Fantastic Film Posters #2

Designed by Anselmo Ballester.

For my money, the best Classical Hollywood era posters came out of Italy. And here's a great example, for On the Waterfront. Needless to say, I don't need to extoll the virtues of this film, or more particularly, Brando's performance. That cab scene was probably the first time that acting ever moved me.

These posters are so vastly different to what is produced today and so much more compelling. It's easy to see how they could work as advertising (whilst still being artfully made), but it is unimaginable these days, that anyone would be compelled to see a film by a poster.

Parallel Programming #1 - I Vitelloni

LE REGARD DE BAZIN - I Vitelloni

It is Fellini's 1953 film that inaugurates this series of "parallel programming", a concept which partly inspired this blog. These posts should be short and will be like little informal diary entries, to serve as mementos and digestifs, to help mull over the respective films. Added to this the "parallel programming" will introduce me to films that I may not have otherwise watched, and in cases where I have already seen one of the films scheduled (Bazin's champions or otherwise) I will make note of it, although most films scheduled will be unobtainable, as the Cinematheque is good at giving retrospectives and screenings of neglected films and filmmakers.

To the film at hand. This post coincides with the reopening of the Cinematheque, if not my viewing of the film.

Much has been made of this film being the prototype for the "slacker" film, but I'm not sure there is much of a lineage between it and the loosely defined genre. What is of course striking is Fellini breaking away from neo-realism, concentrating on a frivolous middle class milieu, with very slight hints of his more zany style to come and eventual dispensing of realism altogether. This is Amarcord without the range of characters and the extravagant style, his fascination with small town life is quite compelling and at this point, not populated by grotesques, at least not physically.

So if parallels with American slacker films are exaggerated, what is it similar to? With the recent talk of dream double bills, I started to think and then it hit me. Billy Liar (and the British new-wave, certainly the attitude towards women). Billy Liar, Tom Courtenay's character, is so eerily similar to Fausto Moretti (the main character along with Moraldo, who is also the narrator; I think that's right....) and some of the plot elements are strikingly similar too. I simply couldn't believe that the writer hasn't seen it. Billy Fisher is a composite of Fausto the womaniser, Moraldo the dreamer, and the playwright, yet it is with Fausto whom Billy truly shares his characteristics. Small town life is envisioned well in both, both characters have no respect for their bosses and lose/quit their jobs (although there is no great Shadrack! scene in Vitelloni). For the Italians, as with the British, railways are very important and provide a link to The City. Where Billy half-heartedly tries to go to London, Moraldo succeeds in catching his train to Somewhere.

I must add that Nino Rota's score was quite wonderful, not amazing, but better than most scores. Also, Fellini's use of Rimini, his home town, makes it more personal and he would get better and better at this as he went on, culminating in the wonderful Amarcord. None of that horrible Cinema Paradiso nonsense.

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The rest of the 27/08/08 --- Needless to say, the Leisen and the Becker are unavailable and amazingly, there remains no dvd at all of Stroheim's Greed. There was a screening on Arte of the 4 hour version; along with Napoleon, are there any more anticipated releases? Perhaps the next few years will see their belated re-release. I suppose we shouldn't hold our breath. Rashomon, of course I have seen, but I'm afraid it's narrative innovation did little for me I have to be added to the few who are immune to its wonders (is Rivette among them, or did I imagine that?).

I must stop using parenthesis so much....

Fantastic Film Posters #1

Designed by Leopoldo Metlicovitz (1868-1944)
Here is a wonderful Art Nouveau style poster for the awe-inducing epic of 1914, Cabiria.
It's available on dvd from Kino, so if you haven't seen it, get a copy and be amazed by the moving camera, and just generally sublime pre Griffith epicness of it all.

It was great when posters didn't carry slogans, quotes, and cast and crew lists. So much more effective and beautiful. It's interesting to note that the screenwriter Gabriele D'Annunzio is given top and sole billing.

The Irony of The Endeavour.

The Conundrum of Choosing What to Watch

It recently occurred to me to start using this blog again. And in doing so I've decided to use it primarily for a type of game, gimmick and play on the blog's name. I have decided to do some "parallel programming", where I watch films that have recently been screened at the Cinematheque Francaise.

I have already watched one for this endeavour, Fellini's I Vitelloni, which I shall make a post for. I also have a copy of David and Bathsheba waiting to be watched. Both of these films form part of the cycle 'Histoire Permanente du Cinema: Le Regard de Bazin' and the latter is talked about in an article in this months http://www.e-cahiersducinema.com/ (Reflections for an Interval, discussing what type of films deserve to be talked about and why).

Bazin ends the article by explaining that 'We should like readers not to expect us to provide spiritual direction, nor a catalogue of films that must be seen, but simply to offer thoughts on film events, which it then remains to them to situate in relation to the diversity of film genres and, of course, their personal tastes. Thank you in advance.'

I wonder what Bazin would think of my endeavour then? And all the people flocking to the CF to see films because of his stamp (and their greatness too, but a lot of them are now unknown).

It's especially funny that the film I should choose to watch next is David and Bathsheba, the very film the end of the article concerns itself with and a film that a priori I do not like.

Saying that, there have been a great many films that I thought I wouldn't like and that I loved when I saw them. So Bazin probably knows my taste as well as I do. And as long as I don't hold him accountable for watching a 'dud' (a la his L'Observateur readers) then I don't think he'll mind that we're using his 50-60 year old reviews to decide what films to watch.