The Lodger : A Story of the London Fog

Yesterday I went to a screening of Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 silent film "The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog" at the National Gallery. It was shown accompanied by a live five piece band—piano, violin, cello, trumpet and clarinet. This is one of Hitchcock's earliest films, and it is amazing to see what a great director he was right from the start. As with a lot of his films, it deals with someone who is wrongly accused of a crime. At the same time it contains a lot of very funny scenes. The film has been recently restored by the British Film Institute. Here is the entire film from Youtube.

 

Alicia Vikander

I saw two movies in the last week with Alicia Vikander, an incredibly beautiful and talented actress from Sweden.

Here she is discussing her role as Kitty in Anna Karenina.



A scene from her Danish film A Royal Affair.



The official Trailer for A Royal Affair.

The Real Housewives of Shakespeare

From the Great River Shakespeare Festival,  The Real Housewives of Shakespeare.

Page "Miss Glory"

I saw this movie at a program on Art Deco I went to last weekend at the Smithsonian. This may be the only Art Deco inspired Looney Tunes film ever created.

Page "Miss Glory"

The Death of Poor Joe (1901)

Recently discovered, The Death of Poor Joe is believed to be oldest surviving film based on a Dickens character—Jo from "Bleak House". Here is an article from the Guardian on the film.

America in Pictures

Here is a documentary about the history of Life Magazine. The focus of the film is on the photographers responsible for the photos published in Life.

C & O Canal in 1917

Down the Old Potomac, a Thomas Edison film of the C & O Canal in 1917. It does not show much of Cumberland or Georgetown, but does include the Paw Paw Tunnel, Harper's Ferry and Great Falls.

Gulp

'Gulp' is a short film created by Sumo Science at Aardman, depicting a fisherman going about his daily catch. Shot on location at Pendine Beach in South Wales, every frame of this stop-motion animation was shot using a Nokia N8, with its 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics. The film has broken a world record for the 'largest stop-motion animation set', with the largest scene stretching over 11,000 square feet.

First the making of video, followed by the actual film.

Films About Trees

Two films about Trees, or at least that have the word Tree in the title.

There seems to be a very sharp divide on Terrence Malick's latest film, The Tree of Life. According to a poll in The Guardian, 57% thought is was a "Profound Masterpiece", while the other 43% thought is was "Pretentious nonsense". Malick directed one of my all time favorite films, Days of Heaven, so I was really hoping to like this film. (See my 5/14/11 post)

The Tree of Life tries to take on the meaning of life. I would not say that is pretentious nonsense. One the other hand, it may be just plain pretentious to think you can do that in film—even a long film.

Days of Heaven was not considered a success when it was released. It was criticized, because the narrative is a bit murky, and there are many sequences in the film that are visually stunning, but have little to do with advancing the plot. i.e. wheat fields. In that film, which has a relatively simple plot line, I thought all that helped to set the tone of the film.

The Tree of Life is similar in a lot of ways. But when you have a plot that is not presented chronologically, and then you include long sequences of the galaxies evolving, and then some more sequences of dinosaurs, to me it just becomes a jumbled mess. The core of the story, which involves a family with three young boys growing up in the fifties, is very well acted. It was just a little too disjointed for me to appreciate.

The father and mother in film are play by Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, and I can't criticize their performances. In general though, when two people are married in a film, even if they no longer love, or even like, each other, I would like to see some evidence that at one time they had a reason to be together. I find it tiresome to watch a couple on film, and the whole time to be thinking "what possible reason could these two people have ever had for being together". I don't see how you can ever understand what went wrong with a relationship, unless you have some idea why it started in the first place.

That being said, you may be one of the 53% who would think this is a masterpiece, so don't let me stop you from seeing it.



The Tree, a film from Australia, is the second film. This film starts out with a generally happy family in semi-rural Australia, but things turn bad when the father has a heart attack, and smashes the truck he is driving into a massive tree growing in front of their house. He dies, and the family is left bereft. The middle daughter comes to believe that her father's spirit has been transferred into the tree. In due course, the massive roots of the tree begin to create problems, for both the family, and their neighbors. This then leads to a conflict over whether or not the tree should be cut down.

Unlike the sweeping scope of The Tree of Life, this film is tightly focused on the family involved, and their personal attempts to deal with a traumatic situation. Much like The Tree of Life, The Tree uses landscape to enhance the tone of the film, but in this case that use is integrated into the narrative of the film, and not added in as interruptions to the narrative.

The Tree has a rather languid pace, which is appropriate for a film focused on dealing with loss. It does, however, have a very dramatic ending, so that when the film is over you do feel like something has happened.

All this to say, I liked The Tree better than The Tree of Life.



As I final note, I would add that both films contain strong performances from very young actors, and are probably worth seeing just for that.

Films About Gospel Music

From Ebert Presents, reviews of two great films about Gospel Music.

[Note: These videos may not play with Firefox, the do seem to play in IE.]

"Rejoice and Shout" - the clip of Clara Ward from this film is in this post.



"Say Amen, Somebody" - a clip from this film of the O'Neal Twins in this post

Food on Film

Today I am posting my three favorite film scenes that focus on food. The clips below are all in different languages, but I don't think you need to have any idea what is being said to appreciate the what is going on.

Big Night (1996) with Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini.



Babette's Feast (1987) - Based on a short story by one of my favorite writers, the Baroness Blixen, AKA Isak Dinesen. With the winnings from a lottery, Babette prepares a lavish feast for members of an austere religious sect who gave her refuge.





The Leopard (1963) directed by Luchino Visconti based on the book by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. The film has an international cast, including Burt Lancaster. Where the other two films are intimate, this one is vast. This is probably one of the most lavish banquet scenes ever filmed.

Ken Burns and the Civil War

Ken Burns' 1990 documentary The Civil War was ground breaking. It has had a huge impact on both documentary film making, and current perceptions of the Civil War. Below is a video of Burns discussing the film.

That being said, I have to agree with James M. Lundberg's article in today's slate, "Thanks a Lot, Ken Burns". While the film did manage to engage an audience of millions for 11 hours, it is not very good history. When an event that killed hundreds of thousands of people gets turned into a warm and fuzzy story, you have to think that somewhere something is being warped.

Harold Lloyd

Roger Ebert has this blog post—Harold Lloyd: A rare early short and an interview—that contain video of the recently restored Harold Lloyd (1893-1971) film Captain Kidd's Kid.

Lloyd was one of the most successful comic film stars of all time. He is not as well know today as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, partially because he was shrewd enough to retain the copyright to most of his films. His films were not broadcast on TV, because of the high price he wanted to sell the broadcast rights. The Ebert post also contains video of a 1962 interview Lloyd did with Harry Reasoner.

In addition to the clips you can watch on Ebert's post, here is the sequence that Lloyd is probably most remembered for today—the clock scene from the 1923 film Safety Last.

Everything Must Go

[Added 9/26/11: Read Why Don't You Dance?, the Raymond Carver short story this film is based on Here, until 11/15/11]

What better way to mark what would have been Raymond Carver's 73rd birthday than to see a movie based on one of his short stories. It would probably be more correct to say that the film Everything Must Go is inspired by the short story Why Don't You Dance. Both involve a man who drinks, and has all his furniture on the front lawn. The short story is only about 5 pages long, so you could not make that into a movie even if you wanted to.

I am always apprehensive about any film based on one of Carver's works, because his stories don't seem very filmable to me. Also I had seen the trailer for this film, and it did strike me a something I wanted to see. But being that today would have been Carver's birthday, I went anyway.

I ended up liking the film more than most of the critics. I do think the film had the tone of a Carver story, even if the story was not really one that he had written. A film like this is totally dependent on the actors, because if they don't give good performances, nothing else can save the film. In this case I thought all of the actors gave great performances, including Will Ferrell as the lead, in a more serious role than he usually takes.

Sometimes you just have to be in the right mood for a film like this, so I guess I was in the right mood tonight. This film has no chance to be a big box office success, but I am glad that I decided to see it.

Add to that I really liked the soundtrack, even though I have not been able to find a track listing for the film.

Meek's Cutoff

From the previews, I expected more from Meek's Cutoff than it delivered. The film follows a group of mid-1800 pioneers as they cross Oregon heading for the Willamette Valley. It starts as they are crossing a river. What follows is a long desolate search for the next source of water, and that is the entire plot. Sometimes you can look at a film like this as a character study. While the performances are good, in this film you learn very little about any of the characters, other than the fact that the father of one of the characters had pigs.

About 2/3 of the way through the film, I started to wonder how the film would end. If they suddenly found water, it would upset the entire mood the film had set. But the other option would be for them all to die. The film chooses to avoid this dilemma, by not bothering with an ending. When the film stopped, everyone in the theater just started laughing. I am not sure that this is the response the director was aiming for.

The cinematography is beautiful, but mostly limited to a brown and gray palette.

The film does have one great line—"We're not lost, we're just finding our way."

Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Pt. 3

This is my third post on Werner Herzog's new film Cave of Forgotten Dreams. (September 16, 2010 & February 26, 2011) I actually saw the film today. I am not generally a big fan of 3D, but for parts of this film it was very effective and affective. Much of the art work filmed in the Chauvet Cave is on contoured walls, and this was more vividly displayed in 3D, than it could have ever been in 2D. Sometimes it really did fell like you where standing under the images looking up at them on the cave walls. In additions to the art work that is over 30,000 years old, the rock formations and crystals of the cave are incredible by themselves. This film did live up to my high expectations.

Here is a recent interview with Herzog about the film.

Days of Heaven

Here from the Museum of the Moving Image, a video about one of my all time favorite films, Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven.

Circo

If a movie about the circus is what you are after. skip Water for Elephants, and go see Circo instead. In this documentary about a family owned circus in rural Mexico riven with personal and financial pressures, the scenery is a colorful as the family members. Watch as 100 years of family tradition may or may not come to an end.

Jane Eyre

The new film of Jane Eyre may be the best adaptation of the book ever made. Not that I have seen all of the previous adaptations, or even read the book, but this is a very good film. Mia Wasikowska, who was Alice in Tim Burton's recent adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, really does transform herself into Jane. Michael Fassbender is Mr. Rochester, and Judi Dench is Mrs. Fairfax.

Any film with these three actors would have to be good. Add to that, this film has a great script. The cinematography is done mostly with muted colors, but that really works with the tone of the story. I liked the score so much that I went home and bought a copy of the soundtrack. Something I rarely do. Scored by Dario Marinelli, who won an Academy Award for his score for Atonement, it is mostly done with sparse and haunting orchestration.

Here is a featurette. I would say that the scenes included in the trailer are all of the most melodramatic of the film. Most of the rest of the film is a lot more restrained.

The Conspirator

I saw The Conspirator on Tuesday. This is the film about the trial of Mary Surratt for the assassination of President Lincoln. Directed by Robert Redford, the film is a bit didactic, so I am not sure how much the story was skewed to make Redford's case on the injustice of military tribunals. I think it is mostly fact based though. I was bothered by a scene near the end where Secretary of War Stanton and the military prosecutor have a discussion about influencing the military jury to change their decision from life in prison to hanging. The film then proceeds to the delivery of the verdict. There seemed to me to be a big gap here concerning whether Stanton did intervene with the jury, and I am no sure why that was left out. The implication of the film is that he did, but that is never represented in the film.

That being said, the film is worth seeing, if for no other reason than Robin Wright's performance as Mary Surratt. The entire cast, including James McAvoy, Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood, all give great performances.