Day: September 27, 2012

By Joe Bendel. Before Pitt, Jolie, and Aniston dragged their relationships through the tabloids, Ingrid Bergman, Roberto Rossellini, and Anna Magnani thoroughly outraged the filmmaking world. However, they did it with exponentially more talent. Francesco Patierno documents their headline-making scandal and the competing film sets on which it played out in The War of the Volcanoes (trailer here), a selection of the Cinema Reflected sidebar at the 50th New York Film Festival.

Rome, Open City was an international triumph for both Magnani and her director, Rossellini. They quickly became close collaborators and lovers, despite their differences in temperament. Magnani was the passionate, ever faithful diva. Rossellini was the charmed smooth talker. It probably would not have lasted, even without Rossellini’s mutual admiration for the unhappily married Ingrid Bergman.

Looking for a break from the Hollywood system, Rossellini’s Stromboli appeared to be the perfect project. A morality play set against the exotic backdrop of the volcanic Aeolian Islands, Stromboli was largely lifted from a proposal developed by Rossellini’s cousins—or at least that is how they saw it. Slightly put out by the appropriation, the budding filmmakers produced their film anyway, with Hollywood director William Dieterle at the helm and none other than the spurned Magnani herself as the star. Guess which director brought their film in on-time and within budget.

As production began on the isolated Stromboli Island, thanks to Howard Hughes, the relationship between Rossellini and Bergman intensified. With rumors swirling and pictures of PDA’s splashed across the newspapers, she became radioactive for her former Hollywood colleagues, leading to no end of stress for the Swedish movie star. The narrative elements of both competing films, featuring disgraced women shunned by narrow-minded islanders, did not exactly help either, but it certainly represents fertile soil for film critics and historians to analyze.

Most movie fans will know the broad strokes of this infamous story, but the details are fascinating. Patierno completely eschews talking heads, telling the tale through anonymous voiceover narration, archival publicity footage, and shrewdly selected clips from the principles’ films that thematically fit the events under discussion (like for instance, Hitchcock’s Notorious). Almost entirely black-and-white as a result, Volcanoes captures a vivid sense of the era’s sophistication.

While rather a shorty at fifty-two minutes (preceded by a ten minute short following the eternal Manoel de Oliveira during the filming of The Strange Case of Angelica), War of the Volcanoes is nonetheless quite informative and entertaining, like a gossip show for upscale cineastes. Recommended for fans of Italian cinema and Hollywood’s golden age, War of the Volcanoes screens this Saturday (9/29) and the following Wednesday (10/3) as part of the 2012 NYFF.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on September 27th, 2012 at 12:21pm.

By Joe Bendel. It is the classic Hollywood story. Everyman meets everywoman, with everycomplication ensuing. One-upping Chuck Workman, György Pálfi aggregates clips from some of the greatest milestones of international cinema, as well as two of his own previous films, into the loose narrative form that is Final Cut—Ladies & Gentleman (trailer here), which screens as part of the Cinema Reflected sidebar at the 50th New York Film Festival.

As Charlie Chaplin, the protagonist wakes up and stretches. As Gene Hackman he shaves and knots his tie – as Leonardo DiCaprio, amongst others. A chance encounter on the street will lead him to pursue a mystery woman, who turns out to be a nightclub singer, played by the likes of Liza Minelli and Jessica Rabbit. Despite the efforts of a jealous ex-boyfriend(s), they fall in love and marry. Yet, domestic life presents its own challenges.

Final Cut is light years removed from the somewhat unpleasant Taxidermia, Pálfi’s last film to have an American theatrical release—and it’s a good thing that it is. What started as a creative response to the Hungarian film industry’s economic doldrums became the 2012 Cannes Classic’s closer. However, his love letter to cinema is not likely to ink a distribution deal anytime soon, since Pálfi was never bourgeoisie enough to actually seek permission to use his constituent snippets. Considering that Walt Disney and George Lucas films are well represented in the mix, one would not be shocked if there are a few cease & desist letters in its future.

Make no mistake, we all recognize intellectual property rights here, but it is sort of shame a home DVD release is not likely for Final Cut. It could be quite the party game for movie buffs, looking for bragging rights for how many more films they can recognize than their friends. While many of us will recognize the Kurosawa and Godard excerpts, some of the Eastern European selections might be a little tricky. The idiosyncrasies of Pálfi’s editorial sensibility are also sometimes surprising (Angel Heart, again?). For those wondering, Hitchcock’s Vertigo did indeed make the cut, at the risk of drawing another eyebrow-raising statement from Kim Novak, a la The Artist.

Granted, Final Cut is hardly groundbreaking. There are several short films floating around the internet based around similar concepts, but Pálfi takes it further, even tossing in the occasional full frontal for comedic effect. If nothing else, it brings back a flood of movie memories and should spur wide ranging post-screening did-you-ever-see discussions. Not particularly deep or perhaps even legally defensible, Final Cut—Ladies & Gentleman is still a fair amount of film geek fun. It screens this coming Monday (10/1) at the Francesca Beale Theater during the 2012 NYFF.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on September 27th, 2012 at 12:20pm.

By Joe Bendel. He has been called the most successful independent filmmaker of his era. Yet there was no secret formula to his films. The hallmarks, so to speak, of Meyer’s oeuvre are impossible to miss. Todd Rosken dramatizes the sexploitation pioneer’s creation story in Up the Valley and Beyond (trailer here), which screens as part of Shorts Program 1 at the 50th New York Film Festival.

Meyer was a war hero, as he is happy to explain to anyone who asks. During the post-war/pre-Mad Men era, he sets out to reinvent himself as a pin-up photographer. However, he has difficulty finding a subject that truly excites his artistic sensibility, if you will. Then a colleague refers him to Eve Turner, a diva model whose qualities are unmistakable—both of them.

Meyer fans will be surprised the grindhouse auteur never even picks up a movie camera in Valley, so there will be no behind-the-scenes treatment of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Still, Rosken and co-screenwriter “Bobby D. Lux” cleverly hint at the roots of frequent Meyer motifs. As Meyer, Jim Parrack’s performance is somewhat akin to Johnny Depp’s Ed Wood, portraying his earnest gusto with almost guileless naiveté. In contrast to Wood, though, Meyer’s cinematic vision is easy to “get,” continuing to reverberate with fans decades after his glory years.

Although it is part of the shorts program, Valley would also be a good fit for NYFF’s Cinema Reflected sidebar. It certainly captures the enthusiasm of a particularly idiosyncratic filmmaker. Quite a presentable period production with a number of affectionate laughs, Up the Valley and Beyond is recommended for all cult movie fans when it screens this coming Monday (10/1) and Sunday, October 14th, as part of the first short film programming block at the 2012 NYFF.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on September 27th, 2012 at 12:10pm.