The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (420 page)

Seven films in three years was the opportunism of someone who knew how fickle success could be. He was rich again, but plumper and older, and it began to show:
Mad City
(97, Costa-Gavras); as the president in
Primary Colors
(98, Mike Nichols);
A Civil Action
(98, Steven Zaillian);
The Thin Red Line
(98, Terrence Malick);
The General’s Daughter
(99, Simon West);
Battlefield Earth
(00, Roger Christian), a piece of rubbish derived from Travolta’s own wise man, L. Ron Hubbard;
Domestic Disturbance
(01, Harold Becker);
Swordfish
(01, Dominic Sena);
Basic
(03, John McTiernan);
Ladder 49
(04, Jay Russell);
The Punisher
(04, Jonathan Hensleigh);
A Love Song for Bobby Long
(04, Shainee Gabel).

Getting older, Travolta is likeable, but hardly a money actor. Broad villainy seems to appeal as much as anything:
Be Cool
(F. Gary Gray);
Lonely Hearts
(06, Todd Robinson);
Hairspray
(07, Adam Shankman)—as the mother; the villain in
The Taking of Pelham 123
(09, Tony Scott);
Old Dogs
(09, Walt Becker);
From Paris with Love
(10, Pierre Morel).

Claire Trevor
(Claire Wemlinger) (1909–2000), b. New York
After AADA, she went into stock and then to Warners where she appeared in some of the early Vitaphone shorts. She returned to the theatre and was signed by Fox in 1932. Her career is a classic case of an actress perpetually in support, rarely working in major movies, and taking on the whole range of blowsy molls and blasé dolls. What stamina it must have required to stay fresh. She made her debut in 1933 in
Life in the Raw
(Louis King) and worked steadily until the late 1950s. Her career lacks shape—but it is as inconsequential and arresting as chatter:
Jimmy and Sally
(33, James Tinling);
Hold That Girl
(34, Hamilton McFadden);
Wild Gold
(34, George Marshall);
Spring Tonic
(35, Clyde Bruckman);
Black Sheep
(35, Allan Dwan);
Navy Wife
(35, Dwan); opposite Spencer Tracy in
Dante’s Inferno
(35, Harry Lachman);
Song and Dance Man
(36, Dwan);
Human Cargo
(36, Dwan);
15 Maiden Lane
(36, Dwan);
One Mile from Heaven
(37, Dwan); a tart in
Dead End
(37, William Wyler);
King of Gamblers
(37, Robert Florey); a gangster’s girl in
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse
(38, Anatole Litvak); a saloon girl in
Valley of the Giants
(38, William Keighley); her best remembered part, as the prostitute hustled by smalltown censoriousness onto the
Stagecoach
(39, John Ford);
I Stole a Million
(39, Frank Tuttle);
The Dark Command
(40, Raoul Walsh);
Texas
(41, Marshall);
Honky Tonk
(41, Jack Conway);
Crossroads
(42, Conway);
The Desperadoes
(43, Charles Vidor);
Good Luck, Mr. Yates
(43, Ray Enright); excellent in
Murder, My Sweet
(45, Edward Dmytryk);
CrackUp
(46, Irving Reis); sharp and nasty in
Born to Kill
(47, Robert Wise);
Raw Deal
(48, Anthony Mann); Edward G. Robinson’s mistress, in
Key Largo
(48, John Huston), for which she won the supporting actress Oscar;
The Babe Ruth Story
(48, Roy del Ruth);
The Velvet Touch
(48, John Gage);
Hard, Fast and Beautiful
(51, Ida Lupino);
My Man and I
(52, William Wellman);
Stop, You’re Killing Me
(52, Roy del Ruth);
The Stranger Wore a Gun
(53, André de Toth);
The High and the Mighty
(54, Wellman);
Man Without a Star
(55, King Vidor);
Lucy Gallant
(55, Robert Parrish); and
Marjorie Morningstar
(58, Irving Rapper).

After that, her work on film grew limited: as Edward G. Robinson’s “lawful wedded nightmare” in
Two Weeks in Another Town
(62, Vincente Minnelli); as Richard Beymer’s mother in
The Stripper
(63, Franklin Schaffner); in
How to Murder Your Wife
(65, Richard Quine); and an oddity—in the Thelma Ritter part in
The Cape Town Affair
(67, Robert D. Webb), a dull remake of Fuller’s
Pickup on South Street
. Years later, she appeared in
Kiss Me Goodbye
(82, Robert Mulligan) and
Norman Rockwell’s Breaking Home Ties
(87, John Wilder).

Jean-Louis Trintignant
, b. Port-St.-Esprit, France, 1930
It often takes a major director to identify the latent personality of an actor who has been around many years without finding himself. Raoul Walsh did this for Humphrey Bogart in
High Sierra;
while Catherine Deneuve was explained—and her other films illuminated—by
Belle de Jour
. Jean-Louis Trintignant had been working hard in European films for fifteen years, his face frozen by so many supposedly romantic leads. From the mid-1960s, he found his diffidence leading him into increasingly detached, voyeuristic characters. This trend culminated in his magnificent scuttling assassin in
The Conformist
(70, Bernardo Bertolucci).

Bertolucci was himself aware of the discovery: “I think Trintignant is that person, that this is his first film in which he is himself.… I chose Trintignant because when I think of him two adjectives immediately come to mind: moving and sinister. And these are qualities of the character. The point of departure is reality, then the actor transcends it. Because there is a camera which moves and which is itself an actor, an actor who makes the others react. The camera is a character like Trintignant, a living presence, not a recording machine.”

Indeed, Trintignant reacts to the camera as if it were his conscience; he hunches up, retreats behind his own basilisk stare, and regards the other people in the film with a long-distance curiosity such as audiences lavish on films. His personality in
The Conformist
is the weakness of the obsessive fantasist, his face closed to guard his own private image of the world. How intriguing that the first plan for
Last Tango in Paris
was based on Trintignant; how revealing of the way films change with alterations of casting.

After
The Conformist
it is easy to see that sense of separateness growing through Trintignant’s work. He came to the movies from the theatre:
Si Tous les Gars du Monde
(55, Christian-Jaque);
And God Created Woman
(56, Roger Vadim);
Estate Violenta
(59, Valerio Zurlini);
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
(59, Vadim);
Austerlitz
(60, Abel Gance and Roger Richebé);
Le Coeur Battant
(60, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze);
Pleins Feux sur l’Assassin
(61, Georges Franju);
Le Combat dans l’Île
(61, Alain Cavalier);
Le Jeu de la Vérité
(61, Robert Hossein); in the luxury episode from
Les Sept Péchés Capitaux
(62, Jacques Demy);
Il Sorpasso
(62, Dino Risi);
Château en Suède
(63, Vadim);
Mata-Hari, Agent H21
(64, Jean-Louis Richard);
The Sleeping Car Murders
(65, Costa-Gavras);
Le Dix-Septième Ciel
(66, Serge Korber);
La Longue Marche
(66, Alexandre Astruc);
Is Paris Burning?
(66, René Clément);
A Man and a Woman
(66, Claude Lelouch);
Col Cuore in Gola
(67, Tinto Brass);
Trans-Europ Express
(67, Alain Robbe-Grillet);
Mon Amour, Mon Amour
(67, Nadine Trintignant, his wife);
La Morte la Fatto l’Uovo
(67, Giulio Questi);
La Matriarca
(68, Pasquale Festa Campanile);
L’Homme Qui Ment
(68, Robbe-Grillet); as the pusillanimous male object in
Les Biches
(68, Claude Chabrol);
Z
(68, Costa-Gavras);
Le Voleur de Crimes
(69, Trintignant);
Metti una Sera a Cena
(69, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi); as the man hesitating over
My Night at Maud’s
(68, Eric Rohmer);
L’Américain
(70, Marcel Bozzuffi);
Le Voyou
(70, Lelouch);
L’Homme au Cerveau Greffé
(71, Doniol-Valcroze); as the treacherous journalist in
L’Attentat
(72, Yves Boisset);
Les Violons du Bal
(74, Michel Drach); and
Le Secret
(74, Robert Enrico). Trintignant had also directed his first film,
Une Journée Bien Remplie
(72). He also appeared in
Le Mouton Enragé
(74, Michel Deville);
Voyages de Noces
(75, N. Trintignant);
Les Passagers
(76, Serge Leroy);
Repérages
(78, Michel Soutter); and
L’Argent des Autres
(78, Christian de Chalonge).

As he grew older, Trintignant stepped aside with ease to become a character actor, underplaying but commanding:
La Banquiere
(80, Francis Girod);
Malevil
(81, Chalonge);
Passione d’Amore
(81, Ettore Scola);
Eaux Profondes
(81, Deville);
Colpa al Cuore
(82, Gianni Amelio);
Le Bon Plaisir
(83, Girod);
Under Fire
(83, Roger Spottiswoode);
La Nuit de Varennes
(83, Scola);
Confidentially Yours
(83, Francois Truffaut);
Viva la Vie
(84, Lelouch);
Partir, Revenir
(84, Lelouch);
L’Eté Prochaine
(85, N. Trintignant); the director in
Rendezvous
(86, André Téchiné);
La Vallée Fantôme
(86, Alain Tanner);
Un Homme et une Femme: 20 Ans Déjà
(87, Lelouch);
Le Moustachu
(87, Dominique Chaussois);
Bunker Palace Hotel
(89, Enki Bilal);
Merci la Vie
(91, Bertrand Blier); and
Rouge
(94, Krzysztof Kieślowski).

He does smaller things now, but he has a distinct and distinguished presence: a voice in
The City of Lost Children
(95, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet);
C’Est Jamais Loin
(96, Alain Centonze);
L’Insoumise
(96, Charlotte Silvera);
Tykho Moon
(96, Bilal);
Un Héros Très Discret
(96, Jacques Audiard);
Un Homme Est Tombé dans la Rue
(96, Dominique Roulet);
Ceux Qui M’aiment Prendront le Train
(98, Patrice Chereau);
Janis et John
(03, Samuel Benchetrit).

Jan Troell
, b. Limhamm, Sweden, 1931
1958:
Stad
(s). 1960:
Sommartag
(s). 1961:
Baten
(s);
Nasafton pa Skanska slattn
(s);
Pjken Och Draken / The Boy and the Kite
(codirected with Bo Widerberg) (s); 1962:
Var I Dalby Hage
(s);
e Kom Tillbaka
(s);
Den Gamla Kvarnen
(s). 1964:
Johan Ekberg
(s);
Trako
(codirected with Las Braw) (s). 1965:
Portratt avasa
(s). 1966:
Här Har Du Ditt Liv / Here Is Your Life
. 1968:
Ole Dole Doff / Who Saw Him Die?
1971:
Utvandrarna / The Emigrants
. 1972:
Nybyggarna /The New Land
. 1974:
Zandy’s Bride
. 1979:
Hurricane
. 1982:
Ingenjör Andrées Luftfärd / The Flight of the Eagle
. 1988:
Sagolandet
(d). 1991:
Il Capitano: A Swedish Requiem
. 2001:
Så Vit som en Snö / As White as in Snow
. 2003:
Nävarande
(d). 2008:
Maria Larssons Eviga Ögonblick / Everlasting Moments
.

In the early 1970s, Jan Troell looked like a world-class director. His two-part epic
—The Emigrants
and
The New Land
—played widely outside Sweden. Both
The Emigrants
and Troell were nominated for Oscars in a year when
The Godfather
was the big winner. The two films told the story of a group of Swedes (headed by Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow) who shipped out to America and braved the difficulties of a wilderness called Minnesota. The spirit of Sjöstrom was at work in a way of filming that Americans had seldom grasped. In many ways, the appeal was that of documentary—digging deep into the pioneer experience which has always been so heavily romanticized by Americans.

Troell was invited to work in America, but the results were forlorn:
Zandy’s Bride
(with Gene Hackman and Liv Ullmann) and
Hurricane
(a project originally intended for Roman Polanski). So Troell went home again and returned to relative obscurity. The two films were revived and acclaimed more than thirty years later at the Telluride Festival, but then Troell dashed renewed hopes with
Everlasting Moments
(which did seem to go on a long time).

François Truffaut
(1932–84), b. Paris
1957:
Les Mistons
(s). 1958:
Une Histoire d’Eau
(codirected with Jean-Luc Godard) (s). 1959:
Les Quatre Cents Coups/The 400 Blows
. 1960:
Tirez sur le Pianiste/Shoot the Piano Player
. 1961:
Jules et Jim
. 1962: “Antoine et Colette,” episode in
L’Amour à Vingt Ans
. 1964:
La Peau Douce/Soft Skin
. 1966:
Fahrenheit 451
. 1967:
La Mariée Était en Noir/The Bride Wore Black
. 1968:
Baisers Volés/Stolen Kisses
. 1969:
La Sirène du Mississippi/Mississippi Mermaid; L’Enfant Sauvage
. 1970:
Domicile Conjugale/Bed and Board
. 1971:
Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent/Anne and Muriel
. 1972:
Une Belle Fille Comme Moi/A Gorgeous Bird Like Me
. 1973:
La Nuit Américaine/ Day for Night
. 1975:
L’Histoire d’Adèle H./The Story of Adèle H
. 1976:
L’Argent du Poche/Small Change
. 1977:
L’Homme Qui Aimait les Femmes/ The Man Who Loved Women
. 1978:
La Chambre Verte/The Green Room
. 1979:
L’Amour en Fuite/Love on the Run
. 1981:
Le Dernier Mètro/ The Last Mètro; La Femme d’à Côté/The Woman Next Door
. 1982:
Vivement Dimanche/ Confidentially Yours
.