Robert Towne
4 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
You might only remember the tits, but teen movies featured a certain kind of motivated lead: One who either worked a job and clashed with his bosses over the soul of the business – Meatballs , Joysticks , you name it – or sought out a certain kind of accomplishment be it in the form of winning a big contest or sporting event which their romantic and sexual pursuits complemented or challenged (if you want an example of a Teen Movie that breaks the mold there, look no further than Robert Towne’s Personal Best , which isn’t necessarily a comedy, but features a female lead, played by Mariel Hemingway, struggling between Olympic qualifying and her love for a rival).
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Directed by Céline Sciamma
influenced by Personal Best (1982)
Themes
It is not that simple, any more than past films like Personal Best (1981), Bound (1996), or Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013) were strictly about a same-sex topic in their day.
Towne’s Oscar-nominated screenwriting successes ("The Last Detail," "Shampoo" and "Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan") and his Oscar win for "Chinatown" have led to a healthy career writing Hollywood blockbusters like the "Mission Impossible" movies.
Fante's spirit is the sloshed, romantic vagabond's, pre-Kerouac in its ruefulness and, to the writer of The Last Detail and Shampoo now mainly punching up Tom Cruise vehicles, an irresistible vessel for his own unfashionably moony themes.
“Eternity” may play as a fantasy for some, in the same way “The Notebook” and “Tequila Sunrise” (1988), to name a few, offer the who-will-she-pick hook of the love story.