For the movie lovers on your gift list, of course, movies are always welcome. (Hint: Who wouldn’t want TCM’s Joan Crawford collection? It’s on sale too.)
Another route to go for the movie lover who has everything is original, affordable movie art from Mondo Gallery, a division of the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater organization.
Mondo creates “limited edition screen printed posters for our favorite classic and contemporary films, in addition to vinyl movie soundtracks, VHS re-issues, and apparel.”
Per a recent WSJ article by Don Steinberg, the gallery “commissions world-class illustrators and graphic artists to create posters for new and vintage films the way you’d do it if art was the only consideration, not market research.” Special note: The article includes a fabulous slide show of the posters for your viewing pleasure.
With an array of artists producing posters, styles vary widely. The best part? These are “collectible artworks that are very affordable ($35 to $100, or so).”
The worst part? They’re hard to get.
Competition is fierce to nab one of these limited editions. The article continues to state, “Savvy film buffs know that if you want to score a Mondo, it’s best to monitor Twitter and Facebook for on-sale alerts…and then click fast.” And if you miss out, “there’s a healthy aftermarket for Mondo posters on eBay.” But prepared to shell out “3 to 10 times their original prices.”
Dansk: Blikdåse med reklamefilm på Statsbiblioteket. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The last episodes of the 15-part of THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY(2011), filmmaker and narrator Mark Cousins continues to explore the constancy of change in cinema as it moves from celluloid to the digital era. Throughout the 1990s and onward, authenticity and artifice weave in and out of the picture as directors all over the world explore, question, and reference the realm of possibilities.
During this time, film becomes more “real” with expanded use of documentary style demonstrated in Iranian films like LIFE, AND NOTHING MORE (1992) by Abbas Kiarostami and the handheld roughness of BLAIR WITCH PROJECT(1999) by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. Paradoxically, directors are exploring the “unreal” with movies such as the jaw-dropping HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS(2004) by Yimou Zhang, horror film RINGU (1998) by Hideo Nakata; and the “mash-up” music video style of MOULIN ROUGE (2001) by Baz Luhrmann.
Of course, as time moves on, computer-generated graphics create spectacle of the kind created in GLADIATOR (2000) and AVATAR (2009) to the point that films start feeling like video games. (The utter disdain with which Cousins spits out the words “hobbits and avatars” is highly entertaining, by the way.)
On the other end of the spectrum are directors like Van Trier, Tarantino, and the Coen Brothers who erase boundaries and artifice to create films that strive to be more real — and less real — at the same time.
Like the adage goes, “Nothing is constant but change.” And film is no different. Technology will continue to influence the realm of possibilities. More corporate marketing (and perhaps less of culture) will continue to influence what’s seen on the silver screen. And directors will continue to strive to deliver their individual visions.
One of the most compelling clips in this part of STORY is the side-by-side comparison the shower scene in Hitchcock’s PSYCHO and Van Sant’s 1998 version. Like an ongoing conversation with the past, film will continue to quote film.
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THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY(2011) is a 15-part, 15-hour documentary exploring the convergence of technology, business, intelligence, and vision that has created the remarkable and powerful art of cinema. Music Box Films is distributing this new documentary, and Chicago’s Music Box Theater has just completed a multi-week screening of this ambitious effort. The DVD has been released. You will want to add it to your collection.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
Movie recommendation algorithms can be interesting, but isn’t it a lot more fun to discover movies and shows by sharing what you’re watching among friends?
We’ve launched a Home Projectionist Facebook group to do just that.
(This group is an addition to the Home Projectionist blog and Facebook page.)
Our ultimate goal is to create a community of like-minded people who love movies, love being the program directors in their own living rooms, and love talking about what they’re watching.
For Home Projectionists, settling in to watch a film, show, or clip is more than a movie, it’s a passion.
Go to the Home Projectionist Facebook Group to join. And feel free to invite your friends. Anyone on Facebook is invited to participate. Who knows what you’ll discover…
The world is awash with what-to-watch options, from movies to television shows to quirky clips. That makes Home Projectionists happy. The more power of choice is, well, empowering.
To help you navigate what’s available for streaming through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and the rest, another new free service, CanIStreamIt? lets you know with a quick click of button where you can access what you’re looking for.
There’s also a new clever marketing campaign from Pop Secret popcorn with its Pop Secret Labs site, which provides a streaming advisor, a what-are-you-looking-for algorithm that even considers your mood — indicate that you’re feeling blue and it’s a gray day, for example, and the site generates some movie suggestions for you.
In addition, the site allows visitors to make an animated movie featuring the Pop Secret kernels. Very clever indeed! See our little homemade Pop Secret movie and then make one yourself.
When I think of the blockbusters of the 1970s, I think of Spielberg gems like JAWS (1975) and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977); Freidkin’s THE EXORCIST (1973); and Lucas’s STAR WARS (1977) masterpiece.
According to Mark Cousins, narrator and filmmaker of THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY(2011), these innovative films were the candy that lured American audiences back into the country’s movie theaters, these new things being built that were called “multiplexes.”
These Hollywood blockbusters were innovative, to be sure, because of new technology like Dolby sound and enhanced deep space perspective. But there was something more in these movies, a focus on universal emotions, showcasing REALLY BIG, inspired moments that relied on the ever-present “awe and revelation scene,” where the audience doesn’t see what the actor sees. Picture CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, with Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda Dillon, staring, dumfounded, while we wait in expectation to see what they’re seeing, spellbound ourselves, mouths open, on the edge of our seats.
And while American audiences were wowed by their newest contemporary directors, the Asian mainstream cinema was also being kickstarted (pun intended) by the Shaw Brothers Studios (Hong Kong’s sprawling film center) and Bruce Lee movies. From Lee’s physicality, the martial arts genre grew, inspiring more cinematic innovation, with the super fast cut and slow motion “spinning” effects that enthrall and mesmerize and later show up in films like THE MATRIX (1999).
The Bollywood film industry also became a force in this era, building the biggest moviemaking empire in the world, churning out 433 movies in one year, for example, and in the present day releasing more than 1,000 per year, double that of a typical production year in Hollywood.
Since almost everyone in the world has seen them, you may want to add two world cinema blockbusters from the ’70s on your must-watch list: THE MESSAGE: THE STORY OF ISLAM (1976), directed by Moustapha Akkad and starring Anthony Quinn, which Cousins says has probably been “seen by more people than any other,” and SHOLAY (1975) by director Ramesh Sippy, considered “one of the most influential films of the time.” It played in one cinema alone for 7 years!
As the 1970s retreated and the ’80s emerged, film took a new turn, where the focus of moviemaking was on politics, leveraging film as a protest mechanism heard ’round the world. Cousins cites a long list of influential titles from the “fight the power” era: THE HORSE THIEF (1988) from China, which led the rebirth of that country’s film industry; REPETANCE (1984) by Tengiz Abuladze; COME AND SEE (1985), pegged by Cousins as the “greatest war film ever made”; Krzysztof Kieslowski’s A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING (1988), which changed death penalty law in Poland; and award-winning MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (1985), which Cousins calls “a kick in the balls to right-wing England.”
Cousins defines these ’80s protest films as cinema that “speaks truth to power,” and as this influence grew around the world, America’s up-and-coming directors like David Lynch, Spike Lee, John Sayles, and David Croenenberg took note.
These heady days of filmmaking of the ’80s made way for stretching the boundaries of world cinema even further as the 1990s arrive. Stay tuned….
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THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (2011) is a 15-part, 15-hour documentary exploring the convergence of technology, business, intelligence, and vision that has created the remarkable and powerful art of cinema. Music Box Films is distributing this new documentary, and Chicago’s Music Box Theater has just completed a multi-week screening of this ambitious effort. The DVD has been released. You will want to add it to your collection.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
Before the creation of censorship guidelines, Hollywood loved its lascivious stories. And while not every “pre-code” film is a winner, SEARCH FOR BEAUTY (1934) is a stunner, complete with laugh-out loud lines…and even naked butts!
The story follows three hapless ex-cons (brilliantly played by James Gleason, Robert Armstrong, and Gertrude Michael) who are looking to get into something “legit.” They buy a defunct business operation that includes a health magazine and a spa facility, referencing the notoriety of real-life health guru/pulp publisher Bernarr MacFadden (who is a full story in himself).
The cons attend an Olympics competition and are inspired by the bodies beautiful of Ida Lupino, a champion diver, almost unrecognizable with bleached blonde and Harlow eyebrows, and hottie Buster Crabbe, U.S. Olympic swimmer. Crabbe is delightfully innocent as Don Jackson, who makes a plea to the audience cheering the receipt of his gold medal, “You guys in the seats! Get out of the stands and exercise!”
The cons get the idea to recruit the athletes as their magazine editors to give their new “health” publication credibility. In reality though, they’re looking to market a beefcake and cheesecake rag.
While the cons start working on their ruse, they send Crabbe on a global tour to find the most beautiful bodies in the world. After coming up with a boatload of healthy and bright bathing beauties, Crabbe and Lupino quickly discover the cons’ true motive and make a deal to get out their contract. The cons negotiate and Crabbe and Lupino end up with the dilapidated health farm. But Crabbe has a big vision that he can make a spa a viable operation.
Unfortunately, trouble ensues when the cons cut back into Crabbe’s business and promote the health farm as a sexcapade getaway.
The film is funny , filled with great lines like, “You can’t treat our guests like a bunch of Bo-Hunks in a box car,” but it does border on creepy when the masher guests (both male and female) start soliciting their innocent trainers for sex. A scene in one of the hotel rooms is a disturbing cautionary tale for the “good girls” out there. “I have nothing against sex,” one of the cons says, “Either you have it or you’re looking for it.”
Not every pre-code movie is a crowd pleaser, but check out this inspired production number for opening night at the fat farm. Get ready to work out!
COLLECTION NOTES: Every film fan needs a good collection of pre-code films and they’re readily available. Warner Bros., with TCM, released “Forbidden Hollywood Collection” in 2006, and just recently Sony and TCM have recently released “Columbia Picture Pre-Code Collection” and “Frank Capra: The Early Collection.” Go to TCM for for a look.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
Ten hours into THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (2011), my head was reeling with “begats,” such as this-scene-was-influenced-by-this-scene-which-was-influenced-by-this-scene etc., etc. In sum, like all art — and life itself — filmmaking is influenced by what has come before, the impact of cultural and political changes, and what technology allows. As this history of film gathers steam across time, the cross-pollination of influences and innovation gets more and more diverse and less linear.In the segments of THE STORY OF FILM that explore movies of the 1960s and 1970s, filmmaker and historian Mark Cousins examines the influential directors of Europe’s New Wave, the emergence of a new, “dazzling” world cinema, and the evolution of American film post-Hollywood’s Golden Age. As this new wave of world cinema grows and matures, filmmaking around the world doesn’t just reflect culture, it attempts to change it.
Here are only just a very few of the notable films cited by Cousins from the world cinema directors of the 1960s and 1970s to add to your Watch List:
-Roman Polanski’s TWO MEN AND A WARDROBE (1958) and THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS (1967)
-Andrei Tarkovsky’s ANDRE RUBLEV (1966)
-Milos Forman’s THE FIREMAN’S BALL (1967)
-Nagisa Oshima’s BOY (1969)
-Vera Chytilova’s DAISIES (1966)
-Ousmane Sembene’s BLACK GIRL (1969)
-Ritwik Ghatak’s THE CLOUD-CAPPED STAR (1960)
-Werner Fassbinder’s THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VAN KANT (1972)
-Donald Cammell & Nicholas Roeg’s PERFORMANCE(1970)
-Bernardo Bertolucci’s THE CONFORMIST (1970)
One of the most spellbinding moments in THE STORY OF FILM is watching the beautiful and imaginative continuous shot from the funeral scene in I AM CUBA (1964) by Mikhail Kalatozov. What an achievement — without computer-generated graphics. You can watch this one again and again.
Following the growth in world cinema, Cousins opines that American film of the ’70s was next up for a sea change, emphasizing the cynical and dissident films, such as Mike Nichols’ THE GRADUATE (1967) and CATCH 22 (1970); the “assimilationist” film, like Peter Bogdanovich’s THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971), which simultaneously pays homage to film’s past and its future; and identity films, such as Martin Scorsese’e ITALIANAMERICAN(1974).
The next era covered in THE STORY OF FILM “ushers in the age of the multiplex,” with blockbusters like JAWS, STAR WARS, and THE EXORCIST from the States, and Bollywood and Bruce Lee from Asia. Stay tuned….just a few more hours to go!
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THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (2011) is a 15-part, 15-hour documentary exploring the convergence of technology, business, intelligence, and vision that has created the remarkable and powerful art of cinema. Music Box Films is distributing this new documentary, and Chicago’s Music Box Theater has just completed a multi-week screening of this ambitious effort. The DVD will be released in November 2012. You will want to add it to your collection.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
After the plethora of sweeping, epic melodramas in post-WWII films, the next era of innovation in moviemaking took the opposite road: exploring the “profoundly personal” experience.In Part IV of the 15-hour documentary, THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (2011), filmmaker and historian Mark Cousins delves into the work of cinema’s great New Wave innovators of the 1950s and 1960s.
During the beginning of this new wave in film history, Cousins cites four great directors as the movers and shakers who took film to this new, personal level: Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson, Jacques Tati, and Frederico Fellini. These innovators championed the role of film itself becoming an integral part of the narrative.
Citing Bergman’s SUMMER WITH MONIKA (1953), for example, there is a groundbreaking scene where Monika looks at us directly, straight into the camera, changing the audience’s relationship to the story being exposed on the screen. In Robert Bresson’s masterpiece, THE PICKPOCKET (1959), Cousins notes that the film demonstrates the “total rejection of gloss,” stripping down the story to emphasize the flatness of the everyday. Thirdly, he recognizes the briliance of visionary director Tati with MONSIEUR HULOT’S HOLIDAY (1953), a film which basically affirms that “the story doesn’t exist,” Tati preferring incidence and details to a plot line. And last but not least, Cousins highlights the work of Frederico Fellini, whose major construct was portraying life as a circus world, with films such as NIGHTS OF CABIRIA(1957), using improvisation as opposed to linear storytelling.
As the story of film evolves, these four influential filmmakers gave way to the French New Wave directors of the early sixties. Cousins calls these innovators “the film school generation,” who embraced filmmaking as an intellectual endeavor, creating even more “narrative ambiguity” in movies and focusing on the meaning of life and existentialism.
For starting an exploration of this period, go with classics such as CLEO FROM 9 -5(1962) by Agnes Varda; LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD (1961) by Alain Resnais; Francois Truffaut’s 400 BLOWS (1959); Jean Luc Goddard’s A MARRIED WOMAN (1964); Marco Ferreri’s THE WHEELCHAIR (1960); Sergio Leone’s FISTFUL OF DOLLARS(1964); and I AM CURIOUS YELLOW (1967) by Filgot Sjoman.
And then like every other era, the French New Wave lost its steam and made way for a new world cinema that “dazzled” the industry. Stay tuned….
THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (2011) is a 15-part, 15-hour documentary exploring the convergence of technology, business, intelligence, and vision that has created the remarkable and powerful art of cinema. Music Box Films is distributing this new documentary, and Chicago’s Music Box Theater is conducting a multi-week screening of this ambitious effort. The DVD will be released in November 2012. You will want to add it to your collection.
P.S. — Part of the experience of watching this series is sinking down into your seat and giving into the filmmaker’s hypnotic narration. Have a listen….
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
If your Thanksgiving Day involves film watching and family and friends of “a certain age,” say, fifty-plus, you could do no better than select THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL (2011) for a feel-good, heart- warming tale about the power of the present.This British film by director John Madden (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, for example) brings together an outstanding cast of seven characters is search of meaning in the next stage of their lives. And they indeed find new beginnings, along with the help of the young, bungling, and idealistic hotel manager, played by Dev Patel (of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE fame).
One unifying dilemma brings most of the characters together: getting older without the right resources. Maggie Smith’s character needs a new hip and a better frame of mind. She has lost her job and her purpose. Her inability to feel needed has turned her sour and hard. Judi Dench, recently widowed, has discovered that her husband left her totally broke. Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilson play a retired couple whose minimal government pension has left them disillusioned with their lives and with each other. Tom Wilkinson has abruptly exited his unfulfilling job to re-establish contact with his past. Celia Imrie defies being relegated to the role of grandma, and Ronald Pickup isn’t ready to go down anytime soon (and he’s got the Viagra to prove it).
They all end up at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Jaipur, India. Their money will go further here in this strange land…and so will their understanding of who they are and who they are yet to be.
The charming, bittersweet script is part brilliant and part self-help-motivation speak. One of my favorite lines is Dench’s sensible character, Evelyn, philosophizing, “There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. Only a present that builds and creates itself as the past withdraws.” We watch each of the characters face their present realities and continue to grow with grace, and most importantly, with spirit and strength.
The film isn’t without its faults. But the very few weak or predictable moments are salvaged by the impeccable cast whose performances are painfully real and honest. Bill Nighy is flawless in his portrayal of a kind and curious man who keeps being surprised by himself. Adding additional depth to the story are the glorious colors and chaos of India.
Dev Patel’s character relies on the words of his father to help him through his struggles. He often says, “Everything will be all right in the end… if it’s not all right, then it’s not the end.”
And so the characters learn, too, that they have until their end, and until that time comes, there is still opportunity to create joy and happiness. What a lesson for Thanksgiving.
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL ia delicious morsel to add to your holiday weekend.
With STAGECOACH (1939), John Ford introduced a new cinematic vision using deep staging and deep focus “that allowed the audience to choose where to look” on the screen.
This innovation, according to Mark Cousins, creator of THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY, changed film forever, influencing Orson Welles to take “deep staging as far as it could go” in creating his masterpiece, CITIZEN KANE (1941). Film had never looked like this before.
In the opening of Part 3 of THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY, we see a quick newsreel clip of Hitler and Mussolini sharing a lighter moment. The voiceover provided by Cousins recognizes that these two men wreaked havoc on the world, and then just like that, we’re off to “Post-War Cinema.” Maybe film of the war years is a separate story for another time.
Nonetheless, the saga of THE STORY OF FILMis a compelling commentary on the constant evolution of film, a reflection of the ever-changing human experience. There has been war. Barriers are going up. Some barriers are coming down.
After the war, the Italian cinema made an indelible mark on filmmaking, with its “rubble” films, presenting the stark, bleak reality of post-war destruction, changing the nature of beauty in cinema, from soft focus romance to dark and dreary reality. The Italian neo-realists, per Cousins, created “cinema that features the boring bits of life,” as opposed to Hitchcock who said that “cinema is life but without the boring bits.”
The convergence of new directorial styles and gloomy world views gave us a Hollywood that began emphasizing film noir, with films like SCARLET STREET (1945) by Fritz Lang; GUN CRAZY (1950) by Joseph Lewis; THE HITCH-HIKER (1953) by Ida Lupino, Hollywood’s only female film noir director; and the pitch-perfect noir classic, THE THIRD MAN(1949) by Carol Reed.
As much as noir became the Hollywood norm during this post-war period, the American film industry still created vibrant stunners such as SINGING IN THE RAIN(1952) and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951), ensuring audiences that joy could still be found in this neo-realist world.
And while the brooding vision of the post-war years went on, borders were redrawn and decolonialization was happening. As a result, the faces of world cinema came to the forefront in Egypt, India, China, Mexico, Britain, and Japan. In the 1950s, the human story went global, and in the film world, the emphasis moved to grand melodramas about the perils of life, love, lust, and survival.
David Lean delivered big drama with GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1946). And American movies certainly had their own glossy tortured tales like Nicholas Ray’s REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) and JOHNNY GUITAR(1954). The world saw other groundbreaking weepers, such as PATHER PANCHALI (1955) by Satyajit Ray and DONA BARBARA (1943) by Fernando Fuentes and Miguel Delgado.
As with each segment of THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY,mylist of must-see films expands. I’m starting with CAIRO STATION(1958), with Youssel Chahine, which Cousins taga as “the first great African/Middle Eastern film,” and a revisit to the ultimate sexy melodrama of the 1950s, ...AND GOD CREATED WOMAN(1956) by Roger Vadim and starring Brigitte Bardot.
THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY(2011) is a 15-part, 15-hour documentary exploring the convergence of technology, business, intelligence, and vision that has created the remarkable and powerful art of cinema. Music Box Films is distributing this new documentary, and Chicago’s Music Box Theater is conducting a multi-week screening of this ambitious effort. The DVD will be released in November 2012. You will want to add it to your collection.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
When beloved music legend Levon Helm passed away in April, the world mourned the loss of a man of unique talent and character. In Helm’s honor, Chicago brewmaster Jonathan Cutler created an award-winning pale ale.
The beer is “The Weight,” named after the Helm song of the same name. “It’s all American hops and malt. We were playing The Band the whole time we were brewing it,” said Cutler in a recent Chicago Tribune article. And the beer, one of the top three national prize winners of the Great American Beer Festival, is available through the end of the year at Piece Brewery in Chicago.
Get it while you can and gather a group to watch THE LAST WALTZ (1978).
beer glass full (Photo credit: Tim Pearce, Los Gatos)
Directed by Martin Scorcese, this concert video is a true classic (so classic that it’s even aired on Turner). The film documents in 35mm the The Band’s last concert, performed on Thanksgiving Day at the Winterland venue in San Francisco.
Not only does this beautiful film deliver etched-in-your-head-forever performances like “The Weight” with the Marva Staples (below) but also riveting guest performances by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Muddy Waters, and Joni Mitchell. Even Neil Diamond. And Van Morrison being really crazy. Really. Crazy.
If you can’t get a jug of “The Weight” to drink while revisiting this tribute to the hard life on the rock ‘n roll road, I’m sure Levon wouldn’t mind if you raised another beer in his honor. RIP.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
Those loudspeakers that you can actually see and touch? History. The technology press is aflutter these days with news of innovative “sound ball” technology that gives “an illusion that sounds area being produced in the 3D space” that surrounds the audience.
According to KAIST Acoustic & Vibrations Lab, “Listeners can maneuver the location and size of sound balls to create an acoustic environment of their choice. As the sound ball forms and moves around based on the adjustment made by the listeners, they have an enhanced 3D audio perception as if the sound pops out of the TV screen.”
“We expect that this technology, which is ready for an immediate translation into commercial products, will upgrade our home and personal audio system to the level of professional settings,” said Professor Jung-Woo Choi, who worked on the project, said in a recent news release.
Sitting in a cab the other day, I glanced at the odd image that appeared on the small television screen mounted on the back of the front seat. “What in the world is that?” I wondered as I looked at the closeup of some beige and bumpy blob. Was it a meteor? an enlarged fat cell? a mutant virus?
The mystery began to unravel as each of the ensuing shots zoomed out to reveal more and more information. As the camera moved back, I saw that the blob was one of many oyster shells chilling on ice. Then a hand holding a knife appeared; the hand belonged to a man who picked up the oyster and pried it open. It turned out that the man was casually sitting at a bar, the atmosphere dark and woody. The big conclusion at the last cut: A restaurant logo and operating hours flashed on the screen.
In Part 1 of THE STORY OF FILM, filmmaker Mark Cousins reminds us how Hitchcock created tension through his “brilliant use of closeups” to start a scene and would then zoom out to reveal place, rather than relying on the traditional establishing shot and moving to closeups from there.
“The guy who directed that restaurant commercial was a Hitchcock fan,” I thought to myself.
My education in the history of filmmaking continues with Part 2 of THE STORY OF FIILM: AN ODYSSEY. (Comments on Part I may be accessed at http://wp.me/pfwMd-ZE)
Part 2 includes the segments “Expressionism, Impressionism and Surrealism: Golden Age of World Cinema” and “The Arrival of Sound,” featuring a collection of insights, observations, and trivia by Cousins, the intrepid film historian, director, writer, and narrator of this newly released primer on the evolution of film.
Cousins narrates the series in his lulling, quiet voice, as if he is imparting special secrets, chock full of analysis and comparison/contrast with a big dose of hyperbole. He says that the the 1920s were “the greatest era in film”; that Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu was “perhaps the greatest film director that ever lived”; and that Alfred Hitchcock was “the greatest image maker of the 20th century.” I couldn’t quite keep up with all of the testimonials to greatness he brings to his commentary, but I have to admit that I enjoy those kinds of big, dramatic statements in his narrative, including pronouncements along the lines of “Cinema can be broken into two periods, before LA ROUE (1923) by Gance and after LA ROUE.”
Nonetheless, Cousins does provide illustrations to support his declarations, doling out a relentless — and fascinating — selection of clips from more than 40 films include Dreyer’s THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC(1928), Murnau’s SUNRISE (1927), Buneul’s UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1929), and Disney’s SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937), just to name a few. Each selection illustrates the innovations in story, action, and technique that dramatically widened the possibilities in filmmaking during “the golden age of world cinema,” and how this world of visual innovation abruptly changed when sound came into the picture. From the dadaists to the realists, we go bouncing around from innovation to innovation like the crazy journey of the baby carriage in BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) to the great musical journey of the song “Isn’t It Romantic” from Mamoulian’s LOVE ME TONIGHT (1930).
I am especially intrigued by the movie trivia that Cousins peppers in between his cinema history lessons: That there were 36,000 extras in METROPOLIS. That silent films in France were referred to as “deaf cinema.” That 90 percent of Japanese silent films have been destroyed. That Howard Hawks was responsible for bringing intense speed to cinema (recall the overlapping dialogue in BRINGING UP BABY). That the tragic demise of forgotten Chinese movie star Ruan Lingyu created a national mourning event of historic proportions. That the memorable camera angles in L’ATALANTE were a result of director Jean Vigo not wanting to show the newly fallen snow on the ground. That director Abel Gance watched the restoration of his NAPOLEAN at the 1979 Telluride Film Festival from the window in his hotel room. So many movies, so many footnotes….
As we follow Cousins’ journey through the movie business of the 1930s, he tells us that this era gave rise to the “great genres” of musicals, westerns, horror, gangster films, and comedies. And, at the conclusion of Part 2, Cousins asserts that three key films of 1939 — GONE WITH THE WIND, NINOTCHKA, and THE WIZARD OF OZ — bring “the end of escapism in films.” This statement still stumps me.
The world is heading to war, and won’t there be plenty of escapist films during the tumultuous times ahead? But for some reason, we won’t get Cousins’ perspective on the films of the war years. The next episode of the series begins with a segment entitled “Post-War Cinema.”
Music Box Films is distributing this new documentary, and Chicago’s Music Box Theater is conducting a multi-week screening of this ambitious effort. The DVD will be released in November 2012. You will want to add it to your collection.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
Like bones in a graveyard, hundreds and hundreds of Halloween movie lists are scattered across the Web, touting the scariest, the best, the goriest, you name it. But long lists can be overwhelming. Here are four must-watch movies to add to your freaky list. File them under “Disturbing,” “Chilling,” “Terrifying,” and “Sort of Stupid.”
IT’S OK TO BE AFRAID OF YOUNG BLONDE TWINS
When people talk about movies that have stayed with them for days and days, I recall THE OTHER (1972). This disturbing, rarely shown classic, stayed with me for not just days, but for years. Because of THE OTHER, I still have a need to avoid blonde twin boys. Never trusted them; never will. And I’m slightly afraid of farms as well.
With direction by Robert Mulligan (he of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, for one), score by Jerry Goldsmith, and star power like Uta Hagen and Diana Muldaur, how can this movie miss? There are no ghosts or demons, but sheer suspense, true to the nail-biting novel by Thomas Tryon by the same name.
YOUR PATHETIC, BANAL LIFE ISN’T SO BAD SECONDS (1966) is unquestionably one of the most chilling films I have ever seen. What were my parents thinking when they took me to see it when I was only 12 years old? I think they were thinking that if it starred Rock Hudson, it must be a happy family film. In reality, it is a decadent, modern twist on making a pact with the devil.
This stylistic thriller, complete with skewed camera angles and distorted images, was directed by John Frankenheimer of MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE fame.
Rock Hudson totally pulls out his acting chops for this one, playing unhappy and down trodden Arthur. He is so beat up by life that he likes the sound of an enticing proposal. From workaday drone to swinging playboy? What could go wrong?
As soon as the drill goes into Hudson’s neck, you know that Arthur should have consider his decision a little more carefully. This film also has one of the best drunk scenes ever recorded (and in reality, Hudson was totally tanked during the filming of it).
DON’T ENTER THE SUBWAY IF YOU HEAR SCREAMING LIKE THIS GOING ON
Filed under “What Are You Watching?” Home Projectionist fan Jonathan Stacy writes:
“If you want a truly terrifying Halloween movie with cult status (particularly in Europe), try POSSESSION (1981) by Polish director Adrezej Zulawski with Isabella Adjani and Sam Neil. It’s a strange hybrid of marital drama, ROSEMARY’S BABY, and early eighties freak out. (And in my opinion, it was a major influence on Lars von Trier and his ability to cull strong performances from women despite dubious feminist interpretations; Gainsbourg in ANTICHRIST is the obvious daughter of this work). Think a mish-mash of KRAMER VS. KRAMERand IT’S ALIVE!
Adjani won best actress at Cannes for this film, the central piece being her miscarriage (from a demon?) in a subway. Frighteningly over the top and horrifyingly real all at the same the same time.”
You’ll want to watch this scene more than a few times:
CURIOUS CASTING COMBINATIONS WORK FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER, LIKE JOAN COLLINS AND A DWARF And like a trainwreck you shouldn’t watch, THE DEVIL WITHIN HER (1975) is custom made for when you’re in the mood for hootin’ and hollerin’ and makin’ wisecracks. The world doesn’t need another cheap imitation of ROSEMARY’S BABY but there’s Joan, a demon dwarf, a devilish baby, and a dastardly wig — plus sex!
Happy Halloween! May the demons be with you.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
English: Screenshot from Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
George Méliès, magician and magical filmmaker, made 520 short films from 1896 to 1913. What an honor and thrill it is to see a collection of these works of art narrated by his great granddaughter Marie-Hélène Lehérissey-Méliès. To make this ciné-concert even more special, the films are shown with brilliant piano accompaniment provided by his great-great grandson Lawrence Lehérissey-Méliès, who, by the way, is a spittin’ image of his legendary grandpa.
Home Projectionists thrive on creating cinematic experiences in their own abodes. This one, however, would be impossible to duplicate. Plan to get to Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, or Boston in the next couple of days to experience this must-see event. For a complete schedule, go to http://www.live-boutique.com/site/-Cine-concert-Georges-Melies-.html?mode=agenda
The ciné-concert features 15 of his masterful films, including my favorites, “The Man with the Rubber Head,” “Bluebeard,” “The Fairy Caraboose,” “Cake Walk Infernal,” and a fascinating re-enactment of the “Coronation of Edward VII.” Each and every one is a delight and treasure, showcasing the genius, spirit, and magic of Méliès brought to life by his innovative use of stop motion, time lapses, and dissolves, not to mention the beautiful hand tinting that appears in a few of the films.
It’s been more than 100 years since George Méliès brought his artistic visions to life. They’re still sheer cinema magic.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
"The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth." Leo Tolstoy
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