Sunday, June 27, 2021

Book review - "Pictures at a Revolution" by Mark Harris

 A great idea - a look at the making of the five films nominated for Best Picture in 1967, the birth of the New Hollywood. It helps all the films were all so different - Dr Doolittle, old school Fox musical yet also New Hollywood in a way because it was bloated in a post Sound of Music Way; In the Heat of the Night, which is a race movie so they can explore Sidney Poitier's career; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner which is also race but had Tracy and Hepburn; The Graduate, which is a youth movie; Bonnie and Clyde, a fresh take on an old genre that led to a major passing of the guard among critics.

The people involved play up their struggles as most Hollywood story tellers do ("I was down and out", "no one thought we'd be successful", "It was my last chance"). Dustin Hoffman pinched Katherine Ross' arse during rehearsals "to get a reaction"... talk about a red flag.

I wound up having surprising respect for Stanley Kramer sticking to his bland vision for Dinner.

Could you tell a story about years in Australian cinema? Not really the same. Maybe 1975.

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