sidney lumet search and destroy etc

this is a great scene: beautifully staged, esp with the bank tellers being thrilled at being part of a media event. Too bad he didn't fuck it up with some self-regarding camera gyrations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9gHNl8UNq4&feature=related

http://historical-images.encore-editions.com/44-van-vechten-collection/500/400787-portrait-of-sidney-lumet.jpg

RIP

I forgot about Network jeez. Before The Devil knows was pretty bad, but heck, the man'd done enough great movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTDhgR3p12w

My fave shot from this

Neat trick to isolate Begley: you see Lee J. Cobb go over to the window in the first second of that clip, then the shot reverses angle and Cobb disappears for the rest of the scene. (I spent the whole clip wondering where Cobb was, and only caught him when I went back to the beginning.)

uh, did we know one of his 3 wives was Gloria Vanderbilt?

Ah man, Dog Day Afternoon is one of my all-time faves. Love Network, Serpico and 12 Angry Men as well.

86 is not a bad age, he lived his life fully it seems. RIP.

deathtrap is pretty fun

I forgot that I was an extra in one of his films -- Daniel. The scene was a socialist rally on behalf of the neo-Rosenberg characters, shot in Union Square, presided over by Ed Asner. I had a circa 1950 hat. Don't remember his direction, except it was given by megaphone.

Anyone read this?

http://lehmannfilms.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/making-movies-sidney-lumet-paperback-cover-art.jpg

Yeah, it's pretty terrific -- the best thing he did in twenty years.

BTDKYD isn't terrible but the fractured chronology kills all possible tension (see also Vantage Point)

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/3119

From that link:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/post_images/4140/lumet2.jpg?1302434653

I don't think I remember subway seats w/ fabric, but I do recall the small electric fans mounted on the car walls.

From the NYT Last Word interview, I don't remember "Wyoming" from DDA.

Wonderfully unpretentious in that video piece - must find myself a copy of Making Movies.

When I posted a list many years ago of my favorite films of the '90s, I had Q&A in a group of 10 runners-up. When I watched it again a couple of years later, some of it seemed very shrill; it didn't hold up as well as I'd remembered, although Nolte's performance mostly did.

^^^ my feeling too

Making Movies is a great book. He's such a likeable presence.

Joe Morgenstern on Lumet.

Of the many things we discussed, the oddest was dishwashers. There’s a scene in “Rachel Getting Married” in which the father of the bride has a dishwasher-loading competition with the bridegroom that seems to be about efficiency but is really about control. The scene, Jenny said, had been inspired by a similar contest she witnessed as a child between her dad and the director/choreographer Bob Fosse.

Pete Hammond's remembrance

Matt Seitz: "Just because you don't instantly notice what directors are doing doesn't mean they aren't doing anything."

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2011/04/09/sidney_lumet_appreciation

That's the best thing I've read so far.

Lumet on directing Brando, from the CC of The Fugitive Kind:

http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1810-the-craft-of-sidney-lumet

I started his book, it's very snappy. He suggested Vanessa Redgrave for Network, and when Paddy Chayefsky yelped "no, she's pro-PLO," Lumet told him that was blacklisting. PC: "Not when a Jew does it to a Gentile."

Watched Dog Day for the first time in eons on Friday -- really amazing neorealist texture, the quintessence of '70s New York (ie, better than Mean Streets or Taxi Driver). Possibly Pacino's peak, and I didn't realize Judith Malina and Lance Henriksen had small meaty roles. The principal location is blocks from where I lived for a dozen years.

Have you ever read the LIFE Magazine article on which the screenplay was based? Some of the photos accompanying that story look almost like stills from the movie.

I have not, but will later! Also I'm amused that the real-life love object paid for his sex change with the money from the movie rights, apparently.

From his book, the ppl on the set he really had no use for were the star's personal hair/makeup staff, and the Teamsters.

Got an invite to a memorial tribute for him at Lincoln Center Monday afternoon. Can't go.

watching 'network' i think that movie sort of epitomizes everything i might hate in a movie

What happened to you as a child? This is such a great movie. I always pair it with "Hospital" (another great Chayefsky script) in my mind.

Good scripts, not movies!

sometimes I credit Lumet for ameliorating some of the hysteria in Network; other times he just said fuck it and let the camera go.

The hysteria is the best thing about the movie, that and Dunaway's premature orgasm.

Carl Paladino did sort of ruin the "mad as hell" for me though.

Is The Deadly Affair worth watching? I got ten minutes in, decided that James Mason was vastly inferior to Guinness the George Smiley role, and gave up. I should probably give it another go.

did you guys know he was in yiddish theater as a child? and he was in a movie w/ sylvia sidney in the 1930s?

yes (he was also on Broadway as a teen)

yeah. dude had an interesting life. kind of wish i could chat w/ him.

the "strip search" thing he did for hbo is interesting, if a bit facile. on youtube btw if ur curious

imdb is weird abt it listing a bunch of extra actors and longer run times so maybe an 86 or 120 min vers exists..did they try and distribute it w/o hbo in other countries maybe?

the main thing is the controversy abt hbo pulling it in the wake of abu ghraib which i do kindof remember and is pretty bs

lol that 1 of the imdb plot keywords is Panties Hit The Floor

i'm about halfway thru prince and the city. must have watched this 20 times when it first made the rounds on cable back in the 80s, just loved the myriad "real" new york character actors. especially loving bob balaban's prissy little fed this time around. pretty crudely structured/directed as per usual with lumet but his style very much suits the story in this one.

My wife and I just watched Running on Empty last night (partly because of mentions in this thread). It was rock solid. Like a small indie film, except one made by consummate professionals at every level.

Incidentally, after so many years of watching a thousand names scroll by on the end credits of blockbuster movies, I was amazed at how few people were needed for this production. By modern Hollywood standards, just a handful.

Christine Lahti is so good!

http://imgur.com/a/HMuy2#7

The ending of Fail-Safe is really chilling without being graphic at all--those lightning-quick optical zooms, the hiss from the melted phone, Hagman & Fonda's small talk in their last scene, "He knows" re:First Lady.

on Fail-Safe (the guy doesn't really 'get' Strangelove)

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/10/fail_safe_50th_anniversary_sidney_lumet_s_nuclear_war_movie_is_better_than.html

The ending of Fail-Safe is really chilling without being graphic at all--those lightning-quick optical zooms, the hiss from the melted phone, Hagman & Fonda's small talk in their last scene, "He knows" re:First Lady.

― A Made Man In The Mellow Mafia (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, October 1, 2013 5:06 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yep otm; i was also very into all the silence, esp in the beginning & how it's used throughout. it's obv of its time but i also think quite timeless + great

god network is awful!
― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, February 26, 2004 4:14 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Cannot be said enough.

no, that's silly. His last movie, THAT'S awful.

Probably (I didn't see it), but there seems to be a consensus on that. I still run into people who think Network is great.

The Offence w/ Connery is now on Bluray

looking at Q&A alongside... Akira

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/bradlands/akira-q-a-joy-juxtapositions