Fans lined the red carpet waiting for a glimpse of award-winning director Norman Jewison last night. Jewison, who was at a wine reception next door at Buona Tavola, is the man behind films such as The Cincinnati Kid, The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming, In the Heat of the Night, The Thomas Crown Affair (a personal favorite of mine … gotta love Faye Dunaway fondling that phallic chess piece as Steve McQueen smirks that little smirk off his), Fiddler on the Roof (which screens on Tuesday), Jesus Christ Superstar, And Justice for All, A Soldier’s Story, Agnes of God, Moonstruck (which screened last night), In Country, and The Hurricane to name a few.
The director was being honored with the King Vidor Award, and so Hollywood luminaries such as Academy Award-winning film editor Neil Travis (who later acted as MC at the Jewison Tribute) and actress Jane Lynch (the willowy blonde favorite of satirist director Christopher Guest) were in attendance, It was certainly crowded with film buffs, fans, and well wishers at the wine reception. The little pizza thingies were excellent, and Lynch was seen munching them down with abandon, at one point chatting up Buona Tavola server Laura Sanchez. Maybe Lynch is just a down-to-earth gal who likes to talk to the hired help, or maybe she was chatting up Sanchez to keep her from distributing those delicious snacks.
About 7 p.m. or so, the crowd milled its way over to The Fremont Theater. Sadly, it wasn’t a full house. I can’t imagine why. Jewison is one of our great directors. Sure, he made that horrible Sylvester Stallone trucker movie F.I.S.T., but most of his films were winners … or at least cult classics (Rollerball, anyone?). I happened to ask Norman (we’re on a first name basis now, natch) if F.I.S.T. was his biggest failure, but he said, no, that it had some “nice moments” in it. He named The Art of Love as his worst.
“That one missed completely,” said the diminutive bearded director. “Carl Reiner and I thought it was the funniest thing. We thought it was hilarious!”
Unfortunately, Norman and Carl (hey, any friend of Norman’s is a friend of Carl, so I’m on a first name basis with him too) were alone in that assessment. Norm said The Cincinnati Kid was his breakout film, the one “that turned my life around.”
At the tribute after a series of clips from his films, Jewison was invited on stage to accept the King Vidor Award. (Babe actor James Cromwell will received the award on Saturday). Jewison followed with a short speech, then Jane Lynch came up to read some tributes to Jewison by Hollywood friends who couldn’t attend the event. After that, Lynch, Jewison, and Neil Travis sat down for a chat, and it turns out Norm is a pretty funny guy. He recalled when he was asked to direct Fiddler on the Roof: “I thought, Oh my God, they think I’m Jewish!” For the record, Norm is a nice Methodist boy from Canada, where he still lives and works his Toronto farm, tapping his own maple trees for syrup. Now that’s Canadian!
He also recalled his first taste of American racism during a bus ride in the South. He got on the bus (he was wearing his Canadian Navy uniform), and walked to the back because it was hot and the windows were open back there. The bus driver saw him in the rearview mirror and said, “Are you trying to be funny, sailor?” “‘No,’ I said. ‘I wasn’t trying to be funny.’ Then I noticed a little sign hanging from the ceiling that said coloreds must sit in back. It was a hand-painted sign on a piece of tin. So I said to the driver, ‘Well, I guess I’ll get off the bus.’” The crowd in the Fremont began to clap, and it soon became clear that the theme of racism that Jewison visited in In the Heat of the Night, A Soldier’s Story, and The Hurricane came from this incident. This guy’s a class act.
Okay, I gotta wrap this up and get to the 3-D screening of It Came From Outer Space. See you at the movies.
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