Impossible Voyage

Airplane! (1980)

2012-03-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

Title: Airplane!
Release Date: 2 July 1980
Directed by: Jim Abraham, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Starring: Leslie Nielsen, Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Robert Stack, Peter Graves
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/
My Rating: (7/10) ★★★★★★★✩✩✩

I'm ashamed to say I'd never seen this movie before. The fact that it had been on my radar all my life is no excuse. I'll admit I dismissed it partially due to not understanding the appeal of Leslie Nielsen and also due to the love my parents and grandparents seemed to have for it. That made it an *old* film in my mind and my appreciation of comedy was far more in tune and sophisticated than theirs. So last night I watched it for the first time. And this morning I watched it for the second time. Genius!

I love so much what ZAZ did here by casting these serious actors of the genre in these satiric roles. That alone elevates the film and gives it this classic quality. I also understand Leslie Nielsen a bit more now than I used to and actually began to appreciate his deadpan delivery. Knowing he was not trying to be a comic actor helped a lot. The cameos were awesome, especially the cameos by Ethel Merman (in her last film) and Barbara Billingsley as a Jive talking middle aged woman.

I must admit though, much of the references do not stand the test of time. Though the gags still have impact, the social commentary they are making feels a little empty. That simply comes from being 32 years old and out of context.

Man cannot survive on Woody Allen alone

2012-03-12T19:03:00.001-07:00

I'm branching out!

September (1987)

2012-03-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

Title: September
Release Date: 18 December 1987
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Mia Farrow, Elaine Stritch, Dianne Wiest, Sam Waterston
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093940/
My Rating: (8/10) ★★★★★★★★✩✩

"Life is too short to dwell on our tragedies"

September was intended to be like a filmed play, thus there is only one location and a small cast of characters. Perhaps this is also why there is a touch of melodrama running throughout the piece and a very theatrical way about each of the characters. Elaine Stritch as an old Broadway star, of course gets a free pass. But the rest find themselves again and again in situations where whispers or screams are more appropriate than natural conversation. To the credit of the film though, the quietest scenes are the most engaging and Mia Farrow strikes a chord as a lonely woman recovering from a suicide attempt.

The most interesting thing about this film to me is that it was actually filmed twice. Woody Allen, so dissatisfied with the first attempt, recast a few roles and tried it again. Perhaps in this way it is most like a stage production.

Chronicle (2012)

2012-02-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

Title: Chronicle
Release Date: 3 February 2012
Directed by: Josh Trank
Starring: Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan, Alex Russell
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706593/
My Rating: (7/10) ★★★★★★★✩✩✩

Josh Trank creatively and comically weaves together a found footage tale of teenage angst that, under less visionary leadership, could have been a confusing mess. But here, with complete commitment to the aesthetic and adequate time spent developing major far-fetched plot devices, Chronicle does what most found footage films can only hope to do: make you believe both the impossible scenarios and the implausible camera set ups. Couple this with Dane DeHaan's spot-on performance (making you feel for the character even though most of the time he is relegated to off camera VO's or extreme closeups), and you got a winning combo.

Haywire (2012)

2012-02-05T22:51:00.000-08:00

Title: Haywire
Release Date: 20 January 2012
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Antonia Banderas, Michael Fassbender
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1506999/
My Rating: (5/10) ★★★★★✩✩✩✩✩

Maybe I wanted to hate it the moment I found out they digitally altered Gina Carano's voice to be lower because they wanted the actress to have more depth. Or maybe I wanted to hate it because it was the biggest waste of an all-star male cast since The Departed (if Michael Douglas had more than two lines I didn't hear them). But if you can overlook the fact that the lead character sounds like she's speaking in a vacuum the whole time (which does NOTHING for immersion), or the fact that Ewan McGregor bears a striking resemblance to Kiefer Sutherland, then you'll be pretty entertained with a few of the ass-kicking sequences...even though the film was a poor man's SALT in terms of production value. I do regard it as also a rich man's SALT in the fact that I didn't have to sit through two hours of Angelina Jolie. And you know this script went to her first. Maybe then I would have paid more attention to Michael Douglas.

Man On A Ledge (2012)

2012-02-05T22:35:00.000-08:00

Title: Man on a Ledge
Release Date: 27 January 2012
Directed by: Asger Leth
Starring: Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568338/
My Rating: (6/10) ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩

My legs felt stiff every time the camera exploited the fact that Sam Worthington was on a ledge. Which, as it is the central device of the film, was quite often. But we're not here to discuss my fear of heights or my fear of ever seeing Elizabeth Banks in a lead role ever again (love you on 30 Rock girl). Since it is, on the surface, a movie about a man trying to prove his innocence I find it to be a gaping, overlooked plot hole that he had to go about proving that innocence in many illegal ways. But whatever, it's a jewelry heist film. But it's also a quirky buddy comedy in which the Latin girlfriend is actually referred to as a Chihuahua at one point and says spanish curse words a lot (because, hey that's what Latinas do when they're emotional). But don't you dare take her hot pink bra and panties away from her in the middle of a jewel bust or shit is gonna go down.

Jamie Bell is cute though.

The Woman in Black (2012)

2012-02-05T22:13:00.000-08:00

Title: The Woman in Black
Release Date: 3 February 2012
Directed by: James Watkins
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596365/
My Rating: (5/10) ★★★★★✩✩✩✩✩

It's a curious situation to be completely on edge during a film in which absolutely nothing is happening. Sometimes the mark of a good director, if discussed in terms of his ability to build tension out of thin air. But in this case, where nothing was happening in terms of plot and character development, I can't help but cast the blame on the frequent jump cuts for exposing that nothing was actually happening while casting a furrowed brow at the man at the helm. So James Watkins, consider this my personal correspondence. In your next film, I hope you steer clear of the jump cut + loud clang method of scaring an audience. You've used up all your freebies for years to come. May your next effort rely on a subtler, more psychological approach. I bet you'd be good at it, as there were hints throughout this film. But too much is too much and the next film you direct I'm bringing ear muffs just in case.

Radio Days (1987)

2012-01-09T23:23:00.000-08:00

Title: Radio Days
Release Date: 30 January 1987
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Seth Green, Julie Kavner, Dianne Wiest
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093818/
My Rating: (7/10) ★★★★★★★✩✩✩

(note william h. macy)

Woody Allen narrates and a young Seth Green stars in this love poem to radio programming. The tale centers around Joe, whose childhood is influenced, shaped and directed by whats happening on the radio. The radio is a source for community. It is simultaneously entertainment, news and romance. It brings families together (a touching vignette about a girl falling down a well hits rather unexpectedly and quite poignantly) and tears people asunder (Mia Farrow plays Sally, a woman who's about to get her big radio break the moment they announce Pearl Harbor). In all, a funny and quick film. Nothing about this film packs too heavy a punch, but it is notable for the simple fact that Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton appear together for the only time. Additionally, the pacing is quick and the dialogue will be familiar to anyone who grew up with a large family.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

2012-01-09T20:49:00.000-08:00

Title: Hannah and Her Sisters
Release Date: 07 February 1986
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey, Dianne Wiest, Michael Caine
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091167/
My Rating: (6/10) ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩

"For all my education, accomplishments and so-called wisdom, I can't fathom my own heart."

My favorite Woody Allen film thus far has been Interiors. That stunning tale of three sisters naturally had me excited to revisit the dynamic of three with this film. Needless to say, knowing very little about the plot I was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, the comedy felt forced and it didn't quite land for me. Narration is always a tricky beast, and here I think it's a little too on-the-nose and meant to spoon feed the audience. Additionally, the characters are each so self absorbed they bordered on caricature and I found it difficult to watch each of these caricatures attempt to have meaningful dialogue with other caricatures. Which is ultimately a shame because, for all the bravado and neurosis, there are a few great moments here--namely the argument between Hannah's parents and also Mia Farrow's interaction with her own real-life mother Maureen O'Sullivan.

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

2012-01-09T17:54:00.000-08:00

Title: The Purple Rose of Cairo
Release Date: 09 May 1985
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Dianne Wiest
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089853/
My Rating: (8/10) ★★★★★★★★✩✩

This is a truly enchanting movie set in 1930's New Jersey. Mia Farrow plays Cecilia, the dissatisfied wife to Danny Aiello's abusive, unemployed creep. She spends most of her time at the movies, alone, and has seen The Purple Rose of Cairo five times. Jeff Daniels plays a dual role here; First he's the dapper Tom Baxter, supporting character in the film-within-the-film and then he's Gil Shepherd, the actor who plays Tom Baxter. When Tom literally comes out of the screen and whisks Cecilia away on an adventure, the producers of the film are called in to help track him down. Thus begins a sweet story of love, itself tracking along blurred lines of reality and fiction. Will Cecilia choose impossible romance or will she choose reality?

Farrow gives a great performance, at times really masquerading as the female Woody Allen (who does not appear in this film). Glenne Headley and Dianne Wiest, though each in minor roles, are also especially noteworthy. But this film belongs to Jeff Daniels who plays both characters with astute comic reserve and the right amount of gusto.

Broadway Danny Rose (1984)

2012-01-01T18:27:00.000-08:00

Title: Broadway Danny Rose
Release Date: 27 January 1984
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Nick Apollo Forte
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087003/
My Rating: (7/10) ★★★★★★★✩✩✩

Woody Allen stars as Broadway Danny Rose, a theatrical manager for a string of really bad talent. His only semi-talented act, Lou Canova, is a washed-up has-been who is cheating on his wife with hardened floozie Tina, played deliciously by Mia Farrow. In order to keep Lou happy, Danny agrees to pick up Tina in Jersey and bring her to what promises to be Lou's make-or-break show. What ensues is a comical string of events that pit Danny against the mob who are seeking blood vengeance because they believe he's having an affair with Tina. In the end, a touching tale of forgiveness emerges with much to say on friendship, success and devotion. A fine flick with great comic moments.

Zelig (1983)

2012-01-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

Title: Zelig
Release Date: 15 July 1983
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086637/
My Rating: (9/10) ★★★★★★★★★✩

In the time it took to edit Zelig, Woody Allen filmed The Purple Rose of Cairo and Broadway Danny Rose. Being a mockumentary set in the 20's and 30's, the visual effects are so intricately woven and elemental to the storytelling in Zelig that it's no wonder it took a year to complete post. Let's remember this was before Final Cut, so the simple fact that the tricks are very rarely seen is a phenomenal feat and a testament to the talent of the technical artists working on the film.

Zelig is an allegorical representation of the same theme that pervades Woody Allen's work-("God is dead; life has no meaning; man is a lonely speck in a vast, impersonal void" - Mark Shechner). Thematically, Allen does not stride too far from his safe zone here but because he usually treats his subject so literally and openly, there is deep satisfaction found in watching Zelig. You see the content, though matured, is the same but the context is much more wildly imagined (Zelig is a man who, afraid of not fitting in with those around him, has the ability to literally change physicality and become like those he's with--when he's with Frenchmen, he becomes French; when he's near a mariachi band he becomes a mariachi). The personal preoccupations at the root of this story can easily be identified as trademark Woody Allen, but the style and treatment are new and thus we get a vastly more complex glimpse into the mind of Allen. Wildly funny as a satire and intricately complex, this is one of my favorites.

From NYTimes Original Review (by Vincent Canby)
Zelig which opens today at the Beekman Theater, is Woody Allen's triumph. It's one more demonstration that he, rather than any of his more conventional, mainstream contemporaries, is the premier American film maker of his day.

Woody Allen's Lovable Anxious Schlemiels by Sanford Pinsker

2012-01-01T08:11:00.000-08:00

Click here for a wonderful article that explores the line between Woody Allen and his comic persona. It's astounding how difficult it is to separate the two in Allen's case, perhaps because he so perfectly looks the part he plays. The above picture is my favorite and chosen because I think he looks super sexy.

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982)

2011-09-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
Release Date: 16 July 1982
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Mary Steenburgen, Jose Ferrer
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084329/

My Rating: (3/10) ★★★✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

I have tried to force myself to get through this movie three separate times, and on each occasion my mind wanders and I find myself thoroughly bored. This was the first Woody Allen film I ever tried to watch, and now that I'm examining his career I understand we got off to a very bad start. The combination of Mary Steenburgen and Mia Farrow is deadly, not to mention the rest of the neurotic ensemble in mostly period clothes, brooding about their philosophical troubles while doing their best Woody Allen impressions. Jose Ferrer is especially irritating. There are no sympathetic characters and no one to root for. It aims to be a quirky sex farce, but the pacing is off and the comedy doesn't land. The only redeemable quality is getting to see Woody Allen ride a flying bike.

While important in the examination of Allen's canon, at least for the simple fact that it was the first time he worked both in an ensemble cast and with Mia Farrow, this is my least favorite of his films to date.

Stardust Memories (1980)

2011-09-04T02:43:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Stardust Memories
Release Date: 26 September 1980
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081554/

My Rating: (9/10) ★★★★★★★★★✩

A complex and multi-faceted look inside the mind of a successful film director, stunted by his own early success and experiencing the loss of his own anonymity. This film explores, in a metatheatrical way, the sycophantic nature of the public who throughout the film declare their love and adoration for Sandy Bates (Allen), constantly interrupting his life and shining flashbulbs in his face at the most inopportune times. Meanwhile, the studio execs for Sandy's next film are determined to change the ending and make it more commercial. The film, they say, suffers from too much reality and "reality is not what the public wants." Ultimately, the film shows that unless you figure out a way to blind yourself to the insurmountable negatives in this world, your life will ultimately be meaningless.

Brilliantly shot in black and white, the photography is outstanding and unique. Creative wide shots tell a much greater story than the closeups other directors might have chosen, and Woody works with a mostly new cast of collaborators. Of particular note, Charlotte Rampling as Dorrie.

It's interesting to watch his films mature though it is hard to believe him when he says they aren't autobiographical.

Manhattan (1979)

2011-08-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Manhattan
Release Date: 25 April 1979
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079522/
My Rating: (7/10) ★★★★★★★✩✩✩

Thought this film was delightful and appreciated the true mature sensibility present in Woody's acting. Here he plays Isaac, a 42 year old man dating a 17 year old (played by Mariel Hemingway). At first, I thought Mariel Hemingway was dreadful but she soon grew on me as the youngest person in Isaac's circle and the only voice of reason. Diane Keaton shines again, as does Meryl Streep who plays a lesbian, over-the-shoulder-hair enthusiast. Obviously a love poem about NYC, perhaps it did not pack quite the emotional punch I was expecting post-Interiors and Annie Hall. Delightful, but ultimately not one of my favorites.

Interiors (1978)

2011-08-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Interiors
Release Date: 2 August 1978
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Diane Keaton, Mary Beth Hurt, Kristin Griffith, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077742/
My Rating: (9/10) ★★★★★★★★★✩

This film touched me on a profoundly deep level. Woody Allen's first foray into drama is the startling story of three sisters coping with their emotionally unstable mother after their father walks out on her. Diane Keaton as the older sister is reserved and nuanced, yet reveals a world of emotion boiling just beneath the surface. Mary Beth Hurt as the younger sister left with the day-to-day burden of caring for their mother gives an incredibly honest performance while Geraldine Page as the matriarch is beautifully imperfect and gives a performance always rooted in her profound love for her husband, never in the cliches of mental anxiety.

Heavily influenced by the films of Bergman, this film consists of beautifully composed shots full of symbols and double meanings. It's a quiet film, where the soundtrack to the film really helps tell the story--I'm talking the ambient noise here. There are startling moments in the sound design that really support the powerful images and story. My favorite Woody Allen film yet!

Woody Speaking about Interiors

Annie Hall (1977)

2011-08-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Annie Hall
Release Date: 20 April 1977
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Paul Simon, Christopher Walken
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075686/
My Rating: (9/10) ★★★★★★★★★✩

"You know how you're always trying to get things to come out perfect in art because it's so difficult in life"

Originally titled Anhedonia, or the inability to find pleasure from normally pleasurable events, this movie follows Alvy Singer (Allen) in his failed relationship with Annie Hall. Diane Keaton turns in a strong performance but, for me, this movie belongs to Woody Allen. For the first time in his body of work I saw a mature, deeply complex protagonist. His character as a complex, multi-faceted everyman. As me. Someone who has a tendency to sabotage their own happiness, yet lacks the true self awareness to see that he is clearly the cause of his own displeasure. Annie says to Alvy late in the film "You're incapable of enjoying life. You're like NYC, you're like this person, you're like this island unto yourself..." and then tells him "You know how wonderful you are...you're the reason that I got out of my room, that I was able to sing, get more in touch with my feelings..." This succinct summation of a person's ability to encourage happiness in others while prohibiting their own is a profound revelation to me. It's lovely how it is mirrored in Alvy's suggesting of an analyst, college courses, and certain books to Annie and then being left behind by her enlightenment in these areas.

Technically, the long shots are beautifully and creatively composed and help the audience to get lost in the story. I only counted one instance that made me want to stab my eyes out (about fifteen minutes into the film Tony Roberts and Woody have a lengthy dialogue which begins with them so unidentifiably in the background of a wide shot. This shot holds as it takes them at least 45 seconds to come into frame. They slowly travel to camera but just trying to read the shot for the first half of the scene pulled me out of the film).

The stories are true! This film marks the beginning of a more mature era of filmmaking for Woody Allen. Deeply complex, boldly personal, and quite touching on many levels.

Woody Allen Interview, 1971

2011-08-29T01:30:00.000-07:00

The first part of a 4 part interview with Woody Allen that I adore

The first part of Woody's 1965 appearance on Johnny Carson

An on-the-set interview with Woody Allen while he was filming Sleeper

Love and Death (1975)

2011-08-29T01:22:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Love and Death
Release Date: 10 June 1975
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, James Tolkan
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073312/
My Rating: (5/10) ★★★★★✩✩✩✩✩

"I was walking through the woods thinking about Christ. If he was a carpenter I wonder what he charged for bookshelves..." Woody Allen is a neurotic soldier in Czarist Russia, a pacifist, and haplessly in love with his 2nd cousin (twice removed). Together they formulate a plot to kill Napoleon but the true story lies in the courtship of Sonja by Woody Allen's nervous Boris Grushenko. Together, these cousins philosophize as sport and challenge each other's world views. It's no wonder Boris falls for his cousin.

In the chronology of Woody Allen films, this holds a bizarre place. His next film, hailed as the first film from a more mature filmmaker, will win the academy award while his last five films were all jam-packed-with-as-many-jokes-as-they-can-handle comedies. Love and Death perhaps shows a softer side of Allen, content not to lay it on so thick. He actually speaks directly to the camera in several moments of the film and it seems in these sequences Woody himself is struggling to exhibit the meaning in his film. Showing the audience that there is a deeper level here, not just the comic but also the tragic. That they are connected, do not exist without each other. And while this film doesn't quite work for me (though some of my favorite lines are here), in the context of the greater whole this dissatisfaction with making light, comic films devoid of "meaning" will lead to much greater things.

Sleeper (1973)

2011-08-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the films of Woody Allen)

Title: Sleeper
Release Date: 17 December 1973
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070707/
My Rating: (8/10) ★★★★★★★★✩✩

Woody Allen directs Diane Keaton for the first time. She turns in a kooky, high energy performance and, surprisingly, I'd never realized she was such a beauty in her younger years. [Side note, film is a playground for any fantasy you can dream up so why NOT dream up a world in which the lovable loser wins the pretty girl in the end. It's the dream we all have of getting what we want that we feel we miss out on.] I must say I am enjoying this journey through Woody Allen's early films because more than anything it contextualizes his neurotic side. I find him endearing in his younger days, embodying the inept social nitwit that we all must feel is hiding inside of us. I enjoyed this film in particular because as a director he continues to play--doing what he does so well but unafraid to let it live and breathe in a variety of different genres. Here, science fiction. You have to be a confident director to spoof such a unique genre and nail it masterfully. And knowing that his confident mastery is hidden behind his neurotic persona makes it all a bit more meaningful. I know his films mature in the next few years, and I'm eager to see the growth, but with such a large body of work it's good to know there are at least half a dozen films where all he seemed to care about was making an audience laugh.

*It's also interesting to note that Joel Schumacher designed the costumes for this film.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*but were afraid to ask) (1972)

2011-08-28T04:31:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the Films of Woody Allen)

Title: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex* (*but were afraid to ask)
Release Date: 6 August 1972
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Lynn Redgrave, John Carradine
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068555/
My Rating: (8/10) ★★★★★★★★✩✩

Directing seven vignettes about sex, each edging toward perversion in some way, seems like it would be a wet dream for Woody Allen. Its obvious his sexually dark mind comes in handy with this work because each vignette is twisted while remaining stylistically clear, thematically consistent, and funny (okay, to varying degrees but each lands in some way). Highlights are the first vignette in which Allen plays a court jester who gets his hand stuck inside the Queen's chastity belt and the last vignette which takes place inside the brain/body of a man who is about to have sex with his date for the first time. For someone like me, looking back on Allen's career and trying to keep it in perspective, you can really see the burgeoning of a very masterful storyteller. It was refreshing to see each vignette look and feel so different while somehow managing to keep the very distinct Woody Allen style of comedy that he is known for. Pulling off a Fellini inspired short while treading the waters of Lake Neurosis seems like it could be very tricky to navigate, but Woody Allen does so skillfully and seemingly with little effort.

Bananas (1971)

2011-08-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the Films of Woody Allen)

Title: Bananas
Release Date: 28 April 1971
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalban
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066808/
My Rating: (6/10) ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩

While generally sustaining the comedic tone throughout, parts of this movie feel too contrived to laugh at. Woody Allen's third feature as director follows the life of Fielding Mellish, a lovable loser who becomes president of San Marcos after his girlfriend Nancy (Louise Lasser) tells him he needs to be more of a leader. Woody Allen really begins to shapethat nervous character he's known for playing, and that may be the greatest success of this film. His neuroses are endearing, and at times he is quite attractive.

As a whole the shots are usually funny and interesting and a lot of the sequences are hysterical (special mention to the breakup scene between Nancy & Fielding which seems like it could have been improvised), but not everything lands the way it may have been intended. I watched a four part interview with Woody Allen on youtube, shot right after Bananas was released, and I found that to be much more entertaining. But perhaps that's the big joke?

Take the Money and Run (1969)

2011-08-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the Films Of Woody Allen)

Title: Take the Money and Run
Release Date: 18 August 1969
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Janet Margolin
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065063/

My Rating: (8/10) ★★★★★★★★✩✩

Three years after his directorial debut, Woody Allen came back with his next film--the first film in which he wrote, directed and also starred. He plays Virgil Starkwell, an inept petty thief who goes to prison for unsuccessfully robbing a bank. The film is a hilarious mockumentary style film told through "old footage", voice overs and interviews. It's easy to see the comic genius of Allen, flourishing often and especially in my two favorite sequences--A) when Virgil finds himself chained to five other prisoners attempting to make a daring prison escape. "I'm not with them, I wanna stay!" B) When young Virgil plays cello in the marching band.

I've never really been into Woody Allen before, but I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Janet Margolin as Virgil's devoted and innocent wife was sweet and fantastic and I look forward to seeing more from Woody, who's neuroses actually came across as endearing this time around.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065063/

What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

2011-08-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

(Traveling through the Films Of Woody Allen)

Title: What's Up, Tiger Lily?
Release Date: 2 November 1966
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Tatsuya Mihashi, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061177/
My Rating: (6/10) ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩

I'm starting with Woody Allen films so I had to watch his very first directorial effort, which is a pre-existing Japanese spy film overdubbed with an Allen penned comedic script. He rearranges scenes to suit his new narrative and dubs in voices of his friends (our hero, Japanese spy Phil Moscowitz is on a mission to find the world's best egg-salad recipe). There is even a gratuitous strip tease at the end which hints at Woody Allen's slightly perverted side. I'm giving the film six stars because of social context--though it wasn't a film I especially enjoyed, I can see what's funny about it and how some might find it side splitting. The conceit is well done, and Allen usually avoids the obvious joke, which is noteworthy.

Change of Course...

2011-08-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

I started chronologically and ended at 1908. It's been more than a year since I've posted, so obviously I need a new plan. So I've decided to explore what I love--directing. I will be watching films clumped by director.

1908 - El Hotel Electrico

2010-06-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

El Hotel Electrico set to music by Burial

Title: El Hotel Electrico
Release Date: 19 December 1908
Directed by: Segundo de Chomon
Starring: Segundo de Chomon, Julienne Mathieu
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000516/
My Rating: (10/10) ★★★★★★★★★★

Do yourself a favor and watch this flick! This film solidifies Segundo de Chomon as one of my favorite directors of the early 1900s (that's him as the lead role by the way, what a fox!). Obsessed with trick photography, music, dancing, beautiful women & optical illusion his films are all so beautifully hand colored and just so fucking charming (in Bob's Electric Theatre, with really great stop motion photography, he has two granny dolls kicking the crap out of each other. Hilarious!).

OTHER FILMS BY SEGUNDO DE CHOMON THAT I HAVE SEEN
The Pearl Fisherman (dir. Ferdinand Zecca / cinematography by Chomon) (1904)
The Hen that Laid the Golden Egg (dir. Gaston Valle / cinematography by Chomon) (1905)
L'ecrin du Raja (dir. Gaston Valle / special fx by Chomon) (1906)
Bob's Electric Theatre (1906)
Les Roses Magique (1906)
Box of Cigars (1907)
Les Kiriki (1907)
Satan s'amuse (1907)
Excursion en la Luna (1908)
Sculpteur Moderne (1908)
Les Lunatiques (1908)

19?? - A Woman's Vengeance

2010-06-08T00:06:00.000-07:00

Title: A Woman's Vengeance
Release Date: Sometime between 1916-1934
Directed by: Harry Moody
Starring: Fritzi Ridgeway, the girl with a thousand personalities
IMDB: none
My Rating: (5/10) ★★★★★✩✩✩✩✩

Basic plot. Woman's father receives a note saying there's a piece of land with gold on it, and to come right away to stake his claim. Father goes, leaving the daughter behind with the brother and the smarmy neighbor. Father trusts the wrong people and gets shot on his journey. Daughter, who also happens to be an experienced gun slinger, vows revenge. Fritzi Ridgeway does a great job, though the film moves slow in some parts. She even does some pretty incredible stunts including taking a six foot plunge (at least), face first down a mountain. You go girl!

I was able to find very little written about this movie, which means I'm having to speculate most things. According to her wiki page, Fritzi worked between 1916-1934, so I can narrow the film down to that 18 years. She looks pretty young and fresh, so I'd venture to say it was filmed pre-1920. The title card says it was directed by Harry Moody, though his imdb page doesn't claim it.

1908 - A Christmas Carol

2010-06-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

Title: A Christmas Carol
Release Date: 1908
Directed by: Unknown
Starring: Tom Ricketts
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233449/
My Rating: (8/10) ★★★★★★★★✩✩

The first known film adaptation of Charles Dickens 1843 novella starred Tom Ricketts--a theatrically trained actor who was in nearly 200 films and directed almost 150. The seeds of Rickett's success as a great Shakespearean actor can perhaps be seen in a sequence here in which Ebenezer Scrooge, after being visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, experiences a bout of "want and misery".

Watching this today, what I found most interesting is the way the ghosts were handled. Every time a ghost would appear to Scrooge, the ghost would be double exposed giving of course a transparent look to the ghost. But what I thought was cool is that the entire memory itself would be double exposed on top of that, so there were often three layers working together to tell the story. I haven't ever seen the story told this way before, and it just made me smile to think of the meeting in which they come up with this idea. How proud they must have been.

OTHER CHRISTMAS FLICKS I JUST WATCHED

1898

Santa Claus and the Children - This film from the UK marks the first time our good friend Sanny Claus was depicted in film. To me he looks more like a sage, elderly wizard-boxer. I'm glad they fattened him up!

1905

The Night Before Christmas (dir. Thomas Edison) - This is the first time this poem by Clement Moore was ever filmed. My favorite sequence is when the title card appears "The Children Were Nestled All Snug in Their Beds..." and this happens:

1909

A Trap For Santa Claus (dir. DW Griffith) - I was only able to find the first 4 minutes of this 16 minute film online, but if that's any indication it seems amazing. Already, the father is a drunkard who is unemployed (hello my life). His wife is left at home raising his two manish daughters while he unsuccessfully tries to find work. At the top of the 4th minute, he's just left his wife and children from shame and the children have just hatched a plan to trap Santa Claus into coming to their house. I imagine it all ends well, and I'm really starting to love DW Griffith. BUT, I do believe his children were played by short women (possible nuggets) rather than actual children. Proof (the one on the right is supposed to be his daughter):

Title: The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus

Release Date: 19 December 1914
Filmed For: The Edison Studios
Starring: Barry O'Moore (Herbert Yost), Bliss Milford, John Sturgeon, Elsie MacLeod
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0227995/
My Rating: (7/10) ★★★★★★★✩✩✩

I really enjoyed this ten minute film about a burglar who dresses up as Santa Claus in order to steal a family's presents, and the Detective who catches him and then finds love with the family daughter. Apparently this was the 12th in the Octavius, Amateur Detective series. I'll have to remember to find the others.

I'd recap this movie, but I have discovered a hilarious recap already by Jordon Davis which you can find here!

1910 - The Unchanging Sea

2009-10-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

Title: The Unchanging Sea

Release Date: 5 May 1910
Directed by: DW Griffith
Starring: Arthur V. Johnson, Linda Arvidson, Mary Pickford
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0001431/
My Rating: (10/10) ★★★★★★★★★★

As I take my sojourn through cinematic history, I get very excited when I stumble upon a gem like The Unchanging Sea. I actually watched it for the first time about a week ago, and it's taken me this long to process why it touched me so deeply. First it's very simple...a very simple story of a woman who waits years and years for her husband to return after he leaves to earn a living on a fishing expedition. Unbeknownst to the woman, the husband has had an accident and has lost his memory. Meanwhile the couple's daughter grows up and finds a fisherman of her own, and the wife grows more and more weary at her husband's continued absence. But luckily, there's a happy ending indeed...

I think the reason it made such an impact on me is the fact that, for the first time I think, I felt effective passage of time utilized in cinema. You watch the wife age, you watch the daughter grow up, you watch the husband age. All of this plays out for the sake of the narrative, and that's something I don't think I've seen up to this point. Plus I have a great big soft spot for stories of people who sacrifice themselves to the torture of everlasting unrequited love. What a life I say.

This film was inspired by a poem by Charles Kingsley called The Three Fishers. Here's an excerpt from that poem: For men must work, and women must weep / And there's little to earn, and many to keep / Though the harbour bar be moaning.

------
other DW Griffith films I have watched

Those Awful Hats
The Sealed Room - This film is about a king who gets angry that his lover is having an affair with the court musician and so, when he finds her in a room with her conquest, he summons his servants and they seal the room up with bricks. This kind of reminds me of what that one chick did to Rafe on Days of our Lives last week
Corner in Wheat
His Trust: The Faithful Devotion and Self Sacrifice of an Old Negro Servant - This is the first time I have encountered black face on my quest. I'm sure there are a lot more instances to come though.

Resemblance?

2009-10-14T04:02:00.000-07:00

Chloe Sevigny

Linda Arvidson

Before the Nickelodeon - The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter

2009-10-08T00:57:00.000-07:00

Title: Before the Nickelodeon - The Early Cinema of Edwin Porter
Directed by: Charles Musser
Narrated by: Blanche Sweet
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083633/
My Rating: (5/10) ★★★★★✩✩✩✩✩

What I knew about Edwin Porter before watching this documentary: He was an incredibly prolific director--one of the first--who worked for Edison's company. He had a knack for film editing and helped to establish the narrative structure we are familiar with today through innovations in parallel editing. I also knew that, like Melies, he grew terribly out of fashion way before he was ready to put down the camera, and thereby lost not only his fortune but also his street cred.

As I'm kind of hovering at about 1906 in this film adventure of mine, I decided to pick up this documentary to sort of get a feel for Edwin Porter the gentleman. The innovator. 1906 was around about the time that people were starting to develop incredible technique, and Edwin Porter started to get left behind simply by over-utilizing the very tricks he created. People were tired of them and wanted more. This documentary includes an incredibly sad review of one of his later films Rescued From An Eagle's Nest where the New York Post (I believe) literally tears him to shreds.

Aside from this one moment, this doc does not really delve too deeply into Porter's life. But what this documentary lacks in detail, it tries to makes up for in the quality of print restoration for some of his more obscure films...particularly Rescued From An Eagle's Nest & Jack and the Beanstalk (which before it begins includes a set of sketches that, if they're indeed Porter's, are as INCREDIBLE a look into his process as Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth sketches).

1906 - Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

2009-10-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

Title: Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

Release Date: 7 April 1906

Director: J. Stuart Blackton

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000554/

My Rating: (10/10) ★★★★★★★★★★

This is truly a remarkable find. Six years after his 90 second film The Enchanted Drawing, J. Stuart Blackton brings to the cinema a series of 500-600 drawings photographed in sequence to make up the world's first animated spectacular. Only three minutes long and shot in stop motion, Blackton draws figures on a chalkboard which not only seem to come to life but, through special cutouts he created, run amok and do unexpected things. Lots of surprise live action here too with the cutouts, but also lots of exciting, whimsical animation (that Blackton himself would later call juvenile). It seems funny that, long before Disney, the man considered to be the grandfather of American animation was a Brit. But that's how those guys do. Blackton died penniless in the 40's after being hit by a bus.

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

The Enchanted Drawing (1900)

All in all, 1906 was a trippy year apparently. It seems that all the greatest movie makers must have been taking hallucinogenics otherwise how else could they explain the level of avant garde work they were producing. This was the year McCutcheon & Edwin Porter co directed the drug fueled Dream of a Rarebit Fiend and Georges Melies brought us The Merry Frolics of Satan, which was edgy even for Melies. Here are a few pictures...

The Merry Frolics of Satan (just listen to that title!)

Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (which we will discuss when we get to 1921)

1900 - 1905

2009-09-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

1905
La Presa di Roma (dir Filoteo Alberini)
Panorama of the Times Building in NYC (dir Wallace McCutcheon)
The Burglar's Slide of Life (dir Edwin S. Porter)
The Little Train Robbery (dir Edwin S. Porter)

1904
Westinghouse Works (dir GW "Billy" Bitzer)
The Great Train Robbery (remake by Siegmund Lubin)
Impossible Voyage (dir Georges Melies)
Buster Brown Series (dir Edwin S. Porter)

1900
Sherlock Holmes Baffled (dir Arthur Marvin)

Recognize this movie?

2009-09-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

Above is a still from the early comedy How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Colums Look familiar? ...could Edwin S. Porter's 1904 comedy be the inspiration for Gary Sinyor's gem of a movie, The Bachelor ? You decide.

1903 - Alice in Wonderland

2009-09-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

Title: Alice in Wonderland
Release Date: 17 October 1903
Director: Cecil Hepworth
Cast: May Clark, Mrs. Hepworth, Norman Whitten
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000420/fullcredits#cast
My Rating: (7/10) ★★★★★★★✩✩✩

This was such a treat to watch. With only 8 minutes of surviving footage left, this marks the first time Lewis Carroll's classic tale was put on film. You see magnificent costuming, special advancements in film cutting, and the occasional feat of trick photography to fully encapsulate the viewer in the strange tale of Alice, the girl who falls down the rabbit hole. Only here, the deck of cards are a group of school children and it's the cutest thing to see Alice chased by them.

Other 1903 Films I've Watched:

Directed by Paul Elfert
Henrettelsen (Capital Execution)

Directed by Thomas Edison
Electrocuting an Elephant
Immigrants Landing at Ellis Island
Move On

Directed by Edwin S. Porter
The Great Train Robbery
A Romance of the Rail
Life of an American Fireman
Street Car Chivalry
The Gay Shoe Clerk
The Messenger Boy's Mistake
The Unappreciated Joke
What Happened in the Tunnel

Directed by Georges Melies
Fairyland: A Kingdom of Fairies
The Infernal Cauldron
The Magic Lantern
The Melomaniac

1903 - The Great Train Robbery

2009-09-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

Title: The Great Train Robbery

Release Date: 1 December 1903

Director: Edwin Stanton Porter

Cast: AC Abadie, Gilbert M "Bronco Billy" Anderson, Marie Murray, Mary Snow, Justus D. Barnes, Frank Hanaway, Walter Cameron, John Manus Dougherty Sr.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000439/

My Rating: (10/10) ★★★★★★★★★★

Widely accepted as the first film to solidify the Western genre, The Great Train Robbery accomplished a lot more than that. I will quote Tim Dirks review because he really sums it up completely.

The film used a number of innovative techniques, many of them for the first time, including parallel editing, minor camera movement, location shooting and less stage-bound camera placement. Jump-cuts or cross-cuts were a new, sophisticated editing technique, showing two separate lines of action or events happening continuously at identical times but in different places. The film is intercut from the bandits beating up the telegraph operator (scene one) to the operator's daughter discovering her father (scene ten), to the operator's recruitment of a dance hall posse (scene eleven), to the bandits being pursued (scene twelve), and splitting up the booty and having a final shoot-out (scene thirteen). The film also employed the first pan shots (in scenes eight and nine), and the use of an ellipsis (in scene eleven). Rather than follow the telegraph operator to the dance, the film cut directly to the dance where the telegraph operator enters. It was also the first film in which gunshots forced someone to dance (in scene eleven) - an oft-repeated, cliched action in many westerns. And the spectacle of the fireman (replaced by a dummy with a jump cut in scene four) being thrown off the moving train was a first in screen history.

What I like most about this film is that it still carries with it the shock and entertainment that you have to imagine the early audiences were responding to. Gunfights, saloons, chase sequences, booty, trains, foot chases, senseless murder, a damsel in distress, an incredible final shot....it has everything a good western ougha have! And its only one reel long!

1901 - 1903

2009-09-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

1901 Terrible Teddy the Grizzly King (dir Edwin Stanton Porter)
1901 The Artist's Dilemma (dir Edwin Stanton Porter)
1901 Histoire d'un Crime (dir Ferdinand Zecca)
1903 Sky Scrapers of New York City from North River (dir Louis Lumiere)

1931 - The Cheat

2009-09-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

The last of my pre-code fix for a while

Title: The Cheat
Release Date: 26 November 1931
Director: George Abbott
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Harvey Stephens, Irving Pichel
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021735/
My Rating: (4/10) ★★★★✩✩✩✩✩✩

Only noteworthy for the scene in which slimeball Irving Pichel brands, yes BRANDS, Tallulah Bankhead. Seriously, how did this guy make a name for himself? He's just icky to look at. And since this is one of his earlier movies I'd think no one would cast him again.

1932 - Merrily We Go To Hell

2009-09-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Title: Merrily We Go To Hell
Release Date: 10 June 1932
Director: Dorothy Arzner
Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Fredric March, Adrienne Allen, George Irving, Cary Grant
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023213/
My Rating: (7/10) ★★★★★★★✩✩✩

At the tender age of 22, breathtaking Sylvia Sidney plays the hopeful innocent turned lonely wife of handsome Fredric March, here battling a severe drinking problem. It's Leaving Las Vegas with a happy ending and set in the theatre. March shows he can tackle comedy and drama with equal strength years before he was to win the first acting Tony. Sylvia Sidney, whose eyes say volumes, matches him with great gusto. Let us not forget Cary Grant in a very minor role, who you can tell by his presence and the way the camera loves him that he was destined for great things.

1933 - Torch Singer

2009-09-24T02:28:00.000-07:00

Still stuck in the pre-code Thirties with two more films to go...

Title: Torch Singer
Release Date: 8 September 1933
Director: Alexander Hall & George Somnes
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Ricardo Cortez, David Manners, Lyda Roberti
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024685/
My Rating: (4/10) ★★★★✩✩✩✩✩✩

Ultimately forgettable film with a largely implausible storyline and a tidy, blink-and-you'll-miss-it resolution. A few good moments if you like brazen women talking tough. The most delightful moments though come when Claudette Colbert plays two scenes opposite equally precious (but not at all precocious) little film starlets. These little girls (one of which goes entirely uncredited--guess which color!) were destined to be in movies and with very little effort completely steal the picture.

1932 - Hot Saturday

2009-09-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

Jumping ahead to 1932 because I needed a little Cary Grant in my life!!

Title: Hot Saturday
Release Date: 28 October 1932
Director: William A. Seiter
Cast: Cary Grant, Nancy Carroll, Randolph Scott, Edward Woods, Lillian Bond, William Collier Sr., Jane Darwell, Grady Sutton, Rose Coghlan
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023028/
My Rating: (6/10) ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩

Loving Cary Grant the way I do, it's always a pleasure to discover a forgotten, pre-code movie where Grant does what made him famous. Here, a young and pre-tan Cary Grant plays Romer Sheffield--a name that by no coincidence evokes a certain, young star crossed lover. But Grant made a career out of never being star crossed--certainly not! No, Cary Grant always gets the girl. Even if the girl happens to be the kind of girl everyone gossips about behind her back--a loose, immoral girl they say. But Ruth, played by the porcelain faced Nancy Carroll (whose career it seems was on the downward spiral forcing her to take second billing to newcomer Grant), is not really that kind of girl. She's just misunderstood. So what if she wakes up nude in the arms of her childhood friend turned fiance! In this small town, the gossip mill works overtime and when people spot her being driven home late at night by Romer's driver they begin talking. Naturally, within a couple of days Ruth's engagement to the simple and affable Bill Fadden (Randolph Scott) lies in ruins at her feet. Oh the lives Cary Grant has so dapperly and flirtatiously destroyed! How I wish he'd destroy mine. But I guess that's gross considering.

This film is light and mostly forgettable if not for Cary Grant. As far as I can gather, this is the film where Cary Grant met his long term partner and "roommate" Randolph Scott. That is a great reason to add it to your collection if nothing else! Also there's a hysterical and godawful tagline: ...when her cheating found her out she sought to make marriage cover her sins!

Finally, there's also a lounge performance of a great song "Burning for You" by a singer who i'd LOVE to know. I can't find her name anywhere, and apparently the song even went unpublished. I've captured it on video and will post a youtube clip at some point.

1902 - A Trip to the Moon

2009-09-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

Title: A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune)

Release Date: 4 October 1902

Director: Georges Melies

Cast: Victor Andre, Bleuette Bernon, Brunnet, Jeanne d'Alcy, Henri Delannoy, Depierre, Farjaut, Kelm, Georges Melies

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000417/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGZilAMKtgA

My Rating: (10/10) ★★★★★★★★★★

Georges Melies is often considered the first truly gifted director of film, and his body of work boasts over 500 films in twelve short years. One could publish a noteworthy blog just by dissecting his surviving work alone, so I'll be quick: I think I'm in love with Georges Melies.

It isn't just that his films were revolutionary, which they were. It isn't that he was a visionary and is largely responsible for helping film find its legs and then ultimately learn how to walk. None of that is why I declare him my artistic soul mate of Fin de Siecle France. I say KIN because he was highly revered in his youth and then widely forgotten in his old age. A magician and performer in the theatre before film came about, he was clearly inspired by the vastness of what film could be and began to create films with a keen eye for both production and storytelling. He wrote, designed, directed, acted and shot the films himself, all the while having several other films ready or in the works. His output was steady and his aesthetic was fantastically ghoulish, though he managed to somehow fuse it with a sense of whimsy and delight. Just watching his films, you see the artisan he was and the methodical magician's mind behind the trick photographer. Watch a Melies film and you'll see a person clearly enchanted by a new form of expression and soaring limitless because of it.

This went on for years before Melies slowly started to go out of fashion. As film changed, it left this mustachioed magician behind. His giant, fantastic sets. His detailed and, when taken out of context, profoundly silly props. As film moved toward realism in the mid teens, Melies's career suffered. No one wanted their films gigantic with out of this world sillyness. They wanted them gigantic with real world scenery. The fiction and theatrics were left to the stage, a greater sense of realism was adopted, and Melies was edged out.

Before any of that though, he directed a fantastic piece called La Voyage dans la Lune. Depending on which speed you watch this film at, it clocks in anywhere between eight and fourteen minutes. In that short time you'll see Melies's cast of characters build a rocket ship, leave earth, land on the moon (in not one but TWO vastly different sequences played consecutively), battle moon creatures, fall from the heavens, land at the bottom of the ocean, and possibly get rescued at the end of it all (I won't spoil it). The scope of the design, when watched beside other films of the day, is massively impressive and the commitment to the fantasy on the part of everyone is laudable. A standout from the Melies catalog.

Other films by George Melies I have seen up through 1902

1896 - La Manoir du Diable (dir Georges Melies)
1896 - Une Nuit Terrible (dir Georges Melies)
1898 - La Lune a un Metre (dir Georges Melies)
1898 - Tentation de Saint-Antoine (dir Georges Melies)
1898 - Un Home de Tetes (dir Georges Melies)
1899 - Cendrillon (dir Georges Melies)
1899 - Illusioniste fin de siecle (dir Georges Melies)
1899 - Jeanne Darc (dir Georges Melies)
1900 - L'homme Orchestre (dir Georges Melies)

1895 - L'Arroseur Arrose

2009-09-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

If I could go back in time, one of the first places I'd stop by is Paris in December 1895 at the Salon Indien du Grand Cafe. I would go to the first public screening of August & Louis Lumiere's first ten films made with their wonderful new Cinematograph (this must be counted as the first film festival!). Of the ten films they screened, my favorite & I think the most noteworthy is L'Arroseur Arrose. It's the classic tale, which actually came from a comic strip, of a gardener tending to his crops. Behind him, a young boy sneaks up and steps on his water hose cutting off the flow of water. The gardener cannot figure out what is amiss and stares deep into the garden hose. That is when the boy delightfully chooses to let his foot off the hose and WHOOMP! Splash face!

Noteworthy not only because this is the first comedy film, but most agree this is also the first fiction film of all time! All of this of course is Fantastique! but let us not overlook the fact that with L'Arroseur Arrose, Louis Lumiere also undoubtedly created the world's first spanking fetish film! Bears and leather daddies everywhere, please take a pause for reflection.

The other films screened at the first public showing all directed by Louis Lumiere.

1895 - La Sortie de l'Usine Lumiere a Lyon (Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory)
1895 - La Voltige (Horse Trick Riders)
1895 - La Peche aux Poissons Rouges (Fishing for Goldfish)
1895 - Le Debarquement du Congres de Photographie a Lyon (The Photographical Congress Arrives in London)
1895 - Les Forgerons (The Blacksmiths)
1895 - Repas de Bebe (Baby's Breakfast)
1895 - La Saut a la Couverture (Jumping onto a Blanket)
1895 - Place des Cordeliers a Lyon (Cordeliers Square in Lyon)
1895 - La Mer (The Sea)
1895 - L'Arrivee d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat (The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station)

Edison

2009-09-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

Lets talk Edison! This is a tricky post to craft considering cinema sprouted from France, America, & Germany simultaneously (and Russia and Italy and so on), but is commonly attributed by the casual consumer only to T-Ed. Edison though, highly paranoid no doubt (later in life he typically did not invent the machines he patented) and possibly affected by reading his own press, was fiercely protective of his copyrights and spent his time and considerable fame and fortune edging other production companies out of business. But History, that harsh and honking Uhaul Truck of time, has shined its glaring headlights on the matter. Hopefully today, we the people of America can agree that possibly, just maybe, somehow we may not be the only ones responsible for moving pictures.

With that being said, I do recommend watchng as many of these Kinetoscope and early Vitascope pictures as possible. They are an incredible way of going back in time without leaving your laptop. A large quantity of them are "actualities" which is a fancy old guy word for documentary. But that's what is so fascinating! You can watch a Sioux Indian tribe do a Ghost Dance (which, recorded in 1894, marks the first time the Native American was captured in cinema) or you can watch the first screen kiss EVER--highly scandalous though be prepared--in May Irwin Kiss. Largely free of narrative constraint, most of these gems clock in around 30-60 seconds. All of these are free to watch and download. I have watched most of them but ya'll there's a lot.

A complete alphabetical list of surviving Edison films.

Introductions

2009-09-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd introduce myself in a bit more detail, so here I am! This photo was taken on my fourth birthday. In case you didn't notice the AMAZING train cake behind me, please take a moment to stare in awe. This was a cake in four parts, each train car connected with sugar icing. I said it on facebook and I'm going to say it here...This was a pivotal point in my life to get this cake. I mean as an artist. To understand that this one cake could come in four parts later helped me appreciate the poetic quality of a well crafted series of vignettes. I think eating that cake is my earliest memory. Which may be why I loved the movie Shorts.

Name: Efrain

Occupation: Director

Location: West Hollywood, CA

Favorite Movie: The Seventh Continent

Favorite Directors: Mike Figgis, Pedro Almodovar, Michael Haneke, Luis Bunuel, Volker Schlondorff

Favorite Actor: Cary Grant & Vincent D'Onofrio

Favorite Actress: Elisabeth Shue & Julianne Moore

Zero Point: A Definition of Terms

2009-09-18T05:47:00.000-07:00

Hello!

My name is Efrain Schunior. Today is my birthday and I have decided to take a tour through cinematic history by watching every movie ever made! In Chronological Order! I officially started earlier this month so I have a bit of catching up to do here. But first lets start with a definition of terms shall we...

Every Movie Ever Made:
NOT every movie ever made. Obviously that would be impossible (thus, the all too clever blog title--also a reference to one of my favorite films by legendary director and soul mate Georges Melies). Not to mention that in the first few years of cinema there was an astounding amount of film produced, I'm talking thousands! So to be clear, how should I define the term Every Movie Ever Made? Well, If I can get my hands on it and it sheds new light on a genre, artist, or era I will watch it. Simple as that. That gives me a lot of leeway and freedom I realize, which will help us go through history in a smooth & efficient manner. But I will watch as much as I can; from the biggest influential blockbusters to the smallest forgotten art house film. I will try not to discriminate.

In Chronological Order:
NOT in chronological order necessarily, but in rough chronological order! as much as I can manage. I will do my best but sometimes it may be better to pair two films from different eras or I'm sure I'll discover a film that I want to watch from a decade I've moved on from. Or I may actually go to a movie that is currently showing in theaters, and it may find its way onto this blog. Though I prefer loose definitions, I'm a linear sort of person and my Virgo mind craves chronology. So yes this blog is based on a lie, but hey that's marketing!

Guidelines:
1. For the sake of my life and not wanting to drown in the impossibility of the task at hand, I will spend no more than 2 weeks immersed in any given year. Unless of course it's a really great year!
2. I will not blog about everything. I will most definitely keep a comprehensive list of everything that I see while I am on this journey, but I'll save the blogs for the films that make the greatest impressions on me.
3. I will not watch The Next Best Thing based on principal.

So there it is! This is my balloon trip to the sun.
Will I survive? Will I give up before I reach the talkies? Will I finally watch The Sound of Music? Will I sleep through some of cinema's greatest achievements? Only time will tell...