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8801


From: hotlove666
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 6:41pm
Subject: Re: another Fuller rarity coming to DVD
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Jaime N. Christley"
wrote:
> After a wonderful edition of the underrated STREET OF NO RETURN,

Street could've been great - the producer and 10 editors recut it
badly for a year, so we're seeing its greatness in a glass darkly. I
wonder if Sam's cut exists somewhere. Hope The Madonna and the Dragon
comes out on DVD so the group can see it - very nice, and it's Sam's
cut. I also am quite a fan of Thieves After Dark.

I gather that the cat is out of the bag on another Sam matter:
Richard Schickel is reconstructing The Big Red One.
8802


From: hotlove666
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 6:48pm
Subject: Re: Modern horror and world cinema
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "f-verissimo"
wrote:
> > From: Adrian Martin
> > Subject: Modern horror and world cinema
> >
> > where are all the
> > contemporary horror movies about socio-political terrors,
> we have no
> > shortage of such topics in the world today!!
>
> well, I don´t really think any of you will agree with this (I
> know that my brazilian buddies will), but I´d point M. Night
> Shyamalan as a true successor of Romero, Carpenter and
> Hooper, in the tradition of the 70´s horror.

Let me strongly second that. I also agree with your assessment of the
maudit, but great, Ghosts of Mars (those "jump-dissolves" JC has been
doing since Vampires!) and Bruiser. I hear the producer had a stand
up selling rights at AMF to Romero's upcoming The Girl Who Loved Tom
Gordon. Now if we could just get Fred Walton and Dan O'Bannon back
into the fray...
8803


From: hotlove666
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 7:15pm
Subject: Re: Under Capricorn
 
I'm in the "pro" camp. This is the first I've heard of the flashback!

Incidentally, the confession scene IS the flashback in Shoot the
Piano Player, to cite another film influenced by Capricorn. This is
the film where he fully expressed for the first time the
Chabrol/Rohmner transference/confession "archetype" - it may have
been suggested to AH by the play that became I Confess, which had
haunted him since the 30s, but is not really there in any earlier
film than Capricorn (except for the preview ending of Suspicion, now
lost). The famous long takes were achieved by the most astonishing
acrobatics on the part of actors, camera, crew and sets - the "Making
of" Under Capricorn would make a great Tati film.

The Cahiers never renounced Capricorn, which was slated to be the
subject of a collective text a la Lincoln and Morocco during the high
structuralist period, but lost out to the vogue for Red Chinese
vaccination documentaries after 1972. (The other announced collective
texts never done were Moonfleet and Once Upon a Honeymoon.) I
attributed Henrietta's line to Daney when talking at a symposium
about his walking trip into the heart of India, where he just kept
going till he collapsed: "All that hot misery became me!"

Politically, as Joe McBride has pointed out, it's one of the few non-
Ford films dealing with the Irish diaspora - hence very personal for
Hitchcock. (Three of his four grandparents were Irish.) His other bow
to his ancestry was Juno and the Paycock, a print of which was burned
in the street in Belfast when it was shown there.

I know Hitchcock wanted Robert Newton for the Louis Jourdan part in
Paradine Case - did he also say that about Capricorn? I think you're
mixing them up, David. Whereas Paradine was "miscast" (I happen to
agree with the casting choices, or at least with what Hitchcock did
with them) and then spoiled in the editing by Selznick (a subject I
hope to do a show-and-tell on at Bologna) - it was AH's last
experience of servitude - Capricorn was his totally-in-charge attempt
to "do a Selznick," and ended up with the bank seizing the film to
collect the producers' debts. So he wasn't about to have defended it
to Truffaut. That's also why it has been hard to see.

The only flaw in this film is the falling action which is needed to
get Wilding - the second "castrated metteur-en-scene" in Hitchcock's
work, after Devlin in Notorious - out of the picture, but it only
takes 3 minutes.

Crumpet is so called because she's "balmy in the crumpet."
8804


From: hotlove666
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 7:16pm
Subject: Re: Under Capricorn
 
I'm in the "pro" camp. This is the first I've heard of the flashback!

Incidentally, the confession scene IS the flashback in Shoot the
Piano Player, to cite another film influenced by Capricorn. This is
the film where he fully expressed for the first time the
Chabrol/Rohmner transference/confession "archetype" - it may have
been suggested to AH by the play that became I Confess, which had
haunted him since the 30s, but is not really there in any earlier
film than Capricorn (except for the preview ending of Suspicion, now
lost). The famous long takes were achieved by the most astonishing
acrobatics on the part of actors, camera, crew and sets - the "Making
of" Under Capricorn would make a great Tati film.

The Cahiers never renounced Capricorn, which was slated to be the
subject of a collective text a la Lincoln and Morocco during the high
structuralist period, but lost out to the vogue for Red Chinese
vaccination documentaries after 1972. (The other announced collective
texts never done were Moonfleet and Once Upon a Honeymoon.) I
attributed Henrietta's line to Daney when talking at a symposium
about his walking trip into the heart of India, where he just kept
going till he collapsed: "All that hot misery became me!"

Politically, as Joe McBride has pointed out, it's one of the few non-
Ford films dealing with the Irish diaspora - hence very personal for
Hitchcock. (Three of his four grandparents were Irish.) His other bow
to his ancestry was Juno and the Paycock, a print of which was burned
in the street in Belfast when it was shown there.

I know Hitchcock wanted Robert Newton for the Louis Jourdan part in
Paradine Case - did he also say that about Capricorn? I think you're
mixing them up, David. Whereas Paradine was "miscast" (I happen to
agree with the casting choices, or at least with what Hitchcock did
with them) and then spoiled in the editing by Selznick (a subject I
hope to do a show-and-tell on at Bologna) - it was AH's last
experience of servitude - Capricorn was his totally-in-charge attempt
to "do a Selznick," and ended up with the bank seizing the film to
collect the producers' debts. So he wasn't about to have defended it
to Truffaut. That's also why it has been hard to see.

The only flaw in this film is the falling action which is needed to
get Wilding - the second "castrated metteur-en-scene" in Hitchcock's
work, after Devlin in Notorious - out of the picture, but it only
takes 3 minutes.

Crumpet is so called because she's "balmy in the crumpet."
8805


From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 7:31pm
Subject: Re: Re: Under Capricorn
 
--- hotlove666 wrote:

>
> I know Hitchcock wanted Robert Newton for the Louis
> Jourdan part in
> Paradine Case - did he also say that about
> Capricorn? I think you're
> mixing them up, David.

You're right. I took another look at the Truffaut
book. Hitchcock says "Burt Lancaster would have been
better." What's at issue is Lady henrietta marrying a
commoner. Cotton is a great actor but he doesn't have
the sense of malevolence Lancaster woudl have brought
to the role.One never feels she's threatened by Cotton
in any way, and I for one feel the film suffers
because of this. But then I'm far from crazy about
Michael Wilding either.

__________________________________
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8806


From: hotlove666
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 7:37pm
Subject: Re: Ulmer's The Naked Dawn
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Maxime Renaudin"
wrote:
> Someone here get the bright idea to re-release both "The Naked
Dawn"
> and "The Black Cat", alternately in the same theater. I'd like to
> believe, for a moment, that the beauty of this unique film (The
> Naked Dawn) is shared beyond the happy few. May the water stream
> down the naked legs of Betta St. John not in vain. By the way, I
did
> not remember that Kennedy missed that scene, just for the pigs and
> chicks... The admirable sequence shot coming next, with Kennedy and
> Betta St. John in the kitchen, moves me every time. With the rise
> and fall of the "women of Vera Cruz", the shot turns over within a
> continuous breath, extracting the naked truth with a rare substance
> in characters' feelings. Kennedy is great.
> Maxime

I wrote a piece that was suppressed at the NYU Ulmer Symposium on the
making of Naked Dawn, which I love too, and I want to put paid to a
collective hallucination about the fabulous kitchen scene. It dates
back to Tavernier. The kitchen scene consists of two separate all-in-
ones broken into by MCU shot/reverse shots between Kennedy - seated
on the steps - and St. John. The other myth that's been around too
long is that EGU shot it as one 9-minute take and Universal made him
cut it into two parts. Shirley Ulmer's lined script at USC shows
clearly that it was shot as two arias, his and hers (his took one
take, hers three), with the c-cc on the steps as the planned point
where the scene "breaks," in every sense.

Ulmer even says in the Cahiers interview that he's not a partisan of
the ten-minute take, which to him was theatre. Elsewhere in the same
film you can see how he constructed the dance in the cabaret as two
all-in-ones as a way to impart a dramatic structure, just as he did
in the kitchen.

Let me add that it is thanks to Tavernier's great research that we
know who wrote the script and where the story comes from. The script
is also at USC, and it confirms that Zimet is right that Ulmer, who
rarely got good scripts, followed it closely, as he was obliged to
anyway because he was working for Universal again (ironically!). He
also COMPLETELY changed its meaning with his mise-en-scene. In a
paradoxical way, even without knowing the source of script, he
stripped it of Zimet's corny lapsed-communist psychoanalytic
interpretations (Kennedy sees Iglesias as a son) and went right back
to the Gorky story, which is about a Nietzschian power struggle
between the two men (with Bettina really in charge, IMO).

Incidentally, even though it did end up playing bottom half of a
double bill with Lady Godiva in LA, internal memoes show that the
head of marketing at Universal knew it was special and tested it by
opening it top half in Philapdelphia, where I believe it did rather
well. It then ended up playing bottom half anyway - no reasons
stated - and was saved when a Spanish film withdrew from Venice at
the last minute, and the head of marketing for Universal in Europe
proposed it to the festival as a substitute "Spanish" film. I believe
that's where Truffaut, who became Ulmer's main champion on the
Cahiers, discovered it.

The much drooled-over Bettina's-legs shot is not the only shot in the
film that isolates a character's legs. And for Bettina fans, here's a
pop quiz: What is she doing the first time Kennedy sees her?
8807


From: hotlove666
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 7:53pm
Subject: Re: Ripleymania (Erratum)
 
One more post and I'm done for the day. The Chase, shown last night
at the Egyptian, is magnificent. The print is at the Ontario
Cinematheque. Ripley was an authentic screwball poet, in ways I will
let members (hopefully) discover for themselves. Fred, was the scene
you remember the scene in the Habana Club where the camera goes up to
the singer and then down to Cummings and Morgan on the packed floor?
Erratum: The second Ripley I saw is called Voice in the Wind. It's at
the Paris Cinematheque. This guy is really good. I didn't know it,
but he was head of the UCLA Film School till he died in 61 - maybe
that's where Dennis Jakob knew him.
8808


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 8:31pm
Subject: Re: another Fuller rarity coming to DVD
 
> Street could've been great - the producer and 10 editors recut it
> badly for a year, so we're seeing its greatness in a glass darkly.
I
> wonder if Sam's cut exists somewhere. Hope The Madonna and the
Dragon
> comes out on DVD so the group can see it - very nice, and it's
Sam's
> cut. I also am quite a fan of Thieves After Dark.

I believe what you say about STREET but I love it anyway, especially
the violent finale in the mansion. And Bill Duke is amazing.

"...a COP killer?! Drag that sonofabitch over here by his BALLS!!!"

I saw a letterboxed video of MADONNA but it was dubbed in German and
there were no subtitles, so I can't make a fair assessment of its
qualities, besides an overall tone and approach to violence and
journalism that's unmistakably Fuller, and some classical lighting in
some places.

Haven't seen DAY OF RECKONING, but the lady who runs the NYU Cinema
Studies study center check-out room is a big Fuller fan and she says
it has a POV shot from a chicken, which sounds un-missable. I
believe, then, that RECKONING must be the one Fuller refers to - in A
THIRD FACE (too lazy to check) - where they let all the chickens out
into the yard and they die from the shock, from the sunlight, very
sad.

> I gather that the cat is out of the bag on another Sam matter:
> Richard Schickel is reconstructing The Big Red One.

Is this a new turn of events? Earlier in the life of a_film_by, the
subject came up but here's a quote from you:

"[B]ut I hear from Christa that they may only restore a couple of
scenes for the DVD - not what Michael [Friend] or, before him, Tony
[Bozanich] and I had planned at all. A tragedy. But I adore Christa,
who made a mistake because Schmidlin came in with a recommendation
from someone she trusted."

http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/a_film_by/message/1269

-Jaime
8809


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 8:39pm
Subject: Re: Under Capricorn
 
> You're right. I took another look at the Truffaut
> book. Hitchcock says "Burt Lancaster would have been
> better." What's at issue is Lady henrietta marrying a
> commoner. Cotton is a great actor but he doesn't have
> the sense of malevolence Lancaster woudl have brought
> to the role.One never feels she's threatened by Cotton
> in any way, and I for one feel the film suffers
> because of this.

I disagree, I felt Cotten was very powerful in the role, and very
convincing. In fact, I think he's more menacing (with a shade of the
tragic) here than he is in SHADOW OF A DOUBT or even THE HALLIDAY
BRAND.

> But then I'm far from crazy about
> Michael Wilding either.

On the other hand, I agree with this - he's a liability in the role.
A more charismatic actor would have boosted the (already great) film
considerably. Or even a semi-decent actor like Farley Granger would
have done very well. Wilding is "good" but you forget his face
instantly and Charles' love for Henrietta has very little pull.

-Jaime
8810


From: hotlove666
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 8:39pm
Subject: Re: another Fuller rarity coming to DVD
 
>
> Haven't seen DAY OF RECKONING, but the lady who runs the NYU Cinema
> Studies study center check-out room is a big Fuller fan and she says
> it has a POV shot from a chicken, which sounds un-missable. I
> believe, then, that RECKONING must be the one Fuller refers to - in
A
> THIRD FACE (too lazy to check) - where they let all the chickens out
> into the yard and they die from the shock, from the sunlight, very
> sad.

The best scene is a nightmare sequence in black and white " in unison
and revolt, eating up the hero - as they later do for real to the bad
guy.
>
> > I gather that the cat is out of the bag on another Sam matter:
> > Richard Schickel is reconstructing The Big Red One.
>
> Is this a new turn of events? Earlier in the life of a_film_by, the
> subject came up but here's a quote from you:
>
> "[B]ut I hear from Christa that they may only restore a couple of
> scenes for the DVD - not what Michael [Friend] or, before him, Tony
> [Bozanich] and I had planned at all. A tragedy. But I adore Christa,
> who made a mistake because Schmidlin came in with a recommendation
> from someone she trusted."

That was then, this is now. Schmidlin is not involved anymore.
8811


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 8:42pm
Subject: Re: Big Red One
 
> That was then, this is now.

Fantastic - please keep us updated! I hope a complete or near-enough
complete cut of this film is within our reach.

-Jaime
8812


From: hotlove666
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 9:05pm
Subject: Meet Me in St. Louis
 
Got an e-mail from Christa Fuller that she's seeing this with Liza
presenting tonight. Any Angelenos know where that's happening?
8813


From: Richard Modiano
Date: Sun Apr 4, 2004 11:18pm
Subject: Re: Under Capricorn
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:
"I'm in the 'pro' camp. This is the first I've heard of the
flashback!"

I was certain that you must have known about it. The day UNDER
CAPRICORN was screened LACMA was showing GIDEON OF SCOTLAND YARD in
color as part of the Ford Centennial Retrospective. I opted
for "Capricorn" because I thought "Gideon" would be easier to see
at some future time(I was wrong.) The guy from BFI who presented the
restoration told the history of how BFI acquired a negative and the
unused scene. Unfortunately I don't remeber the details now.

Jamie, did the DVD have the trailer? Some of the flashback is used
in the trailer. Bill, if you can see the trailer you'll be able to
spot this footage even though it's only a few seconds.

Richard
8814


From: joe_mcelhaney
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 0:05am
Subject: Re: Pas sur la bouche
 
Like Michelle, I'm dying to see Pas sur la bouche. It played here in
New York for a few days in mid-March but I had to attend an academic
conference in Italy that week. I can't remember the last time I was
so devastated that I had to miss a film. Until I can see it, any
detailed reports on it are most welcome. In the absence of any real
excitement in my life, vicarious film viewing has become a symptom of
the dreariness of my existence.

I heard that, among other things, it has an amazing opening shot: an
overhead image of people sitting at a table conversing who then all
suddenly look up into the camera and begin singing. Since word of
mouth seems to be good, maybe the film get an American distributor.
When Lambert Wilson spoke in New York, he said that Resnais forbid
the actors to dance or move in any overt rhythmic manner while they
sang and that even if they unconsciously began to sway while singing,
he would start the shot over again. Apparently, he wanted the
emphasis to be entirely on voice and text.

Someone in the audience asked Wilson how he learned to speak French
so fluently. Answer: "I'm French."

Oh, at the conference I went to, and probably on the same day that
Par sur la bouche was playing, I was watching a 3-D projection -- on
VIDEO -- of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON -- with an entire reel
missing due to an inadvertent, easily correctible video glitch. In
typical Italian fashion, nobody seemed to notice or, if they did,
cared or bothered to apologize. We showed you a movie. What more do
you want?
8815


From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 0:28am
Subject: Re: Re: Pas sur la bouche
 
--- joe_mcelhaney wrote:

>
> I heard that, among other things, it has an amazing
> opening shot: an
> overhead image of people sitting at a table
> conversing who then all
> suddenly look up into the camera and begin singing.

Actually it's a group of women standing around a table
on which a veryelaborate tea has been laid out: cakes,
delicacies, cups, saucers, plates, etc. They
constitute a chorus who, after they've set up the
premise literally vanish before our eyes.


>
> Someone in the audience asked Wilson how he learned
> to speak French
> so fluently. Answer: "I'm French."
>
LOL!

Consult the IMDB for both his career and that of his
father, actor Georges Wilson.

I'm sorry I didn't think of asking him about it the
other night, but Lambert's the male lead in the
Colette movie that Marie Trintignant was filming when
she was brutally murdered by her rock star boyfriend.
It's still unclear as to whether princial photography
was completed at the time of her death.



__________________________________
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8816


From: filipefurtado
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 0:45am
Subject: Re: Under Capricorn?
 
I think it's Hitchcock greatest film. It has one of the two
or three best use of long takes in film history. The script
structure is wonderfgul and let me disagree with Hitchcock,
Cotten is really very good (he probably didn't look right in
the part, but I doubt that Lancaster would give a better
performance). I also think Wilding is very well cast, he's
far less intersting than both Cotten and Bergman and I think
it's better that way. He's carachter isn't suppose to be as
expressive than them. I saw it from the DVD and it didn't
have the trailer, if i'm not mistaken (the same day that I
saw Europe 51' theatrically, by far my best film day of 2003).

Filipe


> Saw this on DVD the other day and was very, very impressed.
Probably
> wouldn't have watched it, were it not for Dave Kehr's euphor
ic praise
> -
" Easily one of Alfred Hitchcock's half dozen greatest films"
- but
> glad I did.
>
> His capsule review, which can be found here
>
> http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/8757_UNDER_C
APRICORN
>
> says it all for me, does anyone have anything to add? (Subt
ract?)
>
> -Jaime
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
>


---
Acabe com aquelas janelinhas que pulam na sua tela.
AntiPop-up UOL - É grátis!
http://antipopup.uol.com.br
8817


From: hotlove666
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 0:52am
Subject: Re: Under Capricorn
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Modiano"
wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
> wrote:
> "I'm in the 'pro' camp. This is the first I've heard of the
> flashback!"
>
> I was certain that you must have known about it. The day UNDER
> CAPRICORN was screened LACMA was showing GIDEON OF SCOTLAND YARD in
> color as part of the Ford Centennial Retrospective. I opted
> for "Capricorn" because I thought "Gideon" would be easier to see
> at some future time(I was wrong.)

Well there you go...I went to the Ford!
8818


From: hotlove666
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 0:57am
Subject: Re: Pas sur la bouche
 
> When Lambert Wilson spoke in New York, he said that Resnais forbid
> the actors to dance or move in any overt rhythmic manner while they
> sang and that even if they unconsciously began to sway while
singing,
> he would start the shot over again. Apparently, he wanted the
> emphasis to be entirely on voice and text.

A perfect illustration of the Two Coasts phenomenon: Here (LA) he was
heard to say that he didn't want it to look like he was trying to do
a musical in the Hollywood sense because he has too much respect for
that tradition, and this is an operetta. Actually, there's a lot of
movement - it just never looks dance-like.

I hope there were at least interesting papers presented on CREATURE
FROM THE BLACK LAGOON at your conference!
8819


From: samfilms2003
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 2:35am
Subject: Re: another Fuller rarity coming to DVD
 
> What I'm longing for is that they'll bring out some
> obscure Rivette like "Duelle," "Noroit" and "Merry Go
> Round."

Sounds good..
>
> And how about Duras' "India Song" and "Son Nom du
> Venise dans Calcutta Desert" ?

Sold !

-Sam
8820


From: L C
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 2:36am
Subject: Support for Portuguese Directors
 
I received this email in french from a friend. The Portuguese government is in the process of changing the purpose of the ICAM ( National cinema organization) so that it funds more commercially viable projects instead of the artistic endeavors for which Portugal cinema is now mainly known. To support the realizadores in their fight ,send an email with name ,profession,town, country to
realizadores@o.... Thanks Luc

Soutien aux cinéastes portugais LE GOUVERNEMENT PORTUGAIS VEUT FAIRE VOTER EN AVRIL UNE LOI DU CINEMA D'ÒU A DISPARU L'ICAM (équivalent portugais du C.N.C.). PAR CONTRE SERAIT CRÉÉ UN FONDS D'INVESTISSEMENT DESTINÉ Á SOUTENIR DES FILMS DE "GRANDE ATTRACTIVITÉ COMMERCIALE".

LES REALISATEURS PORTUGAIS ONT RÉDIGÉ LE MANIFESTE CI-DESSOUS.

Il est extrêmement important pour nous que toutes les personnes qui par passion et/ou profession sont attachées au cinéma et qui sont d'accord avec ce texte manifestent leur appui.

Pour nous soutenir, il suffit de retourner ce mail avec votre nom, profession, ville et pays
(et si possible un contact)
ou d'envoyer un mail l'adresse suivante
realizadores@o...

Merci de faire circuler ce texte pour réunir la plus grande manifestation de soutien possible
lors de l'examen de la loi à l'Assemblée Nationale Portugaise

MANIFESTE DE L'ASSOCIATION PORTUGAISE DE REALISATEURS -A.P.R.
Le Gouvernement Portugais s'apprête à faire voter au milieu du mois d'Avril une nouvelle Loi du Cinéma, intitulée Loi des Arts Cinématographiques (pourquoi le pluriel?) et Audiovisuels.
L'Institut du Cinéma, ICAM, (équivalent portugais du C.N.C) disparaît de la loi. Par contre est créé un "Fonds pour l'Investissement et le Développement des Arts Cinématographiques et de l'Audiovisuel" à travers lequel le Gouvernement menace de convertir le peu d'argent disponible pour la production du cinéma portugais en capital pour un commerce louche avec les distributeurs et exploitants américains et les chaînes privées de télévision, un "Fonds" destiné à financer des projets supposée attirer le public afin de générer des bénéfices.
De telles manoeuvres arrivent au moment où le cinéma portugais, après avoir renforcé son identité et ses modes de production, a vu apparaître de jeunes auteurs et a permis le travail de cinéastes confirmés dont l'oeuvre est reconnue tant au niveau national qu'international.
Ainsi, alors que tous les indicateurs démontrent une consolidation de la cinématographie portugaise autour d'une production importante et diversifiée, le Gouvernement Portugais prétend maintenant, par un numéro d'illusionniste, ruiner les fonds de la culture au profit d'un commerce douteux, étranglant la production, produisant moins de films mais au budget beaucoup plus élevé, excluant du système des dizaines de créateurs, au nom d'un mirifique "cinéma commercial" qui, au Portugal, n'est parvenu qu'à engendrer des échecs financiers et des naufrages culturels.
Aucun raisonnement économique ne peut étayer la légitimité de ce cinéma "cher et commercial": et le Gouvernement - dans une irresponsable navigation à la dérive - ne s'appuie pour légitimer ce choix sur aucune étude prospective.
En vérité, plus il est investi d'argent dans un film portugais plus grand est le préjudice qu'il provoque; tandis que, au contraire, il a été démontrée la bien meilleure "performance commerciale" de films beaucoup moins coûteux, beaucoup plus libres et originaux, films qui, eux, circulent dans le monde entier, mobilisant des spectateurs de générations différentes et de cultures diverses.
Pour le cinéma - comme pour tous les arts et toute la culture - nous exigeons donc un Ministère de la Culture, avec une politique culturelle et artistique effective, et non un Ministère du Commerce.
Nous n'acceptons pas les politiques commerciales et industrielles au sein du Ministère de la Culture (contraires aux accords internationaux du commerce et aux directives communautaires sur le statut de l'exception culturelle) mais nous voulons de véritables politiques qui protègent et défendent le cinéma portugais dans un marché abandonné aux intérêts de l'industrie américaine..
Nous exigeons que l'argent du cinéma soit pour le cinéma, qu'il soit attribué à travers des concours publics avec des règles et des critères transparents qui assurent la liberté et l'indépendance de la création. Nous voulons que cela soit fait au nom de la souveraineté culturelle du pays et au nom des liens qui unissent le cinéma à tous les autres arts, et aussi au nom de la préservation de l'identité culturelle de chaque pays.

Nous exigeons du Ministère de la Culture un Institut du Cinéma, avec des recettes propres et une autonomie administrative et financière et nous voulons aussi une séparation claire entre l'art du cinéma et les intérêts de l'audiovisuel, qui, eux, relèvent exclusivement des cahiers des charges des télévisions et doivent être absolument séparés des fonds qui soutiennent le cinéma.

Nous ne pouvons admettre que le cinéma portugais soit soumis aux intérêts des télévisions privées et publiques ni que le Gouvernement se serve du statut culturel du cinéma pour financer en douce - à travers le dit "Fonds d'Investissement" - les déficits des télévisions et leur incapacité chronique à soutenir la production.
Nous exigeons que la loi respecte les principes énoncés en son préambule: plus de films, plus de diversité, possibilité pour plus de cinéastes - de toutes les générations- de filmer. Et nous voulons surtout que l'État en revienne à son rôle de garant de la liberté et de la défense intransigeante des créateurs et de leurs oeuvres, sans les prétentions populistes qui, depuis longtemps, ont fait main basse sur l'imaginaire des Portugais au profit des intérêts de l'industrie du cinéma américain et des sous-produits de la télévision brésilienne.
Sacrifier une cinématographie à de tels desseins est un crime à l'encontre de la démocratie et de la liberté de tous. Et tout indique que ce ne pourrait être que le début d'un processus mettant fin à la souveraineté culturelle portugaise, une mort annoncée de son indépendance et de son originalité au nom d'une politique culturelle menée en faveur d'une "littérature" de best-sellers, d'une "peinture" et "sculpture" décorative, d'un "théâtre" de boulevard, d'une musique de super-marché, le retour enfin au cauchemar d'une sous-culture rétrograde, obéissant aux caprices du marché et aux intérêts des messieurs qui croient le diriger.

Lisbonne, le 26 Mars 2004
A.P.R. Associação Portuguesa de Realizadores.
L' A.P.R., la plus importante association de réalisateurs au Portugal, réunit 56 réalisateurs de longs et courts-métrages de fiction, documentaire et animation:
Sandro Aguilar, Manuel João Aguas, Luis Alvarães, Catarina Alves Costa, Luis Alves de Matos, Nuno Amorim, Jorge António, Leonor Areal, Rita Azevedo Gomes, Carlos Braga, Daniel Blaufuks, Margarida Cardoso, José Pedro Cavalheiro, João Botelho, João Canijo, José Filipe Costa, Pedro Caldas, Eduardo Condorcet, Pedro Costa, António Escudeiro, Edgar Feldman, Luciana Fina, Luis Fonseca, Raquel Freire, Teresa Garcia, João Mário Grilo, Margarida Gil, Miguel Gomes, Pierre-Marie Goulet, Regina Guimarães, António Loja Neves, Fernando Lopes, Fernando Matos Silva, João Matos Silva, Inês de Medeiros, Madalena Miranda, José Álvaro Morais, Catarina Mourão, Manuel Mozos, José Nascimento, Solveig Nordlund, Joaquim Pinto, João Ribeiro, Paulo Rocha, João Pedro Rodrigues, Monique Rutler, Saguenail, Renata Sancho, Alberto Seixas Santos, Pedro Sena Nunes, Jorge Silva Melo, Serge Tréfaut, Fernando Vendrell, Francisco Villa-Lobos, Teresa Villaverde, Jeanne Waltz.

ce sont déjà associés à ce manifeste les personnalités suivantes (4.04.2004)
Rui Zink, écrivain, Lisbonne, Portugal
Carlos Zingaro, musicien, compositeur
Manuel da Costa Cabral, Directeur du Service des Beaux-Arts de la Fondation Gulbenkian, Portugal
Luís Castro, Acteur, Metteur en Scène, Portugal
Maria Luísa Garcia Fernandes, Museologue, Porto, Portugal
António Roma Torres - critique de cinema, Porto, Portugal
Daniel del Negro - cinéaste, Portugal
Fernando Barbosa, Industriel, Porto, Portugal
Ilda Castro, cinéaste, Portugal
Octávio Espirito Santo, directeur de la photographie
Isabel Aboim, cinéaste, Lisbonne, Portugal
Filipe Carneiro. architecte, Portugal
Inês Barbosa, étudiante, Porto
Eurico Ferreira, producteur de film, Portugal
Ivo Ferreira, cinéaste, Lisbonne, Portugal
Manuela Penafria, Universitaire, Covilha, Portugal
Anabela Moutinho, Ciné Club de Faro, Portugal
Paulo Martins - Operateur TV,Portugal
Cláudia Tomaz - réalisatrice, Lisbonne, Portugal
André Godinho - cinéaste, Lisbonne, Portugal
Fernando Mateus - Journaliste, Algueirão,Portugal
Nathalie Mansoux, Portugal
Mónica Calle - Directora da Casa Conveniente. Lisbonne, Portugal
Rosa Freitas, Lisbonne, Portugal
Inês Oliveira - Réalisatrice, Portugal
Luís Pereira - Cineclube da Horta, Portugal
Manfredo Caldas - Cinéaste, Brasilia, Brésil
Débora Peters, producteur, Brésil
Marcelo Laffitte, Cineasta, President Nacional de l' ABD, Rio de Janeiro, , Brésil
Geraldo Veloso, Diretor Associação Mineira de Cineastas, Coordenador Geral do 6o. Festival Internacional de Curtas de Belo Horizonte, Coordenador de Produção do Programa de Televisão, "Cine Magazine", Produtor e Diretor de Cinema e Televisão, , Brésil
Bernardo Vorobow, programmateur de cinéma, São Paulo, Brésil
Carlos Adriano, réalisateur, São Paulo, Brésil
Rosângela Rocha, Brésil
Carlos Manta associado à ACCV - Associação Cearense de Cinema e Vídeo
João Batista de Andrade - Cineasta Pirenópolis-GO, Brésil
Associação Mineira de Cineastas, Brésil
ABD/SE - Associação Brasileira de Documentaristas/Sergipe, Brésil
Associação Brasileira de Documentaristas e Curtas-Metragistas, Brésil
Associação Baiana de Cinema e Vídeo - ABCV, BAHIA, Brésil
Gerald Collas, Producteur, Paris, France
Ginette Lavigne, Réalisatrice, Paris, France
Richard Dumas, photographe, Rennes, France
Jean-Louis Comolli, cinéaste, Paris, France.
Gisèle Breteau Skira, rédactrice en chef de Zeuxis Magazine, Paris, France
Nicolas Schmerkin, Directeur du magazine Repérages, réalisateur, producteur, programmateur, France
Jean-Claude Bonfanti directeur artistique Bruxelles Belgique
Marie-Claude Loiselle, rédactrice en chef, revue 24 images, Montréal, Québec.
Annik Leroy, Réalisatrice, Bruxelles, Belgique
Elizabeth Riollet ( enseignante cinéma ), France
Claire Simon, Cinéaste. Paris France
Jean-Loup Baly, conteur-musicien, France
Danielle Jaeggi, cinéaste, Paris.
Gérard Grugeau, Critique de cinéma, Montréal, Québec
Fanny Guiard, documentariste.France
Erika Bauer -Cineasta/Brasilia, Brésil
Jacques Kermabon, journaliste, rédacteur en chef de Bref, Paris, France
Frédérique Devillez, Cinéaste, Paris, France
Patrice Chagnard, cinéaste, France
Claudine Bories, cinéaste, France
Erik Bullot, cinéaste, Paris, France
Maria Luiza Aboim, Cineasta Documentarista, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Ivo Branco, cineasta, São Paulo - Brasil
Olivier Smolders, Cinéaste et Producteur de films, Liège, Belgique
Pery de Canti, Cineasta, Maringá/PR - Brésil
Nuno Pires, Réalisateur et assistant-réalisateur, Paris, France
Annie Comolli, enseignante de cinéma et cinéaste, Paris, France
Catalina Villar, réalisatrice et membre des Ateliers Varan. Paris. France
Nicholas Elliott, réalisateur, New York, USA
Ahmed Rezkallah ingenieur du son, Paris, France
Carlo Ginzburg, historien, Bologne, Italie
Sandra Alvarez de Toledo, historienne d'art, Paris
Christophe Gallaz, Ecrivain, Suisse
Jean-Paul Roig , Réalisateur , Paris, France
Christophe Ruggia, cinéaste, Paris, France
Jean Breschand, réalisateur, Paris, France
Yves Billon:cineaste producteur :Les Films du Village, Paris, France
Marie-Claude Treilhou, Réalisatrice, Paris, France
Frédéric Sojcher, cinéaste, Président de l'ARRF (Association des Réalisateurs et Réalisatrices de Films, en Belgique).
Alain Dufau, Réalisateur , France
François EDE, réalisateur, Paris, France
Eric Bergel, auteur-réalisateur, Nice, France
Giada Colagrande, cinéaste, Roma, Italia
Willem Dafoe, acteur, New York, USA
George Minot, écrivain, New York, USA
Jean-Jacques Beineix, Réalisateur Producteur Cargo Films, Paris, France
Yola Le Caïnec, enseignante, paris, france







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8821


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 4:30am
Subject: Re: Gerd + Kiss Before Dying
 
Fred, I fall into the middle ground between you and JP regarding A
KISS BEFORE DYING. Its images are as you say below - and there are
more (Bud and Dory's talk at the stadium, the subtle, cage-like
geometry of the bleachers obliterates the openness of the athletic
field). Whereas BRAINWASHED was filled with images of chessboards and
geometry that "nullifies" individuals, Oswald's motif in A KISS seems
to be great big bowls, or craters, or just plain broad spaces with
high, unforgiving walls (the mine, the field, the high municipal
building in a city where most buildings are two or three stories at
the most - like Jean Gabin's apartment building in LE JOUR SE
LÈVE), and when the film works best it exhibits these characters
being pushed down, inward, collapsing, etc. The most evil thing about
Bud, besides his ability to murder without remorse, is his cruelty
towards his mother, and this is most clearly conveyed when he attacks
her with what seems like sentimentality and nostalgia: telling the
guests at the Kingship party how she eloped, he draws a clear
distinction between doing the honorable thing, which she failed to do,
and which he's going after (with a little homicide, if necessary).

This is the most effective (in its brutality and the "frontality" of
the images, if not the rather unconvincing pulp narrative, taken from
an Ira Levin novel) film I've seen in which a man is driven to murder
to get ahead, to obey honor, to marry money, to get free of his class.
Bud is a more pulpy version of Patrick Bateman, a sociopathic,
homicidal Clyde Griffiths.

However, I saw the film on letterboxed DVD. The effects that Oswald
creates will surely be enhanced on film, and I'll withhold "final
judgment" until such a time as I can catch a print. However, I can
say that a good deal of what makes the film effective as Fred
described it (from having watched a print) must have survived on
video, because I also witnessed these effects. I think it's okay to
discuss what is filmic and powerful about A KISS BEFORE DYING and
other CinemaScope/Panavision/VistaVision films if they've been viewed
on properly letterboxed DVDs or laserdiscs with clean transfers. I
always make a point of saying how I've seen a movie on
filmwritten.org. That's my position.

-Jaime

> Oswald's imagery at its best has, for me, a direcness, a
phsyicality, as
> if the frame is being filled up with solid and impenetrable
material, or
> blocked by same. This seems to me to express a certain bruatality.
The
> great example is the floor in "Brainwashed." The way he uses
foreground
> objects in Westerns is also key, as is a great shot of Valerie's
back in
> "Valerie." If I remember right "A Kiss Before Dying" has a great
scene,
> and a key one in the narrative, in an open pit mine in which the
mine
> walls and shots of the pits have a similarly brutal quality. You
really
> feel the rought texture of the mine's sides as colliding with your
eye,
> or at least I did. It's as if the images itself dictate the nasty
story
> too. I can't believe the power of these images will come through on
> letterboxed TV at all, which has an absurdly low resolution. I hate
it:
> you're looking at scan lines as much as at picture. In my view you
> haven't really seen the film. I'm willing to admit I'm in the
minority
> here and crawl back into the darkness of my private screening room
> equipped with an old 16mm projector and a few prints but none of "A
Kiss
> Before Dying," but I really don't see a point in debating my
argument
> about the "feel" of the image when I'm speaking to a letterboxed TV
> version. I don't mean you shouldn't feel free to resopnd, just that
I'm
> not sure what else we could discuss.
8822


From: Gabe Klinger
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 5:05am
Subject: Re: Support for Portuguese Directors
 
Thanks for this info, Luc.

From all accounts, Joao Cesar Monteiro's death seemed to mark the end of an era for
Portuguese cinema and ICAM, which recently helped to restore JCM's entire filmography,
and was involved in the big subsidy scandal with BRANCA DE NEVE (SNOW WHITE) a few
years ago. An officer from ICAM proudly defended SNOW WHITE on the news in Portugal,
saying it wasn't up to them to censor anyone...

Many of Monteiro's contemporaries, who studied with him in London, and later wrote as
critics in a Lisbon-based cinema magazine (I forget the title) in the 60s, are still making
films. They are Alberto Seixas Santos, Fernando Lopes (whose latest was just released in
Portugal), Joaquim Pinto (Monteiro's producer) and Monteiro's longtime companion
Margarida Gil. I've never seen any of films by these directors so I can't comment on their
merit, but it would be a pity if they had to halt production.

Plus Portugal is a country that's just weird enough to support weird films. And here I
thought they were one of the last ones....

Gabe
8823


From: joe_mcelhaney
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 4:03pm
Subject: Re: Pas sur la bouche
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:

> A perfect illustration of the Two Coasts phenomenon: Here (LA) he
>was heard to say that he didn't want it to look like he was trying
>to do a musical in the Hollywood sense because he has too much
>respect for that tradition, and this is an operetta. Actually,
>there's a lot of movement - it just never looks dance-like.

A friend of mine did respond at the q&a after the screening in New
York to Wilson's statement about Resnais not wanting his actors to
move in a dance-like fashion while they sang, pointing out to Wilson
that the film does, in fact, have a very carefully staged look to it.
I've forgotten what Wilson's response was. It was a concrete and
interesting response about Resnais's methods so I'll find out what it
was -- unless someone in the group was at the screening and can
remember.


> I hope there were at least interesting papers presented on CREATURE
> FROM THE BLACK LAGOON at your conference!

No papers on CREATURE at all! It was a conference devoted to the
senses of cinema other than sight--sound, tactility, etc. And so
CREATURE was being shown in relation to 3-D, POLYESTER in relation to
smell and so on. Given the recent hostile posts about disastrous
academic film conferences I hesitate to even describe what went on
here. But aside from the CREATURE screening it was all very pleasant
and beautifully, lavishly hosted. A number of the papers were
considerably off topic but you can't have everything. Probably the
best paper I heard was one on my panel, a presentation by a young
French writer named Fabien Gaffez. He's written for POSITIF and is
doing his thesis now under the supervision of Nicole Brenez on the
topic of tactility in film, dealing with some contemporary French
filmmakers as well as older figures like Michael Powell and Fritz
Lang -- the latter the topic of my paper at the conference. His
paper was derived from this thesis and dealt with the work of
Philippe Grandrieux (sp?), whose films I have yet to see.
8824


From: Zach Campbell
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 8:39pm
Subject: Re: Support for Portuguese Directors
 
Gabe wrote:
> They are Alberto Seixas Santos, Fernando Lopes (whose latest was
> just released in Portugal), Joaquim Pinto (Monteiro's producer)
> and Monteiro's longtime companion Margarida Gil. I've never seen
> any of films by these directors so I can't comment on their
> merit, but it would be a pity if they had to halt production.

Are they exceptionally rare, or just unsuccessful enough to prove
marginal? How difficult or time-consuming would it be if some of us
tried to acquire, transfer, and/or circulate tapes of their films?
Or, to Gabe or any other people with programming experience, how
tough is it to come across prints by these names (none of whom I've
heard of, though a Monteiro connection--as you suggest--guarantees a
priori interest for some of us)?

--Zach
8825


From: hotlove666
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 10:53pm
Subject: The other 4 senses
 
>
> No papers on CREATURE at all! It was a conference devoted
to the
> senses of cinema other than sight--sound, tactility, etc. And so
> CREATURE was being shown in relation to 3-D, POLYESTER
in relation to
> smell and so on. Probably the
> best paper I heard was one on my panel, a presentation by a
young
> French writer named Fabien Gaffez. He's written for POSITIF
and is
> doing his thesis now under the supervision of Nicole Brenez
on the
> topic of tactility in film, dealing with some contemporary French
> filmmakers as well as older figures like Michael Powell and
Fritz
> Lang -- the latter the topic of my paper at the conference. His
> paper was derived from this thesis and dealt with the work of
> Philippe Grandrieux (sp?), whose films I have yet to see.

Grandrieux is very interesting, and I can see the role of tactility in
his films. Polanski is my favorite example of that: he is
interested in Gestalt psychology, and in finding the equivalents of
the other senses in film. I think Bergman is, too. I've always
wondered how Kubrick was planning to film Perfume! You dealt
with the other senses in Lang?
8826


From: Dan Sallitt
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 5:59pm
Subject: Re: Pas sur la bouche
 
> AR does something new with the actors' exits which I won't spoil by
> describing - in any case, do not imagine that this is a static piece
> of filmed theatre a la Smoking/No Smoking.

PAS SUR LA BOUCHE reminded me that, in his unusual way, Resnais often
seems to be working out on film Bazin's ideas about translating one art
form into another. Resnais is both within the play (i.e, he's not
inclined to make the play "cinematic" by opening it up, adding
naturalistic elements, etc.) and a commentator on it: he plays with the
camera, but generally in such a way as to draw our attention to the
theatrical integrity of the space, or to illuminate a theatrical
convention. The film made me think about his 40s documentaries on
artists, or rather about Bazin's commentary on those documentaries
(which Bazin produced).

Welcome back, Joe! - Dan
8827


From: jpcoursodon
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 11:10pm
Subject: Pas sur la bouche
 
There is a great interview with Resnais on "Pas sur la bouche" in the
December issue of POSITIF. Also an interesting interview with Bruno
Fontaine, the musical director.

Resnais states, among other things, that he made it a point never to
cut from dialogue to song or vice versa but to always have the switch
within the same shot (which created complications with the playbacks -
- all the songs were recorded before shooting started and ). He also
confirms that he didn't want the actors to dance at all (or make
dance-like moves...).

There was a 1931 adaptation of the operetta of which one print has
survived (it's at Bois-D'Arcy). Resnais says that "there was nothing
to steal there" because they had changed a lot of stuff. "As for MELO
you could say the remake is more faithful than the first adaptation."

JPC
8828


From: jpcoursodon
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 11:19pm
Subject: Re: Pas sur la bouche
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "joe_mcelhaney"
wrote:
> Like Michelle, I'm dying to see Pas sur la bouche. It played here
in
> New York for a few days in mid-March but I had to attend an
academic
> conference in Italy that week. I can't remember the last time I
was
> so devastated that I had to miss a film. Until I can see it, any
> detailed reports on it are most welcome. In the absence of any real
> excitement in my life, vicarious film viewing has become a symptom
of
> the dreariness of my existence.
>
There's always My Sister Eileen...

Don't despair. Since "On connait la chanson" was released here,
there's a good chance "Pas sur la bouche" will be too.

JPC
8829


From: Gabe Klinger
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 9:25pm
Subject: Re: Support for Portuguese Directors
 
Zach:

> Are they exceptionally rare, or just unsuccessful enough to prove
> marginal?

The latter, I guess, if we're talking about more recent films. Monteiro and many of the
directors I mentioned made films for television in the '70s that only exist in red faded
prints today. Some are in too delicate a condition to circulate at all.

The only film from this group that's widely available is UMA ABELHA NA CHUVA (A BEE
IN THE RAIN), a classic of Portuguese cinema (by Fernando Lopes), that's on DVD in
Portugal.

My only advice for someone interested would be to go to Portugal and watch them at
the Cinemateca Portuguesa.

The new generation of Portuguese filmmakers that includes the talents of Teresa
Villaverde, Pedro Costa, and Joao Pedro Rodrigues, all have their films circulating on
video, through private or comercial sources, you can certainly find them.

Gabe
8830


From: Zach Campbell
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 8:40pm
Subject: British cinema
 
I'm in the home stretch for deciding on what I'd like to propose for
an independent study course this fall, and the subject of classical
British sound cinema is an appealing prospect about which I know
only enough, well, to find it appealing. (Powell? Hitchcock?
Droll period comedy? Yes, please!)

Though I'm not 100% certain I will pursue this course, my
preliminary research into the field has revealed a lot of solid
books and intriguing titles ... and regardless of what I choose
academically, I'd like to put a focus on this national cinema and
period in my reading and viewing starting this summer. Can I pick
a_film_by's brains about, say, some submerged classics that don't
get mentioned often enough? Are there any great books (histories,
personality studies, etc.) that shouldn't go by unnoticed? Is Ken
Annakin's ACROSS THE BRIDGE really so impressive? How difficult is
it to come across, say, videos of more obscure Ealing comedies?
(How many Ealing films even survive?)

Thanks in advance for suggestions and opinions.

--Zach

p.s. I use the web interface to read and send posts; has anyone else
been having a lot of trouble with it (and sometimes all of Yahoo)
lately? I'm getting an annoying amount of 'Cannot Find Page's and
whatnot.
8831


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 1:54am
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
This will probably be of little help, since I've already told you
about it, but try to see A CANTERBURY TALE and GONE TO EARTH if you
can, they're my two favorite Powell & Pressburger films. The former,
especially, is a moving ode to the country itself, addressing British
viewers and visitors alike.

Are you sticking with films set in Britain, or abroad? I wonder if
you'd count PLAY DIRTY, with its Hungarian director and a plot sort of
lifted from an American film (THE DIRTY DOZEN).

Cy Endfield's ZULU is also very, very great, and available on
widescreen DVD. I also like Albert Lewin's THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL
AMI and Zoltan Korda's CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY.

Also, I taped most of the Ealing films that aired on TCM when I lived
at Water Street. You can find the titles here:

http://www.filmwritten.org/tapelist.htm

-Jaime

--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Zach Campbell" wrote:
> I'm in the home stretch for deciding on what I'd like to propose for
> an independent study course this fall, and the subject of classical
> British sound cinema is an appealing prospect about which I know
> only enough, well, to find it appealing. (Powell? Hitchcock?
> Droll period comedy? Yes, please!)
>
> Though I'm not 100% certain I will pursue this course, my
> preliminary research into the field has revealed a lot of solid
> books and intriguing titles ... and regardless of what I choose
> academically, I'd like to put a focus on this national cinema and
> period in my reading and viewing starting this summer. Can I pick
> a_film_by's brains about, say, some submerged classics that don't
> get mentioned often enough? Are there any great books (histories,
> personality studies, etc.) that shouldn't go by unnoticed? Is Ken
> Annakin's ACROSS THE BRIDGE really so impressive? How difficult is
> it to come across, say, videos of more obscure Ealing comedies?
> (How many Ealing films even survive?)
8832


From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 1:53am
Subject: Re: Pas sur la bouche
 
--- Dan Sallitt wrote:
The film made me think about his 40s
> documentaries on
> artists, or rather about Bazin's commentary on those
> documentaries
> (which Bazin produced).
>
It's made me think about supremely musical moments in
Resnais, like the interpolation of "Singin' in the
Rain" into the score during the shot of the street
sweepers going to work in "Toute La Memoire du Monde,"
the strangly jaunty piano passage during the opening
montage sequence of "Hiroshima Mon Amour," the waltz
in "Marienbad," the Hans Werner Henze songs in
"Muriel," all of "Stavisky" (especially the scene of
the Baron's arrival at Biarritz), and the climactic
violin and piano playing in "Melo."



__________________________________
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8833


From:
Date: Mon Apr 5, 2004 10:47pm
Subject: Romero's Bruiser
 
Bill and Fernando - I love finding other fans of "Bruiser"! I must admit
that I was disappointed in this film when I first saw it over a year ago. After
almost eight (?) years without a Romero film, I went in with the highest of
expectations and was let down by what I took to be an absence of sufficiently
Romeroian style. I suppose I was expecting something in the graphic, almost
comic book style of "Dawn of the Dead" or "Creepshow," both of which have bold
color schemes and very "cutty" editing patterns. I should have known better
than to go into the film with such expectations. Upon subsequent viewings, the
more pared down look of "Bruiser" works for me completely. It's
"chararacter-based" horror to go right alongside Romero's great "Martin."

I also agree with you about "Day of the Dead" being Romero's masterpiece,
Fernando. But, then, I love (or have come to love) just about everything the man
has done.

On a totally unrelated note, bravo to Mike Grost on his wonderful Robert
Mulligan essays. I'm greatly looking forward to seeing a letterboxed DVD of "Same
Time Next Year," which comes out tomorrow.

Peter


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
8834


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 3:43am
Subject: also Peter Watkins (re: British cinema)
 
I've only seen PRIVELEGE, and actually I wasn't too crazy about it,
but by all accounts he's a major figure in British film, several of
his films are available on video, and Anthology Film Archives is
planning a retrospective of his work pretty soon.

-Jaime
8835


From: Elizabeth Anne Nolan
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 5:49am
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
I've seen I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING on dvd; it must be
exceptional on the big screen. IKWIG is a CRITERION release;
http://www.criterioncollection.com/asp/release.asp?
id=94&eid=102§ion=essay&page=1

I like the British 'kitchen sink' films.
8836


From: Craig Keller
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 3:41am
Subject: Re: Re: British cinema
 
> http://www.filmwritten.org/tapelist.htm
>

(1) What is 'On Welles' 'Othello' '?

(2) Is 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' really anything?

(3) I'm happy to find another American owner of 'Brass Eye: Series and
Special.' -There's- your '90s (British) cinema.

craig.
8837


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 6:54am
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
> (1) What is 'On Welles' 'Othello' '?

FILMING 'OTHELLO' (1978).

> (2) Is 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' really anything?

Not only that, but quite something! It's the greatest anime I've ever
seen, and one of the great films. I cannot elaborate, as I am quite
drunk.

> (3) I'm happy to find another American owner of 'Brass Eye: Series and
> Special.' -There's- your '90s (British) cinema.

I'm told Morris' latest creation, the news satire "The Day Today," is
no disappointment for BRASSEYE fans! Also it's generally known that,
while their film industry is in shambles, their TV output is truly
something to behold. I shall start with THE OFFICE and work from there.

-Jaime
8838


From:
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 5:43am
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
Here are some picks for (mainly later) British cinema:

The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, 1948) Contraband
The Importance of Being Earnest (Anthony Asquith, 1952)
Hotel Paradiso (Peter Glenville, 1966) Summer and Smoke, The Comedians
Scream of Fear (Seth Holt, 1961)
Murder Ahoy (George Pollock, 1964) Murder, She Said
The Wrong Box (Bryan Forbes, 1966) The Stepford Wives
The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom (Joe McGrath, 1968)
Savage Messiah (Ken Russell, 1972) Song of Summer, Women in Love, The
Boyfriend, Mahler, Lisztomania, Clouds of Glory
Gumshoe (Stephen Frears, 1972) Dangerous Liaisons, Hero
The Nine Tailors (Raymond Menmuir, 1974)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicholas Roeg, 1976)
Breaking Away (Peter Yates, 1979) The Hot Rock, Suspect, The House on Carroll
Street, The Year of the Comet
Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (Tony Wharmby, John Davies, 1980)
Flickers (Cyril Coke, 1980) British TV miniseries about the early days of the
British film industry, and the attempt of two outsiders, a poor Cockney (Bob
Hoskins) and a middle class businesswoman (Frances De La Tour) to run their
own production company. Characterizations so rich they seem four dimensional,
and brilliant acting by the entire troupe, especially the two leads. Comic,
upbeat, and definitely not about the sort of upper class twits that show up on too
much British TV. Will Violet ever stop talking? Script by Roy Clarke.
Flash Gordon (Michael Hodges, 1980) Croupier
Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, 1981) Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of
the Apes
Condorman (Charles Jarrott, 1981) The Boy in Blue
Separate Tables (John Schlesinger, 1982) Cold Comfort Farm
The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway, 1982)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Jack Clayton, 1983) The Great Gatsby
The Lords of Discipline (Franc Roddam, 1983)
Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984)
The Shooting Party (Alan Bridges, 1984)
Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story (Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 1986)
Earth Girls Are Easy (Julien Temple, 1989) Temple has made many classic music
videos.
Hear My Song (Peter Chelsom, 1991) An Irish promoter tries to lure a singer
to his club. A gentle film about the power of music.
The Krays (Peter Medak 1991) The Changeling; Zorro, The Gay Blade; The Seven
Dancing Princesses
The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)
Thunderheart (Michael Apted, 1992) Enigma
Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann, 1992) La Bohème, Moulin Rouge
Orlando (Sally Potter, 1993)
Princess Caraboo (Michael Austin, 1994)
A Man of No Importance (Suri Krishnamma, 1994)
The Shadow (Russell Mulcahy, 1994) Mulcahy is an important music video
director.
The Madness of King George (Nicholas Hytner, 1994) The Object of My Affection
Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell, 1994)
Persuasion (Roger Michell, 1995)
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill, But Who Came Down A Mountain (Christopher
Monger, 1995)
Hackers (Iain Softley, 1995)
The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson (Francis Megahy, 1996) Livin' the Life /
Real Life
Wilde (Brian Gilbert, 1997) Vice Versa
The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1997)
Shakespeare in Love (John Madden, 1998)
Relative Values (Eric Styles, 2000)
Billy Elliot (Stephen Daldry, 2000)

Mike Grost
8839


From: joe_mcelhaney
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 11:37am
Subject: staging Pas sur la bouche
 
The comment Lambert Wilson made in New York in response to the
question about the carefully staged look to the film was that Resnais
did not arrive on the set with strongly pre-conceived notions about
how the sequences should be blocked. Instead, he allowed the actors
to feel their way through the scenes, moving in ways that seemed
inevitable to them, until Resnais saw something that he liked and
then that would be the version he would use in the film. He may have
described his methods in this regard in the POSITIF interview as
well, which I now have to track down as I missed that issue. I also
wonder if this was a method he used for blocking the scenes in MELO
and SMOKING/NO SMOKING.
8840


From: joe_mcelhaney
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 0:14pm
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:
>
> Grandrieux is very interesting, and I can see the role of
>tactility in his films. Polanski is my favorite example of that:
>he is interested in Gestalt psychology, and in finding the
>equivalents of the other senses in film. I think Bergman is, too.
>I've always wondered how Kubrick was planning to film Perfume! You
>dealt with the other senses in Lang?

I had no idea that Polanski was interested in the question of finding
other sense equivalents in his films although as soon as I begin to
think about the films certain examples seem to arise. Where does he
talk about this? As for Bergman, there was also a nice paper on my
panel by a young Turkish (I think she's Turkish) woman named Ipek
Bilecen doing her doctorate in France on haptic images in Bergman.

My paper on Lang deals only with the tactile and in relation to the
question of authorship. Following Lang's claims that he often used
his own hands in the insert shots of his films, my argument is that
Lang often implicitly expresses a strong desire to touch his own
films, a desire virtually impossible to ever reach culmination. The
hand is consequently represented within the films as the ambivalent
site of both creation and destruction. I discuss this in relation to
issues of gesture and performance style, of the "surgical" (T.
Elsaesser's word for it)quality of Lang's conception of montage, of
the recurrence of images of desperate tactility and inscription,
etc.

At any rate, this is all emerging out of a general interest I have in
the treatment of the hand in film. I chaired a panel on the topic at
a film studies conference in Washington a couple of years ago and had
originally planned to expand some of my work on it into a book of my
own. But a friend has convinced me that an anthology is the way to go
with it so I'm now trying to either collect or commission some essays
on the topic, either the hand in relation to issues of gesture or in
relation to issues of the tactile. I asked Fabien Gaffez if he knew
of any interesting French writing on the topic (outside of the
standard citations of Deleuze). He wasn't a help there but he did say
that both he and Nicole Brenez are strongly influenced by Jean-Luc
Nancy's work on touch. At any rate, I'll be in England in early June
doing a presentation on Hawks (which I have to write!) at a symposium
on gesture in film at the University of Kent. So maybe something
will happen there.
8841


From: hotlove666
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 7:27am
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
> > (2) Is 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' really anything?
>
> Not only that, but quite something! It's the greatest anime I've
ever
> seen, and one of the great films. I cannot elaborate, as I am quite
> drunk.
>
I believe NGE 5 inspired the anime in Kill Bill I.
8842


From: Zach Campbell
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 0:41pm
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
Thanks for the responses so far -- keep 'em coming!

Jaime: Thanks for the reminder about the tape list (I'll definitely
borrow the Ealings from you at some point, at your convenience); and
I plan on seeing at least one or two of the Watkins films at
Anthology. Elizabeth: I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING! is one of my absolute
favorite movies. Mike: Most of the titles are a bit later than I
was looking for, but I always put your recommendations on my to-see
list.

I have to wrap this up, but maybe I can come back later today with a
list of titles I'm most interested in pursuing, and seeing if they
get any reactions (good or bad).

--Zach
8843


From:
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 8:59am
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses
 
Hand gestures are very important in traditional Cambodian dance. As the
dancers perform their steps, they also make hand gestures, each one of which has a
conventional meaning, and which add to the story conveyed by the dance.
The US Television arts series, Camera Three, had a program entitled "The
Goddess Dancers of Cambodia" (circa 1970), with dance scholar Faubian Bowers. As
the dancers performed, he would interpret their gestures in his narration. He
also interviewed one of the dancers in the middle of the show, who demonstrated
different gestures.
Do not know where one could find a copy of this. Saw it twice over the years
on TV. It is a work of overwhelming beauty.
The comic book artist Steve Ditko is notable for the hand gestures in his
works. Ditko's panels are full of complex compositions; the hand gestures
complete these compositions, adding key details. Ditko is the creator of Spiderman,
Dr. Strange, the Creeper and Mr A, among other famous characters.
Experimental filmmaker Michael Snow uses hand gestures in some of his photo
sequences.

Mike Grost
8844


From: Robert Keser
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 1:15pm
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
You probably don't want to go back this far, Zach, but one great
little-explored subject in British cinema is the early years of Anthony
Asquith who studied and put into practice the editing principles of
Eisenstein and Pudovkin in the quite adventurous silent Shooting
Stars. By the early 1930s, as he tried experimental approaches to
sound in A Cottage in Dartmoor, he and Hitchcock were reportedly
considered running neck and neck for the title of the Great Hope
of British Cinema. How this jibes with his period of graceful and
intelligent theatrical adaptations (Pygmalion, The Winslow Boy,
Importance of Being Earnest, The Browning Version) seems due
for reconsideration and could be rewarding (and some people hold
the later Guns of Darkness in some repute). The early stuff is hard
to find, but Brownlow's Cinema Europe has some tasty excerpts.

Even more in need of study, as Jaime suggests, is Cy Endfield,
from his uncompromising political noir Try and Get Me!, with its
blistering mob riot that makes Lang's Fury look polite in comparison,
to his uniquely serious action movies Hell Drivers and Sea Fury, to
the relentless Zulu. To my knowledge, no one has methodically
studied Endfield's development from U.S. to G.B. through all his
works.

I'd also second Jaime's endorsement of the magnificent Gone to
Earth, but don't forget the gripping The Small Back Room either.
(Ian Christie's Arrows of Desire is the great PnP study so far).

--Robert Keser

Zach Campbell wrote:

> I'm in the home stretch for deciding on what I'd like to propose for
> an independent study course this fall, and the subject of classical
> British sound cinema is an appealing prospect about which I know
> only enough, well, to find it appealing. (Powell? Hitchcock?
> Droll period comedy? Yes, please!)
>
> Though I'm not 100% certain I will pursue this course, my
> preliminary research into the field has revealed a lot of solid
> books and intriguing titles ... and regardless of what I choose
> academically, I'd like to put a focus on this national cinema and
> period in my reading and viewing starting this summer. Can I pick
> a_film_by's brains about, say, some submerged classics that don't
> get mentioned often enough?
>
> --Zach
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
8845


From: Sam Adams
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 1:15pm
Subject: Re: also Peter Watkins (re: British cinema)
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Jaime N. Christley" wrote:
> I've only seen PRIVELEGE, and actually I wasn't too crazy about it,
> but by all accounts he's a major figure in British film, several of
> his films are available on video, and Anthology Film Archives is
> planning a retrospective of his work pretty soon.
>
> -Jaime

CULLODEN, Watkins' first feature for the BBC, is quite brilliant -- a "documentary-style"
account of a 1745 battle, complete with battlefield interviews with the participants. In its
depiction of a fruitless, unbelievably bloody clash in which incompetent lords steer
impoverished soldiers to their deaths, it's a devastating statement of the senselessness of
war that makes virtually any other battle movie seem pro-war by comparison. (I happened
to watch Watkins' film a few weeks after I saw ZULU, which certainly changed my opinion
of the latter.) Watkins' THE WAR GAME uses similarly faux-doc techniques in its account of
a post-nuclear Britain, though I'm not as crazy about it as some. PRIVILEGE is probably the
least successful of his features that I'm familiar with, but EDVARD MUNCH (which is,
admittedly, not at all British) is far and away the best filmed portrait of an artist I've ever
seen. Further natterings about Watkins can be found here (http://citypaper.net/articles/
2003-12-04/screen.shtml) and here (http://citypaper.net/articles/2003-12-11/
movies.shtml).

This is as good a chance as any to draw the list's attention to the upcoming DVD release of
Roman Kroitor and Wolf Koenig's LONELY BOY, their sardonic documentary about the
young Paul Anka and his Machiavellian manager (who can be heard opining that Anka has
been blessed with a talent unlike God has given anyone in 500 years, and that he has "a
great mouth.") The manager admittedly inspired the character of Steven Shorter's
manipulative Svengali in PRIVILEGE, and some of his dialogue is copied nearly verbatim.
LONELY BOY is available on something called PAUL ANKA: DESTINY, which sounds like a
pretty rote recent portrait.

Sam
 
8846


From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 1:40pm
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
--- Zach Campbell wrote:
> I'm in the home stretch for deciding on what I'd
> like to propose for
> an independent study course this fall, and the
> subject of classical
> British sound cinema is an appealing prospect about
> which I know
> only enough, well, to find it appealing. (Powell?
> Hitchcock?
> Droll period comedy? Yes, please!)
>
The text you MUST use is Raymond Durgnat's "A Mirror
For England" subtitled "Briish Movies From Austerity
to Afflunce" (Praeger, 1971) It deals with everything
of importance with great depth.

I also highly reccomend Gavin Lambert's "Mostly About
Lindsay Anderson" (Knopf, 2000) which is not only one
of Gavin's best books, but deals with all the
important figures of the British "new wave"(Anderson,
Tony Richardson, Karel Reiz)from the inside.

__________________________________
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8847


From: hotlove666
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 7:20am
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
Martin Scorsese, in collaboration with Michael Wilson, is finishing a
long film essay like his Italian Journey on British cinema. It will
be particularly good on the period you e-mail focuses on, which I'm
particularly bad on. But fairly recent British cinema is pretty good.

At the risk of stating the obvious: Seth Holt, Freddie Francis, and
films and tv dramas scripted by Nigel Kneale. I blush to mention
Terence Fisher, universally admired, although I would rather see a
Francis I don't know these days--they can be quite special. The
Creeping Flesh is his masterpiece. Peter Hunt (the Brit, not the
Aussie) is another talented filmmaker who emerged from the editing
room, like Holt. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Death Hunt are
quite good.

Certainly everyone knows Mike Leigh and Terence Davies, but they're
often dismissed by cognoscenti for reasons that remain
incomprehensible to me. They are the best English directors currently
working, and I feel I must put in a plug because they are so often
denigrated, particularly in France. I just watched Julien Temple's
Absolute Beginners again for the first time since it came out, and
it's very impressive. Is Alex Cox British? Certainly Richard Lester
is - much admired at one time by Andrew Sarris and still by our own
Peter T.

Again recurring to known but neglected quantities, the British comedy
tradition didn't just dead-end with Ealing. I think the Monty Python
films outshine every comedy I've seen from Ealing except the ones by
Alexander Mackendrick. Terry Gilliam, who works all over, is an
offshoot of that, but the films by the group are the ones I keep
going back to. I'm very fond of Meaning of Life, their swan-song:
Every Sperm Is Sacred, The Universe Song, Death and the Salmon
Mousse, The Dream, Mister Creosote -- those are all, IMO, as good as
British humor gets, except of course for Chaplin.

I know nothing about the avant-garde - just Steve Dwoskin, whose work
I hear good things about, but see so infrequently I can't really talk
about it. God bless Ken Loach, however. He makes good movies at least
as regularly as Sidney Lumet, who only averages one hit in four times
at the plate, and when Loach connects, it's usually a homer: Kes,
Riff Raff, Family Life. Peter Mullan, a former Loach collaborator,
shows promise - I should add I haven't seen The Magdalen Sisters,
which everyone here seems to hate, but I liked Orphans. And you can't
just toss John Boorman--there's Excalibur, and there's Hope and
Glory, as British a film as was ever made by anyone, although there
wasn't one bent British farthing in the budget. Peter Watkins is
another good political filmmaker, something the British sometimes do
quite well, whereas Americans never really do it at all.

And because I will be eviscerated if I omit Ken Russell, Ken Russell.
8848


From: Jonathan Rosenbaum
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 1:50pm
Subject: a petition to sign and send
 
Mensagem 23 de um total de 24
De: Realizadores
Para:
Data: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 10:56:54 +0000
Assunto: Portuguese Cinema in danger:Help the Portuguese Film Makers


Portuguese Cinema in danger:Help the Portuguese Film Makers In
Abril, the portuguese government wants to pass a law on cinema from
which the portuguese film institute (ICAM) would disappear, in its
stead being created an Investment Fund destined to financially
support films of "great commercial attractiveness".

The portuguese film makers have written the following manifesto.

It is very important for us that everyone who is, by passion or
profession, atached to the art of cinema and that agrees with this
text give us their support.

For that purpose, all you have to do is to reply to this message
with your name, proffession, city and country (and, if possible, a
contact)
or to send a mail to the following address:
realizadores@o...

Thank you for forwarding this message so that we can gather the
largest possible show of support at the discussion of the law in the
portuguese Parliament in Abril.

The A.P.R. Direction Board
-----------------------

Manifesto from the Portuguese Director¹s Association:

The Portuguese Government is getting ready to vote by mid April a
new law on Cinema named Law of the Cinematographic Arts (why the
plural?) and Audiovisuals.
The Portuguese Film Institute, ICAM, (responsible since its creation
for financing portuguese films) disappears from the law. In its
stead is created a "Fund for the Investment and Development of
Cinematographic Arts and Audiovisuals", through which the government
threatens to revert what little money is left to produce films in
Portugal into a sombre commerce with the american distributors and
exhibitors and the private television networks, a "Fund" destined to
finance projects that will, supposedly, draw audiences and generate
profits.
Such manoeuvering comes at a time when the portuguese cinema, having
strengthened its identity and modes of production, has seen the rise
of young filmmakers and allowed a steady flow of production to
already established ones, with both national and international
recognition.
Therefore, now that all indicators show a consolidation of
portuguese filmmaking on the basis of an important and diverse
production, the portuguese Government intends to - through sleight
of hand - ruin the funds destined for culture, favorising a doubtful
commerce, choking the production of films by producing less films on
a higher budget, thus excluding from its system dozens of
filmmakers. All this is done in the name of a
mythological "commercial cinema", that in Portugal has produced
nothing but financial disasters and artistic wreckages.
No economic reasoning can give legitimacy to this "expensive and
commercial cinema", and the government ­ in an irresponsible
shiphandling ­ has no prospective study to support its decision.
Actually, the more money is invested in a film the greater the loss;
whereas films produced at a lesser cost - much freer and original -
films that are shown world wide, to spectators of different
generations and cultures, have proven to be able to have
better "commercial performances".
For Cinema ­ as well as for other arts ­ we demand a Ministery of
Culture, with an effective cultural and artistic policy; not a
Ministery of Commerce.
We do not accept the commercial and industrial policies within the
Ministery of Culture (disrespecticting the international agreements
on commerce and EU directives on cultural exception) and we want
real policies that protect portuguese cinema in a market that is
abandoned to the vested interests of the american industry.
We demand that the money for cinema be given to cinema, that it is
attributed through public contests with clear and transparent rules
assuring the freedom and independence of creation.
We want it to be made in the name of the cultural sovereignty of the
country and in the name of the bonds that connect cinema with all
the other arts and also in the name the cultural identity of every
country.

Lisbon, March 26th. 2004
A.P.R. Associação Portuguesa de Realizadores:

The A.P.R. join 56 film makers of features, shorts, documentaries
and animation:
Alberto Seixas Santos, António Escudeiro, António Loja Neves,
Catarina Mourão, Carlos Braga, Catarina Alves Costa, Daniel
Blaufuks, Edgar Feldman, Eduardo Condorcet, Fernando Lopes, Fernando
Matos Silva, Fernando Vendrell, Francisco Villa-Lobos, Inês de
Medeiros, Jeanne Waltz, João Botelho, João Canijo, João Mário
Grilo, João Matos Silva, João Ribeiro, João Pedro Rodrigues,
Joaquim Pinto, Jorge António, Jorge Silva Melo, José Álvaro
Morais, José Nascimento, José Filipe Costa, José Pedro Cavalheiro,
Leonor Areal, Luciana Fina, Luis Alvarães, Luis Fonseca, Luis Alves
de Matos, Madalena Miranda, Manuel Mozos, Manuel João Aguas,
Margarida Cardoso, Margarida Gil, Miguel Gomes, Monique Rutler,
Nuno Amorim, Paulo Rocha, Pedro Caldas, Pedro Costa, Pedro Sena
Nunes, Pierre-Marie Goulet, Raquel Freire, Regina Guimarães, Renata
Sancho, Rita Azevedo Gomes, Saguenail, Solveig Nordlund, Sandro
Aguilar, Serge Tréfaut, Teresa Garcia, Teresa Villaverde

Have already signed (05.04.2004-18h00):
Claire Simon, Cinéaste. Paris France
Jacques Kermabon, journaliste, rédacteur en chef de Bref, Paris,
France
Olivier Smolders, Cinéaste et Producteur de films, Liège, Belgique
Julie Delpy, actrice, Los Angeles, USA
Jean-Louis Comolli, cinéaste, Paris, France.
Gisèle Breteau Skira, rédactrice en chef de Zeuxis Magazine, Paris,
France
Nicolas Schmerkin, Directeur du magazine Repérages, réalisateur,
producteur, programmateur, France
António Roma Torres, critico de cinema
Ginette Lavigne, Réalisatrice, Paris, France
Carlos Zingaro, músico, compositor, Portugal
Raymond Bellour, Chercheur et écrivain, Paris, France
Manuel da Costa Cabral, Director do Serviço de Belas-Artes de
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
Filipe Carneiro. arquitecto, Portugal
Frédéric Krivine, president of the French Screenwriters Guild (UGS),
member of the European Screenwriters Federation, member of the IAWG
Octávio Espirito Santo, director de fotografia, Portugal
Isabel Aboim, cineasta, Portugal
Rui Zink, professor-escritor, Portugal
Frédéric Sojcher, cinéaste, Président de l'ARRF (Association des
Réalisateurs et Réalisatrices de Films, en Belgique).
Luís Castro, actor, encenador, Portugal
Daniel del Negro, cineasta, Portugal
Ivo Ferreira, cineasta, Portugal
Eurico Ferreira, produtor de filme, Portugal
Marie-Pierre Duhamel-Muller, productrice, Paris, France
Jacques Loiseleux, directeur de la photographie, vice président
de "l association Française des directeurs de la photographie
cinématographique"A.F.C, Paris, France
Philippe Delvossale, programmateur,ancien programmateur du Musée du
cinéma - Bruxelles
Maurice Tinchant, Pierre Grise Productions et Distribution Manuela
Penafria, Docente, Portugal
Anabela Moutinho, Cine Club de Faro, Portugal
Paulo Martins, operador de televisão, Portugal
Cláudia Tomaz. realizadora de cinema, Portugal
André Godinho, cineasta, Portugal
Fernando Mateus, Jornalista, Algueirão, Portugal
Nathalie Mansoux, Portugal
Ilda Castro, cinema, Portugal
Mónica Calle. Directora da Casa Conveniente. Lisboa, Portugal
Nicolas Philibert, cinéaste, Paris, France
Mario Simondi, Directeur Festival dei Popoli, Firenze, Italia
Associação Mineira de Cineastas, Brasil
ABD/SE - Associação Brasileira de Documentaristas/Sergipe, Brasil
Associação Brasileira de Documentaristas e Curtas-Metragista, Brasil
Associação Baiana de Cinema e Vídeo - ABCV, BAHIA BRASIL
Rosa Freitas, Portugal
Inês Oliveira, realizadora de Cinema, Portugal
Maria Luísa Garcia Fernandes, Museóloga, Porto, Portugal
Lucas Belvaux - cinéaste - France
Jean-Pierre Rehm, Délégué Général du FID Marseille
Emmanuel Benbihy, Producteur français (Novem Productions) France
Mariana Otero , réalisatrice, Paris, France
Alberto Marquardt, réalisateur. Paris. France
Alain Raoust. Cinéaste. France. Paris
Carlos Gueirreiro, Músico, Lisboa, Portugal
Fernando Barbosa,Empresário, Porto, Portugal
José Luís Peixoto - Escritor, Portugal
Margarida Cardeal - Actriz, Portugal
João Teixeira Lopes, Professor;Deputado, Porto, Portugal
Inês Barbosa, estudante, Porto, Portugal
Paula Ribas, directora de produção/coordenadora de produção, Lisboa,
Portugal
Absinthe Abramovici, assistente de realização, Lisboa, Portugal
Isabel Rosa, realizadora, Portugal
Miguel Gaspar, técnico de cinema, Lisboa, Portugal
Armanda Carvalho, eng.de som, Lisboa, Portugal
Bruno Sequeira, 2º Assistente Realização / Produção, Lisboa, Portugal
Margarida Antunes da Silva, assessora de imprensa, Oeiras - Portugal
José Maria Vieira Mendes - dramaturgo - Lisboa, Portugal
José Mário Brandão. Director da Galeria Graça Brandão, Porto,
Portugal
Luís Urbano, Porto Economista e Programador Cultural
- Co-Director do Festival Internacional de Curtas Metragens de Vila
do Conde
- Director da Agência da Curta Metragem
Tiago Alexandre Matos, Montagem de som e misturas, Lisboa, Portugal
Patrícia Saramago - montadora, Lisboa, Portugal
Eduardo Ribeiro, Estudante, funcionário de clube de video, Quelu,
Portugalz
Maria João Matos Silva, Assistente de Realização, Lisboa, Portugal
Manfredo Caldas - Cineasta, Brasilia
Débora Peters, produtora, BRASIL
Marcelo Laffitte, Cineasta, Presidente Nacional da ABD, Rio de
Janeiro, Brasil
Geraldo Veloso, Diretor Associação Mineira de Cineastas, Coordenador
Geral do 6o. Festival Internacional de Curtas de Belo Horizonte,
Coordenador de Produção do Programa de Televisão, "Cine Magazine",
Produtor e Diretor de Cinema e Televisão
Bernardo Vorobow, curador e programador, São Paulo
Carlos Adriano, realizador, São Paulo
Carlos Manta associado à ACCV - Associação Cearense de Cinema e Vídeo
Gerald Collas, Producteur, Paris, France
Richard Dumas, photographe, Rennes, France
Jean-Claude Bonfanti directeur artistique Bruxelles Belgique
Marie-Claude Loiselle, rédactrice en chef, revue 24 images,
Montréal, Québec.
Annik Leroy, Réalisatrice, Bruxelles, Belgique
Elizabeth Riollet ( enseignante cinéma ), France
Jean-Loup Baly, conteur-musicien, France
Danielle Jaeggi, cinéaste, Paris.
Gérard Grugeau, Critique de cinéma, Montréal, Québec
Fanny Guiard, documentariste.France
Erika Bauer -Cineasta/Brasilia, Brésil
Frédérique Devillez, Cinéaste, Paris, France
Patrice Chagnard, cinéaste, France
Claudine Bories, cinéaste, France
Erik Bullot, cinéaste, Paris, France
Maria Luiza Aboim, Cineasta Documentarista, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Ivo Branco, cineasta, São Paulo - Brasil
Pery de Canti, Cineasta, Maringá/PR - Brésil
Nuno Pires, Réalisateur et assistant-réalisateur, Paris, France
Annie Comolli, enseignante de cinéma et cinéaste, Paris, France
Catalina Villar, réalisatrice et membre des Ateliers Varan. Paris.
France
Nicholas Elliott, réalisateur, New York, USA
Ahmed Rezkallah ingenieur du son, Paris, France
Carlo Ginzburg, historien, Bologne, Italie
Sandra Alvarez de Toledo, historienne d'art, Paris
Christophe Gallaz, Ecrivain, Suisse
Jean-Paul Roig , Réalisateur , Paris, France
Christophe Ruggia, cinéaste, Paris, France
Jean Breschand, réalisateur, Paris, France
Yves Billon:cineaste producteur :Les Films du Village, Paris, France
Marie-Claude Treilhou, Réalisatrice, Paris, France
Alain Dufau, Réalisateur , France
François EDE, réalisateur, Paris, France
Eric Bergel, auteur-réalisateur, Nice, France
Giada Colagrande, cinéaste, Roma, Italia
Willem Dafoe, acteur, New York, USA
George Minot, écrivain, New York, USA
Jean-Jacques Beineix, Réalisateur Producteur Cargo Films, Paris,
France
Yola Le Caïnec, enseignante, Paris, france
Anna-Célia Kendall, réalisatrice, Paris ­ France
Jean-Christophe Soulageon, Producteur, Les Films Sauvages,Paris,
France
Monique Calinon, bibliothécaire à la BNF, Paris, France
Christina Dumoulin Belgique
Charles Hersperger, poète, Vevey, Suisse
Antoine Desrosières, Cinéaste, France
Katerina Marinaki, Scenariste, Athènes, Grèce
Julie Terrasson, cinéaste, Paris, France
Jacques-Henri Bronckart-VERSUS PRODUCTION Liège, Belgique
Damien Serban, réalisateur 3D, Paris, France
Cyril Neyrat, enseignant de cinéma à l¹Université, rédacteur de la
revue de cinéma Vertigo
Claude Guisard, Producteur, Paris, France
Mathilde de Romefort, étudiante, Paris, France
Frédérique Menant. Réalisation documentaire, Paris , France
Jean-Claude Pèretmère, Opérateur de prise de vue,Paris France
Jean-Yves de Lépinay, directeur des programmes du Forum des images,
Paris, France
Johanna Nizard, Comédienne Paris, France
Nathalie Villeneuve Comedienne Paris France
Arnaud Churin Comedien metteur en Scène Paris France
Daniel Decamp, architecte, Bruxelles, Belgique
Valéry Gaillard. Réalisateur, Paris, France
Edmée Doroszlaï, Scripte cinéma, Paris, France
Philippe Carles, journaliste, France
Sophie Haluk,, professeur de piano; auteur-documentaire, Paris,
France
Manée Teyssandier, présidente de Peuple et Culture Corrèze,Tulle,
France
Gabe Klinger, critic, Chicago, USA
David Ehrenstein, film critic, journalist, Los Angeles, Ca., U.S.A.
Alioune Kamara, directeur de la publication,"Générikmag.com" Paris,
France
Georges da Costa, Enseignant, Paris, France
Ricardo Costa - Étudiant en communications Université du Québec À
Montréal (UQÀM) - Montréal, Québec
Bouchra Khalili, artiste. Paris, France
Luc Chaput, critique de cinéma, Montréal, Québec
Eva Houdova, réalisatrice, Bruxelles, Belgique
Jean Michel Riant Artiste de rue, Moncley France
François Vila, attaché de presse cinéma, Paris, France
Yves Bouveret, directeur artistique de festival (Image par Image),
France
Laurent Cibien, journaliste et documentariste, Paris
Jean-Marc Montera, musicien, grim (groupe de recherche et
d'improvisation musicales, Marseille, France
François Waledisch, ingénieur du son, France
Yannick Koller, artiste et cinéaste, Paris, France
Erick Lignon, producteur, bruxelles, belgique
Marc Lepoivre, journaliste (objectif cinéma), sélectionneur à la
semaine internationale de la critique au Festival de Cannes, Paris,
France
Mathias Lavin, enseignant, Paris
Laurence Petit-Jouvet, Auteur-Réalisatrice, Montreuil, France
David Ehrenstein, film critic, journalist, Los Angeles, Ca.,U.S.A.
Jacques Parsi, enseignant, Paris, France
Valérie Loiseleux, monteuse.Paris.
Brent Klinkum, programmator, Transat Vidéo, Caen, France
Frédéric Borgia, association cinémas 93, seine-saint-denis, France
Judith Abitbol, cinéaste, Paris, France
Laurent Hasse, réalisateur, France
David Bart (cinéaste) Paris France
Bruno Dietsch, statisticien, critique de cinéma, Neuilly-sur-Seine,
France
Natàlia de Barros , responsable de projet : soutien au film,
Paris,France
Monita Derrieux, Agent artistique "AGENCE A PARIS", France
Chad Chenouga, réalisateur, Paris, France
Denys Clerval.Directeur de la photographie, Paris, France
Manuel Attali, distributeur, Paris, France
Christian Baltauss, comédien, metteur en scène de théâtre, France
Yoana Urruzola, assistante mise en scène, cinéaste, France
Stéphane Arnoux, Réalisateur, Paris, France
Keja Ho Kramer, artiste cinéaste Paris France
Catherine Bizern, productrice, Paris, France
Yves de Peretti, Réalisateur de documentaires, France
Gérard Leblanc, réalisateur, écrivain, Paris, France
Joseph Danan, écrivain, maître de conférences à l'Université de
Paris III, France
Laurent Lederer, comédien, Paris, France
Sophie Cornu, Adjointe au maire déléguée à la Culture, Eaubonne,
France
Anne Alix, réalisatrice. Marseille, France
Association des Auteurs Réalisateurs du sud est, France
Jean-Christophe Soulageon, Producteur, Les Films Sauvages,Paris,
France
Delphine Noels, réalisatrice, Schaerbeeck, Belgique
Julien Lecat, réalisateur , Levallois-Perret , France
Hervé Aubron, journaliste et critique (revue Vertigo), Paris, France
Emmanuel Legros,ciné-clubiste, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique
Julien Maillard, chargé de mission communication, conseil général
22, France
Micha Wald- réalisateur, Bruxelles, Belgique
Jean-Bernard Emery, attaché de presse, France
Luc Wouters, cinéaste, Paris
Adrian Martin - Film Critic, Melbourne, Australia
Julie Flament, poductrice executive "Vagabondages", Paris, France
Jan Kounen cinéaste, Paris, France
Mathilde Ollivier,Direction Culture et Communication Union Latine,
France
Séverine Rocaboy, directrice de cinéma, Saint Gratien, France
Didier Kiner, responsable du pôle de diffusion, Agence du court
métrage, Paris, France
Didier Demorcy, Réalisateur, Bruxelles, Belgique
Robert Boner, Producteur, Lausanne, Suisse
Charlotte Guitton, chargée de communication, Bordeaux, France
David Bonneville, assistant réalisation/production, Portugal
Karine Cohen-Dicker, Journaliste, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Véronique Goël, cinéaste, Genève, Suisse
Colette Quesson, Responsable de la Production, Atelier de Production
Centre Val de Loire, France
Rosine Young : comédienne - auteur-réalisatrice - Paris
Isabel Cabeca, directrice de ADDMCT 66 (A. Developpement
departemental pour la culture dans les Pyrénées Orientales-
Perpignan, France
Giovanni Cioni, cinéaste, Bruxelles, Belgique
Anne Goliot-Lété, enseignante de cinéma, Lille, France
Lili Hinstin, productrice, Les Films du Saut du Tigre, Paris, France
Jean Villalonga, Programmateur, Cinéma Espace culturel André
Malraux, Mirepoix, France
Gad Abittan, journaliste; France
Thierry Nouel, réalisateur, Paris France
Fabrice Marquat Programmateur - Diffusion européenne, Agence du
Court Métrage, Paris, France
Julien Sénélas,Webmaster de l'APCVL ,Chateau-Renault, France
Simon Gilardi, étudiant à la Femis, Paris, France

Alexandre Tylski, Directeur Revue Cadrage

Eric Thouvenel, ensignant en cinéma, Université de Rennes, France
William Lubtchansky directeur de la photographie, Paris, France
Nicolas Le Thierry d'Ennequin site Internet www.seances.org, France
Claire Amchin, attachée de presse, Paris, France
Julien Lederer - engenheiro financeiro - França.
Luigi Magri, Cordinateur "Lycéens au cinéma" pédagogie autour du
cinéma, Château-Renault, France
Pascal Kané, Réalisateur, Paris, France
Danièle Restoin, cinéphile, Limoges France
Sylvie Pras,Directice Cinéma Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Alexandre Abrard, opérateur prise de son, Paris, France
Julie Thibaudeau, Programmatrice MEMENTO FILMS - Paris, France
Frédérique Devaux, réalisatrice, Paris, France
Julio Feo Zarandieta periodista y critico de cine en RFI Radio
Francia Internacionale, Paris, France
Matthias von Gunten, Réalisateur et Président de l'association des
réalisateurs Suisses
Caroline Pallarès comédienne, chanteuse, collectif ELIXIR, France
John Cuny musicien collectif ELIXIR, France
Yann Le Marchand, plasticien, scénographe collectif ELIXIR, France
Delphine Péreau réalisatrice collectif ELIXIR, France
Benjamin Esdraffo, réalisateur, France
Marie Secher, en recherche d'emploi, 24 ans, Rennes, France
Youra Marcus, Artiste Interprète, Syndicaliste, Le Pin, France
Jennifer Verraes, coordinatrice d'expositions, étudiante en cinéma à
Paris 3, France
Danièle Restoin, cinéphile, Limoges France
Judith Revault d'Allonnes, programmatrice cinéma, Centre Pompidou,
Paris, France
Gérard Siracusa, musicien, compositeur, Montreuil, France
Anne Marie Faucon, Cinémas Utopia,Toulouse, France
Michel Malacarne, Cinémas Utopia, Toulouse,, France
Christelle Meaglia, intervenante en cinéma, psychologue, Paris
Geneviève Rousseau, documentaliste et responsable de La Maison du
doc', Lussas (Ardèche), France
Joseph Jaouen, ingénieur du son, Paris, France
Ruy Gardnier - editor e crítico de cinema, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Zeka Laplaine, réalisateur, Paris, France
Gerard Watkins, acteur auteur metteur en scene, France
Nicolas Jaillet, écrivain, France
Antonio Paiva Filho, Revista SOMBRAS ELÉTRICAS, Brasil
Aurelien Gerbault - chef-electricien, France
Leonardo Ribeiro Simões, Técnico de cinema (imagem), Lisboa, Portugal
Antonio Maria Braga, Arquitecto, Lisboa, Portugal
Gracinda Nave, Actriz, Lisboa, Portugal
Álvaro Faria, Actor, encenador e autor, Seixal, Portugal
João Ribeirete, Estudante, Lisboa, Portugal
Miguel Huguenin Uhlfelder, Realizador/Produção, Porto, Portugal
Rui Ralha, Assistente de Comunicação Fnac Colombo, Lisboa
Mauras Martine Responsable Bibliothèque Municipale, Pauillac
(Gironde), France
Luara Ruiz, Producer and Distributor, Canela Films, Mexico
Jean-Pierre Laforce, Mixeur, France
Wilfried Jude, coordinateur Cinéville, Tours, France
Serge Lalou, Les Films d'Ici, Producteur, Paris, France
Teresa Fernandes, Realizadora, Paris - France
Alain Letoulat, enseignant et chargé de mission cinéma au Rectorat
de Paris, France
Irit Batsry, artist, New York, USA
Cros Romain, Etudiant, Toulouse, France
Jinny H.J. Choo/ Festival Programmer & Filmmaker/Seoul, Korea
David Oubiña, Crítico de cine e investigador, Universidad de Buenos
Aires, Argentina
Mimi Brody, Film Programmer, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Pip Chodorov, réalisateur et fondateur de Re:Voir vidéo, Paris France
Cesar Cavalcanti, Diretor e Produtor Cinematográfico, Brasil
Christian Baute, producteur à Paris et à Cologne: Moviemento, Paris,
France
Thierry de Coster, Producteur - Réalisateur, Sokan, Belgique
Béatrice Managau - Attachée de production, Toulouse, France
Vítor Domingos, Economista, Lisboa, Portugal
Isabelle Zribi,étudiante en droit et écrivain, France
Paul Buck, writer, London, England
Eric BU, Réalisateur, Paris, France
Chantal Beineix, Paris, France
Laurence Herszberg, Directrice Générale du Forum des images, Paris,
France
Mark Cosgrove, Exhibitor, Bristol, UK
Caroline Benjo, Productrice, Paris- France
Axel Comeliau, exploitant cinema, Arenberg-Galeries, Bruxelles,
Belgique
Marc-Henri Wajnberg & Rogier van Eck, Cinéastes, Wajnbrosse
Productions
Stéphane Bissot, actrice, Bruxelles, Belgique
Freddy Denaës, producteur, Paris, France
Gaël Teicher, producteur, Paris, France
Laurent Chomel, Producteur, Routard Production, Paris - France
Olivia Dorado, étudiante ESAV [IUP audiovisuel], Toulouse, France
Keith Griffiths & Simon Field: Producers- Illuminations Films,
London.UK.
Dimitri Lecoussis, étudiant en art et cinéma, Angoulême France
Marilyn Hyndman, Produtora, NvTv, Northern Visions, Belfast,
Northern Ireland
Manuel Baptista, Consultor, Bruxelas, Bélgica
Maud Garnier, étudiante en cinéma, Toulouse. France
Claude Barraud, Réalisateur, Toulouse, France
Ingeborg Jansen, documentary filmmaker, the Netherlands
Carmen Guarini, cineasta, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Marc Godts, experimental designer, teachîng architecture [sint-
lucas] brussels,belgium
Stefano Tononi, cinéaste, Genève Suisse
Jonathan Romney , Film critic , Independent on Sunday,London UK
Julien Planté ,Ciné Lumière Programmer at the Institut Français, ­
U.K.
Laurent Chomel, producteur, Paris, France
Mercè Ibarz, escritora, periodista , Barcelona
Dr Fiona Stephen, ESD, Queen Mary, University of London, London
Michelle Carey, Co-Editor, Senses of Cinema, Melbourne, Australia
8849


From: joe_mcelhaney
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 2:15pm
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
From its classical period, British cinema is full of gems and the
standard auteurist line that the English don't have a feel for cinema
(outside of Hitchcock and Powell/Pressburger) is a myth and one that
POSITIF, at least, never bought into.

A few titles:

1) WENT THE DAY WELL? (Cavalcanti) Penelope Houston's BFI monograph
on this film is useful.
2) THEY MADE ME A FUGITIVE (Cavalcanti again) He also did a handsome
film of NICHOLAS NICKLEBY the same year, I think.
3) PINK STRING AND SEALING WAX (Hamer) Scorsese talked about this
film when I heard him speak at NYU during the shooting of AGE OF
INNOCENCE. He said he was having trouble staging a scene in AGE and
that night he watched this film on video. Something about the way
that Hamer handled a particular sequence struck a chord with him and
he was able to resolve his own difficulties by following Hamer's
example.
4)If we're going to talk about Cy Endfield, we shouldn't forget that
Losey is essentially a British filmmaker during this period so you
have a group of extraordinary films coming out of him: THE SLEEPING
TIGER, TIME WITHOUT PITY, CHANCE MEETING, THE GYPSY AND THE
GENTLEMAN, etc.
5) IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY (Hamer again) I didn't mention Hamer's
most famous film, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, since I'm sure you know
it very well. The POSITIF anthology has an essay by Bernard Chardere
on KIND HEARTS.
6) All of Mackendrick. THE LADYKILLERS, of course, and THE MAN IN
THE WHITE SUIT but also more obscure films like MANDY and WHISKEY
GALORE. Philip Kemp's book on Mackendrick is good.
7) ON APPROVAL. I think this is the only film Clive Brook directed.
It's ingenious and very funny. And it's on DVD and VHS.
8) AN IDEAL HUSBAND (Korda). If you can find a version of this in
color (Beaton costumes, Korda sets, Perinal camerawork), it's worth
seeing and infinitely superior to the awful remake and the blah
version of it I saw on Broadway a few years ago. Terrific
performances from Diana Wynyard and Paulette Goddard -- the latter
has gotten a bum rap for her supposed mis-casting ever since the film
came out. I think she's almost perfect for the role. Anyway, a prime
example of a type of classical British super production that Korda
was good at turning out.

I would imagine that you already know Durgnat's A MIRROR FOR ENGLAND,
a central text on British cinema. The Chalres Barr anthology ALL OUR
YESTERDAYS has essays dealing with topics like Paul Robeson, Dirk
Bogarde, Humphrey Jennings, Diana Dors, and the influence of the
music hall. David Pirie's A HERITAGE OF HORROR is a classic text on
English gothic cinema from 1946 to 1972. I would also recommend an
essay by Christine Gledhill, "Between Melodrama and Realism,"
available in the anthology CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD NARRATIVE: THE
PARADIGM WARS, edited by Jane Gaines. Gledhill compares Asquith's
late silent UNDERGROUND with Vidor's THE CROWD in terms of American
vs. British conceptions of melodrama and agency.
8850


From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 1:34pm
Subject: Re: Re: British cinema
 
--- "Jaime N. Christley"
wrote:

>
> Cy Endfield's ZULU is also very, very great, and
> available on
> widescreen DVD.

Cy Endfield is a filmmaker of enormous importance --
one of the great"termite artists" (to use Manny
Farber's useful term) of all time. Jonathan Rosenbaum,
has written rather extensively about him. Just about
everyone knows "Zulu," but "Try and Stop Me" (aka.
"The Sound of Fury") is phenomenal, and "Sands of the
Kahlahari" isn't exactly chopped liver either.
I also like Albert Lewin's THE
> PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL
> AMI and Zoltan Korda's CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY.
>
> Also, I taped most of the Ealing films that aired on
> TCM when I lived
> at Water Street. You can find the titles here:
>
> http://www.filmwritten.org/tapelist.htm
>
> -Jaime
>
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Zach Campbell"
> wrote:
> > I'm in the home stretch for deciding on what I'd
> like to propose for
> > an independent study course this fall, and the
> subject of classical
> > British sound cinema is an appealing prospect
> about which I know
> > only enough, well, to find it appealing. (Powell?
> Hitchcock?
> > Droll period comedy? Yes, please!)
> >
> > Though I'm not 100% certain I will pursue this
> course, my
> > preliminary research into the field has revealed a
> lot of solid
> > books and intriguing titles ... and regardless of
> what I choose
> > academically, I'd like to put a focus on this
> national cinema and
> > period in my reading and viewing starting this
> summer. Can I pick
> > a_film_by's brains about, say, some submerged
> classics that don't
> > get mentioned often enough? Are there any great
> books (histories,
> > personality studies, etc.) that shouldn't go by
> unnoticed? Is Ken
> > Annakin's ACROSS THE BRIDGE really so impressive?
> How difficult is
> > it to come across, say, videos of more obscure
> Ealing comedies?
> > (How many Ealing films even survive?)
>
>


__________________________________
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8851


From: Elizabeth Anne Nolan
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 3:45pm
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses
 
I saw MY ARCHITECT yesterday and it is interesting that the HAND
comes up several times. Obviously in the architectual drawings; but
also in the last time the son sees the father, he says the last image
he has of his father saying goodbye for the last time is in the
darkened stairway (or something like that) is of his father's
hand. The oral narrative provoked the image of the father's
hand in my own mind.
8852


From:
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 3:44pm
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
Hey Zach,

Re: What others have said, if you're interested in rarish Ealing or
Powell/Pressburger stuff, I can help you out as well. (I've also got
a pretty informative doc on the Ealing years somewhere around here.)
I also agree with any statement involving the phrases "Anthony
Asquith" and "interesting subject for study".

As for other potential topics, I think Alexander Korda is a
fascinating figure. As a producer, he was enormously influential and
had a hand in some of the greatest films ever made. And as a person,
an immigrant whose nationalism proved even more extreme than the
usual blue-bloods, he'd make for a fascinating psychological study.
I'd be curious as to how his character affected the aesthetics of
the films he produced -- even ones by later giants such as Powell.

-Bilge
8853


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 3:41pm
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
> everyone knows "Zulu," but "Try and Stop Me" (aka.
> "The Sound of Fury") is phenomenal

Actually, I saw that one first, and I agree.

-Jaime
8854


From: Craig Keller
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 4:17pm
Subject: Re: Re: British cinema
 
> I'm told Morris' latest creation, the news satire "The Day Today," is
> no disappointment for BRASSEYE fans!  Also it's generally known that,
> while their film industry is in shambles, their TV output is truly
> something to behold.  I shall start with THE OFFICE and work from
> there.

'The Office' is exceptional, but both 'Brass Eye' and 'The Day Today'
are beyond praise. Actually, 'The Day Today' isn't his latest -- it
dates from 1993-4 -- but it is the latest DVD release. I saw all the
episodes on videotape while staying with a friend in London; well over
a hundred memorable moments, and that's just a first viewing. (Wait
till you see the "Is this cool?" car-crash safety advert, Alan
Partridge's horse-race coverage, Morris's on-the-street interviews
about "the letter of the law," and the list goes on...) Also pick up
'jam' and 'jaaaaaaam' (the latter only a "visual remix" of 'jam'), the
'Blue Jam' audio CD on Warp, and the 'My Wrongs...' short film, also
released by Warp. Morris's latest is supposedly a "tame" "family
sitcom" -- or something along those lines; if this is even true, it's
likely to be a highly subversive package in sitcom-clothing.

craig.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
8855


From: Joseph Kaufman
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 6:11pm
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
Val Guest should not be forgotten, especially his electrifying
political/SF parable THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, available (though
with bad sound) on DVD.
--

- Joe Kaufman
8856


From: Dan Sallitt
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 5:48pm
Subject: Re: Re: British cinema
 
> Is Alex Cox British?

He's from Liverpool (which he filmed in his underrated, or rather unrated,
THREE BUSINESSMEN). But I don't know if he worked in the UK much.

> Certainly Richard Lester
> is - much admired at one time by Andrew Sarris and still by our own
> Peter T.

Lester is actually from Philly, though his career was substantially
British. I believe that Mackendrick and Cornelius (and Losey, of course)
were also American by birth. One of the arguments that was often made
against British cinema was that most of their good directors either came
from other countries or did their best work in other countries. Not quite
fair (for one thing, these two vectors cancel each other out - if the US
is really the fount of all inspiration, what did it need Hitchcock for?)
or accurate, but it's easy to understand why people put down British
cinema, even though it looks better now from our vantage point in space
and time.

I don't have my records with me, but a few brief comments:

- I admire KIND HEARTS, IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, and PINK STRING also
(in that order of value, for me), but I think Hamer's greatest film is the
little-discussed THE SPIDER AND THE FLY.

- Cornelius' GENEVIEVE is a fine, important film, and somehow seems
important to a discussion of British cinema.

- I'm a big fan of Alex Korda as a director. (Zoltan is good too - my
favorite of his is the underrated DRUMS, which I think is much better than
FOUR FEATHERS.) His REMBRANDT is one of the best of all biopics. PRIVATE
LIFE OF HENRY VIII is probably the other peak work, but he's surprisingly
consistent.

- No mention here so far of the sublime Alan Clarke, whose work will grow
in stature, I suspect. For my money, Frears was a great director between
1979 and 1986.

- MOVIE READER contains an article by V.F. Perkins from 1962 or so, making
the case against British cinema. It's very well written, and worth a look
to get the point of view of working auteurists who were actually slogging
through the day-to-day releases. There's a good paragraph on Seth Holt's
TASTE OF FEAR (SCREAM OF FEAR), which became a symbol of the auteurist
struggle in the UK.

- A quick mention in passing to: Mike Hodges (GET CARTER is an amazing
debut), Albert Finney (CHARLIE BUBBLES is quite good!), Humphrey Jennings
(very important - LISTEN TO BRITAIN is my favorite), Thorold Dickinson
(SECRET PEOPLE is rather underrated), David Hare (WETHERBY, especially),
Michael Reeves (WITCHFINDER GENERAL makes it clear that he would have been
an important drector), and Mike Newell (erratic, but capable of very fine
work like AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE).

- Dan
8857


From: hotlove666
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 6:48pm
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses
 
>
> I had no idea that Polanski was interested in the question of
finding
> other sense equivalents in his films although as soon as I begin to
> think about the films certain examples seem to arise. Where does
he
> talk about this?

In Roman, his autobiography. I quote ied it in my Cahiers article on
Frantic, where he brilliantly renders the efects of jetlag at the
beginning of the film - you FEEL jetlagged watching Ford and his wife
check in.

Following Lang's claims that he often used
> his own hands in the insert shots of his films, my argument is that
> Lang often implicitly expresses a strong desire to touch his own
> films, a desire virtually impossible to ever reach culmination.

The last shot of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt isn't in the script - the
warden's hand withdrawing, preumably stood-in by Lang.

I asked Fabien Gaffez if he knew
> of any interesting French writing on the topic (outside of the
> standard citations of Deleuze

Derrida has a long piece called "Heidigger's Hand" in his last big
collection, Psyche. It has also been translated and published in a
journal here.
8858


From: hotlove666
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 6:57pm
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
Screenwriter Angus MacPhail is a thread running through the period
that interests you, Zach, from 30s Hitchcock to Dead of Night to 50s
Hitchcock. I don't know his whole filmography, but he's a very
important person who was dissed to Donald Spoto by the mythomanaical
John Michael Hayes because Hayes' unethical and unfortunately
successful attempt to get sole credit on Man Who Knew Too Much quite
rightly ended his collaboration with Hitchcock. I think MacPhail was
important to Vertigo, too, despite what other sources say. He and
Hitchcock were in a film club together that bears looking into - many
of the British film intelligentsia were, and it was MacPhail who did
the translation of Mabuse when it was shown there. He is reportedly
the source of the term "MacGuffin." He was a Scot. His correspondence
with AH at the Academy makes fascinating reading.
8859


From: Zach Campbell
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 8:04pm
Subject: Asquith, Endfield, Durgnat, etc.
 
I've made a note of the importance of Anthony Asquith, Bilge and
Robert; I had no idea he was ever supposed to be experimental.
(Britain's early sound equivalent to Mamoulian, perhaps?) Cy
Endfield, it seems, is someone I cannot afford to overlook, and
therefore will not overlook him. I'm somewhat familiar with A
MIRROR FOR ENGLAND, and was flipping through it the other day while
doing research; anything Durgnat does is golden of course. (Another
plus to the possibility of studying British cinema for credit is
that, institutional blind spot though it is, there's a wealth of
material on the topics.)

Val Guest, the Kordas, Humphrey Jennings, Thorold Dickinson,
Cavalcanti … check, check(x2), check, check, check. Also, Angus
MacPhail, yes, I'll look into him.

Joe M: ON APPROVAL is definitely on my list of films-to-see; seems
like everyone who sees the film is a fan of it. Charles Barr's ALL
OUR YESTERDAYS was not on my radar, though I believe he has a book
on Ealing that I planned on tracking down.

If Scorsese's British cinema doc comes out by this December, that
would be helpful. Thanks for the heads-up, Bill.

Any opinions on the following films, which I know are available at
my video store (in addition to many more obvious ones): Lewis
Gilbert's SINK THE BISMARCK and THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM, Basil
Dearden's LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN and rather well-known VICTIM, Terence
Young's CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS, Sidney Gilliat's GREEN FOR DANGER,
Frank Lauder (and Gilliat)'s I SEE A DARK STRANGER? That last one
seems particularly intriguing. What about the films of the
Boultings? Or Victor Saville's 1938 SOUTH RIDING, which I rented
the other day pretty randomly when perusing the British videos (will
watch tomorrow)?

--Zach
8860


From:
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 8:35pm
Subject: Re: British Cinema - Green for Danger; Culloden
 
"Green for Danger" started life as a mystery novel by Christianna Brand. Then it was filmed by Sidney Gilliat. Both the novel and film are highly regarded by many mystery historians. Unfortunately, I have never been able to enjoy either of these admittedly inoffensive works. They both just seem dull to me. ZZZZZZ.
One weird sidelight: as the title suggests, the plot of the mystery depends on color. Yet the movie is in black and white, making the plot hard to follow. People talk verbally about the color of objects in the plot, but we of course see everything in black and white!

Culloden (Peter Watkins). Saw this as a teenager in the 1960's, when it was shown on Public TV in the US. Made a big impression at the time. Watkins' work was actually easier for the average person to see long ago...

Mike Grost
8861


From: Elizabeth Anne Nolan
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 4:50pm
Subject: source of films on TV by director
 
http://www.tv-now.com/stars/director.htm
8862


From: Dan Sallitt
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 5:14pm
Subject: Re: Re: The other 4 senses
 
> My paper on Lang deals only with the tactile and in relation to the
> question of authorship. Following Lang's claims that he often used
> his own hands in the insert shots of his films, my argument is that
> Lang often implicitly expresses a strong desire to touch his own
> films, a desire virtually impossible to ever reach culmination. The
> hand is consequently represented within the films as the ambivalent
> site of both creation and destruction. I discuss this in relation to
> issues of gesture and performance style, of the "surgical" (T.
> Elsaesser's word for it)quality of Lang's conception of montage, of
> the recurrence of images of desperate tactility and inscription,
> etc.
>
> At any rate, this is all emerging out of a general interest I have in
> the treatment of the hand in film.

It's been a while since I saw a bunch of Lang films at the same time, but
isn't there a conspicuous motif of characters with injured hands in his
films? In Freudian thought, this symbolizes castration, of course. - Dan
8863


From: Maxime Renaudin
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 10:45pm
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses / Lang's hands
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:
> The last shot of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt isn't in the script -
the
> warden's hand withdrawing, preumably stood-in by Lang.

BTW, has anyone read this curious article by Biette, published in
Trafic 2003, about hands in Lang's work? About the movements of
hands as a key element in deciphering Lang's universe, along with
looks and words.
Not totaly clear to me. I have to see the films again.
8864


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 10:48pm
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses
 
> It's been a while since I saw a bunch of Lang films at the same
time, but
> isn't there a conspicuous motif of characters with injured hands in his
> films? In Freudian thought, this symbolizes castration, of course.
- Dan

The only one I can think of is the last Dr. Mabuse, but it's his club
foot that distinguishes him, not his hand.

-Jaime
8865


From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 11:13pm
Subject: Re: Re: British cinema
 
--- hotlove666 wrote:
> Martin Scorsese, in collaboration with Michael
> Wilson, is finishing a
> long film essay like his Italian Journey on British
> cinema. It will
> be particularly good on the period you e-mail
> focuses on, which I'm
> particularly bad on. But fairly recent British
> cinema is pretty good.

It will obviously feature a lot on Michael Powell who
married into the Scorsese family as I'm sure you know.

Powell'stwo-volume autobiography is required reading.

>
> At the risk of stating the obvious: Seth Holt,
> Freddie Francis, and
> films and tv dramas scripted by Nigel Kneale. I
> blush to mention
> Terence Fisher, universally admired, although I
> would rather see a
> Francis I don't know these days--they can be quite
> special.

Well Fisher is quite special too."Horror of Dracula"
is universally acknowleged as a seminal horror
classic. "The Return of Frankenstein" jump[-starts
that series whose best entry is the ineffable
"Frankenstein Created Woman"

>
> Certainly everyone knows Mike Leigh and Terence
> Davies, but they're
> often dismissed by cognoscenti for reasons that
> remain
> incomprehensible to me.

Me too, though I favor Davies over Leigh.

I just watched
> Julien Temple's
> Absolute Beginners again for the first time since it
> came out, and
> it's very impressive.

Isn't it marvelous? "Earth Girls Are Easy" is good
too.
And his episode of "Aria" -- shot at the Madonna Inn
-- is a marvel.

Is Alex Cox British?

Yes.

Certainly
> Richard Lester
> is - much admired at one time by Andrew Sarris and
> still by our own
> Peter T.
>
Lester is an American by birth.

> Again recurring to known but neglected quantities,
> the British comedy
> tradition didn't just dead-end with Ealing. I think
> the Monty Python
> films outshine every comedy I've seen from Ealing
> except the ones by
> Alexander Mackendrick.

I agree. Especially "The Meaning of Life."

Terry Gilliam, who works all
> over, is an
> offshoot of that, but the films by the group are the
> ones I keep
> going back to. I'm very fond of Meaning of Life,
> their swan-song:
> Every Sperm Is Sacred, The Universe Song, Death and
> the Salmon
> Mousse, The Dream, Mister Creosote -- those are all,
> IMO, as good as
> British humor gets, except of course for Chaplin.
>
> I know nothing about the avant-garde - just Steve
> Dwoskin, whose work
> I hear good things about, but see so infrequently I
> can't really talk
> about it.

Dwoksin is quite interesting. Raymond Durgnat has
written about him moist impressively. I recall him
coming to screenins at the Filmmaker's Cinematheque in
New York in the 60's-- the array of crutches he
required for walking turning him into a happy spider.
Very genial man.

>God bless Ken Loach, however.

Well somebody has to
And you can't
> just toss John Boorman--there's Excalibur, and
> there's Hope and
> Glory, as British a film as was ever made by anyone,

I much prefer the former to the latter, and I much
prefer "Leo the Last" to them both.


>
> And because I will be eviscerated if I omit Ken
> Russell, Ken Russell.
>
And I'd be doing the eviscerating!

"The Devils" -- the greatest political film ever made,
bar none, will be released shortly on DVD. I trust
Warner Bros. will supply us with the complete version
of this take on the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The sets
by Derek Jarman have never been equalled.


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8866


From: Elizabeth Anne Nolan
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 4:12pm
Subject: I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING
 
Glad to hear you like I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING. It was a great find
for me several years back and I would love to see it on the big
screen. I recommend it to many. The surreal scenes where she
is fantasizing about her fiance / factory owner are fun! And the
island scenes, too. A real example of great film-making.
8867


From: joe_mcelhaney
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 11:54pm
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses/Lang's Hands
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Dan Sallitt wrote:
>
> It's been a while since I saw a bunch of Lang films at the same
time, but isn't there a conspicuous motif of characters with injured
>hands in his films? In Freudian thought, this symbolizes
>castration, of course. - Dan

Most famously, there is Rotwang in METROPOLIS, who loses his hand
through the act of creating the false Maria and he wears an
artificial limb in its place. Edward G. Robinson cuts and scratches
his hand in WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, first on the champagne wire in Joan
Bennett's apartment and then a bit later on a barbed wire fence. The
brother in HANGMEN ALSO DIE cuts his hand at the dinner table,
prompting Brian Donlevy to intuitively act as a doctor and not as the
architect he is pretending to be. In SPIDERS, there is a thief who is
missing one finger, Four Finger John. Randolph Scott burns his hand
in WESTERN UNION. And in THE BIG HEAT, at the moment when Jocelyn
Brando is blown up in the car, the children's story Glenn Ford is
reading to their daughter is "The Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their
Mittens."

Of course, the hands in Lang do more than just get injured. There is
a huge, fascinating system at work here in terms of how the hand may
function in cinema. Simply in terms of Freud alone, I didn't deal
with the issue of castration but the argument in TOTEM AND TABOO that
the infant's strong desire to touch meets with frequent prohibition
and how this often leads to later ambivalent and unconscious physical
fixations upon particular objects. I had no idea, though, until I
read Maxime's post that Biette had written a piece on the topic of
the hand in Lang in TRAFIC in 2003, an expensive and difficult-to-
locate magazine I never see. I certainly would have tried to track it
down had I known it was out there, although the first draft of this
Lang paper of mine pre-dates Biette's piece and was done at a
conference in 2000.
8868


From: hotlove666
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 0:12am
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses/Lang's Hands
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "joe_mcelhaney"
wrote:

> the infant's strong desire to touch meets with frequent
prohibition
> and how this often leads to later ambivalent and unconscious
physical
> fixations upon particular objects.

this is often expressed thru the interdiction of touching hot
things.

I had no idea, though, until I
> read Maxime's post that Biette had written a piece on the topic
of
> the hand in Lang in TRAFIC in 2003, an expensive and
difficult-to-
> locate magazine I never see. I certainly would have tried to
track it
> down had I known it was out there, although the first draft of
this
> Lang paper of mine pre-dates Biette's piece and was done at a
> conference in 2000.

Give me a snailmail address and I'll send you a copy of my copy.
I also can't afford the magazine, but I Xerox articles at UCLA, and
I have that one, which was actually an oral presentation, not an
article per se. I can dig out the English of the Derrida, too, if you
want to see it.
8869


From: Adrian Martin
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 0:40am
Subject: Durgnat on British Cinema
 
Zach - Post A MIRROR FOR ENGLAND, Ray Durgnat wrote a number of important
essays on what he called "the British Phantasmagoria" - you should
definitely check these out. One is in FILM COMMENT mid 70s, and the
follow-up is in MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN mid-80s. Basically, Durgnat was very
hip to the eccentric/Blakean side (rather than the 'kitchen sink' side) of
British cinema - so he spoke a lot, very positively, about Ken Russell,
Boorman, O LUCKY MAN, etc. And of course, Powell & Pressburger were a
life-long passion for him. He was also, at one stage in the 60s, a keen
follower of the British underground, and was an enormous champion of his
friend Steve Dwoskin - whose latest short films, by the way, all odes to
various dead friends/partners/parents, are absolutely stunning and
heartbreaking.

For Joe: Hands in film - one of my favourite filmmaker quotes is from
Philippe Garrel: "Cinema is manual work with the unconscious".

Adrian
8870


From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 1:28pm
Subject: Re: also Peter Watkins (re: British cinema)
 
I'd call him a major figure in Scandanavian cinema as
well in that many of his most important films were
made there -- "Edvard Munch" being the best-known.
Watkins is quite a contentious figure in that he has
devoted his life to fighting the notion that film is a
passive experience to simply be consumed by the
audience, rather than rousing its consciousness. In
that he's far more radical than Godard.

As for "Privilege" it was insprired by an offhand
remark of Terence Stamp -- and David Bowie ripped his
entire act off from it.

--- "Jaime N. Christley"
wrote:
> I've only seen PRIVELEGE, and actually I wasn't too
> crazy about it,
> but by all accounts he's a major figure in British
> film, several of
> his films are available on video, and Anthology Film
> Archives is
> planning a retrospective of his work pretty soon.
>
> -Jaime
>
>


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8871


From: jpcoursodon
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 0:44am
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses / Lang's hands
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Maxime Renaudin"
wrote:
> --- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
> wrote:
> > The last shot of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt isn't in the script -
> the
> > warden's hand withdrawing, preumably stood-in by Lang.
>
> BTW, has anyone read this curious article by Biette, published in
> Trafic 2003, about hands in Lang's work? About the movements of
> hands as a key element in deciphering Lang's universe, along with
> looks and words.
> Not totaly clear to me. I have to see the films again.

Not totally clear to me either, but fascinating. The article is
actually the text of a lecture Biette gave at a conference of art
historians organized by Jean Louis Schefer (who introduced the text
in "Trafic #47)on the theme of the relationships between painting and
cinema. Biette never mentions painting in his text unless I'm
mistaken! He distinguishes "three dynamic elements" that serve
Lang's "mise a distance" and framing within each shot: "le regard, la
parole et l'action des mains" = the gaze, the word (speech) the
hands' action. He gave examples from Mabuse, Spiones, The Blue
Gardenia, Rancho Notorious, Ministry of Fear (the opening sequence)
(but he did not mention "Beyond"). Very interesting comments on the
Nat King Cole sequence in Gardenia.

I'm sure Bill can give us a learned analysis of Biette's piece.

JPC
8872


From:
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 9:46pm
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses / Varda's hands
 
Hands play a role in some Agnes Varda films.
In Ni toit sans loi / Vagabond, there is a shot contrasting the well
manicured hands of the professor, with the unkempt hands of the vagabond heroine.
In The Gleaners and I, Varda films her own hands, and comments on their
aging. It is a touching moment.
Just learned there is a sequel to Gleaners Varda made two years later. Wish
it would be released in the US!

Mike Grost
8873


From: jpcoursodon
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 1:47am
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses/Lang's Hands
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "hotlove666"
wrote:

>
> I had no idea, though, until I
> > read Maxime's post that Biette had written a piece on the topic
> of
> > the hand in Lang in TRAFIC in 2003, an expensive and
> difficult-to-
> > locate magazine I never see. I certainly would have tried to
> track it
> > down had I known it was out there, although the first draft of
> this
> > Lang paper of mine pre-dates Biette's piece and was done at a
> > conference in 2000.
>

The yearly subscription to Trafic is 51 Euro for a foreign
subscription, which is not all that much for a major film journal
which I am sure you would find very much to your taste. Actually I'm
surprised you don't write for them. You know Bellour and the whole
gang, I'm sure. Jonathan writes for Trafic. Sylvie Pierre. etc.
Actually some of the stuff you put on this Group could make fine
pieces for Trafic. Just a thought...
JPC
8874


From: jpcoursodon
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 2:01am
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses / Varda's hands
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, MG4273@a... wrote:
> Hands play a role in some Agnes Varda films.
> In Ni toit sans loi / Vagabond, there is a shot contrasting the
well
> manicured hands of the professor, with the unkempt hands of the
vagabond heroine.
> In The Gleaners and I, Varda films her own hands, and comments on
their
> aging. It is a touching moment.
> Just learned there is a sequel to Gleaners Varda made two years
later. Wish
> it would be released in the US!
>
> Mike Grost

The actual title is "Sans toit ni loi" (a pun like most of her
titles).
The sequel is lovely.
JPC
8875


From: George Robinson
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 2:54am
Subject: A change of pace from The Guardian
 
I appreciate the generally serious tone of the discussions on this list but
at the risk of
damaging our gravitas allow me to direct you to an item in The Guardian
about a
somewhat different kind of movie-going experience in Norway. Having seen my
first
movie in a drive-in (101 Dalmatians, if you must know), I can appreciate
this, although
it's an excellent argument for wearing jammies with feet.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1187417,00.html

George (I still like jammies with feet) Robinson

Our talk of justice is empty until the
largest battleship has foundered on the
forehead of a drowned man.
--Paul Celan
8876


From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 3:23am
Subject: Re: Asquith, Endfield, Durgnat, etc.
 
--- Zach Campbell wrote:
and rather well-known
> VICTIM,

Richard Dyer analyzes "Victim" at length in "The
Matter of Images: Essays on Representations"
(Routledge, 1993), relating it to a host of other
British melodramas and socially conscious films.

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8877


From: hotlove666
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 6:15am
Subject: Trafic
 
>
> The yearly subscription to Trafic is 51 Euro for a foreign
> subscription, which is not all that much for a major film journal
> which I am sure you would find very much to your taste. Actually
I'm
> surprised you don't write for them. You know Bellour and the whole
> gang, I'm sure. Jonathan writes for Trafic. Sylvie Pierre. etc.
> Actually some of the stuff you put on this Group could make fine
> pieces for Trafic. Just a thought...
> JPC

I do write for them occasionally - just not as much as when Daney was
alive or right after. Trafic has changed a lot--most of the rules
Serge set down for it have kind of gone by the wayside, for one
thing. But I am/was good friends with Jean-Claude and Sylvie, and I
do have a piece in the new issue, about Stuck on You!

What I would like to mention here is that Trafic is on a subscription
drive, and they know that libraries are the likeliest subscribers. If
anyone in the group is associated with a university and regrets not
being able to at least read Trafic at the library, why not contact
your college librarian about subscribing? It would help them and help
you as well.

Coincidentally, I was at UCLA tonight Xeroxing stuff for a current
project, and it seems to me that there are lots of magazines like
Trafic out there that are doing a good job: Cinema 04, or whatever
Bernard's mag is called, which had 3 articles I couldn't resist
Xeroxing even though they aren't on my topic; Vertigo (the issue
on "Le Bordel"), which had two; the old Cinematheque mag, which had
what looks like a very important piece on Dieterle and the Spanish
Civil War (I just wish they wouldn't run French and English on the
same page - more Xeroxing costs!); others whose names I forget, and
even good old Camera Obscura, which still runs a good article once in
a blue moon.

And going back over old issues of Cinema Journal et al for my
project, I was reminded that university film magazines, which Trafic
now more or less is, are finally doing important work. I inveigh a
lot here against film studies, but I mainly knew the discipline when
it was young and full of shit. We seem to be past the point where
garbled articles with cutesy titles and erstaz politics are the norm.
People are doing research, and the best people are producing
meaningful arguments and useful information, just as the Shoshana
Felmans and Angus Fletchers (two names at random that I always seek
out to read) and their students are doing in my old field. It's
heartening to see.

At the same time, film reviewing and film magazines for the non-
specialist educated reader have hit rock bottom. I look through old
American Films and Sight and Sounds and Film Comments when I'm at
UCLA and wonder where all the flowers have gone. They sure aren't
blooming in that soil anymore. Thank God for the Academy!
8878


From: hotlove666
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 6:20am
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
Figures of Desire - I saw that title (a theoretical book on Brit-cin)
at UCLA tonight.

Nicolas Roeg. Donald Cammell.
8879


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Tue Apr 6, 2004 7:57pm
Subject: Re: anime and KILL BILL
 
> I believe NGE 5 inspired the anime in Kill Bill I.

I don't agree with that - as far as I can tell, there's very little
resemblance between the anime section of KILL BILL and any episodes of
EVANGELION. The styles of drawing and animating are very different,
and there's very little actual bloodletting in the series (until the
end, kind of).

-Jaime
8880


From: Michael Worrall
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 10:37am
Subject: Re: The other 4 senses / Lang's hands
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Maxime Renaudin"
wrote:

> BTW, has anyone read this curious article by Biette, published in
> Trafic 2003, about hands in Lang's work? About the movements of
> hands as a key element in deciphering Lang's universe, along with
> looks and words.
> Not totaly clear to me. I have to see the films again.


You may want to take at look at Tom Gunning's book: "The Films of
Fritz
Lang -- Modernity, Crime and Desire".

For me, "Spies" is charged with this theme of hands holding objects,
photographs in particular. If Haghi holds your photo in his hand,
your
fate is probably sealed.
8881


From: Robert Keser
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 1:41pm
Subject: Re: A change of pace from The Guardian
 
What strikes me as strange is that the very screen itself is made of
snow! What can that look like? Maybe its reflectivity is superior to
conventional screens. What films would be particularly appropriate
for screening on snow? The Outlaw and His Wife? Fargo?

--Robert Keser

--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "George Robinson"
wrote:
> I appreciate the generally serious tone of the discussions on this
list but
> at the risk of
> damaging our gravitas allow me to direct you to an item in The
Guardian
> about a
> somewhat different kind of movie-going experience in Norway. Having
seen my
> first
> movie in a drive-in (101 Dalmatians, if you must know), I can
appreciate
> this, although
> it's an excellent argument for wearing jammies with feet.
>
> http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1187417,00.html
>
> George (I still like jammies with feet) Robinson
>
> Our talk of justice is empty until the
> largest battleship has foundered on the
> forehead of a drowned man.
> --Paul Celan
8882


From:
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 2:58pm
Subject: Re: Varda
 
the sequel to The Gleaners and I (which I believe is called The
Gleaners and I: Two Years Later) is included on the region 1
Zeitgeist DVD. It's nowhere as near as enrapturing as the original
film, but it's a fascinating followup -- apparently the movie touched
off a genuine phenomenon in France, with Varda doing the talk show
circuit to talk about homelessness, etc.

The lovely shots of Varda's hands in Gleaners are prefigured by a
similar examination of her ailing husband Jacques Demy's body in
Jacquot de Nantes. I actually prefer Varda's L'Univers de Jacques
Demy to Jacquot, but those shots are truly beautiful, filled with
love and sorrow.

Sam
8883


From: Jaime N. Christley
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 3:13pm
Subject: Re: snow films
 
> What films would be particularly appropriate
> for screening on snow? The Outlaw and His Wife? Fargo?

Polanski's MAMMALS, Borzage's THE MORTAL STORM, Renoir's GRAND
ILLUSION, Hathaway's SPAWN OF THE NORTH. Also Keaton/Cline's THE
FROZEN NORTH.

Also, movies with big "fire" images, like THE TOWERING INFERNO or
Sjostrom's LOVE'S CRUCIBLE.

-Jaime
8884


From: Michael Brooke
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 4:13pm
Subject: Re: British cinema
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, Dan Sallitt wrote:
> For my money, Frears was a great director between
> 1979 and 1986.

I'd go back to 1972 - starting from 1979 would leave out most of his
Alan Bennett collaborations, and there's some sublime work there,
including A DAY OUT (1972), SUNSET ACROSS THE BAY (1975), ME! I'M
AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (1978) and so on.

More info here: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/469201/

Michael
8885


From: Michael Lieberman
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 5:05pm
Subject: Re: Re: snow films
 
There's an Ernie Gehr film which uses snow magnificently...I can't remember the title, but the zooming is unforgettable.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller has some excellent uses of snow, as well.

Mike


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jaime N. Christley"
Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2004 15:13:31 -0000
To: a_film_by@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [a_film_by] Re: snow films





> What films would be particularly appropriate

> for screening on snow? The Outlaw and His Wife? Fargo?



Polanski's MAMMALS, Borzage's THE MORTAL STORM, Renoir's GRAND

ILLUSION, Hathaway's SPAWN OF THE NORTH.  Also Keaton/Cline's THE

FROZEN NORTH.



Also, movies with big "fire" images, like THE TOWERING INFERNO or

Sjostrom's LOVE'S CRUCIBLE.



-Jaime



















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8886


From: Michael Brooke
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 3:42pm
Subject: Re: British Cinema - Green for Danger; Culloden
 
--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, MG4273@a... wrote:
> "Green for Danger" started life as a mystery novel by Christianna
Brand. Then it was filmed by Sidney Gilliat. Both the novel and film
are highly regarded by many mystery historians. Unfortunately, I have
never been able to enjoy either of these admittedly inoffensive
works. They both just seem dull to me. ZZZZZZ.

GREEN FOR DANGER is terrific fun, especially for fans of Alastair
Sim. Apparently Gilliat was none too keen on either the novel or the
whole whodunit genre, which is why the film ended up as a gleefully
self-parodic send-up in which Sim's would-be Poirot-like sleuth has
his limitations all too cruelly exposed. It's worth seeing purely
for that sublime wordless scene where Sim is lying in bed reading a
detective thriller, gets to about halfway through, looks smug, turns
to the end to see if he was right about the murderer... and then his
face falls as he realises that he wasn't.

Apologies if I missed another reference to their work, but no survey
of "golden age" British cinema is complete without a nod to Frank
Launder and Sidney Gilliat's films - I watched a generous cross-
section of their 1930s/40s/50s output last year, and to my mind
they're right up there with the more celebrated British auteurs.
Probably their best-known contribution to British cinema was the
script for THE LADY VANISHES, but throughout the 1940s they made a
series of films anatomising Britain in wittily-observed detail.

Lots more info here: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/487654/

Michael
8887


From: Elizabeth Anne Nolan
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 4:51pm
Subject: Re: snow films
 
Lean's Doctor Zhivago (1965) obvious; I wonder how hot the desert
would look in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA projected on a snow screen?

Bille August's Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997)
8888


From: Kenneth Eisenstein
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 5:00pm
Subject: Re: snow films
 
Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner (1939 or 1940)

Ernie Gehr's Untitled (1977)
(a single shot film of a rack focus through a snowstorm)

Rebecca Meyers' glow in the dark (january - june) (2002)
http://www.lff.org.uk/films_print.php?FilmID=100



Ken


> > What films would be particularly appropriate
>> for screening on snow? The Outlaw and His Wife? Fargo?
>
>Polanski's MAMMALS, Borzage's THE MORTAL STORM, Renoir's GRAND
>ILLUSION, Hathaway's SPAWN OF THE NORTH. Also Keaton/Cline's THE
>FROZEN NORTH.
>
>Also, movies with big "fire" images, like THE TOWERING INFERNO or
>Sjostrom's LOVE'S CRUCIBLE.
>
>-Jaime
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
8889


From: Robert Keser
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 5:58pm
Subject: Re: snow films
 
Yes, contrast could be very effective, such as filling the snow
screen with something ethereal, like Cocteau's Le Baron fantôme.

--Robert Keser

--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Jaime N. Christley"
wrote:
> > What films would be particularly appropriate
> > for screening on snow? The Outlaw and His Wife? Fargo?
>
> ...movies with big "fire" images, like THE TOWERING INFERNO or
> Sjostrom's LOVE'S CRUCIBLE.
8890


From: Jess Amortell
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 7:25pm
Subject: Re: A change of pace from The Guardian
 
> What strikes me as strange is that the very screen itself is made of
> snow!


In the Hokkaido scenes of MILLENNIUM MAMBO, the snow becomes a screen, bearing the imprint of a human face.
8891


From: Hadrian
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 7:39pm
Subject: Re: British Cinema - Green for Danger; Culloden
 
I know this thread is growing whiskers, but I thought i'd throw my
hat in the ring:

Alexander MacKendrick, a personal favorite deserves notice.
Before coming to the U.S., and making the classic "Sweet Smell
of Success, he did what i think are the best Ealing Comedies
("Man in the White Suit", "Ladykillers", "Whiskey Gallore/Tight
Little Island")

Ronald Naeme, is not a personal favorite, but he did make 3
films that got the Criterion treatment.

Spike Millligan, may not be a director, but is certainly an auteur.
This brings up a whole world of important British moments not
director-specific, that you might want to consdier: Carry On
movies, Norman Wisdom, etc.

Also, for the record, I think "The War Game" is a more technically
proficient film than "Culloden". The problem is the subject matter
dates badly, since most of us aren't really in terror of nuclear
attack these days. Also, I'm surprised no one mentioned what I
think is his most popular film, "Punishment Park" --a sort of
hippy, "Running Man" plot. There's strong cult interest in this one,
if perhaps a little more to the camp side, and it's definitely worth
a look. I thought it had the best fake documentary scenes I'd ever
seen, and all the more impressive when you consdier the
outlandishness of the premise.

You said you were looking for stuff. Well, first off, if you don't
already have one, definitely get a code-free DVD player. A lot of
good films are available Region2 in England (Culloden, War
Game w/commentary, Hugh and Cry, Whistle and I Come to
You, and more). Punishment Park is available from France.

Also, i have acouple PAl-To-NTSC transfers of the popular 50's
stuff: Titfield Thunderbolt, Passport to Pimlico, Whiskey Galore.
I'd be happy to run off some copies for you. Feel free to peruse
my site www.cinefilevideo.com . I have some stuff not on there
(like Watkin's 4 hour 2000 film, "La Commune"). Shoot me an
email, if you need any help.

hadrian
8892


From: Zach Campbell
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 6:26pm
Subject: Re: British Cinema - Green for Danger; Culloden
 
Michael:
> Apologies if I missed another reference to their work, but no
> survey of "golden age" British cinema is complete without a nod to
> Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's films

They're on my radar, Michael; that's quite a recommendation you give
them, I hope I like their films as much. Thanks a lot for the
Screenonline link -- I know the whole website will be a valuable one
as I continue early research into British cinema.

--Zach, who's learned more about British film in the last few days
than he's ever learned about any other national cinema in such a
short period of time ...
8893


From: Paul Gallagher
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 11:48pm
Subject: Re: A change of pace from The Guardian
 
There are some photos of the drive-in online:

http://www.saami-easterfestival.org/film_index_2004.htm

http://www.samiradio.org/norsk/article15917.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3603665.stm


Paul
8894


From: Craig Keller
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 9:07pm
Subject: State of Godard
 
Robert Hunt just posted this message on the Godard listserv --
===
In a review of the MacCabe biography in the current issue of
"Bookforum", Kent Jones writes that "Godard afficionados may be struck
by the many episodes MacCabe has chosen to leave out: the epochal fight
with first wife Anna Karina that, legend has it, provided the
inspiration for Jacques Rivette's 1968 psychodrama L'amour Fou; the
very public fracas over Hail Mary; the fact that he is now seriously
ill." Can anyone illuminate this last remark? I suppose we shouldn't be
shocked that Godard's health is declining, but I've never seen any
earlier reference to his being "seriously ill."
===

Does anyone on this list have any insight on whether or not Godard is
actually "seriously ill"? Or perhaps those on here who are friends or
acquaintances with Kent Jones could send him an email for more
information on this? JLG has of course canceled public lecture after
public lecture, and press-releases soon follow the change of plans that
say something to the effect of, "...Mr. Godard won't be able to attend
due to ill health," but such cancellations and follow-up statements
about ill health have been par for the course since the early '80s, if
I'm correct.

craig.
8895


From: hotlove666
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 7:05pm
Subject: Re: British Cinema
 
There was a nice piece on Ealing 2 days ago in the LA Times by Robert
Abele. 4/5 - Calendar section - p. E6. A propos of no event except
the release of the Coens' film.
8896


From: joe_mcelhaney
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 7:44pm
Subject: the hand (and the lips) of the auteur
 
Adrian--What is the source for that wonderful Garrel quote you gave
me in your post yesterday? Along similar lines, there is also
Godard's better-known quote that if he were forced to choose he
would, as a filmmaker, rather lose his eyes than his hands. Lang was
beginning to seriously lose his eyesight as early as 1943, which
suggests that increasingly for him directing films was as much a
question of tactile and auditory percepton as it was visual. Wasn't
it the one-eyed Walsh who used to direct by looking away from the
camera and listening to the scene rather than watching it, a method
which I think Welles approved of when he heard about it?

My thanks also to Mike and Elizabeth for their hand citations. Until
THE GLEANERS, I was never able to respond to Varda's work but that
film has made me want to take another look at what she's been doing.
The only shot I clearly remember from JACQUOT is the beautiful one
already cited of the dying Demy's withered hand, which also suggests
a connection to the image of dying, withered hand of Visconti in the
credits to THE INNOCENT, as we see his hand slowly turn the pages of
the source novel. Visconti, though, was suffering from the aftermath
of a stroke at that point and so presumably the hand that we see in
the shot is the one which still retained relatively full tactile
perception and was the hand he continued to gesture and direct with.

To shift to another part of the body, has anyone looked at Maureen
O'Hara's autobiography? She claims to have come across John Ford
engaged in a passionate lip-lock with one of the biggest male stars
in Hollywood history. Is David up on all of this?
8897


From: Jonathan Rosenbaum
Date: Thu Apr 8, 2004 2:39am
Subject: Re: Trafic
 
>
> At the same time, film reviewing and film magazines for the non-
> specialist educated reader have hit rock bottom. I look through
old
> American Films and Sight and Sounds and Film Comments when I'm at
> UCLA and wonder where all the flowers have gone. They sure aren't
> blooming in that soil anymore. Thank God for the Academy!

Bill, you should get acquainted (if you aren't already) with Mark
Peranson's Cinema Scope, which I think is by far the best film
magazine in English--a Canadian quarterly whose 18th issue has just
appeared. Admittedly I'm biased because I write a DVD column for
them (as well as other things), but in fact I asked to do the column
because of how much I like the magazine.

As for your take on Trafic being academic now: there's some truth in
this, but surely a lot of the stuff they've always run never falls
into that category. I prefer to see it as the most literary of film
magazines--something that Daney started and that still persists,
largely, I think, because of Raymond Bellour (my own main contact
there). Incidentally, I'm delighted to hear that you've written
something for them again recently--for their giant upcoming 50th
issue, which I'm told will be so big that it will hold two or three
times as much as their special Daney issue.
8898


From: Samuel
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 8:56pm
Subject: Re: snow films
 
There are great westerns that take place in the snow: De Toth's DAY
OF THE OUTLAW, Wellman's TRACK OF THE CAT, Sergio Corbucci's IL
GRANDE SILENZIO (THE GREAT SILENCE)...

-Samuel

--- In a_film_by@yahoogroups.com, "Jaime N. Christley"
wrote:
> > What films would be particularly appropriate
> > for screening on snow? The Outlaw and His Wife? Fargo?
>
> Polanski's MAMMALS, Borzage's THE MORTAL STORM, Renoir's GRAND
> ILLUSION, Hathaway's SPAWN OF THE NORTH. Also Keaton/Cline's THE
> FROZEN NORTH.
>
> Also, movies with big "fire" images, like THE TOWERING INFERNO or
> Sjostrom's LOVE'S CRUCIBLE.
>
> -Jaime
8899


From: David Ehrenstein
Date: Thu Apr 8, 2004 3:19am
Subject: Re: Re: The other 4 senses / Lang's hands
 
--- Michael Worrall wrote:

>
> You may want to take at look at Tom Gunning's book:
> "The Films of
> Fritz
> Lang -- Modernity, Crime and Desire".
>
> For me, "Spies" is charged with this theme of hands
> holding objects,
> photographs in particular. If Haghi holds your photo
> in his hand,
> your
> fate is probably sealed.
>

Above all, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned this
earlier, there's Jacques Rivette's CdC review of
"Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" called "The Hand."

It's a bizarre, Derrida-like piece of writing -- with
a footnote longer than the principle text itself.
There's a translation of it in Jonathan Rosenbaum's
BFI "Jacques Rivette" monograph.

>
>


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8900


From: hotlove666
Date: Thu Apr 8, 2004 8:01am
Subject: Re: Trafic
 
>
> Bill, you should get acquainted (if you aren't already) with Mark
> Peranson's Cinema Scope, which I think is by far the best film
> magazine in English--a Canadian quarterly whose 18th issue has just
> appeared. Admittedly I'm biased because I write a DVD column for
> them (as well as other things), but in fact I asked to do the
column
> because of how much I like the magazine.
>
I have seen it, but haven't read it yet. I'm inclined to think that
online mags - including ones devoted to reviewing DVDs, like Cinema
Scope - are the wave of the future, with the heavy lifting being done
in academic publications.

Raymond is an academic powerhouse with students lined up in four
countries to contribute, and he does represent the magazine in many
people's minds, but one of the last things Jean-Claude pointed out to
me, gently, was that Raymond has always been one of four editors at
Trafic, each with an equal voice and responsibility. Now they are
three. I agree about the literary part, but I wonder how many people
actually read those contributions. Literature about film is a French
tradition that has been very spotty, to put it mildly, although there
are great exceptions, like Jean Epstein. I also except Moving Places,
but that's not French.

Let me repeat: They need subscribers. Everyone light fires under your
university librarians. Unlike most out and out university
publications, they aren't subsidized.

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