… had best buy a copy NOW .
It’s a classic film, what a shame – hopefully it will soon be picked up so that it can be available to newer generations of viewers.
Speaking of Paris, Texas – if you’re a fan – then go here to Nostalgia Kinky – and keep scrolling. There’s a Paris, Texas extravaganza going on there right now.
It is such a great movie. And really, I’ll watch anything with Harry Dean Stanton. They’re all so good in it. And Wim Wenders directing. Sam Shepard writing. It’s a can’t-miss kind of movie. I haven’t seen it in years but discontinued or not you’ll still be able to get it on Netflix so you can rent it to your heart’s content.
And hey, Sheila, have you ever heard of Dean Stockwell? He’s another actor in it. I think you might like him if you give him a chance.
Isn’t there a certain young lady in that movie?
DBW – I love it when our obsessions intersect. It gives me great joy.
Jonathan – hoo-yah for Netflix! However, I need to OWN certain movies – like: what if it’s 3 in the morning and I NEED to see Bringing Up Baby? I must have it. Same with Paris, Texas!! Same with Blue Crush. I can’t say WHY this is true, and why I need to have Blue Crush close by just in case … but I do … and I am glad of it.
Is that certain young lady the obvious choice (NK) or are you and DBW referring to Viva? Because if it’s Viva I’m definitely intrigued with the obsession (not that I wouldn’t be with NK).
NK all the way. :)
I made the grave error once of doing a whole picture-post about Paris Texas without including ONE STILL of NK. Believe me, I heard about it from DBW. Ha!! I went back and edited the post immediately!
Doing a whole pic post of “Paris, Texas” without “she whose first name is hard to spell” is quite amazing, I must admit.
Well, the post was really about the cinematography – and the look of the film – the colors, the ‘found’ sets – most of the stills were landscape shots – I didn’t focus on the faces as much.
But DBW showed me the error of my ways.
Here’s that post about Paris Texas … corrected … with nastassja’s face added to the mix.
Great selections. What a beautiful movie.
Hey, I missed all the commenting. Thought you were out at a show tonight. I was going to say I’m not normally too obsessive about things(who am I kidding), but Nastassja(even her name arouses my attention)pushes my buttons. And, yes the intersecting of our obsessions can be the highlight of my day, Sheila.
I’m going to the show tomorrow night. Today was a really busy day – went to a screening of a 3 hour long movie in the middle of the day – which was a very odd experience – but I’ll write more about that later.
Speaking of Ms. Kinski – have you seen Your Friends and Neighbors, DBW? A nasty unpleasant little movie – with an aweeesome performance by Jason Patric – actually everyone’s good in it – and Nastassja Kinski is lovely in it. She’s kind of the only innocent one in the bunch … gets caught up in the tangle of nastiness, and she truly seems like the only open loving one in the film. Anyway, worth a look. But NOT a feel-good movie, if you haven’t seen it – just warning you!
I know a guy like that Jason Patrick guy. It gives me the creeps just to think about.
(not that you need a feel-good movie … but I’m just saying – this movie is parTICularly unpleasant.)
Of course, if you’ve already seen it, then I’m just a jagoff – telling you stuff you already know. Wouldn’t be the first time!!
No, I haven’t seen it. In fact, I don’t even know if I have heard of it, but it goes on the list immediately. You, a jagoff? Never. All joking aside, Kinski can’t be a true obsession for me, because I almost never think about her, and she has several movies I haven’t seen. On the other hand, when I do think about her, wow, the things I think about her. I even swooned over her in Unfaithfully Yours, which I thought was horrible–even though I read some favorable reviews. I thought that whole movie was a mostly a mess, broken only by NK’s charm.
I think I don’t really want to think about her because it’s painful. It is unusual for me to ache over a woman I don’t know, and never will.
See, that’s a true movie goddess. She is there for us to project onto her our fantasies, dreams, whatever … it’s a great thing, a wonderful escape!!
Let me know when you see Your Friends and Neighbors. Just thinking about that movie gives me the creeps!!
I have already added it to my Netflix list.
DBW – A very interesting point in your last comment. It’s made me think about my own responses to certain performers.
I feel a similar way about Ewan McGregor (if I’m understanding you correctly). I can’t really think about McGregor too much. It’s too intense, he just makes me want to bite my pillow. When I think about him, I end up feeling empty … there’s such longing and sadness attached to it.
That’s it. It’s as if all the other life disappointments, capitulations, compromises, missteps, etc. get tied up in it. The reality that this person walks the Earth, a sweet,sweet apple you’ll never get to bite, the dream we create in our heart and mind–always out of reach. Ouch–that hurts, even given I’m just about the luckiest SOB you ever met.
I just re-read my last comment and got self-conscious – which is part of the problem here.
Such comments are often dismissed as “oh, there’s Sheila being a silly fangirl again” – but I truly think there’s more to it than that. It has to do with the importance of fantasy – and dreams – and what these people can (at their best) represent to all of us. It’s like that post I wrote 5 million years ago about Eight is Enough and how I honestly believe it saved my life back in junior high. Not like it saved me from drowning or a fire … but that it helped me keep my soul alive during a terrible time … it helped me to cherish something that was slowly being crushed out of me … etc. etc.
It can be quite profound, actually – these responses we have to certain personalities.
DBW – There’s that great line from Sixteen Candles about “crushes” – where the father says to the daughter, “Why do you think they call them crushes? because they HURT.” Something like that. There’s something about the movie-star-crush thing that hearkens back to adolescence – when you loved someone not just because you find them fuck-able, or gorgeous, or you lust after them … You loved them because they seemed perfect.
hahaha Of course life teaches us that no one’s perfect and yadda yadda … but still. There’s that FEELING you get when all you see is the good and man, you just ache!
I understand your feeling self-conscious. This is probably a conversation better held privately, but I agree completely that it isn’t a simplistic phenomenon–the impact great art can have in a human being’s life, be it film, literature, music, painting…whatever. Someone like you, Sheila, is just so open to the experience that it would be surprising if such things didn’t have an enormous impact on you. And “profound” is an accurate term, as is “biting my pillow.”
How true. I’d probably find out that NK had chronic bad breath, or watched soap operas all day. I remember that youthful longing that had more to do with an idealized version of the person than it did with any reality. For the most part, movies aren’t in the business of showing us the flaws of the actors. They may portray flawed characters, but that usually doesn’t reflect too poorly on our imagined impressions of the actors themselves.
Yes, yes, yes. I think that reality is all well and good – you know, I have to deal with it every day … but I thank God that even in my adulthood I have carved out that space of fantasy for myself – still. Very much like that one stupid episode in Eight is Enough years and years ago – my “fantasies” about some of these people have kept vital things in me alive … it’s almost like I was able to save things up, for when I would need them later. Life was a howling wilderness, all was cruel – but the dreams that came alive in me when I saw that stupid 8 is enough episode – helped save that bit of my soul, that I would need for later … It WASN’T killed. It survived.
I think the word I am looking for is “soft”. These things help keep me “soft” (and I mean that in the best way Not as in ‘weak’ but as in ‘open’). So much of life and reality seems designed to harden us. It’s such a temptation to get bitter. And those who pride themselves on being “realistic” are often just dickheads. I won’t go TOO much into my personal life – but 2007 has been a rough year for me. It’s been a struggle sometimes to just get thru the day. And Dean Stockwell, bless his heart, helped keep me ‘soft’ – and receptive – and open … still able to be hurt, and hope for things, and dream dreams.
I don’t expect to be understood by those who have not had such an experience, but that’s my experience.
I am happy to report that when I recently met Dean Stockwell, he totally lived up to my expectations. Even to the sexy little comment he made when my friend Stevie was fiddling with my camera – trying to take a picture of us – and Stockwell said to Stevie, “Push the button easy …” and he had his arm around me, his cigar in his hand … and he’s saying something like “Push the button easy???” Have I died? Can someone kill me right now?
He was just as I had pictured. And that’s always awesome, too.
“It has to do with the importance of fantasy – and dreams – and what these people can (at their best) represent to all of us.”
“It can be quite profound, actually – these responses we have to certain personalities.”
Amen.
I’ve had a few of those responses myself. But when I met Dean Stockwell in Taos (I was there too–it could be told as “The Night I Almost Met Sheila O’Malley”) I immediately, strongly felt that not only was I a complete stranger to him, he was also a stranger to me. He was sweet, generous, and kind. He ended up posing for photos with me twice because the camera didn’t work the first time (must have been a rash of camera trouble going around that night). Nonetheless, even after watching a couple hundred hours of his screen work, when I met him in person I knew that I don’t know him at all.
But still I have that response to what I see on the screen.
Karen – yes, it is odd, isn’t it … to see them as life-sized?
But you’re right: it’s what they do onscreen that elevates them into fantasies – or dreams deferred/come true, whatever the case may be. It’s almost like the role of myths or legends … I don’t know, that’s my experience with the stars that I love, anyway.
You and I will definitely meet! Maybe in 2009 at the Quantum Leap convention?
“And Dean Stockwell, bless his heart, helped keep me ‘soft’ – and receptive – and open … still able to be hurt, and hope for things, and dream dreams.”
Amen to that, Sheila. AMEN.
I can’t believe this conversation! It comes just at a time when I was berating myself (as I usually do) over one of my numerous crushes (with actors, sportsmen, musicians, what have you) – many times I give in to that self-consciousness you mentioned, Sheila, I feel like a childish fool, having crushes and obsessions with “famous” people and drawing hope and strength from what they do and how they do it. But I just can’t stop. So I keep it to myself, never talk about it with anybody, because I feel childish. Everyone around me has such “grown-up” things to worry about, am I going to wax deliriously happy over, say, Roger Federer winning this or that tennis tournament? I would come across as being totally insane!
Except here. In your blog I can talk about Marilyn or say I have crushes at my ripe old age (haha) and never feel insane. And for that I am eternally thankful!!! :)
Ceci – I know exactly what you are talking about. I somehow manage to do a lot of adult things, like pay my bills, and do my laundry and all that … but there’s that child-like side of me, that goes ga-ga over a movie, an actor, whatever … and it’s something I can’t imagine ever giving up. I do feel embarrassed about it – especially when a friend says, “So … what’s been up with you for the last month?” “Uhm …. Dean Stockwell has taken over my entire life?” Thankfully, my friends all understand – and most of them have their obsessions as well … we can share them, and learn about each other thru the obsession. Like when my friend Jen recently became obsessed (OBSESSED) with Robert Shaw. She ached, she pined … it made her want to be a better actress, it propelled her forward – watching his work in all of his movies gave her great comfort thru some rough months.
I SO get that.
We are nothing, as humans, without our dreams – “the substance of things hoped for”. At times, it’s been all I have!
All of this is to say: I am glad you come here and share your obsessions, and identify a photograph of Marilyn down to the actual MONTH it was taken, based on her hair cut and style … etc. I love that!
“You and I will definitely meet! Maybe in 2009 at the Quantum Leap convention?”
I hope so. Or maybe before that. I’m only 3 hours from NYC.
Karen – I didn’t know that! I thought you were out west somewhere!
Hey, you know that documentary Stockwell is part of – cool school, I think it’s called? Has it opened yet? Any idea when? If it opens here in New York, you should come up – we could go together and REPRESENT!
No, I live in the wilds of Pennsylvania. (Well, that is west of NY…)
The Cool School has been shown at some film festivals, including the Woodstock Film Festival where it won Best Documentary, but I haven’t heard of a theater showing yet. It’s supposed to be on PBS in the spring.
5 for the day:
Dean Stockwell – by yours truly, a monster post I’ve been working on for a week. (For those of you coming over here from House Next Door – here’s all my Dean Stockwell content, if you’re interested.)…
Thanks Shelia for the shout out to my blog Nostalgia Kinky: The Art Of Nastassja Kinski. I set it up about six months ago and am looking at all of Nastassja’s films.
I just wrapped up my look at PARIS TEXAS (the first of her filsm I didn’t post a full review for as I feel a bit too close to it). I hope you enjoyed all the different posts on it. It was a bit harder to cover as there is already so much available on it online and in print.
I just started my look at her next film MARIA’S LOVERS and I hope you might continue to stop by, or visit my main blog at mooninthegutter.blogspot.com.
Thanks again…Jeremy
Jeremy – I love both of your blogs! This past week I linked to your fantastic post about Luis Guzman – which I adored. You’re a very good writer.
I watched it yesterday, finally, after discovering it last year and I must say I waited too long to watch it. The cinematography is simply stunning and hats off to Robby Muller. I was proud to discover that we share the same birthplace. All I can say is that this is one of those movies that leaves you thinking after the credits start to roll. It’s something we can all relate to in a way of how even the things we love the most get torn by ourselves, day by day and without even knowing it. Oh and last but not least, Ms. Kinski (is it wrong this name is a turn on?) is exceptional, how can she possibly be so beautiful?