The Silver Screen Oasis

10:30 AM (Pacific) 1:30 PM (Eastern) Comedy
September 29th

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) - Starring Spencer Tracy and Company ... One of my favorite all time madcap comedies ever made.

Alison, here's a short piece I wrote for my Lost Women of Hollywood series on Mubi.com. Yes, I believe she never worked in California, but Hollywood is a state of mind, isn't it?

MARIE TRINTIGNANT (1962-2003), though not born in the movies, practically grew up in them. Her first film, in 1967, was Mon amour, mon amour, directed by her mother, Nadine, and starring her father, Jean-Louis. After appearing in several of her mother’s films, she made a lasting impression in Serie noire, directed by Nadine’s second husband, Alain Corneau in 1979. Many film, stage, and tv appearances followed, including a 1988 series, Sueurs froids (the French title of Vertigo), hosted by Claude Chabrol. It was for him that she made two of her three pictures that are best known in the US, Une affaire de femmes and Betty. In between the Chabrols, she was a voice in Leo Carax’ Les amants du Pont-Neuf. Nominated five times for a Cesar, Trintignant worked steadily and with increasing skill until her untimely death in 2003 of a cerebral edema. In Lithuania, playing the title role in her mother’s Colette, une femme libre, her long time boyfriend, Bertrand Cantat, lead singer of Noir Desir, apparently incensed by a phone call from her estranged husband, struck her in the face, according to medical testimony, at least 19 times. Marie Trintignant, in a coma from which she never recovered, was taken home to Paris where she died and was buried in Pere Lachaise. Cantat was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter and was released for good behavior after four. In interviews after his release, he claimed that she was the only love of his life.
The life and career of MARIE TRINTIGNANT were abruptly ended as she was approaching what can reasonably be expected would have been her prime.

[u]ROBERT REGAN[/u] wrote:Alison, here's a short piece I wrote for my Lost Women of Hollywood series on Mubi.com. Yes, I believe she never worked in California, but Hollywood is a state of mind, isn't it?

Hello my friend. That's a nice write up you did for Marie Trintignant, Bob. I will be making it a point to catch your work over at MUBI.

Jean Louis Trintignant is one of my favourite actors, he's roles have been varied and challenging and he always delivers, I'm not as fimiliar with his daughter's work but if she had half of the talent of her father she'd have been a great actress. What a tragedy, thank you for filling me and providing the pictures.

I have been loving the tribute to Mack Sennett. After years of less than stellar prints, it is great to see them so lovingly restored. Seeing my beloved City of Angels landmarks just makes me smile!

For way too long, the scandal that destroyed his career has overshadowed Roscoe Arbuckle's legacy so it's wonderful to be able to see what a great comedic actor he was. His films with Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin have been some of my favorites.

Speaking of Mabel, if anyone has a copy of The Extra Girl that they would be willing to share, this poster would be eternally grateful!

Thanks, Theresa, for your kind words on Trintignant. And thanks, Knitwit, for the pictures. I would have included a picture, but I haven't figured out how. Only last week Theresa taught me how to post my avatar!

That'll be the next lesson, Bob.

Aldo Ray movies are starting on TCM starting early tomorrow in honor of his birthday, as you pointed out, kingrat.



One of Ray's earliest films that I liked quite a bit, surprisingly, is scheduled for 7:30am (ET) tomorrow. Saturday's Hero (1951) featured John Derek as a football star named Steve Novak, a Polish kid from a dead-end factory town whose college scholarship means more to him than he knows. His awareness of his own academic possibilities and limitations play out at a college with a big sports program where part of his education includes a crash course in the intersection of commerce and college ball. Directed by David Miller (Sudden Fear, Lonely Are the Brave, Capt. Newman, MD, Executive Action), the cast includes Ray as a returning veteran playing football just out to get a sheepskin, and the actor's naturalism makes him far more compelling than he should be, given the size of his part. Donna Reed appears as a tempting, upper class morsel set out to entice young Derek, with good support from the interesting Alexander Knox as a dismissive professor and Sidney Blackmer as a corrupt and powerful alumnus. Grades are adjusted, perks are showered on the players, and an education is sometimes subsumed in the pursuit of profit for the school. Not a great film to make you love the sport, but probably Derek's best role (even if his football turn here immediately made me think of his fate in All the King's Men). Photographed beautifully by Lee Garmes and with an intelligent script written by Sidney Buchman, this small scale movie is a very well told cautionary tale.

Perhaps others might enjoy this dark look at a game that is still at the center of American college life.

Theresa, I'll be ready for my lesson. And maybe you can tell me why when I select to be informed of additional messages on a thread, it doesn't happen!

Kingrat, yes, Betty is another of my favorite Chabrols. It's amazing how Trintignant held her ow working with such powerful leading women as Huppert and Audran! Many years ago, Chabrol was for me the tail end of the Nouvelle Vague "holy trinity", but as time goes by he has become my favorite. Have you seen Les Noces rouges and Juste avant la nuit?

Moira, I'm very glad to see you, as well as TCM, drawing attention to Aldo Ray. One of my favorites is The Marrying Kind.

Kingrat, I had to get those two Chabrols from the UK!