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Oscar and Chris,
Glad to be back. Thanks for your kind words. They mean a lot to me.
Chris, where was the Dylan exhibit? What else was in it? I'm a very big Dylan fan and though I probably won't be travelling in the near term, it may be coming to Chicagoland.
The Dylan exhibit closed last Saturday at the Morgan Library in NYC after a run of several months. It was focused on Bob's early days coming to NYC when he was first becoming famous, 1956-1966,
"Bob Dylan's American Journey". A description of the show reads:The Morgan Library is the only probably site for the show. The NYTImes review reveiw hopefully will link here and you can get a good description of what you missed.Quote:
This is the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to Bob Dylan's formative early career. The exhibition examines this critical ten-year period by charting Dylan's transformation from folk troubador to rock innovator. The exhibit, which includes works from Morgan's Dylan manuscripts and other material given to the Morgan from 1997 to 1999 by collector George Hecksher, follows Dylan's personal and artistic development from his teenage years in Hibbing, Minnesota, to early live performances at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. It incorporates historic facts, handwritten lyrics and letters, instruments, rare memorabilia and photographs-and interpretive films featuring rare performance footage and interviews with Dylan and other artists. Listening stations feature selections from several albums of the period covered by the exhibit.
I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in July of '05 and they attributed the dearth of Dylan material to a show they were curating the following spring (which I got a postcard about a few months later). Bummer I didn't get to see it or the exhibit you write about.
I don't know for sure but I suspect that a certain amount of the stuff belongs to the Morgan Library, and maybe if you applied to them they'd let you look at it. But I don't know. Maybe this will lead to other Dylan shows. There probably is a lot of material, MSS. and posters and memorabilia. It did give me the feeling of going back to that time and that was fun. I just read Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One and since I was staying in the Village near the streets Dylan lived on when he came to NYC, it was very apropos for me. And it was kind of a tradition since this time last year I bought the DVD of Scorsese's No Direction Home while in NYC and watched it. Another thing featured in the Morgan Library exhibition was the documentary Don't Look Back, with some accompanying documents, possibly an outtake. That reminded me what a great document that is and made me want to see it all the way through another time.
Warren Beatty's directorial debut (he shares duties with Buck Henry) is an engaging screwball comedy perfectly matched with the 70s' rise of the auteur (and with his next film, 1981's "Reds" he would be confirmed as one). Though the film has that flat, one-dimensional feel of the big budget movies being put out at the time primarily by Paramount ("The Godfather" films being an exception here) and Universal, it maximizes a sharp screenplay by Elaine May and Beatty (with uncredited work by Robert Towne) and an excellent comic cast. Everything about it is delightful (except Dave Grusin's godawful score) but it's the crack timing of Dyan Cannon's hysteria and Charles Grodin's double-takes that provide the belly laughs.
I've posted my comments in that thread if anyone's interested. Unfortunately, I don't know how to create a link from here to there (but I'd be interested to learn if someone cares to show me).
Thank you for your contributions. Keep 'em coming!
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/misc...&action=bbcode
Read section called URL Hyperlinking
MIchael Powell's 1937 elegaic tribute to the dying communities of the Shetland Islands is impossible to watch without being profoundly moved at both the plight of the declining age-old families and the stunning rocky landscape shot with both immediacy and granduer (by three separate cameramen but clearly guided by Powell's peerless eye). It's a more direct approach Powell takes here (there isn't as much of the warm wit evident is so many of his films) and the intense personal grief he invests in depicting an island people being worn away by natural selection is frequently overwhelming and almost too much to bear. (The superimposed ghostly images of the inhabitants as their lives erode is heartbreakingly devastating and a birth midway through the film accompanied by a Scottish lullabye is beyond words.) I spent the second half of the film sobbing and I defy you not to as well. A masterpiece from (along with Billy Wilder) my favorite filmmaker.
I'm also a big fan of Michael Powell. Among British filmmakers, the only one who might be superior to Powell is Hitch. But I've seen all of the master of suspense's movies and I have yet to watch several films by Powell, including The Edge of the World. I plan to purchase the superior UK dvd release of the film by the British Film Institute. Here's a comparison of the American and UK dvd releases: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCom...oftheworld.htm
It includes some nice screen captures.
Oscar,
You know, the comparison between Powell and Hitchcock is apt. Their wits are, I feel, remarkably similar. I remember dreading watching "The Red Shoes" (the first Powell film I'd seen), thinking it would be dull and dry and was delighted to find him to be funny and fast-paced--and reminded me almost exactly of Hitchcock.
I think Powell had a similar facination with women and their passion but was not as afraid of them as Hitchcock appeared to be; in fact, Powell seems almost celebratory of them. The use of Deborah Kerr in 3 separate roles to 3 separate ends in "The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp" is unique for its time; the hothouse lust in "Black Narcissus" fairly reeks off the screen; and Moira Shearer's fragility in "The Red Shoes" is handled with an appreciation of her delicacy. Only Wendy Hiller in "I Know Where I'm Going!" seems to get her comeuppance but, even there, that might be more as a result of England's class system and not her femininity.
As far as sheer beauty of filmmaking is concerned, I think Powell's only peer in his time is John Ford. Both used black and white, shadow and depth of vision to create landscapes so intense they seemed to be in color; and when they did move into Technicolor, their visuals were so overwhelmingly saturated they seems like paintings that haven't quite dried. It's still amazing that "Black Narcissus" was shot on a soundstage.
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...5&pagenumber=2
If this link was not ceated, well, you can find my comments there and, in the meantime, I'll keep trying to create links. If it does work, thanks, Oscar.
That takes us to the page just fine. I don't know exactly how to link directly to a specific post myself.
Your welcome, bix. I like the things you say about Powell heroines, but you'd have to elaborate about Hitch appearing to be afraid of women. John Ford's films will give me pleasure and edification until the day I die. It was hard for me to believe Black Narcissus was not shot on location.
Raoul Peck's Lumumba (2000). In French. Netflix DVD.
A very depressing but thought-provoking film with a brilliant, intense performance by the lead, Eriq Ebouaney as Patrice Lumumba, who suffered a gruesome end after serving only nine months in the newly independent Congo in early 1961. There isn't a lot about how Lumumba became Lumumba, but the film richly details the independence struggle and the chaotic early days of the country once freed of Belgian control.
But the Belgian cadres and commanders of the Congolese military did not leave then, and this led to revolts. Lumumba expelled the general, and that led to chaos. The largest and most resource-rich province, Katanga, headed by Moïse Tshombe, ceded from the union, and further chaos followed. The remaining Belgians appear as hostile and not interested in helping out. The film begins and ends with the incineration of Lumumba's chopped-up body by Belgian white men, along with bodies of a couple other associates who were tortured, beaten and shot witih him. Pretty ugly stuff.
Eriq Ebouaney, who looks exactly like Lumumba in the film, gives a riveting performance, but ironically one without the charisma and charm exuded by Forest Whitiker as the wicked Idi Amin in this year's Last King of Scotland. Lumumba as seen here is intensely driven, even grim, though he has a few smiles and even a moment of uproarious laughter in a prison cell. He emerges as a brave and fearless man defeated by circumstance: he says, he arrived a few years too soon. There are few personal moments. No intimate scene with his wife till 52 minutes into the film. I'd have liked to see the early life of the man sketched in a bit more detail. Peck seems as relentless and driven as his subject. Good evocations of the turmoil but an unvaried intensity may become wearing to the viewer.
"His [Peck's] first attempt at exploring Lumumba's story on film was through the documentary, Lumumba - Death of a Prophet which he directed in 1991. The film was awarded the Procirep Prize at the Festival du Réel in Paris and Best Documentary at the Montreal Film Festival in 1992."--FrenchCultur.org. Peck is of Haitian origin and came to the Congo with his father, a teacher sent there to work, in 1963. Before this film he made a documentary about Lumumba.
The more critical of the French press reviews felt Peck was too stolid and preachy in his approach and was overwhelmed in his attempt to render the chaos of the new Congolese government; they found the film more edifying than alive. There is something in that, but it outlines most of the events extremely clearly.