Why the Shelley Duvall and Lukas Haas combination, I imagine you asking? Well, they bear a curious physical resemblance to one another. They're actors capable of giving performances that are at once wildly idiocyncratic yet full of deep grace and startling emotional intensity. They're both very undervalued artists relative to their unique talents. Neither one has ever accepted a role in a project that could remotely subject them to accusations of selling out. Possibly as a result of that and of their habit of only working when they feel like it, they're strangely obscure, even among beloved cult actors. They both hugely deserve to have their own special Days on this blog but lack enough interesting online related material to make those Days special enough to do. Even searching for every possible vidclip I could find re. them for today's festival, there wasn't much to pass along. Also, I've met them both. I interviewed Haas at great length on the set of the film Johns for Spin Magazine, although the magazine never ran the interview. I met Duvall at an art opening and was so in awe and stricken that my boyfriend of the time physically dragged her over to me, whereupon I stammered and gushed until she gave me an autograph. She's one of the artists I would most love to have a beer or meal with, and he's one of the artists I would most love to, well, spend some quality time with. They're both gods among humans, and I kind of worship them. Please enjoy these heartfelt if wholly inadequate shows. -- DC, 11/04/06
_____________
Shelley Duvall's debut was portraying the free-spirited love interest to Bud Cort's reclusive Brewster in Brewster McCloud. Altman was so impressed with Duvall that he cast her in his next films, including McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Thieves Like Us (1974) and Nashville (1975). In 1977, Duvall was named Best Actress by the Cannes Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for her portrayal of the delusional Millie Lammoreaux in Altman's 3 Women. That same year, she appeared in Annie Hall as Woody Allen's one-night stand, and she hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live.
Duvall's next role was Wendy Torrance opposite Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). Jack Nicholson states in the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures that Kubrick was great to work with but that he was "a different director" with Duvall. Perhaps the most notorious example of this was Kubrick's insistence that she perform 127 takes of the baseball bat scene, which broke a world-record for the most retakes of a single movie scene with spoken dialogue. Duvall said she learned more from working with Kubrick on The Shining than she did on all her previous films.
In January 1979, Altman offered her the role he believed she was born to play: Olive Oyl in the big-screen adaptation of Popeye. Duvall was initially reluctant to accept the role due to negative memories of being called "Olive Oyl" as a child but went on to accept it in stride. Following the success of The Shining and Popeye, Duvall had supporting roles in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits (1981), Tim Burton's Frankenweenie (1984) and the Steve Martin comedy Roxanne (1987).
from '3 Women' (7:18)
from 'Brewster McCloud' (3:16)
'He's Large' from 'Popeye' (2:32)
from 'Annie Hall' (2:42)
from 'Time Bandits' (4:35)
from 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair' (7:22)
from 'The Tombstone' (5:10)
from 'The Making of The Shining' (1:42)
_____________
At the age of five, Lukas Haas was discovered in his kindergarten by casting director Marjorie Simkin. His first screen role was as a child in the 1983 nuclear holocaust film Testament. Haas became more widely known in 1985 when, at the age of eight, he appeared with Harrison Ford in Witness. His performance as an Amish boy who is the sole witness to an undercover cop's murder was well-received by critics. Haas followed this with parts in films such as Lady in White and Solarbabies.
In 1989 he played in the Costa-Gavra film Music Box the role of the 12 year old son of Jessica Lange and grandson of the immigrant who was accused as a war criminal. For this role he was nominated for the award of young artists. Also at a young age, he stared in the movie, Alan and Naomi. Haas played AIDS victim Ryan White in the TV movie, The Ryan White Story, for which he received an Emmy nomination. On stage in 1988, he performed alongside Steve Martin and Robin Williams in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at Lincoln Center in New York City for director Mike Nichols.
He went on to appear in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, Tim Burton's Mars Attacks, and Alan Rudolph's Breakfast of Champions. Haas' work in the 2000s includes Brick, Gus Van Sant's Last Days, and While She Was Out with Kim Basinger. He has appeared in the music videos for My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade", OutKast's "Roses", UGK's "International Player's Anthem (I Choose You)", and Death Cab For Cutie's "Cath…".
from 'Witness' (1:43)
from 'Alan & Naomi' (8:24)
from 'Johns' (10:55)
Trailer: 'Mars Attacks' (2:28)
from 'David & Lisa' (9:58)
My Chemical Romance 'The Black Parade' (5:20)
'The Youth In Us' (11:59)
Lukas Haas interviewed about 'Last Days' (0:50)
from 'T Takes' (4:02)
----
No comments:
Post a Comment