Rogers & heart
Hey, minor Frank Borzage is still better than major Michael Bay, right? So This week’s Forgotten, over at The Daily Notebook, digs out a curio from the occluded middle of the Great Man’s career. And it’s available on DVD —
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shadowplay 
March 24, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Speaking of “The Forgotten” —
Latest FaBlog: In Excelsis MOPI
March 24, 2011 at 11:05 pm
I recall at the time many felt that River Phoenix would become the James Dean of his generation, but his fame hasn’t burned as brightly. Which is maybe more to do with our culture’s obsession with “the latest” than with any comparison of talents or fame or tragedy.
March 25, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Precisely. With the culture’s insistence on “the new” River is quickly being forgotten.
March 25, 2011 at 3:44 pm
My Own Private Idaho lingers, though. It seems destined to be THE River Phoenix film.
March 25, 2011 at 6:08 pm
And even that one isn’t terribly good.
Can a performer really endure in our memory unless they have a ‘classic’ film that defines them forever after? Too bad River Phoenix never had a vehicle of that calibre.
March 25, 2011 at 6:56 pm
Well, it means a great deal to some people, that film.
Bardot maintains iconic status despite the fact that her best-remembered films aren’t really too great, while the best works on her CV lurk in neglected corners. The problem may also be that, with the passing of Liz Taylor, there are few if any really iconic stars whose fame will outlast their currency. The whole film culture is geared to the new and the now.
March 26, 2011 at 7:13 pm
I must disagree about Brigitte never having a ‘classic’ to her name. AND GOD CREATED WOMAN, LA VERITE, CONTEMPT and, above all, VIVA MARIA! – any one of those is enough to ensure her immortality.
All of them strike me as infinitely better films than MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO. As the mighty Paul Roen once wrote: “River falls asleep every time he thinks of his mother. I fall asleep every time I think of this movie.”
March 26, 2011 at 8:17 pm
And God Created Woman is the source of the iconic status, and it never seemed to me as if it could sustain such a reputation. The others are all superior, although I confess to mixed feelings about the Malle, whose sexual politics are at times deeply twisted.