FEATURES 56 Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
BY Peter Biskind
He gave the world Liz Taylor as a drunk in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and
launched Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, so what could Mike Nichols do for an
encore? After slumping through the '70s (look at The Fortune, which did not live
up to its title), he bounced back in the '80s with Silk-wood and Working Girl.
Now he's turning the raffish Jack Nicholson into, uh, Wolf. "The idea of
Jack being the man who is becoming a wolf interested me," says Nichols, "because
he's already partway there."
64 Forever My Girl
BY VERONICA CHAMBERS
Yes, she's precocious, but Anna Chlumsky is no bratty child star. With the weight
of My Girl 2 squarely on her shoulders (Macaulay Culkin got stung in the last
one, remember?), Anna's got a clear-thinking maturity that is rare for a thirteen-year-old.
Asked if she would attend a professional children's school, she scoffs, "That's
a bunch of stupid stuff. That's for people who think that they're big hotshot
professional people. I just want to be a regular kid."
70 Banderas Plays On
BY MARILYN BethANY Madonna's taste in men isn't all bad: Antonio Banderas has worked steadily ever
since he was the object of her (unrequited) lust in Truth or Dare. And after Philadelphia
and The House of the Spirits, people may actually notice that, yes, he can act!
74 A Brief Life
"Somebody's going to die on this film," River Phoenix told his Dark
Blood costar Jonathan Pryce. Friends and colleagues (including Peter Weir, Rob
Reiner, Dermot Mulroney, Dan Aykroyd, and Judy Davis) offer memories of the late
actor. Recalls Reiner, "You just turned the camera on, and he would tell
the truth."
86 Back in the Saddle Again
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARY ELLEN MARK
TEXT BY MARTHA SOUTHGATE
If Mama hadn't let her babies grow up to be cowboys, there would have been no
John Ford, no Duke, and—aw, shoot!—no Clint. Here's a look at some
of the aging but still vital hearts of the western. DEPARTMENTS
21 In the Works
BY ELIZA BERGMAN KRAUSE
Murder in the First star Christian Slater replaces River Phoenix in Interview
With the Vampire, and Sharon Stone pays for her own costar (Leonardo DiCaprio)
in The Quick and the Dead.
27 Rushes
EDITED BY HOLLY MILLEA Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke chomp on scenery in Ben Stiller's Reality Bites.
Plus, great moments in white trashiness and an open call for a celebrity prostate?
39 Independents
BY J. HOBERMAN
Satyajit Ray's radically
"imperfect" Pather Panchali is a masterpiece of neorealism. In fact,
you might say it's the paradigmatic independent film.
42 If You Ask Me
BY LIBBY GELMAN-WAXNER
For Libby, the heart is as lonely (and quiet) as Holly Hunter in The Piano.
44 Politics
BY JOHN CLARK
Field of Dreams director Phil Alden Robinson turns his camera to the killing field
of Bosnia.
49 The Way the Music Died
BY NANCY GRIFFIN
It was "the worst night of my life," recalls director James L. Brooks:
Some 70 people walked out on a test screening of his Hollywood musical, I'll Do
Anything. After many more agonizing tests, he excised the songs. Still aching
from the ordeal, Brooks ponders his new, nonmusical comedy-romance.
95 Home Guide
What bath Jane Fonda wrought? The How-to Guru takes a stab at the abs with celebrity
workouts. Also, the Screen Test results, and Heart of Darkness comes to cable
(sans Vietnam and Brando). OTHER
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104 FILMOGRAPHIES
