a bit more on Charlton Heston

Last night Jessica and I watched the TCM Private Screenings interview with Charlton Heston. To my astonishment Heston reiterated exactly the thing I had written yesterday afternoon about the air of the great men that he played clinging to him. He closed the interview with a passage of Prospero from The Tempest that was poignant, to say the least.

Dave Kehr of the New York Times has a terrific memorial statement about Heston on his blog.

Kehr also provides a quote from Michel Mourlet, which is worth reproducing here.

The full Mourlet quote, as reproduced in “Cahiers du Cinema: The 1960s”:

“Charlton Heston is an axiom. He constitutes a tragedy in himself, his presence in any film being enough to instill beauty. The pent-up violence expressed by the somber phosphorescence of his eyes, his eagle’s profile, the imperious arch of his eyebrows, the hard, bitter curve of his lips, the stupendous strength of his torso - this is what he has been given, and what not even the worst of directors can debase. It is in this sense that one can say that Charlton Heston, by his very existence and regardless of the film he is in, provides a more accurate definition of the cinema than films like “Hiroshima mon amour” or “Citizen Kane,” films whose aesthetic either ignores or repudiates Charlton Heston. Through him, mise en scène can confront the most intense of conflicts and settle them with the contempt of a god imprisoned, quivering with muted rage.”