Dawn Bonker
From performing with actors who became lifelong friends to getting dropped off in the Mexican desert and wondering if a car really was going to come pick him up, Richard Benjamin shared tales from “a different era” of filmmaking after a recent screening of “Catch-22” at the Folino Theater.
The satirical film is 40 years old, but the memories remain vivid, said Benjamin, Chapman’s filmmaker-in-residence at the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts this semester. He recalled that it was a one-of-a-kind experience working with director Mike Nichols and a cast that included Alan Arkin, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Orson Welles and Benjamin’s wife, Paula Prentiss. “Everyone wanted to be in that film,” he said during a Q&A that followed the screening Feb. 23.
The challenges included a three-month shooting schedule and doing scenes that involved 18 B-25 bombers, which had to be filmed flying in formation. “We may have had the biggest air force in Mexico,” he said. “And there was no CGI then — every time you see those planes flying, they were in the sky.”
How big was the budget? Well, when Nichols wanted a high-angle crane shot for the final scene, Paramount let him take a week to build a new road so he could get it.
Nichols was “tenacious” in realizing his artistic vision, Benjamin said. He urged his students to follow the director’s example.
Benjamin will be doing Q&As following movie screenings on successive Tuesdays this semester. All are movies he either has directed or starred in, and all are open to the public. Check out the full schedule here: http://ftv.chapman.edu/about/event_calendar/
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