"CITY ISLAND": NIGHTTIME PRODUCTION STILL & THE RETURN OF THE FORD.

Greetings all. Click on the above to enlarge a view of our crew on the street in front of the house across the street from the Rizzo house. How would you like to have this madness going on in front of your house at night? The owners of this place were terribly nice and came out and watched us shoot exterior night scenes, inviting friends of there's over and serving cocktails.

Christmas madness has descended so this will be brief.

Item: Dig the below clip--Andy Garcia being pushed through the streets of Tribeca in the old Ford Galaxy that is Vince Rizzo's
much loved old car in "City Island". Don't know why but I thought this clip was appropriate given the lumpy, clumsy and oafish season that is upon us. All I can say about getting through the holidays is: shlep, shlep and more shlep.

Item: The Twitter streams have been full of nice words to say about "City Island", most of it stemming from our screenings over the past couple of weeks. If any of the movies new fans find their way here, I hearby welcome them and urge them to stick around. Because...

Item: I will definately be writing the book about the making of "City Island" on this blog beginning in early January, 2010. This on-line extravaganza, replete with witty anecdotes and angry e-mails, will occur in real time (whatever that means) and will culminate with the story of the films release...on the eve of the actual release date--March 19, 2010. After that, there will either be good reason to keep blogging away (like good reviews to pass on, good box office numbers to report) or...well, let's not worry about the alternative. What the hell good ever came from worrying?

Item: Click here to read the best xmas gift I've gotten this year--the only one, in fact.The Self Styled Siren, one of the blogospheres best cinema historians, was asked by a magazine to choose her favorite "off the beaten track" Christmas movie (in other words, NOT "It's a Wonderful Life"). And guess whose movie she picked? Mine! My 2000 movie "Two Family House", while not strictly a Christmas story, jumped over the worthy heads of many many other films to land in that singular place of honor. I thank you, Siren. And "Two Family House" thanks you as well.

Item: Have you noticed on the updated blog page that you can click to purchase some of my films? Say, for instance, that the previous paragraph whetted your appetite to see "Two Family House". Just go to the right column for info on the film and hit "click to purchase". Go on. Do it. Now. I'm waiting. Tis the season to spend, after all.

And now, hit that clip, Jack...

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CITY ISLAND: STILL LIFE PLUS ARTE JOHNSON

I blog from a sound studio in Santa Monica where I await the arrival of Dominik Garica-Lorido, who has to loop one word consisting of four (maybe five) letters. The minutiae of moviemaking has never seemed so minute.

But it's also extremely important that this get done right. Because the reason were here has to do with the all-important MPAA rating. We desperately wanted an MPAA rating of PG-13 for "City Island" and, after making an adjustment or two in language, received one. But the MPAA also controls the trailer and advertising to a certain extent, and they didn't like the fact that the trailer of our movie ended with Dominik yelling "Jesus, Dad!" So we cut out the last two letters and it became "Jeez, Dad!". Only to my ears, that didn't sound right. It's very important that the trailer end with a punch, a real "zotz" of a joke, if you will. The joke that we end on--I wont give it away--works very well. But it was dependent on a suitably infuriated response from Dominik to punctuate the last moment. And "jeez" is different than "Jesus!" To me, "jeez" implies resignation. "Jesus" implies imperious, self-righteous anger. So I asked if we could do some alternative lines like: "great!" and "nice!" and others. Anyway, you can see how I spend my days. And this is a busy one, considering that I had to leave the house to be here.

I'm getting good feedback from the internet experts who are working on the movie about my "go online and write a book" scheme. So I appear to have once again booked myself a non-paying gig that will take up at least two hours a day for the better part of twelve weeks. Nice. But I love the idea and think it's a suitable way to wrap up this seemingly never-ending journey, delivering the last of the story of the making of this movie on the eve of the films theatrical release. This exercise in self-aggrandizement will begin shortly after the first of the year. Tell your friends. Or don't.

Below, meet Arte Johnson. Many of you will know him from "Laugh In". Some will have heard of him from his many "books on tape" appearances. And all those commercials. And guest shots on every major TV program of the last thirty years. Arte began his long show-biz career in cabaret in New York in the 1950's and so Jim Gavin and I made the pilgrimage to his home in Bel Air to interview him for our cabaret doc. Unlike many show-biz celebs of a certain age, there is no apparent bitterness in Arte about the fact that he was once busy and famous and now is...essentially retired. Rather than being pissed that things in the past didn't work out differently or that he isn't still as well known as he once was, he instead has a marvelous equanimity, a true satisfaction with his past and a modest perplexity that he ever had as much of a career as he did. Several times he exclaimed to us: "I never had a job! I never considered what I did to be work! I just acted funny and enjoyed myself!:" He and his lovely wife now spend six months a year traveling the world, insatiably curious about seeing the whole earth--what a wonderful use of time, so much better than sitting around moaning about the past! Here he is today:



And here he is durng the peak of his "Laugh In" limelight. Enjoy...

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CITY ISLAND: PRODUCTION STILLS PLUS JONATHAN WINTERS!

Click on the above to enlarge us filming the fabulous Julianna Margulies. And click on the below to enlarge a wider view, with the assistant camera girl replacing JM in the window, slate dutifully in hand.


Anyway, thanks for the nice comments on the "new look" for our blog. The new look, designed by web-artiste cosmicJANE, is meant to signify a new beginning for our mission. As of the first of the year, I'll be blogging the whole damn history of getting "City Island" made. The purpose: self-promotion, of course. But I'd also dearly love to create a book, complete with the screenplay and oodles of photographs. There's a certain air of urgency to this ambition of mine considering the whole damn format of bound books printed on paper appears to be on the verge of extinction. So what better place to write the first draft of the book then on this blog. If I time things correctly, I'll be done with the story on the day before the movie opens, March 18 2010.

Check out the last comments section for some links to footage of Andy Garcia in Deauville from the invaluble JC. The "Lunch at Cartier" afternoon was quite an amusing experience. You might be able to feel the air of dissipation and general exhaustion--it was after four hard days of press and partying. As I recall, the lunch they served was cold--lots of pate and vegetables, and Andy and I sent out to the hotel for a couple of much needed steaks.

And now for a true treat: on Thursday, author James Gavin ("Stormy Weather"--the Lena Horne bio) and I set out for Santa Barbara, California, to meet and interview for our documentary on the history of Cabaret a true legend. Jonathan Winters in eighty-four years of age and I'm happy to say that he isn't one bit saner or nearer normal then he ever was. The man is brilliant--entertaining, constantly "on", always turning everything into a routine and sometimes...scary in his ability to dramatize and act out any situation. Indeed, Jonathan is frank about his own edgy grasp on sanity over the years (he's been in and out of a couple of institutions) and he's perfectly willing to revisit some very painful portions of his youth. Clearly, like most comedians, there is a lot of pain at the root of his personality--much of it directed at still unresolved feelings of inferiority in the eyes of his long dead parents. I recall seeing Jerry Lewis in an interview years ago reminiscing about how he gave his father a Cadillac and his father--an unsuccessful vaudeville performer--said to his famous son: "I wanted a convertible". This made the now aging Jerry cry--can we ever actually please our parents? As a tear rolled down his cheek, Jerry pointed at it and said to the interviewer: "This is why I do the comedy."

Clearly in Jonathan's case, the comedy had to do with making up for what his father perceived as a lack of ability, intellectual and otherwise, in his only child. "You're the dumbest white boy I've ever seen", said this lovely man to a boy who even then must have been a true original. His mother, it turns out, was a performer herself--she had her own local radio show in Springfield where he hails from. But even this seems not to have brought him closer to her. Instead, she was jealous of his early success and sought to belittle his gifts. Oh, what people do to each other...

Here's me and Mr. W.

Although our interview was supposed to be exclusively about his cabaret career in the 1950's, there really is no way to limit the incredibly fertile mind, flashing wit and endless invention of his mad genius. In some ways, our questions were somewhat beside the point; to talk to Jonathan about any subject is to engage him on everything that is passing through his mind. And the way he processes all thought is comedically. Everything in life can be turned into a routine, according to this principal. And in fact he's correct. A most wonderful, if somewhat exhausting, way to look at life.

Meeting Jonathan Winters. An unforgettable deal. Below is from the Jack Parr show in the late 50s. Jonathan is given a simple prop and told to go. Watch what he does with a pen and pencil.



And here he is on Johnny Carson, years later. Enjoy...

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CITY ISLAND: WHEN PICTURES SPEAK LOUDER THEN WORDS...

From our day at the strip club, Staten Island, New York, courtesy of the ever effervescent Phil Caruso, God of Stills. The authoritative looking tall guy, pointing and giving direction, is our excellent cinematographer Vanja Cernjul. The guy to the left who appears to be asleep on his feet is me. Click to enlarge, dude.



Here's a clip of an on-set view of a scene being shot outside said strip club. Steven Strait and Dominik Garcia-Lorido are the actors. Enjoy!

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CITY ISLAND: PRODUCTION STILLS CONTINUE!

Above is an image from "The Longest Night"--an evening where we shot the entire climax of the movie (eleven pages
of script) using three cameras and going from 6PM to 6AM, or whenever the sky began to turn blue with the rising sun. The scene is a cathartic explosion of family truths and lies and was originally scheduled to be shot over two nights. But I felt that it was such a dynamic, crazed, explosive scene that it would benefit from being done in one mad rush--a nutty kind of decision (most directors don't ask to have their page count doubled...) And I think it worked--we got the whole scene and in my opinion it couldn't work better. Don't forget to click the above to enlarge. Why not make it your screensaver?

On the far right, back to camera wearing the trench coat, is Emily Mortimer. Julianna Margulies can be seen left, in profile under the sign that ominously reads "End". Back to camera, in the bathrobe, is Dominik Garcia-Lorido, who plays Andy's daughter...in the movie and in real life. Much of our crew is pictured in the background. The only person missing, in fact, seems to be me. I was probably in the can, hence the reason everyone is waiting around.

Thanks for the enthusiastic comments to the last post--yes, there is a screening tonight (Wednesday) in Pasadena but I didn't bother to alert anyone since its invitation only and I'm not even sure who's been invited. Many more word of mouth screenings are planned and I'll let you know about them.

Actually Dan, the trailer managed to avoid every single one of the cliches you mentioned. But it's not too late to go back and screw it up--thanks for the ideas!

Since the Julianna M/ Steven S. clip went over so well, here's more of them--self-slating since they were "driving" on a process trailer (in others words not really driving) but there was not room in the car for a camera assistant to smack the sticks. I'll let you know how the Pasadena screening went. Assuming I can find my way to Pasadena...

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