I was on the way to the biblioteca to return a book when I stopped at a health food store for a liquado. There I fell into conversation with a white-bearded, ruddy-faced American named Tom Shaw - John Huston's assistant director, it turned out, there to set up locations for a film in Pozos, a nearby abandoned mining town. By then, Huston was elderly and quite ill, his emphysema preventing him from making the trip up into the thin mountain air from Las Calecas, his home south of Puerto Vallarta. (It would turn out to prevent him from making the film there at all.) We adjourned to the
That's a fascinating history. I've seen several Bunuel films, Viridiana stands out. There used to be a cinema on Santa Monica Blvd., in West L.A., that showed foreign films and I spent many evenings there being amazed by what could be done in films.
Kasper Hauser, Kentucky Fried Movie, Behind The Green Door, The Ecstasy of the Sculpture Steiner, In The Realm of the Senses, Last Year in Marienbad, Les Enfants du Paradise, and so many more.
Thanks, Tony, for another peek into a Mexico that seduced so many ex-pats with its basic human warmth and the vibe of ancient ways. Your piece mentions one of the film sets of Huston's Treasure of the Sierra Madre at which the mysterious B. Traven, author of the novel, was present. Years later, I became good friends with William Weber Johnson, author of Heroic Mexico and once a journalist with Time and Life magazines. He said he was on the set and managed to have chats with Traven and eventually he was invited to Traven's home in Mexico City where he lived with his wife, Rosa Luján. Johnson used to share stories of time spent with some of the famous artists you mention and this brought back to me that beautiful, momentous vibe of folks now long gone but who live on in their films and stories. Gracias.
Oh, brilliant historian Señor Cohan, what some of us did not KNOW!!! And is the would-be assassin still around? He could be useful right now…..
Gracias for a great history of our favorite directors and actors and assassins. Wonderful post n this very rainy, grey, wintry day in haha sunny southern France. Who knew? Off to find Buneul’s film that we have not seen.
That's a fascinating history. I've seen several Bunuel films, Viridiana stands out. There used to be a cinema on Santa Monica Blvd., in West L.A., that showed foreign films and I spent many evenings there being amazed by what could be done in films.
So did we.
Kasper Hauser, Kentucky Fried Movie, Behind The Green Door, The Ecstasy of the Sculpture Steiner, In The Realm of the Senses, Last Year in Marienbad, Les Enfants du Paradise, and so many more.
Thanks, Tony, for another peek into a Mexico that seduced so many ex-pats with its basic human warmth and the vibe of ancient ways. Your piece mentions one of the film sets of Huston's Treasure of the Sierra Madre at which the mysterious B. Traven, author of the novel, was present. Years later, I became good friends with William Weber Johnson, author of Heroic Mexico and once a journalist with Time and Life magazines. He said he was on the set and managed to have chats with Traven and eventually he was invited to Traven's home in Mexico City where he lived with his wife, Rosa Luján. Johnson used to share stories of time spent with some of the famous artists you mention and this brought back to me that beautiful, momentous vibe of folks now long gone but who live on in their films and stories. Gracias.
Fascinating!
One quibble; Night of the Iguana was made five years after The Unforgiven, not 15.
Oh, brilliant historian Señor Cohan, what some of us did not KNOW!!! And is the would-be assassin still around? He could be useful right now…..
Gracias for a great history of our favorite directors and actors and assassins. Wonderful post n this very rainy, grey, wintry day in haha sunny southern France. Who knew? Off to find Buneul’s film that we have not seen.