CHARLIE ROSE:
Welcome to the broadcast, we're at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, here in a room full of interesting people, to talk about who has had the most impact in a culture over the last 100 years. This idea comes from TIME Magazine, and they're doing a series of television programs in conjunction with CBS News. We have a distinguished panel to talk about a whole series of categories, who has had the most influence in the film, and in jazz, and in a whole lot of other areas, which we will get to in just a moment. Let me introduce to you, those of you at home, the panel that we have put together here in Los Angeles. Norm Pearlstine, Editor in Chief of TIME, Incorporated. Robert Hughes, author and Senior Writer for TIME, Rob Reiner, actor, director, and Founder and Chairman of I AM Your Child campaign, Cheryl Crow, Grammy award winning artist, Anna Deavere Smith is a playwright and actor and Founder of the Institute of the Arts, and she is at, in Civil Dialog, which is at Harvard University. Let me begin this, because we have a lot to cover, and, one hour of conversation, to talk about film, and I turn first to Rob Reiner. When you think about...
ROB REINER
Why? Why you turning to me?
CHARLIE ROSE
Why you?
ROB REINER
Well anybody else can pipe up on film.
CHARLIE ROSE
Exactly right. I mean, Hughes knows something about film, and...
ROB REINER
He knows film.
CHARLIE ROSE
...and
ROBERT HUGHES
(Inaudible)
CHARLIE ROSE
Anna Deavere Smith knows a lot about film.
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH
(Inaudible)
CHARLIE ROSE
So, why did I come to you? Because you have been part of this community, and because you are someone who thinks about the impact of your medium and who's made a difference.
ROB REINER
Well, I mean the two things you have to think about are, you know, film makers that impacted the culture, and then film makers who, uh, changed the way in which films were made. In other words, impacted their art. And those are the two things you have to think about. I mean, obviously, when you talk about, uh, people who have impacted the culture, you, you know, you have to mention Steve Spielberg, but I wouldn't say Steven Spielberg by himself, it would be Steve Spielberg slash George Lucas. Because those two guys who came on the scene in the mid seventies, really changed the way in which, uh, people go to the movie theaters. The event picture. The big special effects picture. Uh, all of these kind of blockbuster, type movies came from, Spielberg and Lucas and the way in which movies are made and they way in which they're marketed were all came out of a contribution that Spielberg and Lucas made. When you talk about the art of making movies, then you're looking at people like Hitchcock. Who created a form of, a genre that, you know, was the, he was a, a brilliant practitioner of a genre, you know, the, the horror, I mean, excuse me, the suspense thriller. And, and then, when you go back to D. W. Griffith, who, you know, helped shape the idea of the feature length film. But you know, you talk about all these people, and, you, it's almost impossible to think about a, a, you know, one film maker, or, or another. I mean, I think, you know, when you're putting this list together it's hard to thi--, not to mention Fellini, and, and Bergman. And, and, and Truffaut, and Orson Welles. I mean Orson Welles, who had a tremendous impact on film makers, I mean there's barely a film maker that won't tell you that they were influenced by Orson Welles. Or Fellini, or Bergman, or Truffaut. Mys--, myself included. So, uh, I threw out a lot of names, uh...
CHARLIE ROSE
All right.
ROB REINER
...and there you have them.
CHARLIE ROSE
How about Leonardo...
(LAUGHTER)
CHARLIE ROSE
...DiCap--, how about Leonardo DiCaprio?
ROB REINER
Oh, we're talking about film makers? Or, well, interesting enough, Leonardo DiCaprio, it's hard to talk about him now, but my guess is if he survives, and stays alive, will have the same kind of impact -- no, I say this, in a weird way, because when I first saw Leonardo DiCaprio, uh, he did a picture called, uh, This Boy's Life, and then he was in another picture called What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and then he followed that with a picture called Basketball Diaries. Three of the most brilliant performances I have ever seen on film, all from the same person, all completely different, reminded me of James Dean. And James Dean did not survive, and, we, now he is an icon, and he was, you know, a continuation of the, the, the, you know, what, the Brando legacy, which is a tremendous contribution, you have to talk about Brando. Leonardo DiCaprio, I would put in that same category. Excluding Titanic, which I don't think was a particularly good performance, but I be--, I do believe that, that he has the goods, if he survives, and maintains his, you know, his heart in this day in age. It's so commercial...
ROBERT HUGHES
Could we agree to leave for the twenty-first century?
ROB REINER
Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERT HUGHES
Save him for the twenty-first.
CHARLIE ROSE
Very good, Mr. Hughes. We need those kinds of helpful guides. Uh, who would you put in...?
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH
Well...
CHARLIE ROSE
A list, anybody that's, hasn't been mentioned so far.
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH
I think I have to agree with what Rob said, if we're going to include actors, then I'm thinking of an individual who actually would fall over into um, theater as well, and that's Paul Robeson. Who was a real renaissance man...
NORM PEARLSTINE
And music too.
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH
...if he, if he hadn't been a, an actor, who was a, he was a, an incredible athlete. Uh, he spoke 20 languages. He was one of the first black people to be, have a job in a major law firm, but we know him because of his charismatic presence, his incredible body, and his remarkable voice.
NORM PEARLSTINE
Absolutely.
CHARLIE ROSE
Uh, Robert?
ROBERT HUGHES
Um, I wanted to add to the list of the uh, to the list that Rob was making, a couple of me own favorites. I mean, I would completely agree with you about the bizarre ability of having two (Inaudible) for instance, on the list of wills. What about Buñuel? I mean, you know, he certainly had an immense impact upon me, and upon the idea that I thought about film, and the way in which he, you know, uh, he introduces that extraordinary complexity into, uh, the imagery of film, which comes out of surrealism. And uh, the, the, I mean Buñuel was probably...
NORM PEARLSTINE
And Kurasawa.
ROBERT HUGHES
...yeah, and Kurasawa, too. Uh, you see the trouble is, this is one of these party games which is almost impossible to get your real favorites into. You know, the, the uh...
CHARLIE ROSE
It's almost impossible to get the real favorites into it, or is it impossible to narrow it down to one particular person?
ROBERT HUGHES
It's impossible to do either, because, you know, that stuff that you know about, you have so many favorites in...
CHARLIE ROSE
I got you.
ROBERT HUGHES
...uh, but you know, for one reason or another. Uh, I mean personally, I, I'd like to think about this in terms of the impact, to take your phrase, of what uh, the impact that the artist has had upon his or her particular gen--, creative genre. You know, but the ones you obviously can't leave out, Griffith is one. You know, I mean, it is Griffith who establishes the idea of the film as a major dramatic experience, you know, one which tears at the heart and which makes you laugh and cry and all the rest of it. Um, Welles, I can't imagine leaving Welles out. Although Welles was, his own filmography, is actually so small.
CHARLIE ROSE
Yeah.
ROBERT HUGHES
But, you know, there he is with two masterpieces.
CHARLIE ROSE
You disagree with anybody that Rob...
ROBERT HUGHES
No, I do not.
CHARLIE ROSE
You don't want to...?
ROBERT HUGHES
I do not. I just want to jam more in.
CHARLIE ROSE
All right.
(LAUGHTER)
NORM PEARLSTINE
I think the one question that uh, you'd asked about film making is, how important it is to bring out the actor, as part of the process. And I think in that respect, Hitchcock would be at the top of my list. And I'd probably, put Spielberg behind him, even though influencing the culture Spielberg, even though his career is certainly in, in midstream right now has been extraordinary.
CHARLIE ROSE
Cheryl?
CHERYL CROW
I have to throw Scorsese in, for the reason that he brought rock 'n' roll into film making, and I think since that time, we see it in so many films, and, although he, he kind of falls into the category with Coppola and Spielberg, it seemed to me that no one had really incorporated rock and roll in to film making like he had, up to that point.
NORM PERLSTINE
Well, the early relationships he had with rock 'n' roll.
CHERYL CROW
And he also...
NORM PERLSTINE
Stars.
CHERYL CROW
..brought out his actors. So how that, I think he's known more for the, uh, the performances he's pulled out of his actors than even his films, probably.
NORM PERLSTINE
And I know this, because of having talked to you, Sydney Portier, you think made a huge contribution (OVERLAPPING VOICES).
