AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY weighs in at a staggering 828 pages. That is because its author, Theodore Dreiser, is in the words of a critic, “endlessly faithful to common experience” (emphasis on “endlessly”). To read a paragraph from the novel, scroll down to the bottom of this blog.*
I did not read the novel cover to cover. I read about one-quarter of it and used online chapter summaries for some of the gaps.
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY (1925)
An American Tragedy brought Theodore Dreiser both popularity and acclaim. It was based on a true story and follows the facts of the case closely, even down to the setting of upstate New York.
Dreiser’s prose style is a sea of sand. But in that sand lies psychological acuity. Dreiser knew people. He is the kind of person you would avoid at a party because a minute after he met you, he would have your number—and probably put you in his next novel.
There are three central characters—Clyde and the two women he is involved with, Sondra and Roberta.
Clyde’s parents are fundamentalist Christian street preachers. It is a poverty-stricken, itinerant existence. His sister runs off with the first man who gives her a line of smooth talk. Like his sister, Clyde is clueless about who he is or how to get anything worth having in life, but unlike her, he catches a lucky break. He ends up working at his wealthy uncle’s factory, the Griffiths Collar & Shirt Company, in Lycurgus, New York.
Clyde meets Roberta, who is hard-working, pretty, and poor. She has a tender heart. When she dreams of a better life, she does not dream of being rich. She dreams of being loved. He enjoys sleeping with Roberta (novel is fairly frank about this), but soon he meets Sondra, who is rich, beautiful, generous, and kind. She is the Other—the dream girl who embodies everything he thinks he wants.
When Roberta becomes pregnant, Clyde tries to arrange an abortion for her. Roberta agrees because she is terrified. But the remedy provided by a druggist only makes her sick. The doctor who performs abortions for his wealthy clients on the side refuses to help her. She then pleads with Clyde to marry her, accepting that he will leave after the baby is born. He puts her off.
Clyde takes her out in a canoe intending to murder her, but he has a last-minute change of heart and cannot go through with it. She stands up and walks toward him. He hits out at her (with a camera, for some reason), and the canoe tips over. Once they are in the water, he does nothing to save her.
Clyde is convicted of murder on partly manufactured evidence. After nine months on death row, he is executed by the state of New York. What happens to Sondra? She just sort of disappears. After Clyde’s arrest, she sends him a kind but bland letter to which she does not sign her name.
Okay, got the picture? Roberta loves Clyde. Clyde loves Sondra. Sondra thinks Clyde is interesting.
A PLACE IN THE SUNdoes not play the story quite that way.
A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)
This George Stevens movie was a critical and commercial success. It won six Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for best picture. It stars Elizabeth Taylor as rich society girl Angela Vickers and Montgomery Clift as the poor and enterprising George Eastman. They look very much as Dreiser describes Sondra and Clyde, by the way. Sondra is a dark-haired beauty; Clyde is darkly handsome.
Shelley Winters plays Alice Tripp, the girl who becomes pregnant by George. She does not sound or look like Dreiser’s Roberta. Alice is deliberately made unattractive so George’s rejection of her will not seem so bad.
With Clift and Taylor as the leads, the movie plays like Romeo and Juliet. To play it any other way with those two stars would have been crazy. They have spectacular chemistry; this is a story they can tell. Angela does not find George “interesting.” She is passionately in love with him, as he is with her. They reach across the walls of their respective classes.
Alice tries to blackmail George into marrying her. George wants her dead, but does not kill her. That scene plays just as it does in the book.
In the novel, Clyde has a death row conversion. He accepts Christ as his personal savior and writes a farewell letter to the world that exhorts young men to lead good Christian lives. Dreiser plays this scene cynically: the conversion is a measure of how thoroughly Clyde has been destroyed.
It is impossible to imagine the movie ending that way, and a good thing it doesn’t. I like the movie’s ending better. It is simple and straightforward: George takes responsibility for what he did and accepts his fate.
A good story raises questions.
Is movie saying that you need to know your place in life and stay there?
If George and Angela had run off together, would it have worked?
What if George and Alice had married?
What kind of movie would A PLACE IN THE SUNhave been if Taylor and Winters had played each other’s roles?
There is an earlier film version from 1931 that seems to have vanished. Josef von Sternberg’s AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY stars Philips Holmes as Clyde, Frances Dee as Sondra, and Sylvia Sidney as Roberta. Dreiser did not like it.
About chemistry—here is the “Do I make you nervous?” clip from A PLACE IN THE SUN:
Here is the trailer:
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*From An American Tragedy:
So astonished was he that he could scarcely contain himself for joy, but on the instant must walk to and fro, looking at himself in the mirror, washing his hands and face, then deciding that his tie was not just right, perhaps, and changing to another—thinking forward to what he should wear and back upon how Sondra had looked at him on that last occasion. And how she had smiled. At the same time he could not help wondering even at this moment of what Roberta would think, if now, by some extra optical power of observation she could note his present joy in connection with this note. For plainly, and because he was no longer governed by the conventional notions of his parents, he had been allowing himself to drift into a position in regard to her which would certainly spell torture to her in case she should discover the nature of his present mood, a thought which puzzled him, not a little, but did not serve to modify his thoughts in regard to Sondra in the least.
___________
Lindsay Edmunds blogs about robots, writing, life in southwestern Pennsylvania, and sometimes books and movies at Writer’s Rest. She is the author of a novel about love in the age of artificial intelligence: Cel & Anna.
(1958, France) starring Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie, Alain Bercourt; directed by Jacques Tati; music by Franck Barcellini and Alain Romans. Seen on TCM, July 21, 2013. Available from these sources.
The story:Five years after his first appearance, Jacques Tati’s M. Hulot returns with MON ONCLE, a film set along the dividing line between Paris’ past and its future. Aligned (as is the film) with the former, Hulot lives in a colorful, overpopulated Parisian neighborhood and, lacking employment, spends his days waiting to pick up his adoring nephew from school, and subsequently escorting him to his parents’ ultra-modern house. Filled with gadgets, some turned on only to impress the neighbors, the house seems designed specifically to frustrate Hulot, who unwittingly disrupts its operations at every opportunity. Concerned about his future, Hulot’s relatives attempt to find him gainful employment and pair him off with a neighbor, with little success on either front.
– – –
Lindsay:
IN MON ONCLE, there is a silver fountain shaped like a fish that has so much screen time that it is practically a co-star. It belongs to the Arpels—Monsieur Hulot’s sister, brother-in-law, and young nephew. They live in a house so obsessively modern that it has turned them into clowns.
When Hulot’s sister switches on the fountain, which she is forever doing for visitors, it gives a strangled gurgle and spouts straight up like a geyser. You see that fountain far away, in close up, and from every conceivable angle. Is is as if Tati can’t get over how funny it is, and neither will you after about an hour.
M Hulot lives a dreamy, impractical life in a city neighborhood full of color. He tries to do what his modern relatives want—the problem being that even they cannot do what they want. They cannot be colorless for the life of them. They own a red bicycle, green plants, blue pillars, a vivid yellow rocking chair. We first see Hulot’s sister wearing a pea-green caftan and matching turban.
She buys a silver garage door with an electronic eye that terrifies the maid. But her husband buys a green, pink, and lavender car with fat white sidewalls. These are anniversary presents.
This movie hasn’t got one mean-spirited moment, because Tati never invites you to look down on these people. It’s the human comedy, he says. Look at the colors of that.
– – –
Dave:
A CHIRPY, CATCHY FRENCH TUNE is playing. Stray dogs scurry, enjoying boundless freedom on these cobblestoned streets of a town somewhere in France. Precisely where, I don’t know, but I loved the two hours I spent there.
Mr. Hulot (director/star Jacques Tati) is like those dogs. He’s a happy, harmless fellow, taking pleasure in the little things. Such as manipulating a window reflection just enough to cause a nearby canary to warble. As with the carefree pooches who delight in finding morsels in the garbage, it doesn’t much to make Monsieur Hulot cheery.
Like the seaside resort in Tati’s previous film, MR. HULOT’S HOLIDAY, this is a very real-seeming place. I was immersed in the setting and its quirky, flawed inhabitants with all their very human characteristics.
There’s a street sweeper who’d rather do anything but sweep. A sweet, pretty young girl who seeks out the older Hulot’s approval. There’s a ridiculously fussy fussbudget whose prized possession is a horrid, metal fountain she activates only for worthy, impressionable guests.
There are the boys who pass the time by either making pedestrians have head-on collisions with street lamps, or causing drivers to think they’ve had collisions when they actually haven’t.
Then there’s Hulot. He lives on the very top floor of an impossibly intricate building that resembles a Joseph Cornell box. He tries, but modern gadgets and appliances make life too complicated. So what job does he take on? Well of course in a factory filled with nothing but dials, switches and complex machinery. Falling asleep at his desk on his first day, he throws the entire operation into minor chaos. But the side effect is that Hulot brightens the up-till-now dull and monotonous life of his co-workers.
At the movie’s end, the dogs are romping through the streets again. Life goes on. As with HOLIDAY, I’m sad to leave. I miss it already.
*Also recommended: Tati’s PLAYTIME and MR. HULOT’S HOLIDAY, as well as the recent, animated adaptation of a Tati screenplay, THE ILLUSIONIST.
– – –
Gloria:
WHEN I WATCH a Jacques Tati film, I feel as if I’ve been invited to be part of a clever, conspiratorial event.
“Come watch,” his work seems to say. “Let’s have some fun.”
So I’m drawn in, expectant, and hunkered down with an incessant grin on my face, periodically surprised by the laugh-out-loud moments. I can’t wait to see — and hear — what happens next. Visual treat after visual treat appears, accompanied by perfectly calibrated silence and perfectly hilarious sound effects. Who knew that the bzzzz of an entry buzzer or an on-again/off-again fountain gurgle could humor me for two hours? I’m still whistling the theme song.
What I love about MON ONCLE is the sense of intimacy. I’m totally in for the ride, peeking over fences, down halls, and into windows. I see what and how Tati sees, mesmerized by his sight gags and clever points of view, those long, extended shots that give me time to look around, and each masterfully composed frame that can stand alone as a piece of art.
When the characters bring their über-contemporary chairs out of doors to look into their house to watch television, I feel as if I am pulling up my own chair to sit quite happily and watch them while they watch tv.
The contemporary world that Hulot’s sister and brother-in-law inhabit is monochromatic steel gray and full of new fangled complexity. Regardless of its symmetry, it’s a world consistently off-kilter, dysfunctional, and just plain kooky. Hulot’s counterpoint neighborhood is in stark contrast, lived-in and richly toned, as comfortable as his moccasins and overcoat. It’s not a perfect world either, but people have gotten used to how things work (and don’t work) there. Hulot replaces a brick in a pile of rubble because that’s where it goes. Humans are amusing that way.
I could watch over and over again when the neighbors try to follow the curved path of the sidewalk and teeter across the paving stones in the yard, but I bet that one day they’ll start cutting straight across and make their own path, the same way Hulot’s brother-in-law veers from the standard gray option and buys a car that’s painted pink, lavender, and green.
The world keeps changing, and we figure out how to live in our particular place in time.
“C’est la vie,” Hulot says. He’s absolutely right.
Lindsay Edmunds blogs about robots, writing, life in southwestern Pennsylvania, and sometimes books and movies at Writer’s Rest. She is the author of a novel about love in the age of artificial intelligence: Cel & Anna.
Dave is a graphic designer, and proprietor of movieLuv.
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 a score for film fans: The discovery of the talkie version of HIGH TREASON (1929). It was thought that only the silent version survived.
Kudos to the Northwest Chicago Film Society for its June 5 screening, “only the second showing since 1930, outside of the Library of Congress.” The sound restoration of this gem was completed by the Library of Congress in partnership with the Film Foundation, Chace Audio, and the Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association.
It would be nearly treasonous if this piece of cinema history wasn’t readily available one day.
Directed by Maurice Elvey, “the most prolific film director in British history,” HIGH TREASON takes us to an eccentric, Metropolis-like, and very contemporary future vision of 1940.
The United States of Europe and the Empire States of the Atlantic are at the tipping point of declaring war. In the mix are national pride, terrorists, squabbling border patrols, a split war council, and greedy munitions industrialists. The President (Basil Gill) seeks the fight. He doesn’t expect that the leader of the Peace League, the virtuous Dr. Seymour (Humberston Wright), will commit murder to change the course of events.
Regardless of the threat of mayhem, there’s always time for love and romance. Dr. Seymour’s lovely daughter Evelyn (Benita Hume) is not only beautiful, vivacious, charming, and fashionable — but she’s also willing to stand down an entire army in the name of peace, even if it threatens her relationship with her suitor, Michael Deane (Jameson Thomas), the commander of the Air Force. His troops, by the way, have a very cool black leather fashion sense.
Regardless of Evelyn’s moral fortitude, we get to watch her ready for a shower and dry herself off, not with a towel, but with an impractical handheld blow dryer while she maneuvers behind a peekaboo screen. Women can hold their own in this future world, but they are indeed vulnerable to being exposed in various states of undress when being rescued from rubble and inducted into public service.
In and around the politics and cheesecake, what amazing technology there is! Blade-Runner-esque public projection screens. A one-man orchestra with automated instruments. Electronic scoreboards tallying up peacenik enrollment numbers (like the National Debt Clock in Times Square).
The lovers chat and woo through their retractable Skype machines, albeit with a bit of difficulty in a humorous, modern-day “Can you hear me now?” situation.
My favorite scene in the film is set in an Art Deco nightclub where glitzy couples take to the dance floor, alternating between a traditional twirl and a kind of Vogue, simultaneously freezing for breaks in the music. I’m still wondering why there is a floor show with a fencing demonstration, but maybe it’s a comment on the art of conflict, better that it be practiced as entertainment and a demonstration of skill rather than as a real battle to the death.
A compelling piece of cinema history, HIGH TREASON addresses a conundrum of human existence: We are capable of such powerful and wondrous things — like being in love and creating grand cityscapes with skies full of floating dirigibles. Unfortunately, we are also capable of justifying our self-destruction.
Fun facts about HIGH TREASON: Raymond Massey makes his first film appearance here. Basil Gill, who plays the President, was renowned as one of the finest voices in early cinema.
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.
One the loveliest and most memorable New Year’s Eve scenes in the movies comes in the closing minutes of THE APARTMENT (1960). Shirley MacLaine abandons her disappointing lover at a party and runs, with her head held high, down a New York City street and up the stairs to Jack Lemmon’s apartment. Her face is so bright with clarity, determination, and anticipation that you can’t help but feel the absolute joy in her heart. The soaring score doesn’t hurt the level of emotion either.
While assorted and varied lists of the “Best New Year’s Movies” include contenders like STRANGE DAYS (1995), THE GOLD RUSH (1925) and, of course, the incredible THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972), THE APARTMENTstill tops my list as the perfect film for ending one year and welcoming in a new. Not only is it a love story, but it’s also a story of reclamation, a tale of letting go of the bad to let in the good, an affirmation that every day brings an opportunity for you to choose how you want to live your life.
This film, which won Best Picture and Best Director for Billy Wilder in 1960, plus Oscar nominations for the cast, is a pure and eternal classic in all senses of the word. Its brilliant script is insightful and honest, the performances are perfect, it’s rewatchable and timeless, there’s an enduring emotional impact, and it’s perfectly engaging to look at — all those things that make great movies great.
Although it’s billed as a comedy and full of great lines and humor, THE APARTMENT is far from a screwball circus. Between the laughs, the film highlights the darker side of office life, rife with seduction, inappropriate behavior, and the daily drama of moral hazards.
MacLaine’s character is vulnerable Fran Kubelik, an office building elevator operator who is having an affair with Mr. Sheldrake, the head of human resources, played with impeccable smarminess by Fred MacMurray. He is a married man, powerful, certainly not well intentioned, and operating without any fear of consequences for toying with Miss Kubelik’s affections. Jack Lemmon, in one of his finest performances, takes on the role of C.C. Baxter, a young, ambitious employee at the firm who is not averse to letting his corporate higher ups use his bachelor pad for their sexual liaisons…in return for a key to the executive washroom.
Nothing good come of it. The script even goes so far as to include a suicide attempt.
These protagonists, Miss Kubelik and Mr. Baxter, have somehow found themselves in compromised positions. They are two people diminished, as it were, by what others want and expect from them. They have struck grand bargains, rationalizing that what they’re doing is in their best interests. Unfortunately, with their amoral decisions, both have lost the core of who they really are.
All is not lost, however. Happily, they both regain “consciousness” in time to recapture their own identities and, in turn, find each other, learning life can beat you up, but it also offers opportunities for changing course and finding what you really want and need.
Could there be a better uplifting message for celebrating new beginnings and ringing in a new year?
If you’re staying in and still don’t have a movie selection for this New Year’s Eve , TCM is airing THE APARTMENT tonight.
Wishing each and everyone the best of luck and love in this 13th year of the millennium!
SPECIAL NOTE: Home Projectionist is taking a brief hiatus as the New Year begins. We’ll be back soon.
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
We can’t escape the news. Tomorrow — December 21, 2012 — marks the end of the 5,125-year-old Mayan calendar. Is this a portent for the end of days or just another day like any other? NASA is issuing rebuttals: There are no planetary collisions on the radar.
But what if we were indeed headed toward a grand cosmic accident?
Lars Van Trier’s MELANCHOLIA (2011), starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, was, well, melancholic. Riveting to watch, the film is full of memorable, dreamlike images, albeit self-absorbed (and pretentious?), a drama of depression and other end-of-the-world maladies. Spoiler alert: Everyone explodes.
But for my end of the world movie, I would pick SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD (2012) starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley. Carell shines as the regular guy who, like everyone else, has learned that an asteroid will slam into Mother Earth and destroy the planet in 21 days.
As the world prepares to meet its doom in assorted and various ways, Carell keeps going to work selling insurance.
He is numb, dutiful, and regretful — trudging on because that’s what he’s done his whole life. His wife leaves him. His friends have parties featuring heroine (why not?) and indiscriminate sex (“The apocalypse levels the playing field,” his less-than-attractive friend tells him, quite pleased that the end of the world has increased his opportunities for casual interludes). People do things here that make perfect sense, including wearing improbable outfits. A woman in a crazy getup tells him, “It’s everything I never wore.” That sounds like something many women would do when one’s days are limited, including me.
But it’s not all fun and games. There are riots in the streets. People jump from buildings. Carell stares blankly at the television screen as the announcer counts down the days. There is no hope.
Carell, too, loses his hope and drinks a bottle of Windex. But he doesn’t die. Nothing happens at all. All those label warnings about life were meaningless. He has no choice but to get on with what’s left. He wants to find an old love, “the one that got away.”
He gets a dog and a traveling companion in Keira Knightley. A road trip ensues.
Knightley’s performance is flat and doesn’t add a lick of soul to the movie. (If only she could have conjured a performance like Liza’s in THE STERILE CUCKOO or Diane Keaton in ANNIE HALL.) But Carell is so good that you don’t even notice Knightley’s flawed performance. The best thing she does is carry a Herb Alpert record around with her.
And records are important to the story here. Vinyl gets pulled out of paper sleeves for pitch-perfect songs like “This Girl’s in Love With You,” “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore,” and “All I Need Is the Air That I Breathe.” Of course, we would all play our favorite records if an asteroid was heading our way.
SEEKING A FRIEND is the first for writer and director Lorene Scafaria. It looks like a made-for-tv movie and doesn’t always hit the mark with the plot, but there are also some absolutely brilliant moments filed under “hilarious” and “remarkably poignant” that kept me believing in and loving this film.
Like MELANCHOLIA, there is a big explosion at the end. But there is also salvation right before the white light.
After seeing this movie, I thought about some of of the records I would play at the end of the world. One of them would be Todd Rundgren’s “Love Is the Answer” — with lines like “Who knows why? Someday we all must die.” Check out his 1980 performance on the Mike Douglas Show.
In the end, yes, love is the answer. SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD makes that point very clear.
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 STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (2011) is indeed a journey. Clocking in at 900 minutes (via 15 one-hour segments), it’s a labor of love by both the filmmaker and the audience — and very well worth the ride, for both the cinephile and the fan-on-the-street. (I’m a fan-on-the-street type, by the way.)
Like any memorable road trip, STORY is as much about the route and destination as it is about the roadside attractions and unplanned side trips and conversations — all of which leave the traveler with a satisfying and enriching experience.
Based on the 2004 book by film critic and historian Mark Cousins, the award-winning STORY OF FILMexplores the never-ending evolution of cinema through an intensive compilation of clips from more than 500 films, along with insightful interviews and commentary. The pace of the film is relentless, sometimes leaving one reeling, but in retrospect, that’s part of the fun of the ride.
In this varied and complex story, Cousins focuses on the driving force in the evolution of film: innovation. Whether innovation comes from artistic vision, technological advances, political and cultural shifts, or cross-pollination of ideas, the fuel that propels the STORY OF FILM forward is constant innovation. And what a story it is.
Just in time for holiday shopping and hunkering down during these cold days of winter, STORY is now available everywhere, online and on DVD. For complete information and to request a screening near you, go to Music Box Films or Hopscotch Films.
A terrific addendum to the documentary is the complete list of film clips that Wikipedia has compiled, which includes links — a brilliant resource for building your must-watch list.
I watched THE STORY OF FILM during a series of screenings on seven consecutive Saturdays at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre. It was just like being in a film class only without the fear of a final exam. The downside was not having a discussion group afterwards. I would love to have had the opportunity to discuss and debate the content before or after each screening, something that theaters that show STORY could do. [One thing I would share is the little thrill I had (blatant self-promotion alert!) when one of the films highlighted was Peter Greenaway’s A ZED & TWO NOUGHTS, which is the movie that leads the protagonists to love in my novel HUMAN SLICES.)
If you end up arranging a multi-day screening of STORY for your family and friends at home, what a great opportunity you would have for such conversations. Get out the wine and start talking.
As I was watching THE STORY OF FILM, I published a series of blog posts about the experience. Here is a recap of those posts, some slightly edited.
IN THE BEGINNING…..
During the first two hours of THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY, I learned that the first real movie star, Florence Lawrence, committed suicide with ant poison, that the first close up in cinema featured a sick kitty, and there was some hot erotic dancing going on in the silent movies.
Of course, the history of cinema is comprised of much more than the stuff of cocktail conversations. It’s a vast collection of stories that have impacted each and every one of our lives.
THE STORY OF FILM is quietly narrated by its creator, film critic and historian Mark Cousins. The first two segments, “The Birth of the Cinema (1900 – 1920)” and “The Hollywood Dream (1920s),” provide a sequence of mini tales featuring the inventors, the stars, the breakthroughs, and the innovations that started it all, from the Lumieres to Lloyd. The segments on the evolution of film editing are particularly strong and interesting to me.
Like a professor, Cousins will periodically veer into non-essential territory (like fretting over the glamour and the glossy veneer of Hollywood), which doesn’t particularly add to the narrative, but no matter. He has compiled an anthology of information and resources that will be turned to again and again.
Of course, because of the sheer breadth of material, Cousins must alight on some topics for only moments of time, leaving us wanting more. After seeing the shocking clip of Asta Nielsen’s erotic dance from the 1910 silent film THE ABYSS, for example, I am hoping that someone has created a documentary on THE HISTORY OF EROTIC DANCE IN SILENT FILMS.
THE ’20s GET SURREAL AND THE ’30s GET SOUND
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 the first episodes of THE STORY OF FILM, filmmaker Mark Cousins reminded 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.
The segments of STORY entitled “Expressionism, Impressionism and Surrealism: Golden Age of World Cinema” and “The Arrival of Sound” feature a collection of insights, observations, and trivia, 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.” I’m going to use that line all of the time!
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. I wish there had been more exploration of it.
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.”
AFTER THE WAR: RUBBLE, SEX & WEEPING 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 the segment “Post-War Cinema” 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. 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 PROFOUNDLY PERSONAL FILM ARRIVES 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 found in the New Wave cinema of the 1950s and ’60s.
During the beginning of this era 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.
_____________________
Part of the experience of watching this STORY OF FILM series is sinking down into your seat and giving into the filmmaker’s hypnotic narration. Have a listen….
EUROPE’S NEW WAVE RIPPLES AROUND THE WORLD Ten hours into THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY , 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 ofTHE STORY OF FILMthat 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!
THE THRILLS OF THE ’70s & THE POWER OF THE ’80s 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, 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.
ARTIFICE & AUTHENTICITY The last episodes of the 15-part of THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY, 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. (I’m no blood-and-guts movie fan, but I do have to say that the commentary on these movies was intriguing food for thought.)
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 of every scale 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.
Around the world, film is the medium in which we tell our stories and share the way we see the world. Just a few years ago, the concept of a Home Projectionist was hard to explain. Now, not only are we all program directors in our own homes and mobile devices, but we also all have the technology at hand to be filmmakers.
It’s always good to know where you’ve been before you head out to new horizons. Why not start your trip with THE STORY OF FILM?
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 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….
_________
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!
______
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
I OWN A BUNCH of movie books. Well, more than a bunch. Dozens. Too many, I suppose. I think the hobby (or is it habit?) started about the time that VCRs came into being–about 1979–a milestone for my latent movie fanaticism. I had been awakened to a world of movies that previously had been unavailable for viewing.
I think the first book was Donald Spoto’s excellent film-by-film analysis, Hitchcock. I’d borrowed the Oak Lawn Public Library’s copy a couple of times, gotten completely immersed in it, and then finally plunked down the $8.95. Next, if I recall, was a little paperback, The Golden Turkey Awards-a sort of oddball collection of lists–lists of bad movies–turkeys, some of them in the so-bad-they’re-good category, a la MST3K; others just plain awful and unwatchable. A fascinating, fun read.
Eventually, my wanderings in Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kroch & Brentano’s led me to my most treasured film book, Guide for the Film Fanatic (1986; Fireside Books) From the Introduction:
“If you flipped through the pages of this book, you may have noticed that, unlike many movie-list books, this one does not have a star rating system. I love those books, but I worry that rating systems have the adverse effect of discouraging people from seeing certain movies that should be equally recongnized. It’s only natural to choose a movie that has a three-star rating over one that has just two stars, but in many cases the two-star movie is more interesting–indeed it may have a cult made up of devoted fans who appreciate things that a particular review overlooked. I may attack a film, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to see it. This book is meant to encourage readers to see movies, not discourage them.”
Danny Peary’s is untypical of most movie review books in that every one of the films he discusses is worth your time, in some way or another. Each entry is a pleasure to read, even if it doesn’t convince you to watch the film. Peary might consider how absolutely great a movie is, or place some high value on it even if solely for its pure entertainment value, or occasionally only for historic reasons. Many of the book’s movies have a strong, cult-like following–not everyone’s cup of tea, but maybe it will be yours, if you give it a try. I discovered movies I would’ve otherwise overlooked–movies that Maltin gave just two stars to, that Siskel & Ebert rated “dogs of the week”, or films that arrived and burned brightly then for various reasons faded quickly from memory. Some films I had seen before, multiple times, took on a new light.
“It is the blight man was born for
It is Margaret you mourn for.”
FILMED nearly six years ago by director (YOU CAN COUNT ON ME) and writer (GANGS OF NEW YORK, ANALYZE THIS, ANALYZE THAT) Kenneth Lonergan, MARGARET has only very recently been made available. Its troubled history reportedly is due to “editing problems”. It shows. Truly a mixed bag (emphasis on “mixed”) it is nevertheless worth your time if you’re open to something a little different and, at times, a bit confusing.
Lisa (Anna Paquin) is a young, bright (and just a little irritating) woman in her late teens. She lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with her stage actor, single mom (J. Smith Cameron) and a young brother.
Manhattan could almost be said to be a co-star in this film, similar to Woody Allen’s by the same name. MARGARET opens with some slow-motion shots of New Yorkers going about their day, just as we see Lisa doing. A young, shy fellow, from the private school she’s attending, awkwardly asks Lisa for a date. (“Are you, um, asking me… out?”, Lisa says, after several, funny attempts at clarification.)
This is the start of a theme that is present throughout MARGARET: little or no communication between characters. The most notable example being what immediately follows: a very heartbreaking and realistically portrayed accident involving a bus and a pedestrian. Which happens as a result of Lisa distracting the bus driver, Maretti (Mark Ruffalo (THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT), with her questions about his hat.
Within the movie’s first few minutes, we’ve already had three or four instances of miscommunication. Many more ensue, not the least of which is between director/writer and the audience.
The movie starts out well enough. In fact, it’s riveting during its first hour, as Lisa is shaken to her core by the tragedy and her decision to lie to authorities about Maretti’s responsibility for the accident. As the story progresses, Lisa becomes angry, regretful and resentful. She gets extremely moody, ornery, and combative, with her teachers (Matthew Broderick and Matt Damon, among two others) and the other private school students, but particularly with her mother, Joan.
Joan has emotional troubles of her own, as is evident after she meets, and begins to date, the dashing, debonair and very smitten Ramon (Jean Reno). Joan appears only mildly interested and, in fact, really seems to be using Ramon to fill her physical needs.
Lisa, meanwhile, confronts Maretti and his wife at their home, challenging him to admit to the police he went through a red light. Lisa also confronts police detectives, has a ferocious, very well-acted verbal battle with her mom, and, by her own request, loses her virginity.
When Lisa’s persuasions to Maretti don’t work, she enlists the help of the victim’s relative, Emily, played outstandingly and hilariously by Jeannie Berlin (daughter of Elaine May). Emily, in a heated argument with Lisa, will stand for none of her guff. “This isn’t an opera! And we are not all supporting characters to the drama of your amazing life!”. Emily introduces her to one lawyer, and then another. Legal wrangling (too much of it) is interspersed with Emily’s quips and sarcastic attitude, and they really lighten and brighten this picture which, by now, has begun to sag under its own weight.
A totally incongruous encounter between Lisa, her teacher (Damon) and his girlfriend near the movie’s end had me baffled; it appears likely that this could be a result of the film’s alleged “editing troubles”.
There are other, more tightly-knitted movies of this type–movies that have many characters, overlapping stories, and changes in tone. Some examples are SHORT CUTS, MAGNOLIA, and GRAND CANYON–all of which have surprises in them but flow smoothly and logically. MARGARET feels like a rough cut. It’s unorganized and long (2-1/2 hours*) with several dead end sequences and needless plot tangents. It could easily do without 30 minutes. It’s hard, for example, to figure out why there should be two lawyers (one’s purpose seems to be only to introduce the other), and four teachers, for instance.
Still, even with these flaws, some major, this movie is recommended. Paquin, Smith-Cameron, Ruffalo and Berlin are terrific–not a false note between them. It’s fun to see Reno, Broderick and Damon, although their parts are small and don’t pack nearly the same degrees of emotion. And then there are the panning shots of the city. Even if they were added to help patch over the editing miscues, they give MARGARET a little bit of the cohesion that it needs.
MARGARETis widely available on DVD, Blu-Ray (*with an even longer, three-hour “director’s cut) and streaming services such as iTunes
"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
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY weighs in at a staggering 828 pages. That is because its author, Theodore Dreiser, is in the words of a critic, “endlessly faithful to common experience” (emphasis on “endlessly”). To read a paragraph from the novel, scroll down to the bottom of this blog.*
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