Natural Men and Facial Hair

It takes bedroom eyes to get me out of bed at 9:15 in the morning.

In this case, they belonged to Robert Mitchum, whose 1958 film, "Thunder Road," was playing at Cous Cous as part of the Southern Film Festival.

I walked over in the cold morning air, glad at least that breakfast was part of the price of admission.

They were even offering a "thrillbilly" cocktail, for those brave enough.

As I went to get water at the bar, I noticed a woman holding up her beer so her companion could photograph it.

Beer, it's what's for breakfast, I said to her.

"I never drink before 10 a.m.," she admitted. "So it's kind of a point of pride."

Right on, sister.

I ran into a guy I see out a lot and since he'd arrived late, I offered him the other side of my two-top so he'd have a seat for the film.

Breakfast was eggs, pancakes and bacon and I wisely got mine before many people in the room even noticed that breakfast was being served.

Before the film started, we were told, "You can be as rowdy as you like. Feel free to get more food and mill about during the movie."

And we did.

Moderator Jim Stramel referred to the moonshine movie we were about to see as "The Gone with the Wind" of moonshine movies," so expectations were high.

Okay, not high, but highly anticipatory.

He got a laugh when he paused, saying, "Sorry, I was researching the movie last night (hiccup) and I might have over-researched some."

We were told that this film was meant to be seen at a drive -in and several attendees said they'd done just that.

Stramel copped to being envious of them before showing his Southern Film Fest moonshine trailer reel, which included a commercial for Smithfield barbecue, "Available at the concession stand."

Now, there's the beauty of drive-ins, 'cue to tide you over.

The story of a veteran home from Korea who takes up the family moonshining business had some interesting casting.

Mitchum's son James played his brother. Gene Barry (aka Bat Masterson) played the federal agent.

And since these were Tennessee folks, they said things like, :He's still got the misery in his leg" and drank PBR out of bottles.

Another world, in other words.

And Keely Smith played Mitchum's love interest, meaning we got to hear her sing multiple songs.

It was one of the coolest parts of the movie, but probably only to me because I'm not a big fan of car chases and explosions.

When he goes to see her singing in a club, an obnoxious customer laughs and talks loudly while she performs.

Mitchum makes short work of him, grabbing him by the throat and growling, "She's trying to make a living. If you want to bray, go find yourself a barnyard."

Later she tells him, "You're the only natural man I ever knew," totally selling the line.

The black and white film was shown on a big screen with the room's curtains drawn, but it suffered from the light coming in the clerestory windows, so there were times when the screen was a blur of graytones.

And I can say that because I didn't have a thrillbilly cocktail.

So far, that's my only complaint with the SFF, but one easily cured with paper taped on the windows next year.

After the movie, we heard from a woman whose family was in the moonshining business (and how they found her, I have no idea), but her memories were a throwback to another time.

"We'll never speak of this again," her grandmother told her as they poured 'shine down the bathtub drain.

It was considerably nicer out when I walked home to get my car to go to the Virginia Historical Society for installment number three of the Southern Film Fest.

It was the screening of "The Making of Lincoln," which I knew would draw a much bigger crowd than moonshiners or bedroom eyes.

The VHS was also collecting "Lincoln" memorabilia and had already made several good scores from people involved in the production.

I took a seat in my favorite row (the one with all the leg room) and promptly met a guy eager to talk.

Seems he does a lot of research downtown, so he'd walked by the set many times to see what he could see.

He bragged about knowing the guy who made the most unique contribution to the movie.

A bookbinder, he'd been hired to create the ledger that Lincoln carries throughout the movie.

Wow. I didn't even know bookbinders existed in Richmond.

My new friend had also been to see "Jamestown" last night so we rehashed 1607 through the lens of 1923 and chuckled over the desperate Chihuly masses taking over the VMFA this week.

Before the movie, we heard about the 55-day shooting schedule, the 1200 actors (predominantly from the New York theater) and extras (about 20 of whom stood up when asked to) and the 380-person crew.

Next came the 25-minute making of film with the actors interviewed and shots of them turning the Capital into a stand-in for the White House.

Daniel Day-Lewis talked about "how insanely accessible" Lincoln had been, inconceivable to us now.

Spielberg explained how the original screenplay had been a 500-page behemoth, eventually trimmed to 70 pages to focus on the last four months of Lincoln's life.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt spoke of how surreal it had been when DDL started texting him about the role.

Sally Field said her costumes to play Mary Lincoln were exact replicas from period images of the First lady.

The lighting guy explained that he kept it real by using light sources they would have had then, things like windows and lamps.

The make-up woman explained that they didn't try to create a look-alike Lincoln with DDL, but a "feel-alike."

When I heard that 60% of the extras had facial hair, I was actually surprised that the number wasn't higher.

Spielberg explained how he didn't rush scenes, preferring to allow time for actors to look each other in the eye. "I wanted scenes to unfold in real time."

Ah, real time, that antiquated concept.

He wanted the audience to lean forward and pay attention, another novel goal circa 2013.

And I say novel because I saw at least four people with their phones in their laps, heads down, during "Thunder Road."

John Williams talked about scoring the film and using the Chicago Symphony to record it.

I was immediately struck by the coincidence of the Lincoln/Illinois connection, but what I learned was that Illinois was the first state to ratify the 13th amendment, a far more profound connection.

After that film, we saw the brief "A Historic Tapestry," about Richmond's role in the filming, opening with a panoramic shot of the James River and moving on to everything recognizable about Richmond.

The voice-over told us that Governor McDonnell made it easy to shoot here by giving the crew the key to the city.

The cast felt like the city welcomed them as very few cities had welcomed them.

There's something to be said for southern hospitality.

Perhaps the most poignant comment was the one about how significant it was that the city had embraced a movie about Abraham Lincoln, a gesture unthinkable for a very long time.

Afterwards, there was a panel discussion with two extras ("Or background artists, as we like to be called," Nick joked) from the movie, a local make-up artist who'd been part of the crew and a production team member.

From them we heard anecdotes about filming.

Like when John got grabbed to stand in for Tommy Lee Jones at the last second and was put in a chair.

He asked a nearby actor what he should do and was advised, "Look bigger than you are."

Or when Shelly told us that she spent the month pre-production cataloging 3,000 pieces of fake facial hair.

Or when Nick said that, "Focusing on being dead is a hard thing to do."

He should know since he played dead until he heard "cut" before opening his eyes, taking a swig from his canteen and re-dying because DDL had stopped right in front of him.

Rita's story was all facts and figures. $68 million impact on Virginia. $32 million spent on labor, goods and services.

And Balliceaux's business spiked mightily after Joseph Gordon-Levitt danced there one night.

What more could a city ask from a production?

I thought Nick said it best.

During a scene where he played a ragged and dirty Confederate soldier, he and 15 others were to climb a hill to the crest.

When they got there, he looked down to see "what looked like 1,00 Union soldiers in clean blue uniforms" at the bottom of the hill, spread out everywhere.

"It was the first time I empathized with the Confederate cause."

Thanks for sharing, Southern Film Festival.