mike - Hollywood Authentic

November 15, 2024

Photographs by MARK READ
Words by JANE CROWTHER

It’s a perfect example of the Arts and Crafts movement nestling in suburban Pasadena – and the onscreen location for the inception of Doc Brown’s flux capacitor. Hollywood Authentic goes back to the past (and the future) with the beautiful Gamble House.

To step inside the hushed, wooden interior of a Greene & Greene LA masterpiece built for the Gamble family in 1908 is like time travel. Beeswax- polished and sun-dappled, the house boasts all its original custom-made furnishings from when it was first lived in. To stand in the mellow sitting room is to feel as though the Gambles might return for dinner at any moment, perhaps from a hike in the unspoilt Arroyo Seco in front of the property, in an era before the 210 freeway thundered through the neighbourhood.

It’s such a time capsule that it was the perfect location for Back to the Future when the production was looking for a house to play the family mansion of Doc Brown. Confined to filming within the LA area because of star Michael J. Fox’s daytime commitments to filming TV show Family Ties on the Paramount lot, location managers combined the Gamble House exteriors with the interiors of the Blacker house also in Pasadena (also designed by Greene & Greene) to create Doc Brown’s onscreen pad (Marty’s family house was located across the city at 9303 Roslyndale Avenue in Arleta).

The ‘mad scientist’ character who dreams up the formula to crack time-hopping – via an adapted DeLorean car – Doc Brown, comes from a wealthy family and by the time he’s showing Fox’s teenager Marty his time machine in 1985 he is reduced to living in a garage/lab next to a Burger King franchise, having spent his inherited cash on invention development. But when Marty is accidentally transported back to 1955 at 88mph, Doc in the past still calls the family pile ‘home’ and the garage on the extensive grounds is where history is made: this is the spot where he perfects the flux capacitor which, as Marty points out when calling on him, ‘is what makes time travel possible’.

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It’s such a time capsule that it was the perfect location for Back To The Future when the production was looking for a house to play the family mansion of Doc Brown

In a beloved, time-looping franchise, the garage of the Gamble House is therefore a movie lore catalyst for everything that comes after (and before, if we’re talking about chapter III). In 2024, it’s now a pilgrimage location for Back to the Future fans and a bookshop selling coffee table tomes on design and ‘Outtatime’ DeLorean license plates. The fans may come to reenact Doc and Marty’s banter from the film (they run from the house to the garage shouting lines about Jane Wyman), but they stay for the beauty of a building that is a perfectly preserved piece of American architecture. A gem of Arts and Crafts style, the space has been preserved intact where other properties of the era have been altered or stripped of original features. A family home in single ownership until relatively recently, the Gamble House has remained unchanged and loved through the decades.

Built as a winter retreat for so-called ‘health seekers’, David and Mary Gamble, of Proctor and Gamble fame, who wanted to escape the harsh winters in their native Ohio, the three-story building was conceived to reflect the family’s interest in the outdoors. Other wealthy winter residents had built mansions in Queen Anne and American Foursquare style on so-called ‘Millionaire’s Row’ – the Gambles’ Arts and Crafts creation was rustic by comparison. Built with an emphasis on bringing the outdoors inside (hand-crafted wood, repurposed granite river boulders, designs reflecting nature), the home reminds modern visitors of the wild country that used to surround the house as soon as they step through the triple-fronted, stained- glass entrance. The Gambles travelled extensively and architects Charles and Henry Greene reflected their adventurous nature by tapping into the trend for Japanese influence with their ‘ultimate bungalow’ design. Those three lead-glass front doors boast the image of a Japanese black pine, while the low eaves and wrap-around terrace recall the flow of a traditional ryokan – the glass lamp shades and doors are decorated with flowers and clouds. In the hallway, an elegant metal crane in flight dangles from the wooden staircase. When the sun shines through the glass at the entrance, the amber light illuminates the mahogany and Burma teak inlaid walls of the hall and open-plan sitting room, giving it a visual warmth that translates as a welcome. The maple and sugar pine built-in kitchen, with its forward-thinking island, is a room any modern day Angelino would covert now; and outside, in the backyard, an Far East-inspired pond tinkles and pagoda-style pillar lights lean towards a Japanese aesthetic. The detail is astonishing considering it was constructed in under a year and on a relatively humble budget.

The Gamble House is unique in that it was lived exclusively in by its creators and owners, David and Mary, until both their deaths when Mary’s sister, Julia, took ownership. Julia lived in the house until 1943 (she’s rumoured to haunt the place now as a ‘warm spirit’) and after that the property was donated to the city of Pasadena and USC’s school of architecture for preservation. That lineage means that while decor tastes may have changed throughout the years, all of the original furniture and fittings made by master carpenters Peter and John Hall to the Greene brothers’ design, stayed in the family and were kept in storage. Now, says Alex Rasic, executive director of the property, the house acts as a ‘portal’ to visitors to appreciate the artistry of form-follows-function design. ‘I am so delighted and amazed at how many people visit internationally because of [Back to the Future] and then we have the opportunity to tell them about the house. I see it as a gift for us to have that kind of diversity and the longevity that this film has had.’

The house holds numerous events on the property to ensure it remains a space where families and life still teems – so visitors can book in for Goat Yoga on the rear lawn (yogic stretches while Nigerian baby goats gambol around) or take in an outdoor showing of Black to the Future on the front lawn. A particular thrill to watch Marty wander up the driveway to Doc Brown’s home hoping for help to return to 1985 as the real building looms in the background. A portal indeed.

Photographs and video by MARK READ
Words by JANE CROWTHER
The Gamble House. 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena, CA 91103
www.gamblehouse.org

The New Wave

THE DANISH GIRL

November 15, 2024

Photographs and interview by GREG WILLIAMS
As told to JANE CROWTHER

Clara Rugaard tells Hollywood Authentic how she no longer wants to ‘fit in’ and about the music that has run through her career from her first role.

The corridors of Ealing Studios are echoing with the sound of ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ being sung as actor Clara Rugaard recalls her first role as a kid in Copenhagen. She can still remember the tongue-twisting lyrics she belted out as a 10-year-old on the national theatre stage, a game changing moment when she realised what her true vocation was. ‘It was the first time that I’d been given a platform to do what I innately felt like I was good at,’ she laughs. ‘At the time, I was already singing loads, and wanted to be, you know, a pop star! My dad saw in the newspaper that they were looking for kids to come and audition for the lead children’s role in Mary Poppins at the New Theatre in Copenhagen. It was one of those things where I queued up with hundreds of children, and it was all very overwhelming, but really exciting. There was loads of waiting around that day. But the moment they invite you onto the stage, and you’re standing there, and you’re singing the song, and you’re playing with all these other kids in a safe space where it’s encouraged, was something I had never experienced. I remember having that sense of belonging and being like, “I need to be doing this. This is for me.” I didn’t really stop to breathe. I felt the need to do it all, and keep going. It felt so good.’

Rugaard has been chasing the feeling ever since, across theatre, TV and film – before moving with her Danish dad and Irish mum to London as a teen, when her father’s work required a relocation. In her native country she had voiced the lead character in Disney’s Moana in the Danish version of the blockbuster. ‘Your imagination and your creativity is so potent when you’re that age,’ she says of being a child actor. ‘We don’t run around with as many defence mechanisms as we do the more we grow up. When you’re a child, you just take it all in. You’re just feeling it all.’ Then, at the age of 16, she found herself in a new city and life, trying to fit in. ‘Because my mum is Irish, I was like, “It’ll be a piece of cake. I’ll just rock up, have a scone, and I’ll feel right at home,” she laughs as she remembers the move. ‘But you’re quite often reminded that you’re other, or that you’re different. I guess I used to see that as being a bad thing. When I first came to London, I remember I had a teacher at drama school who said that I needed to get rid of my accent, otherwise I’d never work. I then started to feel like I needed to change or fit in in order to be successful or have a career. Which is funny because the older I’m getting, the more aware I am of how brilliant it is, bringing something that’s unique and different and having a different perception of life.’

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I remember having that sense of belonging and being like, ‘I need to be doing this. This is for me.’ I didn’t really stop to breathe. I felt the need to do it all, and keep going. It felt so good

Rugaard now celebrates her European background. ‘I want to lean into that, I’m super-proud of that now. I definitely feel Denmark is my home, and I do still spend quite a lot of time there. My brothers and grandmother are out there… loads of my family. My parents are in Belgium, but we all congregate and meet in Denmark. However, I’ve been in London for 10 years now, so this city obviously has a very special place in my heart as well. I’ve got my group of friends here and I’ve got a life here.’

The key to making the transition and feeling safe in a new country was surrounding herself with ‘good eggs’. ‘My parents really were my good eggs. They provided a really great safety blanket for me. Even though I was exposed to this big, scary world through my work, they protected me, and kept me grounded, and made sure I never got too excited about myself,’ she nods. She played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet TV reimagining Still Star-Crossed in 2017 and then starred in Max Minghella’s Teen Spirit as a singing teen the following year. Throughout, music was her constant companion – as she played an aspiring pop star on screen she was also composing her own songs. And it’s something she still does now with an EP out soon. ‘It’s all just an outlet for expression. But I have found a lot of comfort in being able to rely on writing and creating my own things from home. Sometimes, as an actor, you feel like you don’t really have the platform unless you’re on set, and you’ve booked a job. And, as we know, actors have quite a bit of downtime. Music is so tangible. It’s within my control, and it’s always there for the taking. So I really love having the musical side of it alongside acting.’

Since moving to the UK, Rugaard has worked in a wide range of genres and countries; playing opposite Hilary Swank in sci-fi I Am Mother in 2019 (‘I can’t really believe that I was in a bunker for that many months with Hilary Swank. She’s incredibly empowering to be around, and to watch, and to learn from’) starring in the Mazey Day episode of Black Mirror, and associate producing as well as acting in period drama Love Gets a Room. That experience has given her a taste for more producing roles: ‘It’s another channel to create – finding things, and then making them, and putting them together. I’d definitely love to explore that more.’

Her upcoming slate is varied; Desperate Journey – a WW2 thriller based on the true story of Freddie Knoller who fled Vienna under Nazi occupation via the world of Parisian burlesque clubs. Rugaard plays a cabaret performer he meets along the way. ‘She’s an empowered woman, very confident. I haven’t played anything like that before. For that reason, it was brilliant and super challenging.’ Then she’ll be essaying Juliet Capulet again and using her pipes in Verona’s Romeo & Juliet, a pop musical with songs by Grammy winner Evan Bogart retelling Shakespeare’s tale. Rupert Everett and Rebel Wilson play her Capulet parents with Jamie Ward as Romeo. ‘She’s more of a modern Juliet, she’s got quite a lot of moxie. I’m very honoured to take on a role like that, and to play something as iconic as Juliet again. We filmed in Verona, Palma and this tiny, little Italian village called Salsomaggiore, where we all lived in a hotel, pretty much the entire crew, in the middle of nowhere. We got some good bonding time in there, that’s for sure!’ She’s also filming murder mystery The Crow Girl for Paramount+ alongside Dougray Scott – and is attached to play Mary Shelley in period drama Mary’s Monster, which looks at the inspiration for and creation of Frankenstein. ‘I’ve been quite lucky to have dipped into different genres and different characters. It feels very explorative for me. I love diving into very different characters’ shoes, and learn from their experience.’

The projects she’s now looking for are those that leave an indelible emotional mark, like the films that moved her as a child. ‘The movies I’ve always loved are the ones that leave you gut-punched. That’s ultimately what I look for when I go and watch a film. I want to be punched in the stomach, and feel something so deeply. I remember watching West Side Story when I was about 10 and it completely shattered me. I think it was the first time that I started to understand this grand concept and idea of love and devastating heartbreak. I couldn’t believe how sad it was. I still talk about it now because I remember that moment so well.’ She smiles as she considers the kid who loved Maria and Tony, who grew to a young actor playing Shakespeare’s doomed lover in Still Star-Crossed and is now headlining that classic role in Verona’s Romeo & Juliet. That 10-year-old standing on the national theatre stage would no doubt approve. ‘It does feel like a full-circle moment to be playing Juliet again, and also with music once again.’

Photographs and interview by GREG WILLIAMS
As told to JANE CROWTHER
Clara Rugaard stars in Verona’s Romeo & Juliet and Desperate Journey, both set for release in 2025
Clara wears the Hollywood Authentic × N.Peal cashmere collection

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The New Wave

THE PLAYER

November 15, 2024

Photographs and interview by GREG WILLIAMS
As told to JANE CROWTHER

Slave Play alumnus James Cusati-Moyer tells Hollywood Authentic about the art of ‘holding on tightly, letting go lightly’ and the seminal nature of a Rodgers & Hammerstein score.

When Hollywood Authentic meets one of the leads of hit controversial West End show, Slave Play, in his dressing room at the Noël Coward in the heart of theatreland, he’s near to tears thinking about the imminent end of the production’s run. It’s hardly surprising – the 35-year-old has had a long journey with the show. After playwright Jeremy O. Harris wrote the part of Dustin with him in mind, he originated the role off-Broadway in 2018 then on-Broadway in 2019 before Covid, returned to it after shutdown and was nominated for a Tony before transferring to London in July 2024. A challenging, polarising play that explores the intersection between race and sexuality via couples therapy, James has been wrestling with the emotional and physical demands of essaying the character of gay actor Dustin for six years. After 13 weeks of living a London life, he’s preparing to fly back to his adopted New York and finally let go of Dustin.

‘I think any stage actor will say this – when you finish the completion of a play, it feels like a death in the family. It feels like someone died. There’s an emptying out, internally,’ he says. ‘This one is even more significant because this is probably the last time I’ll do this play. When I close it’s also letting go of something that’s been in my DNA for six years; I think it’ll be a similar death. But there’s something beautiful in that. And the play will live on, and be done around the world by many other beautiful, fantastic actors and directors and theatres and spaces. That relationship with the audience is what I’ll miss the most, because I’ve never felt so connected – as if I was breathing the same oxygen as them – as I have on this play.’

Certainly the play asked audiences into an uncomfortable conversation in terms of subject matter, and to reflect on their own relationship with race during the performance – not least via the mirrored set. The production also provided ‘blackout performances’ during its runs on Broadway and the West End, creating an exclusive space for Black-identifying audiences. During the potent two-hour show James is stripped to his underwear, physically grappled and emotionally flayed – quite the endurance when undertaken for eight shows a week. He smiles wryly when asked how he does it.

james cusati-moyer, slave play, hollywood authentic x n.peal, greg williams

I wouldn’t want to do anything in my day that robs the audience of any bit of energy from my performance. It’s really about conserving the energy and the stamina . And that’s by sleeping, eating well, and exercise – and then saving it all for [the stage]

‘Well, to quote Elaine Stritch via Ethel Merman, you have to live like a fucking nun! The rigour and demand of the play is sometimes so intense that there’s not much life outside of it. But it’s a happy sacrifice. I wouldn’t want to do anything in my day that robs the audience of any bit of energy from my performance. It’s really about conserving the energy and the stamina. And that’s by sleeping, eating well, and exercise – and then saving it all for [the stage]. Then right after curtain, it’s straight home. It’s probably the most difficult job I’ve had in my life.’

The Pennsylvania native’s life is something he doesn’t take for granted. Growing up in working class Allentown in a Syrian/Italian blue-collar family, he reckoned with death at an early age; the literal scar of which can be seen on his chest and in his approach to life. ‘I had open-heart surgery when I was 14 years old. They found four holes in my heart. They said if this would have gone on undiscovered or unnoticed, that I wouldn’t have made it past puberty. Being that close to death, that close to not being actually supposed to be alive, that second chance that I got – that’s what stays with me.’

A kid who grew up singing along to the Rodgers & Hammerstein records his grandma loved and played (The King And I was a favourite and he sometimes still plays the music before going on stage), James can’t recall a time when he wanted to do anything other than act. ‘I think it was just one of the first thoughts I had as a child. My grandmother had the VHSs. I would watch. I just knew I had to memorise it all and perform it all in the living room. I knew that this was going to be my profession and my life.’ His mom’s was across the street from a community theatre and the budding thespian started hanging out and performing as a youngster – grasping at opportunity with both hands. ‘When I wasn’t in school, that was where I was. I wasn’t playing in the streets with the kids. I wasn’t doing any sports. I wasn’t getting into trouble. I was in the back of the theatre. I went to an arts high school that was formed right when I was a freshman. That saved my life. I moved to New York. I went to college, then went to Yale School of Drama for grad school.’ If that sounds like an effortless trajectory – the theatre kid who transitioned to Yale, Broadway and on to TV and film – it wasn’t, he says.

‘I had two figures in my life – my mother and my grandmother – who kept saying, “yes”. And I’m really grateful for them. But I’m also grateful for the people in my life who told me “no”, and there were many of those in my family. Many teachers that didn’t encourage me to continue. That contrast flooded into my experience. Whenever those things happen, it just gives you room to spread your wings and fly. It shows you what you don’t want, and it shows you what you do want. I’m just always grateful for both. I got kicked out of school, I got dropped by agents… it’s all informing me. Everything is a lesson and a gift.’

It was while at Yale that he met Slave Play writer Harris and after Cusati-Moyer debuted on Broadway in Six Degrees Of Separation, the duo worked together on bringing Slave Play to stages. At the same time he also juggled TV and film work, in 2022 starring in both Netflix hit Inventing Anna and DC blockbuster Black Adam. Last year he appeared in Maestro and this year, Tyler Perry’s Sistas. ‘Those opportunities were very different from anything I’ve ever done in my career, since I got out of drama school. I never thought that I would be on the set of a superhero film! It’s what you dream of as a kid. You’ve got to remain open to the jobs that come. My acting teacher used to say it specifically about the craft of acting, but I think it applies to the spiritual practice of the industry: “Hold on tightly, let go lightly.” When you have that job, hold on, but also let go. Have some fun. Enjoy it. It’s play.’

Now that he’s finished with Slave Play and is flying back to NY with ‘British biscuits and tea’ in his bag, James has more world-building to create. Firstly, his immediate surroundings. ‘Listen, like any true New Yorker, I’ve got to find an apartment when I’m back,’ he laughs. ‘That’s almost as difficult a job as this one. So that’s actually the first task.’ Then he needs to find the next project to pour himself into. ‘I have so many dreams and things that I want to do. If I could orchestrate my life and the next job that comes in, I’d say, “Oh, I want to do this hit TV. I want to do this hit movie. I want to go to the Venice Film Festival next year. I have a list of filmmakers I want to work with.” But sometimes you’ve just got to flow where it’s warm. I just want to keep on working. That’s the goal of it all.’

Work is, he says, important to him transactionally as well as artistically. ‘I don’t come from money. I grew up very, very poor. So the ability to be able to pay my bills, pay for my food, pay my rent, and do what I love – that’s happiness. The rest of any glitz and glamour that comes along with this profession sometimes? Fantastic. But if I can keep doing this and pay my bills, I’ll be good.’

His grandmother passed away in the last couple of years but must be very proud that the little boy who stomped around the living room to The King And I is still marching to the beat of his own drum. ‘What a gift she gave me,’ he smiles. ‘And now she’s gone. But she’s not gone. She’s here, and she’s on the stage with me.’ He pauses for a moment. ‘This play has shifted my DNA – I’m forever changed because of it. I’m stronger. I’m wiser. I’m more naïve. At the same time, I have more humility… You know that innocence of a child in a playground where the world is a wonder to them and it’s scary? I think that’s the place that any good work or any play or any good acting performance rests in. It’s that fine line between fear of the unknown and yet simultaneous ecstasy of discovering everything all at once. If I can maintain that feeling that I’ve achieved in this play, with any other job, then I’ll be really happy.’

Photographs and interview by GREG WILLIAMS
As told to JANE CROWTHER
James wears the Hollywood Authentic × N.Peal cashmere collection

Watch

PAUL MESCAL

November 15, 2024

Paul Mescal horse play.

Screening Room

GLADIATOR II

November 15, 2024

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Back in 2000 Russell Crowe’s Roman general-turned-gladiator dispatched a number of foes and shouted to the baying crowd ‘Are you not entertained?’. They were. We were. A three hour Ridley Scott spectacle that resurrected the ‘swords ‘n’ sandals’ genre and dared to kill off its protagonist, it lived on in eternity in audience imagination; a perfect film in performance, script, production and effects. When Scott announced a revisit to ancient Rome, the bar was set extremely high.

Connie Nielsen, Denzel Washington, Gladiator II, Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Sir Ridley Scott

Any fears that Gladiator II might not match its predecessor can be allayed. Like Top Gun: Maverick, this legacy sequel understands how to replicate what made the original so successful, without providing mere fan service or a duplication. Set two decades after Maximus was carried from the Colosseum to be honoured as a soldier of Rome, we pick up in the province of Numidia where Lucius, the son of Connie Neilsen’s Lucilla is now a grown man (Paul Mescal). Husband to a warrior wife, he is disgusted by the colonialisation of Rome – racing to fight at the port as Roman general Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pescal) sails in with a flotilla. Acacius is conflicted by his duty but nonetheless, his actions result in Lucius being taken captive and nursing rageful vengeance. Like Maximus, Lucius’s training combined with lust for revenge is a potent combination, marking him out as interesting to Rome’s twin brother emperors Geta and Caracalla (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger), slave trader Macrinus (Denzel Washington) and Lucilla herself. As he battles rhinos, monkeys, sharks and politics, Lucius gets closer to his quarry and to celebrity status. And all the while the spectre of Maximus and his sacrifice hangs over proceedings…

Though Maximus and Lucius’ arcs and drivers are similar (and Scott takes care to nod to his first hero with sequences such a Mescal jogging up the steps to the colosseum in swirling dust motes that tug on nostalgia), they are different beasts in the hands of two different actors. While Mescal – beefed up and furious in his fight scenes – matches the ferocity of Maximus, he also brings a lovely quietness to Lucius; quoting Virgil at parties, musing on his background and showing emotional vulnerability in his dealings with his mother. He goes toe-to-toe with all of his opponents, easily stealing focus in a big movie filled with huge set pieces, massive crowds, sumptuous design and a soaring score. Though he was a movie star before, this role convinces of his stature in capital letters.

There are also big performances to compete against; Pascal bringing a noble grace to a conflicted man, Quinn and Hechinger tapping into the delicious petulance and preening of Joaquin Phoenix’s former Big Bad and a chorus of well known faces as politicians and nobility. And then there’s Washington, leaving no crumbs as a spiteful, sneaky self-promoter with a revenge plan of his own. Delivering lines as richly decadent as his swishy robes, Washington gives a masterclass in nailing a best supporting actor nod. The way he says ‘politics’ is sublime, a perfectly calibrated line between camp and deranged that lands exactly as he intends.

Scott can do sweeping spectacle in his sleep at this point in his storied career and Gladiator II boasts all the aspects fans want to see from his blockbusters; huge sets, detailed, tactile costumes, armies of extras and those cinematic moments that make you want to stand in your seat and fist pump. The alchemy of Gladiator has been expertly evoked again to create a movie experience that will please critics, audiences and awards voters alike. And likely a box office take that might facilitate a third outing. Entertained, indeed.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Gladiator II is in cinemas now

Reel Life

CAPED CRUSADER

November 15, 2024

Photographs by MARY ELLEN MARK/REBECCA DICKSON/HERB RITTS
Words by MATTHEW REEVE, ALEXANDRA REEVE & WILL REEVE

The children of Superman star Christopher Reeve celebrate his life as a father, actor, director and disability advocate in the wake of his life-changing accident in a new documentary filled with unseen archive footage and recordings. They tell Hollywood Authentic what ‘Dad’ meant to them on and off screen.

Matthew Reeve: We were approached by an archive producer to tell this story, asking if we had home movies, and would we be interested in this type of project – and we had also, coincidentally, had just boxed up our family home. So we knew what we had. We knew where it was. It was consolidated and accessible. We discussed it and we thought it would be a great project to embark on. The timing was kind of right – enough time had passed where [Christopher Reeve’s] story was still relevant. So it’s been really a case of the stars aligning in this lovely way.

Christopher Reeve, Hollywood Authentic, Reel Life, Super/Man – The Christopher Reeve Story — Credit: Mary Ellen Mark

Alexandra Reeve: We’ve been approached in the past, often by people wanting to do a narrative feature, and we had worried that that would be just too much through rose-coloured glasses, and would only tell one very specific angle on his and [his wife and Will’s mother] Dana’s life. It felt important that if we were going to tell the story, we were going to tell it authentically and truthfully; in a way that allows you to connect with the man, and understand that there were lows as well as highs, that actually the strength in his life is all the more impressive because of the things that he overcame. When [directors] Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui got attached, it felt like something we could get on board with and participate in fully. We could sit for interviews where we would speak about loss in our family in ways that we’d never spoken about before.

Will Reeve: We said ‘if we do this, we would give all of ourselves’. I think each of us prepared for that moment individually. The night before I knew I was sitting for my interview, I went through a bunch of my mom’s journals. I have family photos all over my apartment anyway, so it wasn’t like I had to dig up too much. I went in prepared to fully and truthfully answer any question that came my way because I wanted it all on record – my experience and feelings.

Matthew Reeve: Seeing Will and Alexandra’s interviews, and them sharing their thoughts and feelings and memories – they were really the hardest moments and also the most meaningful and rewarding. Certainly we all lived through [Reeve’s horse riding accident, adaptation to paraplegia and death] together but I think when you have someone else asking a question and you’re sharing a perspective with an outsider, you maybe say things you wouldn’t just say in a conversation between siblings.

Will Reeve: We don’t necessarily go back and deconstruct it amongst ourselves because we’re living our full lives. So then to see, all these years later, those experiences through Matthew and Alexandra’s eyes, and for them to see it through my eyes, and realise that we did have that shared experience, but also have different perspectives… We didn’t need this whole process and this project to bring us closer. But it certainly – for me, at least – gave it a more contextualised understanding of their experiences as they’ve related to my experiences. I don’t think in the weeks, months, or years after my mom passed away that I stopped to be like, ‘Hey, guys, just so you know, I wasn’t actually asleep, right?’ [when the news came of Dana Reeve’s passing 12-year-old Will pretended to be asleep] but that’s an example – of which there are many in this film – that the full and comprehensive reliving happens throughout. We go to places, and so does the film, that haven’t been explored before.

Alexandra Reeve: It’s been amazing to see audience reactions [at film festivals] – just how much people are seeing themselves and their own story in this film. It dawned on us that our family circumstances were unique in many ways, but also that the themes in the film are so universal. So people are coming up, and talking about how they’ve navigated a loved one having a cancer, or being a caregiver, or dealing with loss, or thinking about how to stay a good friend after someone’s circumstances have changed. It’s this beautiful, humbling thing for people to see themselves in different moments, and connect to different pieces of this very human story. [Christopher Reeve] felt that too, very deeply – that for many people, he put a face on spinal cord injury and disability more broadly, because people felt they knew him so well from just that level of fame. And so if he could suddenly allow people to connect to his experience, and see beyond the wheelchair to see that he was still the same person – that really there are important, universal lessons to learn from that more generally.

Will Reeve: I know that it’s been a gift for me to see this film and use it personally as a way to make the image I have of my dad’s life and my mum’s life and our family’s story more vivid, and fill in some gaps, or further shade in some details that I either wasn’t yet alive for, or wasn’t aware of at the time. In psychology, it’s called a compositive memory, where you form an image in your mind that’s based off of photos and videos you’ve seen, and stories you’ve been told. Seeing those moments come back to life was a really touching and meaningful way to revisit the past. And then seeing everything that came before me – the Superman years, and even prior to that – to get to have a 360-degree view of his life in such a cinematic way has been one of the great blessings of this experience. And it was a disorientating experience at first to watch it, being like, ‘No, that’s me. This is about us’.

Matthew Reeve: There is no Christopher Reeve story without Dana Reeve, in the simplest form. It was not mandated by us in any way, but I think as the directors did their research, and we’d done our interviews, I think it became very clear to them just how important she was to us as a mother and stepmother, and how important she was to our father, and just what a remarkable, magical human being she was.

Alexandra Reeve: And to show our blended family, too [Matthew and Alexandra’s mother Gae Exton also appears in the film]. To be able to show that with the nuance, and the thoughtfulness to say, ‘You can have a relationship for 10 years. It can be the grounding moment for you, and then that can change. And then you can find your great love. And that those things can be in harmony together, and you can raise children stably throughout all that turmoil’. That side of a personal relationship doesn’t often get modelled on screen, and I’m really glad that they captured it as they did.

Will Reeve: I love that people get to see [my dad’s] silly, goofy, mischievous side. His public image, certainly as Superman, was literally the Man of Steel, and the dashing leading man with big muscles and the blue eyes. But he was human and grounded. He was a fun hang. His active dynamic lifestyle was of just always doing a million different activities, and always being on the go. I’m glad that people got to see his humanity throughout, which manifests itself a lot in his cheekiness.

Matthew Reeve: He was skilled in so many different things: flying aeroplanes, scuba diving, playing the piano, speaking fluent French, flying across the Atlantic solo twice, and gliding. He’d go up in open cockpit biplanes. I don’t think people really knew that.

Alexandra Reeve: For me, when I look back on my dad, the lessons I try to draw are that he was so determined and so self-disciplined in everything he did. And that’s a personality trait that was there way before the accident – it’s what allowed him to excel. And it was what got him through after the accident. Just the strength of character, and to keep persevering, but also to push himself to new challenges. He pushed himself to the limit every single day, no matter what the circumstances were – whether it was getting in shape for Superman, getting really good at skiing, or learning to ride a horse, or going out and directing a film after the accident.

Will Reeve: The way that my parents remain present in my life now is through the values that they instilled in each of us. I get told pretty often how proud my parents would be of me, which is nice to hear. It’s not always true, by the way – I’m quite human! But they would be proud of my humanity as well. I know that if I live in accordance with the values and standards and expectations set by my parents in the short time we had together that everything in my life will align so that I am living in a way that honours them, and would certainly make them proud. And I don’t have to wonder what they would think or say or feel because I know, based on the time we had together, the proper path as defined by them.

Matthew Reeve: I think Dad would feel proud of this film because it’s a beautiful work of art. And it’s just him on the poster, and he’s had a whole movie made about him. The actor in him would love that!

Photographs by MARY ELLEN MARK, REBECCA DICKSON & HERB RITTS
Words by MATTHEW REEVE, ALEXANDRA REEVE & WILL REEVE
As told to JANE CROWTHER
Super/Man – The Christopher Reeve Story is out now in cinemas

Talking Pictures

MARY ELLEN MARK

November 15, 2024

Photographs by MARY ELLEN MARK
Words by GISELE SCHMIDT & GARY OLDMAN

Hollywood Authentic’s photography correspondents Gary Oldman and Gisele Schmidt look at the work of an award-winning documentary photographer with a personal connection to their meeting.

Gary and I are ever grateful to Greg for allowing us to grace his pages with our little stories and it gives us great joy when he asks, ‘Who’s next?,’ for us to blurt out a name that has impacted us so very deeply over the years. So when the question came around this time, we immediately responded; Mary Ellen Mark. And then, when we sat down to write, we were ultimately confronted by the blank page with the cursor mocking us as we realised where do we even begin? It’s Mary Ellen Mark, ffs!

Mark is recognized as one of the most respected and influential documentary photographers EVER. She has published 30 books and countless photographic essays in world-renowned magazines and journals and has received so many awards and commendations that it could fill this magazine twice over. How can we even touch the surface of the indelible mark she left on the history of photography? We can’t.

Fellini, Francis Ford Coppola, Gary Oldman, Gisele Schmidt, Mary Ellen Mark, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Silkwood — Meryl Streep and Mike Nichols during the shooting of “Silkwood.” Texas, 1983, Mary Ellen Mark

And why are we focusing on a photographer who documented the psychiatric patients of the Oregon State Hospital, the street prostitutes of Bombay, the teenage runaways of Seattle, or Mother Teresa’s Mission of Charity work in Calcutta? Because Mary Ellen was also the stills photographer on over 100 films from the 1960s to 2000s… Fellini Satyricon (Frederico Fellini, 1969), Mississippi Mermaid (François Truffaut, 1969), Tristana (Luis Buñuel, 1969), The Day of the Locust (John Schlesinger, 1975), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman, 1975), Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979), Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982), Silkwood (Mike Nichols, 1983), Agnes of God (Norman Jewison, 1984), American Heart (Martin Bell, 1993), Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, 1999), Babel (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2006), Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (Steven Shainberg, 2006), Australia (Baz Luhrmann, 2008), to name just a few.

Mary Ellen Mark brought the same exceptional sensitivity and humanity to her work on movie sets that she did to the subjects documented in her photo essays. With her photojournalist’s eye, Mark’s photographs provide insight to life on set and the personalities of some of the foremost directors and distinguished actors of our time. With the release of Mark’s publication, Seen Behind the Scene (Phaidon Press, 2008), the Fahey/Klein Gallery held an exhibition commemorating this body of work. I had met Mary Ellen a handful of times through the gallery, but during this particular show, we spoke about narrative. Each frame should stand on its own; like a character, but when looking at a roll, it should tell a story, like a film. This conversation was years prior to meeting Gary and consequently well before he encouraged me to pick up my camera, but it is something I consider whenever I click its shutter.

We find that this idea is personified in Mark’s portrait of, Fellini on the Set of Satyricon, Rome 1969. Mary Ellen Mark recounted how Fellini was one of her favourite directors and that something amazing would happen every day with him while on set, ‘Fellini was wonderful in front of the camera. The picture of him with the megaphone was taken as he supervised a new set being built. Even though this picture is shot from behind, it is still very much a portrait of Fellini. You don’t have to be too literal when photographing people. Photography is not a factual, but a descriptive language. You must translate the scene visually and emotionally. This picture captures very much who Fellini was. He seems to be dancing gracefully, exactly like one of the characters in his films. This was just one moment, one frame, but it speaks to something larger, which is why it has become iconic. That’s what you’re really trying to do with a portrait, capture who the person is; get a glimpse at the essence of who they really are. Even if someone is on set or in a costume or standing on her head, you have to see beyond that to who they are.” (MEM, Seen Behind the Scene, Phaidon, 2008).

And with her photograph of The Cast of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Oregon State Hospital, Salem, Oregon, 1975, Mary Ellen captured the frenetic dynamism of tension and claustrophobic environment of the film in a single snapshot. ‘The cast was gathered together after a scene. They were shouting at each other and at something behind me; I don’t remember what. Jack Nicholson leads the picture and makes it work, but there’s so much going on, with people looking in different directions and reacting to each other. There’s a palpable group energy, and yet the image still uses the space well and has depth. It’s not perfect; there’s a guy hidden in there, but that shows it was a natural situation.’

Another photograph that we feel encapsulates this notion is her photograph of ‘Mike Nichols with Meryl Streep, Silkwood, Texas, 1983’. Streep plays Karen Silkwood, the plutonium-processing plant employee who was killed in a suspect car crash as she drove to talk about safety violations with a New York Times reporter. The double portrait has Streep and Nichols seated at a booth in a diner. Streep is in profile looking past Nichols who sits facing us, the viewer. Streep, lost in thought, appears weighted down – possibly by the physical and mental strain of such a demanding role – almost exemplifies how Karen Silkwood must have been wrought by her decisions to come forward about radiation leaks and other hazardous practices within the nuclear plant workplace. And then we have Nichols, confidently glaring at us beyond the picture frame, representing the establishment and authority which challenges us to question and consider the story of Karen Silkwood and the beautifully crafted and nuanced performance by Streep.

Gary has a particular fondness for Francis Ford Coppola from his role as Dracula; however, what ignited a desire to work with him was Coppola’s masterpiece, Apocalypse Now. More extraordinary than the film itself, is the behind-the-scenes footage which was recorded by Francis’ wife, Eleanor and featured in her documentary Hearts of Darkness – A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. The documentary chronicles how bad weather, health issues and increasing costs almost derailed the production of the film and could have possibly destroyed the career of Francis Ford Coppola. Mary Ellen Mark’s photograph, Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now, Pagsanjan, Philippines, 1976 depicts him sheltering from the unrelenting rain that contributed to the troubles of an already beleaguered shoot. The photograph exemplifies the conditions the director and actors faced but illuminates the exhaustion, frustration, and anguish as to whether the film and his career would be washed away by the rain.

Lastly, we wanted to discuss the portrait of Dana & Christopher Reeve, New York City, 1999 [See page 72]. There is not a more beautiful portrayal of the power of love. Dana had devoted her life to caring for Christopher after his near-fatal horse accident that left him paralyzed in 1995. Their bond was so strong that the doctors credited her for Christopher’s years of ‘borrowed time’ after the accident. As if she was his ‘medication’. Reeve may have been Superman, but Dana’s resolve, care, patience, love, support, and optimism was superhuman.

Mark was obsessed with photography, the process, the cameras, but most importantly, the subject and how to convey its story. We relate to that on a fundamental level. I have spent years studying photography and only recently begun to express myself with it, and Gary has observed and interpreted the characteristics of individuals through countless roles and a passion for all things cinematic before or behind the lens whether film and photography. It’s why Mary Ellen’s photographs captivate us so wholeheartedly.

Coincidentally, Mary Ellen is as responsible as Richard Miller for our fateful introduction. As Gary puttered around his home in Los Feliz wondering who took the photograph of Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean that early Saturday afternoon, he looked up at the first photograph he had ever acquired, Mark’s, ‘Fellini on the Set of Satyricon’. As he had acquired the print from Fahey/Klein, it’s what led him to return to the gallery to seek out an answer. He just never expected to find the answer, acquire the photograph and eventually get so much more!

Photographs by MARY ELLEN MARK
©️Mary Ellen Mark, courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation/Howard Greenberg Gallery
Words by GISELE SCHMIDT & GARY OLDMAN

Diner

KOL

November 15, 2024

Photographs by REBECCA DICKSON, ANTON RODRIGUEZ, ELEONORA BOSCARELLI and CHARLIE MCKAY
Words by ABBIE CORNISH

Hollywood Authentic’s restaurant correspondent Abbie Cornish enjoys a British twist on Mexican classics in a Michelin-starred Marylebone must-visit.

Chef Santiago Lastra has a skill in bringing ingredients to life that may otherwise be perceived as simple or ordinary, re-inventing them in a more complex, interesting and unique way. A spin on the Spanish word ‘col’, meaning cabbage, the name is certainly symbolic and harmonious with Lastra’s special talent – transforming a commonly known word into an innovative creation, just like Lastra’s menu itself.

Abbie Cornish, Chef Santiago Lastra, Diner, Kol, London

Located in the beautiful neighborhood of Marylebone in London, KOL embodies the heart and soul of Mexico, honoring its cultural traditions, reimagined with local British produce. With a desire to ‘transport people to different places in which they feel like they’re in a different world’, Lastra has orchestrated a fine dining experience that will delight the taste buds and ignite one’s appetite with its captivating and delectable dishes. Since opening in 2020 the restaurant has garnered many awards and accolades, one of which is a Michelin star, and more recently was named 17th best restaurant in the World’s 50 Best. Satisfaction is guaranteed in more ways than one, and it’s safe to say you can add KOL to your up-and-coming dining list in London, and move it straight to the top.

The space itself, envisaged by Chef Lastra and designed by Alessio Nardi, brings the essence of Mexico to London. Clean lines of a Danish/Nordic design are evident, working cohesively alongside a vibe reminiscent of the late ’70s and early ’80s in Mexico City. The vibe is rustic, cozy, yet sophisticated and stylish. The kitchen, oven, and chimney are front and centre. Original wood and leather furniture (by Nardi) are complemented by handcrafted ceramics sourced from local UK and Ireland-based artists. The attention to detail is admirable, all of which makes for an agreeable and pleasant surround.

Before London, Lastra worked with Andoni Aduriz at Mugaritz in San Sebastian and with René Redzepi and Noma on their seven-week residency in Mexico. He travelled extensively across Europe, southeast Asia, Japan and Russia (27 countries in all), showcasing the diversity of Mexico’s recipes and cultural heritage, using only ingredients sourced from each destination along the way. He studied at the Arte Culinario Coronado in Mexico, completed a Master’s Degree in Culinary Innovation at the Basque Culinary Center in Spain and a development course at the Nordic Food Lab at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. All of which led Chef Lastra to KOL. A passionate and somewhat ambitious venture, and one that has proved to be successful, award-worthy, much loved, and a great addition to London’s West End.

In the main dining area is a 14-course tasting menu only, and can be paired with a selection of wine and/or Mezcal. A shorter seven-course menu is available upon request at lunch from Wednesday to Friday. Guests can also enjoy off-menu items along with an extensive beverage menu in the restaurant’s Mezcaleria, a relaxed Oaxacan-inspired and cozy watering hole. For the tasting menus, expect an interesting array of wild food and seasonality in dishes that reflect the bright, fresh flavors of Mexican cooking.

Seasonal and natural, the food is light and healthy. And the overall experience is captivating and dynamic. I loved the langoustine taco made with smoked chilies and sea buckthorn, inspired by ‘lobsters on the beach’ off the coast of Mexico, in between Ensenada and Tijuana. The langoustines, sourced from Scotland, are freshly caught and available all year round, making this dish a staple on the menu. The langoustines are roasted with chilies and sauerkraut, and are delicately dressed with the juice of a sour berry that is grown locally on the coast. Served on tortillas made with duck fat and sourdough bread, these tacos are a warm, tantalizing delight. Also well worth a mention is the guacamole ice cream. A guacamole (sans avocado) made with hemp seeds and courgettes. The courgettes are sliced and cooked, just enough to break them down, after which hemp seeds are added and a creamy avocado-like ice cream is made. Served with a crumble of corn masa, pico de gallo, and handpicked sunflower seeds and finished with sunflower petals, caviar sauce (aged seven months), along with smoked oil and fermented blueberries. This dish is delectable to say the least.

KOL has an outstanding selection of mezcal, and a solid wine list, highlighting orange and natural wines, from different parts of Europe and central Eastern Europe. The handcrafted cocktails are top notch. My favorite cocktail is the ‘La Cigala’. Made with rhubarb, whiskey, mezcal, and verjus, this sparkling cocktail is great on its own and also pairs perfectly with the langoustine taco. Allergies and dietary restrictions are accommodated upon request. Vegetarian and vegan menus are also available. Overall KOL is a delightful, delicious, progressive, and entertaining restaurant. Extensively researched, it’s more than just a dining experience. It’s a front-row seat to a performance that is the culmination of seven years of dedicated study and development by Chef Santiago Lastra. I highly encourage you to take a seat and enjoy the show!

Photographs by REBECCA DICKSON, ANTON RODRIGUEZ, ELEONORA BOSCARELLI and CHARLIE MCKAY
Words by ABBIE CORNISH
KOL, 9 Seymour Street, Marylebone, London W1H 7BA
www.kolrestaurant.com

The Favourite

THE CONVERSATION

November 15, 2024

Words by KRYSTY WILSON-CAIRNS

The Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of 1917, Last Night in Soho and The Good Nurse, Krysty Wilson-Cairns, salutes a series of mishaps that honed Francis Ford Coppola’s unfinished espionage film into a perfect classic.

The foundational years that formed my sense of myself as a writer took place mostly in isolation. Initially in a bedroom, then in a series of bedrooms. Sometimes perhaps punctuated by sessions in the real world, cocooned from it in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. This useful isolation from the world became, more than anything, a badge of validation. ‘Look! How she squints in the daylight. Gaze upon her ghostly pallor.’ I was serious. I was a writer.

Because at the end of the process I would inevitably emerge back into society with something to show. I would emerge with a screenplay. And without a screenplay, what would the directing students direct, what would the acting students act? As a screenwriting student, I knew the truth. No matter how much the auteur theory was hammered into the directing students and the art of improvisation fed to the actors, the screenplay was key. I understood my work to be something immutable. Sent out in the world complete. Like a painting or a photograph.

Francis Ford Coppola, Gene Hackman, Paramount Pictures, The Conversation — *The Conversation* poster, 1974. Alamy

At that time, my favoured texts were the ones that worked hard to get the win. The sharp, twisty thrillers that showed a masterful corralling of the audience’s attention from beginning to end. Those films that took you one way before pulling the rug out from under you. Most of all, I loved the paranoid thrillers that came out of the USA in the ’70s. Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View, Klute… films that spun the audience a web of lies and confusion before pulling out the rug from under them and saying, ‘No, this is how it really is.’ Paranoid, anxious, tightly wound. (In no way a reflection of my mind at the time…)

Above them all stood The Conversation. A sparse, taut, tense thriller starring Gene Hackman alongside the late, great John Cazale (can any actor have given so much in such a tragically short career?). With cameos from Frederic Forrest, Robert Duvall, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr and Cindy Willams, The Conversation was at the apex of the talent that defined the New Hollywood of that decade.

Written and directed by the great Francis Ford Coppola, if any film was evidence of the primacy of the screenplay it was The Conversation – 112 minutes of terse, tight character action. Hackman (never better) plays Harry Caul, a reclusive, emotionally closed private investigator who is hired by a mysterious client to record a seemingly mundane conversation. Inevitably the job is not as simple as sold and Harry is left contemplating the morality of his work, along with his role in the world. What feels like very low stakes to begin with soon becomes a matter of life or death.

But that’s not why I loved it. I loved it for the exactitude of the writing. The entire plot hinging on a glorious pay-off at the end that relies on, of all things, intonation of key dialogue. ‘He’d kill us if he got the chance’ is the line you’ll remember from this film. It’s what everything leads towards and, despite its intonation being somewhat lost in the multiple languages in subtitles on the screen during its premiere at Cannes, it still won the Palme D’Or that year – and rightly so. Could anything be more writerly? More illustrative of the primacy of the script, of the screenwriter’s intentionality? That Coppola, the writer, pulls us through his world for almost two whole hours before pulling it all out from under us with something so simple as the emphasis of a pronoun! Except, of course, he didn’t… well not exactly.

Imagine my surprise when at a BFI screening and Q&A, Walter Murch, the film’s sound designer and editor, suggested an alternative. In Murch’s retelling, an entirely different version of Coppola’s film was originally planned: one that stuck closely to a bloated 157-page screenplay. As fate would have it, Coppola was called early to start shooting his next studio tentpole, The Godfather Part II, leaving the much smaller, more experimental The Conversation with 78 scenes yet to be shot. Seventy-eight! And so, Coppola flew off, leaving the existing footage in the very capable, but rather green, hands of the young Walter Murch. Coppola just told Murch: ‘Do what you can.’

None of the scenes in which Harry tracks down the girl, gets all the answers and discovers the real story had been shot. So, the film’s narrative, as it existed in celluloid, in stacked 35mm reels in the editing room, currently had no denouement. Faced with a film missing over a fifth of its screenplay, with little chance of additional shooting days from the studio, and with his director on the other side of the country, Murch did the only thing he could. He tore up the screenplay and worked with what he had.

In one ingenious move, Murch completely redesigned the film’s story and structure. The film’s pivotal scene takes place in the aftermath of a drunken party. The woman Harry has slept with steals the vital recordings, forcing Harry into action and the film towards its conclusion. Only, the way the scene was written (and filmed) was originally much more throwaway – the woman’s role in the film was to validate Harry’s distrust, not further the plot (she originally only steals plans for a recording device for Harry’s competitor).

By thrusting a minor character into the thick of the plot, Murch consolidated the two storylines, and all it took was a single additional shot – a cutaway of Harry’s arms revealing the stolen tape reels. Using Hackman’s brother as a stand-in, Murch recreated the set in a corner of a stage being used by another film that was shooting at the time – Chinatown. They didn’t even have to pay for the camera hire. In that one move, an unwieldy, twisty, 240-minute thriller becomes a tight, sparse, sinewy sub-two-hour masterpiece.

You might ask, as a writer, what of the excised material would I be interested in seeing restored? The answer: none of it. From my current perspective, as one who has emerged from the cave, and who has been on set during the filming and in the edit of all the films I’ve written, I’ve been able to experience first-hand how much the story evolves and needs to evolve during the filmmaking process. I now know all too well that the primacy of the screenplay (much like the auteur theory) is a fallacy. An illusion, to justify those weeks spent in the dark. Typing. Alone. Who am I to assume that whatever motivation I conjured while sitting in my pyjamas will ring true after an actor has brought life to it in front of a camera years later.

If it’s not in the film, it doesn’t exist. The casting, the designing, the actual shooting takes that immutable thing – the screenplay – and whittles it, hones it and sometimes just negates it for something else truer, which is what we see on screen. And that line that I loved, ‘He’d kill us if he got the chance’ – that intonation that expertly shifts emphasis, turning a repeated, innocuous plea into a wilful declaration of violence? A happy accident. A mistake by the actor, marked on the day as a bad take, destined for the cutting-room floor, but that ultimately replaced the work of 78 unshot scenes of slow realisation with the time it takes to say eight words. I like to be efficient when I write, but this is a next level of genius, and a perfect example of the screenwriter’s mantra – show it, don’t tell it. Famous for going back and re-editing his own films, The Conversation was the one film that Coppola had always thought was ‘perfect, just the way it is’. Because of course, it is. It’s perfect. It may have come about through a series of mishaps and the incredible talent of Murch’s editing, but it couldn’t be any other way.

Words by KRYSTY WILSON-CAIRNS
The Conversation (1974), Paramount Pictures, written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Gene Hackman. Available on Apple TV

On Location

ON THE ROAD

November 15, 2024

Words and photographs by LAURA SYMONS & DAMIAN HARRIS

It may be winter, but the desert always offers sun. One of our travel correspondents, Laura Symons, takes a spin out of LA with writer/director Damian Harris to find cinematic desert vistas and quirky road trip stops fit for a Chairman and a King.

DAMIAN
Los Angeles and the desert: both exist for most of us in the movies or TV, and everyone has their own favourite moment. The first idea I had of the city and the surrounding desert was from Roman Polanski and Robert Towne’s Chinatown, when John Huston told Jack Nicholson (and which was the premise of the film) that, ‘Either you bring the water to LA or you bring LA to the water.’

road trip, laura symons, damian harris — Chinatown, 1974. Paramount Pictures/Alamy

The trip to the desert means setting off east on Interstate 10, heading towards Palm Springs on the same route as the iconic credit sequence in Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo (1980), with Richard Gere driving his convertible black Mercedes 450SL while Blondie blasts ‘Call Me’, on his way to service another wife (this time while the husband watches). US audiences went crazy when Gere first appeared on screen and a sex icon, especially a gay sex icon, was born. Seven years later in the film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ Less Than Zero, the same highway is the setting as the drug-addicted character played by Robert Downey Jr. dies in the front seat of Andrew McCarthy’s red ’59 Chevy Corvette convertible, from a beating drug dealer James Spader gave him, while Jami Gertz looks on helplessly to Thomas Newman’s lush score and the sweeping camera of director Marek Kanievska.

More recently, Palm Springs was the setting for the hilarious time-loop comedy of the same name (2020), in which Andy Samberg finds himself replaying the same day at a desert destination wedding, where he intended to off himself. Naturally he finds true love and a renewed zest for life. The opening sequence for Don’t Worry Darling (2022) was filmed in the famous Kaufmann House, and the majority of Olivia Wilde’s film was shot in and around the desert city, made dazzlingly beautiful by cinematographer Matthew Libatique. Liberace’s Palm Springs’ mansion is the setting for the final months of his life in Behind The Candelabra (2013) Steven Soderbergh’s examination of the relationship between Liberace, played by Michael Douglas, and his younger lover Scott Thorson, played by Matt Damon. Both are excellent.

Palm Springs has been a host to Hollywood legends over the years. After a string of flops and believing his career over, Cary Grant retreated to his home in Palm Springs in 1953 to live out his retirement, that is until frequent house guest Alfred Hitchcock succeeded in luring him back to the screen two years later to star in To Catch A Thief (which kick-started the huge career resuscitation that included North By Northwest, An Affair To Remember and Charade.)

Steve McQueen was a legend when it came to motorbikes (or anything over 80 mph). It was on the desert roads outside Palm Springs, where he lived, and in Joshua Tree that he would ride his beloved motorbikes on the endless empty desert roads for hours, perhaps rehearsing the ending of The Great Escape when he jumps two of the three barbed wire fences, falling at the third.

Elvis Presley was introduced to Palm Springs by his manager Colonel Tom Parker who had a home there. Elvis leased architect William Krisel’s aptly named House of Tomorrow and, with his upcoming marriage to Priscilla, renamed it Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway. He had intended to be married in the house but gossip columnist Rona Barrett’s leak in the press forced the young couple to sneak out late at night on Frank Sinatra’s private jet and instead tie the knot in Vegas. Later, in 1970, Elvis would buy his own home and spend three months a year there till he passed in 1977. The most famous Palm Springs resident was probably Frank Sinatra, (see the 2018 doc Sinatra in Palm Springs). He never made a film there, but he did perform in nightclubs and concert halls both alone and with his Rat Pack. He famously dubbed his Palm Springs home the ‘west coast White House’ in hopes of luring then-President JFK to come stay, even building a helicopter pad with the presidential seal painted on it. JFK did come to stay, but the bait was more likely house guest Marilyn Monroe.

About an hour from Palm Springs is Joshua Tree, and a totally different vibe. In the 1940s, Hollywood came to this part of the desert to make western films and TV series, due to it being both a closer and more convenient location than Arizona, Utah and Texas. Pioneertown was born, conceived as both a working set and residential area. Over 50 films and TV shows were made here during the ’40s and ’50s. The desert itself has been a location to several films, one of the more famous is Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths (2012), where Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken hide out in Joshua Tree from gangster Woody Harrelson, resulting in peyote-inspired desert wanderings and stand-offs. Less famous is the comedy horror film Crack Whore about a young girl who comes to party in Joshua Tree but instead gets into escalating trouble with drugs and gangs. As I said, it’s a different vibe in the desert.

Go directly west till you hit the sea and Laguna Beach, a favourite of Hollywood for its coastal location. In 1942 constrained by a world war, it stood in for Buenos Aires in Bette Davis’ Now, Voyager, later in 1954’s A Star Is Born, Judy Garland and James Mason picnic by the beach and Garland sings ‘It’s a New World’ (both scenes were initially cut from the released version but restored 30 years later). More recently in 2012, Oliver Stone made Laguna Beach fun and sexy in Savages as Blake Lively romped in a threesome with Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (worth seeing also for the over-the-top turns of villains Salma Hayek and Benicio del Toro).

While steeped in movie history, the areas also have plenty to offer any curious visitor. From the sweeping landscapes to extraordinarily kitsch installations, there is much to be enjoyed in the region…

LAURA

In Coachella Valley, an essential stop is Pappy + Harriet’s restaurant which originated in the 1950s as a cantina set built for the many westerns being filmed there (films like Jeopardy and The Cisco Kid). In more recent decades, while respected for its open-pit fire BBQ, the restaurant and venue has also become a celebrated live music hotspot where the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Queens of the Stone Age and Arctic Monkeys have all played (often spontaneously choosing the venue to test out a new set). So do stop by: while you might be going for the ribs, you may just find U2 serenading you.

The restaurant sits next to the original Pioneertown film set, taking you right into an 1880-themed Main Street. Quietly sitting behind this is the 19-room Pioneertown Motel (built as a waypost for movie stars filming locally at the time). A unique boutique hotel, it’s rich in character and an ideal place to disconnect from the outside world and soak up the starriest of skies at night. The motel feels exactly as a motel should; warm and welcoming with friendly staff and better yet, no televisions!

During the day you can hike around Joshua Tree or pop into La Copine(do book) for a cool desert roadside spot (menu favourites include Beets & Burrata and Socarrat) or have a mooch around the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum, an exhibit whose beauty lies in its decades of decay.

En route to Palm Springs, you pass acres upon acres of wind farms but through the colossal turbines it’s hard not to miss the two giant dinosaurs of Cabazon. Something between a fast food amusement garden (they were, indeed, originally built by local restaurateur to attract more diners) and Jurassic Park on steroids (‘Dinny’ and ‘Mr Rex’ most famously featured in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure), these two monuments are an essential stop (albeit, just a 10-min one) while driving through.

Pulling into Palm Springs, in soaring temperatures, feels somewhat like the designer town time has left standing: exquisite architecture nestled at the foot of the mountains with that unique desert modernist design. Better to visit in winter when the temperatures become more moderate but be sure to indulge in a dinner at Mister Parker’s (the gilded restaurant of the Parker Hotel) for exquisite cuisine and a flash of that personal service touch (your tabletop candle is made of beef butter which melts ready to be spread over your freshly made loaf).

Stay at Sparrows Lodge, a small and intimate spot where the accommodation’s surround a misted pool and loungers. The rooms are stylish and well-sized with vast metal dunk-tubs. It is also recognised for the menu in their Barn Kitchen, offering delights from home-baked banana bread for breakfast to 16oz Creekstone Ranch ribeye at diner. But do rise early and take yourself for a near-two-mile hike in Tahquitz Canyon. While the trail is steep and can be rocky, the waterfall that greets you at the pinnacle is entirely worth the effort. Before slipping out of town, make sure you stop at Mitchells vintage shop, which offers an expansive range of heritage pieces from Pucci to Ossie Clark. Mitchell services the shop himself so you are assured of the history and provenance (the store supplied rare fashion pieces to TV show Palm Royale most recently).

After a few days of desert sun, it’s likely time to head to the ocean spread of Laguna Beach. Pick your timing carefully: off-season the beaches are sweeping and empty, in high season you may have to search for your spot more carefully as tourists flock to the infamous OC coastline. In the early 1920s, it began to emerge as a noted artists’ colony and still boasts a bustling creative hub (including the Festival Of Arts and Pageant Of The Masters).

About a mile from the milling centre lies Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa; a compact and quaint design-led spot. The bungalow is the most sought-after accommodation but all rooms feature the same decorative Spanish-colonial interiors (think palettes of royal blue and vivid bougainvillea). It sits only a short walk from two essential beaches but if you want to ‘stay in’, the perched pool which overlooks the ocean and the bay-facing outdoor spa are particular highlights (although the daily freshly made cookies laid out late afternoon take a comfortable bronze position).

Words and photographs by LAURA SYMONS & DAMIAN HARRIS
All the unique accommodations featured here (and many more) can be found on the Mr & Mrs Smith website mrandmrssmith.com
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