Shot in widescreen black-and-white, The Visit is based on a Swiss play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
The English version was brought to Broadway in 1958 and starred Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
Ingrid Bergman loved the play, and wanted to play the lead in a film version.
The setting is a small European village (a fictional one). Most of the action takes place in or around the town square. And there's only about 8 people on the town council; they vote on such momentous decisions as capital punishment, which they recently abolished.
The "visit" refers to the homecoming of Ingrid Bergman's character, Karla, who hasn't been back to her hometown in twenty years. Karla is now a billionaire heiress.
The villagers gather near the train station awaiting her visit, and everyone figures she is coming for the purposes of helping help the economically depressed town. I love the scene in the beginning when Ingrid gets off the train: she's dressed like a queen, and when she looks upon the plain townsfolk for the first time, it's as if she's thinking, "Why did I come here?"
One of the first people who comes to greet her is her old flame Miller, played by Anthony Quinn, who has let bygones be bygones. We learn that his character is a respectable family man and shop owner in the town, as well as a member of the village council. It's neat to see Quinn and Bergman together. William Holden was originally supposed to play Quinn's role, but I think he would have been wrong for this part.
In the beginning of the film Miller and Karla spend a great deal of time reminiscing, even going back to an old tree where they carved their names in a heart over twenty years ago. Yet deep down she is still harboring decades-old resentment: Miller was the father of her child, but denied it at the time. Instead of taking responsibility for the child, he accused her of being promiscuous, which led her to be run out of town in shame and into prostitution. These events, along with the death of her infant daughter, tortured her for years, leaving her emotionally scarred and bitter.
The scenes at the beginning with both Miller and Karla together are really just a set up. At a huge welcome dinner event with the entire town, the sarcastic heiress embarrasses Miller and his wife (played by Valentina Cortese) by bringing up those past events again, and mocks some of the other leaders of the town. And in a pompous speech, she makes a startling announcement - she will give the town two million dollars, but only if the town reestablishes the death penalty and brings Miller to trial for false accusations and slander. Not only that, but she wants to see him put to death.
It's a dark film, but raises issues about revenge and forgiveness, and how money and power can buy whatever one wants. Quinn's Miller is emotionally tormented throughout the film - to the delight of Karla - and the cash-strapped villagers slowly turn against him one by one. He's also kicked off the council and nearly loses his business. It's as if he entered the Twilight Zone. From her perched balcony with a view of the entire square, an unforgiving Karla laughs and smirks devilishly.
Irina Demick plays Anya, a servant who reminds Bergman of a her younger self. (More about Irina here at the blog Starlett Showcase)
I recommend it especially if you like either of the two main leads; they are two of my favorite performers. I saw it at a local film revival house, but I'm not sure where else to find it since it's not on DVD. Some of the other people I saw it with were really depressed after the movie ended. The movie's ending left me satisfied; the originally play's ending was much darker as I understand.
In the early years of the twentieth century, the term "nickelodeon" had a few meanings. It could refer to a number of various types of music "jukeboxes" - the kind you might find in a penny arcade (immortalized in the famous Teresa Brewer pop song). There were also cinema nickelodeons, usually converted/renovated storefronts serving as theaters. They featured short silent films and seated usually up to 100 or so people. The price of admission was usually a nickel.
By the way, if you ever get the chance to visit downtown Chicago (where I'm from), you can actually step back into time into a replica nickelodeon cinema (and view a short silent film) at the Museum of Science an Industry's permanent Yesterday's Main Street exhibit. This, along with Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle, are two must-sees for any classic film buff who visits the city.
Nickelodeon cinemas became less and less popular after 1915, the year DW Griffith's full-length feature film The Birth of A Nation was released. This was a dawn of a new era, when long, epic films competed against each other, and when grand movie palaces started to go up.
Writer-Director Peter Bogdonovich was fascinated with this era, and for a long time wanted to make a period film about the making of silents. By 1976 he had established himself as a credible film historian and author, and had interviewed many legends of Hollywood filmmaking, such as Orson Welles and John Ford, just to name a few. He received acclaim for his B/W period films The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon (starring Ryan and Tatum O'Neal), and paid homage to several film genres such as screwball comedy (with What's Up Doc) and Astaire/Rogers type musicals of the 30s (with At Long Last Love, which starred Burt Reynolds).
Was the world ready for a film about the silent era in 1976? No matter what, the dream project was going to happen. Interestingly, a silent movie was a hit that summer: Mel Brooks' madcap spoof Silent Movie sort of paved the way for another silent-themed film. And when it was time to cast the picture, Bogdonovich turned to actors he already worked with, including Reynolds (who also was in the Mel Brooks film, ironically) and Tatum, who had a hit that summer with Bad News Bears. Many were anxious to see her re-teamed with her father on the screen, and Nickelodeon would be that film. But since then, they have yet to appear together on screen again.
Nickelodeon, co-written and directed by Bogdonovich, was released during the Christmas season in 1976 and takes place between the early cinema years 1910-1915. For authenticity, Bogdonovich wanted his film to be in B/W, but apparently the studio was against it for box-office reasons. I've seen both versions; the DVD has the Director's Cut (with commentary) and is in B/W, a version which I personally prefer. But there's value in the original theatrical color version as well; Laszlo Kovacs' beautiful cinematography brightens the period sets and costumes, and many scenes have a sepia-tone look.
There is alot to be learned about the history of cinema from watching this film (and from listening to the director's commentary on DVD, which I highly recommend!) I first watched it with a group of film students at a screening at the Gene Siskel Film Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (The original theatrical, color version was shown) The professor speaking about the film was author and film historian Virginia Wright Wexman Her lecture before the screening helped me to appreciate this film all the more.
It was brought up in the lecture that during this time, many folks who who never intended to pursue a career in films ended up doing so anyway, and often, were very successful. The characters in the film of Reynold's "Buck" is a stuntman who ends up coming a movie star by complete accident, and Ryan O'Neal plays a failed-lawyer who also stumbles into the movie business when he meets an independent film producer (played by Brian Keith, in an over-the-top performance). Leo pitches a few story ideas to him, and he's soon on his way into movies.
All these characters and scenarios are based on real life incidents, as told to Bogdonovich in a number of interviews he conducted with film directors of the pre-sound era, including Allan Dwan (who was a stagehand before becoming a writer-director), Raoul Walsh (who really was a stuntman before his directing career), and Leo McCarey (who really was a failed lawyer). In fact, almost every scene is inspired by a priceless, true story, or is an homage to an earlier film or director (the DVD's director commentary is a must-hear).
There isn't much of a plot to the film; mostly it's a series of scenes that center around one theme: "galloping tintypes", as they called movies back then. Often I just wanted to sit back in awe of what I experiencing; I really felt like I had been transported back in time. There are a few love triangles that give the film some romance. And providing the film with a sense of suspense and menace, the audience is introduced to the Motion Picture Patents Company, a group of studios formed to protect the invention of Thomas Edison's camera against copycats. But they could not stop a crop independents from making films with non-Edison cameras. The "Patents" often went to extreme measures to halt production on these independents, sometimes sending out goons to destroy the cameras. Nickelodeon features a number of scenes recreating some of these events. In one humorous scene, a Patent shoots a camera and a character exclaims, "He just killed a box!".
Leo sets out to a secluded California town to make movies for his independent film company (a patent is on his trail). His crew, whom he never met, awaits him. The first person he meets is Tatum, whose unexciting character is a child prodigy called upon to be the head writer. John Ritter, in an early role, is great as a cameraman. Stella Stevens and model-turned actress Jane Hitchcock (in her screen debut) play leading ladies (Hitchcock, who is good in this, never appeared in another film, unfortunately). George Gaynes plays one of the lead actors, and he seems to be warming up for his future role as "Dr. Brewster" in Tootsie. Burt Reynolds comes in a bit later as the dashing leading man, playing all sorts of silent film characters. He is quite good in this role, and turns out an impressive comic performance, probably my favorite ever of his. There are a few small bit parts played by a few veteran western stars, including James Best and Harry Carey Jr., who has ties not only to westerns, but to the silent cinema, as his father was a silent film star.
In one fun scene, the cast and crew travel to the big city and check out a nickelodeon theater, which happens to be showing one of their films (not a complete film, actually - you'll have to see the film). They are then followed out of the theater by fanatics (or, I should say, "fans") who recognize them and ask them for a souvenir. When they don't have anything to offer, the fanatics start ripping their clothes. Typical.
And here's another neat scene, which shows how several short silent movies were made at once, by one film company.
One of the best scenes is toward the end, which recreates the opening day of DW Griffith's The Birth of a Nation in 1915, a film that changed movies forever. The Los Angeles premiere had a full orchestra and even sound effects men behind the screen. Leo and company attend the premiere, which was called at first, "The Clansman". We are shown several extended clips from the actual movie, and Bogdonavich often cuts to audience reaction shots to demonstrate the incredible impact. At the end of the screening, the audiences is silent for a moment, then applause. Then a standing ovation by all, except Leo. He sits, and we wonder what he thinks. Is he jealous? Is his sad? Is he stunned? Then, the director of the epic - DW Griffith - walks out on the stage to take a bow, and Leo rises. A good scene.
The film didn't become a box office hit. Perhaps it was too history-heavy. There are a couple of potentially cringe-inducing scenes, one where white actors have to put on black makeup to play African tribal members, and another scene set at an original stage production of "The Clansman" featuring a stunt man in a white sheet and a burning cross. Historical, yes, but perhaps enough to turn off sensitive viewers. Also, advertising may have been a problem: the posters for this movie showed Tatum in a hot-air balloon, but there's no such scene in the film. And though it contains plenty of slapstick, it's heavily nostalgic. It certainly was a different kind of film for action star Burt Reynolds. Overall, it wouldn't be fair at all to call the film a failure, yet critics did have mixed feelings. Roger Ebert only gave the film two stars out of four (read review), commenting that 2/3 through the movie, it turns "from comedy to elegy". I could see his point; it did turn out to be a more serious film than I expected it would be. The last scene shows all of the main characters in a solemn state, pondering the future, and what the new age of films would bring.
Finally, I want to mention one more scene, which comes close to the end, and it sort of broke my heart. At a Christmas party, an open canister of one of Leo's films is carelessly placed on a table and someone mistakes it for an ashtray. In this scene, we see how flammable nitrate film was, as it almost burns an entire room filled with people. Sad to think of it, but this sort of thing surely happened to many films of this era. In fact, over 80% of all films made between 1894-1930 are lost forever. More must be done to ensure that surviving silent films are preserved, restored, and viewed, so they can be discovered and
enjoyed for all time. Among the efforts: 2010 For the Love of Film: The Film Preservatation Blogathon taking place now through Feb 21, hosted by The Self-Styled Siren and Ferdy on Films.
For more perspectives on the film "Nickelodeon":
Alex wrote a critical review of this film not long ago from his blog Critic Picks (I enjoyed the movie much more)
Deanna plays a sweet girl from a small town who moves to the big city, where she lands a job as an usher in a big movie palace.
Among her new city friends are hopeless romantic lawyer (Tom Drake) and restaurant guru William Bendix.
In a funny scene, Deanna crashes a big party and poses as a Latina, stumbling around, chomping on celery and botching Spanish.
By accident, she manages to sing a beautiful rendition of "Grenada", and naturally, impresses everyone, including the organizer of the party, wealthy corporate executive Adolphe Menjou, who offers her a job in a musical show.
But before she achieves success (or romance), the main characters all get mixed up in several crazy screwball situations.
In a cameo, Franklin Pangborn plays a barber who reluctantly shaves off Tom Drake's beard.
This is loose remake of The Good Fairy, the 1935 was written by Preston Sturges, who gets a credit for this film.
There are a number of differences between this and the classic 1935 MGM version with Margaret Sullivan and Frank Morgan.
The rankings come from Quigley Publishing Co.'s annual list (since 1932) of top money making stars, which based on a poll of hundreds of theater executives. The list does not rank stars only on how much cash their films made, but on what theater owners say about who attracts audiences on their star power alone.
A seldom remembered film, it's one of the very first directorial efforts of Clint Eastwood. Most of the films that Eastwood directed are very personal films for him. This is a film handled with much sensitivity, as he himself was approaching the age of the main character played by William Holden.
Neither this film (a great character study from the 70s) nor the existentially-minded character of "Breezy" (played by 18-year old newcomer Kay Lenz) have ever gotten much attention over the years, which kind of surprises me. I never heard of it until last year when I read a review of it from the blog Bright Lights After Dark, where its compared with the work of Eric Rohmer. (Read review here).
It's an exploration of the relationship between young free spirit Edith Alice "Breezy" Breezerman and a wealthy, middle aged, realtor (Holden) who have nothing in common other than they are both single (Holden's divorced) and both live in LA.
Well, sort of. The emotionally immature Breezy sort of wanders through LA with her one possession - her guitar. Just like her nickname; she blows in the wind like a fragile bird. She meets Holden one day while hitchhiking. At first, he's annoyed by her chattiness, and doesn't want anything to do with her. Then he finds himself stuck with her when the cops drop her off at his house one night (she tells the police that he's her uncle!)
After this, the film becomes much more than an Odd Couple / "What-am-I-Going-To-Do-With-This-Kid?" situation, as Holden slowly develops what he described to his wife in Network, a "menopausal infatuation". In one scene, both of them go to the movies to see Eastwood's High Plains Drifter (and they run into two old friends of Holden's who are unaware of the affair)
Seeing them both start to sleep together, as Holden gives in, can be a bit creepy, and I was a bit unsatisfied with how it ends. In the opening scenes of the movie we feel that the story will be told primarily from her point of view, but by the end, and as I think about it, we get to know more about Holden's character, and the scenes he has with his friends and ex-wife explore the issues that a man in his situation would face and would realistically talk about. (Ironically, Holden was divorced from his wife the same year this movie came out)
So why don't we hear more about this movie from the 70s? If you saw it, let me know your thoughts. I think if this film were released last year in 2009, it would be a contender for several Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress (and Director).
Director Robert Mulligan ("To Kill A Mockingbird"), who passed away in 2008, was one of the great directors of the 1960s. This is another one of his achivements, an adaptation of a novel by Gavin Lambert (former film critic for Sight and Sound and the Guardian, and who often explored Hollywood themes in his novels). This story, set in 1936, makes a powerful statement about the facade of stardom and imagery; the "Inside" of the title refers the inner soul of teenage Daisy Clover, miserable and unhappy before famous, and even worse off as a major celebrity.
The Passionate Moviegover in a recent post compared this film to two other movies: A Star is Born and The Legend of Lylah Clare.
(Read the review here)
Another film that this reminded me of is the brilliant cautionary tale, A Face in the Crowd, and the Lonesome Rhodes character. Though they are both manufactured celebrities, Daisy doesn't crave the power and limelight like Lonesome; rather, she desperately wants to get out, even sticking her head in an oven in one scene.
This film that gets darker and more depressing as it progresses (Warning: There may be some spoilers in the rest of this review)
One of the songs that Daisy sings in the film, "The Circus Is A Wacky World", seems to sum up the movie and it's message pretty good.
I was surprised that the film was even released by Warner Brothers, since it's seems to be very anti-studio. It wasn't a major hit upon initial release, despite the fact that this was one of the first films to feature dapper Robert Redford, who plays movie star hearthrob Wade Lewis.
Also excellent are Ruth Gordon as Daisy's mother figure, and Christopher Plummer, who is good as Mephisto-esque studio head Raymond Swan of Swan Studios, a character completely the opposite of Captain Von Trapp from earlier in the year. He had a such a good year that year, I don't know why he wasn't nominated for at least Best Supporting Actor for either film. But no one can argue that last year, 2009, was also one of his best years ever, with roles in Up, 9, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and his Oscar nominated role as Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station.
Resembling "Anybodys" from West Side Story (ironically), Natalie Wood's character of Daisy is a chain smoking, trash talking, school-skipping tomboy, who lives in a trailer with her mother figure guardian on the fictitious Angel Beach Pier (which was filmed on the famous Santa Monica Pier).
Gordon's wisecracking mother reminded me a little of her character in Where's Poppa? In one scene, the superstitious woman pulls an Ace from her deck of cards and immediately flees to the nearest Card Reader to find out if she will die. Where the rest of her family is - and where they get their money - remains sort of a mystery to us for awhile.
I loved the scenery in these opening scenes. Reminded me of Santa Monica Pier and Venice beach boardwalk, where I have been and enjoyed.
In Daisy's spare time, she goes to the nearest record-your-own-voice machine and burns records (I almost said "burns CDs") of her singing tunes.
She mails the records to Hollywood studios, including the fictitious Swan Studios, hoping to get noticed.
Daisy plays the records she recorded in in the 25-cent record booth.
As an autograph collector myself, I got a kick out of this scene, where we see Daisy in a boardwalk booth selling black-and-white 8 x 10s, as well as conning people into believing she can get them autographed by the actual stars.
This karma-like scene is an interesting one: she's selling something phony to people, which is what Swan does with her image later on.
A woman asks if her "Myrna Loy" autograph came in. Daisy quickly runs to the back and fakes the signature, like she does for all of them.
Here, she gives the "autographed photo" of Myrna Loy to the gullible customer. (Caution: if you ever stumble upon any autographed photos of celebrities in a flea market, make sure you check it out with an autograph expert or compare the signature to a real one.)
One of her voice recordings lands in the hands of Swan Studios, and, amazingly, she is called for an interview with studio boss Swan (Plummer), who wants to make her into the next big thing in pictures. Daisy in intrigued, and is encouraged by her long-lost sister. As part of the deal, Swan forces her to lie about her homelife and family, and has her mother committed to an institution. A outrageous promotional newsreel is produced (which I thought was a brilliant comical moment--if this were a comedy film, that is). The newsreel is complete distortion of her life and upbringing in an attempt to sell her to the public. It shows her faux "family heritage" and introduces us to a number of her ancestors who were famous singers. The newsreel ends with a movie premiere of one of her films, and we see real clips of Clark Gable and even Mickey Rooney "showing up" for her film.
Her only friend is fellow movie star Wade Lewis (Redford). The film never specifies Wade's age, but he was clearly an adult movie star to me (Note: I believe the original character from the book was also a teen star the same age as Daisy) I found this Wade Lewis character to be sleazy; he's always trying to get teenage Daisy drunk. (Later we discover Wade likes boys too.) And I thought Wood, almost 30, was too old to play a 15 year old. But I was able to suspend my disbelief for most of the film. She didn't really look like a teen, but then again, Deanna Durbin looked much older than her years.
She marries Wade Lewis (and is abandoned by him, naturally), and is emotionally tormented for the remainder of the film. Her fame increases, and Swan becomes more sinister and controlling.
Former child star Roddy McDowall has a small part as Swan's emotionless assistant. (Sadly, we don't see enough of him; his screentime in this two-hour movie is roughly 1 minute and 30 seconds.)
Though the casting of former child-stars McDowall and Wood seem like a good idea for this subject matter, the biggest criticism I have of this film is that I didn't feel like I really knew the character of Daisy to sympathize with her. (I agree with Scott Marks' review - read here.) I really, really wanted to sympathize with her, but I was not convinced that she truly loved singing. Early on, she didn't seem desperate to make it into show business - just desperate to get out, anywhere. She spent most of her pre-fame days selling movie star photos, but seemed so bored. And we don't really get a feel for what she thought Hollywood would be like.
So I didn't feel we got deep enough "inside" Daisy Clover.
In this film, the character of Daisy is on that same superstar level as my favorite teen movie stars of the golden age, who are all still living: Deanna Durbin, Shirley Temple, Jackie Cooper, and Mickey Rooney. I thought about their subsequent careers and struggles. And wondered how much of Daisy's story they experienced.
Once the film ended, I felt sorry for Daisy. I felt it was just a matter of time before this character tries to kill herself.
Shot in widescreen black-and-white, The Visit is based on a Swiss play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
One of the first people who comes to greet her is her old flame Miller, played by Anthony Quinn, who has let bygones be bygones. We learn that his character is a respectable family man and shop owner in the town, as well as a member of the village council. It's neat to see Quinn and Bergman together. William Holden was originally supposed to play Quinn's role, but I think he would have been wrong for this part.
