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July 10, 2003:

THE HILLS OF BEVERLY

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, my first shoot went very well. I could barely watch the botox treatment and the various other similar treatments, but we got some excellent footage. The second shoot of the day was at a coffee house in Sherman Oaks and that was also fun. Today I shall be at various dentist offices doing stuff on teeth whitening. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?

I forgot to tell you why I was asking the “nude” question the other day. I’ll try to keep it brief: I’ve had an offer to pose for a well-known artist, Don Bachardy, and I’ve been thinking about it. I’d met Mr. Bachardy way back when I was doing a play at the Mark Taper Forum in 1973. The pianist for the show (it wasn’t a musical, but it had two numbers) was a wonderful man named Ray Henderson. Ray had been best companions with Mr. Charles Laughton, and he was still best companions with Elsa Lanchester, Mr. Laughton’s widow. We became fast friends, and I used to brunch every Sunday with Ray and Elsa at Elsa’s beach house. Her next door neighbor was Mr. Christopher Isherwood, he of the source material that became Cabaret. Mr. Isherwood’s companion was Don Bachardy. Mr. Bachardy was quite well known for his male nudes, and he asked me back then to pose and I said no, that I didn’t feel comfy posing in the nude. So, here we are, almost thirty years later, and the offer to pose again has come from a mutual friend. I was going to do it until I heard that I would be posing nude. Now, if I would not pose nude at twenty-five years of age, why on earth would I pose nude at fifty-five years of age? Of course, I am buff and toned with abs and buns of steel, but unless Mr. Bachardy was doing a horror painting I don’t think I would be such a pleasant nude subject. So, I’m afraid I will be saying no.

Last night I finished watching The Boy Who Could Fly. As I said yesterday, I’m quite partial to the film – it has wonderful hearfelt performances, especially Lucy Deakins, Jay Underwood, Bonnie Bedelia, Fred Savage, Fred Gwynne, Lucille Fletcher and Colleen Dewhurst. It has wonderful music by Bruce Broughton. It is well-written and well-directed by Nick Castle. But I think the film has a major flaw and for me it is why I think the film did not become an all-time classic. I know, I know – you will say how can one little major flaw wreak such havoc. First I will say that the writer/director doesn’t feel it’s a flaw at all. But I think he’s wrong and have felt it since the day I first saw the film. Lulu hit it on the head in yesterday’s posts – it’s the “dream” sequence. Now, if you haven’t seen the film and you want to come to it fresh, then stop reading right now and skip to the next paragraph. You have been warned. There are spoilers ahead. The film is about an autistic boy who thinks he can fly. We, the audience, don’t know whether he can or not, we just know he thinks he can. Mid-way through the film, the Lucy Deakins character has an accident. She then has a dream and in the dream she and the autistic boy fly. It’s a beautifully done sequence. However, having the sequence then totally robs the climax of the film of its true emotional power – when they jump from the roof of a building and fly for real. We’ve seen it. Yes it may have been a dream, but the magic has lost its pull, at least for me. Take away the dream sequence (just skip it on the DVD) and suddenly the ending of the film is amazing and breathtaking, because we haven’t seen the flying – we are surprised and delighted when he can indeed fly. I think people sense something is wrong in the film, but very few people have been able to pinpoint it. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel strongly about it. I understand what Mr. Castle was going for in the dream sequence and intellectually it’s fine. But this is a movie and the dream, for me, just lessens the surprise of what should be a major emotional release for the audience. Agree or not?

What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Don’t I have whitened teeth to go shoot? Yes, let’s all click on the Unseemly Button below – first let’s dream we did, and then let’s do it for real.

Well, you see, now I am late. I must hurry and wrap up these here notes in a trice.

I did want to mention that I finished what I think is the end of Part One of the new Kritzer book. Part One is five pages longer than the entirety of Benjamin Kritzer. It seems to be working okay though, so I’m just going to let it be as long as it needs to be. After all, it is covering a longer time span than either the first or second book. The other interesting thing for me is that I started writing all three books in March. The first book took until late November to complete. The second book took until late December. This book will most likely be finished in the same time frame. But, I’ve written as many pages as Benjamin Kritzer has in half the time. So, I guess the process gets a teeny bit easier as you go along. I’ve also been quite disciplined this time around, writing pages every single day, which was not the case with the first two books. In any case, I shall keep you posted on the progress.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must drive to the Hills of Beverly which are, apparently, laden with white teeth. Today’s topic of discussion: What is your favorite fantasy film? I’ll start – certainly The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad would be at the top of my list. I also like several of Mr. Harryhausen’s other films. I look forward to seeing your choices when I return from the Hills of Beverly. I wonder how Beverly feels with all this unseemly talk of her Hills?

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