The Story of Film: The Profoundly Personal Films Arrive

Posted by Gloria on November 21, 2012
Posted in: Documentary, Film, History, Movies, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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

Now Playing

Posted by Dave on November 21, 2012
Posted in: Film, Home Theater News, Movies. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

News concerning big screens and small…

Visit Home Projectionist on Facebook

A Feel-Good Film for Those of a “Certain Age”

Posted by Gloria on November 18, 2012
Posted in: Film, Movies, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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. 

10 Things: Martin Scorsese

Posted by Dave on November 17, 2012
Posted in: Film, History, Movies. Tagged: , . 1 Comment

 

  1. Born: November 17, 1942, in New York City
  2. Early ambition: to become a Catholic priest
  3. Married: five times
  4. Assistant Director and Editor on: WOODSTOCK (1970)
  5. First feature-length film: WHO’S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR? (1967)
  6. Winner of:  the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2001
  7. Academy Awards: 20
  8. Introduced to Robert De Niro by: director Brian DePalma
  9. Fun fact: was offered the part of Charles Manson in the tv movie, HELTER SKELTER
  10. Quote: “I’m a lapsed Catholic. But I am Roman Catholic, there’s no way out of it.”

Scorsese, on VERTIGO:

Sensitive to Questions Quiz #25: “Don’t worry. I’ll catch up on my reading.”

Posted by Dave on November 16, 2012
Posted in: Film, Hitchcock, Movies. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Sensitive to Questions

Good evening. Sleepy, but can’t fall asleep? May we suggest a book before bedtime? You’re advised to stay away from thrillers–they have a tendency to keep one awake. However, some of the books that were a part of Hitchcock’s films had the potential to put their readers–or their readers’ victims–into a deep sleep. In fact, sometimes into an everlasting slumber, as you’ll find see when you delve into this week’s quiz.

Good luck, Mr. Thornhill, wherever you are…

Take the Quiz!

(*The quiz title was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest: “Something wrong with your eyes?” “Yes”, says the sunglass-clad Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant), “They’re sensitive to questions”. Locked up in the bed compartment aboard the 20th Century, Roger is asked by Eve if he is bored. “Don’t worry. I’ll catch up on my reading,” he replies.) 

After the War: Rubble, Sex, and Weeping

Posted by Gloria on November 15, 2012
Posted in: Documentary, Film, History, Movies, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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

What’s My What?!!!

Posted by Johnny C on November 14, 2012
Posted in: TV Series. Leave a comment

For the last few months I’ve been having very casual group movie nights on Sundays.  As Elaine’s character on Seinfeld once remarked, “I need my Sunday night wind down.”  These nights are usually not planned and I’ll show either a randomly picked film noir from Netflix streaming or something that I normally wouldn’t show to a big group.  However, we always watch an episode of What’s My Line? (1950-1967).  A staple of Sunday nights on CBS for nearly two decades, this show is a perfect, quiet way to end the weekend.  Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, and host John Charles Daly are at their most genteel with manners that you never see anymore.

There are some great moments on these shows:  the regular nervous contestants who try to stump the panel with their occupations; guest panelists Steve Allen who coined the phrase “bigger than a breadbox”; and Steve Lawrence, Alan King, Tony Randal, and Woody Allen are a delight to see.  My favorite mystery guest has to be  Groucho Marx appearance.  He plays them like a cat with a mouse.

One of my regular guests on Sunday is the famous Cynthia Plaster Caster. Cynthia is a rock and roll icon who is known for being one of the original groupies who made plaster casts of rock stars penises. It’s always great to have her over to hear her comments about the people she’s met throughout her life, some of whom are in the movies and television shows we are watching.

I bring her up because of the episode of  What’s My Line? we watched this Sunday.  Per the usual, John Daly introduced the panel and then the first guest.  The dowdy lady who came out wrote her name… Miss Falik!   And her occupation? She makes water pistols.  I thought Cynthia’s head was going to explode.  Miss Falik!  Water pistols!  From then on the panel’s questions were all ‘phallic’ in nature:   Can this give pleasure to both men and women?   Would this have to be visible to give pleasure?  Dorothy Kilgallen asks, “Is this manipulated by hand… ?

And that’s just the start…  You never know what you are going  to find on a Sunday night…!!!