Another big loss in the movie world: Arthur Penn, director of Bonnie and Clyde

[BurtWorm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/movies/30penn.html?_r=2&hp




By DAVE KEHR
Published: September 29, 2010


Arthur Penn, the stage, television and motion picture director whose revolutionary treatment of sex and violence in the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde” transformed the American film industry, died on Tuesday night at his home in Manhattan, the day after he turned 88.

The cause was congestive heart failure, his son, Matthew, said.

A pioneering director of live television drama in the 1950s and a Broadway powerhouse in the 1960s, Mr. Penn developed an intimate, spontaneous and physically oriented method of directing actors that allowed their work to register across a range of mediums.

In 1957 he directed William Gibson’s television play “The Miracle Worker” for the CBS series “Playhouse 90” and earned Emmy nominations for himself, his writer and his star, Teresa Wright. In 1959 he restaged “The Miracle Worker” for Broadway and won Tony Awards for himself, his writer and his star, Anne Bancroft. And in 1962 he directed the film version of the Gibson text, capturing the best actress Oscar for Bancroft, the best supporting actress Oscar for her co-star, Patty Duke, and nominations for writing and directing.

Mr. Penn’s direction may have also changed American history. He advised Senator John F. Kennedy during his watershed television debates with Richard M. Nixon in 1960 (and directed the broadcast of the third debate). Mr. Penn’s instructions to Kennedy — to look directly into the camera and keep his responses brief and pithy — helped give Kennedy an aura of confidence and calm that created a vivid contrast to Nixon, his more experienced but less telegenic Republican rival.

But it was as a film director that Mr. Penn left his mark on American culture, most indelibly with “Bonnie and Clyde.”

...

[Bucky]

1. "Big loss" might be an exaggeration. I mean, it's not like he's a Coen Brother.

Besides, after such a full career, it seems odd to call his death at age 88 a loss at all.

[BurtWorm]

2. That's cold.

:scared:

[Bucky]

3. Sorry we're not eye-to-eye on this. I just don't see the point in mourning rather than celebrating

You humans boggle me, sometimes.

[BurtWorm]

4. You just hate Arthur Penn, face it.

Ignored a screen treatment of yours, eh?

:p