Classicists at War: An Unfinished Image Essay

In January of this year, I began work on an image essay comparing John Ford's masterpiece The Searchers to American Sniper, Clint Eastwood's recent examination on the wars in the Middle East. Besides their attention to American iconography, both struck me for the core conservative values at the heart of each film that the directors felt they were challenging within themselves, never attempting to simplify their depiction of the world. I also began work because the attacks on Eastwood's film, especially in regards to its xenophobia, reminded me of the years of attacks on The Searchers, where critics and scholars have mistaken Ford's portrayal of racism as a direct reflection of the director's own values. Finally, Eastwood and Ford interested me in what has been called a type of "classicism" of directing, where editing and gestural actions are kept in a balance to turn simplistic images into iconographic and representational ones.

I eventually got busy and abandoned the project. It was too big, too massive in scope, and at some point, I wasn't sure the images could say everything I saw in them. It didn't hurt that my friend and colleague Niles Schwartz published one of the best pieces written on the film. However, I was cleaning out my desktop today and noted a resonance in the images once again, so I leave this as my work in progress.

Link Round-Up: Summer Blues

If you look to the left, you can see the cover of my book. And soon enough, you can buy it! Neato!

My friend Kevin B. Lee, who came on the podcast in January of last year, has released his most ambitious video essay yet, entitled Transformers: The Premake. I discussed this work at The Film Stage. 

I also reviewed two more Blu-Rays for The Film Stage and tried to put them in conversation with each other: Antonioni's L'Eclisse and Kiarostami's Like Someone In Love. Both are wonderful and the transfers look fantastic.

A surprisingly decent transfer would also be the new DCP of Eric Rohmer's A Summer's Tale, which is finally receiving a theatrical release in the United States. It's my favorite movie of the year, and I explain why over here. I also review a so-called "new release" movie, Clint Eastwood's beguiling and somewhat wondrous Jersey Boys.

On The Cinephiliacs, Adam Nayman joins the show to talk about his book about Showgirls entitled It Doesn't Suck, and we also discuss Mia Hansen-Love's debut feature, All Is Forgiven. He also tears Jason Reitman to shreds. 

Over on Letterboxd...
New films! Nadiv Lapid's Policeman and Lord and Miller's 22 Jump Street
War documentaries! William Wyler's Memphis Belle and John Huston's San Pietro
From Asia! King Hu's A Touch of Zen and Kenji Mizoguchi's Women of the Night
Big Auteurs! Alain Resnais's Melo and James Cameron's The Abyss

Screening Log: I'm in Love! Edition

No notes for this week. Please note that /brackets/ represent films I’ve already seen.

-A Perfect World, 1993. Directed by Clint Eastwood. 35mm projection at Museum of Modern Art.

-The Truth About Charlie, 2002. Directed by Jonathan Demme. DVD.

-Million Dollar Legs, 1932. Directed by Edward F. Cline. 35mm projection at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

-The Bank Dick, 1940. Directed by Edward F. Cline. 35mm projection at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

-Casque D’Or, 1952. Directed by Jacques Becker. 35mm projection at Film Forum.

-Charade, 1963. Directed by Stanley Donen. DVD.

-/North By Northwest/, 1959. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Screened on Turner Classic Movies.

Screening Log: Time Travel Edition

            Oh dear, how far behind are we here? I don’t want to defend my lack of screening logs (we’re now three weeks behind), but as you may have noticed, it’s been a big couple weeks for LabuzaMovies, and now with a whole new project getting launched, I may have fallen off the boat for a bit. But we’re back, baby!

-Limelight, 1952. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. 35mm projection at Museum of Modern Art.

-The Steel Helmet, 1951. Directed by Sam Fuller. 35mm projection at Museum of Modern Art.

-The Life of Oharu, 1952. Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. 35mm projection at Museum of Modern Art.

-The Earrings of Madame De…, 1953. Directed by Max Ophüls. 35mm projection at Museum of Modern Art.

-Born on the Fourth of July, 1989. Directed by Oliver Stone. DVD.

-Margaret (Extended Edition), 2011. Directed by Kenneth Lonergan. DVD Projection at Landmark Sunshine.

-Daises, 1966. Directed by Věra Chytilová .35mm projection at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

-The Battle of Algiers, 1966. Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. 35mm projection at Film Forum.

-One from the Heart, 1982. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. 35mm projection at Museum of the Moving Image.

-Rear Window, 1954. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 35mm projection at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

-Play Misty for Me, 1971. Directed by Clint Eastwood. 35mm projection at Film Forum

-The Sugarland Express, 1974. Directed by Steven Spielberg. 35mm projection at Film Forum.

-The Clock, 2011. Directed by Christian Marclay. Digital Projection at Lincoln Center.

Screening Log: Action Scene Aesthetics Edition

            Sorry for missing last week’s screening log folks, but as you know, things can get quite crazy. My one note of interest is that I refuse to write anything on Girls because pretty much every other person on the Internet has done so. I will say that I thought the first two episodes episode are fantastic, and everything you need to know about the show’s relation to its characters is said in that first shot, and that during Hannah’s AIDS monologue all we can see is her face. This is a girl who is clearly unaware of her surroundings, not a prophet.

                                                       

-Police Story, 1985. Directed by Jackie Chan. 35mm projection at Film Society of Lincoln Center.

-Bird, 1988. Directed by Clint Eastwood. 35mm projection at Film Society of Lincoln Center.

-Frenzy, 1972. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 35mm projection at IFC Center.

-Mouchette, 1967. Directed by Robert Bresson. 35mm projection at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

-Numéro Zéro, 1971. Directed by Jean Estuche. 35mm projection at private screening.

J Edgar: Facing His Own Past, A Legend Creates a Man

J. Edgar

Directed By: Clint Eastwood

Written By: Dustin Lance Black

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench, Naomi Watts, Jeffrey Donavan, Josh Lucas, Dermot Mulroney, and Christopher Shyer

Director of Photography: Tom Stern, Editors: Joel Cox and Gary Roach, Production Designer: James J. Murakami, Original Score: Clint Eastwood

Rated: R for occasional language

            Midway through J. Edgar, a stodgy yet occasionally exciting biopic from Clint Eastwood, the titular legend asks a number of young men, “Who is the famous person of the first half of the 20^thcentury?” Of course, we know the name he is searching for: himself. And who can blame John Edgar Hoover for thinking of himself as such a figure? Serving under eight presidents, creating one of the most recognizable organizations in America, and modernizing police enforcement (legally and illegally), Hoover is a figure that I’ve heard many people generations older than me speak with disdain and hate.

            And yet, Mr. Eastwood, working from a screenplay from Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, has made something of a psychological portrait of a man where his personal feelings became his politics. It’s certainly a messy film, attempting to capture over fifty years of history in just over two hours, and Mr. Black has chosen what appears on surface arbitrarily which events to reproduce from the life. But like Mr. Eastwood’s great works, it’s a film that is essentially about the American myth, and about one’s man obsession with trying to preserve history the way he desires, while burying the parts of his past he hates. After the largely bland Invictus and Hereafter, it is Mr. Eastwood's most personal film in some time, quite a statement for a film that takes on such a daunting subject.

Line-Up for the 48th Annual New York Film Festival!!

While less skewed than last year's festival, The 48th New York Film Festival once again went with big art house names, but in a response to their last year fiasco, have went decidedly for stars for their big hitters. While The Social Network and The Tempest had already been announced, promising stars like Justin Timberlake, Helen Mirren, and Russell Brand, the closing night selection is another American hard-hitter, Hereafter, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Matt Damon. 


This shouldn't be too much of a surprise—Changeling was the Centerpiece two years ago, and the Film Society just completed a full retrospective on Eastwood. It has not been announced whether this will be a world premiere It will be a US Premiere, meaning the film might show up at London or Venice? This is still a strong launching pad for Warner Bros and another Eastwood Oscar campaign.


As for the rest of the fest, the five films I called shoe-ins were certainly chosen, and a few of the other like-lys as well. We've got Godard (chances of showing up: 0% Film Society has announced a critics panel instead), Kiarostami, "Joe," Leigh, Richardt, and Assayass (who doesn't love sitting for five hours of cinema?). Two flicks from Romania, both which showed up at Cannes (including Christi Puiu's follow-up to The Death of Mr. Lazerescu). Inside Job, the second film from Fullbright scholar Charles Ferguson—whose No End in Sight is a particularly excellent doc. 


Some of the rest are either black holes in my film knowledge or simply black holes due out by people like Scott Foundas and Richard Pena. We'll find out more about them when the official press release comes out later today (Film Society gave the NYTimes the early peek, as always). Until them, start your cinephelia salivating!


UPDATE: Two retrospectives have been announced—Fernando de Fuentes's "Revolution Trilogy" and the films of Masahido Shinoda (If you haven't seen Pale Flower, you are really missing out)


FINAL UPDATE: I checked with the Film Society on how Film Socialisme will be present—The subtitles are not actual translations, but put into dialogue similar to how Native American speak in Westerns. Richard Pena has confirmed (via FilmLinc's Twitter!) that it will be "same print as Cannes & subs an aesthetic element for Godard...if sometimes frustrating for non French speakers." For those who don't speak French, let's get to a class soon!


Opening Night: The Social Network (David Fincher, USA)
Centerpiece: The Tempest (Julie Taymour, USA)
Closing Night: Hereafter (Clint Eastwood, USA)


AND THE REST:


Another Year (Mike Leigh, United Kingdom)
Aurora (Cristi Puiu, Romania)
Black Venus (Abdellatif Kechiche, France)
Carlos (Olivier Assayas, France)
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, France/Italy)
Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland)
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, USA)
Le Quattro Volte (Michaelangelo Frammartino, Italy)
Lennon NYC (Michael Epstein, USA)
Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
My Joy (Sergei Loznitsa, Ukraine/Germany)
Mysteries of Libson (Raul Ruiz, Portugal/France)
Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois, France)
Oki's Movie (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)
Old Cats (Sebastian Silva, Chile)
Poetry (Lee Chang-dong, South Korea)
Post Mortem (Pablo Larrain, Chile/Mexico/Germany)
Revolucion (Mariana Chenillo, Fernando Embecke, Amat Escalate, Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo Garcia, Diego Luna, Gerardo Naranjo, Rodrigo Pla, Carlos Reygadas, Patricia Riggen, Mexico)
The Robber (Benjamin Heisenberg, Austria/Germany)
Robinson in Ruins (Patrick Keiller, UK)
Silent Souls (Alexei Fedorchenko, Russia)
The Strange Case of Angelica, Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
Tuesday After Christmas (Radu Muntean, Romania)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul "Joe," UK/Thailand)
We Are What We Are (Jorge Michel Grau, Mexico)

How A Lawless Man Became an American: Clint Eastwood at Film Society

Originally Posted at CUArts

There’s a moment in Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino in which the actor and director finally reveals the chiseled 1972 titular vehicle in the film. Eastwood’s character Walt remarks he put together the lavish muscle car together himself. It’s hard not to think of the car not only as a metaphor for Walt, but for Eastwood himself. Built tough and rough, shiny on the outside and hardened on every edge, full of might and capable of anything on a long winded road, and yet the car seems to be destined for greater things and a larger freedom that seems impossible. Damn that car is American.

Although Clint Eastwood’s career may have begun in Europe, he is one of those actors and directors that truly makes American movies that shout “America” from the first word. And while New York moviegoers might be used to the Film Society at Lincoln Center featuring films from the Chinese Communist era or the Hungarian New Wave, for July, they’re bringing it back home with “The Complete Clint Eastwood,” a retrospective of every single one of his films as an actor and a director.

Eastwood ironically started his career not in America, but on the sun burnt plains of Southern Spain with the Italian director Sergio Leone, creating the now epic Man With No Name Trilogy. While the films are more known today for their dazzling camera work in which Leone builds and creates tension, influencing numerous directors like Quentin Tarantino, its Eastwood’s nameless character that centers the film. His persona is not in the tradition of tough but sensitive guy John Wayne, or even the dark Jimmy Stewart performances from his Anthony Mann Westerns. He has the same presence but his morality is absent. In The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (July 22nd) a character tells him, “There are two kinds of people in the world, my friend: Those with a rope around the neck, and the people who have the job of doing the cutting.”

That quote rings out the standards in which Eastwood’s films has appeared, in which people are put in ugly positions, and the only way to win is to cheat a little. In the trilogy, Eastwood is not the center of American amorality and greed. Coming more from a tradition of noir heroes, Eastwood says little with his mouth, usually filling it with a cigar instead. His squinted eyes suggest a type of misguided disgust for the dying country around him, a new  breed of American justice, so appropriately seen in For a Few Dollars More (July 15th). While Leone is behind the camera capturing it all, it is Eastwood and his character that seems to suggest this new wave of American-ness, based on a shift in culture that, along with the other rebels of the day like Bonnie and Clyde, Benjamin Braddock, andCaptain America, suggest that the standard route to the American dream is dead.

However, of these characters, what happens? Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed. Captain America tells us “we blew it” before getting hit with a shotgun And Benjamin becomes just like his parents. Where does the Man with No Name Go? Because he is not a dreamer like the others, and only out for his small but direct goals, he comes back to America and becomes a hero in Dirty Harry (July 15th). Watching this 1971 Don Siegel classic, it’s impossible to see countless detective films and televisions shows with an amoral cop willing to break the rules to win the day. However, Dirty Harry remains a classic because of how willing he is to break the rules. Just like the Man With No Name, Eastwood works for himself and only himself, but instead of greed, the aim is justice, by any means necessary.

As Eastwood has thus moved from in the actor’s chair to behind it, this idea of ambiguous justice and determination of dreams has continued to mark his career as that of a truly American zeitgeist. Eastwood’s characters, whether it’s Francesca (Meryl Streep)and her dreams of a soul mate in The Bridges of Madison County (July 21st), Frank Morris (Eastwood) and his desire of freedom in Escape from Alcatraz (July 22nd), or Jimmy (Sean Penn) in his search for real justice in Mystic River (July 23rd), are searching for something more than the sum of their lives. This American feeling of the lack of satisfaction with the current system and place of the individual has threaded Eastwood’s long career, and it’s the inherent feelings that have also dominated the personas of his characters, who behind their tough shell exterior, are always stuck in an existential crisis of societal placement. Its tough not to choke up at Eastwood’s Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby (July 25th) when Maggie, played by Hillary Swank, tells Eastwood’s character Frankie, “Don’t let me lie here ’till I can’t hear those people chanting no more.” She’s attempting to be something more than she is—a legend instead of a tragedy. So when Bill Munny returns back to the town at the end of Unforgiven (July 18th and 19th) for revenge, the code of the Western is thrown out in exchange for cold-blooded justice.

Clint Eastwood’s career, which now seems to be dominated by his directorial work, has grounded itself in these specifically American values that are not at the core of society, but developed in the frustrations of the 1960s and the view that American is a flawed country. When the heroes return from Iwo Jima in the flawed Flags of Our Fathers (July 24th and 26th) they know the classical values they have lived upon are a lie, as evidenced by the horror in the humanity of the film’s companion piece Letters From Iwo Jima (July 24th and 26th). Instead, only a new breed of American ideals can evolve, one that breaks society’s laws to recapture justice, and reclaim the idealness of the American truth. So whether its for a little more money, to take down the bad guy, fight to reclaim one’s son, or simply dream of bigger things, Eastwood’s career as both an actor and director has truly ushered in what that 1972 Gran Torino (July 27th) represents: a bold and muscular car for a generation that won’t take kindly to weakness.