Peter Bogdanovich, threshing machine

That episode made me laugh so much.

it's weird seeing tokyo rosemary on ILX

these days

hi, adamrl

I was down to see him introduce Citizen Kane this afternoon, with a Q & A afterwards. He's very funny at times, and every bit the blowhard I expected from all the interview footage I've seen over the years. He's got a real hate-on for Kael (not surprising), and also for Johnny Guitar (surprising--always thought that was sacrosanct among auteurists). He claims that Kael never gave him a good review after an Esquire piece he wrote in response to "Raising Kane," implying cause-and-effect, which conveniently ignores that a) Kael's review of The Last Picture Show was perfunctorily positive in a manner that almost dismissed it, and b) the later films she dumped on, most every other good critic did likewise. (Putting aside Sarris, a friend of Bogdanovich's.) He says that he expects he will finish editing Welles' The Other Side of the Wind before he checks out for "the big screening room in the sky."

I watched the first half-hour of They All Laughed the other night, and I didn't.

people hate this guy? how come?

come on this is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEQc-wtHAlw

I just watched Paper Moon and it's really great. The O'Neil's work the scenes so beautifully, she's really charming, he hits that sweet spot between pushy and drippy, and there's so much beauty in the shot selection and cinematography. Beautifully efficient 1st Act too - principle characters introduced, character's established, the impetus keeping them together defined, all in 10 minutes. Sure the ending's a bit corny, but come on, it's a screwball road movie, a bit of tack never hurt anyone.

And I lolled mega-hard at Tatum smoking. Was everyone just cool with that in 1973?

should I go see Saint Jack w/ Gazzara tonight? 2001 DVD seems to be OOP.

^This might v well be one of PB's best 2 or 3 films, he even manages a decent supporting turn. Gazzara's character is def a slightly bouncier cousin to his Chinese Bookie guy (just as desperate and fuct underneath tho). Great DP work on Singapore locations by Robby Muller.

At Long Last Love to be released as a non-limited edition blu by Twilight Time/Screen Archives in April.

Bogdanovich and the secret afterlife of At Long Last Love

On a somewhat related note, I screened Targets the other night for the first time and liked it. Didn't know beforehand that he himself was a main supporting player, and was amused at how they got an extended Nicholson cameo into the film. Lots of cool circa-'67 LA location photography too.

The Dissolve has a bunch of Targets stuff this week, incl Bogdo interview:

http://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/99-peter-bogdanovich-on-targets-history-and-unfortuna/

Been meaning to mention this (taken from the intro from the linked interview):

As it turned out, it was harder to connect with Bogdanovich than we’d expected, but for the best possible reason: He’s in the middle of shooting a new movie in New York, Squirrels To The Nuts, a comedy produced by Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson, and starring Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Kathryn Hahn, Jennifer Aniston, Will Forte, and many, many more bright comic actors.

wtf

Imagine that, getting a veteran dierector to work with Owen W, Aniston and some ppl I can't quite place.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/interview-peter-bogdanovich-talks-starring-in-cold-turkey-putting-together-his-new-film-as-a-director-and-the-endless-frustration-of-orson-welles-the-other-side-of-the-wind-20131119?page=1#blogPostHeaderPanel

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-first-2-clips-from-peter-bogdanovichs-screwball-shes-funny-that-way-20140828

either "a hysterical screwball fantasia that openly steals from Lubitsch, Hawks, Capra and Sturges and wants to be caught with its fingers in the till" or "so much like a B-grade Woody Allen picture that you might well assume it is a conscious homage specifically to him".

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-venice-2014-peter-bogdanovichs-shes-funny-that-way

The last sentence could have been written in 1973, with Lubitsch, Hawks, Capra, and Sturges replacing Woody.

uh What's Up Doc was all Hawks, Paper Moon rather more integrated

substitute "or" for "and"

have any of you guys seen They All Laughed? Tarantino and Wes Anderson go crazy for it so make of that what you will.

It was running on infinite loop HBO when I was home on break from college and I ended up watching it endlessly and grew to like it, but it did take a few viewings to click. (Had a similar experience with the VHS of another ensemble piece, Fassbinder's Chinese Roulette) the title is not supposed to signify comedy but Romantic Comedy, altough even at that the comedy element is less than desired, don't watch expecting an Astaire/Rogers picture.

As perhaps mentioned before and on other threads, for all his failings the guy tells great stories of his famous Old Hollywood acquaintances and does uncanny imitations of them, not only Hitch and Orson, but Cary Grant and Howard Hawks as well, to name two.

I watched the first half-hour of They All Laughed the other night, and I didn't.

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 16:40 (3 years ago) Permalink

I watched the first hour of Nickelodeon last night and had the same reaction.

haha! i watched the first 25 minutes or so last night and gave up and watched Jon Favreau's Chef instead. the bit where the stoned guy takes his hat off to reveal long curly hair was the only mild chortle. a more rembling first act i've never seen.

(of They All Laughed i mean)

was surprised at how much I liked "What's Up, Doc?" (altho my wife found the Babs-as-Bugs + the WB ending bit too on the nose)

feel like Ilana's whole character in Broad City comes from Babs in that movie

Almost finished Season 2 of The Sopranos. Haven't posted on the show yet, but I've gotta say I'm fairly amazed at how good Bogdanovich is in his brief appearances. How did they ever get such a legendary blowhard to rein it in?

Editing?

You mean there's all sorts of cutting-room footage of him interrupting his methodical probing of Bracco with Orson Welles and John Ford anecdotes?

assume so. Unless they have him do that stuff when the cameras aren't rolling.

That was the price the directors paid. I can see them telling cast and crew. "Listen, y'all. When Bogdanovich gets here you SMILE and NOD when he does his goddamn Orson Welles imitation."

Yes, exactly.

That and the neckerchief wrangler.

Bogdanovich: "I don't understand, Jennifer--you know you need to free yourself of this client."
Bracco: "How can I, Elliot? As a doctor, as a human being--how can I walk away?"
Bogdanovich: (stares blankly, seems lost in thought)
Bracco: "Peter! Line!"
Bogdanovich: "No, no, no--I'm sorry, that's just completely wrong that 'as a doctor, as a human being' bit. Orson would never settle for such clichés."
Director: "Okay...let's start over and try it again."

he's a blowhard but he has also directed actors and probably knows that being on a podium talking about orson welles and being in a studio acting opposite lorraine bracco are two different things.

Just been reading My Lunches With Orson - surprised at how mean and nasty OW is abt PG

who is PG?

Pelham Grenville?

Sorry, meant P Bog

"wait! i'll tell you what he talked about: he talked about bogdanovich!"

Yes! Also,

You know when vaudeville died, and all the great vaudeville performers - the comics, the singers - were thrown out of work. They couldn't make the move to radio or film. They used to huddle around these barrels in Times Square, where they made fires, and ate roasted potatoes off sticks. Then television arrived, and the TV producers came looking for these guys to use them in their variety shows. One of them was the biggest star of vaudeville. While he was on top, he treated everybody like shit. So when the bad times came, they wouldn't share their fires with him, or their food. But gradually they started to feel sorry for him. Years passed. They all forgave him. Now, the Ed Sullivan Show is going to do the best of vaudeville, at the Palace Theater. This guy gets a plum part. He tells all his friends, who didn't get chosen, "Guys, I just got lucky. I'll never forget you. You can't imagine what you mean to me; you've saved my life; here are some tickets, front row; come backstage afterwards; we'll go out for drinks, celebrate. I've learned my lesson." The show goes on, this guy is sensational, he's going to be a big TV star now. All his friends come backstage, knock on the door. He comes out in a velvet robe, says, "Fellas, I've got that old shitty feeling coming over me again." And he slams the door in their faces. That's Peter."

Just been reading My Lunches With Orson - surprised at how mean and nasty OW is abt PG

― Foster Twelvetrees (Ward Fowler), Sunday, August 14, 2016 8:49 PM (Yesterday)

yeah i read it a few months ago and that struck me as well -- welles generally seems ill-tempered and spiteful in these interviews in a way he doesn't in "this is orson welles." some of that may be the influence of henry jaglom who often seems to be egging him on. i did find myself wondering if welles really was aware he was being recorded.

welles also vetted the PB book -- must've quoted this twice before on ilx now cuz hilar but cf the part where bogdanovich asks him to name some directors he doesn't like and the response is redacted at the request of a letter PB received from welles after reading the proofs that ends "always remember your heart is god's little garden, yours truly, louisa may alcott"

(plus the PB book is all about doggedly scraping for technical details about like the camera angles in the trial while welles tries to change the subject; HJ wants gossip.)

none of this is changing my illl-researched intuition that PB was always something of a fool and that OW went from being amused and flattered at early contact to irritably bored and a bit dismayed that this was the actual true lasting shape of his fandom

(also i continue to heart raising kane, which is i think really p good on the collective nature of film-making: one day someone shd make a case for PB's failure as a director being fully down to the fact that he actually entirely believed in an undiluted version of the solo genius form of the auteur theory lol) (welles came up in theatre and very obviously knew different: hence brining the mercury troupe with him…)

In the Lunches book, Welles grouches about Raising Kane - specifically that it was used as a foreword to a print edition of the screenplay - but admits that Kael is one of the few film critics (that he's read) who pays any attention to acting and performance. He also swats away Graham Greene's film crit pretty convincingly.

Def feels like Welles is partly trolling Jaglom - or the absent P Bog - when he slags off The Searchers, Hawks, Powell/Pressburger, Bogart and other sacred cows.

https://www.criterion.com/films/27533-the-last-picture-show

Bundled with two cuts of Texasville

Kino Lorber is putting out a Blu of Daisy Miller in May.