Ranking the Woodward/Newman Collaborations

by Cláudio Alves

Last month, Ethan Hawke's documentary series The Last Movie Stars premiered on HBO. Chronicling the lives of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, the show is a precious consideration of the couples' legacy as artists, celebrities, teachers, and private people whose love endures beyond the threshold of death. Rather than being an idealized portrait, it's a program that acknowledges its subjects' thorny complexities, emerging as a humanistic jewel that's essential viewing whether or not you're a fan of its starry duo. Inspired by The Last Movie Stars, I spent a good part of August exploring many of the movies mentioned in the doc.

Specifically, I watched every single project Woodward and Newman made together, including those where one was working behind the camera. Here's a personal ranking of those 17 titles… 

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Gay Best Friend: Calla Mackie in "Rachel, Rachel" (1968)

a series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Who wouldn't risk it all for Estelle Parsons in those Edna Mode glasses?

We’re continuing our retro streak of the Gay Best Friend series this week, though we’re moving a bit forward in time (and to the subject of a Smackdown). In our Rebel Without a Cause entry, we discussed how director Nicholas Ray, actor Sal Mineo and writer Stewart Stern all coded Plato as gay, even though the Hays Code wouldn’t let homosexuality be openly discussed on film. This week, we’re looking at another Stewart Stern script, Rachel, Rachel. That film premiered thirteen years later (1968) and with the dissolution of the code we see less of a need to rely on coding. Estelle Parsons’ gregarious teacher Calla Mackie is established as a lesbian within the film. However, it reinforces tropes in gay representation that would continue for decades later. Calla may be a burst of energy early on, but her story moves into the “sad lesbian” and “tragic gay” frameworks we’ve become all too familiar with.

Before delving into Calla, we have to set up the object of her affection, the titular Rachel (Joanne Woodward)...

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Supporting Smackdown '68: Lynn, Sondra, Kay, Estelle and Ruth

The revival of "StinkyLulu's Supporting Actress Smackdown" now in its new home at The Film Experience continues. The year is... [cue: time travelling music] 1968.  Oscar skipped the Globe nominees in this category from For the Love of Ivy, The Lion in Winter and Finian's Rainbow and despite their love of Oliver! AND of women in musicals AND of prostitutes with hearts of gold they also skipped newcomer Shani Wallis. Instead they went with these five...

Tony Curtis presented the 1968 Best Supporting Actress Oscar

THE NOMINEES

Estelle Parsons, the previous year's winner in this category for Bonnie & Clyde returned for a victory lap (though she skipped the ceremony). She was joined by two showbiz veterans: Ruth Gordon, a three time nominee for screenwriting who was in the middle of a surprising golden years reinvention as a beloved character actress, and Kay Medford, who had previously experienced her greatest successes on stage. Filling out the shortlist were two fresh faces nominated for their film debuts: Sondra Locke (who would later partner up with Clint Eastwood both on and offscreen for 14 years) & Lynn Carlin (who would later vanish into a series of guest spots on television).

Who will win the Smackdown? Read on 

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Introducing... Five Nominees 1968

I've hinted at it before but we're going to try "Introducing..." as a series, since we love contemplating how actors and filmmakers introduce us to key characters in the movies. There's a real specific art to it if you want the character to stick. So herewith, as prelude to Wednesday's Smackdown, is how the five Supporting Actress nominees of 1968 are introduced in their films. In future non-Smackdown episodes we'll just concentrate on one entrance. But for our purposes here, quintuplets!

I've listed the nominees by how soon they show up in their respective films.

8 minutes in... Estelle Parsons as "Calla" in Rachel Rachel
This entrance is smartly staged by first-time director Paul Newman. It has the clarity of a theatrical entrance albeit without any heightening or glamour. As Rachel (Joanne Woodard) leads her schoolchildren downstage right with some silly arm wavings, an atypically 'light' gesture from this uptight teacher, Calla descends stage left from a higher floor into view, with her own flock, as if conjured by that sudden shift in tone. You immediately sense that they're very different women but as Calla gets closer to the camera, her shift from screechy schoolmarm to close co-worker chum is complete; the women lean in together co-conspiratorially.

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Thoughts I Had While Staring at the Cannes '13 Poster

• Does this mean Joanne Woodward is making an appearance at Cannes this year? If so... Yay!

• Not that it will matter to me as I never get to go. *sniffle*

• Rachel Rachel (1968), Paul Newman's directorial debut, is an awesome movie and it's kind of crazy that he didn't really catch the directing bug after it. It was nominated for best picture and it's probably his best (directed) movie... so maybe he knew it was downhill from there and we needed him as a movie star instead?

• Speaking of Rachel Rachel, Estelle Parson is SO much better in that movie than she is in her Oscar-winning role in Bonnie & Clyde.

• If God loved me he'd part the oceanic waters and let me get to Cannes... by which I mean he'd buy me round trip plane tickets and lux hotel accomodations. 

• I'm sure can buy this as a poster but forget that. I want it painted like a mural on my ceiling so I can fall asleep hypnotized by Paul & Joanne every night.

• Now I'm dying to see if there's any vintage photos of Paul & Joanne AT Cannes

• True story: I just finished a box of Paul Newman bran cereal the morning before this poster was released which is a really weird coincidence because I haven't bought a box in years before that one.

• It Newman's Own products helped you look like Paul Newman, I would eat nothing else.