(via thanksomuch)
by Spencer T. Campbell
In Which John Huston Rewrites Flannery O’Connor
The chief difference between the book and the movie is the obvious one: the novel deals in depth, the film with surfaces. Huston takes this basic difference and applies pressure to it, forcing his adaptation into a subtle but thorough-going subversion of its source material, and bringing it in line with the lost-man movies of 1970s existential American cinema: Five Easy Pieces, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Taxi Driver, etc.
Video of John Huston, one of my favorite actors/directors/writers accepting an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. He directed some films you may have heard of like The Maltese Falcon and The Man Who Would Be King. He voiced Gandalf in an animated version of The Hobbit, and that role made me fall in love with his voice, years before I knew just how amazing he was in so many other aspects of film.
This is a fantastic speech, written like a piece of literature. I just want recordings of him talking. This man could make tax law sound like a grand adventure.
Newly restored and suppressed John Huston doc about WWII PTSD
This is great news; I love so many of Huston’s films: Maltese Falcon, Treasure of Sierra Madre, Asphalt Jungle, Key Largo, and Beat the Devil are probably my top five.
John struck me as an actor’s director; very compassionate and gentle-spirited with a cunning intelligence. So it’s great to have another “lost treasure” to check out from his classic Hollywood studio era period, even if it is only a documentary.
