Farewell & A Few Favorite Things
Tuesday, June 9, 2015 at 6:29PM The Film Experience is thrilled to have Cara Seymour taking over the blog for the day. Here's her final post! - Editor
A Favorite Actor
I took this picture of the brilliant Patrick Fitzgerald in Dublin when we were performing "Gibraltar," his adaptation of James Joyce's "Ulysses". He worked on that novel, with the devotion of a monk and discovered things that no other academic had found. The greatest acting challenge I ever had was performing the Molly Bloom monologue, which was, even edited, forty minutes of stream of consciousness. Patrick coached me every step of the way. The great Terry Kinney went on to direct a production with us, at The Irish Rep. We also performed together in Mike Leigh's "Ecstasy" in 1995, the first big hit for The New Group. We have had extraordinary moments together on stage. He's one of my favorite actors.
A Favorite Song
Philip Chevron singing "Thousands are Sailing"
One of my favorite songs about Irish immigration. I used to go and see The Pogues. He performed this song in a spotlight, I remember him sparkling in the light, not sure if that was his jacket or his soul.
A Few Favorite Films
Martin Scorsese's King of Comedy (1983) and Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up (1990). Love these movies, they feel like cousins. Something about class, fame and delusions and wanting to be someone else. And, of course, Robert DeNiro is just magical. I'd love to watch these movies together one night...if I ever got my son to bed early.
Mama Roma (1962). I've watched this so many times. I love Pasolini movies. Anna Magnani's performance is just brilliant. That laugh. That twinkle. And pain. There's a couple of seconds in that movie that just rip me apart.
There are many, many reasons to be a fan of Steven Soderbergh, who I've been working with on "The Knick," and one of them is that he used footage from one of my favorite English films, Poor Cow (1967) directed by Ken Loach in his haunting movie, The Limey (1999). Terence Stamp was magnetic in both movies. Carol White was the lead actress in Poor Cow. Carol White was really something. Ahead of her time.
"Poor Cow" with Carol White and Terence Stamp
love this clip
My takeover of The Film Experience is now just love notes. I could go on and on... so I better sign off! Thanks for reading.
The Knick is back in October. I start work next week on Elisabeth Subrin's film A Woman, A Part with Maggie Siff and John Ortiz. Check out Subrin’s blog, Who Cares About Actresses?
- Cara Seymour
Reader Comments (15)
Crushed, Dancer in the Dark, receives no official mention during your editorial tenure.
artful - It's like going to a concert by an awesome musician with years of history. They can't sing ALL their greatest hits ;)
cara -- clearly i need to see POOR COW. I've meant to for years and that clip did it.
I had the pleasure of seeing Gibraltar at The Irish Rep in NYC. I was studying Ulysses at that time in college and the play was absolutely fantastic. Great work!
Such fun, interesting recommendations! Very refined taste :)
So great to learn more about an actress I'm always happy to see in movies! She has been great in such a wide variety of roles.
Aaron -- i'm so jealous. whenever i see actors perform stream of consciousness monologues I am ALARMED that they can remember it all let alone serve it up with anything like modulation and character cohesion.
I recently saw a production of "An Iliad" and the entire thing is a monologue and I'm like HOW. I can barely remember a sentence at a time when I'm transcribing interviews (for example)
God, Cara's got taste as great as I always knew she had to, given the intelligence she projects in every role. What a wonderful day of wonderful things! Thank you so much for this!!!
Thank you for the insightful posts and for this list of favorite things (this is the Dancer in the Dark mention, people!). I'm looking forward to exploring it as well as your work as a whole.
Anybody who has that much enthusiasm for Pasolini is tops in my book. Thanks for sharing your thoughts today, it's been a pleasure catching up with all of it!
Awesome blogs!!
Thank you!!
I have to say that I was expecting some words on Dancer in the Dark, too, but maybe she hates Lars von Trier and decided not to talk about him? That was quite a problematic set, you know?
One of the most shameful crimes by AMPAS. is snubbing Terence Stamp for The Limey.
For me The King of Comedy is Scorsese's best movie. And De Niro was simply amazing. I still can't believe it was a huge flop........
"Poor Cow" was news to me. But then there's a whole world of gritty/realistic British cinema of the 1960s that I know almost nothing about. (Idea for future Film Experience series, anyone?)
THE KING OF COMEDY!