We are dealing in different materials, but certainly we must have something at least as good … There is a sequence in which the lonely child can find no one to tell that she has been promoted at school, finally winding up telling it to her kitten, that gives completely all that we need to know as to the origins of this monstrous woman. It is a ruthless but brilliant and amazing portrait it is savage, but it rings true in the destruction of other people by this woman and, most apropos of this point, it is heartbreaking in its early revelation of what caused this woman to be as she is.
In particular, I should like you to see his portrayal of the origins of the impossible and volatile creature who is the “heroine” – an idol of the world who is completely impossible, and cannot be wife, mother, or human being, and who is completely worthless to be anything but a movie star. But it has many things in it that are brilliant too, and Chayefsky has again proved that he is one of the most original and gifted modern dramatists. It has many things wrong with it, particularly from a standpoint of wide popularity. … I should like urgently to recommend that you see an extraordinary film I viewed the other night – The Goddess. I love his thought process here, his analytical mind. As the book goes on, you can really feel directors losing patience with Selznick’s interference (John Huston, in particular, but he was not alone), and I can certainly see their points, but in memos like this, you can feel the keen intelligence and understanding at work. Here is a really interesting memo in Memo from David O. In 1958, Selznick engaged French novelist Romain Gary to prepare an adaptation of Tender Is the Night. I was supposed to have approvals of casting, and they were obliged not to change the script without my approval but they ignored my advice, and, in my opinion, ruined the film. Unfortunately, I sold the package, including Miss Jones to Twentieth. With Ivan Moffat I prepared what I thought, and still think, was a really outstanding script. It is one of the great regrets of my career that I did not make Tender Is the Night. Selznick, in his later years, became obsessed with F.
0 kommentar(er)
