Peter O'Toole had been the last man standing among the renowned hard-drinking hellraising actors of his generation such as Oliver Reed and Richard Harris. But now he's also gone off to that big bar in the sky. O'Toole was memorable in all his performances and his witty and charismatic persona was one of a kind. His striking blue eyes, singular good looks, debonair upper class Brit attitude, and mesmerizing acting talent gave him his ticket to stardom and also made you forget that he was a bad drunk in real life. But, hey, that's what made him the one and only Peter O'Toole! He'll be missed and I raise my glass to him.
Sophie Cossette Cartoonist Blog
Sunday 15 December 2013
Saturday 19 October 2013
Fancy a caricature?
If you’re asking yourself what could you possibly offer as
a gift to a friend or relative who has everything, then have I got the solution
for you! How about a full-color caricature? I’d be pleased to draw one for a
flat fee of fifty dollars plus postage. Group rates are also available. The
price would entail the original black and white drawing, mailed to you, as well
as the colorized (by Photoshop) version which you would receive via email. Also
makes a great present for yourself! For more details, please email me at sophiecossette6@gmail.com or send a
message on Facebook to Sophie Sinemania.
Monday 14 October 2013
‘M’ for Monkey
Could you imagine living out your golden years without
your favorite stuffed animal? Well, the
most eccentric filmmaker of the 20th century, Fritz Lang, certainly couldn’t!
He had Peter the monkey with him everywhere,
night and day. If you don’t believe me, just ask Peter Bogdanovich: the damn
monkey was present during his famous interview with that legendary enigmatic
cinematic ‘Master of Darkness’. But while Lang’s curious fetish for Peter the monkey was blatant and his affection
for him was bizarrely and tenderly cute, his
other fetishes were more secretively creepy and downright perverse!
Yes, this is a sweet picture, indeed! Peter was able to tame the beast because if you
read ‘Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast’ by Patrick McGilligan, you’ll learn about
all the dark sides of Lang the Fang. Fritz preferred the company of ‘ladies of
the night’, had a foot fetish and a reputation for organizing Hollywood orgies,
and collected macabre objects like tribal shrunken heads and weird masks from around the world. Lang wore a monocle like fellow director Erich von
Stroheim, a fashion that could be perceived at the time as aristocratic Nazi, and his
Germanic accent didn't help matters. He was sadistic to some of his actors, in
particular the 18-year-old Brigitte Helm who played the hot robot in his 1927
masterpiece, ‘Metropolis’. By the way, that movie cost 7 million German marks
(which would be $200 million today) and kick-started the science fiction genre.
Even by today’s standards of super- duper special effects, ‘Metropolis’ remains
a mind-blowing cinematic experience.
But getting back to poor Brigitte, during the making
of ‘Metropolis’, the ordeal she experienced and the physical pain she felt (her
robot armor left her with bruises and scars, and the heat of the fire scene was
real) for her first role reminds me of what Tippi Hedren went through on the
set of Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’. Did the Masters of Suspense or Darkness want to
destroy what they couldn’t have? Well, let just say that reading ‘Fritz Lang: The
Nature of the Beast’ gave me an eerie idea for a sordid story for my book Sinemania!
Lang wasn’t really understood in the Hollywood community and
the Austrian expatriate was far from a saint. To illustrate what I mean, in my
story, Fritz orders the company of a prostitute to show her his movie scrapbook
and describes its pictures in his own peculiar way. I had read that towards the
end of his life he paid prostitutes, not for sex, but simply for some female
company to avoid loneliness.
I’ll let you discover the twist of that creepy tale on
your own, but I’m gonna use this post to open the curtain on the real scandals
and murders that plagued Fritz Lang’s life. Yes, dear reader, life can copy art and Fritz and his monkey could be to
blame! Move over, Polanski!
Lang was born in Vienna in 1890 from a Jewish mother who
converted to Catholicism when Fritz was ten. He was raised in that faith and
cherished it until his death in 1976. The first scandal and enigmatic mystery to
involve the ‘Master of Darkness’ was the death of his first wife, Lisa
Rosenthal. She is now known as ‘Lang’s suicidal first wife’ who found the idea of
being replaced by a hot new mistress too hard to take. The facts are that in
1921, Lisa died from a gunshot to her chest while she was in her bathtub. Lang’s
mistress, Thea von Harbou, moved in with him not long after. Was it suicide or
murder? Only Fritz, Thea, or Peter the monkey knew for certain.
Lang made several excellent film noirs in the US. My
favorite is ‘Scarlet Street’ from 1945. Joan Bennett played a manipulative femme
fatale who took the character portrayed by Edward G. Robinson for a sucker. Dan
Duryea played her loser con artist lover and it’s a pleasure watching the evil couple
up to no good and sucking their victim dry! This movie is a must and the
experience of seeing it is even more powerful knowing that Bennett was Fritz
Lang’s American muse (they made a few films together). On top of that, Joan
Bennett was a femme fatale in real life!
On the fatal day of December 13, 1951, Bennett, Lang’s film
noir bitch, made a rendezvous with her Hollywood agent of twelve years, Jennings
Lang (no relation to Fritz, just a bloody coincidence) in a parking lot at the
MCA offices. Little did Bennett know that her jealous husband, Walter Wanger, was
following her with a gun. He shot what he assumed was her secret lover twice.
Her words after realizing that her hubby was a murderer were: “Get away and
leave us alone!” Wanger tossed his pistol into his wife’s car. Lang survived,
Wanger pled insanity and served only four months in prison. Was the ‘Master of
Darkness’ doomed with a plague of crimes of passion? Well, I’m definitely
starting to see a pattern here.
In Lang’s 1931 classic, ‘M’,
Peter Lorre played a child killer or, between the lines, an active sexual
predator/pedophile. That was a very taboo subject for the time. But three years
earlier, Germany was really shaken by the gruesome murders of child serial killer,
Peter Kürten, who became known as the Monster of Düsseldorf. Lang’s depiction of
this unthinkable true story and Lorre’s quirky childlike performance made that
film mandatory for the curriculum of any Film 101 university course. Peter Lorre
became Peter Kürten and I believe Peter the monkey was around at that time, too. Or
his murderous spirit was… Peter Kürten was executed in 1931 after nine murders
and seven attempted murders, 1931 also being the year ‘M’ hit the theatres. Mmm…
Could Peter the monkey have previously belonged to one of Kürten’s child
victims and taken as a trophy? And did Lang adopt him as a good luck charm
after the mega-success of ‘M’?
Peter Lorre delivered a magnificent tormented portrait of
Kürten’s evil and, fortunately for him, that wasn’t a curse. Hollywood warmly opened
its doors to his vivid and undeniable acting talent. In 1935, his movie ‘Mad
Love’ (fuck, not another M!) catapulted
him to the top and he became a household name as a scene-stealing creepy
character actor. If you watch a flick with Peter Lorre in it, his presence is
what you’ll remember most about the film ten years later. Besides being known
for his huge bulging sad eyes and distinctive slimy voice, he was a complex individual
in real life, addicted to morphine to deal with gallbladder problems. During
his ‘Mr. Moto’ years (enough with the goddamn M’s already!!) he managed to kick
his ‘M’orphine habit, but put on a hundred pounds in return. In 1964, Peter Lorre
died of a stroke at the age of 60.
The serial killer Peter Kürten inspired the beginning of
Lorre’s fantastic career. Weirdly enough, his role in ‘M’ saved the life of his
daughter when she almost became the victim of two other serial killers, ‘The
Hillside Stranglers’! In 1977, the diabolical duo, Buono and Bianchi, confessed
that they spared the life of Lorre’s daughter, Catharine. After giving her a
ride in Los Angeles (while dressed up as cops), they intended for her to become their next victim until
she happened to mention the name of her famous father to them. ‘M’ could in
this case also mean ‘Miracle’. After seeing the faces of Buono and Bianchi on
the TV news, Catharine realized that her dad saved her life and she was also grateful that those two lowlifes had some knowledge of the history of sinema and admired
‘M’!
Was Peter the monkey really buried with Fritz Lang in
1976 like he had requested? I doubt it. I suspect that in 1988, the king of
zombie films, George A. Romero, hired that ‘M’other fucker’ without even auditioning
him for the main role in his film, ‘Monkey Shines’!
Where is Peter the monkey now? Who knows, but if I were
you I would lock my door, day and night! I certainly do.
Is he real or not? Is he guilty or not? All I know is that
he gives the letter ‘M’ new meaning!
That’s my conspiracy theory, but I know that other movie and
art lovers have their own perspective. In May last year, I had the pleasure of
seeing an exhibit by two fabulous artists, Kevin Broughton and Fiona Birnie, at
the Crypt Gallery in London. They had a totally different and valid version of
the meaning of ‘M’.
‘M’ for McDonalds! The ‘meat is murder’ sin can also fit
the bill, but then Hitler was a vegetarian, so who knows? Anyway, I’m up for a debate! But McDonald’s sure
is a monkey business, they got that
right!
In their exhibit, ‘Berlin: The Forgers Tale’, Broughton
and Birnie’s art is a pure delight for any lover of German culture of the 1920s
and ‘30s. Their spoofing of Fritz Lang’s movies of that era is simply magical
and the mix of contemporary icons and vintage visual aesthetics is brilliant. See for yourself here:
If I was rich, now you know what I’d do with my monkey… I
mean my money! I’d buy their art and follow their exhibits from town to town! With
a triple shot of pure absinthe! I can’t wait to see what that wonderful duo comes
up with next!
Alright, I should stop monkeying around and conclude this
silly post about the ‘M’aster of Darkness’. Fritz Lang’s life and personality are
as interesting as his cinematographic art, his vision, and noir tales. Discovering
the fact that his real life was surrounded by actual ‘M’urder, ‘M’ayhem,
‘M’ystery, M’orphine, and ‘M’onkey was ‘M’agic for ‘M’e and I thought that
sharing that with you could be ‘M’arvelously entertaining! Mmm… 'M’azeltov!
(Lang made a cameo in Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Le Mépris’ with
Brigitte Bardot. Godard was a huge fan of the director and this is a sweet and tongue-in-cheek scene from that movie, followed by a great Lang tribute in French with
English subtitles. Enjoy!)
Thursday 19 September 2013
Afternoon pee with the Mad Hatter of British Sinema!
Federico
Fellini and Russ Meyer might have been obsessed with big bosoms, but that was
nothing compared to British director Ken Russell with his thing for throbbing
erect mega-dicks about to burst! Russell wasn’t gay, however, just extremely
eccentric. Controversy was his middle name and there was nothing he loved
better than playing with the repressed subconscious minds of censors and
pressing their ultra-sensitive buttons at the same time. You better believe
that Russell’s wild erotic imagination was also delighting his audiences, and
his films remain super edgy even by today’s standards.
For my story
on him in my book Sinemania!, I’ve told
funny anecdotes from behind the scenes, highlighting his mind-blowing
creativity, bizarre fetishes, fashion faux-pas, and weird on-set behavior,
including notorious temper tantrums. Ken Russell was one mad genius. His
technique and his distinctively gonzo approach to storytelling resulted in
unique movies: ‘The Devils’ and its cathartic religious delirium, ‘Tommy’ and
‘Lisztomania’ where rock opera and classical music melt
in a fusion of video clip mania, and ‘Whore’ and ‘Crimes of Passion’ with their
sexually deviant silliness. Russell was a pioneer at showing male nudity (‘Women
in Love’), mocking Hollywood legends (‘Valentino’), and putting the unthinkable
on screen just for the sheer fun of it. Either you love or hate his irreverent
work, it’s that simple. There’s no middle ground with Ken Russell.
Russell might
have been quite a handful for the actors he directed, but he could be
particularly faithful to some of them, employing them in his films again and
again. One name that will forever be linked with his is ‘Mr. England’ himself, Oliver
Reed!
That very
charismatic and macho actor was one of the most famous British stars of his
time. Ollie Reed even looked like Russell and could have passed for his brother,
each having a passion for the bottle and binge boozing. The
drinking buddies made several movies together in the ‘70s and shared tons of
crazy unbelievable moments, the weirdest being a sword duel. They even had
their own private code for acting, Reed asking Russell before each scene: “Do
you want take one, take two or take three?”, referring to his own personal
method of acting that involved the level of intensity required for that
particular scene.
For more juicy
details of the highs and lows of Ollie’s pub fights, Guinness World Record
consumption of pints, sexual prowess, and irrational behavior, let me recommend
a fantastic book: ‘Hellraisers’ by Robert Sellers. The graphic novel version is
also a wonderful read, especially with the very talented illustrator, Jake, accurately
caricaturing the above four British thespian musketeers who lived and drank to
excess. See for yourself, you won’t be disappointed! Sellers’ biographies are
some of the most enjoyable to be found these days and his stories are right up
my dirty alley! For maximum effect, read them in a quiet pub.
Here’s Oliver
in action after a bit too much to drink. He is indeed the wild one!
I’d just like
to point out here that in the Oliver Reed bio, ‘Evil Spirit’, the author writes
that Reed was not as drunk in front of camera as he appeared to be; it was all
an act to keep the legend of his persona alive.
Barf-fly king
Ollie’s most notorious drinking companion was the drummer of The Who, Keith
Moon. This photo of a poster in a London pub window was taken just last year
and shows that the two iconic boozers have obviously not been forgotten.
In England
back in the day, Ollie and Moon the Loon were out of control. If you were the
unfortunate proprietor of a pub or a hotel manager, the sight of this devilish
duo entering your establishment was enough to make you tremble, knowing the
kind of havoc these two buffoons could wreak. In 1975, they both appeared
together in a Ken Russell movie. Keith played the hilarious pedophiliac Uncle
Ernie in ‘Tommy’, the grandioso rock opera composed by The Who’s Pete Townshend.
The wacko
Moon was perfectly cast to portray the toothless perverted sex maniac who torments
a deaf, dumb and blind Roger Daltrey in a very entertaining and effective scene.
But it’s disturbing to know that Moonie died three years later of a drug
overdose at the young age of 32 and I’m sure Ollie had to drown his sorrows
even deeper after the loss of his pal. His behavior became even more outrageous
without his sidekick.
Roger Daltrey,
Keith Moon’s band-mate in The Who, was very convincing as the quiet, wide-eyed,
and blind Tommy, the main character of that dark and extravagant musical fairy
tale. Ann-Margret and Oliver Reed played his parents. Ollie was great in the role
of the shady step-father whose look and attitude was reminiscent of singer Ian
Dury of ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ fame, most noticeably in the
Acid Queen scene with the frantic Tina Turner. Tina stole the show singing in a
Soho bordello-type room, and its music video quality makes it one of the
greatest rock music scenes in a motion picture.
Ken Russell enlisted Roger Daltrey again the very same year when he had
him star as the womanizing classical pianist Franz Liszt in ‘Lisztomania’. The
crowd hysteria and mega phallus are basically the best parts of that movie.
Sorry, it’s a bit too chaotic for my taste and only deserves a ‘D’ for effort.
Okay, maybe a
‘C’ for the fantastic movie poster and Daltrey’s poodle hair-do!
But it wasn’t
the first time that Russell used the same actor twice in the same year. In 1971,
he had cast Twiggy for a cameo in the Christ rape scene in ‘The Devils’ and gave
her the main role in ‘The Boy Friend’.
That’s what I
call a gorgeous movie poster! Twiggy, the most famous British model of the ‘60s, ended up having a durable acting career.
For me, the
most enjoyable and magical Ken Russell movie has to be ‘The Devils’. The first
time I saw it as a teenager, I was mesmerized by it, developed a huge crush on
Michael Gothard who played Father Barre, and discovered Oliver Reed, about whom
I’ve since read anything I can get my hands on. So when I came across Toronto
writer Richard Crouse’s book from ECW Press about the making of ‘The Devils’, I
was in heaven!
Here I could
indulge in my guilty pleasure of reading about Ollie‘s bad-boy behavior and
find out what went on behind the scenes of my favorite movie of all time. And on
top of that, illustrator Ghoulish Gary came up with that extraordinary cover! It
can’t get any better, can it? Yes, actually. Crouse’s writing is vividly
descriptive, providing the inside scoop on the making of that cursed film. It’s
a goddamn great read and if you love ‘The Devils’, get the book now! It beats
knitting with nuns any day (unless it’s the nuns from ‘The Devils’ – they’re a
fun bunch!) One of the many things I learned from Crouse’s book was that Ken
Russell was the first to think of making Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel on youth
ultra-violence, ‘A Clockwork Orange’, into a movie before Stanley Kubrick took
on the project. Can you imagine what that film would have looked like had it
been made by Russell?!
I can totally
picture Ken as Alex, and Ollie and Keith as his fellow trouble maker gang
members! Yes, that’s what’s missing in Ken Russell’s work: ‘A Clockwork Orange’
shot with hidden cameras filming Oliver Reed and Keith Moon going at it in a pub
with Ken Russell egging them on! Shame they’re all dead now so that movie’s an
impossibility. But ironically enough, one of them did die in a pub actually called The
Pub. Can you guess who? The answer’s easy: it was Oliver Reed. Not even in his
wildest dreams could he have imagined a better and more appropriate way to go!
That fateful
day was May 2, 1999. Reed was taking a break during the filming of Ridley Scott’s
‘Gladiator’ in which he played Proximus, an ex-gladiator who becomes a
gladiator trainer. Ollie was ordering his last rounds of beer in The Pub in
Malta and engaging in some arm wrestling when he keeled over dead of a heart
attack. (Also in the film was Richard Harris in the role of Marcus Aurelius. They
had no scenes together but I’m sure they shared some pints!)
Ollie’s last
performance was one of his finest, but for me his best has to be the one in
this clip.
The man who
loved to exhibit his cock’s ‘bird-claw’ tattoo in public had one thing to say
about Shelley Winters after that incident: “My row with Shelley Winters was
caused by her abominable lack of manners. She is getting old now and I think
she is quite crazy.” That’s a funny quote from the man who proclaimed in his autobiography
that before he died he wanted to drink in every pub around the world and make
love to every woman on the planet. Not sure if Shelley quite fit the bill, but
the ‘bird-claw cock’ could go back to his delusional ‘cuckoo’s nest’ by saying,
“I like the effect drink has on me. What’s the point of staying sober?” Well, that’s the only sane thing he ever
said! I’ll drink to that!
Wednesday 11 September 2013
Ten essential movie poster and DVD cover artists
ERNESTO
CABRAL
I discovered the wonderful world of Ernesto Cabral through
‘Comic Art Magazine’ back in 2003. That Mexican artist’s style is a pure
pleasure for the eyes and, for me, opened the door to the madness of ultra-colorful
Mexican movie posters, now sadly a lost art. If you’d like to give yourself a
visual multiple orgasm, you could do worse than clicking on to this fantastic
website:
AL HIRSCHFELD
If God doesn’t exist, at
least Al and his awe-inspiring talent did. He’d draw just a few lines and he’d
nail a celebrity on the spot with a virtuosity that nobody could top. This site
will expose you to most of his amazing art.
The 1996 documentary, ‘The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story’, is a very effective portrait of that eccentric genius. I also recommend you watch this YouTube clip of Al discussing his work with Art Spiegelman. Two cartoonist legends for the price of one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOBHGWLfr-M
DANNY
HELLMAN
Forget the mayonnaise! The only Hellman that matters is
this one. Danny is one of my favorite cartoonists and all it takes is one
glance at one of his caricatures to know exactly who his famous subject is. His
great artwork alone should have kept smut king Al Goldstein’s infamous Noo Yawk
City sex paper, ‘Screw’, from folding. For a taste of some of the ‘Screw’
covers Hellman illustrated back in the day, go here:
His illustration blog is on my blog list as well, so
don’t delay, take a look at Danny’s drawings today!
RONALD
SEARLE
Searle’s style was unique. There was nobody else like
him. Nobody! His naughty sense of
tumor, sorry, pardon the pun, humor
made him possibly the most famous British cartoonist of all time. His devilish
drawings are highly recognizable and you can’t help being mesmerized by his minute
sense of detail and mind blowing imagination. But, as they say, a picture is worth
a thousand words so here you go:
And while we’re on the subject of the mighty pen of
Ronald Searle, these two YouTube clips are definitely worth your while!
JACK
DAVIS
Another fantastic illustrator! Jack Davis’ work for EC
Comics and ‘Mad’ magazine’ made him a star in the ‘50s and ‘60s. One could spot
his unique cartooning style a mile away and couldn’t help but beg for more. And
getting to see much more of his work was no problem given how incredibly prolific
Davis was. Hollywood should have commissioned him to come up with more movie
posters, though.
For more of Jack Davis’ magic, check out this site:
DANIEL
CLOWES
Daniel Clowes of ‘Eightball’ comics fame should need no introduction.
The Criterion Collection folks hit the jackpot when he agreed to do some
illustrations for those fine purveyors of DVDs. In the ‘90s, this American
cartoonist was a great inspiration to me, and the visual world that he creates
on paper is very cinematic, with a surreal David Lynch-like atmosphere in places.
But I guess I’m not the only who feels that way because director Terry Zwigoff
did a masterful job of putting Clowes’ ‘Ghost World’ story to celluloid in
2001.
To put yourself in a delicious and delirious delicious
trance, click here!
And if you happen to find yourself in Chicago this year,
be sure to catch the Clowes exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
DREW
FRIEDMAN
Don’t even think of becoming Drew’s friend on facebook.
The Prince of Pointillism already has 5000 friends and for good reason: the
guy’s been one the best illustrators around for the last three decades. He
revived the art of highly detailed well-executed caricature, capturing the
occasionally forgotten figures of the underbelly of American showbiz. Friedman
happens to come from an ultra-talented family, His father, Bruce Jay Friedman,
is a writer who years ago edited racy men’s magazines and his brother,
Josh Alan, is also an author, having written the essential book on the sleazy
42nd Street of yesteryear, “Tales of Time Square”. For more of Drew
Friedman’s wild work, go to my blog list for the link to his blog.
SEAN
DOVE
I only recently found out about this talented Chicago-based
cartoonist when I bought a copy of the above poster off him at this year’s
Toronto Comics Arts Festival (or TCAF for short.) The twenty-five bucks I spent was a bargain because
I love the humorous way Dove pays tribute to mid-20th century
graphics. I highly recommend you explore the colorful visual world of Sean Dove
at http://andthankyouforflying.com/
VICTOR
JUHASZ
It’s quite possible that you’ve seen the work of Victor
Juhasz before. He’s had a long career and his list of contributions to newspapers
and magazines around the world is endless! The New York Times adores his
distinctive illustrations and so do I. You might too once you’ve had a peak at
his website.
TYLER
STOUT
You may have gathered that I have a thing for Tarantino’s
films. So you can just imagine how delighted I was to recently discover this
poster paying tribute to one of that motor-mouth’s movies. Stout has come up
with other similarly gorgeous highly-detailed poster homages to everything from
‘Repo Man’ to ‘The Big Lebowski’. Go here for a look and if you like what you
see, you can find his blog on my blog list.
Well, I hope your eyes have gotten a big thrill from this
list of incredible illustrators. Hollywood execs should get these guys to make
posters for them. Well, the ones who are still breathing, at least. And if they
ever do a remake of ‘The French Connection’ with an all-French cast including
Vincent Cassel and Gerard Depardieu, feel free to knock on my door. My poster illustration’s ready for
the printers!
If you like my drawing style and happen to be in the market for some illustrations, please
post a comment here and I’ll contact you back.
Cheers!
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