FILM 1746: HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE

FILM 1746: HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE

TRIVIA: Lauren Bacall's character, Schatze, says, "I've always liked older men... Look at that old fellow what's-his-name in The African Queen (1951). Absolutely crazy about him." She is referring to Bacall's then real-life husband, Humphrey Bogart.

According to Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe was a challenge to work with. It wasn't because she was unpleasant, but rather her insecurity and total dependence on her personal acting coach Natasha Lytess for approval. "Betty Grable was a funny, outgoing woman, totally professional and easy. Marilyn was frightened, insecure - trusted only her coach and was always late. During our scenes she'd look at my forehead instead of my eyes; at the end of a take, look to her coach, standing behind Jean Negulesco, for approval. If the headshake was no, she'd insist on another take. A scene often went to fifteen or more takes, which meant I'd have to be good in all of them as no one knew which one would be used. Not easy - often irritating. And yet I couldn't dislike Marilyn. She had no meanness in her - no bitchery. She just had to concentrate on herself and the people who were there only for her."

Writer and humorist Dorothy Parker's famous quip that "men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses" was purposely bobbled by screenwriter (and producer) Nunnally Johnson for Marilyn Monroe's character Pola to assert to David Wayne (as Freddie) that "you know, men aren't attentive to girls who wear glasses."

Before becoming a major Hollywood success, Lauren Bacall worked as a model for several years of her teenage life while auditioning for roles on Broadway. The modeling she did is exactly like that of her character Ms. Paige, showing pieces for clients.

PODCAST: MISSING RICHARD SIMMONS

On February 15, 2014, fitness guru Richard Simmons disappeared. He stopped teaching his regular exercise class at Slimmons, cut off his closest friends, and removed himself from the public eye after decades as one of the most accessible celebrities in the world. Nobody has heard from him - and no one knows why he left. Filmmaker Dan Taberski was a Slimmons regular and a friend of Richard’s. Missing Richard Simmons is Dan’s search for Richard - and the deeper he digs, the stranger it gets.

MY VERDICT: This podcast has been around for a long time and I put off listening to it for a while because I didn’t really know what to make of it. Part of me thought that Richard Simmons was a tacky has been and I wasn’t really interested in knowing much about him. I was wrong.

There’s so much to know about Simmons, he’s a fascinating character, like did you know he was in a Fellini film? No? Neither did I until this podcast. Being English, I didn’t have as much coverage as those in the States and so he wasn’t as much as a legend to us as to the people who are interviewed in this podcast, however I knew who he was and I knew he was a larger than life character but I didn’t even know he was missing.

This podcast seemed to set itself up to be a kind of investigation, more like a true crime podcast with a goal than an exploration of a personality but that’s what it turned out to be. The fact is that Richard Simmons was never missing but decided to withdraw from public, and the investigation started to focus on why.

The why wasn’t too complicated either, he seemed to have just had enough, and I don’t blame him, he seemed to be doing a lot. An amazing amount of Richard Simmons’ time seemed to be devoted to others, he’d call people he’d only met once every Sunday to check they were doing okay, he set up a chat room to talk to people about how their lives and weight loss were going. He’d jump out of his mansion to have photos taken with tourists on a celebrity house tour and he spent forty years teaching an aerobics class at his own gym, even driving some of his regular older clients there himself.

So the oddest thing was that he gave up the class, he stopped going out all together and he stopped the phone calls. And the saddest thing was that he said he didn’t have any friends. These people were very upset about the sudden withdrawal, upset that they considered him a friend and he didn’t see them the same way, and most upset that he didn’t give anyone an indication that this was going to happen or a reason.

The podcast doesn’t end up getting an interview with him, it doesn’t get any reasons, Richard Simmons himself released a statement to say he was fine. My thoughts were that after years of giving his all, he had nothing left to give, he couldn’t get in touch with everyone to give them all a personal farewell because he didn’t have the energy to be the old Richard anymore. I think he just wanted a proper rest, after all he gave to his public persona, I think he just wanted to be him, maybe a him that no one else knew, not the person that all his ‘friends’ loved so much.

The most profound thing about this podcast is that because it doesn’t give you any answers it lets you think about reasons for withdrawal yourself. It makes you think about emotions and personality like no other investigation podcast I’ve listened to before and it makes you emotional even if you had no interest in this person, a personal you never knew. It makes you wonder how you would feel if you seemed important to someone who you spoke to everyday and all of a sudden they just stopped and didn’t tell you why and that’s so sad to think about.

Maybe his dog died, his last dog and he just couldn’t be bothered any more, maybe he was ill, and maybe he wanted the freedom to grow a beard? Who knows, all I know is this podcast is uplifting, thought-provoking and desolate. I would recommend it for the stirring ride alone.

THE JINX: THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF ROBERT DURST

Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki examines the complicated life of reclusive real estate icon, Robert Durst, the key suspect in a series of unsolved crimes.

TRIVIA: Robert Durst agreed to be interviewed after he saw Andrew Jarecki's film All Good Things, and wanted to give his side of the story. Durst seeing the film, led to Jarecki being contacted to create this documentary.

FILM 1306: FOXCATCHER

TRIVIA: According to Channing Tatum, he and Mark Ruffalo spent an intensive five to six months training for wrestling, which took its toll on the actors. During one particularly physical take, Channing insisted to Ruffalo "to just slap the shit out of me and get it over with," which resulted in Channing's eardrum accidentally getting popped. The take is in the film.

Steve Carell claimed that according to director Bennett Miller's wishes there was no joking between takes, and he did not socialize with the co-stars after work.

Before filming a particularly dark scene, Bennett Miller made Steve Carell write on a piece of paper the thing that he hates the most about himself and then put it in his pocket. Miller told Carell, "Just have it right there, and know that it's in a place where, if I was a dick, I could just grab it." According to Miller, the result is the favorite thing that he has put on film.

Steve Carell studied video footage of John duPont for hours. Carell told reporters after the film's screening at the Cannes Film Festival "I watched as much as I could, I read as much as I could about him and tried to get semblance about the type of person he was." According to director Bennett Miller, Carell's career as a comic actor hadn't suggested that he was right for the role until he had lunch with the actor. Miller said upon Carell's casting, "I think all comedians are dark."

The real Mark Schultz can be seen as an extra weighing in wrestlers in one scene. He was also very personable and approachable to the extras in the crowd scenes.

In the 1984 Olympic games Dave and Mark Schultz were accused of "excessive brutality" in their Olympic matches and a special official was assigned to monitor the rest of their bouts. Two of their opponents went straight to the hospital after their matches. Mark, 23, broke the left elbow of the 180.5-pound European champion, Resit Karabacak, 30 seconds into the match. Dave, sent Yugoslavia's Saban Sejdi to the hospital with a knee injury incurred during their 163-pound match.

Because the project took so many years to get off the ground, many actors were considered for the lead roles. Heath Ledger, Ryan Gosling and Bill Nighy were strongly considered for the lead roles in the early stages of production.

This is the third consecutive Bennett Miller film to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role after Phillip Seymour Hoffman's win for Capote and Brad Pitt's nomination for Moneyball.

The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2008 Blacklist; a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.