New Orleans on the Silver Screen
Two people on my LJ friends list have posted about Hollywood films using some good New Orleans scenery but having actors speak with "Southern" accents little like how New Orleanians talk. I agree -- Friends and I have been discussing and laughing about this for years.
Comments on few of the films, either mentioned by others or pop to mind at the moment:
Benjamin Button (2008) I discussed this film earlier. One of the most beautiful usages of New Orleans scenery Hollywood has done. Alas mostly Hollywood standard for the accents, though not as bad as some, and at least they didn't try to give New Orleanians a faux "Cajun" accent.
JFK (1991) -- I'll take a pass about assessing the "conspiracy theories" here in interest of preserving the small segment of the internet remaining devoted to neither porn nor arguing about the Kennedy assassination. I will note that even if it had nothing to do with Dealey Plaza, the Garrison - Clay Shaw case seems to have rounded up a cast of colorful characters that seem out of a lost novel by Tennessee Williams or John Kennedy Toole. A number of them still alive at the time have cameos in the film (including my former trombone teacher, the late Layton Martens). If Kevin Cosner looked little and sounded less like Garrison, I have to say that John Candy's portrayal of Dean Andrews is uncanny. A fair amount of good local location shooting. The real trial was actually at Tulane & Broad, not the old Courthouse in the Quarter.
After seeing "JFK" on the big screen, my date and I got into a cab and started discussing the film-- a well done bit of cinema, certainly the story should be taken with more than a grain of salt, but who expects accurate history from Hollywood, it's entertainment. The cab driver quickly injected himself into our conversation in a heavy Yat accent. "Every thing in the movie is true! It was exactly like that! I know, I was there!" We had gotten into a cab driven by one Perry Russo. (I wonder if he circled his cab around cinemas showing JFK when the movie ended in hopes of starting just such conversations.) Becoming increasingly worked up as we drove along, he amplified on the theme, and made claims including that many of the scenes in the movie which I thought were obvious re-creations were actually secret original footage discovered by Oliver Stone. I sort of enjoyed his rant as a colorful anecdote, but after we got out of the cab my date confided she'd been frightened by the experience, worried that the driver was a dangerous maniac. I later learned that Russo said he wanted to expose the Conspiracy because he didn't want that chicken-shit Oswald to get all the credit for the patriotic accomplishment of putting down that Commie bastard Kennedy. If I'd know that then, I would have been creeped out too.
The Big Easy (1987). One of the worst for making New Orleanians into Cajuns. Great historic footage of Bucktown Point, a gone pecan since Katrina.
Live and Let Die (1973). One of the classic era James Bond films. The New Orleans scenes are too breif, and the chase along the Bayous with the caricature Southern Sheriff is far too long. Highlights for me are the scenes with Dejan's Olympia Brass Band, including many now gone greats, and trumpeter Alvin Alcorn knifing the secret agents as the baby-faced killer.
Tightrope (1984). Some interesting local scenery, edited into geographic impossibilities. The Prytania Theater broke into laughter during the foot chase scene where they're running through Jackson Square, turn a corner, and are in (IIRC) Metairie Cemetery. Local model Kathy B. as nude corpse #1; Kathy B. was known as "the Official Tits of the 1984 World's Fair" as she was also the model for the giant mermaid statues at the main entrance.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). The only New Orleans scenery is right at the beginning. It shows the area near the foot of Canal Street, with the old Canal Streetcar, the old Louisville & Nashville Railway Station and the former pedestrian walkway over the tracks. I think this was around where Canal Place is now; I and most New Orleanians are too young to remember it now.
The Wacky World of Doctor Morgus (1962). Low budget sub-B movie featuring well loved local horror host not at his best. Some good footage of Canal Street and the Moissant Airport, and lots of real New Orleanians saying the dialogue. Also features an appearance by exotic dancer Chris Owens, who astonishingly is still entertaining on Bourbon Street. (I can recall joking with friends about Chris Owens' improbably long career more than a dozen years ago. How naieve I was then! Now I realize she is one of New Orleans' eternal fixtures, like humidity. She was probably here before Bienville landed from France, and will still be here a thousand years after the city sinks into the Gulf, doing the cha-cha for an audience of entertained marine life.)
The Savage Bees (1976). I think I last saw it some time in the '80s. Killer Bees movie, with some footage of a Volkswagan Beetle with plastic bees glued all over it driving through the French Quarter and into the Superdome. A friend who saw them filming a scene in the Quarter thought it looked like the movie was going to be pretty stupid; she was right.
Miller's Crossing (1990). The story isn't specifically set in any particular city, but most of the exteriors were filmed in New Orleans, making very good use of the city to get a late 1920s look.
Deja Vu (2006). Mentioned here. First film to do much filming in New Orleans after Katrina. They could have had lots of astonishing footage, but mostly didn't because it would have overshaddowed the story.
Comments on few of the films, either mentioned by others or pop to mind at the moment:
Benjamin Button (2008) I discussed this film earlier. One of the most beautiful usages of New Orleans scenery Hollywood has done. Alas mostly Hollywood standard for the accents, though not as bad as some, and at least they didn't try to give New Orleanians a faux "Cajun" accent.
JFK (1991) -- I'll take a pass about assessing the "conspiracy theories" here in interest of preserving the small segment of the internet remaining devoted to neither porn nor arguing about the Kennedy assassination. I will note that even if it had nothing to do with Dealey Plaza, the Garrison - Clay Shaw case seems to have rounded up a cast of colorful characters that seem out of a lost novel by Tennessee Williams or John Kennedy Toole. A number of them still alive at the time have cameos in the film (including my former trombone teacher, the late Layton Martens). If Kevin Cosner looked little and sounded less like Garrison, I have to say that John Candy's portrayal of Dean Andrews is uncanny. A fair amount of good local location shooting. The real trial was actually at Tulane & Broad, not the old Courthouse in the Quarter.
After seeing "JFK" on the big screen, my date and I got into a cab and started discussing the film-- a well done bit of cinema, certainly the story should be taken with more than a grain of salt, but who expects accurate history from Hollywood, it's entertainment. The cab driver quickly injected himself into our conversation in a heavy Yat accent. "Every thing in the movie is true! It was exactly like that! I know, I was there!" We had gotten into a cab driven by one Perry Russo. (I wonder if he circled his cab around cinemas showing JFK when the movie ended in hopes of starting just such conversations.) Becoming increasingly worked up as we drove along, he amplified on the theme, and made claims including that many of the scenes in the movie which I thought were obvious re-creations were actually secret original footage discovered by Oliver Stone. I sort of enjoyed his rant as a colorful anecdote, but after we got out of the cab my date confided she'd been frightened by the experience, worried that the driver was a dangerous maniac. I later learned that Russo said he wanted to expose the Conspiracy because he didn't want that chicken-shit Oswald to get all the credit for the patriotic accomplishment of putting down that Commie bastard Kennedy. If I'd know that then, I would have been creeped out too.
The Big Easy (1987). One of the worst for making New Orleanians into Cajuns. Great historic footage of Bucktown Point, a gone pecan since Katrina.
Live and Let Die (1973). One of the classic era James Bond films. The New Orleans scenes are too breif, and the chase along the Bayous with the caricature Southern Sheriff is far too long. Highlights for me are the scenes with Dejan's Olympia Brass Band, including many now gone greats, and trumpeter Alvin Alcorn knifing the secret agents as the baby-faced killer.
Tightrope (1984). Some interesting local scenery, edited into geographic impossibilities. The Prytania Theater broke into laughter during the foot chase scene where they're running through Jackson Square, turn a corner, and are in (IIRC) Metairie Cemetery. Local model Kathy B. as nude corpse #1; Kathy B. was known as "the Official Tits of the 1984 World's Fair" as she was also the model for the giant mermaid statues at the main entrance.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). The only New Orleans scenery is right at the beginning. It shows the area near the foot of Canal Street, with the old Canal Streetcar, the old Louisville & Nashville Railway Station and the former pedestrian walkway over the tracks. I think this was around where Canal Place is now; I and most New Orleanians are too young to remember it now.
The Wacky World of Doctor Morgus (1962). Low budget sub-B movie featuring well loved local horror host not at his best. Some good footage of Canal Street and the Moissant Airport, and lots of real New Orleanians saying the dialogue. Also features an appearance by exotic dancer Chris Owens, who astonishingly is still entertaining on Bourbon Street. (I can recall joking with friends about Chris Owens' improbably long career more than a dozen years ago. How naieve I was then! Now I realize she is one of New Orleans' eternal fixtures, like humidity. She was probably here before Bienville landed from France, and will still be here a thousand years after the city sinks into the Gulf, doing the cha-cha for an audience of entertained marine life.)
The Savage Bees (1976). I think I last saw it some time in the '80s. Killer Bees movie, with some footage of a Volkswagan Beetle with plastic bees glued all over it driving through the French Quarter and into the Superdome. A friend who saw them filming a scene in the Quarter thought it looked like the movie was going to be pretty stupid; she was right.
Miller's Crossing (1990). The story isn't specifically set in any particular city, but most of the exteriors were filmed in New Orleans, making very good use of the city to get a late 1920s look.
Deja Vu (2006). Mentioned here. First film to do much filming in New Orleans after Katrina. They could have had lots of astonishing footage, but mostly didn't because it would have overshaddowed the story.