This is random, but I thought I'd post it anyway.
A new boxed set of Martin Scorsese movies streeted today, including a newly remastered disc of
Mean Streets with an audio commentary track. Cassavetes was a great supporter of Scorsese's from his days coming out of NYU in the late '60s. Anyway, on the commentary, Marty was telling the story I've heard two dozen times of Cassavetes' reaction to seeing
Boxcar Bertha - Scorsese's first "professional" film, an exploitation quicky for Roger Corman starrting Barbara Hershey and David Carradine. After screening it, Cassavetes told Scorsese, "You just spent a year of your life making sh!t." Then he asked him if he had any scripts he wanted to make that were more like
Who's That Knocking at My Door? and the stuff Marty did in school. He said yes, it was
Mean Streets, and Scorsese pushed that forward instead of staying in Hollywood.
OK, so I knew that story by heart. But on the commentary track, he's also explaining how he is still attracted to Hollywood genre films, as well as the European art film and Cassavetes kind of loose improvosational street style. And he adds that while Cassavetes didn't like writing and directing movies in Hollywood (and if you're familiar with his experience on
A Child is Waiting you'll know why), he does enjoy them as a viewer. So this is what Scorsese relays on the DVD...
SCORSESE: John [Cassavetes] was such a great artist, but he wasn't so tolerant of the genres of the Hollywood tradition. But at the same time, he was great friends with Don Siegel [who directed him in The Killers ], and he loved Don Siegel's pictures. And he loved Clint Eastwood's Play Misty for Me. I'll never forget what he said: "Have you seen what Clint has done? It's fantastic! With this great movie Clint has made, Play Misty for Me, it scares the Hell out of you!"
So, like I say, it's random, but there it is.
Clint Eastwood Forums
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