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the below is from preston not me- i was trying to reply see the next post
Thanks for the encouragement and appreciation, folks. Moving right along:
(A moment ago, I happened to be e-mailing Jeff Bond, and I reminded myself of the curious similarity between THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and THE SWIMMER with all those animals of the woodland inserted in post-production. With HUNTER, the critters were always part of the script. With SWIMMER, they were part of the second-guessing and the attempt to establish that eerie life-of-the-mind mood.)
You've got me, too, wondering now if any of the original settings are still extant and intact. I'd almost be afraid to try to go back and see, for fear of the deterioration and "mallization." On the other hand, remember that for the most part these were the homes of very well-to-do people, and there's no reason why most of these places shouldn't still be prime real estate whether or not their ownership has changed hands or not. Incidentally, I was impressed by the professionalism of Mr. Lancaster -- or, "Splash," as we called him affectionately behind his back. During scenes where he's walking in the woods and the camera is shooting him from the shoulders up, and he could have chosen to put some sneakers on his feet, he still kept himself barefoot as he trudged the trail, the better to help himself stay in character.
You mention Joan Rivers. The Perry's had befriended her and decided to write that little part for her. (I think it's called "Joan" in the script.) Between takes she reverted to her stand-up persona, not surprisingly, and kept a lot of us laughing with her stream of consciousness. I remember one throawaway moment when she mentioned sitting next to Marlene Dietrich on an airplane. "I said hi to her, but she never cracked a smile. Probably afraid she'd break the stitches..." Ironic, considering Ms. Rivers' latter day incarnation as the Elsa Lanchester of E Channel...
I never saw that Variety ad in which Perry disowned the film, but he could have run one. He may have disowned the film, but he did own a print of it, (and all his other pictures), later in his life.
The Cheever story is very mercurial and hard to dramatize. (Some would say it was folly to attempt it.) Are you sure Merrill's wife was at the first pool? I'd have to read it again. But seeing the film again a couple of summers ago on a big screen, I appreciated more than ever the imagination and skill of Eleanor Perry in extrapolating and dramatizing what few nuggets the Cheever story gave her to work with.
I'll try and wrap things up in Installment Three, gang. Thanks again for your interest and attention.
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I was just reading about The Swimmer and Preston's 2003 remarks where he wonders if any of the original settings from the movie are still intact. i live in the home of the opening scene where Ned Merril comes through the woods and jumps in the pool and later gazes off the cliff to dream about swimming home. We bought the house in 1996 and used the movie in part of the renovation we did. it was renovated oncein 1982 and we wnated to get closer to the original look. The staues in the film are still here althought they now have an aged look to them. the fields you can see below are now mostly woods and yes houses have been bulit but in the summer you can barely see them. the church steeple you can see in the disatnce is still there but again trees ahve grown up and are not too visible.
i am trying to find photos that may ahyve been taken at the time of the movie whne the stteing was being evalauted. i would lve to see more of what it looked like back then.
Anyone know how to get a hold of Mr Quaid. would he have something? Or any other tidbits?
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Wow! You bet I saw this!
John -- are you in the phone directory?
- Preston
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Just bumping this one upstairs again, hoping John will see this...
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I mentioned this before in another thread but I don't know if anyone here saw it.
This film is being REMADE starring Alec Baldwin in the Ned Merrill part!
I'd like to know what you all think (especially Preston). Personally I'm just shocked that anyone would undertake this since the first was such a financial disaster.
Check this out:
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0382328/board/nest/13031658
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I mentioned this before in another thread but I don't know if anyone here saw it.
This film is being REMADE starring Alec Baldwin in the Ned Merrill part!
I'd like to know what you all think (especially Preston). Personally I'm just shocked that anyone would undertake this since the first was such a financial disaster.
Check this out:
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0382328/board/nest/13031658
It may have been a financial disaster then, but it's such an interesting concept, maybe ahead of its time. Ever since 'Star Wars' that's been the predominant style in Hollywood ... to follow the Joseph Campbell technique of using mythological motives in screenplaywriting. At first sight, the notion of a man 'swimming across the County' seems obscure. Not if you conclude that the thing is based on archetypal ritual though. The swimmer undergoes a series of BAPTISMS in water, in each of which he strips off a layer of illusion, until he sees himself as he IS. That's classic myth ... alchemy really. That has to have been the writer's starting point. Perhaps it could've been done otherwise, more LOGICALLY, with a story about a swimmer on a journey down a river stopping at intervals on his way to the 'sea' (death) etc., but THIS version lets us see a particular KIND of man, a man who won't grow up, in a particular setting. It's a very fine work of genuine art.
Critical audiences (the kind who churn out awards etc.) will say that this movie's TIME is here, if not even past, whereas it first came out ahead of it's day. I'd rather see the film reshown and restored and revitalised than a remake though. It needs rediscovered rather then remade, but perhaps the remake will result in new interest.
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Thanks, William. I had forgotten about this project, but needed to be reminded. It's funny to read people debating the choice of Baldwin for the role, when it's just the opposite: Baldwin is choosing the role. This is a pet project of his, and to the best of my knowledge it remains still just a gleam in Baldwin's eye as far as development or production goes. And yes, I pretty much agree with everything you say. Thanks again for the link.
**
John -- I'm in the Hollywood phone directory -- if you'd rather not respond on this board, then please feel free to call me collect!
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Thanks, William. I had forgotten about this project, but needed to be reminded. It's funny to read people debating the choice of Baldwin for the role, when it's just the opposite: Baldwin is choosing the role. This is a pet project of his, and to the best of my knowledge it remains still just a gleam in Baldwin's eye as far as development or production goes. And yes, I pretty much agree with everything you say. Thanks again for the link.
**
Thanks for the thanks, Preston, but it was Arthur above who poted the link: it just appeared in my response!
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I'm going to try once more to reply. Tried several days ago, but it wouldn't "take." Obviously, something's screwy with this page, and the Sheriff hasn't responded yet to any of my entreaties for help. So, here goes nothin'.
THANKS, JOHN! I'll try to speak with you soon.
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Posted: |
Aug 29, 2006 - 2:41 AM
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By: |
robert
(Member)
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As a fellow fan of The Swimmer, I must say this thread is more than one could hope for for as far as background details and insider
info.
Twould be interesting in real life if you had a
level of rapor with your fellow neighbors to actually make such a trek. Long as its understood you want to do it just for fun.
I remember as a kid in surburbia ALWAYS cutting through neighbor's yards within a certain block's radius on the way home from where ever. Hardly the same thing I know.
Mr Conroy, or John is it?
Just wondering now that the soundtrack is out, have you thought of actually having a cocktail party at poolside while having track no 2,
"Easy Four/Bubbles" play in the background?
"Carnival" and "Lovely Hair" would kinda fit
in too, although those were played at different
settings. Maybe too surreal though, huh John?
Oh and Mr Jones, discovered another connection,
never know what's going to come up in internet
searches, at egalite.com is a Mr,
or Dr E.Kunin, who says I believe on page 4
of his website he used to reside in the actual
mansion that was used for the nude couples residence!
Says he hated it but would be interesting to
hear his story of living there anyway.
If he has any stories to begin with , with your
professional connection to The Swimmer, maybe
he'd be open to talk with you. He still resides in Connecticut according to his website.
About The Swimmer itself I'd say it would've been easier to grasp If they had started the
film panning in on Ned's head in a drunken
state of despair nursing a bottle in an old
broken down apartment, head on the table,
hopeless despair, then you could get the idea
that what you are witnessing is a mental swim
of Ned's mind in reviewing, or one should say
"swimming" through past memories, in a vain
search for hope. But with each mental "swim"
of the past he keeps coming back to the same
conclusions. BUT then he must start another review, another mental "swim", there MUST BE
something HE MISSED, SOME DETAIL OVERLOOKED,
SOME WAY OUT OF THIS,for then......he can
stop swimming and truly come home, or go home.
His swim is truly a journey of the mind,
sooner or later with no hope found , and enough nursing the bottle, his collapse will
be a real one, head down on the table for the last time with an overturned bottle emptying
drip by drip.......a REAL gut wrenching ending
would have been after the last scene of his fetal position collapse, if they then panned out and then zoomed back in on some distant graveyard away from the house, onto to a
tombstone......Ned Merrill...RIP.
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