Film Stars # 6: Joan Blondell

No. 6 Joan Blondell

Links
IMDB entry for Joan Blondell, link.
Wikipedia entry for Joan Blondell, link.

Star Wars Blog-a-thon

Apparently tomorrow is the 30 year anniversary of Star Wars, so much to answer for...

There is a Blog-a-thon in celebration of May 25th 1977 and the films release at Eddie on Film starting tomorrow, I am posting late at night on 24th as I will be tied up most of tomorrow and it's after 11pm here.

I did go to see this on its release although I am sure it didn't reach my town until sometime in 1978, I would have been five to six years old. I had been to the cinema before but the only film I recall was 'The Jungle Book', which we all went to see, for 'Star Wars' my Mother took me, the queue was right around the corner of the small one screen cinema in the town I grew up in. I was excited, at least I think I was. I estimate that this film could have been out maybe six months before it hit our town, maybe well over a year before the film was released in the USA.

I don't rememeber how we came to see this as my Mother most certainly wasn't interested in it, so I must have nagged my parents, I'm guessing there was so much hype about this film at the time, probably nothing compared to today's hype and the general marketing of films but I certainly knew people at school who had the plastic dolls and had talked about seeing it.

Anyway I experienced something that has frequently happened to me inside cinemas since- I fell asleep. In this case I remember waking up towards the end, the part where they have to shoot straight to destroy the death star. I had no idea what was going on in the film at this point, I am not even sure that I had enjoyed the film, I certainly had no idea about half of what the characters were saying. I remember looking at my Mother, she seemed to be sucked in to whatever was happening in the film.

A strange thing happened when we left the cinema, it was daylight as it had been a matinee and it was the first time I had experienced stepping out into the bright daylight after hours inside a dark cinema.

That's all I can remember about the first time I saw 'Star Wars'.

Link
Eddie on Film, Star Wars Blog-a-thon, link.

Coming attraction: Distant Voices, Still Lives

Julie Christie

Links
Just released 'Julie Christie Collection' 4 DVD's, link.
Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown, comment from The Shamus on Julie Christie, link.

Film Stars # 5: Wendy Barrie

No. 5 Wendy Barrie

Link
IMDB entry for Wendy Barrie, link.
Wikipedia entry for Wendy Barrie, link.

Out there in the blogosphere

Katherine Hepburn is 100 today, see the tribute at Edward Copeland on Film, link.


Thanks to Glyphjockey for sharing the way to start the day the David Lynch way, link.

Isabella Rossellini - The Guardian Interview

On Sunday I attended the screening of 'Rome, Open City' followed by Q&A with Isabella Rossellini, interspersed with some short films. Geoff Andrew (Time Out, BFI Southbank) conducted the Q&A.

The event was informative and interactive and was, I'm pretty sure sold out. I won't go into all of the details as the entire transcript from the Q&A is now online on The Guardian's site (see below link). Many of the things she discussed about her father are covered in her new book and the short film directed by Guy Madden; 'My Dad is 100 Years Old'.

I particularly liked the way she talked about her mother's relationship with her father, likening it to if Julia Roberts had fallen in love and run off with the best Iraqi director.

Ultimately I was pleased to get my copies of 'Stromboli', 'Europa 51', 'Voyage to Italy' and 'Fear' signed by her and enjoyed seeing 'Rome, Open City' on the big screen as well as seeing the rare films shown and hearing her talk about two of the people I have recently become very interested in; Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini.

Read the transcript to see why Isabella Rossellini was afraid of Anna Magnani, why Roberto Rossellini took glucose pills and which of her mother and fathers films are her favourites.

Looking through the May listings I have seen several of the early Rossellini films, the one Isabella Rossellini talked about and sounds intriguing 'The Miracle' (L'Amore) is showing next month when the season moves away from the neo-realist films into the documentaries and the ones that are not easy to see.

Clips/films shown

My Dad is 100 Years Old, link.

Brief Encounter with the Rossellini Family, directed by Gert Engstrom, 5 minute location film on the set of 'Voyage to Italy'.

The Chicken (billed on the programme notes as 'Ingrid' a segment from a film called 'Siamo Donne', link.

Links

IMDB entry for Roberto Rossellini, link.

IMDB entry for Isabella Rossellini, link.

The Guardian, transcript from the Q&A with Geoff Andrew, part 1 - link, part 2 - link.

Roberto Rossellini writes to Ingrid Bergman (earlier post), link.

National Film Theatre, Rossellini retrospective, link.

More Rossellini

Link

10th May - 8th June, 2007

Isabella Rossellini: In the Name of the Father the Daughter and the Holy Spirits, at the Italian Cultural Institute, 39 Belgrave Square, London, SW1, link to their site.

Coming attraction

Voyage to Italy (Viaggio in Italia) will show as part of the Rossellini retrospective on Sunday 27th May at 16.15 and Wednesday 30th May at 20.45. I saw it as part of a double bill years ago, with I think an Antonioni film and I enjoyed it. I also really liked this BFI re-release poster shown here.

Link

IMDB entry for Voyage to Italy, link.