• Steve Pond lays it all out for “The Descendants” winning Best Picture, trying to make good on his two-year streak (though at least he had seen the other two before making those calls). [The Odds]
• At Telluride, meanwhile, Sasha Stone laid down a cool 20-spot on Viola Davis taking Best Actress. (I’m a witness.) [Awards Daily]
• That Cannes hole just wasn’t deep enough for Lars Von Trier. [Hollywood Reporter]
No other director in the history of the cinema dominated a 10-year span as Francis Ford Coppola did the 1970s. Beyond directing four of the decade’s greatest films — “The Godfather”, “The Godfather, Part II”, “The Conversation” and “Apocalypse Now” — his name was on “Patton” and “The Great Gatsby” as screenwriter and “American Graffiti” as producer.
In addition, Coppola created American Zoetrope in the hopes of building a haven for young directors to make small films free of the studios. But he also believed what the press were saying: he was a genius who would turn whatever he touched into gold. His ego got in the way and he alienated friend and comrade George Lucas, eventually making up with the director years later when positions of power had been reversed.
In the years after “Apocalypse Now,” the Oscar-winning Coppola fell on hard times with one failure after another it seemed, his once golden touch lost in the jungles of the Philippines while making his Vietnam epic. There were glimmers of former greatness from time to time, such as the expressionistic brilliance of “Rumble Fish,” the Cab Calloway sequence in “The Cotton Club,” the haunting scene with Kathleen Turner and her grandparents in “Peggy Sue Got Married” and Jeff Bridges’s wonderful work in “Tucker.”
But “One from the Heart” was a mess. “The Outsiders” was a sentimental disaster of a film. And then there was “The Godfather, Part III,” a failure because Paramount failed the director, breaking their word after making the promise he would have complete control, refusing to pay Robert Duvall, integral to the story, half of what Al Pacino was making, forcing a major re-write (that cost…?) and casting his daughter (the poor girl) in a key role when she simply lacked the acting chops to work with that ensemble. On and on.
• The “Seven Pounds” dogpile continues. [/Film]
• Ditto Baz Luhrmann and “Australia.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]
• Regarding Luhrmann, Peter Bart warns the director away from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gasby.” [Peter Bart]
• David Gritten talks to Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy about critics’ favorite “Slumdog Millionaire.” [Daily Telegraph]
• Donna Freydkin spends some time with Marisa Tomei, makes this site’s editor insanely jealous. [USA Today]
• Reed Tucker looks into Brad Pitt’s love affair…with David Fincher. [New York Post]
• Mark Olsen spends some time with the Laurent Cantet regarding French Oscar entrant “The Class.” [Los Angeles Times]
• On the “disturbing tendency” to portray Nazis in a sympathetic light on the big screen as of late. [The Times]
He was nominated for an Oscar just once for his riveting performance in “Coming Home” as a vet who cannot wait to go to Vietnam, and once there cannot wait to get home, horrified by what he sees, betrayed by the dream of what he believed war should be.
Bruce Dern was best known in the 70s as the go-to guy to play crazies. Sadly what most people missed is the fact he was a gifted actor, capable of doing so much more. He was the best part about “The Great Gatsby” as pompous Tom Buchanan and gave an Oscar-worthy performance as the Vietnam vet-turned terrorist in “Black Sunday,” still one of the best films ever made about terrorism. Dern was both electrifying and terrifying as Michael J. Lander, who cannot wait to drop a bomb into the Super Bowl.
He dominated “Smile” with a broad comic performance that is among the finest of his career, and is forever remembered as the dude who gunned down John Wayne, shooting him in the back in “The Cowboys.”
In the years after “Coming Home” for which he should have won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (sorry Walken) he became a leading man in films such as “Middly Age Crazy” and “Harry Tracy” before fading from view in the late 80s. He emerged on TV recently in “Big Love.”
I never tired of watching Dern on the screen. Whether it was in “The King of Marvin Gardens” or “Silent Running” he was a charismatic and interesting actor.
The actor has written a new book entitled “Things I’ve Said But Probably Shouldn’t Have,” which is an exceptionally honest read moving through his career discovering how he landed some roles, and how some others slipped away from him. I read the book in two days — devoured every word. Loved it.
One of the great actors of the 70s, Dern ended up being typecast. He never enjoyed the career of a Nicholson or a Hackman, but he was (still is) a superb actor. The book is a worthy read, and hopefully will take people back to his films. It did for me.