Wednesday, 31 May 2017
Tuesday, 23 May 2017
Clint at Cannes 2017
Clint Eastwood Says ‘We’ve Lost
Our Sense of Humour’ and hints at a return to acting.
It’s great to see Clint returning
to the Cannes Film Festival. There have been a few stories this week, so I have
gathered some together here to provide an overall perspective. Eastwood told a rapturous
Cannes audience on Sunday that he will return to acting in front of the camera.
Eastwood was giving a master class at the Cannes Festival and received a
three-minute ovation from those able to get in to the packed auditorium, in a
crowd that included Warner Bros. boss Kevin Tsujihara.
The star notably did not address
the political situation in the U.S., focusing on his long career in front of
and behind the camera. He did say that his first “Dirty Harry” movie was
considered politically incorrect, and was the start of an ongoing era of
political correctness. “We’re killing ourselves by doing that, we’ve lost our
sense of humour,” he said.
Having mostly eschewed acting for
directing in recent years, Eastwood’s last on-screen performance was in 2012’s
“The Trouble With the Curve.” He said he missed performing “once in a while but
not often,” but added he plans to return at some point, “I did a lot of it for
a long time. I’ll visit it again someday.”
Eastwood, 86, spoke about growing
up in Depression-era America. “At 5 or 6, you didn’t notice and didn’t know any
different,” he said. “Once you got old enough to understand the time, you
realize how much you appreciate [your parents] because they had to go through
that.”
He added: “Everyone thinks this
last recession was bad, but they don’t know what it is like.” Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth
Turan asked Eastwood about his reputation for relying on his gut as a director:
“Your instincts are sometimes better than your intellect,” Eastwood said.
“Intellectualizing, or pseudo-intellectualizing, can get you in a real box.”
“Film is an emotional art form,
not an intellectual art form at all.”
Asked about current movies and
directors he admires, the star said that between working on recent projects,
“American Sniper” and “Sully,” he has not gotten to see new movies, but he did
recently revisit “Sunset Boulevard.”
Stewart Clarke, Variety, MAY 21st, 2017
Clint Eastwood tells Cannes he might act again some day
CANNES, France (AP) — Clint
Eastwood regaled the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday with stories from his long
career, predicted a possible return to acting and decried the rise of political
correctness.
Eastwood was honoured with
several screenings of his films, including one marking the 25th anniversary of
"Unforgiven." In a staged conversation on Sunday, the 86-year-old
director said he would revisit acting "someday." The last time
Eastwood appeared on screen was 2012's "Trouble With the Curve."
Before that, he starred in his own 2008 film, "Gran Torino."
Eastwood didn't talk about
current political events, but while discussing his then-controversial 1971 film
"Dirty Harry," he waded into a topic he's touched on before: so-called
political correctness.
"A lot of people thought it
was politically incorrect," Eastwood said of "Dirty Harry."
''That was at the beginning of the era that we're in now, where everybody
thinks everyone's politically correct. We're killing ourselves by doing that. We've
lost our sense of humour."
Sofia Coppola's remake of Don
Siegel's 1971 film "The Beguiled," which starred Eastwood, is to
premiere this week in Cannes, but Eastwood sounded unfamiliar with Coppola's
movie.
He's currently preparing to
direct "The 15:17 to Paris," about the foiling of a 2015 Islamic
State group attack on a train heading to the French capital from Brussels. Three
Americans, two of them off-duty members of the military, contributed to the
subduing of the gunman. Eastwood said the film suited today's "strange
times." Festival-goers mobbed Eastwood's talk. Warner Bros. executives,
including studio head Kevin Tsujihara, sat in the front row. Much of the conversation,
moderated by Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan, touched on Eastwood's
attitudes about moviemaking.
"If you have good luck with
your instincts, you might as well trust them," Eastwood said. "It's
an emotional art form. It's not an intellectual art form at all."
New York Daily News
Watch Clint Eastwood's Cinema
Master Class
Clint Eastwood treated Cannes
festival goers to a Cinema Master Class over the weekend. Eastwood served as
President of the Jury at Cannes Film Festival in 1994.
The Oscar winning filmmaker spoke
at the Debussy Theatre to present the restored copy of Unforgiven, which is
celebrating its 25th anniversary at the Festival with Warner. On the 21st, he inaugurated the
70th ANNIVERSARY MASTERCLASS with a discussion in the company of American critic
Kenneth Turan in the Buñuel screening room. The legendary actor and director
freely spoke about his films, childhood and beginnings.
Clint Eastwood: ‘We are killing ourselves’ with political
correctness
Legendary actor and film director
Clint Eastwood told a crowd at the Cannes Film Festival Sunday that political
correctness is killing the entertainment industry.
The Western film icon, who was
visiting the festival in southern France for a 25th anniversary screening of
his 1992 film “Unforgiven,” said America’s obsession with political correctness
started around the time of the release of his 1971 movie “Dirty Harry,”
according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“It was far-out at that time, so
I brought it to [director] Don [Siegel], and he liked it,” Mr. Eastwood said.
“A lot of people thought it was politically incorrect. That was at the
beginning of the era that we’re in now with political correctness. We are
killing ourselves, we’ve lost our sense of humor. But I thought it was
interesting and it was daring.”
Mr. Eastwood made the comments
during a master class conducted by Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan.
Mr. Eastwood, who went to Cannes to introduce the screening of “Unforgiven,”
said he initially hadn’t planned to sit through the entire movie.
“I thought I’d just sit through
the first five minutes, but after a while I thought, ‘This isn’t so bad, so
maybe I’ll stay for it,’” he said, THR reported. “I enjoyed it. I saw a lot of
things that I’d forgotten.”
Mr. Eastwood’s current movie
project is “The 15:17 to Paris,” the Warner Bros. Pictures’ retelling of the
2015 heroics of three Americans who stopped an Islamic State attack on a train
from Brussels to Paris.
By Jessica Chasmar - The
Washington Times - Monday, May 22, 2017
Clint Eastwood does not rule out
a return to Westerns
CANNES, May 21 — Clint Eastwood
does not rule out making another Western, he said yesterday as he presented a
25th anniversary restored copy of Unforgiven at the Cannes Film Festival.
“When I read the (Unforgiven)
script 25 years ago, I always thought that this would be a good last Western
for me to do,” said the 86-year-old actor-director.
“And it was the last Western,
because I have never read one that worked as well as this one since that. “But
who knows, maybe something will come up in the future,” said Eastwood, who made
his name in the TV series Rawhide and the so-called spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s,
now considered classics. Unforgiven won four Oscars including Best Picture and
Best Director for Eastwood who also starred. — Reuters
Clint Eastwood Decries P.C.
Culture in Cannes: "We've Lost Our Sense of Humour"
The director took part in a
master class as he visited the fest for a 25th anniversary screening of
'Unforgiven.'
As far as Clint Eastwood is
concerned, society’s current obsession with political correctness began with
his 1971 movie Dirty Harry.
Coming in the wake of his three
Sergio Leone Westerns that began with 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars, the violent
San Francisco-set cop story consolidated Eastwood’s growing stardom, and he
makes no apologies for it.
“It was far-out at that time, so
I brought it to [director] Don [Siegel], and he liked it,” Eastwood recalled
Sunday during a visit to the Cannes Film Festival. “A lot of people thought it
was politically incorrect. That was at the beginning of the era that we’re in
now with political correctness. We are killing ourselves, we’ve lost our sense
of humour. But I thought it was interesting and it was daring.”
That was about as political as
Eastwood got as he discussed his films in a master class, answering questions
posed by Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan.
The veteran actor/director came
to Cannes to introduce a screening of a restored version of his 1992
Oscar-winner Unforgiven, which unspooled as part of the Cannes Classics sidebar
to mark the film’s 25th anniversary.
“I thought I’d just sit through
the first five minutes, but after a while I thought, ‘This isn’t so bad, so
maybe I’ll stay for it,'” Eastwood admitted. “I enjoyed it. I saw a lot of
things that I’d forgotten.”
The filmmaker recounted how David
Webb Peoples’ script first came to him as a writing sample around 1980, and he
immediately thought, “This would be a great last Western for me.” But after
optioning it, it sat in his desk for 10 years before he finally got around to
making it.
During the course of the
discussion, Eastwood paid tribute to his two mentors, Leone and Siegel. “Sergio
had a different way of looking at the size and scope of films. I learned a lot
from him,” he said. “Don Siegel was extremely efficient, he was faster than
anyone I’ve ever seen, but that’s because he thought faster.”
Eastwood called his reputation
for quickly shooting as few takes as possible “a lie,” but then admitted, “I
like to always shoot the first take. I like to see the what the mechanism is in
[the actors’] faces the first time it comes out of their mouths. If it works on
the first take and you print it, everybody gets in that mood — 'Okay, we’re
going somewhere.'”
Eastwood explained how he likes
to keep his sets calm and drama-free. On other films on which he’d work, he
noticed how an assistant director would go around yelling, “Quiet on the set!.”
But after a visit with one of the many U.S. presidents he’s known — he said it
was probably Gerald Ford — he was impressed by how quietly the Secret Service
agents communicated with each other through their lapel mikes and ear-pieces,
and so he adopted that practice on his own sets.
And, Eastwood explained, it’s
always been important for him to set the tone, saying, “If the director is not
positive about where he’s going, the whole crew becomes sedate and nobody moves
forward.”
As for why he decided to make so
many of the specific films he’s made, the laconic director said simply, “If you
have good luck with your instincts, you might as well stick with it.
Intellectualizing or pseudo-intellectualizing, you can get yourself in a real
box.”
Eastwood is currently readying
the next project he will direct, The 15:17 to Paris, which is the true story of
three American friends who defeated an attempted terrorist attack on a train
bound from Brussels to Paris in 2015.
VALERY HACHE – The Hollywood
Reporter 5/21/2017
Monday, 15 May 2017
Alternative High Plains Drifter artwork design by Ron Lesser
I was very happy to recently discover this alternative
design of Ron Lesser’s artwork for High Plains Drifter (1973). This
newly found artwork illustrates segmented movement in the arm of the stranger
(Clint Eastwood) holding his pistol. The drawing also depicts the mayhem of
exploding buildings and destruction of the town during the film’s memorable and
exciting climax.
Ron Lesser’s talent has always been admired and loved by
Eastwood fans, with High Plains Drifter always being among the most popular of
Eastwood’s film poster designs. New York painter Ron Lesser used to create
movie art, including award-winning posters and storyboards for some classic
western films including The Way West and A Man Called Horse. He has also
painted pieces for the covers of books by legendary western writers such as
Louis L’Amour. These days, however, Lesser devotes much of his time to creating
paintings of Native Americans, cowboys, and the Civil War. “I am trying to tell
a story,” he says. “I like people to look at one of my paintings and feel like
they could step into the scene.”
Lesser is known for his attention to detail and for
capturing the high drama of life in the West in the 19th century. Native
American figures, whether they are posed or engaged in battle, are often set
against the magnificent mountains and luminously coloured skies of the frontier
terrain. “I am always trying to make the work authentic, like it may have
looked back then,” Lesser says. To achieve this accuracy, the artist reads,
researches, and consults with experts.
Lesser says he is inspired by the works of some of the
country’s top artists as well as illustrators such as Norman Rockwell and N.C.
Wyeth. He is represented by B&R Art Gallery, Canyon Country, CA.