104 FOXTEL July 2015

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE THE BLIND SIDE THE LOVELY BONES TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT

EASY RIDER

Wed 8 July at 8.30pm on Foxtel Movies Romance [408]

Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is brought to opulent life in Martin Scorsese’s 1993 movie, which follows the scandalous return of Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer) to New York. The Oscar-winning movie also stars Daniel Day-Lewis (above) as Newland Archer and Winona Ryder as his fiance May Welland.

Sat 18 July at 8.30pm on Foxtel Movies Masterpiece [402]

Based on a true story, this 2009 movie recounts how Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) came to adopt Michael “Big Mike” Oher (Quinton Aaron), a troubled, lonely foster child. He may be a star on the football field, but he’s passed from one carer to another until his path crosses Leigh Anne’s. Bullock won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role.

Sat 4 July at 8.30pm on Foxtel Movies Thriller [409]

Based on Alice Sebold’s bestselling novel, this haunting story is told from the perspective of murdered 14-year-old Susie (Saoirse Ronan, above). When the teenager goes missing, her family is beside themselves with worry and Susie attempts to guide her father (Mark Wahlberg) to her murderer George Harvey (Stanley Tucci) from her place in purgatory.

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MOVIESMOVIES

Wednesday 15 July at 8.30pm on World Movies [430]

As part of a World Movies Focus on Marion Cotillard, the French actress stars as Sandra, a young Belgian woman who’s about to return to work after being on sick leave, only to find out her colleagues will each benefit from a pay rise if she is retrenched. She has just one weekend to convince them all to give up the money so her job can be saved.

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TAXI DRIVER

Was Easy Rider a game-changer?The film was a culturally revolutionary movie as a reflection of the so-called New Hollywood. It was the first blockbuster hit from what’s now seen as the new wave of Hollywood directors, people like Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich and Martin Scorsese. It had little development of character; we didn’t know the backstory; they weren’t typical heroes; it was uneven in pacing. There were jump cuts, flash-forward transitions between scenes and an improvisational style. A lot of it was obviously made up on the run. It was a financial milestone as well, a countercultural movie that made around $50 million on an estimated budget of a couple of hundred thousand, and it sparked the indie revolution.

Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper were the stars of Easy Rider, but a young Jack Nicholson almost stole the show.It was the first time we really saw Jack Nicholson, but he stood out so strongly as George, that pathetic, tragic alcoholic civil rights lawyer. When he comes in to the story, it just really takes off.

What are some of your favourite behind-the-scenes stories?I think there were some immense fights between Hopper and the others. I think Nicholson kind of fitted in but he was stoned all the time, apparently. I don’t know how they even did it, given the amount of drugs and alcohol they were consuming. It just seems astonishing!

It’s amazing to think it was Hopper’s directing debut as well.It’s such a great road film, that search for freedom – or the illusion of freedom in a corrupt and conformist America – in the midst of all that paranoia and bigotry and violence. It was just so appealing to young people of that era.

Shifting to Taxi Driver, is there a scene that really resonates with you?As an actor, I’ve always been fascinated by that mesmerising performance of De Niro full stop, but particularly that famous target practice “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?” monologue before the mirror, which is one of the great, most memorable sequences in film history. De Niro’s performance is transfixing. It’s the intensity in that

role. It’s astonishing. It’s such a great performance by De Niro – it absolutely made him. Taxi Driver not only propelled the career of De Niro, but also those of Scorsese, Paul Schrader the screenwriter, and actresses Jodie Foster and Cybill Shepherd, who all went on to become major, major figures.

What do you think the film was saying about America?Taxi Driver examined alienation of American urban society. The cleverness of the movie was the way it combined elements of film noir, the western, horror and even the urban melodrama in the different genres.

Is Taxi Driver still relevant today?It could appear now as a movie or as a television series and would seem absolutely and utterly contemporary. Simply change the references and it could easily appear next week on showcase.

GRAEME BLUNDELL PRESENTS EASY RIDER...Friday 17 July at 8.30pm

...AND TAXI DRIVERFriday 24 July at 8.30pm on Foxtel Movies Masterpiece [402]

Actor Dennis Hopper’s 1969 directorial debut, Easy Rider, was a counterculture road trip that refused to play by the rules as they stood. While Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese’s chilling treatise of American social and moral decay, marked Robert De Niro’s signature role as disaffected Vietnam vet Travis Bickle. We asked Graeme what makes these films classics...