I was sitting in Barnes & Noble the other day flipping through Tatum O’Neal’s Autobiography and I was filled with longing to revisit this favorite movie.
This Peter Bogdanovitch classic from 1973 is the vehicle through which Tatum snagged the Oscar for best supporting actress. Why is this significant? Not only because it was her first film role, or because her co-star was her real-life father Ryan O’Neal, but because at the time it was made, she was just nine years old-- a record that has yet to be beaten.
I love this DVD in particular because it is one of the few “classics” I have that actually contains a commentary from the producer/director. It is always a treat to hear how and why movies like this were made, what happened behind the scenes, and what was going on inside the minds and lives of great actors and directors.
This movie opens in the dusty open fields of depression-era Kansas. Strange as it seems, You can still drive through parts of Kansas and it looks exactly the same.
Shot entirely in black and white with a red filter enhancing the contrast, Paper Moon visually sets itself apart from movies shot after the advent of color film. Visually, I think I enjoyed two things most of all: The car chases (unusual for me) and Tatum’s face on screen. I am not a car chase kind of a girl, but the rumbling old cars and the fantastic wild feeling of them bouncing down dirt roads, kicking up clouds of dust strikes me as a lot more fun than roaring hot rods screeching and “drifting” through the streets of Tokyo. Tatum jut has flawless skin and a really compelling face. Maybe it’s because she looks a bit like pictures of my grandmother at that age, but something about her just makes me want to watch her on screen.
The story of Paper Moon, adapted from “Addie Pray,” by Joe David Brown, follows Addie and the man who just might be her father Moses “Mose” Pray, as he delivers her to relatives in St. Joe, Missouri after the death of her mother. From the opening scene, you can tell that Addie is a little more savvy than most little girls her age. You get the impression that she looks straight through to Mose’s soul and knows him for what he is before anyone brings up the subject. An even better con artist than Mose himself, Addie is soon helping him peddle Bibles to recently widowed women.
The supporting cast is riddles with strange and delightfully bizarre characters. Madeline Kahn, always one of my favorite comediennes is nothing short of amazing. One moment she is a comic bimbo, the next a desperate and vulnerable woman revealing her own insecurities, and then again in the very next a hateful villain. That kind of flexibility is what brings me back to this film time after time.
It reminds me a lot of later movies like Curly Sue and Matchstick Men. I really enjoy that father/daughter/con-artist relationship explored on film- and I think it’s all because of Paper Moon.
This is a great movie to watch when you want to laugh wryly or cuddle up with on a sick day.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
My Favorite Movies: Bibbidy-Bobbidy-BOO!
It’s tough to pick only a few reasons why I love this Disney Classic, there are so many. I remember watching it almost as many times as I watched The Little Mermaid, rewinding it over and over again.
From the silky opening voice over to the neatly packaged ending, this story has always captivated me. I am still somewhat under its spell and the release of Disney's latest hit movie “Enchanted” has made me want to revisit that magical land so far, far away.
The voice of Ilene Woods, I think is the major part of what bewitched me. There is something magical about it, which is, I am sure, why she was the one cast. She has a tender, sympathetic quality that sets her apart from some of the other Disney heroines. Despite that quiet grace, she also retains not only a great strength but also a regal quality that befits a princess.
I am watching it now, with new eyes. When listening to the animators on the DVD reminisce about their heroes and the characters they animated, the personalities of each character seem to pop like never before. To me, this movie had always seemed a seamless piece of work. Now, after learning a little bit more about the animators themselves, I imagine it more like a patchwork quilt of all their very individual personalities stitched together, each one with his own sense of humor and style, but altogether they achieve a level of beauty that is hard to take in all at once.
What I really love most about Disney movies (and this one in particular) are the themes that are woven so completely though them all; themes that are lacking in a great deal of entertainment today. Good and Evil, right and wrong, faith, hope, and love; and above all, transformation. Even the sense of a well-put together story is something that is lacking in most modern entertainment.
What I fear our culture has lost to some degree with the advent of “reality-based” television is a story with sympathetic characters. There is more of a sense of Roman values (sensationalism, blood, guts, violence) that there is of setting up a true sympathetic character base.
Cinderella has this in spades. Cindy herself is a character that everyone can sympathize with. Who has not felt oppressed by authoritarian figures? Who has not dreamed that their life could be more than it is? But she transcends the normal human impulse to succeed at all costs. She remains a Lady. She gains her rightful place by honorable means. There is nothing of the catty wench about her. That is why she is a heroine. She is a true Lady.
It’s not just Cindy that is compelling. Lady Tremain with her vocal melody and spectacular emotional range brings a kind of grace even to a villain. The peripheral characters like the mice, dog and horse are the kind of friends we’d all like to have if our friends were anthropomorphized animals. Even Lucifer adds and interesting dynamic to the story.
Finally, what would this movie be without the plethora of visual gags? They are the encapsulation of what I always tell my kids in drama and theatre classes: “Show, don’t tell.” These “nine old men” have distilled what is most important in human communication and used it to weave a magical story that continues to wave it’s magic over us, even over fifty years after it was made. Thank you, Walt.
From the silky opening voice over to the neatly packaged ending, this story has always captivated me. I am still somewhat under its spell and the release of Disney's latest hit movie “Enchanted” has made me want to revisit that magical land so far, far away.
The voice of Ilene Woods, I think is the major part of what bewitched me. There is something magical about it, which is, I am sure, why she was the one cast. She has a tender, sympathetic quality that sets her apart from some of the other Disney heroines. Despite that quiet grace, she also retains not only a great strength but also a regal quality that befits a princess.
I am watching it now, with new eyes. When listening to the animators on the DVD reminisce about their heroes and the characters they animated, the personalities of each character seem to pop like never before. To me, this movie had always seemed a seamless piece of work. Now, after learning a little bit more about the animators themselves, I imagine it more like a patchwork quilt of all their very individual personalities stitched together, each one with his own sense of humor and style, but altogether they achieve a level of beauty that is hard to take in all at once.
What I really love most about Disney movies (and this one in particular) are the themes that are woven so completely though them all; themes that are lacking in a great deal of entertainment today. Good and Evil, right and wrong, faith, hope, and love; and above all, transformation. Even the sense of a well-put together story is something that is lacking in most modern entertainment.
What I fear our culture has lost to some degree with the advent of “reality-based” television is a story with sympathetic characters. There is more of a sense of Roman values (sensationalism, blood, guts, violence) that there is of setting up a true sympathetic character base.
Cinderella has this in spades. Cindy herself is a character that everyone can sympathize with. Who has not felt oppressed by authoritarian figures? Who has not dreamed that their life could be more than it is? But she transcends the normal human impulse to succeed at all costs. She remains a Lady. She gains her rightful place by honorable means. There is nothing of the catty wench about her. That is why she is a heroine. She is a true Lady.
It’s not just Cindy that is compelling. Lady Tremain with her vocal melody and spectacular emotional range brings a kind of grace even to a villain. The peripheral characters like the mice, dog and horse are the kind of friends we’d all like to have if our friends were anthropomorphized animals. Even Lucifer adds and interesting dynamic to the story.
Finally, what would this movie be without the plethora of visual gags? They are the encapsulation of what I always tell my kids in drama and theatre classes: “Show, don’t tell.” These “nine old men” have distilled what is most important in human communication and used it to weave a magical story that continues to wave it’s magic over us, even over fifty years after it was made. Thank you, Walt.
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