#peter otoole

[kafkasapartment]

Audrey Hepburn & Peter O'Toole, promotion photo for "How to Steal a Million", 1965. Douglas Kirkland. Infused dyes sublimated on aluminum.

[rickchung]

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut (dir. Tinto Brass).

This extensive restoration of the notorious 1980 erotic historical drama reconstructs a brand new three-hour cut from a hundred hours of previously unseen original footage shot in 1976 and approved by its star, Malcolm McDowell. The cult film foregrounds his central performance as the mad Roman Emperor based on the original narrative vision conceived by literary figure Gore Vidal and spearheaded by film historian Thomas Negovan. Previously banned and criticized for adding explicit, X-rated pornographic material produced by Penthouse without the actors' consent, it's been mostly de-porned to not distract from the otherwise decadent setpieces, fine performances, and oppulent set design.

Screening at the Rio Theatre on Aug. 16 & 18.

[feliciore]

[kaptenorgazmo]

i adore the font used in this movie so much

[pastlikeaforeigncountry]

Have there ever been more attractive people on film?

Garlands for the conqueror, tribute for the prince, flowers for the man

[marlocandeea]

ooh liz as the country girl we could have had it all

[stephantom]

I’d need to watch it again to confirm this, but I’m pretty sure that Thomas Becket is the only character who independently initiates touch with Henry?

There are plenty of people whom Henry touches, and it’s almost always possessive or threatening: the villager woman in the first flashback scene, the Saxon peasant girl (and possibly the old man? I think he prods at both of them with his riding crop), Gwendolen (holding her shoulders/neck), the French prostitute (kissing, leaning over, sitting on, slapping her butt), his sons (pushing and kicking them), the bishop (strangling), his barons (clutching onto one, tapping one’s head to indicate his vapidness), and Thomas too—(clasping his shoulders when he realizes Thomas is hurt, holding his hand to put on the chancellor ring).

Interestingly, I don’t think we ever see Henry touch or be touched by his mother or his wife. There’s the moment when he grabs/kicks their needlework, and later on he knocks all the plates off the table, possibly vaguely in their direction—so there are two physical interactions which are violent but still sort of… distant? And still the direction is just Henry to them (in terms of physicality, anyway—verbally, they do initiate conversations/fights with him).

Does anyone touch Henry? There are the monks who whip him in the end, but Henry has ordered them to do it. Likewise, there’s the servant/valet/page who begins to wipe him dry in the bath scene, but again, that’s someone performing a duty. Thomas Becket though, cuts in and takes over the drying, and the dialogue tells us explicitly that he’s not expected to do this, and doesn’t have to (“You’re a nobleman—why do you play at being my valet?”) but Becket seemingly wants to do it, and he knows Henry likes how he does it: enthusiastically, confidently, warmly, and freely (“No one does it like you, Thomas”). He towels Henry’s head, helps Henry put on his boots, and then casually uses Henry’s legs to push himself up to stand.

There’s the scene in Henry’s tent, after the French prostitute has left and the two of them are sitting on the bed: Becket sort of leans in and briefly clasps Henry’s arm where it’s lying in his lap, casually and warmly.

There’s also the getaway horse ride, where Becket is holding onto Henry, arms wrapped around him, and they’re both laughing and smiling. Henry’s shirt actually falls open a little and Becket’s hand winds up on his bare torso.

And then there are the thwarted attempts at touch, after the split: the two scenes where Henry accuses Becket of not loving him. Both times, Becket moves toward Henry and reaches out to touch him, and both times, Henry moves away and tells him to keep his distance.

They’re quick little things, but if they are actually the only instances of anyone touching Henry affectionately (or even of their own volition) that we see over the course of the movie, it does support an impression of Henry as fundamentally isolated—maybe there is truth to his claim that Becket is the only person who’s ever loved him.

What’s tragic is that 1) Henry doesn’t really know how to express love himself (see: Henry expressing nothing but violence and entitlement to everyone else around him, and even to Becket for the most part), and 2) Becket’s love, albeit huge in Henry’s world, is conflicted and unfulfilling—for both of them.

Becket might be the only person who’s dared to reach out to Henry and meet him on something close to a human level, and Henry loves him for it, but why does Becket do it? Part of it may just be an instinct of Becket’s to fulfill a need where he sees one, if he can, and if it benefits him. I think it’s so interesting that Henry seems obsessed with the question of whether Thomas really loves him, when it seems the truth might be that Thomas actually doesn’t know; maybe it’s an unanswerable, even nonsensical question to him. Like, what else could he do? I don’t know. “Insofar as I was capable of love, yes I did [love you].” But the fact that his last words, unwitnessed and private, are, “Poor Henry.” Fuck me up.

Ok, that last paragraph got away from me and now I can’t stop. Tempted to draw comparisons to “Beauty and the Beast” (this is a sad version where no magical transformation happens… unless you take a particular Catholic stance and consider that both of them maybe took real solace and meaning in Thomas being made a saint and that Henry maybe found real absolution through his penance).

I also want to compare all of this to “The Lion in Winter”, where it feels like, rather than a story about one lonely monster in a castle full of people he sees as objects, it’s a whole microcosm of traumatized and power-hungry people, reaching out for power and security and love and stabbing each other in the back, over and over. (Like, of course his mother and wife and kids have complex feelings for him—some of which involve love!) I think that depiction is better and less myopic, more true to life and probably a more accurate portrait of the historical figures involved (even when it comes to Henry and Becket—Becket was of that world too, after all), but I think I’ve rambled enough about all of this, so I’m going to end this post now. I’ll just say that there’s something nevertheless appealing about the boiled-down fairytale melodrama of “no one else ever loved me but you!”

[hyperesthesias]

sketch before bed.

[myfanboydreams]

The wacky 1984 “Supergirl” movie. And yes, that’s Peter O’Toole and Faye Dunaway in the cast. Happy Throwback Thursday! 🦸🏼‍♀️

[postcard-from-the-past]

Woody Allen, Peter O'Toole and Peter Sellers

Italian vintage postcard

[myfavoritepeterotoole]

Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole on the set of The Lion in Winter

The Lion in Winter(1968) directed by Anthony Harvey

Peter O'Toole as Henry II

Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine

*** https://myfavoritepeterotoole.tumblr.com/post/678948316066807808/katharine-hepburn-and-peter-otoole-on-the-set-of

[moviesludge]

also regarding SOMETHING WICKED: fuck disney once again for choosing to produce this movie because they wanted to distance themselves from their "kiddy" vibe and then turning around and shoving their hands all over the production of it, keeping the artists from executing their vision the way they wanted to because disney decided it was "too scary". Like make up your fucking mind. every single god damn movie you make doesn't have to appeal to every single fucking person in the universe.

it seems really unusual that it came out as good as it did, all things considered. it's funny because right after the spider scene, theres this reaction shot of the two kids and when I watched it I said "did they get older?" and then I read that they WERE older in some of the shots because Disney wanted to rearrange and add in and take out and reshoot everything. Still a good movie though. I guess Bradbury wanted to make the movie with Gene Kelly in the 50s and he was on board but they couldnt get it funded at all.

I wonder what the ideal Gene Kelly version would have been like. I wonder what the 80s version untouched by Disney might have been like. Dark would have been Peter OToole or Christopher Lee, according to Bradbury.

[artistichound]

nice

a new year, a new Peter O'Toole

[jedivoodoochile]

In Memory of Peter OToole: August 2, 1932 – December 14, 2013

Peter O'Toole photographed in 1962 on the set of Lawrence Of Arabia.

[hootenanie]

rip to becket from becket if peter otoole was madly in love with me i would simply not fumble him by becoming earnestly catholic

[panatmansam]

THE ART OF NOT MINDING

T.E. Lawrence of "Lawrence of Arabia" fame was an odd bird. He was almost impervious to pain. In the 1962 film Lawrence played by Peter Otoole holds a match flame to his hand. When asked how he did not feel the pain he responded by saying ��the trick is not minding that it hurts”.

What does this say to we practicing Buddhist meditators?