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Cinema First Watch

First Watch Club June 2018

I watched a bunch of theatrical releases and rewatched a number of 2017 offerings this June. As a result my First Watch Club June feels a little light in the loafers, but make no mistake — these are four films worth your time.

My daughters being home from school cuts into a ton of personal movie watching time. Plus they don’t go to sleep until the sun goes down. What madness is this? You’re 6 and 9. GO TO BED. I need to move further east in this time zone where the sun goes down at 5pm.

Alas, they’re a lot of fun and I don’t really mind. I just need them to get a little older so they can watch all these movies with me or at least choose to ignore me. I’m leaving one of my first-time watches off this list because it’s a Cinema Shame and I’ll be writing up a more lengthy report on that one in due time.

4. The In Crowd (Mark Rosenthal, 1988)

The In Crowd 1988Joe Pantoliano plays a 1960’s TV teen dance party emcee. That should at least pique your interest in this obscure gem directed by the screenwriter of The Legend of Billie Jean, Superman IV and Star Trek VI. The film remains, perhaps unjustly, Mark Rosenthal’s only directorial credit.

The In Crowd is an earnest and entertaining film about teenage love and optimism at the dawn of the rock and roll era. That it was never released on DVD probably has to do with its soundtrack, which features dozens of 1960’s chart-toppers that might have caused licensing trouble for home video release.

Promising high schooler Del (Donovan Leitch) dreams of appearing as a dancer on “Perry Parker’s Dance Party.” Despite being mocked by his friends and stepsister (sexual tension between these two, by the way) for even considering such a thing, he sneaks on set and into a show recording. He turns out to be a skilled dancer and slips in as the partner of dream girl Vicky (played by Daisy Runyon, she of the “Couple of wavy lines” scene in Ghostbusters). The two become romantically entangled while her Fonzie-like former boyfriend and dancer (Dugan) looms over their courtship.

At a crossroads in the film, Del’s friend Popeye clarifies a choice bit of subtext. “Dancing or fighting. What’s the difference, right?” This leads us to the scene that best represents the film’s tone. The angry Dugan confronts Del in his home. The film had been leading us toward certain fisticuffs, but instead of bloody knuckles the two teenagers engage in a righteous and unexpected living room dance battle. In many ways it’s a double slice of nostalgia. Though the film lusts over the rock and roll 60’s, it’s a fully realized 80’s film in terms of form and fun. Some might quibble over the lack of closure, but that would have undermined The In Crowd’s message that even if the show ends, the rock and roll goes on.

Here’s the opening sequence to this unfortunately unavailable teen dramedy.

 

3. Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915)

les vampires 1915Clocking in at a total of 400 minutes, Louis Feuillade’s second silent serial masterpiece has run in fits and spurts throughout the month, and while I’m just wrapping up the final few episodes I’ll sneak into this June countdown.

I find it overall slightly less impressive as an achievement in silent cinema than Feuillade’s Fantômas, which blew my mind. So it’s all relative.

Les Vampires is a fast-paced and highly entertaining serial that oozes atmosphere and influenced dozens of subsequent films in both style and substance. Part of the joy is recognizing the source of certain references throughout the history of more recent cinema. Most importantly, I finally fully understand Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep.

Les Vampires is available on beautiful Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. 

2. He Walked By Night (Alfred L. Werker, Anthony Mann, 1948)

he walked by night 1948Soggy, narrative-driven police procedural turns into a gripping thriller, inspires Jack Webb to make the Dragnet TV series. Two scenes set this film apart — the chase through the LA storm drains and a cringeworthy, bowel-clutching segment where Richard Basehart digs a bullet out of his side. It’s all silence, and squishy noises and Basehard grimaces. It’s visceral and unforgettable cinema.

The film’s overbearing silence (there’s largely no score) contributes to the tension as does the steady and stoic camera that makes a study of the face and psychology of a murderer. If you didn’t know John Alton’s name before this film, you certainly learned a thing or two about light and shadow. A clinic in cinematography.

Classic Flix released a wonderful restoration of the public domain film last year. You won’t regret paying a few extra bucks to see the film without the mud slapped all over your screen.

1. Five Corners (Tony Bill, 1987)

Five Corners 1987John Patrick Shanley’s screenwriting debut focuses on the lives of teens coming of age in the Bronx during the 1960’s. John Turturro plays an unhinged youth who was sent to prison for trying to rape Jodie Foster. Tim Robbins plays the born-again revolutionary who clubbed him with a lamp to prevent the rape.

Directed by Tony Bill (My Bodyguard, Crazy People), Five Corners dwells on the time and place and imagery. Shanley’s script sounds like a play — which makes perfect sense as he was an accomplished playwright before trying his hand at screenwriting. As a result some of the dialogue feels stage-y and artificial. If you’re watching this for verisimilitude, you won’t find it — unless you’re looking at the details.

I found the artificiality provided a greater clarity of message as the movie unfolds in vignettes aimed at nostalgia and breaking down Boomer nostalgia, in ways not entirely dissimilar to The Big Chill. Instead of looking back, however, Five Corners depicts that era in the moment as filtered through the memory of John Patrick Shanley, one of our most vibrant contemporary voices. Shanley would go on to win an Academy Award for Moonstruck and write and direct Joe Versus the Volcano before largely abandoning Hollywood for the stage.

Image released a nice Five Corners Blu-ray in 2011 that has apparently gone out of print. You can still find this disc in the wild and the lackluster DVD is still widely available. 

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Cinema First Watch

First Watch Club: May 2018

I don’t normally talk about theatrical releases in this space, but I feel forced to mention that I saw Solo: A Star Wars Story twice in the theater. In a fair world, it would totally have a spot on this list. I’m already calling it violently underappreciated and if you want to have some actual fun in the movie theater in 2018, you should go. You don’t have to be a Star Wars fan. In fact, if you don’t have any preconceptions about what this movie is *supposed* to be, you might even enjoy it even more. Ehrenreich and Glover give referential performances, but they each inject much of their own personality, and I’m excited to see how their frenemance blossoms in the planned future Solo films.

In the absence of Solo, what you will notice about my May 2018 First Watch list is that it features three musicals. Spoiler alert: the next Cinema Shame podcast will feature a conversation with Jessica Pickens about classic Hollywood musicals. I watched a lot of musicals last month. It just so happened that three of them made the list alongside another future Cinema Shame podcast spoiler.

First-Watch Cinema Club: May 2018

#5. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954)

seven brides for seven brothersKnowingly(?) cringe-y sexual politics scattered throughout a colorful, imaginative 19th century wife-grabbing musical romcom. Elaborate dance choreography and inventive depth of staging make this a memorable classic Cinemascope musical. Still — hard not to question how the movie played the lady stealing with such a straight face.

Jane Powell carves her own slice of female empowerment in a movie about “just needing a man.” It’s a wonderful performance. I also can’t stress enough how this wouldn’t normally be my cup of tea, but there’s something totally charming about the relationship between Keel’s woodsman and Powell’s love-struck cook.

This movie proved to me that Stanley Donen really was a wizard. Now’s the perfect time to pick this one up for a first time viewing since Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was just released on a Warner Archive Blu-ray and it’s a wide margin better than the DVD.

#4. Footlight Parade (Lloyd Bacon, 1933)

footlight paradeBusby Berkeley out the wazoo. Elaborate, mass kaleidoscopic choreography scattered throughout a passable showbiz tale that provides the venue for Jimmy Cagney to do some hoofing in a not-so-vaguely racist grand finale.

I oversimplify.

The end of this film is a 40-minute four-course feast for the eyes and ears. Joan Blondell and Cagney needed 200 movies together. They’re positively combustive on the same screen. Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee round out the impressive cast.

I dare you to watch this and not feel conflicted about having “Shanghai Lil” being stuck in your head for three days.

Footlight Parade is available on a 4-movie Busby Berkeley TCM DVD Collection. 

#3. Fantomas (Louis Feuillade, 1913-1914)

fantomasRather than treat the Fantomas films as separate entries, I’ll tackle them all individually, but as one continuous serial, as it was intended.

Fantomas I: In the Shadow of the Guillotine

Stoic, early silent narrative camera can’t quite keep up with Feuillade’s ideal pacing and style. It’s something akin to the silent film equivalent of the cart before the horse. The narrative techniques have yet to develop the necessary language to match Feuillade’s ambition.

Solid opening Fantomas entry suggests room to grow as Feuillade pushes the language of narrative film in interesting ways. Excellent introduction and establishment of Fantomas as a legendary evil mastermind.

Fantomas II: Juve Against Fantomas

Fantomas #2 gives us a far stronger inspector/nemesis relationship by foregrounding Inspector Juve rather than Fantomas’ machinations. More engaging start to finish with a better cinematic pace. Narrative polish that feels way ahead of its time for 1913. Feuillade’s made huge strides between these first two episodes.

Fantomas III: The Dead Man Who Killed

This one gets dark. Fantomas wears skin gloves made from a dead man to leave false fingerprints and truly becomes the twisted evil worthy of a serial detective story. Feuillade weaves multiple narratives and establishes a larger Fantomas network of villainy. Plus a twist ending. Top notch serialized silent entertainment.

Fantomas IV: Fantomas Against Fantomas

In the realm of the image, this fourth Fantomas left a potent legacy. The bloodstained wall where Fantomas entombed one of his victims must have left scars on unsuspecting 1914 viewers. Very Edgar Allan Poe. Dual pit traps abruptly ends the episode with a haunting final message.

Ultimately falls short of the narrative admiration earned in Part III, but still incredibly advanced and layered. Feuillade has proven himself influential in nearly every genre that would form during these early days of cinema. He is horror, suspense, spy and police procedural. They all owe something to Fantomas.

Fantomas V: The False Magistrate

I don’t even know what to think about early silent cinema anymore. I once believed that the pre-1920’s era consisted largely of whimsical vignettes and static-shot mugging as filmmakers worked on ironing out the techniques that would guide narrative cinema through the 1920’s.

It’s generally not too difficult to keep up with a silent film what with our brains already trained to navigate rapid editing and layered narrative. The nature of the production itself — the title cards and deliberate miming — gives the viewer ample time to process the on-screen events. Don’t get me wrong, I adore great silent cinema, but misdirection was rarely a strength. The False Magistrate weaves such a complex tale of crossing and double-crossing and red herrings that I had to rewatch multiple segments because I couldn’t believe what Feuillade accomplished in a film from 1914. (For the record, some of them didn’t quite add up… specifically as the motivations of our heroes are concerned.) Still, I’ve never seen anything like it from this era.

Some of the Fantomas V becomes bogged down in text and letter reading — and much of that became necessary to detail Fantomas’ complex web of lies and intrigue with a number of segments missing from the print. Ultimately that makes this film hard to rate as a standalone entry. I’ll tell you one thing though — you’ve never seen anything like what Feuillade does to the man stuck in the bell tower.

The final confrontation doesn’t disappoint, and the aftermath is a solid kick in teeth, re-establishing Fantomas as the greatest criminal mastermind of all time. Essential viewing for film fans interested in the roots of all narrative filmmaking.

Fantomas is available on a Kino Lorber Blu-ray. 

#2. Broadway Melody 1940 (Norman Taurog, 1940)

Astaire’s good, you know, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Eleanor Powell. I didn’t miss Ginger when the two of them appeared on-screen together. She seems to bring more elegance out Fred, whereas Ginger harnesses some playfulness.

My first exposure to Eleanor Powell, somehow. I discussed how she mesmerized me in the Cinema Shame podcast, but maybe it bears repeating. She’s a revelation and I wish the Astaire/Powell coupling had born more fruits, but Broadway Melody of 1940 offers a tantalizing morsel of what could have been a long and fruitful partnership. Though the two of them might have danced the other into the ground due to their perfectionist natures.

Broadway Melody of 1940 appears on Warner Archive DVD.

#1. Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)

As a huge fan of Jean-Pierre Melville’s French crime films and Jules Dassin’s Night and the City, it’s inconceivable that I’d not bothered to watch Rififi until Kerry Fristoe (@echidnabot)  swapped me some Cinema Shame during the May prompt.

Dassin escaped his Hollywood blacklist by traveling to France to make films where sane individuals didn’t care about such things as attending meetings related to communist activity in the 1930s. Rififi serves as a potent response to the unfortunate hand he’d been dealt. The film’s grim, disillusioned tone feels angry, perhaps even fatalist. What it does so well, however, is establish characters of both likable and unlikeable qualities and eventually depict individual revelations of their true selves. Charm and charisma turn into cowardice and malice. A face-value cretin becomes the film’s lone representation of altruism.

The legendary 32-minute silent heist scene has the power to change cinematic frames of reference. There’s a reason that Rififi has been billed as the greatest bank heist in cinema history. Dassin’s girtty city noir lived up to the hype.

Rififi is available on Criterion Blu-ray and DVD.

 

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Cinema First Watch

First Watch Club: April 2018

I’m behind schedule. Ideally this post drops the first week of the new month. The TCM Film Festival happened, and I had to write some features to put food on the table. And if I’m being honest I still have some of that writing to do but I’m avoiding it so I’m on here writing posts for free.  You know how it goes.

Speaking of TCMFF, this month’s First Watch Club will not include ANY films I viewed for the first time at the festival. (I already covered them here.) Instead, these five picks are going to come straight from the garden variety home viewings from April of 2018. The benefit here is that you’ll get another edition of First Watch Club in only a couple of weeks. Huzzah!

First-Watch Cinema Club: April 2018

#5. Remote Control (Jeff Lieberman, 1988)

remote controlIf you’re a child of the video store-era, Remote Control will carry extra resonance. This is Lieberman’s indie-film commentary on 1950’s sci-fi by way of 1980’s kitsch. Intriguing Videodrome/TerrorVision ideas tossed about without a lot of cohesion.

Kevin Dillon’s an interesting actor but I’ve always found him best as part of an ensemble.  Deborah Goodrich might be the best thing going for for the film — which is generally true for just about any film in which Deborah Goodrich appears. Jennifer Tilly gets offed in the first 15, which is a mistake. Obviously. Because if you cast a Tilly — any Tilly — you need to keep that Tilly around for the duration.

Nostalgia for 1988 rental shops will ferry this into the hearts of a specific generation, but others might be nonplussed. Of course, I belong to this particular generation so Remote Control scratched a whole bunch of those 80’s itches.

Remote Control is available on Blu-ray directly from Jeff Lieberman.

#4. The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950)

asphalt jungleThere are certain films, based on the time they were made and the nature of the narrative, in which our anti-heroes cannot and will not survive. We know this from the beginning based on extratextual information. Yet, still we cling to the hope that just this once our good-natured bad guy (Sterling Hayden in this instance) gets away, undermining the system, shaking the oppressive “bad guys must be punished” production code stipulation to the core.

Soderbergh feels Asphalt Jungle in his loins when he directs a heist movie. It feels as if the film has infiltrated and transformed his DNA. He recognizes how much the audience wants that catharsis, despite the good-people-doing-bad-things conflict of interest, and because of the era in which he directs, he’s allowed to make that movie. Huston must punish his evildoers in the name of righteousness. So it goes.

I can love Asphalt Jungle and I can still wish for hope.

The Asphalt Jungle is available on Criterion Blu-ray. 

#3. The Black Pirate (Albert Parker, 1926)

black pirateFairbanks doing what he does best.

The most impressive part about The Black Pirate is that these pirates are true, merciless big screen monsters. The brutality is always just off-screen, but the aftermath leaves no doubt as to what just occurred. This sets the film apart from most of these early swashbucklers, hell, really any swashbuckler.

Take the following scene for example: a captured privateer swallows a ring to keep it from the pirate captain — the captain has his musclebound heavy “fetch” it by slicing the man open. The heavy returns covered in 2-strip Technicolor red and cleaning his knife.

I’m coming around to this notion that this Fairbanks fellow was a true entertainer. I’m just a century behind the curve. After also recently viewing The Mark of Zorro (1920) for the first time, the big Fairbanks picture is finally falling into place.

The Black Pirate was released on a now out of print (and crazy expensive) Kino Blu-ray but can still be purchased on Kino DVD. 

#2. Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939)

Haunting melodrama, supernatural romance — Wuthering Heights turned out to be much more accessible and entertaining than the novel that I can’t seem to finish.

Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon make you feel their pain in your bones. The house becomes an omniscient third party to their labored relationship. The set design and cinematography set the mood, everything else falls into place around it. Olivier’s furrowed brow and Oberon’s eyes.

Thanks to Kristen Lopez for adding this to my original Cinema Shame list. Without her recommendation I likely never would have made the effort — I mean have you read (or tried to read) the book?

Wuthering Heights is available in HD on Amazon Prime Video. 

#1. California Typewriter (Doug Nichol, 2016)

california typewriter

Passion-filled documentary about the contemporary place of the typewriter and the struggle to keep the dream alive. This film resonated all over this typewriter believer.

I don’t often love a documentary. I’m fairly entertained and solidly informed. California Typewriter, however, moved me as a document to disappearing technology that has been deemed outmoded. I firmly believe that our lives would be richer if we still used typewriters on a daily basis.

I use a typewriter to compose first drafts of articles and stories for the same reasons that Tom Hanks, Sam Shepherd, and David McCullough discuss in this film. Shortly before viewing this film, I learned that all three of my known typewriter repairmen in Pittsburgh had retired within the past two years.

You don’t have to be a typewriter nut to appreciate the message in this film. You just need to be a human that’s lived long enough to see how Digital Age technology has shaped our lives, for better and for worse.

California Typewriter is available on Blu-ray and DVD.