Portraits

Just uploaded are a trio of portraits, so to speak. The latest is The Eastwood Factor (Warner), Richard Schickel's amiable documentary on Clint Eastwood's career after moving his production offices to the Warner Bros. lot. The doc is available separately or as part of the massive Clint Eastwood: 35 Years 35 Films at Warner Bros. set.

Since 1973, Schickel's been writing, directing and producing filmmaker portraits, and I've added one of his earliesr works, The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks, about the independent-minded director who, like Eastwood, made his own share of films at Warner Bros. over a 30-year career. (The 1973 doc was apparently given a tweak in 2001 by TCM, where it’s in regular broadcast rotation.)

Lastly, French composer/jazz pianist Michel Legrand conducted and performed in a live concert in Brussels, Belgium, and the 2005 event, Michel Legrand: Live in Brussels, was released on DVD by EuroArts. Although not a documentary, the concert video is a self-portrait by another artist, and well worth snapping up if you're a fan of his filmscores and jazz music. (The jazz sets in the concert's second half recall his classic 1968 album, Michel Legrand at Shelly's Manne-Hole.)

And totally unrelated, E1’s DVD release of Stephen Sondheim’s Evening Primrose has been pushed back to October 26, 2010. Hopefully this is just a move to position the release to Halloween season, rather than a delay due to rights issues. Pretty much unseen since 1966, only the soundtrack has been given a commercial release.

Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com