WENDERS CLASSICS

A one-off this week at Cinematheque- ‘Wenders Classics’ which brings us two of Wim Winders’ celebrated films.

The American Friend (1977) arose because of Wenders’ desire to film a Patricia Highsmith novel. Since the rights to any of the novels were unavailable, Highsmith gave Wenders the unpublished script for ‘Ripley’s Game’, leading Wenders’ interest in international filmmaking to be born with an array of actors and locations being used.
Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper), an American based in Germany, earns money by selling forged art works at auctions. One evening he meets Jonathan Zimmermann (Bruno Ganz) a reputable art dealer who dislikes Ripley, and Raoul Minot (Gerard Blain) a gangster who wants Ripley to assassinate a rival. With Zimmermann’s dismissal of him still in his mind, and knowing that Zimmermann is gravely ill, Ripley suggests that Minot con Zimmermann into committing the crime. As the illegal activities mount around them, Ripley and Zimmermann find themselves becoming friends, but with deadly consequences.

Wings of Desire (1987) is a beautiful film. It follows two angels as they fly around West Berlin, listing in to people’s thoughts, feelings and emotions. Presented is the isolation of people in a crowded city, separated mentally and physically from their fellow countrymen across the wall. When one of the angels, Damiel (Bruno Ganz), meets trapeze artist Marion he is so enthralled in her desire that he renounces his immortality and becomes human so that he may be with her. Here, the film goes from the black and white images of Berlin thus experienced, to the vibrant colour of human existence.
Accompanying the film is a soundtrack of popular songs including Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, as well as the appearance of American actor Peter Falk who was also once an angel but had decided to come to earth to make films about the Nazi regime.

The People v George Lucas (2010)

By Ronan MacEwan

Follow @ausfilmreview

Warning this review includes swear words. No discussion of the Star Wars remakes and prequels can be had without them.

Lovers of the original Star Wars have finally got the film they’ve been waiting for.

No, it’s not the prequels remade to by James Cameron, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky, or Peter Jackson. It’s the People v George Lucas, which elegantly and precisely catalogues every grievance with the work of George Lucas ever since he fiddled with Star Wars: A New Hope bits.

The complete jeremiad is here – many seen by the fans as personal slights or direct attacks by Lucas on their very existence: Han shooting first (takes away his roguish edge), midi-chlorians (reduces the universal, accessible, spiritual nature of the force to a genetically superior blood type basis – i.e. an Ubermensch) and, of course, Jar-Jar Binks (a preposterous, endlessly irritating and arguably incredibly racist character – described by one fan as the archetype of “what someone with no sense of humour thinks is funny.”)

The rage and frustrations of the fans is palpable, but what the documentary makes clear is that the objections come from a place of love. The fans see themselves as wronged lovers, willing to take back George Lucas if he would just cede to what they see as reasonable demands. The fans want Lucas to gently woo them, but instead he’s just fucking them.

This is a first-world indulgent issue of the highest order, and it one I once cared deeply about  but I’ve moved on. Thinking about it or keeping up with the latest Star Wars release was, as Shaun of the dead Simon Pegg has articulately stated, a bit like being a part of an abusive relationship. You just have to a walk away – it’s not going to change, Lucas will just keeping hitting you in the face with a wet fish.

The fish will be CGI, but it will still hurt.

Nevertheless, there’s a great deal of catharsis and satisfaction in seeing Lucas’ outrageous acts of cultural vandalism so clearly spelt out. It feels like a rebellion order of fans that just can’t give up the hope – the old hope that the traditional Star Wars Empire will strike back and everything we loved about the Jedi will return.

For those who do not give a single fuck about things like Lucas changing the Ewok’s theme the end of episode VI– this may be a little ‘challenging’ (read: insanely boring). But if you want to know why your Star Wars loving fans get so mad when the fact you mention that you “didn’t mind”  the menacing phantoms, attacking clones or revenging Sith – this is an ideal primer and may spare you some sullen evenings.

In conclusion, George, we the people hate you but we wouldn’t be who we are without you. Mr Lucas, you have made generation with some extreme cognitive dissonance issues, who are will likely go on talking about this well into their twilight years.

Out through Hopscotch Entertainment.

ELIA KAZAN, THE OUTSIDER- week 3

This Wednesday is the last week of the films of Elia Kazan. To end the opening presentation for Melbourne Cinematheque for 2012 is A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and East of Eden (1955)- two films which expertly catch Kazan’s sense of alienataion and prejudice.

With A Streetcar Named Desire Kazan successfully turned his praised stage production of the Tennessee Williams’ play into an acclaimed film which won four Academy Awards and was heavily censored of many of the underlying themes in Williams’ play. The film focuses on Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh)- a drug-addicted alcoholic who is running from her past and lives in a self-created fantasy world- and the impact she has upon her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and Stella’s husband Stanley (Marlon Brando) when she arrives at their New Orleans home. Blanche still sees herself as the desirable Southern girl of her youth who ought to be treated with respect and dignity, yet in the French Quarter where she now finds herself, Stanley and his friends refuse to play into her fantasy world causing palpable tension for everyone present.

East of Eden is the (admittedly loose) film adaption of the John Steinbeck novel which is a take on the Cain and Abel story of the Old Testament. Set in 1917 California, Cal (James Dean in his first major film role) is resentful that his father appears to favour his do-good brother Aron (Richard Davalos). Cal has also recently become aware that their mother has not died, as is told to them by their businessman father, but is actually an alcoholic who runs a brothel in a neighbouring town. The injustices he faces at home mount and Cal’s teenage angst, loneliness and jealousy increases to dangerous levels as he begins to act out in harmful and unexpected ways. Yet despite all of this he only wants to do goof by his family and make his father proud.

Heaven’s Gate Minute by Minute: Part 49 of 229

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O-oh! It’s confrontation time! James is ordered out of the clubhouse and there is a lot of macho posturing until the guy from Law and Order slaps him across the face with his gloves. James open palm slaps him back and it becomes a little awkward. This is a western, shouldn’t they spit in a spittoon and draw pistols? At least use a fist, for goodness sake. They look as though they’re performing a German folk dance. There is no piano or piani player, no card gamblers and the villain isn’t even wearing a black hat. And if they are staging a German slap dance, there is a severe lack of accordion! John Ford would be turning in his grave, unless he was cremated, in which case he’d be churning in his urn, or viewing the scene with indifference. Everything seems less important once you’ve been turned to ash. But if you’re trapped in a box you spend your days being outraged at trivial things. The main reason is you need the exercise and an excuse to roll around. If it weren’t for the worms, you’d get so flabby just lying there. To clarify, I am suggesting that John Ford would take issue with a German slap dance devoid of accordion. He’s a purist.

Film Review: Leonardo Live (2012)

By Mia Robinson

Follow @ausfilmreview

Documentary, 90 minutes.

 Leonardo Live is a documentary on the Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan exhibition currently delighting gallery-goers at the National Gallery in London. This Blockbuster art exhibition, intends to make us “imagine how da Vinci thought” – such an exercise proving to be enigmatic and worthwhile. For those of us who can’t make it to London, Leonardo Live captures the magic on screen. It presents as an enjoyable blend, that of viewing the works in the gallery with commentary from various experts, to interviews with the gallery managers on the progress of setting up the exhibition and what’s involved in transporting and displaying the da Vinci pieces.

Observing the reactions and theories from the different experts was a very satisfying element. This is the first time that such a large collection of daVinci’s works have been in the one gallery at the one time, including one never seen before painting and two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks. Being able to view his works side-by-side, reportedly has a different effect on the viewer than experiencing pieces individually.

The effect of experiencing da Vinci’s works through the medium of film was very moving, even for someone relatively uneducated in the realm of art history such as myself. Therefore, I can only imagine how inspiring the real-life experience would be. I left the cinema a believer, in what – I’m not entirely sure… perhaps it’s that da Vinci is eternal, he continues to communicate with the world through the eyes of his paintings and through the eyes of us, his audience – and his medium.

Leonardo Live opens nationally on 18 February.

www.LeonardoLiveHD.com

Cine Cult- Viva

It is February, which means it is time for the February edition of Cine Cult. This Tuesday the 21st at 7.30pm we will be screening Viva (2007) a film by Anna Biller. Viva follows the sexual awakening of Barbi, a 1970s housewife who thought she and her loving husband Rick were the perfect couple- until the sexual revolution happened. Now Barbi, along with her neighbour Sheila, is questioning her role as a woman and as a wife, experiencing bondage parties, swingers’ gatherings, lesbianism, and much more.
Biller’s owed to the sexploitation films of the 1960s and 1970s is truly amazing and c complete homage to the genre. The situations, characters, clothing, dialogue and overall detail is completely realistic.

The screening is, of course, at the 303 Bar (303 High St. Northcote, http://www.303.net.au/) and starts at 7.30pm, though feel free to get there earlier for drinky-drinks and to grab a comfortable couch.

More can be found at the Cine Cult (http://cinecult303.blogspot.com.au/) or on Facebook under CineCult303.
Cine Cult is a once a month, not for profit, film night. We ask for a gold coin donation so that we may be able to source something even more amazing, crazy, weird, gross, crass, hilarious and enjoyable the following month.
Hope to see you there!

ELIA KAZAN- THE OUTSIDER, week 2

Wild River (1960)
In the early 1930s Chuck Glover (Montgomery Clift), a New Deal administrator, travels to a small town in Tennessee in order to persuade an elderly woman to sell her home before her land is flooded by a near-by dam being built. Glover is faced with opposition not just from the elderly woman but from the townspeople, whilst simultaneously falling in love with the matriarchs’ granddaughter Carol (Lee Remick). Kazan also highlights the racial tensions of the town felt after The Great Depression with farmers objecting to paying black labourers.
Wild River is now a part of the US National Film Registry.
A documentary Mud on the Stars: Stories from Elia Kazan’s Wild River was recently made, looking back on the production of the film and how it affected the small town of Bradley County. It consists mainly of interviews with townsfolk who were extras on the film.

Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Another Kazan period piece, this time being set in Kansas in the late 1920s. Deanie (Nathalie Wood) and Bud (Warren Beatty) are two sweethearts who are driven away from each other by their overbearing yet well-meaning parents. When Deanie mentions her sexual desires towards Bud to her mother she is told on no uncertain terms that she must remain a virgin or else Bud (the son of the richest man in town) will never marry her, and that only evil girls would make themselves available to boys in that way. Bud has a similar discussion with his father who dissuades Bud from sleeping with Deanie in case she falls pregnant, thus forcing them to marry, which would destroy the educational plans Bud’s father had made on his behalf so that his son could be someone important in the world.
Slowly driven insane by their repressed and unacted desire for each other the couple are forced apart- Deanie to an institution after an ‘episode’ and Bud briefly to university and then home after his family looses everything in the 1929 stock market crash. It is only years later that the two meet again, yet they are still kept from each other by social norms, morality, and the lessons ingrained in them by their parents when they were teenagers.

Heaven’s Gate Minute by Minute: Part 48 of 229

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Basset Horn

Is Count Harriet Mensworth-Smithe going to stop the Stock Growers Association from slaughtering cattle thieves as though they were… cattle? Probs not, is the answer. (I’m paraphrasing.) This telling moment is underscored by a solemn, stripped back acoustic guitar rendition of the Blue Danube. The minimalist music is in stark contrast to every single other aspect of the production. If the music were to match the epic nature of the rest of the film, it would be recorded by a 12,047 piece orchestra, conducted by everyone who’s ever conducted (living or dead), and feature instruments from all over the known universe, including long forgotten instruments such as the basset horn and completely invented instruments such as the shoe-bow.

Why the Blue Danube? I’ve no idea. Perhaps it’s a bizarre reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey and the movie is about to match cut from a billiard table in the 19^th century a few thousand years into the future to a space billiard deck of the 23^rd century. I saw one of those at a World’s Fair in the sixties. The astronauts looked as though they were having fun, but I noted they were chalking the ends of their cues before each shot. Surely if you’ve the capability to shoot pool in space, you could invent a cue tip with enhanced grip. Hang on, how on Earth did I get to see a World’s Fair in the sixties? Oh yes, that’s right; Fred gave me a lift.

ELIA KAZAN- THE OUTSIDER, week 1

And we’re back!
Another year of Melbourne Cinematheque is upon us. To kick-start 2012 is a three-week retrospective on Elia Kazan. Kazan has long been regarded as one of the best directors – of both film and stage- to emerge out of America. Making most of his films from the 1930s through to the 1970s, Kazan was born to Greek parents in Istanbul before immigrating to America where he was confronted with much discrimination from an early age. These early memories of prejudice, loneliness, ostracism, and isolation would later become apparent throughout his work with Kazan once claiming that every one of his films was autobiographical.
He is also known for his good working relationship with actors and his love of working with unknown actors, subsequently ‘discovering’ many stars. James Dean, Marlon Brando, Lee Remick, and Warren Beatty owe much of their stardom to initially staring in a Kazan film.

A Letter to Elia (Jones & Scorsese, 2010) isn’t actually a film by Kazan who passed away in 2003 at the age of 94. Rather, this is a documentary on how Kazan had affected Scorsese, both as a director and as a person. Scorsese’s ode to Kazan consists of a collage of film clips, interviews, narration, photographs, and footage of Kazan’s notorious address to the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952.

America America (1963) is perhaps the closest of Kazan’s films to his own life and experiences having been based on a book he wrote from the stories he heard from his family growing up. Based on the life of his uncle, America America follows Stavros Topouzoglou, a Greek in Turkey, who has been sent to help out at his cousins carpet shop and has been entrusted with his families money. Yet Stavros only dreams of going to America where he can achieve greatness and make his family proud. Beautifully shot by Haskell Wexler, Kazan’s telling of The American Dream is poignant and personal.

Melbourne Cinematheque is a volunteer-run film society that screens world cinema every Wednesday from 7pm at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Annual tickets are $115 (full) or $99 (concession), whilst a four week pass is $25 (full) or $20 (concession). That is good value people. Get into it!

Heaven’s Gate Minute by Minute: Part 47 of 229

The blow by blow account of Heaven’s Gate continues in 2012. If all goes well, it’ll be completely reviewed by 3050…

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Can the Stock Growers Association massacre cattle thieves without consequence? “In principle, everything can be done,” believes Billy/Count Harriet Mensworth-Smithe. In principle, perhaps. But in practical terms, not everything is possible, such as fly racing. It’s near impossible to get the bloody things to race in a straight line and have you ever attempted to attach a fly to a sulky? They weigh a ton, the harnesses are ill fitting and it tends to upset the flies. And that’s not the worst of it! The Fly Racing Association is corrupt and the sport rife with cheating. How they inject the flies with steroids I’ll never know. Surely the needle would pass straight through? I don’t understand the sport’s appeal. I’ve been to a few meets and it’s usually a shambles. Any movement of the sulkies and jockeys is purely incidental and due more to wind and plate tectonics, rather than from the fly’s efforts and it’s bloody noisy. There is nothing more disconcerting than a chorus of frustrated and furious flies. Ban fly racing, I say. It’ll never happen, though – the State Government makes too much from the tax revenue.