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Certain director-actor combos just click
Thursday, October 6, 2005
By MONICA HAYNES
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
The film director and the muse. Their relationship is one of admiration, inspiration, respect, trust and, sometimes, even love. Their collaborations can result in Oscar-nominated performances or bargain-bin specials.
But when the right director and the right actor get together, there's movie magic and a union that can last longer than many Hollywood marriages.
"Corpse Bride" represents the fifth time director Tim Burton and his muse, Johnny Depp, have teamed up, with Depp voicing the character of Victor. Burton's personal muse, live-in love Helena Bonham Carter, is the voice of the title character.
Burton and Depp collaborated for the first time on 1990's "Edward Scissorhands." Four years later, the quirky director and the eccentric actor tackled "Ed Wood," and "Sleepy Hollow" followed in 1995. Earlier this year, Burton released "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," with Depp once again in the starring role.
"Each time I've worked with Johnny, he's something different," said Burton. "He's interested in being a character and not necessarily interested in his persona, and I find it very exciting to work with actors like that."
For his part, Depp, like many actor-muses, has developed a deep and abiding trust of his favorite director.
"Tim's vision is always amazing, beyond anything you expect," Depp said. "If Tim wanted to shoot 18 million feet of film of me staring into a light bulb and I couldn't blink for three months, I'd do it."
The Depp-Burton partnership follows a long line of director-actor tandems throughout Hollywood history, and there are many other contemporary examples.
Ron Howard is a director who knows a good thing when he sees it - and sticks with it. He has collaborated most recently with Russell Crowe on "A Beautiful Mind" in 2001 and "Cinderella Man" this year. Howard also likes to work with Tom Hanks. The two paired on "Apollo 13" in 1995 and Hanks' movie debut, "Splash," in '84. They're now filming "The Da Vinci Code." Early on, Howard teamed with Michael Keaton on the 1982 film "Night Shift," then "Gung Ho" (1986) and "The Paper" (1994).
Two-time Oscar winner Hanks has inspired several directors to come back for more: He hooked up with director Penny Marshall on "Big" (1988) and "A League of Their Own" (1992) and with director-screenwriter Nora Ephron on the classic "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail." Both also starred Meg Ryan. After being "Cast Away" with director Robert Zemeckis in 2000, they teamed last year for the innovative animated version of "The Polar Express."
Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian with "Entertainment Tonight," said that although directors and actors may work together on several films, it's not necessarily a director-muse relationship.
"The fact that the same guy directed the last three Adam Sandler movies doesn't necessarily mean [Sandler's] a muse to the film director," Maltin said.
The teaming of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro is another story.
"I think when [they] started working together in the early '70s, it's clear there was some simpatico," Maltin said. "They were both Italian-American New Yorkers. They went to some pretty dark places in their movies, and obviously De Niro was willing to go there.
"I don't think Scorsese could have pushed him in that direction if he weren't willing to go there. That's what made them such a potent team in films like "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull."
More recently, Scorsese has teamed up with Leonardo DiCaprio. The young actor and the veteran director made "Gangs of New York" in 2002, last year's "The Aviator" and the upcoming "The Departed," scheduled for release next year.
Denzel Washington and Spike Lee are working on their fourth film together. They first hooked up in 1990 on "Mo' Better Blues." Two years later, under Lee's direction, Washington delivered an Oscar-nominated performance in "Malcolm X." In 1998 they partnered on "He Got Game," and now they're working on a film tentatively titled "Inside Man."
Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman did "Pulp Fiction" in 1994 and later teamed up for "Kill Bill: Vol. I" and its sequel, released in 2003 and 2004, respectively.
Tarantino and Thurman conceived of the "Kill Bill" revenge story 10 years before they were able to put it onscreen. The director told London's Guardian that Thurman "was like my muse. I was inspired by her."
A classic example of a film director and muse, Maltin said, is Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich in the 1930s.
"He apparently had a Svengali-like approach or control over her and set out to mold and shape her every performance and appearance onscreen," Maltin said. "Those instances are rare, I think."
Ultimately, Dietrich found this kind of control stifling and wanted to break free, he said.
Like Von Sternberg, Woody Allen played a similar role in shaping the acting careers of his love interests.
He cast his then-wife Louise Lasser in several of his early '70s films. After their breakup, Allen's next spate of movies starred his paramour Diane Keaton. They made seven films together beginning with "Sleeper" in 1973. He later collaborated with then-girlfriend Mia Farrow on 12 films, beginning with "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" in 1982. Their last film together was 1992's "Husbands and Wives."
"No one ever dreamt Mia Farrow had comedic abilities until she appeared in his films," Maltin said.
Allen, now married to Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, apparently has found a new muse in actress Scarlett Johansson. They made "Match Point," due out at Christmas, and are working on Allen's latest untitled film.
These directors and actors have the clout to get movies made and the bankability that gets a green light from producers and studios. It's a formula that's worked since the days of the studio system, when directors and actors under contract to the same company often found their moviemaking soul mates.
Dynamic duos
Here are some legendary directors and the stars who served as their muses, paving the way for today's teams:
Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart: "You Can't Take It With You" (1938), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).
Frank Capra/Barbara Stanwyck: "Ladies of Leisure" (1930), "The Miracle Woman" (1931), "Forbidden" (1932), "The Bitter Tea of General Yen" (1933), "Meet John Doe" (1941).
William Wyler/Bette Davis: "Jezebel" (1938); "The Letter" (1940), "The Little Foxes" (1941).
Alfred Hitchcock/Jimmy Stewart: "Rope" (1948), "Rear Window" (1954), "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956), "Vertigo" (1958).
Alfred Hitchcock/Ingrid Bergman: "Spellbound" (1945), "Notorious" (1946), "Under Capricorn" (1949).
Alfred Hitchcock/Grace Kelly: "Dial M for Murder" (1954), "Rear Window" (1954), "To Catch a Thief" (1955).
Alfred Hitchcock/Tippi Hedren: "The Birds" (1963), "Marnie" (1964).
Martin Ritt/Joanne Woodward: "No Down Payment" (1957), "The Long Hot Summer" (1958), "The Sound and the Fury" (1959), "Paris Blues" (1961).
Martin Ritt/Paul Newman: "The Long Hot Summer" (1958), "Paris Blues" (1961), "Hud" (1963), "The Outrage" (1964), "Hombre" (1967).
Martin Ritt/Sally Field: "Norma Rae" (1979), "Back Roads" (1981), "Murphy's Romance" (1985).
- Monica Haynes
Source: http://www.northjersey.com
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