LMA Ollie !

...am schimbat canalul pe TCM unde era Women in Love al lui Ken Russell, faimos sau infam la vremea lui pentru o runda de naked wrestling intre Alan Bates si Oliver Reed. Primul film asa zis artistic cu full frontal nudity ! Si cu Oscar pentru Glenda Jackson ! Clasic Ken Russell, chiar daca azi arta chiar cumite si literar (dupa romanul hit din vreme al lui D.H. Lawrence) si chiar ma pregatesc sa-i revad filmele dupa disparitia din noiembrie anul trecut ! Si tot n-am baut Moet&Chandon pentru el :(

Dau pe imdb si vad ca e ziua lui Ollie de nastere, 13 februarie, varsator (well, he should've known about that). Ollie, despre care am mai scris la greu pe acest blog (deci cu ocazia zilei sale i-am facut eticheta), al carui loc de moarte l-am vizitat;-), Irish Pub-ul din Valletta, Malta, unde si-a baut ultimele pahare ( in timpul filmarilor la Gladiator in 1999). Azi Ollie ar fi implinit 74 de ani !

a personal hero of mine, my friend-o, this Zubrowka is dedicated to you !
and hopefullly one day/night, this life/the other/ will also complete the Wimbledon pub crawl !

Ollie and Keith !

adica Oliver Reed si Keith Moon, intilnirea de gradul 3, prilejuita de Ken Russell, cu ocazia filmului Tommy !
BBC-ul transmite on-line o piesa de teatru de Matthew Broughton, Burning Both Ends, cu Sean Pertwee -Oliver Reed, si Arthur Darvill -Keith Moon.
Se poate asculta aici pentru inca 6 zile, ca un tribut dus lui Ken Russell care le-a prilejuit intilnirea celor 2 hellraiseri extraordinaire-s, care au ramas prieteni pe viata (si probabil si dupa...)-dear boys & sirs troublemakers, Moon the Loon si Ollie The Reed.
Si asta am aflat-o de pe situl The Who, unde sapam dupa info despre Director's Cut-ul lui Pete Townshend la Quadrophenia-a must for any music fan- !

Ken & Ollie

uitindu-ma la poza lui ken Russell si stiindu-i temperamentul, n-am putut sa ma gindesc si la prietenul sau, actorul hellraiser si troublemaker, un alt copil mare si furtunos, Oliver Reed ! Russell seamana cu cel pe care l-a dirijat in atitea filme, si am gasit o poza cu amindoi, destul de reprezentativa ! Moet & Chandon ? mai mult Moet & Guinness !

RIP Charles Napier

in timp ce toata lumea vorbeste despre moartea lui Steve Jobs la 56 de ani, in aceiasi zi (5 oct.) a murit un mare character actor, tough as nails, Charles Napier, am aflat de pe MUBI care comenteaza:

"Roger Ebert referred to him as 'that character actor with a smile like Jaws,'" recalls Tom Stockman, passing along the news that Charles Napier as died at the age of 75. "Russ Meyer recognized that his cartoonish grin and jutting chin made a perfect complement to the bigger-than-life women he cast in his films so gave Napier his first starring roles in Cherry, Harry & Raquel, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (both 1970) and Supervixens (1975)…. Jonathan Demme cast Napier in his films frequently and everyone remembers him as the ill-fated Lt Boyle, charged with guarding Hannibal Lecter in that cage in Silence of the Lambs (1991)."

Mie mi s-a parut mereu ca seamana cu Dick Miller, si ca prezenta, si prestatie :) folosit de Jonathan Demme in filmele sale la fel ca Miller in cele ale lui Joe Dante. Ei sunt old school Roger Corman graduates, Napier a inceput cu Russ Meyer. Actorul avea 75 de ani.
site oficial aici

si un interviu genial si exhaustiv pe avclub. mai ales despre Russ Meyer, despre cum l-a angajat Hitchcok la Universal, prietenul sau Hunter Thompson, John Landis si John Belushi -a jucat in Blues Brothers-"That’s several months of my life I don’t remember"
-Rambo (a fost nemesisul lui Stallone in Rambo: First Blood Part II) si Menahem Golan !

It all started from years ago, when I did a starring role with Stallone. He was the only actor that ever said, “If I ever make it, man, I’ll help you.” And he did. And Lee Marvin was a pal of mine, and when that role came up, Lee was supposed to do it, but he was in Australia. He said, “You can have it, tell them to pay me off.” And that’s how I got that role. (...) I’ve made 30 films out of the country that nobody will ever see, with Menahem Golan, and I can’t even remember the names of ’em. I made them in the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Bulgaria, Russia, Argentina, Panama, you name it.
(.....) Menahem was a great guy. He must have been in his late 70s when I was working with him. We used to go to these Eastern Bloc countries where you could literally carry your money around in suitcases and buy your way day by day. And this old guy was ready to do that. We hit up a relationship. Golan-Globus fell apart. He wanted me to come back to Belarus one last time, and I said, “Menahem, I can’t take Belarus anymore, man.” He goes, “That’s okay, Charlie, I still love ya.” He also loved Oliver Reed for some reason. We were his two favorite actors, I guess.

Royal Flash (1975)

the lighter side of Barry Lyndon and the cousin of Tom Jones. La vremea lor au crezut ca pot face o serie din aventurile capitanului Harry Flashman, bazate pe seria de carti celebre in Anglia si azi si mai si, ale lui George MacDonald Fraser ! Dar timpurile nu mai erau potrivite si Royal Flash a fost un mare esec ! Si Flashman a ramas pina azi doar eroul acestui film royal !

respectiv a doua carte, din 1970. Se pare ca azi romanele cu Flashman ale lui Fraser sunt la fel de celebre ca cele cu Bond ale lui Ian Fleming. personajul sau este un aventurier fara scrupule, un las de mare calibru si ticalos de ocazie, afemeiat si betiv, care trece prin istorie ca printr-un svaitzer, dar mereu cade in picioare si e la timpul potrivit la locul potrivit. Asfel Fraser da un comentariu istoric istoriei imperiului britanic. Iar Lester in monologul de opening citeaza Patton pe invers !

-E interseant ca filmul lui Richard Lester Royal Flash si Lisztomania lui Ken Russell au iesit in sali in aceiasi zi, 10 Oct.1975. Desi extrem de diferite, filmele sunt inrudite si reprezinta ceea ce s-a numit the last gasp of the British Invasion film era ! Aceasta a inceput cu filmul Beatles al lui Richard Lester, A Hard Day’s Night in 1964.

(The roots were very much in American silent film, the comedies of the 1930s and the French New Wave, and had already been in evidence in Lester’s first feature, It’s Trad, Dad, in 1962, and in Russell’s first feature, French Dressing, in 1963—but A Hard Day’s Night placed the style on the world stage.) Lester and Russell’s films were the end of a rich era of filmmaking. In Russell’s case, that era ended with a bang—with a film that’s still ahead of its time 32 years later. Lester’s Royal Flash, on the other hand, wasn’t especially adventurous. It was, in fact, a clear attempt to recreate the success of his The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974). However, it was—and is—a good attempt, his final outburst of the style of filmmaking he was largely responsible for creating.

pe linga Malcolm McDowell care e against type aici (Michale caine sau Connery ar fi mai usor de inghitit, probabil ca i-am vizualizat impreuna din cauza lui The man Who Would Be King), apar Alan Bates (Rudi Von Sternberg) , Oliver Reed (Otto Von Bismark), Michael Hordern, Lionel Jeffries (Krafstein), Tom Bell (De Gautet), Alastair Sim, Joss Ackland, Christopher Cazanove
si doua femei minunate, Florinda Bolkan as Lola Montez si Britt Eklund as ducesa Irma !

—plotul e in fapt o trimitere parodica la clasciul Prizonierul din Zenda de Anthony Hope ! De fapt duelul din final seamana cu cel din Marea Cursa/The Great Race, care in actul 3 are acelasi send-off.

Lester treats it all with his signature playfulness, placing it firmly in the realm of his world of damnable machines (if a mechanical device in a Lester film can go wrong, it will) and a kind of casual slapstick. Clever visuals abound (catch the shot of Oliver Reed apparently riding past what turns out to be mural being carried past him). It’s all cheerful and fun and as nice a farewell to the era as could be hoped for.

-Bob Hoskins are un rolisor mic, de inspector de politie!
DOP Geoffrey Unsworth
muzica Ken Thorne cu adaptari dupa Wagner si Mozart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Flash_(film)
4 din 5/8 din 10 !

DVD 20th Century Fox zona 1 -in mod curios in Anglia n-a aparut !
format: 1.661. anamorfic
Extras:
• Commentary with Malcolm McDowell and Film Historian Nick Redman
• Inside Royal Flash
• Meet Harry Flashman
• Isolated Score and F/X Track
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

Remember Oliver Reed

surfind pe net am dat de un tribut al lui Ollie Reed, prietenul lui Keith Moon si Michael Winner, omul care l-a bagat sub masa pe Lee Marvin si a vomitat pe Steve Mc Queen...si m-am pierdut putin pe youtube..citesc despre Ollie si prietenii lui hellraiseri (Richard Burton, Richard Harris si Peter O'Toole, last man standing!) in cartea mea favorita pe 2009, Hellraisers, de Robert Sellers, de fapt cu titlul complet: Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed !


'I don't have a drink problem. But if that was the case and doctors told me I had to stop I'd like to think that I would be brave enough to drink myself into the grave.' Oliver Reed
now Ollie, am vrut sa scriu despre el cind am vazut The Assasination Bureau cu el si Diana Rigg, poza lui e de aici

de curind am vazut si Oliver ! as dori sa revad Musca si Fugi, cu el si Mastroianni, film din 1973 pe care l-am vazut cind eram copil, si prferatul meu ramine Tommy ! Si Athos din Muschetari ! Dar mi-as dori sa vad Hannibal Brooks !
Am fost in Malta in La Valetta in pub-ul unde a murit Reed, pe cind filma Gladiator (am mai fost si in alte locuri de filmare ale filmului, sus pe cetate, unde erau urmele scolii de gladiatori), e impropriu spus ca a murit acolo, [pentru ca acolo a avut atacul fatal, a murit in drum spre spital, se numeste THE PUB, regretul meu e ca n-am putut bea in el un pint pentru ca era inchis. Ma bate gindul sa ma intorc in Malta pentru asta :) !!!

un interviu priceless la David Letterman din 1987 (in care Ollie il sperie rau pe Letterman care e lipsit de tact si simtul umorului), din promotia filmului lui Roeg, Castaway (imi pare rau ca n-am apucat sa-l intreb nimic pe Roeg despre Ollie, cind
l-am intervievat la TIFF)


Q: Do you go fishing?

A: No I wear the boots!!