"I am gobsmacked by this, but the actor was unfazed. 'It made perfect sense to me,' he says. 'I knew what he meant. The character had to be boiling over with this unfulfilled anxiety. You had to see …' He pauses. 'Not to be crude, but you had to see the semen build up to where it’s practically coming out of his eyes.' One Saturday night, though, Dunne cracked and broke the rule. The next day of filming, Scorsese spotted the change and went berserk. 'You’ve fucked up the whole picture,' he shouted. 'I don’t think I can finish it now.' Dunne says that he was probably being directed here, too. 'Because now I’m afraid. I’m terrified. And it turns out that a certain level of fear is the same as not having sex. So [Scorsese’s] second piece of direction is telling me that I’ve ruined his movie. That’s excellent direction. It brought all the old anxiety back.'"
I always liked Dunne in An American Werewolf in London. He managed to make his character of a walking corpse both funny and disturbing. A film by another great director, John Landis.
After Hours was a great movie. To tommyesq's point, it's an odd movie, destined from the start to be a cult classic. But that doesn't mean it's not worth the effort to do well.
Scorsese captured that feeling of late night NYC. I remember experiencing it about 10 years after the movie came out. It was me, my cousin and a couple girls in my red Volkswagen GTI and while club hopping I get two flats. The first one was not a problem, I had a spare. The second one however, we left the girls in the car with the engine running, it was freezing. We took with us the tools to get a tire from some other similar car and it wasn’t too long before we found a Volkswagen rabbit. We took one of the tires and came back to replace the second flat. My cousin took the wheel after that. I remember saying, this is just like the movie After Hours.
One of Dominique Dunne's final roles was that of a girl that had been abused by her mom in an episode "Requiem for a Hairbag" of "Hill Street Blue" on November 18, 1982. The most horrifying thing was that she required not much make-up to show the effects of the abuse of her character. Most of the bruises were real and had been inflected by her boyfriend the night before.
I will buy his book. Will be interesting to read of his experience of the trial of his sister’s killer, a topic covered in excruciating detail by his father in Vanity Fair, an article which launched his writing career.
. . . she wouldn't consider it great direction, necessary to create the work of art and realize a vision? Or she'd think, what else is new, a patriarchal sexist trying to scare me on the good-old-boy assumption that an anxious little woman improves the picture?
What's the famous disdainful Olivier quote about Brando and Method? Something like, "It's called acting." Haha, I would've loved to hear Olivier's reaction to Scorsese's directing technique.
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33 comments:
Emo-ting.
All that for a movie no one has heard of.
After Hours is a wonderful film- not Scorsese's best film, but better than 99% of the films made in the last 10 years.
A very enjoyable, bizarre, movie (watched it a couple of months ago). Not something I'd expect from Scorsese. It also has Teri Garr so there is that.
I always liked Dunne in An American Werewolf in London. He managed to make his character of a walking corpse both funny and disturbing. A film by another great director, John Landis.
After Hours was a great movie. To tommyesq's point, it's an odd movie, destined from the start to be a cult classic. But that doesn't mean it's not worth the effort to do well.
…and Linda Fiorentino. Oh man.
Ending was sort of patched on, though.
Is that all there is?
1980's The Stunt Man featured a director like that, but more extreme.
This explains so much about how DeNiro became DeNiro.
Love the movie. In my top 250, but I'm a Terri Garr fan. Didn't know who the main actor was or what his life story was. Good to hear it.
The Trailer is awful. But I guess its hard to "rope them in" to a quirky comedy.
Scorsese captured that feeling of late night NYC. I remember experiencing it about 10 years after the movie came out. It was me, my cousin and a couple girls in my red Volkswagen GTI and while club hopping I get two flats. The first one was not a problem, I had a spare. The second one however, we left the girls in the car with the engine running, it was freezing. We took with us the tools to get a tire from some other similar car and it wasn’t too long before we found a Volkswagen rabbit. We took one of the tires and came back to replace the second flat. My cousin took the wheel after that. I remember saying, this is just like the movie After Hours.
"And it turns out that a certain level of fear is the same as not having sex."
In other words, Scorsese could have told him that at the git-go.
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman"
What about "master of your domain"?
One of Dominique Dunne's final roles was that of a girl that had been abused by her mom in an episode "Requiem for a Hairbag" of "Hill Street Blue" on November 18, 1982. The most horrifying thing was that she required not much make-up to show the effects of the abuse of her character. Most of the bruises were real and had been inflected by her boyfriend the night before.
I will buy his book. Will be interesting to read of his experience of the trial of his sister’s killer, a topic covered in excruciating detail by his father in Vanity Fair, an article which launched his writing career.
"If a male director did that to a female..."
. . . she wouldn't consider it great direction, necessary to create the work of art and realize a vision? Or she'd think, what else is new, a patriarchal sexist trying to scare me on the good-old-boy assumption that an anxious little woman improves the picture?
"If a male director did that to a female..."
It would still be less bad than what Harvey Weinstein did, and plenty of women jumped for that opportunity.
It breaks my heart that Teri Garr and Linda Rondstat have been taken away from us for the most off the wall tragedies.
Back in Cinemas? Good luck finding one.
tommyesq said...
All that for a movie no one has heard of.
One of my favorite films. I saw it in the theater when it came out and it grabs hold of you from the first chaotic scene on.
What's the famous disdainful Olivier quote about Brando and Method? Something like, "It's called acting." Haha, I would've loved to hear Olivier's reaction to Scorsese's directing technique.
He pauses. 'Not to be crude, but ...'
Should be, "I will now be crude ... "
Weird movie. Didn't realize it was Scorsese's.
Decent movie. AWIL is the cult classic of the two, IMO.
Guy sure seemed to have a hard-on for his father.
I’m guessing Ernest Borgnine was never invited to work with Scorsese?
It’s quite a movie. Extremely uncomfortable to watch, a real waking nightmare.
After Hours is fun.
Scorsese's Forgotten Gem
Agree with others that this is one of Scorsese’s best. So many true-to-life things, slightly exaggerated for effect.
“It’s Mohawk night at Club Berlin!!!”
donald:
It breaks my heart that Teri Garr and Linda Rondstat have been taken away from us for the most off the wall tragedies.
Garr was a lovely and very unique comedic talent. Kind of a dingy Donna Reed.
Rondstat's voice was magnificent and she was charmingly pretty. All else.....
My favorite Garr movie - Caveman. Hilarious and as my grandson said "They did it with just ten made up words."
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