FRIDAY MOVIE SUGGESTION NIGHT PRESENTS: FRANKIE & JOHNNY!

April has come and gone-it's July...
And have we got a film for you!
_

With the slap of the hands, I'm back! This time with a summertime sizzler of a film that was largely overlooked. But the good news is that we have it! Al Pacino teams up opposite the ever-amazing Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1991 film "FRANKIE & JOHNNY". There's no other way to say this. What we have in this film is "cinema magic". Now, why is that? Because this movie is alive, it's poignant and it's totally honest. Apart from being one of the best romantic movies ever assembled (the script is excellent), Pacino is transformed into "Johnny", who has just been released from prison after serving 18 months for forgery. During his incarceration, he loses his wife and child to another man. However devastated, Johnny manages to cope by developing a love for Classical Literature and Cooking (which I've conveniently Capitalized to keep your attention).

__

On the other side of the coin is the ever-amazing actress Michelle Pfeiffer, who is transformed into the role a hardened waitress in a Greek coffee shop whose life with men has been seared in the agony of abuse and despair. What emerges is a wonderful exploration of the fears and hesitations we all experience at starting a new life. Is is worth mentioning that this film is no fantasy world romance. This is 'real life' in overcrowded New York where two isolated people who feel completely destroyed and insignificant to the outside world find a reason to believe life is worth living. Interestingly, Michelle Pfeiffer stated to James Lipton on "Inside the Actor's Studio" (See my "50 Things About Me" list) that she savored the role because "it wasn't what people would expect of me." Prior to this film, Pfeiffer was typically cast for her looks. In this film, director Gary Marshall deliberately dresses Pfeiffer as a dowdy waitress with an attitude. Unlike Terrence McNally's 1987 off-Broadway production of "Frankie & Johnny in the Clair-de-Lune" with only two characters (starring Kathy Bates, who was turned down for this film along with Barbra Streisand) the film version is vastly different. There are additional characters and multiple environments to provide a subtext amid a harsh working class culture that is at once believable and riveting. Not to Be Missed: the scene where Pacino is alone with Pfeiffer when he states "everything I want is in this room". Powerful! Pacino has a hell of a lot of work to do if he stands a chance at winning Frankie's heart. So, he fights for her love by reading Romeo & Juliet, dancing like his life depends on it, chopping vegetables at record speed and alternately, being very patient. This is a curious relationship that leads to an unpredictable and dramatic outcome. The Cast: Al Pacino is (what else?)...Johnny; Michelle Pfeiffer is Frankie; Hector Elizondo is the greasy spoon owner, Nick; Nathan Lane is Tim; Kate Nelligan is Cora; Jane Morris is Nedda, and Greg Lewis is Tino. Directed by Garry Marshall; Written by: Terrence McNally.

-

A footnote on Debussy's "Clair de Lune": When I started in broadcasting for one year of overnight radio work, my relief, scheduled for 6 AM thrived on timing every traffic light to arrive just 60 seconds before broadcast time. So, one day I began a prank of programming Isao Tomita's moog synthesizer performance of Claude Debussy's "Clair de-Lune". My relief, who was a purist at heart hated this version and the thankless task of back-announcing it so much that he was given to fits of shouting at me after he went to commercials. He threw away the CD. Then two weeks later, I located a copy of Tomita's "Live at Linz, Austria" where the artist was suspended in a glass pyramid over 80,000 fans performing music from his CD "Snowflakes are Dancing" (music of Debussy). So, I began signing off my air shift with a "live" version of Tomita performing "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", which was hysterical! Eventually, we reached a truce.

_
ENJOY!

My Complete Website is:www.michaelmanning.tv