The Big Picture

I watched CBS Sunday Morning.  One segment had Greta Gerwig talking about how much she loved directing.  At the end, she said, “I can be the maniac I am openly.”  John Lithgow was also on the program.  I went out to see “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”  The theatre had the collectible Icee cups, so I bought one.  The theatre had problem setting up the projection, apparently, because we didn’t see the previews.  I wondered why Rose turned on her stun device when she took it out of her belt.  I also thought it was unlikely that the escape vehicle that Rose and Finn used barely made it under the descending wall.  I did get a small poster that was advertised.  I looked for a Speed Racer Blu-ray set at Best Buy, but no copies were on the shelf.  I came home to watch the Saints barely hold off the Panthers.  “Ace in the Hole” was on one of the movie channels, but I decided to watch “The Big Picture” again.  Kevin Bacon was an aspiring movie director named Nick Chapman.  He drove unusual cars and won an award that was a gold reel of film.  Bacon said that he had to make an effort to keep a straight face throughout the filming.  The coil of film shook around on the table before the presentation.  Some other people in the cast were Eddie Albert, Richard Belzer, John Cleese, and Fran Drescher.  I thought it was funny that June Lockhart, Roddy McDowall, and Elliott Gould were in one of the student films.  Probably no one could ever forget that Jennifer Jason Leigh was in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” but she is pretty amusing in this film.  I thought that her discussion of the documentary on shopping carts was funny.  Christopher Guest said that the first day of me of how long ago 1989 was, nearly thirty years ago now.  Her character was Gretchen Gorman, the bimbo type, who was interested in Nick when he was a hot director and invisible when his deal fell through.  One party scene was done at Wink Martindale’s house.  One scene I always remember from this film was the Vista Theatre showing “Tess” and “Hardly Working.”  At first, I didn’t get the point, but it was Nick who was looking over the “Tess” poster, showing his serious intentions about directing, while Lydia was looking at “Hardly Working.”  Of course, the differences between the two of them were already established by the student films at the beginning.  The other poster was for “Hope and Glory.”  I thought about whether Nick would encounter problems in using Pez dispensers for his music video.  I don’t know why Nick’s parents and Susan were on the set at the end.  The music gave the scene the feeling of “Day for Night.”  It didn’t seem right that the curtains were blowing on a winter night.  Why were the doors and windows open?  I still couldn’t understand why Nick wanted his dream movie to be photographed in black and white.  Black and white and winter does bring to mind “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  Christopher Guest said on the audio commentary track that the budget for the film was $5 million.  Two weeks into the production of the movie, a change in studio management occurred, mirroring the plot of the movie.  A shot of Teri Hatcher driving down Pacific Coast Highway resulted in some surfers’ cars getting scratched.  A surfer yelled at Guest, “Hey, dude, you’re really pale.”  This was a pretty good movie, although it was a first time directing job for Guest.  He would go on to hone his skills with other films like “A Mighty Wind.”  Some of the people who died on January 9 include Marco Polo (1324), Galileo Galilei (1642), Terry-Thomas (1990), Yvonne De Carlo (2007), Don Galloway (2009), and Art Clokey (2010).  Today is a birthday for Robby Krieger (72), Stephen Hawking (76), Yvette Mimieux (76), Bob Eubanks (80), Shirley Bassey (81), and Charles Osgood (85).  According to the Brandon Brooks Rewind radio segment for January 8, Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935.  In 1966, “Shindig!” was aired on ABC for the last time with The Who and The Kinks appearing.  In 1974, KISS signed their first recording contract for Casablanca Records.  In 1989, “42^nd Street” closed at the Winter Garden Theatre after 3486 performances.