2009 – As we reached the second decade of the 21st Century, there occurred a greater than usual number of important, or significant pioneers and icons who passed on. I thought it was odd, kept track, and have wanted to post it to remind myself that, if you choose to draw significance from these passing moments, something may have shifted in the culture forever.
In sort of order (which puts Marilyn Chambers first – and because we went to the same elementary, junior high, and high schools) they are:
Marilyn Chambers
Pioneer mainstreaming of porn
Ed McMahon
Pioneer in the origins of TV late night talk
Walter Cronkite
Pioneer of TV news in its last heyday
Merce Cunningham
Dance Pioneer
Les Paul
Pioneer The Electric Guitar
Michael Jackson
Icon of all popular entertainment
Farrah Faucett
70’s Feminist/Pinup Pioneer
Bud Schulberg –
Screenwriting Pioneer
John Hughes
Pioneer 80’s teen movies
Don Hewitt
Pioneer of TV Journalism and class investigation
Ted Kennedy
Icon of Progressive Democracy
Soupy Sales
Pioneer of wacky children’s television
Paul Harvey
Pioneer Radio News
Claude Levi-Strauss
Pioneer humanism and ethnology
Billy Mays
Pioneer infotainment
Robert S. McNamara
Icon of Military Amorality and the masters of war
William Safire
Icon of Language
And Great Lost Icons
Arnold Stang – of nerdishness when it wasn’t yet cool
Patrick Swayze - sexiness and dance
Jim Carroll – neo beat poetry and arts
Mary Travers – of 60’s folk
Lou Albano – of Wrestling and rock and roll camp
Corruption Of The Damned (1965) : Shot in B&W without sound using inter-titles. Amusing in parts, but ultimately tedious. Amazing that it was made at all.
Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966). This film has been called “one of camp’s defining texts“. It’s is much shorter, in color, and Kuchar calls it his “first sound picture”. Of course, it is only his second ‘picture’ anyway! He has made hundreds and hundreds of these gems, many with his students at the Art Institute of San Francisco. This one has a really quirky poetry about it, not that I could begin to explain what goes on, or the psychology behind this man and his art. Kuchar is an authentic eccentric. How much is performance and how much a kind of genuine idiosyncratic personality is anyone’s guess.
For some insight into his unique personality see ‘It Came From Kuchar‘ a great documentary by Jennifer Kroot, one of his former students.
George Kuchar at Boston University from tim jackson on Vimeo.
36. Vincere (Marco Bellocchio)
Mussolini’s abandoned and secret mistress, Ida Dalser, and ‘love child’ Albino were hidden away in asylums, and schools. Both died nearly unknown. Apparently this hyper-sexed, puppet like, doomed leader had a lots of mistresses, which makes an interesting documentary, but less so when fashioned into this fairly confusing, rambling pastiche of newsreel footage, operatic soundtrack, graphic overlays, and general theatricality. The footage is interesting, and the collusion with the church is an interesting fact, but as a movie you lose your feeling for the characters in midst of all the style. Fun, I suppose, if you’re a history buff and won’t get lost.
35. Romance (Catherine Breillat 1999)
OK, I need time to think about this. My wife couldn’t watch. Passionless fucking, fondling, bondage, body objectivity, fantasy, semen, childbirth, murder. Caroline Ducey, who was also in Breillat’s wonderful The Last Mistress (with the great Asia Argento) is brave as only a French actress (and maybe Chloë Sevigny) can be. It even features the notorious Rocco Siffredi – satyr of over 350 porn films. But this IS feminism. Just give me a minute figure out how, and then why I actually liked it. Wicked, with a wicked sense of humor.
This is meant as parody. There is no sequel:
Bad Blake (Bridges) has dropped “Bad” and is now Otis. He and Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) meet again at Wayne’s (Robert Duvall) funeral. She is still married, and her husband Josh (James Spader) is a bookish publisher with a wandering eye, a situation that continues to trouble Blake, but about which he says nothing. Jean’s son, Buddy, is now 15, (Angus T. Jones from Two and ½ Men) and has been working as a roadie for summer concert tours showing some gift for guitar, but hoping to be a veterinarian. Together he and Jake write the song ‘Making Time for My Little Dog Blue’.
Blake discovers that his own estranged son, Lefty (played by Jordan Bridges – son of Beau) has a daughter (the delightful Dakota Blue Richards – sporting an excellent American accent). Years ago he left child’s mother (played by Peta Wilson of Malibu Shark Attack) who puts in a short, but powerful scene as the older and domineering ex-wife. Lefty has since moved into a sexually ambiguous relationship with Frank (Jake Gyllenhaal who puts a brief but very funny cameo).
Blake and his son finally begin to connect when Lefty sees how well his dad gets along with the flamboyant and quirky Frank, but there remains an emotional distance and difficult history between them. Meanwhile Jean confides to Blake about her own increasingly difficult marriage, which soon becomes the source of new songs, such as the excellent ‘Put A Distance on Love’ (penned by Ryan Bingham). Blake has grown well-off from royalties with his songs particularly after getting featured on American Idol-type show called “Country King”. He now tours less often due to poor circulation and emphysema, but has become an inspiration and adviser to those around him, particularly to Lefty who, while working as a insurance adjuster, is a conflicted but brilliant pedal steel player.
44. Hungry (Steve McQueen) Like Five Minutes of Heaven the human cost of the Irish conflict
43. Red, White, and Blue
42. Grindhouse
41. Mother (Madeo – Joon-ho Bong)
40. L’Affaire Farewell
39. Greenberg
38. Vincere
37. The Green Zone (Paul Greengrass)
Disguised as a spy-ish thriller, Matt Damon and the director use the chase and suspense elements of their Bourne movies to tell a fictional story that uses very real facts about the scam that was called Shock and Awe. It’s blatant what they’re doing: we get the exciting Greengrass hand held style, and are reminded how we, American public, were duped about WMD’s at the enormous expense to both Iraq and to our own armed forces. It’s sad and inevitable how the lives of small people, not only don’t add up to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but are at the mercy historical forces about which we can do nothing. A sobering reminder of the Bush legacy, and of why Rumsfeld, Cheney, and their ilk can sit back and laugh at the blood on their hands.
34. Crazy Heart
Most admirable as a well developed Indie product. A relaxed and committed performance form Bridges, whose Oscar comes from a lifetime of these parts and for singing good. 30% too much cliche, but every 5 years a good singing actor plays a breaking down musician and it’s always fun. See my review for the faux sequel above.
33. Reykjavik-Rotterdam (Iceland-Óskar Jónasson)
A blend of the ‘one last job’ caper, with neatly placed humor, a snappy pace, lots of double crossing, and a layer of family drama. Baltasar Kormákur has a Colin Farell vibe which ennobles the otherwise hapless Kristófer – an parolee forced by desperate circumstances into once last smuggling job aboard a freighter from – you got it – Reykjavik-Rotterdam and back. Antics and violence ensue, but you don’t have to keep track of the usual ‘caper’ details and it moves at a swift clip between the ship, where Kristófer’s ex-buddies are helping with the task and fighting off the skeptical captain, and the shore, where his wife is being threatened by her dastardly ex-boyfriend. Kormákur could be an international star and is already a successful director in Iceland. He also owns the rights and is in to the sequel already underway featuring Mark Wahlberg. That’s not bad casting for this part, but the screening I saw is obviously to attract interest in the original before it’s packaged up with fancier locations, big stars, and no subtitles. But get this one while you can.
32. A Prophet (French-Jacques Audiard)
This is one tough movie. Tahar Rahim is just amazing as he evolves from a naive prisoner to clever street smart errand boy during his ‘work release’. Complex interplay of gang and Corsicans and Muslim politics that I would need explained, but that doesn’t detract from strong realistic filmmaking. 150 minutes flies by. So different from the director’s film The Venus Beauty Institute and worthy of that Academy nomination.
31. Ghost Writer (Polanski)
The director is in his paranoid thriller mode. It’s set on the Vineyard as duplicated somewhere in Germany, so that’s fun for us Bay Staters. The pivotal suspense scene by GPS is an interesting device and the film is full of odd, quirky, dry moments like that. As for it feeling a little off center – bike rides in the rain, a reappearing Asian deck sweeper, befuddling story details – it’s not so much that plot points are confusing, as they are laid out to be discovered, possibly not even noticed on a first viewing, and are constructed to keep us unsettled. Details may be McGuffins, they maybe significant, they may simply appear sinister. It’s a network of paranoid situations and moments, like The Tenant as a conspiracy drama. Of course, in the movie, as with Polanski’s life, the paranoia is actual and merciless.
30. Memories of Murder (2003 Korean: 살인의 추억)
At the Harvard Film Archives with director Bong Joon-hoat in attendance. To be continued…
29. The Cove
James Bond meets Flipper meets Greenpeace. This is really good, and will probably win the Academy Award. Interesting, disturbing, exciting, really well told, and beautifully shot. The last moments are alarming, literally. I joined their Tweet campaign then and there.
28. Mid-August Dinner (Pranzo di ferragosto)
To help pay some debts, Gianni, an unemployed, single, middle aged man, agrees to look after four very old women for a night. Antics DO NOT ensue, as you might expect, but friendship food, and joy. The director, Gianni Di Gregorio, wrote it, acted in it, used his own apartment, based it on an incident in his own life, and then and cast the women from hundreds of non-professionals. The result is a unique and brilliant short story of a film.
It was pointed out, by Britt Smith, that August 15 is Feast of the Assumption, and that in religious mythology Mary “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”. The old women in this movie are also ascending to heaven without death, and the movie glories in the blessings and quirks of old age. If you love your mother, Italy, or Italian movies – see it!
27. A Lake (Philippe Grandrieux)
Even though he claims not to be an experimental filmmaker, Grandrieux creates film where sound and touch are equal to visual sense with alternately shimmering, frightening cinematography and a claustrophobic hand-held camera. He is considered one of the great new French directors from whom there are really interesting films being made (Francois Ozon, Gaspar Noe, Catherine Breillat, Bruno Dumont) so it is worth investigating. Grandrieux is the most challenging for me. He also has influences from Robert Bresson, Fassbinder, Stan Brakhage, and painters as well.
He claims narrative is unimportant. “I understand the wonderful Hollywood movies where you know everything that will happen, so why bother” is his attitude. He is in search of something deeper, more mystical, more physical. It will either fascinate you or give you a headache. There are about 20 lines of dialogue, not including screams and shouts. The story is something about an isolated family in a family living in the frozen Alps, with an epileptic logger brother and his sister who are coming of age in inappropriate ways.
26. Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux) The director’s earlier, more violent and disturbing film. Basically about Jean (Marc Barbé), a man that has many sexual encounters with women, but ends up killing them. Among other things, the film apples the following ideas from Gilles Deleuze. Here’s primer on that (gleaned from Wikipedia and embellished) which, if you see the film, helps to understand what Grandrieux is doing:
Perception-Image
This resembles the point of view shot of film theory, but that shot can sometimes be the point of view of characters, sometime floating free, the anonymous, unidentified viewpoint of the camera. He calls this camera consciousness.
Three different types of perception:
solid perception (normal human perception),
liquid perception (where images flow together) and
gaseous perception (the pure vision of the non-human eye). This is objective vision of the world before man. Dziga Vertov’s images aspire to pure machine vision. Experimental cinema also reaches for this pure perception.
The affection-image
“The affection-image is the close-up, and the close-up is the face…”
Closeup = Face. A face can be a real face or not. All faces are affection-images.
The action-image
Large Form and the Small Form.
Large Form is defined as “there are gaps waiting to be filled (documentary film, Film Noir, the Western,the historical film). Deleuze attributes the large form to Method Acting where the audiences fills in the psychology of the character because that character has been has been embodied by the performer.
Small Form defined “the actions create the situation”.
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