I read with total shock yesterday the news that William Hurt had passed away of cancer. There's something about growing up watching famous actors that ties your own ideas about time to their legacy, however loosely. When I heard the news I thought "Noooo he was so young!" before realizing that he was just shy of his 72nd birthday and not the handsome entirely fictional thin-haired 40something actor that I realized I pictured him as, a slightly aged version of his smoldering but callow young beauty, perhaps informed by the wearier sinister bald character actor of his later years. But William Hurt was actually 71 when cancer took him. So why had William Hurt become frozen in time for me? The answer lies not just in my own cinephilia but in the very distinct phases of his career...
At this point in her long and celebrated career, Glenn Close surely has reason to wonder. Consider it a reverse Sally Field: 'You don't like me? You really don't like me?'
There are many familiar time-tested ways to win an Oscar and Glenn Close has tried them all. She's tried the debut performance that makes everyone's jaw drop with 'who is THAT?' wonder (World According to Garp). She's tried being the actor who becomes a kind of symbolic representation of an entire film and cast (The Big Chill). She's tried having the necessary momentum, twice actually, with three consecutive supporting nominations ending in The Natural early in her career, and then two consecutive lead nominations a few years later (ending with Dangerous Liaisons). She's tried having the kind of blockbuster zeitgeist hit that can carry you to win even when you aren't deserving though she certainly was (Fatal Attraction)...
Chris Feil's weekly series looks at the use of music in movies
The Big Chill is one of the definitive films about the baby boomer generation, marking their coming of a certain age where life begins to look a lot less like what they were promised. And this is a generation that was promised an awful lot. It’s appropriate then that Lawrence Kasdan packs the film with tunes that contrast a youthful optimism with more complicated tones of soulful longing.
Many of the songs featured in the film would become soundtrack staples to the extent that they became movie cliches. Off-hand you can probably think of a half dozen films that also featured “The Weight” by The Band or “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night. But what The Big Chill got right - and first, mind you - about much of this music is how it was the tapestry of that generation...
We're wrapping up Reader Appreciation Month but so many people seem to be enjoying "reader of the day" that we'll keep doing them... just not every single day. Stay tuned...
I thought we'd close the month with Yonatan (you can call him "Jonathan") from Israel. Why? Well because he had a job a couple of years back that I think all of you (not to mention me) would be jealous of: talking about the movies on TV! Sweet.
He started reading The Film Experience due to the foreign film Oscar pages and he was one of many readers who started sending me regular info on their home country so I could keep up the pages. Yonatan and I share a love of really insignificant trivia. For instance, he recently wondered aloud by e-mail if Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days (1995) and Jane Campion's Portrait of a Lady were the longest English language films directed by women... I countered with An Angel at My Table, also by Jane Campion, at 158 minutes but he argues that what conceived as a miniseries so it shouldn't count. Referee!?
Nathaniel: Do you remember your first moviegoing experience? YONATAN: I'm sure I've been to a movie theater before this, but the first movie I remember being taken to see was The Journey of Natty Gann, a few months before my sixth birthday! A few months later my mother let me stay up late two nights in a row to watch the 1985 star studded mini-series "Alice in Wonderland". I had no idea at the time who those "stars" were, but I had to see it!
What's your moviegoing diet like right about now? Three years ago I got the chance to have a weekly live movie review segment on TV. Unfortunately, I don't appear on TV anymore, but I do write reviews (in Hebrew, at edb.co.il), and attend 2-5 advanced screenings a week. On slow weeks, I also watch movies at home, bringing me to a healthy average of 200 movies a year (not including movies I watch again just for fun).
[Here's Yonatan talking about WALL•E. I couldn't understand a word but I'm certain he is saying adorable things.]
Your 3 Favorite Actresses. Go! Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep. Can I say Cate Winslet and Kate Blanchett to count them as one?
Elkabetz photographed by Jérome Bonnet I haven't seen a movie with Parker Posey in years, so she's been demoted. And let me just slip in Jodie Foster, Debra Winger, Jane Fonda, Gong Li, Carole Lombard, and everybody in the world should know the Israeli actress Ronit Elkabetz.
Ohmygod. She was brilliant in Late Marriage. I need to see her in other things.
Okay... They make a movie of your life. Tell us about it. I like my life but it's pretty boring from the side and I wouldn't want to see that movie; you'll have to wait for the movie I wrote which is in early stages of development.
What's one movie you always recommend to people? A movie that tops my list of recommendations is The Big Chill (1983). It's just perfect. The cast, the soundtrack, the dialog. It's touching and it has humor- so many great lines! Every scene ends with a punchline.
all reader of the day posts: Yonatan, Keir, Kyle, Jamie, Vinci, Victor, Bill, Hayden, Dominique, Murtada, Cory, Walter, Paolo, Leehee and BBats
Monday, March 14, 2022 at 11:00PM 
Hurt as I remember him.
