24frames

2006-04-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

I think the Pierre Schneider discussion is in his big Matisse, but I'll check when I get home from CA tonight and bring/send you a photocopy of those pages. And sure, I'd love to see your film mags when we get together next. Btw, needing something to read yesterday I picked up an issue of The Believer, a 10x/year journal out of SF, essays, criticism, etc. Have you heard of it?

The first of the three DVDs we watched here that I couldn't remember in my email was Remains of the Day...so worth seeing again. Anthony Hopkins's imprisonment in his concept of his butler role lingers in my mind. In wonderful real-life contrast, visited here with an artist, Sas Colby, who is so free!

Margaret

2006-04-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

I am new to Cinemascope, though I think I'll be a regular reader from now on. My first issue was their previous one, and it was quite good. I've been trying to find their latest issue, but Barnes and Noble and Kims are both out of it. I might just buy a subscription. Film Comment is quite good, as well. I'm also partial to Cineaction, a publiction out of Toronto (Robin Wood, a student of F.R. Leavis, is one of its editors). Cineaction usually has a few lenghty academic articles, as well as a few reviews, on both current and older films. I have the new issue of Cineaste, which is also very interesting: several interviews (Sidney Lumet, The Dardenne brothers, Michael Winterbottom), pieces on Bresson (kind of dissapointing) and a host of film/dvd/book reviews. I can bring a bunch of these magazines in next time we meet, if you'd like to take a look at them. (Or I can photocopy any articles that seem interesting to you.)

Where can I find the Pierre Schneider piece?

-Cullen

2006-04-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

Cullen, I read the Bordwell piece, and Barbara Tuchman's definition of "good writing" comes to mind: "clear and interesting" (I think [I'll check and edit this] from "In Search of History" Practicing History 1981). I share Bordwell's interest, and I suppose we're all getting older, in "ideas and information," and when I think about reading art history and/or criticism (two critics in my pantheon are Calvin Tomkins and Adam Gopnik--both always clear and interesting), an example of reading facts that shed light on looking at an artwork that always comes to mind is Pierre Schneider's account of Matisse's painting The Piano Lesson (1916) at MoMA . It doesn't always work this way, but information Schneider provided in his discussion changed it from a painting I felt cool toward into one I happily spend time not only looking at but also thinking about and using as an example. Bordwell's foregrounding of the importance of writing well, since I care about this, is also welcome. And his piece, too, is concise, clear, and interesting (always a relief when one is asking for same). Thanks for sharing this.

Btw, is CinemaScope a journal you regularly read and/or would recommend? Any others?

Also, my only cinemexperience of the past week is Good Night and Good Luck--is there any reason not to be wholeheartedly enthusiastic about it? I saw the first half twice, and it was as edge-of-seat fascinating both times. When the credits rolled, I noted for the first time (where have I been)that Frank Langella had played Bill Paley...I saw FL in Edward Gorey's stage production of Dracula more than twenty-five years ago in Boston, and he was compelling then, so I had to rewind and watch his scenes near the end of GN&GL again, my memories of D (the first half of which I also saw twice...the boyfriend and I had gone way over budget to get the tkts, and a blackout occurred, just a few minutes after the limit that meant the theatre didn't have to give us free tkts to another performance, so of course we went way over budget again to go back and see it all the way through) in mind. All the performances in GN&GL seemed convincing to me...and talk about foreshadowing...from the first appearance of the journalist who ended up committing suicide, I knew. When the phone rang to tell George Clooney/Fred Friendly, while he and the CBS reporters were celebrating the Senate's decision to investigate McCarthy, I knew. Is that the actor's accomplishment? The film made me want to go over to the Museum of Broadcasting and watch some footage of Edward R. Murrow. As always, also love the b&w.

Margaret

2006-04-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.cinema-scope.com/cs26/col_bordwell_backpage.htm

David Bordwell has written an attack on contemporary film criticism in the latest issue of Cinemascope. The above link will take you to an online text of his article. A compelling plea for critics to eschew cleverness and opinion for solid prose and insight. The timing is great, with Lopate's book and interview appearing within the past few weeks. I need to digest Bordwell's piece more carefully, but initially I agree with him. He thinks that both journalistic and academic critics both share the same failing: "muddy" writing, over-opinionated and too formulaic. Regrading formulas, he specifically sites film theory as having created a mechanism for bulk readings, rather than individual considerations, of movies.

A lot to consider. Bordwell also references several critics (Rivette, Bazin and Sontag) as being ideal models. I have several books by Andre Bazin, and have read several essays by Sontag, but I haven't come across Jacques Rivette's writings yet... I saw a colleciton of "Cahiers du Cinema" articles used last weekend and passed it up for some reason....strange that I can't think of WHY I wouldn't buy it, right now...

-Cullen

2006-04-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

Not sure if people were listening, but yesterday on NPR Leonard Lopate had his brother Phillip Lopate on to discuss Phillip's latest book "American Movie Critics: From The Silents Until Now," and the role of the film critic in genearl. Great comments on Kael, Crowther, and many others. You can stream the show from NPR's website. Here is the link. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5297477

My computer is officially dead, so I'm working from NYU's computer right now. Once I can get my hands on a new computer, or retrieve my headphones from the office Monday morning, I plan on revisiting this interview and taking notes. I'll be sure to post some thoughts/comments once afterwards.

--Cullen

2006-03-19T08:15:00.000-08:00

Ah, youth! A film a day... Your idea, Cullen, that "Kahn is very much the 'I' in an essay; Welles is like the personal voice that emanates from style" is quotable...I'll use it in ongoing discussions of whether or not we are allowed to say "I" in an essay. Of course, another question this comparison raises is the sort of earnestness of Nathaniel Kahn's wanting to "know" his dead father v. the, ..., hmmm, intellectual game (?) Welles is playing with truth v. fiction--maybe Kahn's purpose requires an explicit "I" but Welles's doesn't? Also, the playfulness...certainly, Vertov in Man with a Camera is the most playful of the three, but I hadn't really thought of Welles as playful at all--I think you're right. I missed the two lobsters on my first viewing, but I guess a clue to the playfulness theme is the opening scene of Welles doing magic tricks for the two children. And then there's the rollerblading scene in My Architect. Your connections are so welcome...a few more squares in our quilt. Sooooo, what fits next? Here, chez moi, we're eager to see Good Night and Good Luck, just out on DVD...of course, everyone but us has probably already seen it. What do you all think? And thanks for the Lopate tip...ten days of reading time are coming in April.
Margaret

2006-03-18T11:02:00.000-08:00

Finally--spring break, and a chance to blog a little. (I just updated my Cinema Journal, as well--hoping to write a little every day or so, which is dependent on my watching at least one movie a day, as is one of my goals.) I haven't seen Walk the Line yet.

One of the things I loved about F For Fake was how playful it seemed--along the lines of Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera. Both Welles and Vertov seem to know the constraints of movies, and they push right through them. Welles' metaphor of magic is a constant reminder that editing can create illusions, too, that what we are seeing might not have happened at all. The footage of De Hory and Irving seem in constant dialogue--yet they were filmed entirely independent of one another. But it never seemed arrogant to me, perhaps because there was a beauty to Welles' film I could forgive any immodesty. I actually laugh quite a bit at the movie, even though I've already seen it several times. Welles at the dinner table with two lobsters, the picnic scene with the dogs...even his talent gets a chuckle out of me, the way that seeing a great musician improvising his/her ass off on stage can.

The reason I chose F For Fake was because of its first-person narration, and its similarities to My Architect. Both narrators are also the directors, and there seems to be a double duty of leading the audience both on- and off-screen. Do Kahn and Welles function in a similar manner, though? For Kahn, I think you can feel the tension between him as a director and as a character within the film. There are moments that seem to really hurt him emotionally that really propel the film forward: what his film needs isn't always what he, personally, needs to know regarding his father. Kahn is very much the "I" in an essay; Welles is like the personal voice that emanates from style. (Not to say that one is necessarily "better" than the other.) Welles interacts with his characters, but on his own terms and in his own space; Kahn is never in his own space, on his own ground.

Aside from F for Fake's technical complexity (think about how many disparate elements Welles culled for this project) he seems to be digging into the meaning of film form. For what reasons do we believe a story is true? If we presume we're seeing a documentary from 5PM to 7PM on a Thursday night on The Discovery Channel, does that impact us at all? The deeper element of film genre (which Welles seems to elude like a ______ from a _______, the proper metaphor eluding myself at the moment) saves the opening/closing from being mere kitsch. So, Welles might trick a few viewers (like myself) into believing the Picasso story for a while, but it relates to a larger issue of what it means to be a spectator.

There's a lot more to say, but I'll stop here for now. Time to head to the library before my evening double feature at Anthology Film Archives--a collection of shorts by Alexander Kluge, and his film Yesterday Girl. Lopate has just released a gorgeous new collection (through the Library of America) called "American Movie Critics," an anthology of the best American film critics from Vachel Lindsay to H.D. to Pauline Kael to A.O. Scott.

--Cullen

2006-03-13T09:24:00.000-08:00

L for Late

Finally watched F for Fake last week...I guess I could wonder about the presence of Welles, his "I" voice...he is on-screen, doing magic tricks, telling us what's going on, participating in parties, sharing his essayistic discourse about truth and lies, etc., most of the 88 minutes. I found it interesting but also borderline annoying--yet another egotistical male--and then I watched Peter Bogdanovich's brief discussion of it, included in the DVD's supplementary materials, and realized if I'd watched that first, I'd have been more sympathetic to F for Fake's lack of linearity. Certainly Bogdanovich is. I also watched a bio of Welles, produced for European TV, among the DVD's supplementary materials, and not only was I uninformed about the great difficulty Welles had getting his later films finished and distributed but also, about his wise and generous personality. I especially liked his responses to questions from an audience, apparently college students or even particularly film students, articulate, funny, and on occasion even humble. So my next move would ideally have been to watch FfF again with my new-found sympathy. The library copy, however, was L for Late and they wanted it back.

Since my film watching is regrettably so limited (other than those watched for our blog, the only other I've seen is Walk the Line, just in time to be able to say I saw two of the nominated films this year, up from only one last year, for a la-di-dah Oscars party--costumes, betting pool, wine tasting), or perhaps among blogmates I should say shamefully, I can ruminate over this I-voice issue only, for the moment, in My Architect, the Dziga Vertov film, and F for Fake...in all three, the filmmaker is on-camera throughout. Nathaniel Kahn's role is to reveal his father, to discover truths about who he was, and perhaps arguably parallel is Orson Welles's role to reveal Elmyr de Hory along with larger questions about truth and lies in art (and pull one last trick on us). Kahn is at one end of the spectrum of egotism, annoyingly and improbably impassive throughout revelations about his father that nearly brought tears to my eyes; Welles is at the other end, thrilled with his clever magic tricks and spiralling expose of de Hory, sure that we want to see the process and product (we see shots of the cameras filming him, for example, and we hear his cameraman's thoughts) of his exploration. I'm not sure how Vertov fits into the spectrum--he was whimsical, deft and amusing while both Kahn and Welles were weighty with import, on-screen less, bicycling lightly through his visual symphony and making me laugh at his antics. In a way, the non-linear self-indulgence in his concept is sort of like that of Welles. I don't remember laughing at MA or FfF...

...and that's all for now--I know Cullen's seen FfF...anyone else?
Margaret

2006-03-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

Still haven't watched F for Fake--maybe tonight (overdue fines kick in tomorrow)--but spent another enjoyable evening talking about film till past midnight with Cullin at French Roast--we missed our blogmates, knowing they would only add to the fun. Cullen had recommended and loaned me Dziga Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera (1929), a Russian "silent" film, because earlier on our blog, from a web definition of essays that I'd given to my new (sprg '06) Essay Writing class, Vertov was described as "[p]erhaps the original essay filmmaker" (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Essay).

Vertov's film is a 68-minute visual urban symphony--it's so musical and so urban--but let me quote from the DVD case:

Described by Dziga Vertov ... as an "experiment in the language of pure cinema," Man with the Movie Camera is perhaps the most dazzling and sophisticated work not only of Soviet but of world silent cinema. In part it is a "city symphony," although its urban landscape is actually a film synthesis of shots taken in Moscow, Kiev, Odessa and elsewhere. In part, it is a panorama of and a manifesto on the nature of socialist society in the late 1920s. But it is especially a revelation of the possibilities of non-acted, non-fiction films: We see the cinema projectionist show the reel we are actually viewing; the "star" is the film's actual cameraman at work; the shots we see him take will reappear elsewhere as we see the film editor create emotional and intellectual moments from unrelated lengths of footage....This stunning new DVD edition .... features the potent score composed and performed [in 1996 or 1997] by the Alloy Orchestra, following music instructions written by Dziga Vertov.... (c 1996 Film Preservation Associates)

Sometimes, the play of visual rhythms reminded me of Busby Berklee's films and the sound of Gershwin's "An American in Paris," and I was never bored--it's very playful, and, I perceived, anti-Communist, but I could be wrong about that. I was also reminded of every other film in which the filmmaker metacognates--Day for Night, etc. [Here's a list I'd love to see expanded.] And seeing Vertov riding his bicycle with one hand while winding the movie camera with the other (wait a minute, that's 3 hands...???) [is that how it worked? hand-wound filming? hand-wound/bicyclist-powered everything metaphors abound...] while filming was very amusing. I'd watch it again (and the informative extra stuff), especially if I found an uninterrupted 68 minutes (or more) lying around. I never heard his name before reading it on the essay-definition website, but Cullen says his name is very well known to film buffs. See how much we have to learn?!! [c'mon, blog to learn!] I'd like to read something about him...maybe he's in my newly-purchased documentary film history books, gathering dust under last week's Times...

Margaret

2006-02-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

Cullen and all,

My copy of F for Fake awaits, inter-library-loaned, at the local library, closed yesterday for snow! Looking forward to it, especially since you've highlighted the first-person narration question, which, perhaps you remember, is a question I love considering in the context of written essays, all the more since so many of us remembering being "taught never to say 'I' in a school essay." I'm always on the lookout for places where a discussion about the forbidden "I" takes place... Also, thanks for the web resources below...can't wait to check them out.

Haven't yet watched the Vertov (sp?) DVD you loaned me last week, but the snowbound weekend (with a day at a workshop in the city on Saturday--these one-day weekends are just too short) wasn't filmless...came home at 8:15 last night, no West Wing (what happens to it? doesn't "weekly show" mean anything?), but found a fave on Turner Classics, Out of Africa, so watched it as long as my eyes stayed open, till just before Karen (Meryl Streep) and Dennis (Robert Redford) start arguing. So I went to bed able to say what a romance! Love the scene where Dennis shampoos Karen's hair. Love what she does with her voice--endlessly captivating to listen to her, some lines apparently voiceover from Dineson's book--but can't for the life of me figure out what she's simulating...is this what Danish-accented English sounds like? Because of the Danish-cartoons issue in the news, I've heard Danes on NPR all week, and they didn't sound very much like Meryl Streep does in this film. But so what...for me, it's one of the charms of the film.

Among many other aspects to enjoy, including zebras roaming on the horizon, is the thematic issue of freedom (and its satisfactions/frustrations) v. commitment (and its satisfactions/frustrations), played out in Karen's two love relationships, the way each of them and she choose to live, the wild v. her farm, the animals v. the humans, the natives v. the colonialists, early biplanes v. earthbound transport, and more. I guess it's a big-budget feature film (big stars, airplane tickets to Africa, etc.)--does anyone else sink into it and enjoy it the way we do? We also love the book, cite its first sentence ("I once had a farm in Africa") metaphorically the way we do "now hit a hundred more" from McPhee's Levels of the Game, though of course for different metaphorical purposes. A treat to end the weekend, and now tonight I should have F for Fake.

Margaret

2006-02-10T15:14:00.000-08:00

Two interesting sites I stumbled upon.

http://www.chicagomediaworks.com/2instructworks/3editing_doc/3editing_docinematicessay.html
A site devoted to "The Essay Film" with lists of "essay films," its history/roots, and theorists that explore the genre.

http://www.essayfilm.net/
Not up yet, but a site that will be dedicated to written essays on "essay films."

2006-02-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

The relationship between F For Fake and My Architect has been on my mind lately--considering their similarities and differences. What is the role that first person narration plays in both films? And how does the presence of the narrator affect the film's journey, so to speak? And how does their job as "narrator" interact with their job as "director"?

In My Architect, there are very much "personal boundaries" drawn between Kahn's two roles. Margaret pointed out the scene when a colleague of his father's reveals that Louis Kahn spent Christmas with him, instead of his own family. For Nathaniel the filmmaker, this is a pertinent fact that helps paint the portrait of Louis Kahn--but for Nathaniel the son, it must have been a shattering revelation.

Too, Nathaniel chooses which role to play in certain scenes. Consider the boat captain--Kahn reveals his identity only at the end of their discussion, and the captain falls to pieces, so emotional he gets.

More on Welles to come. Is everyone able to find the film without too much difficulty?

-Cullen

2006-01-31T21:56:00.000-08:00

Margaret and I had a wonderful dinner/movie chat tonight, though we wished everyone else had been able to make it as well--hopefully next time. One of the many topics was a possible "next film": has anyone seen Orson Welles' "F For Fake" yet? I thought it'd be a provactive choice--it's not your typical movie. It's all about the nature of forgery and authenticity, in film, writing, art and personal history. The label "documentary" has so many connotation as regards "truth" and "objectivity," and "F For Fake" certainly makes us question these concepts. So, if people are up for it, the movie is on DVD (a nice two-disc edition from the Criterion Collection) and was also on VHS at one time (from Home Vision/Janus). It should be available, I know Kim's has it, and Bobst Library has it at the Avery Fischer Media Resource Center.

Also--there is a Rainer Werner Fassbinder retrospective at IFC Center on Weekends through Februrary. I'll be there this Saturday at noon to see "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" if anyone happens to be wandering around Waverly and Sixth Ave at that time.

--Cullen

2006-01-29T14:20:00.000-08:00

While Cullen and perhaps everyone else has been out watching films, I spent a filmless week. Not one film since last Sunday night's Outfoxed...or was that two weeks ago (this must sound to some of you like not eating or sleeping for a week)? Books I ordered, though, did arrive, so now I can bemoan not to have read in addition to not to have watched...I am eager, though, to read the essay you recommended, Cullen, Phillip Lopate's "In Search of the Centaur: the Essay-Film," which I've skimmed, and its first sentences sound like exactly what I've been hoping to find:

My intention here is to define, describe, survey and celebreate a cinematic genre that barely exists.
As a cinephile and personal essayist, I have an urge to see these two interests combined through the
works of filmmakers who commit essays on celluloid. But, while there are cinematic equivalents to
practically every literary genre, filmmakers tend to shy away from the essay, and that in itself is
intriguing. (Totally Tenderly Tragically New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1998: 280)

Love the verb "commit"! A frustration is that even though end matter in the paperback tells that this essay was first published in The Threepenny Review, no date is given...even if you guys didn't know already how I feel about this, isn't this frustrating? When Lopate writes about films that might or might not be essay-films, don't we want to know if this was written in 1998 or maybe 10 or 15 years earlier? The latest film Lopate discusses is from 1990, but there's an afterward, undated but possibly written for this paperback in 1998, in which the latest film he cites is from 1993. So I am left wondering if anything has changed...after all, 1998 is eight years ago!! Blogging explosion aside, think how much has changed in eight years! So, has the number of essay-films increased? Has the term come up more? Has anyone categorized My Architect as an essay-film?

Lopate gave me an idea for a candidate for our next documentary/essay-film, Nanni Moretti's Caro Diario, which Lopate discusses on pp. 338-39 of the same book (and possibly elsewhere)--he made me want to see it.

Also, casing the local library for more things I won't have time for, I brought home Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960), which the video box matter says was "voted the second greatest film of all time in a poll of international film critics by Sight and Sound Magazine." [What was the first??] Should have brought it home on DVD if it existed--now the argument in our one-TV home of whether or not to turn the TV on at all, turn it on for this, etc. When I set up my little computer and external DVD drive w/headphones, no compromise necessary. Still, also, want to see the new Woody Allen film, around in local theatres.

Went kind of wild when ordering the Lopate book--also bought Jack C. Ellis's and Betsy A. McLane's A New History of Documentary Film (New York: Continuum, 2005) and Liz Stubb's Documentary Filmmakers Speak (New York: Allworth, 2002)...anyone know about either of these? Have barely glanced inside so far.

Hope some of you can join Cullen and me Tuesday! (see email)

Margaret

2006-01-26T08:09:00.000-08:00

Time 2 Meet Up?

Hi, blogmates,

Cullen and I thought maybe we need a dose of face time, so if you have Tuesday classes (or not), would you like to meet at ten p.m. next Tuesday, 31 Jan., at French Roast (11th St./6th Ave.) for a drink and to plan our next two films? (Btw, regarding Brokeback Mtn., did anyone hear on NPR (I think) that at a "press conference" recently, someone in the audience asked Pres. Bush if he'd seen it. His response was to end the "press conference" and leave the room. hmmm...)

In addition to Cullen's essay suggestion below, when I was getting my new essay course ready, I came across this info about essays:film on encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Essay:

FILM
Film can also be used to produce the more subjective reflective attitude characterisitic
of essays. Important essay film makers include Chris Marker, Guy Debord, Raoul Peck
and Harun Farocki. One working definition of the essay film is "documentary laced with
self-portrait." Theoretical approaches to this genre can be found in the works of Michel
Beaujour, Raymond Bellour and Roland Barthes. Other filmmakers who have been active
in the essay film are Orson Welles, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Hartmut Bitomski, Alexander
Kluge, Jem Cohen, Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Kramer. Perhaps the original essay
filmmaker was Dziga Vertov.

Perhaps I'm the only one chewing on this (for the obvious reason)...but I've only seen films by two of the names on this list (and you can guess which I'll bet). Lots to catch up on. I first thought that My Architect is a "documentary laced with self-portrait," but then how much do we really learn about Nathaniel Kahn as an adult? ... a lot, both about his childhood memories and his newly forming relationship w/his half-sisters and that with his mother of course, also some about his education at Yale, or at least that he was lucky enough to have taken Vincent Scully's history of architecture course...but somehow, he remains unknown. Maybe it's in comparison to how much more, quite logically, we learn about his father.

Blog back or email Cullen or me if you can f2f with us next Tuesday.
Margaret

2006-01-19T08:54:00.000-08:00

Cullen,

That's very helpful...I'll look up Lopate's essay. I watched My Architect again last night, as luck would have it, straight through. I was no less drawn in--maybe more so with the advantage of an uninterrupted viewing (not quite just like in the theatre...the tv was on, then the good music was blaring, then the piano-playing hour began...but I had my new $14. earphones!).

I was struck with the notion that Nathaniel Kahn is Telemachus, searching for news of his father Odysseus. My copy of The Odyssey is at home and I'm here, but in Edith Hamiton's Mythology, she writes "[Athena] was exceedingly fond of Telemachus, not only because he was her dear Odysseus' son, but because he was a sober, discreet young man, steady and prudent and dependable. She thought it would do him good to take a journey while Odysseus was sailing home, instead of perpetually watching in silent fury the outrageous behavior of the suitors. Also it would advance him in the opinion of men everywhere if the object of his journey was to seek for some news of his father. They would think him, as indeed, he was, a pious youth with the most admirable filial sentiments." Doesn't this match Nathaniel Kahn (and his "role" in MyArch) to a "t"? Well, except that he's not exactly a "youth"...I figure he was about 36 when he made it. I was perpetually intrigued at NK's facial expressions...I'm convinced he meditates. He hears the presumably painful reminders about his father with such equanimity. One of the moments I thought I would have cried is when Kahn's colleague working on the gorgeous Salk Center tells NK that Louis Kahn used to spend Christmas with the colleague and his family...how could NK not think "why didn't he spend it with my mother and me?" But this and other such moments of revelation about LK's life, kind of like Odysseus's trials on his long journey home--covering such territory, too, like Odysseus, from Philadelphia to LaJolla to Bangladesh--NK hears with a mostly impassive face. (Many times I thought he was such a great listener.) I'm trying to remember the one moment when I saw a fleeting hint of pain...maybe it's there in the magically lit, thanks to LK's genius with natural light, stairwell at the Salk Center when NK hears the detail about Christmas.

More later,

Margaret

2006-01-17T11:52:00.000-08:00

Phillip Lopate wrote a essay called "In Search of the Centaur: The Essay Film" that might be worth considering in this discussion. It is featured in his collection "Totally Tenderly Tragically." He discusses several films in the essay, including the Bunuel "Land Without Bread," Michael Moore's "Roger and Me," Alain Resnais' "Night and Fog," and numberous other movies by Welles, Marker--the list goes on. Perhaps it is worth reading the essay and choosing a film from it to watch?

"It could be said that all first-person narration tends toward the essay, in the sense that, as soon as an 'I' begins to define his or her position in and view of the world, the potential for essayistic discourse comes into play. First-person narration in film is complicated by the disjunction between the subjective voice on the sound track and the third-person, material objectivity that the camera tends to bestow on whatever it photographs, like it or not...[First-person narration also] superimposes a thoughtful perspective, looking backward on the supposed "now" of the film..." (300-301).

Lopate, Phillip. "In Search of the Centaur: The Essay Film." Totally, Tenderly, Tragically: Essays and Criticism from a Lifelong Love Affair with the Movies. New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1998. 280-311.

-Cullen

2006-01-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

Still wondering about the documentary as audio-visual essay (while preparing the new essay course)...watched MM's Bowling for Columbine last night, and, like his Fahrenheit 9/11 (and even, we might add, My Architect, with the director on screen and taking us through the story he creates though the details are confirmable fact), it's one distinct person's exploration of an idea/issue/question. The person's point-of-view is the story, or as Einstein put it, "the observer is the essence of the situation," my favorite, as you know, coup de grace on the question of the "I" in an essay. If anyone has any thoughts to share on my question of documentary as a-v essay, I'm listening. How common, btw, is it for the writer/director to be the on-screen narrator in documentaries? On my schedule for tonight are the documentaries Spellbound and re-viewing My Architect. I bought headphones, so now I can sit on the liv.rm. couch, watching a dvd on my little tablet notebook w/earphones while Peter watches football on the tv. Sweet!
Enjoy the snow (we have about 5"),
Margaret

2006-01-13T02:30:00.000-08:00

Cullen,
Only a bit of time now to make connections, but thanks for bringing up the title Brokeback Mtn. I kept looking for its contour when it was on screen, to see if it looked like a broken back (whatever that looks like). But it also metaphorically describes Ennis and Jack, their "backs" having been broken by their fears and society's prejudice, and even literally their living broke, or at least this is true throughout for Ennis though Jack later benefits from Lureen's dad's prosperity. It's kind of Dickensian as a name. The contrast and escape magic of the mountain v. every other aspect of their revealed lives is central...leaves me wondering about the vastness of the mountain. Despite it, Ennis and Jack are laid low by small-mindedness. They don't trust it enough to stay there, to find a way to make a life there permanently. What does this suggest about human nature? Born to suffer, hence the recurring need for escape?

Btw, how would I get that Bunuel film? I wonder still about pt-of-vw...how does Ang Lee reveal his? What's he known for?

More later about the many interesting ideas you posted, Cullen--thanks!
Margaret

2006-01-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

Re: Fri. 30 Dec./Margaret: Is searching for/being stymied by/hiding one's identity a thematic link between BbkMtn & MyArch? Is MyArch's 1st-person narration inevitable for a documentary? (Am I remembering accurately, or is this term used for feature films, that BbkMtn seems to be "told" by an omniscient narrator...hmmm, no, that doesn't make sense for drama, does it. It's "told" audio-visually via action in space and time....)

To me, the difference between the narrators is that Nathaniel Kahn comes out from behind the camera and makes himself as much a "character" as a "director"; Ang Lee, while he is telling the story, never enters into it as a character. So there is a difference between how a "narrator" tells a story, and how a "director" tells it--but can both be happening simoultaneously? Or must it be one or the other? An interesting film to throw into this sub-topic is Luis Bunuel's "Land Without Bread." In it, he is able to have a narrator that exhibits one point of view, but Bunuel the director is able to counter it and project his own viewpoint. He accomplihes it through images and montage, by having the visual element of the film clash so highly with the audio that the movie takes on an ironic, cynical air that is not present in either the sountrack or the images alone.

I would agree about the thematic link between MA and BM being about identity. One of Kahn's partners fled to Maine when she was having her baby, not unlike Ennis and Jack's retreat to Brokeback Mountain. To what degree are Nate Kahn and Ang Lee revealing identity with their films? Certainly this seems to be at the forefront of Kahn's film--rediscovering his lost family--but what about BM? Was their relationship hidden, or was it a "known secret" as Ennis presumed? What about that end scene when he visits Jack's parents? it seemed to be that they knew about his and Jack's relationship, or at least inferred as much.

2006-01-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

Some more thoughts...
Escape is a large part of the Western genre, and parallels can be drawn between Brokeback Mountain as a location, and Ennis and Jack's dilemma, and the Western tradition. The Cinematic West exists either as an unsettled, law-less territory, or as a dying landscape, on the verge of being tamed by law and order. Its inhabitants are feeling their past, looking for a new start on life: ex-gunslingers (Shane, Johnny Guitar) or homesteaders (Shane, Bend of the River). Westerns are about rebuilding, starting over again--and the landscape is an important part of this. Planting new roots finds a literal metaphor in nature: living in a more pure nature becomes a way of rediscovering one's self. Too, if these characters are fleeing from a modern society, unsatisfied with it as they are, then they should flee all signs of modernism and (sub)urbanism. Their new life--landscape and all--should be unfettered by all that has corrupted their former life: it is as though they reject an entire history. That is why lawlessness is important to the Western: it allows people to start again. The crook will inhabit any society, but without an omnipresent law (encompassing a society's morals and ethics) anybody can begin to live a little freer. Jack and Ennis, dissatisfied with their conventional homes and duties, are able to find temporary solace on Brokeback Mountain.

-Cullen

2006-01-12T08:41:00.000-08:00

So much about BM was wonderful--the photography, especially, stood out in my mind. I could hardly recognize Heath Ledger--he seemed more like Chris Cooper. He (both his acting and the make-up crew) did a great job of aging himself throughout the movie, sort of like Welles in Kane.

I, for one, considered BM to be a Western (I'm also a fan of Westerns, I should add), so I thought I'd make my first posting be about BM and the Western genre.

***
Westerns, more than other genre pictures, seem to be in conversation with one another. Perhaps it is because of its consistent/insistence on environment and location: the desert, the woods, and the prairie are all common Western locations. Even the title of the film (and the story) "Brokeback Mountain" calls attention to location. So, what does the mountain mean to the story, and what does setting mean to Westerns in general, or can we not generalize something about this?

I see some sort of relationship between the mountain and their jobs. Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) bucks broncos and rides in rodeos, while Ennis (Heath Ledger) has this cowboy, herder status. Both men's jobs are about controlling nature, conquering animals, yet they retreat to this unbridled nature--Brokeback Mountain--where they too can become unbridled.

What did everyone else think?

-Cullen

2006-01-12T08:12:00.000-08:00

Questions posed in our posts so far (I hope I haven't missed any--if so, please post them) in most-to-least recent order (maybe the opposite would make more sense?):

Sat.7 Jan./Cullen: Any Bergman fans? What is everyone else watching?
Tue.3 Jan./Margaret: Definition of "point-of-view shooting"?
Mon.2 Jan./Margaret: How did you like/has anyone learned any interesting details about BbkMtn &/or MyArch? What's Ang Lee known for? Have I correctly picked up that none of his films is like any of his others? Is Fra Angelico a 15th c. cineaste? In MyArch do we have point-of-view shooting or rather point-of-view-everything since Nathaniel Kahn is an on-screen 1st-person narrator? Is there point-of-view shooting in BbkMtn? Is documentary film equivalent to an audio-visual essay? What's the classic definition of documentary film?
Fri. 30 Dec./Margaret: Is searching for/being stymied by/hiding one's identity a thematic link between BbkMtn & MyArch? Is MyArch's 1st-person narration inevitable for a documentary? (Am I remembering accurately, or is this term used for feature films, that BbkMtn seems to be "told" by an omniscient narrator...hmmm, no, that doesn't make sense for drama, does it. It's "told" audio-visually via action in space and time....)

My notion, I guess, is that maybe some discussion-building lurks within? Hope to hear from anyone with answers and/or more questions or other discussion,
Margaret

2006-01-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

Finally back in the city--so much to catch up on. Finishing the Hitchcock retro this week at Film Forum (excited for the Young and Innocent/Downhill double feature Monday night...two movies for the price of one!). A recent Italian film, Best of Youth, has re-opened at Cinema Village...lots of praise for the film, I'll be catching it for sure. And, of course, the Fassbinder retro at IFC. This weekend it is Merchant of Four Seasons, a personal favorite, so I'll be there. (Alexis, Pickpocket is also playing at IFC this week). And, somewhere in between all this, I'll find time for Brokeback and M.A.

Anybody know of any other great screenings this week?

-Cullen

2006-01-08T11:38:00.000-08:00

Hey, blogmates,
How did you like My Architect and Brokeback Mountain? Has anyone learned any interesting details along the way about either? One new question that's occurred to me is what is Ang Lee known for?--I think this is the first of his films I've seen, and have I correctly picked up that none of his films is remotely similar to the others? I think amongst our blogs so far is a small collection of questions. Maybe I'll go through them and make a list.

Read Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain" tonight. The film is as identical to her story as I can imagine film being. No brown paper bag, though, so I suppose that synecdoche is Ang Lee's. Somewhere I read that her reaction to the film was something like amazed...can't google my way back to that comment.

Hope to hear from you all. Cullen, your filmgoing is amazing, too. I spent Saturday at the Met, seeing for the second time the Fra Angelico show. I guess he was like a 15th c. cineaste. It ends the 29th...don't miss it!
Margaret

2006-01-03T15:19:00.000-08:00

Cullen, I've watched my share of Bergman films...grateful to have seen them, maybe not eager, considering all the unseen films I want to watch, to see them again now...but you are a wonder of new ideas. Want to throw into the discussion this from a hot-off-the-press film review in the new NYer (where else?), David Denby reviewing Match Point, near the end of which he writes "Filmmakers understand the laws of narrative all too well: an audience, properly hooked by point-of-view shooting, will root for a bank robber or a murderer to get away with what he's doing" (9 Jan. 2006: 92). I was struck by the expression "point-of-view shooting"--is that Denby's invention? In My Architect, do we have point-of-view shooting or point-of-view everything? Is there point-of-view shooting in BbkMtn? Guess I'm looking for a definition?
Margaret

2006-01-02T12:01:00.000-08:00

Any Ingmar Bergman fans? I've been re-watching many of his movies this break--Hour of the Wolf, Winter Light, Through a Glass Darkly. Also, I saw for the first time The Serpent's Egg, which had (oddly enough) David Carridine. It took a little while, but he was quite good in it.

Long list of other movies I'm watching--too many? That's not for me to say.

Oscar Micheaux movies on TCM this morning (6 AM....I was up for them): Within Our Gates, Symbol of the Unconquered, Body and Soul (Paul Robeson's first film) and Swing. I'm going to try to get more down on these later. Micheaux was an early independent filmmaker starting in the 1920s. He financed some of his early works by selling his novels door to door. They had very poor distribution in their days, and sadly most of his movies are lost.

What is everyone else watching?

-Cullen

2006-01-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

Hi, all,

As if I don't have 37 more undone items on my vacation to-do list, I got curious to find Annie Proulx's short story of "Brokeback Mountain" (or whatever the story title is), and found, on her website (www.annieproulx.com), a link to an interview in The Missouri Review as well as some thoughts on her story and the film on her FAQs. Also discovered a book is out, containing it seems the short story and articles by the two screenwriters (Peter said he saw it at Borders for $11).

NPR did a review of My Architect by Neda Ulaby "The DVD Room" (11 Mar. 2005) and an interview with Nathanial Kahn on "Fresh Air" (20 Fe. 2004) which can be listened to ( a transcript only for purchase, under $15 but I didn't go far enough to find out more), both on www.npr.org.

Unrelated, watched Outfoxed last night (catching up on my long list of recent documentaries I never saw). I have to say, I nearly wept that such a convincing case could be made--before the 2004 election--about why never to listen to anything Fox News Channel broadcasts as "fact" yet not prevent Bush from "winning" (nothing will convince me Ohio and maybe also New Mexico or other states weren't stolen). I'm also thinking along with these viewing experiences that documentaries are audiovisual essays (if my definition of an essay is an exploration of the writer's[/documentarian's] thinking about a specific issue/question/dilemma)--anyone have any thoughts about that? Is there a classic definition of a documentary?
Happy New Year to all you blogmates,
Margaret

2005-12-30T08:13:00.000-08:00

Saw Brokeback Mountain last night, and felt afterwards something like I described feeling after an Antonioni film...not ready to re-enter my world, except that BMtn left me feeling sad, and I didn't want to stay there if I had a choice. Have some thoughts, but only random...for example, the opening scene reminded me of something Toni Morrison (I'm pretty sure--finding this quote would take some digging unless someone else among us recognizes it) said about the first sentence of a novel--it should encompass the whole book. I felt BMtn's opening scene did that, and though I don't want to spoil anything for those of us who haven't seen it yet (after all, it's not even January), noticed the synecdoche of Ennis's brown paper bag. I'm wondering if we might want to pose some questions, and then get started around responding to those? This is a new way of learning, so I'm sort of thinking out loud. This may sound phony, but searching for/being stymied by/hiding identity is a parallel I see between our first two films, so I'm wondering if we'd find something to chew on there? In My Architect, Nathaniel Kahn is the explorer/first-person narrator while in BMtn, maybe inevitably in a feature film, an omniscient narrator structure seems to be how we experience the story. Is this inevitable? I'm trying to think of ffs with, say, a first-person narrator. Anyway, now you believe me, I'll bet, about random...

(Btw, I'm not sure I've solved, Alexis, my posting v. responding dilemma, but maybe I signed in to our blog initially as fiorewtr though my other blog on bloglines is mfiore247, so now I don't know how to get rid of fiorewtr so I can see both my bloglines blogs with less clicking around...?)

more later, Margaret

2005-12-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

Here are some other interesting film-related links.
http://www.filmref.com/
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/ (This site goes through and reviews multiple DVDs of films from all across the globe, region 1, 2, 3--etc. You know how some movies have 5 different DVDs out at stores? This site likes to compare them. It's kind of addicting...)

-Cullen

2005-12-21T13:39:00.000-08:00

also, if anyone wants to suggest links that they think everyone would enjoy/benefit from, post or let me know and i will add it to our list of links to the right of the page.

2005-12-21T13:09:00.000-08:00

looking forward to margaret's suggested film, MY ARCHITECT, as the first in our series of film discussions. seeing as we will be off on holiday, i figure anyone can log in and post things they've seen while away and then a rotating schedule can be put into effect starting the 8th of january. each member would post the film of the week which we would then subsequently discuss. i nominate colin to choose our second film, seeing as i am sure he'll be actively viewing and is likely our most knowledgeable filmophile. brittany, i know you're dying to pick the third one that you'd then post on the 16th. cynthia, do you want to do the 23rd and i will take the 30th? then we'd be back to you margaret, for feb. 6. just an idea. if anyone has other suggestions, toss 'em out there by all means. also, i told a friend about this online discussion and he loved the idea. would you mind if he joined the group? hope all is well! happy holidays:)

2005-12-21T11:45:00.000-08:00

For some inexplicable reason, blogger has assigned us 24frrames.com, with two r's. i'm perturbed, but if no one else is, then we'll keep it. otherwise, if anyone has a better idea, we can change it to something else.

2005-12-21T11:29:00.000-08:00

Alexis, brilliantly done! How are things across the atrium?