Maybe Today Matinee

There had to be a French entry in our month of costume/fashion in movies, so this week we look at Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless.  Emblematic of the Nouvelle Vague, Breathless subverts many filmmaking standards of the time, and lists no costume designer, with the actors perhaps having chosen parts of their wardrobes themselves.

Sources

IMDb

Marantz Cohen, Paula in “Movies: The Potency of ‘Breathless’: At 50, Godard’s Film Still Asks How Something This Bad Can Be So Good” from The American Scholar

Scheyer, Kate in “Classic Film Style: Breathless”: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2010/04/classic-film-style-breathless

Wikipedia

How do we look at costume when a film is animated?  In the case of Disney’s Cinderella, the costuming is an even-more-obvious-than-usual echo of the fashion trends at the time of the film’s creation.  Plus, we look at how Cinderella rescued the faltering Walt Disney Company and at controversies surrounding the over-restoration of classic movies.

Sources

Duignan, Stephen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephen_duignan/status/988445879773351941

Hallay, Amanda at the Ultimate Fashion History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYFpVzkP3UM

Lugli, Emanuele at Bright Lights Film Journal: https://brightlightsfilm.com/tear-that-dress-off-cinderella-1950-and-disneys-critique-of-postwar-fashion/?fbclid=IwAR3JssZsnUkUgovlz73-QJJL_JgfDFz1Bgjkw7pV8GgAiqGy55F8URbhs-0#.X0sG3y2z1aq

White, Brett at Decider: https://decider.com/2020/02/15/cinderella-70-year-anniversary-saved-disney/

Wikipedia

Groundbreaking in terms of its technical achievements, Stanley Donen’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers also features an almost uniform-like approach to the costuming of its main characters.  Join us as we discuss these and other aspects of this mid-century musical, including its fantastic dance sequences and rather disturbing politics.

Sources

Cain, Eric and John Rosman in “Broken Treaties: An Oral History Tracing Oregon’s Native Population” from Oregon Public Broadcasting: https://www.opb.org/artsandlife/series/brokentreaties/oregon-tribes-oral-history-broken-treaties/

Folsey, George in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers: Simultaneous Production Shooting in CinemaScope and Widescreen” from American Cinematographer: https://ascmag.com/articles/simultaneous-production-shooting-in-cinemascope-and-widescreen

Hallay, Amanda at The Ultimate Fashion History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_lJ_Uu6I_0&list=PLgbG7OrLeM0DBTOEl1oUHMeK28caNYvTg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6R4FaXbWNE&list=PLgbG7OrLeM0C-DipJuVacPTjCvNLjmHwh&index=5&t=0s

Harris, Thomas J in “Review: ‘Donen Dancing on the Ceiling’” from Literature/Film Quarterly

Harvey, Stephen in “Stanley Donen Interviewed” from Film Comment

IMDb

Mueller, John in “Fred Astaire and the Integrated Musical” from Cinema Journal

Wikipedia

Who better than Bollywood to launch a month on costume and fashion in film?  Lekh Tandon’s colorful Amrapali exhibits the best of sixties style meets period Hindi cinema, but also generates questions about patriotism, religion, and pacifism.

Sources

Cooney, Patrick Louis at vernonjohns.org: http://www.vernonjohns.org/snuffy1186/amrapali.html

Narayanan, Arjun in “Love and Renunciation in Amrapali” at Picture Perfect: A fond recollection of some brilliant moments of cinema: http://visionsofcinema.blogspot.com/2013/03/love-and-renunciation-in-amrapali.html

Pawar, Yogesh in “The Journey of the Amrapali Outfit” at DNA India: https://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-the-journey-of-the-amrapali-outfit-2145758

Ramnath, Nandini in “Films that are 50: History, dance, and high fashion in ‘Amrapali’” at Scroll.in: https://scroll.in/reel/801655/films-that-are-50-history-dance-and-high-fashion-in-amrapali

Shah, Shalini in “Clothes maketh the film” at The Hindu: https://www.thehindu.com/arts/Clothes-maketh-the-film/article16816876.ece

Verma, Sukanya in “What if Amrapali Were Remade Today?” at Rediff: https://www.rediff.com/movies/2004/mar/04corner.htm

Wax, Emily in “‘Shalom Bollywood’ reveals Indian cinema’s surprising stars of its golden age” at Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/shalom-bollywood-reveals-indian-cinemas-surprising-stars-of-its-golden-age/2013/04/18/d043967c-a833-11e2-b029-8fb7e977ef71_story.html?fbclid=IwAR37l2KBJnnxr_epzmeZs2T-7FLvvBK6edNwH6MZVl-hKj0ymWD7ucJPwqU

Wikipedia

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Influential filmmaker David Lynch got his start in shorts, and today we look at two of his early works, Six Men Getting Sick and The Grandmother.  If you know him from Twin Peaks or Mulholland Drive, you’ll want to listen in to hear about Lynch’s early experiments in surrealism.

Sources

“And the Winner Is...Alan Splet, Who Became a Household Word by Skipping the Oscars” from People Magazine: https://people.com/archive/and-the-winner-is-alan-splet-who-became-a-household-word-by-skipping-the-oscars-vol-13-no-18/

Carroll, Rory in “Interview: David Lynch ‘You gotta be selfish.  It’s a terrible thing’”: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/23/david-lynch-gotta-be-selfish-twin-peaks

IMDB

Neiland, Justus in “Wrapped in Plastic” chapter from the book David Lynch

Wikipedia

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Cartoons are perhaps the most common exposure most of us have to short films, and this week we’re looking at some of the weirdest created by Disney.  We trace the evolution of Goofy from unnamed Mickey Mouse sidekick in the ‘30s all the way up through the present day, and then focus on his strangest incarnation, ‘50s suburbanite George Geef.

Sources

Dave Lee Down Under in “Evolution of GOOFY Over 87 Years (1932-2019) Explained”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuH3Rp-Mnwg

Lehman, Christopher P. in American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era: A Study of Social Commentary in Films and Television Programs, 1961-1973

Tvtropes: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/Goofy

Wikipedia

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Our second entry in our month of shorts features Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising, a film less characterized by a definitive plot than by a series of images against an addictive pop soundtrack.  Together we try to untangle the mix of homoerotic, religious, and Nazi symbolism presented throughout Scorpio’s 28 minutes.

Sources

Carr, Jeremy in “Scorpio Rising” from Senses of Cinema: http://sensesofcinema.com/2015/cteq/scorpio-rising/

Moats, David in “Scorpio Rising: Kenneth Anger Interviewed” from The Quietus: https://thequietus.com/articles/01753-experimental-filmmaker-kenneth-anger

Moore, Rachel in “Cultural Bolshevism at Capital’s Late-Night Show: Scorpio Rising” from Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context, and Enquiry

Wikipedia

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We kick off a month of short films with one of the earliest plot-driven movies, Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon.  We discuss the technology of this very early work, the talents of its actors, and its surprising thematic elements touching on imperialism and the pretentiousness of scientists.

AMC Filmsite: https://www.filmsite.org/voya.html

Kanopy: https://lbpl.kanopy.com/video/trip-moon-1

Movies Silently: https://moviessilently.com/2015/03/29/a-trip-to-the-moon-1902-a-silent-film-review/

Silentology blog: https://silentology.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/thoughts-on-a-trip-to-the-moon-1902/

Singer Kovács, Katherine: “Georges Méliès and the ‘Féerie’” in Cinema Journal

Wikipedia

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At the tail end of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Alfred Hitchcock released a film so “modern” that its imagery and its music still thoroughly permeate pop culture 60 years later.  Today we discuss Psycho: the fear, the bloodshed, and the taxidermied animals.  Part 1 of 2

Sources

Bertolini, John A in “‘Psycho’ at Fifty: Pure Cinema or Invitation to an Orgy?” from New England Review

Bui, Hoai-Tran in “Hitchcock’s Psycho Uncut Version Coming to US Home Video”: https://www.slashfilm.com/psycho-uncut-version-alfred-hitchcock-classics-collection/

Ebert, Roger in Reviews: Psycho: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-psycho-1960

Jhirad, Susan in “Hitchcock’s Women” from Cinéaste

Pfeifer, Lee in Encyclopaedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Psycho-film-1960

Rebello, Stephen in Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho

Sullivan, Jack in “Psycho: The Music of Terror” from Cinéaste

Support the show!

At the tail end of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Alfred Hitchcock released a film so “modern” that its imagery and its music still thoroughly permeate pop culture 60 years later.  Today we discuss Psycho: the fear, the bloodshed, and the taxidermied animals.  Part 2 of 2.

Sources

Bertolini, John A in “‘Psycho’ at Fifty: Pure Cinema or Invitation to an Orgy?” from New England Review

Bui, Hoai-Tran in “Hitchcock’s Psycho Uncut Version Coming to US Home Video”: https://www.slashfilm.com/psycho-uncut-version-alfred-hitchcock-classics-collection/

Ebert, Roger in Reviews: Psycho: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-psycho-1960

Jhirad, Susan in “Hitchcock’s Women” from Cinéaste

Pfeifer, Lee in Encyclopaedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Psycho-film-1960

Rebello, Stephen in Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho

Sullivan, Jack in “Psycho: The Music of Terror” from Cinéaste