Faye Dunaway on Film

[Snarky Oracle!]

EYES OF LAURA MARS just looks better as the years roll on, a period piece. It's the film that caused George Lucas to hire Irvin Kershner to direct THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!

 

[Willie Oleson]

But you all forgot the biggest female star of the 1970s

Julie Christie?

 

[Crimson]

I had started watching this on Prime but I just discovered that the rental time has expired. How infuriating! But then again, it could happen to anyone of us, right? (please, soothe my agony)

Just leaving this on a perpetual cliffhanger?

 

[Brian Kinney]

Julie Christie?

Julie Christie was big in the 60s, in the 70s she was just one of Warren Beatty's playmates. One who came after Joan Collins and before Madonna.

Maybe we overestimate our Faye a bit?

The Top 15 Female Box-Office Stars of the 1970s​

(based on annual polls of movie theater exhibitors conducted by Quigley Publications. Source information is from The Annual Motion Picture Almanac.)
1. Barbra Streisand
2. Jane Fonda
3. Liza Minnelli
4. Diane Keaton
5. Faye Dunaway
6. Ali MacGraw
7. Raquel Welch
8. Jill Clayburgh
9. Tatum O'Neal
10. Candice Bergen
11. Sally Field
12. Goldie Hawn
13. Jacqueline Bissett
14. Diana Ross
15. Dyan Cannon

The Best Actresses Ever - 1970s​

(based on IMDb's Best Films of the 1970s list)
1. Diane Keaton (US)
2. Romy Schneider (F/G)
3. Liv Ullmann (S)
4. Ellen Burstyn (US)
5. Stéphane Audran (F)
6. Faye Dunaway (US)
7. Meryl Streep (US)
8. Simone Signoret (F)
9. Talia Shire (US)
10. Madeline Kahn (US)
11. Lea Massari (I/F)
12. Monica Zetterlund (S)
13. Brigitte Mira (G)
14. Lyudmila Gurchenko (SU)
15. Geraldine Chaplin (E/US)

But Faye will always be No. 1 Diva for the 1960s until this day!

“My first day on the set, she slapped me,” said Rutanya Alda, who appeared with Dunaway in the 1981 movie “Mommie Dearest.” Alda, who played the assistant character to Dunaway’s Joan Crawford, told The Post that they were filming a scene when “instead of doing a stage slap, she slapped me on the cheek, hard and for real.”

Broadway wig designer Paul Huntley, who worked with Dunaway on a 1996 tour of the show “Master Class,” claims to have witnessed her wrath. “Faye didn’t like how the hairpins were being presented and she slapped my assistant’s hand,” recalled Huntley. “[The assistant] was horrified and did not know what to do.” (...)

I assume her fights with Bette Davis during the filming of The Disappearance of Aimee (confirmed by co-star James Woods) are common knowledge. I realized after I saw Mommie's Dearest that Aimee in the TV movie was the test for going crazy, the role closest to bitch Joanie.

According to the book “Easy Riders and Raging Bulls,” during the filming of 1974’s “Chinatown,” Dunaway had a habit of urinating into trash cans and a disdain for flushing toilets in her dressing room. Rather, the book claims, she called in Teamsters to do the job, leading to multiple resignations. (...)

Once during filming, the book alleges, Dunaway said that she needed a bathroom break but director Roman Polanski asked her to wait. Later, when he bent down to speak with the actress through a car window, she allegedly responded by tossing a cup of liquid into Polanski’s face. It was full of urine. (...)

According to a former employee of the now-defunct store Video West in West Hollywood, the actress used to drive up to the store and honk her car horn, waiting for someone to come out to collect her videos. If they took too long, the source told The Post, Dunaway would “just toss [the tapes] out the window.”

 

[Willie Oleson]

Just leaving this on a perpetual cliffhanger?

Weeeell I could have rented the movie again to watch Part II but it felt a bit like ransom. They should have sent me a heads-up, it's not like they're too shy to email me about other stuff.
I'ver read the rest of the story on wiki, and well, so....whatever the pever I don't want to talk about anymore.

she was just one of Warren Beatty's playmates

You make it sound like a bad thing. I don't think it's humanly possible to say "no" to Warren Beatty unless you're stitched up from top to toe (and then that still wouldn't stop him).
But Julie has done some movies too and apparently they're pretty good. Or at least not as bad as the worst of Faye's movies.

9. Talia Shire (US)
10. Madeline Kahn (US)
11. Lea Massari (I/F)
12. Monica Zetterlund (S)
13. Brigitte Mira (G)
14. Lyudmila Gurchenko (SU)

Who are these people?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

12. Monica Zetterlund (S)
13. Brigitte Mira (G)
14. Lyudmila Gurchenko (SU)

Who are these people?

I actually don't know either.

 

[Brian Kinney]

You make it sound like a bad thing. I don't think it's humanly possible to say "no" to Warren Beatty unless you're stitched up from top to toe (and then that still wouldn't stop him).

Or unless you're not deaf and find him utterly pretentious and a less-bright-than-he-wants-to-appear bore when talking. I prefer someone who talks less (or nothing), isn't known as a multi-STD-risk or exposes me through one degree to Joan Collins' vagina.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Or unless you're not deaf and find him utterly pretentious and a less-bright-than-he-wants-to-appear bore when talking. I prefer someone who talks less (or nothing), isn't known as a multi-STD-risk or exposes me through one degree to Joan Collins' vagina.

I think Joan's vagina has seen much less traffic than most people believe.

That said, I'd still stock up on penicillin, if it still works. Mostly because of Peter Holm.

 

[Willie Oleson]

isn't known as a multi-STD-risk

Oh well, there's always a price to pay.

exposes me through one degree to Joan Collins' vagina

I'd consider it an honour to be mentioned with Joan Collins' vagina in one and the same sentence. Some people think I'm a c*nt anyway.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Some people think I'm a c*nt anyway.

Babe, you are a rank amateur.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Expect some Ramtha coming your way in the next few days.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Expect some Ramtha coming your way in the next few days.

See, now -- I try to be nice....!

 

[Willie Oleson]

And I thought I was thanking you!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

And I thought I was thanking you!

Oh. I'm confused.... and so very vulnerable.

 

[Willie Oleson]

edit: wrong thread.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

edit: wrong thread.

So now you're rejecting me.

 

[Crimson]

10. Madeline Kahn (US)

Who are these people?

I'm shocked and appalled.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I'm shocked and appalled.

I don't know these people either:

11. Lea Massari (I/F)
12. Monica Zetterlund (S)
13. Brigitte Mira (G)
14. Lyudmila Gurchenko (SU)

But the great Madeline Kahn -- how darest anybody!!

 

[Brian Kinney]

Lea Massari - the 89-year old Italian actress who retired in the 1990s is known for films made in her country and in France. She played Michel Piccoli's wife Catherine in Les Choses de la Vie (The Things of Life, 1970), a role taken over by Sharon Stone in a dreadful remake called Intersection (with Richard Gere, 1994). One of Massari's biggest hits in the 70s was Louis Malle's Le souffle au coeur (Murmur of the Heart, 1971). She's still married to her husband since 1963.

Monica Zetterlund (1937-2005) was a jazz singer who participated for Sweden at the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest (with zero points!) and recorded a few albums with Quincy Jones. As an actress she was known for Jan Troell's Utvandrarna (The Emigrants, 1971; nominated for 5 Academy Awards, winner of 2 Golden Globes) and Nybyggarna (The New Land, 1972; nominated for 1 Academy Award). She died in a fire at her home. She was married three times.

Brigitte Mira (1910-2005) was a popular actress in Germany who outside her country was mostly known for a series of films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. His Angst essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, 1974) turned out to be their most successful work together (at Rotten Tomatoes still 100% by critics and 91% by audience). It received awards at the film festivals in Cannes and Chicago. She was married five times.

Ljudmila Gurtschenko (1935-2011) was a Soviet/Russian (born in the Ukraine) actress and singer. Among the most acclaimed films with her is Andrei Konchalovsky's Siberiade (1979; Grand Prix at Cannes). She was also married five times.


Madeline Kahn in Young Frankenstein (1974) - doing a Faye!

 

[Crimson]

A Dunaway triple feature tonight: THE EYES OF LAURA MARS (1978) , THE THOMAS CROWNE AFFAIR (1968) and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975).

There's much to like about LAURA MARS, particularly its atmosphere. I'm not sure if any film of the era did a better job of capturing the duality of NYC of the time: cocaine chic and downtrodden seediness. This film is the end of Dunaway's' hot streak that started in '67. Curiously, it's virtually the only film during those years that she carried solo, as she was almost always paired with a major male star. She gave a surprisingly restrained performance, all things considered, holding back of histrionics to key moments. But there's the problem with the film: it's curiously reticent. If any movie warranted going off-the-wall bonkers, it's this. Maybe the film needed DePalma as a director.

I've never watched THOMAS CROWNE before; I always assumed I would dislike it. For one, I thought Dunaway's part was small-ish. I'm also not wild about Steve McQueen, whose appeal has always been elusive to me. To my surprise, I loved the film! This one might just slot behind CHINATOWN as my favorite Dunaway film and performance. She's smashing -- elegant, slick, sexy. She's like a Hitchcock blonde, but with more guile than Hitch ever let his ladies display. The movie is a lot of fun; exciting and witty, with a surprisingly sexy game of chess. Great style too, with that late 60s mod-glam. The only drawback was McQueen -- I still don't get it. The movie would have been better with Nicholson, Beatty, Redford, Newman or, heck, even O'Neal (was he a movie star in '68?)

I had also never seen CONDOR, although for no particular reason. I liked this one a lot too -- a tense and exciting espionage thriller. Dunaway played a role with a great deal more vulnerability than I associate with her; I may have underestimated her range. The leap from kidnap victim to lover was a bit implausible, but I guess when a kidnapper looks like Robert Redford those things happen.