#dick cavett living out my dreams

[wonderlandleighleigh]

(takes place after “It Should Have Been Lorelai” in season 2)

“So? How’d your usual Friday night dinner go?” Lenny asks as he works to prune some flowers from a few plants.

Lorelai sighs heavily. “Well, Christopher came with me, because his new girlfriend - well I guess she’s not exactly new, they’re living together - but she’s new to Rory and I - but she took Rory out to dinner and a movie.” 

“Something tells me it didn’t go so good,” Lenny says, grinning back at her kindly. 

“It did not, in fact, go good,” Lorelai confirms. “My mom flew off the handle because I let Rory go hang out with Sherry - her name is Sherry -” 

“Like the song?” 

“Like the song,” Lorelai nods. “My mother lost her mind. Yelling about how Sherry was trying to steal Rory away on weekends, and that it should have been me who helped Christopher get his life together.” 

“Oy...” Lenny mutters as he gathers up the flowers.

“Tell me about it,” Lorelai grumbles. “Gosh those are pretty. What are they?” 

“Moonflower,” Lenny tells her. “They bloom mostly at night.” 

“There are flowers that only bloom at night?” Lorelai asks.

“Yes, they are much like myself in my younger years,” Lenny jokes. “So. Your mother lost her shit because you let Rory run around with Christopher’s new-to-you girlfriend and now she thinks Rory is going to run away to Boson, change her last name to Haden and turn into her father, or...?” 

“I don’t know,” Lorelai sighs. “You had to handle shared time with a kid, right? And so Did Midge. How did you guys handle it?” 

Lenny shrugs. “We tried to be as loose as we could. Honey did eventually get remarried, but she wasn’t so interested in Kitty, which was sad. Kitty has always been the best, despite all the ways I fucked up her life. And Midge was so open-minded about Joel’s idiotic choices I thought she was going to start losing brain matter. But you do your best.” 

“Right,” Lorelai agrees. “I just- Sherry said she and I didn’t have to get to know each other or be friends.” 

Lenny blinks, looking confused. “Friends, maybe not, but you should get to know someone who’s gonna be spending time around your kid.” 

“Right? That’s what I thought! I then Christopher threw it in my face that I never told him about Max and Max was part of Rory’s life, and he said he was fine with that, but him springing Sherry on me almost felt like -” 

“Revenge?” 

“A little,” Lorelai shrugs. She blows out a breath. “My mother is furious that Christopher and I aren’t together. She keeps dreaming about Me and Chris and Rory being some perfect family.” 

“She still can’t admit that Chris is a schmuck, huh?” Lenny chuckles. 

“He’s not,” Lorelai argues, trying not to smile.

“Lorelai.” 

“He does his best,” she says, laughing now.

“You can’t even say it with a straight face,” Lenny shakes his head, sitting next to her on the bench. He takes her hand and pats it gently. “Lorelai, you took one look at the guy who knocked you up and you basically said ‘thank you, but no thank you,’ and ran away so you weren’t saddled with him.” 

Lorelai stays quiet, listening. 

“And you were right to trust that instincts. You generally have good ones. Do you think you could have helped Christopher clean up his act and stop being such an asshole?” 

She thinks about that for a long moment before shaking her head. “No. I don’t think I could have.” 

“That’s probably true, then,” Lenny tells her. “Your mother wants what your mother wants. All mothers are that way. Mine was. Midge’s was. They have a very vivid idea of what their childrens’ lives should look like.” 

“Your mom, too?” Lorelai asks. 

“Sally Marr was convinced I should have gotten the Tonight Show and not Jack Paar,” Lenny chuckles. “And then when Dick Cavett got his show she was furious. She complained that Late Night was too goyish, and that I was been passed over and all this other shit.” 

“Did you want a late night show?” Lorelai asks. 

“No,” Lenny shakes his head. “She wanted me to have it though. That’s mothers.”  

“How do I get her to like what I have?” Lorelai asks. 

Lenny chuckles and pats her hand again. “You keep liking what you have and eventually, she’ll come around. Or she’ll just die angry about it.” 

Lorelai laughs and rests her head on his shoulder. “Thanks, Lenny.” 

“An, it’s fine,” he tells her. “Come see the Casa Blanca lilies. They look good tonight.” 

#fic #au #tmmm #Gilmore Girls #Lenny #Schneiders of Stars Hollow #Lorelai

[dherzogblog]

The Birth of The Daily Show: 25 Years of Fake News and Moments of Zen

It was July of 1995 and I had left MTV to become President of Comedy Central. It was the basic cable equivalent of going from the NY Yankees to an expansion team. I was on the job just two weeks when I received a call from Brillstein Grey the high powered managers of Bill Maher, host of one of the networks few original programs, "Politically Incorrect". We were informed Bill and his show would leave the network when his contract expired in 12 months. It was a done deal. Bill wanted to take his show to the "big leagues" at ABC where he would follow Night Line. Comedy Central was left jilted. Terrible news for a network still trying to establish itself. We had a year to figure out how to replace him and the clock was ticking. So began the path to The Daily Show.

It was very much a fledgling Comedy Central I joined, available in barely 35 million homes, desperately seeking an identity and an audience. It was just over three years old, born into a shot gun wedding that joined two struggling and competing comedy networks, HBO’s Comedy Channel and Viacom’s HA!, Watching them both stumble out of the gate, the cable operators forced them to merge, telling them: "We only need one comedy channel, you guys figure it out”. After some contentious negotiations the new channel was born and the red headed step child of MTV and HBO set out to find the pop culture zeitgeist its parents had already expertly navigated. The network had yet to define itself. The programming consisted mainly of old stand up specials from the likes of Gallagher (never underestimate the appeal of a man smashing watermelons), a hodgepodge of licensed movies (“The God’s Must be Crazy and The Cheech and Chong trilogy were mainstays) and Benny Hill reruns. The networks biggest hit by far was the UK import “Absolutely Fabulous”, better know as “AbFab”. Comedy Central boasted a handful of original shows, including the wonderfully sublime "SquiggleVision" of “Dr. Katz”, the sketch comedy "Exit 57" (starring the then unknown Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert) and of course Maher’s "Politically Incorrect". In retrospect I don’t think Bill got enough credit for pioneering the idea of political comedy on mainstream TV. Back then he was the only one doing it.

Politically Incorrect performed just fine, but got more critical attention than ratings. It was a panel show, and I had something a bit different in mind to replace it. I knew we needed a flagship, a network home base, something akin to ESPN's Sports Center where viewers could go at the end of a the day for our comedic take on everything that happened in the last 24 hours….."a daily show". I had broad idea for it in my head. I would describe it as part "Weekend Update", part Howard Stern, with a dash of "The Today Show" on drugs complete with a bare boned format to keep costs low so we could actually afford to produce it. We could open with the headlines covering the day's events (our version of a monologue), followed by a guest segment (we wouldn't need to write jokes...only questions!), and finish with a taped piece. Simple, right? We just needed someone to help flesh out our vision.

Comedy Central was a a second tier cable channel then and considered a bit of a joke (no pun intended). It had minuscule ratings, no heat and even less money to spend. Producers were not lining up to work with there. Eileen Katz ran programming for the channel and the two of us began pitching this idea to every producer who would listen. One of the first people we approached was Madeleine Smithberg, an ex Letterman producer and had overseen "The Jon Stewart Show" for us at MTV. We thought she was perfect for the role. “You can’t do this, you can’t afford this, you don't have the stomach for this, it will never work ” Madeliene said when we met with her. We could not convince her to take the gig. Ok then....we moved on. The problem was we heard that same refrain from everybody. No one wanted the job. So after weeks being turned down by literally EVERYONE, I said to Eileen: “We have to go back to Madeleine and convince her to do this with us"!

Part our pitch to her was we would go directly to series. There would be no pilot. The show was guaranteed to go on air. We had decided this show was our to be our destiny and we had to figure it out come hell or high water. As a 24 hour comedy channel, if we couldn't figure out a way to be funny and fresh every day...what good were we? We told Madeliene we were committed to putting the show on the air and keeping it there till we got it right (for at least a year anyway). That, plus some gentle arm twisting got her to sign on. Shortly after that, Lizz Winstead did too.

Madleiene and Lizz very quickly landed on their inspired notion of developing the show and format as a news parody. It brought an immediate focus and a point of view to the process . All of the sudden things started to take shape and coming to life. Great ideas started flowing fast and furious while an amazing collection of funny and talented began to come on board. Madeliene and Lizz were off to the races. Now all we needed was a host.

The prime time version of ESPN's Sports Center was hosted by Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann back then and it was must see cable TV. But I had recently started to notice another guy hosting the show's late night edition. He was funny, with a snarky delivery reminiscent of Dennis Miller. His name was Craig Kilborn. On the phone with CAA agent Jeff Jacobs one day, I asked if he knew happened to know who repped him? “I do" he said. "We just signed him”. Within days he was in my office along with Madeleine, Lizz, and Eileen who were all a bit skeptical about the tall blond guy with the frat boy vibes sitting across from them. After opening the meeting with a few off color comments that would probably get him cancelled today (an early warning sign fo sure), Craig ultimately won them over and we had our host.

FUN FAC#1: Minutes after the news of Craig's hiring went public, Keith Olberman's agent called me directly to ask why we hadn't considered hiring him?

Ok, we had a host and producers...but what to call it? After sifting through dozens of ideas for a title, Madeleine called me one day and said, "I think we should just call it what we've been calling it all along...."The Daily Show". As we approached our launch date we taped practice shows and took them out to focus groups to get real life feedback. The groups hated it.... I mean with a red hot hate. They hated Craig, the format, the jokes, everything. We were crushed and dejectedly looked around at the room at one another. "Now what?" “Either they’re wrong, or we are". I said I think they are...but it doesn’t matter, we're doing this!" We never looked back.

The show took off quickly garnering some quick buzz and attention, we felt like we had crashed the party. Well, sort of. We had no shortage of fun, growing pains and drama along the way. The Daily Show version 1.0 was about to unravel. In a December 1997 magazine interview Craig made some truly offensive and inappropriate remarks about Lizz and female members of the staff. Whether it was poor attempt at humor or just plain misogynist (or both) is beyond the point. It was all wrong, very wrong. Craig was suspended for a week without pay. Lizz left the show. In the moment I chose to protect the show and its talent more so than Lizz. That was wrong too. It's more than cringe worthy looking back now, and I regret not making some better decisions then. My loyalty to our host was later "rewarded" when in the Spring of 1998 Kilborn's team, a la Bill Maher, unceremoniously informed us he had signed a deal to follow Letterman on CBS when his contract expired at the end of the year. No discussion, a done deal. Comedy Central jilted again. Like Maher, Kilborn wanted his shot at the network big leagues and we had a little over six months to figure out how to replace him. We all know how that chapter ended. That search would eventually reunite us with Jon Stewart who along with The Daily Show took Comedy Central and basic cable to the "the big leagues" on their own terms, redefining late night comedy in the process The rest, as they say, is "Fake News" history.

Fun Fact #2: before approaching Jon (who I did not originally think would be interested) I initially offered the job to a chunkier, largely unknown Jimmy Kimmel, fresh off his co hosting duties on "Win Ben Stein's Money" ...only to have him turn us down.

My fascination with late night began as a kid. I remember how exciting it was to stay up to sneak a peek at the Carson monologue and watch him do spit takes with his chummy Hollywood guests. Later on I also loved the heady adult conversation Dick Cavett would have with everyone from Sly Stone to Groucho Marx. But it was the comedic revolution of Saturday night Live in 1975, followed by Letterman's game changing show in 1981 that truly established late night as the coolest place on the television landscape. I could only dream of one day being part of it.

25 years on, I couldn’t be more proud of The Daily Show and its legacy. Those days helping build it alongside Madeleine, Lizz, Eileen and the team were among the most satisfying (and fun) experiences I have ever had. It was thrilling to take a shot at the late night landscape and try and make our mark, especially when no one thought we could.

I am prouder still of what Trevor Noah and his staff have achieved since they took the hand off from Jon, evolving and growing the show through a new voice and lens. I think my personal "Moment Of Zen" will last as long as Trevor remains behind the desk, allowing me to selfishly boast of having hired every host this award winning and culture defining franchise has ever had.

25 years later. it remains as relevant as ever, a bona fide late night institution, standing shoulder to shoulder with all the great shows that inspired us to start.

#the daily show #jon stewart #trevor noah #comedy central

[totaldilfiam]

tagged by: @bugboysponky

tagging: @peacelennon , @grotty-beatles, @ginger--judas, and whoever else wants to do it.

1) Are you named after anyone?

Some random family member my grandmother had met.

2) When was the last time you cried?

Last night while watching John Lennon on Dick Cavett.

3) Do you have any kids?

Nah, but I do dream of living in the city till I’m in my thirties then moving out to the country with the love of my life and doing family crap that makes me wanna vomit.

4) Do you use sarcasm a lot?

What do you think, Sherlock?

5) What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Their level of basicness.

6) What’s your eye color?

Hazel to the max.

7) Scary movie or happy ending?

Scary movie. I love those old seventies and eighties classics like The Shining and Nightmare on Elm Street.

8) Any special talents?

Dancing like Mick Jagger.

9) Where were you born?

Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Still live here to.

10) What are your hobbies?

Drawing, drumming, and writing comedy sketches, songs, and stories.

11) Do you have any pets?

Does my record player count? Because I sure treat it like one.

12) What sports do you play?

Badminton, and drumming (drumming should count).

13) How tall are you?

5′6.

14) Favourite subject in school?

Language Arts.

15) Dream job?

Professional musician/ music producer. If that doesn’t work out I’d like to be a comedy writer or just a painter. Something that’s not normal and boring.

#q and a #about me #enjoy

[anelectricityship-blog]

Track of the Day: “1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)” [plus, coda, “Moon, Turn The Tides…gently gently away”]

Album: Electric Ladyland, Jimi Hnedrix, 1968

Corresponding Archetype: King Of Cups, sea creatures

Typically I regard Hendrix as an avatar of the maiden goddess - although he embodied energies that were taboo even for men at that time. The wild, erotic energy of a banshee; the vibrant, fertile torrents of color he invoked humping his amps and pulling from them outrageous rainbows…arriving at the Dick Cavett Show, mere hours after his legendary dawn set at Woodstock followed by sleepless nights recording at Electric Lady, in crushed blue velvet pants and a silk kimono, like some serene Madonna filled with pure light.

Those tracks of pure light were birthed over time, and Electric Ladyland was the first glance into the vision Jimi churned out in the last years of his earthly life, onto countless miles of tape, surrounded by a cadre of fellow musicians ready to explore the universe on his sonic space ship. Hendrix was always inspired by science fiction, and could be considered a luminary in the first wave of afro-futurism, but in this track’s narrative escapade, we are on earth. Yet we escape the earth, deep into the ocean, into the depths of sensitivity and emotional release.

Jimi was a masterful composer, and this song follows the classical sonata rondo format, with the coda moving into the following track. He said that he wanted to turn the hippies on to classical music. What also happens, however, is that Hendrix turns us on the the idea of reclaiming sovereignty of our interior, emotional world, on a spiritual level. In a world plagued by violence and destruction, where we have been told that war and strife is what is normal, where “It’s impossible for a man to live and breathe underwater…It would be beyond the will of God and the grace of the King,” Jimi becomes his own king, ruling his own interior life.

So this is what I call Nutritious Masculinity - the revolutionary courage to redefine how one wishes to live in their masculine energy in a society with rigid ideals. The King of Cups is an archetype that has explored the depths of his own emotions and has learned to navigate them smoothly. He may seem emotionally unavailable - but it is simply that his emotions are deep, and go well beyond the surface. The King of Cups is willing to dive deep into his emotions, and his emotional memory, and to create anew from his sensitivity to the rolling of the waves, the pull of the moon, the currents and the lightning.

Frequently depicted on this card are aquatic creatures: Whale, the great ancient protector of more vulnerable animals, the keeper and singer of the wisdom of many generations, whose music can travel along currents at seemingly impossible distances; Sea Serpent, who moves fluidly with the currents, able to navigate in all directions, including sideways and up and down; and dolphin, whose exuberance for life is matched only by its commitment to its community. I would also consider here deep-sea creatures, such as are found in the darkness of the Marianas Trench - while their eerie, bioluminescent forms may at first seem frightening and strange to us, but also speaks of adaptability and patience, even in utter darkness.

Meditation:

I am the master of my own emotions,

I am the sovereign of my inner world.

Wherever I am carried, I am home.

I perceive the currents and move fluidly,

I listen to the songs of dream and memory and respond.

I shine light in the darkness,

and do not fear my own form.

Universal Fantasy Tarot by Paolo Martinello

#nutritiousmasculinityjimihendrixthekingofcupsdeepseacreatures1983amermanishouldturntobetarotelectricladylandanelectricityship

[jlundenberger]

On the Red Carpet with the Stars

I have been a classic film fan since I was in high school. The names Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe and myriad others are mantras for me, evoking worlds of glamour and artistry I find irresistible. And for the classic film fan there is no better TV station than Turner Classic Movies. TCM airs unedited classic movies without commercials, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is truly the classic film-lovers dream.

As a bonus, the station has stepped out of the television set and into the world with the TCM Classic Film Festival, held in Hollywood every spring since 2010. I’ve been to several other classic film festivals, all great in their own right but, for me, the TCMFF is the best. It is the gold standard of classic film festivals. It features four days of meet and greets, panel discussions, book signings and film screenings in iconic Hollywood theatres. It’s a chance for fans to see classic films on the big screen in the manner in which they were originally intended to be seen.

Another important element of the festival is the film-fan community that has been created by TCM, the festival, and the power of social media. Fans communicate with one another in the virtual world and then meet face-to-face at the festival at the yearly Hollywood reunion. The festival has inspired me to become a guest essayist for the blog CineMaven’s Essays from the Couch, and influenced my partner, Ed Johnson, who has accompanied me to the festival in past years, to create the Lights! Camera! Politics! film series, which has just finished its fourth season at the Stephen Crane House.

While I did not attend the festival in its premier year I’ve been to each one since. In 2015 and 2016 TCMFF created a social media program and I was honored to be a selected member of that prestigious group. As a TCMFF Social Producer I created two social media projects. “TCM Boulevard” focused on the festival’s Hollywood location while “Best TCM Fan in a Starring Role” was a trivia game that enabled me to engage with other pass holders on a more complex level. This year I was selected to receive media credentials and a spot on the red carpet.

Each year, on opening night, there is a gala screening held at the TCL Chinese Theatre, originally known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a beautiful movie palace that first opened in 1927. Upper tier pass holders receive access to this screening and make their entrance on the red carpet next to the celebrities in attendance. Afterwards there is a cocktail party, held on the rooftop of the W Hotel, with a breathtaking view of Los Angeles. Past events I have attended included screenings of “An American in Paris” introduced by star Leslie Caron, and “Funny Girl” introduced by Cher, as well as the surprise party appearance of Lulu, singing her hit “To Sir, With Love,” and Kim Novak sidling up to me at the bar. But this year I watched the event from the other side as a member of the press pool.

The opening night film this year was the 1968 Best Picture Academy Award winner “In the Heat of the Night” and would include appearances by stars Sydney Poitier and Lee Grant, Director Norman Jewison, Producer Walter Mirisch, and composer Quincy Jones. I arrived at the event and was happy to find that my position would be with a group of friends. The crew was applying finishing touches to the brilliantly red carpet as we were led to our spots, each marked by the outlet or blog we were representing. I was a more than a little excited as we passed reporters with professional cameras, both still and video – me with my iPhone and pad. I settled in as I chatted with my friends and waited for the celebrities to arrive, some of whom we could now see coming down the line. Beau Bridges, Lee Grant… the red carpet was a classic reunion of stars that night.

There was Wyatt McCrea. The name may not be familiar to you, but he is the grandson of actors Joel McCrea and Frances Dee and has himself been involved in the entertainment business. He would be introducing one of the great comedies of the classic era, “The Palm Beach Story,” which stars his grandfather. The theme of this year’s festival being “Make ‘em laugh,” another reporter asked Wyatt what made him laugh, and he responded his uncle Jody, another acting McCrea you might remember from the 1960’s beach movies. I followed up by asking him if there was a movie that made him cry. He said there was no movie in particular but spoke with sincerity about the power of movies to affect us emotionally, be they happy or sad. That, he said, is what makes for their eternal appeal.  

There was Keir Dullea, star of the film “David and Lisa,” which he would be introducing at the festival, and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and stage, television and film actress Dana Delany who has been a popular guest host on TCM and was at the festival to introduce the film “Love Crazy.”

Sara Karloff, daughter of horror star Boris Karloff, came by and was talking to reporters about her father’s sense of humor, saying that he was the antithesis of most of the characters he played. She said that he was funny, caring and loving. We agreed that this shows through the heavy makeup and costume he wore in his career-defining role as the monster in the classic “Frankenstein,” probably the subtlest, most sympathetic portrayal of that character in all its cinematic incarnations.

There was Dick Cavett, attending the festival to introduce two comedies, the Marx Brothers’ “Monkey Business” and Laurel and Hardy’s “Way Out West.” I didn’t get a chance to speak to him but he seemed to be one of the more popular and accessible celebrities throughout the remainder of the festival, particularly with the young ladies. I saw several selfies taken with him by friends, Mr. Cavett mocking shock, as if he had been caught in a compromising position with the phone’s owner.

Film critic and historian Leonard Maltin stopped by and I knew from poring over the schedule that he would be introducing 5 films at the festival. I asked if there were any films in particular that he was looking forward to hosting. He told me that he had been allowed to pick two films for the festival, “The Magic Box” and “Street Scene,” and was looking forward to exposing them to a wider audience as, in his opinion, they are both under-seen and underrated. I agreed that, for me, discovering a brilliant film that I am unfamiliar with is often a highlight of the festival.

Actress, writer and director Illeana Douglas talked a bit about the “Trailblazing Women” series she has hosted for 2 seasons on TCM. A quick aside, Ms. Douglas has written a great memoir, “I Blame Dennis Hopper,” that includes a story about her dropping a canapé on the expensive suede shoes of James Woods. I had seen her at a party the night before and couldn’t help noticing her beautiful, very high-heeled shoes, which brought to mind her book. I chatted with her and mentioned the story, promising not to drop anything on her foot.

There was Actor Bob Balaban, unable to speak due to laryngitis, and Fred Willard, in a bright blue suit. Both starred in the film “Best in Show” and would appear at the festival screening of that film.

I’ve never seen the children’s classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” which was going to be screened poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel that night but I HAVE met Veruca Salt. Actress Julie Dawn Cole, who played Veruca, and two co-stars, lead Oompa Loompa Rusty Goffe and Paris Themmen, who played Golden Ticket winner Mike Tee Vee, were walking the carpet together and Ms. Cole stopped to chat. She continued to act after the film but eventually left the business to become a child psychotherapist. I asked her about Gene Wilder, who seemed to be looked upon with affection by all who worked with him. She said he had been quite nice during filming and that she had run into him years after the finish of the picture and asked if he remembered her. She was touched when he replied “Veruca Salt wasn’t such a bad girl.”

There was “Marnie” star Diane Baker and Ruta Lee, who appeared in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” both aglow as they made their way down the busy carpet. John Landis, who directed hits such as “The Blues Brothers” and “An American Werewolf in London” was busy with a television interview but his wife, costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis, was happy to stop by and share with us her husband’s latest favorite joke (it involved a Caesar salad and a stabbing) and the costumes she was proudest of designing were for the film “Animal House.”

Most of the celebrities had passed and I began to relax when Quincy Jones dashed by. And, as if to prove true a joke I have about myself – If a star isn’t over 80 I don’t know who they are – a somewhat familiar looking man dashed by. Who is that? I asked a friend. Actor and comedian Chris Tucker.

And that was that. A group of us went for a bite to eat and a drink before I headed off to my first movie of the festival. Oh, yes, I did see some movies. That night I watched “Requiem for a Heavyweight” which was introduced by TCM’s Sunday morning Noir Alley series host Eddie Muller.

I started Friday morning with a 9:00 AM screening of the rarely seen “Rafter Romance,” an early Ginger Rogers film, followed by “One Hour with You,” which stars Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, both delightful comedies from the early 1930’s. I followed those with “Panique,” a 1946 French thriller about the power of petty hearsay, “Red-Headed Woman,” another early 30’s comedy starring Jean Harlow, and “Laura,” a landmark 1944 film noir starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney.

Saturday started with a 10:00 AM screening of “This is Cinerama,” introduced by Leonard Maltin at Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome, one of the theatres specifically built for that short-lived widescreen process. I then saw the gripping 1950 film noir “The Underworld Story,” the 1936 screwball comedy “Theodora Goes Wild” starring favorites Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas (grandfather of the aforementioned Illeana), and the 1948 comedy “Unfaithfully Yours,” which stars Rex Harrison and Linda Darnell.

I was relying heavily on Starbucks coffee Sunday morning when I attended the 9:00 AM screening of “Cock of the Air,” a recently restored 1932 comedy. I then went to the Larry Edmunds bookstore, a long-time Hollywood landmark, for a book signing by Tippi Hedren, star of two Alfred Hitchcock films, “The Birds” and “Marnie.” Still beautiful at 87 years old, Ms. Hedren was kind and gracious as she signed my book and sat with me for a picture. I then saw the 1970 film “The Landlord,” which was introduced by stars Beau Bridges and Lee Grant, “What’s Up, Doc,” (1972) introduced by the film’s director Peter Bogdanovich (who confided that Cary Grant’s advice to Ryan O’Neal regarding the portrayal of his character was to “wear silk underpants”), and the somewhat ridiculous but beautiful 1944 film “Lady in the Dark,” again Ginger Rogers, in this film wearing a jewel-lined mink evening gown – the perfect way to end the festival.

After the last film I attended the closing party at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, a chance to say goodbye to friends old and new, and to make a few new ones before my departure. I was shocked when I returned to my room and discovered that it was after 3:00 AM. Well, at least I didn’t have to get up for an early screening the next morning.

If you are not a classic film fan I urge you to give one a try. They are a major component of 20th century cultural history and many of them are the foundation for the films we watch today. Do you like special effects and science fiction? Try the original 1933 “King Kong,” or “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951). Are you a romantic comedy fan? Watch “The Lady Eve” (1941) or any of the films of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Suspense? Thrillers? Look up film noir. There are hundreds of dark, bleak 1940’s films full of tension, moral ambiguity and shocking violence, usually more inferred than explicit.

If you are a classic film fan, put the TCM Classic Film Festival on your to-to list. It is 4 days of movie heaven. But be prepared – if you go, you will more than likely be planning your trip for the following year on the plane trip home.      

[nofomoartworld]

How an Unfinished James Baldwin Manuscript Became a Documentary Film

James Baldwin in I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Photo Credit: © Dan Budnik, all rights reserved

Forthright, nimble, and unrelenting in his accounts of social and racial injustice, the ideas of iconic author James Baldwin will stay evergreen as long as relevant patterns repeat. Any number of passages from his published work hit a vein with the issues of today, but a new film does exactly that with a twist: it uses one of Baldwin’s unfinished books to create a documentary, political essay, and biography all at once, as well as a vulnerable vision of how Baldwin saw his place among his peers.

Drawing from Remember This House, an unfinished manuscript of Baldwin’s that examined the deaths of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., the film I Am Not Your Negro cuts straight to the source. Director Raoul Peck uses Baldwin’s words exclusively with the voice talents of actor Samuel L. Jackson, who adopts an uncharacteristic, weary tone to match the material.

Crowd gathering at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington in I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

“This film is like a warning, a last chance,” Peck explains to The Creators Project. “It's Baldwin saying, ‘As long as we don't touch these core problems around the so-called American Dream, we can't have a common future.’"

He continues, “When I finished the film, I thought it would go nowhere because it was too violent in what it's saying. But to have Baldwin, who had the guts to use those words—nigger, negro—and say exactly what they are, that’s powerful. Those are invented words, and he did not invent them, white people did. He said, ‘I did not invent Jim Crow or slavery. You invented something that they’re afraid of. I give you your problem back.’”

Growing up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti until his family fled the Duvalier dictatorship to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1961, Peck has built a decades-long film career focused on power, politics, and social injustice. He’s jumped back and forth from documentary to narrative, tackling the life and death of Patrice Lumumba—the DRC’s first independent Prime Minister—in both formats (Lumumba), in addition to covering the complex aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake (Fatal Assistance). But even though James Baldwin’s work spoke of the political climate on a different continent, Peck always found the author’s words to strike a personal chord.

“I read him when I was 16 or 17 years old, and he framed me,” Peck says. “He structured my brain in a way where I learned how to question things. I learned whatever the material—film, literature, news—to not to just see the surface but all the different layers below it.”

Raoul Peck, director of I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Photo Credit: © LYDIE / SIPA, all rights reserved

Ten years ago, Peck first envisioned making a film about Baldwin, and as luck would have it, Gloria Baldwin [the family member that runs Baldwin’s estate] knew the director’s work and agreed to give him complete access to Baldwin’s archives—a dream scenario. At first, the project took on a more traditional biopic approach, but Peck soon felt that putting artifice on top of Baldwin’s text felt wrong. Within the archives though, the 30 pages of Remember This House stood out. “I knew I had a story with that,” Peck says. “I decided I could push the words to the front, but I needed that whole process of elimination to slowly reach the core of the film and find the right form to go with the content.”

Peck divides I Am Not Your Negro up into chapters, each drawing on a specific theme or aspect of Baldwin’s worldview. Blending newsreel footage, Baldwin’s televised appearances (like his Dick Cavett interview or Yale debate with William F. Buckley), and modern-day media, he frames callbacks across time of political rhetoric and social unrest. In one section, police brutality and the rise of Black Lives Matter takes center stage, as Peck does earlier with the ingrained racism in Hollywood’s past.

Hollywood is a topic that Baldwin covered in great length in his long essay The Devil Finds Work. Peck illustrates these ideas with expertly chosen film clips: Stagecoach, King Kong, Billy Wilder’s Love In The Afternoon, and others go under the microscope, intercut with the harsh reality occurring outside the cinema. The Defiant Ones, a chain-gang drama starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis, especially stands out as a defining point in Baldwin’s life, as the author noticed black and white audiences react differently to a scene in which Poitier’s character gives up escape to stay with Curtis. It’s a shock of multiple perspectives on the same reality that Peck noticed early on in his life.

James Baldwin in I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Photo Credit: © Bob Adelman, all rights reserved

“In Port-au-Prince there were at least seven drive-in cinemas, so it was really something to go to during the week,” Peck says. “I grew up on American films starring John Wayne and Tarzan, and the idea about Africa given to me was a bunch of savages living in the forest, and then this white guy in underwear running everything. So when I went to Congo at the age of eight, I thought there would be natives dancing around the airplane. I really did. After that I knew there’s something wrong here.”

Though he may have felt hesitation over whether the film would even find distribution, Peck is now keenly aware of the zeitgeist landscape into which his film is coming out. With #OscarsSoWhite trending at this time last year, and this week finding a slew of black-led films in the running (including I Am Not Your Negro), the mistake could be made of letting up on the issue. But Peck says he spots the harmful routine.

“This country knows perfectly how to deal with this problem,” he says. “They make a fake discussion, saying, ‘Oh, there are a lot of black movies this year.’ But what role did I play in that? I didn't ask permission ten years ago to start this movie, it's just by chance that it comes out this year. The real question that's hidden is ‘Who decided to greenlight the movie?’ As long as we don't have a black person, or openly gay person, that has power to greenlight a $100 million movie, the power is not shared. Down the line it’s always about power, and who has the power to tell the story. Everything else is just discussion.”

Theatrical one-sheet for I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

I Am Not Your Negro is currently playing at select theaters. To find a screening near you, click here.

Related:

Celebrate James Baldwin at Hilton Als' New Exhibition

An Exhibit Takes Aim at Art History, Race, and Drake

Gold-Leaf Collages Contrast The Civil Rights Movement and The Space Race

from The Creators Project RSS Feed http://ift.tt/2l7d1dY via IFTTT

#IFTTT #The Creators Project RSS Feed