Last week: I saw Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria (a heartbreaker) and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Hawks and the Sparrows (which was utterly weird and amazing at the same time).
This week: I saw Chaplin’s City Lights. I laughed, I cried and laughed again.
Next week: More Chaplin!!! (The Gold Rush and The Circus)
Best way to experience Criterion is by Netflix. Perfect solution for poor film fans, like me. The only down side is the bonus discs could take the slot of a film you could be watching.
I know it’s a bit dated but here is an interview Jean-Luc Godard did with the Guardian about his then new film “Notre Musique”. The title of the article is “Cinema is Over”.
Here is a couple of excerpts from the interview that I thought would relate to the topic.
[There is something paradoxical about his attitude toward cinema. He now seems despairing of the medium’s ability to reinvent itself or to have any kind of social impact. “It’s over,” he sighs. "There was a time maybe when cinema could have improved society, but that time was missed.]
[The director describes his new film as an optimistic one, with an underlying message that “reconciliation is possible” – but there is no disguising the his dismay about the state of his chosen profession. In one of the most poignant scenes in Notre Musique, we hear a voice asking him if small digital cameras can save cinema. There is a close-up of Godard’s face: he scowls and says nothing at all. The inference is clear: the battle is already lost. As our meeting ends, I put the question to him again. There is still no answer.]
Nina Rota – 8 1/2, La Strada, La Dolce Vita, I Vitelloni
I agree with most of you on the Morricone’s scores. I always perk up when I see his composer credit at the beginning of a film. I would also add Once Upon a Time in the West and The Battle of Algiers though to. I just can’t get over that drumming in BoA.
Masaru Satoh – Yojimbo
You can see the influence Leone had from Yojimbo, not only for the plot of “A Fistful of Dollars” but how the music played a part in the storytelling. Morricone was a perfect fit just like Satoh was for Kurosawa.
Another Kurosawa favorite:
Fumio Hayasaka – Seven Samurai, Rashomon
My favorite composer is less thought about as a composer, since he was so great at everything else he did.
Charlie Chaplin – The Kid, City Lights, The Gold Rush, The Great Dictator (Globe Scene!!)
The opening scene of “Raging Bull” made me instantly know I wanted to be a part of film. Michael Chapman’s cinematography and Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo playing under DeNiro hopping around the ring floored me. I can never look at Raging Bull any other way now.
Jean-Luc Godard (the man and his films) made me want to obsess about cinema and spend my life being a student of it. To the point where I joined a group called “The Auteurs”. Weird huh?
I wrote a research paper for one of my philosophy classes on Karl Marx’s relationship in Jean-Luc Godard’s films. Below is the link to the paper. (Sorry if it’s a bit long)
Well the Mozart and music thing are kind of together. Godard, in my opinion, is a master at matching music to the mood and feeling of the shot. “Le Mepris” (Contempt) was amazing at doing that, but his music works like his editing. It’s often disjointed and sporadic, but essential and wouldn’t work with the film in any other way. I remember “Week End” because of that constant replay of that melody throughout the film.
The reason I said Mozart was also from a reference in “Week End”. In the ‘Action Musicale’ section a man is playing Mozart in that long tracking shot. He explains to the woman next to him, that "There is music you listen to and music you don’t. Mozart you listen to. Music you don’t listen to is what’s called modern “serious” music…Real modern music is, paradoxically, based on Mozart’s harmonies, you hear bits of Mozart in Dario Moreno, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or whatever. Modern “serious” music looked for others resulting in what is probably the biggest disaster in the history of art."
I am currently finishing my first feature length script while working on three others that I am working through. I have directed a handful of shorts for classes on digital video. I really want to make something on film stock in the future (I want to shoot my first feature on 16mm).
If anyone is going to be in NYC during the fall (I might also be there in the summer) let me know. I’m a student of film out of school and a Dramatic Writing major at NYU when at school. So if you are going to NYU (and a film student or not) or are in NYC let me know. We could hit up the Film Forum.
Michael I agree that Synechdote, NY sounds like a good bet and it sounds like the type of film Cannes would like, but Sean Penn said "One way or another, when we select the Palme d’Or winner, I think we are going to feel very confident that the film-maker who made the film is very aware of the times in which he or she lives.”
So as great as Kaufman’s film could be it doesn’t really fit into Penn’s description of the winner. Either does Che, which looks like a great undertaking for Steven Soderbergh, but it is a period piece and that period isn’t now. But who knows Sean Penn could be convinced to choose a non-political film in a very heavy political time, right?
I think if you are looking for comedies (that aren’t traditional sitcoms) their is plenty to choose from. Arrested Development works like a Godard film in how packed it can be with references and jokes that you wont get until the 3rd viewing. Mitch Hurwitz’s method of writing the episodes in reverse allowed for the show to not have one dull second. There’s no such thing as a padding in the shows script. I have seen each season at least 4 times and praise for writing for television doesn’t come easy from me, but this show deserves all I can offer. It’s one of the few shows that I have made me laugh from just reading the scripts alone.
Probably the show that makes me the happiest is Curb Your Enthusiasm, which stars Seinfeld co-creator Larry David. The stories are created by Larry David, who writes 7-10 page outlines for the episodes. The episodes follow those plot points in the outline, but has an entirely improvised dialog. Cheryl Hines, who plays Larry’s wife on the show, has remarked that she doesn’t even get to see the episode outlines before they shoot. She is just interjected into an unknown story and has to react to whatever is happening. The show has so many talented people in it, ranging from Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, to the new addition of JB Smooth (who pretty much is the highlight of the 6th season). Hopefully the show will continue for another season (Larry David is currently shooting Woody Allen’s next film) and I can hear the phrase “Pretty Pretty Pretty Pretty Good” again.
I would also recommended the Larry Sanders Show (a show about a talk show), 30 Rock (a show about sketch show). One place that doesn’t get all it’s deserved in recognition are animated shows. Of course you have your South Park’s and you Simpson’s, but I would highly recommend The Venture Bros. It works like a spoof of Johnny Quest, but it isn’t that. It does take all of the nostalgic images of old cartoons and mock and play with those ideals.
On the non-comedic side I would recommended Mad Men. It’s follows Donald Draper who works for a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the 1960’s. The creator Matthew Weiner was a writer for the Soprano’s and the quality of that show emanates in Mad Men. He has said that Hitchcock has influenced the look and feel of the show. This is an amazingly beautiful and captivating show. Recommendations all around.
From what I’ve been hearing Twin Peaks is nothing but a genius show from David Lynch. I haven’t seen it, but I have yet to hear a negative review that convinces me in that favor. The Wire is another example of a show I hear nothing but good things about, but have yet to see. (I don’t have HBO!).
I know many people thing TV is the bane of cinema, and I understand that the majority of it is awful and unwatchable, but there are exceptions and those should be appreciated too.
T I agree with you about the Shield. I think the way it’s shot just makes the feel of an already gritty show even more grittier. Hopefully the final season will be as good as the rest.
FX has a lot of good shows actually. Rescue Me has it’s moments of funny and serious and I think deals with them both very well. Peter Tolan, who wrote on the Larry Sanders Show, and Denis Leary have definitely made a solid show. It’s Always Sunny on Philadelphia is coming into it’s own comic right with some of the funniest episodes on television of late. The Night Man song Charlie sings in one episode will go down in television comedy history. Nip/Tuck is OK. I don’t really watch it for the humor, but it’s a well put together show.
Their are fewer and fewer network show I watch, partly because networks like FX are able to do so much on cable now, especially if it has a late airing (case in point Nip/Tuck). I agree with you T that television has been hijacked by advertising and that it can be a great medium. A great example is TCM. Their are no commercials (only trailers of films they are showing later in the week in between films), the films are uncut and unedited. Of course the disadvantage is that you are watching it on a television, but it’s such a great resource for films if you don’t live in a big city or don’t have a regular Netflix subscription. They are the only network on cable that understands films shouldn’t have commercials in the middle of them and understand that cutting a chunk out of the film because of practices and standards doesn’t give you a complete film. Not to mention they don’t pan and scan.
I’m currently reading Demian by Hermann Hesse. I’m loving it so far.
For those interested in Neorealist films, I took a class last semester on 20th Century Italian Literature and Film where we focused on films and literature that influenced the neorealist era. Some of the books below (that I enjoyed) have influenced some of those films of those time.
Elio Vittorini – Conversations in Sicily (I’m fascinated with the prose in this book)
Ceasre Pavese – The Moon and the Bonfire
Italo Calvino – Path to the Spiders Nest
Primo Levi – Survival in Auschwitz
Carlo Levi – Christ Stopped at Eboli
Some other authors, poets and philosophers I enjoy: John Stuart Mill (On Liberty), Karl Marx, Frederich Nietzsche, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason), Henrich Heine (The Harz Journey), Wordsworth Longfellow, Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake), Daniel Quinn (Ishmael), Voltaire (Candide), Bronte Sisters and Dostoevsky.
Some other authors I will eventually read: Franz Kafka, Upton Sinclair, Jean Paul Sarte, Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Cormac McCarthy, Bertolt Brecht and Hemingway.
May 68 was an interesting event that still not everyone is on the same page of what and how it happened.
http://www.sens-public.org/spip.php?article472
Above is a link to a fairly comprehensive look at May 68 from a political stand point. The controversy, the criticism, etc. What it did to cinema is a whole different story. I might have read it wrong, but didn’t Godard and Truffaut’s relationship become strained during that time period? I believe it was over a rally where Truffaut didn’t participate in something and Godard called him out on it. I know in ’73 is when they send the criticizing letters to each other.
“However, Truffaut and Godard did not always have such a contentious relationship. Earlier, during the late 60’s, Truffaut brings up an instance of the persona dictating the subject matter of film. In this case, we see the precursor for Godards films in his daily life. Truffaut recalls, “At that time [during the 50’s, when they first met] he was much more cheerful than he is today. I remember particularly that he played innumerable practical jokes. Now he writes them, he includes them in his films, but no longer in his life” 6. Here we see the activities of Godard making the transition from daily life to filmic life. But his sensibility is never lost.
Truffaut notes, “The miracle of Breathless is that it was made at a time in the life of a man in which normally he would not want to make a film” 7. He continues, "One doesn’t make a film when one is sad and destitute. Making a film means that you’re living in a hotel or an apartment, that you are disengaged from material worries, and that you make your film without any distraction from your present thoughts "8. This was definatly not the case with Godard. Truffaut concludes, “In the case of Breathless, the man who made it was almost a pauper. Therein lies the miracle. It is rare that being so unhappy and so alone, one can still make a film” 9. Most would agree, it comes through in this and his other films.
This accounts for the changes Godard made in Truffaut’s original scenario. Truffaut notes, “Jean-Luc chose a violent end [to Breathless] because he was by nature sadder than I” 10. It was these before mentioned pre-conditions that lead to the pacing, the choice of location and lighting, and ultimately the tone of Breathless, in addition to his subsequent works.”
I thought that was an interesting point Truffaut said. What happened to Godard that made him come off like a morose guy? I guess I can’t say with certain that’s true, but his films and his characters are often portrayed that way. Was it the politics that made him so serious? Or did he see the bullshit all around him and chose not to follow it? Truffaut has a valid point, but I also think Godard was right to call Truffaut out. Truffaut’s films had become less and less like the 400 Blows (This sounds a lot like Rossellini fighting with Fellini on what true Neorealism was.) and were becoming more Hollywood. Godard had stayed true to himself in his films, regardless of the climate or taste of cinema. Godard though was mostly an outsider. His later films didn’t make as much money. A great quote from him was he was at an airport "When he [Godard] arrived, the customs officer asked him: “Mr Godard: what are you coming here for? Business or pleasure?” Godard indicated the former. The officer asked what business he was in. “Unsuccessful movies,” Godard replied." I don’t think Godard could have gone the route of Truffaut, they were just two different filmmakers that just shared the birth of a cinematic movement. One became an ambassador of cinema like Martin Scorsese and the other receded into the night like David Lynch with just that moment in time to tie them together.
Tying it back to 68, I think again there was a fundamental difference after 68 with both of those directors. One kept making films as if 68 was still happening and the other forgot about it. Is either of them right? All in all 68 made activism real and not just something they made in their films (at least for Godard). Imagine Godard now, without 68? Would he even be making films anymore?
I don’t know if what I said above makes any sense (NY heat wave is making my brain turn to mush), but I will check it out later or tomorrow. Please keep this thread going. I’m such a beginner when it comes to Godard so I like reading about Godard from other film lovers, their thoughts and feelings about such a mysterious auteur. I mean like Godard said, we have no right to read into his films, but that doesn’t stop us from doing so.
Big screen dreams is a luxury I can’t afford (Plus Netflix has kind of ruined me – how dare they be affordable and convenient). But if it was a dollar theater or money was no object then I would want to see any Godard films (Contempt, Weekend, Pierrot Le Fou in particular) Eraserhead, The Conformist and Raging Bull.
Italian Neorealism is one of the more famous cinematic movements in film history. Beginning, which is still debatable, with Rossellini’s “Rome, Open City” and ending (in my opinion) with De Sica’s “Umberto D”. If Rossellini is the Grandfather of Neorealism, De Sica would be the father and Cesare Zavattini would be the Mother (that is said with no disrespect), Visconti: the weird uncle and Fellini: the troublesome child.
What Neorealism means and how it’s achieved is argueable even today. A clear consensus of the movement was how the films were made. Often they were on location shoots, using non-actors and exploring subject matter that was born out of war and struggle. Zavattini’s neorealist dream was a 90 minute film of a man of whom nothing happens to and Umberto D is his closest effort to that. To quote Bazin himself “De Sica and Zavattini treated cinema like the asymptote to reality, something that can never be achieved, but instead should be able to reflect the poetical brilliance of reality.” Umberto D is often not the first film that comes to mind when Itialian neorealism is spoken about, but it should be. Bazin (one of Neorealism’s strongest defenders) argued against the notion that Umberto D. was a return to neorealism, but that instead Umberto D. was a completion of what Bicycle Thieves was said to be the start of.
Here is a link to a paper I did on Roberto Rossellini entitled “The Journey of the Auteur”, which identifies his progress developing his vision by taking a look at some of his early works (during the neorealist period), The War Trilogy (Rome, Open City, Paisan, Germany: Year Zero) and concluding with The Flowers of St. Francis. I try to look at not only the films, but the context of how and when the films were made. For example, when Rossellini was making his most overtly religious film (The Flowers of St. Francis) he was being condemned for his affair with Ingrid Bergman on the Senate floor.
I have another shorter paper that was a rough draft of the above one that talks about De Sica’s “Journey”, that I’ll try to post another time. In the mean time discuss.
Recommended Italian Neorealist basic watch list (should be watched in order):
Luchino Visconti: Obsessione
Roberto Rossellini : The War Trilogy (Rome Open City, Pasian, Germany Year Zero)
Vittorio De Sica: The Children are Watching Us
Luchino Visconti: La Terra Trema
Vittorio De Sica: Bicycle Thieves
Vittorio De Sica: Umberto D.
Some topics to possibly discuss…
Neorealist influences (Prior: Literature – Elio Vittorini, Carlo Levi Films – ?) (Post: Alphaville, City of God, Fellini)
Culture climate of the time – Post war, rebuilding, US troops, poverty, morality? religion?
Favorite Neorealist films
I really enjoy the essay compilation books (there is a great series released by Harvard University Press the categorizes Cahiers Du Cinema ex. The 1950s: Neo-Realism, Hollywood, New Wave and they are just a collection of essays and discussions of films, theories, trends, etc.).
I saw Une Femme est une Femme (A Woman is a Woman) last week and I was amazed at what I saw. Up until that point I had seen mainly Godard’s more political and “serious” films and this film was such a breath of fresh air. It was funny and inventive, Belmondo was just a joy and Anna Karina. I mean who can’t say enough good things about Godard’s muse.
I just watched Kris (Crisis), Ingmar Bergman’s directorial debut film yesterday and I’m still infatuated with how stunning Inga Landgré is in that film. She has just replaced Paulette Goddard in the category of “Women that are so perfect, they almost seem approachable”. Crisis was surprisingly good for a first film. I think Bergman handled the actors and the material well for the most part and pulled some really great performances out of Stig Olin (Jack) and Dagny Lind (Ingeborg). Not to mention Marianne Löfgren plays Nelly’s mother extremely well. Think of Diane Ladd and Laura Dern’s relationship in Lynch’s “Wild at Heart”. Diane and Marianne’s mirror scenes are eerily similar and each have a twisted undertone that only Bergman and Lynch could produce so simply.
I’m going to watch Port of Call tonight in my Bergman/Independence day weekend.
To look at an auteur is to look at all his work and not part of it. That their can be good auteurs and bad auteurs. I think Truffaut said that the worst film of Jean Renoir is still better than the best film of Jean Delannoy. “There are no good and bad movies, only good and bad directors.”
Godard says “It concentrated on recognition of a director’s contribution as a creator of images as opposed to the screenwriter. It’s a grammar of narrative imagery which must constantly be renewed to ward off stereotypes and routine.”
My suggestion would be to read Bazin “La Politque Des Auteurs” (If you can find an english version) and maybe that can help who ever is curious. Let me know how it is to. :)
When independent film became a viable way to make commercial films, it killed the hopes of revitalizing the medium. I’m not saying that cinema dying is a bad thing. It’s needed. In the 80’s their was a comedy boom in the United States. Everyone, who wanted to become a stand up comic, became one, television execs were handing pilot deals off the street. But at the end of the 80’s and into the 90’s it died a beautiful death. The rebirth of comedy and comedians, showed the wherewithal of the comedians who struggled through the boom and came out of it still in comedy. Those who were looking for their 15 minutes in the 80’s got it and after it ended we forgot about them. Those who truly were comedians survived and are still around.
Cinema needs to go through the same process. You know you have a problem when films like “Synecdoche, New York” and “Che” can’t find distributors by the time they leave Cannes. That’s just the beginning, as is film companies cutting back on their specialty devisions (what I believe Olivier would classify as the good movies that have been coming out – most of those films are acquired from these divisions). As the economy fails so does it’s art. When life is good, art is great (think Renaissance in literature, art, philosophy, science, etc). When life is down, art either dies (leaving an era of no advancement) or lives through those with true intentions who later give it a chance to be reborn.
This doesn’t mean their won’t be good films. Now that these companies are being more cautious about choosing films, it just means there will be fewer of them. At that rate their isn’t much hope for cinema as you and I would like to see it. So just bide your time, let it die, and be ready for the rebirth. That’s what people should be worried about.
Rossellini was definitely on a different wavelength. He made his films the way he thought a neo-realist film should be made and told and you can see where other directors prescribed to his methods and where directors strayed away from it. That’s how the disconnect between Rossellini and Fellini started, when Fellini abandoned Rossellini’s ideologies and went the way he went. But I don’t think neo-realism would have lasted as long as it did if directors had to prescribe to a certain doctrine of how stories were done and told, which Rossellini partly wanted to do. He might have been on a different wavelength, but without his influence, neo-realism would look much different.
I think it would be hard to say what correct neo-realism is, but you know it when you see it. If you were Italian at the end of world war two, you had no trouble trying to find a film that captured your life, which is a testament to how undefinable the genre is.
I saw Synecdoche, New York today at a screening at school and found myself thinking about Brecht and Godard. His new film is like a Brechtian dream and he tries to utilize the epic theater in ways that Godard implemented in his earlier work. Disjointed/episodic nature of scenes, hopping through different times as if you were inhaling and exhaling and always a sense that the characters are breaking a fourth wall that really wasn’t there in the first place. It’s hard not to watch the film and not think of Brecht’s alienation technique of distancing the audience to the point where they have to look at what they are seeing objectively and with a critical eye. The film I found worked well in that respect, which I enjoyed, but I also found my self smiling when I heard the students next to me repeating “What the fuck” silently to themselves and to their friends. It’s not an easy film to digest and Kaufman (who was at the screening afterwards and gave a Q&A) said that he didn’t want to put out something that he had been seeing in cinema right now. For those who love Eternal Sunshine, they are going to be conflicted with this film, because it’s a logical progression as a writer for him. Sunshine, in my opinion was a simple story told in a complex way, which had broad appeal. Synecdoche, New York is a complex series of events (I would hesitate in calling it a straight narrative) that is told without giving any “in” for the audience. The end doesn’t sum up everything you were confused about the film, it doesn’t give you a feeling of completion, it leaves you empty and hungry for understanding, which is in no way a comment to disparage the film. The film is a breath of fresh air for cinema and it’s terrible that it’s going to be ignored by the general public (Film students who have seen Kaufman’s work and arguably fans of his, were confused about how to feel about the film, so I’m not sure how America will respond).
Love him or hate him, Godard has prepared me never to assume anything about a film until the credits are rolling and with that attitude I throughly enjoyed the ride that was Synecdoche, New York. It’s left me wanting to see it again so I can look at it now with a critical eye, but also because the journey is one that is best experienced by watching it again.
Wise: There has been much contention about whether Rome:Open City or Ossessione was the beginning and I think the argument could be made for both. Rossellini’s film is melodramatic in many areas which many consider not a trait of neo-realism, which is why Ossessione is brought up as a viable candidate. But I think the melodramatic tendencies were part of Rossellini’s style of neo-realism and we have to realize that there was no one formula for it.
I agree with you guys above about Umberto D. It is my “be all, end all” neo-realist film.
What are you watching now? about 4 years ago
Last week: I saw Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria (a heartbreaker) and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Hawks and the Sparrows (which was utterly weird and amazing at the same time).
This week: I saw Chaplin’s City Lights. I laughed, I cried and laughed again.
Next week: More Chaplin!!! (The Gold Rush and The Circus)
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Criterion junkies here? about 4 years ago
Best way to experience Criterion is by Netflix. Perfect solution for poor film fans, like me. The only down side is the bonus discs could take the slot of a film you could be watching.
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Your favorite Woody Allen's film? about 4 years ago
Take the Money and Run
Manhattan
Stardust Memories
Annie Hall
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Who else dislikes Nicolas Cage? about 4 years ago
I would generally be on the “I dislike Nicolas Cage” bandwagon, but I saw “Wild at Heart” a few weeks ago and he was OK in that.
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Which movies would you like to see on The Auteurs? about 4 years ago
Histoire(s) du cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard) or any Godard films.
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Which movies would you like to see on The Auteurs? about 4 years ago
sry double post
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Problems and issues with the Film industry about 4 years ago
I know it’s a bit dated but here is an interview Jean-Luc Godard did with the Guardian about his then new film “Notre Musique”. The title of the article is “Cinema is Over”.
http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1472494,00.html
Here is a couple of excerpts from the interview that I thought would relate to the topic.
[There is something paradoxical about his attitude toward cinema. He now seems despairing of the medium’s ability to reinvent itself or to have any kind of social impact. “It’s over,” he sighs. "There was a time maybe when cinema could have improved society, but that time was missed.]
[The director describes his new film as an optimistic one, with an underlying message that “reconciliation is possible” – but there is no disguising the his dismay about the state of his chosen profession. In one of the most poignant scenes in Notre Musique, we hear a voice asking him if small digital cameras can save cinema. There is a close-up of Godard’s face: he scowls and says nothing at all. The inference is clear: the battle is already lost. As our meeting ends, I put the question to him again. There is still no answer.]
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Favorite score? about 4 years ago
Can’t Nina Rota get some Fellini love in here?
Nina Rota – 8 1/2, La Strada, La Dolce Vita, I Vitelloni
I agree with most of you on the Morricone’s scores. I always perk up when I see his composer credit at the beginning of a film. I would also add Once Upon a Time in the West and The Battle of Algiers though to. I just can’t get over that drumming in BoA.
Masaru Satoh – Yojimbo
You can see the influence Leone had from Yojimbo, not only for the plot of “A Fistful of Dollars” but how the music played a part in the storytelling. Morricone was a perfect fit just like Satoh was for Kurosawa.
Another Kurosawa favorite:
Fumio Hayasaka – Seven Samurai, Rashomon
My favorite composer is less thought about as a composer, since he was so great at everything else he did.
Charlie Chaplin – The Kid, City Lights, The Gold Rush, The Great Dictator (Globe Scene!!)
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Which film has changed your life forever? about 4 years ago
The opening scene of “Raging Bull” made me instantly know I wanted to be a part of film. Michael Chapman’s cinematography and Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo playing under DeNiro hopping around the ring floored me. I can never look at Raging Bull any other way now.
Jean-Luc Godard (the man and his films) made me want to obsess about cinema and spend my life being a student of it. To the point where I joined a group called “The Auteurs”. Weird huh?
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Godard: Marx and others who influenced his films about 4 years ago
I wrote a research paper for one of my philosophy classes on Karl Marx’s relationship in Jean-Luc Godard’s films. Below is the link to the paper. (Sorry if it’s a bit long)
http://meziszem.blogspot.com/2008/05/godard-marx.html
Other big influences (that are apparent in his films):
Bertolt Brecht
Mao
Andre Bazin and criticism
Mozart and music
May 68 and politics in general
Discuss.
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Godard: Marx and others who influenced his films about 4 years ago
Well the Mozart and music thing are kind of together. Godard, in my opinion, is a master at matching music to the mood and feeling of the shot. “Le Mepris” (Contempt) was amazing at doing that, but his music works like his editing. It’s often disjointed and sporadic, but essential and wouldn’t work with the film in any other way. I remember “Week End” because of that constant replay of that melody throughout the film.
The reason I said Mozart was also from a reference in “Week End”. In the ‘Action Musicale’ section a man is playing Mozart in that long tracking shot. He explains to the woman next to him, that "There is music you listen to and music you don’t. Mozart you listen to. Music you don’t listen to is what’s called modern “serious” music…Real modern music is, paradoxically, based on Mozart’s harmonies, you hear bits of Mozart in Dario Moreno, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or whatever. Modern “serious” music looked for others resulting in what is probably the biggest disaster in the history of art."
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Who's looking for eachother? about 4 years ago
Writer
Director
Actor (sometimes)
I am currently finishing my first feature length script while working on three others that I am working through. I have directed a handful of shorts for classes on digital video. I really want to make something on film stock in the future (I want to shoot my first feature on 16mm).
If anyone is going to be in NYC during the fall (I might also be there in the summer) let me know. I’m a student of film out of school and a Dramatic Writing major at NYU when at school. So if you are going to NYU (and a film student or not) or are in NYC let me know. We could hit up the Film Forum.
http://meziszem.blogspot.com/
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D.I.Y. Film Playlist about 4 years ago
Theme: Films to help change your life (and maybe give you a good cry)
Nights of Cabiria
Umberto D.
City Lights
Wild Strawberries
The Elephant Man
Bonus: Grave of the Fireflies
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CANNES Line-up about 4 years ago
Michael I agree that Synechdote, NY sounds like a good bet and it sounds like the type of film Cannes would like, but Sean Penn said "One way or another, when we select the Palme d’Or winner, I think we are going to feel very confident that the film-maker who made the film is very aware of the times in which he or she lives.”
So as great as Kaufman’s film could be it doesn’t really fit into Penn’s description of the winner. Either does Che, which looks like a great undertaking for Steven Soderbergh, but it is a period piece and that period isn’t now. But who knows Sean Penn could be convinced to choose a non-political film in a very heavy political time, right?
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TV SHOWS almost 5 years ago
I think if you are looking for comedies (that aren’t traditional sitcoms) their is plenty to choose from. Arrested Development works like a Godard film in how packed it can be with references and jokes that you wont get until the 3rd viewing. Mitch Hurwitz’s method of writing the episodes in reverse allowed for the show to not have one dull second. There’s no such thing as a padding in the shows script. I have seen each season at least 4 times and praise for writing for television doesn’t come easy from me, but this show deserves all I can offer. It’s one of the few shows that I have made me laugh from just reading the scripts alone.
Probably the show that makes me the happiest is Curb Your Enthusiasm, which stars Seinfeld co-creator Larry David. The stories are created by Larry David, who writes 7-10 page outlines for the episodes. The episodes follow those plot points in the outline, but has an entirely improvised dialog. Cheryl Hines, who plays Larry’s wife on the show, has remarked that she doesn’t even get to see the episode outlines before they shoot. She is just interjected into an unknown story and has to react to whatever is happening. The show has so many talented people in it, ranging from Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, to the new addition of JB Smooth (who pretty much is the highlight of the 6th season). Hopefully the show will continue for another season (Larry David is currently shooting Woody Allen’s next film) and I can hear the phrase “Pretty Pretty Pretty Pretty Good” again.
I would also recommended the Larry Sanders Show (a show about a talk show), 30 Rock (a show about sketch show). One place that doesn’t get all it’s deserved in recognition are animated shows. Of course you have your South Park’s and you Simpson’s, but I would highly recommend The Venture Bros. It works like a spoof of Johnny Quest, but it isn’t that. It does take all of the nostalgic images of old cartoons and mock and play with those ideals.
On the non-comedic side I would recommended Mad Men. It’s follows Donald Draper who works for a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the 1960’s. The creator Matthew Weiner was a writer for the Soprano’s and the quality of that show emanates in Mad Men. He has said that Hitchcock has influenced the look and feel of the show. This is an amazingly beautiful and captivating show. Recommendations all around.
From what I’ve been hearing Twin Peaks is nothing but a genius show from David Lynch. I haven’t seen it, but I have yet to hear a negative review that convinces me in that favor. The Wire is another example of a show I hear nothing but good things about, but have yet to see. (I don’t have HBO!).
I know many people thing TV is the bane of cinema, and I understand that the majority of it is awful and unwatchable, but there are exceptions and those should be appreciated too.
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TV SHOWS almost 4 years ago
T I agree with you about the Shield. I think the way it’s shot just makes the feel of an already gritty show even more grittier. Hopefully the final season will be as good as the rest.
FX has a lot of good shows actually. Rescue Me has it’s moments of funny and serious and I think deals with them both very well. Peter Tolan, who wrote on the Larry Sanders Show, and Denis Leary have definitely made a solid show. It’s Always Sunny on Philadelphia is coming into it’s own comic right with some of the funniest episodes on television of late. The Night Man song Charlie sings in one episode will go down in television comedy history. Nip/Tuck is OK. I don’t really watch it for the humor, but it’s a well put together show.
Their are fewer and fewer network show I watch, partly because networks like FX are able to do so much on cable now, especially if it has a late airing (case in point Nip/Tuck). I agree with you T that television has been hijacked by advertising and that it can be a great medium. A great example is TCM. Their are no commercials (only trailers of films they are showing later in the week in between films), the films are uncut and unedited. Of course the disadvantage is that you are watching it on a television, but it’s such a great resource for films if you don’t live in a big city or don’t have a regular Netflix subscription. They are the only network on cable that understands films shouldn’t have commercials in the middle of them and understand that cutting a chunk out of the film because of practices and standards doesn’t give you a complete film. Not to mention they don’t pan and scan.
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Who do you read? almost 4 years ago
I’m currently reading Demian by Hermann Hesse. I’m loving it so far.
For those interested in Neorealist films, I took a class last semester on 20th Century Italian Literature and Film where we focused on films and literature that influenced the neorealist era. Some of the books below (that I enjoyed) have influenced some of those films of those time.
Elio Vittorini – Conversations in Sicily (I’m fascinated with the prose in this book)
Ceasre Pavese – The Moon and the Bonfire
Italo Calvino – Path to the Spiders Nest
Primo Levi – Survival in Auschwitz
Carlo Levi – Christ Stopped at Eboli
Some other authors, poets and philosophers I enjoy: John Stuart Mill (On Liberty), Karl Marx, Frederich Nietzsche, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason), Henrich Heine (The Harz Journey), Wordsworth Longfellow, Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake), Daniel Quinn (Ishmael), Voltaire (Candide), Bronte Sisters and Dostoevsky.
Some other authors I will eventually read: Franz Kafka, Upton Sinclair, Jean Paul Sarte, Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Cormac McCarthy, Bertolt Brecht and Hemingway.
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Godard: Marx and others who influenced his films almost 4 years ago
May 68 was an interesting event that still not everyone is on the same page of what and how it happened.
http://www.sens-public.org/spip.php?article472
Above is a link to a fairly comprehensive look at May 68 from a political stand point. The controversy, the criticism, etc. What it did to cinema is a whole different story. I might have read it wrong, but didn’t Godard and Truffaut’s relationship become strained during that time period? I believe it was over a rally where Truffaut didn’t participate in something and Godard called him out on it. I know in ’73 is when they send the criticizing letters to each other.
http://www.geocities.com/pincheproduce/godard.html
Above is a link to some of the fighting they did.
Here’s a section from that I wanted to point out.
“However, Truffaut and Godard did not always have such a contentious relationship. Earlier, during the late 60’s, Truffaut brings up an instance of the persona dictating the subject matter of film. In this case, we see the precursor for Godards films in his daily life. Truffaut recalls, “At that time [during the 50’s, when they first met] he was much more cheerful than he is today. I remember particularly that he played innumerable practical jokes. Now he writes them, he includes them in his films, but no longer in his life” 6. Here we see the activities of Godard making the transition from daily life to filmic life. But his sensibility is never lost.
Truffaut notes, “The miracle of Breathless is that it was made at a time in the life of a man in which normally he would not want to make a film” 7. He continues, "One doesn’t make a film when one is sad and destitute. Making a film means that you’re living in a hotel or an apartment, that you are disengaged from material worries, and that you make your film without any distraction from your present thoughts "8. This was definatly not the case with Godard. Truffaut concludes, “In the case of Breathless, the man who made it was almost a pauper. Therein lies the miracle. It is rare that being so unhappy and so alone, one can still make a film” 9. Most would agree, it comes through in this and his other films.
This accounts for the changes Godard made in Truffaut’s original scenario. Truffaut notes, “Jean-Luc chose a violent end [to Breathless] because he was by nature sadder than I” 10. It was these before mentioned pre-conditions that lead to the pacing, the choice of location and lighting, and ultimately the tone of Breathless, in addition to his subsequent works.”
I thought that was an interesting point Truffaut said. What happened to Godard that made him come off like a morose guy? I guess I can’t say with certain that’s true, but his films and his characters are often portrayed that way. Was it the politics that made him so serious? Or did he see the bullshit all around him and chose not to follow it? Truffaut has a valid point, but I also think Godard was right to call Truffaut out. Truffaut’s films had become less and less like the 400 Blows (This sounds a lot like Rossellini fighting with Fellini on what true Neorealism was.) and were becoming more Hollywood. Godard had stayed true to himself in his films, regardless of the climate or taste of cinema. Godard though was mostly an outsider. His later films didn’t make as much money. A great quote from him was he was at an airport "When he [Godard] arrived, the customs officer asked him: “Mr Godard: what are you coming here for? Business or pleasure?” Godard indicated the former. The officer asked what business he was in. “Unsuccessful movies,” Godard replied." I don’t think Godard could have gone the route of Truffaut, they were just two different filmmakers that just shared the birth of a cinematic movement. One became an ambassador of cinema like Martin Scorsese and the other receded into the night like David Lynch with just that moment in time to tie them together.
Tying it back to 68, I think again there was a fundamental difference after 68 with both of those directors. One kept making films as if 68 was still happening and the other forgot about it. Is either of them right? All in all 68 made activism real and not just something they made in their films (at least for Godard). Imagine Godard now, without 68? Would he even be making films anymore?
I don’t know if what I said above makes any sense (NY heat wave is making my brain turn to mush), but I will check it out later or tomorrow. Please keep this thread going. I’m such a beginner when it comes to Godard so I like reading about Godard from other film lovers, their thoughts and feelings about such a mysterious auteur. I mean like Godard said, we have no right to read into his films, but that doesn’t stop us from doing so.
PS: Sorry for the long post
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Fall at Film Forum/Big Screen Dreams almost 4 years ago
Big screen dreams is a luxury I can’t afford (Plus Netflix has kind of ruined me – how dare they be affordable and convenient). But if it was a dollar theater or money was no object then I would want to see any Godard films (Contempt, Weekend, Pierrot Le Fou in particular) Eraserhead, The Conformist and Raging Bull.
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Italian Neorealism and the Auteur's that built cinema. almost 4 years ago
Italian Neorealism is one of the more famous cinematic movements in film history. Beginning, which is still debatable, with Rossellini’s “Rome, Open City” and ending (in my opinion) with De Sica’s “Umberto D”. If Rossellini is the Grandfather of Neorealism, De Sica would be the father and Cesare Zavattini would be the Mother (that is said with no disrespect), Visconti: the weird uncle and Fellini: the troublesome child.
What Neorealism means and how it’s achieved is argueable even today. A clear consensus of the movement was how the films were made. Often they were on location shoots, using non-actors and exploring subject matter that was born out of war and struggle. Zavattini’s neorealist dream was a 90 minute film of a man of whom nothing happens to and Umberto D is his closest effort to that. To quote Bazin himself “De Sica and Zavattini treated cinema like the asymptote to reality, something that can never be achieved, but instead should be able to reflect the poetical brilliance of reality.” Umberto D is often not the first film that comes to mind when Itialian neorealism is spoken about, but it should be. Bazin (one of Neorealism’s strongest defenders) argued against the notion that Umberto D. was a return to neorealism, but that instead Umberto D. was a completion of what Bicycle Thieves was said to be the start of.
Here is a link to a paper I did on Roberto Rossellini entitled “The Journey of the Auteur”, which identifies his progress developing his vision by taking a look at some of his early works (during the neorealist period), The War Trilogy (Rome, Open City, Paisan, Germany: Year Zero) and concluding with The Flowers of St. Francis. I try to look at not only the films, but the context of how and when the films were made. For example, when Rossellini was making his most overtly religious film (The Flowers of St. Francis) he was being condemned for his affair with Ingrid Bergman on the Senate floor.
http://meziszem.blogspot.com/2008/05/journey-of-auteur-roberto-rossellini.html
I have another shorter paper that was a rough draft of the above one that talks about De Sica’s “Journey”, that I’ll try to post another time. In the mean time discuss.
Recommended Italian Neorealist basic watch list (should be watched in order):
Luchino Visconti: Obsessione
Roberto Rossellini : The War Trilogy (Rome Open City, Pasian, Germany Year Zero)
Vittorio De Sica: The Children are Watching Us
Luchino Visconti: La Terra Trema
Vittorio De Sica: Bicycle Thieves
Vittorio De Sica: Umberto D.
Some topics to possibly discuss…
Neorealist influences (Prior: Literature – Elio Vittorini, Carlo Levi Films – ?) (Post: Alphaville, City of God, Fellini)
Culture climate of the time – Post war, rebuilding, US troops, poverty, morality? religion?
Favorite Neorealist films
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Books on Film almost 4 years ago
What is Cinema? Vol 1&2 by Andre Bazin
Essays on Chaplin by Andre Bazin
I really enjoy the essay compilation books (there is a great series released by Harvard University Press the categorizes Cahiers Du Cinema ex. The 1950s: Neo-Realism, Hollywood, New Wave and they are just a collection of essays and discussions of films, theories, trends, etc.).
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What are you watching now? almost 4 years ago
I saw Une Femme est une Femme (A Woman is a Woman) last week and I was amazed at what I saw. Up until that point I had seen mainly Godard’s more political and “serious” films and this film was such a breath of fresh air. It was funny and inventive, Belmondo was just a joy and Anna Karina. I mean who can’t say enough good things about Godard’s muse.
I just watched Kris (Crisis), Ingmar Bergman’s directorial debut film yesterday and I’m still infatuated with how stunning Inga Landgré is in that film. She has just replaced Paulette Goddard in the category of “Women that are so perfect, they almost seem approachable”. Crisis was surprisingly good for a first film. I think Bergman handled the actors and the material well for the most part and pulled some really great performances out of Stig Olin (Jack) and Dagny Lind (Ingeborg). Not to mention Marianne Löfgren plays Nelly’s mother extremely well. Think of Diane Ladd and Laura Dern’s relationship in Lynch’s “Wild at Heart”. Diane and Marianne’s mirror scenes are eerily similar and each have a twisted undertone that only Bergman and Lynch could produce so simply.
I’m going to watch Port of Call tonight in my Bergman/Independence day weekend.
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What constitutes an Auteur? almost 4 years ago
To look at an auteur is to look at all his work and not part of it. That their can be good auteurs and bad auteurs. I think Truffaut said that the worst film of Jean Renoir is still better than the best film of Jean Delannoy. “There are no good and bad movies, only good and bad directors.”
Godard says “It concentrated on recognition of a director’s contribution as a creator of images as opposed to the screenwriter. It’s a grammar of narrative imagery which must constantly be renewed to ward off stereotypes and routine.”
My suggestion would be to read Bazin “La Politque Des Auteurs” (If you can find an english version) and maybe that can help who ever is curious. Let me know how it is to. :)
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Documentaries almost 4 years ago
Louis Malle’s Place de la république, Calcutta and God’s Country.
Chris Smith’s American Movie
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Is Cinema dying? almost 4 years ago
It’s almost dead…
When independent film became a viable way to make commercial films, it killed the hopes of revitalizing the medium. I’m not saying that cinema dying is a bad thing. It’s needed. In the 80’s their was a comedy boom in the United States. Everyone, who wanted to become a stand up comic, became one, television execs were handing pilot deals off the street. But at the end of the 80’s and into the 90’s it died a beautiful death. The rebirth of comedy and comedians, showed the wherewithal of the comedians who struggled through the boom and came out of it still in comedy. Those who were looking for their 15 minutes in the 80’s got it and after it ended we forgot about them. Those who truly were comedians survived and are still around.
Cinema needs to go through the same process. You know you have a problem when films like “Synecdoche, New York” and “Che” can’t find distributors by the time they leave Cannes. That’s just the beginning, as is film companies cutting back on their specialty devisions (what I believe Olivier would classify as the good movies that have been coming out – most of those films are acquired from these divisions). As the economy fails so does it’s art. When life is good, art is great (think Renaissance in literature, art, philosophy, science, etc). When life is down, art either dies (leaving an era of no advancement) or lives through those with true intentions who later give it a chance to be reborn.
This doesn’t mean their won’t be good films. Now that these companies are being more cautious about choosing films, it just means there will be fewer of them. At that rate their isn’t much hope for cinema as you and I would like to see it. So just bide your time, let it die, and be ready for the rebirth. That’s what people should be worried about.
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Italian Neorealism and the Auteur's that built cinema. over 3 years ago
Rossellini was definitely on a different wavelength. He made his films the way he thought a neo-realist film should be made and told and you can see where other directors prescribed to his methods and where directors strayed away from it. That’s how the disconnect between Rossellini and Fellini started, when Fellini abandoned Rossellini’s ideologies and went the way he went. But I don’t think neo-realism would have lasted as long as it did if directors had to prescribe to a certain doctrine of how stories were done and told, which Rossellini partly wanted to do. He might have been on a different wavelength, but without his influence, neo-realism would look much different.
I think it would be hard to say what correct neo-realism is, but you know it when you see it. If you were Italian at the end of world war two, you had no trouble trying to find a film that captured your life, which is a testament to how undefinable the genre is.
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Is Cinema dying? over 3 years ago
An article on this topic in the NYTimes. Maybe they were reading this thread? (There is another article on this topic, if I find it I’ll post it.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/movies/moviesspecial/07darg.html?_r=1&ref=movies&oref=slogin
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Synecdoche, New York, Brecht and Godard over 3 years ago
I saw Synecdoche, New York today at a screening at school and found myself thinking about Brecht and Godard. His new film is like a Brechtian dream and he tries to utilize the epic theater in ways that Godard implemented in his earlier work. Disjointed/episodic nature of scenes, hopping through different times as if you were inhaling and exhaling and always a sense that the characters are breaking a fourth wall that really wasn’t there in the first place. It’s hard not to watch the film and not think of Brecht’s alienation technique of distancing the audience to the point where they have to look at what they are seeing objectively and with a critical eye. The film I found worked well in that respect, which I enjoyed, but I also found my self smiling when I heard the students next to me repeating “What the fuck” silently to themselves and to their friends. It’s not an easy film to digest and Kaufman (who was at the screening afterwards and gave a Q&A) said that he didn’t want to put out something that he had been seeing in cinema right now. For those who love Eternal Sunshine, they are going to be conflicted with this film, because it’s a logical progression as a writer for him. Sunshine, in my opinion was a simple story told in a complex way, which had broad appeal. Synecdoche, New York is a complex series of events (I would hesitate in calling it a straight narrative) that is told without giving any “in” for the audience. The end doesn’t sum up everything you were confused about the film, it doesn’t give you a feeling of completion, it leaves you empty and hungry for understanding, which is in no way a comment to disparage the film. The film is a breath of fresh air for cinema and it’s terrible that it’s going to be ignored by the general public (Film students who have seen Kaufman’s work and arguably fans of his, were confused about how to feel about the film, so I’m not sure how America will respond).
Love him or hate him, Godard has prepared me never to assume anything about a film until the credits are rolling and with that attitude I throughly enjoyed the ride that was Synecdoche, New York. It’s left me wanting to see it again so I can look at it now with a critical eye, but also because the journey is one that is best experienced by watching it again.
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Synecdoche, New York, Brecht and Godard over 3 years ago
Derek I don’t think it’s going to make bank either.
Synecdoche, NY Production Budget – $20 Million
Synecdoche, NY Domestic Box Office as of 11/23/08 – $1,554,060
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Italian Neorealism and the Auteur's that built cinema. over 3 years ago
Wise: There has been much contention about whether Rome:Open City or Ossessione was the beginning and I think the argument could be made for both. Rossellini’s film is melodramatic in many areas which many consider not a trait of neo-realism, which is why Ossessione is brought up as a viable candidate. But I think the melodramatic tendencies were part of Rossellini’s style of neo-realism and we have to realize that there was no one formula for it.
I agree with you guys above about Umberto D. It is my “be all, end all” neo-realist film.
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