Sydney Pollack (1934-2008)

Man With A Movie Camera: On location for 2005's The Interpreter.
Image via NicoleKidmanUnited.

Someone once remarked about how Merchant-Ivory, the renowned directing and producing team, had the sound of an exclusive catalogue company, like J. Peterman; from which you'd order quality but unusual items. You'd be intrigued and not disappointed.

When Sydney Pollack's name popped up as a producer of the recent HBO tele-film Recount (see my assessment in the previous post) I was pleased. This meant the film would at least be interesting, even if it didn't fire on all cylinders. Sydney Pollack was one of those names that seemed more a description of a solid, well-made film -- a sydneypollack. The Associated Press obituary is here.

He was a student of the great Sanford Meisner whose main premise was; don't act, react. Be in the scene and don't impose upon what's happening between the characters. Let it happen. He also worked in live television, back when that was a manic panic scene. So his films as a result breathe; there's no cynical distance, no over-emphasis of technique, though he was a superb technician (If The Interpreter is on when I'm channel-flipping I get caught up watching because of the way the images flow. And there's Nicole Kidman, before she turned into a fright doll). Pollack recognized storytelling, and that characters are action.

I also enjoyed his appearances on television and in cameos in films. Wherever he showed up, Pollack brought a sense of weight and authenticity to the role that looked easy and natural, but seldom ever is. Pollack in Eyes Wide Shut was disconcerting because, playing against type, he turned his affability into an underlying deviousness. I always remember him as Dustin Hoffman's exasperated agent in Tootsie.