Monte Hellman

[slim jenkins]

Oh right, of course - a film fan like yourself wouldn't make that mistake - sorry, Rich. Great car film, though, eh? Also often called 'existential' - The Driver (Ryan O'Neal) being anonymous and apparently without 'character'.

 

[IdleRich]

I've heard of it but not seen it - but don't worry I make plenty of mistakes either way. Another film that has a shockingly similar premise to TLB is one called Drive, wonder if it's any good.

DRIVE
Wonderful, virtually unknown first film from director Jefery Levy (Inside Monkey Zetterland; S.F.W.) is a brain-bending meditation on life, love and driving in L.A. David Warner stars as The Driver, a cynical, highly caffeinated motormouth and Steve Antin is The Passenger, a morose, self-absorbed twentysomething. They’re two people who share a daily commute to high tech, low self esteem jobs that they hate almost as much as themselves and each other. Warner takes advantage of his captive audience (and steals the show in the process) by ranting at great length on anything and everything while Antin simply wants to pine over his lost love, The Girl (Dedee Pfeiffer, seen only in flashback). It’s all talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, but the good kind (Warner’s riff on IBM vs. Macintosh is hilarious) Think My Dinner With Andre in the diamond lane with two people who can’t stand each other. Definitely recommended. Nice looking timecoded print

 

[slim jenkins]

You've got to see 'The Driver', Rich, if only for the scene where he shows potential employers what he can do in an underground car park.

 

[IdleRich]

Well it's been on my lovefilm list for a while... problem is there are a lot of things on there so some things hang around for ages without ever turning up.

 

[slim jenkins]

I know what you mean...then films turn up that you've forgotten you put on the list and you sometimes think 'Why the hell did I include that?' - good thing about Love Film, experimenting.

 

[nochexxx]

here's another slice of ace hellman trivia. if you haven't seen cockfighter then look away.

remember the scene where warren oats pulls the head off a cockeral, then hands it to a woman? well that was a real cock, albeit a dead one!

 

[nochexxx]

it gets better, hellman's father was a professional gambler. i love this man.

 

[empty mirror]

finally saw The Shooting
nicholson was really something in this 'un----the embodiment of cruelty
love the fistfight in the desert, both men utterly exhausted before punch one is thrown-------reminds me of eastwood's desert/fatigue fistfight in hang 'em high

nothing quite like watching exhausted men fight

anyhow---> this picture, along with a recent viewing of the entire Twin Peaks run, has me reading Dostoyevsky's The Double.

what topic can be more interesting than doppelgangerdom?

 

[nochexxx]

what topic can be more interesting than doppelgangerdom?

that last scene in the shooting was mind fryingly fantastic. having watched TLB just prior to the shooting (with all those warren oats cashmere sweater changes) i honestly thought it could be part of the same conceptual conspiracy!

 

[nochexxx]

so has anyone seen these other hellman films?

Beast from Haunted Cave
Flight to Fury
Back Door to Hell
The Greatest
China 9, Liberty 37
Silent Night, Deadly Night 3

 

[IdleRich]

New Hellman Film This Year!

Hopefully.

Road to Nowhere
A young filmmaker gets wrapped up in a crime while shooting his new project on location.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1504319/

 

[nochexxx]

Hopefully.



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1504319/

thanks for the tip, i can't wait for it! quite an achivement for a man who he must be in his 70's.

i watched TLB for the secondtime yesterday. Rochefort 6 in hand i once again felt i have yet to watch a better film - on so many levels it hits me in all the right places.

 

[IdleRich]

I will reserve judgment about the film until I see it but I posted the book to you yesterday... hope you enjoy.

 

[nochexxx]

I will reserve judgment about the film until I see it but I posted the book to you yesterday... hope you enjoy.

ta! really looking forward to that.

 

[IdleRich]

Looks as though the new film is actually happening!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/sep/16/monte-hellman-two-lane-blacktop-road-movie

 

[nochexxx]

"They'd say, 'Oh Monte. He's an auteur, he's a genius. Two-Lane Blacktop, what a masterpiece. But there's this young kid who's really hot right now …' And then they'd show me a list of total fucking hacks."

haha, brilliant! this film sounds promising.

 

[nochexxx]

Ploughing through Warren Oates biography, Hellman talks about ‘the driver’ being more or less Aznavour from Shoot the Piano Player. One google search away, I discover to my delight, the whole film is on Youtube.

 

[nochexxx]

thinking about Warren Oats, has anyone seen The Hired Hand ?