Adventures in Modeming

Helping an author with some background info on Ernest Lehman, I ran across this article about the WGA's BBS system from October 1991. (Early days of the internet.) 

As published in “Written By” October 1991.

Ah, VHS.

ADVENTURES IN MODEMING

It was over a year ago when I discovered the voice in my phone Modem. I was recovering from the stinging reviews of a film I had co-written and directed called Limit Up when I discovered that Gene Siskel was the resident critic for Prodigy - the Sears computer network that includes subscribers from across the country.

I thought that Siskel had been overly critical of the film in his review, and owing to the fact that he and Ebert disagreed on every other film on their show but mine, I realized he might have been giving it a "thumbswayyyy down" in the excitement of being able to agree with Ebert on anything.

Dean Stockwell, Nancy Allen

But I was able to tell him so in front of a national audience. I posted a letter to him on the Prodigy service using my computer and phone modem, telling him what I thought of his review, and specifically what I thought he had missed in the story. And at computer terminals all across America, subscribers signed on co find the writer/director of a film publicly proclaiming that a reviewer was wrong and it was up to the audience to make up their own minds.

Siskel posted a reply that he hoped he would appreciate the next movie I make more, and explained that he wasn't paid to root for films, only to critique them. But nonetheless, what I felt had been a mean spirited attack on a friendly spirited film had been countered by the film's parent.

Ray Charles, Danitra Vance

Finally a film critic could be criticized in public for his critique. After that, Gene Siskel didn't app ear on the Prodigy service for a couple of weeks; perhaps he had a vacation coming to him. I prefer to think that he took time off to cool his hot toes.

Not much later I signed up for the MCI mail system so I could file my occasional music reviews that I was writing for Variety (which I approach with trepidation and over conscientiousness), and in perusing the MCI system I found Roger Ebert's mailbox.

Ray is God. Nancy is a Soybean Trader.

I sent him a copy of the rave Limit Up re¬ceived from Entertainment Today, rating it a B+, and asked him to consider giving the film a second viewing for his next foray into compiling movie reviews. He replied that he felt he had bent over backwards to give the film a fair review, I said that I thought calling it 'dumb, dumb, dumb' hardly constituted bending over backwards. He eventually told me that he, too, was stung by the reviews of his book about Cannes from his own newspaper.

I was happy to be able to discuss it. Usually the artist is skewered, his work ridiculed, his fortunes dashed - perhaps justifiably so, perhaps because the reviewer wasn't in the mood for that type of film on that given day - without any recourse but an angry letter to an editor or a pithy telegram.

One of our movie posters

I'll leave the values of honesty in reviewing to an in-depth study of criticism in general, I was just happy to find a voice through my computer, enabling me to have a dialogue with those who review my work.

But there are other voices to be found in my phone modem. Recently I was auditing a writing class at USC, when the subject of act breaks came up regarding the film North By Northwest. The teacher handed out an outline of where he considered the act breaks to occur, and I didn't agree with him about the end of the first act.

Ernie

So when I got home to my computer I dialed up the Writers Guild BBS and left a note to Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter of North By Northwest. What ensued was a series of letters and an on-line discussion of what constitutes an act break and whether these rules apply to his film, as well as some great stories about what it was like to work with Hitchcock and Grant. (About the first act, Ernie happened to agree with me, and I was able to report back to the class, a la Woody Allen pulling Marshall McLuhan out of a ticket line to refute a point in Annie Hall; I was able to find the voice of irrefut¬able proof inside of my modem.)

The realm of communication that was first dominated by long distance runners, then handwritten wax sealed envelopes, Western Union telegrams, and eventually faxes, now has a faster, farther-reaching, and more convenient carrier.

Ernie and Hitch

The modem has provided a way to have a long distance conversation- or at least an exchange of letters in a short amount of time - so anyone with a phone modem, computer and an ounce of determination can participate. And perhaps all parties can come away with a better understanding of each other's point of view. It may be just a matter of time before they launch a United Nations BBS so world leaders can chat each other up from time to time, and find out exactly who meant what, when, and why they said it.

Richard Martini wrote an directed “You Can't Hurry Love,” and co­wrote (with Lu Anders) and directed “Limit Up.” His modem resides in Santa Monica.

New film clips on youtube.

Added some clips to the Martini Ouevre.  Oover?  Ovray.

Limit Up

I made this film in 1989.   The other day, a technician at a lab and I were chatting about it, and he asked to see it.  He's 26, African American, grew up in the projects and made his way to LA.  I gave him a copy and he raved about it; he wants to show it to his church, he wants to show it to his pastor father in law; he wants everyone in his life to see it.  Needless to say, I was moved.  Twenty years ago, a group of people came together to make a little fable about capitalism, about how hard it was for a woman to become a soybean trader at the Chicago board of trade, about racism. The cast includes the amazing Danitra Vance (Colored Girls on Broadway in the 70's), who plays the guardian angel of Nancy Allen.  Ray Charles plays God.  It's a paean to Chicago, an homage to the soybean pit where my brother toiled for many years.  The original cast was Daymon Wayans and Sharon Stone, but the producer wouldn't let me cast them.  Either way, it's a PG13 family flick, Brad Hall, Ron Howard's dad Rance are hilarious - Dean Stockwell, Nancy Allen are a hoot - "cornball" as Ebert puts it, but hey, something to be said for the only film ever made about soybean trading.. I still have no idea why anyone would hate this film.  Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+ - but sadly, it's disappeared into the great cinema vault in the sky.

Here's a clip I put on youtube of Danitra and Ray in the final scene, sadly, both not on the planet anymore:

Here's a clip from the ending with Danitra and Ray:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhQzQ3opivE

Here's the Entertainment Weekly Review:

VIDEO REVIEW

Limit Up (1990) B+

Reviewed by Cynthia Grisolia | May 04, 1990

Who would have thought that someone could make a feature film about a subject as unsexy as soybeans and it could turn out to be as charming as this.

Limit Up stars cherubic Nancy Allen (who shifted from sexpot to Kewpie doll somewhere between Dressed to Kill and Robocop) as Casey Falls, a ''runner'' on the floor of Chicago's Midwest Grain Exchange, where traders, in a wild jitterbug of coded hand signals and general pandemonium, control the output of America's No. 1 cash export: soybeans.

In a facetious bending of the Faust tale, Casey sells her soul to a delegate from the devil (Danitra Vance, in a role undoubtedly written for Whoopi Goldberg), and soon is rolling in high-protein dough.

If you're thinking of stopping here because you've heard this before, don't. Limit Up may have an oddly misleading title (''limit up'' is commodity-trader jargon indicating prices are frozen and trading has stopped), but it's really a splendid comedy with just enough corkscrew turns and wry jokes to make thisfaux Faust pretty sprightly.

All the elements are here: good cast, good script, tidy direction, and an ending that's sunny but not so much that it will make skeptics gag. And Allen is particularly delightful as the ambitious trader forced to make a tough decision when her marker comes due. Also, look for Ray Charles in a small but significant role and a cameo by Sally Kellerman.

Remembering Paul Tracey

I ran across the eulogy I gave at my friend Paul Tracey's funeral in Phoenix seven years ago. I'm a fan of honoring those odd incidents that occur in your life in some way, and so I'm reprinting it here.  In light of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" debate, it bears repeating that gay people are part of our families... funny how archaic this debate will seem in 5 or 10 years. Like the Civil Rights or Women's Rights debate.  Did we really debate that stuff?  Seems silly now. But here's to you Paul, enjoy. 

Dave Patlak and Paul, circa 1985.

Paul’s Eulogy from Feb. 2003

For years Paul and I would argue over whether or not he’d come to see me in Santa Monica, or whether I’d come and visit him in Arizona... - oh what lengths you would go to win an argument, Paul!

Last time we spoke was a few weeks back.. Told him how he’s going to be an uncle in a few months as Sherry and I are due to have a baby girl.. We laughed about that, and then I complained about his complete inability to use email - something I’ve been after him to do since they invented it.. And I’m amazed to say that in the past ten years I’ve gotten a total of one email from him. And I think he sent that by mistake. He was a phone person - .. We spoke often, more frequently than I do with other friends who live nearby - and every one of our phone conversations was as if we’d just finished up the last one mid-sentence. I fully expect the phone to ring at some date in the future, and Paul and I will pick up where we left off.

Kathy Delaney, Paul, Janet Tuzzolino and Me
freshman year in High school

Where did we leave off? Well, the conversation started in 7th grade. He’d moved to Northbrook with his family and we met on a football field. Paul was a natural athlete, fast, our halfback, I was a guard - I can still remember in glorious detail the “40-cross” that we ran against St. France in a Championship game - Billy Meyer in the backfield, Dave Siebert at my side playing center, 40 cross meant I took Dave’s guy and Dave too mine -and number 40, that was Paul, would take off.. I’ll never forget looking up from the mud to see Paul running for the touchdown that won the game. Silly as it sounds, I’ll never forget that moment. He was poetry in motion. It was our sophomore season that he went into the hospital - as I remember it, he didn’t have to, but had an operation so he could play again - little did we know what the staph infection would do to his hip and keep him from being the athlete he was. Not to say that Paul was such a fan of football, but I know he loved the camaraderie and friendships we had on the field.

Dave Siebert, Kathy Kearney, Paul circa 69

We also traveled together a bit. In grade school during spring break, Paul and I had the brilliant idea to take a Greyhound bus to Florida to visit his grandfather in Deerfield Beach. We thought we were pretty cool, smoking cigars on the way, until we both turned green from the smoke. We got to Florida and burned ourselves to a crisp in a day - and since we spent the next week indoors, got in so many raging arguments that his grandfather, sick of the bickering, actually bought us both plane tickets and sent us home. We were both shocked that his grandfather actually thought we were serious, and laughed about it on the plane home.

But Paul and I spent most of our time laughing. I imagine it was that same sense of humor that inspired me to get into making comedy films. I paid homage to Paul a couple of times - In “Three For The Road,” Charlie Sheen’s character was named after Paul, and I even got him to do a cameo in my film “Limit Up” - he happened to be in LA for the day, stopped down to the set, so I threw him into a scene, which, of course, he nailed in one take. I asked him if he wanted to stick around and watch the filming and he said “I’ve already got my close up, what would I stick around for?”  Sue Bodine sent me an email expressing her condolences; she wrote “All I can think about it Paul the raconteur, standing at a table or piano with such humor and timing, engaging everybody in his earnest story. What does Renee Zellwegger say in that film? “You had me at hello.” He was like that. You loved him before anything happened. He just didn’t know that. We love you Paul.”

Paul, me and Dave Patlak describing the pizza at Numero Uno's in Chicago

It was indicative of the kind of person Paul could be when he gave it some effort. When he put his charm and ability in front of him, he made everything seem effortless.. I know that didn’t prevent him from finding ways to make his life full of effort instead of effortless. I only mention it because we talked about that too, his inability to conquer his demons and the stress it put on those around him. At one point, he was furious with the love of his life Carlos over the fact that Paul had bought him a motorcycle and for whatever reason, Carlos wasn’t able to make the payments… Paul was raging that he couldn’t reach Carlos and wanted to repot the motorcycle. I suggested that in actuality, Carlos had put so much time and effort into their relationship that if you put a dollar figure on it, Paul was into Carlos for much more than the bike was worth. He thought that was hilarious, and promptly sent Carlos the title to the bike and a note telling him the motorcycle was his.  I think Carlos sent him the full amount after that, but my point is that Paul had his own logic of how things and people should be and at his core, he cared deeply about other people’s feelings.

Like when he called to tell me he was ‘coming out of the closet.’ At first he hesitated - his ex girlfriend Nancy Covington had told him I’d never be able to accept Paul being gay, and that my family would freak hen they heard the news. Of course, this coming from the girl who’d sailed to Greece to propose marriage to Paul and was devastated when her proposal was met with the truth - indicative of how honest Paul could be when he wanted to. I had just been to see him in San Francisco, living on his boat “The Endorphin,” and I had gone with Luana, my old girlfriend, who adored Paul up until her dying day - but Luana noted she felt something about Paul was different.  I should have had a clue when his dad looked at me and joked about Paul always having to iron his socks. I was clueless.

My dad, Paul and my mom

So Paul called, “Richard,” He said, with a seriousness unlike I’d heard before - “I have something important to tell you.. And I really don’t know how you’re going to react.” Hmm.. I thought, what could this be?  He said “I’m gay.” Stunned, - I chose the position I always chose when arguing with Paul - that I knew more than him about anything we ever discussed. I said “Like I didn’t already know that!”  He breathed a sigh of relief, I resolved that nothing Paul would ever tell me would be something I couldn’t handle or rather, wouldn’t be something I’d convince him I’d already considered and had a full blow opinion about.  My family’s response was equal to mine - we’ve always loved Paul, having always considered him part of our family - a fifth son - Paul was at just about every wedding and funeral in my family - but when I told my mom that Paul had ’come out of the closet’ she said, “Why can’t he just go back in there with a flashlight?”


I was weighing how to tell my mom the news of Paul’s passing. My dad’s got Alzheimer’s, she’s taking care of him at home - which is stressful as you can imagine - and I didn’t want to add any stress.. So I asked her what she thought happened to a person after they died. She said, “Well, I think they go to a wonderful place.. When you die, it’s beautiful, and you see people you love, and you feel better physically and don’t have any problems.. A place where you’re perfectly happy in the best of health, and all the worries and woes of this life are behind you.”  It was then that I told her that our dear friend Paul had left this planet, and that I thought he had perfectly described where he is now, and how he’s feeling.

A photo of Paul on The Endorphin next to his ashes

I know how much he loved all of you. I know because I haven’t seen most of you in 20 years but he kept me up to date with pride - Hope’s wedding - to which I replied, “Hope, married? Isn’t she still 12?”  About Peter’s job and family, Jack’s living her with his family - Susan the hippie rebel and Pam the practical professional - what you guys have been up to, even hilarious tales of Aunt Rhea - and especially his mom and dad - he was so impressed that his dad is Lance Armstrong senior, riding a bike every day for umpteen mils and how his mom was, as I’ve heard it, winning just about every bridge championship in the country. Maybe he was making it all up, I’ll never know, because you see, Paul and I saw the world we created. I’m sure he’s finding it hilarious to see us all here celebrating him - Dave, Mark, Billy, Dave and Maryanne - I’m sure he’s enjoying this.

Bill Meyer, Mark Caplis and Paul's
red Maple, growing with the help
of some of Paul's ashes.

Finally, we talked a lot about travel - using his sky miles to go somewhere - lately he had a passion for Ireland - He’d sign up with a new long distance phone service every week and get huge chunks of air miles - last year we were swearing we’d go to Ireland.. Something about the lure of the home country called to him, something deeper in his spirit that he longed for, I imagine.. I’m sure he’s here with us today, but I’ll be happy to spread some of his ashes on the Emerald Isle for him if the family would like me to.

I’m hoping one day Paul and I can continue our conversations, maybe in my dreams, and maybe after this life.. I may even admit to him that he’s right now and then.. But my phone’s been ringing this week and there’s no one there, so I’ll assume it’s Paul, but he’s at a loss for words. Thought I hardly think that’s likely. Paul, we’re all going to miss you very much.

Selling My Film Titles online

Okay, I'm back from my sojourn working on "Salt." I'm going to try and be a little more proactive about selling my titles online. Here's links to the various titles for sale on the net:

https://www.createspace.com/254086 - CANNES MAN AKA CON MAN (with Seymour Cassel, Johnny Depp, Francesco Quinn, Rebecca Broussard)

https://www.createspace.com/254085 - LIMIT UP (with Nancy Allen, Dean Stockwell, Ray Charles as God)

https://www.createspace.com/254083 - CAMERA - DOGME #15 (2nd American Dogme film, with Carol Alt, Angie Everhart, Rebecca Broussard)

https://www.createspace.com/254088 - JOURNEY INTO TIBET (trip from Lhasa to Mt. Kailash with Prof. Robert Thurman)

https://www.createspace.com/254087 - TIBETAN REFUGEE (interviews with Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala, India, includes HH Dalai Lama)

I'm going to put up all my films for sale at some point, but for now, just a couple of clicks and you own your own copy.

Thanks,

Rich