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Post by persistenceofvision on Jul 31, 2020 16:39:36 GMT
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Post by politicidal on Jul 31, 2020 16:55:16 GMT
R.I.P.
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Post by petrolino on Jul 31, 2020 19:10:08 GMT
One of the funniest films I ever saw at the cinema was 'The Road To Wellville' (1994), when I was about 17 or 18 years old, my first Alan Parker movie on the big screen. Visually, it really popped, very bright and painterly. I found the storytelling so engaging; today, I'd watch it in a double-bill with Tim Burton's 'Big Fish' (2003).
The Road To Wellville
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Post by kijii on Jul 31, 2020 19:34:43 GMT
This is strange--I just saw Alan Parker's Midnight Express for the second time the other day.. and was totally captivated by it. I had no idea that he had been nominated two times for Best Director--the other nomination was for Mississippi Burning (1988). Now, I have to see this movie!!!  |
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Post by petrolino on Jul 31, 2020 23:59:11 GMT
Alan Parker developed a strong working relationship on location with Dennis Quaid and Tamyln Tomita. He later said he was extremely fond of Quaid as a person but recognised his demons.
"The name of the character in my story is Jack McGurn, an Irish American and probably, subconsciously, I named him Jack because deep down I saw Jack Nicholson. Unfortunately the Jack in my story is a much younger man than Nicholson, and so I had to think again. For me, Dennis Quaid was as close to the character Jack that I’d written, as any of the younger American actors. He too is of Irish descent and he has an openness and feisty, ingenuous honesty that I wanted in the character. I met with Dennis, who had read my first draft, and he reminded me that I had done a screen test with him for 'Midnight Express' twelve years earlier. He was my first choice for 'Come See the Paradise' and so I felt very encouraged.
At the heart of our story however is the Japanese American family, and I begun the casting process which was to last six months and took us on “open calls” to wherever we could identify large Asian American populations: San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, New York, Los Angeles and Hawaii. We also cast the net as far as Tokyo. In all, we read with over two thousand possibilities, but eventually found our main cast in Los Angeles and New York. The Kawamura family obviously had to be as authentic as possible – had to speak Japanese, and the American-born children needed to be fluent in English.
Lily Kawamura, our main character, was the most difficult to find and I had narrowed it down to three actresses whom I tested with Dennis before settling on Tamlyn Tomita. Tamlyn had her own special beauty and an inner calm and dignity which was very impressive. She had the advantage of understanding the character totally at a personal level, being both Nisei (Second generation, American-born) and Sansei (Third generation), her mother being Japanese-born (Issei) and her father Nisei. I had seem Sab Shimono, who plays Mr. Kawamura, and Stan Egi (who plays the disillusioned Charlie), in Philip Gotanda’s wonderful off-Broadway play about the perception of Japanese American stereotypes, “Yankee Dawg, You Die”. I met them backstage afterwards and said that I hoped that they were both free in August.
Shizuko Hoshi, who plays Mrs. Kawamura, I had met and read with in Los Angeles. She is a very experienced theatre actress and director in her own right, having done many works with her husband Mako at the East West Players Theatre Group. She too was very close to her character, being Japanese born, but had lived in the United States for thirty years. Akemi Nishino, who plays Dulcie, I had seen in a restaurant in Los Angeles and asked her to come in to read for me the next day. Her good humor and honest naturalism livened up every scene she was in. Ron Yamamoto, who plays Harry, I met in New York. He had given up a career in law to become an actor, and his gentle qualities and optimism seemed close to those of Harry who suffers the indignation of internment and rejection, but never loses faith in the ‘American Dream’. Naomi Nakano and Brady Tsurutani, who play the younger Kawamuras, Joyce and Frankie, were both from Los Angeles.
In April of 1989, I began looking for locations which took us to Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco. In Portland we were drawn to a downtown area which was once the old ‘J’ town, or Japantown, and which is now a curious mixture of New York’s Bowery and Chinatown. I had completed my second draft of the screenplay, written in a hotel room in Portland, in between walking the streets looking for possible locations. The story, it was clear, could be pulled in many directions, but everything kept tugging the script back to the heart of things – our Japanese American family and their internment, which realistically could only be the final Act in our story."
- Alan Parker
Come See The Paradise |
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Post by petrolino on Aug 1, 2020 1:40:43 GMT
I'm so glad you posted a picture from 'Angela's Ashes'; I like that movie. I think I used to have 'Shoot The Moon', another dramatic piece, as part of the Elite Collection on VHS, which introduced me to many great filmmakers of the 1960s & 1970s through U K film distribution. Peter Bradshaw just highlighted this movie as being his favourite in 'The Guardian' and I completely understand why as he wears his heart on his sleeve.
Shoot The Moon
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Post by teleadm on Aug 1, 2020 1:59:07 GMT
R.I.P. Alan Parker
 There is nothing in this movie that I would normally feel appealing, yet The Commitments 1991 have have over the years become one of my favorite movies, a movie I can return to from time to time, and I enjoy it every time.
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Post by petrolino on Aug 1, 2020 2:05:33 GMT
R.I.P. Alan Parker
There is nothing in this movie that I would normally feel appealing, yet The Commitments 1991 have have over the years become one of my favorite movies, a movie I can return to from time to time, and I enjoy it every time.
Always makes me think of them doing 'Mustang Sally', teleadm. These memories anchor me. All you want to do is ride around Sally, ride Sally, ride.
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Post by Rufus-T on Aug 1, 2020 3:09:56 GMT
Pink Floyd The Wall  Evita  Midnight Express  |
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Post by OrsonSwelles on Aug 1, 2020 3:39:53 GMT
RIP
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Post by cynthiagreen on Aug 1, 2020 12:04:40 GMT
RIP
I'd say MIDNIGHT EXPRESS the keeper of the movies... but let's not forget his early TV efforts, in partcular THE EVACUEES, written by Jack Rosenthal and featuring Mrs Rosenthal (Maureen Lipman)
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Post by kijii on Aug 1, 2020 15:28:20 GMT
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spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
Posts: 2,519
Likes: 9,318
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Post by spiderwort on Aug 3, 2020 17:31:35 GMT
I'm so glad you posted a picture from 'Angela's Ashes'; I like that movie. I think I used to have 'Shoot The Moon', another dramatic piece, as part of the Elite Collection on VHS, which introduced me to many great filmmakers of the 1960s & 1970s through U K film distribution. Peter Bradshaw just highlighted this movie as being his favourite in 'The Guardian' and I completely understand why as he wears his heart on his sleeve.
Shoot The Moon
This is my favorite Parker film, written by Bo Goldman. It was Bo's spec script, written in the early 70s, that got him the job writing ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. He won an Oscar for that, but it took him another Oscar win (for MELVIN AND HOWARD) to finally get SHOOT THE MOON done. For years he was disappointed with this film, feeling that Parker had spoiled the ending by conveying a subtle ambivalence in the relationship between Finney and Keaton. But a few years ago, when he was honored at the Writer's Guild, he saw it again and said that he had changed his mind. He thought that Parker's choice for the ending was perfect. I'm very glad he came to that understanding.
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