Phoebe Kate

The loss of a  prolific and prodigious talent like Sydney Pollack saddens me.  He directed and/or produced so many of my favorite films — and probably some of yours, too.  To name a few: The Swimmer (1968) based on John Cheevers’ stellar short story;  They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969);  The Way We Were (1973);  Three Days of the Condor (1975);  Absence of Malice (1981);  Tootsie (1982);  Out of Africa (1985); The Firm (1993);  Sense and Sensibility (1995);  Cold Mountain (2003);  and The Interpreter (2005).  His most recent movie, Recount, premiered on HBO on May 25th, the day before his death.  The name of Pollack associated with any film virtually assured my enjoyment.

Little wonder Pollack created movies I love.  He admired the same classic films that I do:  Casablanca, The Conformist, La Grande Illusion, The Leopard, The Seventh Seal and Sunset Boulevard.  He loved Citzen Kane, too.  (I’m sure I’d love it if I could just stay awake through it — tried a half-dozen times so far and still trying.  The first few minutes of the film invariably put me in a trance and send me deep into delta brain wave sleep.)

Pollack was also a marvelous actor — as well he should be, having studied at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC in the 1950s.  Who can forget his small but hilarious role as the agent of Dustin Hoffman’s character, the difficult actor Michael Dorsey, in Tootsie?  Nobody will work Dorsey in either Hollywood or New York.  Why?  Because while playing a beefsteak tomato in a commercial, Dorsey wouldn’t follow the script and sit down.  Dorsey:  “I couldn’t!  Beefsteak tomatoes don’t sit down!  It isn’t logical!”  Pollack as his agent: “Beefsteak tomatoes can’t move!  They don’t have any logic!”

Gotta love it.

I’ll really miss you, Sydney.  Who will makes movies for me (and for so many others) to love now?

–phoebe kate