Crimble.

to lighten things up here is a picture of our wedding all those years ago.

                      

Let's hope things will be different this time next year for everybody's sake. Then we can have, what people seem to think is the biggest priority this year, a Christmas.

But is it that important? Maybe for people's peace of mind, a link to a kind of normality – or as an American President said, normalcy! But every time you look at TV to see a movie or a play, you can see people in crowds, hugging, kissing and being normal and regular.

I don't think the hug or the hand shake will ever come back. Maybe in family circles but not generally. Maybe the fist or elbow bump? I don't know. The open-handed handshake was to prove you came as a friend and it stuck through the ages and maybe the elbow.

People in the south of England, in the London area mainly, would always greet you with a hug and a kiss. Men to men; women to women. In the midlands and the north, where they are supposed to have a friendly reputation, it doesn't happen so much. When you visit people in London, say meet some friends, the trend and the custom it to kiss your pal's wife. Maybe a kiss on the cheek but in the north, and this has happened to me, they think a kiss means you are flirting or trying to 'get off' with the wife so the next step is everybody throwing their car keys in to something so couples can pair off.

Of course, as I have said many times, I am no expert on anything and these are only my opinions and what I surmise as I lie in bed listening to the Today programmes on BBC Radio 4 every morning.

The Today Programme, by the way, is considered serious news in Britain. It has an obligation to devote a few minutes to tell the public what happened in Parliament the day before. This is supposed to be without political bias or prejudice although some people think it does have a bias but those people maybe don't know what playing devil's advocate is. Extreme left wing people think the BBC is too right wing and extreme right wingers think it's too left wing.

There are people in this world who don't know the difference. They say they are 'right wing' and have left wing views.

I like the BBC, I have always preferred their programmes from any other channel and that includes Netflix which I no longer subscribe to. I had it for years but when it became popular, using and making TV programmes and shows, I missed the movies I used to get from there. I don't know, it might still be the same in America where they sent, by mail (snail mail to use the expression) DVDs. I watched all the French films I missed over the years, all the film noir Hollywood classics, which are my favourites to this day, and now I miss them.

I also liked working for the BBC and they paid more money than ITV to an actor like me. Big stars – Tom Jones etc – would get big money from ITV, even though the quality was on the BBC, but to me not that much. It's hard to show comparison because what seemed like a lot of money in the 1970s sounds a tiny amount now but when you did a drama your fee was, shall we say, £10. That was the fee they worked on for the repeat fees and that would be for the London area only. As the programmes would be networked, shown on all the nation's stations, the actual fee would be £40. The same job on BBC you would get £40. Then when it was repeated or sold abroad the repeat fee was based on the original fee £10 ITV and £40 BBC. That's why when John Hurt won an EMMY for The Naked Civil Servant in America he told the press how much he was paid for the American showing which was only in double figures.

'Oy' an old pal said to me 'I work on the building as a chippie, a carpenter, and I put the doors in the houses.'

'Yes?' I said.

'Why don't they pay me every time somebody uses it?'

'That's a silly question' I said.

Happy Christmas.

Once Upon a Time . . 2.

 

Yes we're back at Once Upon a Time in America as I wanted to point out something strange.

First of all, I like discussing movies, they are as much a part of art as any other medium and in some cases they are more important. As you may see from the comments section I am not the only one who prefers good movies as opposed to blockbusters but I am very grateful for them; they pay for the films I like. Some of those are hits, of course, as I love The Godfather series of movies and what could be more satisfying than a piece of work that lots of others appreciate.

But I remember when I first started out as an actor I would be asked questions about my choice of work, warned I would spend a lot time unemployed and I remember that that was something I liked about it. I know now that some huge stars spend a lot of time not working. They don't worry financially about it but one very famous actor, recently, only worked two days in a twelve month period.

There was also a list of considered important jobs, I should follow, like a barber, a toolmaker or an electrician; amazing it was never something like a lawyer or a musician but I came to realise that all jobs are of the same so called importance. In brutal terms they are there to pay income tax and nothing else. However, it is widely considered that the farmer and the poet are the two most important jobs. The farmer feeds your body and the poet feeds your brain and maybe your philosophy. 

And you know something I think the actor is in the branch of poetry - as we interpret it.

If you say that to anybody they will say 'what about the doctor, the nurse, the President - well, we've all learned about the latter - but just think about it: the farmer or the poet. I know which one of them would never be on a bike.

The other idea of work is to 'put bread on the table' which must be a phrase from a Hollywood movie.

Getting back to Once Upon a Time in America - I do digress, don't I – when I went to live in America in January 1995 I met someone who could convert videos from the British system to the American one – PAL to NTSC. So I asked my wife to send my VHS copy over and had it converted.

Another guy told me it was his favourite film so I gave him the copy. He returned and said 'that was weird' – he had seen the film before, but never 'in that order.'

The film has a very well known opening. It starts with the sound of a telephone ringing and it rings a few hundred times as the action goes to montage scenes from the story including telephones being answered, which is strange to watch; it also had the thing of making us think it had stopped and then another ring. 

The film is set in 1920, 1932 1933 and 1968; and the montage flips from 1933 to 1968 then back 1920 for the start of the story.

The order my friend saw the original showing on TV went in date order and I am so glad I saw it as it was meant; someone at the television station had re-edited it.

 I like lots of films like that – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Slaughterhouse 5 – a lot of those movies, by the way, may have a character thinking back to days gone by but, if I can remember correctly, in Slaughterhouse 5 – the lead character, Billy Pilgrim, thinks forward.

Once Upon a Time . . .

 

Do you know I don't really have a favourite – a favourite anything. When I go to the supermarkets the machine will ask me if I would like to browse my favourites; I find that very strange to have a favourite anything that you can buy in a supermarket. Bit like window shopping at Tesco's or Ralphs and ogling the goodies that I used to look at in toys or bicycle shops when I was a child.

I spent the weekend looking at one of my favourite movies: Once Upon a Time in America. All three hours and forty minutes of it. But can I really say it's my favourite film? what about The Godfather or Annie Hall?

I read the other day that they actually cut two hours from it.

It was made in 1984 and is a masterpiece; terrific performances by Robert de Niro and James Woods – now how can I like James Woods when he is so right wing, or appears to be? Well it's his acting I like. It is a big performance but natural and that is the be all and end all for me. It's so well crafted and it slips into two or three time zones effortlessly. When I say natural I mean I believe it.

I think back to 1984 and figure what I was doing. I was doing a movie called Lifeforce which really wasn't well received here. It wasn't received well in America but when I moved there in 1994 a film editor, in the building where we lived, recognised me from it. When we were coming up in the elevator one of the days he welcomed his guest and introduced me and said 'guess what movie he is in?' and the guy said Lifeforce.

I went to a horror book shop in the valley one day, with a pal, and the guy in the shop wanted me to sign his DVD and VHS copies of the movie and when I met a movie director, casually, at a movie screening he told me he had met me before in the Horror Shop; maybe I should have asked him for a job?

The kicker was a few years ago, when I was doing my play at Jermyn Street Theatre, a group of guys waited for me one of the nights when I was going home. They were Lifeforce fans and had photos of me which I had never seen which I had to sign. I know about Star Wars and Star Trek conventions but Lifeforce?

When working on that film, and there were one or two actors who looked down their noses at the movie, two actors were brought in for one of the scenes. Two actor laddie types with perfect diction and big movements. The director thought they were wonderful when they came in but after a few takes he thanked them very much and off they went – they didn't use the scene.

I did learn a lot about natural acting when living in LA. They loved the perfect diction – which I never have had, in any case – but when it came to the work it was never needed. If the film is American and set in America why should they worry about some cinema in London, e.g.

The reason I put the movie on was to listen to the music of Ennio Morricone at the beginning when the character De Niro plays goes in to Grand Central Station in New York to open a case from a safe deposit box. When he finds it empty he buys a ticket to Buffalo and as the wonderful Morricone music swells the music changes to 'Yesterday' by Paul McCartney and we have gone forward 35 years.

I omitted saying it is at least fifteen minutes into the film and I was hooked. By the way, have you ever noticed that at twenty minutes in most films there is something called a Life Changing Event – and that would be the moment; end of the first act.

Not in my new film, of course, as that will only be 25 minutes long.

I have seen Once Upon a Time in America many times and I hope to see it again as it is like a great painting.

As we were watching it I said to my wife 'Wife' I said – only kidding. I pointed out that a section of the music was like some of The Pogues Christmas song Fairytale of New York which has to be one of my all time favourite Christmas songs. The bit that goes: la la la laa la (so happy Christmas) and when I was researching the movie today look what I found:

When Shane MacGowan of The Pogues was writing "Fairytale of New York", he had never actually visited the city, so he watched this movie countless times to get a feel for the New York City atmosphere. (The first bar of the Pogues song bears a strong resemblance to "Deborah's Theme.")