Kris Kristofferson

[linda_lakeside]

Tom,

Boy, you sure know your stuff. I agree that KK will probably be remembered for the classics you just mentioned. There are a few others. However, as an actor I don't think I can lay the blame on "Heaven's Gate" (I never saw it - just heard). Did you see "A Star is Born" with Striesand or "Roll Over" with Jane Fonda?

He looked pretty good, I reckon. But actor?....matter of taste.

Linda.

[tomsakic]

Yes, tom and Linda, it depends on director. And partner, I guess, hello, the-queen-of-ephemeral-kitcsh-Barbra-Streisan and Jane Fonda As for level of acting, tom, it depends what you mean by acting. The film acting is only "being present" in the world that movie represents to spectator (which includes some photogenic quality). The so-called acting wrongly connected with film acting is theatrical acting like Lee Strasberg School methods. I mean, Marlon Brando really is/was the great(est) actor, but his acting is not cinematic acting, on the other hand, John Wayne is pure example od natural presence on screen. I feel the same about Kristofferson - in great movie, of course. And just seeing him on screen brings some feeling, like John Wayne still does (and always will do).

Btw, Peckinpah is one of my favourites

[tom.d.stiller]

Btw, Peckinpah is one of my favourites

Agreement on this, and on the acting argument as well. It isn't really fair to compare the likes of Gary Cooper, John Wayne, KK with actors of the Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins class. Though sometimes bad screen plays and bad directors marred the movies...

A film is, after all, what the director makes of it. Just remember what Hitchcock told Truffeau about Jimmy Stewart's eyes in "Rear Window"...


tom

[linda_lakeside]

well, tom, what did Hitchcock tell Truffaut? They forgot to invite me to the meeting. Really, I'm dying to know!

[tom.d.stiller]

I cannot locate the exact quotation, Linda, but the essentials are:

In "Rear Window" there are several close shots of Jimmy Stewart's eyes. Every time they seem to convey something very different, depending on the scene he watches. Hitchcock revealed in a long interview he gave Truffeau that he always used the same shot, and that the different looks of Stewart really aren't in his "windows of the soul" but in the eye of the beholder...

Tom, can you locate the passage from the interview?

tom

[jurica]

The more I look at Sam Peckinpah's films the more I find their strong sides on the editing side of film making. But this is just my impression as a layman of the trade.

KK's performance as actor, to my mind, never was much above mediocrity, though a mediocrity brilliantly mis en scène...

well, i agree Peckinpah was a lot about editing. can you see Wild Bunch once and die not remembering the shootout with fast gunfights divided by slow motion dead bodies falling..? ahhhhh...

but a friend of mine once said: all Peckinpah's movies were censored, so he couln't realy film anything but stylish violence. he wanted to study sadism, violence, psychology of crime... but they'd only let him shoot action the way he wanted. i don't know if that's true, but it does sound true.

in Straw Dogs, which was Britain produced, i think, we may have had a glimpse at what he was able to do if they'd let him.

anyway, i like KK as an actor. i didn't enjoy his role in either Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid or Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, though. i've seen Blade, on the other hand, and was impressed with his ability to draw so much from a poorely written and small role. he was great in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (very nice movie overall) and Payback also!

[jurica]

and about film acting in general: if you need proof that expressionless face can be as good an actor as any - just go and see any Sergio Leone movie.

[linda_lakeside]

Ah, so. I guess we're not talking about the same Truffeau? Anyhooo, I've seen the movie and Stewart's eyes are incredible - the big-blueness of them! One shot, you say? How on Earth did he get that idea and put it on the screen and make it work? And so well??? There is definitely a certain something about Stewart's eyes, Hitchcock, the director, sees that and uses it. Simple! Oh, sure.

Linda.

[Kush]

K Kristofferson and Gordon Lightfoot were the first of the 60s singer-songwriters that I listened to (and the only ones for a long time) growing up in the 80s. I found them in my older sibling's record collection. Later I came to know of Cohen, Dylan etc etc. I don't listen much to either of them now (it got old) but I liked KKs recent Live From San Francisco album - that's the only album that I still have of his.

[jurica]

Ah, so. I guess we're not talking about the same Truffeau?

Francois Truffaut? one of the founders of French 'New Wave'cinema? he was inspired to a great deal with Hitchcock, and this interview is actualy a very long series of talks issued in a book called Hitchcock.

[linda_lakeside]

Hi Kush,

In Canada there is a law that says "All Canadians must own at least one copy of Gordon Lightfoot material". So, in keeping with the law, I have one that I still listen to from time to time. He has a warm voice but some of his lyrics are probably more attuned to those of us in the Great White North.

I live in a heavily forested area and the line "the deep green forest was too silent to be real" always comes to mind when I'm out in the deep green... One of his others I particularly like is "If You Could Read My Mind". Amazing number of covers on that song "I don't know where we went wrong but the feeling's gone and I just can't get it back". Ah, yes. Gordon Lightfoot. I put those lines down so the CanCon cops won't bust me for not being Canadian enough.

Linda.

[linda_lakeside]

Hi Jurica,

Yes, I'm familiar with Truffaut, but I'm not sure if tom is talking about the same one.

I wanted to ask you what you or Tom might think of Quentin Tarrentino (I'm sure the spelling is wrong but you know who I mean). Do you see parallels between Quentin and Peckinpah? Or is it just the violence they both use so (I won't say gratuitously - because it often isn't).

Linda.

[jurica]

yes, it's the same guy. he did this most famous interview with Hitchcock... i don't have that book, and i think i may ask Tom Sakic if he could lend it to me if he has it... i must make a mental note.

Tarantino is not among my favorites. i know most people agree he is a very important filmmaker who made it possible for independent cinema to reach larger audience, but i'm not a fan of his work.

he learned his trade from Peckinpah, Leone, Woo, Kar-Wai, Allen, Miike... which is all great and everything, but he doesn't add much to the picture. his dialogs are not as funny as Allen's, his action as dynamic as Woo's and his violence seems to be there just for the sake of it... i don't see it as an interesting exploration of human animality. more like 'i want to be as over the top as Takashi Miike'.

i know most will not agree, and it's OK. you did ask for my oppinion.

[Kush]

Talkin' of class actors - Al Pacino gives one of his best performances in the recent Merchant of Venice movie as Shylock. The movie itself was a trifle long and boring I thought but maybe I was just feeling sleepy that day.

Linda...and every Texan must own atleast one Willie Nelson album.

I really used to like Lightfoot lyrics but I think I heard too much of him at one time and the magic has faded. Same for Kristofferson and Johnny Cash.
BTW, there is a true story about Kristofferson landing in Johnny Cash' backyard in a helicopter with the lyrics to Sunday Mornin' comin' down and begging him to sing it in concert. Cash did and the rest is history.

p.s. and something else...I didnt care all that much for Willie Nelson at the time I was hearing Kristofferson and Johnny Cash 15-16 years ago, now its the other way. I must've become cheap and pathetic.

[linda_lakeside]

jurica:

I do agree that a lot of Tarrentino's stuff is a bit over the top but don't you think the 'human animal' was explored effectively in Resevoir Dogs?

Linda.