The Longest Post On Filmwurld

[oscar jubis]

Thanks, Oscar. From what I read, reading Zama is quite a project (though it has been much read). You read Spanish. If I did, I might tackle it. I have a big poster of the film enshrined in my garage, where I have several others including Bamako and the Dardennes' The Son. In the big Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, it was impressive. I see the restored original Threepenny Opera is at the moment on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUgkrlL8GkE

Zama is an easy read; and fairly short. In English (because the Spanish language version is hard to find/expensive).
I prefer Ghibli films dubbed in English, by the way. Guess I'm not always a "purist".
I'm about to add the version of Henry James' "Washington Square" titled
THE HEIRESS (1949/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer),
from a director I appreciate now more than ever: WILLIAM WYLER. Olivia de Havilland plays the protagonist, Catherine Sloper, and won an Oscar. I like the movie better than the novel because of the ambiguity created by having simpatico Montgomery Clift play the suitor and the script also helping to make the character less hateful than the novel's. So now, it leaves you wondering at the end whether her final decision is the right one.

[cinemabon]

Evidently Olivia de Havilland hated working with Ralph Richardson, but wouldn't elaborate on why. She always does one of those "knowing" smiles and stares at the interviewer. I wonder how many takes Wyler put him through (Multi-take Willie). Perhaps the strain of doing the same scene repeatedly put him on edge as it did with Lawrence Olivier. When Wyler threatened to fire him (Olivier - on Wuthering Heights), he settled down (though I doubt Sam Goldwyn would've allowed that). It's difficult for many stage actors to "tone down" their skill for cinema. Few successful stage actors have made that transition satisfactorily. Olivier's style suited him well for some films - his over the top mellow drama - Hamlet, Rebecca. Richardson performed more in cinema in his later years, probably because he had to memorize less. I can't get over how Angela Lansbury does it - in her nineties and still acting on the stage. That's stamina.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks very much for this interesting post. There are some TV interviews of the actors accessible on the Criterion BR that I own. I'm interested to dig further into the relationships between the thespians and Wyler. The German-Jewish director was seriously under-rated by the 2 most important critics*** in my life: Andrew Sarris and Jonathan Rosenbaum (Who just recently admitted that there may be SEVERAL masterpieces in his filmography, having finally, in 2010, said THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES is a masterpiece). Sarris eventually elevated William Wyler to the PANTHEON of cinema geniuses, having once relegated the auteur to the category LESS THAN MEETS THE EYE

***(not film academics, that honor falls on the great philosopher Stanley Cavell and my mentor William Rothman, the predominant Cavell and Hitchcock scholar in the USA)

[cinemabon]

When I attended film school in the 1970's, they placed a large emphasis on European directors (Fellini, Bergman, Godard, Renoir, Lean, etc), some Japanese directors (Kurosawa), and very few American directors. It wasn't until I started to attend revival movie theaters in the late 70's when I lived in Los Angeles that I began to read about and discover William Wyler. He was still alive at the time and they had several retro's of his work in local theaters. Billy Wilder spoke at one of them. You can't appreciate a film unless you see 35mm film projected on a screen with an audience. The New York film critics raved about Wilder, Preston Sturges, Scorsese, and Hitch (pointing more toward the English side of his work, right around the same time Spoto published his first work). They mentioned Welles, too. They said very little about John Ford and downplayed his work as mostly "westerns." But when I started to speak with actors about Wyler, I got an entirely different response. They spoke of a man obsessed with realism; hence the reason for numerous takes. If an actor didn't convince Willie it was real, he made them do it again. He said, "I'll know it when I feel it." No wonder actors wanted him to make their movies. His films placed more actors in AA nominations than any director in film history. The more I read about Wyler, the more I found his life and his film work fascinating. Like most directors, he had his list of "bad" or unsuccessful films due to one aspect or another. Overall, he produced an incredible body of work I've found quite wonderful to review as my film library has many Wyler films in its pantheon.

[oscar jubis]

I think that every film school had unique tendencies depending on who was in charge and who he hired to teach. Some schools emphasized Hollywood directors more than the one you attended (I base this comment on the European slant you remember at your school). Andrew Sarris' 1968 book "The American Cinema" was a major influence on how different directors were regarded.

As far as Wyler and realism, he is associated with a technique considered realistic because it replicates characteristics of human vision: deep-focus cinematography (Shots with a large depth of field). The DP most associated with deep-focus in Hollywood was, as you know, Greg Toland. He lensed 6 films for Wyler. It's interesting to note that after Toland died, Wyler's films continue to use the same technique consistently (see "The Heiress", "Carrie", etc.), no matter who was the DP. So that, I think, it's fair to associate this realistic rendering of the space in front of the camera as being also characteristic of Wyler. It's the most important aspect of the realistic aesthetic you rightfully ascribe to Wyler.

[Chris Knipp]

Nice to hear from you, Cinemabon.
I hope you're cruising the daytime lines too and perused some of the festival coverage.

[oscar jubis]

Nice to hear from you, Cinemabon.
I hope you're cruising the daytime lines too and perused some of the festival coverage.

I want to state (or re-state) how important it is the coverage of film festivals, new releases, and other events related to the culture of cinema that you provide in your reportage and film criticism. I don't really read anything else about these events/contempo films. I don't feel I need to resort to other sources given your excellence and thoroughness. As you know, most of my reading revolves around the courses I teach and the history of the medium and that consumes most of my available time. I love your NYFF coverage and I look forward to new films from Serra, Desplechin, Dardennes, and other favorite filmmakers. Thanks!

[oscar jubis]

THERE ARE NOW 7 FILMS DIRECTED BY KENJI MIZOGUCHI IN MY LIST OF FAVORITE FILMS OF ALL TIME. IT IS
THE CRUCIFIED LOVERS (1954)
which has been released by Criterion under the title A STORY FROM CHIKAMATSU
Period melodrama at its finest!
Dave Kehr says it's got the most experimental soundtrack of all his films.