Dedications: My four late friends Rory, Stan, Bryan, Jeff - shine on you crazy diamonds, they would have blogged too. Then theres Garry from Brisbane, Franco in Milan, Mike now in S.F. / my '60s-'80s gang: Ned & Joseph in Ireland; in England: Frank, Des, Guy, Clive, Joe & Joe, Ian, Ivan, Nick, David, Les, Stewart, the 3 Michaels / Catriona, Sally, Monica, Jean, Ella, Anne, Candie / and now: Daryl in N.Y., Jerry, John, Colin, Martin and Donal.

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Faye, Faye, Faye ....

We love Faye a lot here and have discussed her several times. Like Julie Christie her impossible glamour and talent and those looks dominated the 1960s and 1970s. I feel CHINATOWN is as much her film as Nicholson's; because Polanski pulled a hair from her head it has led to stories of her impossible behaviour. But we can always spend another evening watching Evelyn Mulwray ....
 
I love her movie star goddess image in the late 60s onward: her Vicki Anderson in THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR is still mesmerising, as is her fearless work in Kazan's THE ARRANGEMENT, and of course BONNIE AND CLYDE and PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD (a must re-see soon) and her wicked Milady in the MUSKETEERS films, and she looks amazing in that chiffon number in THE TOWERING INFERNO. De Sica's A PLACE FOR LOVERS may have been a flop at the time (1968) but she and Marcello demonstrate star power, see Faye/Marcelllo labels for review - I had a still from it on my bedroom wall then, showing that profile. One of the cinema's great blondes, she had an interesting brunette phase too, with EYES OF LAURA MARS, Clement's thriller THE DEADLY TRAP, 1971, INFERNO of course, and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR. I loved MOMMIE DEAREST at the time, its a great bad sit-com movie but her portrayal of Crawford is nothing less than mesmerising, as she was in NETWORK.
I saw her on stage in London in the mid-80s when she was doing a play CIRCE AND BRAVO. I wish now I had gone to the stage door afterwards to meet her, but my autograph days were behind me then. 

Hopefully she will one day finish this Callas film she has been working on, and maybe taking Z-grade roles to finance ... she shouldn't though have done that wretched WICKED LADY remake! She gave a fascinating interview to Jonathan Ross a few years ago, with no sign of diva temperament - though there is that telephone recording still out there, but one has to see it from Faye's point of view ... As I said before, like Julie Christie with AWAY FROM HER, it would be super if there was one more great role for Faye... I do have one of her later efforts, FLICK, to watch sometime soon. 
Odd to realise that Faye, like Julie Christie, Jane Fonda and Streisand, is in her 70s now, but hey Catherine Deneuve hits 70 this year, as did Joni Mitchell, while Brigitte and Sophia turn 80 in September Anouk is a glamorous 80s while Jeanne Moreau and Lollobridgida are in their mid-80s! Way to go ....

No comments:

Post a Comment