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Book Club - by Luke

I got given this book for Christmas last year, mainly because I go nuts for Michael Caine and I think he's the ducks guts when it comes to actors and all-round-smashing dudes. Ever since I first saw Zulu when I was about 12 I've always been impressed by his on-screen charm. In recent years I've managed to see a fair few more of his films, and the feeling hasn't dimmed.

Caine has roughly 100 films to his name, which is no mean feat. He's played working class spies, cockney womanisers, toff soldiers, gay playwrights, fucked up cross-dressing serial killers, pot-smoking old hippies, brutal gangsters and alcoholic professors - employing a wide range of convincing accents, controlled body language and a whole lot of screen charisma. You might be forgiven for thinking I have an unhealthy love for Caine but I really do think he is one of the true treasures of 20th and 21st century pop culture.

This book takes us through all of his films up to around 2003, listing them in alphabetical order and affording each and every one a fairly measured space in the book. The author, David Bishop, gives us each film's plot, Caine's role in the film and how he came to get it, how he performed, how the critics saw his peformance, how the critics saw the film, how Caine saw the film and, at the end of each entry, what Bishop thinks of the film. It doesn't get much more in-depth than that, and there isn't really much more that you could ask for.

Now, Caine has done his fair share of stinkers (you'd be hard-pressed to appear in 100 films without being in a few bombs), but he almost always gave a decent performance. Alongside the classic Caine films - 'Zulu', 'Get Carter', 'The Ipcress File', 'Alfie', 'The Italian Job', 'The Man Who Would Be King', 'Educating Rita', 'The Cider House Rules', 'The Quiet American', etc, etc - we also get his less-than-steller achievements - 'Jaws 4', 'Beyond the Poseidon Adventure', 'The Swarm', 'Blame it on Rio' - as well as rare information and quotes from Caine on his many hard-to-find films - including the mostly-unreleased 'The Debtors', an apparently dreadful comedy directed and financed by Randy Quaid's wife that saw the Quaids eventually file for bankruptcy.

Anyway, this is a must-have for any Michael Caine fans and diehard film fans in general.

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The Academy Awards

February 1st 2007 09:25

If you've ever read one of my other blogs, Old Movies, you've probably come across the occasional (or excessive) mention of the Academy Awards. The truth is, I'm obsessed with the Oscars. I don't know why, it kind of depresses me because almost everyone else I know either...

A) Finds them boring.
B) Despises them for being behind-the-times.
or
C) Appreciates them for the wrong reason (EG. For the fashion, bleyuck!)

Anyway, I didn't let this stop me from picking up this book a couple of years ago. It's the kind of book that an odd person like me can really go ga-ga over. Definitely a collector's edition (it was certainly pricey enough!)

It's quite a huge book, almost the size of a small coffee-table, and it goes through the Oscars year-by-year. We get photos of all the winners in their winning-roles, information on the history of the Awards, the controversies, the nominess who got gypped, interesting facts and trivia, and all sorts of Oscar-related miscellany.

My favourite part is probably the pictures of each winner in their winning role... there are lots of photographs in here that I'd never seen before, and the blurb under each winner explains what they won for and how their career went before and after the winning of the award. As such, we get seldom-quoted information about lesser-known winners such as James Dunn and Broderick Crawford. An absolute delight for an Oscar-nerd like me.

There isn't much else I can say about this book. I've had it for ages but I was waiting until Oscar-season (which is now) to talk about it. It's an incredibly well-researched book and the writers aren't officially connected to the Academy either so all the juicy goss has been left in. I hear there's a revised version out that has the latest winners in it too.

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Lord of Misrule

December 7th 2006 11:16

'Lord of Misrule' is a revised and expanded new edition of Christopher Lee's prevous autobiography, 'Tall, Dark and Gruesome'. The first autobiography was written in the late 70s when Lee was almost into his 60s. Man, the guy is now about 85... I guess he never expected to have achieved so much in the autumn years of his life. He doesn't seem to be letting up either, in the last five years he has become more famous than ever (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), reaping the rewards of a long and celebrated career in horror and cult films with several big name directors honouring his achievements by enlisting his talents for a whole new generation to enjoy.

Lee starts off his story by examining his noble roots (Lee is descended from a line of Italian Counts) but doesn't shy away from the more scandalous aspects of his upbringing (his parents seperated when he was fairly young, something that wasn't really done in it's day, and he didn't really know his father). Lee also talks of his time as an officer in World War II, where he served in the Special Operations Executive (a kind of special Intelligence arm of the military). Lee took a long time to turn to acting, and his height and gaunt features often held him back, but eventually - through perseverance and a willingness to act in non-English speaking films - he managed to gain a footing in the business and carved out a niche for himself. The rest of the book deals with his various adventures in the screen trade, the multitude of strange films and places he has found himself in, and his various achievements outside of the cinema (when Lee gets a hobby, he doesn't do it by halves!)

Lee is a gifted writer. There's no denying this... he's obviously an incredibly intelligent man with a vast array of accumulated knowledge at his command. At times, he can seem a little pompous or arrogant (and let's face it, if anyone has earned the right to be full of themselves - it's Christopher fucking Lee), but he offsets this with an affected self-depreciating tone which is at once both endearing and amusing. He's also quite frank and unafraid to broach certain subjects that most other actors would be shy about it - at one point he even sheepishly discusses how he lost his virginity!

And just to show you why Lee is such an amazing guy, here's some quick bits and pieces...
- He holds the record for appearing in the most films (well over 200).
- Is a classicly-trained singer (in the opera mode) and has done guest vocals for an Italian power metal band.
- Is related to Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond.
- Can speak eight languages!
- Reads 'Lord of the Rings' once a year, and has met J.R.R. Tolkein
- Holds the record for the most swordfights on screen.
- Is an honorary member of at least three stuntman unions.
- Counted as one of the best amateur golfers in the world.
- The Guinness Book of Records cites him as the 'Tallest Leading Actor'.
- Is a big fan of the American power metal band Manowar.
- Has played Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, The Mummy, Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, Moriarty and Fu Manchu.

If Christopher Lee couldn't write for shit, or if this book had been ghost-written, it would still be an amazing book due to the diverse and eclectic nature of Lee's career. But, as it stands, it's also amazingly well-written - probably the best writing I've ever read by an actor - so that makes this a must-read for film fans. The guy's a goddamned legend.

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De Niro

September 29th 2006 08:58

This is the most recent biography to have been released about Robert De Niro, that reclusive actor who delves into rabid depths of method madness. Biographer John Baxter has done a pretty decent job here too... he manages to assemble a mass of material that would have entailed a LOT of research and he manages to say something new too, which is something all good biographies strive to do in order to be fresh and relevant I guess.

Is this one fresh and relevant? Pretty much.

Is it good? I'm not as sure about that one...

To present a clear picture of De Niro's early days is an achievement in itself, and this book's most interesting sequences are those that deal with De Niro's background, the formation of his character and his emerging dedication to his craft. For someone as shy and unknown as Robert De Niro, I'm amazed that this much can be told... I can't help but question how true it all is, but if Baxter hasn't been sued and the book still remains in print than I guess we have to take his word!

The big revelation of this book is that De Niro's father, New York artist Robert De Niro Snr, was in fact a homosexual. It sheds an interesting light on an actor accustomed to playing tough guy characters and giving reserved yet intense performances. And whilst De Niro has pushed his range in the manner that all the great method actors have done (eg. Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman), he has never actually played anything remotely close to the kind of character that Baxter presents his father as. I found this very interesting, despite it's 'gossipy' nature.

Where the book fell flat for me though is in Baxter's re-telling of De Niro's career... Baxter is kind enough to show De Niro's struggle to fame in a fairly even light, detailing his breakthroughs and dedication to method-acting almost favourably at times. However, post-Raging Bull, Baxter has very scant praise for the actor - presenting De Niro's every effort as an actor, celebrity and person as ridiculous.

De Niro's employment of 'the method', for Baxter a source of mystery and unique skill when it wins the actor awards and widespread critical kudos, becomes a pinata of absurdity for the author in regards to the last 25 years of De Niro's career. The author is quick to add his praise when his peers have offered it in their marking of the actor as a screen legend in regards to his roles in films like 'Taxi Driver', 'Mean Streets', 'The Godfather II', 'The Deer Hunter' and 'Raging Bull', but aside from these instances he seems to have nothing but contempt for the man he has based his book on. Now, call me strange, but when I buy a book about Robert De Niro it's to be somewhat expected that I might be a fan of the man's acting... fair enough, his talent has slipped in the last ten years, but I think this John Baxter fellow might be forgetting his audience when he presents a reclusive actor like De Niro as a silly fool. It just seems a bit more subjective than neccessary and smacks of author-annoyance in regards to the lack of interviews De Niro grants.

Anyway, I think I've harped on about my problems with this book enough. I don't think you'll find a more up to date or detailed account of De Niro's career in print at the moment, but don't expect the author to endear himself or his subject to you.

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Which Lie Did I Tell?

September 22nd 2006 03:44

'Which Lie Did I Tell' is a non-fiction book by celebrated screenwriter William Goldman. It follows on from his previous book about writing in Hollywood, 'Adventures in the Screen Trade'.

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John Wayne - The Man Behind the Myth

September 8th 2006 04:18

I love John Wayne. I don't think he was a sissy, it's not an ironic love like Rik's fannery of Cliff Richard in 'The Young Ones'. This is a genuine appreciation of a screen giant and his unique talent and just how generally damn iconic he was. When I think Superstars (yes, with a capital S) I think... Steve McQueen, John Wayne and Tom Cruise. These people are known everywhere in the world and will be remembered for some time after they went. We might not get a mythical icon like Wayne again... Cruise has damaged his name too much with his offscreen weirdness, and the media is too quick to latch onto anything that damages the image of a star these days. Wayne is an icon from a dying era.

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Lord of the Rings - Virgin Film Guide

August 23rd 2006 08:09

It's been said that there are two types of people in the world - those who have read 'The Lord of the Rings' and those who are going to. Well, perhaps that's no longer the case, what with our modern age having finally made it possible for the epic fantasy trilogy to be successfully translated to the screen. 'Lord of the Rings' has gone from being an almost cult-like institution for fantasy purists to a Star Wars-sized franchise... even to the point of there being various Star Wars Vs. Lord of the Rings arguments between their respective followings.

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Charles Bronson Superstar

August 10th 2006 03:55

Charles Bronson Superstar

This is probably a bit pulpish and bit hard to track down, but I couldn't resist talking about this fawning 70s monument to action icon Charles Bronson.

Now, I'm a huge Charles Bronson fan. Death Wish, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, Apache... well, maybe not Apache, but you get the picture. He also has a huuuuuuge back catalogue of pulp action films from the 70s and 80s that I've been slowly working my way through - they're cheesy, but Bronson is always so ice cool in them

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With Nails

July 20th 2006 10:51

Richard E. Grant seems to have come to a summit in his film career at the moment. On the back of his acclaimed autobiography, 'The Wah Wah Diaries', he has made his directorial debut with the film version 'Wah-Wah'. Grant is a great character actor, full of manic energy and acidic detail but... I'm not sure how interesting a privelaged white upbringing in Swaziland would be to read about or watch. What I am sure of is that his first book - 'With Nails' - is certainly a lot of fun.

WIth Nails

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Brando

July 14th 2006 06:06

This is a brilliant book for anyone who's a Marlon Brando fan. It features a write up by the author on every film, play and television appearance Brando ever made, as well as pictures of him in each and every role, as well as quotes from reviews of his performance at the time of release.

Brando, by Robert Tanitch

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Raging Bulls, Easy Riders

July 4th 2006 10:19

Being a bit of a massive film nerd (see the Old Movies blog for proof), I read a lot of film-based books. Now, if someone came up to me and said 'Reccomend me a book about movies, one book only motherfucker - reccomend it!' I'd.. well, I'd probably be a little worried that they were calling me a motherfucker, and it probably wouldn't happen anyway, but let's suppose for a moment that it did... I'd easily reccomend the book 'Raging Bulls, Easy Riders' by Peter Biskend.

Raging Bulls, Easy Riders by Peter Biskend

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McQueen

June 21st 2006 06:48

McQueen - The Biography

Being an actor, it must be strange to know that if you leave behind an impressive enough body of work that hundreds of people, nay thousands, will pore over all the minutae of your life in an effort to recapture who you were. Talk about a legacy! This is exactly what has happened to Steve McQueen in the book 'McQueen', the author (Christopher Sandford) has buried himself in a self-made catalogue of McQueen's life... the research that must've gone into this 500 page book would've been intensive.

The book follows McQueen from his childhood right through to his premature death. All 28 of his films are dealt with in-depth, as are his 'wilderness' years between jobs and film roles, his contempt for Hollywood, his death-defying love affair with all things fast, his paranoia, his business acumen, his wives, his lovers, and his stint in the marine corps. The hardest parts to take are the end sequences of this book, where McQueen fought against his cancer and sought out the help of a doctor with an alleged 'miracle cure'. It's all in the book, in vivid detail

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Alec Guinness

May 29th 2006 09:19

Guinness, by Piers Paul Read

As usual, I'm going to start off my blog with the use of the words 'score' and '$5'... this time in relation to an Alec Guinness biography that I managed to get from the Collins Bookstore in Penrith whilst they were liquidating stock in prepartion for being taken over by Fox. Ahem... I got an Alec Guinness book for $5. Score.

Piers Paul Read was a friend of Alec's in the waning moments of his life, and due to this he managed to get Alec's widow and son to give their blessing to his biography of Alec Guinness, making this the only 'official' Alec Guinness biography (note: autobiographies not counting) to date. Guinness' widow died before the book was completed, and his son (whom he never had a good relationship with) didn't really seem to care (I'd assume), which leads this 'official' biography to be nowhere near as sanitized as it otherwise probably would have been

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Brushing the Tip of Fame

May 5th 2006 07:36

Brushing the Tip of Fame by Nicholas Hope

Nicholas Hope isn't the most well-known of Australian actors. His best role was in the cult classic 'Bad Boy Bubby' and, although he won the AFI award for Best Actor that year, he has kind of disappeared off the radar since. But he has not been idle! This is a extremely funny and uninhibited memoir of Hope's adventures in the screen trade, a chronicle of the time he has spent travelling from one European festival to another and making various films in Scandinavia that have remained largely unseen in the rest of the world.

Looking somewhat like a poor man's Hugo Weaving, Hope was never going to make it big as a leading man... so instead of wedging himself into character bit parts playing a range of lunatics that all riffed off his most well-known role he instead opted to use his new-found and brief fame to take a wild ride along the European film festival circuit, promoting 'Bad Boy Bubby' and living it up via it's cult status. So, as you may imagine, 'Brushing the Tip of Fame' reads almost more like backpacker's travel literature rather than a film memoir

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