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| gromit |
 Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:59 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Another in the Landmarks of Early Soviet Film set:
The House on Trubnaya (1928). Directed by Boris Barnet, who was Kuleshov's cowboy in Mr. West in Commieland.
We see Moscow awakening for a new day. Then the inside of an apartment building where everyone lives in close proximity. One girl chases a duck through the streets of Moscow, desperate to catch it before it gets run over. And just when she catches it, a street tram is bearing down on the pair of them and ...
freeze frame.
It's time to explain how the duck got to Moscow ...
A peasant girl from the country takes the train to Moscow, but through a mixup, the uncle she's supposed to stay with comes back on another train, and they just miss by moments. So she arrives in Moscow with a live duck and a bundle of clothes and nowhere to stay.
Then her duck gets loose and she chases it through the busy-for-those-times streets of Moscow. And just when she catches it, a street tram is bearing down on the pair of them and ...
a crowd gathers and one of the fellows from the apartment building, a driver, is from the same village and rescues her and duck.
She starts working as a maid with a barber and his lazy wife. They treat her poorly, she joins the maid's union, and through a mixup folks think she was elected to the city council.
It's a fun comedy, with a lot of nice views of Moscow, and some fairly good acting. The film tosses in some propaganda, no doubt to get the censors to approve such fluffery, and the union helps the peasant girl get treated right and punishes her crummy employers. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 11:48 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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| Boris Barnet's best known film is OKraina (Outskirts aka Patriots) from 1933. I've never seen that. But I did see an odd black comedy called Okraina (Outskirts) from 1998, which supposedly references the early talkie Barnet film. In the 1998 film, a peasant has been cheated out of some land, so he enlists the aid of a friend or two, and this rather ragtag band trudges through the mud and avenges things as best they can. It's kind of a fascinatingly bleak film, and not always easy to understand motivations or what is going to happen until after it happens. I quite enjoyed it and just went to check what else the director Pyotr Lutsik has come up with since. But it seems that was his directorial debut and his lone film, as he had a heart attack in 2000 and died age 40. Rather unfortunate. I should revisit OKraina, as it had this haunting relentless quality. I believe at the time, some took it to be a commentary on the rapidly privatizing Russia of the day. |
Last edited by gromit on Wed Dec 16, 2015 12:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 11:51 am |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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carrobin wrote: If only one could morph Donald Trump's face on Miriam Hopkins's.
YES! Imagine the hair-flipping! LOL!!! |
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 12:57 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: If only one could morph Donald Trump's face on Miriam Hopkins's.
Hilarious! |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2015 7:23 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I'm watching Finding Vivian Maier about the nanny who turned out to be a talented photographer--which nobody knew until someone bought a trunk full of negatives at her estate sale and realized, hey, these are really good and posted them on line. Makes you wonder how many treasures wind up at the dump because nobody bothered to look.
She left behind at least 100,000 negatives, 700 rolls of undeveloped color film, 2,000 rolls of undeveloped black-and-white film--and that's just what the one guy found. Which makes me wonder: surely people would have noticed her taking hundreds of thousands of photographs, even if they never saw the results.
Of course, I have to stop now and then and admire a photograph. She really was very good, with a talent for framing her shots. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2015 8:00 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I was mistaken: John Maloof and Ron Slattery acquired some of Maier's negatives when she failed to keep up her payments on her storage locker, and published them on the internet. Maier was actually still alive at the time, though I don't think he knew it. She died before the photos went viral.
The guy who claims her French accent is fake is full of shit, by the way. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2015 11:07 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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I saw that documentary as well. What impressed me was the determination of the guy, going through all those photos and negatives and trying to interest galleries in hosting a show, then finally putting them online. I'm not surprised that nobody really noticed her photography habits--in NYC, people are taking photos on the street all the time. (Including me.) Just try walking down Sixth Avenue between 50th and 48th Street this time of year, especially after dark. I haven't seen the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in three years because even though it's only a block from the office, the crowds are too thick.
And starting next week, I won't be that close anymore--our office has moved to Brooklyn, as of Monday. And the Time-Life Building will be known as 1271 Sixth Avenue (or 1271 Avenue of the Americas, if you prefer.) |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 4:39 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Interesting. Hope I can find that.
I loved that documentary In The Realm of the Unreal about Henry Darger, the Chicago janitor who created these amazing paintings and collages largely to illustrate his writings about the Vivian Girls. Just this whole body of amazing creative works this total unknown made.
Of course photography affords a much easier entry point, but Vivian Maier's photos look quite impressive. You can almost feel the presence of a photographer who knew what she was doing and what she wanted to capture. An authorial presence. |
Last edited by gromit on Wed Dec 23, 2015 4:52 am; edited 1 time in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 9:26 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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She did have some of her photographs turned into postcards in France when she visited there in the 1950s. She had a camera where the view finder is in the top, so she didn't have to hold the camera to her eye. It made it much less obvious when she was photographing street scenes.
In the Realms of the Unreal is very interesting, and stranger. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 3:49 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy (2010), with its intelligent dialogue and implied or real metaphysical leaps, is reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset”. Juliette Binoche is magnificent.
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 5:27 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I've been on a big re-watch binge for the holidays.
I get so used to watching films I haven't seen before, that I often forget to re-visit favorites or films thta made a big impression the first time around.
The other day I did a double feature of British WWII German invasion films. Went the Day Well? depicts a German invasion of a small village. They come disguised as British soldiers, and only gradually is their plan and identity revealed. I like the sudden moment of violence where the pretense drops and its clear this is a deadly serious matter.
While It Happened Here is a pretty grim alternate history in which Britain is defeated and occupied by the Germans during WWII. And then to push things further it becomes essentially Vichy England, with British collaboratorsrunning the fascist program for the Nazis. The high point is the 7 minute newsreel film just about the midpoint of the film, filled with German propaganda about the occupation and two nations. Kevin Brownlow initiated the project when he was just 18 and his collaborator was all of 16. Took 8 years to make with almost all volunteer help. Kubrick was impressed with the project and donated some unused film stock from Dr. Strangelove, while two British news presenters worked for free, giving the voice-over narration of the film and the faux newsreel an air of authenticity. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:17 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I saw "Went the Day Well?" on TCM last year and thought it was terrific. It started off as one of those pleasant little English countryfolk stories and then turned into a war movie, all too realistically. The grande dame who dominated the town reminded me of my maternal grandmother, and I think she would have been equally heroic in the circumstances. Great little film. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 12:25 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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| Holiday outings, chatting, and sessions at the piano tend to take over here, so hasn't been much film watching. Deadwood was full of skiers, and I can report the pizza place is outstanding - the Sicilian-style pie is amazing. We hiked up Mt. Moriah, which fans of "Deadwood" may recall is the burial place of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill. And other pillars of the community. 10 degrees, sunset, everything under a shroud of snow: THE perfect way to see a cemetery! And being on a cold mountain allows me, finally, to segue to the one video we watched, which surprisingly none of us had seen. Despite all the Academy hype, I wasn't that wowed by it, though Jude, Renee, Nicole, Brendan, Ray, and that White Stripes guy were all just fine, though only the Brit/Aussie portion of the cast seemed able to nail down the accents. Maybe it's easier to do an accent if you have to learn it from scratch and an ocean away. I suspect the story makes more sense if you've read Charles Frazier's novel. Without that textual support, there was lots of headscratching and "huh?"[/b] |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 3:55 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| bartist--You are too kind. I found Cold Mountain totally underwhelming and worse, and even Zellweger (who I usually admire and often love) was undeservedly Oscared for an Annie Oakley type that verged on the Betty Hutton-ish. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 11:24 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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| Haha, yeah, we were all thinking Renee could have stepped right into a musical. With a confusing bisexual subtext. And the weak setup for minor roles, and loose ends, kept saying "Hi, I was adapted from an 800 page novel." I couldn't even make sense of Jude Law deserting in the first place - he's in a hospital bed, the war is almost over. Evidently he senses that Ray Winstone, Official Script-Mandated Southern Warthog, is circling, waiting to pounce on his lady love, and if he starts marching for home he'll just get there in time. Maybe the crows told him. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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