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April 05, 2008
Charlton Heston was 84 [Added clips.]
That was a face. [Obit.] Madly wrote Michael Mourlet, then co-editor of Cahiers du Cinema, in May 1960 in one of the finest tatters of hyperbole in the film-crit canon (as recounted in J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum's "Midnight Movies"): "Charlton Heston is an axiom. By himself alone he constitutes a tragedy, and his presence in any film whatsoever suffices to create beauty. The contained violence expressed by the somber phosphoresence of his eyes, his eagle's profile, the haughty arch of his eyebrows, his prominent cheekbones, the bitter and hard curve of his mouth, the fabulous power of his torso; this is what he possesses and what not even the worst director can degrade. It is in this sense that one can say that Charlton Heston, by his existence alone, gives a more accurate definition of the cinema than films like Hiroshima, mon amour or Citizen Kane, whose esthetic either ignores or impugns Charlton Heston." (Take that, Armond White.) A lovely poster. A lingering question I can't figure out at this hour: did Heston outlive his obituarist?
Heston mouths along with Woodstock: "They sure don't make pictures like that any more."
Heston as the lead player in Branagh's Hamlet.
Plus: The opening of Touch of Evil, a project Heston might just have had a hand in getting made.
The opening of The Omega Man.
"People..."
And truly the end... of Planet of the Apes.
Posted by Ray Pride at April 5, 2008 11:07 PM
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