“Forgotten Hollywood”- The Magic of Bogdanovich…
Manny P. here… 
“`Peter Bogdanovich was an Oscar-nominated writer and director and he dabbled as a film critic and cinematic historian in his spare time. His many credits included The Last Picture Show, What’s Up Doc? and Paper Moon. He turned down iconic assignments, such as The Godfather, The Exorcist and Chinatown.
“`An obsessive cinephile and seeing up to four hundred movies a year in his youth, Bogdanovich kept a paper file of every flick he watched between 1952 and 1970, with complete reviews of each movie. He was influenced by the French critics of the 1950s who penned for Cahiers du Cinéma, especially critic-turned-director François Truffaut.
“`Bogdanovich started his career as a critic, writing articles for Esquire. In the early 1960s, Bogdanovich was known as a motion picture programmer at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Bogdanovich showcased works of American directors such as Howard Hawks. After moving to Los Angeles and becoming buddys with director Roger Corman, Bogdanovich secured directing gigs in small productions. In 1970, he was commissioned by the American Film Institute to direct a documentary about John Ford for their tribute, Directed by John Ford. This resulting piece included candid interviews with John Wayne, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda, and was narrated by close-friend Orson Welles.
“`Following his success with period pieces, The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, and a homage to screwball comedy, What’s Up Doc?, Bogdanovich solidified his status as one of a new breed of A-list directors that included Academy Award winners Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin, with whom he formed The Directors Company. They received a production deal with Paramount Pictures that essentially gave the directors carte blanche if they kept within budget limitations.
PETER BOGDANOVICH
“`Later assignments never measured up to his initial triumphs. They included Daisy Miller, At Long Last Love, Nickelodean, They All Laughed, and his sequel to The Last Picture Show, Texasville. His one success during this period was Mask. He had a recurring part in The Sopranos and had a small role in both Kill Bill films after living in Quentin Tarantino’s guesthouse for a year.
“`In 2010, Bogdanovich was invited to join the directing faculty at the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Most recently, Peter collaborated with Turner Classic Movies, and TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, to create a podcast about his life and career, which premiered in 2020. His works have been cited as influences by such filmmakers as Tarantino, David Fincher, David O. Russell, Sofia Coppola, and Wes Anderson.
“`Peter Bogdanovich was eighty-two.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 6th, 2022 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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