Lee Grant, film icon (Images by Matthew Rettenmund)
Lee Grant is 99 years old and has better hair than you!
Monday was a special occasion — the legendary Oscar winner for Shampoo (1975) and trail-blazing director appeared at a screening of her 1980 film Tell Me a Riddle, held at NYC's Film Forum.
Grant with Fred Murphy, her DP, and one of her actors, Brooke Adams
I had met her twice before, but this was something unique. Not only was one of the film's stars, Brooke Adams, onstage with Lee for the post-screening Q&A, but her film's director of photography, Fred Murphy, and its production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein, were in attendance (as was von Brandenstein's art director husband Stuart Wurtzel).
Mrs. Graaaant!
Grant, who arrived beforehand, was besieged by autograph seekers. She was happy, even eager, to comply with every request (her wittily memoir I Said Yes to Everything applies here, too) and still possesses a steady, movie-star autograph. It was particularly delightful to see her thrill as so many gushed to her that she hung the moon. One very young guy told her she was his faaavorite star, and she was incredulous: “I can't be your favorite starrrrrr!”
In short, she was every fan's dream of how a person you admire would act IRL.
Douglas, Adams & Kedrova (Image via Filmways Pictures, Inc.)
Tell Me a Riddle is an incredible film. Fully restored in 2022, it is unusual and distinctive for a number of reasons — it's the first film by a woman to raise $1M for production, the first to receive a major-studio release and a rare feature film whose leads are portrayed as 80+. In fact, the film is mostly told through the eyes of an elderly woman, Eva (Lila Kedrova).
Eva and her husband David (Melvyn Douglas), are an old Jewish couple born in Russia who are traveling from their large home in the Midwest to visit their offspring across the U.S. Eva does not know she is dying of cancer, a secret David is keeping from her — and not the only one: he has also sold their home, a devastating betrayal.
Radiant Brooke Adams, also so good in Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Once in San Francisco, the elderly pair find themselves in the apartment of their free-spirited granddaughter Jeannie (Brooke Adams). She's got boyfriend problems, lives in a Mexican neighborhood and hangs art about the concept of space. Interestingly, David and Eva are befuddled, but not offended by Jeannie's strange life.
As Eva begins to mix the present with her past as a revolutionary back in Russia, and as her health rapidly declines, she must choose whether to shut David out of her emotional journey or re-invite him into her own secret world, one fueled by the words of philosophers and writers and artists who have gotten her through her challenging life.
“You can do better” is what Adams fondly recalled Grant said to her at her first, lackluster audition.
This movie is timelessly heartbreaking, and Grant would agree; when she sat for the discussion after, she was moved to tears by her own film. This did not come off as excessive pride — she continually downplayed her direction, but Adams was there to reassure her that she was essential and brilliant.
Unmoderated, though ably assisted by Film Forum's Bruce Goldstein, the discussion was free-wheeling and illuminating, a flashback to when everything came together for the new filmmaker, resulting in a touching movie that has stood the test of time.
She also stayed true to her brand — a Blacklist survivor who called herself “left of left,” Grant candidly admitted she spends too much time at home with Trump (on the radio and on TV), expressing her admiration for Zelenskyy and saying of the Trump White House, “Fuck 'em.”
Fred Murphy, Lee Grant & Patrizia von Brandenstein, Tell Me a Riddle's creative dream team
In a more lighthearted moment, Grant said she got into directing when Warren Beatty told her, after her Oscar-winning performance in Shampoo, she was washed up in Hollywood at 49. “I was 50,” she admitted. When a fan said she wasn't washed up, she laughed gaily and said after Shampoo, she was “washed up and rinsed out.”
I wonder which of Grant's films/TV shows is his favorite?
This gentleman literally gave her her flowers — the ones you see above.
We hit it off!
Even fans who “don't do this,” did this — and wanted their photos with the legendary Lee.
After, Grant made herself available to everyone who still wanted a selfie, an autograph, a moment to gush. I know she would rather be making new documentaries to expose injustices, but it's reassuring that she is still making herself available to go over her best work, and still fighting the good fight in her own way.
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