Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Who ARE Those Guys...?

U & Me & Tennessee
...an American romance
The Story of how we made the movie...

(All photographs in this post copyright Alan Wylie 2006.)
Well, the one on the left is me - PAUL BIRCHARD - my "profile" is over on the right there. The other gentleman is KONRAD HOPKINS - whose romance with Tennessee Williams is the subject of our movie.


Who is he, and why should anyone care about what he has to say...?

Well, for what it's worth, I believe Konrad Hopkins is a truly remarkable individual, one of the world's (mostly) hidden gems. This conviction in me only grows stronger as the days go by...

Konrad possess an intense passion for life, an iron-willed determination combined with a profound committment to create and to help others bring out the best in themselves - qualities rare enough in any individual, but breathtaking in someone nearing the close of his eighth decade.

Konrad's drive and strength of character may owe something to his lineage - a combination of German Swiss and Native American Choctaw. A self-confessed 12th century man, he hasn't watched television since 1964! - but he's in no sense isolated from current events. Possessed of a detailed and robust memory, he is nevertheless immersed in the present and focused on the future.

Oh, and he ain't pompous, neither...

He has had a lengthy career as a teacher of Humanities. A graduate of Harvard and Florida State University, he taught at the University of Iowa (Tennessee Williams's alma mater) where he studied with the legendary Marguerite Young (and took over her apartment when she moved back to New York), at FSU-Tallahassee (where he set Burt Reynolds on the path to becoming an actor and director), in Cuba, Vienna and for many years at the University of Paisley in Scotland.

His cultural interests are keen and wide-ranging: from the music of Korngold, Shostakovich and Janacek to the writing of William Sharp/Fiona MacLeod - and he has published books in many languages for UNESCO through his company Wilfion Books.

He was a close literary associate of the late James T. Farrell (author of Studs Lonigan and many other novels, stories and accutely observed essays), and he also knew Tennessee Williams, William Inge and Gore Vidal when he lived in New York in the 1950's and '60's.

Despite all the difficulties of making this feature film on a very tight budget, and all the delays that has entailed, we have had a wonderful time making U & Me & Tennessee - and these production stills will give you some idea of what's in store for you when you see our movie.






(...to be continued.) Copyright 2006 Paul Birchard
All Rights Reserved.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

A Timely Look at Tenn...

U & Me & Tennessee
- an American romance...
The Story of how we made the movie...


I mentioned (in previous posts below) synchronicity in regard to U & Me & Tennessee. As we struggle to complete post-production and have the film ready for the RAINDANCE Festival in September, the coincidences just keep on occurring. Tennessee Williams is still news.

Earlier this year the second volume of Tennessee's Selected Letters was published (Google it). A few months ago the 6 DVD set of movies based upon his plays and original filmscripts was released in the States. This week saw the British release. Despite having "gone on to greater rewards" in 1983, Tennessee Williams is now. He would no doubt be tickled by this state of affairs.

Absent from Selected Letters Vol. 2 is any correspondence between Tennessee and Konrad Hopkins. But that correspondence exists, spanning the years 1952 - 1956. And these letters, together with Konrad's harrowing, delightful and moving reminiscences, form the bedrock of our movie.

When Konrad first wrote to Tennessee in the spring of 1952, he was serving as a sergeant in the USAF, having enlisted to avoid being drafted and sent to Korea (his strategy worked!). The letter was simply a fan letter - but thoughtful - and Konrad wrote intelligently and movingly about one subject very close to Tennessee's heart - the poet Hart Crane.

Tennessee wrote back immediately, and his letter contained a truly startling revelation.

From then on - well, their correspondence prefigured by half a century the internet romances of today.

The whole story - from its fervent, hopeful beginning to its terrifying climax and disheartening denouement - along with some fascinating detours into the Greek myths, the New York literary scene in the '50's, James T. Farrell, Gore Vidal, Burt Reynolds and a chilling (but very funny) episode with Pulitzer prize winning playwright William Inge - will be laid out for all to experience in - U & Me & Tennessee, a timely - and clear-eyed - look at Tenn.

Copyright Paul Birchard 2006 All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Why U & Me & Tennessee...?

U & Me & Tennessee
- an American romance...
The Story of how we made the movie


When it first occurred to me to make a movie about the romance between Konrad Hopkins and Tennessee Williams, I realized that two films I’d seen quite some time ago had left powerful impressions on me, and would shape the way I approached this project.

One was Mr. Hoover and I, by Emile de Antonio, and the other was My Dinner With André, directed by Louis Malle.

My Dinner With André is of course just that – a reunion of two old friends – the writer/actor Wallace Shawn and the theatre director André Gregory. Almost the entire movie takes place at a table in a restaurant, as the two friends catch up on the last few years since they’ve seen one another. Based on their actual reunion, they played themselves in a scripted, tightly directed movie in the conventional sense of the word.

Louis Malle was also one of the world’s greatest documentary film makers, and that skill and sensibility suffuses My Dinner With André.

Mr. Hoover and I was something else – entirely new for me and very liberating. Having been under FBI surveillance for decades for his Left-leaning politics and uncompromising documentary films, Emile de Antonio tells the story of his quest to wrest his file from the clutches of the FBI by employing the then-new Freedom of Information Act. In the process he provides an illuminating account of the relationship between J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson, and of the blatant illegality that was/is endemic in much of the bureau, all the while making it abundantly clear that there is actually no freedom and NO information!

But the way “D” does this is deceptively gentle and really daring. He just calmly talks to the camera – and then he shows a conversation between him and his wife as she cuts his hair – THEN he puts in a conversation he filmed between himself and John Cage as Cage makes bread (as I recall…) and talks about random operations in the making of his music and art.

De Antonio’s film seems to embody John Cage’s approach – deliberately random - but while it is apparently languid and rambling, it is actually a body-blow precisely and consciously aimed at the entire American culture of movie-making and media manipulation.

We can say of Mr. Hoover and I, as Woody Guthrie said of his guitar, “This machine kills fascists” – and we could add – “with truth, humor and love.”

No car chases. No lightning-fast edits. No guns. No blood.

No sex. ( ummm............unlike U & Me & Tennessee....)

Often no apparent story…
And yet…..

I watched it when it was broadcast on Channel 4 here in the U.K. and I was charmed, intrigued, awakened.

So many of the really important things that happen to us in life occur in just this way – two people sitting at a table, talking.

I realized I’d have to make my movie this way - not only because of the constraints of time and budget, but because this approach is part and parcel of what U & Me & Tennessee is really about – humanity, friendship across generations, love – talking and listening.

And I realized I’d have to take part myself, just like “D” and Wallace Shawn and André Gregory did – because I was part of this story – Konrad had not revealed the full extent of his involvement with Tennessee to anyone before – hadn’t himself re-examined what occurred between them for more than fifty years. But he was willing to do so if I was willing to ask the questions and really listen to the story.

We’d both also been kind of culturally constrained, guarded, living as foreigners in the West of Scotland for many years, thousands of miles from the nation that made us, decades from the times of our youth. Because of all this we shared an instinctive bond.

I wasn’t at all sure what he’d say once the cameras started rolling, because I didn’t know the story before he told it to me.

What you see in U & Me & Tennessee is what Konrad Hopkins re-lived on those two days as we talked. Hilarious, full-hearted, sobering and – ultimately - encouraging and inspiring.

Copyright Paul Birchard 2006 All Rights Reserved.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

A New Door Opening...

U & Me & Tennessee
- an American romance.....
The story of how we made the movie


On the evening I met Konrad Hopkins at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, he handed me a couple of business cards - one for his publishing enterprise WILFION Books, and one for the International Korngold Society, with which he was associated. THIS was intriguing....

My brother Bob out in L.A. had been a big fan of Korngold's music for years. He'd even introduced me to one of the composer's sons one evening back in the 1970's. Konrad was also a great devotee of Korngold, he'd met BOTH of Korngold's sons! He launched into a summary of the Korngold Sociey's work - helping to get the biography of Korngold published, the establishment of the Korngold Study Centre and Museum in Brno in the Czech republic.


A few days later I received via e-mail a scan of a letter from Konrad written on an old typewriter - very hip, to the point, letting me know he would be coming to come see BABY DOLL one more time. I think I responded with a post card, asking him if he had a copy of one of Tennessee Williams's late plays (a rather good one, I think) called SOMETHING CLOUDY, SOMETHING CLEAR. I brought my copy to the theatre on the day and left it at the box office for Mr. Hopkins.


When we talked that evening after the show, it was lively and exciting. As we spoke about the writers, actors, movies and composers who mattered to us, many new connections revealed themselves. These artists and their work were linked to each other and to Konrad and me in ways that surprised both of us. There was synchronicity.


He mentioned again that he had a lot of letters from Tennessee Williams, together with all his own letters to the playwright. None of this correspondence had ever been published. He spoke a little more about how well he had known Tennessee. I surmised that there had probably been "a deeper relation" between them, but this didn't surprise me, given the roving eye that Tennessee wrote about so openly in his MEMOIRS...


Konrad wrote again a few days later, thanking me for SOMETHING CLOUDY, SOMETHING CLEAR, and again his lively personality shone through, illuminating the graceful serifs of the old uneven Courier typescript that had been scanned and sent as an e-mail. We spoke once or twice on the phone over the ensuing weeks and then one morning as I was writing a journal entry, it just struck me that here might be fascinating material for a documentary movie.

I didn't know what the story was between Konrad and Tennessee, and I realized that it might well be a story that had recurred many times in Tenn's life over the years with many other people.

But there were the letters.....

I phoned Konrad then and there and put the idea to him. Would he be interested in making a documentary about his time with Tennessee, using the letters as background and as proof of events?


Konrad didn't hesitate. It was as if he'd been expecting this call. He agreed at once, and I started to outline how I thought we should approach the project.

Copyright Paul Birchard 2006 All Rights Reserved.

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