Authentic Hollywood

HUMPHREY BOGART

Jan 10, 2011 Hollywood

Humphrey Deforest Bogart was born on 23 January 1899 in New York City (United States), within an affluent family where he grew up without money problems.
His father DeForest Bogart was an important surgeon and his mother Maud was a popular magazine illustrator.

In principle the desire of their parents was to study medicine, but his bad behavior at school led to his expulsion from the Phillips Academy and joining the U.S. Navy.

When he was fighting in World War I, Bogart suffered in a boat accident that left him paralyzed his upper lip, making this a significant physical tara speech.

After completing the Great War, Bogart returned to the Big Apple and start his career as a stage actor with William S. Brady.
After passing through Broadway with little success he moved to Hollywood to try to seek his fortune in the movies, getting his debut in a short musical called “Broadway’s Like That” (1930), which would films like “A devil with women” (1930) and “Upstream” (1930), a prison comedy directed by John Ford.
His classic type of drive would be established in those years 30, when he starred for a number of Warner titles in the psychology of his characters had been defined by an attitude rarely inclement and imperturbable.

Among them, films like “Bullets or Ballots” (1936), William Keighley’s film co-starring Edward G. Robinson, “The Petrified Forest” (1936), a film by Archie Mayo which also involved Bette Davis and Leslie Howard, “Dead End” (1937), directed by William Wyler, “Marked Woman” (1937) Lloyd Bacon and Bette Davis, “The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse” (1938), a curious and magnificent title directed by Anatole Litvak in which they shared credits again with Edward G. Robinson, “Angels with Dirty Faces” (1938) by Michael Curtiz and James Cagney and Pat O’Brien as co-stars or “The Roaring Twenties” (1939), directed by Raoul Walsh film was played by Cagney.

Humphrey Bogart was a very handy player for Warner but his status was far from being a big star in Hollywood.
Begin the 40 was ended at 30, showing Bogie gangster in “Brother Orchid” (1940) Lloyd Bacon.
Before starring in the two titles that would raise to stardom, Bogart appeared in “They Drive by Night” (1940), a great film by a great director, Raould Walsh. With the same director starred “The last refuge” (1941), a beautiful title that became one of the most acclaimed of its protagonist, confirmed acclaim for starring in the directorial debut of John Huston, The Maltese Falcon ” (1941), film in which Bogart played in a superb detective Sam Spade. From there, the New York actor became one of the great icons of cinema.

The next year, “Casablanca” (1942) by Michael Curtiz would make him an idol and a legend for all generations cinéphiles.

The number of master titles Bogar starred in the decade of the 40 is overwhelming, “Sahara” (1943) Zoltan Korda, “Have and Have Not” (1944), Howard Hawks key title, which helped him learn to love of her life, Lauren Bacall, “The Big Sleep” (1946), also directed by Hawks, “The Dark Passage” (1947) in Delmer Daves, “Dead Reckoning” (1947) John Cromwell, “Key Largo” ( 1948) by John Huston, The Treasure of Sierra Madre “(1948) again with Huston or” Knock on Any Door “(1949), a film co-starring John Derek and directed by Nicholas Ray.

Friendly, sports-loving, independent (had set up his own production company called Santana Pictures) and committed (he was one of the main supporters of the protest in Washington against the Witch Hunt), Bogie was also a celebrity and a beloved character out of the screen.

If the forties were good for his film career, the fifty continue the same course. “In a Lonely Place” (1950) by Nicholas Ray, “The Queen of Africa” (1951) directed by his friend John Huston, “The Fourth Estate” (1952), a story about journalism signed by Richard Brooks, “The Barefoot Contessa “(1954) by John L. Mankiewicz, “Beat the Devil” (1954) by John Huston, “The Caine Mutiny” (1954), directed by Edward Dmytryk title, “Sabrina” (1954) Billy Wilder, “Desperate Hours” (1955) by William Wyler and his latest film, the masterpiece by Mark Robson set in the world of boxing, “The Harder They Fall” (1956) assume the title of a recent extraordinary films.

For his performance in “The Queen of Africa” (1951), Humphrey Bogart get the best actor Oscar, having as co-nomination for Montgomery Clift in “A Place in the Sun”, Marlon Brando for “A Streetcar Named Desire” Fredric March in “Death of a Salesman” and Arthur Kennedy’s “New Dawn.” His last nomination would be for “The Caine Mutiny”, getting the prize Marlon Brando for “On the Waterfront.”

Although married four times, the most important woman to always be Bogey Lauren Bacall, with whom he married in 1945. Was previously married to actress Helen Menken, Mary Phillips and Mayo Methot.
Bogie died on January 14, 1957 in Hollywood because of throat cancer. He was 58.

Hollywood’s Resonance

Jan 5, 2011 Hollywood

Long before you could connect with the world at the speed of light, watch movies on your HDTV, or access blackjack online through your iPhone, the world was a much simpler place. The historic town that is Hollywood, just starting up in the early 1900s, captivated much of America with its glitz, glamour and star appeal, creating a wholly imposing yet intriguing air.

Now that we’ve evolved and are used to seeing crashes, explosions and things of a magnificent nature, thanks primarily—and ironically—to Hollywood, once revered iconic mainstays like the Hollywood sign simply fail to move us like before.

Could you imagine, however, being that proverbial Midwestern wholesome girl, driving out to Los Angeles in the 1930s chasing stardom and seeing that sign staring back at you in all its glory?

LA has become as popular as it is due to Hollywood, and Hollywood wouldn’t have nearly the respect it has today without the sign drawing people in. What the sign was then, what many contend it still is now, is the face—the brand—of the entire culture. One look in its general direction and you’re bombarded with the entire history of the movie industry, with timeless on-screen heroes and heroines flashing before your eyes.

Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland, Jimmy Stewart, Marlon Brando, Grace Kelly, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, and even so many popular actors of our modern generation – the sign is like a time capsule that’s opened up every time it’s seen or even mentioned.

It calls back a time in American life when black-and-white lifestyles didn’t need color. Our ideas of late-night LA parties, where stars mingled with starlets, are more vivid than anything we’ll see in the modern world.

The Hollywood sign is to the entertainment culture what the Statue of Liberty is to American independence. And while our lives are all about convenience today, worrying about instant text messaging and playing baccarat online while waiting for a pizza delivery, we’d all do well not to let true history become suppressed by our modern lifestyles.

Hollywood is the stuff of legend, and we should never forget that.

PULP FICTION

Jan 4, 2011 Hollywood

Director: Quentin Tarantino.
Cast: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman…

The hired murderers Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) working for a mobster named Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Vincent will have to protect the partner of Marsellus, Mia (Uma Thurman), who ends up on the brink of death after a heroin overdose.
On the other hand a boxer named Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) is intended to escape the city after failing to meet the combat rigged that it had agreed with Wallace.

During that second cinephile Quentin Tarantino named after his great “Reservoir Dogs” in which the director and screenwriter of Knoxville squeeze and talent combined with all its cultural influences ranging from Eastern action films, television series through the pulp (about flashy magazines with covers that contain mostly black genre stories, but touched many other subjects such as science fiction or adventure, and was famous authors such as Edgar Rice Burroughs known, Leigh Brackett and Dashiell Hammett) to a great string of classic films of series B belonging to the action genre that surely spent hours and hours watching from his job in a small video store.

Along with his regular partner in the texts, Roger Avary, Tarantino tells the time playing with the story of two hired murderers recovered embodied by John Travolta (thanks to this role would a prolonged ostracism) and Samuel L. Jackson, a character full of fun certainly memorable ascetic philosophy.

Using an episodic structure, the movie addresses not only the code of honor between gangsters and thugs, but also serves as its director to capture all the feelings and actions of the American people see clearly is, from their own formative references in a vulgar but funny and incisive script full of unexpected twists and resolved, violence, sex, drugs, fast food, cars, theme restaurants, television, the mix of cultures go parading through the footage in a visual format dazzling used to give the film a steady pace, with little ups and downs, despite its long stretch.

With a multitude of honors and appointments to icons and characters of American culture (from Douglas Sirk to Marilyn Monroe, from the couple Lewis / Martin to rock the 50), a notorious band sound full of great songs performed by famous musicians past, like the surfer Dick Dale, the Soulman Al Green, the funky Kool & The Gang, the wonderful British diva 60, Dusty Springfield, the father of rock & roll, Chuck Berry or the contemporary Urge Overkill, remixing an old theme Neil Diamond, a well-developed unique characters that keep vividly intense talks to film Tarantino serve a great movie.