Vitro Nasu

Alfred Leslie, a second-generation Abstract Expressionist and filmmaker who turned his back on nonrepresentational art in the early 1960s to lead a revival of figurative painting, died on Friday in Brooklyn. He was 95. His son Anthony said the cause of his death, at a hospital, was complications of a Covid infection. (New York times).

The World is Charged with the Grandeur of God

Alfred Leslie – Artnet

Alfred Leslie wiki

(Delphine Seyrig from Pull My Daisy)

Pull My Daisy Robert Frank, Albert Leslie, USA, 1959, V’08, Tribute to Bob Dylan

Pull My Daisy is a 1959 American short film directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, and adapted by Jack Kerouac from the third act of his play, Beat Generation. Kerouac also provided improvised narration

(With Gerard Philipe in Fanfan La Tulipe)

Gina Lollobrigida

Dame in the Game: The Unexpected Feminism of Gina Lollobrigida

Throughout her acting career, Lollobrigida never abandoned her dreams of returning to the fine arts, and she used her time on set as a master class in photography. By the late 1960s, she was an accomplished photojournalist and over the course of her career, she photographed as diverse figures as Paul Newman, Salvador Dali, and Henry Kissinger. Most notably, Lollobrigida became so skilled in her photojournalism that she managed to secure an exclusive interview with Fidel Castro in 1972. Speaking of this incredible opportunity, Lollobrigida noted that she was shocked to discover Castro was more nervous to meet her than she him. Inspired by this rare access, Lollobrigida produced, directed, and wrote a documentary short entitled Ritratto di Fidel. Years before Cuba would be reopened to America, she secured a personal and in-depth look at one of the world’s most reclusive political figures.

Lollobridiga retired from acting in 1997, but she continued to pursue an avid career as an accomplished photographer, painter, and sculptor. Her work has been displayed all over the world and has won numerous accolades, including the “Legion of Honor” as “artiste de valeur” from France.

Happy birthday Ricardo Darin Jan 16
(Peter Lanzani played Luis Moreno Ocampo.)

Luis Moreno Ocampo on Argentina 1985 and Why Democracy is at Risk Today (Amy Goodman Democracy Now)

(Jody Kantor, Megan Twohey, Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan)

Maria Schrader directed “She Said” – Vanity Fair

The “Sacred Duty” of “She Said”
In their first interviews about the film, the stars—and the journalists they play—talk about the big-screen adaptation of the groundbreaking investigation into Harvey Weinstein.

NHK World on Demand till June 2023

China is tumultuous in 1921 when the famed Japanese author of Rashomon, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, visits Shanghai as a correspondent. Here he encounters revolutionaries, courtesans and much more…

Ryuhei Matsuda who played Ryunosuke Akutagawa was directed by Nagisa Oshima in Gohatto (御法度), also known as Taboo.

Akutagawa Ryunosuke
Kappa
drawing at the bottom by an author.
Akira Kurosawa made “Rashomon” world famous with Toshiro Mifune playing the bandit.

Gong Li
and Gaspard Ulliel, at Premier of Hannibal Rising.

Tragically Gaspard Ulliel an Elegant actor, he was only 37 when he passed away last January 2022.

Gong Li was born on New Year’s Eve. (Like Matisse and Paul Bowles)

Eros -Wong Kar Wai (Gong Li and Chen Chang)

Gong Li lives in France with her composer husband.

Interview with Angelo Badalamenti

Angelo Badalamenti wiki

Yoshishige Yoshida

Graduating from the University of Tokyo, where he studied French literature, Yoshida entered the Shōchiku studio in 1955 and worked as an assistant to Keisuke Kinoshita,[1] before debuting as a director in 1960 with Rokudenashi.[2] He was a central member of what came to be called the “Shōchiku Nouvelle Vague” along with Nagisa Oshima and Masahiro Shinoda,[3] and his works have been studied under the larger rubric of the Japanese New Wave,[4] a linkage which Yoshida himself disliked.[1] Like many of his New Wave cohorts, he felt restricted under the studio system. After Shōchiku’s re-editing of his Escape from Japan (1964), he left the studio to start his own production company,[1] for which he directed such films as Eros + Massacre.[2]
Between 1960 and 2004, Yoshida directed more than 20 films, some of which starred his wife, actress Mariko Okada.[1] After a long absence from the screen following the 1973 Coup d’État, he returned with A Promise, which was shown in the Un Certain Regard section the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.[5] Two years later, his film Wuthering Heights would compete for the Golden Palm at the 1988 Festival.[6] In 2002, Women in the Mirror followed after another hiatus of 14 years.[7] In addition to his theatrical films, Yoshida directed a series of documentaries for Japanese TV.
Yoshida named European cinema as a great influence on his work, most notably the directors Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, and pre-war French films like the works of Jean Renoir.[1] He also published a number of books on the topic of cinema, including one on his own cinematic work and an analysis of the films of Yasujirō Ozu.

Mariko Okada married to Yoshishige Yoshida is an actress who worked with her husband, Yasujiro Ozu, Juzo Itami and her father was a legendary silent film star Okada Tokihiko. (Both father and daughter were directed by Ozu).

Yoshishige Yoshida MUBI

Midnight Eye Interview Yoshishige Yoshida

Independent CO UK

‘We can’t paint a rosy picture’: Robert Downey Sr’s life of drugs, taboo-busting films and parental regrets

Indewire Interview on Downey Jr and Chris Smith

Making “‘Sr.’” was a transformative experience for both Downey and Smith, with the latter saying it had a “huge profound impact” on the way he shoots and directs future projects. “Robert says early on, ‘My dad’s a lover of process.’ And I felt like that was something that was always with me during the process of making this film. And I do so many other films that are done in a different way, that there was something very exciting and it reminded me of how I started, which is like on this film called ‘American Movie,’ where it was me with a camera on my shoulder, little to no crew, just trying to figure it out as we went along. And to me, that’s the most exciting,” said Smith.

Many of us not so familiar with Robert Downey Sr. learn from watching this documentary that Robert Downey Sr. appeared in “Boogie Nights”, or that Senior and Paul Thomas Anderson were close friends. (Many of their conversations were on youtube).

Robert Downey Jr Admits he was ‘a tad bit jealous’ of Paul Thomas Anderson’s relationship with his father

Watch this,
Paul Thomas Anderson & Robert Downey Sr Talk Putney Swope/

Because of “Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond”, the producer suggested that Chris Smith contact Robert Downey Jr to make his documentary.

(Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond” .)

(The Pool in Goa)

Chris Smith Interview – Filmmaker

Filmmaker: When did you first read Randy Russell’s short story? And when did you decide you want to transpose it to Goa?

Smith: I’m always looking for something that looks interesting and engaging. For me, it was one of those stories that I read and then came back to. It just sort of stuck with me; it was so simple and some of the themes seemed so universal. I thought back to the experience I had when I was in India about four or five years ago helping some friends shoot a movie, where we were living at that hotel and interacting with the roomboys and getting a sense of their lives. The idea of putting those two worlds together seemed really interesting to me, and I thought the two could be combined in a way that could provide a lot of rich material to work from.
2)The kids didn’t know how to read so for me it was more important to get a good performance than to get word-for-word.

Mylene Demongeot at Cannes

Mylene Demongeot was born Marie-Helene Demongeot on September 29, 1935, in Nice, France, into a family of actors. Her parents met in Shanghai, China, and moved to Nice, where she grew up. Her mother, Klaudia Trubnikova, was a Russian-Ukrainian émigré from Kharkiv, who escaped from the horrors of the Russian Civil War.

A “veteran of cinema”[11] who started as one of the blond sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s,[12][13][14] she managed to avoid typecasting by exploring many film genres including thrillers, westerns, comedies, swashbucklers, period films and even pepla, such as Romulus and the Sabines (1961) and Gold for the Caesars (1963).

Demongeot was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for her portrayal of Abigail Williams in The Crucible (1957) which also garnered her best actress at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and was twice nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the César Awards for 36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004)[15] and French California (2006).

(Bonjour Tristesse Jean Seberg and Mylene Demongeot directed by Otto Preminger).

(“The Singer Not the Song” Mylene Demongeot with Dirk Bogarde)

Mylene Demongeot was in supporting roles with Catherine Deneuve in “Midwife” and “On My Way”.

“I do remember Nebraska idyllic images. Playing guns with my friends, or kick-the-can, or ditch, watching airplanes drone overhead on lazy Sunday afternoons, collecting June bugs in a jar on summer nights, playing statues, making mud slippers. … I know there are people who can’t dredge up a single pleasant memory of their childhood, and I can come up with a hundred from mine, some of them right off a calendar or out of ‘Tom Sawyer,’ ” wrote Dick Cavett in his autobiography, “Cavett,” in 1974.

Happy birthday Dick Cavett (wiki)

Anagram Brando Conversation (Previous Post)

Why Dick Cavett was the greatest talk show host of all time

Ingmar Bergman, Bibi Andersson & Dick Cavett on youtube here.

Dick Cavett’s Top 10 at Criterion

Mel Brooks, Frank Captra Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Altman on Dick Cavett Show

(Orson Welles Interviews Dick Cavett.)
Assorted hijinks an interview with Dick Cavett (Paris View)

Bullet Over Broadway Script by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath

David Shayne: Helen, have you thought about what I said before about the way I feel—
Helen Sinclair: Don’t speak.
David Shayne: But, I. . . I want to express—
Helen Sinclair: Don’t. . .speak. Don’t!
David Shayne: Just a few things that I want to tell you—
Helen Sinclair: Don’t. . .speak!
David Shayne: When we first met—
Helen Sinclair: No, no, don’t speak. Don’t speak. Please don’t speak. Please don’t speak. No. No. No. Go. Go, gentle Scorpio, go. Your Pisces wishes you every happy return.
David Shayne: Just one—
Helen Sinclair: Don’t speak!

(Douglas McGrath on Charlie Rose)
Douglas McGrath talked about Woody Allen and Robert Redford on Charlies Rose. McGrath was directed by Redford in “Quiz Show”, he described Redford having a great sense of ‘humor.

Douglas McGrath Dead, Oscr, Tony Nominated Writer Director (The Guardian obit)

Douglas McGrath wiki (February 2, 1958 – November 3, 2022)

McGrath would appear on screen for Allen seven times – Celebrity, Sweet And Lowdown, Small Time Crooks, Hollywood Ending, Cafe Society, Crisis In Six Scenes and Rifkin’s Festival. The last two featured McGrath in more prominent roles. On screen he was a calming figure that didn’t seem disturbed by Allen’s manic characters.

McGrath did lots of work without Allen. Most significantly he wrote the film Emma and the very successful Carole King musical Beautiful.

(Toby Jones as Capote and Daniel Craig as Perry)

Douglas MacGraths messy “Infamous” improves upon Capotes

(Japanese poster)

Madame Rosa

Directed by Paris-based Israeli director Moshe Mizrahi, “Madame Rosa” won the Best Foreign Language Oscar, and Signoret received the Cesar Award (French Oscar) for Best Actress.
Well-shot by ace lenser Nestor Almendros the film also
features Claude Dauphin and director Costa-Gavras as an actor.

Romain Gary wrote The Life Before Us

See a Full film on youtube here.. and discover the miracle of Samy Ben Youb.

(Sophia Loren recently played Madame Rosa who became an Italian).