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Posts From the Internet Film Discussion Group, a_film_by
This group is dedicated to discussing film as art
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16201
From: cairnsdavid1967
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:21pm
Subject: Re: Delon, Blier, etc.
> All this talk of Blier is rather exciting.
>
> I don't think these are meant to be apologies.
I think that's a good reading, and I wasn't sure if they were
apologies or not. They are certainly instances of Blier acknowledging
the issue, even if he admits nothing.
Something I'd like to praise Blier for is his "direct cutting" -
David Lean's phrase for the Nouvelle Vague's habit of simply jumping
into new scenes without bothering with dissolves etc. Blier gives his
films tremendous jolts of energy, often by cutting from cause to
effect:
1) The start of LES VALSEUSES, where the lads molest a woman - CUT
directly to them fleeing an angry mob.
2) The bit where Miou-Miou annoys them with her rapturous description
of her first orgasm (after they have failed to arouse her) - CUT to
them throwing her in the river (an ellision of no more than a couple
of seconds, but still hugely impactful)
3) The transition from the attempted orgy-at-gunpoint in TENUE DE
SOIREE - CUT to the threesome runnign down the street in their
underwear.
4) In LES ACTEURS someone says something like "Come into the bedroom"
and - CUT, we're there, with the actor just entering, another cut
that takes out a matter of just a couple seconds but adds such a kick
to the narrative pace.
Of course many filmmakers do this, but for my money Blier is the most
distinctive and FUNNIEST.
16202
From: cairnsdavid1967
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:23pm
Subject: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Elizabeth Nolan wrote:
> I have a question. I know Charles Laughton directed one film, The
> NIGHT of the HUNTER with a unique style that lasts even today.
> I have wondered if a director with a single film to his / her
credit
> could be considered an auteur.
I always paired NIGHT OF THE HUNTER with CARNIVAL OF SOULS, because
Herk Harvey only made one feature as director too.
And I thought it would be nice if I could find another great film by
a one-shot auteur.
I think I've found it, and it's THE LOST MOMENT, directed by Martin
Gabel. Superb movie, with an atmosphere of its own that puts it in
good company with the Laughton and Harvey movies.
16203
From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:35pm
Subject: Re: Re: Film Forum Noir (NYC)
--- cairnsdavid1967 wrote:
I think HOTEL DU NORD is a
> really underrated
> Carne, with great performances from all and sundry,
> and a sympathetic
> gay character who's fairly "out" in terms of
> narrative
> representation. Interestingly, the women all know
> he's gay, but the
> straight men can't figure out why a nice chap like
> that hasn't got a
> girlfriend.
Never seen that one. Carne was gay you know.
Film also features Annabella, whose
> father introduced the
> Boy Scout movement to France, as I'm fond of saying.
>
>
> RECKLESS MO is, after LETTER FROM AN UNK, Ophuls'
> best US film, imho.
>
In some ways I prefer it. Love the remake: "The Deep
End."
>
> > "Un Flic" is available on DVD at the video store -
> will definitely
> have to rent this.
>
> REALLY interesting late Melville.
>
It certainly is. The opening scene of a bank robbery
is quite amazing in that the bank is located by a
seashore, and the cars the robbers are driving emerge
from the early morning fog.
Lasttime I saw it was several years back at the
American Cinematheque. Richard Crenna was there and
spoke warmly of Melville and the whole experience.
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16204
From: thebradstevens
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:00pm
Subject: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
"I thought it would be nice if I could find another great film by a
one-shot auteur."
How about:
Charles Eastman's THE ALL-AMERICAN BOY
Bob Dylan's RENALDO AND CLARA
Gunther Von Fritsch's THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (since he shot far
more of this film than Robert Wise)
Carl Foreman's THE VICTORS
Dalton Trumbo's JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN
Frank Sinatra's NONE BUT THE BRAVE
John Mellencamp's FALLING FROM GRACE
Charles Laughton actually directed parts of another film: THE MAN ON
THE EIFFEL TOWER.
16205
From: Paul Gallagher
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:09pm
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
"Tensions in Taiwan" is here:
http://www.newleftreview.net/PDFarticles/NLR26202.pdf
Hou also discusses film production in Taiwan: about a dozen films per
year, mainly produced with state funds and influenced thereby, films
that Hou dismisses, in addition to films by Yang, Tsai, and Hou, who
rely on Japanese and French financing. He leaves films on later
periods of history, after the 1950's, to a younger generation, and has
returned to modern times. He mentions how he has "been wrestling with
what angles or forms to adopt for them in the cinema." He discusses
his current film, "Coffee Time": a Taiwanese story, based on a
schoolmate of Hou's daughter, but made "in homage to Ozu" into "in one
sense... a purely Japanese story." Hou observers that young people
"share the same experience and memories everywhere. Regional
differences have faded."
Paul
16206
From: J. Mabe
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:32pm
Subject: Re: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
And Wendell B. Harris' Chameleon Street.
thebradstevens wrote:
"I thought it would be nice if I could find another great film by a
one-shot auteur."
How about:
Charles Eastman's THE ALL-AMERICAN BOY
Bob Dylan's RENALDO AND CLARA
Gunther Von Fritsch's THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (since he shot far more of this film than Robert Wise)
Carl Foreman's THE VICTORS
Dalton Trumbo's JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN
Frank Sinatra's NONE BUT THE BRAVE
John Mellencamp's FALLING FROM GRACE
---------------------------------
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16207
From: Damien Bona
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 4:03pm
Subject: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
Ethan Hawke's "Chelsea Walls" and, though it's a short, Gjon Mili's
extraordinary "Jammin' The Blues."
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "thebradstevens"
wrote:
> "I thought it would be nice if I could find another great film by a
> one-shot auteur."
>
> How about:
>
> Charles Eastman's THE ALL-AMERICAN BOY
> Bob Dylan's RENALDO AND CLARA
> Gunther Von Fritsch's THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (since he shot
far
> more of this film than Robert Wise)
> Carl Foreman's THE VICTORS
> Dalton Trumbo's JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN
> Frank Sinatra's NONE BUT THE BRAVE
> John Mellencamp's FALLING FROM GRACE
>
> Charles Laughton actually directed parts of another film: THE MAN
ON
> THE EIFFEL TOWER.
16208
From: thebradstevens
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 4:16pm
Subject: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
"Gjon Mili's extraordinary "Jammin' The Blues."
Mili has actually directed several films. I believe they are all
concerned with jazz.
16209
From: Richard Modiano
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 4:33pm
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Craig Keller
wrote:
"And this is why I wanted to pose the question of 'what are a
filmmaker's obligations.' Are you suggesting that Hou shouldn't
present a relentlessly cynical portrayal...? Or, rather, erm, he
should think twice when he decides not to crush his protagonist at
the end, but give her some kind of hope for a future? (Thinking
here of 'MM' and 'Good Men, Good Women,' not 'Goodbye South,
Goodbye' or 'Flowers of Shanghai.') Has he somehow "betrayed
himself"? The truth, as I see it -- truth as only one opinion --
(a) I understand the bulk of my generation as dissonant, estranged,
and careless. For the most part. Even the ones who have their shit
together in the eyes of General Society, like, say, the alpha-prime
contestants on The Apprentice. "The young" are out to fucking
lunch, dislocated from intellectualism -and- emotion, but still
somehow (or something like) human. This is fact. They're the
products of fake-education, globalized American ephemera, and the
over-stimulating affects [intended with an "a"] of technology.
Strangely enough, they make good buddies, and they're often fun to
have sex with. (b) "It suggests their personalities are formed by
mass culture ... rather than by personal intricacies." That's
precisely what it suggests, but I personally don't find the
aesthetic in which this is couched in Hou's films to be banal --
nor, fascinatingly, condescending in the least. (c) "If this is how
Hou sees Taiwanese youth, I would be offended if I were one." Why
be offended? A squirt of zeitgeist up the nose never hurt a soul
-- otherwise we'd never have (even subconscious, which the best
usually are) "generational statements" in art. It's certainly the
way I see the average American youth. Adrift, noncognizant,
sedated, illiterate, obnoxious, crude, crass, super-sentimental,
sillily scientific, terminally facile "satellite slaves" (to quote
JLG in a removed-from-context way). And it's not going to get
better -- it's only gonna get pathetically worse until civilization
as the ancient Greeks and Northrop Frye understood it is
eradicated. The million exceptions to my crude caricature will
eventually dwindle to ten thousand and then a baker's dozen. The
free-market virus is only beginning its dread spread. We are -
doomed-. It's the other kids in the room with 'The Tiger of
Eschnapur' who are the dominant reality and whose mores are the
norm, not the person who put the disc in the player to begin with."
For me this post is very illuminating. Thank you for thoughtfully
pulling together several important issues so concisely. I was
reminded of "The Decline of the West," the three types in Spengler's
historical "morpholgy of peoples." The first stage, the primitive,
refers to the predessors of the world-historical cultures, the
imperial cultures which make up the second type. The fellahin (this
term originally refered to Arabic peasantry) is the third type and
refers in part to descendents of the primitives, those groups
marginalized by civilization during its ascendency who remain when a
culture, having risen to world dominance, ends its trajectory with a
gradual collapse. "Between the primitive and the fellah," he
writes, "lies the history of the great culture." In the aftermath of
civilization, "The residue is the fellah type" which occupies its
ruins. Spengler sets up an opposition between "the historical
peoples, whose existence is world history" on the one hand, and the
fellahin on the other, whose lives are postcivilization,
posthistorical. Whereas the lives of the former are imbued with the
meaning and depth legitimated by imperial culture, "life as
experienced by...fellahin peoples is just...a planless happening
without goal...wherin occurances are many, but, in the last analysis,
devoid of signification."
According to Spengler, a curious thing begins to happen when an
imperial culture goes into decline: the intelligensia, once leading
the nation's historic climb from the local and primitive to world
significance and imperial domination, gradually become "the spiritual
leaders of the fellahin." In their rejection of the grand narrative
of national destiny, these "cosmopolitan" intellectuals too begin to
accept that reality is "a planless happening without goal" in which
the significance of events is not guaranteed. In their self-concious
relativist recognition that their national narrative or myth is in
fact only one among many, neither unique nor divinely ordained, their
existence becomes "a being without depth." As the numbers of such
intellectuals increase, so is the ultimate demise of the culture
assured.
It seems to me that, in his recent films, Hou is showing the
transistion to the kind of Spenglarian postmodernism described above,
and, based on his interview, is one of Spenglar's cosmopolitans.
Richard
16210
From: Dan Sallitt
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 5:07pm
Subject: Re: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
> I haven't seen TABU for a long time. I wasn't able to see it at the
> Film Forum recently. But I remember liking the score, as well as
> loving the movie. But I should see it again in case my memory is
> deceiving me.
I'm probably a little more sensitive to music issues than I should be, but
the TABU score tended to point the way to a fairly simple emotional
schema: now happy! now sad.
> With the other Murnau films, I didn't find the live piano too obtrusive,
This is not the first time that I minded an accompaniment for CITY GIRL.
I think that film has a lot of emotional ambiguity that accompanists run
roughshot over.
But I didn't mind the same guy's accompaniment of FAUST. I guess it
depends on the film.
> At times I would have preferred Bruce Goldstein not try to act
> when he read the intertitles
This is a major problem for me. If the audience starts laughing at
his campy approach, he gets worse and worse.
> My understanding
> is that 'silent speed = 16 fps' is a myth. Hand cranked cameras were
> common, and DC powered, variable speed cameras and projectors were the
> norm throughout the silent era. Second run theaters would typically
> project films faster to fit in more shows per day. And projection
> speeds apparently increased toward the end of the silent era,
> approaching 24 fps. 16 fps creates a flickering effect on projectors
> with 2-bladed shutters, so it is likely films were projected faster
> for that reason alone.
This is an interesting issue. When I did research on 1910-1920 films for
the AFI, there was a reputable contemporary film magazine that published
(I think) music cues, and their standard header on the page (circa
1916-1918) was "1000 ft. = 14 minutes." I worked this out to between 19
and 20 frames a second. I wonder how standardized any of this was until
synchronized music tracks appeared.
I was happy with the projection speeds at the Murnau films, though. I
suspect we're used to thinking that silent films are pretty short, just
because of so much too-fast projection. - Dan
16211
From: Dave Garrett
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 5:33pm
Subject: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Dan Sallitt wrote:
> > My understanding
> > is that 'silent speed = 16 fps' is a myth. Hand cranked cameras were
> > common, and DC powered, variable speed cameras and projectors were the
> > norm throughout the silent era. Second run theaters would typically
> > project films faster to fit in more shows per day. And projection
> > speeds apparently increased toward the end of the silent era,
> > approaching 24 fps. 16 fps creates a flickering effect on projectors
> > with 2-bladed shutters, so it is likely films were projected faster
> > for that reason alone.
>
> This is an interesting issue. When I did research on 1910-1920 films for
> the AFI, there was a reputable contemporary film magazine that published
> (I think) music cues, and their standard header on the page (circa
> 1916-1918) was "1000 ft. = 14 minutes." I worked this out to between 19
> and 20 frames a second. I wonder how standardized any of this was until
> synchronized music tracks appeared.
>
> I was happy with the projection speeds at the Murnau films, though. I
> suspect we're used to thinking that silent films are pretty short, just
> because of so much too-fast projection. - Dan
There are quite a few articles concerning the thorny issue of silent film speed linked at:
http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/#March1998
Dave
16212
From: hotlove666
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:03pm
Subject: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "thebradstevens"
wrote:
>
> Charles Laughton actually directed parts of another film: THE MAN
ON
> THE EIFFEL TOWER.
Just pickups in Paris exteriors -- they are reminiscent of Feuillade!
16213
From: hotlove666
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:09pm
Subject: Last Laugh (Was: Licensing From Studios)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Dan Sallitt wrote:
I asked Murnau expert Janet Bergstrom -- she says there's no reason
to think the happy ending was imposed on murnau.
16214
From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:10pm
Subject: Re: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
Don't forget Peter Lorre's "Der Verlorne"!
Amazing film.
--- hotlove666 wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "thebradstevens"
> wrote:
>
> >
> > Charles Laughton actually directed parts of
> another film: THE MAN
> ON
> > THE EIFFEL TOWER.
>
> Just pickups in Paris exteriors -- they are
> reminiscent of Feuillade!
>
>
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16215
From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:12pm
Subject: News Item from 49 Years Ago
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/30/newsid_3722000/3722463.stm
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16216
From: hotlove666
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:15pm
Subject: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, David Ehrenstein
wrote:
> Don't forget Peter Lorre's "Der Verlorne"!
> Amazing film.
>
And John Parker's Dementia (1955), up there with Carnival.
16217
From: hotlove666
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:16pm
Subject: Looking for 2 films
Anyone know where some documentarians can find hvs tapes, and perhaps
prints of
The Big Pond 1930 Hobart Henley
Only Yesterday 1933 John Stahl?
16218
From: Andy Rector
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:58pm
Subject: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
> I like it a lot but wish the ending was darker and more hard-
hitting.
> I feel the same about ON DANGEROUS GROUND, but there you can kind
of
> imagine it with the studio ending simply removed and Ray's bleaker
> finish in place.
>
> For me, Dassin really kicks in with the magnificent NAKED CITY, and
> my favourite is NIGHT AND THE CITY. Also love TOPKAPI.
Speaking of endings, I wonder about Brute Force's ending, with the
priest apologizing for everything we've just been shown, "why do they
do it?"... Regardless as to whether or not it was imposed on Dassin
it's so incongruously tacked on that it proves itself wrong as
ideological wrangling, perhaps to the films benefit! I think there
are other instances of this but I can't think of any right now.
yours,
andy
16219
From: Robert Keser
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 7:05pm
Subject: Re: Looking for 2 films
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:
> Anyone know where some documentarians can find hvs tapes, and
perhaps
> prints of
>
> The Big Pond 1930 Hobart Henley
> Only Yesterday 1933 John Stahl?
If we're talking "gray-market" copies, then both of these are
available through (I think!) Forgotten Hollywood, which has no
website but always advertises in CLASSIC IMAGES. I have ONLY
YESTERDAY from them and it's not bad quality at all.
Incidentally, the very helpful R.D. Mitchell of Darker Image has VHS
copies of several auteurist holy grails, including MARKETA LAZAROVA,
THE EXILE, SHOCKPROOF, 13TH LETTER, THE FAN, FIRST LEGION, PARK ROW,
WAY OF A GAUCHO, UNE SI JOLIE PETITE PLAGE, plus lots and lots of
mystery-themed series (LONE WOLF, CRIME DOCTOR, MR. MOTO, etc.)
Supposedly he's going to offer tapes of Sternberg's THUNDERBOLT soon.
(Again, no web presence but people can order the catalogue at
Darkerimagevid@w...).
--Robert Keser
16220
From: Andy Rector
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 7:06pm
Subject: Re: Lang's secret cinema
"Damien Bona" wrote:
> From experience, I fully agree with Maxime that there is a huge
> dichotomy between the films most people consider best and those
> favored by auteurists.
I still agree with Maxime in her orginal email when she echoed
Rivette statement:
"The evidence on the screen is the proof of Hawks's genius: you only
have to watch Monkey Business to know that it is a brilliant film.
Some people refuse to admit this, however; they refuse to be
satisfied by proof. There can't be any other reason why they don't
recognize it."
best,
andy
16221
From: thebradstevens
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 7:11pm
Subject: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
"Don't forget Peter Lorre's "Der Verlorne"!"
Don't know how I managed to forget that one!
Thomas McGuane's 92 IN THE SHADE is also remarkable.
16222
From: Damien Bona
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:01pm
Subject: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
Brad, do you know the titles of any of his other films? IMDb only
lists "Jammin' The Blues."
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "thebradstevens"
wrote:
> "Gjon Mili's extraordinary "Jammin' The Blues."
>
> Mili has actually directed several films. I believe they are all
> concerned with jazz.
16223
From: Kevin Lee
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:16pm
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
This has been one of the best discussions I've read on this board, at
least as far as the thoughtfulness-per-post ratio goes.
Somehow Richard's discussion of Spengler got me thinking not just of
Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Taiwanese cinema, but of the Italian postwar neo-
realist movement and its aftermath. I consider Rossellini and
Visconti to be the kind of "cosmopolitan intellectual" types Richard
is describing (in the best sense of the term, mind you). I think
that they, like Hou allegedly is doing, ultimately rejected
the "grand narrative of national destiny" (a narrative that they
helped forge in cinematic terms, from OPEN CITY onwards). What's
interesting to me is that they began establishing and exploring that
grand narrative though films set in contemporary conditions, and it
was only in the historical films that they developed a more self-
conscious and auto-critical approach to understanding the forces that
shape the destiny of their culture (i.e. RISE OF LOUIS XIV, THE
LEOPARD, THE DAMNED).
One thing I want to point out Richard is that you describe Spengler's
model as intended to apply to "imperial culture" and yet we are
discussing Hou and Taiwan, which isn't an "imperial" culture in the
same sense as Britain, Japan or the U.S. But it's become interesting
and bizarre among "third world" societies how the global economy has
disseminated a certain attitude towards one's domestic culture, in
how its relevance is defined under a projected vision of its global
marketplace value. Last night the Daily Show ran a segment on how
Taiwan has created a Barbie Museum memorializing their nation's
special relationship with the Barbie myth (apparently now
globalized): they hosted one of the very first foreign sweatshops for
Mattel back in the '60s! The museum actually displays the assembly
line tools that workers used to handmake one anatomically incorrect
female figure after another for 18 hours. But I guess this wouldn't
be the first time that Chinese society has commemorated the
exploitation of its own people -- The Barbie Museum can stand proud
next to the Great Wall.
So maybe this accounts for how Spengler's theories of imperialist
cultural decline might apply to a non-imperialist culture, in that
the line between imperalist and non-imperialist has effectively
dissolved under the spectre of globalization. This is the new order
Hou and other filmmakers around the world have to deal with, because
its what their own people have to deal with. Ian can correct me if
I'm mistaken, but I've heard that there's been a continual drain of
advanced labor and capital from Taiwan to other countries in Asia and
elsewhere where there is more growth and more opportunities. Taiwan
is not a self-sufficient nation and its interdependence on other
countries (not the least of which is China) has profound
ramifications on their concept of nationhood, not to mention cinema
(Maybe an appreciation of these issues is partly what separates
Edward Yang's admirers from his detractors). Is this 21st century
global interdependence, and its impact on domestic cultures, really
the same as the condition Spengler is describing?
All the same, Spengler's distinction of history vs. post-history
can't help but be relevant to defining Hou's artistic trajectory. I
can't think of another contemporary filmmaker who has explored the
idea of history as deeply as HHH. MILLENNIUM MAMBO is not one of my
favorite of his films, but I think he's challenging himself to
reconsider his whole approach to history by minimizing the mitigating
buffer of hindsight. But I don't know if this is the same as saying
that Hou has abandoned a historical approach to filmmaking -- it's
this historical perspective that Shu Qi's character has cultivated
over the course of MILLENIUM MAMBO, which one might even describe as
her saving grace.
I'm also asking myself, why have I never seen an Iranian historical
period film? Do they exist? Are they involved with myth-making, or
myth-breaking?
But there is still a lot of historicizing going on, witness two major
popular epics from Asia that were released in NYC last month,
BANGRAJAN from Thailand and TAE GUK GI from Korea. It's worth noting
that there are a couple of films from the Middle East that are
grappling with the histories of their regions playing at the NY Film
Festival: the Lebanese IN THE BATTLEFIELDS and the four hour
Palestinian epic THE GATE OF THE SUN.
And it will be fascinating to take Craig and Gabe's reflections on
how our generation of up-and-comers are to be defined when I see
Hou's CAFE LUMIERE and Jia Zhangke's THE WORLD in the same week. Jia
is one of the few young filmmakers in the world who seems to share
Hou's preoccupation with history. The irony is that middle-aged Hou
seems increasingly enamored with the youngsters, while Jia in UNKNOWN
PLEASURES seems ambivalent and somewhat alienated with people only 10
years younger than he is -- the film is so much more despairing and
palpably outraged with how youth are spending their lives. (Gabe, I
don't suppose you is any more enamored of Jia's films than with
recent Hou, even though Jia is more palpably political?)
Kevin
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Modiano"
wrote:
> For me this post is very illuminating. Thank you for thoughtfully
> pulling together several important issues so concisely. I was
> reminded of "The Decline of the West," the three types in
Spengler's
> historical "morpholgy of peoples." The first stage, the primitive,
> refers to the predessors of the world-historical cultures, the
> imperial cultures which make up the second type. The fellahin
(this
> term originally refered to Arabic peasantry) is the third type and
> refers in part to descendents of the primitives, those groups
> marginalized by civilization during its ascendency who remain when
a
> culture, having risen to world dominance, ends its trajectory with
a
> gradual collapse. "Between the primitive and the fellah," he
> writes, "lies the history of the great culture." In the aftermath
of
> civilization, "The residue is the fellah type" which occupies its
> ruins. Spengler sets up an opposition between "the historical
> peoples, whose existence is world history" on the one hand, and the
> fellahin on the other, whose lives are postcivilization,
> posthistorical. Whereas the lives of the former are imbued with
the
> meaning and depth legitimated by imperial culture, "life as
> experienced by...fellahin peoples is just...a planless happening
> without goal...wherin occurances are many, but, in the last
analysis,
> devoid of signification."
>
> According to Spengler, a curious thing begins to happen when an
> imperial culture goes into decline: the intelligensia, once leading
> the nation's historic climb from the local and primitive to world
> significance and imperial domination, gradually become "the
spiritual
> leaders of the fellahin." In their rejection of the grand
narrative
> of national destiny, these "cosmopolitan" intellectuals too begin
to
> accept that reality is "a planless happening without goal" in which
> the significance of events is not guaranteed. In their self-
concious
> relativist recognition that their national narrative or myth is in
> fact only one among many, neither unique nor divinely ordained,
their
> existence becomes "a being without depth." As the numbers of such
> intellectuals increase, so is the ultimate demise of the culture
> assured.
>
> It seems to me that, in his recent films, Hou is showing the
> transistion to the kind of Spenglarian postmodernism described
above,
> and, based on his interview, is one of Spenglar's cosmopolitans.
>
> Richard
16224
From: Kevin Lee
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:40pm
Subject: Gen Y mise-en-scene (was Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Craig Keller
wrote:
With Vicky's
> and Hao-hao's apartment, Hou achieves a kind of "realistic"
domestic
> perfection that I've only glimpsed in two other films so far this
> decade, for reasons too numerous to relate -- the mansion at the
end of
> 'Crimson Gold' and Barry's house in 'Punch-Drunk Love' -- but Hou's
> apartment has an atmosphere that seems to be definitively and
fluidly
> representative of a late-teen/20-something space, maybe in large
part
> because, production-design aside (and that's a large part in and of
> itself), if we're seeing it from a north angle most of the time in
the
> film, we rarely see it from a south angle, and it thus seems even
more
> tableau-like, more announcing of something "writ large" -- I don't
> know. What more can I say? I sensed what I'm feeling when I saw
Shu
> Qi light a candle.
You've really got me thinking about this one. (And what a great way
to galvanize a new generation of auteurs -- maybe mise-en-scene is
where it's at after all). I'd nominate Jeong Jae-Eun's TAKE CARE OF
MY CAT, where the lifestyles of different friends (and their
impending separation) are illustrated by the contrast of their living
environments. And UNKNOWN PLEASURES, I think. (But how much of all
of the above is really attributable to the groundwork laid by Wong
Kar-Wai?)
LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE definitely had some memorable interior
clutter (best thing about the whole movie imo). Also Eric Byler's
CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES. Do the high school hallways in ELEPHANT qualify?
I can't think of any recent Hollywood movies that show teens/young
adults in a convincingly authentic living environment (though I
haven't seen as many as others may have). Certainly not MEAN GIRLS.
I honestly can't remember what Barry/Sandler's apartment looked like
(though there are other visuals from PDL that have stayed with me).
Kevin
16225
From: thebradstevens
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:18pm
Subject: Re: "auteurism" is in the mise en scene
"Brad, do you know the titles of any of his other films?"
I don't, but I was looking through some jazz videos recently and
noticed Milli credited as a director on at least one of them. I'll
try to find the title for you.
16226
From: hotlove666
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:26pm
Subject: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Andy Rector"
wrote:
>
> Speaking of endings, I wonder about Brute Force's ending,
with the
> priest apologizing for everything we've just been shown, "why
do they
> do it?"... Regardless as to whether or not it was imposed on
Dassin
> it's so incongruously tacked on that it proves itself wrong as
> ideological wrangling, perhaps to the films benefit! I think there
> are other instances of this but I can't think of any right now.
>
> yours,
> andy
Most of Lang's endings, but they aren't really tacked on. The
ending of Moonfleet is a good example. The last line of The Big
Heat is "Keep the coffee hot."
16227
From: Paul Gallagher
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:26pm
Subject: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Dan Sallitt wrote:
> > I haven't seen TABU for a long time. I wasn't able to see it at the
> > Film Forum recently. But I remember liking the score, as well as
> > loving the movie. But I should see it again in case my memory is
> > deceiving me.
>
> I'm probably a little more sensitive to music issues than I should
be, but
> the TABU score tended to point the way to a fairly simple emotional
> schema: now happy! now sad.
According to Anthony Slide in the Fall '99 Film Quarterly, George O'Brien
told him that O'Brien's father paid for the score to TABU, and
Murnau was driving from his house after repaying the debt when he was
killed in the car crash.
People might be interested in a question I asked about the fate of "4
Devils" on alt.movies.silent. It's almost certainly a false rumor, but
it's a good story.
http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=cib5gd%24em5%241%40reader1.panix.com
> > At times I would have preferred Bruce Goldstein not try to act
> > when he read the intertitles
>
> This is a major problem for me. If the audience starts laughing at
> his campy approach, he gets worse and worse.
>
I'm tempted to take the bus to Boston to see one day of the Murnau
retrospective there, and to find out how they handle the accompaniment
and narration. But I probably won't -- I'm not a true Cinemaniac,
alas...
Paul
16228
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:31pm
Subject: Re: Lang's secret cinema
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Andy Rector"
wrote:
> "Damien Bona" wrote:
> > From experience, I fully agree with Maxime that there is a huge
> > dichotomy between the films most people consider best and those
> > favored by auteurists.
>
> I still agree with Maxime in her orginal email when she echoed
> Rivette statement:
> "The evidence on the screen is the proof of Hawks's genius: you
only
> have to watch Monkey Business to know that it is a brilliant film.
> Some people refuse to admit this, however; they refuse to be
> satisfied by proof. There can't be any other reason why they don't
> recognize it."
>
> best,
> andy
Rivette wrote brilliant articles but I don't see the necessity of
always quoting his notoriously tautological and meaningless remark
about Hawks's genius. His statement was simply another way of
saying :"Hawks is a genius because he is a genius." Or "He is a
genius because his film is great." Or "His film is great because he
is a genius." Rivette's pseudo argument that "you only have to watch
Monkey Business to know that it is a brilliant film" could just as
well (or as poorly) apply to any film (or any work of art) that you
think is a brilliant film or work of art. If you don't, then
watching it will prove nothing of the sort. Proof is in the eye of
the beholder. No one "refuses" to be satisfied by proof, they just
don't see any "proof". I can't think of a more solipsistic statement
than Rivette's. I'm sure he distanced himself from it later on. That
was just the way auteurists spoke and wrote back then.
JPC
16229
From: hotlove666
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:34pm
Subject: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Gallagher"
wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Dan Sallitt
wrote:
> > > I haven't seen TABU for a long time. I wasn't able to see it at
the
> > > Film Forum recently. But I remember liking the score, as
well as
> > > loving the movie. But I should see it again in case my
memory is
> > > deceiving me.
> >
> > I'm probably a little more sensitive to music issues than I
should
> be, but
> > the TABU score tended to point the way to a fairly simple
emotional
> > schema: now happy! now sad.
>
> According to Anthony Slide in the Fall '99 Film Quarterly,
George O'Brien
> told him that O'Brien's father paid for the score to TABU, and
> Murnau was driving from his house after repaying the debt
when he was
> killed in the car crash.
>
> People might be interested in a question I asked about the fate
of "4
> Devils" on alt.movies.silent. It's almost certainly a false rumor,
but
> it's a good story.
Again let me refer you to Janet Bergstrom's scholarly
investigations of Murnau, now available on 2 DVDs -- Tabu and
an evocation of 4 Devils using the extensive production stills
collection (not to be confused, of course, with frame
enlargements). The fate of the star's print of 4D is dealt with in
the commentary.
16230
From: hotlove666
Date: Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:36pm
Subject: Re: Lang's secret cinema
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "jpcoursodon"
wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Andy Rector"
> wrote:
> > "The evidence on the screen is the proof of Hawks's genius:
you
> only
> > have to watch Monkey Business to know that it is a brilliant
film.
> > Some people refuse to admit this, however; they refuse to be
> > satisfied by proof. There can't be any other reason why they
don't
> > recognize it."
> >
> > best,
> > andy
>
> Rivette wrote brilliant articles but I don't see the necessity of
> always quoting his notoriously tautological and meaningless
remark
> about Hawks's genius.
Daney's Rio Lobo: Viellese du Meme draws interesting
conclusions from the apparent tautology.
16231
From: Dan Sallitt
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 0:19am
Subject: Re: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
> People might be interested in a question I asked about the fate of "4
> Devils" on alt.movies.silent. It's almost certainly a false rumor, but
> it's a good story.
> http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=cib5gd%24em5%241%40reader1.panix.com
I heard the boat version of the story, but in my version Duncan dunped the
print overboard because she was upset with her performance.
But...that TV Guide review sounds as if someone actually saw the film!
They have the plot right, and their evaluation of the film even echoes the
consensus of the old reviews. I suppose they could be faking it, but
they'd have to have done a fair amount of research to do so. - Dan
16232
From: Craig Keller
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 0:41am
Subject: Re: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
> But...that TV Guide review sounds as if someone actually saw the film!
> They have the plot right, and their evaluation of the film even echoes
> the
> consensus of the old reviews. I suppose they could be faking it, but
> they'd have to have done a fair amount of research to do so. - Dan
TV Guide has a section every week now called Classics To Watch or
something, which lists four must-see movies for the week, and pretty
much oscillates exclusively between TCM and Fox Movie Channel (which
isn't a bad thing at all -- although if I recall, Fox cuts their
screenings up with commercials -- been a year or so since I tuned there
so I could be wrong) -- and their picks aren't the same old same old.
In this latest issue: blurbs on 'Dragonwyck,' 'The Cameraman,' 'Panic
in the Streets,' and '3:10 to Yuma.'
According to The Randi Rhoads Show today on Air America -- Fox News is
controlling the feed for tonight's debate -- it was their turn in "the
camera pool." They've already released a statement saying they're
wiping their asses with the "no reaction-shot" rule ostensibly
traditionally adhered to. Look for cuts to Kerry whenever he smirks,
and cuts to Bush whenever he's looking "presidential."
craig.
16233
From: iangjohnston
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 1:33am
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Kevin Lee"
wrote:
Ian can correct me if
> I'm mistaken, but I've heard that there's been a continual drain
of
> advanced labor and capital from Taiwan to other countries in Asia
and
> elsewhere where there is more growth and more opportunities.
Taiwan
> is not a self-sufficient nation and its interdependence on other
> countries (not the least of which is China) has profound
> ramifications on their concept of nationhood, not to mention
cinema
There has been this drain of capital and "advanced labour"
(particularly in the sense of capitalist entrepreneurs) out of
Taiwan, but also an influx of cheap manual labour from poorer
countries in the region (Thailand, Indonesia, the Phillippines).
This growing economic interdependence (not unique to Taiwan, of
course) has coincided with an increasing cultural recognition (to
which Hou's earlier films contributed) of a distinct "Taiwanese"
identity; but the NLR discussion shows how threatening this
assertion of "Taiwanese-ness" can be to some.
Were you thinking of something specific in terms of the
ramifications on Taiwanese cinema? Taiwanese art cinema auteurs'
increasing reliance on overseas co-producers (French, Japanese)
seems more of an international phenomenon, and there surely won't be
any Taiwan-PRC co-productions, simply for political reasons. Which
means at least there isn't the kind of pressure that's exerted on
Hong Kong films (see the latest Film Comment for more on this).
Ian
16234
From: George Robinson
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 1:37am
Subject: Re: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
No commercials on Fox Movie Channel.
g
Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor,
never the victim. Silence encourages the
tormentor, never the tormented.
--Elie Wiesel
----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Keller"
To:
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2004 8:41 PM
Subject: Re: [a_film_by] Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
> > But...that TV Guide review sounds as if someone actually saw the film!
> > They have the plot right, and their evaluation of the film even echoes
> > the
> > consensus of the old reviews. I suppose they could be faking it, but
> > they'd have to have done a fair amount of research to do so. - Dan
>
> TV Guide has a section every week now called Classics To Watch or
> something, which lists four must-see movies for the week, and pretty
> much oscillates exclusively between TCM and Fox Movie Channel (which
> isn't a bad thing at all -- although if I recall, Fox cuts their
> screenings up with commercials -- been a year or so since I tuned there
> so I could be wrong) -- and their picks aren't the same old same old.
> In this latest issue: blurbs on 'Dragonwyck,' 'The Cameraman,' 'Panic
> in the Streets,' and '3:10 to Yuma.'
>
> According to The Randi Rhoads Show today on Air America -- Fox News is
> controlling the feed for tonight's debate -- it was their turn in "the
> camera pool." They've already released a statement saying they're
> wiping their asses with the "no reaction-shot" rule ostensibly
> traditionally adhered to. Look for cuts to Kerry whenever he smirks,
> and cuts to Bush whenever he's looking "presidential."
>
> craig.
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
16235
From: Damien Bona
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 2:08am
Subject: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Dan Sallitt wrote:
>
> This is not the first time that I minded an accompaniment for CITY
GIRL.
> I think that film has a lot of emotional ambiguity that
accompanists run
> roughshot over.
When I saw "City Girl" at the Walter Reade several years ago, there
was no musical accompaniament -- it was extraordinarily distracting
because you could then hear every other noise in the auditorium.
Worst of all, some codger fell asleep and was snoring, and each time
one of us woke him up, off again he went.
> > My understanding
> > is that 'silent speed = 16 fps' is a myth. Hand cranked cameras
were
> > common, and DC powered, variable speed cameras and projectors
were the
> > norm throughout the silent era. Second run theaters would
typically
> > project films faster to fit in more shows per day. And projection
> > speeds apparently increased toward the end of the silent era,
> > approaching 24 fps. 16 fps creates a flickering effect on
projectors
> > with 2-bladed shutters, so it is likely films were projected
faster
> > for that reason alone.
I'm not technically adept to know exactly what the fps was, but I
remember seeing a minor Ford film, Riley The Cop, at MoMA back in the
70s and being amazed at seeing a silent in which people's movements
were just like they did in contemporary films -- it was a true
revelation, and made me appreciate Riley The Cop as if it were Young
Mr. Lincoln.
16236
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 2:59am
Subject: Re: Lang's secret cinema
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:
.
>
> Daney's Rio Lobo: Viellese du Meme draws interesting
> conclusions from the apparent tautology.
Not "apparent", Bill. I don't care what Daney said (I'm sure it
was "brilliant"). I'm talking about what Rivette said (which was,
I'm sorry, pretty dumb). . But I'll look Daney up (I have the issue
and read the article 30 years ago -- or is it 35?).
16237
From: Richard Modiano
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 3:04am
Subject: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Damien Bona"
wrote:
"I'm not technically adept to know exactly what the fps was, but I
remember seeing a minor Ford film, Riley The Cop, at MoMA back in the
70s and being amazed at seeing a silent in which people's movements
were just like they did in contemporary films -- it was a true
revelation, and made me appreciate Riley The Cop as if it were Young
Mr. Lincoln."
RILEY THE COP (1928) was shot at sound speed with music and sound
effects, and it was screened that way at UCLA at the 1994 Ford
retrospective. At the same retro UCLA screened the silent version of
MEN WITOUT WOMEN (1930)which was shot and screened at sound speed.
Richard
16238
From: Paul Gallagher
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 3:04am
Subject: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Damien Bona"
wrote:
>
> When I saw "City Girl" at the Walter Reade several years ago, there
> was no musical accompaniament -- it was extraordinarily distracting
> because you could then hear every other noise in the auditorium.
> Worst of all, some codger fell asleep and was snoring, and each
time
> one of us woke him up, off again he went.
>
I've been noticing the mice at the Walter Reade and the Film Forum
lately. I don't mind. I like the little guys.
I've gotten to like silents with no musical accompaniment. I don't
really notice noise in the theater. (In fact I just saw "Goodbye
Dragon Inn" today -- my hope from now on is that Kuei-Mei Yang will
crawl into the seat next to me, eating peanuts.)
>
> I'm not technically adept to know exactly what the fps was, but I
> remember seeing a minor Ford film, Riley The Cop, at MoMA back in
the
> 70s and being amazed at seeing a silent in which people's movements
> were just like they did in contemporary films -- it was a true
> revelation, and made me appreciate Riley The Cop as if it were
Young
> Mr. Lincoln.
One of the first silents I saw, Gance's "Napoléon," the 1981 Kevin
Brownlow/Coppola restored version with the live orchestra, was
projected at 24 fps and obviously much too fast.
Paul
16239
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 3:07am
Subject: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
>
> When I saw "City Girl" at the Walter Reade several years ago,
there
> was no musical accompaniament -- it was extraordinarily
distracting
> because you could then hear every other noise in the auditorium.
> Worst of all, some codger fell asleep and was snoring, and each
time
> one of us woke him up, off again he went.
>
A historical note: the Cinematheque in Paris in the fifties and
sixties (and probably later) didn't even have a piano and showed all
silent films without any musical accompaniment. Generations of film
buffs, including myself and all the Cahiers critics, never saw a
silent movie with music. JPC
16240
From: Fred Camper
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 3:27am
Subject: Re: Re: Was Douglas Sirk gay?
One of our members wrote to Tony Rayns, and here's his reply:
************************************************************
From Tony Rayns:
If rumours about Sirk's sexuality 'originated' from me, that would be
from lectures I gave in Lincoln (Nebraska) and at the Art Inst of
Chicago in the mid-1980s. The late Murray Grigor (Edinburgh Film Fest)
and his wife became very friendly with Sirk and his wife during and
after the Edinburgh retrospective of Sirk's films in the 1970s. Barbara
Grigor told me that Sirk's wife was writing a book which was going to
be entirely frank about her husband's bisexuality and affairs with men,
but I have no knowledge that this book ever reached print. Of Sirk's
bisexuality, there is no doubt: it was the basis of his improbable
friendship with Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the late 1970s.
************************************************************
I can't independently verify this, but I have no reason to doubt it. I
don't think in most cases you can tell a director's sexual orientation
from his films, but it doesn't surprise me based on his films that Sirk
was attracted to both men and women.
The words "gay" and "bi" are fraught with multiple meanings. I know a
lesbian who has sex with men but insists she's lesbian because she's
most attracted to women. I know "bi" people who have both attractions
but insist on "bi" or something similar even though they say one of
their attractions is the stronger. I still don't think we should call
Sirk a "gay auteur," or even a "bi auteur," especially in short blurbs,
partly because unless the case is clear-cut -- someone who is "only" gay
-- the grayer areas are harder to define with single words, and also
partly for the reasons David Ehrenstein gave.
Fred Camper
16241
From: Noel Vera
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 4:07am
Subject: Blockbuster Online's misleading website
http://journals.aol.com/noelbotevera/MyJournal/entries/559
16242
From:
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 0:10am
Subject: Re: Re: Lang's secret cinema
In a message dated 9/30/04 6:36:23 PM, jpcoursodon@y... writes:
>
> Rivette wrote brilliant articles but I don't see the necessity of
> always quoting his notoriously tautological and meaningless remark
> about Hawks's genius.
>
Comme d'habitude, a ray of light from the hurricanes-hopefully-behind-him M.
Coursodon. Thank you!
Kevin John
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
16243
From: Richard Modiano
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 4:32am
Subject: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "jpcoursodon"
wrote:
"A historical note: the Cinematheque in Paris in the fifties and
sixties (and probably later) didn't even have a piano and showed all
silent films without any musical accompaniment. Generations of film
buffs, including myself and all the Cahiers critics, never saw a
silent movie with music."
The situation was a little different in the US, at least in Los
Angeles. The Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Ave. opened in 1942 and
often (though not always)had piano accompaniment with its
screenings. I went there in the late 1950s with my grandparents on
Sunday afternoons and remember the piano music. In the late 1960s
there wasn't always musical accompaniment at the screenings but the
original owners hadn't completely abandoned it. And I read or heard
about music accompanying screenings at MOMA in the 1940s and after.
Either William K. Everson mentioned it or I read in an article by
Paul Goodman talking about Griffith pictures he'd seen at MOMA.
Certainly by the 1960s it was more common to score silent pictures;
Gaylord Carter the organist had a reputation here for his live
performances and even cut an album of his "Music for Silent Movies"
in 1965 (I used to have it.)
Richard
16245
From:
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 1:45am
Subject: Re: Re: Head in the Clouds (auteurists versus audience)
To return to Dan's original topic, I note that J.R. Jones selects "Head in
the Clouds" as a Critic's Choice in this week's Chicago Reader. Also, aren't
there a few John Duigan fans on this list? I seem to remember Zach being an
admirer of some of Duigan's work. All of this is to say that I wouldn't be
surprised in the least if Dan was right about this one.
Interesting take on Attenborough, Bill. I know I must have seen some of his
films over the years, but I don't think I paid much attention to them on a
formal level. But if you say he has some classical mise-en-scene going on, he's
probably worth another look. By coincidence, "In Love and War" is on cable
tomorrow afternoon. Worth watching?
Peter
16246
From:
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 1:55am
Subject: Re: Re: Film Forum Noir (NYC)
Let's not forget Rafelson, a modern noir specialist on the basis of "The
Postman Always Rings Twice," "Black Widow," "Blood and Wine," and "No Good Deed."
Peter
16247
From: Samuel Bréan
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 6:16am
Subject: Cinémathèque & silents (Was: Re: Intention)
>From: "jpcoursodon"
> A historical note: the Cinematheque in Paris in the fifties and
>sixties (and probably later) didn't even have a piano and showed all
>silent films without any musical accompaniment. Generations of film
>buffs, including myself and all the Cahiers critics, never saw a
>silent movie with music. JPC
It is still the case today. The Cinematheque is one of the few venues in
Paris where silents are shown without musical accompaniment: the Forum des
Images, the Centre Pompidou, the Auditorium du Louvre, etc., all show
silents with music, although I sometimes regret the emphasis put on the
accompaniment. These screenings are thus often more expensive. Jean-François
Rauger, the programmer of the Cinematheque, told me that the absence of
music was due to the cost of musicians. As far as ticket prizes go, I'm OK
with that attitude! (As a matter of fact, there IS a piano in Chaillot, but
it is never used.)
Samuel.
_________________________________________________________________
MSN Search, le moteur de recherche qui pense comme vous !
http://search.msn.fr/
16248
From: Damien Bona
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 6:58am
Subject: Re: Head in the Clouds (auteurists versus audience)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, ptonguette@a... wrote:
> To return to Dan's original topic, I note that J.R. Jones
selects "Head in
> the Clouds" as a Critic's Choice in this week's Chicago Reader.
Also, aren't
> there a few John Duigan fans on this list? I seem to remember Zach
being an
> admirer of some of Duigan's work. All of this is to say that I
wouldn't be
> surprised in the least if Dan was right about this one.
>
Zach and I saw the film this afternoon, apparently its last day in
New York after a 2-week run. We both liked it -- Zach's overall a
bigger Duigan fan than I, and I'll let him speak for himself. But
for me, Head In The Clouds is structurally gloriously old-fashioned
with its pacing decidedly pre-MTV/pre-Bruckheimer, and its theme of
the potentially conflicting/potentially complementing spheres of
personal fulfillment and social obligations very nicely realized.
What elevates it is Duigan's emphasis on carnality as an expression
of self -- he's a more genteel Catherine Breillat, but sex is just as
integral to his world view.
Some of the dialogue (Duigan wrote the script) is clunky, and
Charlize Thereon is pretty hopelss, but I highly recommend the film.
It's unabashedly romantic, and for me, at least, any movie that is
set primarily in Paris and deals with both the Spanish Civil War and
the French Resistance is pure catnip.
-- Damien
16249
From: hotlove666
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 10:20am
Subject: Re: Head in the Clouds (auteurists versus audience)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, ptonguette@a... wrote:
"In Love and War" is on cable
> tomorrow afternoon. Worth watching?
>
> Peter
It's a watchable historical meller -- I wrote the presskit, so I may
be prejudiced. The convincers, if you get a chance, are Bridge and
Magic.
16250
From: hotlove666
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 10:22am
Subject: Re: Film Forum Noir (NYC)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, ptonguette@a... wrote:
> Let's not forget Rafelson, a modern noir specialist on the basis
of "The
> Postman Always Rings Twice," "Black Widow," "Blood and Wine,"
and "No Good Deed."
>
> Peter
Amen to that. Let me add the little-known Caught written by my old
friewnd Ed Pomerantz, very well directed by Robert Young amd starring
a surprising Maria Conchit Alonso.
16251
From: samfilms2003
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 1:55pm
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
I have to confess there are nuances - nuances hell, there are broad
strokes of Taiwanese politics that are likely escaping me here.
I'll look for the New Left Review article.
Meantime of the top of my head I do have to say, re "Millennium Mambo"
and maybe (aspects of) "Good Men, Good Women", well I don't neccessarily
look to "The Devil, Probably" for a 'film about youth' nor to "Au Hasard,
Balthazar" for a film about 'a donkey' or animal rights.....
-Sam
16252
From: Zach Campbell
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 1:56pm
Subject: Re: Head in the Clouds (auteurists versus audience)
HEAD IN THE CLOUDS is worth seeing, but if Damien's correct it will
only be "worth seeing" on DVD now. There are some clear
shortcomings with the film, but I think it's merits are pretty
obvious too -- one needn't look too hard for a secret film beneath.
(Tabula rasa spoilers follow; I'm giving away only small vague
points.)
The film essentially telescopes the moral dilemma around the end of
CASABLANCA (and replies a bit to THE ENGLISH PATIENT). We've got an
American playgirl (Theron), a beautiful Spaniard (Cruz), and an
Irish do-gooder (Townshend). There's a love triangle presented with
a refreshingly libertine twist (Duigan is one of Anglocentric
narrative cinema's more unpuritanical voices), and the tension
between these commingling energies channels into a narrative on war
and moral responsibility. Townshend and Cruz have a social
conscience vis-a-vis the Spanish Civil War; Theron does not. Shit
goes down, WWII comes, and some things change between all the
characters. I would have liked to have seen Theron handled
differently in the final reel or two, but otherwise it's an
intelligent story that explores how irrational personal feelings
butt up against rational sociopolitical convictions.
Another note: this film's photography and production design are lush
in that Oscar-winning way. What's kind of interesting is that all
the lavishness of the early scenes makes the war scenes (which still
retain a certain amount of purely photographic beauty) appear truly
uncomfortable and uncomforting by comparison. Usually war, in this
kind of prestige film, is shown as "harrowing" in the most beautiful
way. I wouldn't say HEAD IN THE CLOUDS is particularly subversive
or revolutionary in its depiction of warfare and wartime conditions,
but I think it does an above-average job of presenting a certain
bleakness and inescapable tragedy that many films gloss over or
romanticize. This film's romanticization of war exists only to the
extent that it acknowledges the satisfaction of backing up
convictions--a good point of comparison would be Loach's LAND AND
FREEDOM.
There is some clunky dialogue, the acting is never revelatory
(though Cruz was quite decent), the film certainly obeys a lot of
storytelling conventions for the early autumn historical prestige
picture, though it's beautiful this isn't quite cinema in Fred
Camper's sense ... but it's a good mainstream movie that's pretty
smart and honest about love, sex, and politics. I like it enough to
say it might even hover around the bottom of my year-end list.
--Zach
16253
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 3:12pm
Subject: Re: Lang's secret cinema
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, LiLiPUT1@a... wrote:
>
> In a message dated 9/30/04 6:36:23 PM, jpcoursodon@y... writes:
>
>
> >
> > Rivette wrote brilliant articles but I don't see the necessity
of
> > always quoting his notoriously tautological and meaningless
remark
> > about Hawks's genius.
> >
>
> Comme d'habitude, a ray of light from the hurricanes-hopefully-
behind-him M.
> Coursodon. Thank you!
>
> Kevin John
>
> Auteurists who take auteurism with a grain of salt are protected
by (or from) the Fates. The hurricanes spared us completely!
JPC
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
16254
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 3:23pm
Subject: Cinémathèque & silents (Was: Re: Intention)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Samuel Bréan
wrote:
> >From: "jpcoursodon"
>
> > A historical note: the Cinematheque in Paris in the fifties and
> >sixties (and probably later) didn't even have a piano and showed
all
> >silent films without any musical accompaniment. Generations of
film
> >buffs, including myself and all the Cahiers critics, never saw a
> >silent movie with music. JPC
>
>
> It is still the case today. The Cinematheque is one of the few
venues in
> Paris where silents are shown without musical accompaniment: the
Forum des
> Images, the Centre Pompidou, the Auditorium du Louvre, etc., all
show
> silents with music, although I sometimes regret the emphasis put
on the
> accompaniment. These screenings are thus often more expensive.
Jean-François
> Rauger, the programmer of the Cinematheque, told me that the
absence of
> music was due to the cost of musicians. As far as ticket prizes
go, I'm OK
> with that attitude! (As a matter of fact, there IS a piano in
Chaillot, but
> it is never used.)
>
> Samuel.
>
Most people who see silent movies these days see them with some
kind of accompaniment, often elaborate scores for large orchestras.
All the silents I saw as a young film buff were at the Cinematheque
and therefore without music. There was a kind of consensus that
silent films should be watched in respectfully total silence. The
only silents you could see outside of the Cinematheque with any kind
of sound were atrociously sonorized comedy shorts, which of course
made you yearn for total silence.
Perhaps because of this early training in silent silents I am often
annoyed by the non-stop music tacked on refurbished versions of
silent classics, just as I am annoyed by the wall-to-wall music in
many Hollywood movies of the forties and fifties. The music
consistantly overstates the visuals and seems intent on substituting
for them. Watching silents on TV I often turn off the sound, or else
the experience is almost unbearable.
JPC
> _________________________________________________________________
> MSN Search, le moteur de recherche qui pense comme vous !
> http://search.msn.fr/
16255
From: thebradstevens
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 3:33pm
Subject: Cinémathèque & silents (Was: Re: Intention)
"The only silents you could see outside of the Cinematheque with any
kind of sound were atrociously sonorized comedy shorts, which of
course made you yearn for total silence."
I just picked up one of Delta's UK DVD collections of early Chaplin
shorts (all of very poor visual quality, but with a few rare titles,
such as THOSE LOVE PANGS and GETTING ACQUAINTED) which offers two
soundtrack options: track 1 contains a musical accompaniment
(actually various randomly chosen jazz tracks), while track 2
contains the sound of a projector...for that authentic Cinematheque
experience!
16256
From: Rick Curnutte
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 3:36pm
Subject: The Film Journal Issue 11 Call for Submissions
Call For Submissions - Issue 11
In Focus Series: The Films of Robert Mulligan
The forthcoming issue of The Film Journal will feature a Director's
Spotlight on Robert Mulligan. First suggested by a contributor to
The Film Journal, Filipe Furtado, the feature will be edited by lead
staff critic, Peter Tonguette. Mulligan is, in our opinion, one of
the foremost American narrative filmmakers. Yet there exists very
little quality critical writing on his work. This feature is an
attempt to begin to correct this situation.
We welcome essays dealing with any component (stylistic or thematic)
of Mulligan's films. We also welcome "Retrospective" essays dealing
with Mulligan's body of work as a whole. Alternatively, you may wish
to write on a specific film. For reference, below is Mulligan's
filmography:
Fear Strikes Out (1957)
The Moon and Sixpence (1959) [TV]
The Rat Race (1960)
Come September (1961)
The Great Imposter (1961)
The Spiral Road (1962)
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Love With the Proper Stranger (1963)
Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965)
Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
Up the Down Staircase (1967)
The Stalking Moon (1969)
The Pursuit of Happiness (1971)
Summer of '42 (1971)
The Other (1972)
The Nickel Ride (1974)
Bloodbrothers (1978)
Same Time, Next Year (1978)
Kiss Me Goodbye (1982)
Clara's Heart (1988)
The Man in the Moon (1991)
[Not included in the above are Mulligan's episodes for various
television series - eg, Studio One, Goodyear Television Playhouse,
et al - though we welcome writing on them.]
If you choose to write on a specific film, we recommend first
checking with Peter Tonguette in order to see if it has already been
assigned. If you still wish to write on an already assigned film,
however, you are free to do so. We are not averse to running
multiple essays on a single film.
The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2004. Please send your
submissions to Peter Tonguette (ptonguette@a...) for this feature
ONLY.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The New Auteurism: Essays/critical analysis of contemporary views
and approaches to the classical auteur theory; re-evaluations of
canonical filmmakers; revisionist auteurism
The Future of Cinema: In response to the ongoing lament as to the
viability of contemporary filmmaking, The Film Journal is seeking
essays about directors, writers, actors, et al who show that the
cinema is very much "alive". Also welcome are essays negating the
idea that cinema is dead.
Fringe Cinema: Anything related to underground/experimental/avant-
garde cinema and/or filmmakers.
Bloody Japan: Essays/review/retros on contemporary Japanese
directors like Takashi Miike, Takeshi Kitano, Kiyoshi Kurosawa,
Ryuhei Kitamura, et al
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Regular Features
Editorials: If you have a comment, criticism or anything at all to
say regarding the journal, please feel free to send it to us.
Essays: This is an open forum for any film-related essay you might
have. See past issues for examples.
Retrospectives: This is another open forum. Write an essay-length
retrospective on any director of your choosing. Please include a
complete filmography, or link to the IMDB page.
Festival/Events: If you are attending a festival, retrospective or
other film event, we are very interested in your coverage.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: In an attempt to keep The Film Journal's Reviews sections
timely, we will now be accepting review submissions for publication
on a weekly basis. We will update our Reviews sections weekly. We
feel this will help keep our readers satisfied and offer you, our
contributors, more opportunities to get your work published. Please
feel free to submit reviews of current theatrical, home video and
film-book releases at any time, regardless of the deadline for the
current Call for Contributions.
WE CAN ALSO, AT TIMES, SUPPLY SCREENER/REVIEW COPIES OF THEATRICAL,
HOME VIDEO AND BOOK RELEASES. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTACT US TO
INQUIRE AS TO THE AVAILABILITY OF SCREENER/REVIEW TITLES, PLEASE USE
OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS - The Editors
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Reviews - Theatrical: any film released in theaters or premiering at
a film festival between now and the end of December 2004.
Reviews - Home Video: any film/collection released on DVD or VHS
between now and the end of December 2004.
*NEW REGULAR FEATURE* Reviews - Multimedia: any multimedia project,
game or installation released or exhibited between now and the end
of December 2004.
Reviews - Books: any cinema-related publication released between now
and the end of December 2004.
Thank you for your time and consideration, and we look forward to
receiving your submissions for Issue of The Film Journal.
The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2004.
Rick
16257
From: Damien Bona
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 4:16pm
Subject: Cinémathèque & silents (Was: Re: Intention)
By the mid-'10s, some sort of musical accompaniament was considered
de rigeur for movies. The studios would generally have a specific
score written to be played with a particular movie, at least their by
the orchestras in big city first-run palaces. I seem to remember
hearing that the main theme for Borzage's "Seventh Heaven" was turned
into a hit song via recordings and sheet music.
According to a very informative website, Photoplay Music: (at
http://www.mont-alto.com/photoplaymusic/aboutmusic.html )
In a 1922 survey of movie theaters by Motion Picture News, exhibitors
were asked about the musical accompaniment in their theaters. Of
those who answered the question, 46% used theater organ, 25% used
piano only, and 29% had an orchestra. Orchestras were expensive and
often reserved for prime-time shows, so even those theaters that
claimed to have orchestras probably used theater organs or pianos at
the early matinees and during the orchestra's breaks.On the other
hand, the 29% of theaters with orchestras were also likely the
largest, so probably well over 29% of the movie-going audience any
night was seeing an orchestrally-scored movie presentation.
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "jpcoursodon"
wrote:
> Most people who see silent movies these days see them with
some
> kind of accompaniment, often elaborate scores for large orchestras.
> All the silents I saw as a young film buff were at the Cinematheque
> and therefore without music. There was a kind of consensus that
> silent films should be watched in respectfully total silence.
16258
From:
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 5:06pm
Subject: Re: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
well I don't neccessarily
look to "The Devil, Probably" for a 'film about youth' nor to "Au Hasard,
Balthazar" for a film about 'a donkey' or animal rights.....
Not sure about THE DEVIL, PROBABLY but I think AU HASARD, BALTHASAR is very much a film about a donkey. Animal rights? Probably not but I'd hear a case.
Kevin John
16259
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 5:11pm
Subject: Cinémathèque & silents (Was: Re: Intention)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Damien Bona"
wrote:
>> According to a very informative website, Photoplay Music: (at
> http://www.mont-alto.com/photoplaymusic/aboutmusic.html )
>
> In a 1922 survey of movie theaters by Motion Picture News,
exhibitors
> were asked about the musical accompaniment in their theaters. Of
> those who answered the question, 46% used theater organ, 25% used
> piano only, and 29% had an orchestra. Orchestras were expensive
and
> often reserved for prime-time shows, so even those theaters that
> claimed to have orchestras probably used theater organs or pianos
at
> the early matinees and during the orchestra's breaks.On the other
> hand, the 29% of theaters with orchestras were also likely the
> largest, so probably well over 29% of the movie-going audience any
> night was seeing an orchestrally-scored movie presentation.
>
>
Musical accompaniment in the silent days is a fascinating
subject. It shows to what alarming extent films were at the mercy of
extraneous circumstances. Filmmakers (the directors, the writers,
even to a large extent the producers) had absolutely no control on
what kind of music would be tagged on their films, and the music
could be literally anything, changing from one theatrical venue to
the next (or changing from one show to the next in the same theatre,
as Damien points out). Each audience, each spectator almost, saw
(heard) a different film. Add to this the erratic projection speeds,
that varied widely according to the projectionist or the exhibitor's
whims... With such crippling conditions the integrity of the work of
art becomes highly problematic...
JPC
>
>
16260
From: hotlove666
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 5:18pm
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, LiLiPUT1@a... wrote:
> Not sure about THE DEVIL, PROBABLY but I think AU HASARD, BALTHASAR
is very much a film about a donkey. Animal rights? Probably not but
I'd hear a case.
>
> Kevin John
I showed it to a big animal rights activist, the late David Bale
(whose son Christian starred in an AR film much liked by JR), and he
found it "horribly depressing."
16261
From: samfilms2003
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 5:38pm
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
-> Not sure about THE DEVIL, PROBABLY but I think AU HASARD, BALTHASAR is very
much a film about a donkey.
Yes, but my point would be, what insights into donkeys could you expect from it ?
-Sam
16262
From: Dan Sallitt
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 5:39pm
Subject: Camera Feed (Was: Intention)
> According to The Randi Rhoads Show today on Air America -- Fox News is
> controlling the feed for tonight's debate -- it was their turn in "the
> camera pool." They've already released a statement saying they're
> wiping their asses with the "no reaction-shot" rule ostensibly
> traditionally adhered to. Look for cuts to Kerry whenever he smirks,
> and cuts to Bush whenever he's looking "presidential."
So what did you think? I didn't notice any visual favoritism, and I also
saw that different channels use different visuals - so the feed may not
have included camera selection. - Dan
16263
From: Dan Sallitt
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 5:47pm
Subject: Re: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
> The situation was a little different in the US, at least in Los
> Angeles. The Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Ave. opened in 1942 and
> often (though not always)had piano accompaniment with its
> screenings. I went there in the late 1950s with my grandparents on
> Sunday afternoons and remember the piano music. In the late 1960s
> there wasn't always musical accompaniment at the screenings but the
> original owners hadn't completely abandoned it.
I got to LA in 1976, so I overlapped with the Hampton's proprietorship of
the Silent Movie by about five years. My recollection is that the films
there had very weird prerecorded scored that bore no relationship to the
events in the film. And you'd hear weird, discordant transitions from one
piece to another, as if there was an aural dissolve between pieces in
different keys.
> Certainly by the 1960s it was more common to score silent pictures;
> Gaylord Carter the organist had a reputation here for his live
> performances and even cut an album of his "Music for Silent Movies"
> in 1965 (I used to have it.)
LA always seemed to have a lot of "authentic" accompaniment, even after
the old-timers passed away or retired. My impression was that Gaylord
Carter perpetuated the worst traditions of movie accompaniment. I
remember him playing the "here comes the bride" wedding music during the
decidedly more ambiguous wedding scene in THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK.
There was a woman named Ann Leaf in LA who used to do a decent job, I
thought. And I was also okay with the accompaniment of the late Kenn
Honeychurch, who was a friend of Joe Kaufman's. - Dan
16264
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 5:55pm
Subject: Re: Camera Feed (Was: Intention)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Dan Sallitt wrote:
>."
>
> So what did you think? I didn't notice any visual favoritism, and
I also
> saw that different channels use different visuals - so the feed
may not
> have included camera selection. - Dan
Actually Bush was often caught looking annoyed, or exasperated, or
bored, or just plain tired. His physical performance matched the
vapid content of his statements. JPC
16265
From: Kevin Lee
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 6:22pm
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "iangjohnston" wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Kevin Lee"
> There has been this drain of capital and "advanced labour"
> (particularly in the sense of capitalist entrepreneurs) out of
> Taiwan, but also an influx of cheap manual labour from poorer
> countries in the region (Thailand, Indonesia, the Phillippines).
> This growing economic interdependence (not unique to Taiwan, of
> course) has coincided with an increasing cultural recognition (to
> which Hou's earlier films contributed) of a distinct "Taiwanese"
> identity; but the NLR discussion shows how threatening this
> assertion of "Taiwanese-ness" can be to some.
>
I remember my last visit to Taiwan ('99) involved attending a banquet
where some guests were making flagrant and obnoxiously racist remarks
to the Filipino helpstaff. Have you seen or heard of one of the
popular TROUBLESOME NIGHT series of films -- the one where Hong Kong
businessmen go on a "business trip" to the Philipines for cheap sex
and the Filipino hookers turn into homicidal vampires? That's a Hong
Kong movie, not Taiwanese, but it may just as well be. (My family
would openly bemoan how my uncle went on "business trips" to Thailand
and the Philippines).
> Were you thinking of something specific in terms of the
> ramifications on Taiwanese cinema? Taiwanese art cinema auteurs'
> increasing reliance on overseas co-producers (French, Japanese)
> seems more of an international phenomenon, and there surely won't
be
> any Taiwan-PRC co-productions, simply for political reasons. Which
> means at least there isn't the kind of pressure that's exerted on
> Hong Kong films (see the latest Film Comment for more on this).
>
> Ian
the new FC is out in Taiwan already? How come I didn't get my
subscription copy???
I think I'll hold out until I read the article -- does it actually
talk about Taiwanese cinema, popular as well as arthouse. My
impression has been that the state of contemporary Taiwanese cinema
resembles something like the movie theater in GOODBYE DRAGON INN.
16266
From: Craig Keller
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 6:28pm
Subject: OT - Brooklyn Heights Apartment
Noble a_film_by'ers in the NYC vicinity --
This is totally off-topic, but -- my ex-girlfriend is looking for
someone to take over the lease on a studio apartment in a
rent-controlled building in Brooklyn Heights, on Montague Street,
starting November 1st. The price is $1200 a month, and if I had to
guess the square footage I'd say... I don't know. All I can say is
it's a decent-sized studio, second-floor walk-up -- moreover is
-clean-; has a large'ish closet with bi-fold doors in the hallway; a
kitchen divided from the living space by a wall, though not a
claustrophobizing wall -- there's a pass-through between kitchen and
living room; clean and functioning bathroom with a modern tub/shower;
and a view looking out onto an arbory courtyard and an old church
beyond, whose stained glass windows are illuminated some nights -- sum
total of view in spring and summer and autumn is sun-dappled placid
lush, or when rainy, really calming; in the winter snowfall on branches
in foreground of stained glass creates visual Ave Maria.
The neighbors are bearable -- Jim across the hall has two dogs which
bark every now and then but not incessantly. The other neighbors, Jim
included, are real pieces of work, but very nice. As far as I can
tell, no-one will give you shit for smoking pot; that is, there are no
"families." If the smell chanced to waft out the door, everyone would
just assume it was Connie on the fourth floor on the anyway.
Vicinities: On the same block as the N / R / M, Court Street station;
one block from the Borough Hall station, which is 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 (or
maybe not 6, I forget); four blocks from the Clark Street station,
which is 2 / 3; four or five blocks from the A / C / E, whose name I
forget but which is the first A / C stop in from Manhattan, before the
Jay Street station. It's a five minute walk to Cobble Hill, seven
minute walk to Carroll Gardens, and is four blocks from the Promenade,
five or six blocks from Atlantic Avenue, lots of cafes and low-key
bars/pubs like Magnetic Fields and the Henry St. Ale House (and Annie's
Blue Moon, on the same block, where pool is free). Four blocks from
the Brooklyn Heights Pavilion cinema -- nice little neighborhood place,
saw 'Dogville,' 'The Stepford Wives,' '21 Grams,' 'Fahrenheit 9/11,'
'Strayed,' among other features there over the past year. Two subway
stops from BAM, three or four to the Brooklyn Museum and Botanical
Gardens. Ten minute train ride in to the Village. Super-safe at
night, you can go strolling at 2 with no problems. It's only lawyers,
Witnesses, or Norman Mailer who might accost you. (Or, worse yet,
Jayson Blair.) 'The Cosby Show' "took place" two blocks over.
Anyway, it's a pretty good deal considering the location and the
typical prices for studios there -- not that New York prices are sane
by any stretch of the insanest imagination. The only reason she's
leaving is because she's taking over a one-bedroom upstairs that was
passed on to her by a neighbor/friend who's getting married and moving
out. Additionally, there no problems with getting high-speed hooked
up. A chef who was supposed to take over the apartment has now backed
out because of some horse-shit with his credit.
Email me off-list if you're interested.
craig.
16267
From: Craig Keller
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 6:33pm
Subject: Re: Camera Feed (Was: Intention)
>> According to The Randi Rhoads Show today on Air America -- Fox News is
>> controlling the feed for tonight's debate -- it was their turn in "the
>> camera pool." They've already released a statement saying they're
>> wiping their asses with the "no reaction-shot" rule ostensibly
>> traditionally adhered to. Look for cuts to Kerry whenever he smirks,
>> and cuts to Bush whenever he's looking "presidential."
>
> So what did you think? I didn't notice any visual favoritism, and I
> also
> saw that different channels use different visuals - so the feed may not
> have included camera selection. - Dan
Yes. As JPC said, the only person who came off looking bad was Bush,
who, truth be told, came off looking semi-simian.
craig.
16268
From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 6:47pm
Subject: Re: Camera Feed (Was: Intention)
--- Craig Keller wrote:
>
> Yes. As JPC said, the only person who came off
> looking bad was Bush,
> who, truth be told, came off looking semi-simian.
>
What do you mean "semi"?
KERRY CLEANED THE CHIMP'S CLOCK!!!!
_______________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today!
http://vote.yahoo.com
16269
From: hotlove666
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 7:25pm
Subject: Re: Camera Feed (Was: Intention)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "jpcoursodon"
>
> Actually Bush was often caught looking annoyed, or exasperated, or
> bored, or just plain tired. His physical performance matched the
> vapid content of his statements. JPC
Like Gore's famous sighs in 2000, his expressions were a less
inventive variation on the revealingly "other-directed" looks Jude
Law can't help shooting at listeners when Jacob Schwartzman is
talking in I Heart Huckabee's. (That movie is becoming a reference
point for everything for me...)
16270
From: hotlove666
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 7:27pm
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Kevin Lee"
wrote:
> I remember my last visit to Taiwan ('99) involved attending a
banquet
> where some guests were making flagrant and obnoxiously racist
remarks
> to the Filipino helpstaff. Have you seen or heard of one of the
> popular TROUBLESOME NIGHT series of films -- the one where Hong
Kong
> businessmen go on a "business trip" to the Philipines for cheap sex
> and the Filipino hookers turn into homicidal vampires?
Sounds great! Habelove take note.
16271
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 10:48pm
Subject: Re: Camera Feed (Was: Intention)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "jpcoursodon"
> >
> > Actually Bush was often caught looking annoyed, or exasperated,
or
> > bored, or just plain tired. His physical performance matched the
> > vapid content of his statements. JPC
>
> Like Gore's famous sighs in 2000, his expressions were a less
> inventive variation on the revealingly "other-directed" looks Jude
> Law can't help shooting at listeners when Jacob Schwartzman is
> talking in I Heart Huckabee's. (That movie is becoming a reference
> point for everything for me...)
This is the first movie I know of the title of which you cannot
type unless you have a heart on your keyboard, and you can only
pronounce by either making it meaningless or betraying its semiotic
content. Aside from that, how good is it? JPC
16272
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 11:13pm
Subject: Re: OT - Brooklyn Heights Apartment
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Craig Keller
wrote:
>
> Noble a_film_by'ers in the NYC vicinity --
>
> This is totally off-topic, but -- my ex-girlfriend is looking for
> someone to take over the lease on a studio apartment in a
> rent-controlled building in Brooklyn Heights, on Montague Street,
> starting November 1st. The price is $1200 a month, and if I had >
>
> craig.
$1200 a month for a studio in a rent-controlled building?! Wow!
Things have really changed since I left New York. In 1970 I paid one
hundred dollars a month for a four-room "penthouse" apartment on
Claremont Avenue with superb view of sunsets on the Hudson River. It
was rent-controlled and belonged to Columbia University, like most
of the neighborhood. By the time(1993) CU finally succeeded in
kicking me out after seven years of litigation (they "proved" that
the apt was not rent-controlled because it was considered
a "dormitory"!) I was still paying only $325 a month. The
litigation, which involved a group of tenants, a courageous elected
official and a lawyer's pro bono services, became sort of a cause
celebre. CU made the front page of the Village Voice as "New York's
Worst Landlord" (the Voice published a couple of my letters). Well,
I didn't want to reminisce... JPC
16273
From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 11:16pm
Subject: Re: Re: Camera Feed (Was: Intention)
--- jpcoursodon wrote:
>
> This is the first movie I know of the title of
> which you cannot
> type unless you have a heart on your keyboard, and
> you can only
> pronounce by either making it meaningless or
> betraying its semiotic
> content.
It's closest relative is Michael Snow's "<->"
Aside from that, how good is it?
It's great. Some critics (eg. Ella Taylor) have spoken
of Russell as part of a whole movement that includes
Wes Anderson and Charlie kaufman. That may be true to
some extent, but here he shows a brand of "post-modern
eccentricity" all his own. Every damned minute of it
tickled me. As I've said it's the Jacques Derrida
remake of "Who's Minding the Store?"
Next to "Pas Sur La Bouche" it's my favorite film this
year so far.
>
>
_______________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today!
http://vote.yahoo.com
16274
From: hotlove666
Date: Fri Oct 1, 2004 11:56pm
Subject: Re: Camera Feed (Was: Intention)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "jpcoursodon"
wrote:
This is the first movie I know of the title of which you cannot
> type unless you have a heart on your keyboard, and you can only
> pronounce by either making it meaningless or betraying its semiotic
> content. Aside from that, how good is it? JPC
It's as much a "meteor" as Tirez sur le pianiste was.
16275
From: Paul Gallagher
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 0:33am
Subject: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Andy Rector"
wrote:
> Speaking of endings, I wonder about Brute Force's ending, with the
> priest apologizing for everything we've just been shown, "why do
they
> do it?"... Regardless as to whether or not it was imposed on Dassin
> it's so incongruously tacked on that it proves itself wrong as
> ideological wrangling, perhaps to the films benefit! I think there
> are other instances of this but I can't think of any right now.
I remember a review on (the now defunct) Cahiers du Cinema online of
Eastwood's "True Crime" that compared its happy ending to the ending
of "It's a Wonderful Life." Getting someone off death row in a few
hours is of course wildly implausible, and George Bailey and Bedford
Falls need the supernatural to escape their troubles. The review may
have put it differently or put it better, but I think the argument
was that both films exposed irresolvable contradictions in society,
but since Capra and Eastwood are obviously not militant filmmakers
and cannot make militant films, they are compelled to make these
fantastical resolutions –- resolutions, in which they may
sincerely believe, but the falsity of which merely points out that
there exists no individualist or reformist solution to the problems
presented. I don't have the Cahiers article anymore. I hope I got
it right. It doesn't sound like a recent Cahiers review!
However, the audience's perception of "It's a Wonderful Life"
is different. I suspect a lot of people rely on miracles.
Raymond Durgnat -- if I recall correctly -- argued that Capra's
aims were conservative, that the films appear populist and even
leftist, but that they are in fact against Roosevelt's New Deal.
Capra's films acknowledged social problems only to show either
that they could be solved by good-hearted individuals or by small
concessions to reform.
Paul
16276
From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 0:50am
Subject: Re: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
--- Paul Gallagher wrote:
>
> Raymond Durgnat -- if I recall correctly -- argued
> that Capra's
> aims were conservative, that the films appear
> populist and even
> leftist, but that they are in fact against
> Roosevelt's New Deal.
> Capra's films acknowledged social problems only to
> show either
> that they could be solved by good-hearted
> individuals or by small
> concessions to reform.
>
Durgnat was quite correct.
As I'm sure you know, Capra was a great fan of
Mussollini's.
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
16277
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 1:04am
Subject: Re: Camera Feed (Was: Intention)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "jpcoursodon"
> wrote:
>
> This is the first movie I know of the title of which you cannot
> > type unless you have a heart on your keyboard, and you can only
> > pronounce by either making it meaningless or betraying its
semiotic
> > content. Aside from that, how good is it? JPC
>
> It's as much a "meteor" as Tirez sur le pianiste was.
What's a "meteor"? I don't think "Tirez..." was so meteoric,
but then I always seem to miss the point...
16278
From: jpcoursodon
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 1:14am
Subject: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Gallagher"
wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Andy Rector"
I remember a review on (the now defunct) Cahiers du Cinema online
of
> Eastwood's "True Crime" that compared its happy ending to the
ending
> of "It's a Wonderful Life." Getting someone off death row in a few
> hours is of course wildly implausible, and George Bailey and
Bedford
> Falls need the supernatural to escape their troubles. The review
may
> have put it differently or put it better, but I think the argument
> was that both films exposed irresolvable contradictions in
society,
> but since Capra and Eastwood are obviously not militant filmmakers
> and cannot make militant films, they are compelled to make these
> fantastical resolutions –- resolutions, in which they may
> sincerely believe, but the falsity of which merely points out that
> there exists no individualist or reformist solution to the
problems
> presented. I don't have the Cahiers article anymore. I hope I got
> it right. It doesn't sound like a recent Cahiers review!
>
Throughout the thirties and forties and before and after movies
have done the "last minute rescue from the death sentence" thing and
it was accepted as a nice convention of movie making with little or
no relation to what actually happens in real life. Then Eastwood
makes a traditional movie in this vein and people (Cahiers,
whatever) get all worked up about it. Maybe this just means that you
can no longer make "traditional" kind of movies, so you have to use
new traditional stuff (new conventions) instead.
JPC
16279
From: Richard Modiano
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 1:34am
Subject: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, David Ehrenstein
wrote:
"As I'm sure you know, Capra was a great fan of
Mussollini's."
Not to deny Capra's conservatism, but it seems that he became
disenchanted with Mussollini at least by the time of the Tripartate
Pact. MEET JOHN DOE is explicitly anti-facist, and it refers to the
1936 facist plot hatched by some corporate exectutives (Prescott Bush
is alleged to have tacitly supported it) exposed by General Smedley
Butler (this incident is refered to briefly in THE CORPORATION.) And
Edward Arnold's motor cycle squad is very probably inspired by Victor
McLagen's facist motor cycle club; I think Capra was repudiating
facism here.
Anyway, Capra wasn't the only American artist to back Mussollini;
Wallace Stevens wrote paens to castor oil torture killer but later
admitted he was wrong, and deleted those poems from all his future
collections. He was rightly ashamed of his early support for the
rest of his life. I don't know if Capra issued a mea culpa; probably
not since he dosen't touch on it in his autobiography.
Richard
16280
From: Programming
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 1:56am
Subject: Re: Re: Camera Feed (Was: Intention)
On 10/1/04 6:16 PM, "David Ehrenstein" wrote:
>> >
>> > This is the first movie I know of the title of
>> > which you cannot
>> > type unless you have a heart on your keyboard, and
>> > you can only
>> > pronounce by either making it meaningless or
>> > betraying its semiotic
>> > content.
>
> It's closest relative is Michael Snow's "<->"
You can type all these, but there's also:
( )
by Morgan Fisher
((()))
by Luis Recoder
...
and
@
by Stan Brakhage
and
------ --------------
by Thom Anderson and Malcolm Brodwick
--Patrick F.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
16281
From: Craig Keller
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 1:57am
Subject: Re: Re: OT - Brooklyn Heights Apartment
\
>> Noble a_film_by'ers in the NYC vicinity --
>>
>> This is totally off-topic, but -- my ex-girlfriend is looking for
>> someone to take over the lease on a studio apartment in a
>> rent-controlled building in Brooklyn Heights, on Montague Street,
>> starting November 1st. The price is $1200 a month, and if I had >
>>
>> craig.
>
> $1200 a month for a studio in a rent-controlled building?! Wow!
> Things have really changed since I left New York. In 1970 I paid one
> hundred dollars a month for a four-room "penthouse" apartment on
> Claremont Avenue with superb view of sunsets on the Hudson River.
Holy mackerel!! Well, New York and environs, as far as I can tell, is
really only a city for the power-elite right now. If you want to have
a decent existence there in 2004 and only make an average amount of
money, you have two options: Find a rent-controlled/-stabilized place
(it's a matter of luck or who you know, and you'll still have to get on
your knees at some point), or take on a bunch of roommates -- who will,
of course, just end up breaking the lease early on you, leaving you to
find sublettors, blah blah blah. Then again, if you live in New York,
you typically won't have car payments or car-insurance payments to make
every month either -- but you won't have square foot'age in your
domicile either. Was your rent a typical price back in the day, JPC,
or did you luck out even then? In all honesty, the price for this
studio is "reasonable" in that area at this point in time, because it's
really nice and Gotham-by-gaslight'y, and it's probably what's
considered "on the large side" for a studio apartment there. The other
crime, besides the skyrocketing of rents and real estate, is (if you
don't nail something on craigslist or through a friend) the amount the
real estate brokers charge for their services -- on average, 13% of the
total annual rent. In addition to first and last month's!!! When I
was living out in Seattle until early last year, I paid $775 a month
for 800 square feet, with a deck and everything. And I could go see
Rivette films, -and- there were pretty girls.
craig.
16282
From: George Robinson
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 2:36am
Subject: New Bollywood website
I'll admit to not being the biggest fan of Bollywood, but its interest and
importance is certainly undeniable. This new-ish website might be of
interest to some of you.
Bollywood Dreams [QuickTime]
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0306/jt_intro.html
As Dirck Halstead notes in his introduction to this online photographic
exhibit which probes the thoroughly vibrant and frenetic world of Indian
cinema (which is known as "Bollywood"), "It turns out far more films than
Hollywood, and in fact, most of the rest of the world combined." The
informed Scout Report reader may not be terribly surprised by this fact, as
the country does have over one billion people, many of whom go to the movies
several times a week. So begins this online exhibit, which features the
photographs of one Jonathan Targovnic, who was wandering the world after his
time of service in the Israel Defense Force and turned his lens on the
Indian film industry. On the site, visitors can view more than three dozen
photographs, including a shot of the famous Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan
getting ready for his next scene and a rather clever shot of dancers getting
ready for a big number on the set of the Raj Kamal studios in Mumbai. The
site is rounded out by a short piece titled "Indian Cinema, A Way of Life"
by Nasreen Nunni Kabir" and series of short interview clips with Jonathan
Torgovnik.
g
Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor,
never the victim. Silence encourages the
tormentor, never the tormented.
--Elie Wiesel
16283
From: hotlove666
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 4:31am
Subject: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Modiano"
wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, David Ehrenstein
> wrote:
>
> "As I'm sure you know, Capra was a great fan of
> Mussollini's."
>
The Futurists were quite taken w. Mussolini. Rossellini made films
under the fascist regime -- I haven't seen them, but they sound
regime-friendly. And he had a party card.
All that aside, while I agree that Capra was conservatibve, that
doesn't equate to fascism. The most radical and effective social
reformer I know -- no point mentioning the name, he works under the
radar in Africa and Latin America -- based his entire philosophy of
activism on Capra's films. He was conservative, but his summing up of
Wonderful Life's point -- "It makes a difference who you owe money
to" -- applies today as it did then, in Africa, for example.
I wish good critics like Durgnat knew more about politics and
economics, concretely. That said, Durgnat's reading of the political
conext of the English Hitchcock is miles ahead of the competition. I
learned a lot from him.
16284
From:
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 1:16am
Subject: Re: New Bollywood website
George -
Thanx for posting that site. While the prose is awful, the pictures are
remarkable. I encourage everyone to have a look see. The pix only take a few
moments to go through. Especially notable is the shelter constructed from movie
posters and a man rewinding film by the side of a river.
I'm starting to think Bollywood is the greatest cinema on the planet. I
strongly recommend KAL HO NAA HO starring Shahrukh Khan (aka God). It was shot in
NYC and, much like THEY ALL LAUGHED, it makes the city weird and fresh. And the
musical climax is "Maahi Ve," the best Bollywood song in recent years and the
very apotheosis of warmth.
Other recent sightings:
KOI...MIL GAYA - The Bollywood ET (with a dollop of FORREST GUMP), twenty
years after the fact. Hrithik Roshan's dancing is positively jaw-dropping. I'm
not sure the man has bones. And if one Bollywood number is all you see, make it
"It's Magic." It's magic. But I've yet to meet an Indian who liked the film.
PAKEEZAH - Made me wet my pants (a good thing; a breathtaking thing).
AWAARA - Rosenbaum on Charlie Chaplin: "No one else in the history of art has
shown us in greater detail what it means to be poor." Except Raj Kapoor.
DANCE RAJA DANCE - Finally! Have been looking for this one for literally over
a decade. In Kannada with no English subtitles. But nobody, NOBODY, tops
Vijayanand (aka Vijaya Anand aka God) as music director. Apart from the early
Sugarhill singles, his songs are the most joyous sounds of the 20th century.
Kevin John
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
16285
From:
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 1:29am
Subject: AU HASARD, BALTHASAR (WAS: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics)
In a message dated 10/1/04 12:41:50 PM, samw@v... writes:
> Yes, but my point would be, what insights into donkeys could you expect
> from it ?
>
Perspective. Flows. Detours. Reversals. Certainly the film feels like a
series of detours and reversals from "traditional" (say, classically Hollywood)
narrative. I mean, unless I'm grossly missing the point (which is 1000% possible
and thus someone who knows and appreciates the film more than me should pipe
up), the film is a vision of life that doesn't place humans at its center. It
tries to imagine life from the donkey's perspective.
Kevin John
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
16286
From: Damien Bona
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 5:59am
Subject: AU HASARD, BALTHASAR (WAS: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, LiLiPUT1@a... wrote:
> Perspective. Flows. Detours. Reversals. Certainly the film feels
like a
> series of detours and reversals from "traditional" (say,
classically Hollywood)
> narrative. I mean, unless I'm grossly missing the point (which is
1000% possible
> and thus someone who knows and appreciates the film more than me
should pipe
> up), the film is a vision of life that doesn't place humans at its
center. It
> tries to imagine life from the donkey's perspective.
>
> Kevin John
>
I've only seen Balthazar once, so I'm nowhere's approaching being an
expert on the picture, but I would think that at the very least
seeing it would make you an animal rights' activist to some degree.
Damn, how could you not want to protect the donkey from the
vicissitudes of life. I always feel queasy on this issue because I
wish i were a vegeterian but I love oysters on the half shell too
much to make the leap.
16287
From: George Robinson
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 6:28am
Subject: Re: AU HASARD, BALTHASAR
I would add that "Balthasar" is also, like most of Bresson,'s films, a
parable about the power of spirit as a bolster against the powerlessness of
the poor, the doomed and the forgotten. It is a mark of the depth of
Bresson's belief in the force of spirituality that he reads this kind of
power even into the life of a donkey. It's a wonderful homily on the line
from the Gospel of Luke, "He that is the least among you all, the same shall
be great." (Boy am I in over my head here, says the film critic from Jewish
Week). Remember, this is the guy whose first great film, "Diary of a Country
Priest" ends with the words "all is Grace." Redemption comes to those who
least expect it because, in a sense, they most deserve it. (Of course, like
all of Bresson, the film is also about his formal devices, which is what
draws me to his work in the first place.)
Needless to say, I don't eat oysters (although Jews do get a special
dispensation from the dietary laws for Chinese food), but I like a steak
occasionally. And chicken and fish.
George (Tough as a dollar steak) Robinson
Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor,
never the victim. Silence encourages the
tormentor, never the tormented.
--Elie Wiesel
Damien Bona wrote:
>
> I've only seen Balthazar once, so I'm nowhere's approaching being an
> expert on the picture, but I would think that at the very least
> seeing it would make you an animal rights' activist to some degree.
> Damn, how could you not want to protect the donkey from the
> vicissitudes of life. I always feel queasy on this issue because I
> wish i were a vegeterian but I love oysters on the half shell too
> much to make the leap.
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
16288
From: George Robinson
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 6:32am
Subject: Re: New Bollywood website
I am taking the liberty of forwarding this posting to my friend Mark
Sprecher, who is a very, very serious Bollywood fan (Guru Dutt's "Pyaasa" is
on his all-time ten-best list); he is an infrequent lurker on this list but
I don't know if he's seen this thread.
George
Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor,
never the victim. Silence encourages the
tormentor, never the tormented.
--Elie Wiesel
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2004 1:16 AM
Subject: Re: [a_film_by] New Bollywood website
>
> George -
>
> Thanx for posting that site. While the prose is awful, the pictures are
> remarkable. I encourage everyone to have a look see. The pix only take a
few
> moments to go through. Especially notable is the shelter constructed from
movie
> posters and a man rewinding film by the side of a river.
>
> I'm starting to think Bollywood is the greatest cinema on the planet. I
> strongly recommend KAL HO NAA HO starring Shahrukh Khan (aka God). It was
shot in
> NYC and, much like THEY ALL LAUGHED, it makes the city weird and fresh.
And the
> musical climax is "Maahi Ve," the best Bollywood song in recent years and
the
> very apotheosis of warmth.
>
> Other recent sightings:
> KOI...MIL GAYA - The Bollywood ET (with a dollop of FORREST GUMP), twenty
> years after the fact. Hrithik Roshan's dancing is positively jaw-dropping.
I'm
> not sure the man has bones. And if one Bollywood number is all you see,
make it
> "It's Magic." It's magic. But I've yet to meet an Indian who liked the
film.
>
> PAKEEZAH - Made me wet my pants (a good thing; a breathtaking thing).
>
> AWAARA - Rosenbaum on Charlie Chaplin: "No one else in the history of art
has
> shown us in greater detail what it means to be poor." Except Raj Kapoor.
>
> DANCE RAJA DANCE - Finally! Have been looking for this one for literally
over
> a decade. In Kannada with no English subtitles. But nobody, NOBODY, tops
> Vijayanand (aka Vijaya Anand aka God) as music director. Apart from the
early
> Sugarhill singles, his songs are the most joyous sounds of the 20th
century.
>
> Kevin John
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
16289
From: Fred Camper
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 6:34am
Subject: Re: AU HASARD, BALTHASAR (WAS: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics)
LiLiPUT1@a... wrote:
>
>
>
>>Yes, but my point would be, what insights into donkeys could you expect
>>from it ?
>>
>>
>>
>....It tries to imagine life from the donkey's perspective.
>
>
>
Yes, but it's Bresson's attempt at imagining life from the donkey's
perspective, which may not have anything to do with donkeys. I would
contend that we cannot know how donkeys see or think. Thus it's not
clear it offers "insights" into donkeys in the sense that, oh, say, a
donkey psychologist might.
It's also Bresson's attempt to conceive of nature, and time, in terms
other than that of the threads of human psychology and intelligence
which "complicate everything."
It's also one of the very greatest films of all time, a film unlike any
other, a film that redefines cinema, absolutely essential viewing.
Fred Camper
16290
From: Fred Camper
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 7:09am
Subject: Re: Variations in film presentation (was: Cinémathèque & silents)
I've had a brief statement about film projection for some years now,
inspired in part by things like the "restoration" of "Vertigo" and the
variability of new Brakhage prints:
Cinema, which we used to think of as this wonderfully reproducible
medium, is actually a branch of performance art.
When you see a film with the filmmaker present, and he says, "This was
realized according to my intentions, and you saw a good print projected
well," then you can be pretty sure you've seen "it" -- and that there is
a reasonably stable "it."
As the discussion about the projection speed of the silents, and of
music with silents, indicates, everything about other films is speculation.
Bill Paul did some research a few years ago that established that some
early films were exhibited on a screen that was surrounded by some
custom built architecture. The screen showing a Southern melodrama might
be placed in the middle of the constructed facade of a Southern mansion,
for example. What exhibitor is going to try to recreate that?
It seems possible that the "intention" of many early filmmakers with
respect to projection speed, or what kind of music to play or even
whether to play it, is that they had no intention, except to leave these
issues to the exhibitor.
I read an interview with a director of TV commercials in the 1970s, at a
time when they were still all shot on 35mm film, and also edited and
printed that way. He said he worked for the look of 35mm and didn't like
video. Showing his commercials on TV would be historically "correct" but
contrary to his preference.
At a certain point in exhibiting older works, works whose makers are
deceased, we have to use our aesthetic judgment, which for a lot of them
was arguably the intent anyway. A popular audience may "need" music for
many of these, or a rapid projection speed; an audience of rarified
aesthetes might prefer most of them silent. I prefer them silent. I have
seen "Sunrise" both ways and however historically correct the sound
track may be I greatly prefer it silent. I hate those horns "crying" for
the lost wife, for example. Obviously someone showing "Sunrise" publicly
without sound should publicize that prominently, and indicate that it
would have been shown with the track on its initial release. And I think
we should always preserve the release versions, even in this age of
"director's cuts," because they are historical artifacts.
Fred Camper
16291
From: Paul Gallagher
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 7:28am
Subject: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
> > Raymond Durgnat -- if I recall correctly -- argued that Capra's
> > aims were conservative, that the films appear populist and even
> > leftist, but that they are in fact against Roosevelt's New Deal.
> > Capra's films acknowledged social problems only to show either
> > that they could be solved by good-hearted
> > individuals or by small concessions to reform.
> >
>
> Durgnat was quite correct.
>
> As I'm sure you know, Capra was a great fan of
> Mussollini's.
I wonder if this is a counterexample? The details may be wrong -- I
remember watching the 1984 Republican Convention (why I would be
watching, I don't know), Jimmy Stewart appears to endorse Reagan, and
the famous Senate speech from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" is shown.
It felt false to me. The next day a Boston Globe editorial commented
that Mr. Smith came to Washington to advance the New Deal, not the
Republicans. But maybe that's not the reason it felt false, given
Durgnat's arguments. "Mr. Smith" is politically vague -- it's
just against corruption, and politically it's almost as much a fantasy
as "It's a Wonderful Life." However, the attempt by the Republican
Convention to claim Mr. Smith's mantle for Reagan just seems wrong. Is
it because the ideals are different? Or is it just that Capra was a
much better artist? Of course, the reality is different: the Reagan
administration was nothing at all like a Capra hero.
Paul
16292
From: Paul Gallagher
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 8:21am
Subject: Re: Intention (Was: Licensing From Studios)
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:
> Again let me refer you to Janet Bergstrom's scholarly
> investigations of Murnau, now available on 2 DVDs -- Tabu and
> an evocation of 4 Devils using the extensive production stills
> collection (not to be confused, of course, with frame
> enlargements). The fate of the star's print of 4D is dealt with in
> the commentary.
I will have to see that. I didn't realize the DVDs had commentary and
outtakes.
I found a review of a book by Janet Bergstrom:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1070/is_4_54/ai_76997337
Also, I found this article by her:
http://godard.cjb.net//bergstrom-murnau.pdf
and
http://66.108.51.239/bergstrom-murnau.pdf
It turns out the premiere of "Sunrise" was preceded by a Movietone
news film with synchronized sound in which Mussolini addressed the
camera about international friendship.
Bergstrom also mentions that Ulmer wrote to Murnau in 1931 about the
new sound technology, and he hoped to become Murnau's intermediary
for future films.
Murnau had hoped to film Ejnar Mikkelsen's novel, "Frozen Justice,"
in Alaska, as his first American film, instead of "Sunrise." Instead,
the property was given to John Ford, and it was eventually filmed by
Allan Dwan. The film is now lost.
Paul
16293
From: Paul Gallagher
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 8:59am
Subject: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Modiano"
> wrote:
> > --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, David Ehrenstein
> > wrote:
> >
> > "As I'm sure you know, Capra was a great fan of
> > Mussollini's."
> >
> The Futurists were quite taken w. Mussolini. Rossellini made films
> under the fascist regime -- I haven't seen them, but they sound
> regime-friendly. And he had a party card.
>
> All that aside, while I agree that Capra was conservatibve, that
> doesn't equate to fascism.
Mussolini was popular with many Italian-Americans in the 1930's. But
it's vastly more significant how popular fascism was with
conservatives and the leaders of Europe: Churchill, Chamberlain,
and Daladier supported Mussolini. Churchill wrote, "I could not
help being charmed, like so many other people have been, by his
gentle and simple bearing and by his calm, detached poise in spite
of so many burdens and dangers... If I had been an Italian, I am sure
that I should have been whole-heartedly with you from start to finish
in your triumphant struggle against Leninism." He evidently hadn't
seen Donald Sutherland squishing that poor kitty cat.
Chamberlain, well beyond that, was hoping for an Anglo-German alliance
even after the invasion of Poland.
Paul
16294
From: cairnsdavid1967
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 10:32am
Subject: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
> > Speaking of endings, I wonder about Brute Force's ending, with
the
> > priest apologizing for everything we've just been shown, "why do
> they
> > do it?"... Regardless as to whether or not it was imposed on
Dassin
> > it's so incongruously tacked on that it proves itself wrong as
> > ideological wrangling, perhaps to the films benefit!
Dassin isn't a particular admirer of the film - "All those convicts
were so NICE" - but marks it as the first film where he was able to
do anything interesting. I'm sure the ending, and much else, was
imposed on him. Hume Cronyn is great though.
> I remember a review on (the now defunct) Cahiers du Cinema online
of
> Eastwood's "True Crime" that compared its happy ending to the
ending
> of "It's a Wonderful Life." Getting someone off death row in a few
> hours is of course wildly implausible, and George Bailey and
Bedford
> Falls need the supernatural to escape their troubles.
Another case is Preston Sturges, who seems to quite knowingly be
using wildly improbable endings to get his heroes out of trouble, and
we're invited to recognise how silly it all is. It points to the
interesting conflict in Sturges, between his all-American optimism
and more European pessimism, if I cvan put it like that. If a miracle
is required to save Trudy Kockenlocker's reputation, and as a result
of the miracle authority bends and a dozen laws and statutes are
ignored or borken, or if the townsfolk elect Norville Barnes mayor in
spite of his obvious lack of qualifications for the job, even the
meaningless one they thought he had, then the joke is on the world.
It isn't really a triumph of right - though it sort of is, too.
It takes a kind of despair to craft happy endings that are so
obviously not what would happen in reality - it's like the ending of
THE LAST LAUGH, which we've already been told WOULDN'T HAPPEN.
Capra is, I think, largely unaware of these contradictions, he's just
caught on the horns of trying to make "realist" films about social
problems, offer Hollywood happy endings, be a humanist, work with
left-wing writers, and not get accused of any particular political
bias. Not easy!
16295
From: cairnsdavid1967
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 10:34am
Subject: Re: Fw: Film Forum Noirs
> It felt false to me. The next day a Boston Globe editorial commented
> that Mr. Smith came to Washington to advance the New Deal, not the
> Republicans. But maybe that's not the reason it felt false, given
> Durgnat's arguments. "Mr. Smith" is politically vague -- it's
> just against corruption, and politically it's almost as much a
fantasy
> as "It's a Wonderful Life." However, the attempt by the Republican
> Convention to claim Mr. Smith's mantle for Reagan just seems wrong.
Is
> it because the ideals are different? Or is it just that Capra was a
> much better artist? Of course, the reality is different: the Reagan
> administration was nothing at all like a Capra hero.
I recall from the big-ass Capra bio, that while MR SMITH avoids
naming political parties, the side of the house Smith sits on
traditionally would make him a Democrat.
16296
From: cairnsdavid1967
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 10:38am
Subject: Re: Was Douglas Sirk gay?
ONE correction I must make:
> The late Murray Grigor (Edinburgh Film Fest)
> and his wife became very friendly with Sirk and his wife during
and
> after the Edinburgh retrospective of Sirk's films in the 1970s.
Barbara Grigor told me that Sirk's wife was writing a book which was
going to
> be entirely frank about her husband's bisexuality and affairs with
men,
> but I have no knowledge that this book ever reached print.
Murray Grigor is alive and well. I met him at the screening of THE
BIG RED ONE this year at the Edinburgh Film Festival. he was very
friendly with Fuller too. He seems to have forged strong links with
several of the filmmakers whose work he helped bring to critical
attention.
I remember Lynda Myles telling me a very sad story about how they
tried to get Jacques Tourneur for a retrospective, but he
declined. "If this had happened ten years ago it would have been
wonderful, but it's all too late now."
Sorry, that's really depressing. But, on the plus side, Murray Grigor
lives!
16297
From: cairnsdavid1967
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 10:46am
Subject: Re: Gay Carne (Was: Film Noir Forum (NYC))
> Never seen that one. Carne was gay you know.
Yes. I read a bit of a great book on him, which I'd love to get ahold
of. He was upset that while Renoir got to be an officer in the French
army after WWII broke out, he was scrubbing floors or something,
which he blamed on homophobia among the senior military.
I think all those doomed love affairs in his films are illuminated
slightly by a knowledge of his sexuality and the difficulties imposed
by society at the time. While he would still very much tend to fit
into your category of "filmmakers who happen to be gay", knowing this
about him is enlightening.
And LA VISITE MARVELLEUSE seems pretty damn gay.
16298
From: iangjohnston
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 11:27am
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Kevin Lee"
wrote:
> I remember my last visit to Taiwan ('99) involved attending a
banquet
> where some guests were making flagrant and obnoxiously racist
remarks
> to the Filipino helpstaff.
Sadly, there seems to be a hierarchy of skin colour in operation --
the darker you are, the more you can be despised. Equally sadly,
Taiwanese seem to have little idea of the reality of life in other
countries in the region. Most have no idea, for example, of how much
more internationally-minded and outward-looking Thailand is compared
to Taiwan.
>
> the new FC is out in Taiwan already? How come I didn't get my
> subscription copy???
>
> I think I'll hold out until I read the article -- does it actually
> talk about Taiwanese cinema, popular as well as arthouse. My
> impression has been that the state of contemporary Taiwanese
cinema
> resembles something like the movie theater in GOODBYE DRAGON INN.
Got my FC subscription copy the other day -- and I thought it was a
bit delayed. The article is on HK cinema. (Is there any "popular"
Taiwanese cinema?)
Taiwanese films don't last at the cinema here -- if they get shown
in the first place (as far as I'm aware, YI YI got its first
Taipei "release" this year, but only in a film festival). MILLENNIUM
MAMBO was pretty much a financial disaster; I suspect it was thought
that Shu Qi would have more of a commercial pull.
Tsai Ming-Liang seems a bit more attuned to the realities of the
market here -- he promotes and distributes the films himself
(doesn't even bother striking a special print with Chinese
subtitles -- as is the custom with Chinese-language releases -- for
the local market). Not that the masses come flooding in. When I went
to see GOODBYE DRAGON INN at a late-night screening I was the only
one there; poor Tsai Ming-Liang poked his head in and, a little
shocked, scurried immediately away!
Still, Tawianese films are getting made and released (often shown in
the relatively new Spot Art Cinema that Hou Hsiao-hsien is involved
in), although to be honest most don't have that much appeal to me.
But the gay-themed FORMULA 17 has done relatively well; and there's
a new release, Zero Chou's SPLENDID FLOAT, about a Daoist priest by
day/transexual cabaret performer by night.
Ian
16299
From: thebradstevens
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 11:56am
Subject: Re: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Or: Doing Bad Politics
"Got my FC subscription copy the other day -- and I thought it was a
bit delayed."
I haven't seen a copy in London. Is my Abel Ferrara book reviewed in
this issue?
16300
From:
Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 10:46am
Subject: Re: Re: Was Douglas Sirk gay?
In a message dated 10/2/04 5:41:14 AM, skuttrusk@h... writes:
> I remember Lynda Myles telling me a very sad story about how they
> tried to get Jacques Tourneur for a retrospective, but he
> declined. "If this had happened ten years ago it would have been
> wonderful, but it's all too late now."
>
When was this?
Kevin John
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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