Actors - Paper Moon

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	Actors - Paper Moon

Paper Moon is an American motion picture comedy that was released in 1973 and was directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

The screenplay was adapted from the novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown.

The film is set during the Great Depression in the U.S. state of Kansas and it starred the real life father and daughter coupling of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal, as on screen father and daughter Moses and Addie.

In September 1974, a television series called Paper Moon, based on the film, premiered on the ABC television network. The television version of Paper Moon starred Jodie Foster as Addie and Christopher Connelly as Moses Pray. However, it was not a ratings success and it went off the air a few months after it debuted, in January 1975.

Production

Peter Bogdanovich, coming off the huge successes of his films What's Up, Doc?
and The Last Picture Show
, and having recently formed The Director's Company with Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin, was looking for another project, when his ex-wife and frequent collaborator Polly Platt recommended filming Joe David Brown's script for the novel Addie Pray. Bogdanovich, a fan of period films, and having two young daughters of his own, found himself drawn to the story, and selected it as his next film.

While the script went through various rewrites and the crew scouted locations, Bogdanovich toiled over who to cast as his leads — in particular, the role of the young con-artist Addie. Again at the suggetion of Polly Platt, he approached seven-year-old Tatum O'Neal, who had no acting experience, to audition for the role. Director Bogdanovich had recently worked with Tatum's father Ryan O'Neal on What's Up, Doc?, and had the idea of casting the father-daughter team in the leads.

Tatum recalls being asked to read script pages one afternoon for her father and his friend Peter, having no idea what the two had in mind for her. Ryan O'Neal, who, at the time, was one of the biggest stars in the world, would soon find himself intimidated by his daughter's natural screen presence. She had won the role.

Various changes were made in adapting the book to film. Addie's age was reduced from twelve to nine to accommodate young Tatum, several events from the book were combined for pacing issues, and the last third of the novel was dropped in lieu of a more fitting ending for the tone of the film. The location was also changed from the rural south to midwestern Kansas and Missouri.

The title of the novel, Addie Pray, also posed an issue. Peter Bogdanovich found the title unfitting for a film, and began exploring other possible options. While selecting music for the film, he ran across a song called It's Only a Paper Moon, and found himself enthralled with the words. Seeking advice from his close friend and mentor Orson Welles, Bogdanovitch listed Paper Moon as a possible alternative. Welles' response has become legendary — "That title is so good, you shouldn't even make the picture, you should just release the title!"

Through various hardships and scrapes throughout the film the crew managed to stick together. Perhaps most notably, the acting skills of the young Tatum are impressive. Director Bogdanovich, a fan of deep focus cinematography and extended takes, drove his cast, especially young Tatum, to new levels of skill. In one remarkable scene, the camera follows Moses and Addie for several minutes without cutting away, as the two exchange heated dialogue and perform various physical interactions with props. The concentration the two display is remarkable, especially for Tatum, who was only eight at the time, and having her first experience with acting, though it is worth noting that for the five minute shot, thirty-six takes were required over a two day period.

O'Neal went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the youngest winner in a competitive category. Co-star Madeline Kahn was nominated in the same category that year, as was teenaged actress Linda Blair for The Exorcist
. Coincidentally, and perhaps most tellingly, her role is the most substantial film role ever nominated in a supporting category. Many believe that though she appears on screen nearly all of the film's running time, because she was only ten years of age at the time of her nomination, academy voters would not nominate a child in a leading category. Her performance may have also single-handedly ended the debate as to whether or not children should be nominated for competitive Academy Awards, the academy having discontinued the Academy Juvenile Award in 1960. Since O'Neal's win and Blair's nomination, other child actors, such as Jodie Foster and Haley Joel Osment have gone on to earn nominations, with some, like Anna Paquin, even winning the award.

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