Liquid Celluloid:
Water in Film
The NAU Humanities, Arts, and Religion Film Series
The Humanities, Arts, and Religion Film Series joins the College of Arts and Letters in its year long investigation into the theme of "Water in the Arts." Our film series will look at water as stage and barrier, as setting for spiritual and comic journey, as well as the source of fear, isolation, escape, jouissance and transcendence. We will look at films with "too much"water and those where drought, dust, and thirst speak of water by its absence. The material and metaphorical meaning of water will be explored, from single tear to ocean, from atmospheric fog to sublime icy peak, from the slapstick profanity of the seltzer bottle to sacramental purity of mountain stream.
The series will have tributes to Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder
and features films from Buster Keaton, Preston Sturges, Michael Curtiz,
John Ford, and Howard Hawks. Stars include Henry Fonda, Veronica Lake,
Joel McCrea, Gene Kelly, Olivia DeHavilland, Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder,
Tony Curtis, Montgomery Clift, Sinatra, Sheen, Streep, Bendix, Brando,
Bogart and Bacall.
Two parched picaresques, Sullivan' s Travels and Grapes of Wrath, engage depression/dustbowl era ethics and issues. Buster Keaton's The Navigator and Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboatprovide high comic and dramatic reflections on humanity cut adrift. Sunset Blvd. and the The Big Sleep are amongst the best examples of Film Noir's use of water as atmospheric anxiety. War epics Apocalypse Now Redux and From Here to Eternity provide water as stage for romance, evil, and intrigue. Two of the funniest films ever made, Some Like it Hot and The Producers, provide water as comic punctuation and pretense. Beloved films such as Casablanca and Singin' in the Rain use water as the currency of love and loss. The Birds, The Hours, and A River Runs Through It have water serve as metaphor for oblivion, isolation and transcendence.
Look for the special screening of The Architecture of Doom, a documentary aboy Hitler's genocidal aesthetics.
Films are screened in Cline Library Auditorium, Tuesday nights unless otherwise noted. Films are free and open to the public. Call 523-9515 for information.
August 30
Keaton Adrift
The Navigator (Donald Crisp, 1924, 59 minutes)7:00 PM
"Buster Keaton's The Navigator is a great comedy. In it, he and
Kathryn McGuire play a young rich couple who get cast adrift on a deserted
ocean liner. They never had to fend for themselves before, and now
that survival is a constant worry, they must learn to accept the technology
that webs them: When they notice that supplies have been stored in
mammoth size, they set up a mad pulley system with which to do their
cooking, and we see them sleeping in makeshift beds, in the steam rooms
of the ship. Taking the mollycoddles out of their natural space allows
Keaton to send up their helpless naivete; yet it remains doubtful as
to whether they will mature. Perhaps this is as it should be, for Keaton,
lean surrealist that he is, manages to keep both viewer and character
locked in tittering suspense.... Thus, Keaton finds it best just to
let the anarchic absurdity of his characters' fix unfold with seeming
naturalness. The craft is outlandish and concise; persona and plot
are cleanly interwoven -- they merge into an utterly clipped and distinct
style.... The Navigator was Keaton's most profitable silent film, and
it only suffers inasmuch as his two-reelers are riotously funnier and
his (other) feature-lengths much more clever. On the whole, though,
Buster transcends the medium. Period. The Navigator is a film whose
concrete trappings fit an on-screen persona, which embodies the conflict
between humanness (clumsy folly) and a lack thereof (graceful perfection).
It shows Buster Keaton's flair for economizing into live action the
tangled paradox of our time: As manifest in movies like Steamboat Bill,
Jr. (1928), The General (1927), and Sherlock, Jr. (1924), Keaton's
impulsive fondness toward man and machine alike makes his films refreshingly
modern. His semi-detached surrealism affords us the chance to partake
of humanity, and to purge ourselves of it through laughter."--Joe
Cormack
September 6
Laughin’ at Clouds
Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952 103 minutes)7:00 PM
"There is no movie musical more fun than Singin' in the Rain,'
and few that remain as fresh over the years. Its originality is all
the more startling if you reflect that only one of its songs was written
new for the film, that the producers plundered MGM's storage vaults
for sets and props, and that the movie was originally ranked below "An
American in Paris,'' which won a best picture Oscar. The verdict of
the years knows better than Oscar: Singin' in the Rain' is a transcendent
experience, and no one who loves movies can afford to miss it. The
film is above all lighthearted and happy. The three stars--Gene Kelly,
Donald O'Connor and 19-year-old Debbie Reynolds--must have rehearsed
endlessly for their dance numbers, which involve alarming acrobatics,
but in performance they're giddy with joy. Kelly's soaking-wet "Singin'
in the Rain'' dance number is "the single most memorable dance
number on film,'' Peter Wollen wrote in a British Film Institute monograph."--Roger
Ebert. Singin' in the Rain won the Writer's Guild award for Best Writing,
was nominated for two Oscars and was named the number ten film of all
time by the American Film Institute which also named the title song
as the number three of all time.
September 13
Dust Bowl Dreams
Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940 128 minutes)7:00 PM
"Like a grand Biblical epic, John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath
documents the massive Depression-era exodus of Oklahoma farmers as
they led their families from the devastation of the dust bowl to the
illusory promise of prosperity in a Californian Eden. As the film opens,
everything seems aligned against the Joad family, and pretty much every
Okie we meet. Elemental forces of nature combine with those of men
driven by the profit motive to rob the Joads, and thousands of other
families, of their homes, livelihoods and lives. Ford utilizes the
iconography of the Western throughout – wide open vistas, the
ragged determination of his put-upon characters – to infuse the
film with a timeless sensibility, and accentuate the monumental task
facing these feisty and resilient salts of the earth. Vital to the
film’s sense of authenticity is the cinematography of Gregg Toland.
Anticipating his own rightly-lauded deep focus photography for Citizen
Kane, Toland capably captures the desolate Depression era imagery,
mirroring the famous pictures of Horace Bristol and Dorothea Lange.
Occasionally, Ford loosens Toland’s camera from its tripod, as
in our first trip through a Californian Hooverville, and the effect
of the long tracking shot, with its suddenly subjective point-of-view,
is stunning in its departure from the film’s established mis-en-scene,
drawing us into the squalor as effortlessly as a river’s current.
What really solidifies the greatness of The Grapes of Wrath is Ford’s
ability to blend the personal and political without causing damage
to either characters or themes. This is particularly true of the central
characters of Tom and Ma Joad. Undoubtedly the most famous speech in
this fine film is delivered near its end. Facing a lifetime in prison
for standing up to some crooked cops in order to protect a friend from
their batons, Tom Joad, realizing he must leave his family to protect
them, reassures his mother that he’ll never really be gone with
his wrenching “I’ll be there” speech. Tom, in what
is surely Henry Fonda’s greatest and defining role, recites these
lines while staring off into some infinite point in the horizon. It
marks his awakening, as he is finally able to see clearly how the troubles
of others in the world reside with him. “A fellow ain't got a
soul of his own, just a little piece of a big soul, the one big soul
that belongs to everybody.” While there is a hint of the fanatic’s
determination in his eyes’ gleam, it is not the fanaticism of
desperation, but rather that of commitment to his fellow man "--Dan
Jardine . Nominated for seven Oscars, winning for Best Picture and
Best Supporting Actress. The 21st Best Film of all time on the American
Film Institute List.
September 20
Land Yachts, Swimin’ Pools
Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941, 90 minutes) 7:00 PM
"Sturges, a Hollywood satirical genius, at his peak had enough box-office clout, like Billy Wilder with Sunset Boulevard, to assail the system that fed him. Joel McCrea in his best role plays John L Sullivan, Hollywood's top director of lightweight hits. The studio expects a sequel to "Ants in Your Plants of 1939", but he wants to film a portentous breadline America novel, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", as his serious social statement. The horrified execs, smelling disaster, tell him he knows nothing of poverty. He vows to study life at the bottom, setting out moneyless as a tramp, but the attempt fails because the studio sends a luxury motorhome and publicity entourage after him. Then a girl (Veronica Lake) who knows hunger helps him to achieve his purpose. Fate causes him to be imprisoned for attacking a railroad worker, while a hobo who has stolen his shoes is mangled by a train and the body identified as his. Locked up on a squalid prison farm he comes to realize that the world values laughter more than social realism. It's a great comedy, with a message that works in context, the flophouses of life's downside contrasting with Hollywood's absurd hedonism. Sturges's wonderful stock company of supporting players makes up the rest of the cast. The Coen Brothers were so influenced by Sullivan's Travels they named their film O Brother, Where Art Thou? from it"--George Perry. Sullivan's Travels was selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry in 1990 and was named the 39th funniest film by the American Film Institute.
September 27
“I came to Casablanca for the waters.”
“The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.”
“I was misinformed.”
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942, 102 minutes) 7:00 PM
"Casablanca comes closer to perfection than any other film that
I have seen, and is probably the best film ever made. Casablanca has
everything: a great script, a great cast, and outstanding cinematography
and direction. If you are reading this, you've probably seen the film
several times. Casablanca stars Humphrey Bogart as Rick, who owns a
popular nightclub in Casablanca, Morocco. The film takes place during
World War II, and the Nazis have taken France. Morocco is a French
territory. Casablanca is filled with refugees trying to escape Nazi
influence, and there is a black market for exit visas. Deeply cynical
Rick tries to suppress his anti-Nazi sentiments, as does corrupt official
Claude Rains. Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet are simply profiteers.
Conrad Veidt plays a dislikable Nazi officer, who is chasing fugitive
Paul Henreid. Henreid is married to lovely Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), who
once had an affair with Rick. Rick, whose motto is "I don't stick
my neck out for nobody", is asked to help Henreid escape. He is
also tempted to resume his romance with Ilsa. What makes Casablanca
possibly the best film ever made? The most important element is the
script, which is the most quoted in film history. The script was based
on an obscure unproduced play, "Everybody comes to Rick's",
and according to legend was written hastily during filming. But more
than in any other movie, the script brings out the depth of the characters,
with Veidt's contemptible Nazi as the only stereotype. Even minor supporting
actors, such as piano player Sam (Dooley Wilson) and desperate refugee
Annina (Joy Page) are made real. The glorious black and white cinematography
is the second most important element. The cinematographer was Arthur
Edeson, who was also behind the camera for two of the best films from
the 1930s, All Quiet on the Western Front and Mutiny on the Bounty.
But of course the shots were under the Director's supervision. The
director was Michael Curtiz [whose 150 films include...] The Adventures
of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, Yankee Doodle Dandy and Life
with Father. These famous films are all very different, ranging from
crime drama to comedy to adventure to musical, showing the range that
Curtiz had. As great as the cast is, it is less important than the
script and cinematography. Rains should have won Best Supporting Actor,
while Bogart and Bergman are inseparable from their roles. Lorre is
probably my all-time favorite character actor. Casablanca was key to
Bogart's subsequent career as an anti-hero male lead, as he previously
was noted for supporting roles portraying gangsters"--Brian Koller.
Casablanca was nominated for seven Oscars, winning for Screenplay,
Director, and Picture. The film was named the number one Best Romance,
the number two Best Film, and the 37th Best Thriller of all time by
the American Film Institute,
October 4
The Weather Started Getting Rough
Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock, 1944, 96 minutes)7:00 PM
"The 1944 film, Lifeboat, might easily be categorized as your
generic war movie showing how Allied lives are at the mercy of Nazi
Germany. However this tale, written by Jo Swerling [based on a story
by John Steinbeck] and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is more than just
propaganda. Its a dissection of human spirit and fortitude as a group
of survivors are thrown together in a claustrophobic hell that is,
somewhat, of their own making. The entire film takes place in a lifeboat
as passengers of a doomed ship find themselves adrift on the high seas.
One of the lifeboat’s occupants is the very man who caused their
predicament: a German U-boat captain whose submarine torpedoed their
vessel. Captain Willy (Walter Slezak) appears, at first, to be the "black
hat" of this war-era film but Hitchcock has other ideas for him.
Instead of being portrayed as the distinct villain of all humanity,
Willy proves to be the one person who may be the others only chance
of survival.... With its confined quarters and drama created without
flashback, Lifeboat reads more like a stage play than a motion picture.
In the capable hands of Hitchcock though, it is hardly a tale of just
words. The film is a superb character study on how individuals, despite
their political beliefs, behave in a life and death situation. And
if anyone might have fallen asleep during the long second act of dialogue,
Hitch tosses in an explosive twist near the end." --Terrence Brady.
Lifeboat was nominated for three Academy Awards for Director, Cinematography,
and Writing ( John Steinbeck.)
October 11
“I enjoyed your drink as much as you did, sir.”
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946, 114 minutes)7:00 PM
"Humphrey Bogart stars as Philip Marlowe, a world-weary private
detective who isn’t picky about whom he works for, as long as
he gets paid. This time his client is General Sternwood a wealthy old
invalid who is concerned that one of his two high-living daughters
is the target of a blackmail effort. Carmen Sternwood is a hard drinking
party girl who shows her sauciness by coming on to Marlowe at their
first meeting. Big sister Vivian (Lauren Bacall) is a bit more controlled,
but she too likes to have a good time with gamblers and other ne’er
do wells. As Marlowe sets out to discover who is doing the blackmailing,
he soon finds that there’s a complex web of intrigue that’s
got Carmen tangled up in some serious trouble. As he tries to protect
his clients, Vivian becomes directly involved, and soon Marlowe finds
himself falling for Vivian while he’s fighting to protect both
women from a seemingly endless array of nasties who come visiting with
their guns drawn.... The atmosphere, the snappy, sexy dialogue (the
novelist William Faulkner was part of the writing team that brought
Raymond Chandler’s novel to the screen) and the great cast make
this a memorable film, even though the plot is overly complex to the
point that director Howard Hawks claimed to not understand it....Despite
the confusion this creates, the trade-off was worthwhile, as the additional
scenes make the film memorable. Bacall is smart and sexy, and the other
female characters are also great fun. Bogart is Bogart – cool,
cynical, but ultimately passionate and loyal."--Brian Webster.
The film was selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film
Registry in 1997.
October 18
“Angle up through the water from the bottom of the pool, as the
body floats face downward. It is a well-dressed young man”
Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950, 110 minutes)7:00 PM
"Of all Billy Wilder's cinematic creations, the most inspired
is arguably the device of having Sunset Boulevard (1950) narrated by
a dead man. The movie opens with the unforgettable image of screenwriter
Joe Gillis floating upside down in a pool, while he speaks to us on
the soundtrack. He has the ultimate gift of hindsight as he tells his
bizarre story that could only have happened in Hollywood. Gillis is
something of a hack and is unable to pay his bills. Escaping from creditors,
he pulls into the driveway of a dilapidated old Hollywood mansion,
which, to his surprise, is still occupied by a formerly great silent
film star, Norma Desmond. She hires him to re-write her voluminous
script of "Salome", which is to be her big comeback. Gillis
agrees for the money and for the hiding place. Sunset Boulevard is
arguably Wilder's best film, although it's got stiff competition from
such works as Double Indemnity (1944), Ace in the Hole (1951), Some
Like It Hot (1959), and The Apartment (1960). It's often called "cynical" but
I think the word is just "clever". It's astonishing that
a man who taught himself English through comic strips was able to master
such a wit and a searingly intelligent outlook on American life. Wilder
and co-writer Charles Brackett were the first to notice the horrible
fate of the old-time silent stars, many of whom were still alive in
1950. How much more terrible it must be to be on top of the world,
and then forgotten; to have known a taste of heaven before being dumped
into hell. Indeed, Sunset Boulevard was perhaps the first film of the
second generation of Hollywood, and like Jean-Luc Godard's self-referential
works, it closed the door on the first generation. The movie takes
place mostly in Desmond's old mansion and the studio lot. It's constantly
fading back and forth between the old and the new, the fake and the
real. The few scenes that take place in the real world, i.e. Desmond
buying new clothes for Gillis, feel somehow dreamlike, as if they're
tinted with a ghostliness. Inside Desmond's mansion, we're treated
to all kinds of sights that don't seem real; the funeral for the monkey,
the wheezing organ, and the New Year's party for two. These are the
things that are happening in the present day. Yet the events having
to do with past years are more vivid; Desmond showing Gillis her old
movies, and the "waxworks" (including the great Buster Keaton)
playing cards. When Gillis begins meeting a lovely young screenwriter
on the studio lot at night, they take walks around the cardboard western
sets. Again, it feels both real and fake....Sunset Boulevard is a high-style
movie, not meant to unleash any emotional revelations. It's meant to
give us a kick with its sights, sounds, shadows, and light. It's all
image--from Gillis floating in the pool to Desmond leering at the camera,
coming in for her closeup. It's a perfectly controlled masterpiece
that captured a peculiar moment in movie history" --Jeffrey Anderson.
Sunset Blvd. was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning for Art
Direction, Writing, and Music. The American Film Institute named Sunset
Blvd. as the 12th Best Film.
October 25
“On the beach---indeed!”
From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinneman, 1953, 118 minutes)7:00 PM
"This quintessential service drama, set on an Oahu army base in
late 1941, is an example of something that ended with The Godfather.
The movie, directed by Fred Zinnemann from James Jones's once sensational
novel, is the transformation of a sprawling Dreiser-tradition bestseller,
into all-star, character-rich Oscar-bait. Contemporary audiences may
not see why, even in its toned-down simplification of the novel, From
Here to Eternity was the most daring movie of 1953, but it remains
an acting bonanza—including Frank Sinatra's notably focused comeback
turn as the volatile Private Maggio and the cast-against-type performances
by Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed. Burt Lancaster anchors the movie with
his tough first sergeant; Montgomery Clift soars as the tragic company
misfit Private Prewitt. The moment in which Prewitt blows a few bebop
riffs on the bugle is a fanfare for himself. Nearly everyone gets a
drunk scene and the adulterous Kerr-Lancaster clinch in the surf was
the Eisenhower-era high-water mark of Hollywood sexual passion. (It's
fascinating that had Columbia boss Harry Cohn gotten his way and Zinnemann
some of his druthers, the movie would have had completely other principals;
this Bizarro World Eternity substitutes Aldo Ray for Clift, Edmond
O'Brien for Lancaster, Joan Crawford for Kerr, Julie Harris for Reed,
and most world-historically, Eli Wallach for Sinatra.) Almost a disaster
film, From Here to Eternity juggles a large cast, multiple romances,
and a sense of impending doom all the way to the big Pearl Harbor blowout.
It's a bit anticlimactic after the catharsis of Prewitt's impromptu
prizefight, but it does ensure that the movie will provide nearly every
emotion."--The Village Voice. The film was nominated for thirteen
Academy Awards, winning for Best Supporting Actor and Actress; Best
Writing, Cinematography, Editing, and Sound; Best Director and Picture.
The American Film Institute named this film the number 20 Best Romance
and number 52 Best Film of all time.
Special Screening: FRIDAY, October 28
The Architecture of Doom(Peter Cohen, 1991, 119 minutes) Cline Library
7:00 PM
"This film examines Hitler's eccentric cultural ambitions for the Third
Reich, and the profound influence his obsession - and personal failures - with
art played in the development of the Nazi party. Its propaganda machine created
a climate which made brutality acceptable - and later necessary - to cleanse
society, citing such programs as "Action Euthanasia," whereby mentally
disturbed Germans were exterminated as a step towards purifying the "Volk." It
was in this atmosphere that a bridge between the primitive aesthetic and the
final Nazi barbarities was built. The rise and disastrous consequences of Nazism
is still one of the great mysteries of the twentieth century. Although many
films describe the symptoms and catastrophic results of the Third Reich, none
provides so thought-provoking an examination of its causes as The Architecture
Of Doom. "Fascinating and complex... I don't know another movie where
the Nazi world-view has been evoked with such measured austerity... As an argument,
the movie is lucid and shocking" - J. Hoberman, Village Voice. "In
this brilliantly written and visualized documentary, [the director] uses rare
historical footage to show how Hitler and his cronies used art to create an "ideology
of beauty" that both demonizes an enemy and galvanized the professional
classes, along with many rank-and-file Germans, into either actively participating
in or tacitly approving of the destruction of millions….in Cohen's eloquent
phrase, he "saw doom as art's highest expression," and to the world's
lasting detriment became ever more frenzied in his attempt to create the horrifying "high
art" of genocide" -Gary Morris.
This film is being shown as part of a week of events about the Holocaust.
Specifically thje opera
DER KAISER VON ATLANTIS ODER DIE TOD-VERWEIGERUNG
(The Emperor of Atlantis or Death’s Refusal) by Viktor Ullmann
Czech Jewish composer Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) was a pupil of Arnold
Schoenberg, the father of modern atonal music. Schoenberg was lucky
enough to wander out into the United States when the Nazi regime started
hunting the Jewish population. Ullmann was not so lucky and ended up
in the Terezin concentration camp (a.k.a. Theresienstadt).Viktor Ullmann,
pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, was interred at the Terezin Concentration
camp (Theresienstadt) during World War II. While there he composed
using the words of Peter Kien, a short opera deals, DER KAISER VON
ATLANTIS ODER DIE TOD-VERWEIGERUNG, that was forbidden by the Nazis
to be performed. This opera, seen by some as a point of resistance,
personalizes death.
The opera open with two characters representing Death and Life who
both lamet the way in which life and death have ceased to have any
meaning in the modern world. Death is asked to work with the Emperor
to foster total war. He refuses and then thwarts the Emperor’s
work by not having anyone die. After other events Death tells the Emperor
that he is willing to resume his work if the Emperor will agree to
be his first victim. Realizing that this represents the only hope for
humanity, the Emperor allows himself to be led away. The Nazi authorities
saw the dress rehearsal and immediately forbade any further performances.
Ullmann and his text writer Peter Kien were sent to the gas chambers.
The world premiere took place in 1975 in Amsterdam/NL by Netherlands
Opera.
The opera will be preceded by a song cycle of five songs, composed
by American composer Elwood Derr, based on five children’s poems
taken from the book “I never saw another Butterfly”. The
poems and artwork in the book were saved from the children interred
at Terezin concentration camp. All the the children died at the hands
of the Nazis.
If you want to know more about the piece, go into Google, write DER KAISER VON ATLANTIS and look on the web site page for TEREZIN. There you will find everything you may want to know about the piece and its background. Performances will take place in Ardrey Auditorium on the NAU campus November 5th and 6th both at 2:30PM.
November 1
“We're up a creek and YOU want to hock the paddle!”
Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959 120 minutes)7:00 PM
" From the very first scene in Some Like It Hot, a car chase with
cops leaning out of the side of their vehicle shooting at gangsters,
Wilder establishes a grand tone of farce - and makes reference to the
film history which he knew first hand. The scene, of course, is a direct
allusion to the work of Mack Sennett.
Efficiently building a complicated plot line, Wilder quickly cuts to
the core joke which sustains the movie: Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis,
two out-of-work musicians, get into drag in order to land jobs with
an all girls band and avoid the gangsters who are after them.... Drag
humor is complex and its ironies can be played in a variety of ways,
but here it is straightforward and relatively uncomplicated - men's
legs wobbling in high heeled shoes, the sexual energy of ...[Lemmon]
in drag sharing an upper Pullman berth with Marilyn Monroe, Lemmon
dancing a wickedly funny tango with Joe E. Brown. All three leads seem
today to be impossibly young. All three were also superbly cast for
their comic powers. Monroe was never more beautiful, more sexy, or
funnier. This film alone would guarantee her place in the Hollywood
pantheon; the role suited her as snugly as did her revealing gowns.
And, surely, her exaggerated feminine voluptuousness is the perfect
foil for the men in dresses. The supporting roles are peppered with
great names of Hollywood and the result of such high powered casting,
combined with the great skill of the writing, is that each minor character
adds to the fun - George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Nehemiah Persoff. Maybe
what Wilder saved by shooting the Florida scenes in San Diego allowed
the budget to bring this cast together - a fine artistic decision,
as well as a sound business one. Some Like It Hot did not win an Academy
Award. It went that year to Ben Hur, the sort of expensive, self-important
epic that Hollywood likes to reward. Watch both pictures today and
Ben Hur seems dated and stiff; Some Like It Hot is still terrific entertainment."--
Arthur Lazere. The film was Nominated for six Oscars and Won three
Golden Globes for Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, and Best Comedy. The
American Film Institute named this the number one Funniest Film of
all time and the number 14 Best Film of all time.
November 8
Come Sing Me Bodega Bay
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963, 119 minutes)7:00 PM
"The Birds … is a modern Hitchcock thriller/masterpiece,
his first film with Universal Studios. It is the apocalyptic story
of a northern California coastal town filled with an onslaught of seemingly
unexplained, arbitrary and chaotic attacks of ordinary birds - not
birds of prey… It was shot on location in the port town of Bodega
Bay (north of San Francisco ) and in San Francisco itself. Hitchcock
introduced a 'fascinating new personality' for the film - his successor
to Grace Kelly - a cool, blonde professional model named 'Tippi' Hedren,
in her film debut in a leading role. …Initially, critics were
baffled when they attempted to interpret the film on a literal level
and measure it against other typical disaster/horror films of its kind.
The typical Hitchcock MacGuffin is the question: Why do the strange
attacks occur? But the film cannot solely be interpreted that way,
because as the actors in the film discover in the long discussion scene
in the Tides Restaurant, there is no solid, rational reason why the
birds are attacking. They are not seeking revenge for nature's mistreatment,
or foreshadowing doomsday, and they don't represent God's punishment
for humankind's evil….On an allegorical level, the birds in
the film are the physical embodiment and exteriorization of unleashed,
disturbing, shattering forces that threaten all of humanity (those
threatened in the film include schoolchildren, a defenseless farmer,
bystanders, a schoolteacher, etc.) when relationships have become insubstantial,
unsupportive, or hurtful. In a broader, more universal sense, the stability
of the home and natural world environment, symbolized by broken teacups
at the domestic level, is in jeopardy and becoming disordered when
people cannot 'see' the dangers gathering nearby, and cannot adequately
protect themselves from violence behind transparent windows, telephone
booths, eyeglasses, or facades " --Tom Dirks. The Birds was named
the number seven Best Thriller of all time by the American Film Institute.
The film was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award and won a Golden
Globe for "newcomer" Tippi Hedren.
November 15
“What the hell do you know about surfing? You're from goddamned
New Jersey”
Apocalypse Now Redux (Francis Coppola, 1979/2001, 202 minutes) 7:00
PM
“Twenty-two years after the original masterpiece was released,
Francis Ford Coppola’s loose interpretation of Joseph Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness novel set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War
has been given a new lease on celluloid life and the chance to reaffirm
its cinematic glory to a generation that only knows its legacy through
pop culture references. Unquestionably one of the greatest movies of
all time, and perhaps the best "war" movie ever made, Apocalypse
Now’s main themes and inherent power remain unchanged in Redux,
despite the addition of a whopping 49 minutes of additional footage …Apocalypse
Now Redux’s story, social commentary and philosophical musings
remain static in the face of its intimidating running time. A U.S.
army officer, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), is sent up a river leading
into Cambodia via a Navy patrol boat with orders to assassinate an
insane renegade U.S. Colonel named Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has set
himself up as a malevolent god, complete with native followers, along
the way encountering and participating in myriad events that demonstrate
the madness, surrealism, absurdity and horror or war…. Apocalypse
Now Redux remains one of the most powerful movies ever created.”--
Chris Gramlich. Named the number 28 Best Film of all time by the American
Film Institute. Nominated for eight Oscars, winning for Sound and Cinematography
and winning twice at Cannes.
November 22
“But I beneath a rougher sea”
The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002, 114 minutes)7:00 PM
“Despite its literary pedigree, The Hours -- based on the Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel by Michael Cunningham -- is very much a movie,
not a filmed book. Director Stephen Daldry employs the wonderful things
cinema can do in order to realize aspects of The Hours that Cunningham
could only hint at or approximate on the page. The result is something
rare, especially considering how fine the novel is: a film that's fuller
and deeper than the book. In The Hours, Cunningham tried to do two
things: to give the sense of big moments through small events and to
show the timelessness of those moments, how they are the real elements
of life, the patterns that repeat across time. In a novel, playing
with time is difficult without getting fey or abstruse, but in a movie,
Daldry can do it with ease. Indeed, there's a quality of exultation
about the beautifully executed fuguelike opening, as though the story
were basking in film's freedom to transcend time and space. Those first
gorgeous moments show three women in three eras doing similar things.
There's Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) in 1923, the year she wrote "Mrs.
Dalloway"; a troubled young mother (Julianne Moore) in 1951 who
is reading "Mrs. Dalloway"; and a woman (Meryl Streep) in
2001 who's acting like Mrs. Dalloway, planning a party for later that
evening. In one location flowers are bought, in another displayed,
in another discarded, while Philip Glass' piano score underlines the
images. The party that Clarissa (Streep) is planning, in modern-day
Manhattan , is a reception for her friend and erstwhile lover, Richard
(Ed Harris), a bisexual poet who has been given a life-achievement
award. Richard is dying of AIDS and fades in and out, but he's lucid
enough to make Clarissa feel as though her life is trivial and her
concerns meaningless. The struggle for a life of consequence runs through
all three stories. It's that struggle that is driving Laura ( Moore
) half mad in 1951 Los Angeles . A wife and mother with a loving husband
and a child on the way, she is coping with a depression she's afraid
to show but that's eating her alive. Such a state approximates what
Virginia Woolf is both writing about and experiencing in 1923. Living
in the country, she has embarked on a book that she hopes will convey "a
woman's whole life in a single day." When not writing, she's like
a drifter in her own home, afraid of servants and unable to leave.
Everyone who sees The Hours will comment first on the acting, but it's
Kidman, barely recognizable with her nose extended, who's the most
impressive.” –Mick LaSalle. The Hours was nominated for
11 Oscars , winning for Nicole Kidman's performance. It also was nominated
for seven Golden Globes,winning for Best Picture and Kidman.
November 29
“I'm wet! I'm wet! I'm hysterical and I'm wet!”
The Producers (Mel Brooks, 1968, 88 minutes) 7:00 PM
“Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder have a scene in The Producers where
they roll on the floor so ferociously we expect them to chew on one
another. Mostel is so manic and barbarian, Wilder so panicked and hysterical,
you wonder why spit didn't get on the camera lens. The whole movie
is pitched at that level of frenzied desperation, and one of the many
joys of watching it is to see how the actors are able to control timing
and nuance even while screaming. This is one of the funniest movies
ever made. To see it now is to understand that. To see it for the first
time in 1968, when I did, was to witness audacity so liberating that
not even There's Something About Mary rivals it. The movie was like
a bomb going off inside the audience's sense of propriety. There is
such rapacity in its heroes, such gleeful fraud, such greed, such lust,
such a willingness to compromise every principle, that we cave in and
go along. The movie stars Mostel and Wilder as Max Bialystock, a failing
Broadway producer, and Leo Bloom, a nebbishy accountant. ….Bloom
is sent to do his books, and finds that Bialystock raised $2,000 more
than he lost on his last failure. You could make a lot of money by
overfinancing turkeys, he muses, a glint in his eye: "The IRS
isn't interested in flops." …Their formula for failure
is a musical named "Springtime for Hitler," with a dance
line of jackbooted SS girls and lyrics like, "Don't be stupid,
be a smarty! Come and join the Nazi Party!" Their neo-Nazi playwright
Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars) roars up to opening night on a motorcycle,
wears a Nazi helmet into the lobby, and tells them, "It's magic
time!" Reaction shots during the first act show the audience paralyzed
in slack-jawed horror. … To produce a musical named "Springtime
for Hitler" was of course in the worst possible taste, as an escaping
theater patron observes in the movie--to the delight of Bialystock
and Bloom, who were counting on just that reaction. To make a movie
about such a musical was also in bad taste, of course. It is obvious
that Bialystock and Bloom are Jewish, but they never refer to that.
As Franz Liebkind rants, they nod, because the more offensive he is,
the more likely his play will fail. Brooks adds just one small moment
to suggest their private thoughts. As the two men walk away from the
playwright's apartment, Bloom covers the red-and-black Nazi armband
Franz has given him. "All right, take off the armband," says
Bialystock, taking off his own. They throw both armbands into a trash
can. Leo spits into it, and then Max does….I remember finding
myself in an elevator with Brooks and his wife, actress Anne Bancroft,
in New York City a few months after The Producers was released. A woman
got onto the elevator, recognized him and said, "I have to tell
you, Mr. Brooks, that your movie is vulgar." Brooks smiled benevolently. "Lady," he
said, "it rose below vulgarity"—Roger Ebert. The film
was nominated for two Oscars, winning for Best Writing. The American
Film Institute named this the 11th Funniest Film of all time.
December 6
Movin’ to Montana Soon
A River Runs Through It
(Robert Redford, 1992, 123 minutes)7:00 PM
" Watching A River Runs Through It is a little like leafing through
an old photograph album. It conjures up feelings and images, many of
them bittersweet, and all of them nostalgic. This is one of those motion
pictures that truly transports you to another time and another place.
A River Runs Through It is a simple story about a typical, early-twentieth
century Montana family. It traces the lives of two brothers from boyhood
to adulthood. Water -- and a river in particular -- is an important
symbol for the twisting, rocky path of life, and it's never far from
any scene. In fact, this may be a case of imagery being too obvious.
The two main characters, Norman and Paul MacLean, are portrayed by
a pair of up-and-coming young actors, Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt (from
Thelma and Louise and the too-cool Johnny Suede). Tom Skerritt, as
the boys' father, and Emily Lloyd, as Norman's girlfriend, lead a team
of equally-solid supporting players. Skerritt especially has a daunting
job, which he carries off with aplomb: showing the loving, caring man
beneath the stiff, Puritanical preacher's facade. The cinematography
(by Philippe Rousselot) is on par with the best of the year. This is
a beautifully-shot film, and director Robert Redford (who also provides
the voice-over narration) has paid painstaking attention to detail.
The subtle humor is unforced and character-based. One of the best elements
of A River Runs Through It is the effectively understated romance that
develops. This has the feel of something genuine: sweet, touching,
and sentimental. In that way, it is much like the movie as a whole.
A River Runs Through It avoids manipulating the audience's emotions,
even though it has numerous chances to do so. Events happen; they aren't
forced on us. Through this straightforward method of storytelling,
the impact is strengthened. A River Runs Through It is a fine motion
picture and, if it's a little slow in parts (especially the beginning),
those moments are worth sitting through to experience the rest." --James
Berardinelli. The film was nominated for three Oscars, winning for
Cinematography. Professor Gioia Woods will lead tonight's discussion.