Like Anna Karina's Sweater

Tartan Films, RIP

It was at this year's European Film Market in Berlin (a wonderful source for industry gossip) that I first learned of the troubles brewing over at Tartan Films. Jane Giles, head of acquisitions, and Sam Dunn, of the home entertainment division had both recently left Tartan for senior positions at the British Film Institute (BFI), whose DVD division had grown somewhat stagnant of late. On top of that, I heard that the home office in the UK was siphoning off most of the Tartan USA's revenue, making it extremely difficult for them to maintain operations. Lo and behold, several months later Tartan USA joined the growing list of North American indie distributors to shut their doors this year. While that didn't come as much of a surprise, news of Tartan UK's sudden folding arrived without warning on late Friday afternoon. Some reports claim that employees showed up to work on Thursday to find the doors locked shut. Tartan hasn't released an official statement, but that hasn't stopped rampant speculation in the blogosphere. Many feel it has to do with Tartan head Hamish McAlpine's losses from the US remake of Funny Games, which he co-produced. Some feel the company paid too much attention to their Asia Extreme line, while not doing enough to promote their arthouse titles, while others blame the state of UK cinemas, which are increasingly favoring mainstream-indie fare over niche titles.  Regardless, the demise of Tartan is certainly a big blow to an already problem-riddled industry. I've always been a big fan of Tartan, and a quick perusal of their releases over the last 20+ years reads like a who's-who of international cinema. Their DVD line included some of the first English-friendly Bergman releases, as well as Liv Ullmann's Faithless, and a handful of Bigas Luna and Truffaut titles, to name but a few. I was disappointed that their American DVD line was almost exclusively limited to their Asian titles, but I guess they knew where the money was. I never much cared for the all-inclusive "Asia Extreme" moniker they gave the series, for it did little to help the average (read: non-fanboy) buyer/renter locate the quality films (from Takashi Miike, Park Chan-wook, Andrew Lau/Alan Mak, etc.) from the many cheap, derivative horror titles they pumped out (Phone, Cello, Infection). Tartan head Hamish McAlpine liked to push people's buttons, referring to his company's releases as "cultural hand grenades", which explains acquisitions of controversial titles from Carlos Reygadas, Catherine Breillat, Gaspar Noé, and Ulrich Seidl. (Hamish was meant to release Ken Park in the UK, but a now-infamous nose-breaking dust-up with director Larry Clark over 9/11 and Israel put an end to that.) Recent acquisitions have included less-controversial festival favorites Silent Light, Paranoid Park, and a small handful of titles that Benten Films would have loved to release. (And still would, for that matter. Hamish, call me.) What is the fate of these films, I wonder? A visit to their website reveals just how sudden this decision was -- the site opens with a pop-up of employment opportunities at Tartan. The question now is who, if anybody, will take their place? Is there another company willing to take similar chances, or are UK film-goers about to find themselves with a dearth of edgy, international fare?

Filmbrain's Screen Capture Quiz: Round 16, Week 12

It appears that Donald Sutherland's hinder is a once-seen-never-forgotten object, for there were an overwhelming number of correct submissions to last week's quiz. That's a pre-Indiana Jones Karen Allen (in her screen debut) sizing up her literature professor in John Landis' 1978 classic, Animal House. 

It's been a positively awful past few days, what with the great hard drive meltdown of 2008 and all. I've been working my way through the Kubler-Ross stages, and I'm just about to enter acceptance. It's amazing how much critical information one can accumulate (and lose) in a relatively short period of time. Sigh.

Among the losses were a good bulk of the quiz entries for this round. Specifically, weeks 5 through 10 have snuffed it, and I'm at a loss as to what to do. My plan for the moment is to extend this round by another 6 weeks and then take the top three scores. However, I'll open the floor up to any and all suggestions -- if there's critical consensus for an alternative, I'll follow the will of the people.

This week: Too depressed to actually think, I blindly reached into my collection and withdrew this. Amazing to think that this film was once considered daring and edgy. Today you can almost recreate this film via an unguided journey through the YouTubes. Name the film. Submit your answers to this address. Good luck!

Technology 1, Filmbrain 0

Without even the slightest hint that it was ill, or even depressed, the hard drive on the most important computer in my world has gone and shuffled off this mortal coil. The nearly two-month old backup I have (somewhere) will be helpful, somewhat, but everything since then has gone to the great gigs in the sky. Sigh. Recovery efforts have proven futile thus far, though I'm considering shamanic intervention.

Unfinished posts, screen capture quiz entries, unanswered emails...it's too depressing to think about. I was going to have a post up today on this year's New York Asian Film Festival, but that too has been reduced to a scramble of ones and zeros. Simple summary until I manage to recreate the post: drop everything you're doing and be sure to see Johnnie To's Sparrows and Koji Wakamatsu's United Red Army.

Now excuse me while I go put on Nick Cave's The Firstborn is Dead and simply stare into the middle distance. . .

Filmbrain's Screen Capture Quiz: Round 16, Week 11

That's Lord of the Ring Ringo Starr's gardener trimming the grass carpet with a pair of chattering teeth in last week quiz, which of course comes from Richard Lester's overly silly but wonderful Help. While perhaps not as anarchic or groundbreaking as A Hard Day's Night, it is a bit funnier, with at least a half-hearted attempt at a storyline, thin as it is. This was one of those movies that was a staple on Channel 9 (WWOR) back in the 70s, and though I'd seen it about 20 times, it wasn't until I saw it on the big screen (in Tokyo of all places) that it really worked its magic on me.

A quick digression before this week's quiz, to be filed under: 91 minutes I'll never get back. Though it's been justifiably flogged to death everywhere else, I just wanted to toss out this brief description of The Happening in lieu of an actual review, for writing one would probably take longer than M. Night did on the screenplay: A misanthropic thriller that advises us to stay far away from each other, uses mood rings and Cabbage Patch Dolls as it's pop-culture hooks, and includes lines such as "You know, hot dogs get a bad rap" and the oh-so-R-rated expletive, "Cheese and crackers!" That's all you really need to know.

This week: one for the ladies! An actor you've most likely seen from both sides now, so that butt shouldn't be terribly unfamiliar. Name the film. Submit your answers to this address. Good luck!

Mamoulian and Montage: City Streets

As a fan of Rouben Mamoulian's films (someone once referred to me as an apologist), I was obviously thrilled to finally get my hands on a DVD of his second film, City Streets. Released in 1931, this pre-code gangster/romance flick was penned by Dashiell Hammett (his debut as a screenwriter), and shot by cinematographer Lee Garmes, best known at for his work with von Sternberg. Fairly gritty for its time (there are nearly a dozen murders in the film), and apparently a favorite of Al Capone's, its lack of dramatic depth is more than compensated in its creative, groundbreaking confluence of sound and image.

With a wafer-thin plot centered around the beer rackets, the film tells of Nan (Sylvia Sydney at her loveliest), daughter of racketeer Pop Cooley (Guy Kibbee), and her relationship with carnival sharp-shooter The Kid (Gary Cooper), who unfortunately gets caught up in the underworld owing to pressure from Nan. Double crosses galore, tough guys constantly reaching into the jackets for the guns, and a climax that includes a car chasing a speeding train (it will be horse the following year in Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight), the film will never be remembered as a genre masterpiece. However, it seems this is by design, with Mamoulian far more interested in exploring the medium (with its then-new sound capabilities) than he is the narrative arc.

Though a former stage director, Mamoulian shows little of his theatrical roots in his early films, all of which contain nods to films and filmmakers that preceded him. A shot of a prison with birds flying overhead recalls a similar shot during the execution scene in Dreyer's La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, and his use of pictorially expressive devices (porcelain cats, a match being snuffed out) is reminiscent of early Hitchcock. Mamoulian's continual shifts from realism to symbolic imagery have led some to all but dismiss him as a filmmaker. (Dwight Macdonald argued that his films are "marked with a vulgarity which is continually straining for effect, which cannot express a simple thing simply.") I've read that there are a few firsts in the film, including the use of subjective voiceover and an all-diegetic music soundtrack. (In one scene, music heard as a car is driving down the street suddenly stops as soon as the car parks. Did they even have car radios back in '31?)

Yet most impressive about City Streets is its use of montage, in the classic Eisenstein/Pudovkin mode. (Macdonald claims the film was used as a model in Russia, though I've not read that anywhere else.) Even more striking than the city-awakening montage that opens Love me Tonight is the first four minutes of City Streets, which, save for the gangster figures, could have come from a Soviet production. Though I'm far from being fully versed on 30s Hollywood cinema, I can't think of another American film that so calls to mind the masterpieces of the early Russian cinema.

Follow the jump to see images from the film.

The film opens on a close-up of wheels barreling down a street, followed by a medium shot of a line of trucks. A quick dissolve to a glass of beer reveals the trucks' contents, which is followed by a dissolve to a beer manufacturing plant. A group of racketeers are standing over a giant vat; cash taken from a hat with monogrammed initials changes hands. A slow zoom on the foamy beer in the vat dissolves to a rapidly flowing river, where we see the same hat go floating by -- the first of the film's many murders.

Equally impressive is the sequence that introduces us to The Kid (one of the best I've seen in ages.) Two scenes bridged by an interesting transitional device -- Pop sees Nan sitting in a coffee shop after a crime has been committed. He signals her with a wink, she responds in kind. Nan jumps into a cab; fade to black. Fade in on an extreme close-up of Nan, this time with her left eye closed. The camera pulls back to reveal she's aiming a gun -- it's a carnival shooting gallery. A reverse wide shot shows The Kid in the distance. Cut to a close-up of a white hat, the wearer of which turns to reveal himself with a look of surprise that quickly turns into a smile that is 200% charm.

As far as I know, there's no legitimate DVD release of City Streets, which is a shame, as it's a wonderful bridge between his first, Applause, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Filmbrain's Screen Capture Quiz: Round 16, Week 10

As Hotspur noted in a comment, last week's screen capture, from Kevin Smith's Clerks, is truly a wonderful snapshot of the era -- the final throes of VHS, when we still went to video stores to rent bad movies (Class Act, Deep Cover, for example) in sub-picture-quality pan-and-scan. Those were the days. . . Many of you asked about the alt-text clue. "Come on Eileen" or rather "Cum on Eileen" is one of the titles that Randal requests when placing an order from his distributor. Brilliant. A few quick notes: Filmmaker, blogger, and all-around great guy Michael Tully conducted an interview with Will (Bonnie "Prince" Billy) Oldham for Benten Films, and the two discuss not only The Guatemalan Handshake, but Will's thoughts on other films, including the one starring Billy Crystal that made him cry like a baby. I kid you not. Check out the entire interview here. In other Michael Tully-related news, he's organizing at outing this Friday night to see Manoj Night's latest, The Happening, which he thinks might be a contender for inclusion in the Avant-Retarde canon. (Ask Michael, he'll be happy to explain.) If you're in the NYC area, and would like to attend, it will be the 10:30PM show, this Friday (the thirteenth!) at AMC Empire 25 on 42nd St. This week: I really thought I used this film before, but combing through the archives, it appears I haven't. Another easy one, I think. Submit your answers to this address. Good luck!

Filmbrain's Screen Capture Quiz: Round 16, Week 9

Judging by the submissions, it appears that many of you made tremendous, time consuming efforts to figure out the source of last week's quiz. The "box office poison" line led many to assume it was either Ms. Hepburn or Ms. Crawford, but in fact it's none other than Kay Francis (or, if you prefer, Kay Fwances) in Lubitsch's better-than-brilliant Trouble In Paradise, one of the best romantic-comedies of the pre-code era. As for the Bert & Ernie in Paris hint, that would be a nod to star Herbert Marshall and director Ernst Lubsitch. Yeah, yeah...I know. Congrats to the few of you who were able to correctly identify the film -- well done! Preparations for Benten's upcoming 6/24 release of The Free Will (Der Freie Wille), our first foray into foreign fare have been taking up all my time in the past week, leaving scant moments left for blogging. Hopefully things will settle down later in the week, and I'll find the time to finish at least one of the four or five unfinished posts I've been working on. This week: After last week's head scratcher, I'll toss out an easy one. Ahh...the glory days of VHS. Seems like a lifetime ago. In what film will you find an enthusiastic young man about to sully his soul with Navy Seals? Submit your answers to this address. Good luck!