Call Bacall Back – The girl who taught Bogie to whistle, no more

Iconic Hollywood starlet of the 40’s, Lauren Bacall, passed away earlier this week, on Tuesday, 12th of August, 2014, aged 89, after suffering a stroke.
With hardly any legends, from the age of film-noir, still alive, it’s an end of an era. Especially with the death of Lauren Bacall, one of the most modern minded, sophisticated, innocently naughty and sultry stars of that period. She started her career as a teenager, as a fashion model, for magazines like Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. Soon she was discovered, by director Howard Hawks’ wife Nancy (a.k.a. Slim), when she spotted Bacall, on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar. Bacall was offered to act opposite either Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart. Though a superb actor, Bogart didn’t interest Bacall much, but she was exited about starring opposite the very tall and handsome Cary Grant. But when she met Bogart in person, sparks flew. Soon Bogart and Bacall appeared in Hawks’ To Have and Have Not (1944), an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s worst known novel of the same name.

To Have and Have Not, is a movie I studied, in my first semester, for the module ‘Film Analysis’ (which was on Howard Hawks), for my MA in International Cinema (2002-2003), from the University of Luton, Luton, UK. I did a presentation, comparing and contrasting Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1942) to Howard Hawks’ To Have and Have Not (1944); a step-by-step scene evaluation of To Have and Have Not, and a 2,500 worded essay comparing the book by Ernest Hemingway, and the movie by Howard Hawks, where my ultimate conclusion was that the movie belonged completely ‘to Hawks and Hemingway not’.
Bacall was a hit in her debut performance as ‘Slim’ (Bacall’s character in the movie was named after Nancy Hawks’ pet name, in the book such a character does not exist). One of the most iconic scenes in To Have and Have Not is where Bacall teaches Bogie how to whistle. Normally books are known to be better than the movie, it’s a clichéd fact. But in the case of To Have and Have Not, this is a rare instance, where the movie is definitely better than the boring book it was adapted from. Don’t get me wrong, I think Ernest Hemingway is a great author, but To Have and Have Not, is no where near among his best works. Howard Hawks has managed to edit, change and re-polish it into a beautiful movie.

Soon Humphrey Bogart married the much younger Lauren Bacall, in 1945. Known as Bogie and Bacall, the two were the most romantic couple that existed in Hollywood in the 40’s and 50’s, until Bogart’s death in 1957. Bogie and Bacall starred in many a famous Film-noir films of that period, including The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948). In 1957, they were to appear in yet another film together, but that project never materialised, due to Humphrey Bogart’s demise due to cancer.

Lauren Bacall with Humphrey Bogart in ‘To Have Have Not’

Bacall was distraught after the loss of her husband, she re-married once in 1961, to Jason Robards, but that marriage didn’t work out. Then onwards she lived a single life, with her children and gave herself completely to the arts.

Her great film credits are endless, and span two centuries. Besides the Bogie and Bacall films, mentioned above, she starred in many a famous films without her beloved husband, including, Confidential Agent (1945) opposite Charles Boyer, Bright Leaf (1950) opposite Gary Cooper, Young Man with a Horn (1950) with Kirk Douglas and Doris Day, How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable, Blood Alley (1955) with John Wayne, Written on the Wind (1956) with Rock Hudson, Designing Woman (1957) opposite Gregory Peck, North West Frontier (1959) with Kenneth More, Sex and the Single Girl (1964) with Henry Fonda, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood, Harper (1966) with Paul Newman and Janet Leigh, Murder on the Orient Express (1974) with an all-star cast, The Shootist (1976) with John Wayne and James Stewart, The Fan (1981) with James Garner and Michael Biehn, Appointment with Death (1988) with Peter Ustinov, Prêt-à-Porter (1994) with an all-star cast, The Mirror has two Faces (1996) with Barbra Streisand and Jeff Bridges, Dogville (2003) with Nicole Kidman, Birth (2004) with Nicole Kidman and Cameron Bright, Manderlay (2005) with Bryce Dallas Howard, The Forger (2012) with Alfred Molina, and Bacall was rumoured to be working on a new project, Trouble is my Business, to be released next year.

(Main Pix) Lauren Bacall with Jeff Bridges in ‘The Mirror Has Two Faces’
(Inset) Bacall with Film Director/Actress Barbra Streisand in the same movie

Lauren Bacall, has won many a awards, but she’s been nominated only once for an Oscar, in 1997, for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for Barbra Streisand’s directorial venture, The Mirror has two Faces (1996). In 2009, she was given an Academy Honorary Award in ‘recognition of her central place in the golden age of motion pictures’.

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense

(P.S. See my post 6° with Lauren Bacall from last year as well)

Six Degrees of Separation with Alain Delon

Six Degrees of Separation: from Alain Delon to …
(Alain Delon celebrated his 78th Birthday earlier this month, on 8th November 2013)

…Charlize Theron
Delon played a criminal mastermind devoid of any conscience, in Plein Soleil (1959/60), which was based on the novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith (1), and another crime novel of hers was the basis for the Alfred Hitchcock (2) classic, of the same name, Strangers on a Train (1951), and Hitchcock made the movie Torn Curtain (1966); an espionage thriller set beyond the Iron Curtain of East Germany; starring Julie Andrews (3), who starred in the musical, based on a true life story that took place in Austria, The Sound of Music (1965), which also starred Nicholas Hammond (4), who later played the famous fictional webbed suited superhero, ‘Spider-Man’, in the television series, The Amazing Spider-Man (1977–1979), and later Tobey Maguire (5) took over the reigns, and played the webbed superhero, in a more skin-tight stretchy suit, in the trio of Spider-Man franchise of films (from 2002 to 2007), and Maguire appeared in The Cider House Rules (1999), which co-starred Charlize Theron (6).

…Lee Remick
Delon at one time was engaged to actress Romy Schneider (1); with whom he worked on a few projects, including Christine (1958), L’Amour à la Mer (1964) and La Piscine (1969) to name a few; and Schneider was famously associated with the trilogy of Sissi films (1955,1956 & 1957), where she portrayed the well known 19th century fashionista, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (2), a.k.a. Queen of Hungary (nicknamed ‘Sissi’), as did Ava Gardner (3) in Mayerling (1968), and Gardner starred alongside Deborah Kerr (4) in  The Night of the Iguana (1964), and Kerr starred in the beautifully, spooky, children’s horror flick, The Innocents (1961), which was based on a novel, The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James (5), and another novel, of his, was the basis for the film, The Europeans (1979) starring Lee Remick (6).

…Jacqueline Kennedy
Delon starred alongside Claudia Cardinale (1) in the Italian venture, Il Gattopardo (1963), and Cardinale appeared in the Hollywood crime comedy, The Pink Panther (1963), which was directed by Blake Edwards (2), as was 10 (1979), which also starred Dee Wallace (3), who played mother to a very tiny little Drew Barrymore (4) in the children’s, science fiction, drama, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Barrymore played Edith Bouvier Beale (5), a.k.a. Little Eddie, in Grey Gardens (2009), who was the cousin of, the United States of America’s, former First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy (6).

…Juhi Chawla
Delon starred in Luchino Visconti’s (1) Rocco and His Brothers (1960), and Visconti directed Italian actress Alida Valli (2) in Senso (1954), who earlier came in the noir classic, The Paradine Case (1947), along with French born, Hollywood star, Louis Jourdan (3), and Jourdan played lead villain in the Bond flick Octopussy (1983), along with Indian actor Kabir Bedi (4), whose daughter, Pooja Bedi (5), came in the Bollywood flick, Lootere (1993), which co-starred, Punjabi born, former beauty queen (Miss India 1984), and Bollywood superstar of the 1990’s, Juhi Chawla (6).

…Helen Mirren
Delon appeared in Is Paris Burning? (1966), which co-starred Kirk Douglas (1), father of actor Michael Douglas (2), who came in Coma (1978); a mystery set in a hospital, where suddenly young healthy people start falling into a coma, after being operated on, and a young female doctor tries to uncover this conspiracy, which in turn ends up being a threat to her own life; the said young doctor was played by Canadian born actress, Geneviève Bujold (3), who portrayed the famous 15th century Queen consort, Anne Boleyn (4), in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), mother of, the famous virgin queen of the 15th and early 16th centuries, Queen Elizabeth-I (5), who was portrayed by Helen Mirren (6), in the television mini-series Elizabeth I (2005).

…Madhuri Dixit
Delon played Julius Caesar (1) in the comedy Astérix aux jeux Olympiques (2008), as did Rex Harrison (2) in Cleopatra (1963), and Harrison played the lead negative role in the Bollywood gem heist of a movie, Shalimar (1978), which co-starred Zeenat Aman (3), whose most notable role happens to be that of the Hippie girl she played in Bollywood’s most loved Hippie movie, Haré Raama Haré Krishna (1971), which co-starred actress Mumtaz (4), who starred alongside Vyjayanthimala (5) in Suraj (1966), and Vyjayanthimala played a courtesan in Devdas (1955), and actress Madhuri Dixit (6), took over the role of the courtesan, in the re-make, Devdas (2002).

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)
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Six Degrees of Separation with Emile Hirsch

Six Degrees of Separation: from Emile Hirsch to…

…Barbara Stanwyck
Hirsch played the lead in the tragic true-life adventure flick, Into the Wild (2007), which was directed by actor, Sean Penn (1), who was married to pop diva, Madonna (2), whose second husband was British film director, Guy Ritchie (3), who directed Sherlock Holmes (2009), which was based on notable author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s (4), famed fictional sleuth, as was The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), directed by Billy Wilder (5), and Wilder also directed the noir classic, Double Indemnity (1944), starring Barbara Stanwyck (6).

…Diego Luna – Ang Lee vice versa (vv)
Hirsch appeared in the bio-pic, Milk (2008), in which Diego Luna (1,6), co-starred as an insecure, unconfident, paranoid, vulnerable gay lover, of the lead political figure of this tragic movie, who commits suicide, and Luna has been best friends with Gael García Bernal (2,5) since childhood, and García Bernal starred in surreal fantasy flick, The Science of Sleep (2006), which co-starred Alain Chabat (3,4), who directed the French comedy, Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002), a fictional account of, cartoon characters, Astérix & Obélix’s meeting the famed Queen of the Nile, Cleopatra (4,3), who was portrayed by Italian actress Monica Bellucci (5,2), who starred in the Italian movie Malèna (2000), which was nominated for two Oscars, in 2001, in the ‘Best Cinematography’ and ‘Best Original Musical Score’ categories, but lost out to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), in both categories, along with two more Oscar wins, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was directed by Ang Lee (6,1), with whom Emile Hirsch had worked with, in, Taking Woodstock (2009).

…Norma Crane
Hirsch appeared in, the waste of time, film, The Darkest Hour (2011), which co-starred Olivia Thirlby (1), who appeared in the excellent comedy Juno (2007), for which Diablo Cody (2) took home the Oscar statuette for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, and Cody also wrote the screenplay for the teenage horror flick, Jennifer’s Body (2009), which also starred Johnny Simmons (3), who is currently working on the project Frank and Cindy, to be released next year, which also stars Rene Russo (4), who came in the re-make art heist flick, The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and original 1968 version, was directed by Norman Jewison (5), who also directed the musical, Fiddler on the Roof (1971), starring Norma Crane (6).

…Yoko Ono
Hirsch appeared alongside Penélope Cruz (1) in Venuto al Mondo (2012), and Cruz starred along with Rebecca Hall (2) in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), and Hall acted in Frost/Nixon (2008), a feature film focusing on the, post-Watergate scandal, television interview by the illustrious British talk-show host, David Frost (3), of former president, Richard Nixon (4); the only president of the United States till date to resign from office; and the well-known Beatle, John Lennon’s (5), song ‘Give Peace a Chance’; written during the famous ‘Bed-In’ of May/June 1969, and which soon became an anti Vietnam-war anthem, and was sung by half a million demonstrators in Washington, D.C. at the ‘Vietnam Moratorium Day’, on the 15th of October, 1969; shook the Nixon government, and Lennon staged the famous ‘Bed-In’s’, for peace; which gave birth to this song; along with his newly married bride, Japanese artist and peace activist, Yoko Ono (6); whom he married, in March the same year, 1969, and they staged their first ‘Bed-In’ on their honeymoon, in March 1969 itself.

…Gloria Swanson
Hirsch in his teens, played a sensitive, effeminate, lonely, farm-boy; who seeks companionship with a chicken, he associates with his dead mother; in The Mudge Boy (2003), directed by Michael Burke (1), which was a feature length re-make of Burke’s own earlier short film, Fishbelly White (1998), which starred Jason Hayes (2), who appeared in Andrew Jackson (2007), a television movie about the seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson (3), who was portrayed by Charlton Heston (4) in the re-make of The Buccaneer (1958), and the original 1938 version was directed by the luminary Cecil B. DeMille (5), who had a cameo, playing himself, in Sunset Boulevard (1950), where screen goddess of silent era, Gloria Swanson (6), played a faded, ageing, silent movie star recluse; whose disintegration into nothingness, unable to accept the loss her stardom since the invention of sound in cinema, talking pictures, is inevitable.

…Madeleine Carroll
Hirsch played the younger version of the eminent, Hungarian-American, illusionist, Harry Houdini (1), in the television movie, Houdini (1998), and in the past, Tony Curtis (2), was the first actor to portray Houdini, on the screen, in Houdini (1953), and Curtis starred with Marilyn Monroe (3) in the sizzling comedy, Some Like it Hot (1959), and Monroe, appeared alongside Cary Grant (4) in another hilarious comedy Monkey Business (1952), and Grant starred in the classic Film-Noir, Notorious (1946), which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock (5), who had earlier directed Madeleine Carroll (6), in The 39 Steps (1935).

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)
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Six Degrees of Separation with James Franco

Six Degrees of Separation: from James Franco to

…Hilarie Burton
Franco portrayed legendary method actor James Dean (1), in the television movie, James Dean (2001), and Dean starred alongside Elizabeth Taylor (2) in Giant (1956), and Taylor was married to Conrad Hilton jr (3); son of the founder of the Hilton Hotel chain, who was Taylor’s first husband, who was  a gambler, alcoholic and was very abusive towards Taylor, and his abusive behaviour towards her resulted in a miscarriage, Taylor’s parents were horrified, and soon Taylor’s first marriage ended after suffering, and surviving through, nine months of a miserable marriage to Hilton jr; and Conrad Hilton jr happens to be the great uncle of Paris Hilton (4), who appeared in the remake of a B-movie, horror classic, House of Wax (2005), which co-starred Chad Michael Murray (5), who starred alongside Hilarie Burton (6) in the television soap, One Tree Hill (2003-2012).

…Hattie McDaniel  
Franco starred in the bio-pic Milk (2008), which co-starred Emile Hirsh (1), who starred in an adventure flick, based on a real life story, called Into The Wild (2007), which saw, a yet unknown, young, Kristen Stewart (2) who gained fame through the series of five Twilight movies (from 2008 to 2012), which co-starred Robert Pattinson (3); as a kind-hearted vampire who falls in love with a human and is in constant loggerheads with a werewolf, who too has the hots for the same person; and Pattinson appeared in the tragic drama, Remember Me (2010), where Pierce Brosnan (4) played his father, and Brosnan starred alongside Halle Berry (5) in Die Another Day (2002), who was the first African American actress (black actress) to bag the Best Actress trophy at the Oscars, in 2002, for Monster’s Ball (2001), and the very first black celebrity, to ever win an Oscar, was Hattie McDaniel (6), for Best Supporting Actress, in 1940, for Gone with the Wind (1939).

…Laurence Olivier
Franco directed and acted in, the one hour long, short film, Interior. Leather Bar. (2013), a re-imagining of the lost 40 minutes, of the film-within-the-film, of Cruising (1980), which starred Al Pacino (1), who played the lead mafia boss, in The Godfather: Part – III (1990), which also starred Austrian actor Helmut Berger (2), and Berger came in the movie, The Damned (1969), which co-starred Charlotte Rampling (3), who had a cameo in Deception (2008) starring Ewan McGregor (4), who shares a close friendship with fellow actor Jude Law (5); who was at one time his roommate; and Law starred in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), in which CGI manipulated archive footage of the late actor, Sir Laurence Olivier (6), is used as the villain of the movie, in a hologram form; the villain of the movie too is discovered to have been dead for quite sometime towards the end of the film.

…Sergio Fascetti
Franco carried an entire movie on his shoulders, when he played the lead, in the biographical adventure film, 127 Hours (2010), which was directed by Danny Boyle (1), who also directed the zombie flick, 28 Days Later … (2002), starring Cillian Murphy (2), who worked with director Ken Loach (3) in The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006); about the Irish anti-British rebellion for independence in the 1920’s; and Loach also directed Poor Cow (1967), which starred Terence Stamp (4), who played a visitor that seduces a whole family in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s (5) Teorema (1968), an Italian classic, and  Pasolini also directed the very controversial Salò o le 120 Giornate di Sodoma (1975); set in a Nazi-controlled northern Italian state during the second world war, where four dignitaries round up sixteen perfect specimens of youth, and subject them to 120 days of physical, mental and sexual torture; in which Sergio Fascetti (6) played one of the victims.

…Tena Desae
Franco played the famed ‘Wizard’ in, Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), which happens to be a sequel/prequel to the children’s classic musical The Wizard of Oz (1939), which starred a teenaged Judy Garland (1), mother of Liza Minnelli (2), and Minnelli starred in the 70’s, somewhat campy, musical, Cabaret (1972), which was based on Christopher Isherwood’s (3) semiautobiographical novel, Goodbye to Berlin, and Isherwood’s novella, A Single Man, was the basis for the movie with same name, released in 2009, starring Nicholas Hoult (4), who appeared in the British television show, Skins (2007 till date), which co-starred Dev Patel (5) who starred in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), which also starred Tena Desae (6).

…Audrey Hepburn
Franco starred alongside Tobey Maguire (1) in Spider-Man (2002), and Maguire appeared in Ang Lee’s (2) The Ice Storm (1997), and Lee won his second Best Director Oscar, earlier this year, for Life of Pi (2012), in which Bollywood actress Tabu (3) played the lead character’s mother, and Tabu’s aunt, 70’s feminist actress, and social activist, Shabana Azmi (4) starred in the British movie Madame Sousatzka (1988), in which the titular character was played by Shirley MacLaine (5), who starred along with Audrey Hepburn (6) in the, very bold for that period, movie, The Children’s Hour (1961), where two school teachers are accused by a student of being lesbians.

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)
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Six Degrees of Separation with Rock Hudson

Six Degrees of Separation: from Rock Hudson to

…Lillete Dubey
Hudson starred alongside Elizabeth Taylor (1) in Giant (1956), and television actress Sherilyn Fenn (2) portrayed Taylor in the TV movie, Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (1995), and Fenn starred in the creepy flick Boxing Helena (1993), alongside British actor Julian Sands (3), who acted in, one of the best of British Heritage Cinema of the 80’s, Room with a View (1985), which was based on novel by E.M. Foster (4), as was A Passage to India (1984), starring Victor Banerjee (5), who appeared in Delhi in a Day (2011), where Lillete Dubey (6) played his daughter.

…Joe Manganiello
Hudson starred alongside Doris Day (1) in one the most famous sex-comedies ever, Pillow Talk (1959), and Day starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s (2), 50’s re-make of his own 30’s classic, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Hitchcock was portrayed by Anthony Hopkins (3) in the bio-pic Hitchcock (2012), and Hopkins’ most famous role is that of a psychotic, cannibalistic, intellectual, killer in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), which co-starred Jodie Foster (4), who came in Flightplan (2005), in which Matt Bomer (5) had a small role, and Bomer currently plays the lead, in the television series, White Collar (2009 -till date), and in an episode, from the third season, of which, Joe Manganiello (6) has a guest role in.

…Tanay Chheda  
Hudson played a man who is an expert on sports fishing, but not so much when it comes fishing for a life partner, in the comedy Man’s Favourite Sport (1964), in which John McGiver (1), had an interesting small role, as did he in yet another hilarious comedy, Ariane – Love in the Afternoon (1957), where Audrey Hepburn (2) played the titular character; of the ‘afternoon girl’ of a playboy, driving the playboy to the brink of insanity; and Hepburn starred in Two for the Road (1967), a story chronicling 10 years of a couple’s relationship; from the day they met, to marriage, parenthood, infidelity and the disintegration of their love for one another; where the male lead was played by Albert Finney (3), who later came in the epic fantasy, Big Fish (2003), where Ewan McGregor (4) played the younger him, and McGregor came in Trainspotting (1996); a movie set in Edinburgh’s drug scene; which was directed by Danny Boyle (5), who directed Slumdog Millionaire (2008), where Tanay Chheda (6) played the younger (not the youngest) version of the lead character.

…François Goeske   
Hudson came in The Mirror Crack’d (1980), which was based on mystery novel by Agatha Christie (1), as is the, 25 year long running, British television series Agatha Christie: Poirot (1989– till date), and in a 2004 episode, of which, starred Emily Blunt (2), who, in The Young Victoria (2009), played England’s Queen Victoria (3), as did Austrian actress, Romy Schneider (4), in Mädchenjahre einer Königin (1954); who starred in another historical bio-pic; Ludwig (1972), where the titular charcter was played by Helmut Berger (5), who more recently appeared in the German television crime thriller, Damals warst Du still (2005), which co-starred French actor, François Goeske (6).

…Leehom Wang
Hudson appeared as a guest for quite a few episodes, in one season, of the famed 80’s soap, Dynasty (1981-1989), of which, the negative lead, was played by Joan Collins (1), who starred alongside George Hamilton (2), in the television movie, Monte Carlo (1986), and Logan Lerman (3) portrayed Hamilton in, My One and Only (2009), and Lerman, as a child artiste, appeared in The Patriot (2000), which also starred Heath Ledger (4) who appeared in Brokeback Mountain (2005), which was directed by Ang Lee (5), who also directed Lust, Caution (2007) which starred Leehom Wang (6).

…Robert Sean Leonard
Hudson played a young man in love with a much older woman, in the May/December tear-jerker, All That Heaven Allows (1955), where the older woman was played by Jane Wyman (1), who later starred in the 80’s soap, Falcon Crest (1981-1990), which also starred, Susan Sullivan (2), who currently plays mother to Nathan Fillion (3) in the crime drama, Castle (2009 -till date), and Fillion stars in Much Ado About Nothing (2012), a modern updated version of William Shakespeare’s (4) famed comical play, and Kenneth Branagh (5) too directed, and acted in, another modern film adaptation of the same play in 1993, which also starred Robert Sean Leonard (6).

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)
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Six Degrees of Separation with Logan Lerman

Six Degrees of Separation: from Logan Lerman to …

…Elijah Wood
Lerman starred alongside Aaron Eckhart (1) in the hilarious comedy Meet Bill (2007), and Eckhart appeared in the magnificent satire that was Thank you for Smoking (2005); a humorous insight into the manipulative business tactics of a tobacco industry; which was directed by Jason Reitman (2), who later directed yet another comical brilliance that was Juno (2007), starring Ellen Page (3); who earlier played a very dark role, of an underaged teenager who has her heart set on castrating a paedophile who she suspects is responsible for the death of yet another underaged teenage girl; in Hard Candy (2004), which co-starred Patrick Wilson (4), who appeared in Little Children (2006) with Kate Winslet (5), and Winslet starred in, the surreal masterpiece that was, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), which also starred, former child star, Elijah Wood (6).

…Tom Sturridge
Lerman did one of the laziest roles ever in the pathetic flick called Gamer (2009), the only saving grace, of which, was the villainess character, excellently portrayed by Michael C. Hall (1), whose most notable role, happens to be, the titular character, of a serial killer, he plays in the television series, Dexter (2006-2013), and in the last season of which Sam Underwood (2) played his young protégé, and Underwood starred in a stage version of the play Equus, a play written by Peter Shaffer (3), and the 2007 West End and Broadway productions, of this same play, starred Daniel Radcliffe (4), who plays famed poet, of the Beat generation, Allen Ginsberg (5) in the movie Kill your Darlings (2013), and Ginsberg was also portrayed by Tom Sturridge (6) in On the Road (2012).

…Rudolph Nureyev
Lerman, as child artiste, appeared, alongside fellow child actor, Cameron Bright (1), in The Butterfly Effect (2004), and Bright played a kid who harassed a widow into believing that he was a reincarnation of her dead husband in Birth (2004), which co-starred Lauren Bacall (2), who was married to Humphrey Bogart (3); and together they were famously known as Bogie and Bacall; and Bogie starred alongside Ingrid Bergman (4), in the much loved tear-jerker classic, Casablanca (1942), and Bergman’s daughter, Isabella Rossellini (5), starred in White Nights (1985); which tells the story of a famed Russian male ballet dancer who had defected from the Soviet Union (USSR), who finds himself back in the USSR when a plane carrying him to Tokyo has to have an emergency crash landing there; the character of the defected dancer was loosely inspired by the renowned ballet dancer, Rudolph Nureyev (6).

…Rock Hudson
Lerman appeared in the excellent re-make; 3:10 to Yuma (2007); of the classic western, 3:10 to Yuma (1957), and the original was directed by Delmer Daves (1), who made his directorial debut with Destination Tokyo (1943), starring Cary Grant (2), and Grant starred in the amusingly crazily splendid farce, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), which was directed by Frank Capra (3), as was the romantic comedy, It Happened One Night (1934), which starred Claudette Colbert (4); who was famous for playing the legendary ‘Queen of the Nile’; in Cleopatra (1934), as was Elizabeth Taylor (5) in Cleopatra (1963), who starred alongside Rock Hudson (6) in Giant (1956).

…Roger Vadim
Lerman played son to Renée Zellweger (1), in My One and Only (2009), and Zellweger starred alongside Tom Cruise (2) in Jerry Maguire (1996), and Cruise appeared in The Color of Money (1986) with Paul Newman (3), who starred alongside Robert Redford (4), in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and Redford appeared alongside Jane Fonda (5) in Barefoot in the Park (1967), and Fonda was at one time married to director Roger Vadim (6).

…Tom Ford
Lerman starred alongside Emma Watson (1) in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), and Watson appeared in My Week with Marilyn (2012), which also starred Dominic Cooper (2), who came in The History Boys (2006), alongside Stephen Campbell Moore (3), who appeared in Bright Young Things (2003), which was based on Evelyn Waugh’s (4) novel Vile Bodies, and Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited, was the basis for the 2008 movie starring Matthew Goode (5), and Goode appeared in A Single Man (2009), which was the directorial debut of fashion designer, Tom Ford (6).

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)
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Six Degrees of Separation with novelist Truman Capote

Six Degrees of Separation: from Truman Capote to…

…Katrin Saß
Capote’s novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s was the basis for the romantic comedy of the same name, released in 1961, starring Audrey Hepburn (1), and Hepburn starred in War and Peace (1956) which co-starred Jeremy Brett (2) as her brother, who later found fame as a television actor, playing ‘Sherlock Holms’, in various series and television films throughout the 1980’s &90’s, based on the ‘Holms’ novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3), and Benedict Cumberbatch (4) currently stars in a modern, 21st century, homoerotic, adaptation on the famed sleuth, titled Sherlock (2010 till date), and Cumberbatch starred alongside Daniel Brühl (5) in the bio-pic The Fifth Estate (2013), and Brühl appeared in Good Bye Lenin! (2003), which co-starred Katrin Saß (6).

… John Ritter
Capote was portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman (1) in the bio-pic Capote (2005), and Seymour Hoffman starred in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), directed by Anthony Minghella (2), whose son Max Minghella (3) appeared in The Social Network (2010), where the lead was played by Jesse Eisenberg (4) who also starred in The Education of Charlie Banks (2007), which co-starred Jason Ritter (5), the son of late actor John Ritter (6).

… Matt Smith
Capote shared great friendship with fellow writer Harper Lee (1), who was portrayed by actress Sandra Bullock (2) in the movie Infamous (2006), and Bullock starred in the romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice (2002) alongside Hugh Grant (3), who starred in About a Boy (2002), along with Nicholas Hoult (4) and Hoult starred in A Single Man (2009) which was based on a book by Christopher Isherwood (5), who was portrayed by Matt Smith (6) in the biographical television film; based on Isherwood’s own autobiography; Christopher and his Kind (2011).

… Liev Schreiber
Capote’s closest friend and neighbour, Harper Lee (1), published only one novel, which was the basis for the movie, with the same name as the book, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), starring Gregory Peck (2), and Peck appeared in The Paradine Case (1947), which co-starred Louis Jourdan (3), who starred alongside Joan Fontaine (4) in Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), and Fontaine starred in Jane Eyre (1943) alongside Orson Welles (5) and Welles was portrayed by Liev Schreiber in the television movie, RKO 281 (1999).

… Jugal Hansraj  
Capote wrote the screenplay for the horror flick, The Innocents (1961), starring Deborah Kerr (1), and Kerr played a nun, living the Indian Himalayas, in Black Narcissus (1947); released the same year India gained it’s independence from the British; in which Jean Simmons (2) played an Indian girl, and Simmons portrayed Queen Elizabeth – I (3), in Young Bess (1953); a film chronicling the younger days of Elizabeth – I, before she became the famed virgin queen; as did Cate Blanchett (4), in Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), both directed by Bollywood director, Shekhar Kapur (5), who also directed the Bollywood classic Masoom (1983), which starred former child artiste, Jugal Hansraj (6).

… Jane Birkin  
Capote played his own look-alike, in the art-house romantic comedy, Annie Hall (1977), which was directed by Woody Allen (1), as was To Rome with Love (2012), which starred Penélope Cruz (2), who appeared in the Spanish film Los Abrazos Rotos (2009), which was directed by Pedro Almodóvar (3), as was La mala Educación (2004), which starred Gael García Bernal (4), who appeared in the surreal drama, The Science of Sleep (2006), alongside Charlotte Gainsbourg (5), daughter of Jane Birkin (6).

Bookish Nuwan

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)
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Six Degrees of Separation with Ellen Page

Six Degrees of Separation : Ellen Page to ….

… Tippi Hedren
Page played an underage teenage girl, who seduces a paedophile, to castrate him for his crimes, in Hard Candy (2005), where actor Patrick Wilson (1) played the paedophile, and Wilson starred alongside Kate Winslet (2) in Little Children (2006); an interesting art house film, set in the American suburbs, where many a plots interact with each other; and Winslet played ‘Ophelia’, in Hamlet (1996), a four hour long modern adaptation; set in the 19th Century, instead of the 16th; of William Shakespeare’s (3) famed tragic play, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet was also made into a movie in 1948, starring Laurence Olivier (4), who also starred in Rebecca (1940), which was based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier (5), and du Maurier’s short story, The Birds, was loosely adapted into a visually shocking B-movie, in 1963, starring Tippi Hedren (6).

… Jacques Demy  
Page appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), in which Cameron Bright (1) had a small, but significant to the plot, role, and Bright starred in Birth (2004), which also starred Lauren Bacall (2), who came in Blood Alley (1955) alongside John Wayne (3); a film about how a marine captain, saves a whole Chinese village, by secretly transporting them from Communist China to Hong Kong; and Wayne appeared in the western The Searchers (1956), in which Natalie Wood (4) did a cameo, and Wood starred in the musical West Side Story (1961), which also starred George Chakiris (5), who came in the French musical Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967), a film directed by Jacques Demy (6).

… Eric McCormack   
Page played a pregnant teenager with a nonchalant attitude in Juno (2007), a film directed by Jason Reitman (1), who also directed George Clooney (2), in Up in the Air (2009), and Clooney starred in Alexander Payne’s (3) The Descendants (2011), and Payne also directed Thomas Haden Church (4) in Sideways (2004), and Haden Church appeared in the television sit-com Ned and Stacey (1995-1997), alongside Debra Messing (5), and Messing starred in Will & Grace (1998-2006) alongside Eric McCormack (6).

… Katharine Hepburn   
Page starred in Smart People (2008), where Dennis Quaid (1) played her father, and Quaid was married to Meg Ryan (2), who appeared in the best romantic comedy of the 80’s, When Harry met Sally … (1989), the screenplay of which was written by Nora Ephron (3), as was the screenplay of Silkwood (1983); which was based on a true story about a female anti-nuclear activist of the 70’s, who blew the whistle on wrong doings of a Oklahoma nuclear-plant, and was killed for trying to expose it; and this movie was directed by Mike Nichols (4), who made his directorial debut, with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), which was based on a play by Edward Albee (5), as was A Delicate Balance (1973), starring Katharine Hepburn (6).

… Mark Harmon    
Page appeared in Peacock (2010), where Cillian Murphy (1), played a character suffering from a dual personality, and Murphy played a transvestite in Breakfast on Pluto (2005) which was directed by Neil Jordan (2), who also directed Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), which was based on a novel by Anne Rice (3), and another story of hers was the basis for the television movie Rag and Bone (2002), which also starred Carroll Baker (4), who appeared in The Carpetbaggers (1964), which was based on a novel by Harold Robbins (5), as was the television movie The Dream Merchants (1980), starring Mark Harmon (6).

… Mira Nair
Page appeared Woody Allen’s (1) To Rome with Love (2012), and Allen starred and directed, the art-house style romantic comedy, Annie hall (1977), which also starred Diane Keaton (2) who appeared in The Godfather (1972), which was directed by Francis Ford Coppola (3), as was The Rainmaker (1997), which was based on a novel by John Grisham (4), as was The Pelican Brief (1993), starring Denzel Washington (5), who appeared in the interracial drama Mississippi Masala (1991), which was directed by Mira Nair (6).

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)

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Six Degrees of Separation with novelist Patricia Highsmith

Six Degrees of Separation: From novelist Patricia Highsmith to …

… Marilyn Monroe
Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, was the basis for the movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), directed by Anthony Minghella (1), who also made Cold Mountain (2003), for which Renée Zellweger (2) bagged the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, her only Oscar win till date, and Zellweger worked with Tom Cruise (3) in Jerry Maguire (1996), and Cruise appeared in Rain Man (1988), alongside Dustin Hoffman (4), who gained famed when he played a young man being seduced by an older lady, whilst dating her daughter, in The Graduate (1967), and the older lady in question was played by Anne Bancroft (5), who earlier starred in the thriller, Don’t Bother to knock (1952), where Marilyn Monroe (6) played a psychotic babysitter, one of those rare movies where Monroe was given a chance to prove herself as an actress, and not just used as a sex symbol.

… Charlotte Rampling
Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, was adapted into the French Film, Plein Soleil (1959/60), by René Clément (1), who also directed Is Paris Burning? (1966) starring Kirk Douglas (2), whose son Michael Douglas (3) appeared in Coma (1978), alongside Geneviève Bujold (4), and Bujold played Anne Boleyn (5) in the bio-pic, Anne of The Thousand Days (1969), as did Charlotte Rampling (6) in Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972).

… Joan Collins
Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, was adapted into a noir thriller, by Alfred Hitchcock (1); which was released in 1951; and Hitchcock directed Gregory Peck (2) in the psychological thriller, Spellbound (1945), and Peck played the lead in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), which was based on a novel by Harper Lee (3), who was portrayed by Sandra Bullock (4) in Infamous (2006), and Bullock, early on in her career, starred in the television mini-series Lucky Chances (1990), which was based on the first two books; on the ‘Santangelo’ saga, a series of nine novels; by Jackie Collins (5), who happens to be the younger sister of actress Joan Collins (6).

… M. Night Shyamalan
Highsmith’s novel Strangers on a Train, was referenced in an episode of the television crime drama Castle (2009-till date); where two ‘strangers on a boat’ meet and swap murders in the style of Highsmith’s acclaimed novel; and the titular character, of Castle, is played by Nathan Fillion (1), who’s constantly mistaken; both on the show, and in real life; to be Jason Bateman (2), who starred in Juno (2007), for which Diablo Cody (3) won an Oscar for the Best Original Screenplay, and Cody recently directed the movie, Paradise (2013), which stars Octavia Spencer (4), who won the Best Supporting actress Oscar, last year, for The Help (2011), which co-starred Bryce Dallas Howard (5), who appeared in The Village (2004), which was directed by M. Night Shyamalan (6).

… Joachim Lafosse  
Highsmith’s novel Ripley‘s Game, was adapted into the German film, Der Amerikanische Freund (1977), by director Wim Wenders (1), who directed Nastassja Kinski (2) in the American film Paris, Texas (1984), and Kinski starred in the cult-Horror flick, Cat People (1982), where British actor, Malcolm McDowell (3), played her brother, and McDowell had a cameo in; the best French silent venture (with sound, but no voice) of the 21st Century; The Artist (2011), where the female lead was played by French actress, Bérénice Bejo (4), who appeared in Le Passé (2013), alongside, French actor of Algerian descent, Tahar Rahim (5), who starred in the Belgian flick, À Perdre la Raison (2012); a movie based on a real life tragedy, where a woman feeling suffocated in her marriage, kills her children and tries to commit suicide; and this film was directed by Belgian director Joachim Lafosse (6).

… Jessica Tandy
Highsmith’s novel Ripley‘s Game, was the basis for the movie, Ripley‘s Game (2002), starring John Malkovich (1), who starred in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), which was directed by Stephen Frears (2), as was Dirty Pretty Things (2002); a movie about illegal immigrants living and working in a West London hotel; which starred Chiwetel Ejiofor (3), and Ejiofor appeared in the Woody Allen (4) comedy, Melinda and Melinda (2004), and Allen also directed Manhattan (1979), where Meryl Streep (5) played his lesbian ex-wife, and Streep came in the murder mystery movie, Still of the Night (1982), which co-starred Jessica Tandy (6).

Bookish Nuwan

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)
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Six Degrees of Separation: Kate Winslet to ….

Six Degrees of Separation: Kate Winslet to ….

…Franco Zeffirelli
Winslet starred in Little Children (2006) along with Patrick Wilson (1), who previously appeared in the TV mini series, Angels of America (2003), which co-starred Al Pacino (2), who played the lead in Serpico (1973), which was based on a true story and directed by Sidney Lumet (3), who also directed Equus (1977), which was based on a play by Peter Shaffer (4), whose play The Royal Hunt of the sun was adapted into a movie, released in 1969, which also starred Leonard Whiting (5), whose most famous performance, is that of, ‘Romeo’ in Romeo and Juliet (1968), the finest cinematic version of this famed tragic love story, which was directed by, Tuscan born, Franco Zeffirelli (6).

…Louis Garrel
Winslet gained international fame when she played the fictional character of ‘Rose’ in Titanic (1997), which was based on a real incident, where Kathy Bates (1), played a real life survivor of the Titanic disaster, Molly Brown (2), and Brown was portrayed by Debbie Reynolds (3) in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964); a biographical film on Brown, which includes her Titanic voyage and survival; and Reynolds starred in the musical, Singin’ in the Rain (1952), alongside Gene Kelly (4), who appeared in the French musical Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967), which also starred Catherine Deneuve (5), who recently came in another French musical, Les Bien-Aimés (2011), which co-starred actor Louis Garrel (6).

…Jennifer O’Neill  
Winslet bagged the ‘Best Actress Oscar’, for her role of ‘Hanna Schmitz’, in The Reader (2008), which was based on German novel by Bernhard Schlink (1), another novel of whose was the basis for the movie, Der Tod Kam als Freund (1991), which also starred Sebastian Koch (2), who played the lead in the Dutch film, Zwartboek (2006), which was directed by Paul Verhoeven (3), who also directed Starship Troopers (1997), which starred Casper Van Dien (4), who appeared in the forgettable Sanctimony (2000), which also had Catherine Oxenberg (5), who appeared in the pilot episode of the television series, Cover-Up (1984-1985), of which the lead star was Jennifer O’Neill (6).

… Bárbara Mori
Winslet starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio (1) in Revolutionary Road (2008), and DiCaprio starred in The Great Gatsby (2013), in which Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan (2) had a small role, and Bachchan (a.k.a. Big B) was paired alongside Hema Malini (3) in a lot of films in the 70’s and 80’s, and Malini; who had held the no.1 position for two decades, a rarity in a male oriented film fraternity; was one actress that the Big B was never paired with, off screen, by gossip columnist; and Malini’s daughter, Esha Deol (4), appeared in Na Tum Jaano Na Hum (2002), which co-starred current superstar, Hrithik Roshan (5); known not just for his good looks and vanity driven muscular physique, but also for his outstanding dancing and acting abilities; and Roshan starred alongside Mexican actress Bárbara Mori (6) in Kites (2010).

… Henry Fonda
Winslet appeared in The Holiday (2006), a Christmas romance, where fellow British actor Jude Law (1) played her elder brother, and Law gained popularity worldwide; when he was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, for his role of ‘Dickie’; in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), which was based on an acclaimed novel, of the same name, by Patricia Highsmith (2), and this very novel was the basis for the French classic, Plein Soleil (1959/60), starring Alain Delon (3), who appeared in the Italian film, Il Gattopardo (1963), a film directed by Italy’s famed, Luchino Visconti (4), who also directed the German language film, The Damned (1969), with Helmut Berger (5), who starred in Hollywood’s, Ash Wednesday (1973); a controversial film at the time for showcasing actual plastic surgery (facelift) in progress; in which Henry Fonda (6) had a cameo.

… Roberto Rossellini
Winslet starred in Titanic (1997), a film directed by James Cameron (1), who also directed the cheesy, sci-fi flick, The Terminator (1984), which starred Michael Biehn (2), who played a stalker in The Fan (1981), where Lauren Bacall (3); played, the stage and screen siren, who’s been stalked; and Bacall was married to actor Humphrey Bogart (4), who is most famous for appearing in the much loved classic love story, Casablanca (1942) alongside, Swedish born, Ingrid Bergman (5), who was married to Italian director, Roberto Rossellini (6).

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)