Eve Arnold, from A (Anouk, Antonioni) to V (Vitti)

More on the late Magnum photographer Eve Arnold - she certainly moved in the best circles, here she is with some of my favourites, showing her great eye for composition:

One of Arnold's great mid-50s Monroe shots.
Joan Crawford in 1959 in front of that marvellous 40s portrait of her.
Dirk Bogarde and Ingrid Bergman in 1964 - Ingrid was his houseguest when she did her stage run in A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY, one of the first plays I saw, in 1965.
Sophia Loren with Chaplin on the set of THE COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG, 1966
(I really need to re-see that, I have totally forgotten it!).
Anouk Aimee on the set of JUSTINE, 1969.
Monica Vitti on the set of MODESTY BLAISE, 1966.
Joe Losey in Paris, with Eve's reflections in the mirror as she takes the picture.
Michelangelo Antonioni on the set of BLOW-UP, 1966, what a great shot.
- all from her terrific book "Film Journal"

Interestingly, Yul Brynner's photographs are now on exhibition and there should be a book, these fascinating candid photos of his colleagues at work and play have not been seen before. I particularly like that nice shot of Ingrid Bergman on the set of GOODBYE AGAIN. Yul always had a camera around his neck.

Eve Arnold: first R.I.P. of 2012

Eve Arnold [1912-2012], one of the first woman photojournalists to join the prestigious Magnum Photography Agency in the 1950s and had traveled the world for her work, but was best known for her candid shots of Hollywood celebrities, has died at the remarkable aged of 99; she would have been 100 in April.



Starting in 1951, when career women were a rarity, Arnold navigated distant countries and cultures for unusual photographs ranging from horse trainers in Mongolia to factory workers in China. Her photo essays appeared in feature news magazines like LIFE and in the many books she compiled, in that great age of photo-journalism. She also photographed the leading politicians of that era, including Mrs Thatcher.


She was one of the photographers assigned to the shooting of THE MISFITS in Nevada in 1960 and became friends with Marilyn Monroe who she had photographed several times before in the 50s. This later led to several books on Monroe and the shooting of that complex film. Old-timers like Crawford and Dietrich also recognised a great photograher when they saw one, and Arnold was also on the sets of various favourite 60s films of mine like JUSTINE and MODESTY BLAISE. Her book "Film Journal" covers these in detail along with interesting stories and some terrific photos like Bogarde with Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave and her daughters, Loren with Chaplin, Vitti and Stamp recording MODESTY BLAISE (above) and of course a selection of those Monroe shots. Marilyn certainly glows in Arnold's lenses.



Like that other great photographer Bob Willoughby its a great career to celebrate and any of her collections of photographs are cherishable. I love this 1956 shot of Silvana Mangano's great profile.

A touch of class: The Nun's Story

THE NUN’S STORY. Zinnemann’s 1959 classic was on in the middle of the night, so I recorded it, despite having the dvd, and what a transfixing experience it is. I had not seen it for decades but remember what a big hit it was at the time. It is surely Audrey Hepburn’s crowning achievement. One hardly sees classic movie-making on this scale any more, as Zinnemann orchestrates it all – the early scenes in the convent as the young novice adjusts to the religious life, the faces of all those nuns, and then the Congo scenes, her recovery from tuberculosis, and back to wartime Europe, based on a best-selling true story. as scripted by Robert Anderson. While not as austere as a Bresson or a Dreyer or indeed Melville's LEON MORIN, PRIEST (reviewed here at Belmondo label) it does convey the rigours of the religious life and the demands it makes (and of course complements those nuns perfectly portrayed by Deborah Kerr in BLACK NARCISSUS and HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON).

It is totally absorbing and the players are so perfect for their roles: Hepburn as the strong-willed and fiercely independent Sister Luke, whose very psyche is torn asunder by the battle between her own innate, personal pride and a sincere desire to live a life of obedience to the Church and its rules; Peter Finch as Dr Fortunati, Edith Evans as Mother Superior (doing marvels with very little screen time), Peggy Ashcroft, Dean Jagger as her father, Mildred Dunnock, Coleen Dewhurst, etc. A totally marvellous achievement and Franz Waxman's score complements the visuals perfectly.

1959 was not only a key year both in cinema and for me, aged 13, and loving all those big hitters of the year, as lots of key directors produced their late classics: BEN HUR, SOME LIKE IT HOT, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, ON THE BEACH, RIO BRAVO, IMITATION OF LIFE, PILLOW TALK, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, SOLOMON AND SHEBA etc, THE NUN'S STORY was up there with them as one of the key dramas of the year and it was of course an enormous hit, for such a solemn film, and it is certainly one of Hepburn's key roles, ably supported by Finch's skilful portrayal of the doctor. After the Congo episode we are back in wartime Europe as Sr Luke tries to settle back into the religious life, but her rebellious spirit will not let her.... The complexities of the religious life are nicely demonstrated when she is asked to fail an essential examination to help another nun go to the Congo. The interiors were actually shot at Cinecitta so just how much of it was shot in Africa I wonder? The seemingly now under-rated Fred Zinnemann showed his mastery again the next year with the wonderful THE SUNDOWNERS and that great re-teaming of Mitchum and Kerr, and of course his 1953 hit FROM HERE TO ETERNITY among others.

I find it incredible that London's National Film Theatre in their Audrey Hepburn season a year or so ago did not include THE NUN'S STORY or indeed the chance to see King Vidor's WAR AND PEACE, 1956, another key Audrey role, on the big screen, as they were focusing on Audrey as the fashion icon and not the actress!

Soon: an appreciation on Peter Finch.

A movie I loved: The Misfits

Let's go back to the early '60s, that great era of black and white pictures and intense dramas (DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, THE MIRACLE WORKER, ALL FALL DOWN, LOLITA etc) - few generated such interest as the shoot for THE MISFITS in Reno, Nevada back in 1960, I would have been 14 and remember reading various location reports, it seemed like every journalist and magazine was covering it. The film when it appeared in 1961 seemed too downbeat to be a popular success - maybe it was not what was expected from a Marilyn Monroe film, and Gable looking old at 59 had just died; then with Monroe's death in '62 and Clift's in '66, by the end of the '60s onwards the film was a ghostly elegy for a vanished Hollywood era. Its been marvellous though seeing Wallach now still acting in his 90s.

Marilyn and Clift on location:

But since then this John Huston production took on a life of its own, as that Monroe cult took root and grew as the '60s progressed. We had to have those early MM books picturing her as a tortured genius or damaged goddess, like "Marilyn The Tragic Venus" (I liked the red cover), or Fred Guiles "Norma Jean" with that silver Cecil Beaton shot on the cover, and of course "The Films of Marilyn Monroe", and all the other books focusing on her 20th Century Fox period, Marilyn in New York, every photograher of the time seemed to have their own collection of Marilyn photos (Bob Willoughby, Sam Shaw etc and those terrific pictures by Milton Greene, and Cecil Beaton - and of course Eve Arnold of Magnum who covered the making of THE MISFITS and knew Marilyn and had taken some great shots of her, as featured in several of Arnold's books [right]. Then of course came the sensational Norman Mailer volume in 1973 highlighting those late great photo sessions by George Barris and Bert Stern, cementing Marilyn's legend. Throughout all this THE MISFITS was the movie MM buffs had to keep returning to, watching it every time it screened on televsion or at a revival house, in that pre-video age. (The later books of course sought to portray her as a murder victim, we got the morgue shot, finally Spoto's tome seemed to portray what really happened....)

I over-dosed on it myself, and knew every frame of it so well, this odd, haunting tale of lost people trying to connect in that divorce town Reno - Roslyn Taber awaiting her divorce, a lost soul, rooming at Thelma Ritter's (who has some lovely moments here), Gable as Gay Langland the ageing cowboy, Perce the rootless rodeo player (Montgomery Clift), Guido (Eli Wallach) resentful that his wife died and his uncompleted house, he also desires Roslyn as she and Gay drift together. Those moments like Roslyn hugging the tree in the moonlight, and the party at Guido's unfinished house. Then (what must have attracted Huston to the concept) the scenes of hunting the wild horses which will be used for dogfood, and Roslyn's disgust and making the men face up to themselves. Then we are so involved as the horses are freed and Gay and Roslyn drive home - that fadeout for two of Hollywood's greats... it got me every time, so much so that once when I and my then partner were going away for the weekend in a motor caravan and the BBC was screening THE MISFITS I had to take a portable televison with me, to watch it once again. Russell Metty's photography, particularly the climactic scenes with the horses, is so brilliant, and of course Arthur Miller's screenplay. Stories from the location became legend, the breakdown of the Miller-Monroe marriage, her trouble getting to the set, and so on.

I used to have this quad poster framed on my wall back in the 70s and 80s, and still have the poster now.

Over the years one's fascination with THE MISFITS waned, as one returned to Marilyn the comedienne and those Fox movies like NIAGRA, GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE and I particularly like how she looked and sang in those 2 1954 films where she glows and which cemented her stardom: THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS and RIVER OF NO RETURN. After THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH and BUS STOP there was that new Marilyn who never looked lovelier (as shot by Jack Cardiff) in THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, and then the legendardy shoot for SOME LIKE IT HOT (still only the best comedy ever) and then her return to Fox for the damp squib of LET'S MAKE LOVE and that new look early '60s Marilyn for SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE - as per other posts on her at the Marilyn link. We will always though have THE MISFITS, even if I don't need to see it again. It is a key Huston film too of couse, fitting in with that great run he had in the late '50s/early '60s: HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON, THE UNFORGIVEN, THE MISFITS and NIGHT OF THE IGUANA. And now we have Michelle Williams' take on Marilyn in MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, where it seems she is capturing the essence of MM ?

Movies I love: A Star Is Born (for Stanley and Gary)

The 1954 one of course!

Like JOHNNY GUITAR, A STAR IS BORN is another from my first year of movie-going, aged 8. It must have been one of the first films I saw,
(my parents must have taken me, my mother and I went to I COULD GO ON SINGING later) again I was fascinated by the widescreen images, that beach house with the sea reflected in the windows as the man goes into the sea, and that slap scene at the awards. Over the years it's richness and complexity have got to me, that lustrous rich Warnercolor, and George Hoyningen-Heune's color co-ordination (a Cukor regular). I do not see it as a musical as such, but as a drama with music. For a big film it is surprisingly intimate - there are really only 5 people in it: Esther/Vicki and Norman Maine, Charles Bickford as Oliver Niles the avuncular head of the studio, Jack Carson as Libby the vicious press agent, and Tommy Noonan as the bandleader who is also there for Judy. The Cinemascope images still dazzle, that movie premier, Norman being drunk, then when he takes the lipstick and makes the heart symbol on the wall, and later when he awakes and sits up in bed remembering .... that amusing scene where he is on the prowl in the nightclub and then busting in on "The Man That Got Away", and the lovely scene at the studio in the morning where Esther is getting ready for her screen test after being made over by the experts and he wipes away all the gunk off her face and a radiant lovely Estehr emerges. Later we have Judy's "I am discovered on a rather simple divan" for the "Somewhere there is a Someone" number, and of course during "Born in a Trunk" the drunk interrupting with "sing Melancholy Baby" and the agent going "Yes!" to Judy's "No!" as she does the rounds. Then at the studio "We can see your face" as she plays an extra, and "Go to L" when Esther signs on for her paycheck only to find she is now Vicki Lester! So, a film of great moments, from the Moss Hart screenplay, the Harold Arlen songs and that marvellous look of the film. Then those dramatic scenes later on, as Vicki begs Oliver to give Norman one more chance, and her appearance at his court hearing...

My best friend Stan had the soundtrack album which we played a lot, and then in 1970 my 1963 "Films and Filming" penfriend Gary from Brisbane arrived in London and took me to a screeing at the old Starlight Cinema at The Mayfair Hotel - it was marvellous seeing it on the big screen again, as back in that pre-video/dvd age one only saw movies at cinemas or on small black and white televisions!

So I relished the 2-disk dvd release with the restored scenes which make more sense of the story, and those 3 alternate versions of "The Man That Got Away" all as brilliant as the version in the film, with great Scope compositions and Judy being a powerhouse as ever. I was never a total Garland fan, but this and I COULD GO ON SINGING are two special films for me. It is actually Mason who is astounding here - it is a multi-layed marvellous performance, if it hadn't been Brando's year, James should surely have been best actor. That scene where he overhears Bickford and Garland talking about him is so brilliantly realised, the irony of course being that it was Garland who was the ravaged self-destructive star who was really all washed up in Hollywood by 1954. One only hopes all the early admirers of the film got to get the dvd restoration, as they will love it even more (particularly David McGillivray, author of "The Hollywood Musical"). Bob Willoughby's photographs [above] from the set are terrific too, as per his book "The Hollywood Special".

Of course I went to the Streisand version in 1976, and of course loathed it - that finished my Streisand fandom for a very long time, even Pauline Kael her great admirer was appalled. Suddenly it was A STAR IS BORING. Beyonce (going by her show at Glastonbury) could be marvellous with the right co-star if the new proposed version by Clint Eastwood goes ahead .... but we will always have Cukor's definitive version.
One can see now though why classy new girl Grace Kelly won the best actress Oscar that year (for looking dowdy in a cardigan) - Judy at 32 was considered an old-timer and difficult, it seems Jack Warner lost faith in the movie, which was a difficult shoot, and cut it to fit more screenings. Judy's weight and looks vary from scene to scene, but that slim look of hers in the award scene in the movie was something that I just found totally fascinating...



Another marvellous item on the restored dvds is the premiere footage, including that one in LA when everyone came out for Judy, one realises what a big event the film was and they all wanted Judy to be a hit. There's Doris Day, Peggy Lee waiting to be recognised, Debbie and Eddie, Tony and Janet, Liz and Wilding, Joan Crawford joshing with her old MILDRED PIERCE co-star Jack Carson, who was the MC, and all hollywood's hot shots, including Lauren Bacall [the woman who knew everyone] lighting up a cigarette next to Judy and Jack Warner - oh, and a bashful Raymond Burr "just back from Korea" with a cute young marine in tow!. Fascinating stuff ... I want to see it all again now. A STAR IS BORN will always be in my top 10.

Elizabeth Taylor RIP

Like Marilyn, Elizabeth too was a feature of my childhood from about 1954 onwards, with all those magazine covers from her Mike Todd era and then Eddie, and those movies like THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, RHAPSODY and GIANT where she and Dean are so iconic (they are about the same age, 24, and she already has the 2 sons by Wilding). It is only now I realise how much we liked her in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and CLEOPATRA and those 2 duff Losey movies.

One liked her atttitude as well as she lived her life in the public gaze. It was nice to have seen her (with Burton and Losey) in 1970. Then of course after the excesses of the Burton-Taylor years there was her kaftan phase in the 70s as she tried being a politician's wife, but she was soon looking terrific again in the 80s as she promoted her perfumes and diamonds. One hopes her final years were happy.

All those great lines of hers, as Maggie the Cat or as Leslie Benedict or Martha or Sissy Goforth, but I particularly like Cleopatra's one: "I asked it of Julius Caesar, I DEMAND it of you"... What to choose of hers to watch? - there are so many... Liz with Clift, Dean, Hudson, Newman, Brando, Beatty, Burton etc. I think I like '50s Liz best, but truly [almost] the end of that era. As a child I was fascinated by her damaged Southern Belle in RAINTREE COUNTY [the Bob Willoughby pictures of her and Clift fooling around on set are refreshingly candid showing stars and friends at play] and although THE SANDPIPER was tripe (Pauline Kael's review is priceless) did she ever look better? She certainly deserved the Academy Award in 1966, if not in 1960 [that year's should have gone to Kerr and Simmons as a tie, as the culmination of their great years].

Several days after her passing the papers are still writing about her - Saturday's "Daily Telegraph" has a nice 3 page feature on Truman Capote writing about her in 1974. He of course knew her as well as he did Monroe, Garland, Brando etc - and the London "Times" had 9 pages on every aspect of her life and career and role as gay icon, humanitarian etc. as well as a 2-page obituary. I can't imagine anyone else getting anywhere near so much attention, not even Sophia Loren or Doris Day! Camille Paglia has also now waded in with a newspaper feature, and so has Francesca Annis (see THE PLEASURE GIRLS below) now one of our senior actresses, who was a handmaiden in CLEOPATRA. I bought that "Picture Show" magazine below in 1960 when I was 14!

CLEOPATRA - another look at Fox's mammoth which I always liked, seeing it originally on its 1964 release at local cinemas, as a teenager. What I particularly like are the sets and opulence of it all with the terrific soundtrack by Alex North and Shamroy's camerawork. The first half is undeniably better with Harrison's acerbic Caesar in full command. Taylor is surprisingly effective, I like that scene with Anthony (Burton) as she is about to depart in her boat back to Egypt just before the intermission, and that sweeping panorama across the port of Alexandria as Caesar arrives. It is full of nice moments and Mankiewicz certainly makes it sound good. I still chuckle at her command for Anthony to get on his knees as a supplicant: "I asked it of Caesar, I DEMAND it of you", with Pamela Brown, Robert Stephens, Martin Landau, Hume Cronyn and of course Roddy McDowell and of course the asp. There was a nice article by Francesca Annis (one of the handmaidens, now one of our senior actresses) on its making and how Elizabeth took her under her wing in one of yesterday's papers. Still a movie to savour then... that entry into Rome alone is still stupendous!