海角大神

Hollywood marriages can be as evanescent as the life span of mayflies. For this reason alone, it鈥檚 nice to see Daniel Raim鈥檚 鈥淗arold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story,鈥� a documentary about a movie couple 鈥� the late storyboard artist and production designer Harold Michelson and his wife, Lillian, a legendary researcher 鈥� who stayed devotedly married for 60 years until Harold鈥檚 death in 2007.聽

If you have never heard of these two, you are not alone. I鈥檓 a professional film critic, and their names barely rang a bell with me. That鈥檚 because, for much of Harold鈥檚 career, and all of Lillian鈥檚 (she is still alive, at 88), they were what is referred to in the film industry as 鈥渂elow-the-line鈥� players 鈥� meaning that whatever contributions they made were not deemed sufficiently earth-shattering to rate an on-screen credit. Presumably this injustice no longer applies to the current movie scene, where it seems as if everyone, including the assistant caterer, gets an on-screen credit. (Harold鈥檚 and Lillian鈥檚 careers spanned primarily the 1950s through the 1990s.)

But make no mistake: The Michelsons have a lot more going for them than their marital longevity. As the documentary makes clear, both Harold and Lillian made integral contributions to some of the most iconic movies in Hollywood history.

Lillian, orphaned in Florida at an early age, met the smitten Harold, a New Yorker, after his service ended in World War II. Harold鈥檚 mother disapproved of the 鈥減oor orphan鈥� and so, as much to spite his mother as anything else, she eloped with him.

They settled in Los Angeles and eventually Harold, a gifted draftsman, secured a position in the art department of Columbia Pictures. He soon enough became known as one of the finest storyboard artists in the business. (A storyboard is a kind of visual screenplay in which a sequence is drafted frame by frame, somewhat like a graphic novel, in order to enable the director to stage the action.) His earliest successes included Cecil B. DeMille鈥檚 鈥淭he Ten Commandments鈥� and Stanley Kubrick鈥檚 鈥淪partacus.鈥� As Harold tells it (the film includes many audio and visual clips of him), 鈥淚 was good with people with sheets.鈥澛�

Remarkably, storyboard artists such as Harold rarely even met with, or were publicly acknowledged by, their directors.聽

In the documentary, we see the original storyboard art for such sequences as Moses parting the Red Sea in 鈥淭he Ten Commandments鈥� followed by a still from the actual movie; the framing and design are virtually identical. We also see how Harold preconceived the famous shot of Anne Bancroft鈥檚 stockinged leg framing Dustin Hoffman as she is trying to seduce him in 鈥淭he Graduate.鈥�

Several directors who worked with Harold, especially after he became a production designer in 1979 on the first 鈥淪tar Trek鈥� film, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, do speak up for him in the documentary, including Danny DeVito and Mel Brooks. Raim may be making too much of a case for storyboarders being the secret, unsung weapons behind credit-hogging auteurs. After all, one can hardly accuse Kubrick, for example, or Alfred Hitchcock, with whom Harold worked on 鈥淭he Birds鈥� and 鈥淢arnie,鈥� and whom he revered, of being clueless visualists. But the vital, disconcerting point is made: When it comes to moviemaking, conferring credit (or blame) on a particular contributor is sometimes just an educated guess.

Lillian, in a career that paralleled her husband鈥檚, amassed a research library that over the years provided detailed authenticity to dozens of films. 鈥淚t was a matter of pride,鈥� she says in the film, 鈥渢o get to the essences of the truth.鈥� Lillian speaks in a chirpy, singsong voice, but her will is ironclad. When she talks about the challenges in Hollywood of raising three children, one of whom was autistic, she is indomitable. She expresses unalloyed delight about her job as a researcher: 鈥淚 get to float among the centuries,鈥� she says.

My two favorite anecdotes in the movie: Lillian is hired to work on Brian De Palma鈥檚 鈥淪carface鈥� and finagles the opportunity to take a shady operative鈥檚 private jet to South America to research cocaine labs. She鈥檚 game, but Harold, normally the most accommodating of husbands, puts his foot down.

The other anecdote: Lillian is working on 鈥淔iddler on the Roof鈥� and needs to know what Jewish girls鈥� underwear looked like in that period. She plants herself in the heavily Jewish Fairfax district of Los Angeles until she finds an old lady who gleefully rushes home and returns with a pattern from her girlhood. Grade: B+ (This movie is not rated.)