Category Archives: FilmStruck Binge

Have spent the past couple of days loading up on FilmStruck documentaries in the run-up to its November 29 end date.  Here are some capsule reviews and photos.  I will miss this service like hell.  Fortunately the Criterion Channel has promised it will reopen as a stand-alone site in Spring.  In the meantime, here is an international website that can help with locating movies on line:  https://www.justwatch.com

Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss (2008)
Directed by Felix Moeller

Veit Harlan made the most notoriously anti-Semetic film of the Third Reich – Jew Suss – as well as a number of propaganda-laced melodramas starring his beautiful Swedish wife Kristina Söderbaum. Like Leni Reifenstahl, he was completely unrepentent and in total denial. Unlike Reifenstahl, genius does not redeem any portion of his films. This documentary explores his life as well as the impact of his notoriety on his children and grandchildren.

Derek (2008)
Directed by Isaac Julien

A documentary about the life and work of the British director and gay activist Derek Jarman lovingly narrated by his friend and collaborator Tilda Swinton. Unfortunately, the clips did not leave me with a burning desire to see Jarman’s films but he was one fascinating and brave man.

Scene from Jarman’s Caravaggio

Festival (1967)
Directed by Murray Lerner

This is a documentary featuring classic performances at the Newport Folk Festival from 1963 to 1966. Wonderful music and a glimpse at how folk music evolved into protest music and folk rock. The folk who made blues, gospel, and bluegrass are included, Too many great artists to list. If you have any interest in pop music history, I would rate this a must see.

Joan Baez patiently signing autographs as Bob Dylan waits in the car.

Paris Was a Woman (1996)
Directed by Greta Schiller

A feature-length documentary about the women who sought independence in the heady atmosphere of pre- and post-WWI Paris. It’s a rather dry “talking heads” style documentary but the subject matter was interesting and I enjoyed it for that.

Power couple Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas with their dog Basket.

Along the Coast (Du côte de la côte) (1958)
Directed by Agnes Varda

A short, sunny travelogue and valentine to the French Riviera.

 

Uncle Yanco (Oncle Yanco) (1967)
Directed by Agnes Varda

While Agnes Varda was in the San Francisco Bay Area promoting a film, she discovered her long lost relative Yanco Varda living with the hippies on a houseboat in Sausalito. He’s another artist natch and this film is full of color and love.  Highly recommended.

Mur murs (1981)
Directed by Agnes Varda

A full-length documentary about murals in Los Angeles. The art is just fantastic and Varda films it in the most delicious way. What I wouldn’t give to have her eye!

 

 

Time for another non-traditional entry.  I’ve been gobbling up documentaries about film on FilmStruck before it goes out of business November 29.  I’ve seen too many to write in my usual format about all of them but they have been mainly fantastic so I wanted to share.

Lon Chaney: Behind the Mask (1996)
Directed by Bret Wood

An excellent full-length documentary on the Man of a Thousand Faces, crammed with wonderful clips covering his entire career.

James Stewart, Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America (2017)
Directed by Gregory Monro

Solid one-hour look at two very different classic actors that died within 24 hours of each other. I love both so really enjoyed this film. Here a shot of Stewart and Mitchum on the set of “The Big Sleep” (1975).

Hitler’s Hollywood (2017)
Directed by Rutger Rüdiger Suchsland

A look at the sick  fantasy world that was Josef Goebbel’s Dream Factory 1933-1945. Interesting in an icky way.

The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl) (1993)
Directed by Ray Müller

It’s a three-plus hour two part documentary on the life and films of director Leni Riefenstahl who rose to fame and infamy as “Hitler’s filmmaker”. At age 90, she is completely unrepentent, insisting that she cared nothing for politics. Also she was apparently deaf and blind. Riefenstahl is a terrible liar and feels disgustingly sorry for herself. And then come the images …. She was a fantastic filmmaker and a determined, courageous woman. The documentary is crammed with some of the most gorgeous clips you ever will see. Highly recommended.

Tokyo-ga (1985)
Directed by Wim Wenders

I am a huge Ozu fan and I loved this documentary/essay. Few but choice clips from the films. Lovely, intimate looks at then modern Tokyo and interviews with Ozu-regular Chishu Ryu, cinematographer Yuharu Asuta, and a cameo from Werner Herzog who rails against the lack of “adequate images” left in the world. Everyone who knew Ozu seemed to have loved and respected him. Recommended.

The World of Jacques Demy  (L’univers de Jacques Demy) (1995)
Directed by Agnes Varda

A loving tribute to the French director of such classics as “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” from his wife director Agnes Varda. I love both Demy and Varda. The gorgeous clips made me want to binge on films by both directors.  Can’t do that though or I never will finish 1965!

Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words (Jag är Ingrid)
Directed by Stig Björkman
Written by Stig Björkman, Dominika Daubenbuchel, and Stina Gardell
2015/Sweden
Chimney Pot et al
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] I have no regrets. I wouldn’t have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say. – Ingrid Bergman[/box]

Fans of actress Ingrid Bergman will only love her more after watching this revealing documentary.

Ingrid Bergman saved everything including her many home movies, her journals, and her letters. The film views the actress’s career and private life through her eyes as well as through interviews with her children.  She was a complicated, rather driven woman but an endlessly charming one.

I found out many things I had not known about Bergman and enjoyed this documentary thoroughly.  It contains many fantastic clips from home movies, news reels, and, of course, the actress’s films.  Highly recommended to fans.  The film is currently available on YouTube as well as, briefly, on FilmStruck.

Summer (Le rayon vert AKA The Green Ray)
Directed by Erich Rohmer
Written by Marie Riviere and Erich Rohmer
1986/France
Ministere de la Culture et de la Communication/PTT/Les Films du Losange/etc
Repeat viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Delphine: I’m not very operational in life.[/box]

I love Erich Rohmer’s romantic comedies, including this one.

Delphine (Marie Riviere) is a 20-something career girl working in Paris.  The film starts a few days before the mass exodus of Parisians on their summer vacations.  Delphine had plans to go to Greece with a girlfriend but these fall through at the last minute.  Everyone she knows already has plans of their own.  Simulateously, Delphine is coming to terms with the fact that her boyfriend has dumped her for once and for all.  Delphine rejects all suggestions that she go somewhere on her own.

But after several aborted attempts to find a landing place, Delphine ends up in Biarritz on her own.  It is there she hears the story of Jules Verne’s book “The Green Ray”. I will stop here.

Almost all the dialogue in this film is improvised. This was the first of Rohmer’s films I ever saw and I immediately became a convert.  I think his understanding of women and young love is spot on.  Delphine’s character has a particularly lovely epiphany.  Highly recommended.

Les Blank: Always for Pleasure
Directed by Les Blank et al
various/USA
The Criterion Collection Spine #737
First viewing/FilmStruck

 

I try not to make a big deal about the camera, to let it get between me and them. I’ve seen a lot of cameramen go in and treat the subjects like so many guinea pigs. I think the people pick up on my very protective feelings toward them, and they aren’t self-conscious about what they do or say, and they try to show the inner light about themselves that I find so attractive.

 

This won’t be a regular review.  I enjoyed Burden of Dreams so much that I decided to give Les Blank’s other documentary films a try.  Most if not all of these films are available online only from FilmStruck so I had to get them while I had the chance.

Burden of Dreams could not be more different than most of Blank’s documentaries.  In general he focuses on rural American folk life, music, and cooking.  These are real people doing real things – enjoying themselves to the max and not giving a damn about the cameras.  The affection between Blank and his subjects is palpable.  They are happy films and yet there is a certain sadness that some of these traditions are disappearing as we watch.  The films are also beautiful to look at.

Here are capsule descriptions for the films I watched:

A Well-Spent Life (1971) – The life and music of Texas blues guitarist Maurice Lipscomb.

Yum, Yum, Yum!  A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cuisine (1990) – Title is self-explanatory. Not restaurant food but real food.  If you watch on an empty stomach, be prepared to raid the icebox!

Hot Pepper (1973) – Life and music of Clifton Chenier, King of the Zydedo, Creole music popular in New Orleans and environs.

Dry Wood (1973) – Companion piece to Hot Pepper. Chenier is/was a professional musician.  This film explores the Zydeco music played by people living in the Mississippi Delta and their folkways.

Sprout Wings and Fly (1983) – Life and music of fiddler Tommy Jarrell and his Old-Time Appalachian tunes.

A Poem Is a Naked Person (1974) – Covers two years on the road with rock star Leon Russell.  Russell, who financed film, barred public release until after Blank’s death.  It’s a fine film but more a “Les Blank film” than a film centering on Russell.  Nonetheless he plays a lot and well.

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) – Self-explanatory title.  Young Errol Morris was complaining to Herzog that he wanted to make a movie but had no money.  Herzog told him he needed not money, but guts.  One result was Morris’s critically-acclaimed documentary about pet cemeteries, Gates of Heaven.  The other was this film.

Gap-Toothed Women (1987) – Celebration of beautiful gap-toothed women and the historical lore on this dental phenomenon.  Evolves into a meditation on standards of beauty.

The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1994) – A working stiff quits his job to devote himself to his art, which he refuses to put a price on.

Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella (1995) – Self-explanatory.  Aguabella is the chief proponent of Afro-Cuban conga drumming.

God Respects Us When We Work But He Loves Us When We Dance (1968) – Covers the 1967 Love-In at Los Angeles’s Elisian Fields.  Like Woodstock without big stars on stage.

Always for Pleasure (1978) – Loving film about local folks having fun in New Orleans – at funerals, street parades, Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick’s Day.

The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins (1969) – Tribute to the Texas blues legend, his life and times.

In Heaven There Is No Beer? (1984) – That’s why we drink ours here!  Documentary about American polka afficionados.

Buena Vista Social Club
Directed by Wim Wenders
Written by Wim Wenders and Nick Gold
1999
Germany/USA/UK/France/Cuba
First viewing/FilmStruck

 

[box] In the beginning I just wanted to make movies, but with the passage of time the journey itself was no longer the goal, but what you find at the end. Now, I make films to discover something I didn’t know, very much like a detective. – Wim Wenders[/box]

Loved this joyous documentary of good music rediscovered.

American musician Ry Cooder traveled to Cuba to hire musicians for a planned CD.  In his search, he discovered that many musicians who were famous pre-Castro were alive, well, and longing to get back to work.  Some were as old as age 90.  The CD was a cross-over success and Grammy Winner.

Wim Wenders then made this documentary which explores life in present day Havana, war stories of times gone by, and concerts given by the group in Amsterdam and at Carnegie Hall.

I immediately fell in love with these musicians and the music they made.  The wonderful moments and images captured by Wenders are only the icing on the cake. Recommended.

Buena Vista Social Club was nominated for an Oscar as Best Documentary, Feature.

And Everything Is Going Fine
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
USA/2010
Washington Square Films
FilmStruck/First viewing

 

 

[box] I was raised as an upper-class WASP in New England, and there was this old tradition there that everyone would simply be guided into the right way after Ivy League college and onward and upward. And it rejected me, I rejected it, and I ended up as a kind of refugee, really. Spalding Gray [/box]

I’ve loved all the filmed monologues of Spalding Gray.  It was a cinch I’d love Soderbergh’s post-mortem look at his career.

Steven Soderbergh directed Gray’s Anatomy (1996), Spalding’s final monologue film.  He returned to the subject to make this documentary six years following the artist’s suicide. The film includes many clips from various performances and interviews.  Gray is as charismatic as ever.

If you already love Gray, this is a must-see.  If you are not acquainted with him, I would recommend starting with Jonathan Demme’s Swimming to Cambodia (1987) in which Grey tells the story of his experiences as as actor in The Killing Fields (1984).

I watched this on FilmStruck. A complete version is also currently available on YouTube.

Trailer

Burden of Dreams
Directed by Les Blank
Written by Michael Goodwin
1982/USA
Flower Films
Repeat viewing/FilmStruck

 

[box] Werner Herzog: It’s not only my dreams, my belief is that all these dreams are… are yours as well… and the only distinction between me and you is that I can articulate them… and that is what poetry or painting or literature or film-making is all about, it’s as simple as that… and I, I make films because I have not learned anything else and I know I can do it to a certain degree… and it is my duty because this might be the inner chronicle of what we are… and we have to articulate ourselves otherwise we would be cows in the field.[/box]

Perhaps the best “making-of” documentary ever made focuses on the mad dreams of a great filmmaker.

In 1977, German director Werner Herzog travelled to the Amazon to scout out locations for his long-planned project “Fitzcarraldo”.  That film tells the story of an Irish Caruso lover who decides to build an opera house in the middle of the jungle where his idol can sing. No financing being available, Fitzcarraldo decides to raise money by harvesting rubber.  To get his product to port he must move it from one tributary to another.  This he decides to do by dragging a steamboat about a mile over a steep hill to the other river.

Herzog being Herzog there was nothing to do but to actually have hundreds of indigenous people physically drag the boat over the hill, with a little help from a faulty bulldozer.  The filming was plagued by one disaster after another.  Malfunctioning equipment, drought, illness, and discontent among the Indians stretched the process into a five-year ordeal.

Herzog selected documentarian Les Blank to record the shoot.  The result captures both the passion of the director and the beauty of the jungle and its people.

No complaints about this wonderful film.  If you have ever seen or hope to see Fitzcarraldo (1982) or have any interest in dreamers, this is a must-see film.  It really should be on The List.

The FilmStruck film came with a really good audio commentary with Les Blank, editor Maureen Gosling, and Werner Herzog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOn28VA62ss

Trailer

Herzog’s rant

Across the Universe
Directed by Julie Taymor
Written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais and Julie Taymor
2007/USA
Revolution Studios/Gross Entertainment/Team Todd/Sound Film
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] JoJo: Music’s the only thing that makes sense anymore, man.[/box]

The sixties were never this psychedelic nor crammed with CGI.

The period covered is 1963-1968.  Jude (Jim Sturgess) ships out of Liverpool as a merchant seaman.  Upon his arrival in the U.S., he jumps ship becoming an illegal alien in the process.  He soon meets a wealthy beauty named Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) and they fall in love.  Lucy is a radical and her friends become Jude’s.  Many of these people are musicians.

Jude is an artist not a fighter, something that does not sit well with Lucy.  So they break up and a bunch more stuff happens before they are reunited.  With Joe Anderson as Maxwell, Lucy’s brother; Dana Fuchs as Sexy Sadie, Bono as Dr. Robert; Joe Cocker as a street singer; and Eddie Izzard as Mr. Kite.

This movie tries to encompass the turbulent sixties through the music of the Beatles. Thirty songs are performed by the actors themselves.  These are some of the best covers of Beatles music ever and the film is an auditory treat.  It also looks great.  But the  real sixties was not beset with massive helpings of largely self-indulgent CGI and I would have liked this better without it.

Across the Universe was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design.

A Short Film About Love (Krotki film o milosci)
Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Written by Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz
1988/Poland
Zespol Filmowy “Tor”
First viewing/FilmStruck

 

[box] Different people in different parts of the world can be thinking the same thoughts at the same time. It’s an obsession of mine, that different people, in different places, are thinking the same thing, but for different reasons. I try to make films which connect people. – Krysztof Kieslowski[/box]

What is love?  It takes a Bergman or a Kieslowski to really explore its depths.

A teenage boy spends most of his time in his bedroom spying on the beautiful older woman in the opposing apartment through a telescope.  He sees her most intimate moments including regular visits by at least a couple of different men.  He figures out various stratagems to meet her and finally works up the courage to telephone.

His victim is not amused to say the least.  When the boy declares his love she seeks revenge by trying to prove there is no such thing.  She is wrong.

I’m a big fan of Kieslowski but had not seen this film which is expanded from Episode 6 of the director’s “Dekalog” television series.  I thought this was a real masterpiece.  The filmmaking from cinematography to acting to music is exquisite.  I love the way the film sort of shape-shifts from a coming-of-age story in which the boy learns about love to something much deeper in which the woman learns a lesson of her own.  Highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15fyIDqP4SQ

Clip – Ending (no subtitles)