SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE (2009)
Synopsis
SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE is an intimate and thought-provoking documentary feature that serves as an intimate portrait of life, death, friendship, and the transformative power of cinema, as seen through the eyes of some of Hollywood's most iconic cinema artists.
Academy Award-Nominated Director Daniel Raim (The Man on Lincoln’s Nose, Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story) captures the late life coming together of renowned production designers Robert Boyle (North by Northwest, The Birds), Henry Bumstead (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Sting) and Albert Nozaki (The War of the Worlds, The Ten Commandments), storyboard artist and production designer Harold Michelson (The Graduate, Star Trek: The Motion Picture), and master cinematographers Haskell Wexler (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Medium Cool) and Conrad Hall (In Cold Blood, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). These prolific artists have worked on a total of 400 films, garnering 25 Academy Award nominations and 8 wins.
From snapshots, sketches, and vintage footage interwoven with interviews and contemporary footage of these artists visiting former studios and locations, we get a behind-the-scenes look at moviemaking in the golden age of cinema. As we watch iconic scenes of our collective imaginations emerge from their drawings, models, matte paintings, and sets, we hear tales of Mae West, "Hitch," and DeMille, and experience their longing for the sense of community that made working on these films so great.
Not a nostalgia piece, but an exploration of the artist's moral obligation to truthfully portray the human condition, SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE is a thought-provoking and "deeply moving" (LA Times) celebration of the human stories behind the glamorous edifice of Hollywood.
reviews
Donald Liebenson, Chicago Sun-times
“A revelation! … An eye-opening tribute to one of the least understood or appreciated aspects of filmmaking, and a challenge to filmmakers to believe in what they do!”
Kenneth Turan, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
CRITIC'S PICK! “If you care about the great days of Hollywood past — and how could you not — it’s hard to resist Something’s Gonna Live!”
Andrew Barker, VARIETY
“UNEXPECTEDLY MOVING…Daniel Raim’s fly-on-the-wall portrait of legendary production designer Robert Boyle and his illustrious friends stands as a bittersweet love letter to some of old Hollywood’s least-heralded artisans.”
Karina Longworth, INDIEWIRE
“AN ESSENTIAL CLEAR-EYED VIEW OF HOLLYWOOD!”
Kevin Thomas, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
“SPLENDID, DEEPLY MOVING! The committed artists of Something’s Gonna Live, while grateful for their remarkable careers, are not sentimentalists. What a challenge their body of work presents to current and future filmmakers!”
Kirk Honeycutt, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“Daniel Raim’s Something’s Gonna Live is absolutely infused with profound admiration and respect for the people who can make real or imagined worlds come alive.”