Today I was thumbing through a magazine rack at a Goodwill when I chanced upon a February 1962 issue of Pageant magazine that includes a short piece on Jean-Paul Belmondo. Belomondo was recently honored by the Los Angeles Film Critics for his career achievements. High-resolution scans of the original pages are at the bottom, following the transcription. Enjoy!

JB Meets CC

Photographed for Pageant by Marvin Newman

THE FILM HEROES of the young Frenchman at left are Bogart, Brando and Garfield. But put them all together and you still haven’t captured the essence of Jean-Paul Belmondo, the most off-beat European screen sensation in a decade.

At 28, Belmondo has become a one-man New Wave in movies. He’s far from handsome. Yet his broken nose, scowl, smile and compulsively relaxed behavior have inspired the word Belmondisme– meaning rare acting ability blended with a special variety of sensuality. Ever since director Jean-Luc Godard cast him in the lead of Breathless (with American Jean Seberg), Belmondo has been Europe’s most sought-after actor.

In his latest film, he joins the new Italian actress, Claudia Cardinale, to form what may be the most explosive team to hit the screen since Clark Gable and Jean Harlow.

Cartouche, the JB-CC movie, is based on a naughty, wildly-hilarious 17th Century French comedy. It has the same kind of appeal as Fan Fan the Tulip, which titillated American audiences some ten years ago. And like Fan Fan, it’s destined for long runs here and abroad.

In the film Belmondo plays the irrepressible picaresque hero. A gay bandit, he has the implausible ambition of seducing women of the aristocracy. As his taken-for-granted mistress, Cardinale ostensibly heps him and joins in a series of funny and richly sensuous adventures.

But Belmondo proved as irrepressible off camera as on. Claudia, caught up in the antics, said: “The man is so crazy, I love him.”

Claudia Cardinale has the distinction at 22 of being a star without ever having been a starlet. Of Italian parentage, she was born and raised in Tunis. In 1959 she was given a free trip to the Venice Film Festival for winning a local beauty contest. She was immediately offered movie contracts by some of Italy’s top producers. But contradicting the usual beauty queen dream, Claudia insisted she didn’t want to be in movies. It was not until the producers persuaded her parents that she reluctantly agreed to accept the leading roles that were offered her.

Then she visited the Cannes Film Festival. Voila! contracts for star parts in French movies. Americans discovered her last year when her film, Rocco and His Brothers, opened in U.S. art theaters. La Bombe Cardinale has now been hailed everywhere as “the dark-haired Brigitte.” Unmarried, Claudia lives wherever she is making a movie; she hopes eventually to settle in Paris.

Jean-Paul Belmondo arrived at his present fame by a most unlikely route: he began as a professional boxer. Son of a well-known Parisian sculptor, Jean-Paul twice had his nose broken, and then, to his parents’ relief, gave up the ring for the Paris Conservatoire of Drama.

But even at the staid academy Jean-Paul devoted as much time to his horseplay as to study. Although his fellow students recognized his special talent for tough-tender roles, his professors were less impressed. When they failed to award him the highest acting award of his class at year’s end (for a performance that satirized the faculty), the student body booed and lifted their precocious hero onto their shoulders and carried him out of the auditorium.

After military service with the French army in Algeria, Jean-Paul landed several bit parts on the stage before he wona featured role in the film A Double Tour. It was after seeing him in this picture that director Godard gambled on using him in the co-starring role in Breathless.

Within months, Belmondo became the most important new star on the Continent. He made an incredible five pictures in 1960 and another five in 1961. And one of them, Two Women, with Sophia Loren, confirmed his fame when it was released last year in the United States to critical and audience acclaim.

After each day’s shooting on Cartouche, Belmondo returned to his Paris apartment. He and his wife Elodie have been married for eight years and have two young daughters. A reporter once asked him what he looks for in a woman. Jean-Paul answered, “I seek tenderness, tranquility, sweetness and gaiety. Physically, I like what my wife best represents: a beautiful face and lovely, lovely legs.”

Of Belmondo his wife says, “He is more than a good husband and father. He’s a friend and lover as well.”

And like co-star CC, Belmondo has a movie screen vitality that speaks louder than words.

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High Resolution Original Scans

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Short films are the future of cinema.

There was once a time when shorts possessed little cultural currency, and many would argue they do today. However, I think there is going to be a big upswing in shorts-filmmaking-by-choice in the near future.

There was once a time when shorts films were essentially used to
- gain experience/confidence with ones filmmaking abilities.
- gain experience/confidence in presenting one’s work in public at screenings/film festivals.
- experiment technically and try out new aesthetic ideas.
- be a calling card to get work.
- be an audition/tryout for film school.

In many instances shorts are not looked upon as as texts but as “practice” for features* or instruments for career advancement. This is one of the primary reasons, in my view, that they’ve lost serious consideration. Of course there is some critical reception for Sundance/Toronto darlings and the occasional re-visiting the early films of today’s legends (i.e. Scorsese’s “The Big Shave”, pictured above), but these are generally few and far in between.

* There is a myth I have encountered that only “real” filmmakers do features. 20 somethings max out their credit cards, ruin personal relationships and goodwill during production, and wind up penniless when they entered the project ill-prepared creatively and financially. They’re left with a heavily-flawed finished product, no film festival appearances, or distribution to show for their blood, sweat, and tears. This is an alarmingly popular trend, maybe not so much any more in this sour economy. Problem is, people think it’s completely rational; it’s falls under the guise of “I’m just trying to follow my dream.” That’s great, but filmmaking — the love of your life — shouldn’t lead to the destruction of it. You’re not “sacrificing yourself for your art,” you’re embodying a time-worn cliché of a starving artist and being irresponsible.

I find that when I have enough planning time, money, and people who want to work with me, I have a much better overall experience. I’m more relaxed, and more importantly, I’m more confident. The process of making a film is stressful enough; you shouldn’t have to wonder if you’ll have food to eat on top of it.

We all watch videos on the web, so I won’t belabor the point that the future distribution channels will heavily involve the Internet and video on demand. This also works in the favor of short filmmakers. What I’ve noticed in research is that online web video viewers want their videos short. MTV’s online viewership jumped dramatically when they decided to chop up artist interviews into easier to swallow – and buffer – increments. Shorts International has a distribution deal to get short films on iTunes. Shorts-only distribution companies are proliferating.

At the end of the day, I love features. It’s so special to go to the movie theater and be a part of the communal experience of enjoying a film. There’s a different character to watching an actor’s performance, or visual composition in a movie theatre. The movie seems to wrap around you. This is a strong contrast to, say, watching Lawrence of Arabia on an iPod.

But I also think film-watching is still evolving and there will be a strong cohabitation of both forms in the near future, especially considering how powerful the internet has come as an entertainment medium. Its explosion in popularity has created myriad choices for the viewer. Big-budget, corporation-driven entertainment will not be the model going forward. If there is to be any future renaissance in cinema, I think it will be a renewed interest and appreciation of shorts.

Perhaps I’m alone in my opinion that some shorts have the capacity to be even MORE powerful than features by virtue of their format. Features are like novels. I’ll be the first to agree that some stories deserve 120 minutes to be told properly. On the other hand, there are many films that could have easily compressed their ideas and themes into a knockout 15 minute short. Or some that would have been better off if they were never produced.

Short films are more like poetry, or a pop song with a killer hook. I’m looking forward to a time when short films are not looked at as a flimsy business card, but as puzzle piece in a large body of work that defines its author. A strong  set of short films boast an authorial voice that most features can’t match.

#inspiration

#inspiration

#projects

#inspiration

(…)

“Probably the most entertaining Western ever made!”
(Way to be confident about your product)

#inspiration

I did this video directly after watching James Toback’s arresting Tyson documentary. Now, with the barbarism of MMA fighters, its fascinating how swift the fall from grace has been for the once-revered “Sweet science.” Boxing is suddenly the tame alternative (after being petitioned for so long to be banned). Biarchy’s somber track “The Coldest” seemed like a fantastic fit. I love how the song dips into these moments that seem lethargic and melancholy, only to spring back into a temporary, artificial optimism. It sounded a bit like adrenaline in musical form, hopelessly attempting to keep the blood flowing.

My video tries to create this sort of “walk-down-memory lane” that reflects boxing’s full-circle evolution. It’s very clear from the opening frames that boxing was initially seen as some sort of novelty, some sort of joke or fad (C’mon. Boxing cats. Really?). Kids fight. Grownups fight. Cameras flash and the spectacle grows. The latter half reveals a more insidious side. Car wrecked brains scrambled by stiff hits to the head. The sport collapses. I think Tyson biting off Holyfield’s ear marked the beginning of the end for a once praised past-time.  I read an article recently that there is some boxing league that has its competitors play chess between rounds. If you somehow beat your opponent in chess (and remain on your feet), you win. We’re seeing that full-circle landing place for boxing–resorting to gimmicks to remain relevant.

Check it out the mention here: “Former In the Pines members form alliance of art and music with Biarchy”

Do check out Biarchy. They’re currently offering their entire album as a free download.

#projects

#projects