Brief comments on today's, Wed., Sept. 15 P&I screenings.
As mentioned above, they were more samplings of the NYFF sidebar material.
The first two are from the series MASTERWORKS: Elegant Elegies: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda
Pale Flower (Kawaita hana 1964, 96 min)
This is gorgeous, beautifully composed black and white with stylish avantgardist percusiony music by Toru Takemitsu (much more notable than Purcell). Opening gambling sequences are ace. The intercutting of gangster business involving old men and a racetrack somewhat dampen the energy of the gambling and the lone samurai (his tiny pad may show influence of Jean-Pierre Melville's film). I found the pacing and editing somewhat slack at certain points. Muraki (Ryô Ikebe)'s assassination isn't simply done to impress the gambling girl. A Nouvelle Vague evidence and other ones, perhaps including Douglas Sirk, are much in evidence and this is a very Sixties piece, while also quite Japanese. A nice piece of work even if it lacks something. Shinoda seems and by reports was and is a director of the second rank, though he had moments and this is one of them, though by what some say not the best of his early films.
Silence (Chinmoku 1971, 129m)
"A 17th-century Portuguese missionary’s betrayal of his beliefs under torture conveys the extraordinary, insidious toll of religious persecution on mind and spirit." Yes, and this is a new topic,at least for us. However it is a shift to square rather than widescreen format and to color and my friend commented that is just looked like "bad Pasolini." Certain features put me off immediately concerning language. Two actors supposed to be Portuguese monk-missionaries are played by an American and an English actor, and -- in complete violation of fact -- they speak English (along with Japanese) to each other and sometimes to the locals. They are also not very good actors. This time, Toremitsu's score doesn't add anything distinctive to the long-winded proceedings. A tedious and drawn-out film. Nothing like the quality of the first one shown here.
The third film is a documentary about the cinematographer, Jack Cardiff. NYFF summary:
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (Craig McCall, 2010, UK; 86m)
This is a very polished documentary with many interesting talking heads including the ubiquitous Scorsese, who, as usual, has keen observations to make about the look of specific films and the early history of color in movies. Interesting to note hoe much technicolor for Cardiff was seen as like painting, which explains the look's faults as well as its virtues. Cardiff shot THE RED SHOES, Hitchcock's ROPE, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, for a start. What makes this documentary good -- what made it even possible -- is that Cardiff, whose career went back to 1914, not only lived to be 95 but in quite recent years was in excellent shape and spoke very well. A must-watch for those interested in the history of Technicilor or any film buff who cares about mainstream filmmaking, especially English, from the Thirties through the Seventies, and beyond. Cardiff got to work with some of the most beaufiful women in movies during those decades and also did nice big portrait photos of them. And though his directing career was mostly quite undistinguished he directed twelve or fifteen films -- then when the English film industry went downhill, gladly returned to cinematography.
There will be more sidebar material tomorrow: the three-hour documentary satire on the Romanian dictator and a reconstructed set of footage about the Nurenberg trials:
Thu Sep 16
9 am THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU Andrei Ujic, 2010, Romania; 180m
Noon - press conf VIA SKYPE
1pm - NURENBERG [The Schulberg/Waletzky Restoration] (80m) (Nyff Special Event, "Masterworks" series )
2:30pm - press conf
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