The News on Film

I am an admitted news junkie therefore I love any film that has to do with the subject of the media. Hollywood's most recent foray on the topic is Morning Glory, the Diane Keaton-Harrison Ford romantic comedy (Rachel McAdams is the real star of this film) about a daytime news show. "Daybreak" is last in the ratings and the former beauty queen host and legendary anchor of course clash while Adams as producer tries to keep the show --and her life -- from unraveling.

Rachel McAdams

Perhaps my favorite film is Broadcast News (1987), director James L. Brooks story of a tv news producer (Holly Hunter), the brilliant writer who is secretly in love with her (Albert Brooks) and the handsome yet awkward on camera anchor (William Hurt). The film is hilarious yet poignant as the Washington news bureau suffers the fate of many in television today -- downsizing due to the economy. Brooks steals the show with some of the best one liners on film. And for a piece of trivia, Debra Winger was supposed to play the female lead but pregnancy got in the way.

Hunter, Brooks and Hurt

Desk Set (1957) is the story of what happens when computerization hits a television network research department.  Spencer Tracy stars as the engineer ordered to reshape the department and Katherine Hepburn as Bunny, the sharp tongued head researcher. There is lots of witty dialogue and banter, not to mention sterling performances. The film was originally a play and rumored to be based on an actual CBS  researcher (and IBM!).

Hepburn and Tracey 

Network (1976) is perhaps the quintessential film on the news business, albeit a dark one. The fictitious Union Broadcasting System suffers from poor ratings and places their somewhat deranged head anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) as an angry prophet with his own "entertainment" show, adding "I'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" to the national  lexicon. Faye Dunaway won the Oscar as the cold, calculating producer Diana Christensen. It's satirical, brilliant and a must see.

Dunaway as uber producer Diana Christensen

The Infamous Morning After shot: Dunaway with her Oscar by the pool 

And last but not least....All The President's Men (1976) is the political thriller based on the non-fiction book of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Cal Bernstein as they uncover the unraveling of the Nixon presidency. Everything clicks with this film -- the performances, direction and story are first rate. The film won an Oscar for Best Art Direction as production designer George Jenkins dutifully recreated the Post headquarters on a Warner Brothers soundstage, right down to the phone books.

Hoffman and Redford

Jason Robards as Post Editor Ben Bradlee. Designers measured and copied
 original newsroom desks for an authentic recreation

Photo credits: Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox

The Way We Were Revisited

It's been thirty seven years since Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand made movie magic in the love story The Way We Were (1973) and this Tuesday, Oprah scores a coup with a reunion show.

For those of you who are a) straight and male and/or hate love stories, b) too young and never got around to seeing, or c) living in a cave, The Way We Were is the story of star crossed lovers who meet in college and fall in love years later and their differences drive them apart. Redford plays Hubbell Gardner, a Waspy jock and Streisand as Katie Morosky, a Jewish political activist and the couple eventually prove that love can't conquer all. New York, Hollywood and Malibu in the forties never looked better and that goes for Streisand and her ironed hair as well (perhaps her most glamorous role to date).

Sydney Pollack directed the film (he later teamed with Redford on Out of Africa) and rumor has it, the golden one had to be literally coaxed into doing the role (Warren Beatty and Ryan O'Neal were also considered). The film is based on Arthur Laurent's book which I highly recommend as well. 

On location in Central Park...

...and in Malibu

Pollack with Streisand and Redford

A on-again-off-again sequel was in the works for decades but Redford could never come to terms with the story or script. Apparently "The Way We Were II" would pick up in the sixties, and the pair would come back together to deal with their radical daughter who protests the Vietnam War. Some things are best left alone and what are the chances magic can happen twice?

The film has become a camp classic and you would be hard pressed to find fans who cannot come up with at least a line or two of the dialogue or a favorite scene. (And since you didn't ask mine would be Redford and Bradford Dillman sailing - "Best Saturday Afternoon").  Sex and the City even paid homage when Carrie told Mr. Big goodbye at the Plaza Hotel. And if you've seen the film you know what I am talking about.

"Your girl is lovely Hubbell"

The Way We Were garnered six Academy Award nominations (Best Actress, Costume, Art Direction and Cinematography) and won two for Best Song and Original Score. Rent the movie, download the score and set your Tivo.

Photo Credits: Columbia Pictures

The Celluloid Commander in Chief

They have been portrayed as egomaniacal philanderers, bumbling boobs, and hapless stand -ins as well as steadfast leaders and action heroes who save the day. Biopics have loosely chronicled everyone from Young Abe Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. They are the Commanders-in-Chief, celluloid style.

The presidency on the big screen is often more memorable than those who have actually graced the oval office. Over the years, Hollywood has shaped how filmgoers view the highest office in the land through imagery, interpretation, fact and fiction -- and often somewhere in between.

With President's Day upon us, here is a quick overview of some of the varied themes of politics and the presidency on film:

Historical

Perhaps Abraham Lincoln is the most celebrated president in film history, chronicled by Henry Fonda in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), D. W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln (1930) and his fateful day at the Ford Theater in Birth of a Nation (1915) to Walter Huston in Abraham Lincoln (1930) and Raymond Massey's sterling portrayal in How the West Was Won (1960). Even Steven Spielberg has acquired the rights to Doris Kearns Goodwin's bio Team of Rivals, Simon and Schuster, 2005) on the l6th President, slated to star actor Liam Neeson. (It has been noted the actor and his subject are the same height for what it's worth).

Fonda as Lincoln

Satirical

No other film has unveiled the political process quite like director Michael Ritchie's 1972 satire The Candidate (1972). Robert Redford stars as Bill McKay, a successful lawyer and son of the governor of California who reluctantly enters the political race only to win and ask the inevitable question "What do we do now?" Said to parallel the careers of John F. Kennedy and Jerry Brown, the film highlights the importance of money and image in the political process and there is no doubt a sequel would have yielded a President McKay. The roman a clef Clintonian tome, Primary Colors (1998), Warren Beatty's rapping pol in Bulworth (1998) and Dr. Strangelove's (1963) blundering President Merton Muffley are also must-sees.

Beatty as Bulworth

Comical

The Oval Office has been fodder for many a comedy. Imagine the President as a single father and dating a lobbyist? (Michael Douglas as The American President, 1995).  A look- a - like who substitutes for a President in a coma? (Kevin Kline as Dave, 1993). Or a former talk show host runs an unlikely campaign and wins? (Robin Williams as Man of the Year, 2005). Even Richard Nixon is lampooned by Dan Hedaya in Dick (1999) who appoints two high school girls lost on a White House tour as his advisors on the Watergate scandal.

Classical

The President plays the ultimate protagonist in the Academy Award winning account of investigative journalists Woodward and Bernstein and the saga known as Watergate in All the President's Men (1976). Wide-eyed and innocent James Stewart charmed audiences in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the classic Capra-esque story of a naive senator who discovers all is not as it appears in politics -- perhaps he would have made it to the Oval Office in more innocent times.

Stewart as Mr. Smith

Hoffman and Redford as Woodward and Bernstein

Thriller

Who else but Harrison Ford to bring the President as action hero to the screen? As President James Marshall, he single handedly fights terrorism and plane hijacking, naturally saving the day in the 1997 suspense film, Air Force One. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Gene Hackman portrays a philandering president involved in a cover-up as his mistress is killed by the Secret Service in Absolute Power (1997). And Hollywood gives us yet another action turn with Bill Pullman as President Thomas J. Whitmore in Independence Day (1996). Leading a squadron of fighter pilots, he successfully defends the planet against alien attacks.

Air Force One

And in a category all his own, Oliver Stone's unique reinterpretation of history gave us three films required for viewing -- the controversial JFK (1991), Josh Brolin's dead on performance of the 43rd President in W. (2008) and Anthony Hopkin's manipulative yet tragic portrayal of the beleaguered Nixon (1995).

It is a little early to tell what crop of movies the new administration will influence but it's safe to say that somewhere a screenwriter is sharpening his pen. Stay tuned. (And Hollywood's pick for  Obama -- Denzel? Will Smith? Any guesses?).

Hopkins as Nixon

A special thanks to the blog Savoir-Faire for the Cinema Style mention. Savoir-Faire is the blog of Ally Lewis,  formerly with In Style and Harpers Bazaar. You can read her blog here.


Photo Credits: Warner Brothers, Touchstone, Columbia Pictures

Sundance Style

"To us, Sundance is and always will be a dream. What you see, smell, taste and feel here is a dream being carefully nurtured. It is an area whose pledge is to people. What we offer in the form of art and culture, spirit and service, is homegrown and available to all."

- Robert Redford

While many of you know Robert Redford as an Academy Award winning director, iconic actor, environmentalist/activist, supporter of new filmmakers and the independent film, founder of the Sundance Film Festival, Sundance television channel, Sundance Film Institute, Sundance resort and overall hearthrob, he also has a catalogue as well. (You guessed it, the Sundance Catalogue). And with the film festival in full swing this week, I thought it would be appropriate to visit what I call Sundance Style.

First a refresher course. Redford bought the Mount Timpanogos ski area northeast of Provo, Utah with his initial salaries from hit movies such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (obvious connection on the name) and Downhill Racer back in l969. The area at the base of the mountain became known as Sundance Village and soon became an artistic community and an eventual haven for independent filmmakers who arrive en masse every January to display their wares so to speak. The village housed a quaint store which offered unique one-of-a-kind items reflecting the charm, style and individual artistic persona of the area. An idea was born.

In 1989, Redford and his colleagues started the Sundance Catalogue and have been selling paintings, home furnishings, jewelry and clothing ever since. Many of the items are handcrafted especially for Sundance, making your purchase even more special as you support American craftsmen and women.

Of the twenty year odyssey Redford notes this is, "one of the more insane journeys any business could make. We built things we shouldn't have, tried things that were beyond us, and planned things that were merely impossible. But happily, it has turned out."

Here are a few of my favorite things. For more on Sundance Style, see the catalogue's website.

Sit and Stay Pillows

Russell Wright Pitchers

Nepoli throw

Artist Karen Bezuidenhout's paintings

Nambian Rider above and Pink Sunset below

Fremont leather chair and ottomon

Spice Market Kilim rug

Gypsy Chandalier

For more on the festival which runs through the 30th (some tickets may be available but good luck with lodging at this late date) go here. For information on the resort (summer is supposedly wonderful and filled with lots of activities), check out their website here.

Top Photo: Redford and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)and with Katherine Ross in cast shot below.

Photo Credits: Sundance Catalogue, Twentieth Century Fox