Renewing the American Narrative
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Film Essay for "The Best Years of Our Lives"
The Best Years of Our Lives Homer By Gabriel Miller Wermels (Harold Russell), a “The Best Years of Our Lives” originated in a recommen- seaman, who dation from producer Samuel Goldwyn's wife that he read has long a “Time” magazine article entitled "The Way Home" been en- (1944), about Marines who were having difficulty readjust- gaged to the ing to life after returning home from the war. Goldwyn girl next door. hired novelist MacKinlay Kantor, who had flown missions He returns as a correspondent with the Eighth Air Force and the from the war Royal Air Force (and would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize a spastic, in 1955 for his Civil War novel “Andersonville”), to use that unable to article as the basis for a fictional adaptation of approxi- control his mately 100 pages. Inexplicably, Kantor turned in a novel movements. in verse that ran closer to 300 pages. Goldwyn could barely follow it, and he wanted to shelve the project but Sherwood was talked into letting Kantor work on a treatment. and Wyler made some William Wyler, his star director, returned to Goldwyn significant Studios in 1946, having been honorably discharged from changes that the Air Force as a colonel, also receiving the Legion of added more Merit Award. Wyler's feelings about his life and profession complexity had changed: "The war had been an escape into reality … and dramatic Only relationships with people who might be dead tomor- force to the row were important." Wyler still owed Goldwyn one more story. In film, and the producer wanted him to make “The Bishop's Kantor's ver- Wife” with David Niven. -
From Glory to Destruction: John Huston's Non-Fictional Depictions of War
RSA Journal 13 5 FEDERICO SINISCALCO From Glory to Destruction: John Huston's Non-fictional Depictions of War During the second World War John Huston became involved, together with other famous Hollywood filmmakers, in the U.S. Government propa ganda film production. This paper argues that whereas Report from the Aleutians, Huston's first war documentary, may be incorporated within the propaganda genre, and depicts war as an instance where men may aspire to glory, his second non-fiction film, San Pietro, breaks free of this label and takes a clear, autonomous stand on the ultimate tragedy of war, and on the destruction which it brings about. John Huston established his reputation as an important Hollywood personality in 1941 following his debut as a film director with the now clas sic Maltese Falcon. The following year, as the United States became more engaged in the world conflict, he joined the Signal Corps, a body ofthe U.S. Army specialized in film and photographic documentation ofwar. In his au tobiography, written several years later, Huston admitted that he did not pay much attention to the enlisting papers given to him by his friend Sy Bartlett. Therefore, when the call came from the Army to report to duty he was rather surprised (Huston 111-2). At the time Huston was a 37-year old man with a promising career in front of him. Busily working on his next film, Across the Pacific, a sequel of sorts to the successful Maltese Falcon, the prospect of direct involvement in the war must have seemed quite foreign to him. -
The National Bank of Indianapolis Summer Nights Film Series Returns to Newfields 6/4 Tickets Go on Sale May 21 for Members, May 28 for Public
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Images available upon request. The National Bank of Indianapolis Summer Nights Film Series returns to Newfields 6/4 Tickets go on sale May 21 for members, May 28 for public INDIANAPOLIS, May 17, 2021–The beloved summer tradition, The National Bank of Indianapolis Summer Nights Film Series returns to Newfields on Fridays and select Saturdays this June, July and August. Over the summer, 14 films will be shown —everything from classic black-and-white films to modern blockbusters. “Supporting the Summer Nights Film Series is a way for us to give back to our city, and to support our community in an engaging and meaningful way,” said Ann Merkel, senior vice president and chief market development officer at The National Bank of Indianapolis. “We dedicate our resources to activities that create a stronger community and enhance the quality of life for all who live here. We are pleased to be celebrating 10 years as the title sponsor of this beloved program.” New this year and to maintain a safe social distance and reduced capacity in The Amphitheater, Summer Nights tickets will be sold as boxed seating that can accommodate one to four individuals. Each box will be seven feet by eight feet and be spaced six feet apart from others. For everyone’s health and safety, the boxes will be sold at a fixed price with a maximum of four tickets. Tickets go on sale for members on May 21 at 11 a.m. and for the public on May 28 at 11 a.m. Ticket boxes of four are $36 for members and $48 for public. -
William Wyler & Wuthering Heights
William Wyler & Wuthering Heights: Facts 1. The director William Wyler won Academy Awards for Ben-Hur, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Mrs. Miniver; only John Ford has won more Academy Awards (four). Wyler was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, more than any other director. 2. The Directors Guild of American awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966, an Outstanding Directorial Achievement for Ben Hur (1960), and five more nominations for that award. 3. Fourteen actors received Academy Award nominations in Wyler films, which remains a Hollywood record. 4. Laurence Olivier found himself becoming increasingly annoyed with William Wyler's exhausting style of film-making. After yet another take, he is said to have exclaimed, "For God's sake, I did it sitting down. I did it with a smile. I did it with a smirk. I did it scratching my ear. I did it with my back to the camera. How do you want me to do it?" Wyler retorted, "I want it better." 5. Olivier: "If any film actor is having trouble with his career, can't master the medium and, anyway, wonders whether it's worth it, let him pray to meet a man like William Wyler. Wyler was a marvelous sneerer, debunker; and he brought me down. I knew nothing of film acting or that I had to learn its technique; it took a long time and several unhandsome degrees of the torture of his sarcasm before I realized it." 6. Wyler’s daughter Cathy, born in 1939, was named after Cathy in Wuthering Heights. -
Film Essay for "Let There Be Light"
Let There Be Light By Bryce Lowe In the days and months immediately following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Hollywood studio executives, directors, actors and film industry professionals either volun- teered or accepted commissions to enlist in the armed forces. Many members of the Hollywood motion picture community were assigned to either the First Motion Picture Unit, a division of the Air Force, or the Signal Corps Army Pictorial Service creating training films for enlisted personnel as well as producing short subject and documentary films aimed at manufacturing and sustaining public support for the war effort. Frame enlargement of a US Army psychiatrist treating a traumatized veteran with hypnotherapy. Courtesy Library of Congress Collection. John Huston was among several notable film directors who served in the military during World with the lowest ranking officer in the Pentagon next to War II. In April 1942 Huston reported for active duty me …” In his autobiography “An Open Book,” in Washington, DC at the U.S. Army Signal Corps Huston claimed the War Department rejected the film headquarters. In a 1981 televised interview Huston because it was perceived as promoting an anti-war remembered being “immensely honored” to receive message. “The Army argued the film would be demor- a commission to serve in the Army. “When the invita- alizing to men who were going into combat for the first tion to get a commission and get into the Army came time”. Only after the personal intervention of Army to me… why, I couldn’t act quickly enough. Captain Chief of Staff General George C. -
Thought, Feeling, and the Cinema of Francis Ford Coppola: the Rain People As Exemplum
CHAPTER 12 THOUGHT, FEELING, AND THE CINEMA OF FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: THE RAIN PEOPLE AS EXEMPLUM The Coppolas, Francis Ford and his daughter, Sophia, both have the same artistic problem: neither is a thinker. The father has always been short on thought; indeed, he stumbles when he thinks, when he thinks he’s thinking. The Godfather (1972, 1974, 1990) was strongest in its execution—also its executions—not in its adolescent implications of analogy between the Mafia and corporate capitalism (an analogy that ignores, among other things, the origins of the Mafia and its blood bonds of loyalty, which have nothing to do with capitalism). The Conversation (1974) faltered in its Orwellian idea-structure. And in Apocalypse Now (1979), the attempts to dramatize private moral agony and general moral abyss during the Vietnam War were disjointed, assumptive, weak, for all of Vittorio Storaro’s aptly hallucinogenic color cinematography. Even Coppola’s scripts for others have suffered from woolly thinking: his screenplay for Jack Clayton’s The Great Gatsby (1974), for example, turned Fitzgerald’s supple suggestiveness into mindless blatancy; and his scenario for Franklin Schaffner’s Patton (1970) presented the glaringly contradictory nature of this famous general as praiseworthy, even fathomless, complexity. That’s the top of the heap. From there, we head down to Coppola’s blotchy script for René Clément’s Is Paris Burning? (1966), a rambling, pseudo-documentary recreation of the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation. Then we get to the adaptations of Tennessee Williams’ This Property Is Condemned and Carson McCullers’ Reflections in a Golden Eye, for Sydney Pollack (1966) and John Huston (1967) respectively, in which Coppola—who began his career in the early 1960s as a director of short sex films—manages to denude the world of Southern Gothicism of all but its trash, its kinkiness, and its pretense. -
October 4, 2016 (XXXIII:6) Joseph L. Mankiewicz: ALL ABOUT EVE (1950), 138 Min
October 4, 2016 (XXXIII:6) Joseph L. Mankiewicz: ALL ABOUT EVE (1950), 138 min All About Eve received 14 Academy Award nominations and won 6 of them: picture, director, supporting actor, sound, screenplay, costume design. It probably would have won two more if four members of the cast hasn’t been in direct competition with one another: Davis and Baxter for Best Actress and Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter for Best Supporting Actress. The story is that the studio tried to get Baxter to go for Supporting but she refused because she already had one of those and wanted to move up. Years later, the same story goes, she allowed as maybe she made a bad career move there and Bette David allowed as she was finally right about something. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (screenplay) Mary Orr (story "The Wisdom of Eve", uncredited) Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck Music Alfred Newman Cinematography Milton R. Krasner Film Editing Barbara McLean Art Direction George W. Davis and Lyle R. Wheeler Eddie Fisher…Stage Manager Set Decoration Thomas Little and Walter M. Scott William Pullen…Clerk Claude Stroud…Pianist Cast Eugene Borden…Frenchman Bette Davis…Margo Channing Helen Mowery…Reporter Anne Baxter…Eve Harrington Steven Geray…Captain of Waiters George Sanders…Addison DeWitt Celeste Holm…Karen Richards Joseph L. Mankiewicz (b. February 11, 1909 in Wilkes- Gary Merrill…Bill Simpson Barre, Pennsylvania—d. February 5, 1993, age 83, in Hugh Marlowe…Lloyd Richards Bedford, New York) started in the film industry Gregory Ratoff…Max Fabian translating intertitle cards for Paramount in Berlin. -
101 Films for Filmmakers
101 (OR SO) FILMS FOR FILMMAKERS The purpose of this list is not to create an exhaustive list of every important film ever made or filmmaker who ever lived. That task would be impossible. The purpose is to create a succinct list of films and filmmakers that have had a major impact on filmmaking. A second purpose is to help contextualize films and filmmakers within the various film movements with which they are associated. The list is organized chronologically, with important film movements (e.g. Italian Neorealism, The French New Wave) inserted at the appropriate time. AFI (American Film Institute) Top 100 films are in blue (green if they were on the original 1998 list but were removed for the 10th anniversary list). Guidelines: 1. The majority of filmmakers will be represented by a single film (or two), often their first or first significant one. This does not mean that they made no other worthy films; rather the films listed tend to be monumental films that helped define a genre or period. For example, Arthur Penn made numerous notable films, but his 1967 Bonnie and Clyde ushered in the New Hollywood and changed filmmaking for the next two decades (or more). 2. Some filmmakers do have multiple films listed, but this tends to be reserved for filmmakers who are truly masters of the craft (e.g. Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick) or filmmakers whose careers have had a long span (e.g. Luis Buñuel, 1928-1977). A few filmmakers who re-invented themselves later in their careers (e.g. David Cronenberg–his early body horror and later psychological dramas) will have multiple films listed, representing each period of their careers. -
The Birth of the Auteur – How the Studio Production Process Kept the Director Both in and Under
The Birth of the Auteur – How the Studio Production Process Kept the Director both in and Under Ronny Regev Working Paper #47, Spring 2012 The Birth of the Auteur – How the Studio Production Process Kept the Director both In and Under Control Ronny Regev Phd Candidate in History, Princeton University [email protected] During the golden age of the Hollywood studios, what was the difference between the creative status of a screenwriter and that of a director? Consider the production of Lives of a Bengal Lancer, a Paramount picture based on a novel by Francis Yeats-Brown that followed the struggles of three British soldiers in India. Initial work on the screenplay was assigned to two writers by the names of Malcolm Stewart Bailey and Harvey Gates in early 1932. As writer Grover Jones testified, “in those days we used to write scripts alphabetically as the sequence came, A, B, C and so on. Well, they wrote and wrote and got a little discouraged, and finally got down to F and said, ‘the hell with it,’ and quit.” Then the job was handed over to Jones and his partner William Slavens McNutt. They wrote a script but the studio decided not to pursue it. Afterwards, “two or three years went by, maybe four. Writers came from all over the world to work on Bengal Lancer. They were from every place. And the cost accumulated – I have forgotten the exact figure now – almost up to $300,000, $400,000 or half a million.” At that point director Henry Hathaway came on board. -
William Wyler [1902–81]
CHAPTER 10 WILLIAM WYLER [1902–81] William Wyler, or the Jansenist of Directing The Realism of Wyler When studied in detail, William Wyler’s directing style reveals obvious differences for each of his films, both in the use of the camera and in the quality of the photography. Nothing is stranger to the form of The Best Years of Our Lives [1946] than the form of The Letter [1940]. When one recalls the major scenes in Wyler’s films, one notices that their dramatic material is extremely varied and that the editing of it is very different from one film to another. When one considers the red gown at the ball in Jezebel [1938]; the dialogue in the scene in The Little Foxes [1941] where Herbert Marshall gets a shave, or the dialogue in his death scene in the same film; the sheriff’s death in The Border Cavalier [1927]; the traveling shot at the plantation at the beginning of The Letter; or the scene in the out-of-use bomber in The Best Years of Our Lives, it becomes clear that there is no consistent motif in the work of Wyler. One can find such a motif, however, in the chase scenes of John Ford’s westerns; the fist fights in Tay Garnett’s films; or in the weddings or chases in René Clair’s work. There are also no favorite settings or landscapes for Wyler. At most, there is an evident fondness for psychological scenarios set against social backgrounds. Yet, even though Wyler has become a master at treating this kind of subject, adapted either from a novel like Jezebel or a play like The Little Foxes, even though his work as a whole leaves us with the piercing and rigorous impression of a psychological analysis, it does not call to mind sumptuously eloquent images suggesting a formal beauty that would demand serious consideration. -
Putney Swope
THE FILM FOUNDATION 2019 ANNUAL REPORT OVERVIEW The Film Foundation supports the restoration of films from every genre, era, and region, and shares these treasures with audiences through hundreds of screenings every year at festivals, archives, repertory theatres, and other venues around the world. The foundation educates young people with The Story of Movies, its groundbreaking interdisciplinary curriculum that has taught visual literacy to over 10 million US students. In 2019, The Film Foundation welcomed Kathryn Bigelow, Sofia Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Joanna Hogg, Barry Jenkins, Spike Lee, and Lynne Ramsay to its board of directors. Each has a deep understanding and knowledge of cinema and its history, and is a fierce advocate for its preservation and protection. Preservation and Restoration World Cinema Project Working in partnership with archives and studios, The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project has The Film Foundation has helped save over 850 films restored 40 films from24 countries to date. to date. Completed projects in 2019 included: Completed projects in 2019 included: THE CLOUD– William Wyler’s beloved classic, DODSWORTH; CAPPED STAR (India, 1960, d. Ritwik Ghatak), EL Herbert Kline’s acclaimed documentary about FANTASMA DEL CONVENTO (Mexico, 1934, d. Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation, CRISIS: Fernando de Fuentes), LOS OLVIDADOS (Mexico, A FILM OF “THE NAZI WAY”; Arthur Ripley’s film 1950, d. Luis Buñuel), LA FEMME AU COUTEAU noir about a pianist suffering from amnesia, VOICE (Côte d’Ivoire, 1969, d. Timité Bassori), and MUNA IN THE WIND; and John Huston’s 3–strip Technicolor MOTO (Cameroon, 1975, d. Jean–Pierre Dikongué– biography of Toulouse–Lautrec, MOULIN ROUGE. -
William Wyler Film Series at Museum of Modern Art
(( THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART 11 WIST 33 STREET, NEW YORK 19, N. Y. No. 30 TELEPHONE: CIRCLE 3-8900 FOR RELEASE: Tuesday, April 3, 1962 WILLIAM WYLER FILM SERIES AT MUSEUM OF MODERN ART Nine films by William Wyler will be shown at the Museum of Modern Art during April and May, it was jointly announced today by Arthur B. Krim, President of United Artists. and Richard Griffith, Curator of the Museum1 s Film Library, The retrospective series will begin April 8 through Ik, daily at 3 p.m., with Dead End (1937), starring Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, and Humphry Bogart, and Memphis Belle (19^*0 > produced by the War Department. With daily showings at 3 and 5:30, the series will continue April 15-21 with Jezebel (1938), with Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Donald Crisp and Fay Baintei April 22-28, Wuthering Heights (1939), witn Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, Geraldine Fitzgerald, David Niven and Flora Robson; and April 29-May 5, The Westerner (19U0), t with Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan. The series will be interrupted May 6-12 for a week of films made by students of the Polish State Film School. Wyler films will continue May 13"19> at 3 p.m. only, with the Best Years of Our Lives (19^6), with Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Cathy O'Donnell: May 20-22, at 3 and 5:30, Roman Holiday (1953), with Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn and Eddie Albert; and, at 3 p.m. only, May 23-26, Friendly Persuasion (1956), with Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Marjorie Main and Anthony Perkins; and May 27-30, The Big Country (1958), with Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston and Burl Ives.