Movie Time

I've actually seen a few good movies lately. I especially liked Robin Hood with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. was pretty interesting. I like movies when I finally sit down to watch them. It is not my first choice of entertainment for the most part. I have probably seen less than fifty movies on the big screen in my lifetime. It is kind of like golf. I love the game, but am rarely willing to invest the time to play. It is not that I always use my time wisely. It is like anything else in life. If this, than not that.

The kids were occasionally called in to audition for films. Those were the years when Hollywood was pushing the envelope with every film. Now they seem to get by with about anything and people simply vote with their feet. I read recently that the more swear words in a movie, the less the movie rakes in. The same is true with sex and violence whether Hollywood wants to admit it or not. The big money makers are still the family films like Toy Story, The Invincibles, Beauty and the Beast, etc.

Anyway, sometimes the kids' auditions were for some pretty awful scripts. The Hollywood casting agents loved coming to the midwest and finding these innocent types and then putting them in raunchy roles. The standing joke in our family was that the kids would ask me, "If I get this part can I go to see the movie when it's done?"

My answer was always, "Absolutely not!"

Fortunately they never had to face that situation. Anna did, however, get the part as the younger daughter in "Blue Sky" with Tommy Lee Jones and Jessica Lange as her parents. Jessica Lange won an academy award for her role. Unfortunately, Orion went bankrupt right after the movie was finished and the film did not come out until four years later. It was released for a few short weeks, long enough for Jessica Lange to be considered for the award. By that time thirteen old Anna (on the right in the picture - Jessica Lange's left) was seventeen, so the role of "Becky", while well received, did not lead to another film. Too much time had elapsed. I see it quite often in the on demand offerings on cable, and of course it is on DVD.

It was a great experience. She and I were there the full nine weeks of the shoot. But that is a whole 'nother story.

Katherine