The Film Thread **SPOILERS**

[Moose]

The stars of "Star Wars", 35 years later. Time has been fairly kind to Harrison Ford. The other two leads, not so much...









More: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...4020#pmSlide=4

[Moose]

One of the genuine great cult films of the 1970s, "Harold and Maude" gets a Criterion release tomorrow (I already have my copy ordered off Amazon). Def not everyone's cup of tea - but there are many who think it one of movies' great love stories.

Great overview in today's NY Post about the film:


The 'Maude' squad
Cult classic gets restored — and old stories resurrected
By BARBARA HOFFMAN

It’s the ultimate nonblockbuster movie pitch: Death-obsessed rich boy meets lively, octogenarian kleptomaniac, who steals his heart. No joke — it’s a cult classic: 1971’s “Harold and Maude.”

Unspooling against Cat Stevens’ honeyed folk-rock score, it made stars of director Hal Ashby and screenwriter Colin Higgins — and icons of its May/December couple, played by Bud Cort and that uber-cougar, Ruth Gordon.

Nevertheless, the film got a fat thumb’s down from Roger Ebert and other critics, including one who called it “as funny as a burning orphanage.” This, despite some of the funniest fake suicides in screen history, including a hanging, drowning and immolation — anything Harold could do to get a rise out of his preternaturally self-possessed mom.

But “Harold and Maude” not only survived, it thrived, spreading kudzu-like across college campuses, a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” for earnest kids. It played two years straight in Paris and several memorable months at a Long Island strip mall, where my mother fled one night after fighting with my dad, and emerged happy, singing Cat Stevens.

Now you can sing along with “Harold and Maude” at home, courtesy of the Criterion Collection, which will issue digitally remastered DVD and Blu-ray versions on Tuesday. With the discs comes a booklet of articles and a 2011 interview with Yusef Islam a k a Cat Stevens who converted to Islam in the late 1970s. In a flannel shirt, wire-rimmed glasses and white beard, he looks like an avuncular Steven Spielberg.

There’s also audio commentary by Ashby biographer Nick Dawson and producer Charles Mulvehill. They’re hardly the most exciting men in the world, but they share a few good tidbits. To wit:

* Six actors were on the short list to play Harold, including John (“Pippin”) Rubinstein, Bob Balaban and Richard Dreyfuss. As Mulvehill tells it, Cort nailed the role when he told Ashby, “I’m Harold.”

* Ashby went to England to find his Maude, who’s European. When he got there he found Vivian Pickles, the plummy-toned Brit who plays Harold’s mother. Gordon was 75 and fresh off “Rosemary’s Baby” when she played Maude, whom screenwriter Higgins partly based on his grandmother.

* Elton John was asked to do the soundtrack, but passed. So Ashby took nine songs from Cat Stevens’ “Tea for the Tillerman” and “Mona Bone Jakon” albums instead. Stevens penned two songs for the film (“Don’t Be Shy” and “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out”), and was shocked when the filmmakers used his demos. He finally released the songs 13 years later, on his greatest-hits album, “Footsteps in the Dark.”

* The first cut of “Harold and Maude” clocked in at three hours. “It was long and tedious,” Mulvehill recalls. “You wanted to slug Maude!” They shaved it down to 90 minutes without deleting a single scene.

What the Criterion Collection doesn’t delve into is the darker side of “Harold and Maude” — the seeming curse that bedeviled its creators.

Higgins, whose UCLA master’s thesis became the film’s script, died of AIDS at 47. Ashby, a pot-smoking pacifist who went on to direct the anti-war film “Coming Home,” died of cancer at 59.

Cort’s story is the strangest of all. Born Walter Cox 64 years ago, he started as a comedian before Robert Altman gave him a small part in “M*A*S*H” and built “Brewster McCloud” around him. For much of the ’70s, Cort lived with Groucho Marx, in Marx’s mansion.

In 1979, he suffered a near-fatal, disfiguring car accident. He had several bouts of plastic surgery, to no avail. For years he did mostly voice-overs. He gets zilch from “Harold and Maude” video sales, which may be why, on Roseanne’s talk show years ago, he duct-taped his mouth when she asked him about it. “I’ve had my moments where I just cursed that movie and wished I’d never done it,” Cort once said


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainmen...#ixzz1xVVlPyXH

[Moose]

Has anyone seen "Moonrise Kingdom" yet?

[Miles]

Let's play a game of "Who did they sleep with to get into this photo?"

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/...iversary-photo

Move the cursor over the photo to zoom in on the people.

[shtexas]

Let's play a game of "Who did they sleep with to get into this photo?"

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/...iversary-photo

Move the cursor over the photo to zoom in on the people.

Seems there are some highly questionable choices.

Then, there are some that are simply premature, like Paula Patton.

And did Justin Bieber climb up the back of the stands to sneak into that picture?

[Miles]

Seems there are some highly questionable choices.

Then, there are some that are simply premature, like Paula Patton.

And did Justin Bieber climb up the back of the stands to sneak into that picture?

I found Olivia-Newton John to be unrecognizable.

[shtexas]

I found Olivia-Newton John to be unrecognizable.

I know!


Oh, and the Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, John Cho grouping is merely to promote the next Star Trek.

[shtexas]

But, I forgot how stunning these two were:

Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw - Then & Now (Photo: Paramount Pictures/PTVImages.com)

[Moose]

Has anyone seen "Moonrise Kingdom" yet?

Got to see it yesterday. While not perfect, it is probably the best movie I have seen so far this year. Ed Norton is perfect, and Bruce Willis is so restrained he is completely enjoyable for the first time in a long time. And the two young stars could not have been better cast - the young male lead in particular (Jared Gilman) steals your heart.

I was hoping it would be up there with "Rushmore" and "Royal Tenenbaums" - but it was even better.

[shtexas]

I have a problem with Wes Anderson. I guess I just don't get him.

[Moose]

I have a problem with Wes Anderson. I guess I just don't get him.

Did you see "Fantastic Mr. Fox"? Even though it was not his original material, I thought he made a Wes Anderson movie out of it, and did a great job.

But then, I love Dahl as well.

[mmmm8]

I have a problem with Wes Anderson. I guess I just don't get him.

I think I'm with you. I can feel him trying too hard with every frame.

I still enjoy his movies, but not as much as I'm supposed to.

[munchin]

I have a problem with Wes Anderson. I guess I just don't get him.

I think his early work was his best. I like Bottle Rocket and love Rushmore. I really dislike Royal Tennenbaums (and I've given it 3 chances, I wanted to like it so bad), I despised The Life Aquatic and I kinda, sorta liked Fantastic Mr. Fox. I don't think I can articulate why the first two films are so great to me and why I've disliked everything else. His style hasn't changed that much.

[shtexas]

Did you see "Fantastic Mr. Fox"? Even though it was not his original material, I thought he made a Wes Anderson movie out of it, and did a great job.

But then, I love Dahl as well.

Didn't see the big deal about Rushmore, barely made it through Royal Tenenbaums, couldn't get past 30 minutes of Life Aquatic, and haven't seen anything with his name since.

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of many examples of automatic distaste. I am generally pretty open-minded and easy to please. But, I have always had a problem seeing the "genius" of Bill Murray.

So, the problem here becomes two-fold for me.

[Miles]

I think his early work was his best. I like Bottle Rocket and love Rushmore. I really dislike Royal Tennenbaums (and I've given it 3 chances, I wanted to like it so bad), I despised The Life Aquatic and I kinda, sorta liked Fantastic Mr. Fox. I don't think I can articulate why the first two films are so great to me and why I've disliked everything else. His style hasn't changed that much.

Maybe you got smarter as a film critic.

I think I'm with you. I can feel him trying too hard with every frame.

I still enjoy his movies, but not as much as I'm supposed to.

So did you.

Didn't see the big deal about Rushmore, barely made it through Royal Tenenbaums, couldn't get past 30 minutes of Life Aquatic, and haven't seen anything with his name since.

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of many examples of automatic distaste.

THIS! The preciousness that is Wes Anderson is completely inorganic. As far as I'm concerned, Life Aquatic ranks up there with Plan 9 from Outer Space.