Yachts cooltura
Zna upasti na studentske tulume, karaoke večeri, zgrabiti krumpirić s tuđeg tanjura i sve to začiniti riječima: ‘Nitko vam neće vjerovati’
oboje je još uvijek zabavno. Kritičari i gledatelji Murrayja su obasuli pohvalama i novcem za iduća dva filma – What About Bob (1991.) i Beskrajni dan He invites himself to student house parties; (1993.) – što i ne čudi, jer crashes karaoke parties; steals French fries upravo u tim je filmovima from strangers in a restaurant and leaves them Murray pronašao svoju specijalnost. Neshvaćeni all with the line: ‘No one will ever believe you’ mizantrop, gunđalo velikog srca, lijeni gad koji se na kraju iskaže – Murrayju i danas u takvim ulogama nema premca. Beskrajni dan i danas je film o kojem se govori s poštovanjem dostojnim religije (ili barem kulta), Murrayjev namrgođeni prognostičar Phil lik je kakvog se dobije možda jednom ili dvaput u karijeri – ako imate sreće. Murray kaže da je ta uloga vjerojatno njegova najbolja. S njom završava prva faza Murrayjeve karijere i tijekom 1990-ih činilo se kao da ga gluma više ne zanima. Snimio je nekoliko nezanimljivih filmova, no i u njima briljirao. U filmu Kingpin (1996.) napravio je prvi korak u nastavku svoje karijere i neobičan zaokret prema novoj kategoriji uloga. U nedavnom je intervjuu redatelj Wes Anderson izjavio da je Bill Murray stajao svoje kolege glumce milijune u zaradi kad je potpisao ugovor za film Rushmore (1998.). ‘U prethodnom je filmu, naime, bio plaćen devet milijuna dolara. A to je bio cijeli proračun našeg filma’, kaže Anderson. ‘Pa smo ga upitali što da radimo. A on je rekao ‘Idemo odrediti nekakav koeficijent’ i pristao odglumiti za devet tisuća dolara. A prema tom ugovoru kasnije je oblikovan standardni ugovor za rad u Hollywoodu. Bill Murray je osobno odgovoran za ‘pristupačne’ cijene.’ Od osam filmova na kojima su surađivali, Murray u šest ima glavnu ulogu. To je ujedno šest Andersonovih najboljih filmova. Ove godine imat ćemo prilike uživati u najnovijoj suradnji, The Grand Budapest Hotel. U drugoj fazi karijere Murray stvara likove zrcalno drugačije od onih iz prve faze. Nisu više lajavi i šaljivi, nego povučeni. Egzistencijalisti. Bljesak nestašluka u njihovim očima zamaglio se i sad nas te oči potiču na razmišljanje što se iza njih krije. Tipična uloga novog Murrayja je ona iz Izgubljeni u prijevodu (2003.). Možda je to i uloga Murrayjevog života, a za nju je osvojio sve nagrade osim Oscara. Priznaje da ga je želio, no da ga i nije trebao. ‘Danas shvaćam da je bolje da ga nisam osvojio’, rekao je mnogo kasnije. ‘Nisam bio spreman. Neki glumci nakon te nagrade odbijaju posao godinama, jer si misle ‘Ovo nije dovoljno dobro za Oscara’. Paralizira ih osvojena nagrada. Mislim da bi osvojeni Oscar meni napravio točno to, ne bih niti bio svjestan da me takvo razmišljanje koči.’ Po svoj prilici najbolji komičar svoje generacije, Murray je vjerojatno i jedan od najboljih ikad. Bilo bi ga lijepo ponovno vidjeti u komediji. Bilo bi lijepo vidjeti ga s Oscarom u ruci. Ali Billa volimo i kao čovjeka – a upravo nam kroz glumu pokazuje kakav je čovjek. Nema puno glumaca koji istovremeno mogu rasplakati - i smiješnim i tragičnim ulogama. Malo njih je dovoljno sofisticirano za pričanje viceva i prikaz tuge. Murray se podsmjehuje Hollywoodu, ali osmjehuje obožavateljima; izbjegava novinare, ali pristupa ljudima na cesti. Do njega se ne može, ali on će naći vas. Anonimna superzvijezda koja će se s vama popeti na pozornicu u karaoke baru i platiti vam kavu, Bill Murray najbolji je kad igra sam sebe. ‘Nitko vam neće povjerovati’, kaže. Ali mi vjerujemo. I baš ga zato volimo.
Edge (1984). The former was the year’s highest-grossing release; the latter flopped. Following that he retreated into a fouryear hiatus studying philosophy at the University of Paris. He became an existentialist-in-waiting. Murray was back in business with Scrooged (1988) and Ghostbusters II (1989). Neither were his best work; but neither have aged too badly. It was in his subsequent films What About Bob? (1991) and Groundhog Day (1993) – both big at the box-office and acclaimed by the critics – where he began to sign his signature across the screen. The misunderstood misanthrope. The grouch with the big heart. The slacker who comes good in the end. Various characters tied together with Murray’s yawning vowels and peerless screen presence. Groundhog Day is treated with the kind of reverence the greatest actors achieve only once or twice a career. Murray says it’s ‘probably the best work I’ve done.’ And so concludes the first act of his career in film. Conventional wisdom says the actor enters something of a fallow period in the mid-90s. Sure, there were duds, but in Murray’s fimography, you’re never more than a movie or two away from mining a gem. His performance in Kingpin (1996) is masterful, and it marks a shift in the kind of movies Murray makes, the characters he plays. In a recent interview, the cult-film director Wes Anderson claims Murray has cost his actors millions of dollars by laying the fiscal blueprint for all of the director’s future ensemble movies when he appeared in Rushmore (1998). ‘In the movie he made before’, Anderson says, ‘he was paid $9 million. That was the entire budget of our movie. So we asked him, ‘How shall we do this?’ And he said, ‘I will do it for scale.’ And that was $9,000. That became our model for everyone else after that. He created the low wages.’ Of the eight films the pair have worked together on, Bill features in six. The six best. The two team up again this year with the release of The Grand Budapest Hotel. Murray, in the second act of his career, inverts the characters found in the first. The volume has been turned down. He’s introspective. Existential. The eyes that shone so brightly with mischief have dulled a little and we long to know what’s going on behind them. Lost in Translation (2003) is the highwater mark of this mode – perhaps of his career. The role for which he won almost everything except the prize he deserved most. Murray admits to wanting the Oscar, but concedes he didn’t need it. ‘I’ve since realised that it was good I didn’t win’, he said afterwards, ‘because I wasn’t ready. Guys go for five years without working because they’re thinking, ‘Oh, this isn’t Oscar-worthy.’ They become paralysed. It would have fed that thing that I found in myself, without my even knowing.’ Murray is arguably the greatest comedy actor of his generation. One of the best of all time. It would be good to see him return to comedy. It would be good to see his hands wrapped around an Oscar. But we love Old Bill for more than just his onscreen performances. Few actors can crack you up and break your heart quite like Murray. Few have the lightness of touch that can hold punchlines and pathos in one hand. He sneers at Hollywood and smiles for fans. He’s unattainable to press and available to the public. He’s nowhere. He’s everywhere. He’s the anonymous, high-profile star that’ll buy you drink and sing you a song. Being Bill is his greatest performance. ‘No one will ever believe you’, he says. But we do believe him. And that’s why we love him.
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