We've noted the passings of Dick Martin and Harvey Korman, both of whom I liked very much... but nobody has mentioned the great director and actor, Sidney Pollack, who also died this week.
This is the man who gave us The Firm, Tootsie, Out of Africa, The Way We Were, The Swimmer (so different from anything else in its time!), Jeremiah Johnson, The Electric Horseman (a commentary that has become even more pointed with time), and Absence of Malice (a favorite of mine, about the destructive power of the media).
And remember him as Dustin Hoffman's agent in Tootsie? The scene in the restaurant, when Dustin shows up in drag? Pollack's face! "Oh God, Michael, I begged you to get some therapy."
I love that recent series of little be-quiet-during-the-movie promos they run before the film starts -- and Pollack's is the very best: we see a guy on the phone to his ex-girlfriend, saying how much he misses her and begging for a second chance... but he doesn't seem quite sincere. So Sidney Pollack steps in and starts telling him how to do it better -- we need some tears, we need a three-day growth of beard... and lose the chips, you're heartbroken, you can't eat! And when the guy looks shocked and puzzled, Sidney says, "Oh, is my directing getting in the way of your phone call? I'm sorry! But don't let your phone calls interfere with our movies, either."
Brilliant, right?
Anyway, I was just so fond of Sidney Pollack, and I thought he deserved to be remembered too.
This is the man who gave us The Firm, Tootsie, Out of Africa, The Way We Were, The Swimmer (so different from anything else in its time!), Jeremiah Johnson, The Electric Horseman (a commentary that has become even more pointed with time), and Absence of Malice (a favorite of mine, about the destructive power of the media).
And remember him as Dustin Hoffman's agent in Tootsie? The scene in the restaurant, when Dustin shows up in drag? Pollack's face! "Oh God, Michael, I begged you to get some therapy."
I love that recent series of little be-quiet-during-the-movie promos they run before the film starts -- and Pollack's is the very best: we see a guy on the phone to his ex-girlfriend, saying how much he misses her and begging for a second chance... but he doesn't seem quite sincere. So Sidney Pollack steps in and starts telling him how to do it better -- we need some tears, we need a three-day growth of beard... and lose the chips, you're heartbroken, you can't eat! And when the guy looks shocked and puzzled, Sidney says, "Oh, is my directing getting in the way of your phone call? I'm sorry! But don't let your phone calls interfere with our movies, either."
Anyway, I was just so fond of Sidney Pollack, and I thought he deserved to be remembered too.
