I am not attending the Toronto International Film Festival this year, because I am a working man with responsibilities and undergrads to teach. However, I was able to do a couple pre-festival reviews, starting with what might be my favorite release of the year: Manakamana, the follow-up to Leviathan from the Ethnography Lab at Harvard. It's quite awesome and the kind of humanist poem I adore, especially considering how much Leviathan is an (deliberately) alienating experience. I reviewed it for The Film Stage, so follow the action there. Also new is To Be (Cont'd) is here, and the first post is by yours truly considering the state of blockbuster filmmaking. The first post is mostly about dispelling the old myths in order to frame the conversation, as well as considering the how and why of the emergence of blockbusters, as well as a reading of Nashville and Jaws, the two "event movies" of 1975. Take a read here, add to the comments, and get ready for next week's response. My work with The Criterion Collection continues with half the capsules for the new Eclipse set celebrating the early films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. I wrote the introduction and the capsules for Love is Colder than Death ("What a title!") and The American Soldier. Thanks to Danny King for helping me out with the others. On the Boxd - some spoiler considerations of Edgar Wright's The World's End, and Roger Corman's It Conqured the World, which I compare to Griffith of all things.
Oh Jesus! The Christian savoir appears in both of my latest
writings on cinema. Firstly, I indulge in a little Hollywood blockbuster shaming with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel,
which is an arduously silly event (thanks Christopher Nolan!). Read the piece over at In Review Online.
Of a bit more interest is the Criterion release of Marketa Lazarová, the
Czech epic from František Vláčil. It’s not exactly the easiest film to indulge,
as I get into the piece, which is basically a primer of how to watch such an
insanely difficult film. That’s over at The Film Stage, so take a few minutes to read it.
Hey a new freelance gig! You can now check me out over the wonderful film blog The Playlist. This week, I wrote about Criterion's new Eclipse set featuring three films by Norman Mailer. Spoiler: they are all insane and he almost dies. And I'm not making that second part of up. Check it out here.
Since the invention of DVDs, film buffs have had a love-hate relationship with the companies that put them out. You finally getting than amazing copy of that lost Von Stroheim film? Well it might come out on a bare bones release that looks worse on video than it would running a 35mm print. My worst horror story came from Netflix actually—Since DW Griffith’s Intolerance is not protected by any copyrights, anyone who is willing can make and sell prints of a DVD. Netflix owns some unfortunate copies instead of the ones released by silent film DVD giant Kino. The release I received was not only cut by 45 minutes, but the print was literally unreadable.
Classic Hollywood films aren’t as bad, but sometimes you just want a great DVD for your collection, full of commentaries, behind the scenes analysis, and every little tidbit you can get on your favorite films. Two of my favorite forgotten classics of the end of the Hollywood studio though, are finally getting the DVDs they deserve: Charles Laughton’s 1955 noir-horror Night of the Hunter and Alexander McKendrick’s 1957 New York noir Sweet Smell of Success.
If you don’t know either of these films, run to your local art house rental place immediately. Night of the Hunter is the only film directed by actor Laughton and is written by film critic James Agee (if you haven’t read his criticism collection Agee on Film, it is a must-read). The film stars Robert Mitchum as a priest who marries a wealthy widow in order to steal her money and terrorize her kids. The film is a mixture of noir, German expressionism, gothic horror, and surprising warmth. A huge flop when originally released, it is now considered one of the most sublime films ever made.
Even better than Laughton’s film is one that is one of the most quotable films ever made. Directed by Makendrick, and written originally by Earnet Lehman and then re-written by Clifford Oddets, the film stars Tony Curtis as a hungry New York press agent who has to do the most dirty of work for gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker, played with brutal coldness by Burt Lancaster, in what must be considered one of the greatest performances of all time. I recently wrote a good deal of words on why you need to see this classic that also flopped when originally released.
The new DVDs have been announced from the Criterion Collection, who have been restoring classic and contemporary films that have been deemed important. They’ve done extraordinary jobs on making pristine DVDs of films by Godard, Bergman, Fellini, Kuorsawa (including a 25-film set), and many more.
No release date has been set, but hopefully they can stuff your Christmas stockings by the end of the year. Check out a clip from each below:
