Henry Jaglom is a legendary Writer, Playwright, Director, Editor, Producer, Actor.

Henry Jaglom is a legendary James Boswell to his Samuel Johnson, Orson Welles.

Henry Jaglom is a legendary legend who has lived a substantive, creative and entertaining life.

Henry Jaglam is the legendary legend.

This Guest Blog is Henry’s cogent commentary on the current state of Israel’s survival.

“As long as one side is dedicated to destroying the other, the main job of the other is to SURVIVE!!!!

As a Jew, I, and Israelis, in their great majority, believe that they do not have the right to be willing to take any chances on the good will of others. Very sad but true. They can only trust in their power. The fact that attempts have been made over and over again throughout history to destroy the Jewish people since the destruction of their homeland 2,000 years ago is irrefutable. And, tragically, in Europe they almost succeeded in our lifetime. So, with the Holocaust still vividly in every single Jew’s mind-and, I believe, in the mind of every true friend of the Jewish people- Israel must depend on its strength, its power, not in other’s good intentions.

And when the intentions are openly and loudly Not good, Israel must listen carefully and believe the threats to her existence-now from an Iran who has been playing games for a decade wth the West which does nothing while it gets nuclear weapons and speaks openly and boastfully about its wish for Israel’s destruction. And Israel should not heed this? 

I personally hope that Israel will attempt to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, and SOON.

I am just afraid that they cannot do this, but they can certainly set the clock back awhile. And maybe the time is right, NOW, when the world condemns Israel anyway simply for trying to protect its shores, and plays meaningless games with Iran as she builds a nuclear force.

Even when truly well-meaning people believe that Israel is somehow capable of breaking the deadlock, while Iran’s puppets come to power, in Lebanon and in Gaza. So Israelis, not knowing what to do, bring the Right in Israel to power because of all their disillusionment with endless decades of efforts toward peace by the Left, their hopeless fatigue at all the fruitless and pathetic attempts to find someone to negotiate with.

I am a firm and devoted Leftist, as you know, but I am for the survival of the Jewish people first and foremost. So, until the Palestinians find their Sadat, I believe nothing will happen. Until then,Israel should not, must not, MAY not budge when it comes to her security. I wish it were other.

Henry”

SIDEBAR

Henry Jaglom’s Filmography (Partial)

FILM

Actor/Director Dennis  Hopper has  died; he recently got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  He died of prostate cancer, I lament that.

He was an iconic and idiosyncratic talent.

I have loved his acting from GIANT to WATERWORLD(he is a great villain), I even enjoyed him owning  Isabella Rosselini in BLUE VELVET( every guy I know has such guilt because they enjoyed seeing Isabella as sex slave).

He Directed the game changer, EASY RIDER; he, with Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson and Henry Jaglom, literally blew a generation off of one track of social development onto another track.

I met Mr. Hopper in San Francisco at a party for a documentary about his life,  THE AMERICAN DREAMER.

I will always remember that film, for in it he gave the best mission statement ever for a guy on the make. He called himself a male lesbian. Why was he a male lesbian? Because he only went after women who appealed to lesbians; that was the best advice ever given  about the pursuit of women. EVER.

At the party, was his wife, the sexiest woman in flesh I had ever seen, have ever seen, will ever see.  Daria Halprin. Ms. Halprin is an “American psychologist, author, dancer, and former actress.”

Mr. Hopper achieved a lot, but in the end, this blog envies him because he had Daria Halprin. He lived a life well envied, not a bad Requiem.

THE ESSENTIAL DENNIS HOPPER

“After a promising start that included roles in two James Dean films, Hopper’s acting career languished as he developed a reputation for tantrums and drug abuse. On the set of “True Grit,” Hopper so angered John Wayne that the star reportedly chased Hopper with a loaded gun.”

“He was married to a scion of a Hollywood family Brooke Hayward for eight years and to Mamas and the Papas singer Michelle Phillips for eight days.”

“On the set of the 1958 western “From Hell to Texas,” Hopper refused to read his lines and gesture exactly the way the director, Hathaway, demanded in a scene. And, Hopper later recalled, Hathaway had him do take after take from 7 in the morning until about 10 at night before Hopper finally “cracked” and did it the director’s way.”

JAMES DEAN and DENNIS HOPPER
“I was a very good technician,” Hopper recalled in a 1990 interview with the Chicago Tribune, “but Dean was, like, so loose, creating all these wonderful things. So I grabbed him during the ‘Chickie-run’ scene, and threw him into a car, and I said, ‘I thought I was the best, and now I see you, and I know you’re better, and I don’t even know what you’re doing.’ He said, ‘Well, you have to do things, not show them. You have to take a drink from the glass, not act like you’re drinking. Don’t have any preconceived ideas. Approach something differently every time.’

Dennis Hopper’s art will be the subject of an exhibition planned to open in July at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

 DARIA HALPRIN

 Daria Halprin

Dennis Hopper and Daria Halprin, LE BELLE EPOQUE

“I really like your take on Westerns,  what did you think of the ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, starring Brad Pitt? just curious”

This is an old email, so sorry for the delay ATL; I missed this film in  the theater, nor did I buy the DVD, but I did see it on AMC last night. I thought Brad Pitt’s performance was very credible; I thought Casey Affleck did a marvelous job, as did Jeremy Renner. However, I understand the Director is from New Zealand, and that shows….the film is not so much a Western but a Chamber Piece, a European Chamber piece.

In fact it maybe the first Ingmar Bergman/Swedish Western, but even more than that, it reeked of Stanley Kubrick’s BARRY LYNDON, more set piece than fluidity. I think Westerns by definition, should be fluid. Even when Brad Pitt beats up the kid, well that is a replay of BARRY LYNDON abusing people.I see it as a permanent B MOVIE, an under card film showing the influence of BARRY LYNDON on Kiwi film makers who try to make Westerns. 

“I thought INVICTUS with Morgan Freeman should have been your choice for best film of 2009.”

Dr.M, MIT alumnus

Well Dr M from MIT, the IRENE IN TIME DVD will be out this month,buy it…it is a remarkable exploration of modern American women. It not only entertained me, I learned something from it; it was thought provoking.

As for INVICTUS, when I see a film about South Africa, I want some  insight into the unique qualities of that special mosaic, not slogans. I specifically want to know how the white population, outnumbered 5 to 1 by the Blacks(and that is not even counting the Coloreds and the Indians) thought they could maintain control.

For that, to be entertained and informed, please view THE WILBY CONSPIRACY, starring Sidney Poitier, Michael Caine and Nicol Williamson.

Mr. Williamson is magnificent,with the best interpretation of a Boer racist I have ever seen. He explains it all, in one performance, the authority, the arrogance, the menace and the ultimate failure of racism in South Africa.

 Nicol Williamson in THE WILBY CONSPIRACY

If you want an accurate portrayal of Mr. Mandela’s courage, don’t  look to Matt Damon as a representative of the men Mr. Mandela fought, look to Mr. Williamson. Then you will understand, by the menace of his foes, how great Mandela was and is.

The late Stan Rice(Anne Rice’s husband), once told me that a wet performance by a great actor about history or social events is almost as good, or better, than a dry book by a historian.

Mr. Williamson’s performance is WET.

“Irene in Time, get real, what about Avatar?”

Henry Jaglom’s IRENE IN TIME, in it, there is a scene betwen Victoria Tennant and Tanna Frederick which rivals anything done in THE HEIRESS between Miriam Hopkins and Olivia DeHavilland about what survival skills women need to have when they are in love with reckless men. For that scene alone, it should be Best Film of 2009. I stand by my choice.

As for AVATAR, what can I say, it has grossed 712B dollars, great entertainment. However, James Cameron is a Canadian, and AVATAR is a very Canadian film.

Canadians have a very precious attitude toward indigeous people, mainly because to build Canada, they did not have to fight the greatest warriors in the world, the Apache, or the Lords of the Plains, the Comanche, or Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, or Lakota like Crazy Horse.

Canadians can idealize indigenous cultures because they never had to fight them for the land itself; Americans could not afford to idealize the Apache, they were too afraid of them.

A liitle American fear would have gone a long way in AVATAR. 

An email responding to my blog about BREAKING BAD, and Redemption

http://gerrymaxeyworkshop.com/blogging/?p=4038

“Redemption is rhe key. Something Alan Arkin says all good movies have.  Doesn’t mean a happy ending. Doesn’t necessitate a moral but it’s as u say. Ultimately it’s affirming the value of human life.  Even if that means a terminator 3 where the annihilation of much of the human race occurs. …”

S

Thanks S,  I was intrigued by your observation” Doesn’t mean a happy ending”.

This blog’s BEST FILM for 2009 was Henry Jaglom’s neat little gem, IRENE IN TIME, which I called and believe to be a vest pocket masterpiece.

http://gerrymaxeyworkshop.com/blogging/?p=2885

It has a sad ending, but in that sad ending, IRENE, pays a price for a life not lived well. It was an oddly redemptive experience watching her pay that price, in that she finally understood what was at stake in living; it is an important thing to do, and if you do not live it well, you do have options.

IRENE IN TIME fits neatly into Mr. Arkin’s observation, about a sad ending may be redemptive.

“I love your blogs on immigration, but as a student of  the American West, I have to tell you Wild Bill Hickok was a better gunman that Wyatt Earp and should be the American Example”

Vi

Vi is commenting on the immigration blog which mentioned Wyatt Earp as the American philosopher  deeply ingrained in the American spirit.

http://gerrymaxeyworkshop.com/blogging/?p=3923

Well Vi, you may know a lot about the American West, but dare I say it, you don’t know much about the American psyche.

Wild Bill Hickok was THE Greatest Gunfighter who ever lived, and he was murdered by someone who shot him in the back.

My personal American Idol, John Ford, saw Earp as a key American archtype.

Why?

Earp was a bonafide American killer,

 ”…he killed not less than eight of the assassins.”  — National Police Gazette, July 21, 1883 (speaking of Wyatt’s retaliation for the killing of his brother Morgan)

“Wyatt Earp is credited with ten men, ”  — Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 22, 1900

“[Wyatt Earp] Has killed more than a dozen stage robbers, murderers, and cattle thieves.”  — G. W. Caldwell in the introduction to his interview with Wyatt, 1888

“[Wyatt] Earp has a cemetery which he has stocked with over 30 men, and no one seemed desirous of questioning his word.”  — Los Angeles Tribune, June 2, 1888″

By my research, Earp killed 17 men.

His brothers Morgan and Virgil were better gunfighters, though Morgan was murdered and Virgil was maimed.

I used Wyatt Earp as the baseline for the character development of my protagonist, SETH HOLLISTER in my John Ford Western, LOS PISTOLEROS.

Why Earp is more respected than Hickok, is more the American Icon, is simple, HE WAS NEVER WOUNDED, NEVER.

Not even grazed. 

Earp killed and got away with it; then married the Jewish American Princess, Josephine Sarah Marcus. He lived to be 80, died a natural death in Los Angeles, admired by John Ford.  “John Wayne later told Hugh O’Brian that he based his image of the Western lawman on his conversations with Earp. ”

Is there any better American Dream?

Mrs. Wyatt Earp

This is the second in my tributes to Los Angeles musicians.

One of my pet peeves with modernity and the generation it has spawned is that they have taken inconsequential paths because there is no danger in their lives. The Millennial Generation, lives without danger; they will never know the danger of losing your First Love because you got the Draft Letter sending you off to fight rotten wars in rotted jungles, of the woman you love dying in childbirth of child bed fever, (which meant that every time you knocked up your wife, the odds were 50-50 it was a Death Sentence), of going back to school in the autumn, and seeing two desks empty because your BFFs had died over the summer from Polio. The cars did not even have seat belts.

It was a world with danger, and because of that danger, life was appreciated, and courtesy was abundant. Danger breeds courtesy. In a world of danger, manners are very important.

The Millennials live in a world without danger; so they have manufactured artificial thrills, microwaved recklessness.  In a world of cheap thrills,they have strangled courtesy, and replaced it with cloned vulgarity.

I lost my daughter in an absurdly reckless event manufactured by a callous and callow young man who has since prospered.

My father was an Union Organizer, on the streets of New York, my brother made his bones doing uncivil things for the US Government; between my father’s associates, and my brother’s friends, I am just a phone call away from mustering Avenging Angels. But I don’t, my sister sits like a two ton rock on my vengeance. So I do nothing, and the callow young man prospers.

But I believe this, in a particular juncture of time,  the accounts of the universe, and the accounts of people who dwell within that universe will be squared, if not to my satisfaction, then to Someone’s satisfaction.

There is a film in current release, Henry Jaglom’s IRENE IN TIME. I saw it in Santa Monica. It is a keen, honorable and sympathetic crafting of a sad piece of the Millennial mosaic. It is a wonderful work.

In the film’s score, there is Harriet Schock and Ron Troutman’s song, DANCING WITH MY FATHER. I know they did not intend to give me this song as a gift, because we did not know each other. She and her co writer gave the gift to the film, but it is a larger gift than that; it is a gift to all the wounded fathers and all the lost daughters in every dimension, in every world.

Her song is my AMAZING GRACE; for it is because of that song, I know I will see my daughter again, at the time when the accounts of the universe are squared. I will see her and we will dance; how do I know that? I know that because I KNOW what music we will be dancing to, DANCING WITH MY FATHER.

We will dancing to, Harriet Schock - Songwriter/Recording Artist

HARRIET SCHOCK,     www.harrietschock.com

Grammy Nomination - Gold Record (RIAA)
“Ain’t No Way To Treat A Lady”

Platinum Record (RIAA) - “Helen Reddy’s Greatest Hits”

Cashbox Award - Best New Female Artist

L.A. Women In Music 2007 Award for Career Achievement and Industry Contribution

DANCING WITH MY FATHER(Schock and Troutman) is featured on the album AMERICAN ROMANCE

SONGS

Helen Reddy (“Ain’t No Way To Treat A Lady”, “Mama”)

Letta Mbulu   (”Ain’t No Way To Treat A Lady”)…….

Vikki Carr (Ain’t No Way To Treat A Lady”)….

Mireille Mathieu (“Ain’t No Way To Treat A Lady”)…

Johnny Mathis (”Ooh, What We Do”)….

Manfred Mann(”Hollywood Town”)….

Lee Greenwood….( “Winds of Change”)……

Roberta Flack (”Happiness”)…

Jeannie Kendall( “Worn Around the Edges”, “You Just Don’t Get Me, Do Ya?”)….

TheLittle Mermaid  (Jodi Benson)( “Dreaming”)…..

Partridge Family(”That’s The Way It Is With You”)…..

Nancy Wilson(“First Time On A Ferris Wheel”)….

Gloria Loring/Carl Anderson( “First Time On A Ferris Wheel”)….

Smokey Robinson(“First Time On A Ferris Wheel”)….

Rebecca Paris(“First Time On A Ferris Wheel”)….

Supremes(”First Time On A Ferris Wheel”)…

Lisa Jason(Ok, You Win, I Give Up, You’re Right, I’m Gone”)…

Jannel Rap(“Ok, You Win, I Give Up, You’re Right, I’m Gone”)…

E.L.K.(“Search”)..

David Pomeranz(  “Oh, Stephanie”)

Theme Songs for Organizations

Yad B’ Yad - “Hand in Hand”

The National Foundation for Women Legislators - “In It For Good”

Songs for Feature Films and Television

The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking(Columbia)….

The Secret Garden (ABC)……

Phantom of the Opera(21st Century)…….

The Last Dragon (Tri-Star)….

Delta Force II (Pathe Films)…..

Geniuses II(Paramount)…. 

State Fair (CBS)….

Baby Makes Five (ABC)…..

NBC Saturday Morning Preview (NBC)…

Unsettled Land (Hemdale)…..

Crossing the Mob (NBC)….

Matters of the Heart (Universal)…..

Cave Kids (Hanna Barbera)….

Sing Me A Story with Belle (Disney)……

Fun with Spanish (Disney)….

Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (Universal)…..

The GhostClub(Hemisphere Entertainment)…

Loving Alan (Road Kill Productions)……

 The Adventures of Piggley Winks   (PBS–Theme Song)…

Baby Geniuses II – Superbabies (Columbia)….

Going Shopping—All theMusic (Jagtoria Film Company, Inc.) ….

Hollywood Dreams - Underscore (Rainbow Film Company)…..

The Mirror - End Title Song (Big Screen Entertainment)….

Irene In Time - Songs w. band on camera (Rainbow Film Company)
oing showGenAB

Stage

Missouri Waltz — 5 songs                                          (A Play by Karen Black)

Harriet Schock’s Recordings as an Artist

Hollywood Town ( 20th Century Records);She’s Low Clouds( 20th Century Records);   

You Don’t Know What You’re In For  ( 20th Century Records);

American Romance  (Godsdog Records)     

Rosebud (Evening*Star Music Group)

Harriet Schock Live, From Fairfax to Pasadena  ( Thunder Digital)

BOOK

BECOMING REMARKABLE, For Songwriters And Those Who Love Songs

Published by Blue Dolphin Publishing  and available in bookstores nationwide

HER LINKS

http://www.allmusic.com\
http://www.pandora.com/music/artist/harriet+schock
www.myrecordlabel.com/harrietschock 
http://www.cdbaby.com
http://www.myspace.com/harrietschock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_t2DCYlF6U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzYwxrHoJBI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr5stC_16ko
http://www.youtube.com/user/sirpaopao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajGJF_H-Lpc

An impressive Curriculum Vitae, and all I can add is my small and humble thanks for her DANCING WITH MY FATHER, which brings me peace.

The JEOPARDY Question for the Day.

Who is a classically trained flutist? (trained at North Texas State, and Bren, Czech Republic), film maker ( her short THE SILENCE AFTER is a film festival film about the dilemma of women married to venal men)? and actor(the film IRENE IN TIME, with her co-starring,  is currently in theatrical release, her film, in which she stars, SLICES, just came out on DVD, and she just wrapped a starring role in the film noir thriller, THE CONFESSION)?

answer

KELLY DeSARLA

I first met Kelly as a screenwriter, she had written a very funny yet poignant comedy-thriller about four American women who, while on vacation in Spain, get caught up in the end of the world, 2012.

I liked the screenplay a lot, it has New Age mythology, Mayan myths, an a lot of scenes with women in bikinis.

I have also heard her play the flute, and she is better than MARTIN PRINCE, (the only other flutist I know).

I have seen her act on stage in Henry Jaglom’s ALWAYS BUT NOT FOREVER.

As someone who sees a lot of actors, on a lot of days, I can asure you we are in an age of  diminishing choices, REALITY Tv has over whelmed the art. So many modern actors always act as if they are always on camera, there is NO INTIMACY outside of their love affair with the camera, either real or imagined.

They think themselves interesting,not the characters they protray.

Kelly DeSarla is a throwback, to the birth of modern acting, Ingmar Bergman.

“In Henry Jaglom’s Bergmanesque marital comedy, ‘Always - But Not Forever’” Kelly DeSarla gives a “sweet and affecting turn” as “Dinah’s rigid best pal, Lucy”

- Paul Birchall, LA Weekly

The key word in that quote is BERGMANESQUE, which is dead on accurate. Mr. Jaglom is the leading exponent of Bergmanesque among our current crop of film makers/playwrights. And Kelly has delivered, exposing the sweet kernel of modern women, overwhelmed by the unrelenting demands of modern womanhood. Fresh and unscripted.

Kelly DeSarla is “sobering” as Lucy, Dinah’s married friend who is “so bonded to her baby that she is indifferent to her husband’s needs. . . The acting feels fresh and unscripted, full of amusing behavioral tics and nuances.

- Jay Reiner, The Hollywood Reporter

Fresh and unscripted… what a compliment to an actor, so many actors now are unscripted in the REALITY TV mode, always playing to the camera, even when there is no camera. Kelly has stepped back to a Golden Age of acting, where the actors interacted with the script and made the scripted scene, unscripted.

Reality TV acting has made the unscripted, scripted.

Henry Jaglom is a great American artist, working the Henry James/Ingmar Bergman vein of humanistic discovery. His film, IRENE IN TIME, is currently in theaters. It is a devastating look at the back stories of all those inane REALITY TV contestants. He has caught their pulse.

In it, Kelly gives a seasoned, and ripe performance as the lesbian who has a great deal of issues with her reprobate recovering, not so recovering, drug addict of a father, played by David Proval of THE SOPRANOS.

 . Kelly and David Proval from IRENE IN TIME, ,

What is it about Kelly DeSarla? Is it the way she holds a moment in her unpredictable way or the way one can trust her never to betray her own truth? Maybe it’s all that fresh beauty or her unusual gaze. Whatever it is, you’ll find it hard to turn your head away from the screen.” ..Karen Black,Academy Award Nominee, Golden Globe Winner.

Ms. Black cut her acting chops working with Jack Nicholson, Burgess Meredith, Lee Remick, James Coburn, Gene Hackman, she knows that Kelly could maintain herself with the best.

So I recommend actors watch her work, and the public enjoy her films.

 HENRY JAGLOM’S IRENE IN TIME