3/21/2023 0 Comments Whats up doc![]() In promoting What's Up, Doc?, Bogdanovich was effusive in his praise for Bringing Up Baby, the 1938 picture directed by Howard Hawks and scripted by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde. O'Neal is game to up the ante of the farce, playing a straight man turned sideways, willing to appear in bowtie and skivvies to sell the joke. Streisand plays against type, and her character's journey includes scaling the walls of the hotel and sinking into the Port of San Francisco. Many of the cast and crew from Bogdanovich and Platt's earlier films worked on What's Up, Doc?, and their tight unit helped to create a comedic environment on set that was conducive to camaraderie and high jinks. Her work on What's Up, Doc? and the Oscar favorite Last Picture Show earned her place as the first woman admitted into the Art Directors Guild.īogdanovich, who passed away in January of this year, was an actor's director, experienced in performance himself, and adept at bringing out different sides of the actors he worked with. ![]() Platt took visual inspiration from Ernst Lubitsch and German Expressionism for the design elements. Platt designed the sets of What's Up, Doc? to maximize the physical humor, using extra-wide doorways, a posh apartment where worlds collide, and a Rube Goldberg machine of a gift shop as the setting for the meet-cute. ![]() ![]() It was Platt's idea to set What's Up, Doc? in San Francisco, and the hilly streets, urbane '70s style, and distinctive architecture became a memorable backdrop for the film's slapstick comedy and unlikely romance. Theirs was a dynamic collaboration that progressed from their work in summer stock theater in New York through their move to LA, tutelage by Orson Welles and John Ford, and lasted longer than their marriage. What's Up, Doc? is one of the finest of the Bogdanovich-Platt collaborations, which include Targets (1968), The Last Picture Show (1971), and Paper Moon (1973). 50 years after its original release, the film maintains both commercial and critical appeal, and was among the highest-grossing films at the 1972 box offices, competing with The Poseidon Adventure and The Godfather.ĭirector Peter Bogdanovich and production designer and producer Polly Platt had a working relationship that resulted in some of the most iconic films of the New Hollywood era that ran from 1967-1981 and both challenged and reinvigorated older styles of filmmaking. What's Up, Doc? stands out among films of the early '70s, with its focus on farcical situational comedy, romance that shuns the old-fashioned for the modern, and a star-powered cast that doesn't hesitate to make fun of themselves. Ryan O'Neal plays Howard Bannister, an uptight musicologist arriving at an important conference with his plainful fiancée Eunice Burns (Madeline Kahn), only to be knocked off his feet by a series of encounters with the freewheeling, beautiful Judy Maxwell, played by Barbra Streisand in one of her funniest performances. Inspired by screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s, by the French New Wave, and by Bugs Bunny himself, What's Up, Doc? is a New Hollywood take on the witty romantic comedy. A 35mm print of What's Up, Doc? will screen on Friday, March 11, in the Cinematheque's regular venue, 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave. These notes on Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? were written by Samantha Herndon, a former graduate student in UW Madison's Department of Communication Arts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |