an obsolete vernacular

My Summer Video Project

2008-08-26T10:13:00.001-05:00

Schlafly Beer - Documentary from Adrian B on Vimeo.

Also graciously linked by Mike over at the invaluable STLHops blog.

The AVClub's Woody Allen Primer

2008-08-25T11:51:00.003-05:00

The Onion's AV Club has posted fairly complete Woody Allen Primer. Their essentials list reads as follows:

1. Annie Hall (1977)

2. Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985)

3. Hannah And Her Sisters (1986)

4. Bananas (1972)

5. Husbands And Wives (1992)

Bananas is the only one that baffles me, as it is good but certainly not essential. Allow me to propose my own:

1. Sweet and Lowdown

2. Zelig

3. Stardust Memories

4. Manhattan

5. The Purple Rose of Cairo

HOME RUN!

2008-08-19T08:59:00.002-05:00

They've done it again! The fall line up for the Webster Film Series is equally as magnificent as last fall's Buster Keaton festival. This time it is early works of German Expressionism, including Metropolis, Der Golem and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, all with live music. Anyone casually interested in the origins of cinema needs to attend. Where else beside the coasts or Chicago's Music Box can you find such fantastic programming?

Also, I have to give credit to their including Idiocracy (Oct. 16, 8pm) to their schedule. It may not be a perfect film, but it is simply the most biting satire of media and advertising culture ever. Mike Judge should be sainted for such a work, but, because it lampoons the very machinery that allowed it to be created, it was unceremoniously ignored and then buried. Truly a masterpiece of media literacy, Office Space pales in comparison.

born to kill (1947)

2008-08-07T14:22:00.003-05:00

After Dillinger, I had to watch another Lawrence Tierney flick, so I chose Born to Kill.

Robert Wise is a director that I have a lot of conflict with. He directed some great films, (Sound of Music, The Set-Up, Executive Suite) but also made garbage like The Haunting and was the hack who, under studio orders, massacred The Magnificent Ambersons. I think Spielberg is a natural extension of Wise; competent, sometimes very good, but never very daring.

So Born to Kill is about what one would expect. A pseudo-noir that plays it safe, no really significantly gripping camera work or lighting, but solid performances and a story that keeps you engaged. In this safer environment, Claire Trevor's character never really reaches the utter depravity that she proved capable of in Murder, My Sweet.

For me, the real payoff of Born to Kill is Esther Howard as Mrs. Kraft. Esther Howard had one of those great character faces as evidenced by the fact that she was a regular in a number of Preston Sturges films. I've said it before: Sturges films are packed with the most amazing faces, Esther Howard's being one of them. If Born to Kill isn't as arresting as it could have been, it is momentarily riveting every time old "Glamour Girl" Mrs. Kraft takes the screen.

dillinger (1945)

2008-08-05T09:06:00.004-05:00

Replete with no-name actors, visible boom mics and obvious stock/found footage, King Brothers' 1945 Dillinger biopic is a short, taut and perfectly enjoyable crime flick. At the time, all of the major studios had signed decency agreements that forbid them from making a Dillinger film, so C-grade King Brothers jumped at the opportunity. The film stars Lawrence Tierney, who later played Elaine's father in one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, and was by all accounts a bizarre off screen personality not far from his hardened, criminal typecasting.

The real pleasure of this film comes from its economy. Barely over 70 minutes and rarely moving in for close-ups or cutaways, Dillinger isn't a film noir, but stylistically resembles some of the better crime faux-documentaries like The Naked City and Call Northside 777, but without the polish.

As an aside, Michael Mann's Dillinger flick, Public Enemies, (starring Christian Bale and Johnny Depp) is currently in production in Wisconsin and Illinois.

margot at the wedding (2007) and interiors (1978)

2008-05-28T13:31:00.002-05:00

Every year I go on a Woody Allen bender. There is no warning of when it will show up, but suddenly I will be compelled to get my hands on four or five of his films and digest them with great vigor. I have some favorites (Zelig, Sweet and Lowdown, Stardust Memories, Match Point to name a few) but I generally find that I enjoy anything he does on some level. With his great proliferation comes some films of lesser quality, but I can't complain. I think his oeuvre unfolds like a sort of artist's sketchbook, a few failed ideas, some experiments and some real gems, all of them painting a complete picture of Allen's strengths and limitations as a writer and director.

So this summer's Woody Allen bender was triggered by watching Noah Baumbach's excellent Margot at the Wedding. Baumbach was a co-writer of one of my favorite films, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and also wrote and directed The Squid and the Whale. All of his work has a distinct heady New York intellectual feel that the seems to draw its structure and themes more from short works of fiction than from American filmmaking. I suppose this automatically makes him kin to Woody Allen. They also both share a dramatic predisposition toward the psychology of broken homes and families, but where children are largely absent in Allen films, Baumbach is acutely sensitive to the inner pain of adolescents.

In Margot at the Wedding, Baumbach explores the relationship of two 30-something sisters, both trying to manufacture the safety and security of family in their own ineffective ways. Margot's son Claude is the forgotten victim, caught in between the need to escape from his emotionally unstable mother and a responsibility to take care of her. As always, Baumbach's observations about human behavior are astute and sometimes shocking.

Margot at the Wedding reminded me a lot of Woody Allen's Interiors in that, unlike the empathetic Squid and the Whale, the characters suffer, are often fascinating, but are seldom the recipients of audience sympathy. They are just too far removed from emotional reality to be perceived as anything but calculated and cold. Geraldine Page as the needy, manipulative mother in Interiors is a perfect time capsule of Nicole Kidman's Margot.

Baumbach's direction is stunningly natural, using a late '70's earthy color pallet and long takes to highlight the performances of his actors. His camera work is less mannered than Allen's European influenced mise en scen, removing meaning from the film's constructs and relying on the strength of his script and actors. This is where the distinction between Baumbach and Allen is drawn. I always felt that Woody Allen often failed at directing Diane Keaton and a few other actors in highly dramatic roles. Maybe it was just the style of the time, but so much of her acting in the films of Allen's early career is so mannered, almost as if the director's idiosyncratic personality is manifesting itself in all but the strongest of his actors. That is when Geraldine Page, Sean Penn, Martin Landau and even Mia Farrow really become assets in Allen films, bringing another dimension to Allen's heady New York intellectualism.

The Value of Money

2008-05-19T13:20:00.003-05:00

As excited as I was about going to see Tom Waits next month, I just couldn't stomach the $102/ticket before all the handling fees.

I just don't get it. Waits doesn't seem to be the type to gouge. He's never struck me as an inflated ego and certainly doesn't have a history of releasing garbage to make a quick buck. So what is going on?

There are very few performances that I'll shill out $25 for. Tom Waits is one that I would consider spending in the $60+ range for... but $102!? I could collect all of his works on vinyl for the cost of two tickets and still probably pick up a DVD of Coffee and Cigarettes.

Color me disappointed.

Here is a quick P.S. for you— Metrotix, not to be outdone by the notorious white collar criminal Ticketmaster, is charging a cool $15 per ticket handling charge. You read that correctly. $15 per ticket. So now we are nearing $250 for my wife and I to go see a show. Or I could turn up my $15 vinyl copy of Mule Variations and drink a $100 bottle of scotch, leaving me enough money to do it again the next night.

PEHDTSCKJMBA

2008-05-05T10:09:00.001-05:00

Tom Waits in St. Louis?
PEHDTSCKJMBA indeed.

a bit more on Charlton Heston

2008-04-10T10:28:00.003-05:00

Last night Jessica and I watched the TCM Private Screenings interview with Charlton Heston. To my astonishment Heston reiterated exactly the thing I had written yesterday afternoon about the air of the great men that he played clinging to him. He closed the interview with a passage of Prospero from The Tempest that was poignant, to say the least.

Dave Kehr of the New York Times has a terrific memorial statement about Heston on his blog.

Kehr also provides a quote from Michel Mourlet, which is worth reproducing here.

The full Mourlet quote, as reproduced in “Cahiers du Cinema: The 1960s”:

“Charlton Heston is an axiom. He constitutes a tragedy in himself, his presence in any film being enough to instill beauty. The pent-up violence expressed by the somber phosphorescence of his eyes, his eagle’s profile, the imperious arch of his eyebrows, the hard, bitter curve of his lips, the stupendous strength of his torso - this is what he has been given, and what not even the worst of directors can debase. It is in this sense that one can say that Charlton Heston, by his very existence and regardless of the film he is in, provides a more accurate definition of the cinema than films like “Hiroshima mon amour” or “Citizen Kane,” films whose aesthetic either ignores or repudiates Charlton Heston. Through him, mise en scène can confront the most intense of conflicts and settle them with the contempt of a god imprisoned, quivering with muted rage.”

on Charlton Heston

2008-04-09T14:32:00.003-05:00

Charlton Heston's death came as kind of a blow to me. The reaction is different than hearing that Betty Hutton or even Katharine Hepburn has passed on; you see, neither of them are Moses. Heston played a few noble-yet-manly men over the course of his career, and there was always something iconic about those roles that followed him around, even when he wasn't acting. As a guy growing up thinking that this kind of character is worthy of admiration and aspiration, Heston's death is something akin to the day you see your own father in a wheelchair. It just breaks something inside of you.

There is a great deal of shame to be placed on press organizations who discuss his active involvement in the civil rights movement as entirely anathema to his work with the NRA, as if no one could possibly believe in private gun ownership and civil rights at the same time. It just goes to show how black and white our news organizations really see the world. Just because there are two political parties, they assume that there are only two kinds of people.

I tend to believe that Heston wasn't simply a black and white individual. Look no further than his legendary turn as Mike Vargas in Touch of Evil. Not only did Heston champion Welles as the director, he took on a character whose identity and motivations delve deeply into the metanarrative field of racial identity and social complacency.

Touch of Evil was no chump move by a party-line activist actor. You see, Charlton Heston was nobody's fool.

On Underestimating Cary Grant (1937-1940)

2008-03-04T08:27:00.004-06:00

Smooth, Debonair, Charming.

It is a shame that Cary Grant, one of the indelible faces of classic Hollywood, will forever be remembered as Roger Thornhill, Nickie Ferrante, Dudley the Angel and C.K. Dexter Haven. To many, he was the dashing man who was sometimes in trouble, sometimes in love, but always mannered and charming.

I contend that if you want to see Cary Grant at his best, at the height of his powers of personality and talent, you need look no further than his film output from 1937-1940. Certainly The Philadelphia Story (1940) and Bringing Up Baby (1938) are familiar territory, and rightfully so; they are terrific films. But these don't tell the entire story. The Philadelphia Story is the solidification of smooth, in control Grant. Bringing Up Baby shows off Grant the comedian, but in slapstick mode only. Grant's other films from '37-'40 reveal another kind of brilliance, particularly that of an extremely subtle, extremely human comedian.

My Favorite Wife (1940) seems to be the last time that Grant really played one of us. He did comedy again, many times, but never with a character who is, at base, uncertain, vulnerable and very human. With My Favorite Wife, Holiday (1938), The Awful Truth (1937), Grant's character is funny because he is reacting like people do. Later comedies like Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) present Grant in a character that is too much farce; that is, the character is funny because he is reacting like a silly Cary Grant. Even in a less everyman role like Walter Burns in His Girl Friday (1940) one can still see that Grant, like anyone else in that predicament, has something real at stake.

I think that his deftness at subtle humor was what allowed Cary Grant the star to fully materialize. He had mastered gesture, composure and manner quite brilliantly through playing comedy. Without these elements it is hard to imagine the full Cary Grant persona being as solidified as it was post-1940.

I'm not diminishing the rest of Grant's career. He remained versatile as hell a full 25 years after solidifying himself as the Cary Grant (in the role of C.K. Dexter Haven). He is still funny in That Touch of Mink (1962) and terrifying in Suspicion (1941) and sympathetic in North by Northwest (1959), but never as anyone but Cary Grant.

Friday at Blueberry Hill

2008-02-25T12:27:00.002-06:00

So I usually just write about movies, but I can't help but mention the immaculate pairing of Smog frontman Bill Callahan and Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg for a show at Blueberry Hill Friday night. For the record, Shearwater's Palo Santo for Matador last year was my pick for album of the year. Totally mesmerizing.

The brilliance of such a pairing has only seen its equal in that David Bazan/John Vanderslice tour in 2004 and maybe in that Bob Dylan/Paul Simon double bill, but they were both pretty crusty by then.

See you there.

Michel Gondry in The AVClub

2008-02-20T14:09:00.002-06:00

Be Kind Rewind may look like an innocuous comedy at first. It is, after all, starring Jack Black and Mos Def. But add guru Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) as director and you've raised the film's potential by approx. 3,104%. Who knows if it'll be any good, but Gondry is, if nothing else, a guy with great ideas.

In the AV Club's recent interview with Gondry, he muses on some media consumption issues that are very near and dear to me:

Of course, [the film] is a comment on the idea that people fabricate what you are supposed to like, and to spend your spare time [caring about]. I find it particularly shocking that people work all week long, and then on the weekend they give their money to another big corporation. I remember reading an interview with Walt Disney, and he said how he got the idea to create Disney World. He saw his grandson playing in the sand in a little park, and he assumed he was bored. And he said he could provide him a better alternative...And I truly believe his grandson was having a great time when he was playing with the sand.

I wish there were more film directors with that attitude toward media literacy.

Read the rest of the article here.

star wars: the clone wars (2008)

2008-02-14T08:37:00.005-06:00

Allow a guy to snark a bit at the recent press release from Lucasfilm regarding a full-length animated Star Wars commercial and subsequent TV commercials (I'm lifting these right off the AP):

Though the "Star Wars" films have been extraordinarily lucrative, the force won't be expected to be as strong in cartoon form. The film and series are clearly aimed at younger viewers, though Filoni hopes to also entice the many "Star Wars" die-hard fans.

"An animated series always appeals more to a younger audience," said Filoni. "But at the same time, we've tried to do some sophisticated things and ensure that we are going to satisfy the broad spectrum of 'Star Wars' fans."

Though Lucas farms out various "Star Wars" projects in what's known as the "'Star Wars' expanded universe," Filoni says that Lucas ensured "The Clone Wars" has "that 'Star Wars' feeling."

So this Star Wars film is aimed at younger viewers than the movies? Are we talking prenatal appeal here, because it would be difficult to aim lower than Attack of the Clones. The threat of throwing in something more sophisticated for older audiences is troublesome as well. This is coming from a creator/producer/director that managed to make Pearl Harbor look like a master class in the subtleties of narrative film. Maybe The Clone Wars will feature more belching and farting jokes, a high water mark of the Star Wars experience.

That being said, the final quote really takes the cake: "that Star Wars feeling." This either refers to the look and feel of the film, which means wooden, abrasive and creatively stunted in its juvenilia; or it means the feeling the audience has of being beaten over the head by plastic toys featuring characters borne of very suspect racial and gender stereotypes.

The Empire Strikes Back is the singular example of how George Lucas could have succeeded in making a simple, fun swashbuckling serial without being offensive. Heck, there is almost a decent female character in it. Instead Lucas' legacy of homage to old 1940's serials will ultimately rest in the blatant celebration of their outdated social attitudes, not the fun we might have had watching them.

juno (2007)

2008-02-01T11:01:00.000-06:00

Could there be a film that opens so abysmally and yet ends up being such a good film? 20 minutes into Juno I was ready to leave. I should preface this by saying that I am not a fan of the TV show The Gilmore Girls. I simply don't believe rapid-fire, name-dropping perpetual banter is funny, or even smart. It is noisy and very very false. No kidding, Juno begins with nearly 20 minutes of absolutely miserable dialog and characterization. It is as if the film is being strangled by the hip irony that it eventually frees the main character from. Every line, every move, every character is a cookie cutter of what 50 year old executives think 'indie' and high school should be. But then something happens...

By the end of the scene where Juno, her parents and the adoptive couple meet, something resembling reality sets in. The mis-en-scene is still a direct lift of Wes Anderson's handmade aesthetic (aren't all indie films?), but director Jason Reitman doesn't employ Anderson's intellectual and distancing camera work. Instead he fumbles through a few false starts by trying to introduce a voice similar to Thank You for Smoking's first person narration with quick cut post-modern asides, and then abandons it entirely, creating a film which retains very little narrative artifice.

In fact, once it hits its stride, Juno is just what a film should be: completely effortless. There are all sorts of moments in the film that threaten to be sentimental or preachy or cliche, but somehow the film finds a way to escape its worst tendencies. I believe this all to be a function of dichotomy. With characters that are mired in artifice as revealed by speech, music, relationships, the only way to succeed is by placing them in a story conflict that even the most composed or false characters must react genuinely to. Juno is simply the story of a character who is forced to be real, and to reevaluate what and who around her has actual value.

I didn't think much of Juno as a comedy, but as a character-driven story, I enjoyed it immensely.

staircase (1969)

2008-01-28T09:31:00.000-06:00

Prompting a renewed haste to my recovery was the agony of watching 1969's Staircase on Sunday afternoon. What Turner Classic Movies deems "a fascinating mess," is really just a tepid, soulless melodrama starring two completely unsympathetic characters. There is nothing, NOTHING, to like about this film. From the overlong drag show opening to the prissy, self-congratulatory nature of the film itself, I could find zero reasons to be remotely interested in this movie. Richard Burton and Rex Harrison play an aging gay couple, but both are such ridiculous caricatures that it doesn't matter. This is as ugly and superficial as scriptwriting gets.

Boo.

Being Sick...

2008-01-25T12:27:00.001-06:00

Being sick affords one the unique opportunity of watching more films in a day than he would normally be able to see in a week. With my lovely respiratory flu came the chance to view a few treasures from Turner Classic Movies:

The Sea Hawk (1924) - One of the best silent films I've seen. After being framed for murder by his brother and sold into slavery to Spaniards, a British society man renounces the cruelty he sees in Christianity and becomes a Muslim bent on revenge. Though the film is light on moralizing, the story arc does suggest that the anger toward Christianity because of the hypocrisy of the slave-driving Spanish is not easily cured in by the solace of another religion. The main character's adoption of Islam finds him in equally duplicitous hands and engaging in his own shameful deeds. There is no religious reconciliation in the end, but romantically things work out just fine. Lead actor Milton Sills should really be remembered more readily.

The Irish in Us (1935) - All of the Irish stereotypes get mashed into one film: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Mike McHugh are brothers doted on by their loving ma. Include boozing, boxing, occupations in the police and fire departments, loud arguments and family brawling and you've got a movie that embodies everything America in 1935 knew about the Irish... thanks in no small part to movies like this. Still, the character performances and a young Olivia de Havilland make this film hard to dislike.

Terror on a Train (1953) - Glenn Ford is the best, especially when his nag of a wife leaves him, convincing him that diffusing a train full of rigged explosives is the best thing to do with his washed up life. Makes Jack Bauer look unnecessary and Harrison Ford look tired.

The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) - I actually watched this pre-illness, but it was this week. Barbara Stanwyck proves herself the greatest femme fatale ever to grace the screen. Pasty Wendell Corey gets tangled in her web, leaving the working family man an emasculated shell. Double Indemnity certainly comes to mind, but veteran noir director Siodmak errs by letting both of his characters off too easily; something Billy Wilder never had the heart to do.

summer and smoke (1961)

2008-01-22T09:47:00.000-06:00

Based on a Tennessee Williams' stageplay and lacking a DVD release, Summer and Smoke was mercifully shown on TCM recently.

Peter Glenville, primarily a stage director, only directed 7 films. Summer and Smoke preceded his most famous film, Becket, but is consistent with his acute strength in directing small casts in character roles that wrestle with repression and internal conflict. Laurence Harvey and Geraldine Page play John, a fast-living doctor's son, and Alma, a prudish spinster. Alma and her crazy mother languish under the iron fist of her minister father while John lives in the shadow of his father's humanitarian medical work. Both characters respond to their own unique repression, often using the other as a vent for their conflict.

After the film was released, Williams rewrote Summer and Smoke as Eccentricities of a Nightingale, focusing a bit more on Alma's drug addiction and the way in which the female characters are trapped, but I don't think a careful study of the film warrants further emphases of these points. Clearly Alma and her mother have both been crushed by the repressive fundamentalist Christianity and create their own escapes. In the end, John credits Alma with his 'conversion,' but his expression of his newfound faith varies greatly from Alma's prudence. By continuing his father's work, John is led to sanctified action, not prideful piety or mannered repression. When Alma laments that the two have traded places, she is unable to see that John has not adopted the mannerisms and platitudes of religion that she has finally broke free of. John's conversion does not yield the same idleness, but is humanitarian and compassionate; something that neither the repressed or reformed Alma has any true concept of.

Highly recommended.

the black hole (1979)

2007-11-26T11:15:00.001-06:00

Right, so curiosity got the best of me. Childhood memories aren't easy to erase, and I remember a few things about this Disney film freaking me out when I was a kid so when TCM aired it last week I had to check it out.

I guess the Black Hole could be summed up in two words: "Camp" and "Plagiarism." (Philip K. Dick called it "Crap")

Camp: If there is a shot in this film that isn't unintentionally funny, I'd be surprised.

This film has an overture. No kidding.
Anthony Perkins, never good at acting anything but squirrelly and effete, simply acts squirrelly and effete, adding strong homosexual overtones to his worship of Dr. Reinhart. They renamed this film in Russia since "Black Hole" is something of an obscenity there. Perkins' performance may have informed that decision.
Yvette Mimieux, dressed as someone's 67 yr. old aerobics instructor, communicates telepathically with Vincent, a robotic precursor to Bob the Tomato.
Ernest Borgnine, who I can't believe is still alive and working in 2007, waddles around sweating and wearing a skin-tight sweater.
Reinhart is crushed to death by a Sony Bravia widescreen plasma television. He is then eaten and taken to hell by his robot pal, Max.
The film's dark overtones are subverted by the dopey camaraderie of robot Vincent and robot Bob (voiced by Slim Pickens???).

Plagiarism: Where do I start?

Vincent and Bob are lame comic relief, as in R2D2 and C3PO lame comic relief.
Maximillian Schell as Dr. Reinhart is no more than a direct rip of James Mason as Capt. Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
There are about 20 minutes of scenes involving robots and people shooting red lasers at each other. If there is anything more lame than George Lucas, it is someone imitating George Lucas.
The film concludes with a mind-bending 3-D ride into unknown territory, our characters ending up in some ambiguous otherworld. I fully expected to see them end up looking at themselves as old men in an empty room, a la Dr. Dave Bowman and his mysterious obelisk. Kubrick indeed.

The list could go on and on.

The moral of the story has something to do with Star Wars holding hostage the collective imagination of sci-fi and action filmmakers everywhere for the last 30 years, sullying the legitimacy of both genres and even marring the final years of Anthony Perkins' distinguished filmography.

World War I film screenings - Meramec/Kirkwood

2007-10-16T09:16:00.000-05:00

St. Louis Community College - Meramec is involved in the One Book, One College program and, in honor of their selected book, All Quiet on the Western Front, is hosting numerous WWI films over the next few months. No idea if these are actual prints or DVDs (boo), but I'll try to find out. Unfortunately the Meramec showings are during the day. Way to encourage community involvement.

Lucky for us, the film is also being shown at Kirkwood Public Library at 6:00 pm the same day, making me highly suspicious of a DVD screening (CONFIRMED, the DVD will be screened).

This Thursday is 1981's Gallipoli. Come watch Mel Gibson run, presumably from the jews.

For info on upcoming films, including Paths of Glory, Sergeant York, and Grand Illusion, download this PDF.

UPDATE: DVDs will be screened and Grand Illusion will be the only film in the series not screened at Kirkwood Public Library the same evening due to rights issues.

4 Devils hoax

2007-10-15T14:07:00.000-05:00

So it was fun while it lasted.

The 4 Devils Discovery thread over at Criterion makes for a terrific read, even though it is an all but verified hoax. It really is interesting to see how a discovery of this nature causes people to react. Cinephiles are definitely their own unique breed (of which I am not excluded). The idea of found film sends one's optimistic imagination reeling [pun] for days.

It helps one understand the preoccupation with religious relics in the middle ages. Stupid, but somehow it keeps you going.

Classic Halloween Horror Flicks

2007-10-11T10:12:00.000-05:00

October is not only a great time to go see Buster Keaton films at Webster University, but it is also prime horror movie time. IFC and the venerable TCM are happy and willing to accommodate those seeking some freakish perennial favorites by offering a slew of cult films. IFC definitely leans toward the graphic/splatter variety, while TCM serves up Friday night horror programming, each featuring a classic horror director.

Among the TCM highlights are:

Val Lewton day (already past but so good...)
A reconstruction of the long-lost London After Midnight on Friday, October 19
I Bury the Living (1958) Friday, October 19 (in the morning), the criminally overlooked b-flick starring the grandfathers of Clive Owen and Groundskeeper Willie.

In other incredible classic film news these days is this thread in the Criterion Forums. None of this has been verified, but it seems an unsuspecting citizen has uncovered a print of F.W. Murnau's long lost The Four Devils. That this has the potential to be a discovery on par with the greatest Lazarus cinema stories goes without saying. Now if God would just smile upon The Magnificent Ambersons...

All for now. Enjoy the remainder of Kompletely Keaton this weekend!

Weekend 2 Kompletely Keaton Recap

2007-10-09T10:50:00.000-05:00

The series just continues to get better.

Friday Oct. 5:
The short, Daydreams, screened after the full-length since the band had to leave early. Daydreams is in bad shape. Not only is it missing pieces, but the frame rate is wrong/interpolated at times, making some scenes resemble the blurry, choppy caricature that some people still think all silent films look like. Those of us in the know are well aware that this is not only a lie, but a downright shame. If anyone thinks of a film like The Navigator as inferior to modern comedies…
The Navigator is non-stop funny and the print was in great shape. This film boasts some of the great Keaton routines, including the miniature canon that is tied to his foot and the submarine at the end of the film. The Carol Beth trio played some very nice backing piano jazz, with an unfortunate Disney or West Side Story song here and there.

Saturday Oct.6:
The Paleface DVD shown had a few elements taken from a much poorer source (looked like upsampled VHS), but the film is great. I’ve always found it interesting that while Native Americans were still common film villains for another 25 years, Keaton’s film, while not always politically correct, portrays them sympathetically as victims of a greedy oil conglomerate. Somehow the villain’s diabolic nature hasn’t diminished over time.
Go West was elevated to brand new heights with much owed to The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. Information on them is fairly sparse, but I can say that this was the greatest live scoring I’ve ever experienced. They sounded like a slightly less modern version of The Dirty Three. Maybe I’m just a sucker for a good violin, but I would gladly pay for a recording of their performance. The film was good. The hilarity of Buster Keaton riding a cow through Los Angeles while wearing a skin-tight devil costume can never be underestimated. But, when paired with the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra, it is a near-masterpiece.

Sunday Oct. 7:
Neighbors is a terrific short, nearly all of it consisting of gags set in the alley between two houses. Instead of Keaton’s usual running/chase gags, many of the gags are vertical, adding a fresh bit of creativity to his repertoire.
Seven Chances with Ron Bryant on piano was probably my favorite full-length so far. The Navigator was close, even winning, until the unbelievable thousand dumpy wife chase and those almost unfathomably long takes with the falling boulders. I pity anyone who has to see this on a small screen. The 35mm print proved that the last 15 minutes of the film do not only contain comic genius, but also a latent filmmaking virtuosity that often gets overlooked when discussing Keaton the director. If Keaton had been allowed to continue directing into the sound era, I firmly believe we would have seen him make some great strides in the formal precepts of filmmaking.

Next weekend are some more big ones…

In the meantime, feed your addiction over at alt.silent.movies.

Kompletely Keaton thus far

2007-10-05T08:39:00.000-05:00

A short recap for those who missed it or are wondering what to expect for the rest of the series

Fri. Sept. 28:
The short, Cops, was terrific. Every time I see it I appreciate the horse's performance more.
The full length print of Three Ages, a light spoof on Griffith's Intolerance, isn't the funniest film, but some of the gags are terrific. The scene with the lion in ancient Rome took the cake for me. The music by The Steve Schenkel & Paul DeMarinis Trio was very good; jazzy with different motifs for each of the Three Ages. A good start.

Sat. Sept. 29:
The short, The High Sign, ends with an endlessly inventive chase involving a secret society hit squad which is after a man who Buster must both kill and protect. The use of the trap doors and visual illusions in the large set piece embody and embellish the creativity that sets Keaton's shorts apart from all others.
The full length, Our Hospitality, opens with a surprisingly dramatic scene that utilizes light and shadows so deftly that Fritz Lang would be proud. The train gag in the first third goes on too long, especially for those familiar with The General, in which Keaton perfects the more rudimentary gags seen here. The stunts in the climax over the waterfall are terrifying, leading one to wonder how much Keaton was insured for at the time. It is perhaps the most mesmerizing stunt work I've ever seen, if only because it can't be entirely faked. Accompaniment by Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris was probably better suited to another film. The music was wonderful, but did little to enhance the film itself as old Parisian standards do not always lend themselves to underscoring a story about a family feud set in the old south.

Sun. Sept. 30:
The short was the highlight of the night. Sherlock Jr. is Buster Keaton at absolute perfection. The audience was howling. The print looked great and the motorcycle ride near the end of the film is one of cinema's great action sequences. The Mont Alto Orchestra played for this film and it couldn't have been better. They accompany silent films with music that would have been played at the time. So far in the series this has been the musical highlight, not necessarily in uniqueness or style, but in sheer cohesion with the film that is playing. It only enhances the film, sometimes greatly, and never distracts.
The full length, The Saphead, was historically interesting as Keaton's first starring full-length. But it isn't really a Keaton film, and it is little more than a very pleasant silent film of the era. One would be remiss to ignore the "I'll take it" scene as a precursor of Keaton's physicality. This was shown from a video source and paled in comparison to the quality of Sherlock Jr.

Thurs. Oct. 4 (Keaton's birthday):
The Goat may have had the best audience reaction so far. It is a funny short from start to finish with an almost non-stop chase sequence.
Battling Butler, is a good film with a great premise. Keaton is good and goofy, but often finds himself in binds that do not require much physical comedy or environmental gags. The pairing of these two films is important in understanding the difference between the two types of Keaton film: the short and the full length. Watching a full length and expecting a 70 minute short is going to be a bit of a letdown. I don't want to snark any of the talented musicians who've dedicated much time to such a great series, but Webster professor Carol Schmidt's dischordant jazz accompaniment might have hurt the film a bit. Great music to be sure, but I find myself a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to silent music scores. I want the music to have contextual relevance to what I'm seeing, not just to augment the narrative, but to keep the era of filmmaking in context as well. Some jazz does that nicely, but last night's may have been a bit too fractured.

Up this weekend: The Navigator with Daydreams, Go West with The Paleface, and Seven Chances with Neighbors.

the 3 penny opera: NYT review

2007-09-25T10:36:00.001-05:00

In a fascinating review of Criterion's new release of G.W. Pabst's "The 3 Penny Opera," Dave Kehr of the New York Times gets a cookie for entrancing me with the following statement:

"Here again is proof of what a fragile medium the movies are, and of how foolish it is for us to condescend to the perceived primitivism of a past that is largely a creation of our own neglect."

I wish I had said that.