Here’s a featurette from 1968, produced for American TV, that is as fascinating as it is occasionally infuriating. It is fascinating because it does a pretty solid job of explaining the genesis and appeal of Italian Westerns – let’s not call them Spaghetti Westerns anymore, please. We hear from three of the very best directors: Enzo G. Castellari, Sergio Corbucci, and Sergio Sollima. Director/photographer Patrick Morin (a well known photographer of the time) is clearly well-versed in his subject and the pace is quick and varied.
That’s also where the infuriating part comes in. The tone of the piece is similar to a Mondo Movie of the time. It is held together by arch, sometimes dismissive, sometimes offensive narration. The gags, designed to track with American TV audiences of the ’60s, don’t really land today.
But, the virtues are so great that it rewards viewing for anyone who is interested in the ways that genre cinema reflects the culture. The three filmmakers are especially good exponents of their various philosophies about this.
Here’s Castellari, the popular entertainer, captured on the set of KILL THEM ALL AND COME BACK ALONE, between staging fistfights:
“I would say it is the public who decide the success of a film – or a kind of film. And the public finds in Westerns an escape from its daily problems and worries. There have been so many heavy, serious, difficult films in recent years. The public is tired of trying to understand them. Me too. The Western is different. The spectator sits and is just amused by the world of fantasy with horses, rides, fights and chases. I guess that it is directed at the child that remains in most of us.”
And then here is Sollima, whose work can be read – rightfully – as a leftist critique of the geopolitical and cultural situation in the mid -to-late 20th Century. We find him at a flatbed editor, piecing together a scene from RUN, MAN, RUN. He says:
“The western has always appealed to intellectuals and, as we know, to most Italians. Also, it gives me the possibility of using a fable. That is, a very popular story which can be understood by any public, to express myself. I can describe characters and present themes dealing with the great problems of our times and various controversial questions.
I believe the time has come to draw a film hero from the people of the underdeveloped countries – the Third World so to speak.”
And then we have the director who is possibly the most well-known Italian Western director after Leone, Sergio Corbucci. We find him shivering on the snowy location of a film that many consider his masterpiece, THE GREAT SILENCE. He is succinct, even as he describes how post-synch sound editing is accomplished. His interview ends on a jokey button:
“I hate westerns.”
There is also a terrific interview with THE GREAT SILENCE’s star Jean-Louis Trintignant here. There are other, less essential sequences too. At a mere 38 minutes, you can probably weather the clunkers without too much trouble.
Here it is, enjoy it. Oh, and if you are interested in delving into Westerns All’Italiana beyond Sergio Leone, you might use this ranked list from AFS Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen as a roadmap.
Since the quarantine has begun, many of us have been watching more films on television at home. Naturally, all of us are eager to get back into Cinemas but we can’t just yet. So, we have been posting some streaming recommendations on Mondays from some of our pals in the film community. In the meantime, many others have posted such lists so we figured it was a good time to aggregate some of these for easier reference. We’ll have more of these next Monday. Enjoy.
Tilda Swinton submitted a selection to the BFI. Check out her comments on each in the original article.
I WAS BORN, BUT…
(1932, Dir. Yasujiro Ozu)
Kanopy, Criterion Channel
JOURNEY TO ITALY
(1954, Dir. Roberto Rossellini)
Kanopy, Criterion Channel
BEAUTY & THE BEAST
(1946, Dir. Jean Cocteau)
Kanopy, Criterion Channel
M
(1931, Dir. Fritz Lang)
Kanopy, Criterion Channel
MEDEA
(1970, Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini)
BFI Player
MY CHILDHOOD, MY AIN FOLK, MY WAY HOME
(1973, 1974, 1979, Dir. Bill Douglas)
BFI Player
STRANGER BY THE LAKE
(2013, Dir. Alain Guiraudie)
Kanopy, Shudder
TOKYO STORY
(1953, Dir. Yasujiro Ozu)
Kanopy, Criterion Channel
UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES
(2010, Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Criterion Channel
Paul Thomas Anderson has mentioned a large number of films as favorites, many of which are not currently streaming. Here are the ones that are. Read the Indiewire piece here that lists the films.
THE BIRDCAGE
(1996, Dir. Mike Nichols)
Amazon Prime
BLUE VELVET
(1986, Dir. David Lynch)
Amazon Prime
CITY OF GHOSTS
(2017, Dir. Matthew Heineman)
Amazon Prime
THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE…
(1953, Dir. Max Ophüls)
Kanopy, Criterion Channel
HOUSE OF GAMES
(1987, Dir. David Mamet)
Amazon Prime
I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING
(1945, Dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
Kanopy, Criterion Channel
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
(2018, Dir. Barry Jenkins)
Hulu
JAWS
(1975, Dir. Steven Spielberg)
HBO Now
LADY BIRD
(2017, Dir. Greta Gerwig)
Amazon Prime, Kanopy
MOONLIGHT
(2016, Dir. Barry Jenkins)
Netflix, Kanopy
THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS
(1949, Dir. David Lean)
Kanopy, Criterion Channel
A QUIET PLACE
(2018. Dir. John Krasinski)
Amazon Prime, Hulu
RAIN MAN
(1988, Dir. Barry Levinson)
Hoopla
WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE
(1993, Dir. Lasse Hallström)
Netflix, Amazon Prime, Kanopy
We are wrapping up our series Vulcan Video: The Exit Interviews with the last few chapters of the featurettes as well as a complete upload of all the submitted videos from the entire project. You can watch the raw files here. You can watch not only the full comments of the people we’ve featured in the series, but you can also see some of the videos from people whose work just did not cut well, usually because the sentiment did not need to be adulterated. We’d encourage you to check these out.
But here are the final edits in the series. We start off with a celebration of the scholarship of Vulcan Employees and their joy in helping customers find movies they might like. Of course now we have algorithms, but back then we had to rely on WEIRD GENIUSES. We were so lost, weren’t we?
Next we have a summing up from Danica Steinhauser about Vulcan, how it supplanted her actual film-school education, how it gave a person like her a home, and how it will be missed. This one is liable to hit you right in the vicinity of the heart area.
And finally here is the last Easter Egg of the bunch, in which Luke Rife and Danny Benson talk about some of the Employee Picks sections. These were the special shelves that were sometimes just: “Joe Schmo Recommends” and sometimes thematic selections of three or four movies, think: “Heavy Metal Horror” or “Getting Medieval.” The piece ends with Danny recounting what must surely be the greatest Employee Picks shelf of all time – a legitimately brilliant selection.
Thanks so much to all the Vulcans who sent in videos for this project, and my apologies to all the folks we couldn’t get in touch with. Vulcan was a tremendously important part of what has made the Austin film culture so special and so completely unique. The outlaw scholarship, the lack of pretension, the incorporation of personality into curation… these are all aspects we hope to carry on in our own work and we honor all Vulcans everywhere for lighting the way.
Anyone reading this knows that movies don’t just happen. We are all aware that there is a lot of effort that goes on behind the scenes of even a modest film. At its best though, we see none of the sweat that has gone into the final product. We are swept away into the vision that the filmmakers want us to share. In the case of the greatest filmmakers, that vision can be so comprehensive and so enveloping that we almost believe it is real.
Such is the case with Martin Scorsese. His films pulse with the rhythm of life. When he shows us characters seated around a dinner table or a bar, we are there too. So it’s a little bracing to watch the following two films. Fascinating, of course, but also a little disorienting.
The first is an amateur film made by a guy whose family’s home was being used as a location in GOODFELLAS (1990). It is narrated and edited much like a standard behind-the-scenes featurette, and the naivete on display is pretty charming – the Joe Pesci interview at 8:00 is the most awkward interview imaginable – but it also captures the place and time very effectively, even as it takes a dent or two out of the mystique of the film.
The second behind-the-scenes doc is a horse of quite a different color. It is made by a filmmaker who was a legend before Scorsese even picked up a camera to begin working in earnest. Jonas Mekas was a director, a programmer, a critical voice of almost unimaginable influence. So his observations on Scorsese’s working method on the set of THE DEPARTED (2006) are especially valuable. We see how Scorsese, while on a soundstage, transitions between his video village, where he watches the shot on a monitor, to the set, where he issues minute directions to the actors. Then we see how he manages his set on location. Most fascinatingly, we are privy to his spoken asides to Mekas about some of his memories watching avant-garde film and how it affected his perception of cinema’s possibilities. This film contains a lot of what some might call “down-time” but it rewards a close viewing in which every frame is valued as interesting and instructive.
Filmmakers Ben & Bo Powell joined AFS Head of Film & Creative Media Holly Herrick for a virtual Q&A, discussing what drew them to filming their home region of Mississippi, and how their approach to filmmaking allowed them to capture subjects and stories that are often overlooked.
You can see from the interview that the Powells have a lot of passion about the stories that these rural Mississippians have to tell about themselves – stories that are often quite different than the ones you might have seen in other media. NOTHIN’ NO BETTER, a follow-up to the very well-received doc BARGE, was just about to make the rounds of festivals when the COVID pandemic hit, so their world premiere is taking place in the virtual realm.
AFS is honored to support filmmakers like these with the AFS Grant and we are proud to present NOTHIN’ NO BETTER this week as an AFS Virtual Cinema offering, opening Friday May 15. You can click here to see the trailer and pre-order the film. Your pre-order supports these kind of bold projects, and helps AFS’ ongoing mission to help them reach the people who will appreciate them.
Katharine Hepburn, born on this date in 1907, provides an object lesson in the nature of movie stardom. Other stars may have been more symmetrically pretty, had wider ranges of emotive expression, or modeled glamorous Hollywood gowns with more grace, but she brought a special quality to the screen. A quality as different and transgressive to the audiences of the time as the slacks that she made fashionable. She refers to the origins of her androgynous style in the attached interview.
It was by and large her personality, which incorporated a fair amount of what we might charitably refer to as Emersonian self-reliance, or, if in a less forgiving mood, as pure stubbornness. This aspect of Hepburn comes across loud and clear in her performances. The best stars have personalities that, combined with photographic appeal and a talent for realistic acting, make them wonderful to behold. We can’t get enough.
Hepburn, who was radioactive with this star quality, addresses it at one point in the video interview below.
Here’s a relevant excerpt:
Clive James: What does it take to be a star?
Hepburn: I don’t know… I’ve got it. But, I mean, what is it? I don’t think it’s talent. I think it’s just that – you’ve got a good hot motor inside you and it ticks away and your eyes shine and your teeth shine. I don’t know what the hell it is. Charisma?
James: Yes…
Hepburn: But also good luck. I think good luck all the way. First I would credit my parents and then I would say I was lucky enough to be born at a time when people wanted this. (Pops shoulders of her blouse with bravado.) My kind of “so what?“
Hepburn who went from being an in-demand ingenue with stage credentials, to a washout who was famously referred to as box-office poison, and then a treasured institution, never stopped being herself and stayed candid and open right to the end. Let the instantly identifiable music of her timbre and cadence fill your home and your life today as we celebrate her birth.
We’ve been using this space on Mondays to ask some of our friends in the film community for some streaming recommendations to share with our audience – many of whom have much more time to spend watching movies at home of late. This time we are doing something a little different. We are turning the camera around on the tripod to face the AFS staff.
So, here from our hard-working, home-bound staff members are some picks for home streaming. Here goes:
We The Animals
Max Benitez, Production Specialist
WE THE ANIMALS -Netflix 2018, Dir. Jeremiah Zagar
Life somehow seems busier than ever so I’m mainly watching dramatic films with brief run times. This film plays like MOONLIGHT’s magical realist cousin. EN EL SEPTIMA DIA -HBO NOW 2017, Dir. Jim McKay
Watch this film in celebration of food delivery drivers. It was made with non-actors for zero dollars and yet it entertains like a major sports drama. LITTLE BOXES -Netflix 2017, Dir. Rob Meyer
This dramedy balances brooding and levity (a necessary skill right now). It’s a fish out of water story with some really fine acting and is pretty light.
The Cremator
Chloe Carcamo, Austin Studios Rental Coordinator
ELVIRA: MISTRESS OF THE DARK – Hulu & Amazon Prime 1988, Dir. James Signorelli
Horror movie hostess Elvira is all curves and sass and takes no guff from anyone. This campy comedy is just what the doctor ordered to take your mind off of daily woes and into the whimsical world of the macabre.
ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE – Hulu & Amazon Prime 1969, Dir. Peter R. Hunt
This oft overlooked 007 film deserves a place at the very top of the collection. It reimagines the James Bond formula in a grittier new Hollywood-arthouse style without losing any of its expected thrills and frills.
THE CREMATOR – Criterion Channel 1969, Dir. Juraj Herz
Lean into the boundaries of your discomfort with this film’s uncomfortably dark humor and watch through the fascinatingly fragmented editing as the absurd protagonist is moved along by the forces of history around him.
SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA
Gabe Chicoine, Marketing Associate
SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA – Prime
1982, Dir. Osamu Dezaki
This psychedelic sci-fi spectacle follows a freewheeling space pirate with an arm that turns into a gun, who finds himself escorting an incognito princess who is pursued by the evil Crystal Boy, who looks like an Oscar statuette come to life, and is a real jerk. Dazzling moments of inspired animation carry a plot that is, as you might expect for an arcade game adaptation, not substantial. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.
GIRLHOOD – Kanopy
2014, Dir. Céline Sciamma
Before her breathtaking breakout PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (which is streaming on Hulu), Celine Sciamma directed this powerful and intimately observed coming-of-age story about a teenager navigating a challenging home life and the precipitous freedoms she discovers when she falls in with a rebellious girl-gang.
MILFORD GRAVES: FULL MANTIS – Prime
2018, Dir. Jake Meginsky
I hope it’s not too tacky to recommend a film that I had a hand in as a co-producer. But as I spend more time cultivating both my backyard garden and my inner world these days, I find myself repeatedly returning to the philosophies of this film’s subject, the great avant-garde jazz drummer and polymath Milford Graves, who has spent a lifetime developing a vast interconnected cosmology of ideas about art, nature, biology, technology and even martial arts. If you’re looking for some new food for thought, FULL MANTIS provides plenty to chew on.
THE TALK OF THE TOWN
Austin Culp, Director of Marketing
THE TALK OF THE TOWN – The Criterion Channel 1942, Dir. George Stevens
Partly a screwball comedy, partly a political/legal story, I just fell in love with this film. Jean Arthur, Cary Grant, and Ronald Colman star in this film about a fugitive, landlord, and lawyer who wind up in a love triangle. The film makes the lawyer question ethics of the law in a way that felt refreshing and hopeful (compared to Better Call Saul, which I was watching at this point and also worth recommending). Screening as a part of Criterion Channel’s Jean Arthur series.
FINDERS KEEPERS – Amazon Prime 2015, Dir. Bryan Carberry, J. Clay Tweel
A festival favorite in 2015, this tragicomedy documentary tells an all-too-bizarre story of a man, his amputated leg, and his fight to get it back from a roadside attraction profiteer. Recommended for those who enjoyed Tiger King or crazy true stories.
AFTER MIDNIGHT – Kanopy 2019, Dir. Jeremy Gardner
From the director of THE BATTERY and producers Aaron Moorhead/Justin Benson, this indie horror feature mixes a relationship drama with a creature feature in a really effective way. Kind of like a mix of ALL THE REAL GIRLS and a Sasquatch-like story. One of my favorites from the 2019 Fantastic Fest.
Lost In Translation
Brady Dyer, Communications Manager
MAGNOLIA – Amazon Prime, Netflix 1999, Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
PT Anderson’s 1999 film is a perfect film for a quarantine because you will be thinking about it for days. Led by an extraordinary ensemble cast including Jason Robards, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Melora Walters, William H. Macy, and Tom Cruise in a memorable performance, the film follows many of the characters’ individual stories, which don’t often seem to relate to each other. One phrase in the film—we may be through with the past, but the past isn’t through with us—serves as a connecting thread and illuminates how each character is living out their own experience of that. Aimee Mann’s haunting soundtrack underscores all of it.
LOST IN TRANSLATION – Amazon Prime 2003, Dir. Sophia Coppola
Sophia Coppola’s 2003 sophomore effort starring Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, returning brilliantly after a hiatus from film. As with her first feature, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, Coppola is interested—and captures so well—feelings of isolation and the small, subtle gestures of communication, often non-verbal, that go with it. This film takes it to another level with Johansson and Murray as two lonely travelers in Tokyo who meet and bond with each other. She is with her husband, a celebrity photographer, and left alone most of the time, he is traveling solo to film a commercial. They both have insomnia and are experiencing trouble in their relationships. But a lot of the time they spend together is quiet—their friendship develops in the spaces in between conversations and a mutual need to connect. And who doesn’t need that right now?
Rebels Of The Neon God
Chris Engberg, Austin Studios Manager
REBELS OF THE NEON GOD– Amazon, Kanopy 1992, Dir. Tsai Ming-Liang
Feeling isolated and maybe a little despondent? Commiserate with this deeply affecting Taiwanese drama! It’s a heavy one but I’m really excited that Kanopy has recently added this to their offerings. This stream looks much better than the old DVD I have watched previously. I could listen to the theme music all day long. (fwiw, this movie has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.)
THE GENTLE ART OF JAPANESE EXTORTION – The Criterion Channel 1992, Dir: Juzo Itami
It was truly difficult to pick which Itami to include in my list but this one won because I love its name so much. You can hardly go wrong with anything in his small cannon (cut too short in part no thanks to him making this particular movie and pissing off the Yakuza — look it up). Partnered again with one of my favorite actresses, Nobuko Miyamoto, playing a variation on her A TAXING WOMAN (another great Itami, also streaming) character and some real jaunty tunes, this is a fun one!
THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED– The Criterion Channel 2008, Dir: Josh Safdie
I really, really, really, really like these Safdie brothers. This was Josh’s first feature and it’s a pretty incredible effort. Far less frantic and anxiety-inducing than Uncut Gems or Good Time, it’s worth a watch to see how naturally talented filmmakers these guys really are (note: Benny is only credited with some editing and sound work for this one, but you catch my drift.)
She’s Gotta Have It
Martin Jones, Austin Studios Director
SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER – Amazon Prime 1960, Dir. François Truffaut
François Truffaut’s SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER is a delightful little movie that gets overlooked in the Truffaut oeuvre. It’s a simple movie, with a great cast, and a little caper that’s a nod to American gangster pictures. I love how the film doesn’t take itself seriously and how the casting is spot on perfect.
SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT – Netflix 1986, Dir. Spike Lee
Spike Lee’s original black & white indie film SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT from 1986 is bold, sexy, and unapologetically Black. Spike clearly starts the alchemy of his aesthetic with this movie. I met Spike while he was still getting his Masters at NYU during the winter of 1985, and he told me about the movie. Summer 1986 I get a b&w postcard of Nola Darling – on the back in red Sharpie he wrote – “Marty, as hot as they come!, Spike” – he was a fresh voice as a filmmaker and a brilliant marketer. His bravado encouraged my career.
DRIVE – Netflix 2011, Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
Ryan Gosling is the perfect lost Everyman In “Drive,” which is an homage to LA film noir mashed up with the movie business. It’s sparse dialogue and powerful visuals are as haunting as the stellar performances and it’s a masterclass in film direction by Nicolas Winding Refn working from a most sublime screenplay by Hossein Amini.
Eight Hours Don’t Make A Day
Lars Nilsen, Lead Programmer
BALL OF FIRE – Criterion Channel
1941, Dir. Howard Hawks
I’ll bet there are four or five people out there who have not seen this Howard Hawks comedy – co-written by Billy WIlder, shot by Gregg Toland and, oh yeah, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. Coop plays a professor, engaged inwriting an enormous new encyclopedia, who realizes that his data on slang is lacking. His field research brings Stanwyck’s character Sugarpuss O’Shea into his life. She is a nightclub dancer on the run from the law. They hit it off. This is one of Stanwyck’s great triumphs and a film that lingers warmly in the memory.
EIGHT HOURS DON’T MAKE A DAY – Criterion Channel
1972, Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Also streaming on Criterion is Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s totally delightful family/workplace soap opera. Originally commissioned for German TV this is a miniseries that parallels family life with work life. Observant, funny and beautiful. How on earth did the 27-year old auteur have so much insight about so many different kinds of people?
BLOOD BATH – Amazon Prime
1966, Dir. Jack Hill & Stephanie Rothman
This movie is a real surprise for a lot of folks. Roger Corman asked a corps of his young apprentices to punch up a Yugoslavian horror movie that he had somehow acquired the rights to. The two young filmmakers, Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman, brought some interesting personal touches to the project, and mimicked the European locations and chiaroscuro look of the original film with ingenuity. It’s a good, expressionistic black and white horror with the overtones of a nightmare.
Fast Color
Conner Smith, Development Coordinator
THE SENTENCE – HBO NOW 2018, Dir. Rudy Valdez
I experienced this film at AFS Cinema during our Doc Days festival. First-time filmmaker Rudy Valdez was there for a very moving Q&A where most of the audience was in tears after watching this very inspiring and thought-provoking film. I urge you to check it out if you haven’t!
FAST COLOR – Hulu 2018. Dir. Julia Hart
This was one of my favorite films at SXSW a couple of years ago, and we were able to show it at AFS Cinema this past September. Some have described it as a “superhero” movie, but it doesn’t really fit into any particular category in my opinion. It’s a moving film about three generations of strong women, and if you missed it at the cinema in the Fall, I highly recommend watching it now.
HORSE GIRL – Netflix 2020, Dir. Jeff Baena
I watched this movie recently and was left with so many conflicting emotions. After a Reddit rabbit hole and a few days later, I was telling everyone to watch it. I look forward to revisiting it to look for the Easter eggs I missed the first time, and I really enjoyed Alison Brie’s strong and moving performance.
Train To Busan
Taylor Whritner, Development Manager
TRAIN TO BUSAN – Netflix
2016, Dir. Yeon Sang-ho
Tis the season for zombie movies! TRAIN TO BUSAN is a super fun take on the classic, featuring major players in Korean film and TV like Ma Dong-seok (THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD) and Choi Woo-shik (PARASITE).
REBELS OF THE NEON GOD – Amazon, Kanopy
1992, Dir. Tsai Ming-liang
I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s next on my list: a perfect dose of energy, beauty, and weirdness to combat quarantine blues. According to my husband: a unique coming of age story that still feels fresh today, Tsai Ming-liang’s debut is a must-watch for film fans.
BOOKSMART – Hulu
2019, Dir. Olivia Wilde
A hilarious comedy led by two very talented (and funny) up-and-coming stars. Watch it!
Haunt
Charles Wright, Engineer and Studio Operator
PARASITE – Hulu 2019, Dir. Bong Joon-ho
It lives up to the “Oscar” hype. It is such a wonderful and weird story that I think people need to see and feel.
HAUNT– Shudder 2019, Dir. Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
It’s the best, and most brutal, modern horror film I’ve seen in a while. I haven’t rooted for a final girl like this since “Nancy Thompson”. It’s not for the faint of heart and I love that about the film, the camera never blinks and dares you not to.
BOOKSMART – Hulu 2019, Dir. Olivia Wilde
It is a gross out coming of age comedy in the vein of “Super Bad” but it is so tastefully done. It is silly and a little cliche but it is such a fun watch with such likable characters you don’t mind.
We are winding down our series of oral histories of the now-defunct but forever-beloved Vulcan Video next week. Here is the penultimate collection of videos from the former employees. You can go back and check out the earlier parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Next week we will post the last few edits and then add all the raw videos submitted by the employees to our YouTube channel so that future historians of video stores (and enthusiasts of the syllable “um”) can have a field day.
In the first video we hear about the high levels of warm Lone Star consumption at the south store, particularly Friday and Saturday night closing shifts.
Then we hear about the famously tough job-interviews and how well – or poorly – some of our correspondents did.
Finally, we hear some memories of the late, great Lance Hahn, punk legend and outlaw film scholar – pictured above with the VHS of Lindsay Anderson’s IF…. Lance left us in 2007 but no one who knew him will ever forget the time spent with him.
There’s an amazing organization that is nestled in a not-so-quiet corner of Downtown Austin where day after day the moving image heritage of our state is recorded and preserved. It’s called the Texas Archive Of The Moving Image. You may have seen their work on screen at the AFS Cinema, the Alamo Drafthouse and elsewhere. Perhaps you have also spent hours perusing their site in search of treasures. We certainly have.
Some of the material that TAMI has preserved on their site is raw, unedited footage, sometimes donated by producers or camera people who have had the reels or tapes sitting around in their storage closets for decades. That would appear to be the case with the Jim Ruddy collection. Lots of raw video here, from Blue Öyster Cult to Shirley MacLaine and all points in between.
Probably the center point between those two would be this raw behind-the-scenes footage of the making of an episode of WALKER: TEXAS RANGER where we see the preparation for an absolutely HELLACIOUS double house explosion. A shot like this is hard to do, and you only get one chance, so everyone is on their best behavior, from Chuck Norris, who relates a scary explosion story, to the extras getting “gelled up” to the director, who seems a little on edge, and of course the pyro guys, who look exactly what you would expect 1995-era pyro guys to look like.
After the explosions – which are awesome, by the way, the two houses burn spectacularly, and the leads try to get in some dialogue scenes between coughs and soon the wind changes, sending approximately 4 Guangzhous worth of Gaia-choking black smoke towards the cameras. It’s possibly even more exciting than a mid-’90s WALKER, TEXAS RANGER episode, but you can be the judge, jury, and executioner of that.
Back before the fall of civilization I used to commute to work at the AFS Cinema six days a week and during that time I, like many of you, became a devout podcast listener. My go-to package of podcasts includes – not surprisingly – a fair number of movie and TV related podcasts – I will spare you the basketball, political, and history podcasts.
Well, my daily commute is now bed-coffeemaker-couch, but my consumption of pods has not diminished significantly, so I decided to kick off a new series called Pod People in which we and our pals share some of our favorite podcasts that are relevant to film and moving image culture, and I get to be the first one off the diving board so here goes. P.S. AFS has a podcast you can subscribe to here.
Richard Linklater & Karina Longworth in conversation
First up is a podcast that is well-known to many of you, but I will bet that some people who would absolutely love it have not yet jumped in to podcasts, so to those people I say, let this be your gateway drug. It is Karina Longworth’s “You Must Remember This.” It is scripted and well-produced and, in fact, is more like a series of audiobooks than you might expect. The choice of subjects is adventurous and excellent. Classic Hollywood from the silent era through the ’70s is examined from every angle. Longworth is interested in more than the material on screen, or even just the behind-the-scenes stuff. She brings the culture into the picture and it’s extraordinary and fascinating and altogether brilliant.
Where to start: There are a LOT of great miniseries. I particularly like the “Charle’s Manson’s Hollywood” series. Its dramatis personae include Doris Day, The Beach Boys, Michelangelo Antonioni and more. Longworth ties some pretty diffuse threads together and it’s really riveting.
Ok, while that one was for virtually everyone I know, this next one is a toughie for some folks. “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast” is of course hosted by the titular adenoidal comic, along with – thankfully – a cohost named Frank Santopadre, who keeps things more or less on track as the pair interview some pretty outstanding, top-flight talent. Most of the guests are old-timers. Some interviewees are convention-hardened, with stock replies that aren’t getting any fresher as they head into another decade of use, but some of them seem to be dying to talk and to share their best stories, and that’s what makes the show good. Now, I should also mention that the humor is often pretty juvenile – in good and bad ways. The production tends to be a little cheesy and Gilbert can be grating, particularly to anyone who can hear sounds through their ear holes, but the quality of interview subjects makes it all worth it – to me anyway. Mileage may, as the kids say, vary.
Where to start: The great Dick Cavett has been on the pod several times, most recently here. As you might expect, the subject of the Marx Brothers does come up, and Gilbert does his impression of “old Groucho” yet again. Bottom line: it’s an hour and a half conversation with Dick Cavett. You’ll be needing to hear that.
This next one goes way down the bunny hutch of obsessiveness, and my religious devotion to it probably accounts for all those targeted Metamucil and catheter ads I have been seeing in my social feeds of late. It is Mark Malkoff’s Carson Podcast. Now, I don’t especially like Johnny Carson or think he was funny (sorry!) but there’s no doubt that his show, which ran for 30 years before Jay Leno took over, was at the bullseye of a particular kind of showbiz culture. The pod covers virtually every angle of the show, with a Balzacian completeness. In fact, by listening to this show, you can more-or-less construct a mental hologram of ’60s and ’70s show business with the Carson desk as its heliocentric focus. Malkoff interviews movie stars, producers, gag writers, jugglers, even cue card men, with the same bulldog-like persistence. It’s a show that should not be this fascinating but it is. Every guest is handled with respect, and what goes unsaid is nearly as interesting as what is said.
Where to start: This is tough, but this one is a favorite. Director John Ford’s grandson Dan Ford was a stagehand on the Tonight Show and he tells some pretty great stories about his life and the show. Also, Malkoff keeps it clean, with no curse words allowed, but the Ford family curse of total bluntness and freedom of verbal expression does not allow for self-censorship, so the bleeps are hot and heavy.
During this period while the AFS Cinema is temporarily closed, we’ll be pulling select Q&As from our archives and sharing them here on AFS Viewfinders. Today, we’re releasing the full Q&A from the February 2020 screening of SMITHEREENS with director Susan Seidelman. If you haven’t seen Seidelman’s debut feature, you can watch it today via Criterion Channel.
Since a lot of people have been logging extra couch time over the past few weeks, we have asked some of our friends to recommend streaming movies and tv series for folks to watch at home. We are of course very lucky to have some especially smart and tuned-in friends.
The filmmaker and designer Yen Tan is one of these. He’s the writer and director of the feature films CIAO, PIT STOP, and 1985, and has kept up a parallel career as a graphic designer, making key art and other visual assets for a large number of independent films. He is also one of the best people we know to talk to about movies with. Read on to find out why.
A SUN (Netflix)
2019, D. Chung Mong-hong
I had the pleasure of screening a 35mm print of Chung Mong-hong’s debut PARKING (2008) at AFS Cinema. His latest work is a Golden Horse Award-sweeping tragedy that retains his touches of offbeat humor but is grounded by the tribulations of a Taiwanese family. An emotionally rewarding experience, with an utterly gut-punching revelation in the third act.
PEEP SHOW (Hulu)
Nine seasons (2003-2015)
My very first binge-watching started way back with the DVD box set of the hilarious hijinks of roommates Mark and Jez and the wacky people in their lives. This remains a reliable go-to whenever I need to laugh my face off. Bonus: Olivia Colman already killin’ it in her early days!
LAST LETTER (Amazon Prime)
2018, D. Shunji Iwai
The first of the two remakes of LOVE LETTER (1995), Shunji Iwai (ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU) updates his mistaken-identity classic to a Chinese setting led by an empathetic Zhou Xun. I’ve watched the pivotal scene when she comes clean to Hao Qin over and over, profoundly moved each time.
POSE (Netflix & FXNOW)
Two seasons (2018-ongoing)
Groundbreaking in all the yasss! ways, this has become one of my favorite series, with compelling and lovable characters you wanna go back home to at each episode. The use of Mariah Carey’s “Love Takes Time” in Season 2 turned me into a puddled mess. Viva House of Evangelista!
POETRY (Kanopy, Tubi)
2010, D. Lee Chang-dong
The universe may have sung their praises for BURNING (2018), but Lee Chang-dong forever has the depth of my soul with this thoughtful portrait of an elderly woman in dilemma who is enlightened by the transcendence of poetry. I try to revisit this every year, as a reminder to look at life deeply. During these pandemic days, that’s more essential than ever.
