The Last Picture Show Teaser Intro (Secret Cinema)Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Starring: Cybil Sheppard, Jeff Bridges, Cloris Leachman, Ben Johnson, Timothy Bottoms, Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan Studio: Paramount IMDB Rating: 9 |
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Tonight, we’re here to celebrate New Hollywood & we’ve chosen one of the best pure examples of New Hollywood’s foundation. The film was made by a renegade, & I mean renegade independent production company that had set Hollywood on its ear a mere 2 years before our film released. That the company also had a nepotistic relationship with a major Hollywood studio spoke to the transition to independent production that had been going on for nearly 20 years. The film was shot completely on location for a miniscule $1,000,000 budget and its director was making only his second feature film & first outside Roger Corman’s guerilla film factory.
It is based on a novel that could be acquired on the cheap & set that author on a Pulitzer Prize winning career.
What I love in particular about this film, however, is that while it is steeped in New Hollywood, it has Old Hollywood’s DNA running deeply through it. The classic realism of the images reflects back to films made 30 years before. The cast, too, is a wonderful combination of actors on the assent and an iconic character actor from Hollywood’s Golden age. In fact, the cast would go on to gain 16 Oscar nominations & 4 wins in their careers, while also being nominated for 39 Emmys, winning 11 times.
Some reviewers even compared the film to Citizen Kane & like that film it would be the pinnacle of its young director’s career. The self-destructive director thought himself a throwback to the auteurists of the studio era & no less than Martin Scorsese once said he was the last director to make classic American films.
It was a critical and box office success & was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 2. While it was created outside the system, Hollywood’s elite embraced & celebrated it. I hope in seeing it tonight you’ll see that its design is timeless and how incredibly well the film has aged. I’m not alone in calling this a wonderful marriage of Old & New Hollywood. I hope you enjoy it.
It is based on a novel that could be acquired on the cheap & set that author on a Pulitzer Prize winning career.
What I love in particular about this film, however, is that while it is steeped in New Hollywood, it has Old Hollywood’s DNA running deeply through it. The classic realism of the images reflects back to films made 30 years before. The cast, too, is a wonderful combination of actors on the assent and an iconic character actor from Hollywood’s Golden age. In fact, the cast would go on to gain 16 Oscar nominations & 4 wins in their careers, while also being nominated for 39 Emmys, winning 11 times.
Some reviewers even compared the film to Citizen Kane & like that film it would be the pinnacle of its young director’s career. The self-destructive director thought himself a throwback to the auteurists of the studio era & no less than Martin Scorsese once said he was the last director to make classic American films.
It was a critical and box office success & was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 2. While it was created outside the system, Hollywood’s elite embraced & celebrated it. I hope in seeing it tonight you’ll see that its design is timeless and how incredibly well the film has aged. I’m not alone in calling this a wonderful marriage of Old & New Hollywood. I hope you enjoy it.