2024-07-10 03:01:00
Where is Jack? This year marks the 50th anniversary of Chinatown (1974), by Roman Polanski, a crime thriller set in Los Angeles in the 1930s that features one of Jack Nicholson’s most famous performances, in the role of the sarcastic detective Jake Gittes. It is also almost half a century since Nicholson played the rebellious RP McMurphy, imprisoned in a mental institution and facing the sociopathic nurse Mildred Ratched in Trapped without exit (1975), by Milos Forman. Those two films alone are cast-iron classics.
But despite these important anniversaries, Nicholson, now 87, is nowhere to be seen. There was a time when the actor could be seen in all kinds of contexts: in nightclubs, in social gatherings, at basketball games, at film premieres. Not anymore. The actor has performed a disappearing act. It’s been 14 years since his last film, the forgotten romantic comedy How Do You Know, directed by James L. Brooks and where he shared the bill with Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson and Paul Rudd. One of his friends, music producer Lou Adler, told the podcast WTF that Nicholson now prefers to spend his time “sitting under a tree and reading a book.”
You could say it’s a well-deserved retirement (although not officially). Nicholson can rightly boast of being the greatest, most charismatic and versatile of all the stars of his era. “He was the king and he still is,” says the Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas. “He was the king of the people…”
Thomas, who worked with the actor in the 1996 film noir set in Miami Blood and wine (co-starring Michael Caine), considers Nicholson the most important star in Hollywood since Clark Gable and describes him as a consummate professional. “Under his appearance, he is a very serious man, a very serious actor who thinks about his role and works hard on what he is going to be in the film… he is a very likeable and credible actor, and There is something special between him and the camera.”
Over the years, Nicholson’s life has been exhaustively studied. He has been the subject of multiple biographies, all of them telling the same story: that of the know-it-all boy from New Jersey of Irish origin who discovered at the age of thirty that the woman he always believed to be his sister was, in fact, his mother; that of the former class clown who grew up in a family of women and never knew the identity of his father.
Nicholson was the supporting actor in the B-movies of Roger Corman who suddenly exploded into the spotlight after playing the drunken civil rights lawyer in I seek my destiny (Dennis Hopper, 1969). After remained at the top of the “A List” for the next four decades.
Most actors only have one or two iconic moments in their career. Nicholson’s is full of them. For example, his image as the mad writer who wields an axe and tries to break down the door of a Shelley Duvall (“Honey, I’m home!!”) in The glow (1980), by Stanley Kubrickhas become an Internet meme. Nicholson’s nose cut in Chinatown has also gone down in film history. Meanwhile, diners in trouble at restaurants continue to quote the famous scene from My life is my life (1970), from Bob Rafelson, when his character is told there is no toast on the side and orders a chicken salad sandwich. He then tells the waitress to “hold” the butter, mayonnaise, lettuce and chicken for him.
Over the years, Nicholson has played blue-collar workers, sensitive outsiders, swaggerers, military men, criminals, police officers, politicians, alcoholics, psychotic killers, and everything in between, from the Joker in the Batman of Tim Burton (1989) to the President of the United States in the insane Mars Attacks! In Thomas’ words: “He’s an incredible screen actor and “His specialty is choosing the right thing.”
Those who worked with Nicholson often speak highly of him. In The glow He would brush his teeth before each new scene, claiming that it was unfair to his collaborators to breathe on them through “a face full of lamb chops.” When he was in Cannes doing press for The postman rings twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981), the torrid film noir that he starred in alongside Jessica Lange, was spotted entering his hotel early in the morning. Publicists were stunned.
“One morning I arrived at the Majestic Hotel at 7.30am, in time for my morning meeting with the staff, and I saw him coming up the driveway,” said PR guru Dennis Davidson, who was organising the press meet. “I thought, my God, he’s been out all night and had breakfast with 20 Italian journalists, this is going to be a great time.” disastera nightmare.” In fact, Nicholson arrived on time and set about charming the Italian journalists. He had not been partying all night, but had a habit of strolling early in the morning through the old town of Cannes. In some ways, this is a trivial anecdote from a celebrity, but it underlines his professionalism and suggests that Nicholson was never the bad boy portrayed in the tabloid media of the time.
Matt Damon told a fascinating story about his work with Nicholson on The infiltrators (2006), from Martin Scorsese. Nicholson played mob boss Francis Costello. In one scene, Costello had to execute a man kneeling in the swamp. Damon recalls how the actor gave the scene his own sinister twist, upping the ante. Instead of a man kneeling in the swamp, Nicholson suggested there be a woman as well. He asked that his henchman (played by Ray Winstone). He then asked to let the camera roll and provided additional details, small in themselves, but increased the gruesome impact of the scene. For example, it was Nicholson’s idea to have his character say, “Boy, that’s a funny fall.” It was a throwaway line, but deeply chilling, showing just how far the character had come. accustomed to killing.
Nicholson era screenwriter as well as an actor. He co-wrote and co-produced the Monkees’ hit musical, Head (1968), with his friend and frequent collaborator, writer-director Bob Rafelson. He had a screenwriter’s eye when it came to his own roles and was always looking for ways to add depth and impact to his performances. (This also made him a consummate scene-stealer.)
It would be an exaggeration to say that Nicholson is in the process of falling into the forgot. Most of his major films are still in circulation. The extended version of The glow will return to the big screen this year, as will The reporter (1975), the cryptic film of Michelangelo Antonioni which Nicholson considers one of his favorites. The Batman Tim Burton’s (with his fantastic and extravagant interpretation of the Joker) is regularly re-released, as is Chinatown, My life is my life y The last duty, directed by Hal Ashby in 1973.
However, Nicholson’s decision to live out his final years in seclusion similar to that of Howard Hughes has meant his disappearance from the public consciousness. Gone are the paparazzi photos of him getting naughty in nightclubs or cheering on the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s been years since he was last heard flirting with Jenni Murray in Woman’s Hour. (“Selfish, capricious and, despite his advanced age, with sex on his legs”, Murray defined it after interviewing him in 1998 regarding his Oscar-winning romantic comedy It couldn’t be better, where he plays a curious character with OCD).
It’s as if Nicholson were the film industry’s answer to one of those mob bosses who unplugs and hides in his sandals in a remote Sicilian village, or is like the character he played in The reporter, Shedding his former identity and trying to become someone else.
“Jack is the biggest star I’ve ever worked with, and one of the easiest,” insists Jeremy Thomas, who remains in touch with Nicholson. “And he is so loved. Everybody loves Jack. “Everyone is happy when they see Jack at the game or when they see him out and about. He was always available, always smiling. He didn’t try to run away like other movie stars. I speak in the past tense, but he is in the present and enjoying life. He just doesn’t feel like working…”
* Of The Independent from Great Britain. Special for Page 12.