The Last Picture Show
( The Last Picture Show )
- Black and white, 35 mm
- USA, 1971, 126 min
- Section: New Hollywood
- Director: Peter Bogdanovich
- Screenplay:
Peter Bogdanovich, Larry McMurtry podle románu / based on the novel by Larry McMurtry
- Dir. of Photography: Robert Surtees
- Designer: Polly Platt, Walter Scott Herndon
- Editor: Donn Cambern
- Producer: Stephen Friedman
- Production: BBS Productions
- Sales: Hollywood Classics
Cast
Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn
Synopsis
It’s the beginning of the 1950s. Sonny and Duane are in their last year of high school. They dream about girls and about the blurry future, kill time in old Billy’s arcade, but the inevitable necessity to part ways catches up with them. Particularly when the dilapidated Texas town’s local cinema – the place their boyish memories are tied to – shuts down and shows its last flick, Hawks’ western
Red River (1948). The next day Duane is mustered off to Korea, and “big” history finds its way into the sleepy smalltown… In spite of the fact that Bogdanovich’s film (based on a novel by Larry McMurtry, known today, above all, as co-author of the script for the film adaptation of Annie Proulx’s story
Brokeback Mountain, 2005) preconceives the theme of
American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973) in a number of ways, it harks back to classic Hollywood with its starkly nostalgic black-and-white footage, a drama reminiscent of the Hawks film mentioned above. This wistful movie-buff tale about the moment that innocence turns painfully and awkwardly into experience won Oscars for the Best Supporting roles of Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson. Around 20 years later, Bogdanovich made a loose adaptation called
Texasville (1990).
About the director
Peter Bogdanovich (b. 1939, Kingston, New York) studied acting with the legendary Stella Adler, but became a director in the end. He typically began in the style of the French New Wave, as a movie-buff and film critic, and made biographical documentaries about the Hollywood greats (John Ford, Howard Hawks). His debut was with the film
Targets (1967), however it was
The Last Picture Show (1971) that made him famous. The movie-buff genre approach did not prove to be a successful formula in America however: after the harebrained comedy
What’s Up, Doc? (1972), the nostalgic
Paper Moon (1973), the costume story
Daisy Miller (1974) and
Nickelodeon (1976) he was overtaken in seeking a new form for classic genres by his colleagues who were less wrapped up in the past. Nonetheless, like Martin Scorsese, Bogdanovich most strikingly reflects relationships between the present and Hollywood history.
Film Guests
Cybill Shepherd
Contacts
Hollywood Classics
Linton House, 39/51 Highgate Road , NW5 1RS London
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 207 424 7280
Fax: +44 207 428 8936
E-mail:
info@hollywoodclassics.com
