Southern Bookman

Al Pacino in excerpt from memoir "Sonny Boy" looks back on South Bronx childhood

Al Pacino's three closest childhood friends succumbed to heroin.

Acting, and his mother's love, saved Pacino from a similar fate, as he vividly recalls in his forthcoming memoir "Sonny Boy." 

In an excerpt titled "Early Scenes" in the current issue of The New Yorker, Pacino looks back on his childhood roaming the South Bronx with his wild friends.

Abandoned by his father, Pacino and his mother lived with his Sicilian grandparents in a small apartment in a multi-cultural neighborhood near the Bronx River. His mother's father, a plasterer, really did come from the small Sicilian village of Corleone.

Pacino's emotionally fragile mother took her "Sonny Boy" to the movies from an early age and did her best to protect him from the worst excesses of the streets. Through the years, Pacino rarely saw his father, although he remembers him fondly.

At age 16, Pacino discovered the theater, viewing a small company's production of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" at the Bronx's Elsmere Theater. 

The self-taught actor rode the subways reading the Russian writer's plays. Later, after classes at New York's High School for the Performing Arts and lessons at an actor's studio, he recited Shakespeare soliloquies while walking the city streets. He and his roommate, Martin Sheen, worked menial jobs at small theaters seeking to break into acting.

His mother's accidental drug death left Pacino numb with grief. In his warm recollections of her, he never mentions her name.

Despite the devastating loss, Pacino refuses an offer to return home and live with his grandparents. "Early Scenes" ends with his decision to begin the next act.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell, Gena Rowlands, star of pioneering independent films by her husband, John Cassavetes

Gena Rowlands pushed the boundaries of American acting, displaying an emotional range associated with films by European masters like Ingmar Bergman and Frederico Fellini.

Her performances in "A Woman Under the Influence" and "Opening Night," both directed by her husband, John Cassavetes, stand out in her long and distinguished career.

Rowlands, who along with Cassavetes pioneered the independent film movement in the United States, died Wednesday at age 94 at her home in Indian Wells, Calif., her son, Nick Cassavetes, announced. No cause was given, but she suffered from Alzheimer's disease, the subject of her 2004 film "The Notebook," directed by her son.

Known for her beauty, Rowlands could display cool film glamor and earthy sensuality. She possessed a gift for comedy as well as dramatic depth.

In "A Woman Under the Influence," Rowlands in her audacious performance as the bipolar housewife Mabel Longhetti explores a woman's volatile personality shifts during a descent into madness.

Risking pushing the portrayal too far, Rowlands remains grounded in Mabel's ordinary good humor and love for her construction worker husband, portrayed by Peter Falk. She shows a woman breaking away from society's pressure to play a role of decorum.

Rowlands shows a different side of a woman's desperation and madness in "Opening Night," in which she portrays the aging theater star Myrtle Gordon. As the cool glamorous actress, Rowlands exhibits a restraint lacking in her Mabel Longhetti role.

The winner of four Emmys and an honorary Academy Award for career achievement, Rowlands also excelled in more mainstream roles. Her performances in "A Woman Under the Influence" and "Opening Night" will stand among the most dynamic in film history.

 

 

The Los Angeles Olympics will give striking contrast to Paris Games

Paris has passed the Olympics flag to Los Angeles.

The two cities share significant presences in the world's imagination, from countless books, movies, songs and TV shows.

Their contrasts are striking. Paris, as the recent Olympics broadcast emphasized, is compact. LA is spread out.

Paris has the Seine. Los Angeles, its river encased in concrete, revels in the Pacific Ocean. 

Both cities produce movies, movie stars and music. 

Paris boasts of Proust, Emile Zola, Victor Hugo, Arthur Rimbaud. Los Angeles offers Raymond Chandler, Eve Babitz, Nathaniel West, Joan Didion.

The Paris Olympics glowed with the Eiffel Tower. The Los Angeles Olympics will make do with the Hollywood sign.

"Casablanca," a Hollywood production, defined Paris. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.

LA counters with "Chinatown." Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.

With the 2028 Olympics, Los Angeles will join Paris as a three-time host of the event.

LA's not Paris. But the City of Angels' Olympics will be marvelous.

 

Griffin Dunne recounts Hollywood life of triumph, tragedy in "The Friday Afternoon Club"

Griffin Dunne's "The Friday Afternoon Club" upholds his family's glittering literary heritage.

The nephew of famed writers Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne and son of acclaimed author and crime reporter Dominick Dunne, Griffin Dunne looks back on a life of privilege, heartbreak and tragedy.

In the tradition of other revealing Hollywood memoirs, the 69-year-old actor, director and producer examines the intense pressures and fear of failure at the heart of film glamour.

Dominick Dunne enjoyed a blossoming career as a film producer, hosting sumptuous Hollywood parties with his wife, Ellen Griffin Dunne, that attracted a dazzling array of film stars. Griffin rccalls Sean Connery saving him from drowning, Elizabeth Montgomery serving as his babysitter, and his mother's close friendship with Natalie Wood.

It all crashed when Dominick Dunne at a dinner party told a cruel joke about the high-powered agent Sue Mengers. Suddenly, no one returned Dominick's calls, and he was finished as a film tycoon.

The book's tragic center is the murder of Griffin Dunne's beautiful and vivacious sister Dominique, a rising film star. The book's title derives from the name his late sister gave to a group of young actors with whom she frequently met.

The 22-year-old star of the movie "Poltergeist" was strangled by her boyfriend, John Sweeney, on Halloween in 1982. In a trial presided over by an incompetent judge who issued several prejudicial rulings in favor of Sweeney's attorney, the killer was found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder, eventually serving three years in prison.

Griffin Dunne recalls the family's outrage over the trial and the defense attorney's malicious tactics. But the family's anger resulted in Dominick's emergence as a writer for Vanity Fair. Tina Brown, the magazine's new editor, met Dominick at a New York dinner party, and when he mentioned the trial, asked him to write about it. 

Dominick's success from reporting on the trial upset his son, who grew up admiring his uncle more than his father. Griffin poignantly describes his reconciliation with his father before his death in 2009 from cancer at age 83. As Griffin details, Dominick was tormented by his homosexuality, which he struggled to resist until late in life.

At times not an admirable character, Griffin fearlessly recounts scandalous behavior and career missteps. Yet he never loses the reader's sympathy.

One of the book's most captivating vignettes is his youthful friendship with Carrie Fisher before she gained fame portraying Princess Leia in "Star Wars."

Dunne amusingly recalls how Fisher didn't expect the movie to be a hit and was shocked by her sudden rise to stardom. They remained friends, and he endearingly recalls his final goodbye to her before her death.

With inside glimpses of the New York and Los Angeles film and theater worlds, and a full cast of memorable characters, "The Friday Afternoon Club" affirms the enduring power of family love.

 

 

"Easy Rider's" cinematic beauty salvages film's fatuous script

"Easy Rider's" visual majesty contrasts with the film's time-worn performances.

Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda's counterculture epic creaks with the fatuous dialogue of their screenplay, co-written with Terry Southern. Under Hopper's direction, the film's fast pace does build suspense and narrative momentum. While the script seems dated overall, some of the lines retain their power.

Laszlo Kovacs' gorgeous cinematography eloquently expresses the film's message of corrupted American beauty. The soundtrack also enhances Hopper and Fonda's flamboyant performances as hippies riding from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

Hopper's zany antics as Billy result in a hippie caricature, more cornball than cutting edge after all of these years. Fonda's Wyatt - the equally trite "Captain America" - displays moments of quiet dignity reminiscent of his father Henry. Wyatt and Billy - yes, we get it, Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. Instant irony, kids.

The two groovy dudes finance their trip with a cocaine deal - deemed heroic at the time, but contemptible now. Phil Spector makes an amusing cameo appearance as an all too easily pleased drug dealer who eagerly buys their cocaine stash, which they had acquired in Mexico.

Jack Nicholson's brief appearance in his breakout role as the dissolute lawyer George Hanson raises the film's temperature. Karen Black, Nicholson's co-star in the more accomplished film "Five Easy Pieces," also injects energy as a New Orleans prostitute forced to act out an unconvincing acid trip in New Orleans' above-ground tombs.

Once again, I resented the film for slandering my native state by depicting Louisianians as violent, prejudicial rednecks. Many are, but I doubt they'd murder white hippies. At the time, plenty of longhairs roamed the state.

Despite their heavy-handed performances, the shots of Fonda and Hopper cruising past American vistas deliver a rare cinematic excitement, thanks to Kovacs.

 

 

 

 

Farewell Robert Towne, acclaimed "Chinatown" screenwriter

Robert Towne raised the prominence of scriptwriting in American culture.

Towne, who died Monday at his Los Angeles home at age 89, received the critical acclaim once given directors and novelists.

Although recognized by Academy Awards categories, screenwriting was undervalued until Towne and other "New Hollywood" script mavens arrived in the late 1960s and early '70s.

Following Towne, many young literary aspirants turned to writing movies rather than plays, magazine articles and books.

Receiving the 1975 Academy Award for his "Chinatown" screenplay, Towne also wrote "The Last Detail" and "Shampoo" and made significant contributions to "The Godfather" and "Bonnie and Clyde," along with other movies.

While Towne's "Chinatown" script is known as an exemplar of the screenwriter's art, director Roman Polanski changed the ending, to Towne's intense opposition.

Still grieving the murder of his wife Sharon Tate by the Charles Manson gang, Polanski insisted that the movie end with the shocking slaying of Faye Dunaway's character Evelyn Mulwray by her father, the despicable Noah Cross, chillingly played by John Huston. In Towne's original script, Cross is killed by his daughter.

Mrs. Mulwray's tragic end leads to the famous last line, "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."

It's never been disclosed who wrote the finale, but Towne originally had the idea of Chinatown as a symbol of Los Angeles' greed and immortality, which he said derived from a conversation with a Los Angeles detective.

According to author Sam Wasson's "The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood," Towne received uncredited help on his "Chinatown" script from his Pomona College classmate Edward Taylor, with whom Towne worked throughout his career.

Towne like his close friend Jack Nicholson began writing, directing and acting for B movie horror master Roger Corman, who recently died. Nicholson portrayed Towne's 1930s Los Angeles detective Jake Gittes in "Chinatown" and Navy officer Billy L. "Badass" Buddusky in "The Last Detail," two of Nicholson's defining roles.

Warren Beatty, another Towne friend, also portrayed a memorable Los Angeles prototype, the hairdresser George Roundy, in the 1975 movie "Shampoo," which Beatty co-wrote with Towne.

Towne directed several movies, including the 1988 crime thriller "Tequila Sunrise" and the 2006 romantic drama "Ask the Dust," starring Collin Farrell and Salma Hayek.

Inspired by Los Angeles writer Raymond Chandler and his famous detective Philip Marlowe in writing "Chinatown," Towne also wrote the screenplay of  "Ask the Dust," saluting John Fante, another classic Los Angeles author. 

Towne's cinematic visions of Los Angeles match Chandler and Fante's depictions of the city as a soulless place of broken dreams.

While "Chinatown" and other Towne movies will excite new generations of viewers, young writers will also study his scripts for their literary value.

 

 

 

Griffin Dunne receives widespread attention for his memoir "The Friday Afternoon Club"

Griffin Dunne's drawing intense media anticipation for his book "The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir," to be published next week.

In a chorus of media interviews, the actor says completing the memoir fulfills one of his lifetime goals. He still wishes to learn to play a musical instrument and master Spanish.

The scion of a famed literary and Hollywood family, Dunne felt immense pressure to finish the book following the acclaimed literary careers of his father, Dominick, his uncle, John Gregory Dunne, and his aunt, Joan Didion.

Interviewed this week by New York magazine, People magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian and the Literary Hub, Dunne says he felt compelled to revisit the murder of his sister Dominique, a rising young actress slain by her ex-boyfriend, John Thomas Sweeney, in 1982.

The 22-year-old actress's buoyant spirit still shines against the darkness of her death, Dunne says. The book's title comes from the name of his sister's acting group.

Vanity Fair in a recent issue published Dunne's recollections of his sister's murder, and the trial of her killer, which outraged his family.

Sweeney, accused of murder, was convicted of manslaughter, serving three and a half years in prison. Dominick Dunne in an article for Vanity Fair magazine divulged his disgust for Sweeney's attorneys and the presiding judge. The piece launched his spectacular career covering celebrity trials for the magazine.

Griffin says he was initially incensed by his father's success stemming from the trial of his sister's killer. Griffin eventually reached a rapprochement with his father on that and other points of contention. His father died in 2007 at age 83.

The book recounts Griffin's Hollywood childhood. Dominick, a closeted homosexual, built a successful career as a producer before wrecking his insider status with an insult of super-agent Sue Mengers published in the Hollywood Reporter.

After years of destitution, Dominick Dunne rebuilt his life writing for Vanity Fair and making frequent TV appearances as a crime expert.

Griffin as a youth often attended parties given by his aunt and uncle, renowned Hollywood scriptwriters who never lost their standing.

In the book, he recalls being saved from drowning by Sean Connery and having his girlfriend hit upon by Roman Polanski, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.

"Like three wolves sniffing a baby lamb," he told New York magazine's Shawn McCreesh.

Griffin discloses in the interviews that the book revisits his up and down acting career. After initial success in Hollywood films and on the New York stage, Dunne struggled with lackluster roles and substance abuse.

The 69-year-old has undergone a resurgence in recent years, producing and appearing in the documentary "Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold," a retrospective of his late aunt's career. He also starred in the popular NBC hit "This Is Us."

Now, he's matching his family's literary radiance.

 

 

 

D-Day anniversary brings childhood memories of watching "The Longest Day" in theater

D-Day's 80th anniversary recalls a vivid childhood memory.

My mother dropped my sister and me off at a theater in downtown Baton Rouge to watch "The Longest Day," a Hollywood extravaganza depicting the Allied invasion, based on Cornelius Ryan's pioneering book.

The film, released in 1962, featured a "galaxy of stars," ranging from John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda, Peter Lawford and Robert Mitchum to Red Buttons, Eddie Albert, George Segal, Paul Anka and Fabian. Many just made cameo appearances.

I still remember sitting in the dark theater, eating my popcorn, transfixed by the luminous action on the screen.

In those days, parents thought nothing of letting their children go alone to the movie theater, the mall, the barbershop or the golf course.

The theater where my sister and I saw "The Longest Day" is long gone now, a victim of suburban multi-screen theaters.

Hollywood's dramatization of D-Day captured the mammoth scope of the invasion, and the heroism of individual soldiers.

It was one of the first movies I watched in a theater, opening an exciting world.

 

"Anyone But You" and "The Idea of You" give rom-com entertainment

OK, I'll confess to watching "Anyone But You" and "The Idea of You" this week.

Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell vs. Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine.

A little bit of rom-com heaven right here on earth, thanks to Netflix and Prime Video.

The two films with their opposing titles present surprisingly similar takes on the travails of modern love.

In "Anyone But You," Sweeney's a young woman trying to discover herself. She finds her life's purpose in Powell's character, a modern-day Cary Grant who bumbles along yet keeps standing, often taking off his clothes.

"The Idea of You" offers Anne Hathaway as 40-year-old seeking to reinvent herself. She finds happiness in a fling with a 24-year-old singer in a boy band she implausibly meets.

As with Galitzine's engaging British lad, Anne had me at hello.

I'd forgotten that the film, purportedly taking place in the Los Angeles area and the south of France, was shot in Atlanta.  Virginia-Highland turned into Glendale, Calif.  The Georgian coast stars as the Mediterranean.

As some Internet wag mentioned, the main purpose of "Anyone But You" seemed to be showing Powell without his shirt.

I've been reading about the new Brad Pitt's appearance in the acclaimed new crime noir thriller "Hit Man," and wanted to gauge his star power along with Sweeney.

The takeoff of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" wobbled a few times with clunky dialogue, and Sweeney is a bit wooden. Yet she offered a passable imitation of the young Goldie Hawn, and I laughed at her comic scenes.

Although Powell at times appeared to be wondering how he had arrived in such a silly movie, he persevered to the end. The inevitable coming together of him and Sweeney delivered a satisfying finish.

The movie was also worth watching because of the gorgeous shots of another Sydney, Sydney. Australia. The city's harbor with its spectacular opera house rising from a small island and its skyline gave me an urge to hop on a plane and go down under.

With all of the bad news about political turmoil, extreme weather and the Braves, I enjoyed such escapist fare.

They reminded me of movies Hollywood used to turn out that just wanted to entertain.

 

 

 

Matt Singer's "Opposable Thumbs" shines spotlight on Siskel and Ebert's TV popularity

 Gene Siskel and Robert Ebert turned film criticism into a TV spectator sport.

The Chicago newspaper movie writers - Siskel for the Tribune and Ebert for the Sun Times - brought their heated rivalry to the Windy City's public TV station WTTW in 1975 in a show first titled "Opening Soon at a Theater Near You."

Their disdain for each other and barbed disagreements over the latest movies generated compelling TV conflict. The show, retitled "Siskel & Ebert at the Movies," spread to public TV stations across the country. Later, their intellectual vaudeville act reached broader audiences through syndication to local commercial stations.

Film crritic Matt Singer examines Siskel and Ebert's rise in the entertaining dual biography/cultural history "Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel and Ebert Changed the Movies."

The title comes from the critics' trademark "thumbs up or thumbs down" judgments on movies, reflecting their low-tech appeal. Siskel and Ebert sat in a mock movie theater balcony, just two guys arguing over which new movies they liked or disliked.

Siskel and Ebert appeared on TV until Siskel's premature death in 1999, their popularity coinciding with that of blockbuster movies like "Jaws" and "Star Wars." Along with hit films, the two rumpled newspapermen gave attention to art films like "My Dinner With Andre."

The unlikely TV stars in their later years responded to the rise of the VCR and increased home viewership of movies, leading to the advent of Netflix and streaming, which has upended the movie industry.

Singer in his in-depth look at Siskel and Ebert's careers delivers an enticing history of American television and movies. The two print journalists built an entertainment empire, appearing on TV talk shows and interviewing movie stars.

Siskel and Ebert's power is a long gone artifact of the past, like the VCR and Blockbuster film rentals.