{"id":1697,"date":"2009-10-07T11:53:38","date_gmt":"2009-10-07T18:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=1697"},"modified":"2009-10-08T06:33:39","modified_gmt":"2009-10-08T13:33:39","slug":"haifa-international-film-festival-an-encounter-with-elliot-gould","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=1697","title":{"rendered":"Haifa International Film Festival: An Encounter with Elliott Gould"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elliott Gould comes to the interview in a brown T shirt, brown shorts, socks and sneakers. He smiles his famous half-smile as he eases himself into a chair. His eyes appear only partially open behind a pair of round, wire-rim eyeglasses, and his voice is soft and low. He appears to be totally relaxed, the very image of \u201ccalm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0I, on the other hand, am sitting across from him in quiet turmoil. I have to interview this guy, and I am not quite sure I\u2019m up for this. I have interviewed God-only-knows how many people in the past five years\u2014some actually famous\u2014but this is my first \u201clegend,\u201d my first \u201cicon,\u201d my first \u201cstar.\u201d\u00a0 As if that weren\u2019t enough, I have, so I\u2019ve been firmly told, \u201cexactly-one-half-hour-and-not-one-nanosecond-more\u201d to ask a few questions of someone whose films and occasional TV work have entertained and inspired me since 1968.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Evidently reading my face like a film script, Gould leaps in and begins the interview by interviewing me. With videotape rolling, he is asking superbly probing questions about me, my marriage, my wife, my kids, my educational background\u2014even about the tattoos on my arms. The damn thing about this is that he seems not only genuinely interested but focused. As the ticking of my cheap Seiko wristwatch seems to become louder than my voice, I am aware that, sooner or later, I have to somehow gently change the focus of conversation from me to him.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t easy. As he continues to ask me about me, he is engrossed and amused by the fact that my wife is Filipino, a convert to Judaism, and far more religiously observant than I am.<\/p>\n

Before long, this segues into a discussion of Jewish identity, and I am now talking to Elliott Gould about Elliott Gould. He says, \u201cI have very deep roots. I don\u2019t deny my roots. I was brought up as a Jew and always will be a Jew. I consider myself to be unorthodox. I work with some orthodox people. In recent years I was asked by the New York Jewish Theater to consider doing a staged reading of a play called Mea Shearim, and to play the ultra-orthodox Jewish rebbe.\u00a0 I learned a lot. I learned that there\u2019s so much more to learn for someone like me\u2014someone who is not orthodox and who was brought up\u2026you know, people who go to shul only on the High Holidays. But I\u2019m one of \u2018us.\u2019 And I am the way I am, and I don\u2019t deny it.\u201d<\/p>\n

I then note that he has played a significant number of explicitly Jewish characters, the first one\u2014to the best of my knowledge\u2014being Hiram Jaffa in Move (1970), a quirky, somewhat peculiar movie that came on the heels of his early successes, Mash and Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice.<\/p>\n

This leads us away from Jewish identity to a discussion of Move, a film I have liked since I first saw it almost 40 years ago. Again, Gould seems genuinely grateful for my interest in the film. \u201cIt was my first failure. The theme and composition of the film weren\u2019t consistent with the product the film had to be. It was based on a book, called Move, by Joe Lieber. It was about responsibility They brought in comedy writers, but it wasn\u2019t about comedy. It was serious, about a man who was lost, lost in his ignorance and inability to commit to the responsibility of being in a relationship. It was directed by Stuart Rosenberg who had done Murder Inc. and Cool Hand Luke. And comedy wasn\u2019t his strongpoint. The picture didn\u2019t work, because it couldn\u2019t make up its mind. But one of the things that meant a lot to me with Move was that it was produced by Pandro S. Berman. And Pandro S. Berman was an iconic Hollywood producer who had produced Top Hat and Gunga Din.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gould begins to describe, in minute detail, the making of the film. He seems to remember not only every scene, but every shot. Evidently noticing my look of awe\u2014I can\u2019t remember most of the things I wrote last year\u2014he says, \u201cI have a really good recall. And I\u2019m grateful for this and, I think blessed, which also goes back to our roots\u2014not to forget, and not to deny.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ends his discussion of Move with an interesting anecdote: \u201cThe cinematographer was a guy named Bill Daniels, who was an \u2018elder.\u2019 He was, I was told, Greta Garbo\u2019s favorite cinematographer. Well, when we are young, and especially if we are succeeding, we become a little arrogant and egotistical. So he said to me, \u2018What about makeup? You\u2019re not using any makeup.\u2019 And I told him that I had discovered that once the camera is rolling, and the sound is on and the director says, \u2018Action!\u2019, the blood comes a little closer to the surface of the skin. And so I would look a little different on film than I did to the naked eye, and that he would see more color in me than he did at that moment. And he, who was more experienced than me in all kinds of ways, said when he looked at the film that I was right. Now, I\u2019ll do what the departments want me to do, as far as being able to fit in more with people. I have to trust more. Because you cannot work in this field without trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of which of his films is Gould most proud?\u00a0 He replies, \u201cWell, I believe that a grain of pride is good for the heart but no more than that. It can be blinding. I say to people\u2014students, children and friends\u2014that some of the pictures I\u2019ve been in are better and some aren\u2019t. But that I could look at any one of them and find a reason for being there.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wanted to ask him when he knew he was going to be an actor. I got as far as, \u201cWhen did you know\u201d before he cut in with, \u201cI never knew.\u201d He then recalled his early childhood pastime of doing pantomime to records, and went on to recall his early days in the chorus of Broadway productions. \u201cI loved being in the chorus, I loved the movies and I loved listening to the radio.\u201d When I asked if there wasn\u2019t some moment of epiphany when he knew that acting was his destiny, he replied, \u201cThat\u2019s bullshit!\u201d<\/p>\n

Pursuing a different train of thought, Gould says, \u201cEven after working with Ingmar Bergman, I thought, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve got all the goods.\u2019 I knew I had talent. I thought it was about being talented. What I didn\u2019t know was that it was all about business. Business and politics. And that\u2019s where I got into trouble. And I had to give up or let a great part of my career be taken back. But I didn\u2019t know how to\u2014and I was unwilling to\u2014compromise. And I was so successful through that initial period of time that I really thought I had control. I even produced a picture then, Little Murders.\u201d
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked what kinds of compromise he was unable or unwilling to do, Gould begins to answer before the question was finished. His voice raises and his face becomes animated, almost angry, as he replies, \u201cBeing able to accept the ignorance, the callousness, the shallowness of the business quarter who are responsible for financing what I want to do!\u201d<\/p>\n

In spite of this, however, Gould maintains that he is not dissatisfied with his body of work. \u201cI\u2019m so glad you liked Move,\u201d he says to me. \u201cBecause I find that my work has been appreciating from my having endured and survived and continued to do it,\u00a0 and from not to allowing ego or vanity to interfere with the possibility of doing something more. And I do believe wholeheartedly in modesty and humility. Ego is toxic. Ego and vanity. But not wanting to be a hypocrite, I\u2019ve had to accept my own. I\u2019d just like to be as selfless as possible and continue to work more.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point, an earnest young woman comes over to announce that our \u201cexactly-one-half-hour-and-not-one-nanosecond-more\u201d is up. Gould breezily waves her away, informing her, \u201cWe\u2019re talking here.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I finish silently thanking God, the interview continues with my asking Gould if he was planning to direct. \u201cIt would seem to be unlikely, but I don\u2019t give up,\u201d he says. \u201cI have nothing to direct, no one has asked me, and I have nothing to prove. But I know something. I understand chemistry, and now I understand composition and orchestration. Each film is an orchestration unto itself. I would just want to work with those of us who are on the filmmaking team, knowing that no one of us can be any more than the least of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elliott<\/a>
Elliott Gould\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the frustrations and compromises of his long career in films, Gould has apparently not given up on Hollywood, or actually what Hollywood does. Gould remains enthusiastic about Hollywood\u2019s ability to communicate. He says, \u201cHollywood is an industry. Hollywood is not necessarily a place. Hollywood is the industry of perpetuating and projecting imagination, projecting thoughts. These are things to share. I believe that there\u2019s nothing of value other than what we have to share. And it\u2019s one thing to share goodness and accomplishment, but it\u2019s another thing to share a problem. Once people are willing to communicate, we can see that no one of us can have a problem that one of us didn\u2019t have before.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s ahead for Elliott Gould?\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m going to do a picture with a young French writer\u2013director named Bartholome Grossman. And I\u2019m going to play a character for him in a French film that\u2019s being done in English based on a book entitled Out, about a financial world with all kinds of unsavory characters. I\u2019m playing a kind of Bernie Madoff character.\u201d\u00a0 Long term, Gould says that he is toying with the idea of doing a remake of\u00a0 the 1975 hit comedy The Sunshine Boys; as well as a sequel to The Long Goodbye, the 1973 film based on the novel by Raymond Chandler and directed by Robert Altman, in which Gould delivered a completely new take on the character of private detective Philip Marlowe.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

My final question to Elliott Gould is what he would like to do if he weren\u2019t an actor. I expect at least a second or two of surprise and hesitation, but Gould returns my serve faster than Venus Williams.\u00a0 He replies, \u201cIf I could really be educated and had the discipline, I would love to be a doctor. I would also be interested in studying and practicing law. I\u2019m very interested in education. If there\u2019s a future, then it\u2019s probably in education and science. At a film festival in Port Townsend, Washington, where they were showing a few of my films, I was asked to talk with 11th and 12th graders. I went into the classroom and they had a big poster of Albert Einstein with a picture of him that I hadn\u2019t seen. And it was with a quotation which was, \u2018Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings, admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of art and science.\u2019 I admired the poster so much, they gave it to me.\u201d
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

The interview finally ends with Gould giving me his email address and urging me to write to him. He promises to send me a poster and other publicity material from the film Move. He wanders of, mumbling vaguely about possibly getting a couple of hours in a swimming pool. I sit for a few minutes after he is gone, attempting to absorb my moment with Elliot Gould, legend, icon, star, and\u2014as it turns out\u2014mensch.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Elizur Reuveni<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elliott Gould comes to the interview in a brown T shirt, brown shorts, socks and sneakers. He smiles his famous half-smile as he eases himself into a chair. His eyes appear only partially open behind a pair of round, wire-rim eyeglasses, and his voice is soft and low. He appears to be totally relaxed, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}