ON THIS DAY in 1865, Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, his first successful short story, was published in the New York Saturday Press. This event was depicted in the 1944 film, THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN, starring Fredric March.
History
- Born: November 17, 1942, in New York City
- Early ambition: to become a Catholic priest
- Married: five times
- Assistant Director and Editor on: WOODSTOCK (1970)
- First feature-length film: WHO’S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR? (1967)
- Winner of: the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2001
- Academy Awards: 20
- Introduced to Robert De Niro by: director Brian DePalma
- Fun fact: was offered the part of Charles Manson in the tv movie, HELTER SKELTER
- Quote: “I’m a lapsed Catholic. But I am Roman Catholic, there’s no way out of it.”
Scorsese, on VERTIGO:
ON THIS DAY in 1970, U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley went on trial for the 1968 My Lai massacre of Vietnamese civilians. The incident was documented in the 1989 British TV production, FOUR HOURS IN MY LAI.
ON THIS DAY in 42 BC, the Roman emperor Tiberius was born. Tiberius was portrayed by James Mason in the 1985 TV miniseries, A.D.
Like life, film never stops changing.
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 FILM is 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, my list 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
ON THIS DAY in 1959, four members of the Clutter family were murdered at their farm near Holcomb, Kansas. The incident was chronicled in the 1967 Richard Brooks film, IN COLD BLOOD, starring Robert Blake and Scott Wilson.
ON THIS DAY in 1908, Wisconsin Senator Joseph “Joe” McCarthy was born. McCarthy was portrayed by Joe Don Baker in the 1992 HBO movie, CITIZEN COHN, also starring James Woods.
ON THIS DAY in 1850, Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson was born. Stevenson’s first major literary success, TREASURE ISLAND, was adapted for the screen in 1934 and starred Jackie Cooper and Wallace Beery.
If you spent most of your time watching movies this past week, you might have missed these articles here at Home Projectionist:
- From Print to Screen: CLOUD ATLAS
- WITHOUT WARNING: Noir Without a Budget
- TCM Classic Film Festival-Update: Four Films Announced
- The ’20s Get Surreal and the ’30s Get Sound
- Pale Ale Honors Levon Helm and THE LAST WALTZ
- An Alfred Hitchcock film quiz: “What little drama are we here for today?”
- Virtual Speakers Create 3D Sound for Home Theater
- Art imitates life: Reel History
- 10 Things About Director Mike Nichols
- 31 Frights, 31 Bites: a month of Halloween treats
- Is it Live or Memorex?
Visit Home Projectionist on Facebook
ON THIS DAY in 1912, Naval officer and polar explorer Robert Scott and his men were found frozen to death on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The story of the expedition was dramatized in the 1948 film, SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC, starring John Mills.
ON THIS DAY in 1926, U.S. Route 66 was established, running from Chicago to Los Angeles. The highway was featured in the 1940 John Ford film, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, with Henry Fonda.
ON THIS DAY in 1971, Khmer Rouge forces attacked the city of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, killing 44. Subsequent events in the aftermath of this attack were depicted in the 1984 film, THE KILLING FIELDS, with Sam Waterston.
ON THIS DAY in 1888, serial murderer Jack the Ripper killed his final victim, Mary Jane Kelly. In 2001, this event was depicted in the film, FROM HELL, with Johnny Depp, Heather Graham and Ian Holm.
ON THIS DAY in 1900, author and journalist Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta. The 1939 screen adaptation of Mitchell’s novel, GONE WITH THE WIND, starred Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.
ON THIS DAY in 2000, the controversial U.S. Presidential election took place that later resulted in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision. These events were depicted in the 2008 HBO film, RECOUNT, starring Kevin Spacey, John Hurt and Laura Dern.
Home Projectionist 