Posts tagged film

Krefting On | Twelve Angry Men

I don’t know what you like, but I know what I like. And I like when the weather starts warming up after a particularly wretched winter. If ever winter was entirely of our discontent, this one was for sure. Anyway, I think we can safely say that all that’s behind us now, and so what do we have left to do but celebrate?

People celebrate all kinds of different ways. Some people eat cheeseburgers until they’re so full they can barely move, then they dunk themselves in a pond and see how long it takes their full, full bodies to sink. I did that one last year, it was fun. This year, however, I went back to my usual Spring Ringer-Inner, and got together with the same eleven other males I’ve been done this thing with all my life: The “The Sun is Out and It’s Time for Puttin’ Weekend.” What we do is we take over a mini-golf facility somewhere, load a car trunk up with bottled root beer, and gorge ourselves on delicious suds. We’re talking a cool baker’s-dozen bottles each. Then, we have to putt like crazy! We’ve got to clear the first nine without using the facilities at all, and boy! is it a challenge!

This year is also kind of special because there are twelve of us, and the great Sidney Lumet passed on to the other side last month, and the first movie he ever made was also about twelve guys. But he called them men. And he called them angry. And that was about it in terms of titular description: Twelve Angry Men. And so we got all twelve of us guys together and watched the twelve of those guys go at it in the jury room at a murder trial. And it’s a remarkable thing. We’d all seen the film before, sure, but there was something that struck us (well, me at least) about this viewing that differed from the other times we’d seen it: it’s a lot like a play, and what one might tend to remember the first time around might be all the fantastic dialogue and wonderfully realized characters, but this is a film, by Job, and as such little things like editing and cinematography really do impact the presentation to a remarkable degree. If this were just a play you probably wouldn’t be sitting close enough to pay attention to things like well-timed dribbles of sweat falling from a brow, you wouldn’t marvel at the way the heads having these discussions are framed. And that bit where they all get up one by one and leave the table to protest the numb-skulled rantings of a racist juror wouldn’t be quite as poetic. 

What a scene! This blubbery blabbermouth is going on and on through a fairly generic racist tirade (these guys are all whites, and, to be fair, the characters are kind of stereotypical but that doesn’t really matter here too much because one of the things about this film that also might slip through the cracks is just how f-in’ stylized the whole thing is and, as such, the complications of “real” personality [as though anyone has a grip on what that is or would even deign to care] need not apply to this story at all – we’re dealing with the slippery slope of truth here, kids, and that’s just as fickle a notion as personality – yeesh! don’t get me started), and as the guys around the table listen they slowly, one by one, decide to make a symbolic gesture and leave said table. They don’t want to be associated with this kind of crap and they’re making it known not by yelling but by melting away from it.

Now, one of my putting pals stated after the screening that he found this scene somewhat contrived, and far be it from me to argue with that point at this time. What I’m getting at, what I’ve been working my way up to, is that this scene succeeds completely in a cinematic sense. There is a visual poetry to the movement of bodies and shirts and slacks as they drift from the table, and this is a thing of beauty that could exist quite comfortably outside of any narrative one might want to impose upon it.

For a film that takes place more or less in one room, Twelve Angry Men is cinematically riveting. And not in the way that My Dinner with Andre is riveting (we like that one so much because we can visualize the stories being told and relate them to the faces we’re seeing in close up), or in the way that Butley is riveting (“Hey, great, I can see this play at home without leaving the house at’all!”), but there is something special here that stands out from other taking-place-in-a-room films. And I LOVE My Dinner with Andre. But this is a different animal. And as such, it deserves your attention. You know what else deserves your attention? A bunch of other Sidney Lumet films, including Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead which he made fifty years after this one!

-Krefting

Matt Krefting is a hamp alum and current employee in the alumni relations office who loves you very much. 12 Angry Men, My Dinner with Andre, and Butley are all available for loan from the five college library catalogue.

Shooting to Hell And Back Again. Digitally.

The World Cinema Prize for Documentaries was awarded to “Hell And Back Again” last week at Sundance ‘11. The project depicts the life of the same Marine on the battlefield and at home at the same time. Awesome. Hot. Interested. But what makes “Hell And Back Again,” more interesting (other than the fact that Hamp alum Fiona Otway 96F edited it) is how it was shot (on a Canon 5D Mark II).

On HABA’s official site, director Danfung Dennis states:

“Visual imagery can be a powerful medium for truth. The images of napalmed girls screaming by Nick Ut, the street execution of a Vietcong prisoner by Eddie Adams, the shell-shocked soldier by Don McCullin - these iconic images have burned into our collective consciousness as reminders of war’s consequences.

But, this visual language is dying. The traditional outlets are collapsing. In the midst of this upheaval, we must invent a new language. I am attempting to combine the power of the still image with advanced technology to change the vernacular of photojournalism and filmmaking.”

You had us at “advanced technology.” Dig this short article detailing Dennis’ one-man, DLSR camera rig on the documentary blog. Then check out the “film’s” trailer here.

-hart (via the doc blog)

Krefting On | Louis Malle’s, The Fire Within

Louis Malle’s The Fire Within (1963) is a perfect film in every way. Malle wrote the script in part as a reaction to his early success and acceptance, basing the tale of Alain Leroy (hauntingly portrayed by Elevator to the Gallows star Maurice Ronet) on the real life story of the depressive Jacques Rigaut, a barely-published writer with connections to Dada and Surrealism (and the subject of Pierre Drieu La Rochelle’s 1931 novel Le fue follet). Malle treated the story with just the right amount of poetic license: moving the action to the early 60’s, putting a lot of himself in it (Ronet even wore Malle’s own clothes), changing the protagonist from an opium addict to an alcoholic, and peppering the story with enough prescient political material for our hero to not care about. 

The result is one of those beautifully and elegantly morose works of art that the French really do do better than anyone. Leroy moves through his day in an unbelievably morose cloud. Hopeless, dejected, utterly completely unable to connect with anyone. He mopes about his room in a halfway house, visits old friends (including a brief and magical appearance by Jean Moreau and one of the most uncomfortable dinner scenes this side of The Celebration), and wanders the streets of Paris. Malle soundtracks these melancholy moments with the gorgeous music of Erik Satie. So beautiful! So soaked in atmosphere! It is so heartbreaking to watch Leroy’s inability to get close to people rear its ugly head time and time again. “I’d have liked to captivate people, hold on to them, bind them close. So that things would stay still around me. But it always went to hell… I wanted so much to be loved, that I feel I do love.” It’s absolutely breathtaking, one of those rare films I felt was speaking directly to me the first time I saw it.

I will hereby echo Mr. Newman’s earlier call to utilize the inter-library loan. How else are you going to see this excellent film? You either pay $30 to The Criterion Collection (you are students and should spend your money on textbooks and things) or you could come over to my house (I won’t invite you), so it’s to the library with you! Get! GET!

-krefting

Matt Krefting is a hamp alum and current employee in the alumni relations office who loves you very much.

Hoffman On | Film/Video at Hampshire.

I just graduated from Hampshire. I concentrated in film studies and French. I wasn’t a typical film student because I didn’t do very much production, and the work I produced was mostly film criticism of one kind or another. But because I did do both, I developed a unique perspective on the study of film and how it can be a part of the production of film. 

Navigating the film/photo/video program at Hampshire can be complicated. With the exception of a few courses, all involve production. Most of these involve weekly meetings and weekly screenings. Most of the time, there is a reading component, and professors assign theoretical and sometimes historical writings. Class time is initially used to discuss the readings and screenings. To some extent, the technical aspects of production are dealt with, but for the most part students learn that stuff on their own along with the course’s TA (with the help of media services). As things move on, it becomes increasingly about workshopping the students’ films, and this is probably the most rewarding part of the course.

Anyone can conceivably take production courses, but to actually be in the film program, one has to apply for a film faculty advisor. Students have to apply for Division II and III. What this means is that more than just being in production courses, students can work closely with advisors to discuss course selection, independent studies, and more. Then, at the end of Div II & III, the film faculty advisor evaluates all of the student’s work (including work not related to production). 

The other side to film studies at Hampshire is, of course, the historical and theoretical side.  Intro courses look at different ways films have been approached. A lot of the time in intro courses are spent learning a language to use to talk about film. The technological advances of cinema are discussed, from a historical, social, theoretical, and technical perspective. 

The reason these kinds of film studies courses can be frustrating for production-oriented students is because some of the topics – especially certain types of film theory – can seem so abstract and divorced from cinema itself. But everyone feels that way sometimes, even those who’ve never touched a camera. And there are a lot things about film studies courses that are important for production students. By watching and studying films closely, one develops a sense of how films relate to each other – and if you’re making your own films, you get a sense of where they fit in. 

I realized how important studying film is for making films when I discovered how steeped in cinema history so many of the greatest films are. I also realized that some of the greatest directors – Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, to name a few – were also critics. As Godard put it, writing film criticism is actually a form of making films. 

To study films and learn how to write about them, there are several options at Hampshire. There are two our three courses offered each year.  In addition, there is the time and flexibility in the divisional system for film students to watch as many films as they can – I did several independent studies and these afforded me a lot of time to just watch. 

Within the four other schools in the Five College network (going to hamp, you can take classes at any of them), there are a lot of resources for film students. Smith and Mt. Holyoke Colleges have film studies departments directed by film studies Ph.Ds. In addition to courses taught by these professors, other departments often offer film courses (such as the English department, American studies, language departments, etc.). Amherst does not have an official film department, but offers course by English teachers and different language teachers (sometimes not in English). Finally, UMass has an interdepartmental film studies program. UMass might be the best place to take courses on national cinemas, history, and directors while here at Hampshire.

dan hoffman is a recent hamp grad and a lover (of film)

The Stacks.

This summer, we’re migrating most of our beloved VHS collection out to the wild open stacks of the Harold F. Johnson Library. Titles that we have prints or newer DVDs of are going up there, alongside other anachronistic oddities & old classics. The Media Open Stacks will be located on the second floor, to the place where obsolete media drift into oblivion - at least, that’s what happened to the scratchy old LPs. Our more precious & rare video works are still going to be with the rest of the DVD & 16mm print collection, at Media Services.  While we’ve been shifting these stacks around, we’ve been unearthing some interesting titles of note:  

- “The Bloods of ‘Nam” Frontline’s documentary on African American soldiers’ experiences in the Vietnam War - very intense interview footage.. HC VIDEO 123

- “Future Safe” a 12 minute lecture made by the Union of Concerned Scientists from cold-war era slides pleading policymakers toward the path of nuclear arms reduction.  (this one has a wonderfully ‘dated’ warbly synthesizer soundtrack!) HC VIDEO 096

- “Fuses” Carolee Schneeman’s joyful, notorious experimental erotic short film features quaint blasts of tumbling aroused genitalia in washes of abstract psychedelic color & film scratches.  Our old VHS print is definitely in better shape than the version you can see on UBUWEB, so get closer to the real thing in VHS!  HC VIDEO 177

More picks from our green box collection to come!  

-Young

Retrophotography.  So Hot Right Now.

Heard of computational retrophotography? It’s bigger than Bieber these days (in some circles). It’s blending two pics, both taken from the exact same spot using (nearly) the exact same settings, one taken today and the other taken some time ago. The result is a pic that shows the modern day with a ghosted past laid overtop. Pretty cool. Sure you could fake it onto anything or any one pic with photoshop, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

Wicked smaart people at MIT have designed the prototype of an app for your computer (and eventually, future cameras) that will guide you in taking an exact copy of any old pic, from the same spot using the same settings. Crazy.

Check out historypin (collects old photos, matches them with others of the same location throughout history). Then dig more of Sergey Larenkov’s (seen above) retrophotos.   

-hart 

Hoffman On | Winter’s Bone and Micmacs.

Sometimes it’s good to see a really raw, depressing, and bleak movie. It does the mind good. Movies that try to make me happy I resist. I saw Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s new film Micmacs the other day, and all its charm was off-putting. The movie seemed to be telling me that sometimes bad shits happens, but people can still be happy and eccentric, or whatever you want to call it. But it seems to me that it’s more likely that when a group of misfits such as the one in Micmacs is forced to live in a dump, for whatever reason, they’re probably not going to be very happy and in particular they’re not going to be charming. But perhaps they’re all abnormal, and that’s the point I’m missing. 

At any rate, the cast of characters in Winter’s Bone is not totally unlike the misfits of Micmacs, except they’re pretty thoroughly downtrodden by their conditions. Winter’s Bone is set in a part of Missouri where all the men seem to work in meth labs, abuse drugs and their wives, and generally have rather cold dispositions. The women all seemed locked in terrible relationships and are burdened with children hey had at a young age. The facial expressions are grim. Ree Dolly is a young girl of 17 who takes care of her younger siblings because her mother’s not all there. When she hears that her missing father put up their house for bail, she has to find him.

With this objective set, Winter’s Bone plays out like a detective film transplanted to rural Missouri. Dolly’s investigation involves speaking to a range of figures, all dismal and all discouraging, about her father’s whereabouts. These interactions, by themselves, were all fascinating and heavy and I had the sense that violence could have erupted at any moment (and sometimes it did). But together, they seemed a little rote (my colleague at media services remarked that the movie seemed a little bit like a white-trash version of Zelda, with Dolly getting sent around on different investigative quests). 

Eventually, though, Winter’s Bone seemed less like a forced police procedural, and I became interested in what motivated these characters. They seemed too flat, almost – all the men were drug dealers and victimizers, the woman all victims of bad husbands and general misfortune. But I began to realize that there was more too it than that, especially as Dolly’s uncle, Teardrop, became more central to the film. The tough exterior of all the characters – the men and women – is really just that: an exterior. There are no melodramatic emotions in Winter’s Bone, but just enough nuance is show to suggest that the characters are actually very complex. 

Anyway, after some very climactic and intense sequences, Winter’s Bone ends on a slightly light note. Movies that effectively move us – whether towards happiness or sadness – ought to have a little bit of both. Micmacs fails because the tragedies that befall its main character never seem to move him, other than to embark on a farcical adventure. Winter’s Bone succeeds because Dolly does persevere in the face of a lot of depressing and dark shit, but she does it with an appropriate frown on her face.

-Dan Hoffman, is a recent hamp grad who loves film.