In Paper Moon, Bogdanovich perfectly judges the narrative’s flow to decide when to go for emotions and when to change the track. The thing about road movies is that the journey can easily turn boring. That’s my idea of a good scene,” says Bogdanovich whose classical approach to film-making unmistakably instills brisk pacing and sharp humor. It gives you the feeling of life going on. “Two good actors, no cutting, and a lot of movement in the background. Related to Paper Moon – JOHNNY GUITAR – AN EXTRAORDINARY MYTHICAL WESTERN CLASSIC Of course, the road adventures of these desperate souls through small towns of American Midwest encounter few obstacles. Moses makes more money than ever, a miracle considering how families are migrating in broken-down trucks to escape from the Great Depression. However, things turn out better for both when Addie displays what a natural con-artist she is. Addie beats Moses at his own game of blackmail. She uses foul languages (may not seem foul for our time), and in leisure smokes a cigarette, listens to the radio and discusses the virtues of Franklin D. But she is a tough girl who knows all about the manipulative ways of the adults. So he uses Addie’s mother’s name to pull some blackmail money and send Addie on a train trip. Moreover, considering the bleak economic climate of the era, Moses feels it would do no good to have a little girl while doing business. Moses is a con-man who scams recently widowed women by selling them overpriced Bibles. Before long, orphaned Addie is saddled with Moses to deliver her to an aunt in St. Addie wonders if Moses could be her pa as it was between him and two other local guys. The neighbors commented on how Moses’ and Addie’s jaw looks the same. Nine-year-old Addie Loggins (Tatum O’Neal) is attending her mother’s funeral as Moses Pray (Ryan O’Neal) drives his derelict car to pay respects. Shot in glorious black-and-white, the film opens in the dusty roads of small-town Kansas, 1935. Manufactured or not, that precious precocious look on Tatum’s face provides genuine heart to this incredibly funny movie. Director Bogdanovich has expressed that he had a hard time working with the little girl and went through numerous takes to ‘manufacture’ the subtlety. Traditionally child actors win awards by pushing our sentimental buttons, but Tatum’s performance has the unbelievable raw energy and subtlety of a seasoned actor. And among the director’s works, Paper Moon has the most perfect cast (right up to the girl who plays Imogene). Peter Bogdanovich, who often lionized old-school film-makers like Orson Welles and John Ford, believed in their rule of getting the cast right. Related to Paper Moon – JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 COMMERCE QUAY, 1080 BRUSSELS REVIEW: UNDERSTANDING THE PATTERN-OF-LIFE But when Bogdanovich came on-board he insisted on Ryan O’Neal (Barry Lyndon) who had given two big hits at the time – Love Story (1970) and What’s Up Doc? Nine-year-old Tatum O’Neal – Ryan’s daughter – had never before acted in her life but went on to win Supporting Actor Oscar (and the youngest one to do so). Paper Moon was original to be directed by John Huston while Paul Newman and his daughter Nell were in talks of playing the central characters. Peter Bogdanovich states he coerced the writer to do a lot of re-writing to bring the classic, perfectly sculpted three-act structure to the narrative. Director Bogdanovich later made some quality films like All they Laughed (1981), Mask (1985) and Noises Off…(1992) but nothing came close to his earlier best works: The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, the later one was treasured and so memorable, thanks to the performance of little Tatum O’Neal.īased on Joe David Brown’s novel ‘Addie Pray’, the script for the film was written by Alvin Sargent (who won 2 Oscars later for ‘Julia’ and ‘Ordinary People’). It was followed by the director’s most famous work Paper Moon (1973), a road-movie/dramedy set in the Great Depression era. Bogdanovich took on the classic and distinct Hollywood genre of screwball comedy. The Last Picture Show (1971) – nominated for 8 Oscars – is a bittersweet tale set in the suburbs of small-town Texas which set the precedent for this dramatic sub-genre. The debut feature Targets (1968) was a taut thriller about an insane sniper killing off strangers on the street. His first four films made between the years 19 belonged to entirely different genres. American New Wave director Peter Bogdanovich (also a critic and film historian) was a skilled cinematic craftsman.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |