Paul Newman

I was very sorry to read this afternoon about the death of Paul Newman. Newman was without a doubt one of the greatest actors of his generation. One of my most interesting movie watching experiences was the 1961 film The Hustler, staring Newman, Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott and Piper Laurie. The film isn’t entirely successful, but what’s fascinating about it is the way it seems to be on the cusp of something new. The direction of the film seems to move back and forth from the stagey, more abstracted filmmaking of the first half of the century and the more realistic, vérité filmmaking that would come in with the French New Wave. Newman was right there.