Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession Page #2

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or at least to start out

as a screenwriter.

We wrote a script together

about two college kids...

who were witness to a murder.

And that's how we really started

writing together.

And we ended up getting

the agency off of that...

meeting Monte Hellman.

Jerry was also involved

in the making of a film...

a western that he had written,

I believe, and that...

he was able to

raise the financing...

and went over to Italy to do it.

Are you satisfied now?

You ain't gonna last long, son.

There ain't no soft-hearted

gunfighters.

"China 9" was really great fun.

I always remember,

we flew into Rome.

Landed in Rome...

was picked up by the limo

at the airport...

and then went to Almeria.

Had a great group of people.

Warren Oates was there.

Fabio Testi.

Jenny Agutter, Sam Peckinpah,

Monte Hellman.

We just had the best time, one

of the best times of my life.

There was of course

a tremendous black period...

when his sister, Anne,

committed suicide.

Jerry spoke to his sister

all the time.

They were very, very close.

Great friends.

And he adored her.

Anne checked herself into

a hospital when Jerry was gone.

And I believe that she was

waiting for him to come back.

She had left a suicide tape...

that was her talking to Jerry

while she died, explaining...

everything that had transpired

in her life...

that led to this decision.

She was really his anchor...

and not only did she go mad,

but now she was gone.

And he came back

to have this happen.

And by the time I saw him,

he was crazy.

I had never seen him so crazy.

We got married pretty quickly

after that.

We got married

in February 1978.

Part of what was really

attractive about it...

at the time...

was that we had already been

having this affair...

but then he was just so

vulnerable in reaching out.

And so I blamed...

the things that I saw that

seemed dark and scary to me...

I blamed on the fact

that he was in mourning...

over his sister...

and assumed that

my loving him...

would make those things go away

and be better.

We were still

very close friends...

but we weren't really

partners in activity.

We didn't write anything

together after that.

We never did.

At the time there was

only Select TV, and On TV...

as cable sources in the area

that I lived.

We had gotten Select TV.

And in the middle

of the night...

he would wake me up

yelling at the television...

because the programming sucked.

And at some point in time,

I just said...

"If you hate it so much...

"either don't watch it

or write a letter."

And so he wrote

a letter to them...

telling them what was wrong

with the programming.

And they called him, and said...

"How do you know so much,

and who are you?"

And, "We want to talk to you."

And Jerry had said

he had found these movies that...

since we were playing eclectic

things, here's some...

wanted to show me something.

Greece withdraws from NATO.

The third guarantor power,

Britain...

with air force and troops

on the spot...

sticks to her policy of

strict non-involvement.

It was a documentary...

about the invasion

of Greece by the Turks...

and political content.

It was an interesting movie.

It had just been this guy

who'd written in this letter...

who was reading the reaction

and was like...

"Well, that didn't get them,

so let me try one more"...

and I think it was like

a Laura Antonelli film...

who I had never seen before,

who was staggeringly gorgeous.

And I thought anybody who could

go to these kind of...

those poles...

to the utter, pure documentary,

political documentary to sex...

is worth having,

so I hired him.

And so that sort of set Jerry

on his path...

which seemed really hopeful...

because then

there was something...

that really was

about his passion...

something that he could do

that was positive...

and that would give him

something to focus on...

besides his own struggle

with himself.

Hal Kaufman, the guy running Z

at the time...

called Jerry and approached him

about a job.

I left Select,

and weeks after I got to Z...

the head of programming fell ill

and left, and never came back.

Everything that predated Z

and his own eminence over Z...

was merely the prep.

It was the years in the desert.

Suddenly Jerry arrives

in the early eighties...

and he's known all through town.

He got me on the phone,

and he said... Jerry,

he said, " I've been hired,

and I want to do a new spin...

"on the pictures

that we're showing."

I think I got a call

from somebody once...

picked up the phone...

and somebody on the phone said

to me, " This is Jerry Harvey.

"I buy movies.

Do you have so-and-so?"

I think so-and-so was probably

"Black Orpheus."

When you first met him,

I think he was cold and distant.

We had to generate

a mutual respect...

which came quickly because

we found out that each of us...

had an interest in old movies,

different movies...

movies that were unloved,

movies that had been unscreened.

- Telephone, Ms. Gray.

- Thank you.

- Excuse...

- She'll take it here.

No, never mind.

Ask them to call me at home

later, please.

Bring the phone.

What was so brilliant about

what Jerry was doing...

was mixing the art film

with commercial fare.

I had to see everything

on this crash course.

It was like the Schick Center

for movie addiction.

And then I had to hear him

recite to me "Dr. Strangelove."

There was a month when I heard

scenes from "Dr. Strangelove"...

from the moment I woke up

to the moment I went to sleep.

I agree with you.

It's great to be fine.

Now, then, Dimitri...

you know how we've always

talked about the possibility...

of something going wrong

with the bomb.

Z was great for him.

Z was... Jerry sort of found

his place there...

because he could come in...

Jerry's favorite

way of dressing was...

a business shirt,

not tucked in; a nice jacket...

baggy, dirty jeans;

and Frye boots.

And he couldn't do that working

in a corporate situation.

So at Z Channel, he could do

what he liked to do best...

which is sit cross-legged

on the floor...

and make his phone calls

that way... smoking.

When did you start

looking at films?

To be honest with you,

when I was 4.

I remember vividly

a film I saw at 4...

and the impact it had on me.

For a great period in my life...

that meant more to me

than anything else, movies.

The history of the movies,

seeing them.

This man, Jerry Harvey,

this very sweet, very odd man...

called me up and very

tentatively asked me...

would I like "A Safe Place," my

first film, to be on television?

I was sure he made a mistake...

because it was a film that was

so trashed by all the critics...

when it opened that

nobody wanted to play it.

Yes. Yes, I have missed you.

Do you want to know why?

Because you're

very simple-minded.

Screw you.

I had a film called "lmages"

that I had done in...

shot in Ireland in '72.

And he was particularly...

Jerry liked that film a lot.

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