Six Degrees Of Separation Page #3

Nobody's called him Woody in years.

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They described this apartment in detail.

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Oh, this is a Kandinsky!

A double - one painted on either side.

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May I see?

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Yes, of course.

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Extraordinary.

What makes it exceptional is that

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Kandinsky painted on either side of the

canvas in two radically different styles.

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One wild and vivid,

the other sombre and geometric.

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My God!

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We flip it around for variety.

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Chaos, control. Chaos, control.

You like? You like?

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It's wonderful.

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i(Flan) Vasili Kandinsky./i

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Born 1866, Moscow.

Blue Rider exhibition, 1914.

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He said "The choice of object that is one

of the elements in the harmony of form

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must be decided only by a corresponding

vibration in the human soul."

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Died 1944, France.

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Everything is just the way

they said it would be.

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Did you b*tch your parents?

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As a matter of fact, no.

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Your kids and I, we both liked our -

liked? - iloved/i our parents.

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Am I getting in the way here? I'm sorry.

I burst in here hysterical... blood...

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No. No, no. No, no, no, please.

No, please. Please. Sit down.

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Tell us about our children.

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Three. Two at Harvard,

and a girl at Groton.

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- How is Harvard?

- Well, fine. It's just there.

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Everyone's in a constant

state of luxurious despair

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and constant discovery and paralysis.

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- We asked him where home was.

- "Out West" he said.

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Although I've lived all over.

My folks are divorced. He's remarried.

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- Actually, he's doing a movie.

- He's in the movies?

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- He's directing this one, but he does act.

- Really? Um...

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- What's he directing?

- iCats./i

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- Someone is directing a film of iCats?/i

- Don't be snooty.

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- You've seen it? TS Eliot?

- i(Flan)/i Yes, years ago.

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It was a benefit for some school...

or disease... What?

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- They can't make the movie of iCats./i

- Of course they can.

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They're going to try.

My father'll be here, auditioning.

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Cats?

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- He's going to use people.

- What a courageous stand.

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- They thought of animation...

- Animation would be nice.

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But he found a better way. As a matter

of fact, he turned it down at first.

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He went to tell the producers the reasons

why you couldn't make a movie of iCats./i

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And in going through the reasons why you

couldn't, he suddenly saw how you could.

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Eureka in the bathtub. How wonderful!

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May we ask who?

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And it was then we pulled up -

ever so slightly - pulled up closer.

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And he told us.

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He named the greatest

black star in movies. Sidney...

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No names! No names! We're trying

to keep this abstract. Plus, libel laws.

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Sidney Poitier. There. I don't care!

You have to have truth!

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He started out as a lawyer

and is terrified of libel. I'm not.

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Sidney Poitier.

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The future Jackie Robinson of films was

born 24th of February 1927 in Miami

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during a visit his parents made to Florida.

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i(man)/i Legally?

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To sell tomatoes

they had grown in the Bahamas.

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He grew up on Cat Island so poor they

didn't even own dirt, he has said.

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Neglected by his family, my father would

sit on the shore, and, as he's told me:

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"conjure up the worlds that were on

the other side, and what I'd do in them."

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He arrived in New York City from

the Bahamas in the winter of 1943

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at the age of 15 and a half, and lived

in the pay toilet of the bus station

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across from the old Madison

Square Garden at 50th and 8th Avenue.

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He moved to the roof of the Brill Building,

commonly known as Tin Pan Alley,

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washed dishes at the Turf Restaurant

for $4 and 11 cents a night.

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He taught himself to read

by reading the newspaper.

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In the black newspaper, the theatre page

was opposite the want-ad page.

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Among his 42 films are:

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iNo Way Out,/i 1950, iCry, the Beloved/i

iCountry,/i 1952, iBlackboard Jungle,/i 1955,

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iThe Defiant Ones,/i 1958, iA Raisin in/i

ithe Sun,/i 1961, iLilies of the Field,/i 1963,

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iIn the Heat of the Night,/i 1967, iTo Sir,/i

iwith Love,/i 1967, iShoot to Kill,/i 1988,

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and, of course...

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iGuess Who's Coming to Dinner!/i

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He won the Oscar for iLilies of the Field,/i

and was twice named top box-office star.

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My father made no films from 1977 to

1987, but worked as director and author.

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Dad said to me once:

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"I still don't fully understand

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how all this came about

in the sequence it came about."

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i(someone claps)/i

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