American movies, 1970-1979

from Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975)

My moviegoing: 2003

from Michael Polish's Northfork (2003)

Alright

Glenn Kenny is on fire this week. Here's another link.

The puky vomity despair

It gets depressing contemplating the future of film distribution and exhibition when you're a guy like me who likes all kinds of films and likes seeing them on the big screen. The modern, mainstream, American Hollywood film is at its nadir. It can't possibly get worse, but it just keeps getting worse. Those films are so poorly made, so indistinguishable from each other, so forgettable. Almost all the good mainstream American work is on television now, and that sucks. The square box is getting bigger and more rectangular, and the best shows are exploring the unique aspects of the medium of serialized home programming, but it's still a box, a piece of furniture in your house that has to compete with the telephone, your neighbors, your pets, your in-laws, etc. But mainstream culture is almost always mediocre, which is why it's so pleasurable when something good catches on. The bigger problems are the foreign and independent American filmmakers of high caliber who can no longer get their films distributed anywhere in this country, and the vapid new generation of homegrown independent filmmakers who have less ideas than Michael Bay and McG. I want to link to a horrifying interview with idiots in The Village Voice and Glenn Kenny's sadly funny rebuttal. Horrifying. Sadly funny.
Even though he's one of my absolute favorite filmmakers, I don't think Nicholas Ray is above criticism and no artist should be. However, these young filmmakers' willfully ignorant failure to understand basic film history and their use of infantilized teenspeak is appalling. What they have to say about Bigger than Life is beyond idiocy. They should be barred from ever holding a filmmaking device again. It's called a fucking melodrama for a reason. The non-verite acting is on purpose. You idiots. You fucking idiots. It's like criticizing Richard Pryor for telling jokes or Lucky Charms for being too marshmallowy. You are morons, and you should die horribly. Reinstate the draft.

First movie/last movie: Howard Hawks

Fig Leaves (1926)
Rio Lobo (1970)
Hawks' actual first film, 1926's The Road to Glory (not to be confused with a 1936 Hawks film of the same name), is lost.

American movies, 1970-1979

from Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Dennis Hopper, 1936-2010

Actor, director, photographer, painter, art collector, on-again/off-again Republican, on-again/off-again Democrat, lunatic, drug addict, alcoholic, Midwesterner, Kansan, and human Dennis Hopper died on Saturday. He was in a lot of movies that were formative experiences for me, movies I watched a lot more than once, movies that are tied to powerful memories of my friends, family, childhood, adolescence, and blah blah blah. He was also in a lot of total shit, but that's what happens when you're an actor who stays busy.

(from the top)
Rebel without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)
Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper)
The Last Movie (Dennis Hopper)
Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper)
Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Tobe Hooper)
River's Edge (Tim Hunter)
Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
Red Rock West (John Dahl)
True Romance (Tony Scott)
Jesus' Son (Alison Maclean)
Land of the Dead (George A. Romero)

My moviegoing: 2003

from A.J. Schnack's Gigantic (A Tale Of Two Johns) (2002)

First movie/last movie: Robert Hamer

Pink String and Sealing Wax (1946)
School for Scoundrels (1960)

(North) American Movies, 1970-1979

from David Cronenberg's Shivers aka They Came from Within (1975)

My moviegoing: 2003

from Bob Odenkirk's Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003)

First movie/last movie: D.W. Griffith

Judith of Bethulia (1914)
The Struggle (1931)
Once again, I need to point out that I'm only talking about feature-length films here. Griffith made a ton of notable short films before Judith of Bethulia.

American movies, 1970-1979

from Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975)
A little bit of a cheat this time, but then again, maybe not. Jack Nicholson is the American part of this international production, which was directed and co-written by an Italian who wrote it with an African and an Englishman, and it was filmed in several different countries with a cast from all over the world.

My moviegoing: 2003

from Andrew Jarecki's Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

First movie/last movie: Samuel Fuller

I Shot Jesse James (1949)
Street of No Return (1989)

American movies, 1970-1979

from Robert Altman's Nashville (1975)
Most Altman fans pick Nashville as the man's greatest work, though I'd choose McCabe & Mrs. Miller, California Split, The Long Goodbye, 3 Women, Brewster McCloud, and possibly even Secret Honor and Popeye over Nashville. Geraldine Chaplin's character is so ill-conceived and idiotic that not even an actress of her caliber can do anything with it other than turn it into a shrill cartoon, the film has very little to say about the real city of Nashville but pretends to anyway, and a handful of characters are underdeveloped and poorly used. Still, it's got an atmosphere and tone that's unlike anything else I've seen, about a half-dozen scenes that are just about perfect, performances from Lily Tomlin, Gwen Welles, Ned Beatty, Barbara Baxley, and Henry Gibson that just nail it to the wall, a mood you can physically feel like weather, and I couldn't stop picking out images, including the one moment when Chaplin's really able to do something with the one-note caricature she's saddled with. I don't love this movie as a whole, but I love it anyway.

My moviegoing: 2003

from Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944)
Austin Film Society's European Directors in Hollywood series
When I saw this film, some of the audience laughed with smug, knowing condescension at an admiring comment Fred MacMurray's character tells Barbara Stanwyck's about the value of her home. I have to paraphrase, but he said that a house as nice as Stanwyck's must have set her back about $30,000, which caused a portion of the audience to react with that exaggerated, self-satisfied laughter you sometimes have to hear when you see an old movie in a theater. Look at how sophisticated we are compared to these 1940s rubes. Let us laugh at them with their foolishly reasonable home prices. We live in a more refined era, an era in which we pay grotesquely inflated prices for basic housing. Yes, that's right. We're laughing at them. Stupid old-timey rubes.
Other than those few moments of irritation, seeing this movie on the big screen was an absolute pleasure.

First movie/last movie: John Frankenheimer

The Young Stranger (1957)
Reindeer Games (2000)

American movies, 1970-1979

from Woody Allen's Love and Death (1975)

My moviegoing: 2003

from Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without a Past (2002)

First movie/last movie: John Ford

Straight Shooting (1917)
7 Women (1966)

American movies, 1970-1979

from Michael Winner's Death Wish (1974)
I know this film and its many sequels are reactionary, right-wing, pro-vigilante, asshole revenge fantasies, but I just can't deny the pleasures of seeing Charles Bronson blow away street punks. Plus, Herbie Hancock did the score, and it's a good one.

My moviegoing: 2003

from Fritz Lang's Human Desire (1954)
Austin Film Society's European Directors in Hollywood series

First movie/last movie: Victor Fleming

When the Clouds Roll By (1919)
Joan of Arc (1948)

My moviegoing: 2003

from Karen Moncrieff's Blue Car (2002)
We went to see a different movie, but the print was damaged so the theater gave us free passes to see something else. We picked Blue Car. That was a poor decision. Blue Car sucked.

American movies, 1970-1979

from Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

First movie/last movie: Robert Flaherty

Nanook of the North (1922)
Louisiana Story (1948)

American movies, 1970-1979

from Martin Scorsese's Italianamerican (1974)

My moviegoing: 2003

from Otto Preminger's Laura (1944)
Austin Film Society's European Directors in Hollywood series