The Mailer Review/Volume 2, 2008/Author, Auteur: A Conversation with Norman Mailer: Difference between revisions

{{byline|last= Chaiken| first= Michael|abstract=A film specialist interviews Norman {{NM}} about his long-term interest in cinema, including his work as a filmmaker.|url=https://prmlr.us/mr08chai}}

{{dc|dc=I|n may 2005, at the time this interview was conducted,}} I was working as the Program Director for Film at International House Philadelphia, a non-profit arts center immediately adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania. Earlier that year I had organized a series of films directed by noted authors which included works by [[w:Yukio Mishima|Yukio Mishima]], [[w:Alain Robbe-Grillet|Alain Robbe-Grillet]], [[w:Susan Sontag|Susan Sontag]], [[w:William Burroughs|William Burroughs]], and [[w:Samuel Beckett|Samuel Beckett]] among others. Norman’s films were central to the series and, with his consent, we were loaned his personal 35mm prints of ''[[w:Maidstone (film)|Maidstone]]'' and ''[[w:Tough Guys Don’t Dance|Tough Guys Don’t Dance]]''. Around that time I discussed with Norman the possibility of organizing a broader series, one that might include all four of the films he directed in addition to the

numerous documentaries made about him: films based on his writing, films in which he appeared as an actor and films that he helped to inspire. I proposed the idea to my colleagues at Film at Lincoln Center in New York and they were intrigued, particularly if Mailer might come to present his films.

This expanded series, which was titled “The Mistress & The Muse: The Films of Norman Mailer” (the cinema being the mistress tempting Norman away from his literary muse), ran for two weeks in July/August 2007 and was divided between two supporting venues in New York, The Anthology Film Archives and Film at Lincoln Center, which opened the series with a double bill of ''Maidstone'' and ''Tough Guys'' and concluded the event with [[w:Lawrence Schiller|Larry Schiller]]’s ''[[w:The Executioner's Song (film)|The Executioner’s Song]]'', followed by a post-screening discussion with director Larry Schiller, [[Norris Church Mailer]], and [[w:Roseanna Arquette|Roseanna Arquette]]. Joined by [[J. Michael Lennon]], film critic and Lincoln Center programmer Kent Jones, and me, Mailer took the stage of Lincoln Center on July 22, 2007, in between sold-out screenings of ''Tough Guys'' and ''Maidstone'', in order to take questions from the audience.

In the space of forty-five minutes, Norman managed to eviscerate [[w:Jean-Luc Godard|Jean-Luc Godard]] as the “second most evil person I’d ever met in my life” ([[w:Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] being the first), greatly offend at least a half dozen members of the audience (“Well, you can find friends... ,” was his reply to one woman’s generally negative comments on the merits of ''Tough Guys''), and unman yours truly after mumbling out my first question (“Chaiken, you have a voice better suited to talking to women at 2 a.m. than asking anybody anything from the stage of Lincoln Center”). Norman also spoke powerfully and eloquently about his years directing films, the pleasure it had brought him, and the seriousness in

The interview contains many of the themes Norman elaborated on that afternoon in July 2007. It was conducted in Norman’s Brooklyn Heights apartment on May 11, 2005. Parts of this interview were included in an article I wrote surveying Norman’s directing career for ''Film Comment'' magazine published in their July/August 2007 issue under the title “The Master’s Mercurial Mistress: How Norman Mailer Courted Chaos 24 Frames per Second.”