syncopation ( 1942 film )
syncopation restored by cohen film collection at modern videofilm and released by cohen film collection .
casual jazz fans and jazz historians alike have much to cheer about this week as the 1942 film syncopation hits blu - ray, courtesy the cohen media group .
jackie cooper, left, and todd duncan in william dieterle’s “syncopation” (1942), which sought to integrate jazz into the american mainstream .
on october 30, 1940 and closed on january 3, 1942 after 501 performances. it was directed by
syncopation covers a number of jazz traditions. (image: cohen media group. )
roger ebert was born on this day in 1942, and died a little over five years ago. i owe a good part of my success…
there are no featured audience reviews yet. click the link below to see what others say about syncopation !
“the kind of jazz we know is dead. count me out as a pallbearer. ” – johnny (jackie cooper), in syncopation
motion pictures and jazz were both born around the dawn of the 20th century. but did hollywood ever get the music right? take “syncopation” (1942), a snappily titled, wildly ambitious jazz chronicle that might be the last thing you’d expect from warner bros. ’ german - born workhorse, william dieterle (1893 - 1972) .
cinema scope mag for film reviews, criticism news & comments. one of the most respected publications on film, uniting experienced critics with new writers .
the film was not received well by critics in west germany on its release .
roy hunt’s outstanding cinematography buoys the film throughout. hunt’s credits include the classic silent film beau geste (1926) and the first fred astaire - ginger rogers musical flying down to rio (1933). hunt displayed there and again in syncopation the unique visual aesthetics of a film created from a black - and - white palette — the appealing light - and - shade luminosity that resulted in the categorical metaphor for black - and - white film art: “the silver screen. ”
for the 1919 eight - part silent film, see the mistress of the world .
. the film used only four of porter' s songs and substituted other songs .
in syncopation, cooper’s jazz trumpeter woos fellow musician granville by forming a band in an attempt to bring them closer together. (image: cohen media group. )
regardless of their reaction to the feature, jazz fans will want to own the dvd of “syncopation” for its wonderful bonus material. nine classic jazz shorts are here, including
' panama hattie' film version
sondheimguide. com, accessed january 11, 2011
this film is not currently playing on mubi but 30 other great films are. see what’s now showing
panama hattie is a musical with music and lyrics by cole porter and book by herbert fields and b. g. desylva. it is also the title of a 1942 mgm musical based upon the play. the title is a play on words, referring to the popular panama hat .
after 60 years now and i, long ago become a professional drummer and percussionist, i finally will see syncopation for the next time, i. e. after a 60 year interval! can’t wait !
in its treatment of the emergence of jazz, syncopation’s historical span is broad. it follows the evolution of various jazz genres from turn - of - the - century dixieland to ragtime and on to swing .
hunt’s cinematography also gives textbook evidence of how four - point lighting schemes (key, eye, back, and fill light) can sculpt screen characters and enhance charisma. the design of the film’s costumes and settings also glow with reflected light. one has to marvel at how the blu - ray disc brings syncopation’s lavish studio “production values” to restored life .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
so what is syncopation? i asked hazen schumacher, past director of broadcasting at u - m. he is a renowned jazz historian and former host of national public radio’s long - running “jazz revisited” program. here’s how schumacher defines the concept :
this was pretty good, although super white for a movie about jazz. i wish they' d spent more time / plot on rex, since his experiences on the road with his all - black band would have been worth seeing. but that' s a lot to ask of a movie from 1942 i guess. the music was good throughout .
is a film historian and critic, and arthur f. thurnau professor emeritus of screen arts and cultures at the university of michigan .
jessie grayson’s “ella” is an integral character in syncopation, and she overcame her stereotyped role to deliver a moving performance. grayson began her acting career with the harlem’s lafayette players stock company. in 1941 she was the dedicated housemaid, “addie, ” for the gibbens family in william wyler’s the little foxes. grayson’s other film work include cass timberlane (1947) and homecoming (1948) .
traitors sean gullette’s first feature, shown at film festivals but never released here, concerns the leader of an all - female punk - rock band who finances her recording session by bringing a shipment of drugs from the rif mountains to tangier. on dvd and amazon instant video. (film movement )
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
for historical background on barry allen’s work as an editor of syndicated tv prints, see eric hoyt’s new book hollywood vault: film libraries before home video .
behind the camera: syncopation’s screenplay was adapted from the story “the band played on” written by valentine davies, university of michigan grad of 1925. davies would go on to win writing oscars for the enduring christmas classic miracle on 34th street (1947) and the benny goodman story (1956) .
david has gone halfway around the world to attend a film festival and will be reporting more on what he sees in hong kong. but in madison we have the wisconsin film festival going on now, and there’s plenty to watch here as well, even if it’s only for four days rather than two weeks .
i have had the privilege of introducing the film and leading the post - film q & a on some of these occasions, including for this year’s feature, victor seastrom’s 1924 classic, he who gets slapped. (swedish director victor sjöström used the americanized version during his career in hollywood .) i put the film in context by pointing out three important historical aspects of the film. first, it was the first film made from script to screen by the newly formed mgm studio, formed in 1924 from the merger of goldwyn productions, metro, and louis b. mayer pictures. (two earlier releases by mgm were norma shearer vehicles which originated at mayer .) second, it was probably the film that cemented lon chaney’s stardom, after his breakthrough role as quasimodo in the 1922 hunchback of notre dame. starting in 1912, chaney had been in well over 100 films before hunchback, many of them shorts and nearly all of them supporting roles. third, he who gets slapped was seastrom’s second american film after name the man in 1923, and a distinct improvement on that first effort .
“syncopation” is available on both blu - ray and standard dvd, and at around $ 20, is certainly reasonably - priced. if this disc sells well, perhaps cohen will be encouraged to produce more jazz dvds. only next time, cohen can leave off the feature—the shorts are much more valuable !
technologically, this was quite daring for an early sound film, and the actual shot—which basically looks up washington’s dress—probably raised the eyebrows of a few local censors .
the first - rate package delivers a major added delight to complement the remastered film. nine short jazz films showcase the early talents of duke ellington, billie holiday, cab calloway, hoagy carmichael, louis armstrong, bessie smith, and artie shaw. this compilation of film shorts provides an additional 90 minutes of true jazz entertainment .
so far i have seen four films in two days and plan to see five more before the festival ends tomorrow night. that means that so far i’ve sat through the short festival prologue film that announces its sponsors four times. each year we have a different little prologue film. this year director meg hamel and her team found a snappy promotional film for wisconsin that looks like it was made in the late 1950s or early 1960s. its slogan is “we like it here! ” and it features not only our famous dairy and other farm products but also things which are fast disappearing from local industry–like cars and tractors. i’m not sure how i’ll feel about this little film after watching it nine times, but so far it’s amusing .
during the q & a, spike lee reminded us that some initial reviews of the film (here shown in a gorgeous 35mm print) had warned that the film could arouse racial tensions. odie henderson has charted the alarmist tone of many critiques. lee insisted, as he has for years, that he was asking questions rather than positing solutions. “we wanted the audience to determine who did the right thing. ” he added that the film was, at least, true to the tensions of new york at the time, which were–and still are–unresolved .
perhaps no young filmmaker better demonstrates the impact that roger’s support can have on a career than ramin bahrani. roger saw his first feature, man push cart, at sundance in 2006 and invited it and the filmmaker to the “overlooked film festival” that april. (roger’s sundance review is here .) the film then played other festivals, notably venice and our own madison - based wisconsin film festival. it won several awards, including an independent spirit award for best first feature. in october roger gave the film a more formal review, awarding it four stars. man push cart never got a wide release, and it certainly didn’t make much money. still, quite possibly the high profile provided by roger’s attention allowed bahrani to move ahead with his career .
there aren’t any villains in ann hui’s a simple life, a film we first saw in vancouver back in 2011. roger had hoped to bring it last year, but ann couldn’t come, as she was working on her upcoming release, the golden era. this year she was free to accompany the film that had a special meaning for roger at that point in his life .
for a little bibliography .) for more on art cinema and its commitments to realism and open endings, see my essay, “the art cinema as a mode of film practice, ” in
a late addition to the program was the foreign - language oscar winner departures. steve jarchow, one of the heads of regent entertainment, is a madison native, and he appeared after the film for a lively question - and - answer session. regent has other forthcoming films in the festival’s schedule, including tokyo sonata, which we blogged about from the palm springs international film festival .
a jazz trumpeter tries to woo a fellow musician in mourning for her dead lover, and sets up a band in an attempt to bring them closer together. covering a quarter - century of american “syncopated” music (ragtime, jazz, swing, blues, and boogie boogie), syncopation features music from the turn of the 20th century through prohibition, the great depression, and the outbreak of wwii. featuring jazz greats benny goodman, charlie barnet, gene krupa, harry james, and more. includes selected
jazz shorts
from the cohen film collection as bonus material .
while “whiplash” would be a notable film purely for teller and simmons’ performances, it reaches a different level when one considers the execution of its tempo. editor tom cross and cinematographer sharone meir often put us right on stage with andrew and fletcher, cutting and panning in rhythm with the beat of the drum. it is captivating, to say the least, particularly in a climax that produces more tension than any action film or thriller this year. the title refers to a song played multiple times throughout chazelle’s film. it could also refer to that sense of wowed exhaustion you’ll feel when it’s over .
although roger was occasionally criticized for supposedly lowering the tone of film reviewing by participating in a television series, he and partner gene siskel regularly tried to promote indie and foreign films that didn’t get wide attention. roger did the same in his written reviews, and ebertfest was originally known as the “overlooked film festival. ” inevitably it was shortened by many attendees to “ebertfest, ” and eventually that name became official. it reflects the wider range of films that came to be included, with the silent - film screening and frequent showings of 70mm prints of films like my fair lady that were hardly overlooked .
among the guests at this year’s e - fest was barry c. allen. for over a decade barry was executive director of film preservation and archival resources for paramount. that meant that he had to find, protect, and preserve the film and television assets of the company—including not just the paramount - labeled product but libraries that paramount acquired. most notable among the latter was the republic pictures collection .
the problem bahrani faces is that the film has to give us personal information about william while retaining tact and respect for characters’ integrity. for william to open up into a tarantino - style confession would tear the movie apart; even a quiet moment of sobbing vulnerability is too indiscreet here. the film needs its tokens, however awkward they may seem as narrative devices, to keep faith with its people .
streamline is the official blog of filmstruck, a new subscription service that offers film aficionados a comprehensive library of films including an eclectic mix of contemporary and classic art house, indie, foreign and cult films .
wrote that
by hiring a trio of knockabout comedians, mr. de sylva has given it all the advantages of a burlesque show... everything is noisy, funny and in order .
merman
rolls though it with the greatest gusto, giving it a shake and a gleam and plenty of syncopation... the merman hangs bangles on any song that comes her way .
at the start of the film, you see the names of the actors scroll up as
in front of the camera
and the crew as well as
behind the camera
before the name of the movie finally appears .
best remembered for plodding prestige pictures like “the life of emile zola” (1937), movies james agee characterized in the nation as a “high - minded, high - polished mélange of heavy ‘touches’ and ‘intelligent’ performances, ” dieterle has been typecast as a snobbish martinet. still, he has a few surprises in his lengthy résumé, and “syncopation, ” out on blu - ray and dvd in a beautiful digital restoration from cohen media, is one .
“to the early fan, jazz was known as ‘syncopated music’ because of all the changes in the elements as it was being performed. nowadays, jazz fans are more sophisticated; they are aware of syncopation as it unfolds. a good example is provided by the 1940s glenn miller orchestra playing ‘american patrol, ’ a march where a key change occurs in the middle of the orchestration. you hear an alteration of the normal, a kind of surprise. ”
life itself was picked up for theatrical distribution by magnolia pictures and will receive a summer release, followed by a showing on cnn. (scott foundas reviewed the film favorably for variety, as did todd mccarthy for the hollywood reporter. )
as an early - era jazz movie, syncopation falls within the storyline traditions of other 1940s films with settings in new orleans and narrative emphases on the historical emergence and rise of jazz performers and bands. two examples are birth of the blues (1941) and new orleans (1947). both are classics primarily because of their great jazz numbers and performers — bing crosby and mary martin in the former, and louis armstrong and billie holiday in the latter .
barry is a true film fan. he has reread brownlow’s the parade’s gone by many times and retains his love for classic cinema. the film that converted him to foreign - language cinema was, as for many of his generation, children of paradise, but he retains a fondness for juliet of the spirits, the lady killers, and other mainstays of the arthouse circuit of his (and my) day. he’s proudest of his work preserving john wayne’s pre - stagecoach films .
in 1955 i saw this syncopation on the million dollar movie run channel wor, i believe. i was 11 years old. the movie goes out with an amazing solo by drummer gene krupa. i was hooked on the spot. that was a monday and i watched the repeats from tuesday till friday of that week just to see gene play his animalistic, but very musical, solo again and again (no video tape, no recording options for me) .
both the film and al - monsour thoroughly charmed the audience. barker interviewed her afterward, and she revealed that, not surprisingly, the making of the film was touched by the same sort of repression that it portrays. women are not allowed to work alongside men in saudi arabia, so al - monsour had to hide in a van while shooting on location. given that there is no cinema infrastructure in the country, the film was a saudi arabian - german co - production, with arabic and german names mingling in the credits. we also learned that it has since become legal for saudi girls to ride bicycles. perhaps someday filmmaking will become more common there, and male and female crew members can work openly together .
since so many scenes have consisted of a flurry of intensified techniques, simple over - the - shoulder reverse shots might let the excitement level drop. so a new optical device aims to deliver fresh impact in one of the film’s quietest moments .
the introductions and q & a sessions for most of the films, as well as the morning panel discussions, have been posted on ebertfest’s youtube page. program notes for each film are online; see this schedule and click on the title .
i was joined for the post - film discussion by michael phillips of the chicago tribune, and we talked with donahue and winokur while miller sold the group’s cds and dvds in the festival shop. they revealed that this new score had been commissioned by the telluride film festival and that it was a project that appealed to their taste for off - beat films. there were many questions from the audience, and we suspect that the alloy orchestra will continue to be a regular feature of the festival .
great jazz music but very hokey, old fashioned plot. this is a beautiful restoration in blu ray but the film is a disappointment for me. . not a gem but i guess worth seeing especially if you like jazz. . nice extras included .
goodbye solo is set in bahrani’s hometown, winston - salem, north carolina. it deals with a genial senegalese cab - driver who decides to befriend a prickly white man who he suspects intends to commit suicide. beautifully shot, the film is to winston - salem what collateral is to los angeles, and the final scene in the autumnal great smoky mountains is gorgeous. it’s a moving tale, and one which manages to be emotionally uplifting without falling into the trap of solving all its characters’ problems and becoming a feel - good film .
the only other time i’ve seen this film was at a two - day conference, “garrel éternel, ” held in dublin in june 2001 as an immediate follow - up to the four - day “for ever godard” symposium held at london’s tate modern, and on that occasion i judged it voyeuristically intrusive; the information that seberg permitted and apparently authorized the intrusion doesn’t entirely reverse my judgment. it’s true that we occasionally see seberg smiling and relatively happy in the film, but the overall misery that we witness makes me regard this film as garrel’s version of the passion of joan of arc, without the trial or any historical context—unless, that is, one views garrel’s camera as one of the inquisitors. what emerges is often shattering and sometimes beautiful, but whether or not it’s decent remains for me an open question .
staking so much on social allegory, the film sacrifices characterization. characters tend to stand for social roles and attitudes rather than stand on their own as individuals. the actors’ performances, especially their line readings, keep the roles fresh, though, and the film still looks magnificent. i was struck this time by the extravagance of its visual style. in almost every scene lee tweaks things pictorially through angles, color saturation, slow - motion, short and long lenses, and the like–extravagant noodlings that may be the filmic equivalent of street graffiti .
what gives the film a more episodic organization than frozen river, i think, and what gives it a greater sense of “dailiness, ” is that it lacks deadlines. there’s relatively little time pressure on the action, except for ale’s sense that he’s getting close to having enough money for the van. chop shop ’s refusal of hollywood’s ticking clock seems to me to confirm the observation, made by geoff andrew and j. j. murphy, that in some respects american indie film is located midway between classical narrative cinema and “art cinema. ”
roger did not live to see the documentary devoted to his life and based on his popular memoir of the same name, life itself. it premiered in january at this year’s sundance film festival. he participated in its making, however, encouraging director steve james (whose 1994 documentary hoop dreams roger had championed) to film him during the final four months of his life. some of this candid footage reveals the painful and exhausting treatments roger underwent, but much of it stresses his resilience and the support of chaz and the rest of his family .
barker had brought with him a surprise guest, capote ‘s director, bennett miller, whose appearance had not been announced in advance. he discussed how he and scriptwriter dan futterman learned that there was a second, rival capote film in the works, infamous (2006), which also dealt with the period when the author was researching in cold blood. miller and futterman decided to press ahead, a wise move in that their film drew more attention than did infamous. much of the discussion was devoted to hoffman’s performance and his acting style in general .
as you might expect from someone who has mastered stand - up, writing (the excellent zombie spaceship wasteland), tv acting, and film acting, oswalt stressed the need for young people to grab every opportunity to work. he enjoys doing stand - up; with no need to adjust to anybody else, it’s “the last fascist post in entertainment. ” but he also likes working with other actors in the collaborative milieu of shooting film. he insists on not improvising: “do all the work before you get on camera. ” i was surprised at how quickly young adult was shot—one month, no sets. oswalt explained that one aspect of his character in the film, a guy who customizes peculiar action figures, was based on sillof, a hobbyist who does the same thing and sells the results. oswalt talks about sillof and roger ebert here .
cooper at age nine had major roles in 1931′s the champ and skippy, and was the first child actor to receive an oscar nomination for best actor in a leading role for the latter. he first gained attention in the “our gang” series of film shorts about a precocious group of mischievous children .
unhappy and frustrated, johnny quits and forms his own band, returning to new york city. kit, who’s been working there for a music producer, joins the band for a rousing piano number. famous singer connee boswell, aglow in a glimmering white ball gown, sings a bluesy rendition of “under a falling star. ” thus, an ebullient johnny has achieved his dream of becoming a syncopating jazz impresario. he and kit reunite. a contextualized jam session montage with jazz greats charlie barnet, benny goodman, harry james, and gene krupa brings syncopation to a close .
in the early days of ebertfest, roger personally introduced every film at this five - day event, which took place this year from april 23 to 27. he would be onstage for the discussions and question sessions after each screening, often joined by directors, actors, or friends in the industry .
why not just call this an italian variant of that broad tradition of naturalism or verismo or “working - class realism” that we find in many national cinemas? in france there was the work of andre antoine (e. g. , la terre, 1921) and jean epstein’s coeur fidele (1923) and his lyrical barge romance la belle nivernaise (1923). more famous are renoir’s toni (1935) and the lower depths (1936). (recall that visconti was renoir’s assistant on a day in the country, 1936 .) in italy, there were harbingers too, not only the famous ones like four steps in the clouds (1942) but also the charming treno popolare (1933). and japan gave us many instances in the 1930s, notably ozu’s inn in tokyo (1935) and the only son (1936) .
( 500) days plays by the book. tom and summer work for a greeting - card company, a satiric target only a little harder to hit than the pentagon. as in the movies mentioned above, the cutting is intent on making sure we see everybody deliver every syllable. (what ever happened to offscreen dialogue? did tv kill it ?) (sorry about the parentheses .) the four - part script layout is as neat as embroidery: the first kiss at the photocopiers comes at 24: 00, the splitup comes at 47: 00, tom delivers his diatribe against the lies about love at about 72: 00, and the epilogue, with its fatal final line, finishes at 90: 00. yet i’m not curmudgeon enough to despise a movie so desperate to be liked, and at last i found a film whose narration clicks along in syncopation with my little tally counter .
nicolas pillai is the author of jazz as visual language: film, television and the dissonant image (i. b. tauris, 2017) and the co - editor of new jazz conceptions: history, theory, practice (routledge, 2017). with tim wall and roger fagge, he is preparing an edited collection on late miles davis. he has published work on jazz and film in the soundtrack journal and darmstadt studies in jazz, 14. he is currently working on chapters for the routledge companion to new jazz studies, the routledge companion to popular music history and heritage and the oxford history of jazz in europe .
it’s common for viewers to notice that mavis gary, the malevolent, disturbed main character of young adult, doesn’t change or learn. “anti - arc and anti - growth, ” oswalt called the movie. i found the film intriguing because structurally, it seems to be that rare romantic comedy centered on the antagonist .
from steven’s q & a i went off to see goodbye solo, ramin bahrani’s fifth film, and his third since coming to wider public attention with man push cart. roger ebert has been a champion of bahrani’s work, and we’ll be seeing his previous feature, chop shop, at ebertfest in a few weeks .
thus, “syncopation” begins with a vivid montage that segues from a west african village to 1906 new orleans by way of the slave trade, the middle passage and the cotton fields. well - meaning, if condescending, the movie establishes a particular lineage. the music’s founding father is modeled on king oliver and played by an uncredited rex stewart (a cornetist with the duke ellington orchestra); his hot solos inspire a young boy (who grows into todd duncan, porgy in the original broadway production of “porgy and bess”) and, through him, the inevitable white protagonists, jackie cooper and bonita granville .
roger never reviewed the latter, but it is certainly the sort of film that he loved: a glimpse into a little - known culture by a first - time filmmaker with a progressive viewpoint. wadjda is remarkable as the first feature film made in saudi arabia, where there are no movie theaters. moreover, it was made by a woman, haifaa al - monsour, and tells the story of a little girl who defies tradition by aspiring to buy and ride a bicycle in a country where this, like women driving cars, was illegal. (below, wadjda learns to ride a bicycle on a rooftop, hidden from public view. )
by coincidence i recently saw a tv print of union depot (warners, 1932) that had several minutes of the opening exposition lopped off. we who have turner classic movies don’t realize how lucky we are. fortunately for film collectors, some stations, like barry’s, retained the trims and put them back into the prints .
the more interesting parts of the film for me were manipulations of stereoscope - card images. by quickly alternating the right and left photos on the cards, jacobs creates some remarkable effects of apparent motion. (david discussed a similar effect last year in his comments on capitalism: child labor .) even with only two camera positions represented on the cards, at times an illusion of continuous movement is created, especially in a dramatic shot of ocean waves. there are portions of the image where the water seems to be flowing right to left in an unstopping stream. in other shots the camera seems to be gliding in an arc around the subjects. jacobs has been doing a lot of experimentation with creating an appearance of 3d using only regular film equipment and still photos, and i for one would have liked to see more of the stereoscope cards and a little less of the play with the edison shot. but that’s just a quibble. it’s a fascinating film, well worth seeing .
like lee, stone took the virginia theatre audience behind the scenes. he agreed with william friedkin, who was originally slated to do the film: “this is as close as you’ll every come to frank capra. ” instead of using the shuffled time scheme of kovic’s autobiography, friedkin advised that “this is good corn. write it straight through. ” hence the film breaks into distinct chapters, each about half an hour long and sometimes tagged with dates. they operate as blocks measuring phases of ron’s conversion. like many filmmakers of his period, stone deliberately made each chapter pictorially distinct–the low - contrast life - magazine colors of the opening parade versus the lava - like orange of the beachfront battle .
roger leung takes ah - tao, his amah, or all - purpose servant, pretty much for granted. she feeds him, watches out for his health, cleans the apartment, even packs for his business trips. when he’s not loping to and from his film shoot, he’s impassively chowing down her cooking and staring at the tv. a sudden stroke incapacitates her, and now comes the first surprise. a conventional plot would show her resisting being sent to a nursing home, but she insists on going. having worked for roger’s family for sixty years, ah - tao can’t accept being waited upon in the apartment. so she moves to a home, where most of the film takes place .
a simple life is a very quiet film. ebertfest’s highest - profile visitors brought along two of the noisiest movies of 1989. it’s the twenty - fifth anniversary of do the right thing (roger’s review) and born on the fourth of july (roger’s review), and seen in successive nights they seemed to me to put the “agitation” into agitprop .
life itself was the opening night film. james has done a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of the book and in assembling archival footage and photographs, interspersed with new interviews. the result is anything but maudlin, with a candid treatment of roger’s early struggles with alcoholism and an amusing summary of roger’s prickly but affectionate relationship with his tv partner gene siskel .
to say that realist traditions rely on conventions doesn’t make them less worthwhile. chop shops seems to me quite a good film. nor would i deny that realist conventions do capture some aspects of real life. both the crisis structure and the threads - of - routines structure can be taken as realistic. sometimes our lives are in crisis, and at other times we do just plod along. but more stylized narrative forms can capture important aspects of reality too. the searchers, a work of high artifice, renders a portrait of a self - destructive racist that many of us recognize in the world outside the movie house. has any film better caught the adolescent yearning for romantic love and family stability than meet me in st. louis ?
this is fragile stuff, and docter handles it with tact. many movies want you to cry at the end, but up daringly invites you to indulge in its first ten minutes. it then spends the rest of its running time brightening your mood, so that the title could describe the film’s emotional trajectory. it’s one of my two favorite new movies i saw this summer .
rope of sand one of william dieterle’s last hollywood movies (and possibly the craziest) is a violent film noir from 1949 set in the kalahari desert. burt lancaster heads a cast that includes three veterans of “casablanca”: peter lorre, claude rains and paul henreid, outstanding as the movie’s crypto - fascist villain. on blu - ray, dvd and amazon instant video. (olive )
herewith, comments on a batch of titles. there are spoilers sprinkled throughout, but most of what i say won’t harm your encounter with the film. because all my remarks amounted to an even longer blog than usual, i’ve broken it into two parts. the next installment, coming up in a few days, talks about the taking of pelham 123, public enemies, and inglourious basterds .
his second film, chop shop, brought him to ebertfest a second time, in 2009. (roger’s program notes are here, and his four - star review here .) at about that time, bahrani’s third film, goodbye solo, was released. given its modest budget, it did reasonably well at the box office, grossing nearly a million dollars worldwide (in contrast to man push cart ‘s roughly $ 56 thousand). bahrani inched toward mainstream filmmaking with at any price (2012), starring dennis quaid and zac efron, and he is currently in post - production on 99 homes, with andrew garfield, michael shannon, and laura dern. during the onstage discussion, he spoke of struggling to maintain a balance between the indie spirit of his earlier films and the more popularly oriented films he has recently made .
another artifact, reveling in a later form of jazz exoticism, “the connection” — shirley clarke’s 1962 adaptation of jack gelber’s off broadway blockbuster — has been released by milestone on blu - ray and dvd. clarke’s notably self - assured and elaborately self - conscious first feature made a splash at the cannes film festival and became a cause célèbre back home, banned for using an obscenity, here as a term for heroin .
through a lens darkly thomas allen harris’s history of african - american photography is both a chronicle of and testament to the power of self - representation. “mr. harris’s film is a family memoir, a tribute to unsung artists and a lyrical, at times heartbroken, meditation on imagery and identity, ” a. o. scott wrote in the times in august. on dvd, itunes and netflix. (first run features )
so far i’ve seen some excellent films. agnès varda’s the beaches of agnès was a salubrious way to start. it’s an autobiography of sorts, built around visits to the various seaside locales that have played a big part in her life, from childhood visits to the resorts of belgium to an escape to corsica to the fishing village that featured in her first film, the 1954 short feature la pointe - courte to venice in los angeles. not that her tale is told chronologically. there are numerous diversions, such as meetings with the children who appeared in that first film, now grown old. there are clips from her films and encounters with friends. varda even managed to get the notoriously camera - shy chris marker to participate, though he appears only as a large cat cut - out, and his voice has been altered. (see below. )
wish - tv ran three movies a day, and two of those would be trimmed to 90 - minute air slots. that meant reducing the film, regardless of length, to 67 - 68 minutes. barry’s job was to look for scenes to omit—usually the opening portions—and smoothly remove them. fortunately for purists, the late movie, running at 11: 30, was usually shown uncut, and then the station would sign off .
the celebration continued this year, though on a more upbeat note. some films were chosen from a list that roger had left to his wife chaz and festival organizer nate kohn, and they selected others in the same indie spirit. the tradition of showing a silent film with musical accompaniment was maintained. as always, the festival passes sold out, and the crowd, including many long - time regulars, enthusiastically cheered both films and filmmakers .
“in solaris, an even more original film, the challenge of adapting stanislaw lem’s novel becomes the license and occasion for the most daring, provocative, and beautiful moments: the long journey along a freeway that approximates the hero’s space voyage; our introduction to the nearly - deserted satellite; the terrifying resurrections of hari; and the cryptically powerful closing shots, which synthesize the familiar with the unimaginable even more potently than kubrick’s shifting strategies at the end of 2001 .
stone pointed out that this film marked the beginning of his career as a figure of public controversy. like lee, he was attacked from many sides, and from then on he was a lightning rod. matt zoller seitz (who’s preparing a book on stone) pointed out that at the period, he was astonishingly prolific. from 1986 (salvador, platoon) to 1999 (any given sunday), he directed twelve features, about one a year .
also introduced in early scenes is 10 - year - old kit latimer, daughter of a prominent new orleans architect. reggie’s mother, ella (jessie grayson) is the family housekeeper. (a cautionary note: ella’s character borders on the regrettable archetype known as ‘mammyism. ’) like reggie, young kit also demonstrates an aptitude for improvised jazz, but her instrument is the piano. thus is set in motion the film’s central theme, leading to its title .
someday i must do a blog entry on tokens in narratives. any plot of some complexity seems to need physical objects that encapsulate dramatic forces, spread out information, or become emotion - laden motifs. the photograph is probably the most traditional one, but notes, diaries, rings, and so on are useful too. in goodbye solo, william’s tokens move the drama of disclosure forward, and it’s possible to object to the film’s reliance on so many of them .
ebertfest, once known as the overlooked film festival, has always been keen to support american independent filmmaking. in previous incarnations, roger spotlighted junebug, tarnation, and other movies that flew below the multiplex radar. this year’s crop was especially ripe. besides the fall and sita sings the blues, there were important documentaries like begging naked and trouble the water. in particular, two fiction features set me thinking about types of independent storytelling and how they might be considered realistic .
still, because postwar italian cinema had a big influence on other national cinemas, we have a prototype of the italian neorealist movie. the filmmaker focuses on the lives of working people. he emphasizes their daily routines and travails. the film will be shot on location (at least in the exteriors) and may use nonactors in some or all roles. bazin pointed out that we’re likely to find an elliptical or unresolved plot. it’s also very likely that we’ll see washlines and women in slips .
what screenwriter diablo cody has done, i think, is built the film around what most plots would consider the villain. so it’s not surprising that there’s no change; villains often persist in their wickedness to the point of death. attaching our viewpoint to the traditional antagonist not only creates new comic possibilities, mostly based on mavis’s growing desperation and her obliviousness to her social gaffes. the movie comes off as more sour and outrageous than it would if buddy and beth had been the center of the plot .
the perception of jazz heroes is influenced by many aspects, music being just one of them. in the final presentation of our conference, nicolas pillai looks at the media representation of trumpeter miles davis in his later years, and describes “the dissonant image” of his appearances in film, television drama, music videos, fashion magazines and tv advertising. he considers the industry networks which formed miles’ multi - media personality, taking into account the trumpeter’s own influence on his public image, discussing gesture, speech and costume .
still, the plot is decently engaging, and there’s a taut, unpredictable siege in the desert. that long sequence displays a disciplined interplay of optical viewpoints, a sense of constantly revised tactics, a new aspect of james’s leadership style, and nice details about sharing juice boxes. in another era, the hurt locker would have been a studio picture in the vein of anthony mann’s bleak men in war. i suppose it shows that yesterday’s genre film, executed with conviction and a certain edginess, can become today’s art movie .
roger noted that when he first saw frozen river, he wanted to bring it to his festival, but then it became the very opposite of an overlooked movie. it has grossed $ 4. 3 million worldwide, a very healthy amount for a small - budget film without big stars. it won eleven national award s and was nominated for fourteen others, including a best original screenplay oscar. by now, you’ve probably seen it. i had been away during its madison run, so i was happy to catch up with it .
as for plot points, chop shop has them. (at about 15 minutes, the zone of the inciting incident, ale declares his intention to buy the van. at about 30 minutes he discovers that isamar is turning to prostitution .) likewise, the threaded routines yield poetic motifs, such as the pigeons that are carefully established early in the film. bahrani’s plotting is meticulous, and it highlights the paradox of realism: it takes effort and calculation to “capture reality. ” de sica was said to have endlessly rehearsed the boy in bicycle thieves .
naturally there are passages concerning varda’s late husband, jacques demy, including some candid on - set photos and footage of a very young catherine deneuve in costume. we see varda strolling around an exhibition of her photographs of french movie stars and mourning their deaths, having at 80 outlived most of them. it’s a rambling film and yet somehow all hangs together, with self - deprecating humor, nostalgia, wacky juxtapositions, and moving moments as the director visits old haunts and friends. it was a real crowd - pleaser at the screening i attended, and deservedly so .
the quietness of the film is exemplary. it’s an effort to make a drama out of everyday happenings—people working, eating, sharing a home, getting sick, worrying about money, helping friends, and all the other stuff that fills most of our time. the two central characters are, as roger’s review puts it, “two inward people” who are simple and decent. yet ann’s script and direction, and the playing of deanie yip tak - han and andy lau tak - wah, give us a full - length portrait of a relationship in which each depends on the other .
barry told me quite a lot about conservation and restoration, but just as fascinating was his account of his earlier career. a lover of opera, literature, and painting since his teenage years, he was as well a passionate movie lover. an indianapolis native, he thinks he saw his first movie in 1949 at the vogue, now a nightclub. he projected films in his high school and explored still photography. he was impressed when a teacher told him: “if you want to make film, learn editing. ” soon he was in a local tv station editing syndicated movies .
making us side with the villain also allows oswalt, as matt freehauf, to play a more active role as mavis’s counselor. in a more traditional film, he’d probably be rewritten to be a friend of buddy’s. here he’s the wisecracking voice of sanity, reminding mavis of her selfishness while still being enough in thrall to high - school values to find her fascinating. as in shakespearean comedy, though, the spoiler is expelled from the green world that she threatens. it’s just that here, we go in and out of it with her and see that her illusions remain intact. maybe we also share her sense that the good people can be fairly boring .
resolutely unhollywood in its setting, theme, and characters—deglamorized women, especially— frozen river still adheres to classical script structure. we have characters with goals, encountering obstacles and entering into conflicts, and the turning points come at the standard junctures. the ending is a resolution, although not an entirely happy one. in the course of the plot, suspense is built up at many points. will ray and lila be caught by the state troopers who grimly monitor their comings and goings? what will become of that abandoned baby? the film is a sturdy example of how classic principles of construction can be applied to subject matter that is worlds away from our prototype of hollywood filmmaking.
syncopation is a 1942 film from rko directed by william dieterle set during the early days of jazz . it is also known as the band played on . 
syncopation is a 1942 film from rko directed by william dieterle set during the early days of jazz. it is also known as the band played on.
syncopation is a 1942 film from rko directed by william dieterle set during the early days of jazz. it is also known as the band played on.