My Self-Indulgent Blog

# 76 of 101 Great Films -The Spirit of the Beehive

2011-07-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

A note before i start, On April 27, my home town was hit by a F4 tornado killing 43 and causing massive destruction, and for awhile a self- indulgent blog....Now my city is getting better, still has a ways to go but I have no doubt Tuscaloosa will be fine.
So back to my .........

I love movies!- Oh wait I've already said that, you know what

I am saying it again!!!

I LOVE MOVIES- I stated earlier that I've seen a 1,000 films, to check that - I've been collecting a database of films I've seen and ones to see,( I know I'm a dweeb!)

Add caption

# 76 of 101 Great Films:

1973's The Spirit of the Beehive

Victor Erice’s 1973 film is set in a small village in Spain,

Right before the start of World War II and after the Spanish Civil War which put Francisco Franco in power.

Director Victor Erice made Beehive at the end of Franco’s authoritarian regime.

Erice does a masterful job of telling a simple story about two girls

and their closed (in both the literal & metaphorical sense) village, while setting the story up as an analogy for authoritarian rule of Franco’s Spain, which was easier to make since Franco’s power was waning.

The above ground plot deals with 2 girls who go to the movies and watch James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein. After the movie, the older of the 2 tells the other that the spirit of the Monster lives in their village, and with that we have another analogy, the importance of cinema on a society.

The girl’s village gets much of its life and certainly its escape from the movies, while having to conform to the strict, oppressive and hypocritical regime of Franco, just to sustain a meager livelihood.

The Spirit of the Beehive maybe one of Spain’s best films, it unfolds with a wild and high-flown, playfulness even when it is surrounded by despair. The film could very easily turn into a overblown melodrama but Erice does a great job of holding that balance but letting the magic escape on screen while keeping it grounded.

A video exhibit for The Spirit of the Beehive

101 Great Films:

101 One False Move, 1989

100 Friends of Eddie Coyle, 1974

99 Tampopo, 1987

98 The Thing, 1956

97 Nanook of the North, 1922

96 The Battle of Algiers, 1966

95 The Third Man, 1945

94 Au Revoir Les Enfants, 1988

93 Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943

92 Alien, 1979,

91 Young Frankenstein, 1974

90 Bull Durham, 1988

89 Los Olvidados, 1950

88 Two-Lane Black top, 1971

87 Ace in the Hole, 1951

86 Metropolis,1926

85 Killer of sheep, 1977

84 Bad day at Black rock, 1955

83 My darling Clementine, 1946

82 Le Samourai, 1967 France,

81 Thrones of Blood, 1957,

80 Broadcast news, 1987

79 Delicatessen, 1991

78 Slacker, 1991

77 Steamboat Bill Jr. 1928

76 The Spirit of the Beehive, 1973

Steamboat Bill Jr. # 77 of 101 Great Films

2011-06-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

A good friend and I

A note before i start # 77, On april 27, my home town was hit by a F4 tornado killing 43 and causing massive destruction, and for awhile a self- indulgent blog....
Now my city is getting better, still has a ways to go but I have no doubt Tuscaloosa will be fine.
So back to my .........

Movies are just plain cool!
Even bad ones are pretty cool-
think about it-
Your at home laying around on the couch watching the 1931 version of Dracula, something made 80 years ago, everyone that was involved in the making of that film is gone,
but here you are watching it- just like it was made yesterday! that's just cool.

Even cooler is watching Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali in the comfort of my Alabama home, knowing I probality will not visit India in my life time, but by watching this wonderful film, in a small way I just did. that's cool!

Barbara and I at Devil's tower

I think I understand films, and I think I know why I like something, but I’m not a critic, or an academic just a movie fan, So here is my list; Of course if I did this list next year it might be totally different that’s why its self- indulgent.

A scene from D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation

When I had originally started this list I had at # 77 Birth of a Nation, but after going back and forth and watching it again, I decided to remove it from this list

because I just can not get over the horrible racism of the movie, there is no question that Griffith is a master of storytelling, and that Nation, created dramatic close up, tracking shots, and maybe most importantly crosscutting and other editing techniques, I don't think its trite to say that modern movie own as much to Griffith as any other film maker.

BUT- explicit racism through the film I can't overlook.

Some critics use the umbrella of "during those times" we can not place our values on something created almost 100 years ago, so I lets don't, but how about what some were saying in 1915?
The film was protested by the NAACP, at several major city movie houses the film sparked riots, and more importantly the criticism at the time was so intense that Griffith, felt the need to respond, which basically the plot of his next movie Intolerance.

If you would like to read more about the release and the protest of Birth of a nation check out;
Thomas Cripps' "Slow fade to black, The Negro in American Film, 1900-1942"

At # 77 is Buster Keaton's 1928 Steamboat Bill Jr.

Keaton was as much a revolutionary figure in the early days of cinema as Griffith, his camera placement, scene step ups were cutting edge, and his way of screwing around with masculine and its role as a hero is pretty interesting Plus it's just damn funny.

Keaton, who will have a few more films on this list, was a master of the slapstick style of comedy and his aerobatic stunts would've make cirque du soleil very proud.

He certainly was admired by some of the worlds great filmmakers, Chuck Jones, Luis Buniuel, Federico Garcia Lorca all claim Keaton as an inspiration

Steamboat Bill Jr. made in 1928 for United Artist( a Charles Chaplin creation) studios maybe Keaton's last great film.  Disputes with his new studio MGM, which Joseph Schenck talked him into joining and Chaplin and Harold Lloyd tried to talk him out of signing with MGM. At MGM Keaton had to fight over every little detail, it was a constant battle with studio people.
Keaton later is quoted as saying:
"In 1928, I made the worst mistake of my career. Against my better judgment I let Joe Schenck talk me into giving up my own studio to make pictures at the booming Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot in Culver City. "

Keaton's treatment at MGM is right up there with Orson Welles Hollywood treatment, but before he went to MGM- Keaton made Steamboat Bill Jr. and it is a classic film and totally Keaton.

The film is available via the web and dvd so check it out, and if you've never seen a Buster Keaton Film you might wont to get some Depends cause you just might need them!
Its just that funny and amazing
and watch out for falling houses!

A video exhibit of Steamboat Bill Jr.

Click here to watch Steamboat Bill Jr.

25 under 5! Name these 25 Tv Theme songs

2011-04-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

HOW MANY CAN YOU GUESS?

We all have our favorite theme songs, tunes that when you hear it instanly sends you back to that time
Most themes are catchy, fast and represent the styles of the time, but a few transcend time or styles and become part of our psyche.

In the audio mix above are 25 theme songs in under 5 minutes
The 25 songs are from the Crime Drama genre

How many did you guess?

scroll down a few to find out the 25!

This aint one! keep on scrolling

Keep Scrolling!

Ok here you go!
With its beginning on the radio in 1949,
then moving over to Television in 1951 Dragnet is an Crime Drama institution

# 1

And without a doubt its theme song is instantly recognizable

Dragnet theme

# 2

Perry Mason
is more of a legal drama than a crime drama, but close enough
the series starring Raymond Burr ran from September 1957 to May 1966

Burr returned to the role in 1985, he starred in 26 made for TV moviesPerry Mason theme

# 3
Mannix played by Mike Conner was a tough as nails private eye that fought crime on CBS from 1967 to 1975

annix at the time was consider very violent for the television and although it was still popular the show was canceled in 1975
The show's theme was written by Lalo Schifrin, and this ain't the last time your going to hear his name in this blog!Mannix theme

Schhifrin is also noted for his Dirty Harry film scores

# 4

The F.B.I. series ran from 1965 to 1974

At the time of its cancellation, Law & Order was the longest-running crime drama on American primetime television.Law and Order theme

Veteran television composer Mike Post wrote the theme for Law and Order
is composed by veteran composer Mike Post.

Like Dragnet, Law & Order's theme song is recognized world wide, but Post's tune is know more for a tone than the tune. The tone consists of two notes and was created by sampling several sounds together including according to Post, "five hundred Japanese men stamping their feet on a wooden floor."

^{# 6}^{Theme song # 6 is from the Bubby Ebsen vehicle Barnaby Jones. The CBS series ran from 1973 to 1980}

Another Quinn Martin production, the theme song was written by
Jerry Goldsmith
Barnaby_Jones.mp3

# 7

Kojak ran on CBS from 1973 to 1978 then was remade for USA network in 2005

Kojak's theme was written by Billy Goldenberg Kojak theme

As of 2011 Bones our next theme song is still in 1st run on Fox.
The series is based on a series of book by Kathleen Reichs, who also produces the TV show.

The theme song was written by The Crystal MethodBones theme song

# 9
From 1981 to 1987 # 9 was an award winning fool, gathering 98 Emmy nominations., Hill Street Blues had about as many recurring characters as emmy nominations.

theme song written by Berkeley, California native Mike Post

Post's first Tv theme song gig was the 1972 show Toma

Mike Post

# 10

Hill street blues theme

Hawaii Five-0 was on the air for 12 years, not including the current reboot, but thru the changes, the song remains the same, and still the best thing about the show

The theme song for Hawaii 5-0 was written by Morton StevensHawaii - 5-0

# 11

Next up is Thomas Sullivan Magnum, or Magnum P.I. another CBS series. Starring Tom Selleck and John Hillerman the series ran from 1980 to 1981

01_-_Magnum,_P.I..mp3

The theme for 1st season, & the one pasted here, was written by Ian Freebairn-Smith, starting with season two
Mike Post is credit with the music for the sereis and the theme song, which basically stayed the same.

# 12

Cold Case is # 12 and is currently running on CBS.

coldcase.mp3

The title of Cold case theme song is Nara by E.S. Posthumus

#13

CHIPs amazingly ran on NBC for 6 years!

The theme song was written by John ParkerCHIPs theme song

# 14

Crime Story was Michael Mann's 2nd big TV series, starring Dennis Farina the series ran for 2 years.

The theme song is a Del Shannom mega hit RunawayCrime Story theme

#15

Song number 15 was from a sitcom set in Greenwich village, that ran on ABC from 1975 to 1982.
Barney Miller was never a huge rating's hit but 3 decades after being cancelled it has a loyal following.

The theme song was written by Jack Elliot & Allyn Ferguson, who also wrote the theme to Charile's Angels & Night Court

Barney Miller theme

Besides writing TV themes Elliot also wrote movie scores including 1982's Blade Runner

# 16The ABC hit series Castle is # 16

The formulaic series has no surpises but it does have a nifty theme song
by Robert Duncan

Castle Theme song

# 17

# 17 is my favorite TV theme song of all time, and it was written by one of the great Film/Tv composers.the 1970s' crime drama hit The Streets of San Francisco ran for 5 years on ABC, and produced by the 70s giant Quinn Martin.

Composer Patrick Williams has written for over 30 TV and feature films, including
this gem!

The Streets of San Francisco

# 18

Everyone knows the theme to this show and who wrote it

#19

Police Squad was the Zucker brothers follow up to the 1980 megahit Airplane, althought it wasn't a huge hit on TV in 1986 it became another boxoffice hit for David and Jerry, and made a superstar out of 60 year old Leslie Nielsen

The TV series theme song was written by Ira NewbornPolice Squad theme

# 20

Number 20 is the theme to M Squad, which was the inspiration for # 19!

Lee Marvin starred in the NBC crime drama that ran from 1957 to 1960

^{M Squad theme song}

Stanley Wilson wrote the Grammy award winning theme song

# 21

Number 21 can give Streets of San Franisco a run for its money as coolest theme song and one of the coolest TV song ever produced.

Blake Edwards created Peter Gunn for ABC in 1958 and it ran for 3 years, a young future film maker Robert Altman helped out on a few of the segments.

Althought the show doesnt get enough credit for its wierdly cool sense of storytelling, the theme song is a constant on the charts.
Written by Acamdemy Award winner Henry Mancini, its been covered by everyone!

Peter Gunn theme

# 22
Another show that was cool. at least at the time, is number 22s Miami Vice
produced by Michael Mann, the program incorparoed the music video style into serial TV, an influnce of MTV, but as much a Mann style as MTV, Mann used music in his 1st feature Thief in 1981 and his tv movie 1979's Jericho Mile.

Miami Vice theme

#23
# 23 the theme to The Mentalist was written by Blake Neely

The Paris, Texas native got his big break writing the score for the WB's EverwoodThe Mentalist theme

# 24

# 24 has had several tv versions over the years, but the theme song has always been the same.

Harlem Nocturne was written by Earle Hagen in 1939 in tribute to Duke Ellington, but its most famous for being the Mike Hammer theme

The Mike Hammer theme

THE two most popular actors to play the Mickey Spillane character, Darren McGavin and Stacy Keach

# 25

# 25 has a more famous theme song, written by Randy Newman,

but the Emmy- winning original instrumental theme for Monk, was written by Jeff Beal

Monk Theme

Slacker # 78 of 101 Great Films

2011-04-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Slacker

Richard Linklater

Slacker is a true Independent film. And one of the first on the 90's indie movement.

Shot on 16mm, then blown up to 35mm for wider release, this gem was the mastermind of a College drop out who just loved movies, just like the great Jean-Pierre Melville & the sometime great Quentin Tarantino.

Linklater a resident of Austin, Texas, which he still calls home and helps run the Film society that he helped create, made this strange, superb, groovy

plotless film. That's right totally with out plot and it is amazing!

Slacker is basically 24 hours in the life of the city of Austin.

What it does not have in plot it makes up for with a hysterical script, with brisk dialog that flies off the screen. Watching the film you would think it was almost all off the cuff but its not,

its all Linklater and it was all worked out in rehearsals, for a film some have called aimless, it has a tight structured form that Linklater never varied from.

The movie moves thru the streets and characters seamlessly, with close to 90 wired, weird beings moving in and out of focus.

Linklater, like me, is a post baby boomer,

We get lumped into boomers- but we ain’t

We are the vanguard of the Gen X, a group that somewhat unfairly gets called slackers one reason for this tag, maybe the several movies that were made with similar themes during the 90s; Clerks, Bottle rocket, Office space and the Coen Brother's The Big Lebowski

But but the thing I love about this movie it may be about slackers, but it took a group of my brothers and sisters who were anything but slackers to make this thing!

They had to work their ass off most of the time for nothing but the love of the idea and it paid off

And I’m as proud of this film as if I was a part of it,

and if you like real close I just might be!

Video exhibit for Slacker

Delicatessen # 79 of 101 Great Films

2011-04-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Delicatessen

A Film is at its basic, images and movement; it reaches the senses with sight and sound.

The Director is the author of a film, their composter of the music, and the conductor of its performance; he must pull the artist and craft folks together with them working as one for a result, that flickers to life on screen.

Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet are the composter and conductor of this wonderful film. A film full of colors, images, and sounds that are mixed together to create a mesmerizing journey.

Delicatessen is a one of a kind flim that mixes genres as well as it mixes the senses.

Domininque Pinon as the handyman, has a the perfect face for this film, where his past life as a clown certainly helps here! The rest of the cast is near perfect with the great Jean Claude Dreyfus as the butcher at the top of his game.

Inserting a pet peeve here:

Most reviewers of this film and films like Delicatessen call this a post-apocalyptic society-

Apocalyptic- "pertaining to the imminent end of the world"

so if it’s the imminent end of the world there cannot be a post imminent end of the world!

Anyway, Delicatessen is set in a strange future world where food is hard to come by, written by Comic book genius Gillies Adrein, he has created a strange wonderful world that is beautliful and gross, that is all fun that really will be a feast for your eyes and ears, but maybe not for your stomach!

Broadcast News # 80 of 101 Great Films

2011-04-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

Barbara and I watched the 2010 movie “Morning Glory”, last week.

In a pivotal screen Rachel McAdams who plays a young producer of a network morning show, is arguing with Harrison Ford, who plays the crusty veteran reporter, the two are fighting over fluff versus the news, at the end of the scene,

and this is the key point to Morning Glory

McAdams’ character turns to Ford and says “we’ve had this argument for 20 years and your side lost”

She’s right the “the brainless fluff won and we all lost.

James L. Brooks

James L. Brook one of the producers’ of the great social commentary tv show The Simpsons produced, wrote and directed Broadcast news, a wonderful film about the direction Tv news was heading, and his theme was its heading straight towards Morning Glory's of the world.

The 1985 film has a stellar cast including Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, and William Hurt.

The whole cast does an amazing job and Brooks handles them with solid direction, letting them all shine without anyone of them outshining the other.

Brooks, who doesn’t make enough films, has a keen eye when it comes to creating real characrtors, with a touch of being touched, but not the over doneness of Woody Allen, just enough that makes the charactors interesting and fun.

Sometimes Brooks slides into a TV slapstick gimmick,

and that’s ok, maybe Brooks could be tougher on the world of network news,

god knows they certainly deserve it,

but I’m not sure its in his nature, Brooks cut his teeth on nice,

Mary Tyler Moore, Room 222, Taxi, Rhoda and the Andy Griffith show,

BUT his main story line hits hard with a satirical punch, and sometimes he serves that up spread on top with a little nice-

In one scene, the nincompoop network manager is telling a veteran reporter that he is being laid off, the old reporter tells the nincompoop in a smooth calm voice, after the manager ask him if there is anything he can do for him,

“Well, I certainly hope you’ll die soon.”

I’m afraid they didn’t die soon, and they did win. And that’s the way it is

Broadcast news # 80 of 101 Great films

the fun is in the debate!

2011-03-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

My Better half and me

I love movies!- Oh wait I've already said that, you know what
I am saying it again!!!

I LOVE MOVIES- I stated earlier that I've seen a 1,000 films, so I've been collecting a database of films I've seen and ones to see, at the moment I'm at almost 800 that I have seen, and almost as many that I have not seen- and truthfully many of those I will never want to see. :)

I started this blog, 3 months ago and it's been a blast! I'm having the time of my life, revisiting films and reading about some of my favorite films, actors, and directors. One thing I have noticed is people love to throw out the word film noir, if a new film is a little edgy or has any type of Detective theme it's a film noir, aaaaa no it ain't!

and just because a new film is half way decent doesn't make it an instant classic- I don like instant tea, instant grits, instant coffee and I really don't like an instant movie classics.

A Bit of trivia- Name the movie, the street in the picture to the right, is a big part of?
A hint it's in San Francisco

I think I understand films but I’m not a critic, or an academic.

So sometimes I'm full of ....

There really isn't any criteria, except, a film has to be at least 10 years old. I need to think about and revisit a film away from its original time frame, other than that there are no other criteria.

If I started this list next year, it might be a different list, but certainly many of the films would be in a different order, the one thing I am sure of is you all will not agree with me! that's cool-
the fun is in the debate!

It's already started! I've already received some wonderful emails or comments about why was this film on your list? why was that film so low? or this? or that?

The fun is in the debate and I would love to hear from everyone, so please keep those emails & comments coming!

I thought for this blog

I would mention 25 films that didn't make my list, but could have-

these are in no particular order:

Patton 1970 directed by Franklin Schaffner

Night on earth, 1991, Jim Jarmusch

Junior bonner, 1972 directed by Sam Peckinpah

E.T. 1982, Directed by Steven Speilberg

The Birds, 1963 directed by Alfred Hitchcock

His girl Friday, 1940 Directed by Howard Hawks

Ivan the Terrible, 1944, Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein

Play misty for me, 1971 Directed by Clint Eastwood

Crumb, 1994 Directed by Terry Zwigoff

Dumbo, 1941

It happened one Night, 1934 directed by Frank Capra

Choose me, 1984 directed by Alan Rudolph

Night and the City, 1950 directed by Jules Dassin

Eurupa, 1951 Directed by Roberto Rossellini

The Baker's Wife (La femme du boulanger) 1938, directed byMarcel Pagnol

The Gold Rush, 1925 Directed by Charles Chaplin

Hear my song, 1991 Directed by Peter Chelsom

Au Hasard Balthazar, 1966 Directed by Robert Bresson

Brother from another planet, 1984 Directed by John Sayles

Being There, 1979 directed by Hal Ashby

After Hours, 1985 directed by Martin Scorsese

Letter from an Unknown Woman, 1948 directed by Max Ophuls

The Conversation, 1974 directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Solaris, 1972 Directed by Andrey Tarkovskiy

Army of Darkness, 1992 Directed by Sam Raimi

101 great Films- # 81 Throne of Blood

2011-03-27T09:04:00.001-07:00

Throne of Blood,

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

1957

The New Yorker Film critic Pauline Kael called Throne of Blood;

“A virtuoso exercise and extolled Kurosawa's expert use of violence, decor, pageantry and costume.”

Cited from the web site for the San Francisco Film festival

Akira Kurosawa is not only one of Japan’s great auteurs, but one of the world’s great directors.

Akira Kurosawa

Throne of Blood

proves that not only was

Kurosawa a great director

BUT he was a bold SOB to boot!

Akira Kurosawa

Throne of Blood is considered to be one of the best adaptations of Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth set to film.

Kurosawa places his version in feudal Japan, using not only traditional Japanese storytelling art forms- Nor Theater style, and Japanese battle art- but mixes various forms of moviemaking that makes Blood much more than just an adaptation of Macbeth, but really making Macbeth just one part of Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood

And just for fun Kurosawa throws into the movie making mix some modern ideas about good and evil, that add to the story, rather than bogging it down.

As with most of Kurosawa films, much like his favorite American director John Ford, he lets the power of the story push the plot but his godlike eye with a camera set the stage in an astonishing synthesis of moviemaking. Which btw- might be why some critics are negative towards Kurosawa, he is considered to be the most western style director of the Japanese directors, making his films not Japanese. I don’t know about that- maybe it is true, he certainly follows a semi Hollywood linear style of making movies, although some of his films seem to be edited in a more non-linear style that’s distinctly not Western, I sure as heck don’t know the answer! But thru my western eyes Kurosawa is a master storyteller, and folks be prepared to see a few more of his films on this list!

Throne of Blood video exhibit

No. 82 of 101 Great Films Le Samourai

2011-03-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

1966 Le Samourai

Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville

Alain Delon & Jean-Pierre Melville

I really like Jean-Pierre Melville

Maybe more that I like his films, he is a home schooled movie geek

Before WWII, Melville watched everything he could at the cinema during the war, he fought for Free France, including participating in the invasion of Italy, and the liberation of Lyon.

After the war at the age of 30 he tried to make movies but every studio in France turned him down so he decided to create his own studio, and thus the model for the new wave movement was born.

But except for the way he made his films, Melville movies have little to do with the the French new wave movement, he was a precise director mapping out shots, and following a theme, and a direction.

Melville born, Jean-Pierre Grumbach was a Quentin Tarantino before Quentin, he loved movies and watched as many as he could, especially the Hollywood cinema of the 30s, and the silent films of W.S. Van Dyke, using all that he watched to help him make his films a decade later.

His first film was about the French resistance that he finance and distributed all on his own. His next film was an adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s 1920 novel Les Enfants Terribles, both received positive press, and Melville's career was set.

In 1967 with a bigger budget which along with his artistic freedom, allowed him to make a Crime Drama classic,
Le Samourai,
with French superstar, Alain Delon.

Le Samourai, is about a good a hard boiled crime drama as anything that Hollywood or Dashett Hammett ever created.

The big difference he his hard boiled caper, which was a bold choice by Melville, was the amazing use of non- dialog. In hard boiled world of Hollywood, dialog was just as important as the action, but in Le Samourai, the films goes minutes with out words spoken, which just creates an almost other worldly soundtrack, with ambient noise, including a criping bird and the tenseness of trying to find a key.

Melville is a master with making a location an character in his films, some of this comes from his early works shooting on the streets on the sly, but its more than that,
He understands that we don't live in tightly controlled spaces with perfect lightly, we live in a world full of people, buildings, nosies and just plain stuff, and sometimes you can't control any of it~

And maybe just as important, at least in Samourai, is his affection for Paris, its almost as much a love letter to the city as a crime drama film.

And this love and understanding of Paris helps make this a top notch Crime Drama that includes one the screens best surveillance chase scenes.

But even with all that going for Melville's 1966 film, Francois Perier might just be the best thing in it.
Perier, a veteran of the stage and screen, along with Melville's insight and leadership, created one unforgettable police officer.

Were Delon character says very little Perier's character talks 90 miles a minute, and seems almost omnipresent.

Unfortunately Melville died at the young age of 56 after only making 13 films, as I said in the beginning I’m not sure if I like him more than his films, but thinking about the 13 films of which I’ve seen 7,

All seven are pretty damn good, as is Jean-Pierre Melville.

Video exhibit for Le Samourai

101 Great Films: # 83 My Darling Clementine

2011-03-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

My Darling Clementine Directed by John Ford

John Ford on location

I grew up on westerns.

I watched Gunsmoke with my Grandparents on their black & white TV,

then we watched Bonanza in living color.

The very first movie I saw on the big screen and it was a huge screen! A drive-in,

was a western

Although to be fair I don’t remember the movie, since I was 7 and I fell asleep after the popcorn was gone.

But since then I have watched 100s of westerns,

old ones, new ones, silent ones, loud ones,

ones in black & White, and ones in CinemaScope.

I’ve watched the lone wolf, and the Calvary to the rescue.

I believe the Western is America’s Magnum opus, and John Ford is her Michelangelo.

John Ford

John Ford, grew up about as far away from the wild

west as one can ( in Maine) and still be in the Continental U.S. and he was born when the U.S. still had some wild frontier with Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Oklahoma still territories.

Early days of Hollywood

After finishing high school he skipped the west and went to the Wild Wild World of Hollywood were his brother Francis was already working for Universal.

Ford started at the bottom working at any job he could get in the business; as a carpenter, a prop man and a part time stunt man and an actor.

He appeared as a Klansman in D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation.

Within three- years of arriving in Hollywood,

Ford was directing films for Universal then for Fox Studio.

By he won his first Academy award for best director in 1935 for The Informer

Ford had directed over 85 films!

In the next 10 years Ford would direct, Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley and he finished out that 10 year period with My Darling Clementine

Ford made many films outside of the western genre, but even those films, covered the same ground.

He had a vision and a style that is American, it may be a mythical America, but its uniquely Red White and Blue,

NAY-sayers believe his tales simple, and unimaginative,

but they mistook simple for simplistic, and they are just plain wrong about unimaginative.

Ford was a master storyteller, a folk artist, with an amazing eye for detail, and a wire walker's sense of timing.

His use and placement of the camera is always spot on and as good as any other director past or present. His use of the long swiping shot, usually with a lone rider or a few against a massive earthscape is what all epics have tried to duplicate.

The best comment I can bestow o Ford

is quoting Orson Welles:

“ I learned from the old masters,John Ford, John Ford and John Ford”

As a storyteller Ford had many themes, messages, and one for which he does not get enough credit, was his value of the group, the strength of families, and of comrades, and the bond of soldiery. This theme is in almost every one of his films, western or non-western.

This theme of group, is a smack down of the the loner myth, which is the theme of tons of westerns; of the loner saving the day,

and most of those films- I said most- dont stack up to John Ford's worst films.

Ford understood the settling of a nation isn’t done by the one but by the many. It may not be fair, in fact it maybe horrible, but its the building of a nation and its people.

Ford also had a loyalty to a group of actors and places,

in My Darling Clementine, you see several actors in supporting roles that appear in many of Ford’s films, but maybe his biggest Co-star in this film, was

Monument Valley

Monument Valley, is a gorgeous area on the Arizona-Utah border, that is part of the Navajo nation.

A bit of trivia - Ford used Monument Valley in eight of his films.

Ford was not immune to the stereotypes of the time, and he used clichés about Native America’s and Mexicans in some of his films.

BUT many of his best films, raised the top of some of those stereotypes and almost all of his films that carried storylines with Native America’s dealt with them as honest as he could for his time.

BUT there is no doubt that he didn’t exploit them financial, he paid the Navajo nation well for the location and hired locals both for behind the scenes work and in front of the camera. Later in his life he was made an honorary member of the Navajo nation.

The newest DVD edition of My Darling Clementine contains a preview version that Ford showed to the Film's producer Darryl Zanuck. Zanuck made some changes cutting out almost 30 minutes and adding a couple of additional scenes, the additional footage was shot by a solid director in his own right-Loyd Bacon Zanuck's version is the version that has been showing on TV and revivial houses for years.

- according to the bonus features on the dvd- which if you have a chance watch you should, the guy who put together the newest print talks about the chances that Zanuck made and its worth your time.

I've added a few minutes from the bonus feature on the video exhibit linked below,

please check that out

My Darling Clementine video exhibit:

Victor Mature as Doc Holiday

But whichever edition you watch it's still a American masterpiece

A note-

I’m 49 going on a 100, and as I said earlier,

I enjoy westerns, but over the past decade when talking with the 30 and under crowd, a lot of those guys and its guys, - over the years, I've found that very few women, I talk too like westerns-

So the guys I chat with who love action films, just don’t seem to care for the western,

and I think part of the reason for that maybe video games.

They grew up playing video games with monsters, Nazis, zombies, or pro athletics.

Very few play a western type game, plenty of war games, crime shoot-em ups, but no westerns or at least not many.

My unscientific research came up with 3 western style video games, released in the last 2 years and none of them seem to be big sellers.

My guess -again I could be talkin out my backside, since the last video game I played was pong.-

But my guess is the west seems to slow, it seems tobe of your granddad’s generation to be cool for this generation.

but their wrong!

I think the west is way cool!

And I bet my 10 gallon hat it won’t be riding into the sunset anytime soon.

No. 84 Bad Day at Black Rock

2011-03-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

Bad day at Black Rock video exhibit

Directed by John Sturges

1955

John Sturges

John Sturges gets little mention when folks talk about great American directors; maybe it was the type of films he made, big in scope, but not flashy, most with a message but not hot over your head, just a craftsman with a job to be do.

His films were beatiuful shoot, framed as a artist would frame a canvas but very little flash for flash sakes. But he never gets mentioned with Ford, Houston, or Welles, but his career is just as impressive. "The magincent Seven", "Never so few", "Halliujah trail", "The Great Escape", and "Bad day at black rock"

Bad Day is at its heart a western, a modern western but with a classic B-movie heart, lone justice trying to right a wrong, but it’s also a tight mystery and as good a social justice film as Hollywood ever made, the excellent cast, is perfect no one is wasted, with Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan at their best, and

And underrated Dean Jagger gives another strong performace as a weak soul.

Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin

The plot is like many westerns but with a big twist, the mechanism that drives the story isn’t greed or lust, its racism. It has some of the other trademarks that are seen in most westerns, the scared town folks and the bullies that are scaring them. Another great twist to this classic element, is the head bully is hiding behind Americanism, which for 1955 was still usual, and it maybe the first Hollywood film to deal with racist violence against Japanese Amercans'.

Part of the credit for the look of the film, must go to William Mellor as Cinematographer.

Mellor was a master with CinemaScope, usually reserved for more “epic type films, its use and success in this small film led to its use throughout the next two decades in all types of films, Sturges and Mellor understand the economy of this film, it is amazing to watch as they use ever frame, every shot is crafted with no waste, you can feel the isolation of the town in the wide open land, and the viewer can see the desperation of its helpless inhabits. CinemaScope was the perfect choice.

But maybe the greatest gift Sturges gives is the way he gets a performance from an actor, or maybe he lets the pros do their job and gets out of their way without fanfare, much like he does his job.

When fans and critics talk about Bad Day or The Great Escape it’s about Tracy, McQueen, or Borgnine, but few talk of Struges.

Bad Day at Black Rock is a solid, tact thriller that should be on everyone's best list, and John Sturges is a damn fine American director.

101 Great Films- # 85 Killer of Sheep

2011-03-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

1977 Killer of Sheep

Directed by Charles Burnett

"In cinema, we're [black people] the only ones whose language is considered realistic when it's demeaning."
Charles Burnett

Original source, “The 50 Most Influential Black Films” by S. Torriano Berry with Venise T. Berry

my source Internet Movie database

Charles Burnett

When folks talk about Black American Cinema, they usually talk

of Spike Lee, Oscar Micheaux or the blaxploitation of the early to mid 70s,

but

One person few talk about, just maybe the best of the group,

Charles Burnett.

Burnett was born in Vicksburg Mississippi but grew up in Watts. He got a degree in writing and language, then got a masters from UCLA film school. After finishing school he took his master’s thesis and turned it into “Killer of Sheep”

Shot in black and white, with mainly a hand held camera,

and a ridiculously small budget, what he lacked in money he made up in craftsmen-ship,

“Killer of Sheep” is still one of only a handful of films that contain black characters that aren’t stereotypes, they’re not metaphors for something or someone else; not just passive victims of racism, class struggle or the crush of American life. They are 100% human beings, with flaws, not good or bad just folk.

It is a quiet film that is exploding with life,

real life, not the filmy industry life, of gunn tattin, wise crackin drug sellin or buying black folk.

Burnett’s genius is by making a film about everyday working class life, and he does it in a lovely and his own sweet time style.

He has created a subversive piece of cinema that at its core should make you think about everything we have seen about being a African- American in the media.

As usual with America art, it took an outsider to call it great before we took notice, that happened in 1981, when Burnett's film won a price at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The Library of Congress declared it a national treasure as one of the first fifty on the National Film Registry.

The National Society of Film Critics selected it as one of the "100 Essential Films" of all time.

Original release on cheap stock 16mm, in 2007 his alma mater restored and printed “Killer of Sheep” on 35mm, and it is ready available for viewings

So if you have a local indie movie house, give them a call and see if they wont bring

Killer of Sheep your be glad you made the call!

Killer of sheep video exhibit

101 Great Films:

101 One False Move

100 Friends of Eddie Coyle

99 Tampopo

98 The Thing

97 Nanook of the North

96 The Battle of Algiers

95 The Third Man

94 Au Revoir Les Enfants

93 Meshes of the Afternoon

92 Alien

91 Young Frankenstein

90 Bull Durham

89 Los Olvidados

88 Two-Lane Blacktop

87 Ace in the hole

86 Metropolis, Fritz Lang, 1926

85 Killer of sheep, 1977, Charles Burnett,

Metroplis, # 86 of 101 Great Films

2011-03-05T21:12:00.000-08:00

I love movies. I have since I went to the Drive – In with my parents to see

Support your local Sheriff.

Since then I have watched, god only knows how many, but a safe guess is 1,000 films,

that may be more about the fact that I’m old than I watch a lot of films!

For this segment of my Self- Indulgent Blog,

I’m going to list my 101 favorite films, why 101 - why not!

I think I understand films but I’m not a critic, or an academic. So sometimes I'm full of ....

Here is my list, there really isn't any criteria, except, a film has to be at least 10 years old, I need to think about and revisit a film away from its original time frame.

other than that there are no other criteria,

I would love to hear from everyone, so please email or post comments

No. 86

1926 Metropolis, Directed by Fritz Lang

German Expressionist.

I don’t really know what that is, but I know it when I see it

And you see it in Fritz Lang’s 1927 science-fiction film “Metropolis”.

According to Wikipedia, German Expressionism was partly created by the German film industry to combat the more expensive Hollywood films.

Althought at the time Metroplis was the most espensive movie ever made.

You can tell a expressionist film by its strange visual style, extraordinary camera work, and some wonderfully demented set designs that may have been created while on some serious mind altering drugs.

Started near the end of WWI, expressionism wasn’t just confined to Germany, but didn’t spread to Hollywood until some of the great expressionist craftsmen moved to America.

Karl Freund

Especially Karl Freund, the cinematographer for the 1931 Dracula, Karl was a pioneer at Universal using the expression style for their horror films of the 30s

The horror genre wasn’t the only one influenced by German expressionism, Film noir maybe the child of this style with its dark sets and themes, and the use of light in a more artistic way than most American films up until that time.

If you haven’t seen this wildly imaginative film make sure to get the 2010 reconstructed version

Right after its initial release, the German studio Universum Films, cut it substantially, and tragically some of that footage has been lost forever.

The 2010 release from a 16mm print maybe as close as we get can get to the original, but even with the lost footage this is still a great movie, and very proletariat film.

The films narrative is simplistic, with its workers underground, and bosses in the sky, it definitely wears its politics on its sleeve.

BUT regardless of its narrative, it is an amazing film and still one of the great science fiction films of all the time.

Video exhibit for # 86- Metroplis

101 Great Films so far:

101 One False Move

100 Friends of Eddie Coyle

99 Tampopo

98 The Thing

97 Nanook of the North

96 The Battle of Algiers

95 The Third Man

94 Au Revoir Les Enfants

93 Meshes of the Afternoon

92 Alien

91 Young Frankenstein

90 Bull Durham

89 Los Olvidados

88 Two-Lane Blacktop

87 Ace in the hole

Ace in the hole, No. 87 101 Great Films

2011-03-01T19:01:00.001-08:00

1951
Ace in the hole
Directed by Billy Wilder
USA

“I met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my life, but you – you’re twenty minutes.”
Chuck Tatum from Ace in the Hole

Sometimes I have a hard time recognizing a good film, if the characters in the film are bad, not just villain bad, but just plain bad I have a hard time judging the film,

A good example of this is Sideways, critics loved this film, and there was tons of positives, strong female characters, a really well told story, but I cannot get over the fact that the protagonist stole money from his mother, I cannot forgive this, and thus I think of this as a bad movie, I know it’s me more than the film but still I can't stand it,

Billy Wilder's grave marker

but the difference between Sideways, and a film like Billy Wilder’s 1951 Ace in a hole, besides being a much better film, the ethics of the film are right out there for everyone watching to see, and everyone is indicted; everyone in the movie, and everyone in the audience. In fact, Wilder has fun with the audience as he cuts between the action and the spectators watching outside, which he of course includes us the viewer on the real outside.

Wilder is making us(the viewer) as responsible for Leo being in the cave as the newspaper reporter Chuck Tatum( Kirk Douglas)

Ace in the Hole, which Paramount changed to the Big Carnival, hoping it would convene a crime drama to the public, not a disturbing account of an unscrupulous journalist.

Kirk Douglas & Robert Arthur

Was not a success with the American public or critics, but after a decade went by the critics standed to understand the genius of Wilder, including Vincent Canby.
Vincent Canby does a much better job than I explaining Ace in the hole and Billy wilder:

Kirk Douglas & Jan Serling

“Wilder is often called cynical, mostly, I think, because his movies seldom offer us helpful hints to better lives. There are few people in his movies one could model one’s behavior on. He doesn’t deal in redeeming social values. Instead, he sees the demeaning ones.”

I’ve included in the video exhibit for Ace in the hole a wonderful clip from the bonus feature of the dvd.
It’s Spike Lee, another great director with a critical eye,
talkin about Ace in the hole.

Please watch his comments and go out and rent Ace in a hole, there may not be a more relevant movie about the state of our media that this 60 year old gem.

Ace in the hole vidoe exhibit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDv2BLk_OEo

Two-Lane Blacktop # 88 of 101 Great Films

2011-02-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

#88

1971

Two-Lane Black Top

Directed by Monte Hellman

Two- Lane blacktop

“The whole idea of the road, of going from one place to another, is essentially American.”

*–Two-Lane Blacktop Screenwriter, Rudy Wurlitzer

Either I’m an idiot – no comments!

GTO, The Mechanic, the Driver, The Girl

Or Two-lane Black Top is a masterpiece, a 100% American masterpiece,
a western epic with 400 horses and minimum dialog.

Monte Hellman a east coast kid and a west coast college graduate got his real world degree from
The Roger Corman College of Exploitation,
with a minor in fast & cheap.

Two of his best Corman projects were in partnership with Jack Nicholson;
Ride in the Whirlwind and The Shooting,
both westerns, both shot in 18 days and with pennies for a budgets.

Then in 1971 with Hollywood backing Hellman made Two Lane Black Top.
His cast 2 musicians, who had never acted before or since, an 18 year old newcomer, and a 20 year veteran of the small and big screen Warren Oates,
Oates, like the 18 year old newbie, Laurie Bird, left us way to early.

Both were shining stars.

Monte got help with the script from Rudy Wurlitzer and a first rate camera crew, Jack Deerson, Gregory Sandor & Ken Swor.

The 30 member crew and actors traveled across the southeast and southwest, finishing principal filming in just 6 weeks, and for under a million.

Some folks have mistaken the lack of conversation among the driver (James Taylor) and the mechanic (Dennis Wilson) as an obsession about a race that never ends, Critics have commented that the film transcends a road movie, its about 60’s America, a America in bad shape, maybe even dying, but I think the film is much simpler, Two Lane is an existential truth; it’s what men do. Not all men, GTO talks enough for both as does the girl.

But the Driver and the Mechanic don’t need monologues,

- Which by the way is the genius of the casting- 2 guys who make a decent living with their words, having them barely speaking- freakin genius! –

They are happy with the road, they will race, but it ain’t the race that fuels them it’s the road, it’s the music of the engine, it’s the open space,
the American landscape that fuels it all.

Filmed in 1971, it gets lumped with Easy Rider as another “Counter Culture” movie a “Hippie” diatribe about the problems of American

but I think this movie doesn’t give a shit about hippies or counter culture.
If Easy Rider was a statement about the 60s, it was thru the eyes of Hollywood,
I don’t care, people can call Rider counter culture all they want, but it was made by veterans of the Hollywood system, and produced and starred the son of a Hollywood legend,

It was more about spoiled kids rebelling then America and its problems.

Two Lane, is a working class statement, it’s about making things work, not grand ideas,
just machines, with tools they know how to use.
There are no mean as hell rednecks waiting to kill them on the road.
Around the turn in Two- Lane Black Top are people some like the Driver and the Mechanic, and some that aren’t, just regular working folks, and if they ask real nice, they just might get a hardboiled egg from the Mechanic.

Btw: the hardboiled egg, has a long tradition of being traveling food, a treat that can be picked out of a jar, on the counter, all across the country in gas stations and small neighborhood grocery/butcher stores, at least when we had two lane black tops.

Please visit your local Revival Theatre, not sure about one in your area

For a Revial theatre in your area click here

101 Great Films video exhibit of Two-lane Blacktop

101 Great Films:

101 One False Move

100 Friends of Eddie Coyle

99 Tampopo

98 The Thing

97 Nanook of the North

96 The Battle of Algiers

95 The Third Man

94 Au Revoir Les Enfants

93 Meshes of the Afternoon

92 Alien

91 Young Frankenstein

90 Bull Durham

89 Los Olvidados

101 Great Films- # 89 Los Olvidados

2011-02-24T07:19:00.001-08:00

#89

1950

Los Olvidados “The young and the Damned”

Directed by Luis Bunuel

Los Olvidados, is a tough film to watch.

Critics have called it callous, cold, & sadistic.

The producers of the movie, were so unhappy with the end of the film they re-shot a alternate happier ending,

Thankfully Luis Bunuel’s original version is still intact, and the alternate version has been discarded.

Luis Bunuel

Bunuel’s 1950 masterpiece is not a Hollywood movie,

IT does not have a sentimental ending; the film does not have any answers. I’m not sure the film has any compassion at all,

A scene from Los Olvidados

so maybe it is cold, certainly Bunuel gives no help to his audience, he gives very little breathing room.

Luis Bunuel is an artist, and this is a tough masterpiece

Los Olvidados, loosely translated meaning- The young and the damned, is a film that I have only watched

once,some films are just too painful, but don't mistake that comment as bad, this film has some amazing

images, including one character’s dying vision of Death- as a mangy mutt, leading the dying boy down a long

dark road, that image will stay with you a long time, maybe those critics are right.

This is what "Precious" could have been if it had been made by a master filmmaker.

Cast and crew of Los Olvidados

101 Great Films: Los Olvidados

101 Great Films:

101 One False Move

100 Friends of Eddie Coyle

99 Tampopo

98 The Thing

97 Nanook of the North

96 The Battle of Algiers

95 The Third Man

94 Au Revoir Les Enfants

93 Meshes of the Afternoon

92 Alien

91 Young Frankenstein

90 Bull Durham

Bull Durham- # 90 of 101 Great Films

2011-02-20T16:15:00.000-08:00

1988 Bull Durham Directed by Ron Shelton

There are only a few genres that are uniquely American; one of them is the Sport’s movie.

A good sports film has an undercurrent, which has little to do with the sport;

A man’s fight for redemption,

protect the family,

proving one is worthy,

overcoming tragedy,

looking for acceptance,

Tim Robbins & Kevin Costner

In the case of Bull Durham, it has some of these themes but the main theme that drives this film:

It doesn’t matter how hard you work, practice,

no matter what you do,

unless you have that gift- call it god given or whatever,

you are not going to be an elite artist,

thousands try their dream, and some are even good enough to make some noise, but like Crash Davis, no matter how long they or Crash works at their/his art, they/he ain’t got “it”

Crash knows the game better that most, but he just will never make it, he knows this, but he keeps playing. LaLoosh is a young cocky flamethrower who doesn’t respect the game, partly cause he is young, but mainly cause he has the gift- he has the “it”

The question with Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh is will "it" be enough.

Ron Shelton

Former minor league player turned writer/director Ron Shelton understand this as much as anyone, it was in his blood too.

What Shelton does in Bull Durham that is truly amazing, is he brings in a character which in standard romantic films, would just be the standard by the numbers female lead,

But with Annie Savoy, we have another version of Crash,

a female that loves the game as much as anyone playing,

but cause of who she is; she can’t get to the top.

She loves the game, understands the game as well as anyone.

Susan Sarandon

She is not baseball “groupie”

if that were the case, then this wouldn’t be a great film, hell it might not be a good film, but cause she is the Chorus of this Diamond Play Bull Durham is damn good

Trey Wilson & Robert Whul

Another reason for this making 101 Great Films, is the spot on performances by the supporting cast through the film. Trey Wilson, who we lost way to early, is a force that steals every scene he is in, as he did in another film on this list.

The whole cast and crew were a winning combo that hit Bull Durham out of the park! And place it on the top 101

Don’t you just love sports metaphors.

Video exhibit of Bull Durham

MGM's Bull Durham is on Blueray and standard dvd now.

101 Great Films:

101 One False Move

100 Friends of Eddie Coyle

99 Tampopo

98 The Thing

97 Nanook of the North

96 The Battle of Algiers

95 The Third Man

94 Au Revoir Les Enfants

93 Meshes of the Afternoon

92Alien

91 Young Frankenstein

101 Great Films- # 91 Young Frankenstein

2011-02-17T14:39:00.001-08:00

# 91

1974

Young Frankenstein

Directed by Mel Brooks

Made right after Brook’s over the top in every way including the box office- and future entry on the top 101, “Blazing Saddles”,

Mel Brooks was almost understated in his direction, and vision for “Young Frankenstein”,

Mel Brooks and Marty Feldman

I said Almost!!

Brooks, maybe the best slapstick, campy, réalisateur in film history, started off as a writer for TV, including the “Dick Van Dyke show”, & “Your Show of Shows”

Teaming with Carl Reiner, the duo worked together for years in the TV industry, then they released several comedy lps, that were hits, and included the routine the 2000 year old man.

1974 Young Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein parodies the old school horror films

and the gothic novels of Shelley and company

Co-written with Gene Wilder, the film was shoot in wonderful black & white

and uses some of the same sets used in the 1931 James Whale classic film “Frankenstein”.

With a great cast, including the already on this list, Peter Doyle,

Young Frankenstein is still laugh out loud funny,

even during the silly dance numbers, which may include the best monster- doctor dance routine in the history of Cinema.

101 Great Films- # 91 Young Frankenstein video exhibit

101 Great Films:

101 One False Move

100 Friends of Eddie Coyle

99 Tampopo

98 The Thing

97 Nanook of the North

96 The Battle of Algiers

95 The Third Man

94 Au Revoir Les Enfants

93 Meshes of the Afternoon

92Alien

Alien # 92 of 101 Great Films

2011-02-14T08:51:00.000-08:00

# 92
1979
Alien
Directed by Ridley Scott
USA

I like horror movies.
I like Science Fiction films and I dig monster movies.
I enjoy the great ones, the good ones, the bad ones, and the silly ones.
I don’t like the mean spirited ones, which seems to be all they make nowadays, but Alien isn’t that; It’s a damn good monster film.
A damn good SiFi, and one of a few first-class horror films.

“In space no one can hear you scream.”

Dan O'Bannon

Written by Dan O’Bannon,

Ridley Scott

produced by action director Walter Hill, and directed by Ridley Scott, add to those 3 creative giants one really disturbed artist, H.R. Giger and you have a totally unique film in a very structure genre;

1st: the cast is older than most for films like this, this is not a teen movie.

Two- Alien is atmospheric, nerve wracking, with a great pace, not the 100 mile an hour quick edit flicks,
but a slow boiling creepy and very scaring film.

Three-, it has a feeling of class, which horror films never do, the protagonist are normal everyday workers just trying to survive, not super heroes that defy logic to defeat the beast, which also makes the horror more intense and real. The sense of class has been seen in European films, but not in but a few America films and certainly not in horror films, at its core Alien is a story about the ruling class-via the company- exploiting the workers.

Sigourney Weaver, Yaphet Kotto, Harry Dean Stanton

But maybe the biggest ploy in the film
is the fact that the hero is a woman,
the last “man” standing,
and not the helpless victim that usually saturate this genre.

Having just given you 4 reason why this is a unique adventure, at its heart it is an Agatha Christie spooky manor who done it.
However you want to diagnose this film, it is one damn fine piece of work.

and everyone heard me scream.

this video exhibit, is a combo of several works,
The making of Alien, a bonus feature on the Dvd release of Alien.
And excerpts were used from the American Film Institute’s interviews with key players from the film.

Video exhibit for # 92 of 100 Great films: Alien
Remember Alien is available on DvD & Blue ray
Also if you have an independent movie house near you suggest to them to bring Alien back to the big screen.

No. 93 of 101 Great films: Meshes of the Afternoon

2011-02-11T14:29:00.001-08:00

1943

Meshes of the Afternoon

Directed by Maya Deren

USA

The first time I saw Meshes of the Afternoon was an accident. I was hanging out in the A/V department of University of Alabama’s main Library, looking for another film which someone was already watching so I started to brose the listings, and I ran across this 1943 18 minute avant- garde/independent silent film. I remember thinking at the time, ok that’s way over my head, but it’s kind of cool. Over the years, when I first saw Goddard’s Alphaville I thought of Maya’s first film, or anytime I’ve watched a David Lynch film, I always think of Meshes of the afternoon.

Maya Deren

This is a true independent film, not a big star making a “little” picture for 10 million instead of 100 million, this is the real thing, well at least real in the sense of making it on your boot straps, as far as the film itself, it’s about as real as surrealist can get!

Maya does in 18 minutes what Christopher Nolen tried to do with 100 million bucks, and 3 hours worth of stock, but he still doesn’t come.

The force behind this film is an Ukrainian named Eleanora Dernkowsky, whose family moved to America to avoid the growing anti-Semitism spreading across Europe and Russia Unlike most immigrants, they had the means to move about and they settled in Syracuse and they had the means to send Eleanora to college, & grad school. The family changed their UIkrainian name to Deren, and when Eleanora started making films, she started using the name Maya.

This is one of several selections for this list that I’ve struggled with. Not because it’s so out of the main stream, in fact, that may be the reason it makes this list; that and its poetic and rhythmic story narrative. It has a great look for 1943, if you didn’t know any better you would think it was filmed in the 60s not the 40s. It is a poem on film. No the reason I struggled with this selection it’s another feminist narrative that conveys the struggles of the middle class woman, the woman caught in the confinement of her role, I understand that is important, but I want to see the story of my mother and my grandmothers, who worked just as hard as their husbands, then came home and took care of kids, then worked at home, I would like to see the struggles of the working class, and after reading about Maya, I am disappointed that a Trotskyite would define her career about the bourgeoisie, instead of the workers, but that may be much more about my face in the mirror than her work.

But it is a wonderful piece of film making, and you can watch it the whole film plus a nice audi interview with Maya, and you can thank the wonderful World Wide Web!

Meshes of the Afternoon

No. 94 of 101 Great Films- Au Revoir les Enfants

2011-02-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

Au Revoir Les Enfants

101 Great films Au Revoir Les Enfants video

I’ve always wonder how autobiographical “Au Revoir Les Enfants” is for New Wave pioneer Louis Malle? We know that Malle spent time at a Catholic boarding school in France during the German occupation. According to interviews with the director, he witnessed a Gestapo raid on the school, in which 3 students and a teacher were captured and sent to their deaths at Auschwitz.

These students and the teacher were Jewish. The school’s headmaster Pere Jacques de Jesus, was also arrested and sent to Mauthausen concentration camp, were he died right after the liberation by the Allied troops.

Louis Malle

In the film one of the Jewish boys and another student, Julien strike up a friendship, Julien and the other students realize very early that the new kids are Jewish. Headmaster Pere and the other teachers have taken these boys in to try and shelter them from the Germans. The school kids are at first standoffish but after time warm to the new kids, of course something happens which Julien unfortunately & accidently is the cause of that outs the kids, leading to the horrible outcome.

Add caption

I’m not an expert on Louis Malle, so I do not know the answer, and I have to take him at his word, in 2 interviews I read, he says he just witnessed the events. Now just witnessing these horrible events would be bad enough, but what if he were friends with kids that the Nazis killed I’m not sure that’s something you can get over, and Malle made a lot of films about the loss of innocence, and as he said about this event; ”may well have determined my vocation as a filmmaker”

Malle’s true gift here is how he keeps this bleak and tragic subject matter from being hopeless.

A nice montage: Au Revoir Les Enfants

by Paisley Muffin Productions

101 Great Films # 95 The Third Man

2011-02-05T18:27:00.000-08:00

# 95

The Third Man, 1949 Directed by Carol Reed

What a cool theme song!

You would think a movie set in Vienna; a movie where the city is not only a character in the movie, but a very important one would use the music of the area – say a Vienna waltz? Nope Carol Reed picks a strange instrument, the zither, think hammered dulcimer, and like the city, it to is a character in one of the best thrillers in cinema history.

Carol Reed and Anton Karas

This Graham Greene/Carol Reed collaboration was one of the 1^st post WWII thrillers to use a war-torn, bombed our city, as part of the action and in some instances the reason for the action. Greene a great novelist wrote the third man strictly for the screen with Carol Reed, but after its box office success, he turned it into a best selling novel.

Carol Reed and Graham Greene

Reed/Greene worked only on one other project, 1948’s Fallen Idol. To bad they didn’t try another cause The Third Man is one of the best atmospheric films, with great pacing and just too damn cool photography.

Plus it has maybe the best cameo in all of movies.

People love to compare it to Hitchcock but I think with its seedy tones, and really creepy characters and a less than brilliant hero, that the Third man is as good as anything of Hitchcocks’.

And just think David O Selznick who helped finance the movie wanted Noel Coward to play the part of Harry Lime- geez!!

What a bone head

You should buy you a copy today cause your watch it at least 5 times before your cuckoo clock strikes five.

Enjoy this BBC documentary on the third man Part 1 of 7

101 Great Films:

One False Move

Friends of Eddie Coyle

Tampopo

The Thing

Nanook of the North

The Battle of Algiers

101 Great Films- No. 96 The Battle of Algiers

2011-01-31T19:19:00.000-08:00

# 96 The Battle of Algiers

Gillo Pontecorvo in his 1966 film “The Battle of Algiers”,
created such a newsreel feel to the movie that American releases carried a disclaimer. Cinematographer Marcello Gatti created a in the moment atmosphere by using a hand held camera, and natural light. Gatti was a pioneer in the use of hand held cameras.

Besides its docu style, the film does an amazing job of telling the story without romanticizing the protagonist, or vilifying the antagonist, which leads to the film being more powerful and the action at time, so cruel. Many critics were surprised by the films even handed narrative, because the filmmaker Pontecorvo was a Communist, but more important to Pontecorvo than politics, was the art of film, and telling a story that the audience could feel without be manipulated by cartoon villains or appealing heroes.

The film depicts, the turning point of the Algerian War, the Battle of Algiers, but it loosely covers the first 6 years of the revolt, the war itself lasted another 2 years. The film is an anthem for insurgent and minority political groups all over the world and time hasn’t decreased its message.

The film won a boat load of awards including three academy award nominations, but the film did have its share of controversy, scenes of torture were cut from the American & British releases, the reason given; It was to inflammatory towards the French, and the French government banned it from playing in France for 5 years.

Roger Ebert's review of The Battle of Algiers

101 Great Films: so far
101: One false move
100: The Friends of Eddie Coyle
99: Tampopo
98: The Thing
97: Nanook of the North
96: The Battle of Algiers

101 Great Films- # 97 Nanook of the North

2011-01-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

Considered the first documentary “Nanook of the North" is the work of Robert Flaherty.
The story centers on an Inuit family and their daily struggles. Filmed in 1920 (released in 1922) on location in Inljuak, Canada, a remote part of Northern Quebec, with one really a big and cumbersome camera, that didn’t like extreme weather! Guess what- he was shooting in really extreme weather!

Some have criticize Flaherty for staging scenes, recruiting fellow Inuits to play some of the Nanook’s family, which all is true. How do we know this? We know cause Flaherty tells us! He is honest about his staging, in fact compare to the docu/reality stuff on TV and in films today, he was downright saintly. But even with the staging he was still filming with simplistic equipment, in really harsh conditions, and whether or not you go tell you main character to go hunt that Walrus, its still a huge freakin Walrus your hunting!

Nanook, the leader of the family and the main character in the story is a wonderful life affirming human being, and you care what happens to him, but I’m not sure that the making of the film isn’t as important as the film itself, it is truly an Amazing film experience.
If you ever get a chance go see “Nanook of the north” on a big screen. GO!
Watch a clip from Nanook of the North

I hate Ramin Bahrani!

2011-01-28T14:04:00.000-08:00

I hate Ramin Bahrani!

How can a 35 year old be that smart, astute, and visionary?

Filmmaker Ramin Bahrani

What makes it worst he made his first feature film, one of the best films of 2005, “Man Push Cart", when he was 30!

Thirty! I have a daughter who is about to turn 30!

I’m pushing 50 and haven’t come close to doing anything like this Winston-Salem native has done!

I hate him!!!

But maybe he was just a one hit wonder- a lucky little brat! then in 2007 he releases "Chop Shop", which premiered during the Director’s Fortnight, at Cannes, and he was nominated for Best Director for the Independent award! What an SOB!

2005's Man Push Cart

Then a year later he releases his 3^rd film, "Goodbye Solo", which premieres a the Venice Film Festival!, and if that aint good enough, it wins best film!, never did like those Italians.

After being released in American, critics Roger Ebert & A.O. Scott called it a masterpiece!

Bah Humbug!

2008's Goodbye Solo

Three amazing films in 4 years, under the age of 35! What a show off!

Trying to make the rest of us look bad!!

In 2009, he released a short film titled "Plastic Bag", which is narrated by Legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog! This born right in the middle of disco kid got to work with freakin Werner Herzog!!

I HATE RAMIN BAHRANI

From Charlie Rose show

But I can’t wait to see what he does next

Watch Ramin's short: Plastic Bag

101 Great Films # 98 The Thing

2011-01-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

“Keep watching the skies!”
Those are the last world in the 1951 Howark Hawks/ Christian Nyby directed horror/SiFi hybrid, The Thing. Set in the Arctic, a group of civilian scientist discover a UFO and call in the Government via the Air Force.

Tagging along with the military is a member of the 4^th estate a newspaper reporter. When all 3 groups find an alien in the arctic ice the stage is set for the action to begin.

Hawks and Nyby do a great job of keeping the film as much about the characters as the suspense, with the Hawkian style of dialogue, and a taunt pace. Plus an amazingly strong female character played by Margaret Sheridan.

Kenneth Tobey & Margaret Sheridan

Released in 1951 this was one of the first of the Hollywood films to use Horror & Science Fiction genre to get a political message across, in this case a center- right political message.

Also released in 1951, "The Day the Earth Stood Still", another very political movie dressed up as a SiFi flick, and a very good one too!

I’m not going into detail about the conflict between civilian & military, or the struggle with censuring the press. And We’re not going to discuss how the “Mad” scientist looks very Russian, including his Serbia winter hat.

If your interested in these undertones in The Thing or any other films during the 50’s

Check out- Seeing is Believing by Peter Biskind, a wonderful book.

If you want to see a great horror/SiFi/action thriller with a "His Girl Friday" overlapping dialogue style then check out The Thing from another world!

The plant scene is still freaky!

101 Great Films # 98

# 99 of 101 Great Films

2011-01-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

#99

I believe that nothing can compare to watching a film on the big screen with an audience of complete strangers. But when you live in a small town and your big screen viewing options are limited, sometimes you have no choice but to watch a movie for the 1^st time on a small screen.

That’s how I saw my pick for # 99; Tampopo

Director Juzo Itami’s 1985 comedy is a delightfully funny film about cooking, shopping, and eating. And it is all over the place, but in a good way.

Juzo, in only his 2^nd film, is like a free form Jazz player who veers off into 100 amazing different directions, only to bring it back in the end. And it works.

The cast includes Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto and Ken Watanabe.

It is available thru Netflix or Amazon so rent it or buy it, but make sure to have ample food prepared while you’re watching!

#99 Tampopo 1985 Japan directed by Juzo Itami

Watch a clip from Tampopo

To buy a copy of this film

My Self-Indulgent Blog

# 76 of 101 Great Films -The Spirit of the Beehive

Steamboat Bill Jr. # 77 of 101 Great Films

25 under 5! Name these 25 Tv Theme songs

Produced by one of the 60's and 70s most prolific producers, Quinn Martin, the series starred Efrem Zimbalist.The F.B.I theme

Bronislau Kaper wrote the theme song, he also wrote the score for movies including, Orson Welles' The Stranger, & Mutiny on the Bounty.

# 5

Law and Order Original series ran from 1990 to 2010

Slacker # 78 of 101 Great Films

Delicatessen # 79 of 101 Great Films

Broadcast News # 80 of 101 Great Films

the fun is in the debate!

101 great Films- # 81 Throne of Blood

No. 82 of 101 Great Films Le Samourai

101 Great Films: # 83 My Darling Clementine

No. 84 Bad Day at Black Rock

101 Great Films- # 85 Killer of Sheep

Metroplis, # 86 of 101 Great Films

Ace in the hole, No. 87 101 Great Films

Two-Lane Blacktop # 88 of 101 Great Films

101 Great Films- # 89 Los Olvidados

Bull Durham- # 90 of 101 Great Films

101 Great Films- # 91 Young Frankenstein

Alien # 92 of 101 Great Films

No. 93 of 101 Great films: Meshes of the Afternoon

No. 94 of 101 Great Films- Au Revoir les Enfants

101 Great Films # 95 The Third Man

101 Great Films- No. 96 The Battle of Algiers

101 Great Films- # 97 Nanook of the North

I hate Ramin Bahrani!

101 Great Films # 98 The Thing

# 99 of 101 Great Films