Well, dear readers, let’s get the sad news out of the way first – our dear, wonderful Kay Cole ever-lovin’ Michael Lamont has passed away. He’s been battling endless physical issues and Alzheimer’s and last week his condition took a really bad turn and she had to put him in hospice. Hopefully, he’s now at peace now and his soul is free and flying in the ether.
Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much fish, still listening to the complete musical selections from Pepe, specifically Judy Garland’s incredible vocal on the Previn’s The Faraway Part of Town. And I must say that Shirley Jones is at her most beautiful in this movie. Prior to that, I watched a documentary about filmmaker Alan J. Pakula. The best thing about it is that it’s mostly interviews with family and actors he worked with. The writer/director (what exactly did he write) seems almost irritating when we can hear him off-camera – it’s especially evident in the Jane Fonda interview. It looks like she is so irritated with him that she’s giving one-word answers to everything and seems like she’d rather be anywhere else. Interviewing is an art and this person hasn’t conquered it. But the interviews are interesting in painting a portrait of a man who loved working with actors, loved researching, loved psychoanalyzing, and was thoughtful. Not all his films are great, but if he’d made nothing but what the wags call his “paranoid trilogy” – Klute, All the President’s Men, and The Parallax View, he’d be in anyone’s pantheon. But he made some other fine movies later and some less than successful movies – like most filmmakers. They also talk about To Kill a Mockingbird and Love With the Proper Stranger and others he produced and it takes them forever to finally mention the person who actually directed those movies he produced – Robert Mulligan. The result of watching was that I decided to watch the trilogy but began with All the President’s Men, which I’ve only seen twice before (shockingly, I did not see it when it came out because 1976 was a hugely busy year for me, with the release of Nudie Musical and all that drama, doing the pilot of Tabitha, and then the Dinah summer series on CBS. I didn’t see it until it came out on either laserdisc or DVD. It’s a great movie, the best movie about journalism ever made, with a brilliant script by William Goldman, and with superb performances from every single person – Redford and Hoffman are perfect for their roles, Jason Robards is his usual fantastic self, and I’ve never seen Jack Warden or Martin Balsam give anything less than a great performance. And in small roles you’ve got John McMartin, Jane Alexander, Hal Holbrook, Meredith Baxter, Stephen Collins, Lindsay Crouse, Penny Fuller, Ned Beatty, Robert Walden, F. Murray Abraham, Valerie Curtin, Penny Peyser, Richard Her, Polly Holliday, James Karen, and I recognized the voice of John Randolph (uncredited) on one of the phone calls. In the documentary, they act like all Pakula cared about were the performances, but that’s BS – his visual style is wonderful, aided and abetted by Gordon Willis, the cameraman. And the icing on the cake is the great score by David Shire. Next up, Klute.
Yesterday was okay. I had some minor tummy problems and was up for an hour trying to get the tummy to calm down – Pepcid, a Ricola, and some ginger ale. I got about seven hours of sleep but the sleep I did get was good sleep. Once up, I answered e-mails, locked in the final two cast members for the June 10 show, finished choosing songs, then had some spicy chicken with cashews over rice from the Cheesecake Factory. Very good and filling. Later, I had some gummy-type fat-free candies for a sweet. Then I watched the documentary, then went to the garage and found the Blu-rays to watch of the paranoid trilogy, then watched the movie.
Today, I’ll try to be up by eleven, I’ll go do a couple of errands and whatnot, I’ll contact the publisher and let them know the hardcover is up but not available and hopefully they’ll get that fixed. Then there’s some Sami stuff to attend to, I’ll start thinking about a show order and then write the commentary for the show, eat (tuna sandwiches, I think) and then at some point I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, an interview with Gold Derby at some point, meetings and meals, and doing whatever needs doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, do a couple of errands and whatnot, contact the publisher and see if we can get Amazon to actually have the book in stock, do some Sami stuff, eat, make a show order, write commentary, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Alan J. Pakula as director? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be revisiting the Pakula movies.