Movies Til Dawn

No, I'm not talking about Billy Wilder's "The Apartment". I'm talking about his apartment. The one he and Audrey lived in together from 1957 until his death in 2002. (I believe she still lives there). That's what I'm talking about here. Not interested? Then don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of the Wilshire Terrace. For some reason, the living quarters of Billy Wilder--my personal movie God--always fascinated me. From a young age I knew that he resided in an building on the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Beverly Glen known as the Wilshire Terrace. The question is: why? Aren't famed movie directors supposed to live in lavish spreads with guest houses, detatched projection facilities, manicured lawns and unused swimming pools (or in the case of Wilder perhaps one with a dead body floating face down in it?) Isn't the whole idea of having money in LA to spend it on a house that publicly trumpets your taste, personality and I'm...

Meet Miss Brown, a Pittsburgh public school teacher who, along with a young Italian boy named Dominick, found herself the subject of an NBC news documentary which aired in 1963. The film, "An Experiment In Excellence", was directed by my father Frank De Felitta and it's my pleasure to share it with you below (I've posted the first half--the entire thing will be up over the next few days). Like most of my fathers other NBC documentaries, the film is both a stirring emotional journey as well as a time capsule of the era in which it was made. The films were made between 1962-1968 and thus collectively serve as a record of a very specific era in American history. Whether covering the generation's artists ("The American Image"), the life of a young intern ("Emergency Ward") or the struggles of the south during the civil rights era ("Mississippi: A Self Portrait"), the sense of the times is alive and beautifully rendered in all of them. In ...

I thought I’d write a summary of Booker’s story to state, in a dramatic fashion, what I see as the spine of our movie. Booker’s story is that of an illiterate black man born into a life of poverty in the sharecropping world of 1920's Mississippi who managed to pull himself out of that life despite his limitations. He built himself a life “in the city” as a business person, fulfilling his dream of owning his own business--a restaurant called "Booker's Place" in the black part of town. He managed to do this by working nights as a waiter at the legendary "Lusco's Steak House"--a Mississippi landmark in the white part of town (it was segregated, of course). By walking on two sides of the street, as it were--serving the white master in order to be his own master amongst the black citizens--he was able to function in an uncommonly independent way. You could say that, despite the killing workload, he truly had it made. But people can only remai...

I thought I’d write a summary of Booker’s story to state, in a dramatic fashion, what I see as the spine of our movie. Booker’s story is that of an illiterate black man born into a difficult personal life of poverty in the sharecropping world of the 1920[s and 30’s south who pulled himself out of that life and, despite his limitations, built himself a life “in the city” as a business person. He worked as a waiter (the best job available to him) in order to support his very “all-American” dream of being his own boss and running his own place. He most certainly would have been happy with that arrangement for the rest of his life had not history interfered. Once progress came to the south and once blacks were given the right to protest the conditions under which they lived within white society, Booker Wright—like many others around him—was forced to grow. Initially, though, he watched from the sidelines, wanting no trouble, wanting only to maintain the life he’d carefully built ...

I am currently working on two documentary films in addition to my feature projects. For the past two years I've been shooting interviews of great performers who came out of cabaret and nightclub backgrounds for a documentary on the history of cabaret. The film--titled "Intimate Nights; The Golden Age of Cabaret"--is based on James Gavin's excellent book of the same title and is just about ready to go out to find a buyer in the form of a sizzle reel showing highlights of the interviews. (I've held off editing any footage until we have a buyer as the rights clearances are bound to be expensive). But a few months ago I began work on another doc as well. The emergence of this project is directly attributable to the posting on this blog of my fathers documentary "Mississippi: A Self-Portrait". My producing partner, David Zellerford, was so taken with the film--and specifically with an amazing piece of footage involving a black restaurant owner/worker...

Happy 90th birthday, Frank De Felitta. I've posted the front cover of the first edition of your best known work, the 1976 occult thriller "Audrey Rose" (pan left) and I've posted the last three parts of "The World Of The Teenager", your undeservedly forgotten 1965 documentary about pre-Vietnam teenage angst in the town of Lexington, Massachusetts. A lifetime of varied, fascinating, paradoxical and always well-crafted work. I do hope somebody one day studies the many facets of your career. Other than me, natch.   Subscribe in a reader

Welcome back to "The Films Of Frank De Felitta", a look at the documentary films made by my father for NBC news in the 1960's. Posting these movies has been a real joy and--it turns out--has cost me quite a bit of money; for after posting "Mississippi: A Self Portrait" a few months ago I wound up--largely due to the internet traffic and its subsequent revelations--beginning my own documentary follow-up to that film. More on that later, however. My father is alive, well and truly happy that these films--which were clearly made with love, care and careful deliberation--are having a second life on the internet. NBC never aired them again and as far as I can tell my fathers cherished sixteen millimeter prints are the only evidence of their existence. So: here comes "The World of the Teenager". Shot in Lexington Massachusetts in 1966, the film is a fascinating and by no means square or dated look at a turning point in our culture which may or may not have b...