Film Forno

I tracked down a copy of Jean Renoir’s Carola, This is a play written by Renoir that he was going to direct but ill health forced him to bow out and his good friend Norman LLoyd filled in. It’s a made for TV production done for KCET’s Hollywood Television Theater back in 1972, it stars Leslie Caron, Mel Ferrer, Anthony Zerbe, and Michael Sacks. An interesting take on the Nazi occupation, redolent with Renoir’s humanism,some of the Nazi’s are human beings not just robotic killing machines and the worst people in the play are the French members of the Gestapo. The story is set in wartime Paris in an old theater during the performance of a play.

Francoise, you ripped me off!

Leslie Caron is the star of the play and almost all of the action takes place in her dressing room during the intermission between acts and after the play. Leslie is beautiful in the part of an actress on the other side of ingenue-hood, caught up in an offstage drama revolving about her many lovers, there’s Gen. Von Clodius (Mel Ferrer) her first true love from years ago now an occupying General seeking an audience with his ex-lover, Anthony Zerbe (a terrific actor and one time Citroen owner) the director/owner of the theater and Carola’s current bedmate, and Henri Marceau(Michael Sacks) a naive young Freedom Fighter, who risks his life for an autograph from his favorite actress, the woman he’s loved from afar, Carola. The spirit of this piece is closely related to Renoir’s masterpieces Grand Illusion and Rules Of The Game, Illusion for it’s gentleman officer (Erich Von Stroheim) and Rules for it’s frank sexuality. Carola has had many lovers since her first affair with Von Clodius and Zerbe even says to her “If you won’t speak to anyone you’ve slept with you’ll be all alone” or words to that effect. The life of an actress in Paris of that time was a promiscuous one. This play is really about love, different shades of it, and what love means to all involved, innocent, jaded, idealistic,etc. The center of this malestrom of passion is Carola, desired by everyone, each for his own reason, even desired by the Gestapo colonel who appears late in the play and praises Carola for her “proof of Aryan supremacy”. The occupation provides only a background to these passions and it creates a situation where normal people are put to the test, where their core values are under pressure and they can cave in or pay with their lives. The surprise is which ones do just that.

The Last Metro was released in 1980, 8 years after Carola. It too takes place in a theater during the occupation of Paris by the Nazi’s. There are some striking similarities, Catherine Deneuve is the star of the plays put on at the theater, she is desired by Nazi’s and idealistic Freedom fighters( Gerard Depardieu), the war is once again a kind of backdrop for the lives, passions, both real and petty, of the actors and personnel of the theater. Almost as if the war didn’t exist outside of the difficulties it created for the players, food, electricity, threat of being shut down by censors. Anthony Zerbe has a wonderful speech in Carola where he describes all life outside the theater as being less real to Carola than the parts she’s playing onstage, a real insight into both films. The main difference is the character of Steiner in Metro. He is Deneuve’s Jewish husband, director and owner of the theater. He is hiding in the basement of the theater, listening to the performances(and perhaps his wife’s infidelities) through an air vent.

Kiss me louder so my husband can hear!

For some reason I never bought into this character, something seemed false to me about him, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Only later when I read a biography of Truffaut did I get an understanding. Truffaut was a bastard, I mean he was born out of wedlock, his mother married soon after but the man she married was not his father. Years later when Truffaut was preparing a film he worked with a private detective on some research, then he asked the detective to find his real father. The man did so and Truffaut found out his real father was a Jewish dentist living in a nearby town. The sudden revelation of his own Jewish roots struck Truffaut like a thunderbolt. He was conflicted, he had an identity crisis and I think this is why the character of Steiner is so unsatisfying. Truffaut even hired a Jewish writer to work on Steiner’s part in the script, to assure him of it’s “Jewishness”. And to top it off the actor he hired to play Steiner (Heinz Bennent) wasn’t Jewish!

Catherine, do it more like Leslie Caron.

Truffaut took Carola opened it up in a more filmic manner (scenes outside the theater) transplanted his personal conflict about being Jewish into it and made a film. A very successful film, I might add, a real crowd pleaser, happy ending (unlike Carola) less realistic depiction of the sex lives of it’s protagonists, a bunch of cute eccentric characters. As a matter of fact several times in Carola one of the characters refers to the fact that due to delays, that night’s performance of the play will run longer, causing the audience members to be late, miss the last metro ( subway) and violate curfew. Truffaut even got his title from the text of Carola! The final scene of Metro reminds me of Zerbe’s speech where the play and reality are purposely confused, which is more real to the actor? A final note, Leslie Caron, a friend of Truffaut and Renoir was so incensed that Truffaut gave no credit or even mentioned Carola and Renoir in regard to Metro that she never spoke to him again.

Trailer for The Last Metro

Norman Lloyd speaks on Carola

Well, well, well. It’s about time! The guy is 94 years old and more deserving of an Academy Award than anyone on the Planet! Remember fans of Film Forno you saw it here first! We started the Give Eli Wallach an Academy Award campaign right here on Film Forno over 1 year ago, Don’t remember? Well looky here. Hats off to the Academy for honoring a great artist and a great human being.

Here’s some experimental footage shot by Henri-Georges Clouzout from his abandoned film Inferno. Romy Schnieder is beautiful and the visuals are stunning. A documentary about this lost film is being released right now, it’s playing in New York and will open soon in Los Angeles.

Prepare to be Mesmerized.

And here’s the trailer for the Documentary, in French.

The lovely Vonetta McGee has passed on to the next dimension. Luckily for us trapped here on Earth we can still enjoy her beauty projected on the Silver Screen. She got her break appearing in Sergio Corbucci’s Il Grande Silenzio, a top notch Spaghetti Western, and she is an amazing presence in that film.

A gorgeous Black woman in a Western! Corbucci had vision, it’s no wonder that he is one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite directors. Vonetta also appeared in The Eiger Sanction playing against another veteran of the Italian western, Clint Eastwood.

Alex Cox, a huge fan of Il Grande Silenzio and an expert on Spaghetti Westerns cast Vonetta in his cult hit Repo Man probably because she was in The Great Silence.

She is also in a film of gigantic cultural significance, Blacula.

Goodbye Vonetta, we will all miss you. Maybe Quentin will put together a retrospective of your films and screen them at the New Beverly or The CineFamily. I think that would be Super Cool.

Damn, I wish I could go see this film tonight but I’m working! Duke Mitchell’s lost film,Gone With The Pope,finally finished by Bob Murawski will unspool at the super cool New Beverly Cinema tonight July 13th at 7:30 pm. The story goes that Murawski tracked down Duke’s son and was given 10 boxes of film, some notes and a VHS copy. He began working on it in his spare time and now it’s ready. Hats off to Bob for dedication and perseverence and honoring the work of a deceased filmmaker. A Great Accomplishment! Duke Mitchell had an act in the 50’s with Sammy Petrillo, they were like Dean Martin,& Jerry Lewis clones, they made one film Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla before a lawsuit put an end to their act. So thanks to Murawski and his partner Sage Stallone for resuscitating this lost gem and their Grindhouse Releasing for getting it out.

Here are some scenes from Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, the likes of which we’ll never see again, Mastroianni, Ekberg, Fellini, Nino Rota’s music, B&W Scope. The shots of Ekberg in the fountain, her blonde hair cascading down her back like the water behind her, some of the greatest in Cinema! And the mysterious ending, dialog no one can hear, looks , gestures on an existential beach with all the sound added later, so atmospheric, so lovely and sad. Enjoy!

Gloria, Bogey and Nick Ray confer on the set

Here for your viewing pleasure is Nick Ray’s In A Lonley Place. Produced by Bogart’s Santana Production Company, the film took a while to get underway due to the studio not approving Gloria Grahame, Nick Ray’s wife at the time. When the film finally got underway Nick and Gloria were splitsville. A few years later Gloria married Nick’s son. Oedipus in tinseltown. The characters are all fucked up which is what makes the film good.

Are These The Hands Of A Killer?

The music sucks but what can you do, this film was made during a transitional period, in old Hollywood films there was music under dialog scenes commenting on everything in an obvious way, this film still has a lot of that. Although there is an appearance by the amazing Hadda Brooks, tinkling the ivories and vocalizing at a piano bar while Bogey and Grahame look on. Gloria Grahame is at her sexiest in this film, she’s incredible. Bogey is great too, weird but great. Louise Brooks said this film captured the real Humphrey Bogart more than any other. It’s interesting how the patented Bogey dialog doesn’t quite work here, you know like the lines from To Have And Have Not with Betty Bacall , “You have a touch of class but you don’t like to be rated…” I think it’s because it was made during a transitional time, getting away from the conventions of Old Hollywood, Bogey getting older, vulnerable, screwed up. Mortality taking it’s toll. Watch it for yourself and decide.

Harry Bromley Davenport, an independent filmmaker and friend wrote in with an idea, a post about the Wilhelm scream. The infamous sound effect used in countless movies as sort of an in-joke among sound editors. Harry forwarded me a link to an article that claims to identify the famous but till now unidentified screamer. The article names Sheb Wooley as the Wilhelm screamer! A Western type cowboy actor and author of the big hit song Flying Purple Eater.

Here’s the very first use of the Wilhelm scream. From a movie called Charge At Feather River.

And here’s a compilation of many Wilhelm’s.

Was it Sheb Wooley? Who knows for sure, maybe it’s destined to be an eternal mystery like who really killed the Black Dahlia.

This is the same bamboo flute used in Kill Bill

Well they couldn’t show Circle Of Iron Sunday night at the Cine Family, it was 2 in the morning! But they said they’d show it on Monday at 10:30 pm. So I went back to see the last of the Carradine tributes. It was excellent! Here’s my favorite scene with Carradine as King Of The Monkey Men!

And here’s another great scene featuring Tuco himself, Eli WALLACH

I went to the CineFamily Theater yesterday at 4 pm and I didn’t leave until about 2am! Quentin Tarantino hosted a marathon screening of David Carradine performance gems. First off we watched a 16mm print of the first episode of Kung Fu called King Of The Mountain, it featured John Saxon as a bounty hunter and Brandon Cruz as a boy orphaned by an Indian raid. It was terrific! I haven’t seen Kung Fu since it was on TV! QT regaled the audience with tales of Carradine between each showing that made the screenings really cool. The philosophy Caine spews during Kung Fu is pure Confucianism and it works excellently. Next up was an episode of a long gone TV show called Cimarron Strip starring and produced by Stuart Whitman. Carradine was a guest star on this show and turned in an excellent performance. QT stated it was hands down his favorite David Carradine guest star appearance. DC demonstrated his formidable quick draw technique in this episode, according to QT Carradine was one of the fastest quick draws in Hollywood history, 2nd only to Sammy Davis Jr.!

Next up we had a bunch of trailers, great stuff! Then a scene from Larry Bishop’s chopper opera Hell Ride that featured Carradine. Some more trailers and then the jam packed car crash extravaganza Cannonball, a Paul Bartel helmed follow up to his Mega Hit for Roger Corman, Death Race 2000.

An amusing anecdote from Mr. T, Ingmar Bergman wanted an American actor for his film The Serpent’s Egg. He called Richard Harris but he was booked up. Someone recommended Ingmar go see Death Race 2000, as it was playing in Berlin where Bergman was casting, so Ingemar went and the rest is history. After that the extremely bizzare Sonny Boy, Carradine plays this film in drag, it’s a completly wacked film, check out the trailer. A surprise visit from the star of the film Sonny Boy himself Michael Boston capped the experience, he had never seen the film projected! By the way the 35mm print had a horrible noise on some of the reels, people should check this stuff out before shipping defective films.

Finally we watched Gray Lady Down, a studio pic starring Chuck Heston as a sub captain and DC as the pilot of a mini sub that has to rescue the sunken crew. Yo it was crazy! All in all a touching tribute to an actor from a director who loved his work. Carradine was part of the Tarantino Film Family and he got a great send off. Tonight they’re going to show Circle Of Iron because it got too late to go on last night. See You There at 10:30!

Well since I posted 2 items that featured beautiful women in spider webs, I might as well go all out and post this one too. I like these Inquisition through Time type films , the Mexican film The Brainac is another one. We have an extra special bonus of Mickey Hargitay in the starring role.

Jayne Mansfield’s ex-husband, he appeared with Jayne in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter after he quit acting he ran a plant/florist business in Hollywood. Also I heard he was a landlord and a nice guy. Altogether a solid example of mid 60’s Italian Horror. Oh yeah special effects by Carlo Rambaldi (E.T.s creator)