Jules Feiffer Movies
- 2007
Will Eisner never became a household name, but ask nearly anyone who works in comics about him and they'll speak with admiration about one of the pioneering talents in the medium. Born in New York City in 1917, Eisner started drawing at a young age, and became involved in comics at a crucial point in their development, when comic books were moving from reprints of popular newspaper strips to tabloids featuring original material. In 1936, on the advice of his friend Bob Kane (who went on to create Batman), he created an adventure series, Captain Scott Dalton, for a new publication called Wow, What A Magazine! It was the first step in a successful career in what he called "sequential art," and in 1939, Eisner created the series The Spirit, following the adventures of a masked crime fighter patrolling the streets of a major American city. The Spirit boasted artwork with a unique, richly detailed look inspired by the shadow lands of film noir, and Eisner gave his characters an emotional depth that was unique to comics; the result was a mature creation that appealed to adults as much as youngsters, and was wildly influential on a generation of artists and writers. Eisner believed that comics were an art form long before the notion was popular, and created one of the first "graphic novels," A Contract With God, a book-length comic story of life in a Jewish ghetto. Eisner was also one of the first comic artists to control the rights to his own creations, giving him creative control over his work and a fair share of their profits. Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist is a documentary which explores the life and career of a true giant in American graphic arts; the film received its world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2007
When cartoonist Charles M. Schulz's first "Peanuts" comic strip was published back in 1950, few could have foreseen the cultural phenomenon that would eventually form around a series of simple line drawings featuring children flying kites, kicking around a football, and being cruel as kids can be. Fifty years and 18,977 comic strips later, no one could deny that Schulz had somehow managed to tap into that innocent, sometimes worrisome child that dwells within us all. Though it all, Schulz remained a mind-mannered comic who was prone to self-doubt, much like his iconic, forever young protagonist Charlie Brown. In this film, director David Van Taylor speaks while Schulz's family, friends, and colleagues in order to offer a well-rounded look at the enigmatic man whose childlike wonder and wisdom touched countless lives. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles M. Schulz
American humorist Jules Feiffer and French director Alain Resnais are oddly paired for this satirical comedy about an American cartoonist in Paris. Adolph Green is a stunner as Joey Wellman, a cantankerous American cartoonist traveling abroad for the first time. In tow is Lena Apthrop (Linda Lavin), and the two are ostensibly journeying to Paris to attend a comic-strip exhibition in which Wellman's work is included. But it turns out the exhibition is just an excuse for Wellman to track down his errant daughter Elsie (Laura Benson), who has left Cleveland to take up literature at the Sorbonne. Her professor, Christian Gauthier (Gerard Depardieu) happens to be a big fan of Wellman, and he corrals the cartoonist and Lena to go to the fashionable country estate of his mother Isabelle (Micheline Presle), who tries to put up with her son's American friends. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolph Green, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
- 1986
Adapted from the play by Jules Feiffer, Grown Ups was produced for cable television. A pre-talkshow Charles Grodin plays the Feifferesque central character, a writer facing a mid-life crisis. He turns to his family for support, but, to put it mildly, they're no help at all. Feiffer is a writer of monologues rather than plays, and the verbose nature of this taped drama bears this out: characters talk at each other incessantly, but never to each other. Still, Grodin and his co-stars Jean Stapleton, Martin Balsam and Marilu Henner hold up quite well under the circumstances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on the long-running comic strip created by E.C. Segar (and less on the animated cartoons created by Max Fleischer, which were decidedly different in tone and approach), Popeye follows the sailor man with the mighty arms (played by Robin Williams in his first major film role) as he arrives in the seaside community of Sweethaven in search of his long-lost father. Popeye meets and quickly falls for the slender Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall, in the role she was born to play), but Olive's hand has already been promised to the hulking Bluto (Paul Smith), of whom Olive can say little except, well, he's large. Eventually, Popeye and Olive are brought together by Swee' Pea (Wesley Ivan Hurt), an adorable foundling, and Popeye finally meets his dad, Poopdeck Pappy (Ray Walston). Director Robert Altman in no way tempered his trademark style for this big-budget family opus, crowding the screen with a variety of characters and allowing his cast to overlap as much dialogue as they want. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, (more)
A production of Oh! Calcutta!, the late-'60s off-Broadway play that received infamy as the first nude musical, is captured here. The film is a record of the play rather than a cinematic adaptation, leaving its staging, revue-like structure, and frankly sexual content intact. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Actor Alan Arkin has an impressive film directorial debut with Little Murders, Jules Feiffer's bitter and moving satire (originally produced as an off-Broadway play). Elliot Gould (who also co-produced the film) plays Alfred Chamberlain -- a one time successful photographer who is now down on his luck because he began to eliminate people from his photographs. He also suffers from an inability to feel or to be passionate about anything. But then Alfred meets Patsy Newqvist (Marcia Rodd), who takes it upon herself to mold Alfred into "a strong, vital, self-assured man, that I can protect and take care of." As their relationship develops and Patsy takes Alfred to meet her parents, they suddenly bang up against the brick wall of urban violence and insensitivity. In this world of senseless killings and madness, Alfred realizes that the only way to get back into the world is to become as insane as everyone else. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, (more)
"Maybe you're not supposed to like it with someone you love." With a script by satirist and cartoonist Jules Feiffer, Mike Nichols's Carnal Knowledge (1971) ruthlessly exposed the damage wrought by pre-1960s sexual mores. From their post-World War II college years at Amherst through the Vietnam era, buddies Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) and Sandy (Art Garfunkel) are a catalogue of male sexual dysfunction. Sensitive Sandy falls in love with and marries college sweetheart Susan (Candice Bergen) only to wonder years later if he missed out on finding the perfect sex/love partner. Jonathan lives for aggressive sexual conquest (starting with Sandy's Susan in college), even as he rails against female "ballbusters," finally guilt-marrying his tiredly voluptuous mistress Bobbie (Ann-Margret, in an Oscar-nominated performance) after she tries to kill herself. By the late '60s, Sandy has moved on to a hippie chick girlfriend (Carol Kane) who can raise his consciousness about the sexual revolution, and Jonathan is single again, but Sandy is a little too old for the peace-and-love generation, and Jonathan bitterly faces emasculating impotence. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, (more)
