Paul Newman

I was introduced to Paul Newman in the film The Sting, but my first time I saw the young radient Paul Newman was in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  While my male and very straight film buddy gushed about how stunning he is in that film, I remained unfazed.  Then came along Cool Hand Luke, and suddenly I saw the light: Paul Newman is an absolute God.

Paul Newman wasn't only an Oscar winning actor, he was a philanthropist, pro race car driver, husband of 50 years to actress to Joanne Woodward, father & grandfather. With a legacy of unforgettable roles such as Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy behind him, Newman also earned $250 million for countless world charities. Paul Newman is an inspiration - his life was one that was truly well lived.

Revisiting Brideshead again

1. Et in Arcadia Ego

Here, at the age of 39, I began to be old. As I lay in that dark hour I was aghast to realise that something within me, long sickening, had quietly died.

The chill bonds of law and duty, and custom.

( Shot – in show, pan across, every one scrubs themselves vigorously while he just stands there underneath the water letting it poor over his face. )

I could bring to my job nothing more than acquiescence.

Disappointment changed to resignation.

Oxford, in those days, was still a city of aquatint. When the chestnut was in flower, and the bells rang out high and clear over her gables and cupolas, she exhaled the soft airs of centuries of youth. It was this cloistral hush that gave our laughter its resonance, and carried it still, joyously over the intervening clamour.

We ate the strawberries and drank the wine. As Sebastian promised, they were delicious together. The fumes of the sweet, golden wine seemed to lift us a finger’s breadth above the turf and hold us suspended.

Just the spot to bury a crock of gold. I should like to bury something precious… in every place that I’ve ever been happy. So when I’m old and ugly and miserable I could come back and dig it up. And remember.

I knew Sebastian by sight long before I met him. That was unavoidable, for, from his first week, he was the most conspicuous man of his year by reason of his beauty, which was arresting, and his eccentricities of behaviour, which seems to know no bounds. My first sight of him was in the door of Germar’s and on that occasion I was struck less by his looks that by his carrying a large teddy bear.

Now when we met were the circumstances propitious...

{ From the beginning of the BBC series }

2010 Film Diary

January
     2  La Grande Illusion a.k.a  { Jean Renoir } 
     2  Bad Day at Black Rock  { John Sturges }
     4  Cat On A Hot Tin Roof  { Richard Brooks }
     5  City of God { Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund }
     5  Changling  { Clint Eastwood }
     6  El laberinto del fauno a.k.a Pan's Layrinth
         { Guillermo del Toro }
     7  Silence of the Lambs  { Jonathan Demme } *
     9  A Woman Under The Influence  { John Cassavettes }
     10  The Maltese Falcon  { John Huston }
     18  There Will Be Blood  { Paul Thomas Anderson }
     21  (500) Days of Summer  { Marc Webb }
     24  The Graduate  { Mike Nichols }
     25  Once Upon a Time in the West  { Sergio Leone }
     26  The Man Who Planted Trees  { Frédéric Back }
     27  Rocky  { John G. Avildsen }
     31  Patton  { Franklin J. Schaffner }

February
     5  Casino  { Martin Scorsesse }
     7  The Good, The Bad and the Ugly  { Sergio Leone } *
     8  Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
         { Lee Daniels }
     9  Avatar  { James Cameron }
     10  Harold and Maude  { Hal Ashby }
     11  Blade Runner  { Ridley Scott }
     13  Lawrence of Arabia  { David Lean }
     14  Metropolis  { Fritz Lang }
     14  Heat  { Michael Mann }
     14  The French Connection  { William Friedkin }
     15  Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story  { Todd Haynes }
     16  Superbad  { Greg Mottola }
     21  A Prophet { Jacques Audiard }
     24  School of Rock  { Richard Linklater }

March
     4  The Big Chill  { Lawrence Kasdan }
     6  The Blind Side  { John Lee Hancock }
     12  Rebel Without a Cause  { Nicholas Ray } *
     16  Fast Times at Ridgemont High  { Amy Hekerling } *

April
     5  Hotel Rwanda  { Terry George }
     16  Star Trek  { J.J. Abrams }
     18  Ordinary People  { Robert Redford }
     25  Rebecca  { Alfred Hitchcock }

May
     11  Goodfellas  { Martin Scorsesse }
     14  Broken Flowers  { Jim Jarmusch }
     24  M  { Fritz Lang }
     25  Before Sunset  { Richard Linklater }
     25  Punch-Drunk Love  { Paul Thomas Anderson }
     26  Rashomon  { Kurosawa, Akira }
     28  Cool Hand Luke  { Stuart Rosenberg }
     31  Dog Day Afternoon  { Sidney Lumet }
     31  Kids  { Larry Clark }

June
     1  The Secrets in Their Eyes  { Juan José Campanella }
     1  Saving Private Ryan  { Steven Spielberg }

* re-view