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changes he witnessed were immense, he was always quick to downplay his own part in them,
“I’m basically a cameraman and I start with the visuals,” he said, modestly. “I find the visual impression of what I like and then try to find the cameraman who could best fulfil it, in my opinion. I have been asked why I like to change my cam- eraman a lot where some directors always work with the same ones and the reason is that I like to cast cameramen the way I cast actors.
“A man who is very good in documentaries would not necessarily be good doing something romantic or lighting actresses to make them look younger. For Julia, Douglas Slocombe proved to be one of the past masters and knew how to bring out the sculpture of the face. Then again, I chose Floyd Crosby for his superb documentary style when I shot High Noon.”
You sense that Zinnemann rather mourned the passing of an era when the major studios ruled Hollywood and black-and-white was the norm. It was a time when film-makers not accountants were generally in charge. Artistic choices were left to the artists who made the films and mono- chrome versus colour was an aesthetic rather than a blindly commercial choice. Indeed, Zinnemann managed to persuade Columbia boss Harry Cohn that shooting From Here To Eternity in colour would have made it look ‘trivial.’
The classic images of cinema’s past were due not only to the design of the film-makers but also, in perhaps equal part, to the sheer limitations of the technology.
“When we photographed films in the old days, the lens was not hard, it was soft,” he explained, “so the light was refracted through it as a disc, not a point. Without realising it you were looking at a softened image of a person.” Compare that, he adds, with the ‘merciless, clinical photography today where every little detail is visible.”
And yet despite his own glorious, award-laden past, Zinnemann was never a man to dwell end- lessly on former glories. Looking back over a long life that has encompassed wars, political turmoil and huge technological advance in all kinds of are- nas, the great man in his 90th year, recalled these changes with a mournful wisdom.
“Film-makers reflect the spirit of the times and film-makers today reflect today. People ask about the ‘magic of the movies’ but they forget that there’s no magic in the movies now because there is no magic any more.” In truth , Zinnemann was the magic. ■ ANWAR BRETT
cover story
One Fine Pfeiffer Hollywood superstar Michelle Pfeiffer talks about work,
motherhood, cooking ... and her latest movie - One Fine Day.
Michelle Pfeiffer’s eyes are ocean blue and clear, every single blonde hair is snuglyinplaceand the neat black cot- ton trouser suit has that indefin- able Armani elegance.
But the dazzling Michelle Pfeiffer, one of the most successful movie stars Hollywood has pro- duced in the past decade, is ... tired. Being a moth- er and being an in-demand actress is at last begin- ning, it seems, to sap her endless energy banks.
Here she sits in a suite of Paris’s fabulous Hôtel de Crillon off the Place de la Concorde with her producer-writer husband David resting in another room while she is on the promotional treadmill for her new movie, One Fine Day.
The subject of this romantic comedy couldn’t in a sense be more apt. For she plays Melanie Parker, a career driven divorcee - Pfeiffer has been through one busted marriage to actor Peter Horton - with a cute five-year-old son. She is Super Mom. But, of course, she knows she really isn’t.
Somewhere else in New York City is handsome newspaper columnist and Lothario Jack Taylor - played by George Clooney - Dr Ross in TV’s ER and soon to be the new big-screen Batman - also divorced with, you’ve guessed it, a little daughter.
So the scene is set for them to meet, spar, clash and finally ... It’s good old-fashioned romance with a very modern message about par- enting and ... priorities.
Pfeiffer, 38, went through massive changes in her own day-to-day-schedules when she adopted a baby girl Claudia Rose three years ago. Her son, John Henry, is now rapidly approaching his sec- ond birthday.
For her, motherhood came late and the joy on her face when she discusses her brood is natural. She smiles: ‘It seems like only yesterday when I didn’t have a clue about motherhood. I remember being in The Witches Of Eastwick and I was sup-
posed to have five children. That made me very nervous.
‘Now I guess I feel pretty much at home with the idea.
It’s like this film. The original idea from a friend of mine immedi- ately sparked my
interest. The funniest
things happen with your kids. At the end of your day you are always on the phone to a girlfriend comparing the loopy
things you do with them .
‘That’s the way things are now. It used to be
talking about a part or discussing some problem on the set which you need to break down. Now ... now, I’m thinking “I think I’ll get my daughter that dress I saw the other day.”’
A former Californian beauty queen, Pfeiffer first gained starlet status early in her career with films like Grease 2 and Scarface before going on to prove she was a real actress earning a trio of Oscar nominations with Dangerous Liaisons, The Fabulous Baker Boys and Love Field. More recent- ly, she has run the gamut of fantasy - as slinky Cat Woman in Batman Forever - and harsh reality, playing a ghetto teacher in Dangerous Minds.
One Fine Day - directed by Michael Hoffman and lit by Brit, Oliver Stapleton - excited her so much that she took the project on board through her own production company Via Rosa which also made Dangerous Minds. Via Rosa is currently shooting A Thousand Acres, in which Pfeiffer co- stars with Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jason Robards.
Now she wants a break to spend some ‘quali- ty time’ with her children. She might even cook. Michelle Pfeiffer cook? “Why not?” she laughs. “Actually I can cook well when I choose to do so. It’s just that it takes time and that’s the problem.” That fine day has just arrived. ■ IVAN WATERMAN
One Fine Day opens June/July 1997 and is originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative.
Photo: George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer in One Fine Day.