A Day of Screenings - June 25, 2009

One can’t be everywhere at once but here are time capsule reviews of what this cinephile went to on this particular Thursday.  A day being spent voting on films being shown at the L. A. Film Festival.

REHJE

70 minutes, Directors/Producers: Anais Huerta, Raul Cuesta Writer: Anais Huerta

Part of the DOCUMENTING MEXICO series

The Regent 2:30 p.m.

The main documentary subject is an unhappy Mazhua woman.  It is only her voice that is heard throughout speaking in Spanish.  Her narration is quite montonal and sounds depressed.  The documentary is broken up into various chapters.  The bold capitalized text of the chapters are in the Mazhua language, smaller text in Spanish, subtitled in English.

The chapter titles are one word, such as Fear, Home, Aunt, Mother, etc.  She narrates over images of Mexico City.  The film shows her washing dishes in an apartment.  She complains about being a migrant and being abused by her husband, never shown.

She leaves and goes back to her village and has a reunion with her family.  She goes back to harvesting wood bundles and remembers why she left in the first place.

Visually stunning at times with the strangeness of village culture, this one is really only for those fascinated with native tribes.  The pacing is slow and very depressing.

THE LAST BEEKEEPER

66 minutes, Director: Jeremy Simmons Producers:  Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato

The Landmark 4:45 pm

Part of the DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

This documentary begins with archival footage to bring in context the overall declining population of bees in the last two decades and an increasing demand for California almonds, for which the harvest is dependent of bee pollination.  The demand is so large it demands all bees in the United States.

Also noted is the declining numbers of beekeepers in the United States.  The director cross cuts the stories of three that must transport their harvest of bees on trucks to California.

The first one introduced is a female beekeeper who follows the footsteps of her mother.  They live in the state of Washington where there’s still snow. 

The second one introduced is a family man whose wife is the bookkeeper.  They have a cute daughter and they live in South Carolina.

The third is actually introduced perusing a gay magazine in front of his partner in Montana.  To this beekeeper, the bees come before anything else.

With lingering shots, and with different outcomes, all three must deal with CCD, colony collapse disorder, that have happened in 2008.  All will have to deal with hard choices of what to do the next year.  This documentary is heart breaking but does show the inner strength of all three and those around them.

BIRDWATCHERS (LA TERRA DEGLI UOMIN ROSSIL)

108 minutes, Director: Marco Bechis Writers:  Marco Bechis, Luiz Bolonesi Producers:  Marco Bechis, Calo Gueiliane, Fabriano Guiliane, Amedeo Pagini

The Landmark 7:00 pm

Part of INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASE Hosted by Red Nation Film Festival and Human Rights Watch

This is a very entertaining and well acted narrative depicting the white Brazilians having frictions with the Guarani Indians.  The Guarani find their reservation inhabitable due to mass destruction of the forests and natural wildlife.

Their stoic leader leads them to a field just outside the limits of a Brazilian ranch, of which the owner wants them off.  When a young Guarani man chants and prayers with a tribal shaker, he attracts the owner’s daughter.  She gets very determined to make him one of her sexual conquests.

There are other subplots with other characters that play out quite believably as well as thought provoking.  There is humor here as well and I do highly recommend this picture.  Be forewarned that this is not for the squeamish.

OCTOBER COUNTRY

80 min, Directors/Producers:  Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher

The Landmark 9:45 pm

Part of the DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Meet the Mosher family.  Most of them live in upstate New York. They are as dysfunctional as any family has a right to be.  There’s the hardened retired policeman.  He served in Vietnam and had continued to serve as recently as Operation Desert Storm under the first Bush.  He admits to beating up his wife, who shares his love of cigarettes and alcohol.

There’s the daughter who also enjoys booze and alcohol.  She also gets into abusive relationships with men.  In fact, her daughter’s husband is serving time for child molestation.  Though another boyfriend she is raising another daughter.  Her current relationship is definitely not pretty.  She has a sister who is quite camera shy.

Add to the mix a street kid unofficially adopted by the elder Mosher female.  He’s a drug addict and a thief and after a stint in prison, a total drag queen.  Last but not least is the elder Mosher male’s sister who is in a world of her own making.

After getting to know them quite thoroughly, there’s a reunion Halloween party.  It’s as Grand Guignol as anything seen in fiction.  Highly recommended.

That’s the premise of, “SURVEILLANCE;“ a new messed up thriller by Janet Lynch.

TWO FBI agents (Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond) are called to rural B.F.E. to investigate a series of grisly murders. The only witnesses are Jack Bennet (Kent Harper) who lost his partner (a fantastic turn by French Stewart) in the carnage. Also, there is Bobbi (Pell James), a coke whore and a traumatized eight year old girl (Ryan Sympkins) who lost her whole family.  The three start relating their versions of their experiences.  The cokehead claims to have been out on a job interview (really a drug deal), the cop had been investigating tourists with flat tires (that he shot out for fun to harass the drivers).  The only real lead they have is the young girl who can only accurately communicate in crayola images. The three met on the highway through a series of coincidences. The agents unravel the stories one by one leading to one of the most shocking conclusions in recent memory. 

The first act is a dry, cliché ridden set up. However, the second and third go into overdrive, charged with intensity. This is a VERY dark rural town we have discovered, one where no one is truly innocent.  While it does have a few gallons of blood thrown in for good measure, the genius moments are in the lead up to this violence.  Without trying to spoil too much, the two bored cops enjoy tormenting passing tourists. This is taken to an extreme and while there is no blood, one can’t help but feeling their innerds being twisted. Considering the history of cops abusing their power, this puts you right into the middle of it. The result is an intense, skincrawling episode that is enough to tempt you into running up the aisle.

Performances are top notch, with the haunting Harper and Stewart leading the pack. Stewart, usually cast as the clown, shows some real chops and you may be seeing him frequently as the heavy from now on. Even the normally vanilla Pullman ignites during the climax to show a range uncommon in his previous roles.

Check out “Surveillance” this weekend, it is a strong alternative to Summer Blockbuster fare. Oh, and Transformers sucks.

The play itself was first produced in 1939 and the Regina Giddens role was then played by Tallulah Bankhead whose mannerisms Bette Davis copied in the film version. Other revivals has had Anne Bancroft, Elizabeth Taylor and Stockard Channing.  The current Regina is Kelly McGillis, who will not see the film until the play has had its run.  She was not present at the Egyptian but the current stage director/adaptor Damaso Rodriquez was, along with cast members playing Leo and Alexandra, costume designer Mary Voigt and a member of a Southern writers organization.

I can not comment about the play as I have not seen it and actually want to focus on the film itself.  It was produced by Samuel Goldwyn for his own studio.  Lillian Hellman wrote the screenplay and there were three credited writers that must have contributed to the changes of the film version to the stage version.  In fact, the Richard Carlson character David Hewlitt was created strictly for the movie, providing the love interest for the Teresa Wright character Alexandra Giddens.  Also mentioned was Hellman’s prequel to this, entitled ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST (1948).

The film director is William Wyler, not only Goldwyn’s favorite director but also Bette Davis’s.  He was also instrumental in introducing Audrey Hepburn in ROMAN HOLIDAY and he helmed the blockbuster BEN HUR (1959).  Upon seeing THE LITTLE FOXES last night, I realized there was a subtext to all his work as somehow the issues of class always appeared.  He never preached about it, just showed it.

That was quite a trick when he interpreted Hellman.  After all, Hellman wasn’t subtle at all.  She courageously tackled sensitive subjects and along with husband Dashiell Hammett, RED HARVEST, was blacklisted in the 1950’s.  Though THE LITTLE FOXES does get a bit over melodramatic, there is a timeless relevance as to how it addresses ruthless businessmen and how it affects the lower classes.

Ben Hubbard (Charles Dingle) and Oscar Hubbard (Carl Benton Reid) are the ruthless ones here.  Ben is the mastermind while Oscar is merciless towards wife Addie (Jessie Grayson) and uses his not so bright son Leo (Dan Duryea) to steal for him.

Just as ruthless but being a female, their sister Regina has to rely on financial support from sickly husband Horace Gibbens (Herbert Marshall giving the best performance of his career).  In order to attempt to coerce Horace in her brothers’ business scheme, she sends daughter Alexandra, who doesn’t know the reason, to bring him home from Baltimore.

Even in the same house, Regina and Horace live apart.  Horace has a heart condition and can barely handle the stress Regina and her brothers give him.  On the other hand, he enjoys the love of his daughter and her boyfriend David.

Though the time is set in 1900 when slavery was abolished, treated as sub humans throughout especially by Regina are the African Americans in this movie.  There is a brief scene where black children drool over the quite extravagant leftovers from the back porch.  The servants do not shoo the children away as they know there’s a need as the kids are truly hungry.

Only the concerns of the white people are addressed even when the black people are around.  It wasn’t lost on me the black maid does not partake in any refreshment and just knits when the nicer white folks have tea.  David remarks the white people may have the pianos but it’s the colors who have the voices when he and Alexandra listen to the African Americans singing.  That’s the closest Wyler allows on commenting on the race segregation at this time.

As for the rest of the plot of THE LITTLE FOXES, much is revealed in Horace’s concern of the workers when finally confronted by Ben.  I’d much rather one sees the movie on how it plays out than reveal it,  especially on how Regina is able to turn the table on her brothers.

I strongly believe Wyler left a lot of the subtext in for viewers to draw their own conclusions.  Goldwyn famously said if you want to send a message, go to Western Union.  But right under his nose and others, Wyler sent messages through his work.

Wyler gave Humphrey Bogart his first sympathetic gangster role in DEAD END.  Bogart’s character gets alienated even by his own mother (Margery Main) and girlfriend (Claire Trevor).  The underlying cause is his own class struggles. 

Wyler and Davis both won Oscars for JEZEBEL.  In this, Bette’s Southern belle actually uses the politics of the North and South to attempt to get a man who’s really out of her class.  It just won’t work out and ends the way she never expected.

The underlying subtext of THE LETTER also deals with race, this time the whites, mainly English, and the Chinese.  This was made just before THE LITTLE FOXES.  Here, the Bette Davis character does

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES famously ushered in the alienation of being handicapped.  Harold Russell played the vet with no human hands.  It also has one of the most ironical scenes in history of alcoholic Fredric March not accepting Dana Andrews as a potential son in law because they belong in different classes.

ROMAN HOLIDAY has princess Audrey Hepburn yearning to join mankind as a normal human being.  But because she was born into royalty, she can’t.

There’s plenty more but I’ll just close with BEN HUR.  In Christ’s time, a Jewish slave (Charlton Heston) faces with Roman former friend (Stephen Boyd) in a chariot race.  That’s very much a class struggle.

William Wyler was a man of his time as well as being brilliant enough to be timeless.  It’s good to gain insight from one who knew how to not preach it, just show it.

Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) actually is best remembered as one of the Hollywood Ten who were arrested in 1947 and upon release, was blacklisted throughout the fifties.  In fact, through a front Robert Rich, he won the Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1956 for “The Brave One.“

Trumbo was finally able to use his own name when he wrote adaptations on two epics that were released in 1960.  In fact, May 22 will show “Spartacus”  that was produced and starred Kirk Douglas and directed by Stanley Kubrick, which has played at the Egyptian Theatre severally times before.  It was and still is a very daring film of its time that chronicles a slave leading a failed uprising against the Roman Empire.  “I Am Spartacus”, screamed by many to frustrate the Romans remains one of the most famous rallying scenes in cinema.

The other epic that will be screened on May 23 is “Exodus” that was directed Otto Preminger and starred Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint.  The focus of this film was the establishment of a Jewish state and the American and British support of making that happen.  This film is also remembered as possibly showcasing Sal Mineo’s best performance who has to wrestle with his conscious on several issues.  This has also enjoyed screenings at the Cinematheque, most recently during a Preminger film festival.

But Trumbo’s own pet project was “Johnny Got Your Gun.“  He wrote the novel in 1938 whose main character had no eyes, ears, mouth, arms or legs due to injuries obtained from a bomb explosion in the battlefield.  He himself suppressed the novel when he found out the evil that Nazi Germany was doing.  The novel was republished in the late sixties and was very much supported by the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War.

In 1971, Trumbo directed for the first and only time “Johnny Got Your Gun.“  Martin Lewis presided over the discussion with Marsha Hunt before and after the screening.  Also, after the screening they were joined by cinematographer Jules Brenner and associate producer/assistant director Christopher Trumbo.

Hunt recalled the blacklist very vividly and her own husband served as a front for several writers, an act that did require courage.  If caught, the front could never work in the industry again.  She was barely in the finished film.  Scenes she remembered doing were excised for the final cut.  As it was an independent production and not a financial success, it’s very likely those scenes are gone forever.

Brenner recalled the effects that due remain in the film.  Color was used for the memory and the fantasy sequences and black and white was used for the present reality sequences.  The fantasy scenes were originally conceived by Luis Brunuel, who was first slated to direct the picture.  But the surrealist Spanish director and Trumbo had disagreements and Trumbo took over.
This was such a personal project for Dalton that the bedroom where Jason Robards’s character dies, he played Joe’s father, is the same bedroom where Dalton’s own father had died.

Christopher Trumbo was thirty years old when he took on the dual responsibilities of associate producer and assistant director.  He was very proud to have had such an active participation in his father’s film.  He recalled producer Bruce Campbell quite fondly.  There was a huge casting call for Joe the main character.  Tim Matheson and Phil Proctor were strongly considered before deciding upon Timothy Bottoms.  Hunt thought Tim’s voiceover as the severely disabled vet outstanding.  She closed the discussion by saying the living dead is the ultimate nightmare and that’s all war is.

“Lonely Are The Brave” is also a rarity.  While “Johnny” was only released on dvd a month ago, parts of it were part of a Metallica video in 1989.  “Lonely” has not enjoyed that attention and currently not available.

That may change due to the fact that there are many familiar faces in the 1962 film written by Trumbo and directed by David Miller.  Star Kirk Douglas has called this his favorite role.  A young and slim Gena Rowlands played his girlfriend.  Walter Matthau played the sheriff who leads the manhunt against Douglas.  In smaller parts are deputy William Schallert who shares a running gag with Matthau, truck driver Caroll O’Connor, sadistic prison guard George Kennedy and helicopter policeman Bill Bixby.

However, the movie is flawed though very watchable.  The motivation as to why Kirk Douglas would want to break into jail to see his friend Michael Kane is very confused.  When Kane refuses to break out of prison, Douglas is forced to hightail over the mountains to escape.  Douglas is the only character seen who travels by horse, making him an anachronism to the modern day this cowboy lives in.

In fact, he’s shown to be a rebel right away by cutting a barbed wire fence though no explanation of why is given.  The real highlight of the film is Douglas attempting to escape with his horse.  When Matthau sees him through his binoculars, he remarks that he might make it without the horse.  Seeing Douglas and the horse struggle through landslides and intense climbing is quite a sight to behold.  As it has to, it ends very sadly for the antiestablishment anti-hero.

And that basically what Dalton Trumbo was.  A fitting tribute.

I think it might be because I watched a lot of TV and wanted to climb in.

What films influence or inspire you creatively?

There are really too many to name which is a fancy way to tell you I have forgotten a lot of them.  But the films that influence me make me laugh or cry or both and it’s the feelings I remember instead of the title.  Some people like getting anxious but if I’m anxious through an entire film, I’m usually not very entertained or hopeful about the world.  I like feeling hopeful at the end of the film.  Sometimes very sad films can do this too.

What inspired the idea for your short film?

I had never thought about adapting a short story, which was a massive oversight.  I read NEW BOY in Ireland’s multicultural newspaper Metro Eireann as well in McSweeney’s short story collection.  It was a fifteen minute experience with depth and simplicity, authentic characters and dialogue.  I wrote Roddy a letter and he was generous.  In my experience, writers are some of the most generous people in the world.  And in this instance, it was contagious.  The Irish Film Board and the national broadcaster RTE were then generous with the financing and the cast and crew were generous with their time and ideas.

How did you get the funding?

My producer, Tamara Anghie, loved the story as much as me was set about looking for financing.  We felt that we had a strong chance of getting some support because Roddy is so well known and respected in Ireland, but I still had to turn in a good script.  We applied to the Irish Film Board for a production loan through a program they ran called Short Cuts, with the national broadcaster, RTÉ.  This program specifically existed for emerging film-makers and provides an opportunity to go through all the negotiations and deliverables required for feature film-making but on a smaller level. We had to present a strong application, including my previous work and had to undergo several interviews before we got the green light.  We’re grateful to our financiers for their initial support and for the support they’ve continued to give us as we’ve traveled with NEW BOY.

How long did it take to get made?

From acquiring the rights, writing the script and then to delivery took about 12 months.  In reality, by the time we’d contracted to the Film Board we had about 4 months to prep, shoot and edit because part of the deal was that we had to deliver the film for it’s premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh, one of the major Irish festivals.  Prep took longer than we thought because the casting process for the kids ended up being so intensive.  It was really important to find authentic kids: Hazel’s precociousness, Christian’s insecurity, Seth’s alienation. Eventually we had everyone but Joseph and the search extended all across Ireland and parts of the UK. The search for a suitable location to shoot Ireland for Africa also proved a time-consuming challenge.  In the end, the extra time paid off as we found Olutunji Ebun-Cole and transformed a former army barracks into an African schoolhouse (which is a real credit to my production design team).  The actual shoot was 5 days, with one day shooting “Africa” and then 4 at the Irish school.  The editing took awhile as Tamara had cut a deal with top post facility Windmill Lane in Dublin, but it meant we had to work around the availability of our editor and the edit suites.  Some of the best edits happened during the overnight sessions at 4AM.  I try to use my tiredness to help me think less and feel more.

How have you gone about getting the film seen by others?

Really through the main option available which is film festivals, and then from there - putting it online.  You hope to get the buzz going at a film festival in order to push the film through and get momentum going.  As part of the short program by the Film Board, they and our sales agent, Network Ireland Television, submitted NEW BOY to 20 of the top international film festivals but beyond that, Tamara has worked hard in its promotion on the festival circuit for over 12 months. She budgeted ahead of time to keep money aside for festival entry fees, screeners etc and we’ve now screened in over 70 festivals worldwide from places as far apart as Uruguay to Iran, Nigeria to Sweden, and Australia to Belarus.  Antarctica is the only continent that hasn’t screened our film so we’re still trying to get it there.  We’ve been honored with wins in over 20 festivals which is humbling, but I think most film-makers would agree that the ultimate reward is for your film to be seen widely, so it’s gratifying to know we’ve had this worldwide coverage and that people have responded. 

What are your goals and upcoming projects for the future?

The stock but accurate answer is that I have a few features in varying stages of development.  I’m excited and terrified about continuing to be a filmmaker.  So I guess the goal is to keep evolving and being creative in a brave way.  Everyone always talks about how in this industry, you’re only as good as your last project.  Maybe that pressure is a good thing.  You’re never out of the weeds.


To preview the film, go to their official website www.newboythemovie.com.

As far as I can think back, I loved to watch movies, starting off with Disney films in my childhood. At the age of 12, I re-shot my own version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, ending up falling into a freezing cold river in February. My first “real” attempt of making a proper short film was a decade later, when studying English literature at the University of Fribourg, but I never went to film school.  Instead, I completed my studies and somehow ended up in journalism working as a film-critic. After several years of endlessly covering films and interviewing directors, I felt more and more that I had ended up on the “wrong” side.  I decided to apply for a post-graduate program at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. AUF DER STRECKE (ON THE LINE) is my thesis film.

What films influence or inspire you creatively?

All great movies are inspiring. I am particularly fond of smaller scale, personal films - close-to life stories that create their magic with believable characters and essential human conflicts (like, for example, the films of Alexander Payne and Mike Leigh, or - on a more dramatic scale - the Dardenne brothers or Krzysztof Kieslowski).  That being said, I must say though that much more than in the films, I find inspiration in real life.

What inspired the idea for your short film?

I wrote it with a friend and we thought it would be interesting to have a guy who could not be with the woman he loves because of guilt. We liked this classical Greek tragic concept of being so close and yet so far.

We then asked ourselves what he could have done to make this issue of guilt more interesting. For example we didn’t want him to accidentally run over her husband and drive off - something where he would clearly feel very guilty. We were looking for something in a gray area where viewers would ask themselves “what would I have done?“  So we came up with the whole youth violence and public violence issue and the question of civil courage - you can address viewers directly and they will be immediately drawn in to the story. There’s this event that is very close to our daily experience: every day you read something about fights in public spaces. And then there’s the whole issue of video cameras and monitoring. It’s a timeless story wrapped in a very topical coat, so to speak.

How did you get the funding?

As a Swiss studying at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany, I was in the very fortunate position of being able to apply for funding in both countries. The film was funded by the Filmstiftung NRW, by the Film foundations of Bern and Zürich, by Migros and the Film Bureau Bremen. And Blush Films Zurich Swiss Television SF TV came on board as a co-producer.

How long did it take to get made?

Almost two years. Most of this time we invested in developing the script, about eight months. The shoot itself took 11 days. As a student without a lot of money, you have to wait often until the people you want to work for you (they all worked for free) find a slot. Therefore, there’s a lot of delay, mostly in post production. But all in all the production went very smoothly from beginning to end.

How have you gone about getting the film seen by others?

I just sent it to festivals, beginning with a big one, of course (Clermont-Ferrand). When the film won the “Grand Prix” there, it went all by itself, I was literally drowned in requests from other festivals. Now, a full year later, the film has been screened at over a hundred festivals, collecting more than 50 awards.

What are your goals and upcoming projects for the future?

The last year has been very busy with the distribution and promotion of AUF DER STRECKE (ON THE LINE). This is why my co-author Philippe Zweifel and I have only just now begun to develop a new project. It’s gonna be a feature, but it’s too early to reveal too much about it, really. Also, we are very slow writers. My biggest fear is that it’ll take us years until this is gonna be good and get into financing.

Therefore, I am also very interested in reading good scripts that are already well developed. As mentioned before, I am particularly looking for warm, tragicomic close-to-life stories. Another genre I am fond of is the psychological thriller, no “whodunits”, but dramatic stories about obsession and human weakness like Patricia Highsmith used to write them. 

Click HERE to see clips and to preview other films by Retro Caffi.

So I made it, I am now in Park City. It is cold, but not as cold as everyone keeps saying. Maybe because I have experienced a good New York winter, I am pretty prepared for this, but the week ahead looks to be sunny and in the thirties. Nice.

Finally arriving, I am left thinking about what I will see-whether that will be on the silver screen or on the streets. I am certain that the filmmakers are just as nervous and excited for their screening as I am. I am on the other side of the camera, the one that writes about their screening, creating talk and knowledge for their independent film. Buzz is everything at Sundance, what people talk about will make the film take off or just be forgotten to the pages of the program.

The general public only gets a taste of what plays at Sundance, if that. There are the 64 featured films competing in different categories (Dramatic Feature, Documentary Feature, World Cinema, etc.) and they get a lot of the publicity, but what happens to the others? It is such an honor to be accepted at Sundance, that that is publicity in itself and some films have the star power to carry the film, no matter what the distribution. But what films are you really going to see out of this?

To give you an idea of what played last year and what you got a chance to see in the theaters, the following films might ring a bell:

Choke was up for Best Dramatic Competition at Sundance and had a limited release. The film featured Sam Rockwell and was based off of the book by Chuck Palahniuk, but did not win at the festival.

Man On Wire took home two awards, including World Cinema Audience Award Documentary and the Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary. This film was also released, but limited and did not draw much attention at the box office although it has won a number of critical awards..

American Teen was in competition for Documentary Feature and did not win, but was also picked up and released. The marketing campaign worked very well for this film, but this is with the help of the controversy around the way the movie was filmed.

Frozen River won the ultimate award, The Grand Jury Prize for dramatic feature, but still it was not widely seen in theaters after its release.

If you have not heard of any of these titles, you are not alone. For those that you do recognize, you most likely saw these films at art houses or independent movie theaters. But this is the life of an indie film, the life of indies outside of festivals. Festival goers come to see movies that you cant find anywhere else, to get something different than Hollywood. Unfortunately, we don’t see enough.

So whether or not you end up seeing some of the films that I will be talking about, this is what I am seeing, what interests me. I hope to expose you to things that are not specifically spotlighted, but at the same time, I will keep you up to date on what everyone is talking about. It’s time to create our own buzz. 

The movie itself plays with colors that has been seen before in Eastwood’s pictures. The names of the crew are quite familiar to those who’ve seen other Eastwood’ movies. The first shot is actually in black and white and very much in the period in terms of building and cars when the first caption reads out: 1928.

Slowly but surely, from an aerial shot to ground level, the black and white changes into color. We are introduced to Christine Collins who brilliantly played by Angelina Jolie. Collins is a single mom who’s also a telephone operator supervisor required to use roller skates to fix little emergencies and handle supplies. Her first scene firmly establishes her as a loving mother.

After returning from work to take her son to the latest Chaplin movie, she finds her son is nowhere to be found. Captain J. J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) reassures her that the LAPD will find her son. A child is brought forth from Illinois and the press are present to record the mother child reunion. However, the first words out of Collin’s mouth is “He is not my son.“ Pictures are taken anyway.

Later, she comes back to complain to Jones that the child is not hers, he actually gets angry as far that he’s concerned, the LAPD did its job. Just prior to this, she meets with Rev. Gustave Brieleb, (John Malkovich) who has his own radio broadcast program denouncing the very corrupt LAPD, whose tie-ins with organized crime he knows about.

Jones actually has her committed. She’s listed as a Code 12, one who has had trouble with the police and where electric shock therapy is used. Meanwhile, Detective Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) follows a tip and captures an illegal alien from Canada. This boy tells a shocking story of boys being hacked up to bits that he was forced to help and among the boy s identified is Michael Collins as among the dead.

Gordon Northcott (Jason Butler Hamer) gets thrown in jail for committing those hideous acts. In one powerful screen, he calls Christine to give her closure which he never does. There’s cross cutting between the police cover-up trail and Northcott’s trial and both get the right verdicts with thunderous applause, one dramatic taken out of Capra, who has been criticized for same and the movie ends with Collins winning a bet that “It Happened One Night” would win at the Academy Awards.

When Eastwood came out, he was chewing on some popcorn. This took place two years before he was born. He recalled his years growing up in the Pacific Palisades and remembers the Red Car, electric rail trolleys that were replaced by diesel buses, not so bright idea in retrospect.

The script by J. Michael Straczynski was presented to him by Paul Glazer’s company and he liked it very much. He offered the lead role to Jolie as both have expressed interest in working together. Clippings of transcripts were taped on the other side of the script pages really sold him.

He praised Anthony Mann, Howard Hawks and John Ford when pressed what was his favorite Western. He rarely uses playback because those old pros didn’t and even gave a passable impersonation of John Wayne while acknowledging other great actors who played cowboy parts.

He even talked about making the Piano Blues doc for Scorsese when prompted. All in all, he was quite respectful in his responses to his audience who accorded him the respect when he left. A true living legend.

There are writers that personify an age just as much as a performer.  That’s why I begin this article with F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda who have been honored to have a museum in their honor.  His writing was terse and very much in the vernacular of his time.  Calling a friend “old man” got even hard to say without a straight face in the sound thirties films.

Bob Dylan scornfully yells “You’ve read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book.  You’re very well read, that’s well known.“  Andy Kaufman read “The Great Gatzby” to bored audiences who got the whole book read to them instead of a comedy routine.  Somewhat mutes what the book is supposed to remembered for, a rich man tries to recapture a love that he never had to begin with.

Ironically, Fitzgerald who also wrote The Last Tycoon and several others did not have success in Hollywood. Still, he fascinates.

The Fitzgeralds stayed here briefly.  Here he wrote Tender Is the Night while she wrote her only book Save Me the Waltz.  The years were 1931-1932.

The museum is located in Montgomery, Alabama and has received high ratings for bringing back one of the top celebrity couples of the jazz age.