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Mastidon Visits The Arclight For The AFI 40Th Anniversary Screening Of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I would have liked to have been at the Arclight for the 40th Anniversary event this week, but circumstance dictated that I needed to be somewhere else at that particular moment. I was hoping we’d get more reports from it, but I am glad that Mastidon, who did such great fest coverage for us recently, decided to come to town to attend this. I’m sorry I didn’t see him there, but that to his report, I’ve got a good idea what went down:
Hi Guys!
Mastidon here with a question. Why would anybody in their right mind fly half way around the world to see a movie? This could only be for a one word answer - JACK. Last night, I was fortunate enough to attend the AFI 40th Anniversary screening of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" presented by the man himself, Mr. Jack Nicholson.
Thanks to a report by Moriarty a few weeks ago, I was able to learn of AFI's special celebration of a plan to screen 11 movies with 11 stars - all screened at the exact same time. In the end, only 10 were shown as Morgan Freeman had to cancel at the last minute. Despite the world's worst Internet ticketing system of Arclight, I was able to get my hands on tickets for "The Birds" presented by Tippi Hedren, "Bonnie & Clyde" presented by Warren Beatty, "Rocky" presented by our pal Sly, and "Spartacus" presented by the legendary Kirk Douglas. I struggled for days with what to go see. Although I live in Germany, I am originally a Philly boy so to see Sly would have been perfect. And to get one of the last chances to see the great Kirk Douglas speak at 90 years old - well, I was torn. In the end, I decided on "Spartacus" and started listing my tickets on eBay. eBay, evil eBay. Tempting me. Right there alongside my tickets were tickets to see Jack. So much for "Spartacus". I have asked everyone I sold tickets to if they would write a report for AICN, as I am as curious as you are as to what happened in the other rooms around me last night.
My evening began getting stuck in one of L.A.'s legendary traffic jams. A trip that should have taken 10 minutes from my hotel took 45. AFI was handing out 40th anniversary programs to the first 100 people in each cinema so I wanted to get there early. In the end, I was in the cinema 30 minutes after it opened and was lucky enough to get one of the last copies of the program. BTW, you can buy this program for your own collection at http://www.afi.com. The program is designed to thank AFI's major supporters over the years. The informational content is ok but the pictures are fantastic. Speaking of pictures, that brings me to the one negative from the evening. I can not bring you any photos this time as AFI banned all cameras. Anyone taking pictures would be immediately ejected. So I will do my best to describe the scene for you.
The cinema was directly opposite the one screening "Star Wars" and diagonal from "Unforgiven". So I can assume they look similar inside. The cinema was very wide but not very deep. I would guess it seats about 450 people. Despite being sold out, about 10% of the seats were empty. My tickets were row M on the aisle but only about 6 rows off of the floor. On the floor were 2 rows of seats in a half moon with a podium in the center. The podium was a simple wooden board with an AFI 40th logo sign on it and a long silver microphone coming out of it standing on a metal base.
Right at 7 pm (the scheduled start time), a guy walked up to the podium and stated that the press interviews just ended and we would start shortly. Shortly in L.A. terms meaning about 30 minutes later. At just after 7:30, Jack walked in to the entrance way to the left, the lights went down, they showed us a 5 minute AFI promo with various movie clips, then finally a woman took the stage to introduce Jack, The woman was Jean Picker Firstenberg who was AFI's second CEO. She talked about how very few actors are "On first name basis with the rest of the world". She also pointed out that the reason we were late was not Jack's fault as he arrived early. Then the moment of truth, the man himself took the stage to a standing ovation.
Jack was wearing sunglasses, a light green sweater and black suit pants with a jacket and holding a set of index cards. The first thing he did was change from the sunglasses he was wearing to a different pair -"My reading glasses..." which got a huge laugh from the crowd. He started off by telling the story of how the film got made. When the book was first released in 1962 with the play in 1963, Jack tried to buy the rights to it. He lost out to the actor who first played McMurphy on Broadway, Kirk Douglas. Kirk tried in vein to get the picture made but could not. In the end, it took his son Michael to get the job done in 1975. Kirk wanted to play McMurphy in it but at 60, he was simply too old. Michael approached Jack. Oddly enough, Jack felt he was not the best actor for the part. Jack said he would do it provided there were 2 changes from the stage version, the first (I can't remember, SORRY), the second, to cut out the long monologue of the Chief at the end of the play. Michael immediately agreed to the changes and production started. The film was having funding issues getting payments from its backers United Artists. Jack asked if he could buy out the UA option on the film. He never actually stated he did that but he implied that he did. He then went on to say "The film made a lot of money. It was very, very good for me. In fact it was the highest grossing film which I really liked before science fiction came with their special effects". At one point Jack asked the crowd, "Am I boring?" As if...
Jack then said, "Enough about the business side" and preceded to discuss the filming. He talked about how when he first arrived and saw all of the cast members getting off the plane that they really seemed like crazy people - Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd. Jack was concerned about the part of the Indian as in the book Chief is a giant guy. After meeting Will Sampson all of his fears quickly disappeared as "He was the biggest Indian he ever saw. When I first met him he was wearing a cowboy hat and red, white, and blue jeans. Yeah, he's an Indian." He also mentioned the guy with the white beard was actually a philanthropist from Oregon. He talked about Scatman Crothers who kept trying to get him to be put in one of Jack's movies. In the end, Jack said he got him into 5 and preceded to list them off. He next talked about the scene with him and Dr. Spivey where the doctor is interviewing him. The entire scene was improvised by Jack. Jack said, "I was showing off a bit as my daughter was on set that day. I really think it was the best improvisation I have ever done." Jack then made a comment about his speech lasting more than 3 minutes. He then ended by talking about Danny DeVito and the basketball scene. There is a point where Danny gets the ball and he throws it right at the cameraman. That was not planned at all. With that, Jack said to enjoy the film and off he went to another standing ovation.
Jack was everything you would expect Jack to be like. He is the very definition of the word cool - smooth, witty, charming, and down right mesmerizing, In total he spoke for just under 15 minutes. It seemed like 2 and was over way too quickly. I could have watched him all night. This was extra special as Jack doesn't talk to the press or give interviews. The couple sitting next to me commented on how he simply ignored and walked past all of the reporters on the way in making this a real unique opportunity.
Next up for me is The London Film Festival in a couple of weeks. I will be hitting some of its highlights and reporting for you all as a real press guy thanks to Harry. Until then.
Ciao from The City of Angels!
-Mastidon
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For a film released in 1975? I must read the article for some explanation . . . this would be the 32nd anniversary for the film? Would it not?
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Please, more clarity in the headlines. Or invent a pill to make me smarter.
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Only Clint has as big a star for as long.
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Anybody see Starwars with Lucas?
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that would make for a REALLY cool DVD extra
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considering the inherent disposable, transient and, for want of a better term, shallow approach to history which generally prevails in America, it is fascinating how you preserve and celebrate this artistic form via institutions like the AFI. this is a sincere compliment - events like this must surely be the envy of us film fanatics living outside of the USA.
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i was there as well
i felt privileged just to be in the same room as jack
i wish he had stayed for a Q+A but oh well... -
And I put together over 90% of the photographs in that book. Pulled them from the archives, scanned them, cleaned them up and color corrected them.
Please, enjoy it. Anyone who wants should try to track down a copy, though I'm unaware of its full availability. In terms of pictures, there's several boatloads more where that came from, but there are no plans to do anything with them... yet. :)
This really was the coolest event that AFI's put on a long time, maybe ever. -
Next time you put the tickets on sale 24 hours before the general public for your so-called movie-loving members, how about making sure that you sell them to people that are actually going to use them? That really makes me angry to hear that I went to all that trouble to try to get tickets to certain shows (literally hours of failed clicking on the internet for an overburdened website), and in the end the people who bought them did not even show up. Don't get me wrong - I'm happy that I saw Kirk Douglas and Spartacus, but that is just ridiculous.
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It was a great event, and I was privileged and humbled to be there. I just know that there are plenty of people I know who would have been thrilled to fill in the other 10 percent of that theater.
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MiraJeff, yeah was over way too fast. Do you remember what the other change Jack wanted from the play? Its bugging the crap out of me.
s00p3rm4n, the photos are GREAT! Incredible work on the book.
DarthCorleone, I completely agree. I mean how can people not show up for an event like that one? Are you going to write something up on SPartacus?
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Just pimped out his cartoon series,promising everyone a live action one would be on the way and showed the crappy special edition of Star Wars...Man F*CK GREEDO!!!
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There were empty seats??? I know for a fact every single ticket was accounted for.
Even if some of those seats were for VIP shmucks who never showed up, there's no excuse for a row's worth of seats staying empty for something like this.
mastidon: Thanks. I hope one day I can get more of the pictures out to more of the world. The actual collection of photos we have really could be an invaluable research tool for biographers, and a gigantic K hole for film nerds who like film ephemera (production stills, posters, etc.). Of course, there are things keeping it from being that... but things change. :) -
And my instant thought was "remake!", at which point I was going to smash my fist through my huge CRT monitor, then go out and bludgeon everyone in sight with my shredded hand until it became just a stump. Gladly this isn't another remake thread.
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I tried at midnight when they went on sale, but the damn server kept crashing! And now I read that there were empty seats? Fuck! Anyway, I went to the Arclight last night to see "Darjeeling Ltd" and while the movie was just okay, the moviegoing experience was pure bliss! Reserved seats, no talking, cell phones, people walking in and out, just cineastes enjoying the film. Also, I knew I was in L.A., 'cause I was seated next to some character actor from movies and TV, and for the life of me, I don't know what his name is...going to go see "Blade Runner" tomorrow. Viva AFI and The Arclight! Anyone else gonna write about the rest of the screenings? Anyone...?
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..Richard Lynch? introducing for the screening of "Bad Dreams"?..I think it was in the auditorium across "Star Wars"..
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..James Ryan in the "Kill or Be Killed" screening next to "Unforgiven"
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I'm such a lazy procrastinator. I actually already did write something, but I need to edit it for the audience. And, yeah, I know every single ticket was accounted for, but there were empty seats in the Spartacus screening as well.
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