He's hot in Fahrenheit 451!!!
-
pamhw — 21 years ago(September 19, 2004 01:35 PM)
I must say I am pleased that Oskar's gaining "fans" from "Fahrenheit 451". He and Truffaut fought like cats and dogs over that film. Truffaut (I suspect he knew Oskar was right but by now HE was a big name and wouldn't let himself admit it!) tried everything he could to discredit Oskar. He cut all Oskar's scenes that were true to the Montag character. He said he wanted a different actor originally first it was Jeam Paul Belmondo then later he said Terrence Stamp. He insisted Oskar argued over money. For those of us to have been priviledged to know Oskar (even if only via the mails as in my case) this is beyond a joke. Oskar was famous for turning down projects that would have paid him huge amounts of money just to do something else he believed in. As Stanley Kramer once said, he "didn't think money meant much to him." It didn't. What he was arguing about with Truffaut was his using Julie Christie in the dual role of Montag's wife and Clarisse. And, yes, the "book girl" in the book was a teenager. Truffaut had the opportunity of making a truly profound classic but his ego got the best of him. He should have turned to Oskar who had seen, as he related to me, "the Nazis burning the books in Vienna. It was a nightmare in the word's truest sense." You might have noticed too that in the book the "book people" are more fully human. In the end of the book they are on their way to try to help a city which has just been bombed in the "secret war" which is very present in the book but nearly non existent in the film. In the film the book people become nearly as robotic as the rest of the non reading citizens. You are quite right, the book is better! Incidently, Oskar would not have liked being thought "cute." It was a pet peeve of his.he didn't like it "when people look at my person.' He was very, very unlike the vast majority of actors of any time in any medium. He was an idealistic genius, plagued by guilt over the Holocaust. Though what he could have done at 15 at the time of the Aunschloss - the annexation of Austria by the Nazis- is hard to figure out. At the end of his live, dying slowly and tragically from alcohol poisoning he kept on trying to come up with ways to commemorate those who perished in the greatest war crime in history. Of course, as a pacifist, he felt war itself was a crime, something we agreed on!
-
biker74 — 20 years ago(February 05, 2006 08:21 AM)
Yes, I had heard that Truffaut and Oskar fought aswell. Infact, as a dig to Oskar, in the scene where he is hiding under the sheet on the boat, apparently this is just a standin and Truffaut made a point of getting someone who smoked with badly stained fingers to pull the sheet up - I believe it was changed and5b4 edited after everyone had seen the final rushes.
-
Grizeus — 16 years ago(October 20, 2009 08:58 PM)
I see it as a tad disrespectful talking about him like this when he's passed, but I'm so glad I watched the movie version of F451. I found him very attractive the whole time. And his accent was cute. There are no actors like him today so innocent looking and sounding and so genuine.
Energizer Bunny arrested, charged with battery.
