Mark Frechette & Daria Halprin from ZABRISKIE POINT

[@zellerzone]

I knew Mark Frechette before all of this happened. He was a hell of a good storyteller. That wasn't apparent in the film, and even less in this interview.

[@DA90027]

Both of these actors have the personality of a doorstop.

[@peternagy-im4be]

Or a tree stump

[@akrenwinkle]

Luise Rainer claimed she thought so little of one of her Oscars that she used it as a doorstop. So now I'm imagining... well...

[@KidMillions]

Cavett called him a 'dud' afterwards, but it was really their job to prepare him for this interview. It's just an ordinary guy they pulled off the street for his looks. Actually I prefer unrehearsed interviews even if they fail.

[@ironduke2000]

I see this clip a bit differently than do others here. A pair of showbiz neophytes, with no acting experience prior to "Zabriskie Point" (and chosen for the movie in part for that very reason) are led out and expected to instantly and expertly participate in "witty" talk-show banter of a kind that Brooks, Reed and Cavett, older and far more media-savvy, toss off like nothing. They're mocked, almost, from the minute they appear. How reassuring this must have been to mainstream America in 1970.

[@TheRamrod100]

I agree with your view, I saw it the same way.

[@nicoladallen7856]

Daria is gorgeous!!!!

[@1234pouvez]

I love this interview. This was a different time. The actors are so honest, candid, and unrehearsed that it had me rolling on the floor laughing. This could never happen today. Today material for interviews are covered before the guest comes on. Kelly and Michael for example will start with You grew up in, or some other lead in for the guest to discuss. They'll discuss that one or two other things already covered, before the show, then plug the movie, or T.V show, that they came on to plug. Today it's all a straight formula, complete with yelling, screaming, jumping up and down, for every single guest that comes on the show.

[@stormcloudsabound]

I honestly think that's the nostalgia talking. How do you know they didn't rehearse this? Authenticity, it seems, has always been fake, except for a few special people. And who are Kelly and Michael? You can't even keep up with who's ACTUALLY on the air today...at least it's entertaining.

[@frogface66]

In Other words, boring trash.

[@inkyguy]

Mark Fréchette was apparently one of several victims of sexual abuse by Rev. Laurence Francis Xavier Brett of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport in Connecticut. This could go a long way to understanding his hostility and the social dysfunction which ultimately led to his imprisonment and death.

[@bondurango]

A lot of Zabriskie Point was improvised, but it was pure Antonioni. The visuals are stunning & the desert "orgy" & "blow-up" scenes are memorable, to say the least. But he's the star of the movie. He minimized the characters & story with a petrifying pace & space like royal mummies & ruins in an archeological dig. He imposed covert aesthetic values above overt political ones. He was a landscape architect & a topological surveyor of culture who mapped his movies & put the art into artifacts.

[@apsmacksmack1005]

The sixties and the split between reality and unreality. I never met Daria but I met Mark once and felt that he was a great guy, very down-to-earth, very real.

[@SlimKeith11]

Was that before or after he robbed the bank with members of the commune and went to prison?? He died in prison when a weight fell on his neck, suffocating him.

[@majabugarski386]

@@SlimKeith11 ??? You couldn't have asked a dumber question.

[@railwaystationmaster]

Just watched ZP for the umpteenth time and it still has the power to entice bewilder and ultimately stun the viewer with stunning scenery awesome music and an ending that truly is as unexpected as it belies belief .

[@manciano2009]

Antonioni made seven or eight masterpieces. Daria and Mark here are unaware that they have worked on an extraordinary film, and they look like two ungrateful idiots. The film has many levels of interpretation, political, social, poetic, aesthetic, ethical... but "the actors" are oblivious. Even from recent interviews Daria seems completely out of touch with that artistic experience. Nevertheless, it has to be said that Darie and Mark played very well in the film. They made two unforgettable characters.

[@michaeljayklein500]

God, if it weren't for Brooks, Cavett and Reed, there'd be nothing there! Two of the biggest ciphers I've ever stumbled across--pretty, but pretty messed up too.

[@ubernetta]

The movie still amazes me, I saw it the first time in the beginning of the seventies, and then again many years later. About the interview: yes, nowadays everything would be so artificial and rehearsed... not then...

[@lombard605]

Daria Halprin - BEAUTIFUL !!! Love ZABRISKIE POINT

[@Brianjonestown]

"What's your next project?" "Thought I might rob a bank, you know...just...give it a try...yeah...z-z-z"

[@johnlawrence2757]

Apparently robbing a bank is what he did. And topped himself in gaol

[@if6was929]

Two undeveloped and possibly damaged (Frechette was abused as a child by a Catholic priest) personalities with limited life experiences, living in a double walled bubble (the counterculture and a cult) tossed into the spotlight and ill prepared to handle the repartee and antagonism of the host and co--guests. They shouldn't have been booked on the show.

[@Laarla]

Oh my goodness, Mel Brooks is so precious. What a gem.

[@ucctgg]

except in this interview

[@MissKilman]

It's so annoying how they kept ignoring her and shutting her up, and then made fun of her when she complained about it.

[@frogface66]

I would have liked to hear more Daria, too bad.

[@newjeffersonian6456]

This interview made Dick Cavett seriously consider becoming a shoe salesman.

[@constellationyannis]

He should. How he supposed to take an interview when he did not seen the film.

[@maxedwardsantos]

The cattle quote is from Hitchcock, not Antonioni.

[@chappyjennings2689]

What riveting dialog!

[@spinavaholka]

They aren't stupid and they represented themselves in the right way. They are simpy two individuals that refuse to be part of the capitalist order and they don't care about their public image. They are beautiful and so real. I'd like to see the second part of this interview.

[@klarapedisic663]

I don't get all these guys bashing these two. As if actors were usually witty intellectuals and talk shows a food for thought. Moreover, they are super young, not everyone can be self-aware at that age. While Mark Frechette died very young and maybe never reached his full potential, I am sure that an inteview with Daria in her 30s would be very interesting.

[@DennisFalsetti]

One of the most contentious interviews I've ever seen.

[@ucctgg]

who was being contentious to whom ?

[@sentientmlem727]

I think you might want to watch the interview again.

[@belbird69]

Its funny that Easy Rider is mentioned.. as Daria went on to marry Dennis Hopper!

[@markattyer8329]

you know theyre fucked though when he says 'to serve mel lyman" Lyman was SO MODEST

[@nickmanley8246]

Welcome to the Basement

[@peanutbutteroven2660]

Came here from WttB too!

[@NuncNuncNuncNunc]

Brooks got in the best question, Frechette actually had a snappy response, but I guess audience was already feeling too uncomfortable to laugh. There's a scene in the Friends of Eddie Coyle that has two characters who possibly represent Frechette and Halprin

[@MrSandpaperCondom]

Wait for it. The ending is everything. When they start talking about their leader i was dying.

[@massimoalter7484]

Mark frechette made an italian movie called UOMINI CONTRO. very interesting movie with a italian famous actor Gian Maria Volonté

[@-xirx-]

Incredible movie. And he is pretty darn good in it, playing the quiet disaffected military officer

[@contorta960]

Full interview anyone?

[@RossenBial]

This movie still fascinates me - and I was born in 1970 the same year the movie was released. Someone below commented that, ' Thank God, true Spirit still shines.' 'There have been very few people as beautiful, as Daria and Mark...' 'How clear is their beauty...' I would believe that this is the way to look at 'Zabriskie Point' - as piece of poetry. Some XX century's Romeo and Juliet. Maestro Antonioni could have definitely created a whole lot better 'story' if he believed he needed it. The meek people, the compassionate people, the people of beauty, the Art creators, the God's people were all outraged by recent Vietnam war, the cruelty, hate and controversy it created. What one could think - Jesus Christ was himself outraged once - to all the traders selling in the House Of Prayers, the king Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. Yes, Antonioni's 'Zabriskie Point' is an outburst of emotions against cruelty, against all those stony hearts that create the miserable side of our otherwise beautiful life. There isn't much wisdom in wild emotions, fact, but thank God for 'Zabriskie Point'! We all see it's beauty.

[@brainsareus]

Cavett, may not have had time to see the film. media was not always available right away back then. i'd give him props for being honest. this "actor" didn't know how to comport himself,and Cavett should not be expected to have to baby him, and hold his hand.

[@MichaelHansenFUN]

Mark Frechette died in prison.

[@stevebob240]

Thanks, Matt and Craig.

[@ValerioMansueti]

NOBODY let Daria say a single word!why they invited to the show?

[@contorta960]

The time, equality-wise there was a ways to go. Honestly still see it in interviews today sadly.

[@Pro1er]

Reminds me of a Benny Hill sketch where Henry McGee was a guest and gave only one word answers. As they go to break, Benny looks at the camera with a panicked look and says something like, "I see by the clock on the wall, there's only 45 minutes to go."

[@DeliRevv]

Good ol Tommy Tupper!

[@TreadwellJay]

@spinavaholka There was no second part. After the break, they were gone.

[@martinwoyzeck2634]

I'm old enough to remember Dick Cavett's show. I always thought he was a good interviewer. But honestly ,watching him here, I felt he should have picked up that there were a bit shy, not knowing exactly what to say, and as you see, both starting talking a bit more as it went on. Cavett said this was one of his worst interviews, but I thought he was the one that should've made them feel more comfortable, knowing they weren't used to talk shows

[@featherstone5838]

Perhaps they needed a bit more time? Daria tried two times to talk but was drowned out. Not everyone is a professional talker.

[@pzk12]

From Rolling Stone magazine, Nov. 6, 1975: "He (Frechette) was the apparent victim of a bizarre accident in a recreation room at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk, where Frechette had been serving a six- to 15-year sentence for his participation in a 1973 Boston bank robbery."

[@yallowrosa]

historical document

[@moodyblue1964]

He really doesn't have much if anything to say. Pretty sure Cavett sussed this within seconds if he wasn't aware beforehand. Daria comes across as very intense and serious. I think she would have been far better to engage with given the chance. She almost looks the same these days. She would be SO interesting to meet.

[@antoniosoul]

I was lead to believe that this interview was a much bigger train wreck than it is. They are two actors who were involved in a serious movie - what do people expect, a song and dance? Juggling perhaps?

[@johnlawrence2757]

Zabriskie Point is a masterpiece of cinema like all Antonioni’s films and despite the failure of Freschette to tune in to its glory. Halprin was on the director’s wavelength and this was all that was necessary to achieve the film’s complex and subtle ends Freschette played himself enough to complete the film’s vision. Not a nice person either the character or the “actor” that portrayed it I don’t suppose it would have been made if the studio had realised before shooting what Antonioni was up to. But then he went on to make “The Passenger” to fulfill his contract to make three movies in Hollywood, and this turned out to be one of the great thrillers of all time

[@bondurango]

The film is a classic. But when it was first released it bombed in the U.S. & was despised by both the politcal right & the left. It's one of a trio of English language films made by Antonioni. I'm surprised Sam Shepard, who was one of the screenwriters & was already acting in plays, wasn't cast in the lead. Rex Reed, a horrible, flaming film critic, in those days, probably hated it because he's not bothering to praise it, here. I think Pauline Kael was the only critic who defended it.

[@boulderdamn]

Great footage, thanx for posting!

[@zabriskie1]

I'm pleased to see this video of them two. especially being a fan to this film and to them. Yes I can see some tension between the two. Ity would be nice to see more interviews of them. Thanks

[@carolmaccarolynraea..3153]

Linked in after watching ZP on TCM , its January 29,2023 and its the first time I've ever heard of this film. I've read just about all there is and am amazed at the facts, Mark dying in prison from a 150 lb barbell, Daria hooking up with and having children with Dennis Hopper and she is still alive and vibrant, the music, the fleeting glimpse of Harrison Ford in 1970. This film was panned by those that don't understand the difference of a so called counterculture film and a film like the ones bette davis made, much like Easy Rider this film attempts to show an alternative way of story telling and maybe experimental ideas and thats not a road well traveled. This film wil make you feel something unique or leave scratching you head depending on your own personality. Its worth noting some of the familar faces, Paul Fix, the guy who played Bookman the library dick from Seinfeld, the cop in the desert at the portapots, very familar, and then there's the music, Pink Floyd in their early Joe Strummer days, the Grateful Dead, Roy Orbison,Patti Page. . . This is one of those flix you gotta watch several times to absorb its flavor. Jim Morrison met the director and gave him a song but it wasn't used, Pink Floyd did a song which much later morphed into Wish You Were Here on Dark Side Of The Moon.. check out the interviews of Daria and Mark on Dick Cavett Show with guest Mel Brooks and Rex Reed...

[@peternagy-im4be]

I watched it and its fcking garbage the performances are dreadful.

[@larrylewis5721]

And don't forget the James Gang....led by Joe Walsh.

[@evers1295]

if you see mark frechette in one of his other films he is actually fantastic, he really developed into a good actor. The other films are called Uomini Contro and La Grande Scrofa Nera

[@MichaelHansenFUN]

this is on the dvd The Dick Cavett Show: Comic Legends

[@sheridanguy]

Mark and Daria were a couple. She moved into the "community" with Mark for a short while before she left him. He attempted to rob a local Boston bank for which he went to prison for 6-15 years. In prison he tragically died, while weight-lifting (suffocated). She married for four years and had two kids. She later straightened out to head the Tamala Institute in California with her Mother. The film: beautiful to look at with beautiful people. Broken down into sequences of youth vrs. establishment, mostly the cops, plus borrowing an airplane, an "orgy in the desert", and some specular explosions at the end. Sad.

[@truetodef]

Is there a part 2 to this interview? I'd think so since he said we'll be right back and told Daria she'd have more chance to talk but it seems that it hasn't been uploaded, if you have it then please do so as I'd like to watch it.

[@emiliostrepetti8405]

Does anyone know where Mark was buried ? I'd love to know, thank you very much!🙏

[@brianorakpohit]

Mount Feake Cemetery, Waltham, Massachusetts

[@emiliostrepetti8405]

Thank you very much ❤

[@leamanc]

Thanks for posting this! I didn't know that *anybody* did any promotion for Zabriskie Point. I guess this not even promotion, as Mark tells Dick to save his money and not see it. Call them airheads if you like, but at least he was honest in that the film didn't turn out like he hoped it would, and that Antonioni did two non-actors no favors by letting them fail onscreen and teaching them nothing. All that said, I love Zabriskie Point, and nearly all the rest of Antonioni's films.

[@delrey874]

I love Daria Halprin 😍

[@westernwinchester70]

Dark star crashes pouring its light into ashes...

[@secretadmirer8769]

wow. that was an interesting insight. thanks for that.

[@srtyxczewlsrolkid]

Oh boy! Darla Halprin is so very cute. She look's here like arabian pricess. My god,she have sweet voice and beautiful eyes. Magnicicent figure and manny more parts of body. Her body. Wow!this is absolutely hot girl. Silver from Poland(Great fun of Pink Floyd and Zabriskie Point).

[@LenHummelChannel]

This was truly a classic "attempted" interview. Cavett was great trying to pull teeth here. This was "the 60's hippie couple" that everyone thought would get married and fully into "free love" and all that. Frechette was (and ended up) the victim of a weirdo cult-figure who was controlling to the point of being almost a Charlie Manson-type.

[@irplane]

+Len Hummel They weren't really hippies by the time of this interview. The lady was an ex hippie forsure (see the film Revolution), but the Mel Lyman cult wasn't really peace and love. The Lyman cult apparently were mostly short haired, dressed conservatively and weren't into "free love" aka multiple partners, that's why that guy was so quick to disagree with the Easy Rider commune reference. "The 60s couple" = John and Yoko or Jerry and Mountain Girl , not two cultists nobody knew/knows anything about lol.

[@brainsareus]

+Len Hummel It's as if Heroin dust wafted in the air. Breathing "junkie air" could give you a contact high... LOL.. In the 80's,they'd be hyped up on coke.

[@ksol1460tv]

true, Mel Lyman often split up couples that he thought were concerned about each other instead of focusing on him and HIS needs/wants. Mel & the Family hated the hippie ideal (not angry/violent enough) and Mel took over the Avatar, a hippie alternative newspaper, for his own purposes. He also got his goons to try to shut down KPFK because they tried to improve the sound quality of his badly-recorded tape when they played it. However no heroin or cocaine here. The only drug they're on is Mel Lyman.

[@duncan-rmi]

"there's more to the story, right?" "nope." >sacks researcher

[@boufgreg]

Go to the Mel Lyman web info site. Just Google it. There is a lot more info there you just have to sift through it all. Very interesting reading if you have the time.

[@martinwoyzeck2634]

I've heard so much about this interview, that people could see the two of them were under a spell of Mel Lyman, non-communicative, etc.. It's funny what people will read into something that's not there. They were not 'officially' actors, having been in one movie, probably scared to death to be on a show where thousands of people were watching. They started to warm up, and talked a bit. I hate when people creates their own interpretation of what someone else is feeling, or acting like.

[@jv-ep2tc]

he is obviously a mental case and I can see that he would have been a good target for the likes of Lyman

[@windhoek-land8339]

I don't understand the song🙄 bt I like it ☺☺

[@EricMcDowellegm]

I had no idea this interview existed! I love the film.

[@riverforest2997]

Normal actors that are real. A little screwed up from Mel Lyman but hey.

[@bill500carphead]

one of my fav films ever excellent music, great cinematography, two real people in leads, no hollywood bullshit about it.its a regular on turner classic movies and deserves its place, 100 worst movies i dont think so.

[@crankenstein70]

Possibly 1000

[@LyricalWax]

man I've fallen in love with these 2 even more now. what a tragic ending though.

[@ucctgg]

and in real life too

[@Johnconno]

Frechette was murdered in prison, not too long after. Don't think anyone noticed for a while...

[@tatavictory7720]

+jaye see Really?? Why was he in the prison?

[@LenHummelChannel]

+Tata Victory Attempted bank heist. It's all on wikipedia. sad, tragic, short life.

[@hansel73]

You really believe he died lifting weights in a prison?? He most likely pissed someone off or owed money to the wrong person, that's life inside the can.

[@kaivrock]

Looking at him, he probably just got fucked to death in there.

[@martinwoyzeck2634]

Uh, you seem to be one of those conspiracy theorists who make up lies. There was zero indication of foul play, or murder. No one was around him. He was bench pressing, and a 150 barbell fell right on his throat. But keep making up lying gossip

[@pzk12]

They don't do chat shows like that anymore :)

[@aladdintrips]

That movie blow my mind when i first saw it in late 90's. And both actors are so gorgeous, like Gods

[@terrapinalive6192]

Mark is gorgeous!

[@TIPTON340]

Mark Frechette died in prison after robbing a bank in 1975 in weight room at Massachusetts Correctional Institution with a 150-pound weight bar pressed against his throat. Ruled an accident. He was 27. Frechette, a high school dropout of Quebecois ancestry, from Fairfield, Connecticut, was twice hospitalized for emotional problems, and several times arrested, prior to Zabriskie Point. Donated his $60,000 earnings from Zabriskie Point to a commune.

[@mitchieheaven258]

Tim Tipton I know😭

[@ucctgg]

@@mitchieheaven258 I think everyone knew that.

[@giacomorotondi7251]

is it just me or hes one of the most beautiful men ever existed?

[@williamblakehall5566]

Well, you know, Mel did marry Anne Bancroft.

[@brianblueskies]

Thank you. I've been waiting to see this flick for a long time. Well, worth the wait!

[@spikeitfool1]

God, that's not something I'd have wished on him. Thanks for your response.

[@Nazzz65]

''What do you want to know?'' is 60's talk for ''f**k you''.

[@TIPTON340]

Died in weight room at Massachusetts Correctional Institution with a 150-pound weight bar pressed against his throat. Ruled an accident

[@davevanfunk8917]

Like standing with the Statue of Liberty.

[@salvadory1103]

i see two out of sorts a little nervous young inexperienced actors- mark perhaps a little aloof but not playing the witty hollywood game- much better than the over super personality with preplanned one liners hacks we get today- plus they were probally on downers- the film by the way is actually pretty cool as is the soundtrack....

[@veiolex]

god why do these people keep going on about "winning" or "losing" rather than asking about the actual content of the argument? limited minds really... shame they wouldn't give her a chance to say something either

[@sneakerino]

shre frechette dued in prison in bizzarre circumstances, a coupke of years later...

[@Trudeau7900]

It is interesting how the quietness of both Halprin and Frechette is like a mirror for the other guests and for Cavett.

[@LordGreystoke]

Wish there was more of this interview. Is there? Or does it end soon after?

[@Libertariun]

Shame Cavett decided to take the piss out of this clearly inexperienced young couple. Mel Brooks at least tried to cut the ice.

[@Frisbieinstein]

I find this more entertaining than the usual talk show.

[@ginomendozauk]

where's the final part?

[@zellerzone]

I knew Mark before he was an actor. One day he was at a bus stop watching a sailor and his girlfriend having an argument. Some lady in a third-floor window interrupted the argument by dropping a flowerpot on the sailor's head. Mark's reaction to that event was what got him the role in the movie. Some talent scout happened to be waiting at the traffic light. Mark told this story much better than I could, yet when Cavett asked him about it, he said almost nothing. He was done telling stories.

[@MyMindToMeAKingdomIs]

Came here from BlameSociety - Welcome to the Basement, lol!

[@mooshaa82]

"I didn't say actors are cattle. What I said was, actors should be treated like cattle." Hitchcock

[@tcalder87]

Hardly electric; It's little wonder neither of them made it big. Helprin seemed smacked out, or maybe just zonked by cultism.

[@richardsimons6978]

Really? Go back to Blazing Saddles you fuck head!!

[@MaconLeary]

Dick Cavett said this is one of his least favorite interviews. He hated this guy's monosyllabic responses. Cavett calls him "a lout."

[@castielhamza272]

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[@elieverett5608]

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[@rockynasir3859]

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[@jaxonjerry8581]

@Castiel Hamza yea, have been using Flixzone for years myself :D

[@waymichael]

Absolutely fascinating but somewhat sad too considering what ultimately happened to Frechette. I wish Halprin had said something---anything!

[@shantiq]

also the film zabriskie is a must for anyone who wants to tune in to that recent period of history to try and feel the vibe also must see more by barbet schroeder and a film called the strawberry statement and also la chinoise by jean-luc godard and for a lighter less of the times the dreamers by bertolucci i think halprin is really shy in the interview not haughty mark frechette carried the bad boi vibe about himself

[@MichaelHansenFUN]

try reading about it

[@Ramblin-Man]

Yeah, well...Mark Frechette robbed a bank in Boston in 1973 where one of the robbers (also a member of Hyman's commune/community/cult) died. Then he himself died in a weight lifting "accient" in jail in 1975. "Standing there with a gun, cleaning out a teller's cage - that's about as fuckin' honest as you can get, man!" (Mark Frechette, 1947-75).

[@PolarSun1]

Mark had a little difficulty benching 150# in prison.

[@Malkmusianful]

a little difficulty oh god why can't I stop laughing

[@pasqualedavinofranco989]

mel broooks very sorry

[@You-Toober]

One of the posters on this page says he was actually murdered. That it was a set up.

[@oilyshoes9969]

Will Oxx he got killed

[@FungusMossGnosis]

Yowser that's uncomfortable. I feel for the guests AND Cavett. Cavett has never looked so unprepared and acted so snotty. Daria Halprin came off intimidated but well, I thought. Michaelangelo Antonioni's 'Zabriskie Point' did indeed set out to do more than it accomplished, but it's still far better than average for movies of that period. Better than 'Midnight Cowboy'. Antonioni's failures are always more interesting than the "successes" of someone like Mike Nichols.

[@gillesbertacco]

Good point...

[@alexelcurioso]

Indeed the real story about these tow youngsters (Frachette died in prision after a bank robbery)is more interesting than Antonioni´s failed film.

[@archerjordan1699]

The bank robbery was a tragic psycho-drama. To protest the corrupt Nixon administration Mark and two fellow members of Mel Lyman's cult concluded that since the group's money was on deposit in a Federal Bank they would need to remove their funds by force. They intended to accomplish this with empty guns. One of the the three "robbers" was shot and killed and the other two were convicted and sentenced to 6 to 12 years in federal prison.

[@mcntsc]

The rest godammit! (reprise)