Only now does it occur to me... that before she appeared in the unintentionally comic period Western THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, Sharon Stone was in an intentionally comedic film-within-a-film musical version of GONE WITH THE WIND that is well worth your time:
In all, IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES is a pretty typical but watchable late 70s/early 80s "epic dysfunctional relationship dramedy" (see also: MODERN ROMANCE, HEARTBURN, ANNIE HALL, OLD BOYFRIENDS, et al.) with an added twist of a frame story that depicts a daughter divorcing her self-centered parents. Things get weirder when you factor in that Drew Barrymore (a demonstrably neglected child in real life) is playing a neglected child and Ryan O'Neal (a demonstrably terrible father in real life) is playing a terrible father––though, oddly enough they apparently got along famously on set, with Drew writing "Ryan kept my sanity... he was very fatherly," in her memoir LITTLE GIRL LOST.
Anyway, the true gem of the film is the preceding Sharon Stone clip, which comes from a scene where Ryan O'Neal (playing a film director) is making a disastrously overbudget GONE WITH THE WIND-inspired musical called ATLANTA, in what appears to be a reference to the box office belly-flop of HEAVEN'S GATE. Enjoy.
2 comments:
Wow, good observations! That's pretty wild. I haven't seen this film since... geez, probably when it first came out on home video but I still remember how sad the trailers were for it and how Drew Barrymore managed to illcit sympathy even for that short amount of time.
J.D.,
Thanks, bud! I ended up hearing of it for the first time after my girlfriend had me read the aforementioned LITTLE GIRL LOST (a super-quick, often depressing, but shockingly fascinating read, and one which (much to my relief) bolsters the reputations of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King as being some of the best surrogate showbiz dads ever). Lionsgate semi-recently packaged the DVD in something called "The Lost Collection," purporting to be the best forgotten 80s movies (other flicks range from the lovable MY BEST FRIEND IS A VAMPIRE to the execrable HOMER & EDDIE).
Post a Comment