Tribute: Documentary Pioneer Albert Maysles

Posted on March 6, 2015 at 3:05 pm

We mourn the loss of film visionary Albert Maysles, who with his brother David, showed us a new way to see film and a new way to see the world. They were the first Americans to create intimate, unstructured documentary storytelling without experts talking from behind their desks or extended narration. This is “direct cinema,” the distinctly American version of French “cinema verité.” The Maysles brothers were the first to make non-fiction feature films where the drama of human life unfolds as is, without scripts, sets, or narration. In part, this was due to their way of looking at the world, which was open-hearted and non-judgemental. But it was also due to changes in technology since the very earliest days of documentary. In 1960, he said, “With the equipment we have today, which is directly descended from the equipment we made; you could go beyond the illustrated lecture for the first time. These innovations made it possible to get what was happening so clearly and directly that the person viewing the film would feel as though he was actually present at those events. For the first time, it was possible for someone watching a documentary to feel as though he was standing in the shoes of the person he was seeing onscreen.”

Maysles’ subjects had lives that were in some ways ordinary, like those of us in the audience. Salesman was about door-to-door Bible salesmen. He said, “There are daily acts of generosity and kindness and love that should be represented on film.”

But he also made extraordinary films about extraordinary lives. Perhaps his most famous was Grey Gardens, about “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” Beale, relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who continued to live in their crumbling East Hampton mansion with no money and very little contact with the outside world. The movie was later adapted into a hit Broadway musical and a movie with Drew Barrymore.

He filmed Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Otis Redding, and the Mamas and the Papas.

He filmed the Rolling Stones.

He filmed Paul McCartney.

He said,

As a documentarian I happily place my fate and faith in reality. It is my caretaker, the provider of subjects, themes, experiences – all endowed with the power of truth and the romance of discovery. And the closer I adhere to reality the more honest and authentic my tales. After all, the knowledge of the real world is exactly what we need to better understand and therefore possibly to love one another. It’s my way of making the world a better place.

May his memory be a blessing.

Tribute: Leonard Nimoy

Posted on February 28, 2015 at 12:00 pm

We mourn the loss of Leonard Nimoy, who created one of the most iconic characters of all time, “Star Trek’s” half-Vulcan, half-human Mr. Spock, with pointed ears and angled eyebrows perfectly designed to convey a wry sense of irony. The storylines of the original “Star Trek” were provocative political and cultural allegories, but the heart of the show was the reflection of the internal struggle we all try to reconcile: fire and ice, Athenian and Spartan, id and superego — between the passionate, impetuous Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the cerebral, deliberate Mr. Spock.

Adam Bernstein wrote in the Washington Post:

Spock was the ultimate outsider — a trait Mr. Nimoy said he understood. He was Jewish and had grown up in an Irish section of Boston. Going to movies as a child during the Depression, he was drawn to actors who specialized in bringing pathos to the grotesque — especially Boris Karloff in “Frankenstein” (1931) and Charles Laughton in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939).

By most accounts, Mr. Nimoy portrayed the most popular character of the “Star Trek” cast. While some critics thought that Mr. Nimoy’s acting was dour or wooden, fans might have argued that these were precisely the characteristics of the emotion-suppressing, logic-obsessed Spock.

Nimoy was a fine actor, and he gave a dry wit to Mr. Spock. The character was fascinating because of his emotionless, stoic, purely rational approach. Once in a while, his human side showed through. And although most of the time he seemed to conclude (rationally) that the Vulcan approach was superior, he occasionally seemed to envy his human colleagues’ capacity for emotion. And certainly, he showed himself capable of friendship with Captain Kirk.

I loved his father’s explanation of why he married a human: “It seemed the logical thing to do at the time.” Spock also had the enviable ability of telepathy and could immobilize a humanoid enemy with a neck nerve-pinch.

Bernstein’s obituary quoted an interview Nimoy gave to the New York Times:

“I knew that we were not playing a man with no emotions, but a man who had great pride, who had learned to control his emotions and who would deny that he knew what emotions were. In a way, he was more human than anyone else on the ship.”

He added: “In spite of being an outcast, being mixed up, looking different, he maintains his point of view. He can’t be bullied or put on. He’s freaky with dignity. There are very few characters who have that kind of pride, cool and ability to lay it out and walk away. Humphrey Bogart played most of them.”

He spoke to Pharrell Williams about his life and career and developing the character of Spock.

The devotion of “Star Trek’s” fans is legendary, and the subject of documentaries including Trekkies and its sequel, and no character had more fans than Mr. Spock.

A particularly fitting tribute was in an episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” where the hyper-rational Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) has the most emotional reaction in the history of the series because he receives a special gift, a napkin that had been used by Leonard Nimoy.

In another episode, Nimoy provided the voice for Cooper’s Mr. Spock action figure.

Nimoy was the son of Jewish immigrants from what is now Ukraine. It was his idea to use the traditional rabbinic blessing gesture, with the fingers spread apart in a V shape as the Vulcan greeting.

He was also a successful director, not just of “Star Trek” films but also of the popular comedy “Three Men and a Baby” and the Diane Keaton drama “The Good Mother.”

In 1968, Nimoy responded with warmth, generosity, and wisdom to a letter from a biracial girl who identified with his bi-planetary character. He told her to “realize the difference between popularity and true greatness. It has been said that ‘popularity’ is merely the crumbs of greatness. When you think of people who are truly great, and who have improved the world, you can see that they have realized that they are people who do not need popularity because they knew they had something special to offer the world, no matter how small that offering seemed. And they offered it and it was accepted with peace and love.”

He left us with a beautiful final message via Twitter.

A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP

Nimoy gave us many perfect moments. As long as there are devices to view content, new generations of fans will love and be inspired by Mr. Spock. May his memory be a blessing.

EPIX will pay tribute to Nimoy this weekend.

A Conversation with Leonard Nimoy: AIRING: Friday 2/27 – 11:00PM ET, Saturday 2/28 – 5:40PM ET & 10:00PM ET, Sunday 3/1 – 8:00PM ET

Leonard Nimoy shares insights and personal anecdotes from his nearly 50-year involvement with the phenomenon that is Star Trek.

Star Trek Into Darkness: AIRING: Saturday 2/28 – 10:15PM ET, Sunday 3/1 – 8:15PM ET

In the wake of a shocking act of terror from within their own organization, the crew of The Enterprise is called back home to Earth. In defiance of regulations and with a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads his crew on a manhunt to capture an unstoppable force of destruction and bring those responsible to justice. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

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Tribute: Louis Jourdan

Posted on February 16, 2015 at 7:20 pm

We mourn the loss of French movie star Louis Jourdan, who has died at age 93. Best remembered as the handsome, elegant, bored Gaston who lost his heart to Gigi (Leslie Caron), he appeared in a variety of roles opposite leading ladies from Elizabeth Taylor (“The VIPS”) to Grace Kelly (“The Swan”), Shirley MacLaine (“Can-Can”), and Doris Day “Julie.” Adam Bernstein’s astute obituary for the Washington Post noted that Jourdan was not happy playing the all-purpose European romantic lead, and especially enjoyed his chance to be a Bond villain in “Octopussy.” May his memory be a blessing.

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Tribute: Rod Taylor

Posted on January 9, 2015 at 9:02 am

Today we mourn the loss of the Australian actor Rod Taylor, star of classic films including The Time Machine and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. He was an affable leading man with the confident physicality of an athlete, comfortable in light comedy, drama, and military settings.

In an interview with TV Guide, Taylor described his early years:

My first big fight was with my mother when I was a kid back in Sydney. She was a writer and wanted me to be an artist. My father began as a rigger on a crane and finally ran his own construction crew. … Anyway, when I was a kid, I dutifully went to the Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College. Then I worked at commercial illustration for newspapers, and my mother was happy. But I did a lot of boxing and I was captain of an Australian surf club. I met a lot of actors there, and I got the bug. I gave up art and became an actor myself, in Australian radio. Mom put up quite a struggle over that — but lost.

He was hired for an American movie filming in Australia, “Long John Silver,” and decided to give Hollywood a try. He told TV Guide:

I did well as an actor in Australia, and then Paramount invited me over … to have a look at me. Hal Wallis took that look, and maybe he was expecting Gregory Peck or something, because he said, “Who is this bum with the broken nose?” … So I told him to stuff it and lived on the beach for a while, catching fish for my food.

After small parts in some films, including “Giant” and “Separate Tables,” and an appearance on “The Twilight Zone” as an astronaut, he had his first movie lead role in the George Pal version of the H.G. Wells classic about time travel, The Time Machine.

After “The Birds,” he appeared in frothy romantic comedies like “Sunday in New York” (with Jane Fonda) and “Do Not Disturb” (with Doris Day).

He was the voice of Pongo, the daddy dog, in “101 Dalmatians.”

He also appeared in one of my favorite guilty pleasure films, the soapy stuck-in-an-airport saga The VIPs, with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Orson Welles. Taylor plays an executive who will lose his business if he cannot get to a crucial meeting, when his flight is cancelled. His devoted secretary is played by Maggie Smith, who also co-starred with him in “Young Cassidy.”

He continued to work on television and in film, including Quentin Tarantino’s WWII epic, Inglourious Basterds.

May his memory be a blessing.

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Tribute: Edward Herrmann

Posted on January 1, 2015 at 10:41 am

The loss of actor Edward Herrmann was a sad end to 2014. His elegant, patrician quality made him a perfect choice to play real-life characters like Franklin Roosevelt in Eleanor & Franklin and its sequel (and in “Annie!”) and fictional characters like Richard Gilmore in Gilmore Girls. I first noticed him in a tiny role as the piano player in The Great Gatsby. In just seconds, with the way he held his shoulders and his expression of resolute good cheer, he told us everything about the life of a man living on the good will and careless extravagance of others. He was perfectly cast as the headmaster of a prep school in the delightful “Lawrenceville Stories,” unable to hide his amusement at the antics and pranks of his charges.

He was an exceptionally accomplished narrator of audiobooks, including No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Home Front in World War II. When Martin Scorsese needed a voice of impeccable credibility to create a “Wolf of Wall Street” television commercial for the film, he went to Edward Herrmann.

Lauren Graham, who played his daughter on “The Gilmore Girls,” said,

Ed Herrmann’s combination of pure charisma plus his distinctive voice lit up any room he entered. He had a gentlemanly manner, a wicked sense of humor, and a sharp wit. He was well-read, interesting, and just plain fun to be around. He had deep respect and love for the craft of acting and led by example. You wanted to be better prepared, or just plain better, because he always was. He brought such humor and humanity to all his work, but I know the character of Richard Gilmore had a special place in his heart. He loved our show and was touched by the enthusiasm of its fans.

May his memory be a blessing.

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