Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story

Rated: Not Rated

        There is certainly no shortage of love stories in Hollywood, both onscreen and off. Look around the next time you’re in the checkout line at a grocery or drug store and you’ll see countless headlines touting today’s break ups and make ups in magazines such as People and In Touch and Star. There are even whole categories of jokes solely devoted to Hollywood relationships:

        

In Hollywood they get married early in the morning. 

    That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day.”       


I was invited to a Hollywood wedding. Traffic was heavy, so I got there late - just in time for the divorce

        Of course, the list of jokes goes on and on, but you get the point. In Hollywood relationships are rumored to be as fickle and as short lived as the weather.
Harold and Lillian Michelson (Photo courtesy of Zeitgeist Films)

Harold and Lillian Michelson (Photo courtesy of Zeitgeist Films)

 
        I’m sure you share my surprise whenever a story emerges of a couple withstanding the tests of time against all odds in Tinsel Town. Those stories seem to be as mythical as unicorns, (well, maybe not quite that mythical), and one can’t help but root for the couple at the center of attention when such a story emerges.
 
        One such enduring love story is told through the recent work of filmmaker Daniel Raim
, Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story. The film centers around Harold and Lillian Michelson, both on their behind the scenes work on some of the biggest films ever, and their lives at home as they created an inseparable bond and family together.
 
        According to the film’s website, “Although the couple was responsible for some of Hollywood’s most iconic examples of visual storytelling, their contributions remain largely uncredited. Through an engaging mix of love letters, film clips and candid conversations, with Harold and Lillian, Danny DeVito, Mel Brooks, Francis Ford Coppola and others, this deeply engaging documentary from Academy Award nominated director Daniel Raim chronicles their remarkable marriage and extraordinary careers through six decades of movie-making history.”
Harold meets Hitchcock (Harold's drawing courtesy of Zeitgeist Films)

Harold meets Hitchcock (Harold's drawing courtesy of Zeitgeist Films)

 
        The film is the third from filmmaker Daniel Raim, and continues his mission to unmask Hollywood’s unsung behind the scenes heroes. His first film,
The Man on Lincoln’s Nose (2000), was an intimate portrait of production designer Robert F. Boyle. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subject. Raim’s second film, Something’s Gonna Live (2010), was a more in-depth profile of what Boyle and his colleagues did to bring the films of Hollywood’s Golden Age to life.
 
        Of
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story, Raim had this to say, “I wanted to bring to light these little-known parts of the filmmaking process. Harold and Lillian’s story humanizes Hollywood—an industry sustained by numerous hard-working cinema artisans, master craftsmen, and craftswomen, who give their lives, their genius and their hearts to the movies. Beyond Harold and Lillian’s contribution to cinema, their story can’t be told without weaving in their 60-year marriage—a creative, challenging, and profoundly loving partnership. [The film] spans the Golden Age of Hollywood, through New Hollywood and beyond. It’s a portrait of a time, and an intimate chronicle of their epic journey of life, love, family, and making great movies. You’ve never met anyone like Harold and Lillian,” the Director’s Statement on the film’s website says.
Lillian at her film research library (Photo courtesy of Zeitgeist Films)

Lillian at her film research library (Photo courtesy of Zeitgeist Films)


      If given the chance I suggest you see
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story. It’s a beautifully moving tribute to one couple’s inextinguishable love for one another, and the masterful ways in which they helped bring some of the most iconic films known to the silver screen. The film will bring new appreciation to all those names that flash by during the end credits, whether you fully understand their titles, or not.

For more information about Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story and Daniel Raim, click here:



  • Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story Website
  • Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story IMDB
  • Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story Trailer
  • Daniel Raim on IMDB
  • Listen to my complete interview with Daniel Raim HERE