Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, the last gods of cinema (score 8) - Corriere.it

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, the last gods of cinema (score 8) - Corriere.it


Of Maurice Porro

On Sky and Now the story of the two stars who crossed lives and careers from the 50s onwards

After talking about our local stars, here's The last movie stars», the last movie stars, this time it's an American couple, a great married couple, less bickering than Liz and Burton, who met in 1952, blessed with love, success, many children , 19 times partner on the screen, even if there were certainly moments of despair in which life returned to black and white, full of pain, such as the death by overdose in 1978 of his son Scott, aged 28: we are talking about Paul Newman (1925-2008) and Joanne Woodward, the best students of Lee Strasberg's school.

They are the stars of the beautiful series (Sky documentaries and NOW on demand) in which they tell, with the voices of actors and directors, friends and real children, how their lives and careers crossed from the 50s onwards. Both began in theater on Broadway (where Newman as well as in "Picnic" and "Desperate Hours"), it was also Plato!) that Woodward never abandoned, then as always happens they were requested by the cinema. While the beautiful Joanne was the first to become a diva and to win the Oscar already in '57 with "The woman with three faces", one of the films that put the teachings of psychoanalysis into practice, Paul, the most beautiful blue eyes in cinema, of half Protestant and half Jewish birth, he in turn conquered the status of star, acclaimed by the crowds.

But when they got married Joanne became a mother family and Paul broke into cinema with the best directors around, from Wise to Ritt to Rossene then Pollack, Rosenberg and many others. If the beginning had been depressing (he tells "The Silver Goblet" as one of the worst moments of his career), with "Someone Up There Loves Me", Paul became very popular: it was a film about boxing, about champion Rocky Graziano, and he had taken the place of the beloved James Dean. The titles of the couple who loved each other from the first to the second half range from the American upper class ("From the terrace") to the Faulknerian southern countryside ("The long, hot summer"). But the actor also became loved by playing billiards in the "Swashbuckler", flaunted all the sensuality of him, before the passion for car racing engulfed him in old age.

Produced by HBO and by Martin Scorsese in six episodes, directed and commented by Ethan Hawke who organized the work, the series, presented at the Rome Film Fest, relies on famous colleagues who gladly gave voice to the protagonists following the collection of original audio cassettes, almost all destroyed, but whose transcripts they were found by Stephanie Newman. Clooney talks like Newmwn, Laura Linney plays Woodward, and then Zoe Kaan, Ewan McGregor, Scorsese himself, Sally Field, Mark Ruffalo and James Ivory who directed them in the last couple film “Mr. and Mrs. bridge". Great galas, often interviewed by Letterman on TV, prizes at the Cannes festival, even if Newman had to suffer a lot for the Oscar and when he won it, for "The color of money", he did not go to collect it but also had one for his career .

In addition to the cassettes we see rare and precious archival materials, above all the theatrical and home video beginnings of the family (better to use the plural, Paul already had a wife and two children when he met Joanne), the series is a piece of history of the best American cinema (Paul also worked twice with Altman and with Lumet ) and there is no shortage of scenes from a marriage that lasted half a century with moments of alternating depression after the suicide of his son that the actor continued all his life to honor and help with charity, inventing a sauce, a "dressing", which was and still is best selling. A nice balance between period footage, interviews with friends and family and even with famous writers like Gore Vidal: he was the one who called them "last movie stars", and they were also excellent performers even if the secret was to appear that they did not act . The secret of the union? They said: "Combination of lust, respect, patience and determination." And also the fortune of formidable opportunities, for her beautiful female protagonists and for him the Roy Hill diptych "Butch Cassidy" and "The Sting" in which Newman teams up with his friend Redford, both democratic activists (Newman was in ninth place among Nixon's enemies) and intellectuals not in his spare time (Newman loved Thomas Wolfe and Camus).

It's a product for cinephiles, a bit niche while Sky informs that the Italian remake of "Call my agent" has exceeded expectations, because the first episode, the one with Cortellesi, exceeded 1.9 million unique contacts after a few weeks: the best debut of a Sky original series in the 'last year. Returning to the last couple of film stars, today only one part remains, namely Joanne, who had been stronger than her and who in the second half of her career did a lot of theater as a teacher and producer. Mrs. Woodward, born in 1930 in Georgia, also had great successes in films directed by her husband, including Williams' "Glass Zoo", but unfortunately for some years, protected by her daughters, she has been suffering from Alzheimer's disease and therefore cinema and life are confused with them.

April 5, 2023 (change April 5, 2023 | 08:04)



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