Word: marvinism
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...confidence of a genuine masterwork seems to seep out of Five Easy Pieces, but it's almost impossible to tell why. He has an obsession with isolated, emotionally-distant characters, and he shows them with remarkable clarity. One wonders, though, if he's really exploring them. The King of Marvin Gardens might have been his best movie, but it was hell to sit through even though Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern were clearly doing something extraordinary. He's a maker of strange hybrids, this Rafelson, and with The Postman Always Rings Twice he has made another of his mutant masterpieces...
Rafelson makes handsome, careful movies (Five Easy Pieces, The King of Marvin Gardens) about outcasts fighting a system all too ready to ignore them. At times, his Postman is too handsome, too careful: Rafelson caresses every ladder in Cora's stockings, every crescent of dirt under Frank's fingernails, until they become aspects of art direction. Jack Nicholson's performance as Frank is studied too. The dashing star of a decade ago has dared to inhabit the molting seediness of the character actor. So Cora must choose between two middle-aged galoots: one offers her security...
...since the Lee Marvin "palimony" case has a Hollywood courtroom drama attracted such attention. As an expectant crowd lined the corridors at Los Angeles County superior court last week, Actress-Comedian Carol Burnett arrived for the first day of proceedings in her $10 million libel suit against the sensationalist weekly tabloid the National Enquirer (circ. 5.1 million). Said a determined-looking Burnett: "I'm very happy to be here. It's like a five-year-old toothache and I'm finally at the dentist...
...profits from that film, Star Wars, Alien and other blockbusters, the studio has been pursued by a flock of acquisition-minded outsiders, most notably Chris-Craft Industries, which holds 22% of Fox's stock. But the winner in the Fox hunt may be a new entry: Denver Oilman Marvin Davis, who last week wheeled into Hollywood in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith II and made a cash offer of almost $800 million for the company. If the bid succeeds, Fox would become the first major studio since the days of Louis Mayer and the Warner brothers, more than...
...tepid, she puts a fire under it to make it percolate. When given a strong scene, like the dying Evita's farewell radio address, she can key several moods - weariness, coquetry, defiance - while providing the scene with a swift climactic kick. But Writer Ronald Harwood and Director Marvin Chomsky allow too much of Evita Perón to glide by on casters; and James Farentino, as Perón, looks and acts as if he could be Robert De Niro's older brother who went into accounting. One brief scene - in which Eva greets her new lover Juan...