Like Anna Karina's Sweater

Mes Vacances

Barring any catastrophes that may have occurred on the way, by the time this post appears I should be happily wandering the streets of Paris. After a few days in la Ville-lumière, I'm off to the northern tip of France, where I shall be relaxing for two weeks in the house pictured on the left. (Can't wait to try out that slide!) Should I have any wonderful cinematic encounters in Paris, I may pop in to blog about them, but then again I might not be bothered..... Don't forget that on the 26th of August, Benten Films will be releasing its fifth release, Ketucker Audley's Team Picture. The final film in Benten's mumblecore trilogy, this is a sweet simple comedy with a touch of romance by a new filmmaker destined for greatness. Check out the Benten site for more details. Jusqu'à Septembre...au revoir mes amis!

Filmbrain's Screen Capture Quiz: Round 16 - The Winners!

Whereas Canadian rocker Bryan Adams sang of the best days of his life, it was William Wyler who gave us the epic The Best Years Of Our Lives. Embarrassingly enough, I couldn't stand the film when I first saw it in college, and it's only recently that I realized just how remarkable a film it is.

That's Dana Andrews, being given over the once over twice by a couple of teens at the soda counter of the drug store where he used to work before the war -- a mom and pop operation bought out by a large chain, just one of the many changes the returning soldiers encounter in this American masterpiece.

Not counting the weeks lost, we have a four-way tie for first place. With perfect scores all around, let's give a big cheer to quiz regulars JK M, Max G, Mike F, Will P. As always, any DVD used in the round is yours for the asking. Congratulations gentlemen!

I'm off for a much-needed holiday beginning later today, and I'm not yet sure if Round 17 will begin next week or the week after. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Great Moments in Uncriticism: Time & Newsweek in the 50s & 60s

I recently learned that throughout most of the 50s and 60s (and perhaps even earlier -- I'm not sure), the film reviews in both Time and Newsweek magazines were published without attribution. I'm not exactly sure why this was the case, and I've been unable to track down the reason for the anonymity. Certainly by the 60s film criticism (and critics) had become nearly as respectable as their theater or literary counterparts. There was Bosley Crowther in the New York Times, and of course Stanley Kauffmann and Andrew Sarris, to name but a few. So why did Time and Newsweek choose to not credit their writers?

Well, perhaps it was the writing itself, which was liberally sprinkled with the kind of hyperbole we've come to associate with TV news film critics. Here are several examples, beginning with a few that make use of the most peculiar culinary metaphors, not to mention a heaping dose of self-plagiarism:

"Like a giant cauldron the screen boils with life, and Kurosawa's telescopic lenses, spooning deep, lift the depths to the surface and hurl the whole mess in the spectator's face." (Yojimbo)

"Kurosawa, while not everybody's meat, does make telling use of telescopic lenses that drill deep into a scene, suck up all the action in sight and then spew it violently into the viewer's face." (Rashomon)

"With the help of a telescopic lens it plunges the spectator like spaghetti into the boiling core of every battle -- he goes in stiff with tension and comes out limp with fatigue." (The Four Days of Naples)

I'm not quite sure if these reviews are meant to be positive or negative, but the thought of Kurosawa scalding me with whatever he's got cooking in his cauldron is extremely unpleasant.  As for the limp noodles of Nanni Loy's film....I haven't a clue.

Then there are the gruesome allusions to suicide and murder:

"Il Grido means The Cry and the cry comes from the heart. Antonioni opens the aorta of his talent and releases the cold gray mainstream of his feeling." (Il Grido)

"The Bergman who made this picture still had akvavit in his veins. Intellect, that glittering and treacherous Snow Queen, had not yet struck her icy sliver into his heart." (Night is My Future)

Poetic for sure....but is it criticism?

Saving the best for last, there's this one....the crème de la crème:

"...a Polish thriller as sharp as a knife and as smooth as water." (Knife in the Water)

Now there's a line tailor-made for a marquee! Perhaps we should start a party game -- create pullquotes for classic arthouse cinema in the style of Jeffery Lyons, Peter Travers, etc. ("Jean Luc-Godard's Weekend is a fuel-injected fracas that's on a collision course to greatness!") Maybe not....

Pullquotes for the rest of us...

For no reason other than I haven't been able to get Futura's line out of my head....

Filmbrain's Screen Capture Quiz: Round 16, Week 18

"The Desert Inn has heart..." So sang Albert Brooks during a desperate pitch to recover his lost nest egg (which wife Julie Haggerty gambled away at the roulette table) in the 1985 comic masterpiece, Lost in America. Amazingly cynical for a mainstream comedy, this final shot (in which corporate America triumphs) has special meaning to me, for my very first job in corporate hell was in this very building. That was a lifetime ago....

A quick Benten-related interlude: Some months ago, Aaron and I did a podcast with Keith Uhlich for Zoom In Online that has finally been posted. It pretty much covers the entire Benten story and our oh-so-opinionated views on the state of independent cinema, distribution, etc. You can listen to/download the podcast here.

Well, we've finally arrived at the end of this extended round of the Screen Capture Quiz, owing of course to the great computer meltdown of 2008. Thanks everyone for all the patience and understanding.

For this, the final quiz of the round: A true classic I recently revisited, and one that just keeps getting better as I get older. They love a man in a uniform, but who exactly is being objectified by the girls at the soda counter? Name the actor and the film. Submit your answers to this address. Good luck!