
Picture This.
This is a behind the scenes look at the filming of Texasville, the sequel to Larry McMurty's The Last Picture Show. The sequel takes place 30 years after the first movie, and we see the same characters, now older and "grown up." This is like the disc with all the special features.
This documentary consists of interviews. We see the director, Peter Bogdanovich, who has gone through personal crisis (fiance's murder and the love affair with Cybill Shepherd) trying to again capture magic in Archer City. Also voicing their opinions are Cybill Shepherd, Jeff Bridges, Tim Bottoms, and Randy Quaid, who all starred in The Last Picture Show. Here is where things got very interesting.
Personal traumas really played a part in LPS. Most of the stars were about our age and just getting through stressful break-ups. Things started to blur as their personal relationships and working relationships started to mesh. Bottoms said he fell in love with Shepherd the first day of shooting, and this love/loss of love has tormented him ever since. Mind you this is 20 years! Bridges had similar feelings toward Shepherd, so this mirrored their characters. It really boiled down to the question of: art imitating life, or life imitating art? Lines realyl got blurred when director Bogdanovich started seeing Shepherd romantically.
McMurty had written LPS based on his home town of Archer City, and many of his characters were people he grew up with. Once camera crews rolled in for LPS, people were slightly thrown off their normal daily routines, but the second time they came, most people were pissed. Having achieved fame, most of the actors weren't seen in the same light. The town was really disrputed and agitated. Along with the reunions of cast and town, came cast and cast. Many hadn't spoken to each other in 20 years, and this added to that previous tension and love interests.
This was like a tabloid that was filled with juicy gossip. It was actually interesting to watch and see this backstory. You probably shouldn't watch this unless you've seen LPS. A lot of references wouldn't make sense.
There were also two other short documentaries with Artie Hellman and Dennis Hopper. Both were interesting looks at film/art/directors, and were quit interesting. It was interesting to see Hellman's underrated work with westerns and Two Lan Blacktop, which showed amazing insight into American ideals and ways of road life. Hopper had interesting viewpoints about art and life.
posted by Dallas Carlson #
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