Tuesday, March 10, 2015
"The Kid Stays in the Picture" is a self-serving autobiography of film producer Robert Evans
“The Kid Stays in the Picture” is the 2002 film autobiography
of film producer Robert Evans (born Robert J. Shapera in 1930 in NYC), based on
his own book, directed by Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen. The film was originally released by USA Films,
and the Netflix DVD comes from WB.
The movie is narrated by Evans in fast “sotto voce”,
sounding a bit like a character out of the Coen Brothers world. He is best known for rehabilitating Paramount
as a studio producer starting in the late 1960s, and continuing a successful
connection after going independent in the late 1970s. But then a conviction for drug possession and
then an indirect connection with a murder (he was never charged in that regard)
made it impossible for anyone to do business with him for a while, until he
came back in the 1990s. Even then he
would survive a stroke.
Evans was breathtakingly handsome, which raises the question
as to why he didn’t make a go as an actor.
Evans talks about many of his important projects. One of the earliest was “The Detective”
(1969). Remember that line that Frank
Sinatra speaks, “p.. cut off”. The film
was indeed a bit homophobic (“What did you like about his body …. It was soft,
like a girl’s.”) Evans sidesteps
Hollywood’s gradual emergence from its own prejudices He talks about a couple
of his greatest hits, most of all “Love Story” (with Ryan O’Neal and Ali
MacGraw), as culture-setting feel-good-about-bad story (people saw it multiple
times, and I remember it well, having just started working). That film would inspire today’s “The Fault in
our Stars” (June 9). Then he moves on to
“The Godfather”. I remember setting
aside a whole afternoon to see that in a New York City theater near Columbus
Circle in 1972. Remember Brando talking
about the “services” he delivers that people want, a forerunner of
libertarianism. In the many testimonials
included with the DVD, Evans takes credit for making the original books upon
which these movies were based commercially successful. I wondered, could a producer do that for me,
today?
The film can be rented on YouTube for $2.99.
Note that “The Kid Stays out of the Picture” was a “Will and
Grace” episode.
I know someone in the clubs people call “The Kid”, a musician with his career in the
sciences and medicine. It’s rather common. But it’s hard to stay in the picture,
especially if you go to medical school.
Picture: Disney (my CA trip in 2012).
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