Tag: film history

Jim Taihuttu’s “Wolf”

Director Jim Taihuttu’s “Wolf”, 2013, starring Marwan Kenzari

WOLF is a crime thriller that offers a look inside the world of a new generation of hard criminals that is increasingly present in the big cities of Europe. In the grey desolation of an anonymous ghetto young kick boxer Majid (Marwan Kenzari) quickly makes a career for himself inside and outside of the ring, thanks to his iron fists. As his star rises, the two worlds of the ring and organized crime collide as he becomes deeper entangled in his own ambition.

Written and directed by Jim Taihuttu, it is good film, though based on a story line that has been done before, with a particularly tense feel to it. The film is a no sympathy criminal character study of a man’s self-destruction. It was filmed in black and white in the Netherlands by the Dutch production company Habbekrats. A good film to seek out, particularly if you enjoyed watching Nicolas Refn’s three “Pusher” films or Audiard’s “Un Prophete”.

More information and trailers are at http://wolfdefilm.nl

Christophe Gans, “Brotherhood of the Wolf”

Brotherhood of the Wolf, Directed by Christophe Gans, Narrated by Jaques Perrin, 2001

Brotherhood of the Wolf (French: Le Pacte des loups) is a 2001 French historical horror-action film directed by Christophe Gans, written by Gans and Stéphane Cabel, starring Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Émilie Dequenne, Monica Bellucci, and Vincent Cassel.

The film is loosely based on a real-life series of killings that took place in France in the 18th century and the famous legend of the Beast of Gévaudan; parts of the film were shot at Château de Roquetaillade. The film has several extended swashbuckling fight scenes, with martial arts performances by the cast mixed in, making it unusual for a historical drama. It was well-received with critics praising its high production values, cinematography, performances and Gans’ atmospheric direction.

An older film with a werewolf horror atmosphere; a good thriller to watch.

The Dying Art of Darkroom Printing

The Dying Art of Darkroom Printing

The comparison images above show photographer Dennis Stock’s iconic portrait of James Dean in Times Square. The test print on top shows all the work Inirio put into making the final photo look the way it does. The lines and circles you see reveal Inirio’s strategies for dodging and burning the image under the enlarger, with numbers scattered throughout the image to note different exposure times.

Sarah Coleman of The Literate Lens wonders whether the magic of seeing this process will carry over at all into our new digital age:

Over the last fifteen years, almost every photographer I’ve interviewed has waxed poetic about that “magical” experience of seeing an image develop in chemicals for the first time. You have to wonder whether today’s young photographers will rhapsodize as much about the first time they color-calibrated their monitors.

Images and text via + via

Many thanks to archatlas:

Frederico Fellini and Martin Potter

Photographer Unknown, “Frederico Fellini and Martin Potter”, Movie Set of the 1969 “Satyricon”

“Satyricon” was a late first century Latinn work of fiction belelieved to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though tradition identifies the author as Titus Petronius. It is an example of menippean satire which attacks mental attitudes rather than specific individuals. The work contains a mixture ofprose and verse, serious and comic elements, and erotic and decadent passages.

The surviving sections of text detail the bizarre exploits of the narrator, Encolpius, and his slave and boyfriend Giton, a handsome sixteen year old. A friend of Encolpius, named Asctltus who is alos a rival for the ownership of the slave Giton, joins the duo on their travels and through their surreal and decadent adventures.

The movie “Fellini Satyricon” is a 1969 fantasy drama film written and directed by Fellini and is loosely based on the Roman era of Nero’s rule. The film is divided into nine sections following Encolpius, played by Martin Potter, and Ascyluts, played by Hiram Keller, as they try to win the heart of the young boy Giton. The film was released on September 7, 1999. First screened at the 30th Venice film Festival it received positive reviews by critics writing in”stunned bewilderment”. The press core gave the film a five-minute standing ovation; the price of tickets for the film at the festival increased thirty times. Fellini biographer Parker Tyler declared it “the most profoundly homosexual movie in alll history”. While I would not go to that extreme, I watched it many times in my youth, savoring the fantastic filming as well as the quite enticing stars.

 

Brett Williams and Hayden Phipps

Brett Williams and Hayden Phipps, “The Death and Life of Desmond Wolfe”, 2013 Entry for the Filminute Challenge

Every year, Filminute challenges filmmakers all over the world to tell a story in 60 seconds.

The concept of flipping through brief moments in a person’s life to create a short film is tried and true, which is what makes this outstanding work from Brett Williams and Hayden Phipps that much more impressive. For one, it’s got a beautifully-shot stunt at its core. For two, it subverts that common flash-by-flash exploration of a person’s existence by introducing us to a man who is not at all what he seems.

This film from South Africa received a Jury Commendation in 2013.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

최종병기 활 “War of the Arrows”

최종병기 활 (Choi-jong-byeong-gi Hwal), War of the Arrows; Directed and Screenplay by  Kim Han-min, 2011, Korea

“War of the Arrows” is a 2011 South Korean historical action film starring Park Hae-il, Ryu Seung-ryong and Moon Chae-won. Set after the Second Manchu invasion of Korea, the film is about an archer who risks his life to save his sister from slavery under Prince Dorgon’s rule.

Praised by critics for its fast pacing and combat sequences, the film drew an audience of 7.48 million, making it the highest grossing Korean film of 2011. It was also honored at the 48th Grand Bell Awards and the 32nd Blue Dragon Film Awards, including Best Actor for Park, Best Supporting Actor for Ryu, and Best New Actress for Moon.

Note: I happen to be a great fan of Korean martial arts and detective movies. I find them exciting, full of action, great stories with great actors. I put this movie on my list of best movies. Most martial arts movies involve action with blades; but this movie is about a mostly overlooked martial art: archery. Great action scenes with unbelievable arrow shots. I also give it many stars just for the starring actor Park Hae-il, a great actor.

William A. Wellmand, “Wings”: Film History Series

Artist Unknown, (First Kiss), Computer Graphics, “Wings” Film Gif

“Wings” is a 1927 American silent war film set during the First World War. This Paramount Pictures film was directed by William A Wellmand and produced by Lucien Hubbard. This romantic action-war film was written to accommodate film star Clara Bow, Paramount’s biggest star at that time. It also starred Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers as Jack Powell and Richard Arien as David Armstrong.

Acclaimed for its technical prowess and realism, “Wings” became the yardstick against which future aviation films were measured, mainly because of its realistic air-combat sequences. Some three hundred pilots were involved in the shooting of the movie, including pilots and planes from the US Army Air Corps.

“Wings” was one of the first widely released films to show nudity and the first to show two men kissing. The scene above occurs near the end of the film. Jack Powell rushes  to the side of the dying David Armstrong after David’s plane had crashed into a field during the epic Battlle of Saint-Mihiel. Jack realized that he had unknowingly shot down his friend David who was flying a stolen German biplane. David consols Jack, who is distraught by what he had done, and just before he dies, forgives Jack for his mistake.

As the original negatives are lost, the closest to an original print is a spare negative stored in Paramount’s vaults. Suffering from decay and defects, the negative was fully restored with modern technology. For the restored version of “Wings”, the original music score was re-orchestrated. The sound effects were recreated by Skywalker Sound using archived audio tracks. In 2012, Paramount issued a restored version for DVD and Blue-ray.

Dance of the Hours

Dance of the Hours, “Fantasia”, 1940, Walt Disney

A little known fun fact about the “Dance of the Hours” segment in Disney’s “Fantasia” is that the ostriches pirouetting in the opening of the piece are performing in drag!  While their bows, long eyelashes, and ballet slippers suggest a feminine side, their black feathers give them away!  Only male ostriches have black feathers, while females are colored a brownish-grey.

Sam Mendes:  “American Beauty”

Sam Mendes, “American Beauty”, 1999, The Dancing Plastic Bag Scene

“American Beauty” is a 1999 American drama film by screewrriter Alan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes, in his feature directorial debut. Academics have described the film as a satire of the American middle-class notions of personal satisfaction and beauty. The film also explores the notions of materialism, self-liberation, romantic and paternal love, sexuality, and redemption.

Mendes’s dominant directorial style was composed and deliberate, making extensive use of static shots and slow pans and zooms to generate tension. Conrad Hall, the cinematographer on the film, complimented this style with peaceful shot compositions to contrast with the turbulaent on-screen events.

Screenwriter Alan Ball developed the idea of the dancing plastic bag scene from an encounter he had in the early 1990s. About 1991-92, Ball watched a plastic bag blowing in the wind outside the World Trade Center in New York City. He said later that, after watching the bag for ten minutes, it had provoked and unexpected emotional response. This idea of the plastic bag dancing is inserted  in a meeting scene between Wes Bentley, playing amateur photographer Ricky Pitts, and Thora Birch, playing the role of Jane Burnham. The music accompanying the scene is track eight from the “American Beauty Soundtrack” album.

“It was one of those days, when it’s a minute away from snowing, and there’s this electricity in the air. You can almost hear it, right? And this bag was just dancing with me, like a little kid begging me to play with it, for fifteen minutes. That’s the day I realized there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know, but it helps me remember. I need to remember. Sometimes there is so much… beauty… in the world, I feel like I can’t take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.”

Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton in “Steamboat Bill Jr”,  1928, Computer Gif, Film Gifs

The stunt where the wall falls on Buster Keaton was performed with an actual full-weight wall. Half the crew walked off the set rather than participate in a stunt that would have killed Keaton if he had been slightly off position. Keaton himself, told the previous day that his studio was being shut down, was so devastated that he didn’t care if the wall crushed him or not.

Tron Legacy

“Tron Legacy”,  Directed by Joseph Kosinski, 2010

“Tron: Legacy” is a 2010 American science fiction film produced and released by Walt Disney Pictures. A sequel to the 1982 film Tron, it is directed by Joseph Kosinski, produced by Tron director Steven Lisberger and written by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, based on a story by Horowitz, Kitsis, Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal. The cast includes Tron veterans Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, who reprised their roles as Kevin Flynn and Alan Bradley, as well as Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Beau Garrett, Michael Sheen and James Frain. The story follows Flynn’s son Sam (Hedlund) who responds to a message from his long-lost father (Bridges) and is transported into a virtual reality called the Grid, where Sam, his father and the algorithm Quorra (Wilde) stop the malevolent program CLU from invading the human world.

Interest in creating a sequel for Tron arose after the film garnered a cult following. After much speculation, a concerted effort to devise Tron: Legacy began in 2005 when producers hired Klugman and Sternthal as writers. Kosinski was recruited as director two years later. As he was not optimistic about Walt Disney Pictures’ Matrix-esque approach to the film, Kosinski opted for a loan which he used to cultivate a prototype and conceptualize the universe of Tron: Legacy. Principal photography took place in Vancouver over 67 days, in and around the city’s central business district. Most sequences were shot in 3D and ten companies were involved with the extensive visual effects work. Chroma keying and other techniques were used to allow more freedom in creating effects. The film score was composed by French duo Daft Punk, who incorporated orchestral sounds into their electronic music.

James Whale, Frankenstein”: Film History Series

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“Frankenstein”: Directed by James Whale, 1931

“Frankenstein” is a 1931 American Pre-Code horror monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling (which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley), about a scientist and his assistant who dig up corpses to build a monster, but his assistant accidentally gives the monster a murderer’s brain.

The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff and features Dwight Frye and Edward van Sloan. The Webling play was adapted by John L. Balderston and the screenplay written by Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort with uncredited contributions from Robert Florey and John Russell. The make-up artist was Jack Pierce. A hit with both audiences and critics, the film was followed by multiple sequels and has become an iconic horror film.

In 1991, the Library of Congress selected “Frankenstein” for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Although Frankenstein’s hunchbacked assistant is often referred to as “Igor” in descriptions of the films, he is not so called in the earliest films. In both “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein”, Frankenstein has an assistant who is played both times by Dwight Frye who is crippled. In the original 1931 film the character is named Fritz, who is hunchbacked and walks with the aid of a small cane. In “Bride of Frankenstein”, Frye plays Karl, a murderer who stands upright but has a lumbering metal brace on both legs that can be heard clicking loudly with every step. Both characters would be killed by Karloff’s monster in their respective films.

“Le Temps Qui Reste (Time to Leave)”

“Le Temps Qui Reste (Time to Leave)” : Directed by Francois Ozon, 2005

‘Le Temps Qui Reste” is a French film directed by François Ozon, released in 2005. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. It stars Melvi Poupaud as Romain, Daniel Duval as Romain’s father, Marie Riviera as Romain’s mother, Jeanne Moreau as Laura, and Christian Sengewald as Romain’s lover.

Romain, a gay 31-year-old fashion photographer, finds out he is terminally ill and has only three months to live. He rejects the treatment for his metastasized tumor that might offer him a slim (less than 5%) chance of survival. Romain stops working as his illness progresses, chases away his lover Sasha, and only confides about his illness to his grandmother Laura.

A great, simple yet capturing, film by Francois Ozone, director of “Swimming Pool” and “Jeune and Jolie”, whose films include many gay characters. Seek it out on dvd. If you have Netflix Streaming, you are in luck.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, 1953, Computer Graphics, Film Gifs

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (aka The Monster from Beneath the Sea) is a 1953 American black-and-white science fiction monster film from Warner Bros., produced by Jack Dietz and Hal E. Chester, directed by Eugène Lourié, and starring Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, and Kenneth Tobey. The film’s stop-motion animation special effects are by Ray Harryhausen. Its screenplay is based on Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Fog Horn”, specifically the scene where a lighthouse is destroyed by the title character.

The climactic roller coaster live action scenes were filmed on location at The Pike in Long Beach, California and featured the Cyclone Racer entrance ramp, ticket booth, loading platform, and views of the structure from the beach. Split-matte, in-camera special effects by Harryhausen effectively combined the live action of the actors and the roller coaster background footage from The Pike parking lot with the stop-motion animation of the Beast destroying a shooting miniature of the coaster.