Happy Holidays from Cinebeats & Julie Christie!
‘Tis the season. I’ve been preoccupied with home renovations, work and holiday plans lately so I haven’t had a lot of free time to watch movies or blog and I don’t think I’ll be updating much in December. In an effort to keep things interesting here at Cinebeats I thought I’d compile a bunch of brief updates into one post and wish you all Happy Holidays!
Giving Thanks
I celebrated Thanksgiving at the Movie Morlocks last week by writing about a bunch of movie related people and characters that I’m thankful for. We don’t say thank you enough anymore and I’m not sure when good manners became so passé but I suppose I’m a little old fashioned. I decided to share my thanks for a few things I’ve had on my mind lately including Joseph Cotten, Gene Tierney, Deborah Kerr, Richard Harris, director Fritz Land and Eli Wallach who recently received his first Academy Award at age 95.
- Giving Thanks @ The Movie Morlocks
Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
The Paul Naschy Blogathon
Over at Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies The Vicar of VHS is hosting a Paul Naschy Blogathon November 29 – December 3. I love Paul Naschy and I don’t know if I’ll have the time to participate in the blogathon, but you can bet that I’ll be doing a lot of reading in December! The Vicar is gathering links to all the blogathon submissions and the response has been tremendous so far. Naschy would have celebrated his 76th birthday this week and he’s still fondly remembered by his fans. It’s wonderful to see this Spanish horror icon getting so much attention and The Paul Naschy Blogathon is a great way to keep Naschy’s memory alive.
- The Paul Naschy Blogathon @ Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies
Irvin Kershner 1923-2010
Over the Thanksgiving holiday I watched a bunch of terrible new or “newer” movies including James Cameron’s ridiculously expensive cartoon Avatar (2009), Peter Jackson’s mind-numbingly bad The Lovely Bones (2009) and Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables (2010), which (once again) wasted the talents of Jason Statham and Jet Li and only served to remind me why I disliked so many ’80s action movies. In the midst of all this crap I re-watched one of my favorite Irvin Kershner films, the deliciously decadent murder mystery, The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978). During the film I kept being reminded of Kershner’s talent and wondering why he never made another film as interesting and stylish as The Eyes of Laura Mars? I’ve written a little about Kershner’s A Fine Madness (1966) as well as his odd comedy S*P*Y*S (1974) but I haven’t written about The Eyes of Laura Mars or another Kershner favorite, The Flim-Flam Man (1967). Today Irvin Kershner is mostly remembered for Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980), which many consider to be better than the first Star Wars film. When news spread that the director had died on November 27th after suffering from lung cancer for 3 years, The Empire Strikes Back garnered the most headlines and attention but I think of it as the movie that ended Kershner career. After making that Star Wars sequel he seemed to slowly fade away and didn’t take on any more challenging projects. I wish Kershner would have worked with director & writer John Carpenter (the writer of The Eyes of Laura Mars) again. They made a really interesting team and delivered one of the most fascinating American thrillers of the ’70s. If you want to see Irvin Kershner at his best watch The Eyes of Laura Mars.
- Irvin Kershner’s Obituary @ The Los Angeles Times
Fay Dunaway stars in The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
I got to watch Irvin Kirshner’s second movie, The Young Captives on Netflix Instant. What I most liked was that in spite of a limited budget, the film was well photographed, and had a real sense of place, making the most of location shooting.
Agreed on The Expendables. Far better in every way are either Johnny To’s Vengeance, or the “old school” version, The Wild Geese.
Happy Holidays. While writing this, the FexEx guy made a delivery. I now have some very special DVDs I will be writing about soon.
Hello to Mr. Cinebeats.
I seem Kershner being less than complimentary about Carpenter’s script for “….Laura Mars”. It might explain why they never worked together again.
Peter – Happy holidays! I hope to see Johnny To’s Vengeance soon. I’ve been looking forward to that one. The Expendables was a mess. Beer & pizza couldn’t even save it. Mr. Cinebeats feel asleep before it ended. Not a good sign! I really wish Statham was offered better roles. He’s much more interesting than any of the ’80s action stars that he’s often compared to. And poor Jet Li… the less said about his career dive after coming to Hollywood, the better.
Phil – Really? That’s a shame. It’s a great film and a real slice of ’70s decadence. I may have to start calling it a Carpenter film instead of a Kershner film. Carpenter’s fingerprints are all over it.
For some reason EYES seems to have been lumped in with a lot of the anti-misogyny backlash of the period, but it’s actually really riveting and clever with some serious NYC ambiance, it’s gritty, like a female TAXI DRIVER or something, a dark cousin of LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR and the lost WINDOWS. I think Tommy Lee Jones and Dunaway actually make a very intriguing couple! They should have done more films together. Thanks for your awesome review… never let other commitments stop you from posting! You’re the tops.
Thanks for stopping by as well as the kind words regarding Cinebeats, Erich! I like what you said about The Eyes of Laura Mars. It does have a really gritty edge and I think it’s one of the few films that captured that late ’70s vibe really well. I think it also features one of Dunaway’s best performances and Jones is chilling in it. I’m still frightened of him today thanks to his role. I originally saw this movie when I was too young to process it entirely (it was on HBO or Showtime late at night when my mother was out and a carefree babysitter was supposed to be watching me) and the movie scared the shit out of me! It’s still really powerful now and I appreciate aspects of it that originally flew over my head when I was younger.
Kimberly, I dug out the magazine which features Kershner’s comments about Carpenter’s script. (From the No.24/Spring 2004 issue of Shock Cinema magazine. Interview coducted by Nicanor Loreti.)
Asked about Carpenter’s script:
Kershner:
Oh, I threw that script out (laughs). I was set up to do the picture and I read the script and I said “No”. I just thought it was awful. And a week later, [producer] Jon Peters came to me and he said that they wanted me to make it. So I said “If you want me to do it, I’ll have to make changes”. And he said “Ok, do it”. So I hired a writer and we started re-writing the script until there was almost nothing left from the original. I didn’t like the Carpenter script. It had a lot of violence and it had no meaning. It just wasn’t mysterious. It was just full of violence. I put the fashion business in it. That wasn’t there before and it gave it a tone. Without that it was nothing. So I tried to give it form, and also thought the actors were very good, but the hardest part was working on the script. The writer that I was working with had a heart-attack. So he left the picture before we even started and we had to get another writer and we had to continue working on the script while we were shooting to get it right. We changed almost everything in the script. The only thing they had in common was that they were about a woman who had visions. Nothing else remained, the dialogue and characters are different, everything’s different. But he does make good pictures, John Carpenter. Different kinds of pictures to the ones I make. I’m much more interested in characterization. [end]
Kimberly, I know printing this might have copyright implications, I thought you might find it interesting anyway.
Thanks for taking the time to share that, Phil! I’d love to hear what Carpenter had to say about the making of the film.
When I was watching the Eyes of Laura Mars again recently I was surprised by how much some of the murder scenes (shot from the killer’s POV) resembled Carpenter’s in Halloween. And the gritty realism and graphic nature of the fake photos used also had Carpenter’s stamp. And Kershner is just plain wrong about Carpenter’s lack of characterization. That’s one of the qualities that makes Carpenter’s films stand apart from so many other American horror or sci-fi flicks IMO.