AND TRIBUTE TO PAUL WILLIAMS, WEDNESDAY NIGHT
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Exclusive Passion
Interviews:
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De Palma interviewed
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The Master Of Suspense
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Scarface: Make Way
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CINEMATOGRAPHER SHOT RED SHOES
Jack Cardiff, painter, cinematographer, and director, has passed away at the age of 94. Cardiff was the cinematographer on Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes, a film that has had a significant influence on Brian De Palma. Cardiff also shot Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn, and several other Powell/Pressburger films, among many many others. An obituary from the BBC discusses the painterly eye Cardiff brought to his film work:
He was a painter himself, and portraits of some of the actors with whom he worked have been exhibited.
In Michael Powell's The Red Shoes, the 18-minute dance sequence by Moira Shearer, filmed by Cardiff, was described by Martin Scorsese as "a moving painting".
"Michael was a great man to work with," Powell once said. "I was the sort of person to suggest a lot of crazy ideas, and he took them seriously."
He worked on another Powell classic, A Matter of Life and Death.
FROM "ALMOST INVISIBLE" ROLE IN BODY DOUBLECult star Brinke Stevens, credited as "Girl #3 in Bathroom" in Brian De Palma's Body Double (1984), was asked by Fangoria's Sean Abley about "the weirdest film, TV show or commercial from which you still earn residuals"-- Stevens' reply:
I showed up at the studio on Monday. Every time De Palma walked past me, I’d raise an eyebrow, as if to ask “Got anything for me yet?” He’d merely shrug, and say, “Come back tomorrow.” I returned every day that week. Usually, I went home at the end of the day, not having worked at all. Finally, he put me in a few scenes, and my name is listed in the credits. With residuals, I’ve made over $10,000 for that almost invisible performance. But what a joy to hang out on-set for a week and watch such an interesting filmmaker in action!
Abley then tells Stevens, "OK, my friend, actor Michael Kearns, had the exact same story about BODY DOUBLE! He sat around for a week, then had three lines or something and continues to make bank from it! Nice."
GLEIBERMAN ON CROSSOVER ADULT STARS
Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman blogs about the recently deceased Marilyn Chambers, calling her "the first crossover adult star." After making her mark in adult films, David Cronenberg cast Chambers in the lead role of his 1977 horror film Rabid. Gleiberman runs a link from there to De Palma's initial idea to cast porn star Annette Haven in Body Double:
By starring in Rabid, Chambers effectively blazed a trail, one that, as it turned out, went cold fairly quickly. In our own time, we’ve seen adult-film stars become icons of kitsch -- like Ron Jeremy, the burly "Hedgehog" who gets cast in bit parts whenever a director wants to lend a comedy a bit of cheap “underground” cachet (e.g., Class of Nuke 'Em High 3), or Traci Lords, who has carved out a TV and movie career lampooning her earlier infamy. And, of course, the adult superstar Jenna Jameson is a one-woman self-promotion machine. Marilyn Chambers, though, enjoyed her short-lived mainstream breakthrough near the end of the porno-chic era, when it wasn’t just a cool-cred joke or a naked PR stunt. Her role in Rabid seemed to open the door to further possibilities. Seven years later, in 1984, director Brian De Palma flirted with casting another '70s adult-film star -- Annette Haven -- in the role of triple-X actress Holly Body in Body Double. But the idea fell by the wayside (there were reports that it was nixed by the studio), and the part went to Melanie Griffith instead. By that point, it was clear that these two worlds were not destined, at least in America, to do much in the way of cross-pollinating.
Clarkson had a small part in Brian De Palma's 1983 film Scarface. The actress had answered a reader's question about her role in Scarface in a June 2002 posting on her now defunct website, livingdollproductions.com:
Yes, indeed you did see me in the Babylon club scenes in Scarface. The director, Brian De Palma hired 12 Screen Actors Guild members, ladies, whom he put under contract for a couple of weeks. This was to avoid any union problems or restrictions while he was in creative mode. It was an interesting set to be on, though I wish I'd had more to do. I was taller than most of the "gang" members and therefore, was basically window dressing. Regardless, it was a great opportunity to watch artists of [Al] Pacino and De Palma's caliber work. Mr. Pacino was always in character, even when in his trailer which was just down from mine. I often overheard him speaking to his dresser in his Tony Montana accent. He's an extremely intense and focused actor who is a joy to be around because of his commitment. Steven Bauer was dreamy, Michelle Pffeifer, nervous and De Palma drank lots of coffee and smoked lots of cigarettes. I think they were all under a lot of pressure form Universal. We worked hard, right up 'till Christmas Eve. I got on a plane the next morning to join my family in Hawaii. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
"WHEN TRUFFAUT MET TARANTINO"
The Financial Times' Nigel Andrews looks at the fifty-year anniversary of the French New Wave through a Quentin Tarantino lens, where Godard is "Mr. Red," Truffaut is "Mr. Pink," and Chabrol is "Mr. Black," etc. Andrews writes:
Or, to maintain the metaphor, by which the new criminal shook off the old lag and mentor. For the New Wave was a crime: that was its beauty. It was an outrage against law, order and aesthetic decency. If you have doubts that that was its spirit and agenda, look at the films. See what a preponderance are stories involving crime. In their early years Godard, Truffaut and Chabrol could hardly pick up a camera without depicting robbery or violence. The overthrow of society and culture was both their missionary activity and their favourite story.
That was my only foray into transvestism. It was a very scary movie. I was a great fan of Brian De Palma. He came to me because every American actor turned him down. I'm sure because it was transvestism. But I wasn't afraid of that. I had never done it. But I must say that women's clothes are very uncomfortable. I hated them. Also, I had padded knickers because you have to put on hips. Fortunately for me, there was a real girl who did a lot of [the scenes]. She was 6 feet 2, the same as me and when we got made up, we looked very, very much alike.
[The] closest [director Justin] Lin gets to bliss is the hokey moment Dom psychically imagines a road incident involving his ride-or-die lovematch, Michelle Rodriguez. Lin spins the camera 360 degrees as the past envelops Dom’s consciousness. It updates Brian De Palma’s breathtaking Vision on the Staircase sequence in The Fury, yet nothing else in Fast & Furious justifies such an hallucinatory leap.