by Eric Blume
Oscar-nominated director Peter Bogdanovich has died at age 82. Famous primarily for directing three classic films consecutively early in his career, he was a true lover of the medium and a key influence on fostering in a new energy in American cinema during the 1970s.
Bogdanovich's early career was as a film programmer for New Yorks' Museum of Modern Art. He watched over 400 films a year and kept reviews for each one of them. His passion for and understanding of film got him a gig as assistant to Roger Corman, who helped him direct his first film, Targets, in 1968. This led to the three-film master stretch for which Bogdanovich is most remembered and treasured...
Directing Cybil Shepherd in "The Last Picture Show"
In 1971, his film adaptation of the Larry McMurtry novel The Last Picture Show debuted to rave reviews and eight Academy Award nominations. Bogdanovich brought a perfect visual equivalent and aching lyricism to McMurtry's prose, shooting this film of stagnant lives in stark black-and-white, and pacing it with subtlety and grace. He got ace performances from early-career Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms, and Eileen Brennan. Jeff Bridges and Ellen Burstyn got Oscar nominations, and Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson both won supporting awards for their incredible performances. This is a stunning film that's essential American Cinema viewing. It's aged beautifully, and if Bogdanovich had only made this movie, it would have been a major accomplishment.
With Babs on the set of "What's Up Doc"
He followed up the following year with What's Up, Doc?, an updating of classic screwball farce from "Old Hollywood". Bogdanovich's affection for the genre is front-and-center, and he commands a fierce talent for constructing physical comedy. He also found an incredible balance in this film: he has firm control of how to set up a joke, while allowing for a breezy sense of improv and whimsy. The film is both meticulously planned and also gloriously loosey-goosey. He brought out a sensuality and sexiness in Barbra Streisand that nobody else ever captured as well, and he focused Madeline Kahn into a marvelously funny caricature performance for the ages.
with Tatum O'Neal on "Paper Moon"
He teamed with Kahn and Ryan O'Neal again the following year for 1973's Paper Moon, which The Film Experience has discussed extensively in the past. It's doesn't play very funny decades later, but it's a truly interesting nostalgia piece with complex characters and a love-of-old-movies energy that's very infectious. Bogdanovich really saw something in O'Neal and used his handsomeness to great effect, and of course he directed the actor's daughter Tatum to the Best Supporting Actress Oscar that year.
On the set of "Mask" with Cher
Bogdanovich made twelve films after this triad, including 1981's They All Laughed with Audrey Hepburn, 1985's Mask with Cher and Eric Stoltz, and 2001's The Cat's Meow with Kirsten Dunst. He made some real duds in there (including 1975's unwatchable musical At Long Last Love, with Burt Reynolds and Cybill Shepherd), and never got anywhere near his heydey in the early 70s. But he's left us with three indisputable classics, which is more than most directors give us, and his love of the artform was always very moving. We don't have a lot of the great 70s directors left, and he's a treasured member of the heights we had during that incredible decade of film.