Melbourne Cinematheque- The Politics of Corruption: Francesco Rosi’s Engaged Cinema (week III)

To finish off the Francesco Rosi season at Melbourne Cinematheque is Many Wars Ago (1970) and Carmen (1984).

Many Wars Ago was funded by Rosi himself and the gritty, angry and unforgiving story presented to the viewer could explain why no one else would fund it. Based on the memoirs of Emilio Lussu’s experiences as an Italian troop in World War I, Rosi tells the story of front-line soldiers facing the Austrian army in the Alps. When they are ordered by their general to enter the Austrian camps- despite their lack of provisions- the Italians mutiny. Not only drawing on class-conflict and struggle, Rosi also looks at the personal anguish soldier’s face between obeying military orders and obeying their conscience.

Carmen is Rosi’s film adaption of Bizet’s opera and, clocking in at 152 minutes, it is a forced to be reckoned with. Keeping with Bizet’s well-known opera of a soldier falling in love with a factory worker who does not reciprocate his feelings (and yet flirts with him relentlessly) the film was shot on location in Andalusia by Pasqualino de Santis who was also responsible for the photography in Many Wars Ago. Just as Carmen does not shy away from Don Jose, Rosi does not relent from highlighting the similarities between unresolved sexual attraction and violence, all in highly stylised and choreographed shots.

Next week Melbourne Cinematheque will begin a three week retrospective of the films of Josef con Sternberg.

Melbourne Cinematheque- The Politics of Corruption: Francesco Rosi’s Engaged Cinema (week II)

It’s time for some more post-neo-realist, pseudo-documentary, politically driven cinema!
It’s time for Melbourne Cinematheque!

Salvatore Giuliano (1962) is a non-linear docu-drama that brilliantly highlights Rosi’s use of real-life events and people within a fictional narrative. Here, Rosi focuses on the rise and fall of Sicilian gangster Giuliano who was found shot in a terrace-garden in 1950 at the age of 28. Naturally, things are not as simple as they first appear. Giuliano, along with many others, had been hired by politicians to do their dirty work as they tried to create an independent Sicilian State, promising the gangsters immunity from their crimes. Now these politicians are in power it seems that these promises will not be kept.

Next is Lucky Luciano (1973) wherein Rosi explores the life of Charley ‘Lucky’ Luciano through a series of flash-backs and flash-forwards. Luciano was a Sicilian gangster turned naturalised American who went about killing his rivals and was sent back to Italy so the American government did not have to deal with him. With an outstanding cast, Rosi’s ‘gangster’ film defies all Genre types whilst looking at power, greed and corruption.

Melbourne Cinematheque- The Politics of Corruption: Framcesco Rosi’s Engaged Cinema

Another three week retrospective starts at Melbourne Cinematheque this week, this time focusing on Italian filmmaker Francesco Rosi. Having worked under Antonioni, Monicelli, and Visconti, Rosi took guidance from all whilst creating his own distinct style, often incorporating real life figures, events, and issues. A frontrunner of the Italian Post-neorealist movement, Rosi’s films are often overlooked. Thankfully Cinematheque has a vast array of his works in the coming weeks.

To begin we have Illustrious Corpses (1976). Formatted to be a film that follows along Breton’s surrealist drawing game Cadavre Exquis, the film is set in the political upset of Italy in the ‘70s, with leftists clashing with the conservative government and riots, disappearances, and murder becoming commonplace. Inspector Rogas is trying to find who killed two high-profile judges, the case leading him to realise that many prisoners the judges incarcerated were actually innocent. Whilst Rogas looses faith in the government system he has sworn to protect the revolutionaries he is investigating are also forced to face up to their ideals and recognise that the implementation of them can change them

Whilst set in West Germany, I Magliari (1959) still deals with the trials and tribulations constantly present throughout Italy and its inhabitants. Mario Balducci (Renato Salvatori) is first presented as living in Hannover. He then settles in Hamburg to sell cloth on the advice of a gregarious new acquaintance who turns out to have connections with organised crime. A beautifully shot exploration of the exploiting of immigrants and the marginalised.

Melbourne Cinematheque- All is Grace: The uncompromising spirituality of Robert Bresson

“My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.” -Robert Bresson.

Let us talk about Robert Bresson. A French filmmaker who inspired many of the Nouvelle Vague, Bresson himself was influenced by three major aspects of his life; his Catholic childhood, his time as a painter, and his experiences as a prisoner of war. Over forty years he completed thirteen feature films, all distinctively his own. His characters battle against the situations they find themselves in as they search for redemption and meaning in life. They try to find if their life is being driven by their own free will, or by the determinism of a higher power.
Bresson is also noted for having his actors (often non-professional actors to begin with) rehearse scenes so often that the actions of the characters became seamless and second-nature, thus allowing Bresson to capture some of the most naturalistically shot acting sequences in cinema. Bresson also attempted (and essentially mastered), through cinematography, the fusing of sounds and images together in order to create an effect that he believed could only be found within the cinema.

Based on the memoir of Andre Devigny, a prisoner of war held by the Nazis at Fort Montluc, A Man Escaped (1956) follows the plight of captured French Resistance fighter Fontaine. Filmed within the walls of the actual prison, Bresson captures the actions of a man sentenced to death who will now stop at nothing to escape. Filmed with outstanding precision, attention to detail and a shared understanding between director and subject, the film won Best Director at Cannes in 1957 and was Bresson’s most critically and successful film.

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) follows the lives of two beings; Marie a girl growing up on a farm, and Balthazar, her donkey. Eventually the pair becomes separated and the film follows both as they are mistreated and victimised by various people they encounter, passively taking the abuse. Balthazar’s suffering allows him to become a saintly figure in death, a faint that is not so certain for Marie.

Melbourne Cinematheque- Helen Levitt

Photographer Helen Levitt is the focus of this week’s Melbourne Cinematheque with two feature films and two shorts she worked on screening. Levitt, a staple of the New York arts scene from the 1940s to her death at 95 in 2009, has been noted for her ability to capture the everyday life and moments of joy and heartache in the working class lives of those in New York. She also transferred to colour prints quite early, experimenting with overexposure, saturation, and dyeing the image. After being introduced to Luis Bunuel she took an interest in film and worked for many years as a consultant and cinematographer on various low-budget and collective films.

The Quiet One (1948) is a semi-documentary directed by Sidney Meyers which follows the life of a ten-year-old African-America boy growing up in Harlem. Having never been shown kindness or compassion in his home or school life Donald Peters lashes out against society. Eventually he is sent to the Wiltwyck School for Boys which focuses on rehabilitation and reform where psychiatrists try to find out what is ‘wrong’ with him, never realising that it was societies neglect that meant that Donald never had a chance.
Following this feature is the short In the Street (1948) which Levitt worked on, showing life in Spanish Harlem.

The Savage Eye (1959) is an essayistic documentary, the product of a four-year long collaborative between various directors (Sidney Meyers, Ben Maddow, Joseph Strick) and cinematographers (Helen Levitt, Jack Couffer, Haskell Wexler). Barbara Baxley is recently divorced and looking for a fresh start in Los Angeles. The film takes the viewer to various instances in Barbara’s new life from car accidents, to religious fanatics, to burlesque shows- all beautifully shot.
Following is Emotions of Everyday Living: The Steps of Age (1950), a short directed by Ben Maddow and produced by Levitt that focuses on the retirement of a crane driver and the effect this has on the relationship he has with his wife.

Melbourne Cinematheque- Asian Australia

Blazing Continent (1968) is a Japanese film by Shogoro Nishimura that was filmed in New South Wales but never officially released in Australia. It follows the trip taken from Japan to Australia by Keiichi (Tetsuya Watari), an artist who wishes to explore the barren Australian landscape. When he arrives, however, he runs into an ex-lover who is now engaged to an Australian mining engineer. This meeting leads all three into a downward spiral and into events that they cannot control.

Fun Fact!- The Man From Hong Kong was the first ever Australia/ Hong Kong co-production. It is also one of my favourite Brian Trenchard-Smith films.

Anyway, to begin with, the film stars Jimmy Wang Yu and George Lazenby (Australia’s own James Bond) and has the two of them fight it out, martial arts style, around an open fire place (spoiler alert: it doesn’t turn out too well for ol’ Lazenby and his hands).
Secondly, the film opens with a fight scene on Uluru. Not just at the site of Uluru but literally on Uluru and the fight is complete with cartoon influenced sound-effects. Ahh, the things you get away with in 1975…
Wang Yu plays Inspector Fang Sing Leng, a Cantonese martial arts specialist who has come to Australia to help clean the Sydney streets of drugs. Whilst doing this he is also wooing a journalist, showing Jack Wilton (Lazenby) who is boss, and up-showing the Australian police (Hugh Keays-Byrne and Roger Ward) every chance he gets. He also manages some hang-gliding and horse riding in his down time.

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai

Cantonese actor Tony Leung Chiu-Way is really awesome. I mean, he’s just great. Whether he is moping around his apartment in Chungking Express, flipping through the air in Hero, or playing an undercover cop in Hard Boiled he has an amazing presence on screen. If you’re not familiar with his work, you should be, because he has starred in some of Asia’s best film offerings for over two decades.
And now, Melbourne Cinematheque is showing two of his films.

First up is acclaimed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flowers of Shanghai (1998) wherein Leung plays Wang, a regular visitor to a flower house, the Shanghai term for brothel. Set in the 1880s and taking place across four flower houses the film follows several relationships between the girls kept at the brothel and the men who use them. As well as this, Hou explores issues of gender and class, whilst also drawing attention to the relationships that go beyond what is considered socially acceptable, all through impeccable images presented to the viewer.

In Wong Kar-Wei’s 2046 (2004) Leung reprises his role as Chow Mo-wan, the character which one him the Best Actor award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for In The Mood For Love. Chow is a writer who places memories of his past life in the future of 2046 whilst in the present he recounts the comings and goings of those who share the hotel he is staying in. Shot in Wong’s distinctive style, and containing his usual preoccupation with time, memory, and repetition, 2046 also stars Maggie Cheung, Faye Wong and Ziyi Zhang.

Experimental Tribute

Three very personal directors are being screened at Cinematheque this week under the banner ‘Experimental Tribute’. George Kuchar, Jordan Belson and Robert Breer have all contributed greatly to the various and large experimental movements in America and the world at large. All are American, all passed away towards the end of 2011, and all left a great legacy to the film world.

George Kuchar, often with his brother Mike Kuchar, was a staple in the New York underground factory scene of the 1960s where they made no-budget 8mm films. many of these films payed homage to the Hollywood melodrama films they had seen growing up, coupled with the distinct visual style the two brothers developed. Kuchar was asked to move to San Francisco where he taught film at the San Francisco Art Institute where he continued to make short films until his death in September 2011. Cinematheque will be showing Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966), Pagan Rhapsody (1970), and Wild Night in El Reno (1977).

Jordan Belson is another San Francisco-based filmmaker. Belson’s work often revolves around the Spiritual in various representations and forms. Throughout the 1950s he collaborated with Henry Jacobs and the two, along with the Morrison Planetarium, showed a series of electronic music concerts played simultaneously with images and short films of space. Screening will be Allures (1961), Cosmos (1969), Meditation (1971), Chakra (1972), Cycles (1975).

The films of key avant-garde figure and animator Robert Breer finish the night. After early experimentation in animation, and working with avant-garde artists in Europe, Breer combined a vast collection of filmic techniques to his shorts, coupled with exact rhythm and form. Fist Fight (1964), Jamestown Baloos (1957), 69 (1968), and Fuji (1974) will be shown.

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.

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.