It can be tempting to think, at times, that love, true love, is an elusive concept; an overly optimistic idea whose true home is not in the rough-and-tumble of real life, but in the movies, TV, popular art.
Anywhere it seems but in the rubber-hits-the-road realness of day to day living.
But legendary Hollywood team, Harold and Lillian Michelson, who married in 1947 on their way to storied careers where they would become as revered and admired as they were loved, were the real deal as the Cannes Film Festival-debuted documentary Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story powerfully makes clear.
Creatively and romantically there were a force to be reckoned with, says EW:
“He and his wife, Lillian, a legendary film researcher whose archives and know-how helped inform films like Fiddler on the Roof, Rocky, and Scarface, were a beloved showbiz couple. They eloped for Hollywood in 1947, raised three kids during 60 years of marriage, and their home and offices became a warm and welcoming place for many artists who found themselves working long hours thousands of miles from home.”
Harold was the illustrative powerhouse behind such beloved classic films as The Graduate, The Birds and The Ten Commandments, visualising through his beautifully-wrought storyboards, what a film would look like well before a single frame was shot.
But he and Lillian, who was an impressive talent in her own right, of course, were every bit as well known for the way they worked together, professionally and personally with Danny DeVito noting in the doco that “They were like two peas in a pod.”
And it’s that close knit relationship, that gave so much to many people in so many different ways that forms the heart-and-soul of the film:
“Directed by Daniel Raim (The Man on Lincoln’s Nose) and featuring interviews with Mel Brooks and Francis Ford Coppola, the documentary is a touching tribute to a beautiful Hollywood romance and the often overlooked artists who enhance all of our favorite films.”
Love is real and it’s name is Harold and Lillian Michelson.