Watch Me (2014)
is model and actor Anjelica Huston’s autobiography, and a continuation of her
first book, A Story Lately Told (2013). She begins this book at the age of 21
in 1973, after leaving a 4-year relationship with a man 24 years older than
her. She returns to the place where she was born: Los Angeles. She receives an
invitation to a party at actor Jack Nicholson’s house. He asked her to stay the
night. The relationship lasted until 1989.
The memoir begins
slowly and disjointedly – mainly about what Jack Nicholson said or did. It is
chronicled around Jack Nicholson and his movies – starting with The Passenger, when they met, to Chinatown, also starring her father at
the time she moved in with Jack, and One
Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – and so on. It is more about Jack than her.
From chapter 9
the memoir gains momentum and more interest. It is here that she writes of her
relationship with her father, the director, John Huston. He has emphysema and
his health deteriorates. She also writes of his death in 1987.
Her writing
improves when she writes of her movies and her life – not dependent on her love
with Jack. It is more interesting when she discusses movies such as Prizzi’s
Honor, The Addamms Family movies, and her Woody Allen films – up to Darjeeling
Limited. Even when she meets and marries Mexican sculptor Robert Graham her
identity remains intact. Their relationship from 1992 to his death in 2008 is
detailed in a more fluid way than that of her time with Jack. She concludes her
memoir with her current work and the next phase of her life in her sixties.
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