Peter Bogdanovich

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HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#51 Post by HerrSchreck » Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:08 pm

It's pretty funny, down at the bottom of the page, you can thumbs up or down his list (he's losing 400-plus thumbs downs to 200-plus thumbs ups) as many times as you want. It doesn't give your IP one shot at the vote. I just gave him five thumbs down for being a rampantly hopeless namedropper. Call it tough love.

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bearcuborg
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#52 Post by bearcuborg » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:11 pm

I don't get it, Bogdanovich is a great story teller and he's lead a fascinating life guys. I enjoy his stories and encounters with the great cinema legends. I mean, every time we learn something new about Welles, Jimmy Stewart, and so on, it helps round out the picture we have them, no?

Long live Bogdanovich, and I would love to see him take a shot at Duane's Depressed... Anyway, I picked up Running on a Dream cheap today, I can't wait to dig in.

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HerrSchreck
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#53 Post by HerrSchreck » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:31 pm

O come now, look at that hangdog cartoon face, and how he's made a profitable career out of his old friendships. You think he's the only director in Hollywood who Knew A Lot Of People and could tell incredible stories? One year at the top of the Hollywood game in that town and you'd have enough to tell a lifetime of stories-- and still not get them all out by the time you fell into your coffin!

Now picture him floinking Dorothy Stratten. With the hornrims on & all.

He's just an odd species, that's all. There simply is no way that PB could not be lampooned... all the pieces are properly in place.

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nsps
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#54 Post by nsps » Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:06 pm

bearcuborg wrote:I don't get it, Bogdanovich is a great story teller and he's lead a fascinating life guys. I enjoy his stories and encounters with the great cinema legends. I mean, every time we learn something new about Welles, Jimmy Stewart, and so on, it helps round out the picture we have them, no?

Long live Bogdanovich, and I would love to see him take a shot at Duane's Depressed... Anyway, I picked up Running on a Dream cheap today, I can't wait to dig in.
Yeah, have some respect! Like, uh, we did a month ago on E08 of The Same Dame Podcast when…uh…he showed up as a guest (50 minutes in).

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bearcuborg
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#55 Post by bearcuborg » Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:53 pm

HerrSchreck wrote:O come now, look at that hangdog cartoon face, and how he's made a profitable career out of his old friendships. You think he's the only director in Hollywood who Knew A Lot Of People and could tell incredible stories? One year at the top of the Hollywood game in that town and you'd have enough to tell a lifetime of stories-- and still not get them all out by the time you fell into your coffin!

Now picture him floinking Dorothy Stratten. With the hornrims on & all.

He's just an odd species, that's all. There simply is no way that PB could not be lampooned... all the pieces are properly in place.
And so what's wrong with him writing a few books about his Hollywood encounters? I think "Who the Devil Made It," in particular is a treasure trove of info on some great filmmakers. You know, in the old days this is how history was passed on. I'm not saying this to be silly, but he does have a gift of passing down stories.

As for the Dorothy Stratten joke, that's pretty awful when you consider everything. Make fun if you must, but please drop the cheap shots.

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nsps
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#56 Post by nsps » Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:05 pm

I think it's possible to enjoy P-Bog-Diddy's contributions and still acknowledge that he's a hilarious caricature. 542 to 212 Thumbs Down to Thumbs Up, though, just because his article was nonsense. That's harsh. Show him some love, folks!

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bearcuborg
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#57 Post by bearcuborg » Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:12 pm

That podcast bit was seriously unfunny by the way.

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nsps
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#58 Post by nsps » Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:15 pm

Hrm. Perhaps one of those bits that seemed funnier during conception. Listening back, definitely not our funniest moment.

Haggai
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#59 Post by Haggai » Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:28 pm

I just recently saw Daisy Miller for the first time, though it's been out on DVD for several years now. I didn't think it quite worked overall, but for a somewhat different reason than I was expecting, based on its reputation.

I had always heard it characterized as a poorly conceived vanity project that was doomed from the start--and if it had been made the way Bogdanovich originally wanted, with himself starring as Winterbourne opposite Shepherd and Welles directing, it probably would have been!--but there are a lot of good things going for it. The Switzerland/Italy locations are beautiful, as is the production/costume design. The supporting cast is quite good, with Mildred Natwick and Eileen Brennan standing out in particular; a cursory glance at some contemporary reviews online indicates those two were praised even by critics who panned the film. Bogdanovich's mise-en-scene flows nicely as well: his beloved long takes are artfully staged without calling too much attention to themselves.

But I just didn't buy Cybill Shepherd in the title role, which to me was a fatal flaw. Her first scene, where she has a long string of rapid and rambling dialogue all at once--Bogdanovich on the commentary says it was 15 pages in one shot--came across to me as painfully false, and I don't think her performance ever recovered or rose above that.

Now, what I had assumed from the film's reputation (and from knowing basically nothing about the James novella) was that it was the pinnacle of hubris to cast Shepherd in a period costume drama with sophisticated language, so I went in thinking it would be like watching Jessica Alba in Howard's End or something like that. But it quickly becomes clear why Bogdanovich thought she was right for the part: the character, a haughty and spoiled American girl who toys with men, really IS the sort of thing one could think of as being right for Cybill at that age. In some sense, it's not all that far from Jacy Farrow, which she had certainly played successfully in a film that needed her to be good--certainly Picture Show wouldn't have succeeded as it did if she had flopped in that part.

But, unfortunately, playing a Henry James character isn't the same as playing a Larry McMurtry character, and Shepherd just didn't have the chops to pull it off at the time. Bogdanovich still defends the film on the DVD commentary, and I can largely see why: it still has a lot going for it, and he fondly remembers not having had to compromise on anything he wanted for the production. But it seems he just had too much faith in her range as an actress.

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Polybius
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#60 Post by Polybius » Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:33 am

I don't have a serious disagreement with any of that.

It all works better if you read the novella while picturing her.

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tavernier
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#61 Post by tavernier » Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:37 am

Polybius wrote:I don't have a serious disagreement with any of that.

It all works better if you read the novella while picturing her.
Then you end up ruining the novella!

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HerrSchreck
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#62 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:32 am

bearcuborg wrote:
HerrSchreck wrote:O come now, look at that hangdog cartoon face, and how he's made a profitable career out of his old friendships. You think he's the only director ...() .
And so what's wrong with him writing a few books about his Hollywood encounters? I think "Who the Devil Made It," in particular is a treasure trove of info on some great filmmakers. You know, in the old days this is how history was passed on. I'm not saying this to be silly, but he does have a gift of passing down stories.

As for the Dorothy Stratten joke, that's pretty awful when you consider everything. Make fun if you must, but please drop the cheap shots.
Are you kidding me or something? I could perhaps understand if you're related to the guy and this is what prompts you to come to his defense with such sensitivity.. but if not, and our simple poking fun at a nasal wonk who cultivates his own caricature upsets you, then you're clearly in the wrong thread. Nobody is wishing death on the man or accusing him of having sexual intercourse with a drug addicted ghetto vacuum cleaner or something. As for his stories, it'd be different if he were someone like Scorsese who is a working director who has been regularly practicing his craft.. and passionately discusses past greats as one more facet in the overall project/object that is his work in cinema... but w PB, he's almost solely become a groupie in his own industry, groupie-ing its most legendary corpses.

Of course I know what happened with Stratten-- that's the whole point.

HarryLong
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#63 Post by HarryLong » Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:01 pm

if it had been made the way Bogdanovich originally wanted, with himself starring as Winterbourne opposite Shepherd and Welles directing
Though Welles directing might or might nor have been an improvement, thank god Barry Brown played Winterbourne rather than Bog.

Haggai
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#64 Post by Haggai » Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:20 pm

HarryLong wrote:
if it had been made the way Bogdanovich originally wanted, with himself starring as Winterbourne opposite Shepherd and Welles directing
Though Welles directing might or might nor have been an improvement, thank god Barry Brown played Winterbourne rather than Bog.
Yeah, that was my intended meaning. PB playing the role himself would have been a terrible idea regardless of who else he could've gotten to direct it.

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bearcuborg
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#65 Post by bearcuborg » Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:30 pm

I'll see this for Peter, I've never been able to take him seriously as an actor. He's fine in The Sopranos, and even in the early (and only ones I care for) Baumbach films, but as much as he says he got his start as an actor, he doesn't have the chops to pull off a leading role.

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Polybius
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#66 Post by Polybius » Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:56 am

HerrSchreck wrote:Now picture him floinking Dorothy Stratten. With the hornrims on & all.
Not to examine a joke with an electron microscope or anything, but...the second sentence really makes that bit pretty funny and takes the emphasis off of her (and the inevitable thought of her subsequent fate) and back where it belongs, onto Peter.

Besides, you just know that he was yammering on about Kim Novak or something similar the whole time.

HarryLong
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#67 Post by HarryLong » Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:18 am

bearcuborg wrote:I'll see this for Peter, I've never been able to take him seriously as an actor. He's fine in The Sopranos, and even in the early (and only ones I care for) Baumbach films, but as much as he says he got his start as an actor, he doesn't have the chops to pull off a leading role.
No, not really.
I wish he'd gotten Barry Brown for TARGETS, too.

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bearcuborg
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#68 Post by bearcuborg » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:16 pm

Wow, I forgot about Targets. You may be right, it's just hard to see him as anyone but Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot.


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domino harvey
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#70 Post by domino harvey » Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:28 pm

Serious LOLs over here at the title

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Steven H
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#71 Post by Steven H » Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:55 pm

domino harvey wrote:Serious LOLs over here at the title
Yeah, I gut laughed when I saw that title. Also, I can't imagine thinking A Woman Under the Influence is Cassavettes best film, but hey, there's no stopping this Blogdanovich juggernaut.

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Foam
Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 12:47 am

Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#72 Post by Foam » Sun Sep 05, 2010 4:14 am

He is also further perpetuating the myth about Shadows being any more improvised than Cass's other indies. [/Carney]

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Polybius
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#73 Post by Polybius » Mon Sep 06, 2010 12:17 am

Fuck. I was already mentally preparing my intellectual property infringement case.

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domino harvey
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#74 Post by domino harvey » Sat Dec 25, 2010 1:01 pm

BREAKING NEWS

Image

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skuhn8
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Re: Peter Bogdanovich aka Captain Ascot

#75 Post by skuhn8 » Sat Dec 25, 2010 6:26 pm

Steven H wrote:
domino harvey wrote:Serious LOLs over here at the title
Yeah, I gut laughed when I saw that title. Also, I can't imagine thinking A Woman Under the Influence is Cassavettes best film, but hey, there's no stopping this Blogdanovich juggernaut.
Hmmm :-k ...to be honest I actually think womanUTI IS Cassavettes' best film. Am I off base? Is this some kind of Cassevettes Amelie or something? This film stands as my best female performance of all time.

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