Post by jeffan on Jan 31, 2009 13:14:14 GMT -5
The Hands of Bresson
Eyemaster
January 31 2009
Finally, my last interview took me to the third floor, where, after some confusion about time slots and exact suite locations, I was eventually introduced to Jeff Goldblum, star of Paul Schrader’s new film Adam Resurrected. Goldblum, who for some reason doesn’t merit an entry in David Thomson’s highly idiosyncratic “Biographical Dictionary of Film,” is as odd and offbeat in person as he is onscreen. I don’t know how tall he is—my guess is 6’5”—but he’s also dapper, strikingly handsome, and almost extraterrestrially charismatic. We had a brief chat about Adam Stein, the former circus entertainer and Holocaust survivor he plays in the film, which is adapted from Israeli novelist Yoram Kaniuk’s cherished novel, but it was his mannerisms and speech habits that fascinated me. Goldblum is a charmer, as many career actors learn to be when dealing with press, but somehow, the way he made continual eye contact and repeated my name every time he spoke made our conversation seem ingenuous. On his way out, off camera, we talked about how Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin had both expressed an interest in playing the role of Stein after Kaniuk’s book was published, and Goldblum mentioned how he hoped a bit of Chaplin’s madcap energy, at least, came across in his performance. No worries, Jeff: there’s more than a little Chaplin in your whole way of being.
eyeonfilm.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/looking-back-at-toronto-2008/
Eyemaster
January 31 2009
Finally, my last interview took me to the third floor, where, after some confusion about time slots and exact suite locations, I was eventually introduced to Jeff Goldblum, star of Paul Schrader’s new film Adam Resurrected. Goldblum, who for some reason doesn’t merit an entry in David Thomson’s highly idiosyncratic “Biographical Dictionary of Film,” is as odd and offbeat in person as he is onscreen. I don’t know how tall he is—my guess is 6’5”—but he’s also dapper, strikingly handsome, and almost extraterrestrially charismatic. We had a brief chat about Adam Stein, the former circus entertainer and Holocaust survivor he plays in the film, which is adapted from Israeli novelist Yoram Kaniuk’s cherished novel, but it was his mannerisms and speech habits that fascinated me. Goldblum is a charmer, as many career actors learn to be when dealing with press, but somehow, the way he made continual eye contact and repeated my name every time he spoke made our conversation seem ingenuous. On his way out, off camera, we talked about how Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin had both expressed an interest in playing the role of Stein after Kaniuk’s book was published, and Goldblum mentioned how he hoped a bit of Chaplin’s madcap energy, at least, came across in his performance. No worries, Jeff: there’s more than a little Chaplin in your whole way of being.
eyeonfilm.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/looking-back-at-toronto-2008/