Sidney Lumet, 1924-2011

:(

12 Angry Men, Serpico, The Fugitive Kind, and of course, Network, among others.

I don’t know how much the Ned Beatty-Peter Finch boardroom scene in Network was scripted in terms of the scene and the lighting, but that was exquisite, and I’d like to think that was Lumet’s touch.

Well, the writing made Network great. But the shots Lumet took were iconic — Beale from below the desktop as seen above, for example.

OMG, they’re presenting the World Series rings to the Giants and it’s nothing like a brass section to make me bawl – look at how beautiful it is in SF! Every motorcycle cop in SFPD is escorting the rings…

@SanFranLefty: It’s windy, though. Oh, and that was the brass section of the San Francisco Symphony…
Locker room manager of 50 plus years Mike Murphy got the first ring…very very cool.

/really not trying to rub it in to Dodgerblue

@SanFranLefty: How ’bout them Phils?

@JNOV is like, 6 and 2: Willie Mays staggered out and Willie McCovey was in his wheelchair when they got their Hall of Famer rings – the whole crowd was verklempt (as was I).

@SanFranLefty: <3

@SanFranLefty: What’s wrong with McCovey? He was a great player. McCovey v. Drysdale = epic.

The OH, in his salad days as an actor in NYC, was an extra on a TV show directed by Lumet called You Are There about the death of Socrates with the very young Paul Newman as Alcibiades. Newman was apparently so handsome it hurt to look at him. The OH says that Lumet was remarkable for taking the time to explain to all the extras what the scene was about, who everyone was, and for involving everyone in what was going on. He found it a lesson in how a director gets good work from actors and used it later in his own work.

For clarification, most movie directors don’t even talk to the stars let alone the extras. They leave that to the AD if at all. Which is one reason for the decline in the standard of acting in US movies. We saw some of Invictus the other night which I thought to be shockingly badly acted. Morgan Freeman seemed to have Mandela confused with Yoda. Mind you, I always think Eastwood’s movies badly acted apart from Midnight in the Garden. So there.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: Eastwood directed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil? I read the book but never saw the movie. I might now.

Last night I watched Starting Out in the Evening, and I really didn’t like it. Lauren Ambrose was just being Claire from Six Feet Under, and Lili Taylor was just being whoever she was from Six Feet Under. Frank Langella was pretty good, but I didn’t like his character much. It was just boring, but critics loved it. I might read the book.

Yeah, Paul Newman. Some people are so exceptionally beautiful that it’s like staring at the sun. It doesn’t hurt that he seems to have been a decent person, too, even if his salad dressing is kinda gross.

@Dodgerblue: He’s had so many knee and back surgeries, he can barely walk.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: A lot of us here probably saw that show in school.

If I recall the obit or some other source directly, Lumet got his start directing live TV as an assistant to another director. When that director moved on to a new gig, Lumet took over.

The new gig was The King and I. The other director was Yul Brynner.

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: Re Eastwood’s directing apart from Midnight: Perhaps his daughter’s role in that movie had something to do with it?

@Benedick is not as stupid as he looks.: about the death of Socrates with the very young Paul Newman as Alcibiades.

Then Agathon said to the servants, Here, take off Alcibiades’ shoes, so that we can all three make ourselves comfortable.

Yes, do, said Alcibiades. But just a minute, who’s the third?

And when he turned around and saw who it was, he leaped out of his seat and cried, Well I’ll be damned! You again, Socrates! So that’s what you’re up to, is it? — The same old game of lying in wait and popping out at me when I least expect you. Well, what’s in the wind tonight? And what do you mean by sitting here, and not by Aristophanes or one of these other humorists? Why make such a point of sitting next to the handsomest man in the room?

I say, Agathon, said Socrates, I’ll have to ask you to protect me. You know, it’s a dreadful thing to be in love with Alcibiades. It’s been the same ever since I fell in love with him; I’ve only got to look at anyone who’s in the least attractive, or say a single word to him, and he flies into a fit of jealous fury, and calls me the most dreadful names, and behaves as if it was all he could do to keep his hands off me.

–Symposium, 213b