The late Maurice Binder is closely associated with the world of James Bond, starting with his gunbarrel logo that began Dr. No to the main titles of 14 007 movies. But Binder did many creative main titles for other films that ought not be overlooked.

Binder did some interesting collaborations with composer Henry Mancini. For example, there was 1963’s Charade:

A few years later, producer-director Stanley Donen again tapped Binder and Mancini for Arabesque:

Finally, there was The Tamarind Seed, one of the few movies directed by Blake Edwards that didn’t have a score by Mancini. Instead, John Barry was hired, with Binder doing the main titles. By coincidence, a number of 007 alumni (director of photography Freddie Young and art director Harry Pottle) also worked on the movie. It began like this:

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Fare Thee Well Martini

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Frozen Martini

As you guessed by my previous post (or by ANY of my previous posts!), my mind does tend to wander pretty far off-tangent at times.  So the first martini up in the bullpen tonight was the “Fare Thee Well” martini.  There is a well-known song from my childhood, sung by (among other) Burl Ives, called “Polly Wolly Doodle”, which includes the term, “fare thee well” in it.  Yes, I’m showing my age but you probably figured out I wasn’t exactly a spring chicken by now either.  Alas, I do have a tendency to remember more deviant things than the more innocent (given a choice) – not a conscience thing, it’s just the way I’m wired.  I was exposed to a lot of less than pleasant things in my childhood and I suppose the more deviant things stick with me more, unfortunately.  So, when most might think of the cute Burl Ives song in the context of ‘Fare Thee Well’, instead I think of the Blake Edwards movie, S.O.B. 

Blake Edwards is best known as the director of the Pink Panther movies, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Days of Wine and Roses, Operation Petticoat, 10, The Great Race, and Victor/Victoria.  But probably his most off-color movie was S.O.B., which featured “America’s Sweetheart”, Julie Andrews (also Blake Edwards wife for these past 40 years) topless – to the tune of Polly Wolly Doodle.

The movie opens with the song in its original form, innocently sung by Julie Andrews, as shown in this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2PLBmxR1U8

Over the course of the movie, the “film within a film”, Nightwind, is re-shot and re-cut to what becomes an R-rated version instead and the first time in cinematic history that anyone has seen Sally Miles’ (Julie Andrews’ character) “boobies”, also a first for Julie Andrews in real life, as far as I know. 

This link is to part 9 of segments of the movie and has the ending of the climactic scene at the very beginning.  To see the lead-up, watch parts 7 and 8 first so you understand the context of Sally being pursued by the “Devil”.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PRMZrW3Zsg&NR=1.

Dancing with the Devil in the X-Rated Playroom

As further evidence that my brother and I are cut from the same DNA, when I asked him today as a quick “off the top of your head” question what he thought of when he heard the expression, “Fare Thee Well”, his answer was the same as mine.  He thought of this movie.  Great (or twisted) minds really think alike.  Or something like that!

The Devil's Reaction to Seeing Julie Andrews Topless - CLASSIC!

So after I satisfied my needs to see clips of this movie and reassure myself that the song I was thinking of was indeed, in the movie as I remembered, I mixed up my Fare Thee Well.  6 parts gin (using Bombay Sapphire now, I finished off the New Amsterdam) 1 part dry vermouth, 1 part sweet vermouth.  Lovely pink-gold shade from the vermouth.  It looked a little naked without a garnish (none is called for) so I put in a cherry, which looks good with it.  The verdict?  Better than I was expecting.  I thought after my too-much-vermouth cocktail of the other night that this would be nasty, but the sweet and the dry vermouth really do balance each other out in a way – each adds to the taste in their own unique way.  A good, no-frills martini, a bit on the sweet side, but enjoyable.  Solid 4 stars for this one. 

While I was looking up the Fare Thee Well, I also decided to mix up the Frozen Martini, namely because the Frozen required being mixed up and stuck into the freezer for a minimum of 3 hours before serving.  My only regret with this one is that, given the long wait time, I wish I had made a larger one!  I misread the instructions and mixed the gin and vermouth in the shaker and added the olives, then put the shaker in the freezer, along with a glass, to chill for the requisite time.  Apparently I was supposed to chill the olives separately, I guess on a plate or in a bowl or somewhere apart from the liquid. I’m not entirely sure how much of a difference it would have made.  After three hours in the freezer, the olives take on a consistency not unlike frozen green grapes.  Which is not a bad thing. I like frozen grapes in the right mood, they are delicious.  I can’t tell you if, frozen in a different fashion (i.e., not sitting in a bath of gin), they would be different or not.  I’ll have to experiment.

Crate & Barrel's Clio Glass. I may need these.

This was 5 parts gin to 1 part dry vermouth, a good ratio for this drink, with two almond-stuffed olives, served in the well-chilled martini glass.  It was excellent.  I wouldn’t honestly have thought that the freezing would really make THAT much difference but it was soooo very smooth and drinkable – perhaps a bit too much so, I found myself wanting to finish it off before it warmed up too much just to savor the unique coldness of it.  Perhaps that’s the point, it’s almost like a shot glass served in a block of ice.  I’d give this somewhere between 4.25 and 4.5 stars – it really was good.  I found myself wanting one of those trendy martini glasses where the bowl of the glass sits in a nest of crushed ice, just to keep the drink extra cold (my peeve with these would always be that you would have to carry both parts around with you to be able to set the drink down, but as long as you’re just drinking this at a small gathering and not moving around the room, it wouldn’t be an issue).  Very tempting.  But as long as we’re on the subject of martini glasses (as if I don’t have enough of them already), ZGallerie has some gorgeous ones called Puccini that come in a beautiful peacock blue and silver … and now in a cinnamon red to boot, and, well, Santa, are you listening? 

’til the bar opens again and bottoms up,
Cathy

Echamos pestes de los remakes, pero en ocasiones han salido redondos, y se han elevado muy por encima de la calidad de su original.

A “¿Víctor o Victoria?”, dirigida por Blake Edwards en 1982, no le correspondió ser el primer remake de una película alemana de 1933, titulada “Viktor und Viktoria”, que había dirigido Reinhold Schünzel. Cuando se realizó, ya se había hecho una versión francesa en 1934, titulada “Georges et Georgette”, otra, también de producción francesa, rodada en 1935 bajo el título “First a Girl”, y una tercera en 1957, esta vez alemana, con el título de la original. La película de Edwards fue, por tanto, su cuarto remake, aunque aún tendría un quinto, también dirigido por el. Este, hecho para televisión en 1995.

Confieso no haber visto ninguno de los films anteriores, y aunque sea prejuzgar sin base sólida, si creo, que por la poca trascendencia que han tenido en la historia del cine, antes y después de “¿Víctor o Victoria?”, es esta la versión más importante. La que recordamos los que la vimos en 1982, gozamos con ella cuando la volvemos a ver, y la que puede también arraigar en el recuerdo de los que ahora la vean por primera vez.

No fue Edwards en quien se pensó en primer lugar para dirigir la película. Le fue ofrecida al veterano Billy Wilder, y fue este, al rechazar la oferta, quien lo recomendó para su dirección.

Blake Edwards, por entonces, no precisaba ya de avales, pues su variada filmografía, con títulos que ya habían trascendido para la crítica y los aficionados al séptimo arte, era en sí misma su carta de presentación. “Desayuno con diamantes” (1961), “Días de vino y rosas” (1963),  “La pantera rosa” (1963), y sus secuelas,  o “El Guateque” (1968), eran algunas de sus aclamadas películas.

“¿Víctor o Victoria?”, en clave de comedia musical, contaba la historia de Victoria, una joven cantante de ópera, que en la década de los años 20, en París, se encontraba sumida en la pobreza al no encontrar trabajo en su profesión, pues lo que primaba en aquellos años, eran las cantantes de cabaret, y su voz y su físico se alejaba de lo que se pedía para ser contratada en estos últimos. Con la ayuda de “Toddy”, un cantante gay que trabaja en un cabaret, consigue un contrato en este, pero haciéndose pasar por hombre, y actuando como transformista. Su disfraz engaña a todo el mundo, incluso a un rico hombre de negocios norteamericano que se enamora de el/ella.

La película está plagada de situaciones divertidas e ingeniosos diálogos, y con tan sólo esos ingredientes, podría calificarse de excelente, pero la presencia de Henry Mancini, haciéndose cargo de la música y de las canciones, la potenció más todavía.

Ya en los títulos de crédito, Mancini hace gala de una elegancia en su composición, que nos preludia el agradable film que vamos a disfrutar, y sigue esa pauta en los números musicales, que resultan impecables.

En la edición de los premios Oscar de aquel año, Henry Mancini fue galardonado con el de a la Mejor Banda Sonora.

La película estuvo protagonizada por Julie Andrews (Victoria-Víctor), esposa de Blake Edwards, que nos obsequió con su magnífica voz, el siempre eficaz y magnífico en esta ocasión en su papel, Robert Preston (Toddy), James Garner (King Marchand), en la para mí, su mejor actuación para la pantalla, y la pizpireta Lesley Ann Warren (Norma Cassady), bordando su rol de chica boba. Secundarios de verdadero lujo arropaban a los protagonistas.

Recordad, o escuchad por primera vez esa música compuesta por Mancini.   Merece la pena.

Recordad también la película, o vedla si no la habéis visto. Con ella disfrutaréis de buen cine.

-

Swanson 

“The days of wine and roses laugh and run away like
a child at play Through a meadow land toward a
closing door A door marked “nevermore”
that wasn’t there before” (Frank Sinatra: Sinatra Sings Days of Wine and Roses, Moon River, and other Academy Award Winners, 1964.)

Wine & Roses a pattern that works wherever whenever!

Cinematographically visualized in 1962 by Blake Edwards; Jack Lemon and Lee Remick portray an alcoholic couple that, due to booze excess, eventually gets to face the point of deterioration.

Acoustically perfectionized by composer Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer the theme has left a great impact on various musicians especially in the traditional pop and jazz genre.  Frank Sinatra released the reprise album Sinatra Sings Days of Wine and Roses, Moon River, and Other Academy Award Winners in 1964. Andy Williams adopted it already in 1963, Tony Bennett in 1966, The Dream Syndicate in 1982 and Oscar Petersen in 2005 Piano Moods.

We at Montau de Sadurní are empirically adopting this subject since 2008; based on our observation, understanding and theoretical knowledge. Todays ‘days of wine and roses’ came to be known as Enotourism; the accessible experience of wine terroir and are offered by numerous wineries with adequate premises, all over the world. I personally prefer to use the more embracing description Wine and Cava Gatherings for that is what we actually do when we receive groups of aficionados. The showing of the cellar and the process of winemaking are one part but the highlight is certainly the tasting which we have rounded up to an amusing gathering.

We like to entertain our guests with anecdotes from the winery and we also like to listen to their singular stories. In this sense we sit together, talk wine, talk culture, eat, taste and drink the wine that we make. We chat, we exchange twitter accounts and we happen to follow each other later on.

In a way we revive the days of wine and roses with a slight difference: ours always has a happy ending!

Pictures from our last wine and cava gathering

A cava after the viewing

Food & Wine Pairing

After effects

☺☺☺☺☺

Cosa ci fanno un indiano , un elefante e un cameriere alcolizzato ad un party? Ma ovviamente il party più pazzo della storia di hollywood. Se poi l’indiano è il genio di Peter Sellers allora il divertimento è bello che assicurato. Non facciamoci spaventare dall’anno di uscita del film per comicità e gag comiche è ancora imbattuto ed inarrivabile nessuno può fare di meglio e non vedrete o parteciperete a nulla di simile , scordatevelo.

I film di oggi sul genere devono tutto a quest’ultimo. Menzione speciale per Claudine Longet (Michèle) una bellezza d’altri tempi.

Avvertenze :

Sono passati quarant’anni dall’uscita di questo film ma non sembra passato un giorno, capolavoro comico di Blake Edwards e un gigantopico Peter Sellers. Divertimento, divertimento e divertimento è la parola d’ordine e nient’altro niente pensieri e molta molta schiuma!

Alla prossima pillola.  

It’s hard to find a copy in the United States of the original Bedazzled film score, the one that Dudley Moore composed, without paying an arm and a leg. I had to find mine new overseas for about $40–a Christmas present to me. Tonight I saw on Amazon.com that a used album costs $500. It can be downloaded on mp3, but I don’t have one of those. I still like something that I can hold in my hands, like a DVD or a CD.

People forget, or don’t know, that “cuddly” Dudley was a composer and a musician who occasionally recorded his favorite classics (some for parody) or jazz pieces. He wasn’t just an actor. Only 5′2″ and with a club foot, Moore was treated badly and mercilessly by schoolmates and strangers, and at home, was virtually unloved by his parents. He took refuge in music, starting out in choir, and then graduating to violin, piano and organ. For his efforts, he received a music scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he majored in music and composition, and later performed in comedy revues and jazz concerts which gave him his start in entertainment. His jazz influences turned out to be Erroll Garner of “Misty” fame, and Oscar Peterson. Between films and other projects, he continued to record, collaborating with the likes of Sir George Solti and Michael Tilson-Thomas on the classical side, and producing at least sixteen jazz albums, until the late Nineties.

The “Lillian Lust” theme was for Moore’s scenes with then-sex goddess Raquel Welch, who plays, of course, the personification of lust. She serves Dudley’s character, Stanley Moon, breakfast in bed in the bed. All the seven deadly sins are depicted in the film (including the future Dame Edna Everage), but of course, her scenes got the most interest. Peter Cook’s rendition of the main theme as the self-absorbed Drimble Wedge is always hilarious. At one point, it helped me get over a bad relationship.

This is Moore at the height of his first fame; Blake Edwards’ 10 was his second wind. It was, unfortunately, the height of the Dudley Moore-Peter Cook collaboration. Moore went onward and upward, but Cook’s accomplishments never equalled that of his former partner. He became an alcoholic, later drinking himself to death after the passing of his mother in 1995. Dudley Moore died in late March 2002, from the effects of progressive supranuclear palsy. Its early symptoms in human beings mimic drunkenness; I hate to think that when I saw him in the Arthur films, he may not have been acting at all.

New York, 5th Avenue, prime ore del mattino:un taxi si accosta al marciapiede accanto alla vetrina di Tiffany, una donna elegantemente vestita scende dall’auto, sorseggiando un caffè e addentando una brioche, con soave grazia; da quanto si può intuire attraverso gli spessi occhiali neri, la visione sembra metterla di buon umore. Holly(Audrey Hepburn), questo è il suo nome, vive in un appartamento, i pochi mobili ed una valigia in bella vista fanno intuire uno stile di vita provvisorio; nel palazzo arriva un nuovo inquilino, Paul Varjak( George Peppard), scrittore in attesa di migliore fortuna, che si fa mantenere da una ricca signora( Patricia Neal).
Tra i due si instaura un particolare rapporto di affetto ed amicizia, entrambi affrontano la vita con candido disincanto, velato da cinismo nel primo e da una folle e spontanea allegria nella seconda, che ha in progetto di sposare un milionario, si fa mantenere da ricchi signori che le offrono cinquanta dollari “per la toilette”(così definisce le sue prestazioni)ed organizza dei party, frequentati dalla New York modaiola del tempo; inoltre, ingenuamente, fa da tramite per il boss Sally Tomato(Alan Reed), rinchiuso a Sing Sing.
Nonostante la spensieratezza e la gaia incoscienza come stile di vita, malinconia e paura di vivere sono in agguato e per scacciare le paturnie non basta fare un giro da Tiffany, specie se il passato ritorna nelle vesti del Dottor Golightly( Buddy Ebsen), veterinario di mezza età che Holly aveva sposato dopo essere stata accolta in casa sua insieme al fratello; il marito vorrebbe che tornasse a casa, ma lei, pur dimostrando affetto e riconoscenza, rivendica la sua scelta di non appartenere a nessuno. Paul, innamorato di lei, ne asseconda le bizzarie, lascia l’amante, si rimette a scrivere, cercando di fare ordine nella sua vita e in quella di Holly, ma questa è intenzionata a sposare un milionario brasiliano, che, per paura di uno scandalo, la lascerà una volta scoperti i traffici di Sally Tomato. Holly è decisa a partire ugualmente per il Brasile, è in taxi insieme al suo gatto senza nome e a Paul, che l’accusa di nascondersi dietro una falsa sicurezza, quando l’unica possibilità di essere felice è innamorarsi e “appartenere” a qualcuno; in pochi minuti, prima il micio e poi Paul sono fuori sotto la pioggia scrosciante, Holly ha un ripensamento, scende dal taxi alla ricerca del gatto che ritrova in un vicolo; anche Paul è lì, pochi sguardi e tutti e tre si abbracciano, ora potranno essere felici.
Tratto da un racconto di Truman Capote, che lo sceneggiatore George Axelrod usa come traccia, cambiandone il finale in un classico happy end,il film punta più sul glamour che sulla spregiudicatezza della protagonista; l’abile regia di Blake Edwards aggiorna la sophisticated comedy con sapide e ben bilanciate dosi di ironia, emotività, romanticismo, dirigendo con sagacia una divertente e divertita Audrey Hepburn e un George Peppard perfetto nel ruolo di sarcastico disilluso. Due premi Oscar nel 1962:migliore colonna sonora (Henry Mancini) e migliore canzone(Moon river, Mancini-Johnny Mercer).

Working at a book store, I have a lot of free time to think about books. Recently, with the Toronto International Film Festival going on, I’ve been thinking more and more about books being turned into films and vice versa (well, not really the latter).

For the most part I’ve found that film adaptations of books are rarely as good as the books they’re based off of. This is usually because filmmakers, who have to rely on the visual and face time limits, cannot translate what we like most about books – the vivid descriptions, the poetry of the language, the inner monologue of the characters – onto the screen. There are cases, however, where the movie adaptation is far more enjoyable than their written counterpart. These movies inject the stories with a dose of energy and life that no page can contain.

Anyways, if you’re bored one evening and too lazy to read a book, here’s a list of page-to-screen adaptations to look out for or avoid.

1. Lolita (book) by Vladimir Nabokov =  Lolita (film) by Stanley Kubrick

For your own good, DO NOT let cinema snobs convince you to watch this movie. I don’t care how much they rant about its deep social commentary or the subtle way that Kubrick approaches the sexual relationship between the lead characters. Just say no.

If you haven’t read the book, you will be disappointed by how boring the movie is. I literally fell asleep the first time I tried watching it. The plot moves as slowly as wind on the Moon, and there are absolutely no characters worth rooting for or sympathizing with. If you have read the book, you will be offended by how Kubrick managed to turn a well-written, memorable book into a one-dimensional, forgettable film.

The movie’s slogan asks, “How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?” I can tell you how: very badly.

FAIL

2. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk = Fight Club by David Fincher

A story about bare-knuckle fighting, a guy with multiple personalities, and discontent in American society? You’d almost think that Fight Club had been a movie first but alas, it was indeed conceived on the page.

What makes the movie such a great adaptation is that it manages to entertain while still addressing the major, “intellectual” themes of the book. This means that we get to see grown-men beating the hell out of each other and still learn about the state of modern masculinity. The fact that the movie’s central characters are played by the talented Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter doesn’t hurt either.

WIN

3. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett = A Little Princess by Alfonso Cuaron

I had to include this one on the list. It was been one of my favourite films since I was 4 years old. The plot of the movie deviates from that of the book a lot, but it still manages to keep true to the parts that matter: a little girl loses her father and her riches but still manages to struggle against adversity and maintain her dignity. Oh, and the movie happens in a school just like in the book! The film also adds a commentary on racism that was alive during WWI, which the book lacked. It’s doesn’t better the story, but it offers an interesting twist.

What’s best about this film, however, is the amazing combination of music, art direction, and cinematography. This film offers just as much to the cinema buff as it does the story fiend.

WIN

4. Watchmen  by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons = Watchmen by Zack Snyder

I’m the last one to call The Watchmen a book, but it is only by giving it the pretentious moniker of “graphic novel” i.e. long comic book, I am able to criticize it, so I’ll put my views aside for now.

I almost fell asleep three times while this movie was on, and I saw it opening night with at least a hundred other fans sitting around me. Yes, not even the energy of a gaggle of fan-boys and geek girls could keep me awake. If it wasn’t for the annoying soundtrack, awkward sex scene, and unnecessary violence, I’d probably have been asleep after the first glimpse of Doctor Manhattan’s glowing blue penis.

What makes this a “special” movie is that the majority of the storyboards were taken directly out of the comic graphic novel, as was the soundtrack, in attempt to stay true to the original work. Apparently they couldn’t even succeed in that because Alan Moore, the original writer, hated the movie as much as I did.

Who will watch the Watchmen? Hopefully no one.  

FAIL

5. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman = The Golden Compass by Chris Weitz

This movie was actually voted the most disappointing film adaptation ever according to Entertainment Weekly, so you can probably gather that it’s pretty bad. It wasn’t only bad though: it was downright confusing. The film tries to add so many twists, characters, and plot lines to the movie that it becomes hard to keep your basic facts straight, like which dæmon belongs to whom, or why you’re wasting your time watching such a crappy movie when you could be out whitewashing a fence, or doing hard labour.

Oh, and the little girl playing the lead? Let’s just say she’s no Jodie Foster.

FAIL

6. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote = Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Blake Edwards

This probably the best movie you’ll ever watch about prostitutes.

The majority of people don’t know that Breakfast at Tiffany’s started off as a book (it was a novella, to be exact). But judging by how different the book is from the movie, that knowledge wouldn’t been worth anything. The book and the movie have little in common aside from the character names, the title, and the major plot points. Strangely, this doesn’t make the film, which anyone will tell you is iconic, especially bad.

My brother personally finds it boring and uninteresting, but I think it’s great. Yes, the story is pretty fluffy and not too thrilling but damn, is it ever beautiful to watch. The wardrobe, designed by Hubert de Givenchy, makes me weak in the knees. The film just epitomizes Upper East Side chic, with shots of the city in bright, vibrant, clean Technicolor. And did I mention that the perpetually-elegant Audrey Hepburn stars in this film? Enough said.  

WIN

These movies all have one thing in common: they were based off of fantastic books. Do yourself a favour and pick one up the next time you have time on your hands. With every dollar you spend at the movies or at the video store/bootleg DVD stand, you are voting for the type of movie you’d like to see made in the future. So please: don’t let your vote be for a bad one, or else you’ll have no one to blame but yourself when Twilight is made into a film and goes on to gross almost 400 million at the box offices. Oh wait…

xoxo Allyssia

Birdy namnam

Bir başka neşeli kare Köyceğiz yolundan. Köyceğiz’i burada anlatmaya hacet yok, Çetin Altan’ın Milliyet’teki yazılarını takip edenler orayı sokak sokak biliyor gibidirler zaten. Çetin Altan okuru babam “yolun düşerse benim için bir gez, dolaş” derdi, ben de öyle yaptım. Yol üzerindeki köprüde de fotoğraftaki tabelaya rastladım. Namnam Çayı, hangi etimolojik ve kültürel kökten alıyor ismini bilmiyorum da, derhal akla gelen ve beni gülümseten, hatta yolda kahkaha atmama neden olan şey, Peter Sellers’in  filmi Party’deki “Namnam, birdy namnam!” repliği idi. İzlemeyen varsa, aman diyeyim, 1968 tarihli Blake Edwards yönetimindeki Peter Sellers filmi The Party, komedinin doruğudur. Bu filmde canlandırdığı Hintli aktör Hrundi Bakshi karakteri üzerinden bayağı bir ırkçılık da yapar esasında Sellers ama, bu gelmiş geçmiş en büyük oyunculardan biri olduğu gerçeğini değiştirmez. 2004′te çekilen The Life and Death of Peter Sellers filminde Sellers’i bir başka müthiş aktör, Geoffrey Rush canlandırmıştı. Orada Peter Sellers’ın nasıl bir arıza adam olduğu gayet güzel anlatılır. Geoffrey Rush, “Shine”ın da başrolündeydi; hani geçen günlerde İstanbul’da iki konser veren şizofren piyanist David Helfgott’un hayatının anlatıldığı film. Bu arada Köyceğiz’e gittiğimde bir sinema festivaliyle karşılaştım, artizler, paneller, meydana kurulmuş açık hava sineması vs. ile kasaba bir şenlik havasındaydı. Lafı böylelikle Köyceğiz’e bağlamış olalım, Namnam Çayı bizi nerelere götürdü.

The Party

Director: Blake Edwards.

Guión:Blake Edwards, Tom y Frank Waldman.

Intérpretes: Peter Sellers, Claudine Longet, Natalia Borisova, Jean Carlson, Marge Champion, Al Checco.

Música: Henry Mancini.

Fotografía: Lucien Ballard

EEUU. 1968. 109 minutos.

El gran Sellers

No sé qué sucede con los cómicos, que siempre son vapuleados por su crítica contemporánea, o, dicho con otra cadencia, su arte no es tomado suficientemente en serio –ni por tanto se conoce en profundidad- hasta que el tiempo impone distancias que sirven para derribar barreras. Peter Sellers sería un ejemplo paradigmático: ahora nadie pone en duda su inmenso talento cinematográfico (otro ejemplo sería Jerry Lewis, otros más actuales, Steve Martin y Bill Murray; de los pioneros del cine, podríamos citar a Buster Keaton y Harold Lloyd, ambos mucho más que dos vehículos físicos para lo hilarante). En el caso de Sellers, talento constatable en variopintas obras que van, por ejemplo, de una a otra apariciones en la filmografía de Kubrick (Dr. Strangelove por cuadruplicado y Lolita), y pasan incontestablemente por esta obra que nos ocupa, uno de los ya clásicos filmes que nos dejó Blake Edwards.

Peligros de la opulencia

The Party se plantea como un ejercicio de puro slapstick que toma como punto de partida las maravillosas hazañas cinematográficas de Jacques Tati –no sólo en la concepción visual sino también en la descripción de la modernidad como campo de batalla para el sufrido protagonista- y las traslada a su tiempo y lugar: los sixties y un guateque organizado por un acaudalado ejecutivo de uno de los grandes estudios hollywoodienses. Con esta sencilla baza, y constante un metraje mayoritariamente planteado casi a tiempo real, como si de una opereta se tratara, Blake Edwards y Peter Sellers manejan un guión a la par elegante y divertidísimo, y trastornan en sorna e hilaridad las convenciones establecidas sobre el mundillo de Hollywood, retratando en clave de gadgets continuos el sinfín de tics de esa aristocracia de Beverly Hills. La cámara de Edwards aparece siempre tan agazapada como el propio protagonista de este weird vaudeville, y ofrece una mirada distante, fría al microcosmos que retrata, consiguiendo con ello afilar el discurso, la acidez siempre patente, finalmente desatada.

Masterpiece de Edwards

Auspiciada por la Mirisch, esa productora que estaba tras no pocas grandes obras de Billy Wilder, The Party es una comedia deliciosa, y de una idiosincrasia muy peculiar, cuyo único parangón en el cine americano sólo puede buscarse en retazos aislados de la filmografía de su autor.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063415/

http://lamusicadelaluna.blogspot.com/2009/08/party-blake-edwards-1968-la-medida-de.html

http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=10759&s=dvd

http://www.palisadespost.com/content/index.cfm?Story_ID=4048=Palisadian-Post

http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=88940&mainArticleId=194046

Todas las imágenes pertenecen a sus autores

Un extracto de una de las películas más graciosas que he visto nunca: “El Guateque”, del director Blake Edwards, con el enorme Peter Sellers de protagonista.

I had a chance to visit the Blake Edwards Art Exhibit a few months back and was left in amazement by various pieces created by the legendary writer/director.

There was one piece in particular that stood out and left me asking the question:
Does Blake Edwards listen to Herbie Hancock?

John Saxon

John Saxon

(born August 5, 1936) is an American actor.

In his early career, Saxon worked with many notable directors including Vincente Minnelli, Blake Edwards, John Huston, Frank Borzage, and Otto Preminger but, despite this, never developed into a major star. He portrayed Marco Polo in episode 26 of The Time Tunnel(“Attack of the Barbarians”), originally airing March 10, 1967. In films he appeared primarily in supporting roles, and won a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of a Mexican bandit in the 1966 film The Appaloosa. He again played a Mexican, this time a revolutionary named Luis Chama, in 1972, supporting Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall in “Joe Kidd”. He was top-billed in his most famous film Enter the Dragon (1973), although that film’s main actor was Bruce Lee. In 1975, he starred in several episodes of the ABC produced mega-hit series The Six Million Dollar Man playing a number of characters, including the role of Major Frederick Sloan.

His roles also extended into The Bionic Woman. The actor’s likeness was later used for the Kenner action-figure doll called ‘Maskatron’ which was based on the series.

Saxon has also appeared in many Italian films, mainly in the spaghetti western and police thriller genres. He was also the second incarnation of Dylan Hunt from the Gene Roddenberry shows called Planet Earth and Strange New World. More recently, Saxon may be best known as a supporting player in horror films, most notably Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974) as the relatively smart leader of a bunch of dumb cops; in Dario Argento’s Tenebrae (1982) as the writer hero’s shifty agent; in Mitchell (1975) as the murderous union lawyer and prostitute provider Walter Deaney; in Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) as Sador, in Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) where he played a vietnam veteran tormented because his worthless pal bit him and years later, he is starting to get the urge to do the same, in Prisoners of the Lost Universe and in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as the heroine’s (Nancy Thompson’s) father.

He reprised his role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) as he played himself in a dual role. He starred in Maximum Force (1992) as Captain Fuller. He was also a guest star on Bonanza in 1967 (“The Conquistadores”).

He has also starred in Bollywood film Shalimar (1978) co-starring opposite Dharmendra. In recent years, he has been seen in a number of independent films and has appeared in several television series, perhaps most notably CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and more recently the hit Showtime series Masters of Horror.

Trivia:

John attended New Utrecht High School and graduated in 1953 with Stanley Abramson.

Was a celebrity player (along with Betty White) on the final week of the cult-classic gameshow “Whew!” (1979) (when the show was known as “Celebrity Whew!”).

Was discovered by an agent who saw him in a posed shot on the cover of “True Romances” magazine.

Has a black belt in karate.

I reckon this’ll have to become a daily feature, at least until I’m forced to relinquish my cable in a couple weeks. Continuing on with all this “Summer Under the Stars” doo-wa, today is James Coburn Day on TCM. Terrific. Over the next 24 hours, TCM will be showing 12 films starring or featuring Mr. Coburn, none of which I’ve seen or even really heard of. I never said there wouldn’t be days like this. But if I had to place a blind bet on 1 of those 12 films being a worthwhile watch, I guess I’d go with What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, a 1966 comedy directed by Blake Edwards (The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, etc.), intriguingly set during the Allied liberation of Sicily in 1943. The film begins at 5:00PM and runs 116 minutes long. Here’s some more info.

But if you’re like me, generally avoiding war films whenever it’s possible to do so (no matter how farcical they may be), you may want to hold out until 10:45PM for Major Dundee, a 1965 western directed by Sam Peckinpah, with Coburn, Charlton Heston and Richard Harris blasting up a storm. (Would you expect anything less from a collaboration between Peckinpah and the former president of the NRA?) This will be followed by another potentially fun western, 1973’s Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, directed by Gordon Dawson and starring Coburn along with two singers whose names might ring bells: Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson. (Bobby D even composed some of the soundtrack.) That one begins at 1:15AM and it’s 115 minutes long, so get your French press and/or your DVR callibrated.

Anyway, here’s the rest of the schedule for those  of you who trust your own intuitions about Coburn’s films more than you trust mine.

Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey” is famous for among other things, its innovative use of classical music. Traditionally, film scores had been composed of music written specifically for the film itself. But in an interview with writer Michel Ciment, Kubrick stated, “However good our best film composers may be, they are not a Beethoven, a Mozart or a Brahms. Why use music which is less good when there is such a multitude of great orchestral music available from the past and from our own time? When you are editing a film, it’s very helpful to be able to try out different pieces of music to see how they work with the scene. . . . Well, with a little more care and thought, these temporary tracks can become the final score.”

Well for my money there’s never been music by any classical music composer let alone any other film composer that matched the beauty of film composer John Barry’s score for “Out of Africa”. So take that Stanley Kubrick.  Nevertheless, here’s a quiz that celebrates the use of classical music in some classic movies.

Answers to this quiz will appear next Monday, but if you just can’t wait to find out the answers til then, you can go to this page: http://www.sploofus.com/triviaquiz/classic_cinema_that_uses_classical_music.html 

It’s a great trivia web site. If you sign up with them, don’t worry I’ve found that  I don’t get any spam as a result. But please tell them “billkozy” sent ya. That’s my user name there. That way I’ll get lots of points worth no cash value whatsoever. Now on to this week’s quiz:

1. In that score for “2001: A Space Odyssey” the music from composers such as Aram Khachaturian and Johann Strauss II (“The Blue Danube”) is used, but it is especially famous for “Also sprach Zarathustra” by Richard Strauss, a musical piece now inexorably linked to the film’s depiction of the wonder and awe of space. Kubrick had at first hired a very well-respected film composer to write original music for the film, but wound up not using it at all and then sneakily not telling the composer. The composer only discovered this when he finally saw the movie. Who was this 15-time Oscar nominated composer whom Kubrick had actually worked with on a previous movie?

2. Stanley Kubrick’s next film, “A Clockwork Orange” also employed classical music. Coincidentally, composer Wendy Carlos had already been writing a score to the Anthony Burgess novel when a friend of hers alerted her to a London newspaper article mentioning that Kubrick had begun filming an adaptation. Wendy was already famous because of her electronic music album “Switched-On Bach” that adapted various famous classical music pieces, and when she learned after more time passed that Kubrick had  finished shooting, she contacted him and offered her work. They met and Kubrick liked the combination of a classical sound with a futuristic sound that the score suggested. What name was Wendy Carlos recognized as on the film credits?

3. Bach’s music is used again in the 1973 Ingmar Bergman film classic “Cries and Whispers”: “Suite No. 5 for solo Cello in C Minor, 4th mvt ‘Sarabande’”. One of the most cinematically influential scenes in the film occurs when two of the sisters in the story share the inner thoughts that they’d kept secret for so long, but without any dialogue, just the music “Mazurka in A minor, Op.17/4″. Who is the famous classical music composer of this piece?

4. Five years later, in 1978, Ingmar Bergman used the same two composers in his film “Autumn Sonata”: Bach’s “Suite Nr 4, Ess-dur” and “Préludium Nr 2a, a-moll” by Chopin.  Frédéric Chopin was played by actor Hugh Grant in what live action feature biographical film of Chopin’s life that naturally uses his music in the score?

5. Ludwig von Beethoven himself is portrayed in no less than two autobiographical films: by Gary Oldman in 1994’s “Immortal Beloved” and by Ian Hart in the 2003 TV movie “Eroica,” both films benefitting from a score of Beethoven’s fantastic music. All of the following films are biographies of classical music composers except for one. Which is the film that doesn’t exist?

A. Jim Broadbent as W. S. Gilbert and Allan Corduner as Sir Arthur Sullivan in “Topsy Turvy”
B. Richard Chamberlain as Pyotr Tchaikovsky in “The Music Lovers”
C. Robert Alda as George Gershwin and Darryl Hickman as Ira Gershwin in “I Got Rhythm”
D. Robert Powell as Gustav Mahler in “Mahler”
E. Roger Daltrey as Franz Liszt in “Lisztomania”

6.  The Gershwin Brothers movie is the bogus film above, although Woody Allen’s classic film “Manhattan” makes exquisite use of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Coincidentally, director Ken Russell directed three of the films in the previous question, including “Mahler”. Gustav Mahler’s music (“Adagietto From Symphony No.5″ and “Sehr Langsam Misterioso From Symphony No.3″) provide the score to the classic Italian cinema adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novel “Death in Venice” (1971). What famed Italian director helmed that movie?

7. We turn to another Italian artist, this time a composer instead of a filmmaker: Antonio Vivaldi’s “Mandolin Concerto”  provides the score for what classic French cinema film by classic film director Francois Truffaut?

8. Truffaut’s fellow Frenchman Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” features prominently in the Dudley Moore/Bo Derek comedy “10″ by Blake Edwards, but it provides the more prominent overal soundtrack to what worldwide classic film of the Japanese cinema?

9. Milos Forman’s Academy Award winner for Best Picture “Amadeus” is a biodrama featuring the music of its subject Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In 1984, when the great film composer Maurice Jarre accepted his Academy Award for “Best Original Score” he jokingly thanked the Academy for not nominating “Amadeus” in the category, which of course it couldn’t since none of the music in the film is original but is instead that of Mozart’s. For what film did Jarre win his Oscar for Best Original Score that year?

10. For many people, the first time they heard Johann Pachelbel’s “Canon in D major” was in this classic movie, an Academy Award winner for Best Picture featuring this hauntingly melancholy piece throughout.

11. An Academy Award winner for Best Actor was Geoffrey Rush in 1996’s “Shine”. Rachmaninoff’s Rachmaninoff piano concerto 2 was part of the soundtrack along with the well-known “Flight of the Bumblebee.”  We’re all familiar with “Flight of the Bumblebee” but who was its composer?

12.   Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” plays eerily in the classic Billy Wilder film “Sunset Boulevard.”  That same famous musical piece is featured in the classic animated feature film “Fantasia.” That very entertaining film features a few other of the classical music genre finest and most well-known works. Which of the following pieces is NOT part of the “Fantasia” soundtrack?

A. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Felix Mendelssohn
B. “A Night on Bald Mountain” by Modest Mussorgsky
C. “Ave Maria” by Franz Schubert
D. “Rite of Spring” by Igor Stravinsky
E. “The Nutcracker Suite” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

ANSWERS TO LAST MONDAY’S QUIZ OF THE WEEK, “Tune a Fish on Wry”:
1. I Am The Walrus
2. Vanilla Sky
3. Creeque Alley
4. Dolly Parton
5. Honky Cat
6. Jimmy Webb
7. Irving Berlin
8. Tangled Up In Blue
9. Stone Cold Crazy
10. Led Zeppelin

> ver 5° Aniversario de mi Primer Concierto I — …mi Primer Concierto III — …mi Primer Concierto IV
— …mi Primer Concierto V <

http://ihatemusic1943.blogspot.com/2009/07/5-aniversario-de-mi-primer-concierto-ii.html

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (Columbia) Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers, Ross Martin. A bank teller is terrorized into committing embezzlement.

Even though the premise for this film is hard to accept, a certain excitement gradually builds until the pedestrian pace finally takes its toll and the climax falls pretty flat.  But never mind. There’s a baseball game going on, and we are treated to close-up shots of the players as they struggle intently even though that has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot.

Ford plays his part convincingly as usual and Blake Edwards offers some smart directorial touches, but mostly the film is artificial and far-fetched. If you like cars with tail fins, there are plenty of those.

Scale of 10: I give it 4.

Runtime: 2 hr 5 mins
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Family, Mystery, Romance
Release Date: March 20, 1964
Starring: Peter Sellers, David Niven, Capucine, Robert Wagner
Director: Blake Edwards

Summary: Arriving at a posh resort with her precious “Panther” — a large, priceless diamond with the image of a leaping feline inside — sexy princess Dala (Claudia Cardinale) meets the debonair Sir Charles (David Niven), who happens to be a professional thief. Enter the ever-incompetent Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers), the clumsiest inspector ever to trip over a case. Can he stop Charles’s attempts to relieve the princess of her diamond?

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ (Liked It)