May Screening Log

Color coded via Dan Sallitt's method (Current or upcoming releases not included). Click on the titles to writing when applicable.

1. Mama (Yuan, China, 1990)

2. Pride of the Marines (Daves, USA, 1945)

3. Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi, Japan, 1955)

4. Disorder (Huang, China, 2009)

5. Vera Cruz (Aldrich, USA, 1954)

6. Gertrud (Dreyer, Denmark, 1964)

7. Gerry (Van Sant, USA, 2002)

8. Beauty #2 (Warhol, USA, 1965)

9. Broken Arrow (Daves, USA, 1950)

10. The Mother and the Whore (Eustache, France, 1970)

Also Notable: The Last Wagon (Daves, USA, 1956), Under the Sun of Satan (Pialat, France, 1987), One Way Passage (Garnett, USA, 1932), The Story of Qui Ju (Zhang, China, 1992), Cowboy (Daves, USA, 1958), The Flame and the Arrow (Tourneur, USA, 1950), Exiled (To, Hong Kong, 2006), The Red House (Daves, USA, 1947), Crash (Cronenberg, Canada, 1996), Apache (Aldrich, USA, 1954), Criss Cross (Siodmack, USA, 1949), The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (Rowland, USA, 1953), Marketa Lazarova (Vlacil, Czechoslovakia, 1967).

I Need Your Cinephiliac Moments!

Hi everyone! I apologize about the lack of posting, and I am due a post just listing some of my random writing here and there, but this week I have a request from you. I am writing a paper for a seminar on canon-formation and new cinephilia, and I am centering it around re-writing the canon based on my oh-so favorite "Cinephiliac Moments" (see here for my original post on the subject). I want to list as many as I can, but I assume a list with multiple inputs from cinephiles like you that have very different tastes can lead to some better ideas. My real hope is that many of you will choose moments from films that aren't especially loved, or perhaps films that you find problematic but have that one moment that makes it all sort of worth it. (Just thinking of one myself—I'm not sure all of Robert Aldrich's Twilight's Last Gleaming works, but when he goes double split screen as the nukes rise out of the silos, man oh man is that cinema.) 

So if you could do me a favor and reach down into your cinephile data base and write down any you think of in the comments, that would be greatly appreciated. Once I finish the paper, I'll post our "new" canon for all of us to look at and argue about. 

Update: I am thankful for the responses below. A couple of notes. 1) Do not feel you need to explicate your situation, as long as it is understandable to what the moment is (ie. John Wayne walks away from the home at the end of The Searchers). 2) Feel free to list as many as you want. Seriously. Go nuts.

The Filmic Discoveries of 2012 (Part II)

This is the second part of my list of films I watched for the first time in 2012. Read an explanation and the first 25 choices here.

25. Duck, You Sucker!, Directed by Sergio Leone (Seen on 35mm at Film Forum; June 19^th) 

An explosive film that lives up to the amount of dynamite it delivers, Duck, You Sucker! seen completely cold. But since you’re hear reading this capsule, just know that it’s both Leone’s most fun film (the closest to a screwball comedy he ever made) and his most political. The fact the film “accidentally” switches genres and stakes forty-five minutes into the film is a complete Coup d'état of Leone, leading to the brilliant sequence where Rod Stieger leads a daring heist but instead becomes a revolutionary leader. It’s a bitter film to swallow, suggesting the lack of agency of any individual in a political battle, but it’s also pure visual pleasure, and now my favorite Leone. 

24. Show People, Directed by King Vidor (Seen on 35mm at Film Forum; January 23^rd) 

The good people at Film Forum could not have chosen a better time to show this great silent comedy than the height of last year’s Oscar season, as Show People is essentially The Artist made by the people The Artist was portraying. It’s also 1000 times better (fact). Instead of the divide between sound and silents, Vidor’s film shows the movements of a young Marion Davies from slapstick comedian to serious drama actor, while her love interest William Haines remains at the bottom. Vidor captures with authenticity the difference between stars and actors with a jibing sensibility, and peppers his film with plenty of cameos that make for a number of gags that rival the best of the screwballs. Vidor’s work with actors makes this a timeless classic about the importance of termite art.

Screening Log: Samurai Driver Edition

            Two notes before we begin. As noted, I saw The Warriors at MoMI as screened as a Blu-Ray. I think this gets to a point I had a tweet discussion with sometime last year. The Warriors Blu-Ray looked quite good on a big screen, and everything was crystal clear. But I think that’s why the film lacked a punch. It needed to be extra grainy, scratched up, and skipping in places. Some films are perfect for the digital conversion; others, deserved to be treated like shit, one could say. My second update, and this is brief, is to tell you all check back here over the next month for updates on a big project coming up that I think most of my readers will quite enjoy. More on that at another time, as the details become more concrete.

-A New Leaf, 1971. Directed by Elaine May. 35mm projection at Museum of the Moving Image.

-The Warriors, 1978. Directed by Walter Hill. Blu-Ray projection at Museum of the Moving Image.

-We Won’t Grow Old Together, 1972. Directed by Mauriece Pialat. 35mm projection at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

-Kill and Pray, 1969. Directed by Carlo Lizzani. Betacam projection at Film Forum.

-The Last Run, 1971. Directed by Richard Fleischer. 35mm projection at Anthology Film Archives.

-Ulzana’s Raid, 1972. Directed by Robert Aldrich. 35mm projection at Anthology Film Archives.