Rudy Wurlitzer retrospective at Anthology

I Went to Anthology on Saturday for the Wurlitzer retrospective, where the film Glen and Randa was followed by a Q&A between long-time friends and contemporaries, Robert Downy Sr. and the honored screenwriter himself, Rudy Wurlitzer.

The Q&A started with Downey thanking Anthology for finally doing an interesting retrospective, one that he would actually want to attend. Which I suppose was a compliment. Although I think it was also his attempt being humble, seeing as his own films are featured at the canonizing institution with high frequency.

Interesting anecdotes included stories about Hal Ashby, and how easy and inclusive of a director he was, how crazy and brilliant Sam Peckinpah was. (There was a story about Wurlitzer bringing Bob Dylan to Peckinpah's hacienda in Mexico introduce the two before 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.' With each step the two took towards the hacienda, sounds of broken glass and gunshots were heard, and followed shortly by maids fleeing. When the two finally entered the director's bed-quarters, he was standing in front of the mirror naked, pointing a gun at his 'image.' Wurlitzer said that Bob Dylan knew he liked him because he thought Peckinpah was the real deal.)

Another story was about how Antonioni refused to work with Wurlitzer because he couldn't bear to look at Wurlitzer's scrubby clothes. Desperate to rectify the solution, Wurlitzer agreed to allow Antonioni to take him shopping. The agreement culminated in a ridiculous shopping spree, for which Wurlitzer was billed $20,000 in Italian suits with matching orange scarves/sock combinations and the like. And the film still has yet to be produced. The two old friends had a good laugh over that story.

The night ended with Bob Downey saying that he hopes for more retrospectives at Anthology that focus on screenwriters as opposed to directors.