![]() He’s a nice guy and he’ll say yes to anything. I mean Tom Cruise is the perfect example. Just treat the person like a human being, but then when you have the crowds running after them they do need protection. The talent is so easygoing and they’re such normal people really. “What I found with all of the talent - I’ve been very lucky because they trust me and we become friends - the agent or the handler has to be around because you’ve got to protect the talent. She said, ‘I’ve got to leave you now, because I’ve got to become “Ann Miller.” That was wild to me.” And I saw that with Ann Miller the famous dancer of MGM at her house in Beverly Hills. And we’re finishing lunch and her husband, Roger Smith was his name, said ‘It’s time for you to become Ann-Margret.’ And I’d never witnessed that before. Ann-Margret’s husband was in the room at the hotel, and we were having lunch and her mother came in from Sweden - remember Ann-Margret went to Northwestern for a while here in Chicago. Faye has like a mask, like layers, like a porcelain figure. “Sophia Loren takes care of her own face and hair. Sophia Loren and how some actors “become” their persona I’ll help you, but just don’t put my name on anything.’” He said, ‘Just don’t put my name on anything. And he’d say ‘Those films you show can lose me votes.’ And I said yes, they can. I think that’s the secret of life – you’ve got to have some humor going on. “Promoting the city was my promise to Mayor Daley, the old – I always say the real Mayor Daley, the big guy. (WTTW News) More Memories from Michael Kutza 12 with a block party in front of the Music Box Theater. The opening of the 58 th Chicago International Film Festival launches Oct. Kutza’s book, “ Starstruck,” was just released. His life story would make for its own movie. The Chicago Film Fest has presented first films from Martin Scorsese and William Friedkin and scores of other filmmakers from all over the worldĪnd Kutza made a lot of famous friends. I took Roger Ebert to his very first film festival in Iran because I was working in Iran.” “I became programmer or helped them get a star there or something like that. I’ve helped a lot of people put festivals together,” he said. “I was working Berlin for 12 years and Italy for 10 years and the Venice Festival. And he’s had his hand in many festivals around the world. Kutza remains the CEO emeritus of the festival he founded 57 years ago. He designed the first film fest graphics, and hired fashion photographer Victor Skrebneski to add some sex appeal. “I believe in honoring the talents in the film industry, and we brought them all here,” he said. “They need a certain kind of wine in the car or Shirley MacLaine, ‘I’ve got to have Pepsi Cola!’ While Jack Nicholson’s always smoking a joint, so he’s always high, so he was easy to deal with back in those days,” Kutza said.įor Kutza, he approaches the process as a fan. He took care to cater to the needs of the festival’s stars. “Then you’re faced with these directors and talents that you’ve invited here, and you have to deal with them, and then you realize there’s more than just inviting them to Chicago. “You take six months, you find the films from all over the world, then you put them together and you put the festival together,” he said. “… So that’s how I’d meet Myrna Loy at lunch or Lillian Gish or Joan Crawford.”įor Kutza, putting together the festival involves more than just logistics. She was this widow, and I came along and sort of put a new spark in her life,” Kutza said. Her husband had died, her fourth husband had died. “I met so many of these early, early directors and stars from Colleen. And it was columnist Irv Kupcinet who introduced them. The world premieres and visits from superstars of cinema all started with help from silent film star Colleen Moore, who had retired in Chicago. Because I wanted it to be perfect, as I saw it to be perfect.” “It took a while for me to let things go, to have a team, a whole team. “Being a one-man show, which is what I was, saved a lot of money but you got it done the way you wanted to get it done,” said Michael Kutza, founder of the Chicago Film Festival. It happened because of the vision and determination of one man who grew up on Chicago’s West Side. The 1975 world premiere of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” took place at Chicago’s Granada Theater with all the stars present. Now he’s written down his life story in a new memoir. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |