Remembering Paul Newman

Film Notes

PAUL NEWMAN, 1925-2008

Like his contemporary Marlon Brando, Paul Newman was a student of the Method, the new style of acting that revolutionized screen performances six decades ago. If you’ve recently seen any films from before this new, more naturalistic style of acting made its impact, then you know just how big a change that was. And if you’ve seen a Paul Newman film lately, you’ve seen one of the Method’s best practitioners.

Newman started his long career as an actor mostly in television. In the 1950s, this was as highly innovative a place to practice that craft as any. When he made the transition to the big screen, he was already a master craftsman. His performances electrified audiences. For the rest of his life, he continued to make films that frequently won cheers from audiences and critics alike.

Off screen, Newman had a passion for auto racing. He began driving professionally at the speedway in Thomson, Connecticut, in the early 1970s and remained involved in the racing world as an owner, driver, and enthusiast for the rest of his life. No dabbler, he was an intense competitor.

In recent years, Newman’s face was probably most familiar for its appearance on his Newman’s Own brand of food items, the after-taxes profits of which are donated to a range of charities. Indeed, more than just another celebrity actor, Newman was notable for his generous spirit and humantarian efforts. Perhaps his friend and fellow actor Robert Redford said it best: “My life – and this country – is better for his being in it.” (See a related story in The New York Post.)

The list of worthy Paul Newman films would be very long. Here, for your consideration, are 11 Newman movies to consider the next time you’re making viewing selections. Have a favorite you don’t see here? Leave us a comment with your suggestion.

• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ( 1958 )
• The Long, Hot Summer ( 1958 )
• The Hustler ( 1961)
• Hud ( 1963)
• Cool Hand Luke ( 1967
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ( 1969 )
• The Sting ( 1973 )
• Absence of Malice ( 1981 )
• The Verdict ( 1982 )
• The Color of Money ( 1986 )
• Nobody’s Fool ( 1994 )

Mr. Francoeur Was a Good Man

LIFE & CULTURE

Mr. Francoeur Was a Good Man

by Kimberlee A. Cloutier-Blazzard

All the despairing talk of the financial markets has brought memories of my grandparents’ stories flooding back. As a child I spent many hours with my Mèmére and Pèpére, my paternal grandparents, who babysat for my sister and me.

My grandparents used to regale us with how difficult life was for them growing up during the Great Depression.

My Mèmére explained how her mother occasionally had to make extreme decisions in order to keep their home afloat. For example, because her husband was sickly, my Grandmèmére (great-grandmother) had to work long hours at the factory just to support herself and her husband. She couldn’t afford to feed her kids regularly, let alone hire daycare. This meant putting my Mèmére and her three siblings into an orphanage for extended periods until she could catch up.

My grandfather’s family was larger – they had ten kids – so, you can imagine how much scarcer money and food were in that house. My Pèpére told me about what his siblings did for fun, including taking old wood and boxes to make sleds in the winter. As he used to say, they had to “make their own fun”.

My Pèpére also used to like telling us about Mr. Francoeur. And, he always used the same line: “Mr. Francoeur was a good man.” (This is the same way he used to talk about FDR.) Though he was not a national figure, Mr. Francoeur was famous in his own corner of the world. He was the neighborhood baker in my grandparents’ French-Canadian neighborhood in New Hampshire. As my grandfather explained, Mr. Francoeur made special arrangements for folks who couldn’t pay their weekly bread bill. Mr. Francoeur would treat each customer as an individual; he would let them pay what they could each week, but always let them take home the bread they needed to get by. If the neighborhood families couldn’t pay at all, he started a running tally, looking ahead to better days to come. That bread was their lifeline. Literally.

These days, I’ve been wondering how folks in dire straits have been faring here in the US. Though we haven’t hit rock-bottom with the financial crises, many people are suffering. Childhood poverty, the use of food banks and soup kitchens are on the rise here in Massachusetts, as it is most other places around the country. This is a new phenomenon to the baby boom generation. By and large my parents’ peers, post WWII, grew up in an unprecedented time of economic growth and job security. Those I know never dealt with the penny-pinching and hard times that my grandparents grappled with. Though I sincerely hope that we don’t face another Great Depression in my lifetime, I’m starting to wonder if I’m going to have that in-common with my grandparents. All current indications seem to be pointing in that direction.

It does makes me wonder, too: Are there any Mr. Francoeurs in the world today? Though I never met him, I feel like I know him. And, I’m so thankful for his generosity to my family in hard times. I will be keeping his memory alive into the next generation, to my kids, as an example of common decency in a world blighted by blind greed. In a way, we’re only here because of him.

Mr. Francoeur was a good man. Indeed.

Kimberlee A. Cloutier-Blazzard, Ph.D., is a senior writer & editor of Bread and Circus Magazine and an Independent Scholar of Art History, Specializing in Northern Renaissance and Baroque. Click here to send her email.