DVD/150: BONNIE AND CLYDE (Arthur Penn, 1967)

Like most iconic films, the origins of BONNIE AND CLYDE are surprisingly unexpected.

Writers David Newman and Robert Benton had read the same book on 1930s gangsters and were intrigued by a footnote referencing Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker and their nomadic 2-year crimewave across the southern and central states.

Influenced by the French New Wave, they sent their script to Godard and Truffaut, but both declined; Truffaut however met Warren Beatty later and told him about them.  Beatty contacted them and, producing for the first time, got grudging support from Warner Brothers, ironic as they thrived with their 1930s gangster films.

Leading directors refused, potential Bonnie's came and went but eventually Arthur Penn said yes and he, in turn, had been impressed by a young stage actress who had just appeared in two recent supporting film roles, Faye Dunaway.  It remains an audacious piece of mythic film-making.

Shelf or charity shop?  BONNIE AND CLYDE are hiding out on the shelf.  A film that oddly plays both inside and outside of it's genre, these contrasts make it still vital. Beatty's usual blank performance against Dunaway's relentlessly modern one creates it's own tension. The original script had Clyde bi-sexual but producer Beatty had it changed thinking it was going to be hard enough keeping mainstream audiences 'sympathetic' to the couple.  The influence of Godard and Truffaut is palpable but the locations chosen are the dusty low-rise main street buildings and wide open plains that the real couple would have been familiar with. Beatty remembered Gene Hackman's supporting role with him in 1964's LILITH and offered him the role of Buck, Clyde's jovial older brother which essentially launched his career; it's strange that in retrospect, although Beatty, Dunaway, Hackman and Michael J Pollard's getaway driver CW were all nominated, it was Estelle Parsons' shrill, whining Blanche Barrow that won the film's only acting Academy Award.  This was also Gene Wilder's screen debut in a marvellous scene where he and his girlfriend are kidnapped for an afternoon and just as they are becoming friendly, his admission of being a funeral director changes the mood immediately - indeed the scene pivots the film's tone totally to one of approaching doom. The film's release was negligible as Jack Warner disliked it, pushing the Taylor/Brando flop REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE instead; after being challenged by Beatty it was given a different release and the audiences flocked in their droves, the film capturing the current anti-establishment mood.  Most reviewers panned it but Pauline Kael's glowing review/essay in The New Yorker made some critics revisit it and changed their minds over it, the NY Times reviewer Bosley Crowther keep panning it - and quickly lost his job!  Meanwhile Theodora Van Runkle's costume designs started a high street fashion outbreak of berets, jackets and mid-length skirts. The script of course plays fast and loose with the gangs real history but this was a prime example of filming the legend - and the ending has lost none of it's brutal impact.

 

DVD/150: THE THREE MUSKETEERS (THE QUEEN'S DIAMONDS) (Richard Lester, 1973)

Although Lester's fondness for dubbed muttered asides gets wearing, THE THREE MUSKETEERS still delivers great Sunday afternoon adventure.

Alexandre Dumas' classic tale of young d'Artagnan's wish to join King Louis XIII's Musketeers and being taken under the wing of intense Athos, jovial Porthos and romantic Aramis.

He also finds love with Constance, Queen Anne's clumsy maid, and makes enemies of the manipulative Cardinal Richelieu, and his spies Rochefort and deadly Milady de Winter when he foils an attempt by them to discredit Queen Anne.

Lustrous cinematography by David Watkin, Yvonne Blake's costumes and Michel Legrand's stirring score make the film a delight to watch and Richard Lester mixes swordplay and slapstick memorably.

Delivering memorable performances are Oliver Reed as Athos, Michael York as d'Artagnan, Charlton Heston as Richelieu, Raquel Welch as Constance, Roy Kinnear as d'Artagnan's servant Planchet but above them all, is Faye Dunaway as a wonderfully icy Milady.

Shelf or charity shop?  The musketeers are swashing their buckles in the limbo of my plastic dvd storage box.

Sad news to hear that Theoni V. Aldredge, designer of some of the most glamorous costumes seen on stage and screen, has died at the age of 78.She was nominated for 14 Best Costume Tony Awards and won three times for ANNIE, BARNUM and for the over-the-top glamour of the original 1983 production of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES seen here with star George Hearn and La Cagelles.Among the shows she was nominated for was the original 1981 DREAMGIRLS, the Tyne Daly 1989 revival of GYPSY and the original 1975 production of A CHORUS LINE.She won a deserved Academy Award in 1974 for her glorious costumes for THE GREAT GATSBY which saw a revival in the soft lines of 1920s fashion on the high street. She also designed for the divas of the day such as Faye Dunaway's power-dressing TV executive in NETWORK, Bette Midler's satin-and-tat schmatte in THE ROSE and... um... Valerie Perrine and The Village People in CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC!