Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Seeing Larry David. Hearing Zero Mostel.

It was a surreal experience sitting next to Jim Brochu at the new Woody Allen film, "Whatever Works," watching Larry David do a role originally written for Zero Mostel. I couldn't even HEAR Larry David. The pictures were him but the voice was Zero Mostel.

Soon, Jim and I were both doing the lines at each other how Zero would have done them.

It was like watching the replacement cast of a Broadway show. And that's no slam at Larry David.

But it's in those lines where he totally hates on the girl. They feel jarring coming from Larry David. Zero made cruelty seem like a hug. His pain was so written on his face, that you knew no matter what he threw at you, the lion masked a kitten. Zero could go from rampaging monster to cooing infant in an instant, looking up at you with innocent eyes and a goofy grin, his missing hair plastered down from the back as if by baby spit.

I saw two movies yesterday. I kinda enjoyed one of them.

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