Sydney Pollack RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu9orvtStdY

weird to see him w/ a producer credit on margaret

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/margaret/

I was worried that he'd be directing from the beyond

heh, i noticed that too johnny. that's how you know it's been on the shelf forever!

wow, that's actually coming out?

tot forgot his hilarious single-scene doctor in Death Becomes Her

dude was good for a memorable cameo

He's talky but on point on the Tootsie commentary track.

Watched a nice new DVD edition of 3 Days of the Condor at the weekend, which I'd not seen before. Uber 70s American cinema - jazz fusion score, New York locations photographed by Owen Roizman in his best French Connection/Pelham 123 style (the Twin Towers feature heavily), paranoid conspiracy vibes a la Parallax View or The Conversation, Max Von Sydow as an ice cool assassin, groovy computer font used for the credits over shots of 'state of the art' mainframes, people smoking all the time, etc etc. Film sags a little in the middle - there's a Stockholm Syndrome romance between Redford and Dunaway that's pretty ludicrous and slightly distasteful - but the freeze frame ending is suitably bleak and the motor of the plot ("It's all about oil") is still very timely. A pretty slick piece of entertainment.

too bad they killed that off rad Asian girl so soon

ditto about that Stockholm thingie. maybe kinky & shady avant la lettre.

yeah i remember that movie as being really good -- nothing profound, but very engrossing.

Saw two Pollack films this week (happenstance, no design): The Interpreter at home, a rep screening of Three Days of the Condor tonight. The Interpreter was a little better the second time--I'd say it's better than Lumet's last film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. (It was Pollack's last non-documentary.) Kidman's very good. Penn is the one thing I don't like--affectatious world-weariness. Always have the same reaction to Condor: Dunaway's great, ditto the ending, but I find the last third drags a bit. I swoon over Tina Chen.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/chen.jpg

I was thinking how interesting it was for Kubrick to cast Pollack in Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick must have liked him as a director--don't think he'd cast him otherwise. They're so different.

I think The Interpreter's also the only film I've ever seen that had Moby Grape on the soundtrack. Penn pulls the plug on them so he can play Lyle Lovett. Sounds about right.

he can be seen kinda frantically waving his arms at the camera crew during the Aretha doc

He gives himself about five minutes of screen-time in The Interpreter. (I didn't even realize he co-directed the Aretha film till a few days ago.)

I was thinking how interesting it was for Kubrick to cast Pollack in Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick must have liked him as a director--don't think he'd cast him otherwise. They're so different.

Harvey Keitel was originally cast in this role though. Keitel dropped out after shooting went on for too long and was replaced by Pollack.

https://scontent.fman2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/57485048_10218938139749034_2461046102040772608_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_eui2=AeHt54FYnF9o3bfAwKRy5Hi441LMlKRjWSUnOnDioLm05hJkOfh3HEpWJBdYyjfONxYAgNxEjzSU2hZV7U8A4X431anydCIsi5RScc0rOcDsyA&_nc_ht=scontent.fman2-1.fna&oh=59693db0b178a0b94fd20d02af667cd3&oe=5D38C26D

Sydney Pollack says he can do it in three... pic.twitter.com/DpZmIh1RPi

— Larry Karaszewski (@Karaszewski) April 18, 2019