the Bad Boys South Bronx, the Raymonds Hooray for Hollywood Three public institutions which The Third Coast deal with juveniles are examined To Die for Ireland for the first time in this docu- used small format video to pro- mentary tour-de-force. duce this landmark documentary.\" Rent or purchase these For information contact: © 1983 DCl outstanding films for your . film society or class. Direct Cinema Limited PO. Box 69589 los Angeles , CA 90069 (213) 656-4700

Eighth Annual Grosses Gloss by Lee Beaupre reaction yardstick. $111 million from that initial seven-day and Anne Thompson In fact, good pictures more than savvy figure. (\"Rentals\" refer to the distribu- tor's share of the \"gross,\" the total box- Despite a nationwide recession and marketing accounted for 1982's record office take.) growing fears that pay-TV and video returns. Whereas 1981 had been .domi- games would gnaw away at box-office nated by fantasy adventures and come- Every silver lining has its cloud, how- grosses, 1982 was the best of times for dies seemingly targeted at teenage ever. The larger film companies put the American film industry. Variety esti- males (the biggest grossing \"drama\" was only 50 films into U.S. production in mated that the past year's total box- the 22nd-place Endless Love), 1982 of- 1982, off nearly 40 percent from 1981's office gross would reach a new dollar fered a wide array of motion pictures total of 81 pictures, and an overseas in- record of $3.449 billion, a substantial with appeal to the entire demographic crease to 35 starts (from 20 in 1981) did spectrum. E .T. The Extra-Terrestrial was little to assuage the massive unemploy- Best Marketed the film for children of all ages; Rocky III ment within the domestic industry. Films ofthe Year struck a chord in both black and white action-loving males; On Golden Pond Worst Marketed 1. E. T. The Extra Terrestrial lured the geriatrics from their nests and Films ofthe Year 2. Gandhi then enticed younger filmgoers with its 3. Porky's generation-gap subject matter; An Offi- 1. Tex 4. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas cer and a Gentleman shrewdly reached 2. Diner 5. Tootsie both romance-hungry females and 3. Annie 6. An Officer and a Gentleman newly militaristic males; Poltergeist of- 4. Per-sonai Best 7. Conan the Barbarian fered sufficiently advanced special ef- 5. The Road Warrior 8. Questfor Fire fects to please the core horror audience 6. A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy 9. First Blood while remaining benign enough to en- 7. My Favorite Year 10. The Dark Crystal tertain the summertime family market. 8. Missing Even Porky's, the year's most successful 9. Victor/Victoria 16-percent increase over the previous teen-oriented comedy, snagged a good 10. Night Shift record of $2.966 billion registered in portion of its business from the over-30's 1981. Even more encouragingly, this -a fact cunningly capitalized upon by Given the majors' late-blooming recog- record was set from 1.165 billion tickets 20th Century-Fox ads featuring quotes nition that an increased number of films sold, the highest annual attendance re- from decidedly post-pubescent ad- only divides a relatively constant na- corded by the industry since 1961. mirers. tional box-office pie into smaller pieces, and given the apparent imminence of a An old saw maintains that movies The job of major-studio marketing Screen Actors Guild strike, there is scant are depression-proof-a cheery notion teams is to \"open\" a film-to attract a reason to hope that 1983 will witness that ignores the devastating losses, substantial opening-week crowd-and increased production slates. Universal, bankruptcies, and corporate reorganiza- in 1982 the marketeers only matched 1982's most successful studio with a rec- tions that dogged most studios in the their 1981 record. Each year there were ord 30-percent market share, has already early Thirties. Last year's bleak econ- ten films that registered opening-week cut its development budget in half, and, omy could have easily had the same grosses of more than $10 million, and 16 despite periodic tradepaper drumrolls of grim effect on film attendance, given other films grossed at least $6 million in increased production schedules, other the proliferation of home entertainment their first seven days. Word-of-mouth, studios seem likely to follow suit. options. Perhaps the explanation for the not advertising-publicity blitzkriegs, unexpected upturn of 1982 lies in an- caused the mushrooming grosses of last • other industry cliche: There's nothing year. E.T. had the biggest opening- wrong with the movie business that a week gross of 1982 at $22.2 million, Without question 1982 belonged to good picture cannot cure. Last year saw nearly eight percent less than Superman E .T., the alien who stole America's an exceptional number of \"good pic- II's $24 million in 1981, yet it has already heart. Like such record-breaking prede- tures,\" by either a critical or audience- earned three times the rentals of that cessors as Gone with the Wind, The Sound earlier blockbuster. An Officer and a of Music, and The Godfather, E.T. was a Gentleman had a very respectable $5.4- mythic creation that tapped the emo- million opening week in a relatively lim- tions of an entire country. Similar to ited number of theaters, but only the foolhardy could have projected eventual domestic rentals of more than $52 mil- lion on a box-office gross of more than 62

John Merrick in The Elephant Man, E.T. clear of cute Disneyesque advertising wizened features was the massive mer- was a deformed, frightening odd-man- and instead opted for the Michelangelo- chandising blitz that hit the stores just out whose efforts to survive in a hostile inspired fingers that MCA chairman Sid before Christmas. Eleven separate li- world were abetted by a few affectionate Sheinberg first proposed. This print ad, censing deals had been negotiated last souls. But whereas The Elephant Man which was both stylish and mysterious, winter to coincide with the film's June was packaged as a black-and-white helped position E.T. as an exciting, im- openings, but these tie-ins with bicy- drama with many depressing under- portant picture. cles, pajamas, electronic toys, puppets, tones, E.T. was accoutered in highly col- towels, action figures, candy and bubble orful science-fiction gear and delivered a Once a Houston sneak preview con- gum never overshadowed E .T. itself. much more upbeat climax. firmed that Universal had a potentially Once the film hit the box-office strato- huge hit on its hand, Universal's presi- sphere, however, Universal parent Universal's first smart move was to dent of marketing and distribution, Bob MCA ogled the $ 1.5 billion in retail sales make E .T.; Columbia's dumbest move Rehme, suggested a world premiere at for Star Wars products and frantically li- was not to make it. Marvin Antonowsky, the Cannes Film Festival, an unusual censed E.T. versions of everything ex- Columbia's president of marketing and venue in which to launch a commercial cept nuclear missiles. By the end of research, was on hot coals last summer Hollywood film. The gambit paid off in 1982 , E.T. paraphernalia was so abun- when it was reported in The Los spades, with the media everywhere re- dant that Universal could easily stock an Angeles TImes that his research, which porting the thunderous ovation given \"E.T. Earth Center\" store adjacent to characterized E.T.'s appeal as \"of inter- E .T. by the supposedly tough press its studio tour. est only to children,\" had persuaded Co- corps and film buyers in attendance at lumbia topper Frank Price not to exer- Cannes. \"This is probably the best example I cise an option to co-produce the Steven can remember of overmerchandising Spielberg film with Universal. An- To bolster word-of-mouth before the turning a whole population surly,\" ob- tonowsky now claims that this research June 11 opening in 1101 theaters, Uni- served Sheila Benson in The Los in no way affected the final decision , versal held Memorial Day previews in Angeles Times , and many in Hollywood which was based primarily on Colum- feel that MCA's avarice may cost E.T. bia's reluctance to partner with Univer- E.T. 's Peace ofthe Christmas pie. the best-picture Oscar. In recent years salon a second Spielberg picture; the there has been an Academy-member- two studios had previously united on 600 theaters across the country. Despite ship prejudice against awarding the top 1941 , a grief-ridden (although break- this astute move, E.T. still failed to regis- honor to a dollar-festooned hit like Jaws even) proposition for the two companies ter as strong an opening-weekend gross or Star Wars (even The Godfather barely in 1979. as its two summer predecessors, the se- squeaked by with a win after most other quels Rocky III and Star Trek 1I: The 1972 Oscars has been handed to Caba- Despite Antonowsky's defense, Co- Wrath of Khan. Nevertheless, its audi- ret) , and E.T. 's year-end gluttony can lumbia's pullout remains a major mys- ence appeal was so instantaneous that hardly be expected to tip the scales in its tery. After all, no Hollywood filmmaker astonishing midweek business enabled favor. Nevertheless, few films in screen in history has enjoyed as much commer- E.T. to top those sequels' grosses by the history have struck such an emotional cial success as Spielberg; on January 13, end of the first week, and that opening- chord in audiences, and Spielberg's own 1983, E.T. became the biggest-grossing week tally of $22.2 million was sur- artfully simple \" Peace\" ad for the film in history (topping Star Wars ' passed by a second-week gross of $22.6 Christmas season may have offset Holly- rentals of$193.5 million), while his Jaws million, a third week of $24.9 million, a wood voters' distaste for this orgy of is in fourth place (at $133.4 million), his fourth week of $24. 6 million and a fifth commercialism. Raiders ofthe Lost Ark in fifth ($112 mil- week of$23.1 million. These figures, by lion) and his Close Encounters of the a very wide margin, are without prece- • Third Kind twelfth ($77.6 million). Con- dent in screen history and give some sidering that Spielberg-directed films Icredence to industry veteran Richard Horror. Universal was initially wor- had earned more than $300 million in Lederer's wry conclusion that \" E.T. ried that Poltergeist, Spielberg's other the years 1975-81, Columbia might well would have been successful unless they summer production, might deflect some have taken the E.T. risk. Even An- had marketed it as an alien dying of b.usiness from E .T. Instead, MGM/UA tonowsky acknowledges that \"you can't cancer. \" shrewdly rode the coattails ofE .T. 's pub- research a concept picture,\" recalling licity and word-of-mouth by convincing the low level of awareness and interest The only blemish on E. T. 's sweetly moviegoers that Poltergeist was a Steven in Spielberg's previous blockbuster, Spielberg rather than a Tobe Hooper Raiders ofthe Lost Ark, shortly before its film . This misrepresentation, which June 1981 release. \"With Spielberg it's cost MGM/UA a rap on the knuckles not the concept, it's the execution. E.T. and a token fine from the Directors turned out to be a lot more than a kiddie Guild of America, may have been crass, picture. \" but it was undoubtedly a canny market- ing ploy. There is a loyal horror-film au- Universal did a brilliant job of promot- dience, but it is seldom large enough to ing E.T., which at the outset was only a justify a production budget as big as Pol- moderately budgeted ($10.6 million) tergeist's $11 million: many segments of film without a pre-sold title, well-known the filmgoing public (including women performers, or unusually elaborate spe- and older or more sophisticated viewers) cial effects. Armed with the same re- recoil from the genre. Poltergeist over- search that mayor may not have dis- came these scruples and in the process suaded Columbia, Universal steered evolved a new cinematic species: the 63

Open Big and Keep on Going family horror film. For 1982's other horror films, the re- The following chart lists 1982 re- Then there are the word-of-mouth lease:; in the order of their U.S.-Cana- flops , a category traditionally spear- turns were mixed. Universal's $15 mil- dian rentals, which are then compared headed by horror entries. Last year lion remake of The Thing had been ex- with the same pictures' opening- Halloween Ill: Season ofthe Witch, Vi- pected to do big summer business, but week grosses at the boxoffice. The siting Hours, Creepshow and Friday its flaccid rentals of $10.5 million reaf- typical film grosses 15 to 25 percent of the 13th Part 3 all collapsed after firmed Universal's earlier lesson with its eventual boxoffice total in its first hearty opening-week grosses; in 1981 Cat People, one of the year's biggest seven days, but an occasional feature a similar fate met Halloween Il and losers (see accompanying chart); audi- reaps significantly higher or lower re- Friday the 13th Part 2. This consistent ences' stomachs can stand only so much turns than would normally be pro- pattern may result less from bad word- chuming. Los Angeles press agent Ed jected from its first-week take. of-mouth than from the prompt atten- Margulies contends that The Thing dance of horror-film aficionados, a would have made money had it been An impressive number of 1982 fiercely loyal but limited segment of released a few years ago, soon after Alien films showed unusual staying power the filmgoing public. Cheech & and before the recent shift in audience (or \"legs,\" as trade jargon has it). C:hong fans may be ~imilarly impa- taste. \"It was too much, too late\" he Chariots of Fire , On Golden Pond, An tient to catch the team's latest offer- maintains. Officer and a Gentleman, E.T. The Ex- ing, thus explaining the abrupt tra-Terrestrial, Reds, Taps, Absence of tailspin in the grosses for both 1982's Besides the eighth-place Polter- Malice, and Porky's all benefitted Things Are Tough All Over and 1981 's geist and The Thing, only five other hor- from favorable word-of-mouth that Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams. ror films placed among 1982's top fifty. pushed their ultimate grosses (and Universal's Ghost Story and Warner Bros. ' Creepshow both softened their rentals) far above the levels suggested Outside these two genres, the gory blows and traded on the literary by their opening-week results . In worst audience reaction last year was reputations of Peter Straub and Stephen 1981 only five films had earned com- accorded Grease 2, which clearly de- King for respectable, albeit disappoint- ing, returns. Twentieth Century-Fox's mensurate word-of-mouth: 9 to 5, Ar- livered few of its predecessor's plea- Visiting Hours, a low-budget Canadian thur, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Seems sures and disappeared from theaters pick-up, sported the cleverest ad cam- Like Old Times, and Stir Crazy. only a few weeks after its encouraging paign of any 1982 horror film (a forbid- initial grosses. ding image of a monolithic hospital with the tagline \"So frightening, you'll never Ranki~ Domestic First-Week No. of Ranking by recover\") and snagged a terrific $7 mil- Theaters First-Week lion in its opening week, but its grosses by Rent s Film (Distributor) Rentals· B.O.Gross· B.O.Gross plummeted thereafter. Results on three 1101 grisly sequels were mixed: Paramount's I. E .T.-The Extra-Terrestrial (Universal) $187.0 $22 . 2 939 I. Friday the 13th Part 3 benefited from its 534 3. 3-D gimmick and nearly matched the 2. Rocky l/I (MGM/UA) 63.5 20.8 1148 26. rentals earned by the first installment in 346 8. this summer-camp series; but despite 3. On Golden Pond (Universal) 63.0 6.1 1435 solid opening-week grosses, the 46th- 1621 4. place Halloween III: Season of the Witch 4. Porky's (20th Century-Fox) 53.5 1\\.2 890 2. and the 53rd place Amityville II: The Pos- 1102 10. session eventually netted less than 40 5. An Officer and a Gentleman (paramount) 52.0 5.4 13. percent and 20 percent, respectively, of 901 their sires. 6. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Universal) 48.0 19.4 891 ..14. 1358 • 7. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Paramount) 40.0 21.6 389 7. 455 6. Sequels. The truth about sequels is 8. Poltergeist (MGM/UA) 36.2 10.5 816 that audiences want to repeat the expe- \\388 .. rience they had at the original film. 9. Annie (Columbia) 35.2 9.4 They do not want to be unduly sur- 1277 9. prised, and they do not want to be bored 10. Chariots ofFire (Warner Bros.) 29.6 1387 11. with a note-by-note reprise'. Halloween 1079 5. III walked away from its audience by 11. First Blood (Orion) 24.0 9.2 1111 15 . delivering a story in no way connected to 1112 19. the adventures of nubile survivor Jamie 12. Firefox (Warner Bros.) 24.0 12.6 777 Lee Curtis. Amityville II, on the other 1295 ..22. hand, was merely a dim echo of the \\3 . Conan the Barbarian (Universal) 23.0 \\3.5 365 original, with yawningly predictable 589 12. special effects and narrative develop- 14. Reds (Paramount) 21.0 3.1 906 ment. Since sequels tend to sell them- 975 24. selves, lucrative opening weekends are 15. Taps(20th Century- Fox) 20.5 3.6 1516 20. a relative certainty, but these retreads 1127 16. must then energize filmgoers with a 16. Absence ofMalice (Columbia) 19.7 3.8 1330 17. fresh story twist or imaginative character 1297 25. 17. Sharky's Machine (Warner Bros.) 18.3 4.8 1250 18. 1122 23. 18. Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip (Colum- 21. bia) 18.3 10.8 19. Neighbors (Columbia) 17.1 9.6 20. Friday the 13th Part 3 (Paramount) 16.5 14.1 21. Modern Problems (20th Century-Fox) 15.4 9.2 22. Tron (Buena Vista) 15.2 7.4 23 . Young Doctors in Love (20th Century- Fox) 15.0 6.8 24. Blade Runner (Warner Bros. ) 14.5 9.6 25 . The World According to Garp (Warner Bros.) 14.0 4.8 26. Fast TImes at Ridgemont High (Universal) 14.0 4.2 28. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (Universal) 12.2 6.8 31. Some Kind ofHero (Paramount) 11.0 7.1 38. Things Are Tough All Over (Columbia) 9.3 9.1 39. Creepshow (Warner Bros.) 9.0 8.7 44. Raiders ofthe Lost Ark. Reissue (Paramount) 8.0···· 6.7 46. Halloween /lI: Season ofthe Witch (Universal) 7.0 7.7 49. Grease 2 (Paramount) 6.5 6.8 50. Visiting Hours (20th CenturY-Fox) 6.5 7.0 \"Figures in millions of dollars. \"\"Did not place among ····Raiders ofthe Lost Ark added another $21.6 million top 26. 1982 domestic rentals to its 1981 recums. bringing its ···The playoff l?attern for Chariots ofFire was unusually total to $112 million, the fifth-highest-grossing film in slow: It opened In only three theatres on September history (behind Star Wars at 193.5 million, E.T. The 26. 1981, added three more theatres two weeks later Extra-Terrestrial at $187 million, The Empire Strikes and another five four weeks later, then \"broadened\" Back at $140 million and Jaws at $\\33.435 million). to a total of 34 at the end of the year. The number of However, only an estimated $8 million of Raiders' theatres was increased to 70 on January 29, 1982, and 1982 sum was earned ffrroommitscoJnutliynu16in. g19f8i2r,str-erieslseuaes~' 283 on February 5, fully eighteen weeks after its U.S. the remainder came premIere. In that February 5-11 week, Chariots p.layoff in the early months of 1982. grossed $2.2 million . 64

development to attract more than the SPECIALIZING IN THE DISTRIBUTION diehard fans of the original. of By far the most successful sequel of JAZZ and BLUES FILMS the year was Rocky Ill, a remarkable ex- ception to the rule-of-thumb that a typi- FOR ALL MARKETS : Theatricat , Semi-Theatrical, Non-Theatrical , Television (all Markets), cally successful follow-up earns some 50 Plus Video Cassette and 16mm Print Sales to 60 percent of its predecessor. Taking a cue from such earlier series protagonists Limited to United Statss of America and All Possessions as James Bond and Inspector Clouseau, Sylvester Stallone put his beloved IMAGINE THE SOUND 91 min . The Les Blank Jazz and Blues Films: Rocky Balboa into a new, challenging ALWAYS FOR PLEASURE 58 min , situation that expanded upon his pre- Archie Stlepp, CeCil Taylor. Bill Dixon, Paul Bley NewOrleansJau vious exploits. Now fattened and dulled THE LAST OF THE BLUE DEVilS 90 min. A WELL SPENT LIFE 44 min, by his success as world champion, Mance l ipscomb Rocky slowly re-emerges as the working T\"e MOVie About Kansas C\"y Jan ' 60.'\"\" c.....\"'. l 10 R...... HOT PEPPER 54 min. class' Great White Hope by defending SUN RA: A JOYFUL NOISE 60 min. C l l t t o n C h e n ler his title against a King Kong-like black. A subtle racism may underlie Rocky I1rs TALMAGE FARLOW 58 min. BLUES ACCORDING TO LlGHTNIN ' HOPKINS 31 min, success, but Stallone deftly covered TilL THE BUTCHER CUTS HIM DOWN 53 min. l'ghtnln' Hopkms himself by balancing Mr. T's Neander- DIZZY 20 min, thal arrogance with Apollo Creed's mo- New Orleans Jazz With Kid Pun Ch Miller Q,zzyG,llesp,e rale-boosting tutelage. JAZZ HOOFER 28 min. AFTER HOURS 27 mlns. MGM/UA stole a leaf from Para- The legendary Baby Lawrence Col eman Hawk,ns , Ro~ EIClflClge. Cozy Cole mount distribution head Frank Man- MINGUS 58 min. JAZZ IN EXILE 58 min . cuso, who demonstrated with 1979's Charles Mingus •.... \" .,.. ~ ..... II....\" oe.ler Gordon. RlcharCl Cawls. Phil WOOdS. RanCl~ Weston original Star Trek that films could be SONNY ROLLINS 37 min . profitably opened in the dog days that live at Loren BORN TO SWING 50 min. precede a major holiday period. Only a THE NEW MUSIC 29 min. Counl 8a sle Alum\"\" BuClCly Tale. Jo Jones, Gene Krupa few months before its planned June 11 John Catlel , Bobby Bradlord DIFFERENT DRUMMER 30 min. nationwide opening, Rocky III was CHICAGO BLUES 50 min. EllllnJones moved forward by two weeks to give it MuClClyWau!r $ LAMBERT & COMPANY 15 min. first crack at summertime audiences. As JAZZ IS OUR RELIGION 50 min . oawe lamben .,. , ..........., _ ... a result, the film not only owned the May Af'I Blakey, Johnn~ Guilin 28-31 Memorial Day weekend (during BLUES LIKE SHOWERS OF RAIN 30 min. The Jazz on Siage Series: which it grossed over $16 million), but it lIghtnln' HopkinS. ROben lockwood, 0115 Spann. SunnylanCI Slim LES McCANN TRIO 29 min . extended its profitable summer playing SHELLY MANNE QUARTET 29 min. time by two weeks. Universal also bene- For further information Contact: ZOOT SIMS QUARTET 29 min . fited from opening Conan the Barbarian Bruce Ricker HAMPTON HAWES TRIO & GUESTS 29 min. at the beginning of that normally drab box-office month, and filmgoers can RHAPSODY FILMS INC, • 30 CHARLTON STREET· NEW YORK , N,V. 10014 • (212) 243-0152 probably expect an even longer summer season this year. NOW IN PAPERBACK Whereas Rocky III was greatly helped '~ brilliant, intransigent by audience enthusiasm for its two pre- collection of the best vious installments, Star Trek II: The film criticism Wrath of Khan was handicapped by se- written vere disappointment in its predecessor, anywhere which had been overweighted by slug- today.\" gish special effects and lugubriously di- rected by the veteran Robert Wise. For -National Review the sequel, Paramount shrewdly scaled down the production values and hired ••••••••••••••• CINEMA CITY is a complete service lor ••••••••••••••• young director Nicholas Meyer, whose Cinema collectors , dealing with original hip sensibility better connected with movie posters , photos and re lated collect- Trekkies. The original Star Trek earned ables. Original motion picture graphics are domestic rentals oU56 million on a pro- sought by collector's throughout the world. duction budget of $42 million, while the Original film posters are a unique remem- sequel earned $40 million on a $11 mil- brance of a memorable film . and because lion investment. In this case small was of their limited number, may become fine beautiful-and more profitable. investment pieces. Many Items. with their distinctive artwork . make attractive wall Because the core audience of fre- decorations that are sure to be the topic of quent filmgoers is young and its constit- diSCUSSion among mOVie lovers. uents therefore constantly change, it is hazardous to delay production of a se- All matenal is original - we deal With no copies, reprints, or anything of a bogus nature. Our latest catalogue lists thousands of items that include posters. photos (over 30.000 in stOCk). lobby cards , pressbooks, and other authentic film memorabilia. If you 're looking for a particular item that is not in our catalogue , we will try to locate II for you . To rece ive our latest catalogue. send $1 .00 (refundable With first order) to: 'CII~ lt~'A\\ ,Cl lr,., P.O .Box 1012, Dept . FC Muskegon . Michigan 49441 65

quel more than three or four years. Oli- Comedy. The influence of National Both tactics yielded nice late-summer ver's Story, Beyond the Poseidon Adven- Lampoon's Animal House could still be returns for these comedies. ture, More American Graffiti and Butch felt in the marketplace, however. Head- and Sundance: The Early Years all earned ing the gross-out list last year was The same cannot be said for Warner a miniscule percentage of their precur- Porky's, a low-budget blockbuster that Bros.' concurrent marketing of The sors' rentals; only Funny Lady and the could singlehandedly have cured Ladd Company's Night Shift. Although Seventies' resurrection of The Pink Pan- Twentieth Century-Fox's financial woes early reactions had branded the film a ther flourished years after their parents' if the company had been more than a potential sleeper and most reviews were releases. Last year's exception to the 25-percent participant in the U.S.-Cana- favorable, the film grossed significantly rule was Death Wish II, which grossed dian co-production. Its marketing was less per theater in its opening week than more than its 1974 original (in admit- impeccable, starting with several early Doctors or Ridgemont, neither of which tedly inflated dollars). Orion inherited test engagements 'that certified the ad- had a recognizable star like Night Shift's both this Charles Bronson vehicle and vertising campaign's effectiveness and Henry Winkler. A dingy, uninformative Sylvester Stallone's First Blood when it the youth market's enthusiastic re- print campaign, singularly unamusing acquired Filmways early last year, and sponse to the film. To stimulate word- TV spots, and a misguided publicity returns on the two pictures proved that of-mouth, Fox then held two rounds of emphasis on director Ron Howard rather vigilante violence still has commercial national sneak previews on successive than Winkler or fledgling star Michael muscle-and so does Sylvester Stallone weekends before the March 19 opening Keaton helped to bury this funeral com- outside his Rocky pictures when he has a edy, and only good word-of-mouth kept high-voltage trailer and TV spots in his corner. 1982's Turkey Trot It was a poor year for comedic se- Despite the year's generally rosy glow, 1982 was not without its dismal finan- quels. Paramount's Airplane II was a vir- tual xerox of the original-even the ad cial failures. With the average budget for a major-studio production now hovering campaign looked the same. After a good opening week, the grosses took a nose around $10 million and with relentlessly increasing marketing costs, some dive, and ultimate rentals will be only turkeys will always hatch to remind Hollywood optimists of the high-risk nature 40% of the first Airplane!'s $40 million. MGM/UA's Trail of the Pink Panther of the movie business. A fairly accurate rule-of-thumb requires that, for a film to died even earlier, with one of the poor- est opening weekends of the year for a break even, domestic rentals must match a feature's production budget, with major release. Perhaps more filmgoers realized the Blake Edwards comedy was overseas rentals and ancillary income offsetting marketing costs. By that yard- stitched together from a dead actor's out- takes than the studio's sketchy research stick at least sixteen films costs their makers (or distributors, or investors) at least indicated; perhaps the same basic ad could be recycled only so many times. $10 million each. Production Domestic Cheech and Chong's fortunes also drooped in 1982. Whereas each of their And the losers were: Budget* Rentals* Net Loss* previous films had registered a moderate 20-percent decline in rentals from its Inchon (MGM/UA) $46.0 $ 1.9 ($44.1) predecessor, last year's Things Are Tough All Over grossed only 50 percent of One from the Heart (Col.) 26.0 0.3 ( 25.7) 1981's Nice Dreams. It may be time for Ragtime (Par.) 32.0 10.0 ( 22.0) the boys to take a new trip. Reds (Par.) 42.0 21.0 ( 21.0) When is a sequel not really a sequel? PenniesfromHeaven (MGM/UA) 22.0 3.6 ( 18.4) When its producer perpetuates the title but ignores the creative and narrative Yes, Giorgio (MGM/UA) 18.0 0.7 ( 17.3) elements that made the original a hit. The Border (Univ.) 22.0 5.0 ( 17.0Y Grease 2 and National Lampoon's Class Reunion, like Halloween III, borrowed Lookin' to Get Out (Par.) 17.0 0.3 ( 16.7) neither the creative talent nor the plots Megaforce (Fox) 20.0 of their precursors and suffered accord- Annie (Col.) 51.5 3.5 ( 16.5) ingly once filmgoers spread the bad Five Days One Summer (WB) 15.0 35.2 ( 16.3) word. The fourth-week box-office on Personal Best (WB) 16.0 Grease 2 was a feeble $1.1 million, only Blade Runner (WB) 27.0 0.1 ( 14.9) one-sixth its first-week total of$6.8 mil- Tempest (Col.) 13.0 3.0 ( 13.0) lion; Class Reunion fell to $600,000 from Cat People (Univ.) 16.0 14.5 ( 12.5) $4.2 million over the same length of Barbarosa (Univ.) 10.8 2.2 ( 10.8) time. Producers Robert Stigwood, Allan 5.5 ( 10.5) Carr, and Matty Simmons may have fa- 0.5 ( 10.3) rally damaged the value of once-lustrous trademarks with these ill-conceived at 1148 theaters. Buttressed by a styl- it breathing for a few months. ishly provocative ad that departed from Hollywood also went for the adult ventures. the Mad Magazine-inspired graphics customarily used on teen-oriented com- funny bone last year, producing an im- edies, Porky's became the third of five pressive number of comedies without a films to gross more than $100 million at single food-fight or panty-raid. Belea- the U.S. box office in 1982. (The others: guered MGM/UA had more than its On Golden Pond, E.T., Rocky III, and An share of grown-up humor to market in 1982, but it never found the right for- Officer and a Gentleman.) mula. Marketing consultant Michael Other teen-oriented comedies to fare Mahern believes that the studio played off both Victor/Victoria and My Favorite well last year were Young Doctors in Love Year too quickly, either through igno- and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Fox rance or through a desperate need to managed to overcome bad reviews for service a $600 million debt: \"These Doctors by advance pitches to both the comedies had a broad, long-term poten- Airplane! and soap-opera markets, while tial, but they needed to be nursed until Universal focused on teens via heavy word-of-mouth overcame their lack of radio buys featuring a Valley Girl cam- immediate appeal.\" The Blake paign and the film's rock soundtrack. 66

Edwards film opened in 611 theaters million in rentals, far and away the big- ~reat. only two weeks after successful plat- gest take ever recorded for a one-man ..Goldman has really forming in three cities, while the Ri- concert film, and only three weeks later laid it on the line~' chard Benjamin comedy hit 714 houses his Some Kind of Hero opened to solid -Liz Smith, Syndicated Columnist only a week after a broader platforming grosses that rapidly declined after the public sampled this fuzzily seriocomic Hollywood ... it's a place of shimmer- in 52 theaters. Paramount release. Filmgoers' disap- ing images and million-dollar deals, When a second-week gross in national pointment in Hero did not hurt the busi- back-stabbing politics and artistic genius ness on Pryor's year-end film, The Toy, -and no one knows it more intimately release remains steady or improves over which should eventually snag $25-30 than William Goldman. the opening round's total, its marketing million in domestic rentals despite with- warrants scrutiny. Victor/Victoria ering notices. Without very much engi- Two-time Academy Award-winning climbed from a national opening of$2.5 neered personal publicity, Richard Pryor screenwriter and the bestselling author of million to a second-week total of $3.6 is a true star, i.e., his name guarantees a million, while My Favorite Year nearly healthy opening week at the box office. Maratlwn Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls matched its initial week's gross of $3 1bgether, and other novels, Goldman now million in its second round. Audiences Not so Bette Midler, Gene Wilder, or takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums clearly enjoyed both films, but the ad- Gilda Radner. Midler's Jinxed lived up ... on and behind the film sets ...into the plush vertising failed to entice them in suffi- to its title with an opening-week gross of offices of Hollywood agents and producers ciently large numbers and the release $1.6 million (less than $2,000, or some ...into the working lives of acting greats like pattern did not enable MGMIUA to 500 customers, per theater)-vivid tes- Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman .. . benefit fully from good word-of-mouth. tament to the power of negative produc- and into his own professional experiences (In defense of the studio, it should be tion publicity, bad reviews, and a dopey and creative thought processes on screen- pointed out that the \"chic\" lips-and- graphic. Gene and Gilda's Hanky Panky writing. moustache campaign for Victor/Victoria was a major disappointment for Colum- came from filmmaker Edwards, who ef- bia, but word-of-mouth rather than mar- \"He doesn't pull any punches. Even if fectively exerts the same control over keting was to blame for ultimate rentals you don't want to write screenplays, if you advertising as fellow auteurs Clint of about $5 million after a fairly respect- love movies and gossip, you'll be fascinated:' Eastwood, Warren Beatty, George Lu- able opening-week gross of$4.8 million. cas, and Woody Allen.) \"People want to see actors in certain -Liz Smith kinds of roles,\" says one marketing Both films cried out for an extensive head. \"They like Gilda to be zany and \"Insider-anecdotes, zesty bias, cynical screening program to percolate advance crazy, and she wasn't playing that type of wisdom, and the-way-it-really-is atmosphere: industry and media talk, and both part in Hanky Panky.\" must reading for savvy followers of the should have been previewed for the commercial movie-biz scene:' -Kirkus Reviews public before opening more slowly in Christmas is traditionally an ideal pe- the marketplace. Julie Andrews, James riod in which to open comedies, a truism \"Irreverent, vastly entertaining... Garner, Robert Preston, and Peter Hollywood largely ignored in 1981 when O'Toole are all past their box-office such somber fare as Reds, Ragtime, His text studded with insider's gossip, wild prime, and neither film had a comic Ghost Story, Rollover, and even the sup- premise that could be handiiy encapsu- posedly comedic Neighbors spear- anecdotes, and behind-the-scenes dramas, lated in advertising. Nevertheless, more headed the slackest year-end tally in re- attentive handling would undoubtedly cent memory. Fortunately, the studios Goldman makes enough provoca~ti~ve have earned a needy studio more than learned their lesson and stuffed 1982 statements in every chapter to Victor/Victoria's $10 million and My Fa- filmgoers' stockings with comedies. No vorite Year's $5-6 million in domestic sooner had Columbia successfully keep any reader engrossed .... rentals. launched The Toy in nearly 1400 theaters than it opened Tootsie in another 1000 valuable advice ..:' . MGM/UA's erstwhile production houses to even better returns. Despite chief, David Begelman, not only com- much-publicized production difficulties -Publishers Weekly plicated the working lives of his own (or due to the resultantly mushrooming marketing executives with such films as budget, finally pegged at around $25 \\MANER Victor/Victoria and My Favorite Year; by million), Columbia began its marketing BOOKS financing Pennies from Heaven, a $22- push three months before the Decem- million dud that squashed Steve Mar- ber opening with an effective teaser- tin's box-office reputation, he also trailer, standees, and counter displays. added to Universal's troubles in market- All advertising went straight for the ing Martin's Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid film's hook-Dustin Hoffman in drag- five months later. Dead Men was a one- and every conceivable publicity base joke comedy in black-and-white with was touched by the star and by director primary appeal to film buffs, but Uni- I Sydney Pollack. As of this writing, Toot- versal attracted enough adults and hip sie seems a virtual shoo-in to top the $74 young people to turn a small profit on million in domestic rentals for National the moderately budgeted picture. Lampoon's Animal House and become the biggest comedy in screen history. No star better solidified his commer- cial standing last year than Richard Warner Bros.' Best Friends was Pryor. Columbia's Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip earned more than $18 67

eclipsed at Christmas by Tootsie but late any information on his pictures. made twenty years earlier, it would un- should eventually match its $20-million Drama. The urban adult audience questionably have opened with much production budget with commensurate fanfare in December as a roadshow at- domestic rentals. While the result would may have deserted Woody Allen in traction in New York, Los Angeles, and place it among the top grossers in next 1982, but they flocked to a large number perhaps Chicago and a few other cities, year's list, more might have been ex- of other serious films, a heartening de- then moved on to exclusive reserved- pected from the Burt Reynolds-Goldie velopment for those production and seat bookings in other major metropoli- Hawn star power. However, two factors marketing executives whose horizons tan markets a month or so later. In 1981, probably precluded better business extend beyond comic books, video however, the three-hour, 20-minute even without the competing Tootsie. games, and bubble-gum humor. Only film opened December 4 at 389 theaters Reynolds, still the reigning male star last year Myron Meisel could accurately with minimal publicity and moderate according to exhibitors, scores really big observe in these pages that \"the climate advertising, then added another 276 only in good-ole-boy pans, and his pre- for diversity in filmmaking has never houses shortly before Christmas. De- vious forays into sophisticated comedy been less hospitable. \" With the certified spite critical applause and many awards have met with mixed returns. In addi- success of such pictures as On Golden (including a near-miss for the best-pic- tion, Best Friends was too Neil Simon- Pond, An Officer and a Gentleman, Char- ture Oscar), the film never came close to ish, pitching itself to the older, smaller iotsofFire, Absence ofMalice , The World recovering its costs. suburban segment of moviegoers. This According to Garp, and The Verdict, as year's bona fide Simon entry, Fox's I well as promising first returns on Gandhi Columbia's handling of Gandhi pro- Ought to Be in Pictures, instantly ex- and Sophie's Choice, the climate has vides an instructive counterpoint to the pired. warmed considerably. mishandling of Reds. After viewing a first assembly of Gandhi in August 1981, Another Fox comedy, Kiss Me Good- At the end of 1981, some industry Marvin Antonowsky persuaded Gold- bye, fell far behind the Christmas pack pundits claimed that Universal had crest, the British production company, and will probably earn only $8-10 mil- erred in opening On Golden Pond in only to eat six months of interest on its $22- lion in domestic rentals. Originally three theaters in three cities for million investment in order to shift the slated for release this coming summer, it Christmas and not broadening its play- film's premiere from last summer in Eu- was hurriedly rushed into the December off until January 22. Their principal ar- rope to December in the U.S. Two fac- marketplace after the anti-clerical Mon- gument was that the extraordinary na- tors lay behind the recommended post- signor was deemed \"unsuitable\" for tional publicity (including a Time cover) ponement: Antonowsky believed the Christmas (its $5 million in rentals sug- preceded the film's national availability film's European release would benefit gest it was a film for no seasons) and The by too many weeks. A similar case was from expected Academy Award nomina- King of Comedy encountered post-pro- advanced against Warner Bros.' slow tions, as had happened with Columbia's duction delays. Despite star Sally play-off of The Ladd Company's Kramer vs. Kramer; and he wanted the Field's valiant publicity efforts and the pickup, Chariots ofFire (see the chart on extra time to prepare both markets for presence ofco-stars James Caan and Jeff page 64.) Now that the two films have the picture. Bridges, Kiss Me Goodbye never logged respective domestic rentals of achieved much public awareness and $63 million and $29.6 million, these in- \"When you're dealing with a Reds or a might better have been postponed until dustry voices have been quelled. Gandhi,\" notes Antonowsky, \"you have a less competitive playing time. a huge educational job to do, and you The most important development in can't release these pictures quickly. The Warner Bros.IOrion's A Midsummer 1982 was the majors' rediscovery of the basic appeal is to an older audience, yet Night's Sex Comedy also could have ben- formula for effectively launching serious you must reach younger viewers, who efited from fewer box-office rivals. Un- adult pictures. \"Platforming,\" a distri- weren't even born when Gandhi died.\" like most previous Woody Allen films, bution tactic whereby a film first opens With a great deal more lead time than this pastoral comedy opened broadly in in a limited number of theaters in a few Paramount had on Reds and, in Richard the prime summer season and disap- markets, was once a customary method Attenborough, a more forthcoming film- peared quickly in the competitive ava- of release but fell into disfavor after the maker than Beatty, Columbia began its lanche. While industry analysts agree historic success of Jaws validated TV- intensive effort to educate the public that autumn would have been a more trumpeted nationwide saturation open- about the martyred Indian leader last appropriate time for its release, they are ings as a moneymaking technique for summer. By the time the film opened sharply divided on whether Sex Comedy important releases. The cost of network December 8 in four U.S. theaters, press should have been platformed, the distri- and local TV buys necessitated broad coverage ofGandhi far outdistanced me- bution strategy usually employed on Al- availability of the advertised film, and dia discussions of John Reed a year ear- len's films . Some argue persuasively that accelerated mass communication lier. audiences shared the critics' tepid reac- seemed to obviate slow play-offs. Even- tion to the film and that platforming tually only two situations mandated plat- Antonowsky wanted a global pre- would have allowed dreary word-of- forming: films in which the studio had miere for Gandhi. \"Let's make it a mouth to reduce rentals even below the little commercial confidence and which worldwide event,\" he suggested to his $4.5 million Sex Comedy earned. Others presented evident marketing problems; marketing staff. \"Let's call it a world maintain that Allen's self-destructive and films rushed into a few bicoastal event,\" replied Columbia advertising embargo on production publicity (right theaters at year-end in order to qualify head Ken Blancato. From such simple down to the arrogant withholding of a for award consideration. Otherwise, va- exchanges are great ads born. The cam- title until a few weeks before release) ryingly wide national openings were the paign's secondary copy line, ''The Man and his insistence on opaque advertising rule. of the Century, The Picture of a Life- demand slow play-off in order to circu- time,\" was Antonowsky's further contri- Then the marketeers saw Reds. Had bution. \"Who says you can't say that?\" Warren Beatty's $42-million epic been 68

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he now asks. Obviously you can, since production by March and then risk be- Personal Best won some significant audiences have clearly taken these ads ing rushed into release before it is in critical favor and should certainly have seriously and have made the film a major optimal shape.\" The other option-sit- earned more than $3 million in rentals, box-office success in its initial engage- ting on a film's interest-bearing cans for but everything seemed to go wrong. ments. The jury is still out on Garulhi's months-is even less appealing to stu- The film's publicity became mired in nationwide results, but certainly it is dios . filmmaker Robert Towne's running bat- perceived as more important, more an tle with producer David Geffen and \"event,\" than Reds ever was. Despite its banner year, Universal Warner Bros., and its advertising was had trouble with two of its 1982 dramas. peculiarly misjudged. The film had po- A year earlier, Columbia also success- Its year-end Six Weeks had trouble sur- tentially strong appeal to women as a fully platformed Absence of Malice, viving six days in the competitive kind of feminist Rocky (even the title which opened November 20, 1981 , in Christmas marketplace and will be for- points in that marketing direction), but single New York and Los Angeles the- tunate to earn $4' million in domestic instead the ads featured an unappealing aters before hitting 816 houses on De- rentals. \"Audiences don't want to see a photograph of lead performer Mariel cember 18. \"We felt a November plat- movie about a young girl dying ofleuke- Hemingway with accompanying critical form would separate the movie from the mia at Christmas,\" says Universal exec- quotes emphasizing the erotic close-ups Christmas rush of pictures and help it utive Gordon Armstrong. (MGM/UA of women's bodies, then added an \"As get a lot of media attention, which it might have had similar reservations Featured in Playboy\" strip after a nude did,\" explains Antonowsky. \"I think we about opening Still of the Night, a chic layout appeared in that magazine . would have gotten killed if we had \"slasher flick,\" during the season of These tactics could hardly be expected opened it in December.\" Somewhat in peace and good will; it is expected to to attract women, while few men were the same style, Fox opened its subse- earn rentals of less than $3 million.) turned on by the generally matter-of- quent Paul Newman drama, The Verdict, Adds Armstrong: \"Six Weeks should fact nudity. on December 8 in only three theaters, have opened in a less competitive nine days before the film went into na- month-November, January, or Febru- Quirky personal films always have a tional release. Buoyed by omnipresent ary-but our contract with Polygram difficult time in the marketplace, but Newman publicity and better reviews forced us to open at Christmas. It didn't Diner and Tex had their legs cut off be- than were accorded Absence of Malice, have a chance. \" fore the race. Several discouraging sneak The Verdict seems headed for rentals of previews soured MGM/UA on Diner, $25 million-even more if Newman fi- Many feel that Universal's Missing did and poor returns in the initial Baltimore, nally wins his long-denied Oscar. have a chance, however. Costa-Gavras' Phoenix, St. Louis, and Washington, film softened the true-life facts on which D.C. engagements raised the possibility Academy Awards certainly playa ma- it was based and aimed at moving audi- of shelving the $5 million production. At jor role in the marketing of serious pic- ences emotionally, yet Universal sold it the eleventh hour, a perceptive New tures. Sophie's Choice, a clear contender as if it were a hard-hitting political docu- York publicist screened the film for sev- on the strength of Meryl Streep's per- mentary. Armstrong admits that the stu- eral critics, whose ecstatic reactions formance, was rushed into a few De- dio's publicity strategy may have back- prompted a hurried two-week booking cember engagements to ensure a fresh fired . \"We took the film to Washington, in New York's Festival Theatre in April. place in Academy voters' memories dur- knowing it would create controversy, The result was a new house record and ing the next few months. In contrast, and we got major news breaks every- an immediate transfer to a more presti- where. But the public didn't come in the gious East Side berth. \"The critics ac- Shoot the Moon, Missing, Victor/Victoria, numbers you'd expect from all that pub- complished what the studio apparently and Diner may have hampered their Os- licity. In hindsight, we may have made couldn't,\" says Diner's writer-director, car chances by opening nearly a year the film seem too political, too real and Barry Levinson. \"They explained the before the ballots are mailed. uncomfortable.\" By ignoring its dra- movie so that its adult audience could matic appeal, Universal probably short- find it. We were sold badly: it wasn't MGM-UA's Shoot the Moon was origi- changed the critically acclaimed film another Porky's .\" nally scheduled for a December 1981 and relegated it to 42nd place in the release but was postponed until Febru- 1982 rental standings with an $8 million While Diner has now collected $5 .2 ary at the request of Paramount, to pre- million and should end in the black after vent a split vote on Reds Oscar candidate total. ancillary markets are tapped, the simi- Diane Keaton. It is fair to say that Shoot Two other potentially controversial larly low-budgeted Tex still has only $3.5 the Moon's box office missed the boost of million in the till despite equally enthu- an Oscar push. Universal felt under no 1982 releases, Making Love and Personal siastic notices and the presence of teen- obligation to make a similar pact with Best, were widely covered by the media magazine favorite Matt Dillon. Despite Columbia, which had supporting-ac- as front runners in a batch of gay-ori- a recent spate of articles on the \"new\" tress candidate Jessica Lange in Tootsie ented features , but both misfired at the Disney, nothing could be more anti- in release at the same time as the Oscar- box office. Making Love opened well and quated than the marketing efforts of qualifying engagements for Frances. could have been expected to double its Buena Vista, its distribution arm. The actual rentals of $6.1 million if, \"grosses $19-million Tron and the $5.3 million Tex Although the Sophie reviews were in subsequent weeks hadn't deteriora- were touted as the vanguard for Disney's generally favorable (ecstatic for Streep) ted at a rate we hardly appreciated,\" says modernized production slate, but nei- and initial grosses very encouraging, Twentieth Century-Fox's advertising- ther finally amassed domestic rentals to publicist Harry Clein is concerned that publicity head , Irv Ivers. Generally bad match these outlays. the Oscar chase has become a case of reviews may have presaged public indif- \"the tail wagging the dog.\" In his opin- ference to the sexual complications of According to Disney production head ion, \"Tying a marketing campaign to three well-heeled, fabulously success- Tom Wilhite, \"Tex was never expected Academy Award possibilities literally ful, terribly attractive nonentities. means that such a film must go into 70

to make a lot of money. But it did in- somber photo of Dillon to one with a Its opening-week gross was impressive, crease the credibility of the studio not classy line drawing, which may not have but no one could have predicted it only with the public but with the film been any better,\" admits Wilhite. At would remain in first-run houses for community\"-an impressive achieve- least one industry observer agrees: more than six months and become one ment, if true, given the film's confused \"They went from a bad Disney cam- of the year's biggest hits . marketing and meager rentals of $3.5 paign to a bad art-house campaign.\" million. \"Our distribution people fig- An Officer and a Gentleman entered ured the title and Matt Dillon would Perhaps Tex and Diner never had a production under inauspicious circum- appeal to small-town teenagers, and we shot at big grosses, but they should cer- stances. The Douglas Day Stewart first opened in 150 southwest theaters at tainly have managed to match the re- script was developed at Lorimar, which the end of July.\" The film failed to per- turns of such similar fare as Buster and then passed it on to Paramount when it form, and a distribution spokesman in- Billie ($4 million in 1974 dollars) and retrenched after an expensive five-year genuously justified a temporary stall in Breaking Away ($9.8 million in 1979). In foray into feature-film production. further bookings by pointing to \"the tre- both cases, failure to recognize the po- Rushed into production with five other mendous amount of product-particu- tential importance of reviews and the films to ensure completed product be- larly the amount aimed at the teen audi- likeliest target audience cost their dis- fore an anticipated 1981 Directors Guild ence-now in the market.\" tributors a nice chunk of change. strike, Officer has already amortized all costs for the other \"strike pictures\": the As with Diner, the true audience for The prime summer playing time is moderately successful Some Kind of Tex proved to be urban adults rather than usually reserved for the cinematic equiv- Hero, the duds I'm Dancing as Fast as I teens, according to Wilhite. Director alent of hammock reading, but both Can, Partners, and Jekyll and Hyde To- Tim Hunter claims that he and producer Warner Bros. and Paramount risked the gether Again, and the still unreleased Tim Zinnemann \"suggested to Disney wilting heat with serious adult films. The White Dog. Had Lorimar stayed in the that they open the movie in one theater World According to Garp lit no commer- movie business a few months longer, it in major cities and build up slowly, the cial fires, but extensive, well-conceived could have canceled its entire five-year way films like Breaking Away and Diner publicity and effective advertising ena- feature-film deficit with the returns were handled.\" A well-received screen- bled it to hold its own against the sum- from Officer. ing at the New York Film Festival in mer low-brows. September helped matters somewhat, Officer cleverly melded narrative ele- but a lingering confusion about whether A few days after Garp opened in late ments of separate yet equal appeal to or not to feature Dillon in the ads pre- July, Paramount launched An Officer and men and women. Drill-sergeant Lou cluded substantial grosses . \"We a Gentleman, a romantic drama that Gossett, Jr. makes a man out of Richard switched from a campaign that used a caused Variety's Jim Harwood to hope Gere, while Debra Winger achieves her \"Paramount Pictures isn't making a mis- romantic goal of nabbing an army offi- take releasing it in the summer crunch.\" Presenting. .. DICTIONARY OF FILM TERMS By Frank E. Beaver A Big Beautiful Bonus Book - yours when you order the other 4 great companions offered here! TELEVISION PRODUCTION, 2/e. Alan Wurtzel. The how- DICTIONARY OF FILM TERMS. Frank E. Beaver. Limbo to of everything from closed circuit to huge network opera· lighting . .. Actualite . .. 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At the end ~l. ble work!\" (Robert Altman) 1221 Ave . ofthe Americas , New York, NY 10020 LIVING THEATER: An Introduction to Theater History. ITnof 15 days I will pay for the book(s) I keep, plus local tax , postage , and Edwin Wilson/Alvin Goldfarb. From antiquity to the modern handling , and return unwanted book(s) postpaid . I save postage and I scene, a sweeping look at works by the world's great bards of the boards - Western, Asian, and Black - seen in cultural! handling if I remit , plus tax , with this order. Return privilege applies . political!social contexts. Plus developments in dramatic struc· ture, staging, criticism, and acting. Over 1715 illustrations . o DICTIONARY OF FILM TERMS. Beaver. (004216·0) $15.95 THE HUMANITIES THROUGH THE ARTS, 3/e. F. David I understand I may order this book at the price shown, or receive Martin/Lee A. Jacobus. 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cer. Gordon Weaver, Paramount's adver- achieved a high recognition profile pre- smoother commercial transition to the tising-publicity chief, aptly pinpoints release-go down the tube. A much- screen, accumulating $48 million in do- the film's broad appeal: \"Here were two publicized big-screen version of a video mestic rentals on a $26-million produc- people who decided to allow themselves game, Tron neglected the human ele- tion budget. Universal entertained no to be loved-a monumental story, very ment that audiences still require even in illusions that the sun would come out human, very relatable, no matter what our hi-tech age. The Disney release was tomorrow, and they grossed as much age or socio-economic background.\" further hurt by Montgomery Securities from the film's first two weeks in 1400 Columbia's Antonowsky adds that Offi- analyst Ted James' sell-recommenda- theaters as they did in the following cer accomplished for Gere what The Way tion after viewing Tron, a verdict that hit eight weeks. The studio previewed the We Were did for Robert Redford: \"Audi- the papers two days before the film movie extensively, tinkering with it un- ences finally saw him in a love story opened and caused a quick drop in Dis- til it played as well as possible for audi- where he's vulnerable and likeable, ney's stock. ences (critics were always a lost cause). which is how they've always wanted to The lavish Texas premiere was syndi- see him.\" Blade Runner also featured excep- cated as a one-hour TV documentary tional visual effects and dim emotional and beat its time-slot competition in According to Weaver, Paramount values, and it further suffered from a most markets; fully one-fifth of the knew from its first viewing ofOfficer that summer playing time that was unrecep- opening-weekend crowd indicated it the film would be a hit, and the com- tive to its arcane subject matter. The had seen the special. The company fur- pany worked hard to develop a cam- ~jJO-million production could have ben- ther tapped the TV audience through its paign that would attract the widest audi- efited from better advertising-less distribution of an electronic press kit to ence. \"We knew it was a film that murky, more explicative-but Warner major stations everywhere, a tactic it evoked great passion,\" he says. \"We Bros. and The Ladd Company never now uses on most of its releases. tested a number of campaigns at early had a real shot at big grosses. Another previews to make sure audiences would big-budget film that left audiences Whorehouse's Burt Reynolds runs actually pay to see the film we were \"whistling the sets\" was Francis Cop- neck and neck with Clint Eastwood as advertising, and we discarded several pola's $26-million failure, One from the the most consistent box-office draw in approaches that didn't work until we Heart. recent years, at least in their customary found the one that did.\" After nation- vehicles. But when Reynolds makes so- wide sneaks on July 16, Paramount Neither One from the Heart nor Annie phisticated comedies like Rough Cut or opened Officer on July 28 at 346 the- revived public taste for the long-mori- Paternity, he loses his good-ole-boy fol- aters, \"a manageable number that bund musical genre. The latter Ray lowing; when Eastwood softens his im- would enable word-of-mouth to expand Stark effort for Columbia must be age in Bronco Billy or Honky Tonk Man, the film's market.\" By launching the counted both a production and a market- he forsakes his tough-guy fans . Interest- film on a Wednesday instead of the tradi- ing blunder; only the property's pre-sold ingly, both stars have comfortably worn tional Friday, Paramount effectively appeal and hefty exhibition guarantees each other's outfits: Reynolds turned ur- gave it two more days of \"previews\" account for its $35-million return on a ban cop in Warner Bros.!Orion's Sharky's before the all-important opening week- reputed $52-million investment. Few Machine, which earned more than $18 films have raised so many obvious ques- million, and Eastwood's two biggest •end. tions. Why was the rugged, cynical John grossers were Every Which Way but Loose An Officer and a GentLeman was the Huston hired to direct a family musical? and Any Which Way You Can, two raucous latest instance of a triennial Hollywood Why was the show's only hit song, \"To- country-and-western comedies. phenomenon-the romantic block- morrow, \" buried? Why was a lengthy buster that reminds studios of lingering clip from Camille allowed to stop the Eastwood had a disappointing 1982. audience affection for old-fashioned movie dead in its tracks? Why was the Fire/ox was a stylishly marketed espio- adult love stories) 1970: Love Story ; finale moved from Christmas to July 4, nage drama that opened very big but 1973: The Way We Were; 1976: A Star Is hardly the sentimental highpoint of any- sputtered. Honky Tonk Man, an unmista- Born; 1979: The ELectric Horseman) . It one's year? kably personal project, did not even further reflected the renascent interest open big and will probably earn only $3 in military life as earlier suggested by Why, finally, was such an undistin- million, one-eighth of Firefox's return. Private Benjamin, Stripes, and Taps . Mi- guished throwback platformed for four Michael Mahem, who believes almost chael Mahern points out: \"Military films weeks in a few New York and Los all films should be test-marketed, defi- are of direct relevance to the most fre- Angeles theaters before going into broad nitely feels that Warner Bros. should quent film goers-those aged 15 to 19- release? This misguided decision to have adopted this tactic on Honky Tonk and surveys indicate that of all people platform a household word was report- Man. \" If they had, they would have real- over 18, men 18-24 are the most pro-mil- edly imposed by Stark over Columbia's ized it was a mistake to open the picture itary, followed by women 18-24.\" These objections. Stark also would have been in 700 theaters with that ad campaign. groups, who toddled through the Six- well-advised to cool the advance hype They would have been better off treat- ties, tend to be more conservative than that helped turn off many critics. As ing it like an art-house film.\" Eastwood their immediate elders, and they regard publicist Beverly Walker observes, \"An- calls all the marketing shots on his films, the army as a serious employment op- nie was a case of overkill comparable to however, and only a courageous execu- tion in a recessionary period. The Great Gatsby. Every stage of its film- tive could have suggested such a strat- ing was publicized: there was nothing egy to the studio's most consistent • moneymaker over the past decade. left to surprise audiences later. By the Nothing is more frustrating than see- time Annie opened, people felt they had If Eastwood failed to deliver the kind ing a mega-budget production-which already seen it.\" of action-filled fare his audiences de- has been heavily promoted and has mand, Australian director George Miller Another hit Broadway musical, The Best LittLe Whorehouse in Texas, made a 72

offered enough visceral excitement in given exemplary marketing. 20th Cen- co-directors Jim Henson and Frank Oz The Road Warrior for several movies. tury-Fox designed a brilliant print cam- and their whimsical creatures. Marketing observers are sharply divided paign for Quest for Fire, cagily linking Skillful marketing is always a pleasure on Warner Bros. ' handling of this futuris- the prehistoric film to 2001: A Space Od- to witness, especially when it is ac- tic pickup. Richard Lederer feels the yssey and avoiding the seemingly inevi- corded not just fantasies like The Dark film could not have done much better table Caveman comparisons. Ultimately, Crystal and Quest for Fire but also more than its $10.5 million in domestic domestic rentals only matched the film's difficult, demanding pictures like Gan- rentals: \"Its audience was finally limited $12-million production cost, but it is dhi and An Officer and a Gentleman. To by its extreme violence. Remember A hard to see how Fox could have bettered be sure, Hollywood's production chiefs Clockwork Orange?\" Other industry an- this result on an arid, esoteric film . Uni- delivered the most variegated slate of alysts maintain that the publicity failed versal's The Dark Crystal should end up interesting films in several years, but the to capitalize on critical enthusiasm and doubling Fire's rentals. The only fantasy marketing teams also deserve credit for on star Mel Gibson's charisma, that the released at Christmas, it was effectively usually proving equal to this wide range print advertising was intriguingly classy pitched both to families and to head- of challenges. With a strong lineup of but uninformative, and that the distribu- tripping teens with flavorful advertising Christmas movies still in wide release, tion pattern scuttled chances for break- and omnipresent television publicity for 1983 is off to a healthy start. ® through grosses. The Road Warrior opened in 700 Sunbelt theaters in May, FILM & CRITICISM then stalled for three months until an- other 700-theater break in eastern and Centre Universitaire Americain du Cinema et de la Critique a Paris midwestern markets. This bifurcated release virtually ensured that the film Th e Film Studies Prog r a m a nd C o nt e mpo r a r y Criticis m and C ulture (CCO would be perceived as summer drive-in fare of little interest to a hipper audi- aProg ram a t the Ce ntre Uni ve rs itaire Am e r ica in du C ine m a et de la C ritiqu e ence. Paris bo th boas t a curriculum o f inn ovati ve seminars and co urses which e xamin e More sophisticated filmgoers were the th eo ri es and c riti cal th o u g ht that hav e influenced the study o f film and o th e r lured to 48 HRS., Paramount's equally fo rm s o f ex press io n ov er the past 40 years. Th e Film S tudi es Pr og ra m p r ov id es s tud en ts w ith VIOlent action entry that has shown the • co u rses a nd se m inars a na- greatest holding power of any broad ly ti cal of film th eo r y, hi s- Christmas release except Tootsie and to r y, fo rm al s tru c tures , id eo logy , a nd th e re la t io n- could exceed $30 million in rentals. s hips be t wee n film a nd Like Rocky Ill, the Nick Nolte-Eddie o th e r a rt fo rm s, a nd lan - Murphy vehicle attracted both blacks g uage and psychoana lysis . Pa rtiCipa nt s di sc u ss s uc h and whites via advertising that suc- th e mes a s th e s ile nt film s cinctly defined their characters' interac- o f G riffith , Lang, Ei se n- tion and spotlighted the film's audience- s te in, a nd Keat o n; cla ssic pleasing highlight, Murphy's cop shtick Ho ll ywood film s; . evo lu- in a redneck bar. Clint Eastwood may ti o n o f ea rl y cin e ma; a nd have abandoned Dirty Harry, but obvi- Euro pea n a nd America n a va nt -ga rde cin e mas . ously there is still a lot ofcommercial life Th e CCC foc uses o n re cent d e ve l- left in the urban-cop genre. opm e nts in Fre nch po litical th o ug ht A year ago the most promising genre and soc ial in s tituti on s, ling ui s ti cs, social sci e nces, and literary th eo r y. seemed to be action fantasies, with The Prog ra m , interdi sc iplin a r y in sword-and-sorcery epics looming as the na ture, a na lyzes te xts a nd doc u- next production trend. The substantial me nt s as we ll as no n- verbal re pres- opening business registered for both e nta ti o n s s uc h as ph o tog raph y, film and te le vis io n , by dra w ing fro m th e Universal's Conan the Barbarian and l ,ff l,l \",1\\\\ h,!> TIlI\\'l' f field s o f lin g ui s t ics, psych oa nal ysi s, Group 1's The Sword and the Sorcerer III It'll' ft. r m!lf.1 a nth ro po logy, phil oso ph y, a nd po l- certified this revived genre's commercial itical scie nce. potential, but neither movie attracted !o t'nll u ~ l.bl l 'l l . the favorable word-of-mouth needed to r\" l h,\",d. uH'ful. nll' 1l A re quired sess io n th a t incl ud es fulfill early box-office expectations. The inten s ive la ng uage tra inin g and an latter film, a $5-million independent ( t'furn II It . h im III introducti o n to film a na lys is, th e- production, netted rentals 0[$11 million o ry and se mi olog y preced e s the by shrewdly opening three weeks before Iht' h .rm IIf.l ~rt',11 yea r-I o n g Pr og ra ms . Ad va nced underg raduate and g raduate stu- b\" r \"'IUI' I n ',' rIl d e nt s wi th a minimum o f two years of uni ve rs it y- le ve l Fre nc h o r th e ,,·h'l n I IUlh' n,lI u r ,1I1y I II U, hi'\" , tn t ht, b,' rd,'r\" \" f tht· Ir.,J ,I,un.,1 .. 1~\" lr,,,,1 /1,/rlJ,, ·, the big-budget Conan, while exception- equi valent ma y appl y. Fo r further ally intensive publicity for star Arnold info rm a t io n , w rite : Schwarzenegger, energetically pro- Uni ve rsit y o f Califo rni a moted previews, and countdown TV ad- Educati on Abroad Prog ra m vertising (\"11 Days Until Conan\") drew Santa Ba rba ra, CA 93106 the sixth-biggest opening-week gross of Sponsored by the year in the normally sluggish May University of California playing time. Education Abroad Program & Two other fantasy spectacles were Council on International Educational Exchange 73

• TWOW: Wouk's Windy War by Stephen Harvey altogether, because I had tickets to the of anything better to do, and the all-im- New York City Ballet, so I never got to portant \"water-cooler factor,\" made I'm not going to pretend that I see Natalie and Byron conceive their TWOW what ABC Research describes as watched all of The Winds ofWar, but I at child in Lisbon, or Pug say of Goebbels \"the most-watched program in televi- least had legitimate reasons for my that \"he can stuff his Swiss bank account sion history.\" So it's my sad task to report lapses, unlike most of my snooty up his fat ass\"; but then if I chose to that all of you missed plenty. It was, in friends . One motive was, I admit, a bout spend a few hours with Jerome Robbins fact , one of the most radical departures of unseemly superstition on my part. I rather than Herman Wouk, this was no from conventional network program- was afraid that if I spent eighteen hours better than I deserved. At that, I logged ming ever perpetrated, challenging all watching Robert Mitchum doing his im- a lot more hours than anybody in my wisdom about what constitutes success- pression of a turtle doing its impression circle of acquaintances, most of whom ful video entertainment for the masses. proclaimed that no one with half a brain could have borne more than two-thirds I'm not referring to the fact that TWOW cost even more than Heaven's The Henry family : Dunderheaded drama or devastating ~atire? Gate, or that it took scarcely less time to unfold than the Nazis needed to occupy of John Wayne, my eyes might involun- of an episode of anything this dunder- the Netherlands. TWOWs real innova- tarily lock into the same gluey glaze, and tion was its devastating satire at the ex- for keeps. One dim blink means mild headed. pense of those countless films and TV irritation or a faint itch of desire; four Naturally, the people I know hardly shows that have toiled so hard to depict means Pearl Harbor has been sunk or his the highlights of our historical legacy son is missing off Manila; seven means constitute your typical Nielsen sample; and failed so dolefully. Wouk and direc- he's hung over. they're the sort who admit to watching tor-producer Dan Curtis revealed their network TVonly on the nights they dis- true aims with one succinct device: they But there were practical consider- cover by accident that Joan Rivers is the based the fly-on-the-wall ubiquity of ations at work as well-important stuff substitute host on The Tonight Show . I their principal character, Capt. Victor like talking on the phone with my suspect that FILM COMMENT readers \"Pug\" Henry, on that titanic showbiz brother, and tackling the cat before it have a lot more in common with my gasp-from-the-past, Mel Brooks' 2000 retrieved the chicken bones out of the friends than with the estimated 140 mil- Year Old Man. garbage. Thursday night, I missed 1940 lion viewers who, through a combina- tion of cultural duty, bad weather, lack Let Holocaust strain to be the Mrs . Miniver of the Me Generation; TWOW was always at its sprightliest when focus- ing on those fiends, the Nazis. It was irresistible to hear assorted Boche brass address each other in standard Teutonic when parrying such trivialities as Le- bensraum or the pusillanimity of the English, and then shift to Hogan's He- roespeak whenever it was time to get ou t the heavy artillery. The Fuhrer was, fit- tingly, the zaniest of the lot. No sooner would Pug describe him as Europe's most brilliant tactician, than this Ger- man bit actor would pop up, darting his eyes and jutting his gams, as though he were sending up Chaplin's Great Dicta- tor on Dot's lnkredible! over Bavarian TV. In fact, TWOWs most authentic pe- riod touches were in its penchant for reconstructing real events of the Forties in the manner patented by those movies actually made in 1943-the ones God and James Agee wisely forsook. We ha- ven't had a Joe Stalin this stalwart and 74

avuncular since Mission to Moscow. (For taken the boat to Palestine\") . Her Nata- Jon that matter, neither have Soviet movie- lie is a living metaphor paying tribute to Jost goers, since about 1956.) Persuading the subjectivity of all human wisdom. Ralph Bellamy to re-inhabit F.D.R.'s When she furrows her dark brows into a SPEAKING DIRECTLY wheelchair was a relatively up-to-date determined pout, or parts her prim lips touch; surrounded as he would have to convey devil-may-care insouciance, A FILM BY JON JOST been by an otherwise geriatric cast, every American male on the smal1 Edward Herrmann was clearly too avant- screen is besotted with longing. Yet with A candid and challenging self-portrait, it carries autobio- garde a choice. Yet the show compen- those same two expressions, she makes graphical directness and political rigor a lot further than one sated for this by making him boom plati- all Central Europe recoil at the spectacle might have thought they could go in film . As an object lesson in tudes at Pug and us in the precise of this swarthy Jewess in their midst. how a professional , entertaining. and serious feature can be manner of that Leader whose face (like And by never varying the cast of her face made on the meanest possible budget , it could be studied to Jesus') could never be revealed in such or the cadences of her speech, she dares advantage by film students everywhere. Warners' wartime epics as Yankee Doodle to convince home viewers that she is the Dandy and Princess O'Rourke . most incompetent star actress since Jonathan Roaenbaum, Lizabeth Scott. AmeTiClln Film The genius ofWouk and Curtis lay in never letting their nostalgic comic relief • ...brilliant filmmaking . . distract our attention from the meat of this mini-series: the human interest of Of course, Curtis and Wouk are too Amy Taubin mere mortals like you and me caught in shrewd to expose this audacious aes- Soho .....kly the maelstrom of global conflict. And it thetic too bluntly; that's not the way you was here that these auteurs took a daring snare stratospheric ratings or the most The most important American film of the early 70's leap from the archaic to the post-mod- egregious Time cover since The Great David Jam•• ern. Surely the incongruity between Gatsby. Rather, they opted for the trans- 1WOWs haggard cast and the stirring parent charade that in style and sub- Millenium Film Journel qualities ascribed to these characters by stance this was just another unthreaten- the script had to be intentional-a sub- ing miniseries, only more grandiose than In the history of the American avant-garde, SPEAKING DI- versive dialectic, if you will, exposing RECTLY stands as a remarkable achievement: between the the banality of the capitalist mass time- the norm. So they resorted to such com- currents of pure cinema and \"committed \" documentarylfiction, killer for what it is. Why else would forting devices as the Falcon Crest it asserts a deliberate primitivism, a return to the ideological everyone, from the Chief Executive to school of editing (cut away quick from roots 01 American radicalism. As such, it also bears comparison that blonde and bonnie English escort your actors as soon as they get those lines with Godard 's Le Gai Savoir, another discourse on method played by Victoria Tennant, describe out, before they can make fools of them- which refuses to take for granted what we think we know. Pug as an irrepressible dynamo, when selves or fun of the material), and a love- the congealed look on Mitchum's face is theme leitmotif reminiscent of the sig- Ian Chri.tie obviously prompted by a sense memory nature tune from Fantasy Island, all the BFI Monthly Film Bulletin of that last weekly check with all those while alternating throbbing explosions zeros neatly typed in? How else to ex- and sobbing embraces, and pretending Highly cinematic anti-cinema. Jost's analytical approach pro- plain that serene deadpan on Jan-Mi- that we were being edified on a major vides us with more than a glimpse of a highly aroused, energetic, chael Vincent's 37-year-old face, while subject, as Roots did with the blacks, and very human being caught in the trap of a self-deceiving all Warsaw is collapsing to dust around and Masada did with the Deity. society. Out of elements of contradiction and disunity, Jost has him, and Ali MacGraw caresses one of fashioned an integrated whole far superior to the sum of its the creases under his eyes and bleats, Their boldest stroke wasn't apparent already considerable parts. \"Oh, Byron, you' re such a boy!\"? until the last five minutes of the entire seven-night run. There was Mitchum Pierre Dunn MacGraw's singular triumph in this standing on a cliff over Pear Harbor, Film QueTteTly role has been grievously maligned by communing with the Heavens and those who failed to comprehend steeling himself for the bloody fight to In a breathtaking dialectic, Jost fans out with maps and TWOWs deeper intentions. If you come-when, the last we heard, Polly documentary footage from Montana to the world at large, inter- glance beneath the show's admittedly Bergen's Fran Dodsworth manque was relating the people and things around him, through the system captivating surface, you will find its aims still prowling Washington without an es- of consumption, to the far-flung battlefields of Southeast Asia. as evident as the truncated tilt of the cort, Jan-Michael Vincent was ens- Kissinger, Nixon, masculinity, feminity, the filmmaking process, nose on this star's face. And as a pur- consed in a sub somewhere in the South the military-industrial complex, and the neighbor down the road veyor of provocative contradictions, Pacific, and Ali MacGraw had been all are interconnected in a vast poetiC vision that binds the very MacGraw has Garbo (much less Meryl crammed onto a Turkish freighter personal to the global. A unique and powerful film. Streep) beat cold. headed for Palestine. No doubt about it, the whole goddamn thing was just an Noel Carroll Natalie Jastrow is an active verb, flit- extended trailer for TWOWs sequel Soho .....kly ting from one continent to another, novel , War and Remembrance. Part II. breaking hearts, forging into forbidden When it does appear, I only hope the Deeply satisfying, as well as deeply trOUbling . territory. Yet with fiendish ingenuity, show is as big a smash as its predecessor. Don Druker, MacGraw the actress confounds our I Maybe then ABC will realize it's time for reading of this character-for whenever full-scale TV treatment of Herman Chicego Raede, she speaks, she takes care to crash down Wouk's evergreen chef d' oeuvre-and hard on every noun, proper or otherwise, the one modern Jewish literary heroine Jost constructs a personal and social self-portrait which is our she's assigned to utter (e.g. \"We shoulda Ali MacGraw has yet to assay-Marjorie self-portrait too, a mirror for us as more or less unconscious partiCipants in a typical interaction of our society. Unsettling in Morningstar. ® the range and depth of Its investigations, SPEAKING DIRECTLY reveals our cornman contradictions in a film as clear and audacious as any yet made in North America. Tony Reil Pecific Cinemathequa Jost's success In SPEAKING DIRECTLY is that he translates into cinematic, political and American cultural terms the age-old theme of autobiographies - the meeting of one person's thoughts and aspirations with historical reality. Julia Leaaga Jump Cut For booking s and information please telephone : (201) 891-8240 ::.•. ..: . : '....;::: Or write : 75

the 94 minute uncut version of Werner Herzog's filming ofFITZCARRAWO \"**** \"**** Burden a/Dreams should be ranked with the Les Blank is a brilliant filmmaker who is finest of films about great artists .\" unafraid to ask difficult questions and portray Werner Herzog, warts and all .\" -Gene Siskel , CHI CAGO TRIBUNE - Roger Eben, CHICAGO SUN TIMES \"Brilliant.' , \"Superbly crafted... -Ja y Sco tt , TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL A chilling chronicle of artistic obsession .. . One \"A great work of art, of the most thorough and disturbing movies ever made about an artist at work .. .\" a terrific document. It chilled my bones-you've frozen Werner for eternity, half-genius, half- -Da vid Chut e. LOS ANGELES HERALD·EXAMINER fool, an unforgettable fiction character.·· \"An extraordinary portrait of a filmmaker in the -Louis Malle grips of an artistic passion that knows no bounds. .. - Jud y SlOne , SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE \"Vivid and engrossing \"* * * 1i A masterful job... depiction of one man' s mania. ' . A riveting portrait. -Kathleen Carroll , NEW YORK DAILY NEWS - J . Hoberman , VILLAGE VOICE \" .A magnificent account ,,* * * * Extraordinary. . . of an obsessed artist at work; by turns funny, One of the most exquisitely detailed, inspiring and hair-raising.. .\" dramatically compelling films ever made about the creative process .., -Richard Freedman , NEWHOUSE NEWSPAPERS -Michael Blowen , BOSTON GLOBE ,'Remarkable. . . \"The most revealing portrait of a filmmaker and One of the most candid, most fascinating filmmaking ever made. ' . portraits ever made of a motion picture director - Ke vin Th omas . LOS ANGELES TIMES at work. . There's never been anything quite \"Absolutely beautifuL\" like it.\" -Vincent Canby, NEW YORK TIMES -Jorge Preloran, Filmmaker, Teacher U.C.L.A . LES BLANK'S FLOWER FILMS, 10341 SAN PABLO AVENUE· EL CERRITO, CA 94530· 415-525-0942 The Home of Always for Pleasure, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers, Hot Pepper, SpendItAII, The Blues Accordin' To Lightnin' Hopkins, A Well Spent Life, Dizzie Gillespie, Chulas Fronteras and Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe New Films Ready Now: Sprout Wings and Fly, Stoney Knows How Coming Soon: In Heaven There Is No Beer?and Kidlat Tahimik's Perfumed Nightmare

I l ~FILM/ VIDEO ELIZABETH SHER © 1982 SELECTIONS ~ ~. STUDIOS SHORTS/ INTERVIEWS/ FEATURETTES Gene Moskowitz, 1921-82 standing record for any journalist any- by Robert J. Landry where. Through the spring of 1982, and the spring before, Moskowitz continued his Born in the Bronx, Gene Moskowitz diligent festivalizing despite the leuke- I()() ~()lJ~() was introduced as a wartime G. I. to Paris mia which ultimately took his life De- and France and to the art of the film via cember 29th, 1982 in a Paris hospital. · .. your recent film TOO YOUNG is really good ... all con- G.I.-funded courses at the University of He varied drastically in outward health cerned should be proud of the work ... concentrated and Southern California and Paris' own but was greatly admired for his courage vivid form. IDHEC school. By 1949 he had a part- and dedication. He was, of course, do- time job in the Paris office of Variety. ing what he doted upon doing. Tom Luddy, Director Special Projects Zoetrope Studios It may be of more \"historic\" interest that Moskowitz's long love affair with · . . the musicians I know would be delighted to have a film the screen represented a \"second wave\" like yours represent them. of American reviewing from Europe. The founder of Variety, Sime Silverman, Bruce Conner, Filmmaker had sent his brothers-in-law, Charlie and · .. probably the most popular film on the program ... the Jess Freeman, of Syracuse, New York to visual images lent themselves perfectly to the sound track ... London in 1909 and 1910 in the convic- perfectly timed , upbeat . . . tion that show-biz was inherently \"inter- Freude Bartlett, Distributor Serious Business Company national.\" The early cable clatter to EDINBURGH FILM New York concerned Vaudeville, then the dominant medium of popular enter- FESTIVAL SELECTION 1982 tainment. Variety did not give \"first JJ(QJ@@ILll~@ place\" to films until 1926, which, much later, opened the way for Moskowitz. After the death in 1952 of the Paris bu- ELIZABETH SHER's JUGGLING pokes a rye finger in the eye reau chief, Maxine de Beix, about of the women 's movement. New Wave singer SUSIE whom little is known, a cable addressed MUTANT stars as the film zips along at rapid-fire pace through every·mother's day. to Moskowitz from Abel Green, Variety's editor in New York, read: \"Hold the fort until we make another appointment.\" Mosk. In due course (1957), Moskowitz was named bureau chief and his unique ca- Thus began over thirty years of film re- reer in covering foreign festivals began. viewing and interviewing which took (He also bit-parted in one film, Robert him-very much the trade pioneer-to Parrish's 1974 Marseilles Contract, play- practically every film festival of Europe ing poker with Pierre Salinger and and later to Africa, India, Canada, and James Jdnes .-ed.) He only recently other like events. In due course, Mosk., visited the New York Film Festival, as he signed his Variety reviews, ac- when Europe lost its \"priority.\" BEAT IT quired a world trade reputation. His re- Moskowitz married late in life and views from Cannes, Venice, Cracow, had one son by an American circus Moscow, Lorcarno, Karlovy Vary and so mime, Vernice Klier. He was 61 when What, rubber moles? Painter Elizabeth Sher's exercise in he d·Ied. It's doubtful if any ex-G. I. film on amounted to thousands-literally fixation upon physical frustration introduces us to the car- nival game of \" Whackamole.\" Players are granted the more reviews than ever emerged from student ever chalked up more artsy privilege of bashing the bejeesus out of randomly controlled I:b. rubber moles' heads as they dart out of their holes, and you one Variety staffer and just possibly a mileage over so many horizons. 16' will too just watching this weird action . But, will it ever __- . . . : . . . . - - - - - -__- .----------....:.---.;;...--~-y-~___:::_--- replace Space Invaders? MOVIE STAR NEWS Anthony Reveaux AUTHORS WANTED BY COME IN PERSON. MON-FRI 11 -5 SAT 12·5 (Mall Order) For bookings and information please NEW YORK PUBLISHER Pin-Ups • Portraits • Posters • Physique telephone: lj Leading subsidy book publisher seeks manuscripts Poses • Pressbooks • Western • Horror • of all types : fiction. n on-fiction , poetry, scholarly Science Fiction • Musicals • Color Photos • (201) 891·8240 '7'11: and juvenile works, etc. New authors welcomed. 80 Years of Scenes From Motion Pictures Send for free, illustrated 40-page brochure H- 83 ..: I ..) Vantage Press , 516 W . 34 St. , New York, N .Y . 10001 Rush $1 .00 FOR OUR ILLUSTRATED BROCHURE : ; '.:if!: l!n ! _ ~:~~,;~ Or write: 1\\·.1.), (=)~7L~1 ~7 212 East 14th Street, NYC, New York 10003 77

Eisenstein, on the Beach. by Dennis Jakob many such 'leaps' throughout his entire tures; we see films. Their translucent Eisenstein at Work by Jay Leyda and career, but that would only be in accord veils pass for real pictures, and hide a Zina Voynow. 162 pages, illustrated. $30; paper, $15.95. Pantheon Books & with his own repeated maxim: \"to find wide-spread loss of creative focus. Ac- The Museum of Modern Art. Eisenstein's 'Ivan the Terrible': A Neofor- unity in diversity\" in both theory and tors seem to wander senselessly from malist Analysis by Kristin Thompson. 321 pages, illustrated. $32; $12.50 practice. Viewed from our own time, his one set to another-call it \"cinematic paper. Princeton University Press. drift\"-without the slightest motiva- Nowadays, there is a tendency to dis- miss Eisenstein as irrelevent to modern tion. A visual and dramatic chaos dances aesthetics, And nothing could be further from the truth.- ANDREW SARRIS on the screen, because most contempo- One of the chief blunders in the con- rary filmmakers have forgotten (if they temporary evaluation of Sergei Eisen- stein's work is the mistaken idea that he ever knew) that the art of the cinema aimed to achieve Pavlovian sensations instead of creative associations-as if his was founded on a need for visual organi- idea of cinema were something akin to a dark, gigantic 'Skinner box' designed to zation. Motion pictures are in deep trou- condition the viewer to the romance of Stalinism. A glance into Eisenstein at ble. Audiences have all but abandoned Work by Jay Leyda and Zina Voynow easily dispels that notion. In addition to them, except for a handful of carefully a series of sumptuous drawings, them- selves worth placing in the pantheon of planned, though empty, screen \"specta- 20th-century visual art, the book in- cludes a new, enlarged version of Eisen- cles\" like Star Wars, Close Encounters, stein's first important theoretical essay, \"The Montage of Filmic Attractions,\" E.T. Thus, to the two characteristics of presented in shortened form in The Film Sense. our age, blindness and amnesia, we In discussing Palace and Fortress, could add a third: anarchy. Eisenstein writes: \"Any calculation of the juxtapositions was completely ig- Eisenstein's peculiar (though not nored in the construction of the shots intended for this sequence-their con- unique: Hitchcock used it, too) method struction does not aid association but dis- rupts it, and the juxtaposition does not of artistic construction-pre-visualizing enter the consciousness of the audience visually but as literature.\" Or again, \"In the finished work-seems to have been the montage of associations ... what is juxtaposed is not phenomena but chains lost on contemporary filmmakers. Even ofassociations connected with the given phenomena.\" Given that, what can we The Black Stallion's Carroll Ballard, a make of Kristin Thompson's thesis in Ivan the Terrible: A Neoformalist Analysis uniquely gifted visual artist, seems to go that Eisenstein took a mysterious Heidegger-like \"epistomological turn\" out and shoot from the hip. In a recent about 1930? There was certainly change -but a single leap? True to his love for interview he said: \"There are two poles dialectical thinking, Eisenstein had in approaching feature films. One is where you organize the whole thing be- forehand ... . At the other end ... you have some idea of how to thread it to- gether and you say, 'Well, OK, we'll just go out there and somehow do it.' I've now finished my second movie in that mode and I think I can take about one more before I croak. \" Now turn to page 129 of Eisenstein at Work and see how it can be done. On the left side of the page are three stills: a preliminary working drawing; then above it a production still showing the crew trying to shoot it; and at the top is the finished shot. In these beautifully reproduced stills, we see the Czar before a coherently organized crowd scene of 10,000 extras extending clear to the hori- zon. Eisenstein's relevance to disorgan- ized contemporary filmmakers plainly ideas appear to hearken to the pre-So- rests here for the eye to see. cratics in their attempt to unify 'being' When we turn to the first chapter of and 'becoming' through the act of Kristin Thompson's \"neoformalist anal- creation. ysis\" of Ivan the Terrible, we find Eisen- Today we no longer see motion pic- stein quoted not once. There are plenty 78

of quotes from Shklovsky, Roman Ja- available in English since 1942. Nor A FILM BY RICK SCHMIDT kobson, Kieger, Levy-Straus, Roland does she cite the French translation- EMERALD Barthes, Robin Wood-but no Eisen- much less translate its relevant passages CITIES stein! Here, where the premises are into English-and instead buries it at While most the world happily sits and watches shadows dance on the walls of laid, there are only phrases culled from the end of the book. Plato's cave, Rick Schmidt has again ven· tured fearlessly out into the Valley of Death the texts ofliterary critics (some fashion- Eisenstein's ideas on the relationship and the Alleys of the City . The story he has returned with is as likely to confound and able, some obscure), but Eisenstein is between \"inner speech\" and \"ecstasy\" astound his listeners as did the original announcement that the shadows ain't the mentioned in passing only four times may have its roots in something more whole show. In Schmidt's update the flicker· ing shadows have been transformed to the and always in connection with some profound than Russian Formalist gentle green glow of TV phosphors , and the confusions of realer than real, coaxed from Russian literary formalist idea. \"Eisen- dogma . According to someone who the mouths of our \"citizens on the street ,\" shrieked through the howling feedback of 2 stein's writings,\" Thompson says, \"help knew him at the time, Eisenstein im- emminent post-punkoid Bay Area Bands , Flipper and The Mutants. (Conveniently to demonstrate some of the kinds of mersed himself in Nietzsche during his Schmidt has de-coded their songs in elegant subtitles, allowing the viewer to savor the combinations the critic is concerned 1930 stay in Hollywood. Perhaps there meaning of such songs as NEW DARK AGES, WE NEED A NEW DRUG , ONE BY with.\" Sounds good but, as we've al- was a certain shift that had little to do ONE, and other signs of the times.) ready seen in his \"The Montage of with Russian Formalism. Nothing defi- Filmic Attractions,\" Eisenstein specifi- nite can be known about the Nietz- cally denied such a criterion. \" The jux- schean influence until the contents of taposition does not enter the conscious- Eisenstein's library are examined more ness of the audience visually but as closely and catalogued. Perhaps the new literature ... \" As for \"formalism\" (an Soviet leadership will allow it. idea dear to Thompson's hean), Eisen- Long ago, Arthur O. Lovejoy sug- stein never uses the word except to dis- gested that the word \"romantic\" should miss it. As the filmmaker said to one of be abolished from all intelligent dis- his collaborators: \"I forgive you for call- course. Thompson uses the word fre- ing me a formalist.\" quently in her remarks about New Criti- The sins of the Thompson book are cism, and it's impossible to know which those sins of omission. Constructivism is of its fifty definitions she's referring to at mentioned only once: Kandinsky and any given moment. Structuralism, the his vitally important text, Concerning the second of Thompson's critical depen- Spiritual in Art, is never mentioned at all. dencies, leads her to return to the 19th- Instead, we are treated to dry-as-dust century idea of \"system\" and \"system reportage conceming the literary rela- building.\" According to Thompson, tionship of New Criticism, Structural- film critics need \"theoretical tools to ism, and Russian Formalism-as if cope with techniques as pan of a specifi- nothing else ever existed. In fact, a host cally filmic system; and 'context' im- of competing \"leftist theories\" emerged plies that placement of an object against in the U.S.S. R. in the Twenties, includ- a larger system renders its traits intelligi- ing Neo-Primitivism, Cubism, Expres- ble.... \" Friedrich Nietzsche, to whom sionism, Futurism, Suprematism, Con- \"the will of a system\" was a form of structivism, and Cubo-Futurism. dishonesty, must be spinning in his \"The development of the Russian grave. avant-garde movement is not linear, \" But thus speaks the contemporary ac- As with Schmidt 's earlier 1988-THE REMAKE, EMERALD CITIES displays wrote Stephanie Barron and Maurice ademic mind: words from a closed sys- editorial wizardry which mixes moods and media in a dizzying pace which at first may Tuchman in their monograph , The tem, as remote from the reality of film seem haphazard, but which at a second glance takes on an order which its material Avant-garde in Russia, 1910-1930. \"It production as it is from the vitality of our would seem incapable of producing. Schmidt is a first-rate iconoclast, playing on the can not be seen as a succession of styles emotions and impulses. Neoformalism, popular mythologies which fixate our stare and blind us to deeper realities. Like most or ideas flowing directly into one an- like the Structuralism and the New Crit- iconoclasts (like the messenger who re- turned to the cave bearing the 'bad' news) his other. Rather... the chaos of the politi- icism to which it is indebted, is a philos- may seem a threatening vision, but beneath the shattered images lies a compassion cal environment contributed to a richly ophy of purity which is at the same time which one might wish would animate us all. interwoven fabric.\" In shon, all the ma- a philosophy of human poverty: it bears - Jon Jost jorTwentieth Century movements were no relationship to the actual problems of represented there at that time, clamor- film creation. Ivan the Terrible was cre- ing for attention, and Eisenstein was ated not a priori according to a formal right in the middle of the fight. scheme but out of a sense of intellectual Thompson also engages in question- and creative curiosity, with many de- able scholarship. Citing The Film Sense tours along the path of creation. Does FOR THEATRICAL BOOKINGS AND / OR IN PERSON SHOWS PLEASE TELEPHONE : and a little-known essay of Eisenstein's Thompson's book account for them? It called \"Non-Indifferent Nature\" as rel- does not. Ivan has become deliberately evant to Ivan, Thompson states: \"These ,isolated , the better to be submitted to writings, particularly 'Non-Indifferent critical manipulations. The book is how- (201) 891-8240 t5c»<, : .:::: -1·e:: Or write: .j i ..j Nature,' are available in French and will ever, nicely printed , and the stills F!~(Jnkljn Lc]kes: appear in English from the MIT Press.\" (though jumbled) are attractive and well 1\\1. J. C~)7417 Perhaps Thompson does not read Rus- chosen. The printer and binder should sian; but \"The Film Sense\" has been win a prize. ~ 79

Young FilmakersNideo Arts in o New York is offering instruction in Fund, 80 East 11th Street, suite 647, CONTRIBUTORS 16mm film animation, directing the ac- New York NY 10003. 212/475-3720. tor for the camera, video production and Deadline for submission is June 1. Lee Beaupre, former Lorimar senior editing, lighting for film and tape, and vice-president for advertising and pub- post-production sound. Courses vary The Feature Film Festival of the iicity, is a marketing consultant on from weekend workshops to twelve- USA Film Festival will be held in MGM-UA's Exposed. Michael By- week programs. For information con- Dallas, Texas April 29-May 7. A mix of grave is an L.A.-based freelancer who tact: YFNA, 4 Rivington Street, New independent and studio films, the festi- writes for The London Observer and The York 10002. 212/673-9361. val will this year hold five independent Guardian. Carlos Clarens is co-author The 7th Annual San Francisco In- local or national premieres. Deadline for with Mary Corliss of a book on art direc- ternational Lesbian and Gay Film entry is April 1. Contact: Sam Grogg, tion to be published by Knopf. Festival, June 20-25, will display fea- USA FF, 3000 Carlisle Plaza, suite 205, Stephen Harvey is film critic of In- ture, documentary and short films. Dallas TX 75204. 2141760-8575. quiry. Dennis Jakob is a San Fran- Deadline for entries is May 1. Write: cisco-based filmmaker and editor who Frameline, PO box 14792, San Fran- The Third International Confer- has worked on Apocalypse Now and The cisco CA 94114.415/861-5245. ence on Television Drama will be Trip. Harlan Kennedy is a film critic held May 19-22 at Michigan State Uni- who writes for The Times of London and The Film Fund awards grants to versity. Contact: Joan Martin Alam, the Post Newspaper Group. Robert J. films, tapes and slide presentations that Conference Coordinator, Lifelong Edu- Landry, longtime managing editor of emphasize social change: The Film cation Programs, 23 Kellogg Center, Variety, lives in New York. Susan Lin- Michigan State University, East Lan- field is a contributing editor of The Inde- sing MI 48824. pendent magazine. Michael Sragow is the film critic .of Rolling Stone . David ERRATA SPIKE: How did you do with yours, Thomson is the author of Overexpo- sures: The Crisis in American Film. Dan- In the September-October issue, FILM Bill? Yakir is a New York-based writer. COMMENT inadvertently deleted the BILL: Mine threw me out. last lines of a Howard Hawks phantom SPIKE: That's too bad. Never mind, Graduate Assistantships production titled When It's Hot Play It you can sleep with me. They go peace- Available for May 83-84 Cool. The sequence is reprinted here fully to sleep as we FADE OUT. Write for Information and in full, representing what author Todd '• Application Forms: McCarthy described as \"the most out- Other errata, from a child's garden of rageous and explicit manifestation of glitches in recent issues: Graduate Film and Video Program the homoerotic undercurrent that November-December 1982: Valerie School of Communication many critics have detected running Curtin, co-author of the Best Friends The American University through the director's career.\" Our script with Barry Levinson, was identi- D.C. 20016 apologies to Todd, our readers, fied as Jane Curtin, the comic actress. Hawks, and all Hawksians. Barbara Steele was not, as an editorial ATTENTION VHS BILL and SPIKE. In the same bed. For a interpolation suggested in the article & BETA OWNERS: moment there are contented gruntings as on TV movies, a star of Hammer horror they settle themselves for sleep. Then we movies; she was the star of Italian hor- $ SAVE $ SAVE $ SAVE $ see their faces as each one becomes ror movIes. UP TO $25.00 OFF RETAIL PRICES aware ofsomething wrong; they're back January-February 1983: In the story to back. \"1982 and All That,\" a photograph of ON PRE·RECORDED MOVIES SPIKE (in a stage whisper): Bill. .. Ryan O'Neal and John Hurt accompa- there's somebody in my bed. nied a description of the film Inchon; Latest releases, Adult, Classics and All Family. BILL: There's somebody in mine, too. the photo was from Partners. In the OVER 1,000 TITLES TO CHOOSE FROM! What will we do? same article, two photographs of movie Send $1.25 for catalog. (Refundable with 1st order). SPIKE: You throw yours out, and I'll marquees should have been credited throw mine. to Elliott Stein. And in the Contribu- SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER: BILL: Right. tors list on page 80, Richard T. Jame- SPIKE: I'll count to five. One ... 2 ... 3 son was cited as writing for The Reader TDK Tl20, Sony/Fuji L750 $11.99 each. ... 4 ... 5. in Seattle; the paper's name is the No shipping charge. (Minimum order 5, free catalog weekly. Better luck next time to Vale- Bill and Spike grapple with each other. rie , Barry, Jane, Barbara, Ryan, John, with order, No C.O.D.'s) New York Residents They tumble out of bed. They fight and Sun Myung, Elliott, and RTJ. add 7Y.% Sales Tax. Bill ends up in a corner on the floor. CINEMA CLUB VIDEO. INC. POBox 7 W~'I H~mp'I~~d N Y I I SS2 PHOTO CREDITS: ABC: p. 74. ABKCO Films: p. 39. Fred Baker Films: p. 40 (2) . British Film Institute: p. 48 (2). Cinema 5: p. 45 (2). Columbia Pictures: p. 14, 15,37 (1,2),40 (1), 49 (1),54 (1). Itahan Culturelnstttute: p. 38.' p. 4~ (1, 3). ~GM-UA: p. 20, 21, 23 (1,2 , 3),34,58. By Sonia Moskowitz: p. 35, 41.Movie Star News: p. 59. Museum of Modem ArtlFlI~ Stills Archl.ve:. p. 24,26,27,28,29,30, 51,52, 59. New World: p. 46 (1). New Yorker films: p. 44. Paramount Pictures: p. 12, 17. Summit Feature Dlstrlbutors ~ Inc.: p. 36 (1),49 (2). 20th Century Fox: p. 53, 54 (2,3),63. UA-Classics: p. 33, 45 (1), 47 (3). Universal: p. 10, 16,63. Courtesy Dan Yaklr: p. 36 (2),47 (2). 80

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