Ron Howard has followed his terrifically entertaining and eye-opening 2016 documentary about the Beatles with the now playing documentary on opera’s most famous and perhaps enduring tenor, Italy’s Luciano Pavarotti. Must-see movie-going, ‘Pavarotti’ is a traditional biopic, tracing the phenomenon that was his freak-of-nature voice to the opera, then the world stage. Howard reminds us how goose-bump thrilling Pavarotti is onstage with moments where you’re ready to stand up and cheer. In a very full life we see the insecurities, superstitions, expansive personality of a boy surrounded from birth to death by women who loved and cared for him. Did he ever really grow up? Howard, casual in his trademark baseball cap and jeans, was interviewed early on a Sunday at the London West Hollywood Hotel. Here are excerpts from that conversation.
Q: Ron, you were at a slight disadvantage because with Pavarotti dead since 2007 there was no chance for an interview. While the televised footage we see proves how irrepressibly engaging he is, there’s no footage of a Barbara Walters-style inquisition where he bares his soul.
Ron Howard: He’s an entertainer. The closest is what his second wife Nicoletta gives us when we ask, What about Pavarotti the man? There’s not a moment where he’s not performing. As I delved into the documentary business or world, unlike working on scripted projects based on real events [like his Oscar-winning ‘A Beautiful Mind’] where you get to say what you really want to say, with the documentaries you know what you’re looking for and you have your opinions but ultimately you have to respond to the interviews you get.
We did 50-some interviews, they’re not all in the movie, but every single one, even when acknowledging disappointment or heartbreak in an aspect of their relationship with Pavarotti, every single one was so incredibly positive. He was loved. He just was really appreciated. I think the spirit of that leads to a kind of celebration. I think his life deserves to be celebrated. There’s something about his spirit that surprises us as an audience. It’s there in all these interviews. He’s one of these people when he was talking to you, he was connecting with you. He was giving of himself.
Q: You have that comment how he made people feel instantly he was their friend.
RH: But it wasn’t artificial. I’m convinced he was giving in order to get. Thru his opera, thru his relationships, thru the philanthropy, what excited him was to offer people something of himself. That he was excited about. I’m sure he felt rewarded by that.
Q: One of the funniest sequences in a film that is often lighthearted is when we see how Bono and U2 were in an Ireland studio recording. Bono had said he was too busy to be bothered with extraneous requests when Pavarotti rang him to ask if he would compose a song for his charity benefit for Bosnian children. Bono then tells how, via help from his Italian housekeeper whom he had befriended, Pavarotti showed up in Dublin at his studio door – with a film crew! And how he was shanghaied into first writing a song and then appearing at Pavarotti’s charity benefit in Italy.
RH: By the way it’s very difficult to get Bono for an interview – he’s very busy with his band and his own charity programs. I know people who are advisors on his board – he takes it very seriously and works very hard. We tried to get him for ‘The Beatles’ and he said, ‘I love the Beatles! But you don’t need me and apologies, but I can’t do it.’ When I called him for this he was right there. He loved Pavarotti. What Bono talks about is what it relates to Pavarotti as an artist and a performer – and you get the feeling he’s kind of talking about himself. I think it’s revealing.
Q: I can never forget the miraculous appearance of a 16 year old Susan [Sigourney] Weaver, caught on camera, high up in the seating, at the Hollywood Bowl Beatles premiere. What would you say was your great Gotcha! moment with ‘Pavarotti’?
RH: We didn’t find that trip up the Amazon, which now opens the movie, until we were a month away from locking the picture. The search never ends. That’s the way it works. It’s a great process for me at this stage of my life – because it shakes everything up. But a lot of the principles still apply. I found it incredibly stimulating and I love hanging with the documentarians; it’s a smart, interested group and a focus on detail I really appreciate. And this patience. Whenever I start to get edgy the documentary veterans kind of smirk and say, ‘This is what we do. There’s no Take 2s.’
Q: It’s very moving to see Pavarotti’s daughter who for so long was estranged from him because of his infidelities and then he’s dying and none of that matters.
RH: I wasn’t there because I don’t speak Italian and was probably shooting ‘Solo’ [his ‘Star Wars’ movie]. The family was reticent to the end but they wanted to participate. Every interview, Adua [his first wife and mother of three daughters], the daughters, there was honest disappointment but also this joy and appreciation as well. It was always very present. Most people are flat out glowing. The family watched it and it’s what they want. But they miss him and it brings up certain things that are difficult.
Q: You began directing when you were still celebrated as a juvenile ‘Happy Days’ figure, the teen who had been Opie on ‘The Andy Griffith Show.’ What’s it like now in this youth-oriented business at 65?
RH: It’s been 34 years with [producer/partner] Brian Grazer and Imagine [their company]. It’s interesting. The revolution the business is going thru has happened at an opportune time for us. At that moment when we could have felt like we were resting on our laurels or repeating ourselves, there’s this new model, we’re taking on new collaborators and there are more outlets. It makes business sense to focus on a documentary division — and a family division. Before our partners didn’t want us to do that. Now we’re able to pursue all forms of storytelling that we love and believe in and given all these platforms our investors are spreading our wings and tackling brand new content and streaming. It’s been a big energy boost. It’s exhausting but thrilling. I have real reasons to explore these other platforms.
Q: What do you want people to take away from ‘Pavarotti’?
RH: I hope the non opera sophisticates will do what I did: Appreciate Pavarotti but understand that art form in a more positive way. It’s not elitist, it’s popular entertainment that’s very moving and dramatic. The inspiring thing is with all his insecurities and foibles there’s this appetite for life and happiness and engagement. That’s inspiring. His life added up to something positive for just about everybody.
Q: What’s next Ron?
RH: I’m getting ready to shoot ‘Hillbilly Elegy.’
Danes enter Crime Zone
Crime series have become a universal language and the Scandinavians have perfected their own very noir take on these descendants of Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. ‘Straight Forward’ (8 episodes, begins Monday 10 June, AcornTV) bills itself as the first collaboration between New Zealand (stunning scenery!!) and Denmark (dour, drug dealing, murder!!). The result is not quite as engaging as you might expect. It’s brisk, attractively cast with warring gangs eliminating each other with mounting mayhem. Can a series be too overwrought? It’s certainly worth a look.
NEW DVDs:
A Best Actress Oscar winner for a small indie drama Brie Larson crossed into global prominence as mighty ‘Captain Marvel’ (Blu-ray + Digital Code, Marvel Studios, PG-13). Set in the 1990s with a digitally youthful Samuel L. Jackson in his debut as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury, this ‘Marvel’ is one wild ride. Larson’s Carol Danvers finds her destiny with superhuman abilities as she fights an intergalactic space war with aliens invading Earth. What’s behind-the-scenes marvelous is that Larson actually filmed Carol/Captain Marvel’s adventure as part of ‘The Avengers: Endgame’ before she assumed the lead role here. ‘Captain Marvel’ preceded the ‘Avengers’ box-office blockbuster by a few weeks and is also a certified smash with over a billion dollar global gross. The supporting cast is formidable with Jude Law, Annette Bening, Lee Pace, Gemma Chan and Djimon Hounsou. The bonus material, with deleted scenes, gag reel and Nick Fury’s origin offers an audio commentary and much more.
Forty-seven years later, does Francis Ford Coppola’s masterful first adaptation of Mario Puzo’s bestselling gangster novel still enchant? Fascinate? Coppola’s romanticized epic about the murderous Corleone Italian crime syndicate is, like ‘Gone with the Wind’s reverence for the ‘valiant’ Confederacy, bogus. The myths created by Puzo and Coppola continue to shed a rosy glow decades later. Seen today ‘The Godfather’ exhibits the split of killers’ evil allure and their status in the story being told as heroes. Dismal realities have shifted our point of view over the succeeding decades yet Coppola’s opus remains a towering accomplishment. Would neurotic Tony Soprano exist without ‘The Godfather’? Ditto the horrifying violence of ‘Goodfellas’? These issues may or may not enhance the viewing pleasures possible with the handsomely mounted box set that is ‘The Godfather Trilogy: Corleone Legacy Edition’ (Blu-ray, 4 discs, Paramount Home Entertainment, R). Coppola’s ground-breaking 1972 original ‘The Godfather’ was followed by the ’74 continuation with the book’s Italian sequences an integral part of the saga. I’d always felt the 1990 ‘The Godfather Part III’ was essentially an example of product packaging, a movie made for fans to take advantage of the love they continued to exhibit for Coppola’s Best Picture-winning duo. But today, ‘III’ with its notorious casting of Sofia Coppola seems much better and worthy of inclusion. The set’s 4th disc of Special Features is a behind the scenes bounty: A Making of ‘The Godfather,’ additional scenes, filming locations, filmmaker profiles, storyboards and photo galleries, red carpet moments and 4 short films on ‘The Godfather.’ Plus there are ‘Exclusive Collectibles’ including original theatrical art cards, Corleone Legacy Family Tree and collectible portraits with frame.
The challenge of mounting a new Hawaiian-based Thomas Magnum is considerable since the original was a phenomenon, driven by the unabashed sex appeal and goofball charm of six foot four model turned TV star Tom Selleck. When an actor physically owns a role, where do you go for re-invention? In the case of ‘Magnum P.I. Season One’ (DVD, 20 episodes, 5 discs, CBS DVD, Not Rated) the good news is they didn’t turn Tom into Tara and have Magnum be a first-rate Navy SEAL veteran turned sleuth in a skirt. It’s also good news to downsize with Jay Hernandez who generates his own semi-steamy appeal in a much more modest manner and is able to capture the contours of the character without ever trying too hard. Then again it’s nearly 40 years since Thomas Magnum first soared; today’s TV audience may have no idea there was that landmark first go. The hour-plus bonus material includes a gag reel, deleted and extended scenes on select episodes, a look at Hernandez on a magazine shoot, as well as overviews on the first season and the composer’s challenges scoring the series.
Michael Bay has never been a director known for subtlety (‘Pearl Harbor,’ ‘Transformers’) and his 2016 ‘13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi’ (4K Ultra HD, 2 discs, Paramount Home Entertainment, R), now available for the first time on Blu-ray, is as subtle as a blowtorch as it tells a complicated, controversial story. On Sept. 11, 2012 – the date was hardly accidental – Libya’s American diplomatic compound was attacked by anti-American hordes bent on murder and destruction. When the firing cleared, three Americans including US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens were murdered. One reason it was so chaotic a situation was that the Ambassador’s Special Mission was a full mile from the Annex, a CIA outpost protected by private military contractors from GRS (Global Response Staff). There were regulations and restrictions on the Annex force that led to a life or death emergency. Extremely well cast, ’13 Soldiers’ stars James Badge Dale as the GRS team commander, John Krasinski as an ex-Navy SEAL and the newest GRS team member and Matt Letscher as the doomed Ambassador. An hour-plus of behind the scenes bonus content: ‘For the Record: Finding the Truth amid the Noise,’ ‘Uncovering Benghazi’s Secret Soldiers,’ ‘In Memoriam’ and ‘Operation:13 Hours Premiere.’
One of LA’s most notorious unsolved murders remains that of The Black Dahlia, a young woman found severed in half in an empty lot in 1948. The TNT limited series ‘I Am the Night’ (DVD, 10 episodes, 26 discs, TNT/WB, Not Rated), written by Sam Sheridan and directed by Patty Jenkins (fresh from her ‘Wonder Woman’ triumph), stars Chris Pine (who was, after all, Wonder Woman’s true love) as the sodden reporter recruited by Fauna Hodel (India Eisley). Young Fauna left her Nevada home to discover her true identity in the City of Angels in this spin-off of the Dahlia mystery which is why the series is ‘Inspired by a True Story.’ The two track a notorious gynecologist Dr. George Hodel (Jefferson Mays, the Coens’ ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’) who may be an instrumental part of LA’s most grotesque unsolved murder. Connie Nielsen (another ‘Wonder Woman’ vet) plays Corinna Hodel. Special features range from ‘Hollywood 1965’ and ‘Myths from Inside the Sowden House’ to ‘Who Is Fauna Hodel?’ and ‘Inside the Episode.’
The Netflix series reboot of that ‘60s era sci-fi classic, ‘Lost in Space’ (DVD, 10 episodes, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Not Rated) won over both critics and fans. The family Robinson, 30 years in the future, set off for a space colony only to be thrown off course, land on an alien planet (is there any other kind?) where they must of course unite to survive. Toby Stephens – Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens’ son – was a terrific 007 villain (‘Die Another Day’) but he’s a wonderful father figure here. Just as intriguing is indie screen queen Parker Posey showing up as Dr. Smith! The bonus material includes a startling look back with the colorized un-aired pilot of the original series, featurettes on designing the robot, a visit from ‘60s star Bill Mumy and deleted scenes.
A box-office flop in 1971, nevertheless Anthony Harvey’s ‘They Might Be Giants’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, G) deserves more than a casual look. Scripted by James Goldman (an Oscar winner for Harvey’s ‘A Lion in Winter’ with Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn) from his play, ‘Giants’ opens in a psychiatric hospital where Scott’s retired judge who is convinced he’s Sherlock Holmes is examined by his doctor (Oscar winner Joanne Woodward) who just happens to be named … Watson! As the judge roams Manhattan in search of his Holmesian nemesis Moriarty, Watson follows, love blooms and danger lurks. Scott, the ‘Patton’ Oscar winner who refused his Academy Award on the grounds that actors don’t compete with each other, gives what some contend is his greatest screen performance. The Blu-ray is an expanded director’s cut version of the theatrical release; Harvey offers an audio commentary alongside the celebrated film archivist Robert A. Harris.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/06/10/hollywood-mine-ron-howards-happy-days-with-pavarotti/
2019-06-10 11:39:21Z
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