Harold and Lillian:
A Hollywood Love Story
Director:
Daniel Raim
Year: 2017
Rating: 7.0
This is a very tender documentary about a husband and his wife in Hollywood
who you very likely have never heard of. It is a story about the movies but
even more so about their love that stretched over fifty years through ups
and downs. These two are Harold and Lillian Michelson who met in Florida
after he came home from WWII as a bomber and then moved to Hollywood to see
if they could make a life for themselves out there. They did.
Harold became a storyboard illustrator while Lillian became a researcher
for film makers who were looking for historical accuracy. If you are not
familiar with what a storyboard artist do, you are not alone. Basically he
gets the script ahead of shooting and creates a storyboard of illustrations
showing the film's look, camera angles, close-ups or panoramas - even taking
into account the camera aspect that would be used. There are directors who
use the storyboard and others who don't really adhere to it. He did this
on some great classics - The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, West Side Story,
The Birds, Marnie, The Graduate and many many others.
What I found fascinating was comparing his storyboard drawings to what the
movie ended up looking like. The documentary goes into detail on two films
- The Birds and The Graduate - and you realize that to some degree his illustrations
were a second director as the director followed the storyboard very closely.
The famous shot in The Graduate of the camera looking through the legs of
Ann Bancroft at Hoffman was in his storyboard. There are lengthy interviews
with both of them though the one with Harold was in archived as he passed
away about 10 years ago. They are funny and sad and showed great love for
one another. Sweet film.
