Oscar winning actors and the film industry fete the legendary director.
By Laura Tate / Editor
Actors such as Cher, Faye Dunaway, Eva Marie Saint and Carl Reiner joined LACMA, the Canadian Film Centre, Film Independent and a host of other legendary film industry types Friday evening at the LACMA’s Leo S. Bing Theatre in a tribute to director Norman Jewison.
Oscar-winning songwriters Marilyn and Alan Bergman, and famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler, joined Cher, Dunaway and Reiner in a panel moderated by film critic Leonard Maltin in telling stories about working with Jewison, who has directed, produced and written such varied films as “The Hurricane,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “Moonstruck,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Thomas Crown Affair (with Steve McQueen and Dunaway),” among a slew of others (and television shows as well).
A host of other film and television luminaries showed up for the celebration, including Angie Dickinson (“The Art of Love,” which Jewison directed), David James Elliot, Shari Belafonte and Robert Boyle, the nearly-100-year-old art director/production designer who worked with Jewison on such films as “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” and “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
The evening was, as Reiner, a prolific filmmaker himself, said, “like a Norman Jewison high school reunion.”
The event also celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Canadian Film Centre, which Jewison founded in 1988. CFC is Canada’s largest institution for advanced training in film, television and new media, according to the center.
Jewison talked about working with stars like Tony Curtis, who, Jewison said, “Gave me my start” in film with “40 Pounds of Trouble,” and Edward G. Robinson and Steve McQueen in “The Cincinnati Kid.” The director said he was scared of Robinson because he was such a “big star” and Jewison had been rewriting the script, taking out a great deal of the actor’s scenes. He got a call from Robinson one day, who said there was a problem with the screenplay. The resulting conversation ended with Jewison realizing that Robinson was the one who was frightened.
“All actors are frightened,” Jewison said, and the most valuable thing a director can do is to “reassure them all will be fine.”
Jewison learned a great deal about directing at the feet of William Wyler (“Ben Hur,” “Roman Holiday,” “The Children’s Hour”), and related watching Wyler once do 17 takes of a scene. Jewison had asked Wyler what was the difference from the last take and the previous 16.
“I believed it, Kid,” Wyler told him.
His internship paid off. Jewison has won a plethora of awards for his films, and many have received Academy Award nominations. They have also produced award-winning performances such as Cher’s and Olympia Dukakis’ Oscar-winning turns in “Moonstruck” and Rod Steiger’s performance in the 1967 “In the Heat of the Night,” co-starring Sydney Poitier.
The latter film was one of what Jewison considered part of a trilogy-the other two were “A Soldier’s Story” and “The Hurricane” (both of which starred Washington)-centered on racial injustice.
Alan and Marilyn Bergman talked of the Civil Rights movement being part of the motivation in making “In the Heat of the Night.” The two had written the lyrics for the title song of the movie. They also won an Academy Award for “The Windmills of Your Mind,” the theme song for “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
“Norman is one of the few directors who know how to use music in a film scene,” Marilyn said.
Cher spoke of how Jewison convinced her to take the lead part in “Moonstruck.” Jewison had told her that there was “no one else in the world who can play the part (‘I think I said it to both of you,’ Jewison said to Cher and Dunaway), and if you don’t [do it], you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
She finally capitulated and agreed to play the role of Loretta Castorini.
This intrepidness, which is a term Reiner used repeatedly to describe Jewison’s determination in getting things done, has led the director/producer/writer to a prolific career of more than 40 films and television shows, producing 39 of them.
He even survived making the 1966 “The Russians Are Coming!”
Reiner related the story of when he, Jewison, Eva Marie Saint and another man took off in a small plane in stormy weather to get to a location for the film. The plane was so small that Jewison had to sit in a “jumper seat” right behind Reiner. While the three men insisted they must get to the location, no matter the weather, Marie Saint said she told them, “I have children, and I don’t want to die!” So they ordered the pilot to return to land, and when he banked the plane, a trap door next to Jewison’s little seat flew open and Reiner said he heard a “whooshing” sound. Reiner reached behind him, feeling for Norman’s legs and finding nothing. He thought that Jewison had flown out the door; he even yelled to the others “We lost Norman!”
But, Norman had hooked his feet on the bottom of the chair, and was reaching out the opening to grab the door to shut it.
“He lived dangerously,” Reiner said, telling another tale of how he watched Jewison climb high up a wall once to get a certain shot in another film. “There’s our leader-intrepid.”