The Longest Post On Filmwurld

[cinemabon]

I remember in film school being taught about Flaherty's role in being the "father" of documentary film. We had to look at several film styles of documentarians but I don't recall if we ever discussed Gardner's role (that was in the early 1970's and the film school at OSU had only been open for two years with a skeleton teaching staff). My advisor, Ali Elgabri, was more interested in film studies geared toward Hollywood style productions (he had been an assistant director at 20th Century Fox... in fact, all of the prof's at the time were former studio employees).

In bringing your film experience and knowledge to this site, I have - in the past decade - broadened and expanded my scope of understanding to include French film (Chris and Johan), Asian film (you, Oscar) and documentary filmmakers. What I learned in film school all of those years ago has deepened with an ever increasing appreciation of filmmakers and their styles - thanks to your generous time in sharing your knowledge with those who love and appreciate the art of film.

[Johann]

Thanks for the posts Oscar and Cinemabon. We have a good resource here, with threads like this.

[oscar jubis]

2010 THE ARBOR (Clio Barnard)
After repeat viewings,The Arbor has now achieved canonical status. It is described on IMdb in this order: "documentary, biography, drama". Ms. Barnard received an award for "best documentary filmmaker" at Tribeca in 2010 but most scenes in the film use actors and other scenes are excerpted from adaptations of fictional, albeit partly autobiographical, material written by Andrea Dunbar (1961-1990). The most arresting scenes include actors lip-synching to the actual voices of Dunbar's daughters and other relatives. The effect is uncanny and revelatory. This eminently self-conscious film provides fresh perspectives on the so-called kitchen-sink realism and provides insight into the complex relationship between representation and documentation. Ms. Barnard's second film, The Selfish Giant is entirely fictional.

[Chris Knipp]

Hi Oscar, welcome back to your blog. Filmleaf's first coverage of the excellent and formally inventive The Arbor was a review I wrote as part of the 2011 SFIFF. I saw The Selfish Giant at IFC Center and reviewed it from NYC; I loved it. Since it's extremely rooted in Bradford in the Midlands and in dialect with non actors it's a bit misleading to say it's "entirely fictional." I just called it "more striaghtforward." I wonder what you mean by saying "After repeat viewings,The Arbor has now achieved canonical status." Do you mean with you? But "canonical" is a collectively acquired status, not achieved by one person's repeated viewings. However I do agree it is unique and makes a strong impression, maybe worthy of adding to the "canon" of innovative documentary-fiction hybrids. I was more moved by The Selfish Giant however, if memory serves. Anyway, I'm glad we've moved on from Groundhog Day.

[oscar jubis]

Hi Chris, Thanks for the links to your reviews.
There's an excellent essay about canons here http://toddmcompton.com/infinitecanonsprint.htm#_ftn32
"A canon is a list of works considered best and exemplary, propounded by an individual or group, often for a communal purpose.[31] This will allow us to include lists of individuals, such as Aristophanes of Byzantium or Harold Bloom (though such canons will be called the Aristophanes canon or the Bloom canon). The term “personal canon” has started to come into general use".
The introductory post describes my criteria and purposes, if I remember correctly. But anyway, the process involves repeat viewings over a few years before I add a film. Feeling compelled to re-watch a film and being re-warded by my decision is a major criterion.
I'm going to try to post more frequently here. My comments are usually about films you have long reviewed; so I am glad that you locate the pieces and provide links. You know Chris, a lot of recent films on the list are serious or even grim (Seidl's trilogy for instance). Most are innovative and ground-breaking or sui generis, as you'd say. But I am debating the inclusion of Brooklyn which is none of those things.It's just perfect as is. Favorite romance since "Eternal Sunshine".

[oscar jubis]

I will also add Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest to the list. I have been moved by my late realization of how the film adopts modernist leanings (it's 1959 after all) by providing self-conscious commentary on the Grant persona and a grand summation of Hitchcock's themes and preoccupations theretofore. Moreover, my appreciation for the film has been expanded by a reading of Stanley Cavell's essay on the film. Cavell brings forth the myriad elements in North by Northwest derived from Shakespeare ("Hamlet") and from Saxo Grammaticus, as well as the connection with the genre Cavell coined as "comedy of remarriage". This is the type of film I tended to underrate in my young, hip days. NxNW doesn't have the delicious, delirious gloom of Vertigo but it's nearly as profound, in its own way.
Best films of 1959: Alphabetical Order.
THE 400 BLOWS (Truffaut)
ANATOMY OF A MURDER (Preminger)
FLOATING WEEDS (Ozu)
FRITZ LANG'S INDIAN EPIC (Lang)
HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR (Resnais)
MOI, UN NOIR (Rouch)
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (Hitchcock)
PICKPOCKET (Bresson)
Add RIO BRAVO and NAZARIN and you have 10 masterpieces from arguably my favorite year in cinema.

[Johann]

Great stuff Oscar. Glad your back posting again!

You got me thinking about what my favorite year in cinema is. 1959 is pretty damn good, and your picks are stellar.
I especially love Anatomy of a Murder, Rio Bravo and The 400 Blows. But I agree- all of them are masterpieces. I've never seen Lang's Indian epic. Will have to catch up with that one.

[oscar jubis]

Great films newly added to canon

1960. WILD RIVER (Kazan)
This is the first Elia Kazan film on the list. It's a film I finally caught up with, so to speak. There are still several movies likely to elicit surprising responses because I haven't seen them (or don't remember having seen them). It's possible that I watched a couple of scenes from it one night while broadcast on TV. Being true to my experience of cinema after high school, I watched a lot of fragments from movies; I "sampled" from movies quite a bit. This practice has only become more "natural" with clips on youtube and the overall fragmentation of experience often cited as characteristic of what is often labeled postmodernism. I'm not an unequivocal champion of technology but I am grateful that the (UK) Bluray of Wild River allows me to experience it in ideal, pristine conditions. I like how the Cinemascope images are composed but I love how the extended shots allow us the rich pleasure of seeing the performance and presence of exceptional stars who died young: Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick, and "character actor" Jo Van Fleet in the key role of an old lady who refuses to sell her little island so the government can tame the wild Tennessee river. The film presents substantial discourse about the inevitability of government (call it "civilization" and you realize this movie is a "western" of sorts even though it's set during the New Deal) and the resistance to it.

2011. A SEPARATION (Farhadi)
This Oscar winner has proven its worth as a perfectly crafted piece of dramaturgy over a dozen viewings. This is the Middle Easter film that I use the most in my classes because it is so engaging and because it elicits debate and promotes an understanding of the different layers of Iranian society and culture. I have seen students raised on Michael Bay and CGI fall under the spell of this subtitled masterpiece, and marvel over the intricacy of plot construction and the way Farhadi uses doors, mirrors, and architectural divisions to visualize separations between individuals and groups.

[oscar jubis]

HIS GIRL FRIDAY
I had forgotten to add this 1940 adaptation of the 1928 play "The Front Page" directed and produced by Howard Hawks. His Girl Friday is an example of the Hollywood practice identified by film historian David Bordwell as "the switcheroo" and consisting of changing the gender of one character in a successful play or film. Hawks is famous for his genre versatility and for giving actors license to improvise. Stanley Cavell wrote the best criticism of this famous film in his 1979 book "Pursuits of Happiness" which concerns the genre of remarriage comedy. It has many instances of precise, intricate blocking and choreography of actors' movement. His Girl Friday has been called "slapstick" because of the fast and overlapping delivery of dialogue but the term undersells its deep reservoir of wisdom and inspiration.

[oscar jubis]

Three movies from this decade make my beloved list of Favorite Films of all time!

THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA (2010): 102 year-old Manoel de Oliveira's magical version of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is also a sort of autobiography. His grandson Ricardo Trepa plays a photographer in 1950s Oporto hired to document the funeral of a beautiful young bride.

BROOKLYN (2015): This is the film that proved Saoirse Ronan is an actress for the ages. Perhaps the film most beloved by my students. The film of late with the most pathos.

MR. TURNER (2014): The last 25 years in the life of British 19th century artist J.M.W. Turner dramatized in the fresh, inspired manner of writer/director Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy, about Gilbert & Sullivan). The cinematography of Dick Pope and the performance by Timothy Spall received prestigious recognition, at Cannes and elsewhere.

[oscar jubis]

A rare moment: a movie from my list of beloved, great films that has to be removed for its failure to sustain additional viewings with pleasure and edification. I was watching Fritz Lang's MABUSE, THE GAMBLER, the 1922 film that introduced the iconic master villain, and I found it difficult to sustain interest. It's an episodic crime film lasting 5 hours in its original version, and it failed to sustain my interest in the way the equally long, more rewarding LES VAMPIRES did recently. Much to admire in Lang's film but not one of my favorites based on my last viewing.

Having said that, I have a new addition to the canon, a late silent from the UK: SHOOTING STARS (1828). It's a visually inventive love triangle set in a film studio hence its ability to critique its own medium and production process. Anthony Asquith is primarily responsible. He was in his 20s still when he made this masterpiece.

These changes have been made to the original post on page 1.

[cinemabon]

Sure about that date?