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Paper Moon
(Peter Bogdanovich, 1973)
Paper Moon is my kind of movie! I'm a big fan of Peter Bogdanovich, who himself was a big fan of Orson Welles...and well, Welles was big!..and Orson Welles was a mentor to Bogdanovich and gave him a few tips during shooting of Paper Moon. So how cool is that! It was Orson who suggested shooting in black & white, which wasn't unfamiliar to Bogdanovich having done The Last Picture Show (1971) in b&w. I love the choice of b&w for Paper Moon as it makes every scene seem like it was shot back in the 1930s depression era.
I love to watch the background and the set pieces while watching the characters too. The small midwest town shooting locations looked straight out of the 1930s...so much so that I felt I had traveled back in time. I'm impressed that the pre-shooting location scouting turned up sections of town that looked unchanged from the 1930s, that's a huge plus.
And I loved that the story in this comedy-drama was not overly silly or over the top. The script strikes a good balance between drama, comedy and light heartiness, while still having serious tension. The film stays focused on the 'love-hate' relationship between Addy (Tatum O'Neal) and Mosses (Ryan O'Neal). Of course it's well known that Tatum is Ryan's daughter in real life and that Tatum won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at the ripe old age of 10, the youngest Oscar winner ever.
Bogdanovich doesn't leave a lot of loose strings in film making, no wonder he had so many critical acclaimed and popular movies to his credit. Happy to have watched this!
Paper Moon
(Peter Bogdanovich, 1973)
Paper Moon is my kind of movie! I'm a big fan of Peter Bogdanovich, who himself was a big fan of Orson Welles...and well, Welles was big!..and Orson Welles was a mentor to Bogdanovich and gave him a few tips during shooting of Paper Moon. So how cool is that! It was Orson who suggested shooting in black & white, which wasn't unfamiliar to Bogdanovich having done The Last Picture Show (1971) in b&w. I love the choice of b&w for Paper Moon as it makes every scene seem like it was shot back in the 1930s depression era.
I love to watch the background and the set pieces while watching the characters too. The small midwest town shooting locations looked straight out of the 1930s...so much so that I felt I had traveled back in time. I'm impressed that the pre-shooting location scouting turned up sections of town that looked unchanged from the 1930s, that's a huge plus.
And I loved that the story in this comedy-drama was not overly silly or over the top. The script strikes a good balance between drama, comedy and light heartiness, while still having serious tension. The film stays focused on the 'love-hate' relationship between Addy (Tatum O'Neal) and Mosses (Ryan O'Neal). Of course it's well known that Tatum is Ryan's daughter in real life and that Tatum won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at the ripe old age of 10, the youngest Oscar winner ever.
Bogdanovich doesn't leave a lot of loose strings in film making, no wonder he had so many critical acclaimed and popular movies to his credit. Happy to have watched this!