Category: 3. Jennifer Baldwin

Mad Men Season Four Premiere: “Public Relations”

By Jennifer Baldwin. The Boomers love making TV shows and movies about the 1960s; it fulfills their narcissistic desire to relive their own adolescence and young adulthood – and it makes their generation seem “important,” the most important generation of all. Naturally, most of these shows and movies about the turbulent 60s approach the era from the point of view of young people: teenagers, college students, the youth movement and the hippie scene.

The reason AMC’s original series Mad Men was such a sensation when it debuted four seasons ago, and what continues to make it one of the best shows on TV, is that it approaches the 1960s from a somewhat different angle. It’s the angle of men in suits, women in tasteful and elegant clothing, cocktails and business meetings – in other words, the world of grown ups. This is the 1960s from the point of view of the adults. What makes the show so brilliant is that by focusing on the adults of the era it shows where the real breakdown of society occurred in the 60s:  not with the kids, but with their parents.

Kids will always rebel, in any era, in any time period. It’s part of our adolescent development to test boundaries and question our world. But it’s up to the adults in a society to maintain civilization in the face of this adolescent upheaval. Where the 60s went wrong – where the rot set in – wasn’t that the youth started tuning out and turning on, it’s that the adults did as well.

At the end of the third season, there was quite a lot of upheaval in the adult world of Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and his cohorts: JFK was assassinated; Betty (January Jones) went to Reno to divorce Don and remarry Rockefeller Republican Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley); British firm Putnam Powell and Lowe were preparing to sell Sterling Cooper; and in perhaps the most exhilarating finale of the show’s entire run, Don, Roger (John Slattery), Bert Cooper (Robert Morse), and English newcomer Lane Pryce (Jared Harris) all joined forces and left Sterling Cooper to form their own advertising agency (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) – taking Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), Pete (Vincent Kartheiser), Joan (Christina Hendricks), and Harry (Rich Sommer) along with them.

Season three ended with the show going through such a radical change that fans have been anxiously waiting to see just where things would pick up in season four. Would Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce still be in existence and would they be successful? Would Betty finalize her divorce and marry Henry? Would Don be happy in his new role as bachelor and big shot creative director and face of the company at his new “scrappy underdog” agency?

In the season four premiere, “Public Relations,” Matt Weiner has jumped ahead one year in the story – to Thanksgiving, 1964 – and the changes we witnessed in the last episode of season three are now in full bloom. Weiner doesn’t reset anything. Don is living the bachelor life; Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is now an established agency (though not without the headaches and anxieties of being a small upstart); Betty is remarried to Henry Francis; and Don Draper is faced with a new professional challenge: promoting himself.

In the past, Draper has always emphasized that the goal of advertising is, first and foremost, to sell the product. An ad may be cute or clever, but if it doesn’t sell the product, it’s worthless.

Now in season four, Don is confronted with a new paradigm. He’s not just selling other people’s products; he must sell himself. It’s an uncomfortable role for a man who has stolen another man’s name, a man who has spent most of his adult life constructing a new identity for himself. As we open the episode, a reporter for Advertising Age is interviewing Don, asking him, “Who is Don Draper?” Don can’t/won’t answer that question. He says he’s from the Midwest where he was taught that it wasn’t polite to talk about oneself. Don’s trying to be modest, to remain the man behind the scenes who is just doing his job.

But when the article comes out mid-way through the episode, the reporter has mistaken Don’s modesty for aloofness, his humility and professionalism for coldness and mystery – and mystery is a killer for someone who is trying to be a salesman. It’s a huge misstep for Don, because as Roger and others point out, Don is the agency’s biggest asset – he needs to sell himself to the world in order for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce to get more business.

The thematic counterpoint to this storyline is the plot with the Jentzen bathing suit executives, who make two-piece bathing suits (not “bikinis,” as the prudish executives are always pointing out) and who want to sell their suits without resorting to salacious sexiness the way their bikini-making competitors do. Again, the theme here is modesty. Whether it’s modesty in dress or modesty in terms of humility, this first episode is drawing a contrast between the traditional way of thinking and the new, more “authentic” way of thinking. The world is becoming more sensationalized, more in your face. It’s about not holding back anymore when it comes to your wants and desires. It’s about, as Don puts it to the Jentzen men, “would you rather be comfortable and dead, or risky and possibly rich?”   In other words, standards, decorum, modesty – these are the things which must be sacrificed in order to stand out in the world, and standing out in the world is what will get people’s attention, and getting people’s attention is the key to success. Continue reading Mad Men Season Four Premiere: “Public Relations”

The Reputation of Classic Women’s Pictures: Gone with the wind?

By Jennifer Baldwin. I ran across an interesting list from Filmcritic.com the other day: The Top 50 Movie Endings of All Time. The list was compiled in 2006. Many of my favorite endings were listed, including the endings to Casablanca, The Godfather, and Bonnie and Clyde. But as the list got closer and closer to number one, I waited giddily for my favorite ending of all-time to appear. I knew it would be near the top spot, at least top five, maybe it would even be the number one ending. It is, after all, one of the most famous endings in all of Hollywood’s history, and includes two of the most famous lines in all of cinema. It’s one of the greatest classics of all time, how could it not be near the top of the list?

I’m writing, of course, of the ending to Gone With the Wind. There is no more iconic and well-known ending in all of cinema, with the exceptions of perhaps The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, or The Empire Strikes Back. But Gone With the Wind stands as one of the greats, arguably the greatest, if only for the thrill of hearing the word “damn” uttered for the first time in mainstream cinema and to see Scarlett rejected so deliciously – only to see her rise again with indomitable resilience. I knew it was coming. I kept reading. I was almost to the end of the list …

And Gone With the Wind was nowhere to be found. They had left it off.

I couldn’t quite believe it. A few people in the comments section couldn’t believe it either. Where was Gone With the Wind? Where was “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”? Where was “After all, tomorrow is another day”? Where was that last gorgeous Technicolor shot of Scarlett returned to Tara, the sweeping main theme of Max Steiner’s unforgettable score rising to a crescendo on the soundtrack? I was in a bit of shock, sitting there looking at a list of the Top 50 Movie Endings that did not include Gone With the Wind.

But then again, why should I be surprised? GWTW has been losing its place in the pop culture pantheon for a while now. The writing was on the wall when the revised AFI Top 100 American Films list came out and GWTW had slipped from fourth place to sixth place, replaced at #4 by Raging Bull. Not a huge slip, of course, but a telling one I think. GWTW is too iconic, too huge (still the top box office of all time, adjusted for inflation), to really go away altogether. But slowly, in little drips and quietly telling ways, it’s losing stature in the film community – especially in the mainstream online film community. And it’s not surprising because the online film community – which drives so much of film culture and conversation these days – is simply not that interested in what gets called, for better or worse, a “chick flick.”

And despite its status as a Civil War epic, GWTW is a women’s film. Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara is in nearly every scene. It’s her story that we watch unfold, even as Rhett Butler pops in and out of the narrative. It’s her emotional journey that dominates the film. And in the second half especially, it is her domestic drama that takes up most of the action (and it’s not surprising to read commentary from guys online who think the second half of the film is “weak” compared to the first, more war-focused half – the domestic struggles of Scarlett hold little interest for the online fanboy types). Continue reading The Reputation of Classic Women’s Pictures: Gone with the wind?

LFM Review: The Complete Metropolis

By Jennifer Baldwin. With almost 30 minutes of lost footage restored, The Complete METROPOLIS is a true cinematic event.

For anybody who read the news two years ago that a nearly complete 16mm negative of METROPOLIS was discovered in Buenos Aires (including 30 minutes of additional footage previously thought lost forever), the anticipation and excitement has been building for when the film would finally be restored and we could all see Fritz Lang’s original cut of his masterpiece for the first time since its Berlin premiere in 1927.

The time has now come. After a premiere in Berlin earlier this year and a North American premiere in Los Angeles this past April, the film is finally being screened in theaters across the U.S. and Canada – all leading up to the DVD release of the Complete METROPOLIS in November 2010.

The tale of METROPOLIS – originally panned by critics and disliked by audiences on its initial release in Germany, and later mutilated by international distributors, who turned the film into a diluted Frankenstein story (a quarter of Lang’s original film was thought lost for decades, one of the ultimate “lost masterpieces” of the silent era) – is a tale well known to classic movie fans and silent cinema enthusiasts. This latest chapter in the film’s life only enhances its mystique and mystery. Almost 40 minutes of this landmark film was lost for nearly a century only to be found hidden away in a Buenos Aires museum in 2008. What was found in Argentina is now the most complete version to date. The print was deemed nearly complete because of the way it matched up to the original Gottfried Huppertz score (the only complete document still in existence from the 1927 premiere). With almost 30 minutes of film time restored, this newest version of METROPOLIS is the closest we might ever come to seeing the film the way Fritz Lang intended.


I was fortunate enough to attend a screening of the Complete METROPOLIS at the Detroit Film Theater earlier this month. It was one of the best movie experiences I’ve had in a long while, thrilling and impressive, making me fall in love with METROPOLIS all over again. Continue reading LFM Review: The Complete Metropolis

The Czech New Wave: Political Cinema with a Human Face

By Jennifer Baldwin. Forget the French New Wave. Yes, OK, I just got finished writing here at LFM about the greatness of Godard and VIVRE SA VIE, and I dig Truffaut and the rest of the Cahiers crowd as much as the next girl – but if I were stuck on a desert island for the rest of my life (or maybe stuck forever in a reeducation camp for Obama regime dissidents … just kidding), there is only one European “new wave” film movement I’d want to spend the rest of my days watching and it actually ain’t the French.

It’s the Czechoslovak New Wave, a film movement that received a lot of international recognition and acclaim back in the mid-to-late 1960s (e.g., winning Best Foreign Film Academy Awards in 1965 and 1967). This movement was a big deal back in the day.

But the Czech New Wave is somewhat forgotten these days, much to my disappointment.  I wouldn’t really know much about it myself if it hadn’t been for the fact that I took a class back in my college days called “Central and Eastern European Cinema” taught by the genius Herb Eagle.  (Admittedly, I needed to get the required “Race and Ethnicity” credits and it was the only class that satisfied those requirements that semester.)

Thanks to the tutelage of Professor Eagle I was soon hooked on Miloš Forman and Vera Chytilová films, like Chytilová’s Daisies featuring the two Maries.

Sadly, I don’t think the Czech New Wave gets enough love these days from film buff types.  Everybody tosses around names like Godard and Truffaut and Rohmer and Rivette, but does anybody ever mention Chytilová or Jireš or Kádar and Klos or Menzel or Němec?   (Miloš Forman doesn’t count because he’s become a well-known and award-winning director of Hollywood movies since emigrating here some 40 years ago.)

The Czech New Wave deserves better than to be some half-remembered footnote to the cinema of the 1960s. Frankly, I think the films that came out of Czechoslovakia in that era are not only fascinating examples of 1960s New Wave cinema, but they’re also still highly relevant for right now. These movies still have the power to speak to us on a political level as well as on a purely human level. If anybody wants to see what truly vibrant, brilliant, political (and personal) filmmaking is all about, they should take a look at the Czech New Wave. Continue reading The Czech New Wave: Political Cinema with a Human Face

Island of Lost Films

By Jennifer Baldwin. For classic movie cinephiles, the discovery of old films once thought to be lost is one of the more thrilling aspects of our fandom. There are so many silent-era films that have been lost to the twin scourges of time and neglect that when a new discovery is made — such as the case with the recently discovered print of METROPOLIS containing footage previously thought lost — it’s the cinema equivalent of an archeologist discovering artifacts from a forgotten civilization.

Back in the day — before film preservation was finally acknowledged as a worthwhile historical enterprise — silent films and other older movies that were past their “sell date” were deemed to have no commercial value by the film studios (and were often dangerous to store, since the nitrate film stock used in the silent era is so highly flammable), and so these films were often left alone to deteriorate and die or were even melted down on purpose in order to extract the silver from the emulsion. Thousands of films are believed to be lost to history thanks to the ravages of time and neglect.

But these are exciting times. Not only the recent discovery of the lost METROPOLIS footage in Argentina, but now, a discovery in the New Zealand Film Archive of dozens of American films from the early part of the twentieth century, including a once-thought-lost John Ford silent feature called UPSTREAM (It’s a backstage drama! From John Ford!). Seventy-five of these rediscovered films are en-route to the U.S. right now for preservation and restoration.

If you love old movies as well as history, this is awesome news. But I’m not just writing about this because it’s awesome news. I’m writing about this because I want conservative movie lovers to get involved. Actually, I’m sure there are plenty of conservative movie lovers already involved but I just wanted to see if I could get even more conservatives involved because I believe it’s a cause that we on the Right should and need to be involved in.

Why film preservation? What’s so conservative about that? Well, the most obvious answer is actually the best one:  since conservatives are usually pretty keen on preserving and respecting our cultural heritage they should also be pretty keen on helping to restore and keep alive historical artifacts like old films. It’s as simple as that. These films are part of our history and as conservatives we claim to respect history and want to preserve American culture – well, here’s our chance.

Part of our mission here at LFM is to celebrate and promote cinema and the arts – and what better way for those of us on the Right to do this than by contributing to film preservation?

But conservative movie lovers should get involved in preservation efforts not only because it’s a good thing to do, but also as a way to show that conservatives are interested in culture in a positive way and not just as a means to score political points. I might be a little unfair in this critique of conservatives – because there ARE conservatives out there writing and commenting on film and culture that do it intelligently and with great love and enthusiasm – but there has also been a tendency for conservatives on the internet and elsewhere to simply bash Hollywood and retreat from the mainstream culture.

Standing up for our cultural past means more than just wistfully saying “I wish they still made movies like that today!” It means actually supporting and championing those cultural objects from days gone by. It means putting your money where your wistful heart is. There are opportunities now for ordinary film lovers to help save and preserve older films. Continue reading Island of Lost Films

Classic Cinema Obsession: Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie

[Editor’s Note: A restored version of Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie has just been released by Criterion on DVD and Blu-ray, and is now available at the LFM Store below at the end of this post.]

By Jennifer Baldwin

A CLASSIC CINEMA OBSESSION in 4 TABLEAUX

1
JENNI COMES IN LATE — THE FACE OF MARIA FALCONETTI –CONVERTED — PEOPLE WALK OUT EARLY
I was late to the screening. It was French New Wave Week in World Cinema 340 and we were watching Godard’s MY LIFE TO LIVE (a.k.a. VIVRE SA VIE). It was my first Godard. I was a lazy undergrad. I came in about 15 minutes late, an intruder bringing a squeaky door and too much light into the darkened, cavernous auditorium. I felt hot and embarrassed at my intrusion. I sat in an uncomfortable plastic chair in the back, hiding from all my fellow students. The first thing I saw was a face. It made me cry. It always makes me cry.

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC is one of my favorite films. Seeing it for the first time, I had a (re)conversion to Catholicism/cinema. Seeing it every time since, I am continually reconverted. And always crying at the face of Maria Falconetti.


I am Nana. She sees the face of Maria-as-Jeanne D’Arc and she cries too.

We are all crying, we three faces. I have a feeling no one else in the auditorium is crying. Before the screening is over, half the students have walked out. Perhaps they were disappointed at the lack of sex and the one bit of sterile nudity in a picture about prostitution. Perhaps they couldn’t feel anything when they looked at Anna Karina’s face. Perhaps they didn’t like lengthy philosophical discussions about the meaning of language and speech. Perhaps they thought the French New Wave weird and pretentious and Godard’s film most of all.

But not me. I was converted that night while watching VIVRE SA VIE. I was converted to Godard. He was my first New Wave love (Truffaut would come later, but Godard was always stronger).

It’s been almost eight years since I watched VIVRE SA VIE in college, but I have never forgotten the images or the effect the film had on me. I have never forgotten it. I recently watched the new Criterion Collection remastered DVD of VIVRE SA VIE — now my second time seeing the film. I still can’t explain my thoughts on it. It is a religious experience in that way. It is a spiritual/emotional thing, not an intellectual one. I have thoughts and feelings, but I cannot put them into words. If words were enough, I wouldn’t need the pictures.

“She sells her body but keeps her soul.” Continue reading Classic Cinema Obsession: Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie