I had been meaning to do a new round on 'People We Like' to cover Peter Finch, Alan Bates, David Warner, Dame Flora Robson and Vera Miles, and I can start now with Michael York.
I have just been watching an absorbing interview with Michael York, part of that dvd set of interviews BRITISH LEGENDS OF STAGE & SCREEN, which our Sky Arts channel are showing as individual programmes. As mentioned earlier they include Glenda Jackson, Derek Jacobi, Michael Gambon, Christopher Lee, Diana Rigg, Claire Bloom, Sir Ian McKellen and York. Its a fascinating set of interviews for anyone interested in actors discussing their craft ...
York, like Terence Stamp
(post below) was one of those new actors who fascinated us back in the '60s. He came along at just the right time in the mid-'60s at the heyday of international cinema and, like most attractive young actors who get the breaks, had 10 good years appearing in a wide range of films, large and small - the personable young stage actor with the broken nose was soon attracting the attention of movie-makers like Richardson, Losey, Zeffirelli .... Movies did not all have to open big then, but often built up word of mouth and hung around for a while in the revival houses and got written up about in the various film magazines. York too is a fascinating example of an actor getting older and continuing to work in smaller parts and keeping going while keeping his dignity. He also had some good theatre roles including
HAMLET in 1970 and Tennessee Williams plays in New York.
I had a pleasant meeting with him 5 or 6 years ago when he was signing a new book of his at a Borders bookshop (now gone) in Oxford Street in London, where I was able to tell him I saw his HAMLET in 1970 at a theatre in Surrey, which I think pleased him. Michael of course worked with a lot of people I like since his first role in Zeffirelli's THE TAMING OF THE SHREW in 1966, with the Burtons and that nice ensemble of players, it was enjoyable seeing this again recently, so stunningly visual like Franco's 1968 ROMEO & JULIET where York was the volatile Mercutio (I had a poster on my then wall..). Before that he was the young aristocrat in Losey's ACCIDENT in 1967 .... which year also saw his mod photographer in the smashing swinging comedy I like a lot, as per other posts here, SMASHING TIME.
Michael and his photographer wife Patricia liked to travel a lot, as per his interesting autobiography...
1969 was a good year: to India for
THE GURU for James Ivory, as the Viking chief in
ALFRED THE GREAT shot in Ireland that summer for Clive Donner, with David Hemmings, and with Anouk Aimee and Dirk Bogarde in
JUSTINE shot in Tunisia and Hollywood for Cukor .... then it was off to Germany for
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE (aka BLACK FLOWERS FOR THE BRIDE,
gay interest label) that cult black comedy by Hal Prince, with Angela Lansbury, and later for
CABARET, Bob Fosse's still intoxicating musical and
ENGLAND MADE ME with Peter Finch - with whom York teamed up again for the disaster film
LOST HORIZONS in '73!
That year he shot
THE THREE (and then
FOUR)
MUSKETEERS in Spain for Richard Lester, where he was an amusing D'Artagnan with Oliver Reed, Heston, Christopher Lee and Faye Dunaway's wicked Milady ... and there was the all-star
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS in 1974, followed by
LOGAN'S RUN. Some duds were also in the mix: a royal prince in SEVEN NIGHTS IN JAPAN. I have now got his 1968
THE STRANGE AFFAIR to watch again, and a thriller with Genevieve Bujold:
FINAL ASSIGNMENT. - he also of course played "himself" in Billy Wilder's fascinating
FEDORA.
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| Alfred The Great |
He continued to work throughout the '80s and '90s, with lots of television work as per his IMDB profile, has an interesting website, and several other projects, and of course those AUSTIN POWERS movies which I liked a lot. This new interview shows a more thoughtful side to him, at 70, and I liked his advice for young actors, not to be afraid to fail. He seemed fine when I met him in 2005 or 2006, but perhaps has been unwell recently. One certainly wishes him well and a full recovery.
PS: York in an interview in today's paper, 7th December, to promote the dvd BRITISH LEGENDS OF STAGE & SCREEN lists his Top 5 movies as: BRIEF ENCOUNTER, HENRY V, DR NO, ANONYMOUS and his own ENGLAND MADE ME!
[Previous 'People We Like' here include, as per labels, David Hemmings, Stewart Granger, Claire Bloom, Julie Harris, Belinda Lee, Michael Craig, Stanley Baker, Mary Astor, Anne Baxter, Capucine, Kay Kendall, Joan Greenwood, Jeffrey Hunter and all those posts on Dirk Bogarde, Anouk Aimee, Romy Schneider, Sophia Loren, Monica Vitti, Lee Remick, Susan Hayward, Alida Valli, Ingrid Thulin, Silvana Mangano, Francoise Dorleac, Jean Sorel, Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, Belmondo, Jack Hawkins, Glynis Johns, Margaret Leighton, Ann Todd etc.]
The simple story is overdone, but great to see Ingrid again, with Boyer (shades of GASLIGHT) and her daughter Isabella Rossellini plays a nun, nice to see mother and daughter (briefly) here. Tina Aumount, Fernando Rey and Gabrielle Ferzetti are also involved. It kind of harks back to GIGI - that period obviously appeals to Minnelli. 
I though loved it at the time, and went to its first run and saw it several times and also got the double vinyl gatefold soundtrack album - it was just before the home video explosion when a soundtrack album was the best souvenir available.
After the huge success of TAXI DRIVER, not just a cult movie but popular too, Scorsese was riding high, and was able to mount his follow-up on a big scale. Just as the story and situation mimic those of old musicals, NEW YORK NEW YORK's production design aims to recreate those movies' stylized, artificial sets and visuals. I understand it was a troubled (cocaine-fuelled apparantly) shoot which over-ran - the big "Happy Endings" number with Larry Kert (Liza's "Born in a Trunk"?) was removed, but everything about it worked for me. The colour and music, that great long opening sequence when we realise how obnoxious Jimmy Doyle is (for me his jazzman is as good as his Travis Bickle), those scenes of their doomed romance - the artificial trees in that scene in the snow, when he attacks Francine for getting pregnant. The songs are great too, some in the '40s style of Peggy Lee, and Diahnne Abbot as the Harlem club singer whose "Honeysuckle Rose" is in the style of Billie Holiday. The title song by Liza, with that marvellous staging, is the definitive version (sorry, Frank). It and CABARET are Liza's defining moments, and it is certainly a great De Niro performance. It is really a movie buff's musical as Scorsese recreates '40s and '50s musicals - perhaps his A STAR IS BORN ? Scorsese's opus too was cut from 163 minutes to about 130 for various releases. Its certainly though, as those French cinebuffs say, a film maudit ...
Perhaps the bittersweet ending where they both walk away from a proposed meeting did not work for audiences? and De Niro does not play for sympathy as Jimmy Doyle is certainly an abusive husband. 1977 was the era of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, but surely the ANNIE HALL crowd would have embraced NEW YORK, NEW YORK? Scorsese's later films with Leonardo DiCaprio do not work for me in the same way as his with De Niro. Now for THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, I just wasn't particularly interested in seeing SHUTTER ISLAND. We also loved his documentary on George Harrison and his documentary on Italian cinema ... (Scorsese label). 
Our "Sunday Times" ran a new interview with Robert De Niro in their Culture magazine, the usual fawning stuff - as usual De Niro had nothing much to say (like when he was on tv last week on our Graham Norton Show, where he was just there to plug a silly new movie), the magazine interview by Bryan Appleyard name-checked those great Scorsese-De Niro collaborations MEAN STREETS, TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL, THE KING OF COMEDY, GOODFELLAS, CAPE FEAR, CASINO - but did not mention their 1977 NEW YORK NEW YORK which seems to be considered something of a flop these days.
Now there is another CABARET reunion, in 2013, below, which has been getting some attention, to mark the movie's 40th anniversary and Blu-Ray release. The trio were re-united together with co-star Marisa Berenson both for a tv interview and a stage appearance. Good to see them together again - but again Michael York, now 70, seems to be unwell or recovering from some illness, brave of him to be appearing in public, one trusts he is well. He was fine when I met him about 6 years ago, as per a previous report (York label). CABARET though should be a success all over again .... CABARET now that I think of it was the first movie I bought on dvd.
I had been meaning to do a new round on 'People We Like' to cover Peter Finch, Alan Bates, David Warner, Dame Flora Robson and Vera Miles, and I can start now with Michael York.
That year he shot THE THREE (and then FOUR) MUSKETEERS in Spain for Richard Lester, where he was an amusing D'Artagnan with Oliver Reed, Heston, Christopher Lee and Faye Dunaway's wicked Milady ... and there was the all-star MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS in 1974, followed by LOGAN'S RUN. Some duds were also in the mix: a royal prince in SEVEN NIGHTS IN JAPAN. I have now got his 1968 THE STRANGE AFFAIR to watch again, and a thriller with Genevieve Bujold: FINAL ASSIGNMENT. - he also of course played "himself" in Billy Wilder's fascinating FEDORA.
PS: York in an interview in today's paper, 7th December, to promote the dvd BRITISH LEGENDS OF STAGE & SCREEN lists his Top 5 movies as: BRIEF ENCOUNTER, HENRY V, DR NO, ANONYMOUS and his own ENGLAND MADE ME!
Frank Perry is probably best
known today as the helmer of that trash classic MOMMIE DEAREST
but the first decade of his career – from DAVID AND LISA in 1962 to DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE in 1970 – in which he collaborated with his
then-screenwriter-wife Eleanor, represents an amazing run of unusually
sensitive, offbeat and mesmerizing films. 
Another perfectly 1969 movie, the first directed by Alan J Pakula, and Liza Minnelli's first leading role, for which she was nominated as best actress - if only for that stunning telephone scene. (She also did Otto Preminger's TELL ME YOU LOVE ME JUNIE MOON that year but that farrago quickly sank without trace). THE STERILE CUCKOO was titled POOKIE here, Liza plays Pookie Adams, another of those kooky, lonely misfits with no family and no place to go. She calls all those she does not like "weirdos," and clings
to a quiet studious Jerry (Wendall Burton) at a nearly university; he though has the ability to make friends and has to decide whether to live in Pookie's private little world or be part of the society
that Pookie rejects. She is one of those girls who do not let go ...
