Category Archive: Uncategorized

1. Streamers: AFS Programmers’ 2020 Streaming Faves

   December 28, 2020 2:38 pm Leave a Comment

   2020 was the year of not going to the movies, and of discovering great movies on our small screens. We’ve been sharing some of our very favorite films of the year via our virtual cinema, which is playing some of the year’s must-see films (We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again: COLLECTIVE! LUXOR! And many more…) but several of our favorites this year skipped theaters and virtual cinemas entirely. If you’ve already made your way through our picks on AFS@home and are looking for more AFS recommendations, this list is for you.

   Here are some of our favorite new discoveries, available on VOD or streaming services. 

   Holly Herrick, Head of Film & Creative Media, Austin Film Society, recommends:

   

   SMALL AXE – By now you’ve probably heard about the five-film tour de force from Academy Award-winning British director Steve McQueen, but we’re listing it here to encourage you to make it your top holiday viewing priority, if you haven’t yet watched. Developed from stories of London’s West Indian communities in the 1960s and 1970s, the series has formal similarities to Kieslowski’s THE DECALOGUE, which it has been compared to critically, and it is equally groundbreaking and brilliant. While individual films are masterpieces in their own right, taken as a whole, McQueen has delivered the year’s cinematic knock-out, bringing the most delicate directorial touch to these stories of resistance and cultural resilience, making visible the struggles and the joy of a powerful community. (Amazon Prime). 

   

   RESIDUE – In the discovery category, this debut feature is another case sample of 2020 being a year of astonishingly good debut features (Texas’ own BULL and MISS JUNETEENTH among them). RESIDUE takes on the emotional, cultural and spiritual degradation wrought by rapid gentrification in Washington D.C. Directed by Merawi Gerima, the son of pioneering LA Rebellion filmmakers Haile Gerima and Shirkiana Aina, who appears to have inherited his parents’ revolutionary and anti-colonial approach to the creation of cinema image. Combining elements of formal production, guerrilla-style filmmaking and cinematic essay, RESIDUE’s distinct style and voice make it one of the most unforgettable films of the year. (Netflix). 

   

   DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD – Kirsten Johnston spent many years as a documentary cinematographer before being nominated for an Oscar for her breakthrough film as a director, CAMERAPERSON. Placing rapport between filmmaker and subject at the center of the narrative, Johnson confronts the consuming fear of her father’s oncoming dementia. Johnson’s filmmaking journey is about the complexity of the cinematic image and it’s successes and failures in conveying our humanity, and this latest film is an intensely emotional, immersive and totally entertaining addition to her oeuvre. (Netflix) 

   

   TIME – 2020 was the year when the wider cultural narrative reflected back what people of color have known for centuries about America’s failures. The poetry of Garrett Bradley’s film reverberates even more strongly given the moment of its release and it’s titular question. Through the story of one woman and her family in the face of the carceral state, Bradley conveys the resilience and resistance of Black women who must fight against the engines of their own society to build a life with their families. Subject and collaborator Fox Richardson was named one of this year’s Unforgettables by the Cinema Eye Honors, and is without a doubt among the most compelling documentary lead characters of the year. Her story comes alive in Bradley’s brilliant eye for conveying the spiritual weight of Richardson’s struggle. (Amazon Prime)

   

   THE GOOD LORD BIRD – AFS programmers don’t watch much TV. We swear we are not snobs– we just find ourselves frustrated by the number of critically-acclaimed television shows serving narrative conventions that will help them get to the next episode more than the artistic integrity of their own storytelling. In general, we still pretty find ourselves on the same page with this stance. But there are of course, exceptions, particularly in the world of limited series. Among the most powerfully cinematic and revelatory small screen storytelling this year was this adaptation of James McBride’s novel by creator Ethan Hawke and screenwriter Mark Richard. It’s off-kilter tone and subversive humor, boosted by dedicated performances from it’s excellent cast, lent itself to challenging our ideas about ethical choices in an ethically compromised society. (Showtime) 

   Lars Nilsen, AFS Lead Film Programmer, recommends:

   

   THE VAST OF NIGHT –  Set in small town America in the ’50s, this sci-fi thriller avoids some of the pitfalls of the way this period is depicted in modern films. There are some unusual narrative choices – for example two key scenes feature long, excellently delivered, monologues. The subject matter is familiar, but the execution is excellent. The dialogue and direction of actors is reminiscent of the crackling pace that Howard Hawks and Chris Nyby utilized in the classic THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD. (Amazon Prime)

   

   NATALIE WOOD: WHAT REMAINS BEHIND – Natalie Wood’s gifts as an actress and photographic subject have been overshadowed somewhat by her mysterious and shocking death. This documentary, made with the close cooperation of Wood’s daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner, seeks to remedy that. If you needed a reminder that actors are the very life force that cinema runs on, this is it. Wood, seen in hundreds of film clips and photos is radiant beyond all comprehension. Additionally, the matter of her death is covered in a way that may make many people re-examine their priors. (HBO)

   

   CRIP CAMP – If you like movies with good guys reaching deep inside themselves and triumphing over bad guys – and who doesn’t? – this is a movie that will have you pumping your fist in the air in triumph. It’s the story of the greatest generation of disability rights activists, many of whom had as teenagers attended a summer camp called Camp Jened which imbued its differently-abled campers with life-skills and the confidence to achieve. Through remarkable archival footage we watch them grow up and challenge the prevailing state of affairs as activists and professionals in many different fields. This is a very uplifting film about a group of heroes whose names have hitherto been too little known by most of us. (Netflix)

   

   LA LLORONA So many recent horror movies have been rehashes of earlier horror tropes with the addition of much busier sound design, shock cuts and jump scares. This film, which has nothing to do with the similarly titles CURSE OF LA LLORONA, or with the Mexican folk horror legend of the same name, has all of the modern conveniences that the horror movie fan expects. It does shock and startle the viewer, but the root of the terror is a real life atrocity, a Guatemalan genocide, and the “monster” is not the ghost but rather an elderly general who lives in luxury and seeks to escape his karmic debt. (Shudder)

   

   COMING HOME AGAIN – This one is a little bit of a cheat, as it is not yet streaming on one of the subscription services. It’s a film that I missed at first but caught up with quite a bit later. Writer-director Wayne Wang (CHAN IS MISSING) is still operating at top power in this story of a young man (Justin Chon) dealing with a loss in the family and being visited by memories of his early upbringing. (available via some Virtual Cinemas, such as Row8 with the Jacob Burns Film Center) 

2. Critics’ Year-End Lists Are Out: Watch the Best 2020 Films with Us

   December 23, 2020 12:21 pm Leave a Comment

   In what has been perhaps the strangest and most disruptive year for movies ever, there have still been a great many excellent films. Even before the pandemic hit, more and more titles were going direct to the streaming television services and the bells seemed to be tolling for mainstream movie theaters as viewers chose the sofa over the multiplex. Naturally, the COVID quarantine accelerated that process considerably and it should not surprise anyone that a lot of the year’s best went directly to Netflix or other streaming services.

   For many arthouse cinemas, however, a new innovation emerged: virtual cinema. Arthouses have been able to offer slates of films via streaming platforms and a significant portion of that revenue goes to help that theater or organization. In this fashion, AFS has been able to offer many of the best films of the year. Our philosophy on virtual cinema has been similar to our in-cinema philosophy. On our virtual cinema platform, AFS@home, we only offer a small number of films, but they are all films that we like and think you will like as well. As theaters reopen in 2021, we plan to continue innovating and offering new solutions in addition to our world class AFS Cinema.

   Speaking of the Best Films of the Year, the 2020 Critics Lists are hitting now, and we are seeing a lot of familiar titles. Some have gone directly to Netflix and other streamers, but a great deal have played in the AFS Virtual Cinema. Many of these are no longer available in the Virtual realm and have moved on to other platforms (BACURAU, MISS JUNETEENTH, DRIVEWAYS, and others) but a good number are still available on AFS’ Virtual Cinema channel for those folks who may care to catch up on some of the year’s best.

   Here, arranged in order of the year-end hype they have received, are some of the 2020 critics’ darlings now available in the AFS Virtual Cinema:

   

   COLLECTIVE

   Believe it or not, a doc about corruption in the Romanian healthcare system is one of the most compelling movies of the year. As a bunch of small-time journalists from a soccer newspaper close in on the facts behind a national tragedy, the stakes grow higher and the gangster-ish thugs who profit from human misery begin to fight back. Completely riveting from beginning to end.

   COLLECTIVE appears on the following lists: Indiewire, Barack Obama, New York Times, Vulture (Bilge Ebiri), Sight & Sound, Vanity Fair, Film Stage Best Docs, ScreenCrush (Matt SInger), Vox Media, Screen Slate, Slate (Dana Stevens), LA Times (Justin Chang), Time (Stephanie Zacharek), Artforum (Amy Taubin), also 99% on Rotten Tomatoes

   

   CITY HALL

   If COLLECTIVE is a nail-biter, the doc CITY HALL is an oddly reassuring reset as we watch four and a half hours of the incomparable Frederick Wiseman’s observational impressions of the workings of the Boston City government. From the mayor’s feel-good speeches to veterans and seniors, to a building inspector’s rigorous examination of a renovated home, it shows how a bunch of competent, committed people can make a big government work for the people.

   CITY HALL appears on the following lists: New Yorker (Richard Brody), Indiewire, New York Times, FilmStage Best Docs, Vox Media, Screen Slate, LA Times (Justin Chang), Cahiers du Cinéma, also 100% on Rotten Tomatoes

   

   MARTIN EDEN

   Jack London’s novel about a young sailor coming of age, and social consciousness has survived the transition to a Mediterranean locale and has perhaps even become richer for it. This is classical arthouse cinema, and deserves to stand with the greats in the field.

   MARTIN EDEN appears on the following lists: Indiewire, Barack Obama, New York Times, Vulture (Alison Willmore), Vulture (Bilge Ebiri), Sight & Sound, AV Club, LA Times (Justin Chang)

   

   FOURTEEN

   In Dan Sallitt’s closely observed, novelistic drama, two young women, friends since childhood, stay connected while also diverging in their personal and professional lives.

   FOURTEEN appears on the following lists: New Yorker (Richard Brody), Indiewire, AV Club, Artforum (Cassie da Costa), also 98% on Rotten Tomatoes

3. Streamers: Family Style Programmer Stacy Brick Recommends Holiday Films

   December 18, 2020 12:45 pm Leave a Comment

   Our friend Stacy Brick, programmer of the AFS Family Style series, is a sought-after movie list maker of late. The New York Times has published a pair of articles from her, 7 Films to Help Children Dealing With Grief and Family-Friendly Movies Made by Diverse Filmmakers, and she has been kind enough to share a list of Family Friendly Holiday titles with us. As always, Stacy has put in the hard work of testing these films with her own kids – a tough audience.

   Here’s Stacy:

   Every family has favorite holiday movies they return to each year. Perhaps you’ve already watched ELF and HOME ALONE – now what? Listed below are some less obvious choices – maybe one of them will become a new family favorite? 

   

   BABES IN TOYLAND (1934)

   Streaming on: YouTube & Amazon
   Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star in this adaptation of Victor Herbert’s 1903 operetta. Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee work in the Toyland factory making toys for Santa. Toyland is populated by Little Miss Muffet, the Three Little Pigs, and a monkey (yes, a real one) in a Mickey Mouse suit. When evil landlord Barnaby threatens to foreclose on the shoe Mother Peep and Bo Peep live in, Stannie and Ollie spring into action to save the day. They must navigate a dunking, the Bogeymen and crocodiles (again, real) in order to escape. Hilarity ensues.

   

   LITTLE WOMEN (1994)

   Streaming on: Amazon
   All of your favorite 90’s actresses are fresh-faced in this 1994 adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel. There’s Winona Ryder (Jo), Kirsten Dunst (Amy), Claire Danes (Beth) and Trini Alvarado (Meg) with Susan Sarandon as their “Marmee”. Orchard House is the perfect setting for a traditional family Christmas full of cheer, music, and snow. The family’s Christmas celebrations bookend the first part of the film and set the tone of coziness and family togetherness throughout. Make sure you have tissues handy. 

   

   CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945)

   Streaming on: Hulu
   Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) is the newspaper columnist behind the “Diary of a Housewife” column. The thing is, it’s a sham – she doesn’t know the first thing about running a household. When a fan (who also happens to be a handsome war hero) asks to spend Christmas at her family’s Connecticut farmhouse, she must scramble to convince him that she is who she claims to be. 

   

   MILLIONS (2004)

   Streaming on: Disney+
   In the weeks leading up to Christmas, a young boy finds a bag of money near the railway in his small British town. He and his brother try to keep it a secret from their father, but there are two problems. First, the UK is about to switch to the Euro and the bag is full of pounds (a fictional event). Second, the money belongs to thieves who show up in town asking questions. The boys are forced to try and spend all the money before time runs out.

   

   EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS (1977)

   Streaming on: Amazon
   Emmet and Ma Otter don’t have money for Christmas gifts, but they’re both amazing musicians. They each decide (unbeknownst to the other) to compete in the Waterville talent show to win the $50 prize and use it to buy gifts. The rolicking tunes of the Jug Band can’t be beat. This Henson favorite clocks in at just under an hour, making it a great option for younger kids. 

   Here’s the Letterboxd version of the list so you can easily add them to your watchlist.

4. Celebrating 40 Years of the Radical Feminist Comedy 9 TO 5

   December 15, 2020 1:30 pm Leave a Comment

   Forty years ago this week a film hit American theaters that would do its part to change the fabric of American culture, though people who saw it at the time might be forgiven for failing to notice it was anything but a raucously funny comedy. But for millions of women 9 TO 5 illustrated some of the mostly unspoken realities of office life, casual sexual harassment, double standards in performance evaluation and advancement, and other outrages. It must have been wildly cathartic for women who had faced these realities to see the trio of Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda get their over-the-top revenge against the reprehensible boss.

   The movie was an enormous success, by every measure. Audiences roared with laughter, and the lines formed around the block. It’s also a intentionally radical piece of agit-prop, carefully designed by its producer Jane Fonda to inject awareness of the prevailing workplace circumstances into the audience’s consciousness. While, when viewed through today’s lens, it lacks an intersectional perspective about matters pertaining to race and sexuality, at the time it was by far the most radical piece of film that ever played theaters in America’s heartland, to be sure. For all the marching and activism that Fonda was known for, this may have been her most effective political maneuver.

   In order to make the situations as true to life as possible, Fonda and her producing partner Bruce Gilbert arranged to talk to the membership of a group called the Association of Office Workers. From this diverse group of women, Fonda heard first-hand about the conditions faced by women in office workplaces, and from this raw material the script was born.

   The matter of casting would be tremendously important, of course. Fonda could essay one of the roles, but the other two were up for grabs. One night, Fonda went to see Lily Tomlin’s one-woman show and she became an obvious candidate for another one of the leads. On the way home from the theater she turned on the radio and heard Dolly Parton singing. Parton had never acted on screen before, but come on – she clearly had it. The triad was complete – theoretically, that is, it took a year to get everyone on board. The part of the boss was unforgettably played with maximum unctuousness by Austin native Dabney Coleman.

   It’s a hell of a story and Jane Fonda can tell it best, so we’ll let her.

   Here’s an uncut interview with Jane Fonda with local DFW entertainment reporter Bobbie Wygant in which Fonda discusses the origin story of the film in more depth. Enjoy.

   Of course, Hollywood’s scorecard always reflects dollars and cents above all else, and it succeeded in that department too, grossing over $103 million domestically. Adjusted for inflation that is over $325 million in 2020 dollars. Its social value was even greater than that, of course, and it is still widely watched and enjoyed today.

5. Holiday Movie Refresh: 20 Classics That Are Not ‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’

   December 4, 2020 1:00 pm Leave a Comment

   Every year at this time we start getting into the holiday spirit with some classic films. There are some movies that get a lot of play at this time of year – both because they’re movies that have long been in heavy rotation on television and because they’re really good. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, A CHRISTMAS STORY, MIRACLE ON 34th STREET; All are fantastic and we will certainly never try to persuade anyone to knock these off the pine-scented pedestal of holiday classics, but there are some others that you may not have seen before, or may have seen but not considered in the context of holiday films. The holiday season is also not one of unalloyed joy for all of us, and that aspect is reflected in some of the films on this list.

   We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorites here. Not all of these are deep obscurities, but the best known films here are not necessarily thought of as holiday films, though they might have a seasonally appropriate setting.

   Here is the list in Letterboxd form, click on the “Show Notes” button to see where each film is currently streaming.

   

   From the classic Hollywood days we have THE THIN MAN (1934) which takes place over a Christmas vacation in New York, as wealthy sleuths Nick and Nora Charles get blitzed on Martinis, shoot the ornaments off the tree, and find time to solve a murder.

   

   The great Barbara Stanwyck stars in CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945) as a Martha Stewart-like columnist who is an absolute mess in real life, but has to pull it together to stage a publicity-motivated Christmas welcome for a returning serviceman.

   

   1949’s HOLIDAY AFFAIR, about a struggling single mother (Janet Leigh, phenomenal) juggling her obligations to her son and her financially secure boyfriend (Wendell Corey) as an attractive new fellow (Robert Mitchum) begins to turn her head.

   

   In Douglas Sirk’s ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955) Jane Wyman plays a mother who has sacrificed everything for her children and finds the opportunity for a little happiness of her own in the strong arms of non-conformist Rock Hudson. Not a happy film, but a richly satisfying one, and one with Christmas scenes that are gorgeous and bitter at the same time.

   

   1958’s BELL, BOOK & CANDLE stars Kim Novak as a lovely, cat-eyed beatnik witch who casts her spells on square Jimmy Stewart over the course of a snowy Greenwich Village Christmas week. A midcentury modern joy.

   

   BLAST OF SILENCE (1961) also takes place in New York at Christmas, and also has a jazzy, beat feel, but here the tone is downright nihilistic. It is a dark, scuzzy independent film noir that gets as black as the dark night of the soul in its story of a conflicted hired killer named Frankie Bono.

   

   John Ford’s DONOVAN’S REEF (1963) was not the great director’s last film, but it has the knock-down, drag out feel of an Irish vacation wake. Between all the brawling action and ill-advised romantic subplot, there’s a beautiful poetic story of a father and daughter reuniting and of racial prejudice being washed away by a tropical torrent of love and familial devotion. Ford is sneaky. Before you know it, he has you by the heart strings and won’t let go.

   

   MY NIGHT AT MAUD’S (1969), directed by Eric Rohmer, is set on Christmas Eve, and was in fact shot on Christmas Eve. It is a film of conversations and missed connections. If you have never spent a whole night drinking and talking about philosophy and love, this may not be the film for you, but if you have, the movies of Eric Rohmer are right up your alley.

   

   SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1972), directed by the underrated Theodore Gershuny, should not be confused with the howlingly funny SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT (1984). This tale of murder and madness on Long Island is genuinely atmospheric and terrifying. Though its cast is full of Warhol superstars, everyone plays it straight. Widely available in a really crappy looking transfer that oddly adds to its appeal.

   

   FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982) is not a Christmas movie through-and-through but oh boy what a Christmas sequence it depicts. A large family gathers in a huge and beautifully decorated old house and every kind of Christmas treat is prepared. This film accomplished a kind of magical synesthesia – you will believe you can smell the pies and cakes. It’s a remarkable film through and through, but the Christmas scenes may linger with you the longest.

   

   Terry Gilliam’s BRAZIL (1985) is a pretty good candidate for the best Christmas-hater’s Christmas movie. Holiday cheer is deployed throughout as a distraction from the dystopian hell-scape, and, as such, pushes the anxiety and unpleasantness into the red (and green).

   

   Don Bluth’s animated feature AN AMERICAN TAIL (1986) is the only Hanukkah film on this list. It begins with the Mousekowitz family (they are mice, you see) celebrating the holiday together in the old country. This allegory about the struggle of immigrants in America is shown through the eyes of mice who face many challenges, including the fact that the cat population was wildly underestimated. A massive hit, it spawned a number of sequels.

   

   The French action-thriller DIAL CODE SANTA CLAUS (1989) looks a lot like HOME ALONE (1990) in that a boy protects his home from invasion. The big difference is that the kid in DIAL CODE SANTA CLAUS is a mechanical and computer genius who has set a trap to capture Santa Claus and “Santa” is a marauding lunatic. It’s extremely fast-paced, exciting and scary. We should note that it’s not for kids. We should also note that AFS will be screening this at the Rocket Drive-In on 12/10 and 11. More details here.

   

   Whit Stillman’s 1990 film METROPOLITAN is also very much for the type of person who enjoys Rohmer’s MY NIGHT AT MAUDS. It is also a Christmas break movie, only this one is a period piece set in 1969 and it shows us a New Yorker fiction world of sophisticates as their heyday of high society draws to a close over the course of the holiday season.

   

   THE DAY OF THE BEAST (1995) from the Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia is a howl. It is about the emergence of the antichrist in Barcelona and a search-and-destroy mission undertaken by three very unlikely partners – a fallen priest, a slick TV reporter and a metalhead – to neutralize the evil at Christmas-time. It is a slapstick comedy that seems to get faster and faster as everything goes wrong. Hysterical and underrated.

   

   Stanley Kubrick’s last film EYES WIDE SHUT (1999) is now, after some initial turbulence, recognized as one of his major works. The events of the film, about a happily married couple facing a crisis of fidelity, take place against the backdrop of Christmas and New Year. It’s a film that gets deeper in its resonances with every viewing.

   

   Arnaud Desplechin’s A CHRISTMAS TALE (2008) is an ensemble piece about a subject we’re surprised has not been covered more thoroughly in Christmas movies, the long-simmering resentments between family members that boil over at family gatherings. A movie like this is anchored by the gravity of its biggest star, and in this case that star is the great Catherine Deneuve.

   

   WHITE REINDEER (2013), written and directed by Zach Clark, is also about the dark side of Christmas. The ludicrously dark side of the season that makes already difficult life circumstances almost unbearable. Here, thankfully, it is presented as a black comedy. Anna Margaret Hollyman plays the lead here, a young woman who copes with a hellish holiday using extreme means.

   

   Sean Baker’s TANGERINE (2015) also finds unexpected comic buzz in the season. Without prior judgment on the part of the filmmaker, the viewer is thrust into the raw lives of a pair of marginalized trans women who go about their business on Christmas Eve. It feels realer than real, thanks to the performances and direction, and also thanks to the fact it was famously shot on iPhones. You won’t notice – at least not in any negative way.

   

   CAROL (2015) has a dream pedigree, directed by Todd Haynes from an autobiographical novel by Patricia Highsmith and starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. It is the story of an affair that sparks to life over the holidays and is suffused with the tragedy of the love that must not (yet) speak its name.

6. Watch This: Gordon Parks’ DIARY OF A HARLEM FAMILY

   November 30, 2020 1:22 pm Leave a Comment

   Gordon Parks (born on November 30, 1912) was renowned in many fields. He wrote books and directed films large and small, from deeply personal documentaries to the massive action hit SHAFT. But perhaps his most abiding work is his photojournalism.

   One landmark photo essay of his was “A Harlem Family,” commissioned by LIFE magazine in 1967 as civil unrest exploded in America’s inner cities. Parks’ aim was to document the cycle of poverty and dehumanization as it affected a single Harlem family. For a month, he lived with the Fontanelle family and documented their daily struggles. It is a highly moving and important work, and one that provides profound insight into the realities of life for so many Black Americans.

   The following film presents the photo-essay, framed by a filmed segment featuring Parks and the Fontanelle family and is narrated by Parks. It is a film of real power and, although the events it depicts are more than fifty years in the past, it cuts just as deep today. Parks’ words are just as important as his photographs. Here he describes the teenage son of the family.

   “Norman is a strange mixture. In his talk, there is a defiance for whites – the white policeman, the white butcher, the white clerk in the appliance store. His eyes have the hard glint of the older black men in Harlem. At 13, he is already primed for some kind of action. He is aggressive, determined and powerfully built for his age. But his hostility is balanced by an overwhelming tenderness at times. Today, for instance, he lifted his baby brother Richard and smothered him with rough kisses.”

   Watch the film here, and reflect on what it has to tell all of us today.

7. Browse This: The Evolution of Film Stocks

   November 23, 2020 4:16 pm Leave a Comment

   Even as the internet rots our collective brain with politically irresponsible conspiracy theories and confusion about whether or not hot dogs are sandwiches (they are), it also plays host to some pretty remarkable resources, such as Barbara Flueckiger’s database, Timeline Of Historical Film Colors. This site is a great place to dive in and learn about color in film – both still images and moving pictures. The science is interesting, and the exemplary images of different color processes are gorgeous to behold.

   Here are a few examples. The first is a hand-colored frame from Winsor McKay’s 1911 film version of his Little Nemo In Slumberland strip. Each frame was painted by hand.

   

    

   Here’s a frame from La peine du talion (FRA 1906, Gaston Velle; Albert Capellani)

   The frame is colored but it is done by a stencil, giving it sharper lines.

   

    

   Here, two subsequent frames are stained with different colored dye, put it together and you sort of get an impression of vivid color:

   The Open Road (GBR 1925, Claude Friese-Greene)

   

    

   The two color Kodachrome process used a process of tanning and treating the film stock before applying dyes.

   The Flute of Krishna (USA 1926, Eastman Kodak)

   

    

   Next, we encounter subtractive two-strip Technicolor. in which dye imbibition is used to transfer red and green data to a black and white positive frame.

   Cleopatra (USA 1928, Roy William Neill)

   

    

   Three-strip Technicolor was the next advancement, and this one became the industry standard for decades. The artificiality here seems paradoxically “more real than real.”

   Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (USA 1953, Howard Hawks)

   

    

   A large number of other processes are detailed on the site, some experimental and abortive, others that sought to widen the market and make vivid color more affordable, like Agfacolor, which incorporated color-forming solutions in the film emulsion itself.

   Maske in Blau (GER 1953, Georg Jacoby)

   

   It’s a truly fascinating walk through film history. There’s a lot of technical info, but thankfully also quite a bit of explanation of the terms used. It’s a fun way to spend that stray 30 or 40 hours you might find yourself with during quarantine.

   VISIT FILMCOLORS’ TIMELINE OF HISTORICAL FILM COLORS >>

8. Museum Of Home Video Presents: The Incomparable Susan Tyrrell

   November 19, 2020 1:07 pm Leave a Comment

   “Orgies?! Anyone will tell you they’re the LONELIEST PLACE IN THE WORLD!” – Susan Tyrrell in conversation with Skip E. Lowe

   During the last five of so years of her life, the great actress Susan Tyrrell (1945-2012) called Austin her home. “Su-su” as she was known to her many friends, was an accomplished screen performer, an Academy Award nominee, and a tireless seeker of great parts. In the introductory portion of the video that follows, video-collector Badly Licked Bear compares her to Rip Torn, and the comparison is appropriate: incandescent talents, hopelessly weird, with an unquenchable appetite for variety in their chosen roles.

   If you haven’t already seen FORBIDDEN ZONE (1980) starring Tyrrell as the Queen of the Sixth Dimension, you should do so right away. She is also remarkable in ANDY WARHOL’S BAD (1977), John Waters’ CRY BABY (1990) and John Huston’s FAT CITY (1972) for which she was nominated for an Oscar.

   Possibly even more berserk than any of her films is this 1993 interview with Hollywood Public Access host Skip E. Lowe, on whom Martin Short reportedly based his Jiminy Glick character. This is Tyrrell at her best, on fire with candid self-assessments, indiscreet to the max, and every inch a movie star. Who else could say, “I have a very private, gorgeous life,” or “I’m not going to hide the fact that I’m bitter. I just want to make some bucks off of it.” She was a special person, and there will never be another one like her.

   So soak it up, and enjoy this video. And while you are at it, check out the other programs that Bret Berg and his network of collectors are unearthing over at the invaluable Museum Of Home Video. But first, Susan Tyrrell.

   

   As a further artifact of Tyrrell’s amazing life, here is a somewhat blurry photo of the Academy Award nomination plaque she received for FAT CITY. It was found roughly jammed into the back of a kitchen cupboard in a Venice, California apartment by a friend of author/producer Zack Carlson. The plaque was gifted to Tyrrell’s family after her death. The magic marker addendum is 100% Su-su, and a precious reminder of her indomitable spirit.

   

    

9. The Precode ’34’: AFS Favorites from Uncensored Hollywood

   November 17, 2020 2:35 pm Leave a Comment

   Back in 1934, when Hollywood’s self-censoring Production Code began to be enforced zealously, no one would have dreamed that nearly a century later the phrase “pre-code” would be a rallying cry that would drive audiences to repertory theaters en masse, or occasion reveries of nostalgia about hard drinking and adultery among otherwise mild mannered TCM aficionados. But here we are. The raunchiest pre-code movies are more well loved today than any number of formerly esteemed ‘prestige pictures’ with starchier collars.

   It’s not hard to see why. The more daring pre-code film scenarios were more apt to depict class mobility and less restrictive gender roles. Mae West could really let loose with her own dialogue. Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell could embody a brassier brand of woman. Allusions to drug use, sexual freedom and other taboo subjects were not only allowed but – presumably – encouraged by producers of more urban fare.

   At AFS we have shown our share of Pre-Code films. Here, drawn from the last few years of AFS programming, and with a few other titles added in, is what we are calling the “Precode ’34’ in memory of that dark year when the curtains were drawn closed on these wondrous years.

   If you click on the “Read notes” button you can see what series these screened in, and, if they happen to be streaming on an online service, where. We hope you enjoy the films.

   

10. Spotlight on Nebraska’s Greatest Interviewer: Leta Powell Drake

    November 13, 2020 3:12 pm Leave a Comment

    Recently, film Twitter has been on fire with a supercut of interviews by Lincoln, Nebraska TV personality Leta Powell Drake. There are some big laughs in the edit, which of course compiles the most awkward moments from a number of interviews.

    It’s true that Drake has a unique style, and a big personality, but she’s also good at her job, inasmuch as her job is to get something new and different from her guests, who tend to repeat the same answers during these local interview junkets. Drake makes the interviews must-see TV. Fortunately for all of us, there are hours and hours of her interviews on YouTube. We haven’t watched all of them, but here are some of our favorites.

    Tim Curry is clearly having a hard time keeping a straight face as Drake interviews him in Rocky Horror regalia. He’s very funny here, and plays along winningly:

    The not-terribly-shy Telly Savalas brings that 5 minutes before closing time at the singles bar energy to this interview:

    Another actor well-known for playing a TV detective, Peter Falk. She asks him about his missing eye – great stories here – and playfully berates him for doodling during the interview:

    Another huge personality is actress Carrie Nye – who also happened to be the wife of native Nebraskan Dick Cavett. Here she talks about Richard Burton’s drinking, the challenge of doing a daily soap opera, and her Mississippi accent:

11. Watch This: Fellini On LSD

    November 12, 2020 1:06 pm Leave a Comment

    2020 is the Centennial of the Italian Director Federico Fellini’s birth. For many years his name was synonymous with the outré in film, before his acolyte and great admirer David Lynch assumed that mantle in the public discourse. Fellini’s visual style, which brought together great beauty and grotesquerie in the same gorgeously composed frame, greatly influenced the whole culture during the ’60s – an era which still resounds with a particularly loud echo today.

    It is perhaps not so surprising that Fellini would be drawn to that other great visual influence of the ’60s, LSD. In the following 1966 interview he talks, in his imperfect but evocative English, about his sole experience with the drug, how he feels that artists are already frequent travelers between the conscious and unconscious mind, and about his experience of color, which you can perhaps see as influential on his first color films JULIET OF THE SPIRITS (1965) and his SPIRITS OF THE DEAD segment TOBY DAMMIT (1968).

    “I remember I had some exaltation about color. I see colors not like they are normally – we see colors in the object. In this case, I saw colors, just as they are, detached from the object. I had for the first time the feeling of the presence of the color in a detached way.

    “Taking this drug, LSD-25, reality becomes objective… so reality is innocence, is pure, and is of divine beauty. In the same moment that the reality becomes to you this divine beauty, there is also the other side, reality is just of divine beauty because we don’t give any meaning to it, as is innocence. But in the same moment, to not give meaning to reality means that you don’t understand reality any longer. Reality becomes scenes without any meaning. So you can become a saint or you can become a crazy man.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAxcqnY5uB4

12. Film Noir: Our Picks, From the Canon to the Obscurities

    November 6, 2020 11:48 am Leave a Comment

    Normally by this time of the year we at AFS would have presented at least one installment of the Noir Canon series at the AFS Cinema. The Canon at this point includes twenty one titles, most of the heavy hitters in the field of post-WWII American crime and detective films: DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE BIG SLEEP and company, naturally, as well as the low budget indie DETOUR, and the extraordinary British entry NIGHT AND THE CITY. Here are the films we have shown so far as part of the Noir Canon series. You can also find the whole list here on Letterboxd, as well as our list of lesser-known noir greats.

    

    THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942)

    The first teaming of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake made Ladd a star and whet the public’s appetite for more of the pair.

    

    DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

    A perfect film. Billy Wilder directs Barbara Stanwyck, whose terrible blonde wig and anklet reflect her tawdriness alongside Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson.

    

    LAURA (1944)

    In Otto Preminger’s society noir, Dana Andrews plays a police detective who, in the course of unraveling the truth about a shocking murder, falls in love with the victim.

    

    DETOUR (1945)

    Edgar G. Ulmer’s microbudget ‘B’ noir follows a man who falls into a swirling maelstrom of ill fate after being picked up hitchhiking.

    

    SCARLET STREET (1945)

    Fritz Lang’s version of the story that Jean Renoir had previously filmed as LA CHIENNE – literally “the bitch” features Edgar G. Robinson as an amateur painter and cashier who falls for a classic Femme Fatale (Joan Bennett.)

    

    THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946)

    In the years that followed THIS GUN FOR HIRE, Alan Ladd became a major star. This film, which has a somewhat bizarre original screenplay by Raymond Chandler, was made quickly before Ladd was scheduled to report for induction in the armed forces. It reunites Ladd and Lake just as her star was falling. It’s weird, but quite enjoyable.

    

    THE BIG SLEEP (1946)

    Howard Hawks’ tremendously entertaining adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel, adapted by Leigh Brackett and William Faulkner, reteams Bogart and Bacall after their breakthrough pairing in Hawks’ TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT.

    

    THE KILLERS (1946)

    Robert Siodmak directs this noir tragedy that takes off from Ernest Hemingway’s short story of the same name. Burt Lancaster, in what is technically his film debut, is remarkable as the former boxer, hunted by killers, whose story is told in flashback. With Ava Gardner at her most elegant, and William Conrad, who delivers the immortal line “They all come here and eat the big dinner.”

    

    NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947)

    The ultimate carnival noir, with Tyrone Power as a midway mentalist who gets in too deep. Stunningly odd and probably Power’s best performance. Guillermo del Toro is currently working on a remake.

    

    OUT OF THE PAST (1947)

    Jacques Tourneur’s classic is perhaps the noiriest of all noirs, with Robert Mitchum, never better, as a man who tries to carve out a new life but is hounded by his past.

    

    THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947)

    Considered as an entertainment film, Orson Welles’ deliberate cash grab movie is incomprehensible. Taken as an opportunity to sneak an art film past Columbia Pictures, it makes more sense. Starring Welles – with a ludicrous Irish accent, and Rita Hayworth, with dyed platinum blonde hair. The finale in a hall of mirrors is justly renowned.

    

    RAW DEAL (1948)

    Anthony Mann’s very cheap ‘B’ noir is an exercise in style and tension that transcends its limitations thanks to the cinematography of the Hungarian camera genius John Alton, who has come to be known as the “painter of light” and whose work is characterized by unusual angles and chiaroscuro lighting. Top flight cast too, with Dennis O’Keefe, Claire Trevor, Marsha Hunt and Raymond Burr.

    

    IN A LONELY PLACE (1950)

    Nicholas Ray, who always directed with enormous – sometimes difficult to bear – sensitivity, brings out a different side of Humphrey Bogart, who plays a burned out screenwriter who might be a murder. With Gloria Grahame as the young actress who tries to put the pieces together.

    

    THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)

    John Huston’s heist drama follows a group of criminals with very different motivations as they plan and execute a jewel robbery. With a solid cast led by Sterling Hayden and Marilyn Monroe in a small but memorable role.

    

    NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950)

    Richard Widmark stars as a small time hustling con man who bites off way more than he can chew when he enters the world of wrestling promotion in the unsavory London underworld. Director Jules Dassin ratchets up the intensity with virtuosity as Widmark’s fate darkens.

    

    SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)

    Gloria Swanson is unforgettable as the faded Hollywood star Norma Desmond, who lives in a crumbling mansion – and equally crumbling reality – in Billy Wilder’s shockingly dark black comedy.

    

    ANGEL FACE (1953)

    Otto Preminger directs Jean Simmons as a manipulative young rich woman, who falls for ambulance driver Robert Mitchum and triggers a dark cycle of jealousy and death. Shockingly dark and acidic.

    

    THE BIG HEAT (1953)

    Fritz Lang’s masterful direction makes this story of a tough cop whose investigation of a powerful mob becomes a life-or-death obsession. With Glenn Ford as the detective, Gloria Grahame as a gang moll and Lee Marvin as a brutal enforcer.

    

    KISS ME DEADLY (1955)

    Hands down the weirdest film on this list. Robert Aldrich pushes the toughness quotient to the absolute level in his adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s novel. Not really very much like other movies. Hugely influential – you will see the film’s MacGuffin alluded to in a number of other films.

    

    THE KILLING (1956)

    Another ensemble heist movie starring Sterling Hayden, a la THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, but the then-unknown young director Stanley Kubrick has a few new tricks under his sleeve.

    

    TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)

    After years in European exile, Orson Welles was persuaded to come back to Hollywood and direct again thanks to the intercession of star Charlton Heston. This border-town story of police corruption and murder is sublime with great performances from Welles, Heston, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia and, in a magnificent cameo, Marlene Dietrich.

    Additionally, because we’re a little restless this week, we have compiled a list of lower profile noir films that we like quite a lot. That list, Kiss Me Obscurely: Little Known Noir Classics, is here. There are a number of British ‘B’ films, generally coproductions with American studios, featuring an American lead and made within a highly constrained budget. You’ll also find some real oddball films on the list, like SHACK OUT ON 101, with Lee Marvin as a short order cook who thwarts communists. It’s a fun list and we hope you enjoy these films, a number of which are available on streaming services.