Movie critics get the same question over and over: "Why don't they make 'em like they used to?"
Charles Matthau has the answer:"What happens in Hollywood is cyclical, and people try to copy whatever was the last thing that worked. That could be anything from trying to imitate `Pulp Fiction' to `Grumpy Old Men.' Hollywood people just try and second-guess the audience, instead of doing something that excites them as filmmakers."
As a result, filmmaker Matthau has delivered a movie that is very much "like they used to make."
"The Grass Harp" is a low-key character drama with flourishes of humor, and it's loaded with wonderful performances from an all-star ensemble cast - Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Edward Furlong, Nell Carter, Jack Lemmon, Mary Steenburgen, Charles Durning and Roddy McDowall.
In fact, the film is so mature and sensitive that it's hard to believe the director is only in his mid-30s.
It wasn't all that long ago that Charles Matthau was finishing up film school and decided to strike out on his own without help from his famous father. And in 1989, at the tender age of 24, Walter Matthau's youngest son made his feature bow with the low-budget offbeat comedy "Doin' Time On Planet Earth."
"I just wanted to get a job directing a motion picture that had nothing to do with my dad," the younger Matthau said during a telephone interview from his Los Angeles office. "Eleven people in the U.S. saw `Planet Earth.' "
Though the film was barely released, "Doin' Time On Planet Earth" did earn some respectable notices, particularly from sci-fi fans, and it's become something of a cable-television staple.
But, as is often the case in Hollywood, Matthau found himself in danger of being pigeonholed as a sci-fi director, instead of being perceived as a young filmmaker with promise.
"I was offered a bunch of stuff with no budget, all basically science-fiction parodies similar to `Planet Earth.' But the scripts were no good - and besides, I wanted to show I could do something different."
It took three years for Matthau to find his next project, but when "Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love" came along, he knew it was right. The made-for-television drama, about a grandmother (Ellen Burstyn) and her orphaned grandson (Ryan Todd) on the road, received good reviews.
And there was a big star in a secondary role - Walter Matthau.
"It became important to me to work with my father," Charles Matthau said. "He was turning 70, and I knew I'd feel bad if I never got a chance to work with him."
Around this time - 1989-1990 - he was introduced to "The Grass Harp." "I was having dinner with a friend, Melanie Ray, a book editor, and I said, `You've read more books than anyone I know - what's the best thing you read that never got made into a film?' And she responded immediately: `The Grass Harp,' by Truman Capote.'
"At that time, as my dad was turning 70, my goal was, `Who cares what people are going to say? I want to work with him.' " Matthau quickly picked up the "The Grass Harp" and immediately saw his father as Judge Cool, a retired, widowed barrister who falls in love again.
Audiences may be surprised to find that "The Grass Harp" casts several of its high-profile cast-members starkly against type - most notably Sissy Spacek as a repressed spinster with a nasty streak, Jack Lemmon as a smooth-talking con artist and Roddy McDowall as a talkative barber who provides comic relief. "It's more interesting than doing the obvious. I try not to take that too far - I never want people to watch the performance instead of the character. But I just knew, for example, that Sissy could do it. That is, as long as she was willing to age herself with makeup and wardrobe for the role."
At first, however, Spacek wasn't all that willing. "She actually didn't want to do it. I kept begging her to do it and she kept saying no. So I flew to Virginia, and I basically said I wasn't going to leave her farm until she said yes.
"And she is something else! I didn't recognize her when she first came on the set - with her hair down and wearing Levi's she looks like she's 14. But when she aged for the role, it was remarkable."
The young filmmaker also likes to use older character players like Roddy MacDowall because they are so underused in contemporary movies. "On the film my dad is doing right now, Donald O'Connor is doing a very small part - and he is truly one of the great talents of all time. He's a gentleman, he's happy to do it, everybody's thrilled to work with him - but it's the state of the industry that he just doesn't get hired, and it's so sad for somebody of his stature.
"I know that it is very difficult for actors, when they reach a certain age, to get work. And, you know, before `Dennis the Menace,' my father wasn't working that much. And it's particularly difficult for women."
So why are there three- or four-year gaps between Matthau's movies? "I'm very picky about material. I usually turn down assignment work - although I wouldn't if it was a good script. So, I have to produce it myself in order to hire myself to direct.
"And I tend to be attracted to pictures that are not the most commercial."