A Few of My Favorite Things at Orphans 8 Symposium

Dan Streible, the mastermind behind the bi-annual Orphans Symposium, describes the event as the meeting point for archivists and scholars. As I continue to straddle the line between NYU's Cinema Studies and Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) programs, Orphans is a perfect fit for me. The past four days have been a whirlwind of activity and film screenings, networking and hobnobbing with people from around the world, all with the common interest of researching and preserving orphan films.

The entire schedule was a great collage of films and panels, but these are my top 15 programs and films of the symposium, in order of their appearance of the schedule.

1. Ad Films for Theaters, Television, and the Web
Wall-to-wall advertising weirdness, from Germany to the good ol' US of A. Annette Groschke of the Deutsche Kinematek presented a series of mod commercials for Afri-Cola conceptualized and directed by Charles Wilp. Mustachioed musclemen, lusty nuns, groovy horny chicks (including a young Donna Summer, around the time she recorded "Black Power" for Peter Thomas), and an odd prog music soundtrack, these commercials must be seen to be believed.


Leenke Ripmeester of the EYE Film Institute in the Netherlands introduced the audience to the original Dollywood Studios, a producer of animation overseen by Joop Geesink. In addition to theatrical short features, Dollywood was employed by many European companies in the creation of animated commercials. In this video (in Dutch), we see Leenke at work and examples of the Geesink films she is working hard to restore.


A/V Geeks luminary Skip Elsheimer and Moving Image co-editor Devin Orgeron did a tag-team presentation on the history of Post's Sugar Crisp ad campaigns, from the three bears to the singular Sugar Bear. We see Sugar Bear go from harassing poor Granny Goodwitch to throwing Archies and Jackson 5 parties for sugar-fueled children. This is one of my favorites.




2. Operator (1969, Nell Cox)
Words almost can't express how much I love this film. Director Cox took the stage to discuss how she made her first film, an AT&T recruitment tool coinciding with an operator's strike, with a cinematographer working for free and a theme song by the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, approved by the phone company because they were a Juilliard-based group. The song later turned up on their album "Faithful Friends...and Flattering Foes", under the title 'Nel Cox'. Rather than go into great detail about the film, I advise you see it for yourself.



3. The films of Lillian Schwartz (Pixillation, 1970; UFOs, 1971; Olympiad, 1971; Enigma, 1972; Papillons, 1973)
NYU's Walter Forsberg has been the champion of the computer animated films of Lillian Schwartz for some time, and getting a chance to see her films projected in a theater, in 3-D no less, was a rare treat. Even more exciting was seeing Schwartz appear for a Q&A after the films, discussing how she tapped many upcoming electronic composers for her soundtracks and the process of creating in Bell Labs in the 1970s. On her official YouTube channel, you can see more of her films, including this one, which was scheduled but not screened.



4. The Florestine Collection (2011, Helen Hill and Paul Gailiunas)
An emotional cap to the Helen Hill Awards program, Helen Hill's final film, the one she was working on at the time of her unfortunate passing, was completed by husband Paul Gailiunas. The title refers to a cache of dresses Hill found in the garbage, the remains of a collection of clothes made by an elderly New Orleans woman. This is a beautiful love letter to the charm and creativity of Hill, who left us too soon. A small sample of what an incredible woman Hill was can be seen in this interview video.


5. A People's Convention (1948, Union Films)

Previously considered lost, this is one of the greatest finds presented at Orphans 8. It was programmed with two other very rare theatrical campaign films for Truman and Dewey (The Truman Story and The Dewey Story, respectively), but A People's Convention was the clear winner of the trio. It details a rallying cry by the Progressive Party, as state delegates and supporters of the new party and its candidate, Henry Wallace, arrive for a rousing convention. The aura of hope and excitement surrounding a change in the political landscape of the United States is potent, and this is a bona fide treasure.

6. Children Limited (1951, Children's Benevolent League)
Another film believed lost, Dan Streible undertook the search for this film after being contacted by a gentleman working for the Arc of Washington, formerly the Children's Benevolent League, the organization that produced this educational film. It is rather old-fashioned in its approach to mentally challenged children, but remains a fascinating and rare example of an educational film approaching this topic. Another film on the same subject, "Tuesday's Child", remains MIA. Keep your eyes peeled, orphanistas. An additional note: the legendary Rick Prelinger must be commended for unearthing the original Kodachrome of this film. The color restoration is stunning, and made up for the fact that a 20-minute edit of the 30-minute film was shown. The frame grabs below are not even close to the quality of the projected film.

7. The World is Ours (1938, MPPDA)
Classic Hollywood fans will eat up this marvelous campaign film, if it is made more widely available. In 1938, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) devised a marketing scheme proclaiming 1938 as "the motion pictures' greatest year". Catherine Jurca of CalTech book-ended the screening of the film with detailed discussion of the concept and why it was widely considered a failure. That said, this is a honey of a curio. An "all-American family", with Charley Grapewin as Grandpa and Anne Shirley (a 1937 Oscar nominee) as the daughter, treks to Hollywood, where they visit all the major and several minor (Monogram, anyone?) studio lots to see what incredible movies they have in store for 1938. Frankly, none of them hold a candle to the films that would be released in 1939, the year most historians regard as the true greatest year in motion picture history, but it provides for enticing clips of your favorite movie stars from the studio years. And because I can't get enough of her, a gratuitous photo of Anne Shirley.

8. The Motherhood Archives of Irene Lusztig
UC Santa Cruz's Irene Lusztig has quite the archive, one I would love to see more of. She has collected many films intended for expectant mothers, and screened two specifically dealing with lamaze. Did you know the popular childbirth technique was developed by the Soviets? One of the films was an imported Russian film, with dubbed English, quite surprising considering it was produced during the Cold War. Lusztig surely has a book or DVD in her with these marvelous films, and I look forward to hopefully seeing more of them.


9. Community Youth Filmmaking
Split over two days, this was probably the highlight of the entire symposium for me. Jay Schwartz, with an impeccably researched presentation, introduced The Jungle (1967), a gritty docudrama entirely produced by the 12th & Oxford street gang, a group of black male teenagers living in the most dangerous part of Philadelphia offered a chance to tell their story by producer Harold Haskins. These kids did everything: write the script, handle the camera, record the sound, act and block their own rough fight scenes, even record a doo wop soundtrack (the rhythmic theme of the film, pounded out on the bottom of a garbage can, is hauntingly effective). Schwartz shared the story of the mighty rise and devastating fall of the gang's film company as they took the film world by storm for a brief, shining moment before a shocking murder, in-fighting, and drugs dissolved the union. Added to the National Registry in 2009, The Jungle is a must-see, and is thankfully available on YouTube, though it isn't quite the same without a theatrical setting and Schwartz's fascinating presentation.







Elena Rossi-Snook, whom I proclaimed the winner of the Best-Dressed Orphanista Award, presented two films from perhaps the greatest overlooked collection of orphan films in New York City, the NYPL's Young Filmmaker's Foundation Collection. The subject of a retrospective at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2005, the collection is available to be screened for visiting researchers as part of the NYPL Reserve Film and Video Collection. New York City teenagers, from 1964 through 1977 (after which the YFF focused on adult filmmakers), were given the opportunity to tell stories with a 16mm camera, often shooting guerrilla-style in the streets of some of the city's most rundown neighborhoods. The two films screened, 1967's The Flop and 1971's Aspirations, are the products of two wildly different types of filmmaker. The first was directed by a Hispanic male teenager, telling the tragic story of a young boy falling in with the wrong crowd, namely a drug dealer and his henchmen; the second was directed by a white teenage girl, using pop records and clever editing choices to peek inside the mind of a teenage girl intrigued by the ideas of sex and adult womanhood. Both are minor masterpieces of DIY filmmaking, and if they are indicative of the general quality of the collection, this is a tremendous untapped resource that would make for a super book and/or DVD subject.

10. Race and Rebellion
Venturing from the east coast to the west coast, Orphans 8 trekked to Los Angeles, where race is the subject for two films with almost directly oppositional politics. UCLA's Mark Quigley introduced us to Rolf Forsberg, a practically forgotten director responsible for what look to be some of the boldest and most ambitious classroom discussion films ever made. You can see one of them, Ark (1970), on YouTube in poor quality, and Stalked (1968) is available on the Internet Archive, but the majority of his work is impossible to see. Quigley screened One Friday (1973), a race war message movie starring his own infant son as a young white child venturing alone into a world seemingly devastated by whites and blacks fighting to the death. The finale of the film, a double-surprise, proves problematic in discussions of racial roles in contemporary society, problems that seem properly answered in the presentation of UCLA's Allyson Nadia Field and Northwestern's Jacqueline Stewart. Field and Stewart sent my heart soaring as they discussed their work on the L.A. Rebellion Project, aiming at preserving the films of the oft-forgotten social cinema movement centered around graduates of UCLA's film program. The film they screened, 1977's Daydream Therapy, is a rarity from political activist Bernard Nicolas, using his camera as a weapon (as Haile Gerima did before him with Bush Mama, one of many L.A. Rebellion classics). He even features his leading lady roaming a back alley in anger, first with a camera, then a cut to reveal her with a gun, creating a mirror between the two in revolutionary artistry. Therapy challenges the image of black women as maids, allowing a particularly put-upon black woman to daydream of her employer's demise before she strongly marches forward to take control of her gender, her race, her social role. One of the best pieces of news of the Symposium: a L.A. Rebellion series is coming to NYC soon!

Camera as weapon in DAYDREAM THERAPY (1977)

11. Archivo Memoria: National Memory Reconsidered
All of the films on this program were salvaged and preserved in national archives in Mexico, the Czech Republic, and Ireland. Audrey Young, representing Mexico's Cineteca Nacional, introduced the program with Cine Movil (1976), an incredible short film documenting the journey of a traveling "movie mobile" throughout Mexico. Imagine a book mobile with movies and you have the Cine Movil. Two projectionists travel in a motor home and screen 16mm prints in rural areas without a local theater. Every movie lover will love this piece, the sole survivor of the horrific 1982 fire that devastated the Cineteca. University of Minnesota's Alice Lovejoy presented three unique films produced by the Czechoslovak Army Film Studio (Crooked Mirror, 1956, a comic Army "fashion show" intended to demonstrate proper dress and attire; Metrum, 1967, an unusual and gripping look at the Moscow subway system; and Opportunity, 1956, a cautionary tale of a soldier abandoning his wife for a night in the bed of a harlot). The great surprise was Michal Bregant of the Czech National Film Archive introducing Opportunity's director, Vojtech Jasny, who regaled the audience with stories of working as a director under Soviet rule. Time restrictions shortened Sunniva O'Flynn's sampling of films from the Irish Film Archive, but the most moving and interesting was certainly 1950's King of the Tribes, an amateur home movie account of a Traveller family unveiling a deceased relative's tombstone, purchased after years of labor.

12. Progressive Education and Labor Advocacy: A Lee Dick Retrospective
The closing presentation of this program by Adrianne Finelli revealed the tragic fates of filmmaking couple Sheldon and Lee Dick, and their films are interesting, diverse projects that reveal little of the mental problem Sheldon in particular would succumb to. The earlier of the two screened films, School: A Film About Progressive Education (1939), is an intriguing look into the typical (albeit scripted) day in the life of students at Hessian Hills School in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. The students make their own furniture, do manual work on the grounds, run their own store, and find time for classes in-between, addressing their teacher by an informal nickname. It's not the Little Rascals, but it's pretty interesting to see an unorthodox school system like this in place as early as 1939. Men and Dust (1940) is essentially a protest film, outraged at the treatment of miners in the Tri-State mining communities of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. It predates Harlan County USA (1976) and isn't as successful as that film, but it is a rousing, angry, bitter short subject that deserves to be unearthed for a wider audience.

13. Human Growth (1948, Sy Wexler)
Everyone loves a good sex education short subject, and this one, produced by psychologist Lester Beck, is a doozy. Elizabeth Peterson of University of Oregon provided biographical background of this unusual fellow in a presentation with Orphans 8's best title: "You Are Getting Sleepy/Hungry/Horny...The Life and Times of Lester Beck, Filmmaking Psychologist". Ms. Peterson, please publish a book with this title. University of Oregon has made this gem available on their video archive website.

http://media.uoregon.edu/channel/2012/04/03/human-growth-1947/


14. Poison Grain (Bill Birch)
This short news piece, photographed by American news cameraman extraordinaire Bill Birch and featuring commentator John Chancellor, is gripping and moving, as it follows the narrative of an unfortunate mercury poisoning devastating a family in New Mexico.


15. Behavior Modification and Lite
The closing program was a mix of enjoyable odds and ends, only mildly disturbed by the bulb in the 16mm projector at the venue not working. Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel's Studies of Apparent Behavior (1943), an animated film shown to undergraduates at Smith College to gauge their responses to two triangles and a sphere engaged in what seems to be a violent domestic dispute, was also re-imagined in four remakes, one on 16mm and three digital. Nico de Klerk introduced The Hands of a Stranger (1966), a moving little film produced by the United States Information Agency, an organization whose films were not permitted to be screened in the U.S., so this was a rare treat indeed. An American doctor operates on a little Vietnamese boy with a cleft palate. It's troubling that the film was likely used to justify American presence in Vietnam during the war, but it's still a heart string tugger to see the little boy happy after surgery. Soon-retiring Martha Harsanyi of Indiana University (where they apparently have an impressive film archive) introduced the most perplexing educational film success story ever heard, the cult classic Chucky Lou: Story of a Woodchuck (1948), a cheaply produced little movie about a woodchuck captured, put in a cage, and domesticated into enjoying being put in a dress. There's more to it, barely, but that's the gist of this incredible artifact. Proceed directly to this link to see the majesty of Chucky Lou:

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vss/view.do?videoId=VAC2488

Marsha Orgeron introduced a rarity from the Samuel Fuller home movie collection, How to Light a Cigar, shot in Belgium in 1945 and starring himself and his Army buddies in a series of skits; Andrew Lampert of Anthology Film Archives presented an off the wall video of a pledge drive by the film group, one of many similar videos in their archive (and hopefully soon to be made available on a projected streaming video site); the esteemed Stephen Parr of Oddball Film blew my mind with Sun Healing the Ultra-Violet Way with Life Lite (1934), a bizarre promotional film for a product that resembles a mini tanning bed geared to give your skin much needed UV rays. The accompanying musical score was just as deliciously weird as the film itself. The symposium closed with a Chinese documentary, transferred from the sole remaining film element in the world which resides at USC MIRC, Light Cavalry Girl (1980), an engaging little piece about a gang of lady bikers who perform stunts for the camera. Beautifully shot and edited, this was a great curtain closer for Orphans 8.

Till next year, orphanistas!

Canadian Front 2012: SUNFLOWER HOUR (2011)

After sitting through Sunflower Hour, the debut feature from Aaron Houston, it might be safe to say that it's about time for filmmakers, both commercial and independent, to retire the mockumentary. Traced back to Albert Brooks' Real Life (1979) and the many films of Christopher Guest, who transformed the style into an art form, pop culture has officially overdosed on shaky-cam, zoom-happy comic confessionals to a probing fake documentary crew. While popular TV sitcoms like "Modern Family", "The Office", and "Parks and Recreation" continue to flourish in the format, big-screen comedies seem stuck in mockumentary auto-pilot, which is the chief problem of many with Houston's film.

The premise of Sunflower Hour is simple enough: a popular Canadian children's TV show, produced by a former porno mogul, is seeking a new puppeteer and a camera crew is hired to document the contest. The four finalists are made up of a closet case (Patrick Gilmore, with a permanent grin on his face) attempting to appeal to his conservative preacher father, a goth high school girl who has adopted the pseudonym Satan's Spawn (Kacey Rohl in an effective performance), an Irish loser with an unhealthy attachment to the leprechaun puppet that never leaves his hand (Ben Cotton), and a genuinely talented geek (Amitai Marmorstein) tortured by his older brothers for his less-than-hip hobby. Comic gold? Not really. One of the benefits of the mockumentary style is bringing the audience closer to the characters on-screen, as we learn about their private lives and develop attachments to them. This doesn't happen in Sunflower Hour. The film is practically bereft of likable, original characters, which wouldn't be such a hindrance if they just weren't that funny, either.

This isn't to say that Sunflower Hour isn't without its bright moments, often found in the casting. Rohl is quite good, even playing such a predictable character, and Johannah Newmarch is appropriately dry as the jaded double-penetration video star now charged with the task of recruiting a new puppeteer. Amitai Marmorstein tries really hard, and shows some promise. The most memorable element of the film, for me, is the use of plentiful KPM library music, an effective cost-cutting move; the TV show's theme song is Johnny Pearson's "Pop March", most familiar from the Russ Meyer films Cherry, Harry & Raquel (1969) and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Thankfully the soundtrack was a pleasant distraction from the predictable shenanigans. A mere handful of outrageously hilarious moments, the best of which occurs during Gilmore's homophobic audition piece, doesn't make the entire feature worth your time.

"You're a goddamn Young American Miss" - Michael Ritchie's SMILE (1975)

Anthology Film Archives, coinciding with their "Written by John Sayles" series, asked the veteran writer-director to select four films he felt were sterling examples of the art of screenwriting. Two Martin Ritt films (1967's Hombre and 1979's Norma Rae) were paired with two by the ever-underrated Michael Ritchie. Ritchie's The Candidate (1972) won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, but his follow-up, Smile (1975), sank like a stone at the box office and has attracted little attention since. Seeing the film on Anthology's schedule sent my heart soaring, hoping an audience of appreciative viewers would be eager to discover this buried American treasure. Sadly, the theater seats were mostly empty tonight, as I imagine they were in 1975. Released the same year as Nashville, Jaws, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it's not surprising a film like Smile was glossed over at the time. But it's a tragedy that one of the greatest American films of the 1970s continues to be one that so few people have seen.


The plot synopsis of Smile might be considered simplistic. Ritchie's film takes place over a week in Santa Rosa, California, where a group of teenage girls come together to compete for the title of Young American Miss. Nestled in a straight-forward comic script about a small-town beauty pageant is an inspired commentary on social performance and the importance of ritual in American society of the 1970s, illustrated through the various teenage contestants, as well as the adults and children whose lives are touched and, in some cases, consumed by the pageant.

Pulling the strings behind the event is Brenda DiCarlo (Barbara Feldon, 'Agent 99' on Get Smart), an organization dynamo whose motto is "Keep smiling!" Her dedication to the pageant's unchallenged success distracts her from coming home to face her crumbling marriage to Andy (Nicholas Pryor), a trophy business owner who is growing increasingly disenchanted with the superficial happiness of suburbia. Andy's best friend is "Big Bob" Freelander (Bruce Dern, in one of his finest performances), Santa Rosa's celebrity used car salesman and chief judge of the pageant. His son, "Little Bob" Freelander (The Poseidon Adventure's Eric Shea), is an enterprising capitalist, realizing the business potential of the pageant and recruiting his two buddies to build a nude contestant Polaroid empire in the middle school yard. Enlisted to teach the girls to sing and dance is professional choreographer Tommy French (the late real-life choreographer Michael Kidd), who goes head-to-head over budget concerns with Jaycees adviser Wilson Shears (Geoffrey Lewis).

The Young American Miss contestants (theatrical lobby card)

The Young American Miss contestants are a fascinating bunch of ladies, best described by their talents. The opening scene introduces us to Connie (Colleen Camp, the year after her starring role in The Swinging Cheerleaders), whose talent is packing a suitcase. An astute sitcom writer recycled this joke in an episode of Parks and Recreation recently. Dizzy Shirley (Denise Nickerson, 'Violet Beauregard' in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) sings a seasonal medley; Maria (Maria O'Brien) is the ambitious Mexican-American who makes endless guacamole dip to butter up the judges and who has a flaming baton act to die for; Judy (Kate Sarchet) does Lily Tomlin and 'Edith Bunker' impersonations; among the many musical acts, Helga (Caroline Williams, later of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) plays the French horn; we never see Karen (Melanie Griffith)'s talents, but the fact that the actress went on to bigger and better things helps her stand out. Let's not forget the accordion player, the Shakespearean actress, and the Tiki dancer, either. But the moral center of the line-up is Robin (Joan Prather), a naive but perceptive girl from a one-parent household who functions as the eyes of the audience, her reactions to the falsities of pageant politics echoing our amusement and disbelief. Her roommate, Doria (Annette O'Toole), is the yin to her yang, a grizzled beauty pageant veteran at 17 who knows all the tricks of the trade and takes it upon herself to educate Robin in "the way things work."

It's a little too pat to say Smile is a satire of beauty pageants, as cult classic Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), which borrows heavily from Ritchie's film, is. While the pageant makes up the meat of the narrative, the concepts of public performance and social ritual are at the core of screenwriter Jerry Belson's near-perfect script. Post-Watergate films in the 1970s began to play with the idea of dismantling and questioning roles and institutions in the American social scheme. Everyone in Smile is playing a role. Brenda "keeps smiling" in public to hide her shame at being married to an alcoholic, the contestants put Vaseline on their teeth to keep their facade of smiling teenage beauty and perfection intact, and the men in town are all members of a social group, the Bears. Challengers to "the way things work" or "should be" are viewed with suspicion or dismay. When the Polaroid scheme of "Little Bob" & Co. is discovered, his father's solution to the problem is to send the young boy to a psychiatrist, his adolescent interest in the opposite sex an indicator of perversion in need of suburban suppression. During the judges' interview of the contestants, Robin has to be coaxed by Bob to properly answer the questions as the judges wish, focusing on helping others and the greater good over personal gratification. Town drunk Andy is, in fact, wise to the ridiculousness of participating in the group rituals of the Bears, namely a coming-of-age ceremony wherein 35-year-old men-children are made to kiss the ass of a dead chicken.

Bruce Dern as "Big Bob" Freelander (theatrical lobby card)

Performances in the film are all-around superb, but special attention should be paid to Bruce Dern, Joan Prather, and Annette O'Toole. Their characters are the most central in Belson's social commentary, and all three performers give some of the strongest work of their careers. As the most recognizable face in the cast, Dern is amusingly cast against type as the used car dealer approaching his job as chief pageant judge with deep seriousness. We sympathize with Dern's Bob, his good nature winning us over as it wins over his customers and the people of Santa Rosa. The key moment in his relationship with best friend Andy is when he visits him in jail, after the drunk takes a shot at his wife with a pistol. After spouting "Up with People" rhetoric from the Young American Miss brochure to Andy in an attempt to cheer him up, Andy calls Bob on his bullshit. He finally sums up Bob in one simple phrase: "You're a goddamn Young American Miss!" Bob is stunned into virtual silence for the remainder of the film. The mirror has been put in front of him and he finally sees the inherent phoniness in being "Big Bob" Freelander, used car salesman, doting husband in a loveless marriage, active member of the Bears. None of it means anything, much like the pageant ultimately means nothing to its eventual winner's existence. After the pageant is over, Bob attempts to engage other ritual participants, the color guards removing the flags from the auditorium, and they ignore him in favor of discussing one of the teen girls' impressive bosoms.

Robin (Joan Prather) during the judges' interview

Playing Robin as a complex girl learning the ropes and not sure she's enjoying the lessons, Prather is an impressive ingenue who, surprisingly, went on to very little of note outside of a recurring gig on Eight is Enough. She's reportedly the person who introduced John Travolta to Scientology after the two met on the set of the enjoyable Devil's Rain (1975). Robin is, at face value, a naive newcomer to the pageant world, as we the audience are, but she makes increasingly wise observations as her character progresses. When Doria makes the argument that "boys get scholarships for making a lot of touchdowns, why shouldn't a girl get one for being cute and charming", Robin quizzically ponders, "Yeah but...maybe boys shouldn't be getting money for making touchdowns..." And then there's Doria. O'Toole seems to be having a ball with this character. She dumbs herself down when talking with the dirty old men ogling her at luncheons and regales Robin with a rather heartbreaking tale of winning Miss Teen Complexion, a contest given in a hotel room by a horny pedophile dermatologist. Doria does reveal how bright she really is during her performance piece in the talent portion of the contest. While Robin is learning how ridiculous the politics of pageantry truly are, Doria comprehends this concept all too well. The sexual appeal of pageants is winked at by some of the men in the film, and wholeheartedly embraced by Little Bob, but Doria's performance is essentially a strategically patriotic strip tease. It is a brilliant move on the character's part because it appeals to the men in the audience who wants to see her disrobe while also appealing to the women who want a beautiful girl to acknowledge the importance of inner beauty.



There are so many wonderful scenes in Smile, but one is a particular favorite, the aforementioned judges' interview scene. Seated in a semi-circle, the judges essentially cross-examine each girl with a line of questions ranging from "Why do you enjoy your talent?" to "What would you like to be when you grow up?" A montage of the contestants answering the questions reveals they all have one thing in common: they apparently all want to help people. When Robin takes the hot seat, she does not adapt well to the aura of the room. Ritchie places Prather in shadow, not to paint her in a sinister fashion, but to make her practically unknowable to the judges. Her answers puzzle them. When asked "Did you find it hard to work and also go to school?", her simple answer is, "Of course." Bob softly guides her through prodding and gentle words to finally giving them what they want. An expert at playing the role of who people want him to be, he is the best teacher to help Robin adopt the Young American Miss character she seems uncertain she wants to inhabit.

Ritchie injects some brilliant little moments into the pageant brouhaha. Cutaways to little girls imitating the "Ol' Bamboo" routine and old women oohing and aahing over the girls on-stage create a lineage of women, from childhood to the golden years, participating in the ritualized spectacle. After the winners are announced and the curtains close, the camera lingers on the previous Young American Miss California, tears staining her face, as she stands forgotten back-stage, surrounded but ignored by the excited new champions and their well-wishers. Robin sees the "has-been", as former winners are called throughout the film, and it dawns on her that the ritual is over and the lessons she learned from the experience are more valuable than how to answer questions correctly and how to impress the men around her in hopes of winning money and prizes. She is reborn as tomorrow's woman, embracing her mother, who has raised her alone, and leaving Doria with a trophy in her arms and a wistful look on her face. It's moments like this that make Ritchie and Belson's collaboration so special. Nat "King" Cole's "Smile", book-ending the film with its lyrical request to "Smile, though your heart is aching, smile even though it's breaking," is an ode to the ritualistic nature of American life, the subject of such beautiful pointed satire in not only one of the best features of 1975, but of the entire damn decade.



Go to 18:00 in this Barbara Feldon interview to hear her memories of making Smile with Michael Ritchie.

Harlan County USA @ BAM 10/20/11

I chose a screening of a film very personal to me for my first trek to Brooklyn Academy of Music (or BAM as it's known by everyone). BAM Rose Cinemas (30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn) celebrated the 35th anniversary of HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A., one of the best American documentaries ever made, by inviting its director Barbara Kopple for an introduction and Q&A. Though I found it frustrating to find my way to and from the Atlantic Ave-Pacific Ave subway station to the venue, it was a warm and comfortable theater worth the trek over the river.

My history with HARLAN COUNTY is an interesting one. Trusty Netflix recommended it to me based on my previous rentals and love of other documentaries, and believe it or not, I had never heard of this film before. It arrived in the mail and blew me away. New York film student Barbara Kopple picked up a camera and drove with two film-making friends to eastern Kentucky to make a film about the coal mine strikes in Harlan County, where miners and their families were demanding a union contract to ensure safer working conditions and better health care and housing options. Without one bit of narration, Kopple constructs an engrossing narrative not only of this particular struggle, but of the tragic history of the union over the better half of the 20th century. She finds a rousing heroine in Lois Scott, the loud-mouthed leader of the striking miners' wives (seen above pulling a gun out of her bra), and could not have asked for a better screen villain than strike breaker Basil Collins, a Lawrence Tierney-esque heavy, who even engages in a chilling tete-a-tete with Kopple herself.

As the end credits rolled, I jetted upstairs to ask my dad if he knew anything about Harlan County. He knew it as a neighboring county of Perry County, where he grew up in the mountains of Glowmar (near Hazard). I excitedly told him about this film, which he had also never heard of, and we sat down to watch it together. We both commented on how Lois Scott not only had our same last name, but was so very much like any one of his sisters (my aunts). As the film ended, the rest of our family walked into the house after a day out and about and they wanted to see the film for themselves. So we all sat in the living room and watched HARLAN COUNTY again. I had effectively viewed the film three times in one day, all with different points of view, something I'd rarely done before or since. I've watched it frequently over the years, even writing a paper on the women in the film for a film course at George Mason. Hell I even researched all the major participants in the film, discovering their deaths and following their lives through newspaper articles and Ancestry.com family trees. What can I say? When I become passionate about something, I want to know everything about it. Witness my research of the exploitation and adult film genres.


The first three minutes of the film

Seeing the film projected in a theater was an emotional experience for me. My paternal grandfather, a coal miner like those in the film, died of black lung disease when my dad was a teenager. I regret never knowing him, and there is so little photographic evidence of him for me to learn from. From the opening credits of this screening, my eyes were moist for the majority of the running time. I remembered going back to Hazard with my family as a child and roaming the mountains, meeting extended family and friends; watching this film again on the big screen spoke to the Kentucky roots I often forget are inside of me. The most important thing I take away from HARLAN COUNTY is pride in my roots. I especially have deep pride and love for my father, who has come such a long way from a mining community like Harlan to provide a better life for his family.

At the BAM screening, I could have sworn this was a director's cut or extended version of HARLAN COUNTY. When I was called on for the first question of the Q&A, I enthusiastically thanked Kopple on behalf of myself and my dad for making the film and capturing this side of American life for future generations, but inquired about the extra footage that I didn't remember seeing on the Criterion DVD. Kopple was puzzled and said it was the original release version...but revealed that most of the outtakes are in a storage facility somewhere in Hazard. Dad, I think it's high time we went back, this time on an archaeological mission! :)

I'm surprised and excited that YouTube has this video of Barbara Kopple, looking all of 17, accepting the Best Documentary Feature Oscar for HARLAN COUNTY.



One of the most important elements of the film is the use of folk songs and miner protest songs throughout. The key voice is that of Hazel Dickens, who passed away earlier this year. I defy you to not want to buy the soundtrack to this film after seeing it, and you're in luck! iTunes carries it! Here is one of the many soulful and powerful songs heard in the film:

WEEK END - Film Forum 10/12/11

And then there was WEEK END. I've never been a fan of Godard, his pretentious digs at cinematic conventions and social issues leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps if he was a tad more subtle, but he seems to revel in the sheer French-ness of creating a stink. While I can see where he influenced scads of future filmmakers and their use of the medium for artistic purposes and expression, that doesn't mean I or anyone else has to enjoy his films. Just because something was first doesn't make it good. Don't be a sucker by buying into the hype.

Following their surprise engagement of BAND OF OUTSIDERS, Godard's first film, back in September, Film Forum brought his controversial "classic" WEEK END to the venue for a scheduled two-week engagement. The professor of my Film Form Film Sense course showed the famous car crash tracking shot earlier this semester, so I thought it was time to revisit this film. The basic plot is this: two rich married assholes go on a drive to the country to visit the wife's dying father to see if they'll inherit any of his money. Along the way they encounter plentiful gory car crashes and a magician and his girlfriend who force them at gunpoint to drive in the opposite direction before getting into a crash themselves and wandering for days through the countryside. They set fire to Bronte, hear St. Just orate in a field, tag along with a piano player who performs on a farm, the wife is casually raped by the side of the road, murder a woman for her money, and are finally taken hostage by revolutionary guerrillas with a drummer and a cannibal chef at their camp.

Knowing the political background of France in the late 1960s would probably help your viewing of WEEK END immeasurably, but a film that requires homework beforehand is a chore to sit through. We can be on-board for the bizarre shenanigans that leads Mireille Darc and Jean Yanne participate in until the realization hits us: we hate this couple. What is the purpose of this film and its adventure? To experience Godard's political commentary through some kind of clothesline storyline? Essentially that's it. A pretty hard pill to swallow, if you ask me.

I should also add, who is white Godard to take it upon himself to speak for the disenfranchised African and Arab peoples? Two characters, one African, one Arab, show up on a truck that picks the couple up. Godard places one of them in front of the camera while the other indulges in a lengthy, monotonous diatribe. This happens not once, but twice, and stops the film dead in its tracks. It's as if Godard couldn't fit in his thoughts on this issue anywhere else and shoehorned it into a segment that feels sloppy and obvious. The film never recovers. Third cinema would tackle issues in nations dealing with exploitation and political unrest through the eyes and voices of those experiencing them. Godard, on his throne as one of Europe's most well-known directors, is merely exploiting these peoples and their conflicts under the guise of artistry.

Did I hate WEEK END? I find it hard to hate any film, really. The film has its moments of shock and awe, as I find is true with many Godard films. The ending, which I won't spoil, does offer a potent commentary on social and political cannibalism, but that topic is addressed more effectively in films like MACUNAIMA and HOW TASTY WAS MY LITTLE FRENCHMAN. Just do yourself a favor and watch the film's most famous scene. It doesn't spoil anything, frankly, but once you've seen this you've basically seen the whole film and what it's trying to say about the France of 1967.

LIQUID SKY - Anthology Film Archives 10/10/11

I made my first trip to Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue) for a special screening that I thought I would have to miss because of class. What better way to spend Columbus Day than getting your mind blown? After taking in Chaplin's GOLD RUSH earlier that day, I ventured downtown to Anthology. It's an unusual venue, with a small cramped sitting area near the box office, and you venture up several flights of stairs to get into the screening room.

I remember when I first saw LIQUID SKY. It was in high school when I was trekking to Video Vault in Alexandria, VA twice weekly and renting as many movies as I could. The now out of print DVD was an accidental discovery and it didn't really click with me on initial viewing. Perhaps I was so spoiled by a diet of Russ Meyer and Doris Wishman movies that I wasn't prepared for the new wave weirdness of Slava Tsukerman's universe. I actually hadn't seen it since that viewing in 1999 so when I saw it would be playing Anthology with director Tsukerman in attendance, it was high time for a revisit.



Co-writer Anne Carlisle stars in a dual role as Margaret, a bisexual model with a drug habit living in a penthouse with underground musician and drug dealer Adrian (ALICE SWEET ALICE star Paula E. Sheppard), and Jimmy, an androgynous drug addict male model who is established as both Margaret's alter ego and her nemesis. An alien spacecraft lands on her roof, and the inhabitants look to feed on the adrenaline rush found in heroin. But they soon discover a more powerful energy is found during the moment of orgasm in the human brain. Soon Margaret's lovers end up dead, all with a crystal shard jutting out of their heads, raising questions for her about her sexuality, her identity, and her life.

An unusual mind fuck of a movie (watch the first five minutes above for a brief taste), LIQUID SKY is like nothing you've ever seen before. Mixing science fiction, performance art, sexploitation, and drug trips into one singular cinematic experience, this film worked splendidly projected on the big screen, far better than seeing it on home video. Cinematography is always surprising, especially when the special effects take center stage during the alien "brain invasion" sequences; the musical score is otherworldly and bizarre, perfectly complimenting the on-screen shenanigans; and the performances are appropriately campy and off the wall. Those who remember Paula Sheppard from ALICE will love seeing her in her only other starring role, and she's just as deliciously bitchy.

One thing is for sure, Anne Carlisle should have been a star. She stuck around New York and acted in other low-budget features like Larry Cohen's PERFECT STRANGERS and appeared briefly in Susan Seidelman's DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN, but never really took off in anything else. The guys sitting behind me raved about Carlisle; one of them claimed to be good friends with her, and that she was actually responsible for most of the movie. The other tried baiting Tsukerman in the Q&A, asking if he could ever re-make the movie without an Anne Carlisle. He didn't fall for it, saying he'd have to cast big names.

The Tsukerman Q&A was kind of hit or miss. The native Russian didn't understand some of the questions, so when I was called on for mine, I kept it simple: "Talk about Paula Sheppard." He said she was cast based on her work in ALICE, SWEET ALICE and she was a pleasure to work with, but the reason why she quit acting after the film was because she was with SAG and received a letter from them (as did other cast members) reprimanding and fining her for appearing in LIQUID SKY. According to Tsukerman "she took it very personally" and left the business. He did add that when the film had its L.A. premiere, all the Hollywood producers wanted to know who she was and how they could get a hold of her for their next films. Tsukerman did not reveal how the film's unique special effects were created, nor go into much detail about his musical influences for the superb electronic score (likely because it wasn't entirely created by him). He did talk about the possibility of remaking it in 3-D, which the audience audibly poo-pooed, and the process of casting, which basically involved Carlisle and co-star Bob Brady recruiting people they knew from the underground/punk/new wave scene of downtown NYC in the early 80s. Tsukerman wasn't the only member of the cast and crew in attendance; his wife Nina Kerova (who appears as the designer in the final fashion shoot and acted as co-writer and associate producer), make-up artist Marcel Fieve, and actress Susan Doukas (Jimmy's mother who tries to seduce the German scientist investigating the aliens) were in the audience, too. In an unusual moment, I also noticed John Cameron Mitchell (HEDWIG himself) purchase a ticket at the box office and sit with a group of friends.

For a review of the film when it was released in Chicago by Siskel & Ebert, skip to 4:55 in the video below. It's interesting to note how they dislike it considering how influential this film was on other films both enjoyed immensely in later years.



And Paula Sheppard fans (she has a sizable cult, so I know there are more than a few out there) should indulge in this final taste of LIQUID SKY, when her character Adrian "performs" the show-stopper "Me and My Rhythmbox". As she says later in the film, "They love me in Germany, baby." After seeing this, doesn't that make sense? It's very Dieter-esque. LOL

NYCC Film Festival: Nikkatsu & Chaplin

The 49th Annual New York Film Festival ended yesterday, and in addition to provocative new features like the latest Lars von Trier mind fuck Melancholia, Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, and Roman Polanski's Carnage, a number of interesting retrospective screenings took place. The crown jewel of the festival, in my opinion, was the series "Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses: Celebrating the Nikkatsu Centennial", 37 films representing the proposed best the renowned Japanese production company had to offer, from its very beginnings to just last year. In addition to the Nikkatsu films, I was able to take in a once-in-a-lifetime screening of Chaplin's The Gold Rush! As with all blog entries here, the posters sometimes offer links to video of the films and the titles are sometimes linked to where you can purchase the films.

Oct. 9:

The method to my madness in selecting which Nikkatsu films to see generally relied on which were available on video in this country. Prepared for some primo Japanese entertainment, I ventured uptown to visit the Film Society at Lincoln Center for the first time. The facilities of this venue are absolutely stunning; the Nikkatsu series was screened at the new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (144 W. 65th St), specifically the Howard Gilman Theater.

Suzaki Paradise: Red Light (1956) - This early Nikkatsu melodrama held particular interest for me because of its setting in and near a notorious red light district in Tokyo. In the film, it even has a garish neon sign beckoning customers across the bridge over the Suzaki river. Wandering unemployed Tatsuya Mihashi and his frustrated girlfriend Michiyo Aratama (pictured at left) find themselves desperate for income and a place to live, but stop short of crossing the bridge when Aratama gets a job at a roadside cafe run by kindly Yukiko Todoroki. Todoroki still pines for the husband who left her and their two sons for a red light girl two years previously. Mihashi's aimlessness drives Aratama into the arms of rich radio store owner Seizaburo Kawazu, leading our love sick protagonist to search the busy streets of Tokyo for her while ignoring the interest of sweet noodle bar waitress Izumi Ashikawa. All of the performances in this film are superb, but special mention must be made of Aratama's portrayal of an ambitious modern woman tired of supporting and cajoling her dead beat lover and Todoroki as the wise middle-aged cafe owner. Thankfully this is available on DVD in Japan, though I'm not sure if it features English subtitles; if it does, I intend to add this to the home video collection.

Till We Meet Again (1955) - Also known as "The Neverending (Love) Story". This was an absolute chore to sit through, especially after the pleasantly surprising and engrossing SUZAKI PARADISE. The sole point of interest was seeing that film's leading couple Tatsuya Mihashi and Michiyo Aratama together again as a pair of mismatched lovers, a mountain climber and a fashion designer respectively, kept apart by the climber's wife and the designer's rich lover. The twist is that the rich lover and climber's wife are father and daughter. And there's a geeky scientist thrown in for good measure as a potential love interest for the climber's wife. Easily one of the worst movies I've seen in NYC theaters so far.

Take Aim at the Police Van (1960) - This is available on DVD as part of Criterion's Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir, but I figured I was at Lincoln Center already, so why not see another movie? This super stylish crime story was a jolt of electricity to the heart after the dismal TILL WE MEET AGAIN, though the screening was regularly disrupted by the distracting laugh of a girl sitting in the same row as me. The kicker? She's a second year cinema studies MA student at Tisch, and I have her in a Tuesday night class. She did the same thing at the Tisch Cinematheque screening of STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR. My question is, if you're studying film, is it the best idea to just go and laugh at movies because they're not contemporary? In America, the film noir genre had pretty much ended by 1960, but Nikkatsu continued in the grand tradition of hard-boiled detectives, vampy femme fatales, and mysterious villains with a series of crime thrillers like this one. Disgraced prison guard Michitaro Mizushima, suspended after he fails to protect two prisoners in a transport van from being shot by a mysterious gunman, investigates the ambush on his own, discovering a trail leading to a sleazy modeling agency run by sinister female archer Misako Watanabe. A woman is shot in the breast with an arrow, underage girls are drugged in preparation to being forced into white slavery, and other sordid surprises are in store for you in this delicious pulpy thriller. Oh, that surprise ending is a doozy, too!

Intimidation (1960) - Another film available through Criterion (Eclipse Series 28: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara), this gripping drama is an entirely different kind of animal from POLICE VAN, though the two were made by the same company in the same year. Running a tight 65 minutes, this fast-paced thriller focuses on Nobuo Kaneko, a bank executive blackmailed by new kid in town Kojiro Kusanagi, who has evidence of Kaneko's illegal dealings to make his way to the top. The blackmailer will destroy the paper trail if the executive robs his own bank. After all, who would suspect the bank vice president as the culprit? The intense robbery centerpiece of the film is turned on its ear when Kaneko's childhood friend and co-worker Ko Nishimura gets involved. This is an absolutely brilliant little film, injecting a number of interesting surprises into what could have been a pretty standard blackmail storyline.

The edge-of-your-seat bank robbery sequence in "Intimidation"

Oct. 10

The Gold Rush (1925) - A $35 student membership to Film Society at Lincoln Center seemed a decent deal for the reduced member ticket prices alone (much like Film Forum's student membership). However, who knew the additional benefits would pay off a mere week into the membership? I received an e-mail on Saturday the 8th giving members the opportunity to receive free tickets to a screening of Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH on Monday the 10th at Alice Tully Hall. Not only was this a restored print, the closest to Chaplin's original 1925 version since its initial release, the film would feature musical accompaniment by members of the New York Philharmonic! This was truly a once in a lifetime motion picture event, with tickets going for $35 a pop, and here was my opportunity to go for FREE! I received my confirmation e-mail that a ticket was reserved for me, and in the nick of time, too. The event had sold out! Seeing a silent film with orchestral accompaniment is something every movie lover should experience. I will never forget seeing Chaplin's classic with live strings, percussion, and piano providing the marvelous score. The tale of the Tramp seeking gold in Alaska and falling for alluring dance hall girl Georgia Hale is still a funny and heart-warming one. Many parents and grandparents brought their kids for this Columbus Day screening and they ate it up. There is something marvelously touching about new generations of film lovers being introduced to the classics. I could tell that some of these kids would be going down the same route I have, devouring any movie they could get their hands on and experiencing a life long love affair with the cinema.

Oct. 13

Retaliation (1968) - Returning to the Nikkatsu centennial, RETALIATION was a rare late 60s Nikkatsu that is not available on DVD anywhere, so I knew I had to see it. It was also directed by Yasuharu Hasebe, responsible for some of the best Nikkatsu action films of the 60s and 70s. Studly Akira Kobayashi is a Yakuza recently released from jail who discovers that his gang fell apart when its elderly godfather fell ill. He is recruited by a rival gang to help them usurp another vicious family from power in a small farming town; in return he will be put in charge of the area's gang division. Accompanying him on his mission is legendary Shishido Joe, who has vowed revenge for his brother's death in the gang fight that sent Kobayashi to prison. Meiko Kaji, shortly before she became a Pinky Violence idol, is the innocent farm girl Kobayashi falls in love with. Of course, this being a Yakuza movie, the plan goes wrong when it is revealed that Kobayashi was merely being used for the gang's villainous ends, and all hell breaks loose in a memorable blood-drenched finale! Immediately after seeing this, I wondered why it remains unavailable. The expected Yakuza violence loved by contemporary fans of this gritty genre is here in spades, and considering how many Nikkatsu films of this type have been released on DVD, what's the hold up with RETALIATION? Unfortunately for a screening of a film this rare I had to deal with two middle-aged women talking in the back row for the entire movie. Apparently, even with subtitles, they didn't understand what was going on and, in a pretty boldly racist move, said they couldn't tell one Japanese man from another, so didn't know which character was which. Sigh...

Oct. 14

The World of Geisha (1973) - One of many 'roman porno' films being screened at Lincoln Center (others included THE WOMAN WITH RED HAIR, THE HELL-FATED COURTESAN, THE OLDEST PROFESSION, and TATTOOED CORE OF FLOWER), I went into this one with hesitation. While I've seen a number of these graphic sexploitation films on home video, I didn't know what it would be like seeing one with an audience. The turn-out was surprisingly large for a film of this type. We follow roman porno royalty Junko Miyashita as a geisha who falls for a client and eventually marries him. That's the bare essentials of a plot, though director Tatsumi Kumashiro injects random scenes of geisha life, including a madam training a scrub girl to control her vaginal muscles before basically raping her in a drunken stupor, a bumbling soldier's relationship with a popular, worn-out geisha, and a rich client forcing his man-servant to hang himself, to the horror of his geisha companions. Some attempted political (?) commentary appears in dated photo slides indicating the film's timeline through important moments in Japanese military and social history. This is available on DVD in the U.S. but I couldn't resist seeing two Japanese exploitation films in one day.

Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (1970) - The only Pinky Violence Nikkatsu film shown at the festival (a major faux pas, in my opinion) was one of a series of STRAY CAT ROCK films, all starring the peerless Meiko Kaji as Mako, the no-nonsense leader of a delinquent girl gang. This is also available on U.S. DVD, but who could say no to seeing this in a theater? Mako and the girls aim to help new kid in town Rikiya Yasuoka find his missing sister, who he hasn't seen since childhood. A racial angle is thrown into the mix when the girl gang's male counterparts decide to attack and rid the town of any mixed-race people, most of whom congregate at a back alley bar called Mama's Blues. Being half-black and half-Japanese doesn't help Yasuoka in his search for sis. In terms of Pinky Violence, NYFF could have picked a better film, or several, to represent the concept of violent rebel women more appropriately. One of the key criticisms aimed at this film is the fact that it spends too much time with the male gang and telling the story of the new half-breed in town. The film works best when the girls are doing what they do best: destroying vicious men who try to take advantage of them. In this case, the film does deliver in a sequence where the girls are set up to be man-handled by European businessmen at a party. Mako ambushes the party with Molotov cocktails!! She also gets into a knife fight with dizzy fellow gang member Miki in a gripping opening sequence. Plus you get Japanese girl pop group The Golden Half (so-named because they were all half-Japanese, half-American) performing two great songs in a club, "Yellow Cherries" and "Kiroii Sakurambo". The less said about the cheesy song sung by Yasuoka and Kaji the better... You can see the Golden Half performing "Yellow Cherries" in yet another Pinky Violence movie, DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS: BLOSSOMING NIGHT DREAMS, here. This scene is very similar to SEX HUNTER so you'll get a good idea of how they appeared there. Honestly, folks, if I were asked to name my favorite genre of Japanese film, it would be Pinky Violence. There are plentiful examples available in the U.S. market...not enough for my cravings, but enough to whet your appetite and give you insight into this popular sub-genre that was soon replaced by the much more sexual 'roman porno' film movement.

Meiko Kaji as Scorpion, Female Prisoner #701, her other trademark role
Trailer for a Female Prisoner film linked above