Maybe Today Matinee

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This month we discuss animation, and what better way to kick off our theme than with Disney?  Through this live-action / animation / World War II propaganda / travelogue / musical / surrealist mish-mash, we ponder the representation of Latin Americans in movies, how tight budgets impact filmmaking, and whether sometimes a cactus is just a cactus.   

Sources

Ness, Mari at Tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2016/08/11/an-aggressive-escape-from-reality-the-three-caballeros/

Spiegel, Josh at Slash Film: https://www.slashfilm.com/revisiting-the-three-caballeros-one-of-the-strangest-films-classic-disney-animation-ever-produced/

Turner Classic Movies http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/93058/The-Three-Caballeros/notes.html

Wikipedia

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The last entry in our romance theme, Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 sci fi flick, Solaris, offers an unconventional love story in a setting that is at once very futuristic and very 1970s.  What does it mean when a psychologist deployed to a space station blasts his wife’s reincarnation into space?  More seriously, what lessons can we draw from slow films like Solaris in contrast to so many modern movies with their lightning-fast pacing?

Sources

IMDB

Malcolm, Christopher: “Learning from the Masters: Filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky” https://fstoppers.com/historical/learning-masters-filmmaker-andrei-tarkovsky-192011

Miller, Greg: “Data from a Century of Cinema Reveals How Movies Have Evolved” https://www.wired.com/2014/09/cinema-is-evolving/

Totaro, Donato: “Tima and the Film Aesthetics of Andrei Tarkovsky” in Revue Canadienne D’Études Cinématographiques / Canadian Journal of Film Studies

Wikipedia

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Perhaps the most critically acclaimed among the 20-plus film interpretations of Sarat Chandra Chattopdhyay’s novella, Bimal Roy’s 1955 film, Devdas, sends us into a discussion of mid-century Bollywood and the influence of Bengali literary culture.  Plus, how does the movie compare to the 2002 incarnation, much better known to non-desi audiences and yet often maligned as inferior by South Asians and the diaspora?  Finally, we discuss changing attitudes about domestic abuse and sexism throughout the history of films in the romance genre.

Sources

Raheja, Dinesh at Rediff https://www.rediff.com/entertai/2002/dec/09dinesh.htm#:~:text=He%20used%20his%20perceptive%20camera,person%20caught%20in%20extraordinary%20situations.

Upadhyaya, Amit at The Print https://theprint.in/features/reel-take/why-bimal-roys-devdas-remains-the-first-among-equals/180379/

Wikipedia

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Audrey Hepburn’s charming Hollywood debut is the second entry in our romance theme, William Wyler’s 1953 romantic comedy, Roman Holiday.  How did the creators pull off filming on location?  What role do expectations have in shaping our reactions to movies?

Sources

Brown, William A: “Audrey Hepburn: The Film Star as Event” in Larger Than Life: Movie Stars of the 1950s, ed. R. Barton Palmer

Roznowski, Tom: “Strangers in a Strange Land: The Luminous Guidance of Roman Holiday” at Ryder Magazine

Steinhart, Daniel: Runaway Hollywood: Internationalizing Postwar Production and Location Shooting

Wikipedia

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Leo McCarey’s 1957 movie, An Affair to Remember, is considered a classic in the romance genre, so we’re kicking off our romance theme with the Cary Grant starrer.  What accounts for the movie’s longevity, and why weren’t we so impressed?  Plus, commentary on the presence of people of color in Golden-Age films.

Sources

Imdb

Joseff of Hollywood on Instagram (joseffofhollywood_official)

L.A. Frock Stars (available on Amazon)

Wikipedia

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Our final entry in the horror movie theme, Nicolas Roeg’s 1973 film, Don’t Look Now, further expands our definition of horror.  Plus, what are the implications for labor law in film-making?    Is it acceptable to put people’s lives in danger for the sake of art?

Sources

Gomez, Joseph: “Another Look at Nicolas Roeg” at Film Criticism

Palmer, James and Michael Riley: “Seeing, Believing, and ‘Knowing’ in Narrative Film: ‘Don't Look Now’ Revisited” at Literature/Film Quarterly

Wikipedia

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In the third episode of our horror movie theme, take a look at one of the movies at the genesis of Universal Studios movie monsters.  The Frankenstein monster you picture in your head owes its form to Boris Karloff’s interpretation, and Rowland V. Lee’s 1939 film, Son of Frankenstein, would be his last appearance as the monster.  We also discuss the breadth of the horror movie genre and why a film that’s not quite scary should still be considered horror.

Sources

Fandom.com http://mary-shelley.fandom.com/wiki/Son_of_Frankenstein_(1939)

Rotten Tomatoes

Wikipedia

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Unlike Nosferatu, Robert Wiene’s 1920 film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, follows a decidedly less linear and clear-cut plot, but like Nosferatu, was an incredibly influential film for the genre.  In our second episode on horror movies, we analyze how filmmakers began to trust their audiences to understand increasingly complex and unclear storylines, and we continue the discussion of what it means to see the “authentic” version of a film.

Sources

Jung, Uli and Walter Schatzberg: Beyond Caligari: the Films of Robert Wiene

Ibid: “The Invisible Man behind ‘Caligari’: The Life of Robert Wiene”

Kracauer, Siegfried: From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film

Titford, John S: “Object-Subject Relationships in German Expressionist Cinema”

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The first film in our horror theme month is the German Expressionist classic, F.W. Murnau’s 1922 picture, Nosferatu.  Get a primer on silent movies and learn why this Dracula adaptation has such an enduring legacy for the horror movie genre.

Sources

Mancini, Mark at Mental Floss http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/84080/11-nightmarish-facts-about-nosferatu

Movementsinfilm.com http://www.movementsinfilm.com/german-expressionism

Wikipedia

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Common knowledge dictates that remakes are worse than originals 90 percent of the time, but today we’re looking at an outlier: Lewis Milestone’s 1960 film, Ocean’s 11, was unquestionably mediocre, while Soderbergh’s 2001 interpretation achieved “perfect movie” levels of success.  In our last episode on remakes, we look at why the Rat Pack vehicle fails on so many levels, and whether it has any redeeming qualities.

Sources

Lim, Dennis: “Having Your Way with Hollywood, or the Further Adventures of Steven Soderbergh” from Steven Soderbergh: Interviews, ed. Anthony Kaufman

Millichap, Joseph R.: Lewis Milestone

Wikipedia