Mask (1985 Peter Bogdanovich)

OK so this was not the reinstated Bruce Springsteen version - oops. Anna Hamilton Phelan wrote it (and also is the puppy lady), Laszlo Kovacs shot it quite diffused. It's again a model of how to edit, create scenes. Here's one of his Howard Hawks moments:

The make up is by Michael Westmore, son of Monte (died young at 37) and nephew of Perc and Wally - his name missing from IMDB for some reason...

Cher, Sam Elliott, Eric Stoltz, Estelle Getty, Richard Dysart, Laura Dern, Harry Carey Jr, Micole Mercurio, Dennis Burkley, Nick Cassavetes.

It's emotional. And very warm.

Vulture.com interview with PB, March 4 2019.

So who was the most difficult actor you’ve ever worked with?
Cher.

Tell me about your experience with her on Mask.
Well, she didn’t trust anybody, particularly men. She doesn’t like men. That’s why she’s named Cher: She dropped her father’s name. Sarkisian, it is. She can’t act. She won Best Actress at Cannes because I shot her very well.
And she can’t sustain a scene. She couldn’t do what Tatum [O’Neal] did in Paper Moon. She’d start off in the right direction, but she’d go off wrong somehow, very quickly. So I shot a lot of close-ups of her because she’s very good in close-ups. Her eyes have the sadness of the world. You get to know her, you find out it’s self-pity, but still, it translates well in movies.Roger Ebert loved Mask and Cher’s performance, writing, “Cher makes Rusty Dennis into one of the most interesting movie characters in a long time.”  I shot more close-ups of her than I think in any picture I ever made.

You can create an award-winning performance with close-ups?
Oh yes, you can. I did a number of times.

What did Cher think of you?
Cher doesn’t like me.

Why?
Well, because I didn’t like her. She was always looking like someone was cheating her. I came to the set one day; I said, “You depress me, you’re always so down and acting like somebody’s stealing from you or something.” But finally, after about seven weeks of this, we started getting to like each other. She said, you know, we don’t watch out, we might end up liking each other. I said that would be amazing. And we did end up liking each other, and then when I sued the studio, she sided with the studio, of course. That was that.