30 July 2006
29 July 2006
Film and stage beauties # 7: Natalie Hynn
Reverse reads:
A series of 54, No. 20, Natalie Hynn.
A series of real photographs now being issued with Black Cat Medium Cigarettes. Carreras Ltd (ESTD 1788) Arcadia Works, London, England.
All the search engines could reveal was this link, dating this series of cards from 1939.
28 July 2006
Version Original Revista de Cine
This is a great film magazine from a city called Cáceres in Spain. It's given away free and each issue seems to be themed.
The love of foreign and classic Cinema is well and truly alive in Spain. As I think I've commented here before many films unavailable on DVD in UK and US are readily available in Spain.
My thanks to Olga Tellez for giving me these copies of this impressive magazine.
Version Original Revista de Cine (Version Original - Cinema Magazine), link.
The love of foreign and classic Cinema is well and truly alive in Spain. As I think I've commented here before many films unavailable on DVD in UK and US are readily available in Spain.
My thanks to Olga Tellez for giving me these copies of this impressive magazine.
Version Original Revista de Cine (Version Original - Cinema Magazine), link.
Version Original Revista de Cine # 129
Version Original - Revista de Cine. Issue #129 featuring articles on adultery in films including:
'Far from Heaven' by Israel Paredes
'Husbands and Wives' by Enrique Perez
'Casablanca', 'We Don't Live Here Anymore' and 'Terminal Station' by Angel Roman
'Breaking the Waves' by Iria Barcia
'Doctor Zhivago' by Pedro Triguero-Lizana
Carl Theodor Dreyer by Israel de Francisco
'La Carta' by Jose Maria Santiago
'Melinda and Melinda' by Natalia Pinuel
Version Original Revista de Cine # 128
Version Original - Revista de Cine. Issue # 128 featuring articles on poverty in the cinema including:
2 articles on 'Bicycle Thieves' one by Carmen Lloret and the other by Enrique Perez
'Les Glaneurs et la Glaneues', 'Capturing the Friedmans', 'Nanook of the North' and others by Angel Roman
'Salo' by Ramon Mondero
'The Kid' by Emilio J Hernandez
'Memoria del Saqueo' by Pedro Triguero-Lizana
'El Septimo Dia' by Cristina de Julian
'Maria Full of Grace' by Israel Paredes
'Leo' by Jose Maria Santiago
Version Original Revista de Cine # 127
Version Original - Revista de Cine. Issue # 127 featuring articles on memory loss including:
'Blade Runner' by Emilio J. Herandez
'Los Olvidados' by Enrique Perez
'Festen' by Ria Barcia
The role that memory plays in films and a detailed look at 'Memento' by Israel de Francisco
More on memory, with a specific look at 'Spellbound' by Jose Maria Santiago
'Letter from an Unknown Woman' by Pablo Segovia
'Citizen Kane' by Pedro Triguero-Lizana
'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' by Ramon Monedero.
27 July 2006
Coming attraction: Shoeshine
23 July 2006
Coming attraction: Edge of Outside season
“It takes a certain strength of character in order to do this. And I’ve seen very talented film makers who started out in the independent world turn into hacks” – Paul Auster.
“My heroes are no more neurotic than the audience. Unless you can feel that a hero is just as fucked up as you are and that you would make the same mistakes that he would make…you can have no satisfaction when he does an heroic act” – Nicholas Ray.
“Accidents are the friend of the Director” – Gary Gramer (Director of Photography for Orson Welles).
A new documentary made by Turner Classic Movies is showcasing a season of American Independent Film Makers on TCM (US) during July, the documentary itself is well worth catching.
Divided into four parts; ‘Born Out of Conflict’ ‘Other People’s Money’, ‘Visual Voice’ and ‘Beyond Talent’ interviews with John Sales, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich and others discussing the work of many ‘Independent’ film makers from DW Griffith, Buster Keaton through to the likes of Sam Fuller, Nicholas Ray, John Cassavettes up to Darren Aronofsky. It’s a good documentary that explores within the time allowed the sprit of ‘Independent’ film making. I liked the quotes from the film, which contains many rare and exclusive interviews which, sum up for me various aspects of ‘Independent’ cinema.
Edge of Outside season on TCM, link.
22 July 2006
01 July 2006
“Suzuki is a director who seems to have known the future before it happened…” Baz Luhrmann.
On Thursday night I attended the ICA's preview screening of 'Princess Raccoon' (Operetta Tanuki Goten) with Seijun Suzuki there to answer questions with Tony Rayns prior to the screening.
Suzuki is 83 years old and his breathing is aided by some kind of portable respiratory device, once he made himself comfortable making his way to the stage he was at home answering questions via an interpreter from Rayns and some from the audience. Rayns is well known for championing Asian cinema and even though he admitted he’d asked some of the questions before the responses always seemed to be fresh from Suzuki. When asked why he was making films within his first year of contract (sometimes as many as six per year) at Nikkatsu and Shohei Imamura wasn’t allowed to direct until his fourth year Suziki replied in a matter of fact fashion that I couldn’t tell whether he meant it or was partly joking “Because I was better than he was”. Rayns also interviewed Suzuki for his Sight and Sound article ‘Deep Seijun’ where he notes that Suzuki’s films were often B-movies shown alongside Imamura’s main features.
Rayns opened the evening with a clip from ‘Tokyo Drifter’ back to back with ‘Princess Raccoon’ to demonstrate the role that music plays in Suzuki’s work. Later he showed a clip from his second film ‘Pure Emotions of the Sea’ which is set on board a whaling ship and also included musical interludes. Which Rayns pointed out was not available on DVD, his source was a video recording from Japanese television. Sadly Suzuki’s films are few and very far between at least here in UK ‘Tokyo Drifter’, ‘Branded to Kill’, ‘Gate of Flesh’ and ‘Pistol Opera’ the film he made in 2001 are available but that’s a pretty poor showing out of a possible 56 films.
Well done to the ICA for championing Suzuki’s work in UK, they hosted a season of his films 12 years ago and gave ‘Tokyo Drifter’ and ‘Branded to Kill’ a release on VHS. To coincide with the release of ‘Princess Raccoon’ they are showing ‘The Flower and the Angry Waves’, ‘Fighting Elegy’, ‘Tokyo Drifter’ and ‘Branded to Kill’.
When asked about the future of cinema Suzuki replied “Ask God”, when asked if he’d make another film he seemed to imply it was unlikely, certainly the Japanese in the audience I spoke to agreed with Rayns when he refers to Suzuki as the greatest living Japanese film maker.
Links and references:
Sight and Sound ‘Deep Seijun’ by Tony Rayns, July 2006 issue, p26-28.
IMDB entry for Seijun Suzuki, link.
Seijun Suzuki: Authority in Minority by Stephen Teo on Senses in Cinema, link.
Man on the Moon, overview of Seijun Suzuki in yesterday's Guardian, link.
ICA, link.
The Diawa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, link.
29 June 2006
Dream double bill # 15 Imitation of Life and The Merchant of Four Seasons
At first glance these films don’t share that much in common, however if you dig a little deeper there are some areas of similarity, enough to make this a dream double bill and my contribution to the Lana Turner blog a thon.
For me the main area of similarity is of family, mothers, aspirations for children and the sadness in the child and the mother, I’m thinking specifically here of Sarah Jane and Annie Johnson in ‘Imitation of Life’ and Hans and his mother in ‘The Merchant of Four Seasons’. In both films Sarah Jane and Hans have absent fathers, fathers we never see on screen and both parents have aspirations for their child; Sarah Jane’s’ mother does not want her to be a singer/dancer in a burlesque club and Hans’ mother did not want him to join the foreign legion nor we sense is she happy that he is a fruit seller. Both children, perhaps chose these routes as escape and both children are unhappy and of course both films end in tragedy. It is the endings of these films that set them apart and for me make them and ideally paring.
In addition the influence of Sirk on Fassbinder has been well documented. Here Douglas Sirk recalls his meeting with Fassbinder:
Lugano, usually flooded with sunshine, was covered with snow when a group of young Germans, bundled up in overcoats and fighting an icy wind, trudged up the difficult road to my front door. “It’s us,” he said “Rainer Werner Fassbinder and a couple of my friends.” My wife and I have unforgettable memories of the hours that lay ahead.
We discussed art and literature, theatre and cinema, until the wee hours of the morning. For some reason I no longer recall, I began to speak of classical Spanish theater, mentioning the extraordinary productivity of Calderon and of Lope de Vega, to whom his contemporaries attributed a thousand plays; Calderon, had I think, gotten to about half that number. And of all this work, I told my guests, had been created with the strictest adherence to formal language and style. To make a long story short, Rainer who had listened to me attentively, suddenly said, “I would like to be as prolific as they were.” As we know now, those words were not merely the expression of desire.
What I didn't know was that 'The Merchant of Four Seasons' was the first film Fassbinder made after discovering Sirk. "My encounter with Sirk," he [Fassbinder] would say later, "removed the fear I had of 'selling out.'...Sirk gave me the courage to make films for the public. Before that I believed that serious work meant shunning the Hollywood model.
Quotes from 'Love is Colder Than Death' by Robert Katz and Peter Berling, Paladin, 1989.
IMDB entry for Imitation of Life, link.
IMDB entry for The Merchant of Four Seassons, link.
Imitations of Lifelessness, article from Bright Lights Film Journal by Stephen Handzo, link.
Today is the anniversary of Lana Turner's death. IMDB entry for Lana Turner, link.
Self styled siren's post on Lana Turner, link.
Peter Nellhaus on 'The Sea Chase', link.
Flickhead's Memo on Turner, link.
Micheal Guillen's The Evening Class post on Lana Turner, link.
That Little Round Headed Boy on 'Somewhere I'll Find You', link.
Greenbriar Picture Shows tribute to Lana Turner, link.
Agence Eureka's images of Lana Turner, link.
Self styled siren's post on Sandra Dee, costar with Lana Turner in 'Peyton Place' and 'Imitation of Life', link.
For me the main area of similarity is of family, mothers, aspirations for children and the sadness in the child and the mother, I’m thinking specifically here of Sarah Jane and Annie Johnson in ‘Imitation of Life’ and Hans and his mother in ‘The Merchant of Four Seasons’. In both films Sarah Jane and Hans have absent fathers, fathers we never see on screen and both parents have aspirations for their child; Sarah Jane’s’ mother does not want her to be a singer/dancer in a burlesque club and Hans’ mother did not want him to join the foreign legion nor we sense is she happy that he is a fruit seller. Both children, perhaps chose these routes as escape and both children are unhappy and of course both films end in tragedy. It is the endings of these films that set them apart and for me make them and ideally paring.
In addition the influence of Sirk on Fassbinder has been well documented. Here Douglas Sirk recalls his meeting with Fassbinder:
Lugano, usually flooded with sunshine, was covered with snow when a group of young Germans, bundled up in overcoats and fighting an icy wind, trudged up the difficult road to my front door. “It’s us,” he said “Rainer Werner Fassbinder and a couple of my friends.” My wife and I have unforgettable memories of the hours that lay ahead.
We discussed art and literature, theatre and cinema, until the wee hours of the morning. For some reason I no longer recall, I began to speak of classical Spanish theater, mentioning the extraordinary productivity of Calderon and of Lope de Vega, to whom his contemporaries attributed a thousand plays; Calderon, had I think, gotten to about half that number. And of all this work, I told my guests, had been created with the strictest adherence to formal language and style. To make a long story short, Rainer who had listened to me attentively, suddenly said, “I would like to be as prolific as they were.” As we know now, those words were not merely the expression of desire.
What I didn't know was that 'The Merchant of Four Seasons' was the first film Fassbinder made after discovering Sirk. "My encounter with Sirk," he [Fassbinder] would say later, "removed the fear I had of 'selling out.'...Sirk gave me the courage to make films for the public. Before that I believed that serious work meant shunning the Hollywood model.
Quotes from 'Love is Colder Than Death' by Robert Katz and Peter Berling, Paladin, 1989.
IMDB entry for Imitation of Life, link.
IMDB entry for The Merchant of Four Seassons, link.
Imitations of Lifelessness, article from Bright Lights Film Journal by Stephen Handzo, link.
Today is the anniversary of Lana Turner's death. IMDB entry for Lana Turner, link.
Self styled siren's post on Lana Turner, link.
Peter Nellhaus on 'The Sea Chase', link.
Flickhead's Memo on Turner, link.
Micheal Guillen's The Evening Class post on Lana Turner, link.
That Little Round Headed Boy on 'Somewhere I'll Find You', link.
Greenbriar Picture Shows tribute to Lana Turner, link.
Agence Eureka's images of Lana Turner, link.
Self styled siren's post on Sandra Dee, costar with Lana Turner in 'Peyton Place' and 'Imitation of Life', link.
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