A Hundred or More Hidden Things

Mark Griffin interviews John Waters on How to Get Through Christmas

2011-12-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

'The Pope of Trash' Comes Clean: Director John Waters on Portland, Pink Flamingos and How To Get Through Christmas
by Mark Griffin

First comes the good news: John Waters, who is without a doubt one of the most intriguing individuals in our solar system, agrees to an interview. I am beyond elated. The world is suddenly full of wonderful things like bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Then comes the bad news: due to an overloaded work schedule, 'The Bard of Bad Taste' has only ten minutes to spare.

Ten minutes? Can one truly interview "The Pope of Trash" in less time than it takes for the average ATM transaction? After all, this is the director of some of the most noteworthy and notorious cult classics of all time including the landmark Pink Flamingos ("one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made," raved Variety), Hairspray (which spawned a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical in 2002) and Serial Mom (in which homicidal homemaker Kathleen Turner does an especially obnoxious neighbor in with a leg of lamb).

Ten minutes seems scarcely enough time to discuss Waters's unique contributions to cinema, let alone his holiday-themed stage show, A John Waters Christmas, which will be the hottest ticket in town when it hits Portland's State Theatre on December 11th. And ten teeny minutes leaves us next to no time to cover Waters's superlative collection Role Models (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a highly addictive page turner in which 'The Sultan of Sleaze' pays tribute to his idols - everyone from Tennessee Williams to Little Richard to Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West. I appeal to Ian Brennan, Waters's promoter, for additional interview time. Alright, truth be told, I subjected Ian to a supreme diva tirade and demanded at least an hour. The unflappable Ian has apparently dealt with relentless, conniving journalists before: "John speaks very rapidly...You'll get everything that you need," he assures me. Ten minutes it is.

With one eye on the clock, I ask the first question. In a culture dominated by the likes of Casey Anthony and The Real Housewives of New Jersey, does the John Waters vision still have the capacity to shock? "My audience gets younger as I get older and Pink Flamingos still works. I promise you. It didn't get nicer," says Waters. "I go to colleges all the time and Pink Flamingos still gets eighteen year-old kids who think they've seen everything. It still makes their jaws drop and I'm very proud of that."

With nary a nanosecond to spare, we dash off to the next question. If Waters is capable of putting Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop, Traci Lords and Troy Donahue all into the same movie (as he did with 1990's Cry-Baby), what on earth will he do to our most sacred holiday in A John Waters Christmas? "I actually love Christmas in a non-ironic way," says Waters. "But I understand that there are people in Portland, Maine - as in everywhere - that hate Christmas. I'm sure there are people in Portland, Maine who do not agree with it religiously. They go their families' houses and they are tortured. And they hate the enormous financial burden of Christmas. So, with this show, I try to speak to everybody. It's a self-help group. How To Get Through for Christmas. No matter if you're a convict, a thief or a fashion casualty, this show has something for you. It's all about mental health at Christmas."

We're seven minutes in and I've only asked two questions. With no time to lose, we rip into the next topic. Which of the thoroughly original role models profiled in Role Models had the greatest impact on Waters's own life? Was it Baltimore's infamous "angry stripper" Lady Zorro? Or maybe it was velvety-voiced pop legend Johnny Mathis? Never one to play it safe, Waters opts for the most controversial candidate in the book. "I would say Leslie Van Houten, because the one thing I would like to do is help her get out of prison before I die," Waters says.

In 1969, Van Houten was a 19 year-old follower of the infamous ex-con Charles Manson. Along with other Manson 'Family' members, Van Houten participated in the gruesome murders of a Los Angeles couple, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Waters believes that Van Houten, now 62, is a completely rehabilitated woman - one light years removed from the cult-indoctrinated 'trippie' who killed while under the influence of LSD and Manson's brainwashing. "Her case is probably the only thing I've ever written about that was serious,' Waters says. "There are no jokes in there. I also know that there is no fair answer to the question that her chapter in the book asks...What happens when you've done something so terrible when you're young? How can you ever begin to make up for something like that? So, that is a subject that will continue to interest me forever."

Twenty minutes have flown by but who's counting? While no one's looking, I sneak in another question. When can we expect the next John Waters extravaganza at the neighborhood cineplex? "You know, I started out making underground movies and then midnight movies and then I guess what was called independent movies...and now I can't get a movie made," says Waters. "In the forty years that I've been involved with it, I would say that independent film is having the toughest time right now. They want you to make a movie for $500,000 or $100 million now. Years ago, there used to be ten distribution companies that I could pitch to and there's only about two now. But I've got a development deal for this children's Christmas movie that I'm trying to make called Fruitcake. So, I'm still trying but in the meantime, I write books. I'm on stage. I tell stories. Luckily for me, there are many different ways to tell stories."

In recent months, Waters has been touring the world with his acclaimed one man show. "I actually just came back from doing seven or eight cities in New Zealand and Australia," Waters says. They couldn't get enough of him in Perth and Waters's demented brand of humor went over remarkably well 'down under.' So what accounts for his success in even the remotest parts of the globe? The answer, like the rest of our interview, comes quickly: "Bad taste - I promise you - is international."

[Mark Griffin is the author of A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli]

Minnelli at MoMA

2011-08-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Meet Me in St. Louis just screened at MoMA this weekend. The MoMA blog has a lot of notes and insight about the film including this mention from Mark Griffin's recently published biography, A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli.

We featured Mark Griffin’s A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life of Vincent Minnelli in an Auteurist History of Film special event last year. Mark’s book is scrupulously scholarly, but he confesses his devotion to Minnelli on the first page, based on his first viewing of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever at the impressionable age of 16. Regarding Meet Me in St. Louis, Mark presents a reasonable appraisal of Garland: “Freed from Andy Hardy, Busby Berkeley, and her outmoded ugly duckling image, a new Judy Garland emerges…and she’s a beauty.” Mark also quotes Minnelli’s own assessment of the film: “It’s magical.” So, I’ll buy into that and hold my ambiguity and qualms in check at least for Meet Me in St. Louis, The Pirate, An American in Paris, and The Band Wagon. Musicals are supposed to be magical.

Mark Griffin interviews Jacques d'Amboise

2011-04-11T05:42:00.000-07:00

If your exposure to the world of dance has been limited to Ralph Macchio's killer foxtrot on Dancing With the Stars, it's time to get acquainted with the illustrious Jacques d'Amboise. Widely considered one of America's preeminent classical dancers, d'Amboise was a principal with the New York City Ballet for over thirty years. While under contract, he became a protege and confidante of the legendary choreographer George Balanchine.

After captivating audiences around the world with his performances in Balanchine's ballets, Apollo and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Hollywood beckoned and d'Amboise starred in such celebrated screen musicals as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and Carousel (1956). In 1983, d'Amboise became the subject of the acclaimed Oscar-winning documentary, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', which focused on his work teaching dance to schoolchildren through his non-profit organization, the National Dance Institute.

In his revealing new memoir, I Was a Dancer (Knopf, $35), d'Amboise looks back at a life spent as "a would-be explorer - of ideas, cultures and people." Mark Griffin, the author of A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli, recently spoke with d'Amboise regarding his longtime association with Balanchine, his appearances in several four star films and how he manages to get things done -- his way.

NOTE: An excerpted version of this interview ran in the Lewiston Sun Journal.

Mark Griffin: You are a certified living legend. Was it your family ties to scenic and fashionable Lewiston, Maine that launched you on the road to success?

Jacques d'Amboise: Of course. Lewiston is where it all began for us. That's where my [mother's] family settled when they first came here. In those days, there was this whole slew of French-Canadians emigrating from Canada. That's why you have all of these neighbors with beautiful sounding last names like Goudreau, Levasseur, Larochelle and d'Amboise. Our family moved to Lewiston because there was this special feeling of community there.

MG: Your mother was a real pistol, whom your father nicknamed "The Boss." If it hadn't been for her all-consuming interest in the arts, would you have had this extraordinary career?

Jd: My mother was determined that all four of her children were going to be well educated. That was her dream -- that we should be able to recite poetry, play an instrument or dance She was unstoppable. In fact, except for my brother John, who ended up in Okinawa during World War II, the rest of us - my other brother Pat, my sister and I - we all ended up in the precursor of the New York City Ballet. "The Boss" saw to it that we all went in that direction. As I say in the book, my mother could have taken the whole family into the Canadian woods naked in midwinter and seen to it that we all came out by the end of the season fatter and dressed in stylish furs.

MG: How did it feel to be the great Balanchine's muse?

Jd: I knew that when I was dancing on the stage, I was representing him. When I lifted a ballerina and held her in my arms, I was standing in for Balanchine in a way. He used me vicariously to make love to the ballerinas. Sometimes, he'd come back after a performance and say, 'You two were so beautiful together...' I'd be standing there - exhausted, dripping sweat and he still wouldn't let me go. He was on a high and he couldn't calm down because he had sat in the audience and inhabited - in his mind - my arms and legs and body...If you listed all of the great Nobel Prize-winners in the arts - throughout the entire 20th century - Balanchine would be right there leading the list. I have a friend named Francis Sackett, who wrote me a very sweet, wonderful note and at the very end of it, he said, 'How lucky we were to be able to grasp hold of the tail of the comet that was Balanchine...' And I called him up and I said, 'Francis, can I use that quote in my book?...' No one, I think, started on that tail earlier and stayed longer and was closer to the heart of the comet than I was.

MG: As one of Balanchine's charmed proteges, what was the most important thing that you learned from him?

Jd: I would say good manners. He would never say, 'I want you to do this...' He would always say, 'Do you think maybe that you'd like to dance this role for me?' Meanwhile, he knew very well that no one was going to say 'no' to George Balanchine. He had this beautiful courtesy. It was an old world courtesy based on chivalry and romantic ideas that I guess influenced him. His manner was very old world and kind of formal. And that always impressed me. Another thing...oh, my god - when he came in first thing in the morning to teach company class -- he'd walk in and go directly to the piano and greet the pianist and if there was a cup of coffee on the piano or an ashtray, he wouldn't say anything. He'd simply pick it up and he'd walk to the back of the room where there was a wastepaper basket and empty everything into it. All of this without saying a word. And then he'd turn around and snap his fingers and say, "Let's begin!" He would never say, 'Don't put your coffee cups on the piano...' or anything like that. It was always teaching by example. I remember asking him about this once when we were dining together -- he liked to eat Greek olives and feta cheese and drink Beck's beer - and he said, 'Look at the piano. It is beautiful. It is a sculpture. It is an instrument of percussion but it's also a string instrument. It crosses two places of music and it comes to life...this beautiful, wooden sounding board. It's an intricate mechanism -- so that a person with their brain and craft and skill can take their fingers and transport you out of this world...How can you put a cup of coffee on such a work of art?' So, now every time I see a piano and there's something on it like a ballet bag or a newspaper or a cup of coffee or something that someone left behind, I clean the piano. I don't say, 'Who's bag is that on the piano? Get it off!' No, I just take it and quietly put it to the side. That's what I learned from Balanchine...good manners.

MG: During your time in Hollywood, you were cruised by Rock Hudson and nearly killed by Julie Newmar. So when did you find time to appear in one of the greatest musicals ever made?

Jd: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was one hell of a movie and a great learning experience...except, if you look closely, I'm not actually in the last few scenes. The shooting schedule ran over and I didn't want to miss the premiere of The Nutcracker back in New York...So, they slapped a red wig on the assistant choreographer, gave him a duplicate of my costume and he filled in for me in a couple of scenes. Nowadays, they'd just take my photo and digitally morph me into the movie.

MG: What was it like being at MGM - the Rolls Royce of the Hollywood studios - when it was still going strong in the early 50's?

Jd: I never thought that with MGM or 20th Century-Fox or Universal that there was this kind of hierarchy. In those days, I thought of it all as just a bunch of sets out in Culver City that I had to report to. I was lucky, though, that on my first film I got to work with [choreographer] Michael Kidd and [director] Stanley Donen. I turned eighteen on the set of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers but I was emotionally fourteen. Coming from New York and the ballet, I thought that some of the movie people didn't have the same kind of discipline that we had. When they said, 'Alright, at eight o'clock, be ready to go...' I would be there at six-thirty or seven to warm up so that at eight o'clock, I'd already be dripping sweat as though the curtain's going up and you have to get ready to appear on stage. It was very different with movies. I couldn't even get on to the sound stage at seven because it was all locked up and I remember thinking, 'I must be in the wrong place...' I'd wander around for a while and then someone would say, 'What time is your call?' and I'd say, 'Eight o'clock...' And they'd say, 'Oh, well, they probably won't open everything up until about ten minutes before eight.' It was just a very different world from the one I knew.

MG: While you were working on Seven Brides..., did you have the feeling that you were working on a project that was shaping up as something extra special?

Jd: There were interesting things going on in every studio but the buzz was out about Seven Brides...but I have to say that there was even more of a buzz when I did Carousel (1956) and that was for 20th Century-Fox. I'd be in rehearsal and you'd see Dan Dailey or some of the other stars -- when they had a break on their own set, they'd come over to our set to see what was happening. They were all very curious. Same thing with The Best Things In Life Are Free (1956). We always had various stars popping in to watch what we were doing. That was going on all the time. But I was out of it. I was just a kid. I didn't understand all of that.

MG: In reference to Seven Brides..., can you talk a little bit about how the division of duties worked between Stanley Donen and Michael Kidd? Who was in charge of what on that picture?

Jd: I've never doubted that the two of them came together like Siamese twins on that movie but the direct influence on me was Michael Kidd. He was the choreographer, so that was "The Boss" for me. I do think they collaborated terrifically and fabulously. When Michael died several years ago, I called Stanley and asked if he would come in and talk to all of the children that I teach -- there was a group of maybe two hundred of them. So, on a Saturday afternoon, Stanley Donen came over and we projected scenes of Michael Kidd and Dan Dailey and Gene Kelly dancing together in It's Always Fair Weather (1955), which Stanley directed and choreographed [with Kelly]. We showed them that amazing sequence where they dance with garbage can covers attached to their feet. I mean, they were simply fabulous -- all three of them. But in some crazy way, Michael Kidd stole it for me. He really had it, you know? He was a New York street guy. A tough little bantam rooster...After we showed the film, I asked Stanley to talk about Michael a bit and about his own work as a director and choreographer but Stanley was very modest and mostly talked about Michael.

MG: Did Balanchine object whenever you pulled out of the ballet to appear in a Hollywood production?

Jd: I always did exactly what I wanted to do. After Balanchine died, I remember [New York City Ballet's general manager] Betty Cage said to me, 'I once asked George why he let you do anything you wanted and he said, 'Well, when I was seventeen, no one could tell me what to do...So, I'm not going to tell Jacques what to do either.' And Balanchine had been dead several years before I heard that. I was just spoiled rotten. For example, Balanchine would carefully prepare a ballet for me and it would be scheduled to premiere at the beginning of the season. Meanwhile, my agent would have gotten me a television show or an appearance in Miami. So, I'd go to George and say, 'Hey, Mr. B., I can't do the opening of the ballet. I'm going to be away shooting a movie for a few months...Is there any way that we can solve that?' And he actually let me do this kind of thing. And I was on a full, year-round salary with New York City Ballet and I'd say things like, 'Hey, I'm doing a movie, I'll be gone six weeks...' And then I would even take some of the ballerinas with me when I was doing shows all over the country. I'd be doing Balanchine's ballets - his own choreography - and I never even asked his permission. I just did it. And when I'd come back, I'd say, 'Hey, Mr. B., when we were in St. Louis, we danced this ballet of yours and the audience really loved it...' And I was talking about Balanchine's ballets! He just let me do anything I wanted. My wife used to say, 'You are so spoiled...you have no idea.' And I was spoiled. Very spoiled.

MG: The National Dance Institute is, of course, one of Jacques d'Amboise's greatest accomplishments. As the creative nucleus of something as vital and meaningful as NDI, it must be disheartening to you that so many federally funded arts programs are being slashed?

Jd: They are now trying to cut the funding for the National Endowment for the Arts again. When they threaten to do things like that, I always think of Germany after the war. The first thing they did amid the rubble is build their opera house back up again. The first thing. It was the center of the expression of their culture. The emotional center of their community was their opera house. I'm afraid we don't view things in quite the same way in this country. First of all, we don't have a culture that is mono-cultured. Our culture includes a little bit of everything. It's French. It's Italian. It's Chinese. We're this hodge-podge of a global nation in our own laboratory testing out the possibilities of a future...Also, the live performing arts are being - little by little - eradicated by television and technology. Why should someone go to a concert now? They can put a plug in their ear and listen to some gadget twenty-four hours a day and ruin their eardrums...So, the arts - at least in terms of public performance - are changing. But there is still nothing like attending a live performance. I have a friend - a dentist - and she's mad about the opera and she always gets the best seats right in the front row. And she invites me. I like opera but over the years, I rarely went because it does cost a lot of money and I was usually performing at night myself. When I did go, it was just amazing. When you see opera like that, you realize that kind of grandness cannot be realized in a tiny little place. It really needs the opulence of an opera house In other words, you could be this very elegant person but unless you know how to dress elegantly, the public doesn't realize your inner worth. When you sit there with Wagner and Verdi and Donizetti and Puccini and these incredible productions with these fabulous singers, you are instantly transported. It's live performance at its best.

MG: As a frequent visitor to Vacationland, what does Maine offer you that you can't find in midtown Manhattan?

Jd: Everybody needs a foot in the marketplace and a foot in the wilderness...One thing that's been lost today is this idea of embracing silence and making time for contemplation and reflection, which is something you can still achieve in Maine...I was on a plane recently and I was talking to [Eliot Cutler] who had run for governor of Maine and he'd lost by less than 10,000 votes. We were talking about how extraordinary Maine is. We also got on the subject of China, because he had been in Beijing for a few years and I was impressed with the fact that he had a global outlook and I thought, wow...if he runs again, I'm going to tell all of my relatives in Maine to vote for him.

MG: Were there skills that you acquired as a dancer that proved to be helpful to you in terms of getting through everyday life?

Jd: I wish that I could say that the discipline of the dancer and the hours they put in translates to the way I live my life now but it's not so. I'm disordered. I'm mercurial. And I depend on other people...I once had a dalliance with a young woman and I asked her, 'Why are you so interested in me?' because there was almost a twenty year difference in our ages. And she said, 'Oh, aside from the physical stuff, I don't know anybody better at getting people to do what you want...and I want to learn how you manage it so that I can do it, too.' And I realized that I'm spoiled. I've always had assistants helping me. I do what I want -- but I get everybody to help me do it.

DVD Classics Corner On the Air features Vincente Minnelli

2011-03-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

Dick Dinman, host of DVD CLASSICS CORNER ON THE AIR, interviews biographer Mark Griffin as part of his four part audio feature on Vincente Minnelli.

DVD CLASSICS CORNER ON THE AIR is a weekly show devoted to Golden Age Movie Classics as they become available on DVD. Host Dick Dinman includes a generous selection of classic scenes, classic film music, and one-on-one interviews with stars, producers, and directors.

Follow the links below to listen to his four-part series, Versatile Vincente. The last two weeks in April you will also find these shows on TCM.COM.

If you live in Maine, you can hear this weekly program Fridays from 1:00-1:30pm on FM radio station WMPG.

VERSATILE VINCENTE (Part One)
Although principally remembered and revered for his astonishing contribution to musical cinema the Warner Archives' recent release of four beautifully remastered widescreen and color Vincente Minnelli non-musicals (THE COBWEB, TEA AND SYMPATHY, THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE and TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN) graphically demonstrate his inventive mastery of both stark drama and lighthearted comedy and who better to join producer/host Dick Dinman in turning the spotlight on the length and breadth of Minnelli's amazing versatility than Mark Griffin, author of the acclaimed biography A HUNDRED OR MORE HIDDEN THINGS: THE LIFE AND FILMS OF VINCENTE MINNELLI.

VERSATILE VINCENTE (Part Two)
VERSATILE VINCENTE (Part Three)
VERSATILE VINCENTE (Part Four)

ALA Honors new Vincente Minnelli Biography

2011-01-16T03:43:00.000-08:00

The American Library Association has honored Mark Griffin's new book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli as part of its 2011 Over the Rainbow Book List as an outstanding biography.

Check out the list at this link.

Griffin, Mark. A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli. 2010. 346p. Da Capo Press, $15.95. (978-0-7867-2099-6).

Mark Griffin interviewed on the Steve Katsos show

2010-12-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

Author Mark Griffin talks about his new book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli on the Steve Katsos show.

Citizen Scholar: Michael E. Grost on the Minnelli Factor

2010-12-06T06:23:00.000-08:00

December 5, 2010

Citizen Scholar: Michael E. Grost on the Minnelli Factor
by Mark Griffin

"I just spent the morning writing an article on a film from 1912 called From The Submerged," reports Michael E. Grost, a film historian and self-described "citizen scholar," who is the creator of a one-of-a-kind website (mikegrost.com) that exhaustively explores the visual and thematic links in the films of such master directors as Fritz Lang and Raoul Walsh. Grost also regularly champions the achievements of lesser known filmmakers that he feels are deserving of greater recognition like Gun Crazy director Joseph H. Lewis ("I'm up to ninety-six of his one hundred and six known films...")

Grost's greatest challenge (so far) involves examining the multi-layered levels of meaning in the work of the incomparable Vincente Minnelli. According to Grost, the arched alcoves, hexagonal wallpaper patterns and elliptical mirrors that turn up in Minnelli's movies are as meaningful as the vanishing heroes and gender outlaws that populate such classics as Cabin In The Sky, Meet Me In St. Louis, Tea and Sympathy, Designing Woman and Gigi.

Mark Griffin, the author of A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli, recently caught up with Grost, who took a break from his ongoing investigation to discuss what he describes as "the seemingly endless use of creativity in Minnelli's moves."

MG: Why don't we start with the most challenging question first...What is your favorite Vincente Minnelli production and why?

MEG: It's easy to pick a favorite. It's Some Came Running (1958). I'm not sure that I can say why other than it's just so extremely well made at all levels. It works wonderfully as a story and then you have Minnelli's incredible visual style -- it has that great finale with the camera moving through the centennial celebration in Parkman [the fictional Midwestern town where the story takes place]. It's one of Minnelli's films about writers and as a writer myself, I tend to identify with such characters, so maybe it speaks to me personally a little bit. It's just one of his films that's so richly done at a dramatic level...It also seems to be a climax of his melodramas. It's the best of the melodramas and the richest and of course, it's got a very creative use of color throughout.

MG: On your website, you explore how Minnelli uses red and blue as a recurring motif in Some Came Running.

MEG: Yes. The early Minnelli films are rather wild in terms of color design. It's very hard to summarize color in Yolanda and the Thief (1945) or Meet Me In St. Louis (1944). You'll have scenes that are multi-colored and certainly very beautiful but they don't seem to be designed according to any standard logic but the later Minnelli films tend to use complimentary colors -- It'll be the red-orange and blue that you see in a lot of his films...Home from the Hill (1960) has fifteen scenes in it which are based on red-green color contrasts. Some Came Running is more of the red-orange versus blue design typically. Especially with the finale at the centennial, there's this kind of conscious color design throughout...the lights of the carousel, for example, are all red-orange contrasted with blue. Minnelli certainly exhibited an extraordinary use of color throughout his work and a seemingly endless use of creativity in terms of the visuals of his films. The results are always very interesting to watch.

MG: In reference to Meet Me In St. Louis, you've suggested that beneath the surface of this glossy MGM musical, there are some heavier themes being explored -- like sexism and social anxiety. How conscious do you think Minnelli was of layering this seemingly lighthearted movie with loads of subtext?

MEG: Minnelli's films show a very consistent interest in sexism and feminism. In this country, we tend to think of sexism as something that emerged in the 1970's with the women's liberation movement and that's very true. But look at something like The Sandpiper, which came out in 1965 - it's very consciously about feminism. In fact, it seems to be the main subject of the movie. It's a women's lib drama from the period before women's lib really erupted...My impression is that Minnelli was conscious of feminism and you can certainly look at Meet Me In St. Louis as a feminist film. There's an awful lot of material in Meet Me In St. Louis about the societal restrictions on women's lives. These young women in the family -- they're not even allowed to make a phone call unless the father grants his permission. They can't control who they meet. They're not allowed to talk to men until another man intervenes and introduces them. I mean, Judy Garland can't even go over and say "Hello..." to the boy-next-door in this society. She's like in purdah or something. From the way all of this is presented, it's hard to imagine that this wasn't some sort of conscious decision and concern on Minnelli's part...I think, too, feminism is often invisible to people. Take the plays by Aeschylus -- like the Oresteia -- this seems to me to be a very feminist work. Though I never see any discussions of this among critics. It's like people can look right at something and not see the feminism in things. I, for one, don't understand why The Sandpiper is so ridiculed among Minnelli's films -- people seem to constantly put it down and make jokes about it. They just don't like it but I always thought it was a very good movie. I loved it when I first saw it decades ago and I saw it several times when I was writing about Minnelli for my website. But I've found that there's something about any sort of explicit feminist film that bothers people. When the feminist message is buried just a bit below the surface -- as it is in Meet Me In St. Louis -- it can suddenly become invisible.

MG: In writing about Cabin In The Sky (1943), you touch upon how Minnelli presented African-Americans in that film. You disagree with some of the audio commentary by academic Todd Boyd on the DVD version of Cabin. Some observers have made the case that a few of the characterizations in Cabin are racially insensitive stereotypes while others argue that Minnelli was something of a pioneer in terms of how he presented black people in his films. What do you think?

MEG: I think Cabin in the Sky is overwhelmingly positive and innovative in its positive portrayals of African-Americans. There are a few places where one could be legitimately concerned, though. The brief cameo by Willie Best as one of the demons in the film is stereotyped. There's no other way to put it. It's not good but it's mercifully very brief. Also, the pre-reformed hero of the film being portrayed as lazy and shiftless -- that's perhaps a bit uncomfortably close to some of the ugly stereotypes of lazy black people. But in the second half of the film, the hero very much reforms and becomes a hard worker and later on, you see him all done up in white tie and tails and he's a big success in life and so on. Mainly it's an extremely positive portrayal. There are some extraordinary portraits on display...the minister...Ethel Waters as the heroine and the incredible jazz musicians in the nightclub sequence...The film is like an inventory of many of the great black musical entertainers of all time. It's mainly just a remarkable, highly positive film despite some occasional problems that we have to acknowledge but at the same time we need to try to balance them with what is good about the film as a whole.

MG: I'm curious to hear your thoughts on Lena Horne's character in Cabin. In Georgia Brown, we're being presented with a seductive, sexually available African-American woman in an all-black musical released in 1943. All things considered, was this kind of character a step forward or another strike against Hollywood?

MEG: I think in general, in the late 20's and 30's, most depictions of black people in Hollywood movies were really horrible. This was the Stepin Fetchit era. An important exception was John M. Stahl's original version of Imitation of Life (1934) which was considered a landmark film in the black press. It was always hailed as a model film in that era. You can see a few others -- like the black news-boy who gets killed in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) as another positive portrayal. And the extraordinary finale of Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels (1941), where the white protagonists go to the black church. Every now and then there was a pro-civil rights message slipped in about the equality of the races. So there were a few positive examples but otherwise, most of the portrayals were stereotyped and embarrassing and a disgrace. Then, in the early 1940's, black civil rights leaders pushed for a change. I think they actually went to Washington and asked the federal government to try and motivate Hollywood to include more positive black portrayals in films because blacks were contributing so much to the war effort - both as soldiers and as war workers and they felt that this ought to be recognized. In the early 40's, you had Stormy Weather, Dive Bomber and Cabin in the Sky -- suddenly Hollywood was making this series of films that were attempting to portray black people more positively. My impression was that this was a communal effort sponsored by civil rights leaders and the federal government. There were white liberals like [crime writer] Rex Stout, who lead a committee of white authors to try and promote more positive portrayals of black people in entertainment by white people.

I don't have any inner knowledge of the production history of Cabin in the Sky but I really don't think that the people who made it just woke up one morning and said, 'Okay, let's make a pro-black musical today...' I think this reflected a conscious effort by lots of different political, creative and film industry groups to improve the image of black people in 1940's Hollywood...For some reason, Minnelli was very much associated with black entertainers in his early films. Not just Cabin in the Sky but you also have these really interesting scenes with Lena Horne and the Berry Brothers in Panama Hattie (1942). You have the Hazel Scott numbers in I Dood It (1943), which are really the best part of what is otherwise probably Minnelli's worst movie. I understand that he directed a lot of black performers on Broadway, too...There are other ways in which he was sort of a pioneer -- in The Clock (1945), you'll see these very dignified, non-stereotyped servicemen in that wartime film who are black. In the scenes in Grand Central Station, not only are there very dignified and patriotic portraits of white servicemen but you see black servicemen, too. In The Sandpiper, there's a black artist who is on equal terms with the white artists in the film. There are all sorts of very dignified, pioneering looks at black people in Minnelli's films. It's a whole dimension that's important in his work that we shouldn't forget. Along with the feminist dimension and the pro-gay dimension, there also is the pro-black dimension. Minnelli was an aesthete but he was also clearly interested in liberal social values. I mean, Lust for Life (1956) has one of the few looks at child labor since the 1910's, when you had films like The Cry of the Children (1912), which deals very profoundly with the tragedy of child labor. And then it just goes away as a subject - even though it hadn't disappeared in real life - until Minnelli shows it in the tragedy in Lust for Life. The same thing is true about all of the science in Minnelli. As a director, he's consistently interested in technology -- especially sound communication. There are all of these recording devices in his films. Things like the radio remote control at the end of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962). There's just a surprising amount of material about technology in Minnelli's films. After all, he was a leading figure in one of the world's most high tech industries. This sort of stuff tends to be invisible to today's commentators on Minnelli and I'm not sure why. It needs to be brought out and people need to start seeing more.

MG: In writing about Minnelli's directorial approach, you frequently make reference to this concept of "kinetic art." In relation to Vincente's films, how would you best describe what that is?

MEG: Kinetic Art is an art world term for art objects that you might well see somewhere like the Museum of Modern Art or the Tate Gallery in London or the Guggenheim Museum -- anyplace that concentrates on modern art. Kinetic art basically refers to machines that are created by artists in a lab that have moving parts that are designed to be looked at for their visual beauty and delightfulness. One machine might feature whistles and moving wheels or revolving pin wheels and spirals...or gears that interlock...pistons that move up and down...things like that. They were especially big in the 1960's in art museums and there were a number of artists who specialized in them. They were considered rather avant-garde. My impression is that such things actually date back to the 1920's.

The kinetic art movement never became the center of the art world but it did become quite a craze and if you look at the finale of Mickey One, which is a film by Arthur Penn made in '65 - there's a whole fifteen minute sequence in that film which visits a large scale kinetic art installation -- you know, a large machine created by an artist full of fireworks and revolving wheels and stuff that is as big as a house. I don't know if Minnelli specifically had an interest in kinetic art but his films are just filled to the peak with machines that move around and that are certainly like kinetic art. For example, in Lovely To Look At (1952), in the fashion show sequence, there are all of these pyramids that are filled with light inside and that glow with light and they're being moved all around the stage. In Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), Judy Garland and Tom Drake put out the lights with this complicated gadget that's on a long pole and it involves having to reach up and pull gears and levers and it helps them put out the gas lights in the chandeliers...At the start of An American in Paris (1951), Gene Kelly has all sorts of ingenious objects in his room like beds that fold up and tables that emerge from the ceiling and things that come out of his closet. All sorts of things like this appear all through Minnelli's films. Oftentimes these moving objects have light inside, too. There's a similar thing in the art world called art light, which involves moving light and Minnelli often combines the two. Like in An American in Paris - during the "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" number, when [Georges Guetary] is moving up and down the stairs, every time he lands on another step, a light flashes on and he makes elaborate moving patterns with the lights. There are hundreds of examples. We could spend our entire conversation going through all of the many examples you can find throughout Minnelli's films.

MG: When you were first describing the concept of kinetic art, it struck me that one of the most obvious examples is when Fred Astaire is in the arcade at the beginning of The Band Wagon (1953) and he sets off that wild contraption that has all of the bells and whistles -- not to mention American flags that shoot out on cue.

MEG: Yes. Definitely. That's sort of like the pop culture equivalent of it. Machines like that probably helped inspire kinetic art installations in art museums...In Minnelli's autobiography [I Remember It Well], he talks about sending the first version of that machine back to the designers because it wasn't over-the-top enough for him. He wanted it to go absolutely berserk and do everything possible, including waving flags, turning lights on and off and moving around...and it's a totally spectacular example.

MG: On your website, you've created this extraordinary inventory - or cataloguing - of recurring imagery and symbolism in Minnelli's work. When you start sifting through the red gladiolas and the portable phonographs or the kind of nested rectangles that appear on Nanette Fabray's skirt in The Band Wagon, what - if anything - do you think Minnelli is actually "saying" with all of this? Since Vincente Minnelli worked at a factory like MGM, is it possible that some of these recurring images are just intriguing coincidences?

MEG: I don't think these things are accidental because you begin to see patterns through film after film -- like those nested rectangles - these things keep showing up throughout Minnelli's career. You see them on Nanette Fabray's skirt but you also see them in the benches in Kirk Douglas's office in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)...You see them in the main title sequence of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) -- where all of the multi-colored rectangles nest down to infinity. They're all over. A lot of these films are also filled with geometric patterns and you find this not only in Minnelli but in movies directed by Fritz Lang and Raoul Walsh and many others. People today talk about visual style and everyone says that Minnelli is a great visual stylist. But then they don't try to specify what is actually appearing on the screen that makes up this very distinctive visual style and there are many, many things. My website does not touch bottom in terms of trying to analyze what we mean when we say that Minnelli is this great visual stylist. At least it is picking up on some dimensions and one of these is the use of all of these unusual geometric patterns. Minnelli's films are just full of geometric patterns and they repeat and modify themselves in film after film...For some reason, female controlled spaces in Minnelli often have checkerboard floors in them and men often trip and fall down in these spaces. An archetypal example is the checkerboard floor inside the trailer in The Long, Long Trailer (1954) that is owned by Lucille Ball. Her husband, Desi Arnaz, falls flat on his face when he first sees it.

MG: Another great example is in Father of the Bride (1950), during Spencer Tracy's nightmare - the church floor suddenly turns to quicksand.

MEG: Yes! In the church - he starts sinking into the floor. It's the most extraordinary surreal imagery. Again that's a female-controlled space -- all of these women are running the wedding and he's just caught up in all of it. I have no idea why there's such a consistent pattern for some of these things in Minnelli. If you ask me, 'Is there something inherently female about checkerboard floors?' --I would have to say that I have no idea but they turn up over and over in Minnelli in the same way that the male-controlled spaces in Minnelli often have diamond lozenge patterns on the walls. Like Richard Widmark's curtains in his psychiatric office in The Cobweb (1955) or Kirk Douglas's space in The Bad and the Beautiful. There are many other examples. These patterns recur in Minnelli in film after film. And these things are always richly varied. It isn't like Minnelli said, 'Okay, bring out the diamond lozenge curtains, boys...' It's never just the same thing over and over again. It's always accomplished with very interesting variations and it's always very creative. But these patterns do constantly run through Minnelli. People need to start being more conscious of these things if they're going to be genuinely interested in visual style and not just paying lip service by saying something like, 'Oh, his visual style is very interesting...' Well, what makes it so interesting? Once you start talking about it in concrete terms, you start recognizing all of the geometry that plays an important role in terms of what's happening on screen.

MG: On your website, you make mention of Pedro Almodovar, Danny Boyle and Gus Van Sant. Do you think Minnelli has had an influence on any contemporary filmmakers?

MEG: I mentioned all of those directors because they often build their films around blue and red-orange color contrasts as Minnelli does. If you look at something like the Van Sant remake of Psycho (1998), you'll find that it's just endlessly fascinating on several levels but I guess I'm one of the five people who actually liked his remake of Psycho...In general, I don't think contemporary filmmakers are as visually skillful as some of the classic era directors. In terms of visual style, I'm very impressed with the Vietnamese filmmaker Hung Tran Anh. A film like The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) seems vaguely Minnellian in some ways. With Almodovar, I love the rich use of color in his 80's films like Law of Desire and Matador and Dark Habits. I think that may have been the peak of Almodovar's stylistic period. Though The Flower of My Secret (1995), which came later, has very vivid colors in it, too. You'll see many of these same color schemes in Minnelli -- it's a striking contrast of blue and orange-red with touches of green here and there.

MG: Could you please suggest an under appreciated Minnelli movie that you think people should seek out?

MEG: I know that everyone ritually dislikes Undercurrent (1946) - the way that they don't like The Sandpiper - but I've always thought that it was a fascinating film. I wish Minnelli had done more mysteries. There's the mystery of identity involving the resistance leader in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and there are a number of little mini-mysteries in some of the other films. For example, Dean Martin has to figure out what's going on with this mystery woman throughout Bells Are Ringing (1960)...Most Minnelli films are so richly brocaded. Every time I see one from beginning to end, the next thing I know -- I'm spending the next 48 hours writing about all of the new things I learned about these films for my website. And you always see so many new things when you watch a Minnelli movie.

Peter Filichia's Diary: The Movie That Should Have Been Made

2010-10-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

Theatremania's Peter Filichia recently read Mark Griffin's new biography on Vincente Minnelli and wonders about the movie that should have been made...

Had a good time reading Mark Griffin’s very well-written and researched A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli. How nice to know more about such films as Cabin in the Sky, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Clock, Ziegfeld Follies, An American in Paris, The Band Wagon, Brigadoon, Kismet, Tea and Sympathy, Gigi, The Reluctant Debutante, Bells Are Ringing and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. None of us, I suspect, can resist any book that includes the line “I witnessed a nasty scene that Dolores Gray made.”

But the most intriguing paragraph for me was the one that started Chapter Five. “In January, 1937,” it began, “Minnelli drove through the Paramount gates for the first time. Never one to start small, he proposed that his first production should be an innovative musical mystery entitled Times Square. Minnelli envisioned the film as an all-star extravaganza that would incorporate scenes from actual Broadway shows currently on the boards.”

Read the full article at this link.

Magill Book Reviews: Mark Griffin's Vincente Minnelli biograpy

2010-09-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

Magill Book Reviews:
A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli, by Mark Griffin

"[Griffin] excels at showing how the director reveals his sensibility in his films…Anecdotes make the biography consistently fascinating.” ~ Magill Book Reviews

Billy Stritch interview in Lewiston Sun Journal

2010-09-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

Check out Mark Griffin's interview with Liza Minnelli collaborator Billy Stritch in today's Lewiston Sun Journal at this link.

Griffin is the author of the new biography "A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli."

Mark Griffin Interviews Billy Stritch

2010-09-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

Keep your eye on the Lewiston Sun Journal on September 22 for Mark Griffin's interview with Grammy Award-winner and Liza Minnelli collaborator Billy Stritch. Stritch arranged her new album "Confessions" and will appear with her on September 29 in Portland, Maine.

Mark Griffin is the author of the new biography "A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli."

Vincente Minnelli Biographer Mark Griffin interviewed on WCSH6 TV's "207"

2010-09-15T04:56:00.000-07:00

Final Minnelli Trivia Contest Winner

2010-08-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Sandra Dunlap for winning a signed copy of Mark Griffin's new book "A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli." She had the correct answer of Jack Nicholson. He made an early screen appearance as Barbra Streisand's "ex-stepbrother" in Minnelli's final musical, "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever."

Final Chance - Vincente Minnelli Trivia

2010-08-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Derrick Casey for the correct answer to last week's trivia question. The answer is: Jack Benny. For having the right answer, Derrick won a free signed copy of Mark Griffin's new book: A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli.

This is your last chance to win a free copy too!

TRIVIA QUESTION: Which future superstar made an early screen appearance as Barbra Streisand's "ex-stepbrother" in Minnelli's final musical, "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever"?

Go to the Hundred or More Hidden Things facebook page and post your answer!

http://www.facebook.com/HundredOrMoreHiddenThings

The first person to answer correctly will receive a signed copy of the book.

Trivia for Classic Film Fans

2010-08-19T05:55:00.000-07:00

Which comedian was considered for the role ultimately played by Spencer Tracy in Vincente Minnelli's Oscar-nominated comedy "Father of the Bride"?

Go to the facebook page for Mark Griffin's "A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnell" and post your answer!

http://www.facebook.com/HundredOrMoreHiddenThings

The first person to answer correctly will receive a signed copy of the book.

Congrats to our trivia winner!

2010-08-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

Three cheers for Sara Freeman, who had the correct answer to our latest trivia question.

Her answer was: "Boys and Girls Like You and Me."

She has won a signed copy of "A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli."

Stay tuned for our next trivia question....

Today's Vincente Minnelli Trivia

2010-08-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

Classic Film Fans:

Judy Garland performed a lovely Rodgers and Hammerstein tune for Vincente Minnelli's "Meet Me In St. Louis" but the number was dropped from the final version of the film. What was the title of the song?

Go to the facebook page for Mark Griffin's "A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnell" and post your answer!

http://www.facebook.com/HundredOrMoreHiddenThings

The first person to answer correctly will receive a signed copy of the book.

Get on the Vincente Minnelli Trivia Contest band wagon!

2010-08-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

TODAY'S TRIVIA QUESTION:
Which major MGM star makes an unbilled cameo appearance in Vincente Minnelli's acclaimed musical "The Band Wagon"?

The first person to send the correct answer as a direct message to @movieswithmark on Twitter or post the correct answer on our facebook page at this link will win a signed copy of Mark Griffin's new biography A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli.

Good luck!

Director's Cut

2010-07-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

In the tradition of an extended “director’s cut” edition of a feature film, I’m pleased to present some bonus content in reference to A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli. As so often happens in the making of a movie, certain sequences are trimmed - or eliminated altogether - during the final editing process, typically because of time constraints. It’s pretty much the same with books. In the case of A Hundred or More, several of my illustrious interview subjects contributed observations or anecdotes that wound up on ‘the cutting room floor.’ While the following quotes didn’t make it into the published version of the biography, I’m happy to have an opportunity to share them with you here…

Richard Barrios, film historian on Meet Me In St. Louis: “When you see all of those imitations of it – Centennial Summer (1946) and On Moonlight Bay (1951) and some of the others – it really makes you appreciate all that Minnelli accomplished with St. Louis…There are all these subtleties and neuroses underlying what are supposed to be otherwise sort of normal family structures. Of course, Minnelli was part of those conventional structures himself but it’s my conjecture that he never did really feel at home in them.”

Jeanine Basinger, film historian on Madame Bovary: “The definitive Vincente Minnelli movie probably really is Madame Bovary. People don’t think of that because it’s a famous, serious Flaubert novel and people just don’t ‘go there’ but if you think about the story and what it is, it’s very definitely him. In the novel and in other presentations of the story, Madame Bovary is a symbol for women who are foolish and who let their empty heads get filled with romantic nonsense that ends up destroying their lives. In Minnelli, it’s transferred into a different meaning, which is that she desires beauty or something lovely in her life. That’s a whole different tack on it. And also, the way he handled the ball scene is sublime. It lifts you out of your seat and into the kind of experience that you pray will happen if you go to the movies. You really have the vicarious thrill of the dream come true. I think it’s just the best Madame Bovary that there is.”

Angela Lansbury on The Clock: “Moyna [MacGill], my mother, played in The Clock – an extraordinary little gem of a performance and in a wonderful scene with Keenan Wynn. It just stood out. It was so funny and sad and awful and great. Pauline Kael gave her a wonderful review in the New Yorker, which thrilled my mother…I don’t know who gave her that terrific idea of eating her own pearls for that scene. It could have been Keenan or it could have been Vincente or she might well have thought of it herself because she had a wonderfully madcap sense of humor for certain situations. It’s just a very delicious bit.”

Jess Gregg, writer: “Before Hollywood, Minnelli was connected with some of the biggest revues on Broadway. One of his competitors was John Murray Anderson, who was well known at the time but very few people remember him today. He was one of the funniest, bitchiest men I ever met. The stories about him are murderous…He worked on Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 with Minnelli. And he directed things like John Murray Anderson’s Show of Shows. And ‘John Murray Anderson’s This’ and ‘John Murray Anderson’s That.’ Although they worked together, Minnelli and Anderson were competitors. But John Murray Anderson never had the artistry of Minnelli. And he didn’t have Minnelli’s sharp eye for making everything look so unusually beautiful. Anderson was an operator and I don’t think Minnelli was ever that. I mean, Anderson would surround himself mostly with gorgeous chorus people – these statuesque girls who were six feet tall, so when they walked across the room, you noticed. And the boys he always had around him were knockouts – the best looking boys in town. They couldn’t talk intelligently about anything but they were marvelous to look at…Anderson was much more showbiz than Minnelli. In fact, Minnelli never seemed to me to be showbiz in that kind of way. When Minnelli first started making movies, I think he had a bit of contempt - at that time - for Hollywood. Later, after he had made a great success at MGM, things seemed to change… I don’t think he wanted to tamper with the bosses.”

Matthew Tinkcom, film scholar: “I think that Minnelli learned a huge amount from queer subcultures in New York and Chicago. I think that the theatrical scene was one that was really nurturing to his aesthetic and his way of looking at the world. Hollywood was actually a huge queer subculture and one of the centers of it in U.S. life. But I think that Minnelli was taking an aesthetic that hadn’t been there before from his theatrical training. That’s why he flourished – because there was no one else doing what he did…I think there was a kind of community in the Freed Unit that was receptive both to his aesthetic and to whatever kind of ambiguous sexuality we’re talking about. At least on the Metro lot and especially in the Freed Unit, there was a kind of laissez faire attitude towards there being queer employees. The Freed Unit, was in fact, a kind of place where queer talent could flourish and then, on the other hand, Vincente Minnelli was a particular kind of talent who really flourished in that setting…Metro was in trouble in the late 1940’s and early 50’s and all of their balance sheets demonstrate that – like the rest of the industry – they were about to have a crash. I think they were baldly, from a financial point of view, saying, ‘Who around here makes unique products that we can put our stamp on?...’ And Minnelli was one of the key people.”

Sir Gerald Kaufman: “I met him when he came to do what was called a Guardian lecture at the National Film Theatre. They weren’t lectures at all. They were interviews. And some people are very, very good at them. In the case of Vincente Minnelli, you could scarcely get an answer out of him – he was so inarticulate. They gave a reception for him after the lecture and I was invited to it. I had something wrong with my neck at the time and I was wearing one of those surgical collars and he recognized me but when he said, ‘Hello’ to me, he said, ‘Ah, Father Callahan, I presume?’ You know, pretending for the moment’s joke that I was wearing a clerical collar and not a surgical collar…When you think about those brilliant numbers that he directed in Ziegfeld Follies, for example, nobody else would have directed them like that and that means that even within the Hollywood studio system, he was an auteur. There’s no doubt whatsoever about that…When I asked him, ‘What film by another director would you most like to have made?’ He answered, La Grande Illusion. I thought that was significant because I regard that as the greatest film ever made. The fact that he instantly – without a moment’s pause – said that, told you something about him. You can’t imagine Bryan Forbes saying he wished he had directed Grand Illusion.”

Irving Brecher, screenwriter (Meet Me In St. Louis, Yolanda and the Thief): “I was practically finished with the script of St. Louis and Minnelli read it and he was very complimentary about it. After the compliments, he said, “I’m sure you’re open to some changes…?” I said, “Of course.” So we started working it over together and I would act everything out for him and Vincente would react and he would try to be the audience. Occasionally – more than often – he would say, “I love that bit but you know that line that you have in the dining room scene…What if we tried something a little different in that spot?” In most cases, I would accommodate him as long as I was happy with [the change] myself. I didn’t concede anything to him if I didn’t want to. We went through it day by day, week by week for a month and finally finished it to our satisfaction and we turned it in. [Arthur] Freed was not a guy who read anything until it was finished and then he didn’t necessarily have the proper opinion in terms of what the work was. He was not good on scripts. He was good on music. He was excellent on casting. At any rate, we turned it in and the first words we got were from upstairs. The executives didn’t like it. There was no story. We were not surprised that they discovered that there was no plot but we were very concerned that they didn’t like it. Because we had been very meticulous about everything. There was nothing just thrown in. In ’44, Meet Me In St. Louis came out. After the preview, all the guys who said it had no plot stopped me on the street and congratulated me and they were kind enough to say, ‘You know, when I read it, I really didn’t like it but it sure turned out great…’ They were very generous. Al Lichtman, MGM’s head of distribution, who knew something about numbers, said, ‘This will be the biggest grosser in the history of the company up till now…’ He was right and today, it’s still raking in money every year and it’s considered one of the greatest movies ever made.”

Marian Horosko, dancer in the ballet sequence from An American in Paris: “When I first went on the set, we were shooting the Place de la Concorde scene and Vincente Minnelli was very high up on the boom – looking down at all of us – and in his lap was this little girl with these great big eyes and she was fascinated. And that was Liza. And actually, I have to admit, we played to her. She looked like four or five, maybe. You know, on the set you usually don’t have an audience but here was this child who was very interested in everything we were doing. Having Liza with him was a big treat for us and he was very pleased that she liked what she saw…She wasn’t a kid who just looked at it like a circus. She somehow got into it. I think her talent was blossoming or just forming at that point and even at that early age, she saw where she wanted to go.”

Darryl Hickman, actor on Minnelli and Tea and Sympathy: “I never saw the play on Broadway but it seems pretty clear what Robert Anderson was writing about – you know, this kid being accused of being gay and nobody really knows whether that’s true or not. I’m sure that MGM – being MGM – was sort of halfway committed to that. In those days, they had to be afraid of that kind of subject matter. I’m surprised that they made the film at all looking back at what a dicey subject that was for Hollywood at that time. Very daring. I think you have to give them credit for even going as far as they did…In the world that I grew up in at MGM, there were people that we – in our inside world – knew were probably gay – George Cukor and others – and they were family. The message that I got growing up at the studio was that it was really nobody’s business but ours. Within the ‘family,’ nobody was to even mention anything like that. It was not discussed…And I think that was the way that Minnelli was dealt with. He was effeminate and if there are any people who are not, as a general rule, effeminate – it’s a film crew. They’re totally the other way. They can be crude and sometimes obnoxious and they swear a lot. Macho. They’re really the opposite of anybody who’s sensitive…But Minnelli was a major director and there was a respect for him because of who he was. And he was a part of the family, that’s all.”

Joe McElhaney, editor of Vincente Minnelli: The Art of Entertainment, on A Matter of Time: “I think that A Matter of Time, more than any other film, proves that [Minnelli] is a deeply personal filmmaker and that, in fact, the vision is not dependent on genre. What genre does A Matter of Time belong to? It’s a bit of a melodrama. It’s a bit of a musical. It’s a bit of a comedy. It’s not really any genre. The producer clearly interfered every step of the way and almost destroyed the film. And yet, it’s almost the most pure, the most distilled of all of his films.”

David Gerstner, film scholar: “Minnelli always said that painting was his first love. That’s the way that he approached theatre. And that’s the way that he approached film – that it was a canvas. And putting the films together in a certain way was to, in fact, paint the entire thing the way he envisioned it…In An American in Paris, you can literally see the texture of the paint. It is a painterly film. When Gene Kelly’s paintings pop up on the screen, you can see Minnelli’s desire – his wish to have the texture of the paint shown throughout the film. And in watching the film, you can feel the texture. There are moments where it’s like an impasto, it’s so thick – and not just the paintings but the film itself. Look at how textured the ballet sequence is. Minnelli is all about texture and he’s all about layers.”

Ben Geary: “I met Vincente in 1978 in Athens, Ohio , which is the home of Ohio University. The occasion was an international film festival, which I inaugurated in Athens and that particular year, we invited Vincente Minnelli to be our guest for a week so that he could conduct a seminar with Ohio University film students and to headline a retrospective of his movies that we presented at the Athena Theatre in Athens, Ohio, which was my theatre…Minnelli was an especially interesting guest in many ways. I liked his demeanor. He was very soft-spoken, very low key and very enjoyable. I was quite taken by his kindness…I’ll tell you a little anecdote about Vincente. On the last day that he was in Athens, I escorted him back to the Columbus airport and we were talking and he felt a little lonely to travel by himself. So, I said, ‘I’ll sit with you until the gate opens and we’ll carry on some conversation, so that you won’t be too lonely while waiting for your plane…’ Well, after awhile, this woman comes in – very well dressed, very beautiful and it was Ann Miller. She had just finished a concert at the Palace Theatre in Columbus and she saw Vincente and they hugged each other and it turned out she was going back to L.A., too. Suddenly, he was no longer lonely.”

Michael Grace, nephew of Minnelli’s set decorator Henry Grace: “Marjorie Main [who starred in Meet Me In St. Louis] said that working for a studio like MGM was very factory-like. She said, ‘You have to remember that we got there in the morning, we reported to whatever set we were working on, we acted and we went home. I never found it glamorous at all. It’s actually a very lonely business.’…For a studio director like Minnelli, it was the same thing. These directors would finish one movie and then move on to the next one almost immediately. I met [George] Cukor twice and I asked him about this stuff and he said the same thing: ‘You know, I was always moving on to another movie...’ It isn’t like today where the director might be sitting there for a year cutting his film. You didn’t have that sort of luxury back then. It was a total assembly line.”

June Lockhart, actor on Meet Me In St. Louis: “I came on board to all of the films I did as a young girl very much adjusted to the fact that it was the director who was the captain of the ship. With Minnelli – he was in charge but in such an elegant way. There was no pressure and there was no temperament from him. And it was quite something to see him – in his understated way – guide these enormous scenes like the opening of the World’s Fair – with all of the lights and moving the extras around and everything. One of the things that I loved about making that film was that we got to rehearse and rehearse and rehearse till we finally shot it. We felt so comfortable in what we were doing because it had been very carefully worked out. For the Christmas dance scene, when I’m first brought into the film – it seems to me that we rehearsed that for well over a month and probably more…With Minnelli, it was like creating a full, painted portrait before the cameras even rolled.”

India Adams, on voice doubling for Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon: “It was a deep, dark secret. You weren’t allowed to tell anybody. As a matter of fact, I went to New York for a visit and Dorothy Kilgallen had an item about it in her column. I remember it said, ‘The biggest guessing game around Radio City Music Hall is…Who sang for Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagoon?’ And I was dying to phone her up and say, ‘I did it! I did it! I’m here…’ but I didn’t have the nerve to do it. I don’t recall that I actually had to sign something saying that I wouldn’t reveal that it was my voice you heard but in those days it was understood that you just didn’t tell anybody…Now, long after the fact, it’s no longer a big secret.”

John Fricke, film historian: “When you consider the fact that Vincente was taken off of Easter Parade...historically, the blame for that is that Judy’s therapist went to Arthur Freed and said it wasn’t right – or good – for Judy and Vincente to be together all day and then working at the studio as well. I think you’ve got to go back and put that into perspective. There had just been a year of trouble on The Pirate. The Pirate was in questionable shape after its’ sneak previews in September of 1947, which is when Vincente was removed from Easter Parade. Whether it was Judy’s awareness or Freed’s awareness or Metro’s awareness, somebody got the message. The thought was, ‘After all of this trouble, we don’t trust Judy Garland with Vincente Minnelli in a professional way. This is not going in the right direction…’ If you look at the script they started with for Easter Parade, it’s as dour as the original Broadway show of Pal Joey. [Gene] Kelly’s character is that mean and thoughtless and manipulative and self-centered. In the final film, [Fred] Astaire isn’t self-centered. He’s absent-minded but not mean and manipulative. I’m not putting [Frances] Goodrich and [Albert] Hackett down for the original script that they did because we all know what great scenarists they were but somebody must have been pointing them in that kind of heavy-handed direction and I don’t know who it would have been but Vincente. If he was dismissed from that picture, I think it was because everybody realized, ‘If we have one more of these inaccessible musicals starring Judy Garland, we’re throwing her away. MGM could not afford to do that and that’s why Vincente was removed.”

Clive Hirschhorn, film historian: “As a creative artist, he was obviously always striving for something and dreaming to reach a peak of some kind of perfection in which everything he was good at – his sense of style, his design, his vision – all merge together beautifully. In the real world, that’s not likely to happen. It’s more likely that you’d achieve that kind of symbiosis in some kind of dream-like situation. The whole of Meet Me In St. Louis, I suppose, is one’s dream childhood, one’s dream family…In a way, it’s what Eugene O’Neill was trying to do with Ah, Wilderness! It was the one time that O’Neill was after something that none of his other plays had: a perfect world. The perfect family set-up. An idealized version of life. Though there really isn’t a dream sequence in Meet Me In St. Louis, the whole thing is very much like a dream and it does come close to the ideal that Minnelli was always striving for…I think throughout his whole career, he wanted to work out any problems he may have had through art. Art clearly played such a vital part in his life…life…One of his greatest non-musicals is Lust for Life and I think it’s one of the most successful non-musicals because of his total commitment to the material. I think he was so engaged in Lust for Life for obvious reasons – it was about a creative artist who had torments, as every creative artist probably does. Obviously in his design years, Minnelli painted and did sketches and he was trying to achieve some kind of style of his own but I’m sure there was also this need to cover up all sorts of things in art. I think art with a capital ‘A’ meant so much to Minnelli. And there’s no question that he was a genuine artist.”

Rare Minnelli Photo

2010-05-20T11:12:00.001-07:00

In this rare and recently unearthed image from 1921, future Hollywood director Vincente Minnelli (then known as Lester Minnelli) appears in the Delaware (Ohio) High School Glee Club production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore (or The Lass That Loved a Sailor)." Minnelli (who played able seaman Dick Deadeye) appears in the front row, the sixth figure from the right (standing between one of the sailors and a young lady partially obscured with a shadow). The musical, which was presented at the City Opera House on March 11 and 12, 1921 (at eight o'clock) was directed by Miss Elizabeth Sheen with Dale Bartholomew at the piano.

2010-05-20T11:02:00.001-07:00

WAMC Radio - Interview with Mark Griffin

2010-05-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

Follow this link to listen to Katie Britten's interview with Mark Griffin on WAMC's The Round Table. Mark Griffin is the author of A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli.

May 5: Meet Minnelli biographer Mark Griffin in Cambridge

2010-04-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, May 5 at 7:00pm biographer Mark Griffin will introduce Vincente Minnelli's film Meet Me In St. Louis at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A book sale and signing will follow the screening. Click HERE for directions to the theatre and more about the screening.

Griffin's new book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli has been described as "the best yet on Vincente Minnelli" by the Palm Beach Post and a "dazzling up-close parade of some of the most beloved movies of all times" by the Sacramento Book Review.

More about Griffin's book on Minnelli HERE.

Vincente Minnelli author at Maine Festival of the Book

2010-04-11T06:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Maine author Mark Griffin read from his new book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli at the 4th annual Maine Festival of the Book in Portland, Maine. View photos at this link.

Later that evening, friends and family gathered for a party celebrating the release of this new book. Photos from the event at this link.

Ready for his closeup

2010-03-28T07:15:00.001-07:00

A longtime fan of old Hollywood, Lewiston native Mark Griffin views famed director Vincente Minnelli's story as one ripe for the telling.

March 28, 2010
By Ray Routhier
Staff Writer

It makes sense that Mark Griffin turned out to be a film writer.

Growing up in Lewiston, Griffin often stayed up late to watch old movies, and became fascinated by the grand Hollywood musicals of the 1940s and '50s. But while other kids might have just fixated on the stars – Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly – Griffin became fascinated with director Vincente Minnelli.

Minnelli directed classic musicals such as best picture Oscar winners "An American in Paris" (1951) and "Gigi" (1958), and dramas including "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) and "Lust for Life" (1956), both starring Kirk Douglas.

Griffin continued to be fascinated with Minnelli as he grew up and wrote about contemporary film. He finally got his chance to really delve into the director's life and career by writing a book, "A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli" (Da Capo Press, $15.95).

The book, released March 1, follows Minnelli's long career and explores his marriage to Judy Garland and his relationship to daughter Liza Minnelli. Vincente Minnelli died in 1986.

Griffin interviewed more than 100 people for the book, including Kirk Douglas, Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis and Lauren Bacall. It was picked as book of the month for April by the Turner Classic Movies cable channel.

Griffin's writings, including film reviews and essays, have appeared in the Boston Globe, MovieMaker magazine, Genre and other publications.

Q: How did you pick Vincente Minnelli to write about?

A: It's always been a magnificent obsession of mine, old movies, since I was a young child.... CLICK HERE to continue reading Q & A.

Palm Beach Post: New bio the best yet on Vincente Minnelli

2010-03-24T16:03:00.001-07:00

New bio the best yet on Vincente Minnelli

Posted using ShareThis

What the critics are saying about Mark Griffin's new book on Vincente Minnelli

2010-03-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

Sacramento Book Review, March 2010

“Griffin’s book is a dazzling up-close parade of some of the most beloved movies of all times…Who got the lead, offstage back-stabbing, production issues—all of these are covered in rich detail…A great book if you are interested in the man’s movies.”

Bookgasm.com, 3/2/10

“Griffin reveals long-kept secrets at the heart of the enigmatic Minnelli’s genius.”

Irish Times, 3/4/10

“The author spoke to Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Nanette Fabray, Angela Lansbury and many other Hollywood names and…they supply many a sparkling anecdote.”

Boston Globe, 3/11/10

“Devotes as much time to Minnelli’s marriage to Judy Garland as his work, and documents the turmoil of Minnelli’s first wife and ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’’ star…Griffin is quite good on Minnelli’s brilliant 1958 drama ‘Some Came Running,’ and its haunting carnival sequence.”

Now Playing, Turner Classic Movies, April 2010

“As author Mark Griffin persuasively demonstrates…Minnelli, in addition to building a remarkable Hollywood legacy, was creating nothing short of an autobiography in code…Drawing on more than 100 interviews…Griffin turns the spotlight on Hollywood’s ‘elegant director,’ revealing long-kept secrets at the heart of Minnelli’s true genius.”

Wisconsin Public Radio: Mark Griffin Interview

2010-03-24T05:12:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, Greg Berg interviewed Mark Griffin for The Morning Show on WGTD 91.1FM - Wisconsin Public Radio.

Listen to his interview at this link. They talked about Mark Griffin's new biography about Hollywood director Vincente Minnelli titled A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli, published by Da Capo Press.

2010-03-14T14:28:00.001-07:00

"Griffin is quite good..." - The Boston Globe

2010-03-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

"Griffin is quite good on Minnelli’s brilliant 1958 drama Some Came Running, and its haunting carnival sequence...."
~ Saul Austerlitz, The Boston Globe

Mark Griffin at the Maine Festival of the Book

2010-03-11T05:27:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, April 10 at 11:00am, author Mark Griffin will read from his new book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli at the Maine Festival of the Book. He will share his experience interviewing celebrities for this new book on the Academy award-winning filmmaker who was also the husband of Judy Garland and father of Liza Minnelli.

Mark's reading will be held at the Abromson Center at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. Directions at this link.

In its three years of existence, the Maine Festival of the Book has featured more than 200 authors, including four Pulitzer Prize winners. This event brings together writers and readers to enjoy readings, panel discussions, book signings, and performances. With the exception of Opening Night and Youth Outreach, festival events are first-come, first-served, unticketed seating, and are free!

The New Yorker

2010-03-09T15:57:00.000-08:00

“Mark Griffin's A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli…a wealth of information about the filmmaker’s private life and about studio politics…” ~ Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Laura's Miscellaneous Musings

2010-03-09T15:46:00.000-08:00

Laura's Miscellaneous Musings is written by a blogger with a love of classic films. She just read about A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli in the April edition of the Turner Classic Movies "Now Playing" guide. This new book is featured in the "Book Corner" column.

She writes:

"The author conducted an impressive number of interviews and...the book has a great deal of fresh primary source research on its subject; for instance, the chapter on THE BAND WAGON has quotes from the author's interviews with James Mitchell and Nanette Fabray."

The Edge - Mark Griffin's new book

2010-03-04T10:48:00.001-08:00

Check out what The Edge has to say about Mark Griffin's new book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli.

A Hundred Or More Hidden Things
by Phil Hall, EDGE Contributor
Wednesday Mar 3, 2010
If Mark Griffin’s biography is any indication, Vincente Minnelli lived a life full of contradictions. Despite confirmations by several men that Minnelli was openly and unapologetically gay, he was married four times--and if you don’t know who is first wife was, you’re on the wrong web site!... CONTINUE READING

Booklist: Review of Mark Griffin's new Vincente Minnelli biography

2010-03-04T06:56:00.000-08:00

Check out A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli on Amazon .
“This highly readable volume about Hollywood director Vincente Minnelli deftly balances Griffin’s strong emotional connection to Minnelli’s work, which he celebrates generally in the heartfelt introduction, and a scholarly desire to unearth the truth abut the man and critically analyze the work. By turns gossipy and informative, catty and objective…Griffin reveals fascinating details of Minnelli’s early life and artistic development…Griffin’s informative discussions of Minnelli’s masterpieces and misses go a long way toward showing why Minnelli should be remembered for more than his ill-fated marriage to Judy Garland (and more successful fathering of Liza Minnelli). Griffin’s book will satisfy both readers hoping for Hollywood dirt and those hoping for a deeper appreciation of Minnelli’s work.” — Booklist

Q Syndicate: Review of new Vincente Minnelli biography

2010-03-02T05:56:00.000-08:00

“[A] compelling biography…Effervescent.”
~ Richard Labonte, Q Syndicate

There's not much gossip about director Vincente Minnelli's queer
proclivities in this otherwise compelling biography. That could be
because there's not much to gossip about. Last year's leaden
biography, Hollywood's Dark Dreamer by Emanuel Levy (the first
full-length study of Minnelli and his movies), referred to dalliances
with a bit player and a gardener while he was married to Judy Garland.
There's not much more on the sexual side in Griffin's more
effervescent bio - a "perhaps" reference to something physical with a
Japanese valet - though Minnelli's schoolyard sissiness, adult
penchant for discreet eyeliner and often fey on-set behavior are part
of the life story. Though he married three more times after he and
Garland dissolved their union, that Minnelli was gay is a given for
Griffin; his approach to "hidden things" is to assess several of the
director's films - most notably his first, Cabin in the Sky, along
with the notorious Tea and Sympathy and the late-career Goodbye,
Charlie through a deductive queer prism.

Richard Labonte has been reading, editing, selling, and writing about queer literature since the mid-70s. He can be reached in care of this publication or at BookMarks@qsyndicate.com.

Library Journal: Mark Griffin's new book on Vincente Minnelli

2010-03-01T07:02:00.000-08:00

"..well-written and tasteful work..."
~ Carol J. Binkowski, Library Journal

Read the full Library Journal review of Mark Griffin's new book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli at this link.

Published by Da Capo Press
Biography / Film
$15.95 | $20.00 (Can.)
ISBN 978-0-78672-099-6
E-BOOK ISBN 978-0-306-81893-6
6 x 9 | 320 pages | 70 B&W photos

Internet Review of Books: Not your usual gossip feast

2010-02-28T11:48:00.000-08:00

“Not your traditional tell-all gossip feast…Instead, the book offers the reader a meticulously researched chapter-by-chapter portal to Minnelli’s thirty-three films…One of the pleasures of Griffin’s book, which essentially ends more than thirty years ago with Minnelli’s final film, is the joy of discovery. We can now see for ourselves overlooked masterpieces in film on DVD…Mark Griffin has pointed the way to 33 fascinating other movies worth watching.”
~ Charles L. Hoyt, Internet Review of Books

Read the full review in the Internet Review of Books at this link.

April 10: Mark Griffin at Maine Festival of the Book

2010-02-28T10:59:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, April 10 at 11:00am, author Mark Griffin will read from his new book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli at the Maine Festival of the Book.

Mark's reading will be held at the Abromson Center at the University of Southern Maine. Directions at this link.

In its three years of existence, the Maine Festival of the Book has featured more than 200 authors, including four Pulitzer Prize winners. This event brings together writers and readers to enjoy readings, panel discussions, book signings, and performances. With the exception of Opening Night and Youth Outreach, festival events are first-come, first-served, unticketed seating, and are free!

Connecticut Post: The boy who loved On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

2010-02-28T10:50:00.000-08:00

“A smart new biography…Griffin puts the life and the films together in a fresh manner…Griffin makes a pretty good case that the deeply closeted artist was able to express many ‘hidden things’ in his films…The book is a fine combination of scholarship and film criticism.” — Joe Meyers, Connecticut Post

Read the full review at this link.

March 9: Author Mark Griffin at Lewiston Public Library

2010-02-28T10:24:00.000-08:00

Book Talk: Mark Griffin on the life and art of film director Vincente Minnelli

DATE: Tuesday, March 9
TIME: 7 p.m.

LOCATION:
Lewiston Public Library
Callahan Hall
200 Main St., Lewiston, Maine

Free and open to the public.

FMI: 207-513-3135

Author Mark Griffin will speak on his newly published book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

Read recent Lewiston Sun Journal article at this link.

Trail Blazer

2010-02-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

It's one of those eternal questions that every member of the human race finds themselves pondering at some point. You know, the kind of heavy duty question that inspires more in-depth soul searching than "What's it all about, Alfie?" and prompts greater self-reflection than "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" As down-to-business inquiries go, it's even more in-your-face than "Do Ya Wanna Funk?" Of course, I'm referring to the ultimate sixty-four dollar question that everyone from Gandhi to Michelle Obama has undoubtedly asked themselves at some point in their lives. Namely: "What the hell am I going to wear?"

Next week, I'm off to the Museum of Modern Art's Film Center as I've been invited to pay tribute to my cinematic super hero...the incomparable Vincente Minnelli (who helmed such sumptuously produced movie masterpieces as Meet Me In St. Louis, An American in Paris and Gigi). Now if one were honoring a distinctly urban auteur (like Martin Scorsese) or some cutting edge hipster (say Robert Rodriquez), you could get away with wearing a mad bomber hat and some faded denim. However, when one is paying homage to Hollywood's "master of the decorative image," this requires some serious spiffing up.

The trouble is I reside in southern Maine and let's just say that there isn't a Bergdorf-Goodman on every corner (hell, there isn't even indoor plumbing on every corner). Nevertheless, I was determined to find an elegant ensemble for my forthcoming appearance - one that was truly worthy of my favorite filmmaker. Due to a constrained budget, my dream outfit also had to be affordable while somehow evoking MGM at its most luxurious (think: Ziegfeld Follies or the spectacular fashion show finale from Lovely to Look At). My dear friend Keary, who is angelically good-natured and willing to put up with yours truly (in all six shades of diva) agreed to accompany me on a strategic mission to find the appropriate get-up (alright, cards on the table: I ordered him to drive me all over the state without stopping for so much as an oyster cracker along the way).

While Keary took on the turnpike, I laid down the ground rules. The obligatory navy blue blazer - far too savings and loan for our purposes - was immediately ruled out. Khaki, serge gray and beige were all instantly disqualified as none of these selections would have been invited to appear before Mr. Minnelli's Technicolor cameras in 1948. It was clear that some kind of hypnotically-hued garment was required...though certainly not the kind of Palm Springs pastels favored by those on the PGA tour.

I had visions of a one-of-a-kind blazer drenched in what set designers at MGM used to refer to as "Minnelli red" - a super-saturated shade of scarlet that turned up time and again in Minnelli's movies - most notably in Hermione Gingold's snug sitting room in Gigi (1958). When I marched into the first J.C. Penney we spotted and demanded to see whatever they had in "Minnelli red," the haggard, spinsterish sales clerk peered over her granny glasses and treated me to an incredulous look that simultaneously said, "You've got to be kidding..." and "Baby, when did you leave Uranus?"

Go figure but none of the local retailers we visited had anything in Minnelli red - not out back, in the warehouse or even stashed in the storage locker of the only out and proud transvestite employed in southern Maine. I began to despair - not only was Wal-Mart fresh out of Minnelli red smoking jackets but Keary's overburdened snow tires were now worn down to the size of Necco wafers. Things looked pretty bleak. It was not unlike that moment in The Band Wagon (1953) when Fred Astaire thinks he's washed up and all over - not realizing that a stunning comeback and a stunning Cyd Charisse are just around the corner.

At my lowest ebb, my nephew Ryan suddenly recalled renting a most becoming cummerbund from the one haberdashery in the entire godforsaken state that Keary and I (though mostly Keary) had somehow overlooked. As we sped off toward the establishment that my nephew had recommended, I decided that we should alter our approach. Perhaps the term "Minnelli red" was throwing people off - especially sales clerks who clearly considered Marley and Me (2008) some kind of landmark achievement in contemporary cinema.

When we burst through the doors of our Absolutely Last Chance, I gathered the entire sales staff together and proceeded to pit the over-anxious clerks against one another. "Okay, now listen up," I said, doing my best to sound as bullish and NFL as possible. "The first person who finds me something totally smoking in aubergine gets one humongous tip. Now get cracking, team!" They zipped off in different directions like guppies.

After the floor had cleared, a pleasingly plump assistant manager approached. She told us that her name was Rola and in the course of ten highly informative minutes, we also learned that she was Lebanese, the mother of two, a former short order cook and an organ donor. After we were thoroughly briefed on Rola's entire existence up to that point, she pulled us close, prepared to share some kind of highly classified insider secret with us. For the first time since we'd been introduced, Rola did not speak. Instead, she pointed toward an enormous rack of business suits and blazers. Everyone in the store suddenly gasped in unison. There in the midst of apparel so conservative that Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele would have cleaned house, was a sliver of color - and a glimmer of hope. Could it be? Was it possible that buried beneath all of those bland Brooks Brothers knock-offs, there was $245 worth of MGM glitz sitting on a plastic hanger?

Keary and I exchanged astonished looks as Rola cast her eyes heavenward and muttered a Lebanese prayer (or an epic-length, obscenity-laced tirade for all we know). Here it was! After countless miles and innumerable descriptions of Gigi's living room, we had finally hit paydirt. We had found it...the motherlode. The holy grail of budget men's wear. And as though Minnelli were directing the entire scene from his own Culver City in the sky, my Technicolor blazer fit perfectly and it didn't require even the slightest bit of alteration. As Rola bid us goodbye (after telling us all about her aunt's homemade remedy for scurvy) we walked out of the store with irrefutable proof that miracles still exist in modern times.

"I can't believe what just happened," Keary said as he struggled to carry the mountainous stack of coordinating accessories that I had just purchased. "I can," I answered. "It's called divine providence. Besides, at MGM they used to say that insurmountable challenges always made for a better picture."

"Well, if that's the case," Keary responded as he kicked a slightly deflated front tire, "we just called it a 'wrap' on a four star classic."

Reviews of New Vincente Minnelli Book

2010-02-18T09:14:00.000-08:00

Follow this link and scroll down to read some great quotes about Mark Griffin's new book about Oscar-winning director Vincente Minnelli.

The title of this book which will be released on March 2, 2010 is A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli.

Biographers Robert Hofler and Foster Hirsch have both given this new book the thumbs up.

Author Appearance: February 23

2010-01-30T08:21:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, February 23 at 2:00pm, Mark Griffin will introduce a screening of Vincente Minnelli's film Gigi at the Auburn Public Library. The library is located at 49 Spring St. in Auburn, Maine.

Mark is a resident of Lewiston, Maine and is the author of the new book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli. He will provide insight into Minnelli and his films and be on hand after the screening to answer questions about the director.

This screening is part of the library's "Prime Time" initiative. A classic 1950s musical will be featured each Tuesday in February:

February 2 -- An American in Paris
February 9 -- Singin' in the Rain
February 16 -- Brigadoon
February 23 -- Gigi

Reference librarian Steve Bouchard will be at each screening to provide historical context.

Admission: 50 cents
Popcorn and soft drinks will be available.

For more information, call 207-333-6640 extension 5.

Turner Classic Movies features Mark Griffin's new book

2010-01-30T07:58:00.000-08:00

Click HERE to go to story.

A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli

Vincente Minnelli’s genius as a film maker is undisputed. The Oscar®-winning director of such cinematic classics as Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, and Gigi, Minnelli infused his films and their characters with depth and complexity. That Minnelli was also married to Judy Garland (among others) and was Liza Minnelli’s father only added to his notoriety and mystique. Minnelli’s intense privacy regarding his personal life, including his sexuality, has long intrigued film aficionados. Hollywood historians and devotees of his work have interpreted Minnelli’s themes to be at least partly autobiographical, but until now the extent to which Minnelli’s life both shaped and is reflected in his films has remained unsatisfactorily explored.

Mark Griffin became fascinated with Vincente Minnelli and his work in 1984 when he discovered Minnelli’s second to last achievement, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. Calling the incident “life-altering,” Griffin committed to piecing together every facet of Minnelli’s life in an effort to understand how his experiences were captured in his richly layered movies. As part of his research, Griffin interviewed over a hundred of the people closest to Minnelli — people whose relationships with him spanned decades and different areas of his life — including actors Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Lauren Bacall, and Angela Lansbury. A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli (Da Capo Press) is the culmination of Griffin’s work — a comprehensive biography that illuminates Minnelli’s subtle, but unmistakable, autobiographical revelations.

Mark Griffin’s essays, film reviews, and reporting have appeared in the Boston Globe, Out, Genre, and in several anthologies. He lives in Lewiston, Maine.

A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli will be available March 1 from bookstores everywhere.

Check out the book jacket for Mark Griffin's new Vincente Minnelli biography

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Click on image to enlarge and read back jacket.

“Finally, the definitive biography of Vincente Minnelli. A Hundred or More Hidden Things is much more than an analysis of the director’s work. It is a full-bodied portrait of a most fascinating and complex artist.” ~ Robert Hofler, author of Party Animals and The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson

Pre-order: A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli

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Follow this link to pre-order Mark Griffin's new book A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli.

“[A] sharp, forthright, swiftly paced critical biography….Deftly drawing connections between the director’s life and his films, Griffin maintains a difficult balance: he is a fervent but objective critic.” ~ Foster Hirsch, author of Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King

Author Appearance: March 3

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WHAT: Mark Griffin will be at The Museum of Modern Art to introduce the screening of Vincente Minnelli's acclaimed adaptation of Madame Bovary. Mark is the author of A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli. Published by Da Capo Press -- Coming March 1.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 3
5:00pm -- Booksigning
6:00pm -- Film Screening

WHERE:
The Museum of Modern Art
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1
11 West 53rd St.
New York, NY

WHY:
Madame Bovary. 1949. USA. Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Screenplay by Robert Ardrey. With Jennifer Jones, James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan. Flaubert’s tale of a woman who sacrifices everything for love was filmed earlier by Jean Renoir and later by Claude Chabrol. 115 min.

FMI:
Tickets for film are available at the Museum lobby information desk and at the film desk. More information at this link.

New from Da Capo Press - Coming March 1!

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