Week that Was

The Life of Christie

On April 14, 1941 Julie Christie, one of the great actresses and beauties of modern cinema, was born. Christie was born in India, grew up in England and Wales, and received her big movie break as an actress at the age of 21 when she was cast in John Schlesinger's Billy Liar, where she played opposite Tom Courtenay. But her stardom was launched by Schlesinger's following film Darling, in which she played an alienated fashion model. Her appeal in the film was summed up by Pauline Kael: "The film's chief distinction is Julie Christie; she's extraordinary — petulant, sullen, and very beautiful." Christie's intelligence, sensuality and the extraordinary planes of her face then propelled her into a series of huge roles in films ranging from epics like Doctor Zhivago to auteur-driven zeitgeist films like Petulia, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Shampoo. She appeared in perhaps the cinema's best scene (in Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now) and, opposite Warren Beatty, in the great comedy Heaven Can Wait. In recent years, Christie has focused on political activism for such causes as animal rights and environmental protection, emerging occasionally in such film projects as last year's Away From Her, in which her heartbreaking portrayal of an Alzheimer's patient won her an Academy Award nomination.

Scott: No Lust for Glory

For a period of three years, between 1969 and 1971, the Academy Awards had no host but at the last of those ceremonies, on April 15, 1971, there was also no Best Actor. George C. Scott's portrayal of WW2 hero General George S. Patton in Franklin J. Schaffner's Patton (aka Patton: Lust for Glory) is generally considered one of the greatest performances committed to celluloid, however his contribution to the film has almost all been overshadowed by the legend of his Oscar rejection. In 1961, Scott said he did not want to accept his Best Supporting Actor nod for The Hustler and so it was not a huge surprise when he also turned down the Best Actor Academy Award he was to be given for Patton. Scott objected to being in competition with his fellow actors, and famously said of the Oscars that "The whole thing is a goddamn meat parade. I don't want any part of it." Scott asked that the award be given to the Patton Museum, however as the Academy does not act upon verbal requests this did not happen. Scott's statuette instead resides in a display cabinet at the Virginia Military Institute museum in Lexington, VA, a school which has been attended by the Patton family for generations.

A Masterpiece Snatched

Luchino Visconti's Ossessione, snatched by Mussolini's fascist government on April 16, 1943, had its problems right from the beginning. Initially director Visconti had planned to make his debut with an adaptation of a story by the Italian realist writer Giovanni Verga, but was not allowed by the fascist authorities because the plot revolved around bandits. He instead latched onto an Italian translation of James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, the movie which became Ossessione. As it was perceived as a simple murder mystery, the production was allowed to go ahead but Mussolini and his colleagues were not happy when they discovered it was a highly sexual realist drama about a drifter who is driven by lust to kill his femme fatale lover's husband. It was long thought that all prints of Ossessione had been destroyed by Mussolini's men, however Visconti had managed to hide a few. After the war, MGM made their own version of Cain's novel and it was discovered that Visconti's adaptation had been unauthorized and in breach of copyright. As a result, it was not until 1976 that Ossessione was seen outside of Italy, after which it was widely recognized as a classic and instrumental in Italian neorealist movement.

A Duck is Born

Anyone going to the movies in the Spring of 1937 might have been introduced to a brand new friend — Daffy Duck. Fred "Tex" Avery, who'd come to Warner Brothers in 1935 as the Director of Animation, was given the charge to distinguish their cartoons from Disney's much beloved menagerie. Avery wanted to create animated films that were funnier, stranger and edgier than Disney's family fare. WB had one star at the time, Porky Pig, who'd been created by Friz Freleng in 1935. It would take another 2 years for the studio to find the pig a suitable nemesis. In Porky's Duck Hunt (released on April 17, 1937) the poor pig is taunted, teased and humiliated by a crazy duck who completely lived up to cartoon series' name "Looney Tunes." Their relationship would develop and blossom as Daffy took on more speaking roles and eventually developed a lisp. But the simple plot would soon become the ur-drama for many WB cartoons, a simple twist in which a supposed victim (duck, rabbit, road runner) overwhelms his predator with wit and weirdness. With Porky's Duck Hunt, Daffy took over the star marquee from Porky, only to be replaced himself by that "Wascially Wabbit" Bugs Bunny in the 1940 cartoon A Wild Hare.

The Games Nazis Play

In 1936, the Olympic Committee commissioned German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl to create a documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics — or so Riefenstahl's legend goes. Many now believe the Nazis through a dummy corporation financed the film indirectly. Riefenstahl had already become the uncredited director of the Nazi part with her previous film Triumph of the Will. Her "documentary" of the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg is nothing short of an unabashed celebration of Hitler and the Nazism. But as much as one might despise the film's sentiment, its technical virtuosity was undeniable. For Olympia, Riefenstahl was given unprecedented access — digging trenches by the high jumps, scaffolding by the diving posts. The resulting two-part film was a stunning visual poem to the human body and its athletic prowess. And while there is little overt propaganda in the film, it could never get out from under the shadow of Triumph of the Will, causing many to castigate the film for its Nazi aesthetic. In her essay "Fascinating Fascism," Susan Sontag in fact argues that Riefenstahl's adoration of the male figure is at the root of her Nazi tendencies. But a more obvious point can be made with the film's release date. Olympia was hurriedly edited to be ready for exhibition on April 20, 1938, the date of Hitler's birthday.

Hall of Fame

Perhaps the essential comedy of the 1970s was released on April 20, 1977: Annie Hall. Woody Allen made the leap from zany satires (Sleeper, Love and Death) to of-the-moment relationship comedy with this tale of a failed relationship between a fast-talking, neurotic comedian played by Allen and his ditzy, sartorially advanced paramour, Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). Its sophisticated structure, occasional moments of direct address to the audience, inclusion of contemporary political and social issues, and, finally, ability to be frankly emotional about modern romance made it one of the most influential comedies of recent times, particularly on contemporary young American directors. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay.