Unsung Heroes: The Technical Advisor on 'The Hustler'

Willie MosconiSerious Film's Michael C. here. 2011 will mark the 50th anniversary of Robert Rossen's classic The Hustler, so in this episode of Unsung Heroes I thought it a great opportunity to tip my hat to a man who is a large part of why the film is still watched and loved five decades later.

There is a vibe you get from certain films, a vibe that tells you “this movie knows what it’s talking about. This is how it really is.” The film's subject may be totally unfamiliar, space travel or gourmet cooking, but you can still sense when a film has done its homework and when it’s faking it. It’s the difference between the poker movie which simply gives the hero a royal flush, and the poker movie that knows it is more impressive to watch the hero play an average hand brilliantly.

Robert Rossen’s The Hustler is a movie you can feel knows its business cold from its first seconds. The Hustler had as technical advisor pool playing great Willie Mosconi, a man whose impact on the game of pool is comparable to Wayne Gretzky’s on hockey. His mastery seeps into every frame of this movie.

From the way the players screw their cues together to the way they call their shots this film has every detail in place. The Hustler is especially skilled at showing what happens when two competitors at the top of the game come up against each other.  A lesser movie would simply have billiard balls spinning and hopping all over the table but The Hustler is wiser than that. Thanks to Mosconi’s know-how, and the great script by Rossen, it makes clear that the game is won or loss on stamina and concentration, not on show-off displays and trick shots.

Rather than bogging it down with technical info this level of detail opens the story as a battle of personalities. The Hustler understands not only how pool is played, but how different characters types manifest themselves on the table. In one memorable exchange George C. Scott informs Newman's Fast Eddie he has the talent to be the best. When Newman asks why it was he lost anyway, Scott smirks that it was a lack of character. It's a testaments to the depth of the film's portrait of the game that we know exactly what he’s talking about.

Beyond creating a fully realized battlefield for the characters to clash, the technical know-how achieves something even more crucial to the film’s lasting success: It makes the movie incredibly cool. This is what I responded to most strongly when I first found this film as a teenager. These guys weren’t just hotshots. They were religiously devoted to the game. The question of the best was as weighty in the pool hall as it was in the world of chess or dance. With the aide of Mosconi, Rossen was able to show, for the first time to most of the public, that the pool hall was a worthy arena for this level of drama.

Reader Spotlight: Andrew

The "Reader of the Day" was a popular feature during Reader Appreciation Month so we're going to share a Reader Spotlight a couple times a week now for another month. What'cha think about that? Get to know the Film Experience community!

Today's reader is Andrew, another Canadian. He's an actor, too. A lot of actors read The Film Experience. This makes me happy though I can't say that I knew it before starting these Reader Spotlights.

Nathaniel: So Andrew what's the first movie you remember seeing?
ANDREW: The first movie I can remember seeing in theatres was The Lion King, which I loved. I had a lot of Disney movies on VHS and I remember just watching them over and over again. Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, 101 Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid, and The Rescuers... obsessively.

We are all children of Disney, really. No matter what generation. It's kinda scary!

Three Greats: Andrea Arnold and slowpokes: Baz Luhrmann and Jane CampionNew Question. You're suddenly in charge of world cinema for a year. Name 5 directors you'd give big budgets to with a blank slate. Wield your power!

Where do I start?! I would end up being a bit selfish (how could you not be?!) and pick directors that I personally would like to see more films from. I would love to see what Lars von Trier would do with a big budget and completely blank slate. Derek Cianfrance, Jonathan Glazer and Andrea Arnold are all filmmakers I have a personal interest in making sure they stick around. And funds to Jane Campion and Baz Luhrmann to give them some incentive to work more frequently. I love their films so much, but I hate that they take so long in between projects. I know I picked six, but it was difficult narrowing it down!

Three Favorite Actresses?
Kate Winslet. Meryl Streep -the quality of work she puts out is absolutely top notch, and you can look at any time in her career and find work that is intriguing and just as strong as any other actress out there. She is also so compulsively watchable on and off  screen. However my absolute favourite actress has to be Nicole Kidman. Her film choices are so brave and unexpected, I would say she is definitely a risk-taker when it comes to her career and I love that about her. She really challenges herself as an actress.

Have you ever dressed as a movie character for Halloween?
I once went as "Bang Bang" from The Brothers Bloom for Halloween, but it didn't really last long because I got into the vodka and the costume came off pretty soon thereafter.

Bang Bang! And the awesome Joan Chen

LOL. Okay, the movie of your life. Cast it. Etcetera.
I am only 23 so I feel like my life has barely started. Actually it would just be a selfish excuse to work with Ang Lee who is one of my favourite directors. I would star in it myself. I am not Chinese but I think it would be a blast to have Joan Chen play my mother... her collaboration with Lee was so awesome in Lust, Caution so it would be a great reunion. I would also cast Chow Yun-Fat as my father because I think he is great and really underrated.

First and Last, Screen.

the first and last images and dialogue from motion pictures.

first image

last line

He freed the screen from all artificial barriers.

Can you guess the movie?

check your guess after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Yes, No, Maybe So: "Midnight in Paris"

It occured to me yesterday while writing up the Crazy Stupid Love trailer that we hadn't yet discussed the new Woody Allen trailer for Midnight in Paris. Despite the occasional Vicky Cristina Barcelona or Match Point the Woodster has been dwindling creatively for some time. Let us not speak of last year's obnoxious and unfunny Woody. So let's break this one down like we do: yes, no and maybe so.

I have to admit that that "But Paris after midnight... is Magic" beat, got me. Especially because the staccato images included Owen Wilson dancing. I am a firm believer that dancing makes most any movie better, no matter who is doing it and it also brought back warm memories of Woody's 1996 musical Everyone Says I Love You which I really loved at the time (I haven't seen it since. Does it hold up?). In fact pretty much everything in that little sequence of the trailer looked promising, though Marion Cotillard as Ideal French Woman is a bit...expected at this point. There are other French actresses you know. France churns out awesome gorgeous talented actresses with pretty much the same speed that Australia manufactures movie stars.

For all the surface excitement of the new "Woody Allen, World Traveller" film series (it kicked off with The Blondes in London Trilogy), he's still making pretty much the same movie every time: Unhappy well educated couples cheat and even the cheating doesn't make them happy. This happens whilst Woody philosophizes either through the characters or a narrator. The samey-sameyness of the filmography didn't used to be a problem when the films were as perfect or as imaginative or as funny as they once were. To be honest, I'd rather he stopped switching countries and experimented with switching genres. Lately he seems to just be doing dramedies that aren't fully dramatic or comedic. One of the reasons Match Point worked so well was that it was quite a serious darkly dramatic picture.

But I guess I am interested in seeing Owen, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen and especially In the Loop's Mimi Kennedy act within his universe.

The most promising aspect of the trailer is that it does not in fact, tell you the plot. It does what all trailers should do instead: set up the premise, leave said premise dangling in the air, allow audiences to wonder about What Happens.

Most of the trailer is familiar but then we get the sense that Something Happens and a P.I. is brought in but that P.I. disappears? This doesn't seem to be the same movie unless it's a red herring.

Are you a Yes, No or Maybe So?

I guess I'm a soft No based on what I see here -- and how much I actively disliked You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger -- but my vote matters less than yours. See, I religiously see Woody Allen pictures even if I don't want to. It''s kind of my personal annual thank you for him being such a crucial figure in how I came to love the movies.

My New Desktop Wallpaper

I ♥ Pascal.