Tod Hackett, fresh out of Yale, wants to make it as an art director in late 1930’s Hollywood – but he finds himself increasingly distracted by his new neighbor Faye, a would-be starlet with possible designs of her own on a lonely, morose accountant. As Tod is drawn deeper into the lurid private lives of studio bosses and film industry workers, he gradually becomes desperate to know if Faye – or anyone – is capable of real love. –IMDb
Schlesinger was born in London into a middle class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta (née Regensburg) and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician. After Uppingham School and graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, he worked as an actor.
One of his earliest films, the British Transport Films’ documentary Terminus (1960), gained a Venice Film Festival Gold Lion and a British Academy Award. His first two fiction movies, A Kind of Loving (1962) and Billy Liar (1963) were set in the North of England. A Kind of Loving won the Golden Bear award at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival in 1962.
His third Darling (1965) described tartly the modern urban way of life in London and was one of the first films about ‘swinging London’. Schlesinger’s next movie was Far From the Madding Crowd (1967), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s popular novel. Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy (1969) was internationally acclaimed… read more
I wanted so much for this film to be the classic underbelly of Hollywood story that Nathanael West had written, instead we got the flabby belly of Hollywood.
Jackie Earle Haley as the creepy, cruel child actor and the apocalyptic end of the film were the highlights, but man did it take forever to get there. At least 40 minutes too long--and I couldn't shake the feeling that William Atherton (and his negative charisma) were simply miscast. Does make me want to read the novel though...
Whores, racist midgets, creepy little children, sexually repressed bible thumpers and apocalyptic riots. Hollywood was a pretty odd place according to Nathanael West who’s book, ‘The Day Of The Locust’… read review
