Review: Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story

[Mark R. Leeper]

HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: This is the story of the lives of a Hollywood couple, Lillian and
Harold Michelson, who were the barely-sung heroes of the Hollywood film
industry for six decades. Harold had an instinct for how films should look
and created pitch-perfect storyboards, often transforming the director's
whole vision of the film being shot. Lillian had a huge and well-collected
research library to find authentic visions from around the world, from all
of history, and into the future. The story of their private lives is a
love story of a perfect marriage. Their visual style and knowledge shaped
the look and feel of surprisingly many classic films. This film was
written, produced, and directed by Daniel Raim. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4)
or 8/10

Though they only rarely got any screen credit, Harold and Lillian
Michelson upgraded the quality of American filmmaking. Their instincts for
how to speak visually created many of the most iconic images in film.
Harold designed image compositions such as Dustin Hoffman framed by Anne
Bancroft's leg in THE GRADUATE or the visual compositing of the birds on
the jungle gym behind Tippi Hedren in THE BIRDS, both of which were
originally suggested by Harold. People believe that Alfred Hitchcock did
his own storyboarding, but apparently Hitchcock would describe a scene and
Harold would think out the action and the camera angles and would turn his
mental images into sequences of storyboards. Hitchcock contributed the
idea, but Harold would very quickly turn it into a sequence of images as
full-sized storyboards. Harold went from being a storyboard artist to
being a production designer and art director, creating the look and
atmosphere of a film. Harold's natural instinct for how to show a scene
transformed innumerable films.

Lillian's specialty was research and collecting reference books. She built
this into a very large library of reference books that remains to this day
a major Hollywood filmmaking asset. If a filmmaker needed to know what
Egyptian battle chariots looked like for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, she could
put her hands on a book that would describe it. For FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
director Norman Jewison needed to stage the song "Matchmaker". For it
Jewison needed to know what young Jewish women wore for underwear in a
Russian shtetl. Lillian actually found someone who had lived in the
shtetl. She once interviewed a Bolivian drug lord. He was so anxious to
talk to her he wanted to send his private jet from Bolivia to pick her up
and travel to Bolivia to interview him. Lillian always seemed to have the
needed information at her fingertips. Or if she did not, she knew where to
find it. She gave films nuance and texture and an authentic period feel.

The story of the Michelsons' long career together is told in interviews
with the two, as well as with Danny DeVito, Francis Ford Coppola, and Mel
Brooks. The story is profusely illustrated in storyboard art in Harold's
style. They tell the story of the Michelson's marriage and their career.
Harold's attitude is 100% of the time that his wife is beautiful,
brilliant, and just wonderful. With the exception of Harold's one-time
drinking problem Lillian's attitude is just about the same towards him.

HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY is full of anecdotes-- some
amazing, some amusing. It will appeal to film historians and film buffs.
It is also a romance in its way. And Harold and Lillian have the talent
for being instantly likeable, and so does the film about them. I rate it a
low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10. HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE
STORY will open in New York April 28 and in Los Angeles May 12.

These are some of the dozens of films that benefited from the Michelson
Touch provided by one or both of the Michelsons and were mentioned in the
film. This is really only scratching the surface:

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, BEN-HUR, SPARTACUS, THE BIRDS, MARNIE, THE GRADUATE,
CLEOPATRA, BONNIE AND CLYDE, CAPE FEAR, SCARFACE, EASY RIDER, WEST SIDE
STORY, STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT

Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4683668/combined

What others are saying: https://tinyurl.com/void-rt-harold-lillian

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/143970610

Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 2017 Mark R. Leeper