BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE SAN FRANCISCO : FILM
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| JAMES DEAN by PHIL STERN Courtesy of FAHEY / KLEIN GALLERY IN LOS ANGELES & MIAMI |
BUREAU of Arts and Culture : The Film Section
THE ACADEMY AWARDS AND PEOPLE OF COLOR
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI for BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE / January 23rd 2016
Film lovers, film critics, film goers, film makers and film aficionados all seem to be giving their opinions, dissertations and criticisms on the lack of diversity at this years Academy Awards. Anyone who is familiar with this publication knows how much we have been influenced by African American Artists, Filmmakers, Musicians and everyday people. From John Coltrane to Spike Lee, from Ice-T to Malcolm X, from Interviews and Essays on Compton Sculptor Charles Dickson, Oakland's JAHI, Leimert Park's Barbara Morrison, Poet Sabreen Shabazz or Baltimore photographer Kanayo Adibe, who is actually from Africa, we at this publication are more diverse than anyone in this publishing game. If you really want to talk about diversity, at least from us, one need only look at my personal commitment to Los Angeles and it's incredible array of nationalities represented in the three year Fiction project entitled, "They Call It They City of ANGELS." I have been watching this controversy unfold and as it unravels, find it is time to join in the conversation.
This is a tough one. For starters, I am from Los Angeles, so I don't have that chip on the shoulder towards the Hollywood elite that taints so much of the National and International dialogue. Nor am I overly impressed with celebrity, we see it everyday, grew up with it, even work with it on occasion. The East Coast film critic's, like A.O. Scott, whom I have always admired and many others, have found it easy to slam, dismiss and criticize the Academy. A simple assessment is any easy way out of actually thinking about and truly wondering what all this is really about. I think this issue deserves more than that. Let's see if we can take this further. Spike Lee has taught many of us, who are not of African dissent what it is like to be, 'Of Color.' Spike has given us some of the best moments ever. To me personally, these are not black moments, these are simply human experiences, but to many, Spike Lee explained what was up. The humor, the sadness, the beauty, the irony, the struggle, the defiance, the pride and the poverty, all personified, in his many films. I should explain that Spike, for many of us looking to make films in the early Eighties, us without money, was very important. How important ? Well, he was so significant to me, that on my first trip to New York City, the first thing I did, was take a cab from the airport directly to his newly opened store and purchased the Forty Acres and a Mule, his production companies name, sweatshirt, which I still own to this day. We studied his books and we knew that, maybe, we too could make films, without much money. Okay, my personal biases have been exposed, you know how long I've been in this, we got that out of the way.
Spike Lee's catalogue is a glossary of life as he knows it with many great moments. I even remember the day, the very day that I saw the film trailer for his first movie, "She's Gotta have IT." Spike is standing on the corner selling, "Three tube socks for five dollars, three tube socks for five dollars, If you don't come and see my movie, I will still be here selling three tube socks for five dollars." I knew then and there, that this dude was someone I wanted to check out. Same feeling when I saw Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise, I thought, this cat is going to do something interesting and I am going to be there when he does, and, he did. When you are part of a community, wether it is film or art or music or design or photography or surfing or architecture or literature, something happens to you, you are drawn to a particular medium and you either, A. Go to School or B. Seek Knowledge, there are other options, I did a little of both. The point is, if you really, really love the medium, as Quentin Tarantino will tell you, "Than, you can become a filmmaker." Same rule applies for other arts, to a certain extent. Most writers of note agree that good writing can't be taught, it can be honed, but you have to have something, to begin with: experience. When I was first drawn to the Art World, I was very naive, in my mind, I pictured a world of artists and galleries and writers and thought they would all be waiting to welcome me, like a long lost family. I had no idea how treacherous, lecherous and venomous the experience could be. We all go through this experience. Spike Lee talks about waiting for the calls to come in after his first film, an after school special, anything, but the phone did not ring. I went through that with my art, with my films, with this magazine, and I'm what is commonly known as, "A white dude." So, we persevere and the work gets better and we continue to offer it to this thing we call a community, but, after all, it's a business and so, we straddle the monster and somehow squeeze moments, images, ideas into something coherently transformative, entertaining, sometimes educational and other times simply something that feels correct, it has a flow, an authenticity and a lasting result of some sort. It could be a film, it could be a book, it could be an image. Filmmaking in particular is an odd mixture of literature, theatre and science. There are levels of excellence and levels of experience and every now and then, even a newcomer can totally blow away those who have been in the game for decades, like Paul Thomas Anderson did with his epic entry into the big leagues with, "Boogie Nights." Speaking of discovering new levels of performing, I will never forget how brave Mark Whalberg's performance was in that film. We knew we were witnessing something very rare.
As far as Spike's journey goes, it has been harrowing actually, and right from the get go, controversy has been a part of his work, on and off the screen. He was a man of color entering what was considered a white mans medium. John Ford, Howard Hawks, Frank Capra, Cecil B. DeMille, George Stevens, John Huston, to name a few, all great filmmakers, telling great stories about what they knew, and what they knew, was mostly what they experienced, which was mostly from an Anglo viewpoint. Now, you should also know that Italian filmmakers, such as Martin Scorsese also faced extremely harsh experiences when dealing with, not only the Academy and West Coast film studios, but the public's reaction to the films that he had made. Many people forget that his life was actually threatened when the nomination for a young Jody Foster in his epic film Taxi Driver, came to the fore. Eventually, the studios realized that, the public wanted to see these films and the Academy honored their originality and their craft: breakthroughs were made. Francis Ford Coppola, Brian DePalma and John Cassavettes, took what DeSica, Fellini and Visconti had going back in Italy and rejuvenated the tradition. If you were a Swedish American, you had Ingmar Bergman. If you were a German American, you had Fritz Lang. If you were a French American, you had Truffaut. If you were an African American, you did not have a reference point per se, in Africa. You had Melvin VanPeebles, when it came to directing, but most of the time, you had, a white director, a white producer, a white writer, telling a black story.
The black director working with the black actor, and a black writer was rare, actually, it still is rare. I am sure, through the years, from the personification of the maids in Gone With The Wind, to the criminals in The French Connection, to the entire black-sploitation films of the Nineteen Seventies that African Americans got sick and tired of seeing shit on the screen that did not, could not and would not properly represent who they were, who they are and what they were really experiencing. Imagine a young Spike Lee watching, for the first time, "Birth of a Nation," with it's blatant viewpoints. That's some motivation to tell it like it is. The so-called, 'black man,' which is a label that irks the hell out of me every time I hear it. Why do I have to use this label to discuss another human being ? Check out the speeches of Malcolm X on this subject. The very fact that young people today have to REMIND America and Universities and Politicians that BLACK LIVES MATTER is a real sign of where we are at today. The fact that the Supreme Court is swaying so far as to deny the rights of African Americans is simply absurd. Black people are being shot down all across America and here we are with one of the smartest, most patient, charismatic and open minded Presidents in the history of this great land, and, oh yeah, he just happens to Not Be WHITE. So, is all of this a backlash ? Maybe it is. Are we still in denial of our history ? Maybe we are. Is boycotting the Academy Awards going to make a difference ? Maybe it will. But most likely, it will simply start a dialogue and, I imagine, that is what Spike Lee is doing. What many don't know is that Spike Lee was actually given an honorary Oscar Award at the Governor's Ball earlier this year and so, his defiance has a particularly stinging effect. Already the Academy is exclaiming to now expand it's membership in some new and diverse way. Okay, that's a beginning.
Here is where things get tricky. Will Smith, who is really a progeny of the Hollywood entertainment industry, having started on television with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, forays into pop music and eventually taking on controversial and brave film roles such as, "Six Degrees of Separation," which was a particularly dangerous career choice that payed off well and led to his stellar performance as the Greatest Boxer, Poet and Anti War activist ever in, "ALI," has made a film this year, "Concussion," with a phenomenal performance, as an African doctor, who takes on, of all powerful entities, the National Football League, also known as the NFL. It just so happens that the SuperBowl, presented by the NFL and The Oscar Awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, are the two largest advertising events of the entire year. The money to be made selling automobiles, beverages and entertainment products is unfathomable to the average person. The politics of which films gets nominated is much deeper, and complicated than any one of us can imagine. Both media events happen in February. Will Smith, who has done very well with big Hollywood, big entertainment and big advertising was not nominated for an award this year. Will Smith's lovely and articulate wife, Jada, was one of the first West Coast personalities, to come out for the boycott. Unfortunately, it appeared to many, and even to me, that Mr. Smith, having been snubbed, possibly sulking around the house wondering what more he had to do to get some recognition for outstanding work in his chosen business, complained privately and in confidence to his life mate, who then came out against the lack of diversity at this years awards. People in the industry began to dismiss her objection. Reactions came quick and harsh, from former cast members to just about anyone. Lets face it, people are jealous of those who get the big bucks, those who get the accolades, those at the top of the pyramid. What I would like to remind both Will and Jada is that, first, you made a great film, secondly, and most importantly, the real reason you did not get nominated was not at all that you are a person with some color. Most likely, the reason you did not get nominated is clearly because you took on the National Football League in your film. It's the equivalent of my magazine writing an in depth article about how bad for your health drinking Coca Cola and eating at McDonalds is and then calling them for advertising. You made a brave film about the NFL and the entertainment industry sacked you. That is to be expected. These people play hard ball, this is big business in America folks. But, it was a brave move, so, like ALI, you gotta float like a butterfly 'cause you already stung like a bee.
But wait, that's not all, ye old plot thickens. Conscientious white actors, such as the extremely socially active and aware Mark Ruffalo has now decided that he may not attend. Amazing since he is actually a Nominated Actor in what people call, a "Main Category." First of all people, ALL CATEGORIES at The Academy Awards are MAIN CATEGORIES. The first thing you learn as an actor or a technician in the world of Theatre and Film is the tired, but true maxim that, "There are no small parts, only small actors," The same is true for categories and awards. The fact that Mr. Ruffalo announced his concerns, prior to the Academy actually voting on a final winner is amazing. So then, Spike Lee has made a difference. But here's the problem, do we really want to have this award or that award go to someone of color because there was a boycott ? What will that do to the process over a long period of time ? Will the Academy then be forced to give a person of color a slot because we made them do it ? The token award, like the token cast member who brings in a demographic ? That could get very convoluted. And then we have to ask ourselves, where are the Latino Actors ? Where are the Asian Actors ? The fact of the matter is, many of the actors in nominated and winning slots have been from England and Australia ? Some media personalities have joked that American White Actors should be up in arms about the Academy's policies and choices. I would like to see powerful celebrities like Will Smith and Jada Pinkett stand up to the Supreme Court who are currently about to gut the rights of African Americans and women across the nation. Who cares about the gold at the top, when the people who watch your films are so damn poor, they have to watch bootlegged versions of your films on the internet ?
The Songwriter, Actor and Producer, IceCube, who has done very well with his film franchise, starting with the breakthrough, "Friday," which my, 'white,' nephew turned me onto years ago, has received a nomination via his screenwriters in this years film, "Straight Outta Compton." When asked recently on BBC Television, what he thought of the recent upheaval, he simply replied, in that no nonsense style, that we have come to love and respect, that he doesn't make films for awards, he makes them for the fans, he makes them for the curious, he makes them to tell a story, and if they don't get awards, maybe it's time to walk away. Then he added, "How can you boycott something that you never attended to begin with ? " Which does put a lot of this in perspective. My office is not far from South Central. I see the real problems facing my African American friends and neighbors. My work takes me into areas of Downtown where thousands of African American people live on the streets. I watch whats happening across the country. I read newspapers in almost every state of the union. The real problems of unity, diversity and justice won't necessarily happen through the entertainment industry. We as Americans need to deal with our past. We need a return to manufacturing and jobs. We need to deal with the Corporate takeover that happened years ago. We need to embrace our differences and unify through those variations. If they don't give us awards, and if Coca-Cola and McDonalds doesn't advertise in our magazine, then, we have simply got to do, what we have always done and always will do, in the words of the late great Curtis Mayfield, we've got to, "Keep on Pushin."
BUREAU of Arts and Culture : The Film Section
BUREAU MAGAZINE CINEMA FEATURE
Academy Award Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
ON THE SET: RAGING BULL
By Joshua TRILIEGI
A man in a hooded, leopard skin robe walks down a long hallway while a group of men push aside those standing in his path. We hear a crowd of thousands cheer the man on, "Jake Jake Jake …" they begin to chant. He is wearing boxing gloves, this is a championship fight, the crowd is dressed in their finest, the men are wearing suits and hats, the women are wearing jewelry, the place is filled with cigar and cigarette smoke, sailors, businessmen, middle aged characters scream the man's name over and over, the women smile as he passes by, his trainers walk in front of and behind the man as he walks down the pathway toward the ring, the volume of the crowd amplifies as the man gets closer and closer to the large roped off square canvas at the center of the arena. The man in the leopard skin robe enters through the ropes, a nondescript fellow with a microphone introduces the man in the robe, the crowd goes wild with frenzy, people are shouting, clapping, everyone is yelling something and then, suddenly, a quiet gent behind a camera yells, "cut" and the place goes silent, the action ceases, everyone settles and a pensive discussion between the crew behind the camera ensues. A few changes are discussed, several people make notations and we do it all over again. I am barely a teenager. It is a first time experience and I am collaborating with the finest in the business. My father and I are working together on the film set of a classic piece of cinema with the Actor Robert DeNiro and Director Martin Scorsese. This is On the Set Raging Bull, thirty-five years later & this is all true.
Academy Award Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
I get home from school and, once again, my parents are having a debate and it is about me. This has happened a few times, once, when my brother wanted to take me to an important surf contest on a week day and another time, when we got stuck at the border of Mexico and America late one Sunday night and didn't get home until early Monday morning. Today's negotiation is all about what is more important ? For me to attend school or for me to participate in making a film? The prior debates were also surrounding weather a day in real life would mean more to my education than a day at school. My dad had always felt that real life events had a gravity that would inform much more than the controlled environs of a formal education. In the past, his debating skills would convince mom that this was true and after some heated discussion, he wins her over. Now, we have to figure out how a thirteen year old kid with shoulder length hair is going to fit into a film that takes place in the late 1940s and early Fifties. First, he offers to cut it and I say no. Then, my hair is tied into a pony tail and stuffed up into a woolen cap that my old man had worn since he was a barber down on Prospect Avenue in Milwaukee. Back then, my mother had found herself single, with three kids, she was italian, she was beautiful, she was liberated and although the barber had barely begun his own life as a bachelor and hadn't entered college, when my mom walked in to get my older brother's hair cut, he fell for her and at six months old, he and I become pals. Through the years, we seldom had to deal with any of the father & son bullshit that can ruin a great relationship, we were often, simply friends or roommates or just happened to be living together. We both had to answer to the same lady, for him, it was the love of his life, for me, it was my mom, who made me clean my room, do chores, wash my own clothes and do my homework before running out for the day and get back by nightfall.
Academy Award Winner Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci play The La Motta Brothers in RAGING BULL / United Artists
We have been through some tough times together as a family and come out unscathed. But things are about to get really rough. In about six months, mom is going to move back to Milwaukee for a stretch, my brother and I will stay in California and my sister will go with mom. We did fifteen years without a separation, but my mom is coming into her own and my dad is freaking out. We get up at five in the morning and drive downtown to the Olympic Auditorium, where my old man is moonlighting nights as a security guard. The Olympic was the place, back in the day, where boxing matches happened every weekend. The great American boxing tradition was much bigger and wider spread than most people realize today. A few kids from just about any working class neighborhood, would start fighting in the ring, very early on, certainly kids my age did. There was the Golden Gloves, usually sponsored by a local newspaper and there was the Diamond Belt, often played live on local radio stations. My grandfather fought for these competitions in the late 1920s & early Thirties. He and his friends even started a boxing club, the Battling Bombers. They'd get up in the morning, run along the lakefront, work out at the gym and then go to work all day. He was a great fighter, he naturally had the correct build, could take a punch, had a mean right hook, but one thing he didn't have, was the reach. And if you can't reach your opponent, nothing much matters. In any event, my dad was very aware of my grandfather's history as well as the talent that lay in director Martin Scorsese. My parents had seen Scorsese's early films, but when, "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," was released, both my parents had noticed that my precocious behavior compared that of Alice's son.The big screen rapport between the boy and Alice had undertones of my own relationship with mom.
Actress Cathy Moriarty plays Jake LaMotta's Wife, Vicki in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
We get to the set and already thousands of people are filling the auditorium. I am dressed in jeans and suspenders, a cap and tennis shoes. He is wearing a suit and tie. Because my dad is actually an employee, we have all access. The scene we are shooting today is a famous 'single take' that Martin Scorsese will later make into one of his trademark style techniques. A favorite example of which would be the incredible scene in, 'GoodFellas' when Henry and Karen walk into a nightclub through the kitchen, to avoid the lines out front. They stroll through the door, down a hallway, into the kitchen, where Henry greets the chef, past a couple, who Henry chastises for always meeting here and on into the club, where a table is placed directly in front of the entertainer, who then sends Henry and his date a bottle of champagne. It is an amazing and exhilarating piece of cinema. The scene we are about to shoot uses similar elements. The first time we shoot the scene, the camera is behind Jake and he walks from dressing room to hallway to entryway of the arena and down the long path to the ring, where he makes a sharp left, past the judges and a right into the ring. My father and I are seated just above left of camera, the crew is situated below us, to our right. In between takes, and I can only assume that because my dad worked at the auditorium, or because it was meant to teach me something, or because he thought I would 'be discovered,' he began to call over production techies and assistants, asking questions about this or that adjustment. All these years later, having worked on films, directed and produced, I still can't believe what guts my dad had for the way he participated in the actual filming of the day. I mean, we were just extras, actually, we weren't even that, we were bum rushing the entire experience and here he is actually, 'participating' in the filmmaking process.
Actors Frank Adonis, Joseph Bono and Frank Vincent in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
The first, 'adjustment,' we notice, is when Martin Scorsese moves an extra on the right hand side of the scene from visibility. The man is dressed to the nines, in suit and hat. This is a crowd scene with thousands of people. At any one time, the camera is taking in from twelve to twelve hundred people. This is Mr Scorsese as a master oil painter, creating a giant fresco, placing each individual exactly where he wants them, every now and then, within the single take, an individual character may express an action that will end up on the screen for maybe a second or two. An older, portly man in the hallway, reaches out to Jake outside his dressing room, a middle aged man in a mustache, turns to his left while Jake passes by, clapping, a young woman cheers Jake on as he turns to the left towards the ring. When my father calls over one of the crew members and inquires about the particular change of position, the man simply looks at my dad, then looks at me, then gets on the talkie and finds out. A few minutes later, he comes over to inform us that the well dressed man is in an outfit that resembles one of the main characters and could be confusing to the overall film. This is the first of several inquiries that alerts the crew that either one of Marty's close pals is in the audience or a renegade security guard with kid in tow is taking notes. For now, we are still flying under the radar. We do the scene again, this time, the camera is in front of Jake, the sound of the arena is deafening. This is the moment, in the story & script, where Jake LaMotta finally gets the title fight he deserves. After several editing techniques of a wide variety, mostly, extremely fast and short clips, his shot at the title is pronounced, with this extended, single take and in the final film, it works out beautifully.
Joe Pesci and Nicholas Colasanto, The Neighborhood Don in in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
We break for lunch. The entire auditorium is practically full with thousands of extras and somehow, my dad is able to situate me right next to Robert DeNiro. To this day, I still don't know how he did that, but I have a few ideas why. All these years later, looking back on that very important day in my life, I can see clearly that he wanted me to have the opportunities that existed here in Hollywood. As it turns out, he was a natural born bum rusher, who, on several occasions had done this type of thing before. One example, that stands out, is the time he got backstage at a concert and handed Waylon Jennings a tape with a bunch of songs he had written with his cousin. I should also say here that my old man was definitely a gambler, but he also had talent, he wrote poetry, painted, he knew music very well, was a master craftsman, he had charisma and the gift of gab, he was handsome and had a great heart, but to me, back then, he was simply the guy I had lived with, that my mom had loved, since I was six months old. That said, here I am, eating lunch with a silent Robert DeNiro, who is donned in hood and robe, no one else dared to sit at that table. While I am chowing down with Bobby, my old man is chatting up the crew, he's, no doubt, getting that high that can easily be had when on the set of a great film, probably doesn't even realize it. I look up and he is now talking to the real life Jake LaMotta, getting his autograph, introducing me to people, we are no longer, under the radar. After lunch, a crew member stops by and explains that because I am not an adult, and there are no tutors on the set, the law requires that half day rules apply to actors under eighteen and so, we will not be able to stay for the full day. My old man tries for a second or two to appease and convince, then realizes, ultimately, that we have already succeeded, it has been a great day at the roulette wheel of life. We walk back to our car and drive home. Ten years later, I buy my first film camera, write my first screenplay & produce my first short film. The screenplay is a finalist for the Sundance Film Festival's writers workshop and the short film wins nominations elsewhere.
Academy Award © Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
Raging Bull, as a film, is ahead of it's time. The critics, who had, just a few years earlier, lauded Sylvestor Stallone's, 'Rocky' as a winning, feel good boxing film, did not know what to do with a film as brutally honest and unapologetic as Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull. The film was actually, a project that Robert DeNiro had been working on, for quite some time. After the success of The Deerhunter and Godfather II, he was able to put projects together which suited his goals and challenged the audience. For the first time in film history, an actor had gained a record amount of pounds, to play a character in a 'later in life' sequence, setting the bar several notches higher for techniques utilizing one's physique. Even the best film critics are not quite ready for the honesty of Martin Scorsese. America wanted another feel good film about boxing, and what it got, was a stark, reality based film that exposed the brutality, realism and masochism that surrounded Jake LaMotta's life. Not to mention the art house aspect of filming the entire project, with the exception of a few color home movies, in classic black and white. A bold, artistic decision that has, since then, garnered "Raging Bull" the reverence and deep respect of film lovers and cinema creators around the world. All one needs to do is study the film stills and camera work of Michael Chapman to realize why this film is a work of Art on almost every level. Even the sound design is especially mesmerizing, specifically how each crucial punch, in every single fight scene, is given a special mix of audio effect. It is a mesmerizing work of art and a testament to great cinema, without a doubt. At that years Academy Awards © Ceremony, Robert DeNiro walks up the isle, people are cheering, they reach out to him, applaud his performance and he gladly accepts the Oscar Award for Best Actor. Although my dad is unable to read this, I would like to thank him, Marty, Bobby and the Academy: We Made IT.
Image: Martin Scorsese in London England 1996 Photographer: Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photo
ON THE SET: RAGING BULL By Joshua TRILIEGI for BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine / 2015 SUMMER Edition
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AKIRA KUROSAWA: THE ICON ESSAY
By Joshua A. Triliegi for BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine
Akira Kurosawa is a great contribution to The Asian World and indeed he is a National Treasure to Japan. To Us in The West, he is a teacher, a scholar, a storyteller, a raconteur, a moralist with a much wider view point than the average. Ultimately Kurosawa is a Filmmaker of the rarest variety, lastly, he is an Artist. Today, We Honor Akira Kurosawa.
Akira Kurosawa is the youngest child of a large family, third generation from the Edokko. He is exposed to film early on by an older brother and eventually finds his way to filmmaking by assisting and script writing. His meticulous nature and perfectionist qualities concerning accuracy are exemplary. Eventually his adaptions of early literature and his knowledge of Art expand the ideas of a what a film actually is. Kurosawa garners attention with innovative techniques, pushes the limits on former traditional ideas of right and wrong and after ten films that were mostly seen in Japan, he has a creative breakthrough. Kurosawa's Adaption of several short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa in 1950 for the film entitled, "Rashomon," received The Grand Prix at The Venice Film Festival and led to American distribution through RKO. the film went on to win both the National Board of Review prize and Academy recognition for the Best Foreign Film in Hollywood. At the time, Art Films were usually recognized more from countries such as France, Sweden or England. The fact that a Japanese film had make an international sensation and actually made money in large metropolitan cites such as New York was historical. Film reviews in the New York Times, the Saturday Review and the Christian Science Monitor were complimentary. Reviews in The New Yorker and the Times London were perplexing, as we look back at these negative reviews, some sixty-five years later, they seem tainted by a prejudice that has haunted the Asian culture since time immemorial. You may notice that this publication has no time, need or desire to TELL the reader what is good or bad. If it is in the publication, you may assume it is good, if it is not in the publication, you may assume whatever you like. Rashomon went on to great heights of conjecture and recognition and to this day is compared to great films that have transcended both time and trends. "Rashomon" could be compared to Orson Welles' great Classic, "Citizen Kane," in that regard. The success of international recognition brings scrutiny and even envy within the inner circles of a great artist and without a doubt, the surprising popularity of Rashomon, did just that. Kurosawa follows it up with an early literature favorite from Dostoevsky. He eventually creates the masterpiece, "Seven Samurai," which inspires another popular filmmaker to adapt it into, "The Magnificent Seven." Later, more such adaptations of Kurosawa films, both loose & exacting will create films like, "Star Wars."
Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Paul Schrader are just a few of the internationally known American filmmakers who owe a great debt to the legacy of the man they call, Akira Kurosawa. One of the important aspects of Kurosawa and his influence on cinema is both his pre-war and post-war activity in filmmaking. He is assisting and in training throughout the period before World War Two. Kurosawa becomes a director in 1943, though his responsibilities as an assistant in previous productions had prepared him entirely. All throughout the War, Akira Kurosawa makes films that are influenced by what he sees and feels, but also by many of his Western influences such as writers like Georges Simenon. Kurosawa is blatantly honest about his many influences which include: D. W. Griffith, Ed McBain, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare and the frailty of mankind itself. Years after the war, Kurosawa openly discusses his acknowledgment of, "War Time filmmaking and National Code policies," that both hindered and influenced his ability to make the films he had intended to create. His complete and utter honesty regarding his past works is unheard of elsewhere. This quality of truth, which shows deeply in his work, is certainly one of the many reasons why Kurosawa is important. A must read book for any persons wishing to understand the films of Akira Kurosawa is the comprehensive manual, "The Films of Akira Kurosawa," by author Donald Ritchie, "Something of An Auto Biography," by Kurosawa himself and of course the many books written about each film, the scripts and stories they are based on, and to view the films themselves. I also believe that comparative film viewings are a great way to understand the relationships that we as artists, filmmakers and storytellers have with one another. If you watch, "The Hidden Fortress," as a double feature with, "Star Wars," or "The Seven Samurai," with "The Magnificent Seven," you may learn something of the interrelated quality which the arts provide this world. The unification of the human experience itself, on an international level, depends highly on the arts.
The films of Akira Kurosawa plays a key role in the international discussion and dissertation on our relations as people of the world. Another keen and important aspect to Akira Kurosawa's contribution to film itself is his deep knowledge and curiosity regarding philosophy, literature and the visual arts. As Kurosawa's popularity rises, he is more and more, able to make the type of film that he originally intended to create. In "High and Low," a detective story based on a book by Ed McBane, Kurosawa's positioning of characters in relation to their body language is so artistically defined and designed that it raises filmmaking to the level of high art. The single frame pictures in this production, especially the interior shots with four or more characters are simply masterpiece art paintings, fine art prints or highly developed photographs by a complete and utter artist of the highest order. Further, the images relate directly to story, emotion, narrative interpretation and culminate into what a film must be to succeed: Entertainment as well as Education. Kurosawa goes onto create a series of films that have created a legacy of outstanding cinema that have aligned themselves with his own country, with Asian history and traditions as well as the concerns of humanity as a whole. An artist will create works that reflect their personal interests, views and concerns as well as experience. At the same time, there are collective experiences that relate to one's nation, one's place in the world and one's very existence. The Akira Kurosawa catalogue is steeped in each afore mentioned example. His later works, such as, "Ran," and "Dreams," are a testament to humanity, history and proof that, Akira Kurosawa, from the first film to the last, set a great example and raised the bar of excellence as well as imagination. I do not pretend to be a specialist in Asian studies. I do not assume I know anything more than you do about Oriental culture. I do not profess to have the answers to the deeper questions that great art provides. I do know that the work of Akira Kurosawa has educated my knowledge, his films have informed my curiosity, his ideas have answered many of the deeper philosophical questions. And so, today, we honor the great Artist Akira Kurosawa in this BUREAU Icon Essay .
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI for BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine International
BUREAU FILMS 12 Must See CLASSIC FILMSThat Express a certain Social Angst that is very much relevant for the Youth of Today's Society.
1) AMERICAN GRAFFITI
2) BIG WEDNESDAY
3) BREAKING A W A Y
4) CROOKLYN
5) LA BAMBA
6) OUTSIDERS
7) QUADROPHENIA
8) REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
9) REPO MAN
10) SWING KIDS
11) THE GRADUATE
12) WEST SIDE STORY
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
One of the most important films reflecting on American Pop Culture ever. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Directed by George Lucas. Starring a cast of new stars that have all gone on to have stellar careers in the film industry: actors, directors, producers. Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Suzanne Somers, Kathleen Quinlan, Candy Clark, Charles Martin Smith, Mackenzie Phillips, Bo Hopkins.A Film that holds up every time it is viewed. A nostalgic look at a time and a place in America just before we were hit with the death of the Kennedy's & other social leaders, Vietnam and a complicated world which forever changed our lives in America. This film went onto inspire the Television Show : HAPPY DAYS. As well as many teen / music films such as DAZED & CONFUSED by Independent Film Maker Richard LINKLATER. One can also see that this film production opened the door for Alan ARKUSH's Classic Musical Cult Teen Film: ROCK & ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. http://www.google.COM/#q=american+graffitti+cast
BIG WEDNESDAY
The most authentic fictional SURF FILM ever created. Directed and co - written by John Milius, who would go on to put a surf scene in just about every film he would ever participate in, most famously: the surf scene in APOCALYPSE NOW. This film seems to capture West Coast Surf culture with the perfect blend of the nostalgic aspects of the early days on into the more cynical ones. Friendships, initiations, love, war and growing up with the waves. Another perfect ensemble cast, an original musical score and a voice over narration that perfectly tells the story like a good book. For a full Review Visit The BUREAU of ARTS and Culture Film Page. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077235/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ql_1
BREAKING AWAY
Growing up poor or middle class in an area where others are more privileged is one of the themes running through this hilarious and charming film about Biking, Friendship, Playing by the Rules and yes, ' Breaking Away ' from the pack, traditions and false ideals. A story about finding & respecting yourself in a world that refuses to do so. Dennis Quaid in an early & heartfelt performance. Directed by Peter Yates with a screenplay by Steve Tesich. A great use of Classical Music throughout the entire production. Other cast members include: The incredible Paul Dooley as the dad, Barbara Berrie as the Mom and Dennis Christopher, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley as ' The Cutters ' [ for cutting school ]. A fabulous uplifting production. http://www.google.COM/#q=Breaking+away+the+film+cast
CROOKLYN
Spike Lee dishes up this family film which is loosely based on scenarios created by his brother and sister and thier early childhood in Brooklyn. A hilarious film that personifies the 1970's with all the pitch perfect hooks and props, music and experiences that define the period. A heartbreaking and yet wonderfully funny film that nails exactly what many of us went through during our childhood experiences in America at that particular time and place. Outstanding performances by the entire cast. As usual Spike Lee's casting choices from Del Roy Lindo as the dad, Alfre Woodard as the mom and a whole crop of new young actors as well as Isaiah Washington, RuPaul, Vondie Curtis-Hall and of course Zelda Harris as the young girl who plays our lead character. With a great soundtrack, richly produced and as usual great direction.http://www.google.COM/#q=Crroklyn+cast
LA BAMBA
A musical bio that lovingly tells the story of singer Ritchie Valens, though at the same time, tells a basic family dynamic of growing up, falling in love, being accepted or not and dealing with life's opportunities under pressure. A fabulous soundtrack that helped to put the band Los Lobos on the map. This was a follow up to the success of Luis Valdez's play & film ZOOT SUIT. With themes that describe the latino experience, musical prodigies, inter racial love and crossing over into the mainstream American music charts. This film, along with the Buddy Holly Story, Great Balls of Fire and the many films on Elvis Presley,opened the door for the entire genre of music biographies that have lead up to: RAY, Walk the Line, Sid and Nancy. Lou Diamond Phillips in his first starring role, Esia Morales in a pinnacle supporting role as Ritchie's brother, Rosanna DeSoto as the mom and Joe Pantoliano, Elizabeth Pena, Brian Seltzer and Tony Genaro supporting. http://www.google.COM/#q=La+bamba+cast
The OUTSIDERS
An outstanding adaption of an S. E. Hinton novel by Francis Ford Coppola. The perfect film that reflects life on the, ' other side of the tracks '. Another film that has a cast of new stars that will all go onto great careers in film: C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Emelio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, and Coppola regulars: Tom Waits, Diane Lane & Glen Withrow. Heroic and authentic, sympathetic and rough, innocent and tough, all without any slips in performance, style or structure, a really great film about family, friends, tribes and looking back one more time, before moving forward again. What's it like to be an American in the middle of America ? This is what it's like. http://www.google.COM/#q=outsiders+cast
QUADROPHENIA
The first of several great films created by The Classic Rock & Roll Band: The WHO. A semi autobiographical tale of Mods and Rockers in and around the London music scene just prior to the creation of bands like the WHO. the clash between the Mods and the rockers, not unlike the same clash we see within the other films listed in this review: The Outsiders, Breaking Away, Rebel without a Cause, Big Wednseday. The Who will go onto create, The Kids are Allright & the Classic Rock opera TOMMY. Being authentic, demanding respect from authority, rebelling against previous values and searching for acceptance, but ultimately tossing it all away for self respect are just a few of the themes in this great fictional film. Once again, many of the cast members will become regulars and have entire careers and comebacks time and time again. Most notably: Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast, Timothy Spell in a series of films with the great Mike Leigh, Sting and of course a very young Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Mark Wingett, Phil Davis. Directed by Franc Roddam. With music by The WHO and the use of period music specifically Booker T and the MG's classic 'Green Onions', which is also used in American Graffiti http://www.google.COM/#q=QUADROPHENIA+cast
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
The benchmark of all great films about growing up. There had many teen films before, but none could ever touch it after. The fact that it was filmed in technicolor put it a cut above the juvenile delinquent genre that had been mostly filmed in low budget black & white. Of course, the pinnacle performance by James Dean in a role that absolutely never goes out of style. Every generation rediscovers this film and immediately relates. His sensitivity, his search for truth, his sympathy towards Sal Mineo and his love for Natalie Wood as well as the need to be accepted and respected all ring true to the kids of today's society. The other films in this article could never have existed without the creation and popularity of Rebel without a Cause. This is the quintessential teen film. Although, it also speaks to the ever changing evolution from one generation to another. A great original soundtrack, rich technicolor and realistic and dramatic performances. Directed by Nicholas Ray, written by Stewart Stern based on a story by Irving Schulman.http://www.google.COM/#q=rebel+without+a+cause+cast
REPO MAN
Another small but interesting film about life in Los Angeles by director Alex COX, who would later direct the classic Sid and Nancy biop on Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols Punk rock band that helped to start an entire revolution in rock and roll music that still exists. Repo Man weaves between the new music of the time and the different types of folks who inhabit Los Angeles. The film is a satire on all types of people, much like the music of that time, bands like Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, Iggy Pop, Suicidal Tendencies, The Plugz and FEAR all made fun of society, so too does this film. With Emelio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton battling it out with for and among space aliens, low riders, musicians and of course stealing back automobiles. Car chases through the L.A. River, Low budget special effects and performances by many real musicians such as band members of The Untouchables and Circle Jerks make this a sort of time capsule of a time and a place. At the time, this film was considered a cynical look at society, looking back at it today, its almost innocent. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087995/
SWING KIDS
Music, politics and friendship collide into a whirlwind force among a group of friends in Germany during the take over of Europe. Inspired loosely on actual events in the life of people such as Django Reinhardt. Another cast of important actors including: Christian Bale, Frank Whaley, Robert Sean Leonard and Barbara Hershey. Loyalty is the running theme in this music filled portrait which starts out as a story of friendship but swiftly veers into a political thriller of the historical variety. An outstanding sound track with great performances by an ensemble cast. The film asks us how far will we go to be a success in our own time and place ? Loyalty to friends, to our own values,
to our life may be more important than acceptance by the group, especially when the group is a destructive, controlling and obvious plague on a free society such as ours.http://www.google.com/#q=swing+kids+cast
THE GRADUATE
A hilarious, sensitive and heartbreaking story of one young man's journey into self discovery after graduating from college. The film that put Dustin Hoffman on the map. A soundtrack that launched Simon & Garfunkle into music stardom. As well as introducing the directing career of, up to that point, comedian Mike Nichols who with Elaine May, had a string of successful comedic albums based on their night club act. With a screenplay co written by Buck Henry of Saturday Night live fame and career making appearances by Anne Bancroft, Norman Fell, Katherine Ross, William Daniels and Murray Hamilton uttering the now classic, phrase, " I have one word for you ... PLASTICS." Which seems to personify the artificial world that Hoffman's character is thrust into. An entirely different kind of comedy that broke the mold on controversy, humor and the sad realities
that would lie ahead for an entire generation in search of truth, love and once again, breaking away from the values of those that have preceded us. A great film with a surprise ending that still to this day, is embarrassing, exulting and always entertaining. Somewhere between the sympathetic soundtrack, the innocent performances and the heartfelt realities of life, a strange and original cinematic experience emerges. No film has ever matched this blend since. The graduate opened the door to a slew of new films: http://www.google.com/#q=the+graduate+cast
WEST SIDE STORY
The classic updated version of Romeo & Juliet told here in New York City, between two rival gangs of kids from different ethnic backgrounds. This film still holds up in every way, shape and form. Cinematography, costumes, dialogue, songs and of course the transformative choreography and music. Leonard Bernstein developed this project for well over a decade and to this day it is as fresh and relevant as any film about the youth of society today. Romance, violence, loyalty and the difficulty in crossing over from the folks you were born with into the person you are in love with, are just a few of the themes touch on here. The song lyrics are so entirely up to date, that it is downright astounding how fresh and relevant this film is. Marijuana, Cops and Detectives, Gangs, Social Workers, Fashion and most of all Love. This film becomes more and more impressive as time goes on. West Side Story contains performances by natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, Russ Tamblyn, David Winters, George Chakiris, Tucker Smith and a cast of outstanding actors /dancers and of course a soundtrack that makes it an utter and complete classic film that will never go out of style.
FILM : ON THE ROAD
By Joshua Triliegi
A dangerously loyal adaption of a highly influential and often misunderstood novel by an author who dearly loved his friends, jazz, people and places that were inspiring. " The only ones for me are the mad ones... " is a quote from Jack Kerouac's novel which was reviewed by a stand - in literature critic for The New York Times, who lauded the work as a breakthrough moment in American Literature and a star was born. This is the novel that inspired an entire generation to break free of the social norms and simply be yourself, travel, make love, make music, love the common man, write about your hearts desires and most of all, love your life for all it has to offer.First of all, I am a biased reviewer in that I love Jack Kerouac, The Beats, Jazz, the common man, people and places that are inspiring. I have read most of the novels and published letters by the characters personified within this film: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg & William Burroughs and have produced minor films that were inspired by these American authors. That said, this is the greatest film adaption of any Beat Film ever. One only hopes that the film makers will be able to put on the screen a classic novel that so many of us have loved, honored and cherished our whole lives. The film is nothing less than the most perfect adaption ever produced on Beats. From the opening shot above a parking lot to the final scene on the streets of New York, the film breaths life into an impossible novel that took decades to bring to the big screen. Francis Ford Coppola executive produces [ that means he put up the dough ] so that the director Walter Salles could bring this gem into existence and put himself into the major arena of outstanding film adaption by directors who shall be honored for years to come.
The performances as far as I am concerned, are pitch perfect. Accents, performances, style and character development as well as a commitment to realistic personifications are entirely delivered with a loyalty to truth, legend and entertainment. This is dangerous. This is exciting. This is Inspiring. This is On The Road and life after Neil Cassady will never be the same again. For those not ' In The Know ' heres a primer. Have you ever had a best friend ? Attractive, exciting, dangerous, from the wrong side of the tracks ? Someone who showed you a side of life never seen within your own house, neighborhood, city, state, country ? Well, Jack Kerouac did, he had several, but his old pal Neil took the cake. Sure, he also had Allen Ginsberg, who would go onto write the famous poem that was banned for indecency entitled, " HOWL ". These days it is taught as a major work of art at places like West Point Academy. He also had William Burroughs famous for his dangerously subversive novel entitled, " Naked Lunch " another Beat film which was also brought to the big screen by Canadian director, David Cronenberg. Another dangerously loyal film adaption that went way beyond the book into the realm of Burroughs-ian-Land.
Jack was a French Catholic boy who loved America dearly, hated suppressive government and wanted to express that in his work. On The Road was his opus which sat around for years, influencing his friends as well as informing his detractors and pissing off the squares who had no idea what he was talking about most of the time. The film offers a straight ahead, lush and lovely offering - like version of the written word that is bound to ruffle a few feathers, scare a few squares, rattle a few cages and inspire more than a few too read the novels and break free once again. Its a beautiful look at an oppressive time in America. These are the Mc Carthy Years. the time of the black lists in Hollywood and New York. Eisenhower, Truman, etc...
The story and film itself is insulated by its own parameters of friendship, loyalty, love, sex, drugs and endless searchings for kicks, kicks, kicks. Do you know the song lyric, " Get your kicks on Route 66 ... " ? The popularity of goatee beards, black sunglasses, black clothes, jazz music for white folks, coffeehouses, Bob Dylan, poetry, classic cars, the popularity of Marijuana, traveling by bus, car and railway, heading West, the entire hippy movement, rock and roll, tune in , turn on and drop out, as well as the writings of folks who brought us : One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Easy Rider and This film here, all of it stems from the pen, the mind, the man, the myth, the legend that is Jack Kerouac. The canon of influence that ON THE ROAD and HOWL and NAKED LUNCH had is quite immense. These folks were dealing with themes and taboos that have been broken wide open : Mixed Race Couples, Gay Sex, Marijuana. In the nineteen fifties, you went to jail, were beaten down or in some case were actually killed for being outside the system. Some would argue that some of these restrictions have creeped up on us again.
In any event, this an outstanding rendition of a classic American Novel that to be sure, Jack Kerouac and his pals, gals and fans would be very proud of. It's the real thing. A word about the production design. Flawless costumes, atmosphere, hand held camera work that captures the mystery, mastery and misanthropy as well as the come downs from the heavy high of being On The Road and having to come home, back down to Earth, back to the real world. I'm unsure what the average American viewer will think of all the sex, drugs and rock & roll. There are plenty of inside jokes for beat fans, beat readers and those who actually lived through this period of time. I will say that the performances are explicit, expressive and exciting as well as entertaining. There is just the right amount of travel across America and into Mexico as well as a balanced display of the price this type of life costed the participants as well as the friends and relatives of those nearby. For Jack, it gave him life lessons, broke his heart, gave him a novel and taught him a thing or two about loyalty, friendship, love, freedom and the boundaries thereof. For beat fans this is a fabulous film, for the actors, maybe a nomination, for the producer and director, one can only hope for a few awards by early next year. Ya got my vote. Because the only ones for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to be saved, desirous of everything...
FILM : THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
" In The Kingdom of Kitsch "
In 1988 director Phillip Kaufman brought to the screen a novel by Milan Kundera. Mr Kaufman has always been at least, a decade ahead of the times. His films have constantly created genres, influenced directors and bravely translated literature & historical events to the screen. His adherence and loyalty to source material is unmatched. The Wanderers, The Right Stuff, Henry and June, to name a few, have inspired and set the stage for other films within the genre, consistently raising the bar on truth, quality, reverence to the originator and entertainment well beyond the current trends. Mr. Kaufman brings to life words with a keen sense of detail and a wide world view which brings the viewer into a realm of reality or fantasy that seems to punctuate humanity and specifically the boundaries with which life presents.The Unbearable Lightness of Being might be considered his masterpiece, although, due to his prolific and influential output in other genres, it is safe to say that Kaufman will not be remembered for any one film. He is under rated, in terms of being what they call a house hold name. But to directors in the industry, film students and international film festivals, associations and aficionados: Mr. Kaufman is heroic.
"The Right Stuff opened the door for a slew of astronaut films including Apollo 13. Kaufman practically created the genre. By setting an absolute tone, fabulous casting, flawless research and collaboration with top costumers, photographers and producers, his influence is felt far beyond the time and the place with which his films are released."
The Right Stuff opened the door for a slew of astronaut films including Apollo 13. Kaufman practically created the genre. By setting an absolute tone, fabulous casting, flawless research and collaboration with top costumers, photographers and producers his influence is felt far beyond the time and the place with which his films are released. In The Unbearable Lightness of Being a stellar cast of actors bring to life historical events. Politics, passion, literature and history meld into a contemporary take on a situation which relates to and possibly rivals director David Lean's, Doctor Zhivago. Film history relies on itself to continue certain traditions. Film makers grow up watching films which inspire works of art that later influence the next generation and so on. As Zhivago was based on a great novel about love that just so happens to be placed in a time of political upheaval, so to does the source material for Milan Kundera's novel.
Daniel Day - Lewis spreads his wings in this production which for the first time truly employs his talents to an international audience in a story that juxtaposes his love for life, women and country and the complications that arise between politics, change, revolution and expressing one's self as a writer while making a living at another trade, in this case : brain surgery. One can imagine Mr. Kaufman's desk covered with book options through the years and muttering to his producers cliches' such as, 'It's not rocket science.' or 'It doesn't take a brain Surgeon.' But for Kaufman it definitely is rocket science & as far as this writer is concerned, it is brain surgery, for Kaufman is a genius. I never use the word and yet there it is on the page. There is something about his films that generate a certain amount of passion, interest and bon vivant. His take on life is liberated, his characters are on the edge of history, pushing the envelope into a new time & place. Sam Shepard' s characterization of astronaut Chuck Yeager in the Right Stuff is a perfect example. Characters who break boundaries and later seem to go uncredited or under the radar. Or bringing to life the triangular love relationship between Henry Miller and his lovers. Source material that few directors would know how to approach, let alone, how to raise the funds for and bring to life on the screen.
Unbearable Lightness of Being also visits this type of triangular passion and complicated relationship that make for great drama. Kaufman's take on life, love & history are dramatic, but laced with a pathos, irony and humor that keeps one interested through out. He has a rare viewpoint that illustrates life's issues and relationships in an original & complicated way. With stellar performances by Lena Olin and a fresh faced newcomer on the scene, Juliet Binoche. Supporting cast includes Stellan Skarsgard. This erotic, yet human feature film takes us inside Czechloslvakia during a particularly tumultuous time in their history with an oppressive an invasive Russian takeover during the nineteen sixties. Politics, passion and provocation abound. Kaufman's films almost never come in at the usual commercial time of ninety minutes. He is an artist, most of his features are two hours or more. Unbearable Lightness of Being comes in at an epic 172 minutes, just under three hours. Every scene, every line, every moment is fresh, alive, undeniably truthful, unabashedly human & heartbreakingly real. Originally a part of the Orion Pictures catalogue. Produced by The Saul Zaentz Company. A brave and bold historical film well worth celebrating.
This has been an appreciation of UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING. An ongoing Series of articles marking the Films, Books & Artworks that are worth remembering, re-watching, re-reading and re-celebrating time & time again.
ORSON WELLES
Orson Welles is the real voice of America. He scared the living hell out of us on October 31st 1939 with The Historical radio narration of "WAR of The WORLDS". A somewhat naive public had tuned in to hear the usual musical concert brought to you live by so and so from such and such a location and instead was told that, "The Martians were landing in New Jersey," and a full on invasion of America was taking place. The 'Boy Wonder' as he was called by some, had looks, guts, a voracious appetite for fame and a deep male voice that held passion, wisdom, roots, defiance and bravado. Orson gathered a group of actors and called them The Mercury Players, including a young Agnes Moorehead, Vincent Price, Joseph Cotton, Everett Sloane, Ray Collins, Martin Gabel, Anne Baxter, Judy Holliday, Geraldine Fitzgerald and other future stars of sound and screen. Orson Welles wrote, acted, directed, narrated and produced. He took classic literature and related it to current issues including Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with a twist toward the growing fascism in Europe of the late 1930s. He went on to create radio adaptions of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Huckleberry Finn, Our Town, The Heart of Darkness, Five Kings, and Native Son. The Legend of Welles has created many a great film and literary adaption in its own right. "RKO 281" starring Liev Schreiber as Welles is a good adaption of events leading up to his entry into Hollywood and filmmaking. "The Cradle will Rock" by Tim Robbins is another fine and thorough film which brings to life The Theater chapter of Welles experience in New York City with the WPA and censorship in America. Orson Welles' All Black MacBeth commonly known as VooDoo Macbeth, set in Haiti, was an out and out success, every line in Shakespeare's play was kept intact. The production, "Exceeded its original play dates in New York and had a popular tour of The country".
It also began an animosity surrounding Orson Welles that continued to follow his career leading up to his masterpiece which chronicled the life and times of a once powerful media mogul and newspaper magnate, in all its highs and lows: Citizen Kane. Both Peter Bogdanovich and Henry Jaglom spent a good amount of time with Orson late in his life and each have interesting stories to tell, in both book and film. "The Cats Meow" a film by Bogdanovich tells a dark chapter related to media mogul William Randolph Hearst of Citizen Kane fame and Jaglom's book, "My lunches with Orson" transcribe taped conversations with the late great master filmmaker and magician. Some twenty years after Citizen Kane created a revolution in film, censorship and battles between the artists and the media in Hollywood, Bogdanovich had organized a retrospect of works at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and years later posthumously published, "This is Orson Welles" in 1985. Controversy courted Welles at all levels, especially with his collaborators and creating partners, including The Bogdanovich book which, was lost in storage, later found, put on hold by Welles himself, having been offered funds for his own life story and later published with full approval. Some called it a failed career, others know damn well that Welles was out and out blackballed from the industry and ten years later, hundreds of left leaning artists, writers and filmmakers were witch hunted by not just, The Industry, but by their own government. Orson Welles was a real voice for American Radio and being a real man in America can be a dangerous game. Citizen Kane is commonly called One of, if not, THE, Greatest Modern American Film of all time. Welles took the newspaper techniques utilized by Media Moguls of the time and flipped them right back in their faces, taking tawdry facts and innuendo and skewering the all powerful modern day millionaires of the day. It was a beautiful and defiant move that scared the pants off of the powerful and at the same time, empowered the individual artist. Unfortunately, the price Orson paid to make that statement ended his own career, created a legend, set the tone for decades to come and even taught a weary government what tools could be used to dupe the public into submission, fear and war. To this day, film, radio & literature as well as newspapers are all fooling society daily.
MARTIN SCORSESE :
One of AMERICA's Most Important Film Makers
By Joshua TRILIEGI
Strange and challenged experiences in life seem to create great artists of a major caliber. Martin Scorsese was a child entangled with sickness, born of Italian parents in a tough neighborhood, he retreated into the great movie houses of New York City, learned the craft of classic film making by watching the great early American directors such as John Ford, John Huston and Orson Welles. From the European masters, Mr. Scorsese was influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, Luchino Visconti, Jean Renoir, Michael Powell, Roberto Rosellini, Frederico Fellini, Andrzel Wajda & Mizoguchi Kenji among others. After creating a few exercises , which is often what first films can be, he created what most feel is his first 'real film' : MEAN STREETS. Famously coached by Independent film maker & actor John Casavettes, who told Mr. Scorsese to go make a real film. And indeed he did. Early on in the production New Yorkers began to hassle the young director, 'There's nothing Mean about these streets.' , they shouted. Early on, Mr. Scorsese attracted controversy and it has stayed with him throughout his career. Taxi Driver and The last Temptation of Christ, possibly creating the most amount of misunderstanding & friction that only seemed to fuel his inspiration and also led to a good deal of what we commonly call in the business: Free Advertising.
In 1974, while putting together, Alice doesn't live Here Anymore, he approached Ellen Burstyn for the role of Alice. While reviewing his films up to that point Ms. Burstyn point blank asked the young director if he knew 'Anything' about women, his answer ? 'No, but I'm willing to learn'. The film went on to create accolades for both Ms. Burstyn, her co star, Kris Kristofferson and a little known discovery: Jodie Foster. Ms. foster would go onto a nomination for her role in Taxi Driver, creating a backlash and more controversy for the Director. As well as awards and acceptance from the global film community and Hollywood critics.
In 1977, his love of early musicals, music always plays a big part in any Scorsese production, led him to new York, New York, which was again, out of synch with the public's taste, yet still and all, is a lavish production.
In 1980, Mr Scorsese's relationship with Robert De Niro led him to direct the boxing film Raging Bull, which was a brutal and realistic portrait of Jake La Motta. Shot in classic black & white, unheard of at the time, winning an Oscar for his long time collaborator, Mr.De Niro and soon to be stalwart Scorsese actor Joe Pesci, as well as the discovery of actress Cathy Moriarty. The sound design is phenomenal, each boxing match is shot with a variation, the scenes in between the matches often, quiet & still, one can easily see Mr. Scorsese's influence by the Italian Neo -Realists here: Visconti, Rosellini and a love of the early boxing Films of the 1940's and 1950's. I was honored to visit the Film Set of this production and had the pleasure of lunching with Mr De Niro, meeting the real Jake La Motta and viewing the master director at work with thousands of extras in costume. Something I can only liken to watching Rembrandt paint an oil painting in his studio one afternoon.
In 1983, Mr Scorsese took on the world of comedy's underbelly & the aspects of fame that can lead to desperation, insanity and obsession with The King of Comedy. Jerry Lewis, Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhardt collide in this wacky, dark and uncomfortable look at the sidelines of television and entertainment. A visionary work that hints at where we are today with fans obsessive attachment to the famous, rich and influential entertainers of television, music & filmmaking.
In 1985, Mr Scorsese directed one of the films that are sometimes known as his smaller films: After Hours. A crazy, funny and Art House hit that has comedic flare and wit, utilizing the art world, New York's neighborhoods and a hipster paranoia that reminds one of films like, 'Its a mad, mad, mad, mad World'.
Also included in this category would be 1986' s The Color of Money, which was a sort of Part Two to The Hustler, starring Paul Newman as fast Eddie Felson and utilizing a rising young star Tom Cruz. The film was a comeback for Paul Newman and is a great piece of cinema that takes us deep into the world of Pool Hall hustling & another early cameo by the great actor Forrest Whittaker. Mr Scorsese is a lot like Spike Lee, in that they both court controversy and have a tendency to discover great new talent: Sam Jackson for instance.
1988 brought us, The Last Temptation of Christ, which emblazoned a sort of hysteria from christians which unfortunately marred the audiences opinions against an otherwise thoughtful and interesting take on the possibilities of the life of the man known as Jesus the Christ. It is ultimately and interesting an thoughtful piece with an outstanding and inspired performance by Willem Defoe and guest performers such as John Lurie and David Bowie. Mr Scorsese's casting choices are always a big part of his creative collaboration and process. Universal Studios was demonized for the movie, most of the protestors had never even seen the movie. Mr Scorsese was somewhat surprised by the reaction.
In 1990, Martin Scorsese returned to the screen with what would be considered an entire and utter Classic: GoodFellas. Up to this point possibly his best film ever. A great script, performances by De Niro, Pesci and Ray Liotta that stand the test of time, a return to the Italian American experience that Mr. Scorsese knows very well. Awards from every important film organization and three of the big Academy Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay.
In 1991. Mr Scorsese brought us a remake with Cape Fear. Another strange, dark and menacing drama that pits Jessica Lange and Nick Nolte, whom the director had worked with in his section of a three short story feature : New York Stories, which also starred a new face on the screen: Steve Buscemi of Boardwalk Empire fame.
In 1993, Mr Scorsese took on what might be considered his classic film renditions. One can see his love of great classic films such as Gone with the Wind in this film: The Age of Innocence. A giant colorful tapestry laden with lush food, flowers, costumes and the beginning of a great collaboration with actor Daniel Day Lewis, who would return to the Scorsese camp for Gangs of New York almost a decade later. More Nominations: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, etc ...
In 1995, A return to the big Italian American genre that brought us Mean Streets and Goodfellas, a completion of what may be considered his italian trilogy, the epic film: CASINO. De Niro and Pesci return to the scene as well as interesting casting choices like Don Rickles as a casino pit boss, who would have thought of that ? An incredible and tour de force performance by Sharon Stone putting her front and center as a powerful actress in top notch form, deserving of dollars & respect. possibly one of his best films up to that point in his career. A classic loved by all.
In 1997, Mr Scorsese, visits the asian inspired, Kundun. A tibetan tale of struggle and politics that surround the tibetan country and it's people. Some said he was out of his element here, but, even when Mr Scorsese stretches his boundaries as he did here, there is enough on the screen to inspire, teach and yes, entertain.
In 1999, Scorsese teams up with Nicolas Cage in this adrenaline fueled story of an ambulance driver and his nightmare like work place: The streets of the big city. A sort of Taxi driver like return to working class obsession and hallucination. Cage puts in a performance of a lifetime, while John goodman watches his partners slow descent into an insomnia induced insanity. The camera work here is fabulous. Another street film that utilizes the city itself as a character and even as the villain.
In 2002, a return to the big costume period film genre that was hinted at with Age of Innocence, but this time with the proper amount of guts and glory that seem to inspire this director and satisfy his audience. A large and difficult film that combines historical aspects of Scorsese's beloved New York City with the struggles of early Americans, religion, politics and dramatic storytelling. With performances by Leonardo De Caprio, who will become one of Mr Scorsese's greatest collaborators time and time again: The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island and this years The Wolf of Wall Street. The Gangs of New York is an epic tale that brings back Daniel Day Lewis in a terrifying performance as Bill The Butcher with a Who's Who of acting from both American and European Actors, straddling the dangerous territory of accents, costumes and acting styles that are difficult to put on the screen in one entire production. This is Mr. Scorsese as oil painter extraordinaire, his largest series to date. A difficult challenge indeed. We begin to see Mr Scorsese's use of the digital format utilized here in outrageous shots, set pieces and tunneling like transformations from full shots high above the city to close ups entering a characters pupils. This is the master film maker having a field day with the best actors, designers & collaborators on the planet. Amazing. Nominations All Around
In 2004, Mr Scorsese and De Caprio return to give us an inside look at the much talked about life of Howard Hughes. An interesting film with both Vegas, Hollywood and the insanity of being an artist, creator and inventor as well as the burdens of success in all walks of the American dream. A paranoid yet somehow innocent and success driven story with interesting performances and some would say incongruous casting choices, though still and all, great efforts by all involved. A dark, lush film shot with a somber and rich palette. Mr Scorsese is an artist first, film maker second, historian third. it shows here and this is a compelling film that thrusts us into Hughes world, and leaves us at his door step at the very end. Broken, battered, wondering. Nominations All Around.
In 2006, Mr Scorsese takes on the Irish Boston mob scene with The Departed. Working with Jack Nicholson, who was famously cajoled by the likes of Mark Wahlberg and De Caprio to participate in this picture. A return to the Goodfella's like genre complete with FBI Agents, Irish Gang Ethos and codes of conduct. This film is driven mostly by great performances by both Wahlberg and De Caprio. One can see there keen interest in the project and their enthusiasm and ability carries the film up and over whatever limitations exist within the written material. Best Director Awards across the board: The Academy, Golden Globe, Everyone agrees Martin Scorsese is a master film maker who tells stories that are true to America.
In 2010, Mr Scorsese and Leonardo De Caprio stay several steps ahead of their audience in this strange, psycho drama of the old school variety: Shutter Island. A head scratcher to say the least. A psyche out of the Hitchcockian variety: Rear Window with Shutters on it. Another dark and rather difficult film to view. Leonardo De Caprio twisting and retching about in a manner reminiscent of his early and incredibly naked performances such as his role in Gilbert Grape. Another brave & discordant rendition that is probably a bit ahead of it's time. Many of Mr Scorsese's films are decades ahead, creating entire genres & a new crop of film makers who fill a certain void: Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee, Paul Thomas Anderson. In 2011, Mr Scorsese utilizes the digital media to create a life long dream project: HUGO. Which is a much more mainstream project that catapults his popularity into the mainstream for audiences of all ages. Over 35 nominations from film organizations around the world recognize his talent, efforts and contributions.
Which brings us to 2013, The Wolf of Wall Street. Starring Leonardo De Caprio, one of his greatest collaborators, based on a great book, Mr. Scorsese always does well with adaptions. A story line that Americans will indeed be interested in & already everyone is talking about this film. We are looking froward to seeing it and you will find a review on these pages. Of course the Documentaries have not been mentioned in this appreciation, but Mr Scorsese is a fine and thorough documentarian: Contributions to WoodStock, The Last Waltz, The Blues, Shine a Light, George Harrison and a slew of important short films. Mr Scorsese is also the executive producer and pilot creator of important cable film series such as Board Walk Empire on HBO Home Box office.
BERT STERN: ORIGINAL MAD MAN
An original & personal film created by one of Bert's Stern's longtime photographic subjects. This film is an insiders look at Mr. Stern's life, career, his history & approach to creating the images that the world of photographers and collectors have come to admire , appreciate and purchase as well as publish. Mr. Stern is famous for creating iconic portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn and the more contemporary models and actresses through the years and up to the present day, including Lyndsey Lohan and Kate Moss. This is a home movie of sorts, sometime vague, other times exacting, sometimes personal, other times professional. Bert Stern has run the gamut, he's a character, an old schooler from the golden era of advertising. Most famously photographing what became Marilyn Monroe' s final photo- graphic session for Vogue Magazine. Mr Stern was in the thick of New York when photographs became the chosen media for advertisements which up to that time relied heavily on drawings, graphics and illustrations. Bert Stern is an artist who happened upon a camera and, as many professionals will testify, trans- formed the industry of photographic advertising, portraiture and selling an image. This film is a casual look at Mr Stern, told by Bert Stern himself, over a glass of wine, breakfast, after hours conversations. We meet his loves, his successes, his foibles and witness his comeback from a forgotten and obscure iconic image maker to a collected and respected lion of the industry. This is a good introduction to Mr Stern who continues to somehow keep himself in the public eye, through controversy as well as revisiting the themes and images that made him famous to begin with. The film is presented by First Run Features which has a large volume of documentaries on interesting, controversial and obsessive personalities like Ferlinghetti, Phil Ochs, Mumia, Charles & Ray Eames, Howard Zinn, Harper Lee, Fidel Castro and Erroll Garner among others. In the politically correct world of today's film and filmmakers, First Run Features has a brave catalogue of feature documentaries that are controversial, entertaining and fiercely original. Look for more Reviews of their films here at The BUREAU.
MARNI ZELNICK: Film Director
BUREAU Editor Joshua Triliegi talks with Marni Zelnick about her most recent feature film.
TRILIEGI: DRUID PEAK is a wonderful film. Tell us about your earliest interest in this particular subject and how you went about developing the project.
MARNI ZELNICK: A lot of the story elements that eventually became part of Druid Peak were things that had been germinating with me for a long time. The effect external geography can have on our internal selves; the almost haphazard but devastatingly permanent way life can be lost when you’re a teenager; the fact that people so rarely ask the right questions of each other; the power animals have to communicate without speaking, and how their vulnerability can move even the most stoic heart. I think every writer has those things. But the immediate catalyst for the film was a $100,000 production grant offered by the Sloan Foundation for a script dealing with science or technology. Funding for first features can be incredibly difficult to find and I knew I wanted to apply for the grant. I went to their information session and they were probably no more than fifteen minutes into it when the image of a kid running alongside a pack of wolves streamed through my head. It was the unification of a million things I cared about. All of those ideas I mentioned plus Jackson Hole, Wyoming—a place that had been significant to me both as a teenager and an adult. The story kind of grew out of and around that image.
TRILIEGI: The Film starts out with a common problem facing much of the youth of today: Urban Dissatisfaction. Your lead character, Owen, goes through a slow and steady transformation, discuss the arc of this character.
MARNI ZELNICK: You know, I would say it a little bit differently. I would call it environmental dissatisfaction, rather than urban dissatisfaction. I think it would have been easy to make Owen an urban teen and for the conflict to simply be urban versus rural life. But as a film with an environmental subject, I wanted the issue to be more complicated than that. I specifically set Owen in West Virginia because it’s a place as potentially beautiful as Wyoming, but we’ve used the land very differently. The town we shot in, Mt. Hope, was an old coal town where the seam was mined to exhaustion. The land was depleted and the town never recovered. So a potentially very beautiful place had been used in a way that left its inhabitants with very little, both visually and in terms of opportunity. Owen is a smart kid who feels crushed by the claustrophobia of the place. There’s nothing there for him. He may not be self-aware enough to articulate it that way, but he’s stopped trying to make anything of himself or his life because he doesn’t see where it could lead—what the point is. His arc is a lot about realizing that there are still choices to be made. He can choose a different place, a different life, a different self.
TRILIEGI: The film is beautifully photographed, Rachel Morrison's work is outstanding. The film relies heavily on nature as the great healer. Share with our audience the use of The Landscape and your decisions in the editing process.
MARNI ZELNICK: Owen’s journey as a character is so much about environment that it became a kind of character to me when I was writing the script. In order for the film to succeed, I knew we were going to have to do justice to the landscapes of both West Virginia & Wyoming—to not only capture them but to contrast them. Bringing Rachel on was just the best thing that could have happened to us. Aside from her incredible talent, she brought experience to the table that I simply didn’t have as a first time director. So she was not only someone who understood and could execute the vision for the film, she was a calm, steady presence, who I trusted completely to guide me when I needed guidance. I simply couldn’t have asked for a better collaborator. Additionally, two other decisions were made in partnership with my producers that hugely favored the landscapes. The first was to actually shoot on location in both West Virginia and Wyoming. For a micro-budget production, this was a massive expense and a total headache, but we all felt it was critical. The other choice we made was to have two camera teams for the entire shoot. Our A camera unit, led by Rachel, was shooting story as well as landscape, while our B camera unit, led by Second Unit DP Noah Greenberg, was out shooting only landscape every single day. Again, this was a big budgetary sacrifice for a film of our size, but we ultimately all felt it was the right decision. Every shot you see in the film was captured by one of our camera teams. We didn’t use a single piece of stock or purchased footage.
TRILIEGI: The performance by Andrew Wilson is beautiful. From the first time we see him on the screen, there is a magnetism that I don't think we have ever quite seen by him before. Share with our readers how you develop a role like this with an actor.
MARNI ZELNICK: I think it’s very rare that low budget filmmakers have the luxury of doing a lot of prep work with their actors. I certainly didn’t have a lot of time with Andrew before we started filming. But I really believe that so much of your work as a director is done when you cast. It’s like any good relationship—half the battle is picking the right person. Everett was a tough role for me to cast though because, even though I wrote the character I had this kind of reverence for him that’s a bit hard to explain. He’s a character, but he’s also an idea. Someone who lives a very principled life off the grid. He’s not subscribing to everyone’s rules about what’s right or how the world should work, he’s making his own up, but they’re damn good rules. There’s something in that that’s really important to me. So I was very protective of this role. And I think for writers, casting can sometimes be like watching your teenage daughter go out on a date. You want it to be someone really great who totally gets her, you know? The idea of Andrew in this part came up early on. I loved him as an actor, but didn’t know much about him personally. Then I learned that he was actually this very gentle, free spirit surfer who lived off the grid in Maui. That sealed the deal. We were fortunate that he was as excited about the script as we were about him.
TRILIEGI: DRUID PEAK is an educational journey into the lives and challenges of both those in support of the wolves and those concerned with the damage they sometimes are responsible for: Live Stock. What were the challenges in presenting this through dramatic situation ?
MARNI ZELNICK: One of the big challenges in presenting the issue is the same challenge Owen faces: empathy. I didn’t necessarily want the film to be objective, but I did want it to be empathetic. I wanted it to show understanding for both sides. The film has an obvious reverence for all things wild, but part of the message of the film is understanding, coexistence, interdependence. I didn’t want there to be good guys and bad guys. I wanted the issues to be complicated and for everyone to have to give a little bit to achieve the final outcome of the film. I didn’t want it to be a film that only pro-wolf people could like. Beyond that, one of the big challenges in both the writing and editing was to not weigh the drama down with too much information. We took a lot out as both the script and cut evolved.
Visit Official Site for More Details on this Incredible Film: http://www.druidpeak.com/
DAVID L. LEWIS : FILM MAKER
Documentary Film maker Davis L. Lewis speaks with Bureau Editor Joshua Triliegi about the new documentary, " The Pleasures Of Being Out Of Step ": Notes On The Life Of Nat Hentoff which features music by Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington. The film focuses on an interesting story and the career of one of America's leading Music Critics and Independent writing voices in last few decades. An authentic and personal film with a an up - close look at a very outspoken writer.
BUREAU: Your new Documentary on Nat Hentoff, which recently received festival awards, relies heavily on the actual thoughts, opinions and participation of the subject. What were both the pluses and challenges in having NAT HENTOFF allow such all access to you as a film maker.
Davis L. Lewis: We tried to capture Hentoff at the perfect moment in his career, at a point where he was able to reflect with great depth on his life and explain it as he explained so many other lives and creations. He was around 83 and 84 when we shot the three interviews.
If you think of your subject as a “text,” the very great advantage we had was to have a primary text to interrogate at the very center of our story. Much different than trying to make a film about someone who has already passed. He could be a little cantankerous, and didn’t love having cameras invade his space. For instance, it took me six months to convince him to let us shoot a simple scene with him in his neighborhood barbershop, and even then he tried to back out the night before. We exchanged some blunt words over that, but that often happens in a project of this size, and he went ahead. Afterwards, he said he was glad we did it.
But besides that he was a pleasure to work with. He never told us what we could or could not ask, or who we could or could not talk to. I don’t think it was out of any particular respect for me — he didn’t know me very well when we first started. I think it was out of respect for journalism and the journalistic process. I don’t think he likes everything we put in the film, but I think he appreciates the honesty and integrity we tried to bring to the project. I don’t think he would have liked an unadulterated hagiography, and I will always be grateful for the freedom and respect he and his family gave us.
BUREAU: NAT HENTOFF is quite an interesting character: we enjoyed the film. How did you come to choose this subject as a feature documentary and tell us about the journey from impetus to final release if you will ?
Davis L. Lewis: I’m glad you enjoyed it! The initial impulse was complicated but basically boils down to this: As a journalist myself, I’ve always loved the “war stories” I heard in the newsrooms and bars where we tend to congregate. As I got older, and as the digital age crept up & then roared over us, I began to realize that we are losing a generation of journalists who made their lives in the printed word. We are very good about telling other people’s stories, but not so good at telling our own. I felt an overwhelming desire to preserve some of that history. There were lots of possible subjects, but Hentoff presented a particularly intriguing one because of the jazz. I was never an aficionado, and only had a vague awareness of his earlier work. So the chance to learn more about the music was big draw. I remember how hard I worked to prepare for the interview we did on jazz — and how nervous I was when we sat down to do it. Afterward, I asked him how we did, and he said, “At least you knew the right questions to ask.” That was a big relief! I’ve worked all over print and broadcast journalism, but this was my first feature-length film, my first large-scale independent project. The creative challenge as the director was to try to get past the usual bio-pic documentary formula and create a film with its own aesthetic that helped us tell the story. I think we did pretty well at that, although I’m sure not all the critics will agree. As the producer, the biggest pleasure was putting together a great team that helped me keep up the creative momentum over the length of the production. The biggest challenge, of course, was finding the resources to get it all done.
BUREAU: A Documentary like this usually takes some time. Averages of 60 to 85 hours often paired down to 90 minutes is always rather challenging, What was your ratio and discuss how you went about ' finding ' the shape of your film ?
Davis L. Lewis: If you include all the archival material available to us, that ratio is pretty close, probably a little short if you count the music too. We had to make pretty careful choices about what to shoot. We based our decisions on what we thought we would get out of it and that process worked well for us. The problem is the man is so prolific. We knew there was no way we could tell it all, so we had to make narrative choices as well. We tried to keep our focus on the thematic thread that unifies the whole film, which is the relationship between free expression as a creative value and a political value, and the relationship between those values and the ability of an individual to create an identity. We chose an unconventional structure because we wanted to show the connections between those values in Hentoff’s life, and the connections between the people and ideas that popped up at different points. We spent a lot of time in the editing room moving those pieces around, teasing out different themes and association and making sure the connections were as clear as we could make them. We also had to leave a lot of stuff out, but maybe we’ll have some nice extras on the DVD.
BUREAU: The blend of MUSIC, ART & POLITICS symbolized by the single opinion of an individual, in this case, Mr Hentoff, created quite a controversy. When did you first become aware of Mr Hentoff and now that the film is completed, what have you learned about Documentary Film making ?
Davis L. Lewis: I came of political age in the '70s, a particularly awful time in American politics, and I first became aware of Hentoff through is his work at the Voice, which presented such a strong counterpoint to the corruption of that era. He is always outspoken, but it seemed to me that he was rarely a blowhard. At his best, he puts a lot of thought into his work and comes by his conclusions honestly. So even if you don’t agree with everything he says, you can respect him for saying it. I think he would be horrified by someone who agreed with everything he says, or at least he would find that person boring.
The most important thing I learned about documentary filmmaking is patience. It took longer than I thought it would, but I think our focus on quality and depth helped us get to the end. And I learned to always work with the very best people I could find, but people who believed in the project. Because it takes a sustained effort to follow through to the end on a project like this, and it’s hard to sustain that effort if the people you work with don’t believe in it. And you want them to be satisfied with the work at the end as well. I met a producer early on who I wanted to work with, and she turned me down. But she gave me a great piece of advice. She said we had a mature project and that quality work always rises to the top. I always remembered that, and it helped me through some of the tougher stretches, and helped me to be patient. And I hope she’s right. We’ve gotten this far. I would ask her to work with me again.
BUREAU: The Music by Bob Dylan, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and others trails the storyline due to Nat's personal relationships with these men, tell us an anecdote on the challenges of joining together the music, Nat's writing and the three major Interviews shot by Tom Hurwitz.
Davis L. Lewis: Well, we were very lucky to be work with such classic music. I don’t use music much in most of my journalistic work because it can be very manipulative, and you want viewers or listeners to be able to respond honestly to the facts and truth. For me, the whole point is to give people information to make their own decisions, not to tell them what to think, and the way that music plays on emotions can interfere with that. But in this case the music was part of the story, and that opened up such wonderful possibilities for us. So our approach was, for the most part, to use music that was relevant to the story, and that meant music Hentoff wrote about or produced in the studio himself. The biggest challenge was the sheer volume of it. We printed a database of all the albums for which he had written liner notes, or at least as many of them we could find, and there were hundreds! So we enlisted a number of experts to help us curate it, including Hentoff himself, who is of course one of the leading experts. We asked which the most important albums were, and what his best writing was. We came up with a few dozen, and then we whittled it down from there. And that became our guide to how we would use it with the interviews. We knew Hentoff would be on screen a lot, so Tom and I worked hard to come up with a visual style that would be engaging but also give us some flexibility to edit different interviews together, and once we made our decisions I knew I could leave it in his hands to execute.
After that, it was a real team effort. I had the opportunity to work the great Sam Pollard as our consulting editor. He brought visual understanding to the music (and many other scenes), and also kept us honest to the music. You don’t want to be known as the filmmaker who hacked Duke Ellington to pieces! Our archivists found stunning original photos, and our musical team waded bravely into battle with the record companies and publishers to get us access to the songs we wanted. And of course Andre Braugher did the narration. You may notice that Braugher’s narration consists entirely of Hentoff’s own words. There is no omniscient narrator. In that sense, the narration doesn’t tell the story, it is the story. Our idea from the beginning was to marry the music to the words so that you can hear the stories in the music and the music in the writing at the same. It is a great experience, a great joy to work with such material, and I hope we were able to communicate some of that to the audience.
David L. Lewis is a writer, director, producer with 30 years of experience as a New York City-based journalist in print/broadcast media. He was a producer and associate producer for the CBS News program 60 Minutes & correspondent Ed Bradley for five years before going independent in 2006. He was a staff writer for the New York Daily News & Gannett newspapers for 15 years, and has worked for ABC News, Time Warner cable television & various national magazines. Lewis teaches reporting/writing at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. This is his first feature - length film.
THE BUREAU FILM INTERVIEW
TOM HAYES : DOCUMENTARIAN
Tom Hayes Wrote, Directed, Produced and Edited a New Documentary Feature film which takes us inside The World of Magazine Publishing at ESQUIRE Magazine during It's Zenith in The Heady 1960s. It's a Heartfelt, Hip and Candid film that also tells the story about Mr. Hayes' father who was one of America's Leading Legendary Magazine Editors. The film includes stories by & about Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Muhammad Ali, Dizzy Gillespie, Candice Bergen, George Lois plus Esquire's creative team of photographers and artists.
BUREAU: " Smiling Through The Apocalypse, " your new documentary is 1. A Biography, 2. An entertaining film about a time and a place and 3. A sort of Love letter to your father. Tell us about the experience of balancing these three themes.
Tom Hayes: At the onset, I knew the film would be a biography, but to include myself (or not) in the story was a constant problem. If I was absent, the film would then have become a straight documentary anyone could have made. The film, "My Architect," which is a milestone in the "son's-search-to-understand-his-father" genre, included the filmmaker as the main character in his narrative. I was not interested in being a main character because I felt the conflict in the film would not be something I had to resolve vis a vis our relationship, but would be more about the obstacles my father had to overcome to make his magazine great. By sprinkling the images of me from my childhood, and an occasional reference to my ambivalence, was the best way to strengthen my perspective on the subject, and to show the distance I had from my father's life while he edited Esquire Magazine.
Making the film entertaining was achieved by several intentional devices: fast cutting, jazz piano under my narration, and compelling images. After many of the interviews, I found my self thinking how slow-moving some of the anecdotes were. After all, most of these people were writers, and their storytelling verbose by default. I had to figure out a way to tell their stories in a faster moving way, and using covering images became the key. It was not only a heavy use of photo animation (the "Ken Burns" effect), but it was also images of people not available for interview to create dialogue exchanges when the storytelling included simulated dialogue. All of this allowed me to pick up the pace of the film and pack it with dense historical information against the compelling layout of the magazine's pages from that period. I think I was also able to benefit from the black-and-white imagery thanks to the recent success of the TV hit series, "Mad Men" - where audiences were drawn into the 60s via iconic fashion and culture. I was able to plant my audience into that period simply by the subject matter.
Tom HAYES: How the film became a love letter to my father was not something I had planned on. Unlike "My Architect," my childhood was pretty good and it simply came out that way. I wasn't abused, neglected, or ignored. I was sheltered from things I wasn't supposed to know about, and I can only be grateful... and say thank you. Many people complain that there should be more conflict, and therefore resolve, to make it a better film. The conflict was how my father managed to put the magazine together in light of history moving as it did while the lead times lagged several months behind. Perhaps not a sexy dilemma in and of itself, but there we are. It is a story of the rise and fall of a man who did make a mark by permitting so many talented people to develop their careers on his watch. The film is, therefore, a big thank you from me, and from his colleagues, whom he nurtured.
BUREAU: We watched the film twice, once to view it for review and another time to learn about the early days of great magazine publishing. ESQUIRE has such an interesting history, was it difficult picking and choosing which editions to include in the film ?
Tom Hayes: The problem was two-fold: art and copy. Graphically, the George Lois covers were easy. So many of them were iconic and great, whatever I used would compel interest. I did not use all 92, and there are some great ones that may be other people's favorites that were not included. What I selected were covers that created the most controversy like the Sonny Liston wearing the Santa Claus hat and William Calley smiling with Vietnamese kids around him. These covers were not only shown, but became segments. As for editorial, I focused primarily on landmark articles. Pieces that both transformed the magazine and the writers who contributed. Perhaps the best guide in making these decisions was my father's 1970 Anthology, "Smiling Through the Apocalypse - Esquire's History of the Sixties." Every piece included in this volume was what my father considered to be the best writing from when he was Editor. Most all of the featured editorial in my film, one can read in this book. Although out of print, you can still get it on Amazon.
BUREAU: The Interviewees all seemed to really respect your father, that must have been a very gratifying experience. Tell us about the process of looking at life through the eyes of a parent.
Tom Hayes: As a child, I still have memories of singing "My Buddy" with my father, and canoeing down the Suwanee River in Florida. He was a role model, and someone whose interests noticeably influenced mine. I was never really sure what he did to edit a magazine, but it was probably too complicated for him to explain. Instead, life with Dad really started when he came home, or in upstate New York on the weekends. On occasion, I did accompany him to his office and would rifle through all the promotional albums record companies would send him for free. But for the most part, what was going on for him in the office was a mystery. All I would really see was advanced copies of the coming issue perching on our coffee table. In revisiting this period as a filmmaker, I was given full access to understand how, what, where, when and why these advanced copies were made real. I became involved in appreciating what it was to make what my father called, "a modern magazine." I was able to understand better the pressure, frustrations, and achievements my father undertook. Even though most of this was transparent at the time, I wasn't that interested in magazines other than Mad Magazine, and if lucky enough, the occasional forbidden Playboy.
BUREAU: Does being the son of a famous and talented individual make being one yourself easier or more difficult ?
Tom Hayes: I think part of my pedigree is to downplay achievement. My father did enjoy some limelight as an occasional guest on the Merv Griffin Show or as a guest speaker at a College or University. He seemed always more interested in making others shine more than he did himself. By doing so, he knew it would reflect in his magazine, which would in turn be the reflection of himself. In making this film, a certain amount of attention has been steered in my direction, but like my father, its more fun to let the work shine first. Having the film run four shows daily here in New York has given me the chance to see a multitude of audience reaction. It's also been interesting to see the difference between audiences, because each one has their own collective personality.
BUREAU: You played all the key roles within the production: write, direct, edit, produce, etc… What are the pluses and minuses of having total control of a project ?
Tom Hayes: Doing all jobs in the production process, or at least most of them, was not how I would have preferred to make this film. If I had waited for funding to start the production, with the ability to hire key personnel, I would have probably missed out interviewing some of the amazing voices that make this film so valuable. But working alone allows you the freedom to work on your own schedule, and the flexibility to change anything at anytime. Editing a film about an editor, causes you to edit even when you think you're done. I was editing right up until the last possible moment, and still editing in my brain.
BUREAU: There seems to be a real revisionist experience happening in America regarding the times that your father was making culturally important decisions: Norman Mailer, The Black Panthers and especially The New Journalism of Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe and The so called beatniks. Although the film touches on your views briefly, what was it like looking back at your father's story ?
Tom Hayes: The onslaught of electronic media devices emerging, and where lead time is no longer an issue, the profound statements Esquire in the 60s made then become harder to make now. In essence, there are just too many outlets where too many points of view are constantly flooding the media. As such, magazine journalism fails to stand out against all other media as Esquire did in that time. One could argue that journalism has become more provocative than ever, where terrorists are manipulating broadcast media to cause thought through shock. Journalism has either transgressed or evolved into a few simple key strokes that cause a reaction similar to what George Lois' covers did in the 60s. All that differs are the tools. In the 60s, it was magazines, and Esquire led the pack with shock and awe.
BUREAU: Immediately after watching the film, as an Editor of a cutting edge Arts Publication, I started to see how we could push the envelope a little further. Tell us more about how your father appeared to be the most unlikely guy to push the culture the way that he did.
Tom Hayes: Numerous journalism experts will agree, to be an outsider is a winning ingredient for a successful journalist. It at least increases your potential to be curious. Dad was from North Carolina, a reserve in the Marines, and the son of a Southern Baptist preacher. He was also a social progressive. Founding Editor Arnold Gingrich saw this background to be the perfect combination for a successful editor, and gave him that chance. For Dad, blue jeans and The Doors were not part of the culture he would directly reflect. He did think knowing what was happening on college campuses was important, and would regularly send his editors to find out. But his interest always came from the curiosity of an outsider, which made everything he reported on more incredulous.
BUREAU: This is another documentary that seems have the ability to be much longer, with the new dvd formats available, will you add outtakes or extended interviews in the future ?
Tom Hayes: The DVD release will include "Bonus Features" including extended raw interviews with George Lois, Gore Vidal, Nora Ephron and others. All of this is still in development and still to be confirmed.
BUREAU: What would you say was the most gratifying experience in honoring your father and educating as well as entertaining the public with this personal story ?
Tom Hayes: The most gratifying experience is always to watch the audience, especially the animated ones. As mentioned earlier, each audience has its own personality, so to get a room full of people who "get" every nuance of humor, or other emotion, is the most priceless reward you can have.
BUREAU: What are you working on next besides supporting the Release of "Smiling Through the Apocalypse" and where can our readers interact and view your past present and future projects ?
Tom Hayes: I am in development with a biopic about a well known jazz musician from the 30s. It will be a completely different experience in that I would have much better control over the storytelling, but in a different way. As for seeing some of my past efforts, some of the hundreds of television news magazine stories I have produced for German TV in the past 23 years will be posted on my website www.telemotions.net
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FILM REVIEW: STARRED UP
STARRED UP : Possibly one of the grittiest and edgiest prison dramas ever made. From the first minute to the last, the viewer is emersed into a world that is like no other. The rules, the politics, the grit, the realities, the drama, the edge, the sacrifices and the wild ride: simply amazing filmmaking. Well written and directed, extremely well produced with some of the rawest performances we have seen in a long time. "Starred Up" takes us into the British prison system through the eyes of a young offender whose father happens to also be locked up in the same particular institute. The performances are completely unleashed. Filmed in an actual facility and photographed 'in sequence', allowed the film maker David Mackenzie to utilize hand held, roving cameras Allowing his cast and crew to completely push the boundaries and push they do. The characterizations are explosive, from one moment to the next, we never know what will happen and where the story is headed. The atmosphere and detail is simply perfect in tone, style and mood. Each scene is important, the back story is thick, as are the accents. The plot and circumstances are all in place, but nothing seems more important than whatever moment we are actually experiencing. There is a complete an utter ' nowness ' to this production and it is an undeniable wild ride that you can't help but succumb to throughout the entire film. As of yet, it has not been released for U.S. audiences accept for the festival circuit. U.K. audiences loved it and Americans are sure to embrace this film for its originality, force and authenticity. A fabulously taut performance by Jack O'Connel as Eric Love and directed by David Mackenzie with a script by Jonathan Asser who had spent a good deal of time as a therapist within the system. Writer and Director worked closely for two years prior to shooting. A first screenplay for the writer turned out to be an extremely successful premiere work of art. We highly suggest this film and are now very interested in the other films by Mr Mackenzie, as well as his next production. This is a film that touches on relationships, trust, skill and politics as well as race, loyalty and survival. Produced by Gillian Berrie. Executive producers, Katherine Butler, Sam Lavender, David Mackenzie, James Atherton, Jan Pace, Norman Merry, Peter Hampden. Co- producer, Brian Coffey. Link http://www.sigmafilms.com/films/starred-up/
DOUG PRAY: FILM MAKER
We are extremely pleased and proud to bring you inside the mind of one of America's leading documentary filmmakers with a catalogue of films that each speak to the culture and subculture of America. Since the mid 1990s Doug Pray has been creating substantial and succesful films with a built in audience documenting subjects that have grown in popularity since their initial inception. He has covered Surfing, Street Art, Rap and Rock Music, Trucking, Advertising and Modern Art. In this Exclusive and deeply Educational Conversation, Doug Pray describes his career, his films, the process and development of each project in extreme, in depth detail. Doug Pray's films seem to hit a chord that fits right in with our readership and we can think of no better way to say how very happy we are to have him as BUREAU Guest Filmmaker in this Edition.
Joshua Triliegi: Most of your films directly speak to many of our readers’ interest. Lets talk about how a film like SURFWISE, about the famous Paskowitz Family, was created.
Doug Pray: SURFWISE was a story that had to be told by someone, and I felt lucky when its producers presented it to me as a potential project. The Paskowitz family is, and was, such a rare, living example of an idealistic dream fully realized. An experiment that went all the way. We can all claim to want to get away from society and live life on our own terms. Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz and his wife Juliette did it. Not for a day, or a week, or a month – for decades. And with total purity. When Doc passed away just a few weeks ago, he was still at it, living a dynamic life at 93.
Though the Paskowitz family had attained media attention and notoriety in the ‘70s and ‘80s – both for being a world-famous surfing family and for the children’s later successes as champion surfers, rock musicians, artists, models, and more – the whole story, beginning, middle, and end, had never been told. That complete story was two burning truths, the collision of which made for an exciting, emotional movie.
The first truth was the dream. A Stanford-trained doctor is repulsed by the unhealthy lifestyles being taught and practiced by the medical establishment. He drops out of society, falls in love with the perfect woman (willing to join his mission), raises 9 children, lives in a camper on the beach and pursues a lifestyle more in sync with the natural human beings we used to be (exercise/rest/sex/diet befitting animals in the wild), and less like the disgustingly unhealthy creatures we’ve become. For the next 20 years he carries out this experiment with his family: surfing every day, healthy living, no school, a nomadic “off-the-grid” type of existence, a close, loving family. It was beautiful. And the kids were better for it! Homeschooling and surfing made them strong and smart. Today they are the brightest, most dynamic, full-of-life folks you’ll ever meet.
The other truth, the downside, is that to pull this off, one has to be a domineering extremist. Like many narcissistic, visionary leaders, Doc’s inspiration was only as strong as his ego and his blinders. He was, at times, abusive to his family and in fulfilling his personal vision for the family he created a lot of pain and turmoil. And the kids, even though they had this seemingly wonderful upbringing, were not well prepared for the “real world” and they struggled terrifically as a result. As a filmmaker, I was grateful this film came to me with built-in conflict. Normally I’m trying to drum up conflict with editorial finessing to make a story more dynamic.
Plus, though I’m not a surfer, I was allowed to celebrate this incredibly rich subculture from deep inside its heart, with its ultimate spokesman, Doc Paskowitz (R.I.P.). I got to explore his philosophies of surfing and show the healing power of the ocean waves first hand. I was able to prove to the world the power of surfing and to discard the half-assed surfer stereotypes we get from movies and popular culture. I’ve tried to do that in all my films.
Joshua Triliegi: Your films seem to touch on a truth about American cultural moments in time and place. SCRATCH takes us into the Hip Hop scene of the early 2000's.
Doug Pray: SCRATCH, more than any of the seven films I’ve made about American subcultures, is one we were actually shooting at the very moment it became part of the zeitgeist. We were filming hip hop DJs and “turntablists” in 1999-2000 but it felt like we were witnessing the birth of jazz. There was this rediscovery of hip-hop’s improvisational, and uplifting roots. The movement recaptured the energy from the late ‘70s South Bronx and upped it. And it happened at a time when mainstream rap music had become so commercialized and meaningless by bling, gangster violence, and bloated stars. It was one of those cyclical moments in culture when people say, ‘WTF! Let’s take this back to the beginning, to move forward.’ Hip hop was started by DJs. So filming them as instrumental wizards of the 1’s and 2’s at the front of the stage (again) was as profound to its original inventors (like Afrika Bambaataa, Grand Mixer DXT, and Jazzy Jay), as it was to the new generation, like Qbert, DJ Shadow, and Rob Swift, flipping it on its head.
Always the outsider, and a newcomer to hip hop, I fell in love with the energy of this music at the same moment many others were. The vibe I was able to capture on film felt so fresh (Fr Fr Fr Fressssh, that is). The performers knew it. The audiences knew it. My cinematographers knew it. And I had a blast editing it. It’s one doc where my filmmaking style itself was fully inspired by the subject, musically and editorially. My assignment with SCRATCH was to blow away audiences in the same way people go nuts when their DJ drops an impossibly great track on the dance floor: surprise and exuberance, regardless of whether or not you liked hip hop or knew the song. Playing the role of intermediary or translator is something I’ve also tried to do in all my films. I love taking something that is very insider, underground, or misunderstood, and making it so that it’s actually felt by all viewers.
Joshua Triliegi: Early on, documentary filmmakers tend to follow a subject they have an interest in, such as HYPE!, your film on the Seattle music scene. Later, offers come in to cover a certain event, such as your most recent film, LEVITATED MASS. Tell our readers a bit about the journey your career has taken.
Doug Pray: I’ve never really wanted to do any of the films I did, initially. I wasn’t enough of a fan or just didn’t understand the subject at first. Yet there’s always been something after a few months of consideration that hooks my curiosity in a deeper way and makes me feel like I just have to make the movie, like an assignment that I must accept.
HYPE! was my first film and I fought against it the hardest, because it seemed like bad idea and my producer and I started filming too late to do the “real” Seattle music scene justice. Ironically, it made the most sense of any project for me to direct because my college roommates were members of the Young Fresh Fellows who were one of the more influential Seattle bands in the mid-‘80s (not famous, not grunge, but beloved and highly inspirational to other bands and labels in the area). Thanks to them, and the band Flop (for whom I’d directed music videos) I already had access to this super vibrant, authentic, and wonderfully ridiculous music scene. It just hadn’t occurred to me to make a film about it. Sometimes the best subjects for documentaries are right in front of you and you don’t recognize it. Because, while I was digging my friend’s bands, this “grunge rock” thing was becoming the next global rock phenomenon all around us. A ton of bands like Mudhoney, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Sub Pop and other labels, and the world’s media, created what was the world’s last, definable, local music movement. The grunge scene was so strongly identified with Seattle it may have even killed – forever—the notion of a city music scene ever happening again. I eventually realized that the hyping of Seattle was the story itself, and the transformation from “underground-authentic” to “exposed-labeled-exploited” needed to be shown and told.
I’m not sure if it’s because I was influenced by my three much-older brothers, or because I was a sociology major in college, but I’ve always wanted to know why underground movements start, and how they get processed by mainstream culture. I have an innate desire to delve into a widely misunderstood culture and try to get people to appreciate it for what it really is and where it really came from. And the more “out there” or abstract or intimidating it is, the more I enjoy building a bridge to it.
Certainly that was the case with my newest film, LEVITATED MASS. The way Michael Heizer’s boulder was hyped and labeled and became something completely different to hundreds of thousands of people during its transport, than what the sculpture was itself.
SCRATCH hooked me after I talked to Mix Master Mike one night and suddenly realized how completely wrong my stereotypes about hip hop were. I wanted to right that. INFAMY, an emotional portrait of the lives of six notorious graffiti writers, is about the most dominant and present art forms on the planet, but completely misunderstood; seemingly loved or hated for all the wrong reasons. I wanted to humanize the artists. Not trying to make them likeable but relatable. The advertising geniuses in ART & COPY, like illegal taggers, were similarly vilified (advertising being the devil’s work, and all), but their creative struggle was the same: success gained only by taking huge risks. To me, even the very people who were creating mass media seemed to be frustrated outsiders, with a lot to say.
My fourth film, BIG RIG began as a mindless celebration of chrome and ‘70s trucker songs (which I loved). But after I found out that fun wacky culture didn’t exist, it morphed into a 25,000 mile moody journey into this rather depressed community of workers who carry the nation on their backs and get little or nothing in return. Independent truck drivers aren’t artists or musicians, but they are maverick individuals who are often extremists in their behavior or beliefs, not unlike Doc Paskowitz or Michael Heizer or life-long graffiti writers. They are people who have set out to make bold statements, who are independent.
With each new film I thought was rebelling against my last film. After SURFWISE I knew I’d never do another surf film. After INFAMY I didn’t want to do another graffiti film. Yet the more I tried to change the channel away from my last subject– just to keep life interesting – the more each documentary found similar themes. Only today, looking back, can I see these patterns for the first time—a formed constellation of what I thought were disconnected stars.
Joshua Triliegi: BIG RIG takes us on the road in a behind-the-scenes style of 18 wheel truck drivers coast to coast. Discuss the building of trust when covering documentary subjects.
Doug Pray: It is hard for me to defend the importance of trust when making documentary films because it is so essential. It’s as important as having air to breath. I think trust, between director and subject (just as it is between a director and actor) is essential, and makes for good interviews and good films.In some ways, I have it easy: I don’t make overtly political films. I don’t have to interview enemies. I admire people who can go into war zones and get the truth from all sources, even those not trusted. I respect filmmakers who have the guts to confront their most hated adversaries (so long as those privileges aren’t abused and quotes taken out of context for purely sensational edits, which backfires and annoys me to no end.)I have no enemies in my movies, nor do I judge my subjects. I leave that to the audience. I believe every individual on the planet is equally fallible and lovable, and—in some small way—can be relatable. I’m always grateful that they are letting me film their lives and thoughts. They’re giving me a gift and it’s never the other way around. My whole approach to an interview subject is geared to gain trust. A small example: I rarely ask someone to sign an interview release form before their interview starts, even if I know I’m taking that person to places that are extremely uncomfortable. I tell them to feel free to stop or rethink or delete whatever they’re saying while we’re talking. This approach fosters trust and results in more in-depth, uncensored responses than I might get if there was mistrust. We are working together and not in a hunter-prey situation (no pun intended), their degree of comfort directly results in more honest responses. Despite my last name, I am not very religious. But I was raised as a Quaker and one of the interesting things about their history is that they assumed trust. This played out in courtrooms where they refused to take oaths when in court. After all, if you were always telling the truth, why would you separate out a certain part of your day to swear that you are going to be telling the truth? Why would I expect someone to sign a release if I wasn’t going to reciprocate and treat them with respect? With BIG RIG trust had to be gained in a matter of seconds. There was no pre-casting or research to find characters. We found all of our interview subjects in truck stops parking lots. Most truckers are in a hurry and the last thing they want is to be solicited in a parking lot (I quickly learned that the only people who do are prostitutes, drug dealers, and documentary filmmakers). I needed to spend a few hours or half a day in a truck with a driver so I had to have my pitch down to 10 seconds flat, like speed-dating. I’d immediately tell them who I was, what I wanted, and how it would work. I had to be completely transparent. I’d joke about how absurd it was that a filmmaker from LA was approaching them at this moment, disarming them with self-deprecation. I held the camera in my hands so they saw it and knew it was real. I had a flyer that made it legit. My producer and I were still chased out of numerous truck stops by cops, owners, people with broomsticks… but about one out of ten let us into their truck, and once they were rolling and I was rolling, let me into their lives. I told them we could talk about anything they want. They needed to trust that I was not trying to abuse or exploit them and that I didn’t have a political agenda. I just wanted the truth about life on the road and their lives themselves. I said that to every trucker. They said loads of things that were compelling, sometimes crazy, and other times personally disagreeable, but that only made them more interesting to me. More than any other I let that film write itself, in the same way a hitchhiking journey finds its own route.
Joshua Triliegi: Tell us about your graffiti film INFAMYand how you actually became a documentary filmmaker?
Doug Pray: INFAMY is the most hands-on, scrappy film I’ve ever done, and maybe my favorite because it demanded more immediate, thinking-in-the-moment filmmaking skills from me than any other film. I was shooting illegal activities, and underground figures who like to stay anonymous and aren’t used to throwing up interviews. We couldn’t show up with a four-person crew or have the apparatus of typical location filming. So I’d shoot and interview at the same time, and wanted to be able to ditch the camera (and myself) if caught in the act of graffiti.
Though it’s a lifestyle choice they’ve made early on, there’s nothing easy or fun about most hardcore graffiti writers’ lives, once they’ve dedicated their lives to it. INFAMY brought up a lot of pain, regrets, and emotion. It also was a blast (danger is, after all, fun). The careening unpredictability of their lives allowed me, as a filmmaker, to be freer and find the story on the spot – what to film, where to go, and what lives to focus on. This idea of writing while you are filming and writing while you are editing (though I didn’t edit INFAMY) is what I love about making documentaries.
I’m terrible at inventing stuff out of thin air. I’m useless with a blank page and have never been able to write fiction. Movies, to me, were something you had to do – they were never some “big idea”, they were assigned by life. After taking a few film classes at Columbia College in Chicago and making some completely confusing shorts, I moved to San Francisco and started working for a documentary film producer named Woody Clark. I was in charge of shipping for a whole year, and sent 16mm prints of the first-ever documentary about sexual harassment in the workplace to hundreds of companies suddenly worried about lawsuits (the phrase had just been coined). So, the first lesson I learned in the “biz” was wrong: you can make a lot of money on socially relevant documentaries. Woody did, and it threw me off for life!
At that company I got my first break, editing and producing a semi-corporate but gut-wrenching documentary project for a hospital in Virginia that treated children with traumatic brain injuries. That got me into the UCLA Producers Program and from there I snuck into their directing-production program. I went there for four years but never took a documentary class. Instead I learned about working with actors, getting performances, cameras, lenses, lighting—all of which made me a better non-fiction director—and film structure, the most important skill I ever learned.
After graduating, it took me a year to realize that I’d never write that great American screenplay, that I wasn’t actually Francis Ford Coppola (which was a shame), and that nobody gave a damn that I had an MFA. This whole time, a fellow producer, Steve Helvey, was bugging the hell out of me, wanting to make a film about the Seattle music scene. I hated the idea and kept putting him off until I was, in fact, directing that film, HYPE!, my first feature doc.
Joshua Triliegi: ART & COPY is all about advertising, art and ideas for sale, When do you know you have enough material, interviews and images for your documentaries?
Doug Pray: You don’t ever realize. There is no moment when you are done shooting. There is no magic moment when you realize you are done editing. You can keep doing it for the rest of your natural life, and we’ve all met filmmakers who do just that. Usually you just have to stop you’re so exhausted and depressed, occasionally because you’re happy with the cut.
You start with a rough idea of all the things you think you need. Then you set up a production plan and figure out how you will go about getting it all. For my films, it’s usually been about five or six weeks of shooting spread out over six months or a year. We’ll usually edit rough sections as we accumulate footage, and once we have a full rough cut, it becomes much clearer what we need to tell the story that we don’t yet have. I’ll go shoot more interviews and that later footage often becomes the essential glue to hold things together.
For ART & COPY we knew who the advertising legends we wanted to interview were. In each case the request was similar: I wanted an in-depth interview, possibly a follow-up interview, and a half day with them shooting b-roll. It was while shooting b-roll that I’d often get freer, better quotes, stuff that might not have come out in the interview. For example, I met George Lois in his apartment in New York City and we did a two-hour interview. Then we went to the West Bronx and he walked around his old neighborhood and we just had a conversation. He talked about getting into fights as a kid, of being an outsider, and his quotes and this neighborhood and the energy of the city supported this idea that he was a fighter throughout his whole life. From 1960s protests to his in-your-face ad campaigns which punched you in the gut.
After we’d shot most of ART & COPY and were deep into editing I got frustrated that it was all talking heads. I wanted this film to operate on a higher, more inspirational level, since the whole movie was, after all, about creative inspiration, taking risks, and big ideas. I wanted to get out of these advertising campaigns and physically show how these people are affecting our daily lives without just running a bunch of ads. I wanted to see the mechanics of mass communication, not just talk about them. My producers and I brainstormed and this led to the idea of showing communications satellites. Within a few months, we were in French Guiana shooting a massive satellite being launched. The justification? Ads pay for TV. TV comes from satellites. But editorially, the rocket launch gave a subtle, building structure to the whole movie, a climax and a payoff.
I must say, most docs could use a rocket launch. Too often people forget that feature documentaries are still movies. Regardless of the subject they ought to be cinematic and entertaining. That extra two or three months of finishing (re-editing, re-writing, re-structuring, re-working my sound-design until it rocks) is my favorite part of the whole process.
Joshua Triliegi: What are you working on now?
Doug Pray: LEVITATED MASS was my seventh feature doc and there’s something about the number 7 that is allowing me to change things up. So, aside from supporting its theatrical release this fall (LEVITATED MASS is coming out on iTunes, DVD and other digital platforms this month), I find myself involved in a number of projects and acting more as a producer than a director. At the moment, I am executive producing and editing a music-based project that Allen Hughes (of Hughes Brothers fame) is directing for HBO. I’m working with the producers of ART & COPY to make a non-fiction television series about the results of creative thinking around the world, filming innovative individuals, organizations and businesses in Detroit, Peru, and elsewhere. I’m working with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on a film for their 50th anniversary. I’m doing some exciting commercial work with Bob (Bob is a company, not a person). I am also helping a filmmaker named Patrick O’Brien finish his ten-year-long feature-length documentary about his life with ALS. It is called TRANSFATTY LIVES. At first I just brought on an editor for him (Lasse Järvi who cut INFAMY and SURFWISE), but now I’m heavily involved as a producer and post supervisor. It’s not my film, but Patrick is an amazing, magnetic personality and I’ve enjoyed helping him realize his documentary. He lives in Boston and is completely paralyzed but with a lucid, brilliant mind. His movie is fairly crazy and super emotional and it’s been a wonderful challenge. It will premiere in 2015.
Joshua Triliegi: Do you foresee an evolution into non-documentary filmmaking?
Doug Pray: It’s funny to me that I ended up having a career directing non-fiction film. I love working with actors. I love directing actors to the point where they seem like they are not performing at all, as if they are in a documentary. I also love getting “performances” out of non-actors and working that grey area. Years ago I used to imagine making dramatic films that were unscripted but based on providing a set of motivations for the characters who are journeying through documentary locations. Some would argue this is the definition of reality TV, but I was more interested in making loose, emotional features. More and more great filmmakers are doing exactly that today. To that end, there are three dramatic films I’m currently developing for me to direct. They are open-ended enough to allow for strong non-fiction texture and influences. Stepping back from the documentary genre as a whole… the changes in the last 25 years since I started directing are so outstanding it’s hard to imagine where we’ll all end up. It used to take $100,000 and lots of meetings with investors to even consider mounting the most raw documentary because you had to pay for processing, film stock, and the mechanics of post. Being a filmmaker in the ‘80s seemed very special and rare. Today’s filmmakers have to compete with thousands more like them, which is a drag, but they also can. They have crowd-funding, small cameras with superb imagery, and distribution venues so prevalent it’s annoying. Everyone is a cinematographer, everyone is an editor, everyone is an director. This is Silicon Valley’s dream, that we are all masters of our destinies, fulfilling our unique potentials and creating beautiful little films about ourselves through our devices and apps. It’s kind of fun, but ultimately kind of narcissistic and meaningless to me. In the end, great stories, well told, are the only things that last. This has been true for 20,000 years of human history. Whether it’s a six-second Vine video or a four-hour linear doc, it only matters if the story moves us.
Joshua Triliegi: What is the single most challenging aspect of creating a documentary, in your experience?
Doug Pray: It is almost always just after I arrive at the first rough cut of a new movie. This is the first big “step-back” from the project, the first time my producers or collaborators get a decent look at the fruits of our labor, it’s the single biggest moment of assessment in a doc. And it just never looks, sounds, or smells any good. For me, it is awful and heartbreaking. All that great footage is actually in there and none of it seems to work. I always feel like I made a huge mistake in taking on the project but at that point it is way too late to turn back. What’s worse is that I KNOW this is going to happen and then it does, yet again, each time. Why? I don’t know, there must be some law laid down by the gods of creativity. (maybe it’s the “blood on the pages rule”: that scripts which do not have actual blood or perhaps tear stains on the pages aren’t worth reading). Regardless, it’s at this point in a project’s life that I will inevitably need an outsider – usually a producer or writer or advisor – to come into the editing room and basically kick my ass and force me to rethink the film in a bigger and better way. I have to hit bottom for me to start re-finding the film. Sometimes it’s a different film than I thought I was making in the first place, sometimes it’s a reaffirmation of exactly what we were after in the first place. The most challenging moment on my film LEVITATED MASS wasn’t during the edit. It was during production when, no less than six months into production, I finally met my main character, the reclusive and amazing American land-artist Michael Heizer, and suddenly realized that he had absolutely no interest in being interviewed or letting me film his personal life, and that he would not compromise. I had to rethink the whole project and figure out how to make it as compelling as the film I’d originally set out to make. In the end, it worked out well—Heizer generously gave me access to his work and his process, but while his backstory is a key part of the film, it’s not about him. That realigning… just like rewriting your film’s edit, it’s never easy. And it’s an essential component of all non-fiction filmmaking.
Joshua Triliegi: Where did you study and what advice would you give young readers and filmmakers?
Doug Pray: I studied sociology at Colorado College (liberal arts undergrad) and received an MFA from the UCLA School of Film and Television. I don’t think film school is required, at all, for people to become professional filmmakers, but I needed it for sure and I loved every minute of it. It gave me the confidence to call myself a director and the knowledge to be one. Some directors know exactly what they want and how to get it without school. Marc Webb, a good friend of mine (who directed 500 Days of Summer and the last two Spiderman movies), didn’t need one minute of film school. He knew how to teach himself and studied other directors and their styles and had enough initiative to work his way into becoming one of America’s more prolific music video directors, which led to his first feature. Whether by crewing, or just directing your own low-budget DIY feature, or going to film school, or writing a script, or making a doc about your cat, there are many many ways to become a filmmaker. And… many, many filmmakers. So the question remains: what do you have to say, and are you a good story teller? Pencils and paper have been around for hundreds of years: did the availability of those tools result in many more great novels? But aside from story, I ultimately think the main difference between people who are successful in non-fiction and those who are not, is tenacity. They persist. They don’t quit. They get through the downs and the depressions and they keep on trying to make it work. Whether they have to keep shooting, keep editing, bring on another editor, or change their story altogether. They bury their ego, face the truth, and find a way to make it work. They are able to re-access their initial passion and energy for the project. Again and again. There have been, sadly, a number of projects I had to walk away from in my career, for various reasons (usually myself to blame). They were failures and it’s painful for me to think about them. They were all great stories about real lives, they featured real people whom I admired and had (nearly) committed to. Trust had been built, but then things didn’t work out. Those are the sad anomalies, the exceptions that prove the rule, that—in fact—directing documentaries is an absolutely wonderful adventure. I feel pretty lucky. Visit The Official Doug Pray Website to learn more about current releases: http://dougpray.com
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE BAY AREA SITE FILM PAGE PRESENTS
THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY FILM REVIEW ROBERT REDFORD'S QUIZ SHOW
QUIZ SHOW at TWENTY
By Joshua Triliegi
Robert Redford is a Master Film Director of The American Landscape. His style is so deeply rooted in Realism that even when the story hindges on magical realism, such as, "The Legend of Bagger Vance", we as the audience are taken in, wholeheartedly. "A River Runs Through It" took Brad Pitt and insured that his career would not be one of how a handsome man can become succesful, Redford pushed the actor to find a personality that would surpass looks and it worked. "Quiz Show" takes on the almighty Power of Television and puts it on Trial. Today, we take a look at "QUIZ SHOW" on The 20th Anniversary.
This is a large film, with a brilliant cast, a flawless tone and leading actors that include John Turturro as the whistle-blowing contestant Herb Stempel and Ralph Fiennes as Charlie Van Doren, a wealthy second generation Columbia University teacher who gets sucked into cheating himself, the public and his families repuatation simply by allowing the network's televison producers of The Quiz Show entitled, "21" to, "… give him the answers." Which are said to be, "… sealed in a bank vault."
Enter investigating lawyer and Harvard graduate at the top of his class, Richard Goodwin. A former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter, who is on the subcommiitte for oversight. The film begins with undertones of the times, "Mack The Knife" by Bobby Daren is the films musical opener and on the radio, we are told that, "The Russians have launched Sputnik and all is not well in America." Redford knows the American historical backdrop well and informs his drama with the preceding years between 1950 and 1959 when this film takes place. the dreaded blacklist, which some how connected the Russian communist fear of an invasion with Jewish writers and leftist entertainers who were demonized by Joe McCarthy. More than once, Goodwin tells his fellow associates and his wife, "This is not McCarthy-ism here." Attempting to explain that he is simply going after the fact that the answers were being given to contestants and the public was dooped into tuning in night after night while the sponsors of these shows reaped in millions. The film marches in step between four worlds, Herb Stempel's blue collar neighborhood in Queens, Charlie Van Doren's uppercrust family in upstate New York, Richard Goodwin's moderate post graduate career life and the big and awe inspiring world of major network television with all its new bells, whistles and "APPLAUSE" signs.
Early on, an ad executive, played by Martin Scorsese, warns the television producers that Herb Stempel, who has been the winning contestant for several weeks is, 'not working'. The producers say that Stempel has that, "Everyman quality…" and that he represents the idea that anyone from New York can make it in America, The Ad Exec exclaims, "Queens is not New York …" and soon Herb Stempel is told he must take a dive. Dan Enright, the shows producer, delivers the bad news over steak and wine. When Stempel begs to stay on the show, he is reminded that, "It's an arrangement, It's always been an arrangement." He is ordered to give the wrong answer to a question that everyone in America knows and he is given the number of a psychiatrist free of charge, welcome to the network.
The Stempel character breaks and eventually demands some restitution from the television producers who quickly move into cover up mode by launching Charlie Van Doren into the stratosphere of T.V. fame and fortune, he eventually makes upwards of 120,000 thousand dollars, surpassing even his famous father and uncles riches awarded by simply great writing, Pulitzer prizes and the like. By the time Charlie Van Doren graces the cover of Time magazine, Herb Stempel, who is schlumping around like a schmuck without a life, goes to the district attorney and an investigtion ensuses. The judge on the case, who regularly plays golf with the president of the network, conceals Stempels statement to "protect repuations from an unstable whistleblower." The concealment is the first of any such case in New York in the past hundred years, it attracts the likes of Richard Goodwin and things begin to heat up at this point on.
In the history of motion pictures, there have been other examples before and since this film was made. Paddy Chayafsky famously wrote NETWORK which was a dark and comedic opera like parody of television with brilliant performances by William Holden as a burnt out television executive and as a upwardly mobile television producer who will do anything for ratings. This film brought us the famous line, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Since the making of QUIZ SHOW, George Clooney directed the somber, yet honest, story of Edward R. Murrow's fight with the networks to tell certain truths that were better left untold. This is also a brilliant film told in black and white with performances by a cast of incredible actors all working in unison to bring this chapter of netwrok television to the fore. Clooney, who was a child of T.V. knows very well how to explain the tone of advertiser vs truth and he delivers well. Quiz Show sits somewhere between these two versions, both cinematically and sequentially. Redford's realist style and tone are not colored in any expressionistic way whatsoever, this is not a parody like NETWORK, nor is it a black and white report, like Clooney's, "GoodNight". Redford plays it straight and allows us to simply experience the events in real time, from all angles of a four cornered world. The film rolls out like a giant 1959 American made automobile, sexy, funny, bold, he's working with an ample budget, an outstanding cast and crew and top of the line costume, camera and production team. There are no tricky camera angles, nothing brings attention to the story accept simply great performances, a brilliant and balanced screenplay, as usual Redford always works with the most perfect script that encompasses the act one two and three format that then goes one step further and adds both a preamble and a post event wrap up that completely leaves the audeince informed, entertained and often times enthralled.With Quiz Show, he does all three: This is pure Cinema.
As Richard Goodwin begins to investigate The 21 Show, he is given personal contact information about Van Doren and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Goodwin, who is Jewish, a Harvard Grad at the top of his class, a brilliant lawyer and a keen mind himself, is slow to suspect Charles Van Doren of any wrong doing. The two lunch at high brow restaurants and run into Charlie's father, who is a famous literary figure among a circle of writers such as Thurber and Edmund Wilson. It is not until Goodwin's wife pushes him to dig deeper that the drama really cranks up and Goodwin does indeed uncover the scandel. All along the way, previous contestants deny any commiseration, they all know too well the power of the networks and just when it seems hopeless, a Greenwhich Village artist and former contestant submits a self addressed stamped envelope with the questions of the show mailed to himself, several days prior to the actual live television airing. Goodwin now has evidence and gets his teeth into the television producers pantleg. "Your a very disruptive young man." he is told by Dan Enright, the show's hapless producer and netwok stooly who eventually flees to Mexico when the shit really hits the fan. Meanwhile, Richard Goodwin and Charlie Van Doren play poker, go sailing and celebrate Van Dorens father's birthday with background commentary from family members exclaiming that, "Charlie's famous, like Elvis Presley." The senior Van Doren has never seen Charlie's appearance on television and so for his birthday, he receives a TV set from his son Charlie.By the time that Richard Goodwin gets to actually speak to television executives, he is given a list of Herb Stempel's psychiatric bill and a recording made while Stempel was heatedly unravelling. When Goodwin speaks to Stempel again, he admits that he was given the answers and goads Goodwin on to go after Van Doren, exclaiming, "Just 'cause you went to Harvard, you think you have a stake in the sytsem ?"
The TV Exec's convince Charlie Van Doren that the investigation will not reach him and that Stempel is just a crackpot. But with Goodwin on the case, the other contestants self adressed letter and an impending investigation by the subcommittee, Charlie begins to buckle. During a poker game with a bunch of wealthy pals of Charlie, Goodwin begins to 'QUIZ' Charlie, who happens to be working on a book about, of all people, 'Honest Abe Lincoln'. At one point, Goodwin tells Charlie, "I know your lying." Charlie retorts with a simple response, "Bluffing. the word is, 'Bluffing'." This particular exchange is what makes Redford's world so damn compelling, he is a master of the slow but steady storytelling that unravels on the screen as a great book unravels on the page. Bob Redford is probably one of the most well respected and truthful directors when adapting books of the popular or well written variety in the past several decades. He simply works with best writers and those able to adapt a screenplay into something incredibly special from sometimes very thick and exaustive source material like in "A River Runs Through It". Which is based on a series of stories that were ignored by publishers for decades. When watching the film, it is hard to even fathom how they turned it into such a beautiful work. With Quiz Show, just the facts and historical details would confound most directors. Redford and his team take these facts and utilize them in a sequence that simply delivers the best and most honest surmisation of the event, allowing the audience to be edified as well as entertained.
As the pressure mounts, Charlie attempts to seek council from his father, but just can't seem to come clean about the truth. Meanwhile, Goodwin approaches the president of the network as if he's got them on the ropes in the final round of a championship boxing match, only to be left standing in the lobby with an insinuating statement by the fat cat exec that ends with the words, "…Then why are you the one sweating ?" Goodwin is pushed even further by his wife and with the support of some of his fellow lawyers on the committee, he finds his stride and pushes on. By this time, Charlie Van Doren decides to give a wrong answer to a question on the show simply to get off the roller coaster. Unfortunately, the question he misses surrounds a conversation and repartee that Goodwin witnessed between Charlie and his father during a party in upstate New York and now Richard Goodwin realizes that Charlie threw the answer on purpose and he goes after Van Doren, not publicly, but privately. Goodwin knows that Charlie was also given the answers "Why, Charlie, Why did you do it ?" he asks and when he presses furhter, Charlie caves in answering, "What would you have done ? Throw in the money, the fame, the cover of Time magazine ?" Goodwin stares the man down, he holds his moral ground until Charlie simply admits, "Well, thats the differnece between you and I." The television executives offer Charles Van Doren fifty thousand dollars and a morning show to teach children about, 'literature and the importance of reading'. He accepts the offer and is sucked even further into the networks spider web like offerings. By the time Goodwin nails the Television producers to the floor, they actually offer him his own show, he declines and instead suggests that the producer implicate the network. The producer admits that if he said a single word that, "They would never let me through the door again." Goodwin pauses, looks at the man and simply states,
"I have a feeling your not walking through that door anyway." By this time, the film and its impending investigation roll forward with a non stop pace that is both rewarding and gratufying. Not surprisingly, the networks are untouched and the producers, we are told in a final scene, later returned with popular quiz shows some years later. In a final tit for tat dialogue exchange session between Richard Goodwin and the head advertising executive played here by Martin Scorsese, the ad exec exclaims, "It isn't about what I know, it's about whay you know… The Public has a very short memory, but corporation, they never forget… Look young man, you have a very promising future, watch yourself out there."
About the time that the elder Van Doren, Charlie's father exclaims that, "All this talk about cheating on a quiz show is like plagiarizing a comic book," Charlie comes clean, "They gave me the answers." Father's reaction is total surprise, "They gave you the answers ? Oh my god Charlie, How are you going to tell the committee ?" In a final scene, in front of the subcommitte and a host of swarming reporters, Charlie Van Doren finally admits to wrong doing in a speech that starts with, "Everything came to easy … " which is an echoing line from one of Robert Redford's earliest successes as an actor, his portrayal of Hubbel in, "The Way We Were." Redford's character writes a story which begins with the opening line, "Everything had come to easy …" and so we come full circle. The entire committee begins to congratulate Charles Van Doren for coming clean in an overly acceptable and non critical manner, until finally, a working class representative steps up and exclaims, "Although, I think it is commendable … I am from another part of New York … and I don't think by simply telling the truth you should be so easily forgiven." The audience begins to applaud, the camera view is now from high above the precedings and a gavel pounds for order. We hear Richard Goodwin's voiceover, "I thought we were going to get television, the truth is, television is going to get us." Which is true in more ways than one as even Robert Redford's Sundance Channel now has just as many commercials between independent films, as the big three network broadcasters.
One thing for sure, nobody would ever have expected Robert Redford the actor to ever even dream about, let alone realize his ability to direct films at the level with which he has delivered time and time again. Redford is one of America's best and brightest and we, here at BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE, love his work, respect his artistic output and also honor his contribution to filmmaking.
MARLON BRANDO: The WILD One
By Joshua Triliegi
Marlon Brando is the quintessential original wild one. He broke down the barriers for acting styles. He conquered Shakespeare, Hollywood and Racism. He is The Godfather. He owned an island. And like all the great ones, he had his demons and had to walk back down the flight of steps that he walked up to begin with and meet all the same people on the way down. Many of them never got to the top. It's cold up there and you are all alone, thats the way it is when you are number one. When you are the highest paid, the most revered, the greatest, the best, the most talented, the one. The top of your game can only last a lifetime for some, decades for others, a few seasons for most, and for many, just a few days, but for most: never. That explains why we honor, respect, revere and enjoy those that have it going on. It also explains why many do the exact opposite and try to strip that all away, they never had it, never will and wouldn't know what the hell to do with it, even if they had.
Marlon Brando told the world to f*ck off. He stood up against white property owners in the 1960's, thankfully accepted his first Oscar from Hollywood and years later, sent a Native American to say, basically: No Thanks. He knew when film makers and studios were going to make millions off of him and so, he flipped the script. He's more than a legend: he's real, a man, flesh and blood. Actors will tell you that he was their original inspiration. Everybody sights Brando as an inspiration. He is alive, exciting, scary, unpredictable, sexy, funny and underneath it all, he's vulnerable. Simply and quite honestly: he's a big baby. But what a beautiful baby he is. He is intuitive, curious, mischievous, sly, brooding, delving, stubborn: all this and so much more. Fill in the adjective(s) .
Marlon Brando seemed to personify a time and place in America, a glimpse into the psyche of men in transition. Post War American men came back from the war, toughened, suspicious, some damaged, others with a certain confidence and reinstated rebelliousness. Brando's career follows the trajectory of post war America and parallels that line straight through to Apocalypse Now. From The Nineteen Forties straight through to the Nineteen - Seventies he's in the game. The comebacks are phenomenal and the mistakes and fumbles are equally outstanding. Brando's dancing in Guys & Dolls is simply amazing. To see a man that large, with a boxers physique, move so cat - like with a cool daddy - o style that seems to precede a sort of beatnik smoothness is a joy to behold. A man who admitted few regrets publicly, though whole heartedly exclaims that he wished he had treated James Dean with more respect and attention during his short lifetime. There is no James Dean without Brando. Its safe to say there is no: Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, the list goes on and on. We are talking about explosiveness, sex appeal and raw magnetism, mixed with a perfect sense of craft, curiosity and hard work that makes up what we call great and unparalleled acting. And thats just the American list. Some times, we in America thinks its always about us, hate to burst your bubble here, but people around the world are influenced by our greatness and that effects their work too. Brando often made films in Europe and his influence can be seen in actors like the great Toshiro Mifune of Japan. Brando's roles are often an explanation for the very thing that is wrong with human kind and some times he is there to fight against that very thing. The photograph by Phil Stern is a Hollywood Classic and a perfect example of a man at work, like any other man. Well, that's stretching it a bit. Maybe it's more honest to say: A Man at Work, Like No Other Man.
BUREAU MAGAZINE CINEMA FEATURE
Academy Award Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
ON THE SET: RAGING BULL
By Joshua TRILIEGI
A man in a hooded, leopard skin robe walks down a long hallway while a group of men push aside those standing in his path. We hear a crowd of thousands cheer the man on, "Jake Jake Jake …" they begin to chant. He is wearing boxing gloves, this is a championship fight, the crowd is dressed in their finest, the men are wearing suits and hats, the women are wearing jewelry, the place is filled with cigar and cigarette smoke, sailors, businessmen, middle aged characters scream the man's name over and over, the women smile as he passes by, his trainers walk in front of and behind the man as he walks down the pathway toward the ring, the volume of the crowd amplifies as the man gets closer and closer to the large roped off square canvas at the center of the arena. The man in the leopard skin robe enters through the ropes, a nondescript fellow with a microphone introduces the man in the robe, the crowd goes wild with frenzy, people are shouting, clapping, everyone is yelling something and then, suddenly, a quiet gent behind a camera yells, "cut" and the place goes silent, the action ceases, everyone settles and a pensive discussion between the crew behind the camera ensues. A few changes are discussed, several people make notations and we do it all over again. I am barely a teenager. It is a first time experience and I am collaborating with the finest in the business. My father and I are working together on the film set of a classic piece of cinema with the Actor Robert DeNiro and Director Martin Scorsese. This is On the Set Raging Bull, thirty-five years later & this is all true.
Academy Award Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
I get home from school and, once again, my parents are having a debate and it is about me. This has happened a few times, once, when my brother wanted to take me to an important surf contest on a week day and another time, when we got stuck at the border of Mexico and America late one Sunday night and didn't get home until early Monday morning. Today's negotiation is all about what is more important ? For me to attend school or for me to participate in making a film? The prior debates were also surrounding weather a day in real life would mean more to my education than a day at school. My dad had always felt that real life events had a gravity that would inform much more than the controlled environs of a formal education. In the past, his debating skills would convince mom that this was true and after some heated discussion, he wins her over. Now, we have to figure out how a thirteen year old kid with shoulder length hair is going to fit into a film that takes place in the late 1940s and early Fifties. First, he offers to cut it and I say no. Then, my hair is tied into a pony tail and stuffed up into a woolen cap that my old man had worn since he was a barber down on Prospect Avenue in Milwaukee. Back then, my mother had found herself single, with three kids, she was italian, she was beautiful, she was liberated and although the barber had barely begun his own life as a bachelor and hadn't entered college, when my mom walked in to get my older brother's hair cut, he fell for her and at six months old, he and I become pals. Through the years, we seldom had to deal with any of the father & son bullshit that can ruin a great relationship, we were often, simply friends or roommates or just happened to be living together. We both had to answer to the same lady, for him, it was the love of his life, for me, it was my mom, who made me clean my room, do chores, wash my own clothes and do my homework before running out for the day and get back by nightfall.
Academy Award Winner Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci play The La Motta Brothers in RAGING BULL / United Artists
We have been through some tough times together as a family and come out unscathed. But things are about to get really rough. In about six months, mom is going to move back to Milwaukee for a stretch, my brother and I will stay in California and my sister will go with mom. We did fifteen years without a separation, but my mom is coming into her own and my dad is freaking out. We get up at five in the morning and drive downtown to the Olympic Auditorium, where my old man is moonlighting nights as a security guard. The Olympic was the place, back in the day, where boxing matches happened every weekend. The great American boxing tradition was much bigger and wider spread than most people realize today. A few kids from just about any working class neighborhood, would start fighting in the ring, very early on, certainly kids my age did. There was the Golden Gloves, usually sponsored by a local newspaper and there was the Diamond Belt, often played live on local radio stations. My grandfather fought for these competitions in the late 1920s & early Thirties. He and his friends even started a boxing club, the Battling Bombers. They'd get up in the morning, run along the lakefront, work out at the gym and then go to work all day. He was a great fighter, he naturally had the correct build, could take a punch, had a mean right hook, but one thing he didn't have, was the reach. And if you can't reach your opponent, nothing much matters. In any event, my dad was very aware of my grandfather's history as well as the talent that lay in director Martin Scorsese. My parents had seen Scorsese's early films, but when, "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," was released, both my parents had noticed that my precocious behavior compared that of Alice's son.The big screen rapport between the boy and Alice had undertones of my own relationship with mom.
Actress Cathy Moriarty plays Jake LaMotta's Wife, Vicki in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
We get to the set and already thousands of people are filling the auditorium. I am dressed in jeans and suspenders, a cap and tennis shoes. He is wearing a suit and tie. Because my dad is actually an employee, we have all access. The scene we are shooting today is a famous 'single take' that Martin Scorsese will later make into one of his trademark style techniques. A favorite example of which would be the incredible scene in, 'GoodFellas' when Henry and Karen walk into a nightclub through the kitchen, to avoid the lines out front. They stroll through the door, down a hallway, into the kitchen, where Henry greets the chef, past a couple, who Henry chastises for always meeting here and on into the club, where a table is placed directly in front of the entertainer, who then sends Henry and his date a bottle of champagne. It is an amazing and exhilarating piece of cinema. The scene we are about to shoot uses similar elements. The first time we shoot the scene, the camera is behind Jake and he walks from dressing room to hallway to entryway of the arena and down the long path to the ring, where he makes a sharp left, past the judges and a right into the ring. My father and I are seated just above left of camera, the crew is situated below us, to our right. In between takes, and I can only assume that because my dad worked at the auditorium, or because it was meant to teach me something, or because he thought I would 'be discovered,' he began to call over production techies and assistants, asking questions about this or that adjustment. All these years later, having worked on films, directed and produced, I still can't believe what guts my dad had for the way he participated in the actual filming of the day. I mean, we were just extras, actually, we weren't even that, we were bum rushing the entire experience and here he is actually, 'participating' in the filmmaking process.
Actors Frank Adonis, Joseph Bono and Frank Vincent in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
The first, 'adjustment,' we notice, is when Martin Scorsese moves an extra on the right hand side of the scene from visibility. The man is dressed to the nines, in suit and hat. This is a crowd scene with thousands of people. At any one time, the camera is taking in from twelve to twelve hundred people. This is Mr Scorsese as a master oil painter, creating a giant fresco, placing each individual exactly where he wants them, every now and then, within the single take, an individual character may express an action that will end up on the screen for maybe a second or two. An older, portly man in the hallway, reaches out to Jake outside his dressing room, a middle aged man in a mustache, turns to his left while Jake passes by, clapping, a young woman cheers Jake on as he turns to the left towards the ring. When my father calls over one of the crew members and inquires about the particular change of position, the man simply looks at my dad, then looks at me, then gets on the talkie and finds out. A few minutes later, he comes over to inform us that the well dressed man is in an outfit that resembles one of the main characters and could be confusing to the overall film. This is the first of several inquiries that alerts the crew that either one of Marty's close pals is in the audience or a renegade security guard with kid in tow is taking notes. For now, we are still flying under the radar. We do the scene again, this time, the camera is in front of Jake, the sound of the arena is deafening. This is the moment, in the story & script, where Jake LaMotta finally gets the title fight he deserves. After several editing techniques of a wide variety, mostly, extremely fast and short clips, his shot at the title is pronounced, with this extended, single take and in the final film, it works out beautifully.
Joe Pesci and Nicholas Colasanto, The Neighborhood Don in in RAGING BULL / Image Courtesy of United Artists
We break for lunch. The entire auditorium is practically full with thousands of extras and somehow, my dad is able to situate me right next to Robert DeNiro. To this day, I still don't know how he did that, but I have a few ideas why. All these years later, looking back on that very important day in my life, I can see clearly that he wanted me to have the opportunities that existed here in Hollywood. As it turns out, he was a natural born bum rusher, who, on several occasions had done this type of thing before. One example, that stands out, is the time he got backstage at a concert and handed Waylon Jennings a tape with a bunch of songs he had written with his cousin. I should also say here that my old man was definitely a gambler, but he also had talent, he wrote poetry, painted, he knew music very well, was a master craftsman, he had charisma and the gift of gab, he was handsome and had a great heart, but to me, back then, he was simply the guy I had lived with, that my mom had loved, since I was six months old. That said, here I am, eating lunch with a silent Robert DeNiro, who is donned in hood and robe, no one else dared to sit at that table. While I am chowing down with Bobby, my old man is chatting up the crew, he's, no doubt, getting that high that can easily be had when on the set of a great film, probably doesn't even realize it. I look up and he is now talking to the real life Jake LaMotta, getting his autograph, introducing me to people, we are no longer, under the radar. After lunch, a crew member stops by and explains that because I am not an adult, and there are no tutors on the set, the law requires that half day rules apply to actors under eighteen and so, we will not be able to stay for the full day. My old man tries for a second or two to appease and convince, then realizes, ultimately, that we have already succeeded, it has been a great day at the roulette wheel of life. We walk back to our car and drive home. Ten years later, I buy my first film camera, write my first screenplay & produce my first short film. The screenplay is a finalist for the Sundance Film Festival's writers workshop and the short film wins nominations elsewhere.
Academy Award © Winning Actor Robert DeNiro as Jake "The Bronx Bull" LaMotta in RAGING BULL / United Artists
Raging Bull, as a film, is ahead of it's time. The critics, who had, just a few years earlier, lauded Sylvestor Stallone's, 'Rocky' as a winning, feel good boxing film, did not know what to do with a film as brutally honest and unapologetic as Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull. The film was actually, a project that Robert DeNiro had been working on, for quite some time. After the success of The Deerhunter and Godfather II, he was able to put projects together which suited his goals and challenged the audience. For the first time in film history, an actor had gained a record amount of pounds, to play a character in a 'later in life' sequence, setting the bar several notches higher for techniques utilizing one's physique. Even the best film critics are not quite ready for the honesty of Martin Scorsese. America wanted another feel good film about boxing, and what it got, was a stark, reality based film that exposed the brutality, realism and masochism that surrounded Jake LaMotta's life. Not to mention the art house aspect of filming the entire project, with the exception of a few color home movies, in classic black and white. A bold, artistic decision that has, since then, garnered "Raging Bull" the reverence and deep respect of film lovers and cinema creators around the world. All one needs to do is study the film stills and camera work of Michael Chapman to realize why this film is a work of Art on almost every level. Even the sound design is especially mesmerizing, specifically how each crucial punch, in every single fight scene, is given a special mix of audio effect. It is a mesmerizing work of art and a testament to great cinema, without a doubt. At that years Academy Awards © Ceremony, Robert DeNiro walks up the isle, people are cheering, they reach out to him, applaud his performance and he gladly accepts the Oscar Award for Best Actor. Although my dad is unable to read this, I would like to thank him, Marty, Bobby and the Academy: We Made IT.
Image: Martin Scorsese in London England 1996 Photographer: Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photo
ON THE SET: RAGING BULL By Joshua TRILIEGI for BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine / 2015 SUMMER Edition
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AKIRA KUROSAWA: THE ICON ESSAY
By Joshua A. Triliegi for BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine
Akira Kurosawa is a great contribution to The Asian World and indeed he is a National Treasure to Japan. To Us in The West, he is a teacher, a scholar, a storyteller, a raconteur, a moralist with a much wider view point than the average. Ultimately Kurosawa is a Filmmaker of the rarest variety, lastly, he is an Artist. Today, We Honor Akira Kurosawa.
Akira Kurosawa is the youngest child of a large family, third generation from the Edokko. He is exposed to film early on by an older brother and eventually finds his way to filmmaking by assisting and script writing. His meticulous nature and perfectionist qualities concerning accuracy are exemplary. Eventually his adaptions of early literature and his knowledge of Art expand the ideas of a what a film actually is. Kurosawa garners attention with innovative techniques, pushes the limits on former traditional ideas of right and wrong and after ten films that were mostly seen in Japan, he has a creative breakthrough. Kurosawa's Adaption of several short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa in 1950 for the film entitled, "Rashomon," received The Grand Prix at The Venice Film Festival and led to American distribution through RKO. the film went on to win both the National Board of Review prize and Academy recognition for the Best Foreign Film in Hollywood. At the time, Art Films were usually recognized more from countries such as France, Sweden or England. The fact that a Japanese film had make an international sensation and actually made money in large metropolitan cites such as New York was historical. Film reviews in the New York Times, the Saturday Review and the Christian Science Monitor were complimentary. Reviews in The New Yorker and the Times London were perplexing, as we look back at these negative reviews, some sixty-five years later, they seem tainted by a prejudice that has haunted the Asian culture since time immemorial. You may notice that this publication has no time, need or desire to TELL the reader what is good or bad. If it is in the publication, you may assume it is good, if it is not in the publication, you may assume whatever you like. Rashomon went on to great heights of conjecture and recognition and to this day is compared to great films that have transcended both time and trends. "Rashomon" could be compared to Orson Welles' great Classic, "Citizen Kane," in that regard. The success of international recognition brings scrutiny and even envy within the inner circles of a great artist and without a doubt, the surprising popularity of Rashomon, did just that. Kurosawa follows it up with an early literature favorite from Dostoevsky. He eventually creates the masterpiece, "Seven Samurai," which inspires another popular filmmaker to adapt it into, "The Magnificent Seven." Later, more such adaptations of Kurosawa films, both loose & exacting will create films like, "Star Wars."
Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Paul Schrader are just a few of the internationally known American filmmakers who owe a great debt to the legacy of the man they call, Akira Kurosawa. One of the important aspects of Kurosawa and his influence on cinema is both his pre-war and post-war activity in filmmaking. He is assisting and in training throughout the period before World War Two. Kurosawa becomes a director in 1943, though his responsibilities as an assistant in previous productions had prepared him entirely. All throughout the War, Akira Kurosawa makes films that are influenced by what he sees and feels, but also by many of his Western influences such as writers like Georges Simenon. Kurosawa is blatantly honest about his many influences which include: D. W. Griffith, Ed McBain, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare and the frailty of mankind itself. Years after the war, Kurosawa openly discusses his acknowledgment of, "War Time filmmaking and National Code policies," that both hindered and influenced his ability to make the films he had intended to create. His complete and utter honesty regarding his past works is unheard of elsewhere. This quality of truth, which shows deeply in his work, is certainly one of the many reasons why Kurosawa is important. A must read book for any persons wishing to understand the films of Akira Kurosawa is the comprehensive manual, "The Films of Akira Kurosawa," by author Donald Ritchie, "Something of An Auto Biography," by Kurosawa himself and of course the many books written about each film, the scripts and stories they are based on, and to view the films themselves. I also believe that comparative film viewings are a great way to understand the relationships that we as artists, filmmakers and storytellers have with one another. If you watch, "The Hidden Fortress," as a double feature with, "Star Wars," or "The Seven Samurai," with "The Magnificent Seven," you may learn something of the interrelated quality which the arts provide this world. The unification of the human experience itself, on an international level, depends highly on the arts.
The films of Akira Kurosawa plays a key role in the international discussion and dissertation on our relations as people of the world. Another keen and important aspect to Akira Kurosawa's contribution to film itself is his deep knowledge and curiosity regarding philosophy, literature and the visual arts. As Kurosawa's popularity rises, he is more and more, able to make the type of film that he originally intended to create. In "High and Low," a detective story based on a book by Ed McBane, Kurosawa's positioning of characters in relation to their body language is so artistically defined and designed that it raises filmmaking to the level of high art. The single frame pictures in this production, especially the interior shots with four or more characters are simply masterpiece art paintings, fine art prints or highly developed photographs by a complete and utter artist of the highest order. Further, the images relate directly to story, emotion, narrative interpretation and culminate into what a film must be to succeed: Entertainment as well as Education. Kurosawa goes onto create a series of films that have created a legacy of outstanding cinema that have aligned themselves with his own country, with Asian history and traditions as well as the concerns of humanity as a whole. An artist will create works that reflect their personal interests, views and concerns as well as experience. At the same time, there are collective experiences that relate to one's nation, one's place in the world and one's very existence. The Akira Kurosawa catalogue is steeped in each afore mentioned example. His later works, such as, "Ran," and "Dreams," are a testament to humanity, history and proof that, Akira Kurosawa, from the first film to the last, set a great example and raised the bar of excellence as well as imagination. I do not pretend to be a specialist in Asian studies. I do not assume I know anything more than you do about Oriental culture. I do not profess to have the answers to the deeper questions that great art provides. I do know that the work of Akira Kurosawa has educated my knowledge, his films have informed my curiosity, his ideas have answered many of the deeper philosophical questions. And so, today, we honor the great Artist Akira Kurosawa in this BUREAU Icon Essay .
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI for BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine International
BUREAU FILMS 12 Must See CLASSIC FILMSThat Express a certain Social Angst that is very much relevant for the Youth of Today's Society.
1) AMERICAN GRAFFITI
2) BIG WEDNESDAY
3) BREAKING A W A Y
4) CROOKLYN
5) LA BAMBA
6) OUTSIDERS
7) QUADROPHENIA
8) REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
9) REPO MAN
10) SWING KIDS
11) THE GRADUATE
12) WEST SIDE STORY
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
One of the most important films reflecting on American Pop Culture ever. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Directed by George Lucas. Starring a cast of new stars that have all gone on to have stellar careers in the film industry: actors, directors, producers. Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Suzanne Somers, Kathleen Quinlan, Candy Clark, Charles Martin Smith, Mackenzie Phillips, Bo Hopkins.A Film that holds up every time it is viewed. A nostalgic look at a time and a place in America just before we were hit with the death of the Kennedy's & other social leaders, Vietnam and a complicated world which forever changed our lives in America. This film went onto inspire the Television Show : HAPPY DAYS. As well as many teen / music films such as DAZED & CONFUSED by Independent Film Maker Richard LINKLATER. One can also see that this film production opened the door for Alan ARKUSH's Classic Musical Cult Teen Film: ROCK & ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. http://www.google.COM/#q=american+graffitti+cast
BIG WEDNESDAY
The most authentic fictional SURF FILM ever created. Directed and co - written by John Milius, who would go on to put a surf scene in just about every film he would ever participate in, most famously: the surf scene in APOCALYPSE NOW. This film seems to capture West Coast Surf culture with the perfect blend of the nostalgic aspects of the early days on into the more cynical ones. Friendships, initiations, love, war and growing up with the waves. Another perfect ensemble cast, an original musical score and a voice over narration that perfectly tells the story like a good book. For a full Review Visit The BUREAU of ARTS and Culture Film Page. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077235/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ql_1
BREAKING AWAY
Growing up poor or middle class in an area where others are more privileged is one of the themes running through this hilarious and charming film about Biking, Friendship, Playing by the Rules and yes, ' Breaking Away ' from the pack, traditions and false ideals. A story about finding & respecting yourself in a world that refuses to do so. Dennis Quaid in an early & heartfelt performance. Directed by Peter Yates with a screenplay by Steve Tesich. A great use of Classical Music throughout the entire production. Other cast members include: The incredible Paul Dooley as the dad, Barbara Berrie as the Mom and Dennis Christopher, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley as ' The Cutters ' [ for cutting school ]. A fabulous uplifting production. http://www.google.COM/#q=Breaking+away+the+film+cast
CROOKLYN
Spike Lee dishes up this family film which is loosely based on scenarios created by his brother and sister and thier early childhood in Brooklyn. A hilarious film that personifies the 1970's with all the pitch perfect hooks and props, music and experiences that define the period. A heartbreaking and yet wonderfully funny film that nails exactly what many of us went through during our childhood experiences in America at that particular time and place. Outstanding performances by the entire cast. As usual Spike Lee's casting choices from Del Roy Lindo as the dad, Alfre Woodard as the mom and a whole crop of new young actors as well as Isaiah Washington, RuPaul, Vondie Curtis-Hall and of course Zelda Harris as the young girl who plays our lead character. With a great soundtrack, richly produced and as usual great direction.http://www.google.COM/#q=Crroklyn+cast
LA BAMBA
A musical bio that lovingly tells the story of singer Ritchie Valens, though at the same time, tells a basic family dynamic of growing up, falling in love, being accepted or not and dealing with life's opportunities under pressure. A fabulous soundtrack that helped to put the band Los Lobos on the map. This was a follow up to the success of Luis Valdez's play & film ZOOT SUIT. With themes that describe the latino experience, musical prodigies, inter racial love and crossing over into the mainstream American music charts. This film, along with the Buddy Holly Story, Great Balls of Fire and the many films on Elvis Presley,opened the door for the entire genre of music biographies that have lead up to: RAY, Walk the Line, Sid and Nancy. Lou Diamond Phillips in his first starring role, Esia Morales in a pinnacle supporting role as Ritchie's brother, Rosanna DeSoto as the mom and Joe Pantoliano, Elizabeth Pena, Brian Seltzer and Tony Genaro supporting. http://www.google.COM/#q=La+bamba+cast
The OUTSIDERS
An outstanding adaption of an S. E. Hinton novel by Francis Ford Coppola. The perfect film that reflects life on the, ' other side of the tracks '. Another film that has a cast of new stars that will all go onto great careers in film: C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Emelio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, and Coppola regulars: Tom Waits, Diane Lane & Glen Withrow. Heroic and authentic, sympathetic and rough, innocent and tough, all without any slips in performance, style or structure, a really great film about family, friends, tribes and looking back one more time, before moving forward again. What's it like to be an American in the middle of America ? This is what it's like. http://www.google.COM/#q=outsiders+cast
QUADROPHENIA
The first of several great films created by The Classic Rock & Roll Band: The WHO. A semi autobiographical tale of Mods and Rockers in and around the London music scene just prior to the creation of bands like the WHO. the clash between the Mods and the rockers, not unlike the same clash we see within the other films listed in this review: The Outsiders, Breaking Away, Rebel without a Cause, Big Wednseday. The Who will go onto create, The Kids are Allright & the Classic Rock opera TOMMY. Being authentic, demanding respect from authority, rebelling against previous values and searching for acceptance, but ultimately tossing it all away for self respect are just a few of the themes in this great fictional film. Once again, many of the cast members will become regulars and have entire careers and comebacks time and time again. Most notably: Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast, Timothy Spell in a series of films with the great Mike Leigh, Sting and of course a very young Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Mark Wingett, Phil Davis. Directed by Franc Roddam. With music by The WHO and the use of period music specifically Booker T and the MG's classic 'Green Onions', which is also used in American Graffiti http://www.google.COM/#q=QUADROPHENIA+cast
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
The benchmark of all great films about growing up. There had many teen films before, but none could ever touch it after. The fact that it was filmed in technicolor put it a cut above the juvenile delinquent genre that had been mostly filmed in low budget black & white. Of course, the pinnacle performance by James Dean in a role that absolutely never goes out of style. Every generation rediscovers this film and immediately relates. His sensitivity, his search for truth, his sympathy towards Sal Mineo and his love for Natalie Wood as well as the need to be accepted and respected all ring true to the kids of today's society. The other films in this article could never have existed without the creation and popularity of Rebel without a Cause. This is the quintessential teen film. Although, it also speaks to the ever changing evolution from one generation to another. A great original soundtrack, rich technicolor and realistic and dramatic performances. Directed by Nicholas Ray, written by Stewart Stern based on a story by Irving Schulman.http://www.google.COM/#q=rebel+without+a+cause+cast
REPO MAN
Another small but interesting film about life in Los Angeles by director Alex COX, who would later direct the classic Sid and Nancy biop on Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols Punk rock band that helped to start an entire revolution in rock and roll music that still exists. Repo Man weaves between the new music of the time and the different types of folks who inhabit Los Angeles. The film is a satire on all types of people, much like the music of that time, bands like Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, Iggy Pop, Suicidal Tendencies, The Plugz and FEAR all made fun of society, so too does this film. With Emelio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton battling it out with for and among space aliens, low riders, musicians and of course stealing back automobiles. Car chases through the L.A. River, Low budget special effects and performances by many real musicians such as band members of The Untouchables and Circle Jerks make this a sort of time capsule of a time and a place. At the time, this film was considered a cynical look at society, looking back at it today, its almost innocent. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087995/
SWING KIDS
Music, politics and friendship collide into a whirlwind force among a group of friends in Germany during the take over of Europe. Inspired loosely on actual events in the life of people such as Django Reinhardt. Another cast of important actors including: Christian Bale, Frank Whaley, Robert Sean Leonard and Barbara Hershey. Loyalty is the running theme in this music filled portrait which starts out as a story of friendship but swiftly veers into a political thriller of the historical variety. An outstanding sound track with great performances by an ensemble cast. The film asks us how far will we go to be a success in our own time and place ? Loyalty to friends, to our own values,
to our life may be more important than acceptance by the group, especially when the group is a destructive, controlling and obvious plague on a free society such as ours.http://www.google.com/#q=swing+kids+cast
THE GRADUATE
A hilarious, sensitive and heartbreaking story of one young man's journey into self discovery after graduating from college. The film that put Dustin Hoffman on the map. A soundtrack that launched Simon & Garfunkle into music stardom. As well as introducing the directing career of, up to that point, comedian Mike Nichols who with Elaine May, had a string of successful comedic albums based on their night club act. With a screenplay co written by Buck Henry of Saturday Night live fame and career making appearances by Anne Bancroft, Norman Fell, Katherine Ross, William Daniels and Murray Hamilton uttering the now classic, phrase, " I have one word for you ... PLASTICS." Which seems to personify the artificial world that Hoffman's character is thrust into. An entirely different kind of comedy that broke the mold on controversy, humor and the sad realities
that would lie ahead for an entire generation in search of truth, love and once again, breaking away from the values of those that have preceded us. A great film with a surprise ending that still to this day, is embarrassing, exulting and always entertaining. Somewhere between the sympathetic soundtrack, the innocent performances and the heartfelt realities of life, a strange and original cinematic experience emerges. No film has ever matched this blend since. The graduate opened the door to a slew of new films: http://www.google.com/#q=the+graduate+cast
WEST SIDE STORY
The classic updated version of Romeo & Juliet told here in New York City, between two rival gangs of kids from different ethnic backgrounds. This film still holds up in every way, shape and form. Cinematography, costumes, dialogue, songs and of course the transformative choreography and music. Leonard Bernstein developed this project for well over a decade and to this day it is as fresh and relevant as any film about the youth of society today. Romance, violence, loyalty and the difficulty in crossing over from the folks you were born with into the person you are in love with, are just a few of the themes touch on here. The song lyrics are so entirely up to date, that it is downright astounding how fresh and relevant this film is. Marijuana, Cops and Detectives, Gangs, Social Workers, Fashion and most of all Love. This film becomes more and more impressive as time goes on. West Side Story contains performances by natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, Russ Tamblyn, David Winters, George Chakiris, Tucker Smith and a cast of outstanding actors /dancers and of course a soundtrack that makes it an utter and complete classic film that will never go out of style.
FILM : ON THE ROAD
By Joshua Triliegi
A dangerously loyal adaption of a highly influential and often misunderstood novel by an author who dearly loved his friends, jazz, people and places that were inspiring. " The only ones for me are the mad ones... " is a quote from Jack Kerouac's novel which was reviewed by a stand - in literature critic for The New York Times, who lauded the work as a breakthrough moment in American Literature and a star was born. This is the novel that inspired an entire generation to break free of the social norms and simply be yourself, travel, make love, make music, love the common man, write about your hearts desires and most of all, love your life for all it has to offer.First of all, I am a biased reviewer in that I love Jack Kerouac, The Beats, Jazz, the common man, people and places that are inspiring. I have read most of the novels and published letters by the characters personified within this film: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg & William Burroughs and have produced minor films that were inspired by these American authors. That said, this is the greatest film adaption of any Beat Film ever. One only hopes that the film makers will be able to put on the screen a classic novel that so many of us have loved, honored and cherished our whole lives. The film is nothing less than the most perfect adaption ever produced on Beats. From the opening shot above a parking lot to the final scene on the streets of New York, the film breaths life into an impossible novel that took decades to bring to the big screen. Francis Ford Coppola executive produces [ that means he put up the dough ] so that the director Walter Salles could bring this gem into existence and put himself into the major arena of outstanding film adaption by directors who shall be honored for years to come.
The performances as far as I am concerned, are pitch perfect. Accents, performances, style and character development as well as a commitment to realistic personifications are entirely delivered with a loyalty to truth, legend and entertainment. This is dangerous. This is exciting. This is Inspiring. This is On The Road and life after Neil Cassady will never be the same again. For those not ' In The Know ' heres a primer. Have you ever had a best friend ? Attractive, exciting, dangerous, from the wrong side of the tracks ? Someone who showed you a side of life never seen within your own house, neighborhood, city, state, country ? Well, Jack Kerouac did, he had several, but his old pal Neil took the cake. Sure, he also had Allen Ginsberg, who would go onto write the famous poem that was banned for indecency entitled, " HOWL ". These days it is taught as a major work of art at places like West Point Academy. He also had William Burroughs famous for his dangerously subversive novel entitled, " Naked Lunch " another Beat film which was also brought to the big screen by Canadian director, David Cronenberg. Another dangerously loyal film adaption that went way beyond the book into the realm of Burroughs-ian-Land.
Jack was a French Catholic boy who loved America dearly, hated suppressive government and wanted to express that in his work. On The Road was his opus which sat around for years, influencing his friends as well as informing his detractors and pissing off the squares who had no idea what he was talking about most of the time. The film offers a straight ahead, lush and lovely offering - like version of the written word that is bound to ruffle a few feathers, scare a few squares, rattle a few cages and inspire more than a few too read the novels and break free once again. Its a beautiful look at an oppressive time in America. These are the Mc Carthy Years. the time of the black lists in Hollywood and New York. Eisenhower, Truman, etc...
The story and film itself is insulated by its own parameters of friendship, loyalty, love, sex, drugs and endless searchings for kicks, kicks, kicks. Do you know the song lyric, " Get your kicks on Route 66 ... " ? The popularity of goatee beards, black sunglasses, black clothes, jazz music for white folks, coffeehouses, Bob Dylan, poetry, classic cars, the popularity of Marijuana, traveling by bus, car and railway, heading West, the entire hippy movement, rock and roll, tune in , turn on and drop out, as well as the writings of folks who brought us : One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Easy Rider and This film here, all of it stems from the pen, the mind, the man, the myth, the legend that is Jack Kerouac. The canon of influence that ON THE ROAD and HOWL and NAKED LUNCH had is quite immense. These folks were dealing with themes and taboos that have been broken wide open : Mixed Race Couples, Gay Sex, Marijuana. In the nineteen fifties, you went to jail, were beaten down or in some case were actually killed for being outside the system. Some would argue that some of these restrictions have creeped up on us again.
In any event, this an outstanding rendition of a classic American Novel that to be sure, Jack Kerouac and his pals, gals and fans would be very proud of. It's the real thing. A word about the production design. Flawless costumes, atmosphere, hand held camera work that captures the mystery, mastery and misanthropy as well as the come downs from the heavy high of being On The Road and having to come home, back down to Earth, back to the real world. I'm unsure what the average American viewer will think of all the sex, drugs and rock & roll. There are plenty of inside jokes for beat fans, beat readers and those who actually lived through this period of time. I will say that the performances are explicit, expressive and exciting as well as entertaining. There is just the right amount of travel across America and into Mexico as well as a balanced display of the price this type of life costed the participants as well as the friends and relatives of those nearby. For Jack, it gave him life lessons, broke his heart, gave him a novel and taught him a thing or two about loyalty, friendship, love, freedom and the boundaries thereof. For beat fans this is a fabulous film, for the actors, maybe a nomination, for the producer and director, one can only hope for a few awards by early next year. Ya got my vote. Because the only ones for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to be saved, desirous of everything...
FILM : THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
" In The Kingdom of Kitsch "
In 1988 director Phillip Kaufman brought to the screen a novel by Milan Kundera. Mr Kaufman has always been at least, a decade ahead of the times. His films have constantly created genres, influenced directors and bravely translated literature & historical events to the screen. His adherence and loyalty to source material is unmatched. The Wanderers, The Right Stuff, Henry and June, to name a few, have inspired and set the stage for other films within the genre, consistently raising the bar on truth, quality, reverence to the originator and entertainment well beyond the current trends. Mr. Kaufman brings to life words with a keen sense of detail and a wide world view which brings the viewer into a realm of reality or fantasy that seems to punctuate humanity and specifically the boundaries with which life presents.The Unbearable Lightness of Being might be considered his masterpiece, although, due to his prolific and influential output in other genres, it is safe to say that Kaufman will not be remembered for any one film. He is under rated, in terms of being what they call a house hold name. But to directors in the industry, film students and international film festivals, associations and aficionados: Mr. Kaufman is heroic.
"The Right Stuff opened the door for a slew of astronaut films including Apollo 13. Kaufman practically created the genre. By setting an absolute tone, fabulous casting, flawless research and collaboration with top costumers, photographers and producers, his influence is felt far beyond the time and the place with which his films are released."
The Right Stuff opened the door for a slew of astronaut films including Apollo 13. Kaufman practically created the genre. By setting an absolute tone, fabulous casting, flawless research and collaboration with top costumers, photographers and producers his influence is felt far beyond the time and the place with which his films are released. In The Unbearable Lightness of Being a stellar cast of actors bring to life historical events. Politics, passion, literature and history meld into a contemporary take on a situation which relates to and possibly rivals director David Lean's, Doctor Zhivago. Film history relies on itself to continue certain traditions. Film makers grow up watching films which inspire works of art that later influence the next generation and so on. As Zhivago was based on a great novel about love that just so happens to be placed in a time of political upheaval, so to does the source material for Milan Kundera's novel.
Daniel Day - Lewis spreads his wings in this production which for the first time truly employs his talents to an international audience in a story that juxtaposes his love for life, women and country and the complications that arise between politics, change, revolution and expressing one's self as a writer while making a living at another trade, in this case : brain surgery. One can imagine Mr. Kaufman's desk covered with book options through the years and muttering to his producers cliches' such as, 'It's not rocket science.' or 'It doesn't take a brain Surgeon.' But for Kaufman it definitely is rocket science & as far as this writer is concerned, it is brain surgery, for Kaufman is a genius. I never use the word and yet there it is on the page. There is something about his films that generate a certain amount of passion, interest and bon vivant. His take on life is liberated, his characters are on the edge of history, pushing the envelope into a new time & place. Sam Shepard' s characterization of astronaut Chuck Yeager in the Right Stuff is a perfect example. Characters who break boundaries and later seem to go uncredited or under the radar. Or bringing to life the triangular love relationship between Henry Miller and his lovers. Source material that few directors would know how to approach, let alone, how to raise the funds for and bring to life on the screen.
Unbearable Lightness of Being also visits this type of triangular passion and complicated relationship that make for great drama. Kaufman's take on life, love & history are dramatic, but laced with a pathos, irony and humor that keeps one interested through out. He has a rare viewpoint that illustrates life's issues and relationships in an original & complicated way. With stellar performances by Lena Olin and a fresh faced newcomer on the scene, Juliet Binoche. Supporting cast includes Stellan Skarsgard. This erotic, yet human feature film takes us inside Czechloslvakia during a particularly tumultuous time in their history with an oppressive an invasive Russian takeover during the nineteen sixties. Politics, passion and provocation abound. Kaufman's films almost never come in at the usual commercial time of ninety minutes. He is an artist, most of his features are two hours or more. Unbearable Lightness of Being comes in at an epic 172 minutes, just under three hours. Every scene, every line, every moment is fresh, alive, undeniably truthful, unabashedly human & heartbreakingly real. Originally a part of the Orion Pictures catalogue. Produced by The Saul Zaentz Company. A brave and bold historical film well worth celebrating.
This has been an appreciation of UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING. An ongoing Series of articles marking the Films, Books & Artworks that are worth remembering, re-watching, re-reading and re-celebrating time & time again.
ORSON WELLES
Orson Welles is the real voice of America. He scared the living hell out of us on October 31st 1939 with The Historical radio narration of "WAR of The WORLDS". A somewhat naive public had tuned in to hear the usual musical concert brought to you live by so and so from such and such a location and instead was told that, "The Martians were landing in New Jersey," and a full on invasion of America was taking place. The 'Boy Wonder' as he was called by some, had looks, guts, a voracious appetite for fame and a deep male voice that held passion, wisdom, roots, defiance and bravado. Orson gathered a group of actors and called them The Mercury Players, including a young Agnes Moorehead, Vincent Price, Joseph Cotton, Everett Sloane, Ray Collins, Martin Gabel, Anne Baxter, Judy Holliday, Geraldine Fitzgerald and other future stars of sound and screen. Orson Welles wrote, acted, directed, narrated and produced. He took classic literature and related it to current issues including Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with a twist toward the growing fascism in Europe of the late 1930s. He went on to create radio adaptions of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Huckleberry Finn, Our Town, The Heart of Darkness, Five Kings, and Native Son. The Legend of Welles has created many a great film and literary adaption in its own right. "RKO 281" starring Liev Schreiber as Welles is a good adaption of events leading up to his entry into Hollywood and filmmaking. "The Cradle will Rock" by Tim Robbins is another fine and thorough film which brings to life The Theater chapter of Welles experience in New York City with the WPA and censorship in America. Orson Welles' All Black MacBeth commonly known as VooDoo Macbeth, set in Haiti, was an out and out success, every line in Shakespeare's play was kept intact. The production, "Exceeded its original play dates in New York and had a popular tour of The country".
It also began an animosity surrounding Orson Welles that continued to follow his career leading up to his masterpiece which chronicled the life and times of a once powerful media mogul and newspaper magnate, in all its highs and lows: Citizen Kane. Both Peter Bogdanovich and Henry Jaglom spent a good amount of time with Orson late in his life and each have interesting stories to tell, in both book and film. "The Cats Meow" a film by Bogdanovich tells a dark chapter related to media mogul William Randolph Hearst of Citizen Kane fame and Jaglom's book, "My lunches with Orson" transcribe taped conversations with the late great master filmmaker and magician. Some twenty years after Citizen Kane created a revolution in film, censorship and battles between the artists and the media in Hollywood, Bogdanovich had organized a retrospect of works at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and years later posthumously published, "This is Orson Welles" in 1985. Controversy courted Welles at all levels, especially with his collaborators and creating partners, including The Bogdanovich book which, was lost in storage, later found, put on hold by Welles himself, having been offered funds for his own life story and later published with full approval. Some called it a failed career, others know damn well that Welles was out and out blackballed from the industry and ten years later, hundreds of left leaning artists, writers and filmmakers were witch hunted by not just, The Industry, but by their own government. Orson Welles was a real voice for American Radio and being a real man in America can be a dangerous game. Citizen Kane is commonly called One of, if not, THE, Greatest Modern American Film of all time. Welles took the newspaper techniques utilized by Media Moguls of the time and flipped them right back in their faces, taking tawdry facts and innuendo and skewering the all powerful modern day millionaires of the day. It was a beautiful and defiant move that scared the pants off of the powerful and at the same time, empowered the individual artist. Unfortunately, the price Orson paid to make that statement ended his own career, created a legend, set the tone for decades to come and even taught a weary government what tools could be used to dupe the public into submission, fear and war. To this day, film, radio & literature as well as newspapers are all fooling society daily.
MARTIN SCORSESE :
One of AMERICA's Most Important Film Makers
By Joshua TRILIEGI
Strange and challenged experiences in life seem to create great artists of a major caliber. Martin Scorsese was a child entangled with sickness, born of Italian parents in a tough neighborhood, he retreated into the great movie houses of New York City, learned the craft of classic film making by watching the great early American directors such as John Ford, John Huston and Orson Welles. From the European masters, Mr. Scorsese was influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, Luchino Visconti, Jean Renoir, Michael Powell, Roberto Rosellini, Frederico Fellini, Andrzel Wajda & Mizoguchi Kenji among others. After creating a few exercises , which is often what first films can be, he created what most feel is his first 'real film' : MEAN STREETS. Famously coached by Independent film maker & actor John Casavettes, who told Mr. Scorsese to go make a real film. And indeed he did. Early on in the production New Yorkers began to hassle the young director, 'There's nothing Mean about these streets.' , they shouted. Early on, Mr. Scorsese attracted controversy and it has stayed with him throughout his career. Taxi Driver and The last Temptation of Christ, possibly creating the most amount of misunderstanding & friction that only seemed to fuel his inspiration and also led to a good deal of what we commonly call in the business: Free Advertising.
In 1974, while putting together, Alice doesn't live Here Anymore, he approached Ellen Burstyn for the role of Alice. While reviewing his films up to that point Ms. Burstyn point blank asked the young director if he knew 'Anything' about women, his answer ? 'No, but I'm willing to learn'. The film went on to create accolades for both Ms. Burstyn, her co star, Kris Kristofferson and a little known discovery: Jodie Foster. Ms. foster would go onto a nomination for her role in Taxi Driver, creating a backlash and more controversy for the Director. As well as awards and acceptance from the global film community and Hollywood critics.
In 1977, his love of early musicals, music always plays a big part in any Scorsese production, led him to new York, New York, which was again, out of synch with the public's taste, yet still and all, is a lavish production.
In 1980, Mr Scorsese's relationship with Robert De Niro led him to direct the boxing film Raging Bull, which was a brutal and realistic portrait of Jake La Motta. Shot in classic black & white, unheard of at the time, winning an Oscar for his long time collaborator, Mr.De Niro and soon to be stalwart Scorsese actor Joe Pesci, as well as the discovery of actress Cathy Moriarty. The sound design is phenomenal, each boxing match is shot with a variation, the scenes in between the matches often, quiet & still, one can easily see Mr. Scorsese's influence by the Italian Neo -Realists here: Visconti, Rosellini and a love of the early boxing Films of the 1940's and 1950's. I was honored to visit the Film Set of this production and had the pleasure of lunching with Mr De Niro, meeting the real Jake La Motta and viewing the master director at work with thousands of extras in costume. Something I can only liken to watching Rembrandt paint an oil painting in his studio one afternoon.
In 1983, Mr Scorsese took on the world of comedy's underbelly & the aspects of fame that can lead to desperation, insanity and obsession with The King of Comedy. Jerry Lewis, Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhardt collide in this wacky, dark and uncomfortable look at the sidelines of television and entertainment. A visionary work that hints at where we are today with fans obsessive attachment to the famous, rich and influential entertainers of television, music & filmmaking.
In 1985, Mr Scorsese directed one of the films that are sometimes known as his smaller films: After Hours. A crazy, funny and Art House hit that has comedic flare and wit, utilizing the art world, New York's neighborhoods and a hipster paranoia that reminds one of films like, 'Its a mad, mad, mad, mad World'.
Also included in this category would be 1986' s The Color of Money, which was a sort of Part Two to The Hustler, starring Paul Newman as fast Eddie Felson and utilizing a rising young star Tom Cruz. The film was a comeback for Paul Newman and is a great piece of cinema that takes us deep into the world of Pool Hall hustling & another early cameo by the great actor Forrest Whittaker. Mr Scorsese is a lot like Spike Lee, in that they both court controversy and have a tendency to discover great new talent: Sam Jackson for instance.
1988 brought us, The Last Temptation of Christ, which emblazoned a sort of hysteria from christians which unfortunately marred the audiences opinions against an otherwise thoughtful and interesting take on the possibilities of the life of the man known as Jesus the Christ. It is ultimately and interesting an thoughtful piece with an outstanding and inspired performance by Willem Defoe and guest performers such as John Lurie and David Bowie. Mr Scorsese's casting choices are always a big part of his creative collaboration and process. Universal Studios was demonized for the movie, most of the protestors had never even seen the movie. Mr Scorsese was somewhat surprised by the reaction.
In 1990, Martin Scorsese returned to the screen with what would be considered an entire and utter Classic: GoodFellas. Up to this point possibly his best film ever. A great script, performances by De Niro, Pesci and Ray Liotta that stand the test of time, a return to the Italian American experience that Mr. Scorsese knows very well. Awards from every important film organization and three of the big Academy Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay.
In 1991. Mr Scorsese brought us a remake with Cape Fear. Another strange, dark and menacing drama that pits Jessica Lange and Nick Nolte, whom the director had worked with in his section of a three short story feature : New York Stories, which also starred a new face on the screen: Steve Buscemi of Boardwalk Empire fame.
In 1993, Mr Scorsese took on what might be considered his classic film renditions. One can see his love of great classic films such as Gone with the Wind in this film: The Age of Innocence. A giant colorful tapestry laden with lush food, flowers, costumes and the beginning of a great collaboration with actor Daniel Day Lewis, who would return to the Scorsese camp for Gangs of New York almost a decade later. More Nominations: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, etc ...
In 1995, A return to the big Italian American genre that brought us Mean Streets and Goodfellas, a completion of what may be considered his italian trilogy, the epic film: CASINO. De Niro and Pesci return to the scene as well as interesting casting choices like Don Rickles as a casino pit boss, who would have thought of that ? An incredible and tour de force performance by Sharon Stone putting her front and center as a powerful actress in top notch form, deserving of dollars & respect. possibly one of his best films up to that point in his career. A classic loved by all.
In 1997, Mr Scorsese, visits the asian inspired, Kundun. A tibetan tale of struggle and politics that surround the tibetan country and it's people. Some said he was out of his element here, but, even when Mr Scorsese stretches his boundaries as he did here, there is enough on the screen to inspire, teach and yes, entertain.
In 1999, Scorsese teams up with Nicolas Cage in this adrenaline fueled story of an ambulance driver and his nightmare like work place: The streets of the big city. A sort of Taxi driver like return to working class obsession and hallucination. Cage puts in a performance of a lifetime, while John goodman watches his partners slow descent into an insomnia induced insanity. The camera work here is fabulous. Another street film that utilizes the city itself as a character and even as the villain.
In 2002, a return to the big costume period film genre that was hinted at with Age of Innocence, but this time with the proper amount of guts and glory that seem to inspire this director and satisfy his audience. A large and difficult film that combines historical aspects of Scorsese's beloved New York City with the struggles of early Americans, religion, politics and dramatic storytelling. With performances by Leonardo De Caprio, who will become one of Mr Scorsese's greatest collaborators time and time again: The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island and this years The Wolf of Wall Street. The Gangs of New York is an epic tale that brings back Daniel Day Lewis in a terrifying performance as Bill The Butcher with a Who's Who of acting from both American and European Actors, straddling the dangerous territory of accents, costumes and acting styles that are difficult to put on the screen in one entire production. This is Mr. Scorsese as oil painter extraordinaire, his largest series to date. A difficult challenge indeed. We begin to see Mr Scorsese's use of the digital format utilized here in outrageous shots, set pieces and tunneling like transformations from full shots high above the city to close ups entering a characters pupils. This is the master film maker having a field day with the best actors, designers & collaborators on the planet. Amazing. Nominations All Around
In 2004, Mr Scorsese and De Caprio return to give us an inside look at the much talked about life of Howard Hughes. An interesting film with both Vegas, Hollywood and the insanity of being an artist, creator and inventor as well as the burdens of success in all walks of the American dream. A paranoid yet somehow innocent and success driven story with interesting performances and some would say incongruous casting choices, though still and all, great efforts by all involved. A dark, lush film shot with a somber and rich palette. Mr Scorsese is an artist first, film maker second, historian third. it shows here and this is a compelling film that thrusts us into Hughes world, and leaves us at his door step at the very end. Broken, battered, wondering. Nominations All Around.
In 2006, Mr Scorsese takes on the Irish Boston mob scene with The Departed. Working with Jack Nicholson, who was famously cajoled by the likes of Mark Wahlberg and De Caprio to participate in this picture. A return to the Goodfella's like genre complete with FBI Agents, Irish Gang Ethos and codes of conduct. This film is driven mostly by great performances by both Wahlberg and De Caprio. One can see there keen interest in the project and their enthusiasm and ability carries the film up and over whatever limitations exist within the written material. Best Director Awards across the board: The Academy, Golden Globe, Everyone agrees Martin Scorsese is a master film maker who tells stories that are true to America.
In 2010, Mr Scorsese and Leonardo De Caprio stay several steps ahead of their audience in this strange, psycho drama of the old school variety: Shutter Island. A head scratcher to say the least. A psyche out of the Hitchcockian variety: Rear Window with Shutters on it. Another dark and rather difficult film to view. Leonardo De Caprio twisting and retching about in a manner reminiscent of his early and incredibly naked performances such as his role in Gilbert Grape. Another brave & discordant rendition that is probably a bit ahead of it's time. Many of Mr Scorsese's films are decades ahead, creating entire genres & a new crop of film makers who fill a certain void: Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee, Paul Thomas Anderson. In 2011, Mr Scorsese utilizes the digital media to create a life long dream project: HUGO. Which is a much more mainstream project that catapults his popularity into the mainstream for audiences of all ages. Over 35 nominations from film organizations around the world recognize his talent, efforts and contributions.
Which brings us to 2013, The Wolf of Wall Street. Starring Leonardo De Caprio, one of his greatest collaborators, based on a great book, Mr. Scorsese always does well with adaptions. A story line that Americans will indeed be interested in & already everyone is talking about this film. We are looking froward to seeing it and you will find a review on these pages. Of course the Documentaries have not been mentioned in this appreciation, but Mr Scorsese is a fine and thorough documentarian: Contributions to WoodStock, The Last Waltz, The Blues, Shine a Light, George Harrison and a slew of important short films. Mr Scorsese is also the executive producer and pilot creator of important cable film series such as Board Walk Empire on HBO Home Box office.
BERT STERN: ORIGINAL MAD MAN
An original & personal film created by one of Bert's Stern's longtime photographic subjects. This film is an insiders look at Mr. Stern's life, career, his history & approach to creating the images that the world of photographers and collectors have come to admire , appreciate and purchase as well as publish. Mr. Stern is famous for creating iconic portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn and the more contemporary models and actresses through the years and up to the present day, including Lyndsey Lohan and Kate Moss. This is a home movie of sorts, sometime vague, other times exacting, sometimes personal, other times professional. Bert Stern has run the gamut, he's a character, an old schooler from the golden era of advertising. Most famously photographing what became Marilyn Monroe' s final photo- graphic session for Vogue Magazine. Mr Stern was in the thick of New York when photographs became the chosen media for advertisements which up to that time relied heavily on drawings, graphics and illustrations. Bert Stern is an artist who happened upon a camera and, as many professionals will testify, trans- formed the industry of photographic advertising, portraiture and selling an image. This film is a casual look at Mr Stern, told by Bert Stern himself, over a glass of wine, breakfast, after hours conversations. We meet his loves, his successes, his foibles and witness his comeback from a forgotten and obscure iconic image maker to a collected and respected lion of the industry. This is a good introduction to Mr Stern who continues to somehow keep himself in the public eye, through controversy as well as revisiting the themes and images that made him famous to begin with. The film is presented by First Run Features which has a large volume of documentaries on interesting, controversial and obsessive personalities like Ferlinghetti, Phil Ochs, Mumia, Charles & Ray Eames, Howard Zinn, Harper Lee, Fidel Castro and Erroll Garner among others. In the politically correct world of today's film and filmmakers, First Run Features has a brave catalogue of feature documentaries that are controversial, entertaining and fiercely original. Look for more Reviews of their films here at The BUREAU.
MARNI ZELNICK: Film Director
BUREAU Editor Joshua Triliegi talks with Marni Zelnick about her most recent feature film.
TRILIEGI: DRUID PEAK is a wonderful film. Tell us about your earliest interest in this particular subject and how you went about developing the project.
MARNI ZELNICK: A lot of the story elements that eventually became part of Druid Peak were things that had been germinating with me for a long time. The effect external geography can have on our internal selves; the almost haphazard but devastatingly permanent way life can be lost when you’re a teenager; the fact that people so rarely ask the right questions of each other; the power animals have to communicate without speaking, and how their vulnerability can move even the most stoic heart. I think every writer has those things. But the immediate catalyst for the film was a $100,000 production grant offered by the Sloan Foundation for a script dealing with science or technology. Funding for first features can be incredibly difficult to find and I knew I wanted to apply for the grant. I went to their information session and they were probably no more than fifteen minutes into it when the image of a kid running alongside a pack of wolves streamed through my head. It was the unification of a million things I cared about. All of those ideas I mentioned plus Jackson Hole, Wyoming—a place that had been significant to me both as a teenager and an adult. The story kind of grew out of and around that image.
TRILIEGI: The Film starts out with a common problem facing much of the youth of today: Urban Dissatisfaction. Your lead character, Owen, goes through a slow and steady transformation, discuss the arc of this character.
MARNI ZELNICK: You know, I would say it a little bit differently. I would call it environmental dissatisfaction, rather than urban dissatisfaction. I think it would have been easy to make Owen an urban teen and for the conflict to simply be urban versus rural life. But as a film with an environmental subject, I wanted the issue to be more complicated than that. I specifically set Owen in West Virginia because it’s a place as potentially beautiful as Wyoming, but we’ve used the land very differently. The town we shot in, Mt. Hope, was an old coal town where the seam was mined to exhaustion. The land was depleted and the town never recovered. So a potentially very beautiful place had been used in a way that left its inhabitants with very little, both visually and in terms of opportunity. Owen is a smart kid who feels crushed by the claustrophobia of the place. There’s nothing there for him. He may not be self-aware enough to articulate it that way, but he’s stopped trying to make anything of himself or his life because he doesn’t see where it could lead—what the point is. His arc is a lot about realizing that there are still choices to be made. He can choose a different place, a different life, a different self.
TRILIEGI: The film is beautifully photographed, Rachel Morrison's work is outstanding. The film relies heavily on nature as the great healer. Share with our audience the use of The Landscape and your decisions in the editing process.
MARNI ZELNICK: Owen’s journey as a character is so much about environment that it became a kind of character to me when I was writing the script. In order for the film to succeed, I knew we were going to have to do justice to the landscapes of both West Virginia & Wyoming—to not only capture them but to contrast them. Bringing Rachel on was just the best thing that could have happened to us. Aside from her incredible talent, she brought experience to the table that I simply didn’t have as a first time director. So she was not only someone who understood and could execute the vision for the film, she was a calm, steady presence, who I trusted completely to guide me when I needed guidance. I simply couldn’t have asked for a better collaborator. Additionally, two other decisions were made in partnership with my producers that hugely favored the landscapes. The first was to actually shoot on location in both West Virginia and Wyoming. For a micro-budget production, this was a massive expense and a total headache, but we all felt it was critical. The other choice we made was to have two camera teams for the entire shoot. Our A camera unit, led by Rachel, was shooting story as well as landscape, while our B camera unit, led by Second Unit DP Noah Greenberg, was out shooting only landscape every single day. Again, this was a big budgetary sacrifice for a film of our size, but we ultimately all felt it was the right decision. Every shot you see in the film was captured by one of our camera teams. We didn’t use a single piece of stock or purchased footage.
TRILIEGI: The performance by Andrew Wilson is beautiful. From the first time we see him on the screen, there is a magnetism that I don't think we have ever quite seen by him before. Share with our readers how you develop a role like this with an actor.
MARNI ZELNICK: I think it’s very rare that low budget filmmakers have the luxury of doing a lot of prep work with their actors. I certainly didn’t have a lot of time with Andrew before we started filming. But I really believe that so much of your work as a director is done when you cast. It’s like any good relationship—half the battle is picking the right person. Everett was a tough role for me to cast though because, even though I wrote the character I had this kind of reverence for him that’s a bit hard to explain. He’s a character, but he’s also an idea. Someone who lives a very principled life off the grid. He’s not subscribing to everyone’s rules about what’s right or how the world should work, he’s making his own up, but they’re damn good rules. There’s something in that that’s really important to me. So I was very protective of this role. And I think for writers, casting can sometimes be like watching your teenage daughter go out on a date. You want it to be someone really great who totally gets her, you know? The idea of Andrew in this part came up early on. I loved him as an actor, but didn’t know much about him personally. Then I learned that he was actually this very gentle, free spirit surfer who lived off the grid in Maui. That sealed the deal. We were fortunate that he was as excited about the script as we were about him.
TRILIEGI: DRUID PEAK is an educational journey into the lives and challenges of both those in support of the wolves and those concerned with the damage they sometimes are responsible for: Live Stock. What were the challenges in presenting this through dramatic situation ?
MARNI ZELNICK: One of the big challenges in presenting the issue is the same challenge Owen faces: empathy. I didn’t necessarily want the film to be objective, but I did want it to be empathetic. I wanted it to show understanding for both sides. The film has an obvious reverence for all things wild, but part of the message of the film is understanding, coexistence, interdependence. I didn’t want there to be good guys and bad guys. I wanted the issues to be complicated and for everyone to have to give a little bit to achieve the final outcome of the film. I didn’t want it to be a film that only pro-wolf people could like. Beyond that, one of the big challenges in both the writing and editing was to not weigh the drama down with too much information. We took a lot out as both the script and cut evolved.
Visit Official Site for More Details on this Incredible Film: http://www.druidpeak.com/
DAVID L. LEWIS : FILM MAKER
Documentary Film maker Davis L. Lewis speaks with Bureau Editor Joshua Triliegi about the new documentary, " The Pleasures Of Being Out Of Step ": Notes On The Life Of Nat Hentoff which features music by Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington. The film focuses on an interesting story and the career of one of America's leading Music Critics and Independent writing voices in last few decades. An authentic and personal film with a an up - close look at a very outspoken writer.
BUREAU: Your new Documentary on Nat Hentoff, which recently received festival awards, relies heavily on the actual thoughts, opinions and participation of the subject. What were both the pluses and challenges in having NAT HENTOFF allow such all access to you as a film maker.
Davis L. Lewis: We tried to capture Hentoff at the perfect moment in his career, at a point where he was able to reflect with great depth on his life and explain it as he explained so many other lives and creations. He was around 83 and 84 when we shot the three interviews.
If you think of your subject as a “text,” the very great advantage we had was to have a primary text to interrogate at the very center of our story. Much different than trying to make a film about someone who has already passed. He could be a little cantankerous, and didn’t love having cameras invade his space. For instance, it took me six months to convince him to let us shoot a simple scene with him in his neighborhood barbershop, and even then he tried to back out the night before. We exchanged some blunt words over that, but that often happens in a project of this size, and he went ahead. Afterwards, he said he was glad we did it.
But besides that he was a pleasure to work with. He never told us what we could or could not ask, or who we could or could not talk to. I don’t think it was out of any particular respect for me — he didn’t know me very well when we first started. I think it was out of respect for journalism and the journalistic process. I don’t think he likes everything we put in the film, but I think he appreciates the honesty and integrity we tried to bring to the project. I don’t think he would have liked an unadulterated hagiography, and I will always be grateful for the freedom and respect he and his family gave us.
BUREAU: NAT HENTOFF is quite an interesting character: we enjoyed the film. How did you come to choose this subject as a feature documentary and tell us about the journey from impetus to final release if you will ?
Davis L. Lewis: I’m glad you enjoyed it! The initial impulse was complicated but basically boils down to this: As a journalist myself, I’ve always loved the “war stories” I heard in the newsrooms and bars where we tend to congregate. As I got older, and as the digital age crept up & then roared over us, I began to realize that we are losing a generation of journalists who made their lives in the printed word. We are very good about telling other people’s stories, but not so good at telling our own. I felt an overwhelming desire to preserve some of that history. There were lots of possible subjects, but Hentoff presented a particularly intriguing one because of the jazz. I was never an aficionado, and only had a vague awareness of his earlier work. So the chance to learn more about the music was big draw. I remember how hard I worked to prepare for the interview we did on jazz — and how nervous I was when we sat down to do it. Afterward, I asked him how we did, and he said, “At least you knew the right questions to ask.” That was a big relief! I’ve worked all over print and broadcast journalism, but this was my first feature-length film, my first large-scale independent project. The creative challenge as the director was to try to get past the usual bio-pic documentary formula and create a film with its own aesthetic that helped us tell the story. I think we did pretty well at that, although I’m sure not all the critics will agree. As the producer, the biggest pleasure was putting together a great team that helped me keep up the creative momentum over the length of the production. The biggest challenge, of course, was finding the resources to get it all done.
BUREAU: A Documentary like this usually takes some time. Averages of 60 to 85 hours often paired down to 90 minutes is always rather challenging, What was your ratio and discuss how you went about ' finding ' the shape of your film ?
Davis L. Lewis: If you include all the archival material available to us, that ratio is pretty close, probably a little short if you count the music too. We had to make pretty careful choices about what to shoot. We based our decisions on what we thought we would get out of it and that process worked well for us. The problem is the man is so prolific. We knew there was no way we could tell it all, so we had to make narrative choices as well. We tried to keep our focus on the thematic thread that unifies the whole film, which is the relationship between free expression as a creative value and a political value, and the relationship between those values and the ability of an individual to create an identity. We chose an unconventional structure because we wanted to show the connections between those values in Hentoff’s life, and the connections between the people and ideas that popped up at different points. We spent a lot of time in the editing room moving those pieces around, teasing out different themes and association and making sure the connections were as clear as we could make them. We also had to leave a lot of stuff out, but maybe we’ll have some nice extras on the DVD.
BUREAU: The blend of MUSIC, ART & POLITICS symbolized by the single opinion of an individual, in this case, Mr Hentoff, created quite a controversy. When did you first become aware of Mr Hentoff and now that the film is completed, what have you learned about Documentary Film making ?
Davis L. Lewis: I came of political age in the '70s, a particularly awful time in American politics, and I first became aware of Hentoff through is his work at the Voice, which presented such a strong counterpoint to the corruption of that era. He is always outspoken, but it seemed to me that he was rarely a blowhard. At his best, he puts a lot of thought into his work and comes by his conclusions honestly. So even if you don’t agree with everything he says, you can respect him for saying it. I think he would be horrified by someone who agreed with everything he says, or at least he would find that person boring.
The most important thing I learned about documentary filmmaking is patience. It took longer than I thought it would, but I think our focus on quality and depth helped us get to the end. And I learned to always work with the very best people I could find, but people who believed in the project. Because it takes a sustained effort to follow through to the end on a project like this, and it’s hard to sustain that effort if the people you work with don’t believe in it. And you want them to be satisfied with the work at the end as well. I met a producer early on who I wanted to work with, and she turned me down. But she gave me a great piece of advice. She said we had a mature project and that quality work always rises to the top. I always remembered that, and it helped me through some of the tougher stretches, and helped me to be patient. And I hope she’s right. We’ve gotten this far. I would ask her to work with me again.
BUREAU: The Music by Bob Dylan, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and others trails the storyline due to Nat's personal relationships with these men, tell us an anecdote on the challenges of joining together the music, Nat's writing and the three major Interviews shot by Tom Hurwitz.
Davis L. Lewis: Well, we were very lucky to be work with such classic music. I don’t use music much in most of my journalistic work because it can be very manipulative, and you want viewers or listeners to be able to respond honestly to the facts and truth. For me, the whole point is to give people information to make their own decisions, not to tell them what to think, and the way that music plays on emotions can interfere with that. But in this case the music was part of the story, and that opened up such wonderful possibilities for us. So our approach was, for the most part, to use music that was relevant to the story, and that meant music Hentoff wrote about or produced in the studio himself. The biggest challenge was the sheer volume of it. We printed a database of all the albums for which he had written liner notes, or at least as many of them we could find, and there were hundreds! So we enlisted a number of experts to help us curate it, including Hentoff himself, who is of course one of the leading experts. We asked which the most important albums were, and what his best writing was. We came up with a few dozen, and then we whittled it down from there. And that became our guide to how we would use it with the interviews. We knew Hentoff would be on screen a lot, so Tom and I worked hard to come up with a visual style that would be engaging but also give us some flexibility to edit different interviews together, and once we made our decisions I knew I could leave it in his hands to execute.
After that, it was a real team effort. I had the opportunity to work the great Sam Pollard as our consulting editor. He brought visual understanding to the music (and many other scenes), and also kept us honest to the music. You don’t want to be known as the filmmaker who hacked Duke Ellington to pieces! Our archivists found stunning original photos, and our musical team waded bravely into battle with the record companies and publishers to get us access to the songs we wanted. And of course Andre Braugher did the narration. You may notice that Braugher’s narration consists entirely of Hentoff’s own words. There is no omniscient narrator. In that sense, the narration doesn’t tell the story, it is the story. Our idea from the beginning was to marry the music to the words so that you can hear the stories in the music and the music in the writing at the same. It is a great experience, a great joy to work with such material, and I hope we were able to communicate some of that to the audience.
David L. Lewis is a writer, director, producer with 30 years of experience as a New York City-based journalist in print/broadcast media. He was a producer and associate producer for the CBS News program 60 Minutes & correspondent Ed Bradley for five years before going independent in 2006. He was a staff writer for the New York Daily News & Gannett newspapers for 15 years, and has worked for ABC News, Time Warner cable television & various national magazines. Lewis teaches reporting/writing at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. This is his first feature - length film.
THE BUREAU FILM INTERVIEW
TOM HAYES : DOCUMENTARIAN
TOM HAYES : DOCUMENTARIAN
Tom Hayes Wrote, Directed, Produced and Edited a New Documentary Feature film which takes us inside The World of Magazine Publishing at ESQUIRE Magazine during It's Zenith in The Heady 1960s. It's a Heartfelt, Hip and Candid film that also tells the story about Mr. Hayes' father who was one of America's Leading Legendary Magazine Editors. The film includes stories by & about Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Muhammad Ali, Dizzy Gillespie, Candice Bergen, George Lois plus Esquire's creative team of photographers and artists.
BUREAU: " Smiling Through The Apocalypse, " your new documentary is 1. A Biography, 2. An entertaining film about a time and a place and 3. A sort of Love letter to your father. Tell us about the experience of balancing these three themes.
Tom Hayes: At the onset, I knew the film would be a biography, but to include myself (or not) in the story was a constant problem. If I was absent, the film would then have become a straight documentary anyone could have made. The film, "My Architect," which is a milestone in the "son's-search-to-understand-his-father" genre, included the filmmaker as the main character in his narrative. I was not interested in being a main character because I felt the conflict in the film would not be something I had to resolve vis a vis our relationship, but would be more about the obstacles my father had to overcome to make his magazine great. By sprinkling the images of me from my childhood, and an occasional reference to my ambivalence, was the best way to strengthen my perspective on the subject, and to show the distance I had from my father's life while he edited Esquire Magazine.
Making the film entertaining was achieved by several intentional devices: fast cutting, jazz piano under my narration, and compelling images. After many of the interviews, I found my self thinking how slow-moving some of the anecdotes were. After all, most of these people were writers, and their storytelling verbose by default. I had to figure out a way to tell their stories in a faster moving way, and using covering images became the key. It was not only a heavy use of photo animation (the "Ken Burns" effect), but it was also images of people not available for interview to create dialogue exchanges when the storytelling included simulated dialogue. All of this allowed me to pick up the pace of the film and pack it with dense historical information against the compelling layout of the magazine's pages from that period. I think I was also able to benefit from the black-and-white imagery thanks to the recent success of the TV hit series, "Mad Men" - where audiences were drawn into the 60s via iconic fashion and culture. I was able to plant my audience into that period simply by the subject matter.
Tom HAYES: How the film became a love letter to my father was not something I had planned on. Unlike "My Architect," my childhood was pretty good and it simply came out that way. I wasn't abused, neglected, or ignored. I was sheltered from things I wasn't supposed to know about, and I can only be grateful... and say thank you. Many people complain that there should be more conflict, and therefore resolve, to make it a better film. The conflict was how my father managed to put the magazine together in light of history moving as it did while the lead times lagged several months behind. Perhaps not a sexy dilemma in and of itself, but there we are. It is a story of the rise and fall of a man who did make a mark by permitting so many talented people to develop their careers on his watch. The film is, therefore, a big thank you from me, and from his colleagues, whom he nurtured.
BUREAU: We watched the film twice, once to view it for review and another time to learn about the early days of great magazine publishing. ESQUIRE has such an interesting history, was it difficult picking and choosing which editions to include in the film ?
Tom Hayes: The problem was two-fold: art and copy. Graphically, the George Lois covers were easy. So many of them were iconic and great, whatever I used would compel interest. I did not use all 92, and there are some great ones that may be other people's favorites that were not included. What I selected were covers that created the most controversy like the Sonny Liston wearing the Santa Claus hat and William Calley smiling with Vietnamese kids around him. These covers were not only shown, but became segments. As for editorial, I focused primarily on landmark articles. Pieces that both transformed the magazine and the writers who contributed. Perhaps the best guide in making these decisions was my father's 1970 Anthology, "Smiling Through the Apocalypse - Esquire's History of the Sixties." Every piece included in this volume was what my father considered to be the best writing from when he was Editor. Most all of the featured editorial in my film, one can read in this book. Although out of print, you can still get it on Amazon.
BUREAU: The Interviewees all seemed to really respect your father, that must have been a very gratifying experience. Tell us about the process of looking at life through the eyes of a parent.
Tom Hayes: As a child, I still have memories of singing "My Buddy" with my father, and canoeing down the Suwanee River in Florida. He was a role model, and someone whose interests noticeably influenced mine. I was never really sure what he did to edit a magazine, but it was probably too complicated for him to explain. Instead, life with Dad really started when he came home, or in upstate New York on the weekends. On occasion, I did accompany him to his office and would rifle through all the promotional albums record companies would send him for free. But for the most part, what was going on for him in the office was a mystery. All I would really see was advanced copies of the coming issue perching on our coffee table. In revisiting this period as a filmmaker, I was given full access to understand how, what, where, when and why these advanced copies were made real. I became involved in appreciating what it was to make what my father called, "a modern magazine." I was able to understand better the pressure, frustrations, and achievements my father undertook. Even though most of this was transparent at the time, I wasn't that interested in magazines other than Mad Magazine, and if lucky enough, the occasional forbidden Playboy.
BUREAU: Does being the son of a famous and talented individual make being one yourself easier or more difficult ?
Tom Hayes: I think part of my pedigree is to downplay achievement. My father did enjoy some limelight as an occasional guest on the Merv Griffin Show or as a guest speaker at a College or University. He seemed always more interested in making others shine more than he did himself. By doing so, he knew it would reflect in his magazine, which would in turn be the reflection of himself. In making this film, a certain amount of attention has been steered in my direction, but like my father, its more fun to let the work shine first. Having the film run four shows daily here in New York has given me the chance to see a multitude of audience reaction. It's also been interesting to see the difference between audiences, because each one has their own collective personality.
BUREAU: You played all the key roles within the production: write, direct, edit, produce, etc… What are the pluses and minuses of having total control of a project ?
Tom Hayes: Doing all jobs in the production process, or at least most of them, was not how I would have preferred to make this film. If I had waited for funding to start the production, with the ability to hire key personnel, I would have probably missed out interviewing some of the amazing voices that make this film so valuable. But working alone allows you the freedom to work on your own schedule, and the flexibility to change anything at anytime. Editing a film about an editor, causes you to edit even when you think you're done. I was editing right up until the last possible moment, and still editing in my brain.
BUREAU: There seems to be a real revisionist experience happening in America regarding the times that your father was making culturally important decisions: Norman Mailer, The Black Panthers and especially The New Journalism of Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe and The so called beatniks. Although the film touches on your views briefly, what was it like looking back at your father's story ?
Tom Hayes: The onslaught of electronic media devices emerging, and where lead time is no longer an issue, the profound statements Esquire in the 60s made then become harder to make now. In essence, there are just too many outlets where too many points of view are constantly flooding the media. As such, magazine journalism fails to stand out against all other media as Esquire did in that time. One could argue that journalism has become more provocative than ever, where terrorists are manipulating broadcast media to cause thought through shock. Journalism has either transgressed or evolved into a few simple key strokes that cause a reaction similar to what George Lois' covers did in the 60s. All that differs are the tools. In the 60s, it was magazines, and Esquire led the pack with shock and awe.
BUREAU: Immediately after watching the film, as an Editor of a cutting edge Arts Publication, I started to see how we could push the envelope a little further. Tell us more about how your father appeared to be the most unlikely guy to push the culture the way that he did.
Tom Hayes: Numerous journalism experts will agree, to be an outsider is a winning ingredient for a successful journalist. It at least increases your potential to be curious. Dad was from North Carolina, a reserve in the Marines, and the son of a Southern Baptist preacher. He was also a social progressive. Founding Editor Arnold Gingrich saw this background to be the perfect combination for a successful editor, and gave him that chance. For Dad, blue jeans and The Doors were not part of the culture he would directly reflect. He did think knowing what was happening on college campuses was important, and would regularly send his editors to find out. But his interest always came from the curiosity of an outsider, which made everything he reported on more incredulous.
BUREAU: This is another documentary that seems have the ability to be much longer, with the new dvd formats available, will you add outtakes or extended interviews in the future ?
Tom Hayes: The DVD release will include "Bonus Features" including extended raw interviews with George Lois, Gore Vidal, Nora Ephron and others. All of this is still in development and still to be confirmed.
BUREAU: What would you say was the most gratifying experience in honoring your father and educating as well as entertaining the public with this personal story ?
Tom Hayes: The most gratifying experience is always to watch the audience, especially the animated ones. As mentioned earlier, each audience has its own personality, so to get a room full of people who "get" every nuance of humor, or other emotion, is the most priceless reward you can have.
BUREAU: What are you working on next besides supporting the Release of "Smiling Through the Apocalypse" and where can our readers interact and view your past present and future projects ?
Tom Hayes: I am in development with a biopic about a well known jazz musician from the 30s. It will be a completely different experience in that I would have much better control over the storytelling, but in a different way. As for seeing some of my past efforts, some of the hundreds of television news magazine stories I have produced for German TV in the past 23 years will be posted on my website www.telemotions.net
TELEMOTIONS LLC 405 East 54th Street, #3N New York, NY 10022
FILM REVIEW: STARRED UP
STARRED UP : Possibly one of the grittiest and edgiest prison dramas ever made. From the first minute to the last, the viewer is emersed into a world that is like no other. The rules, the politics, the grit, the realities, the drama, the edge, the sacrifices and the wild ride: simply amazing filmmaking. Well written and directed, extremely well produced with some of the rawest performances we have seen in a long time. "Starred Up" takes us into the British prison system through the eyes of a young offender whose father happens to also be locked up in the same particular institute. The performances are completely unleashed. Filmed in an actual facility and photographed 'in sequence', allowed the film maker David Mackenzie to utilize hand held, roving cameras Allowing his cast and crew to completely push the boundaries and push they do. The characterizations are explosive, from one moment to the next, we never know what will happen and where the story is headed. The atmosphere and detail is simply perfect in tone, style and mood. Each scene is important, the back story is thick, as are the accents. The plot and circumstances are all in place, but nothing seems more important than whatever moment we are actually experiencing. There is a complete an utter ' nowness ' to this production and it is an undeniable wild ride that you can't help but succumb to throughout the entire film. As of yet, it has not been released for U.S. audiences accept for the festival circuit. U.K. audiences loved it and Americans are sure to embrace this film for its originality, force and authenticity. A fabulously taut performance by Jack O'Connel as Eric Love and directed by David Mackenzie with a script by Jonathan Asser who had spent a good deal of time as a therapist within the system. Writer and Director worked closely for two years prior to shooting. A first screenplay for the writer turned out to be an extremely successful premiere work of art. We highly suggest this film and are now very interested in the other films by Mr Mackenzie, as well as his next production. This is a film that touches on relationships, trust, skill and politics as well as race, loyalty and survival. Produced by Gillian Berrie. Executive producers, Katherine Butler, Sam Lavender, David Mackenzie, James Atherton, Jan Pace, Norman Merry, Peter Hampden. Co- producer, Brian Coffey. Link http://www.sigmafilms.com/films/starred-up/
DOUG PRAY: FILM MAKER
We are extremely pleased and proud to bring you inside the mind of one of America's leading documentary filmmakers with a catalogue of films that each speak to the culture and subculture of America. Since the mid 1990s Doug Pray has been creating substantial and succesful films with a built in audience documenting subjects that have grown in popularity since their initial inception. He has covered Surfing, Street Art, Rap and Rock Music, Trucking, Advertising and Modern Art. In this Exclusive and deeply Educational Conversation, Doug Pray describes his career, his films, the process and development of each project in extreme, in depth detail. Doug Pray's films seem to hit a chord that fits right in with our readership and we can think of no better way to say how very happy we are to have him as BUREAU Guest Filmmaker in this Edition.
Joshua Triliegi: Most of your films directly speak to many of our readers’ interest. Lets talk about how a film like SURFWISE, about the famous Paskowitz Family, was created.
Doug Pray: SURFWISE was a story that had to be told by someone, and I felt lucky when its producers presented it to me as a potential project. The Paskowitz family is, and was, such a rare, living example of an idealistic dream fully realized. An experiment that went all the way. We can all claim to want to get away from society and live life on our own terms. Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz and his wife Juliette did it. Not for a day, or a week, or a month – for decades. And with total purity. When Doc passed away just a few weeks ago, he was still at it, living a dynamic life at 93.
Though the Paskowitz family had attained media attention and notoriety in the ‘70s and ‘80s – both for being a world-famous surfing family and for the children’s later successes as champion surfers, rock musicians, artists, models, and more – the whole story, beginning, middle, and end, had never been told. That complete story was two burning truths, the collision of which made for an exciting, emotional movie.
The first truth was the dream. A Stanford-trained doctor is repulsed by the unhealthy lifestyles being taught and practiced by the medical establishment. He drops out of society, falls in love with the perfect woman (willing to join his mission), raises 9 children, lives in a camper on the beach and pursues a lifestyle more in sync with the natural human beings we used to be (exercise/rest/sex/diet befitting animals in the wild), and less like the disgustingly unhealthy creatures we’ve become. For the next 20 years he carries out this experiment with his family: surfing every day, healthy living, no school, a nomadic “off-the-grid” type of existence, a close, loving family. It was beautiful. And the kids were better for it! Homeschooling and surfing made them strong and smart. Today they are the brightest, most dynamic, full-of-life folks you’ll ever meet.
The other truth, the downside, is that to pull this off, one has to be a domineering extremist. Like many narcissistic, visionary leaders, Doc’s inspiration was only as strong as his ego and his blinders. He was, at times, abusive to his family and in fulfilling his personal vision for the family he created a lot of pain and turmoil. And the kids, even though they had this seemingly wonderful upbringing, were not well prepared for the “real world” and they struggled terrifically as a result. As a filmmaker, I was grateful this film came to me with built-in conflict. Normally I’m trying to drum up conflict with editorial finessing to make a story more dynamic.
Plus, though I’m not a surfer, I was allowed to celebrate this incredibly rich subculture from deep inside its heart, with its ultimate spokesman, Doc Paskowitz (R.I.P.). I got to explore his philosophies of surfing and show the healing power of the ocean waves first hand. I was able to prove to the world the power of surfing and to discard the half-assed surfer stereotypes we get from movies and popular culture. I’ve tried to do that in all my films.
Joshua Triliegi: Your films seem to touch on a truth about American cultural moments in time and place. SCRATCH takes us into the Hip Hop scene of the early 2000's.
Doug Pray: SCRATCH, more than any of the seven films I’ve made about American subcultures, is one we were actually shooting at the very moment it became part of the zeitgeist. We were filming hip hop DJs and “turntablists” in 1999-2000 but it felt like we were witnessing the birth of jazz. There was this rediscovery of hip-hop’s improvisational, and uplifting roots. The movement recaptured the energy from the late ‘70s South Bronx and upped it. And it happened at a time when mainstream rap music had become so commercialized and meaningless by bling, gangster violence, and bloated stars. It was one of those cyclical moments in culture when people say, ‘WTF! Let’s take this back to the beginning, to move forward.’ Hip hop was started by DJs. So filming them as instrumental wizards of the 1’s and 2’s at the front of the stage (again) was as profound to its original inventors (like Afrika Bambaataa, Grand Mixer DXT, and Jazzy Jay), as it was to the new generation, like Qbert, DJ Shadow, and Rob Swift, flipping it on its head.
Always the outsider, and a newcomer to hip hop, I fell in love with the energy of this music at the same moment many others were. The vibe I was able to capture on film felt so fresh (Fr Fr Fr Fressssh, that is). The performers knew it. The audiences knew it. My cinematographers knew it. And I had a blast editing it. It’s one doc where my filmmaking style itself was fully inspired by the subject, musically and editorially. My assignment with SCRATCH was to blow away audiences in the same way people go nuts when their DJ drops an impossibly great track on the dance floor: surprise and exuberance, regardless of whether or not you liked hip hop or knew the song. Playing the role of intermediary or translator is something I’ve also tried to do in all my films. I love taking something that is very insider, underground, or misunderstood, and making it so that it’s actually felt by all viewers.
Joshua Triliegi: Early on, documentary filmmakers tend to follow a subject they have an interest in, such as HYPE!, your film on the Seattle music scene. Later, offers come in to cover a certain event, such as your most recent film, LEVITATED MASS. Tell our readers a bit about the journey your career has taken.
Doug Pray: I’ve never really wanted to do any of the films I did, initially. I wasn’t enough of a fan or just didn’t understand the subject at first. Yet there’s always been something after a few months of consideration that hooks my curiosity in a deeper way and makes me feel like I just have to make the movie, like an assignment that I must accept.
HYPE! was my first film and I fought against it the hardest, because it seemed like bad idea and my producer and I started filming too late to do the “real” Seattle music scene justice. Ironically, it made the most sense of any project for me to direct because my college roommates were members of the Young Fresh Fellows who were one of the more influential Seattle bands in the mid-‘80s (not famous, not grunge, but beloved and highly inspirational to other bands and labels in the area). Thanks to them, and the band Flop (for whom I’d directed music videos) I already had access to this super vibrant, authentic, and wonderfully ridiculous music scene. It just hadn’t occurred to me to make a film about it. Sometimes the best subjects for documentaries are right in front of you and you don’t recognize it. Because, while I was digging my friend’s bands, this “grunge rock” thing was becoming the next global rock phenomenon all around us. A ton of bands like Mudhoney, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Sub Pop and other labels, and the world’s media, created what was the world’s last, definable, local music movement. The grunge scene was so strongly identified with Seattle it may have even killed – forever—the notion of a city music scene ever happening again. I eventually realized that the hyping of Seattle was the story itself, and the transformation from “underground-authentic” to “exposed-labeled-exploited” needed to be shown and told.
I’m not sure if it’s because I was influenced by my three much-older brothers, or because I was a sociology major in college, but I’ve always wanted to know why underground movements start, and how they get processed by mainstream culture. I have an innate desire to delve into a widely misunderstood culture and try to get people to appreciate it for what it really is and where it really came from. And the more “out there” or abstract or intimidating it is, the more I enjoy building a bridge to it.
Certainly that was the case with my newest film, LEVITATED MASS. The way Michael Heizer’s boulder was hyped and labeled and became something completely different to hundreds of thousands of people during its transport, than what the sculpture was itself.
SCRATCH hooked me after I talked to Mix Master Mike one night and suddenly realized how completely wrong my stereotypes about hip hop were. I wanted to right that. INFAMY, an emotional portrait of the lives of six notorious graffiti writers, is about the most dominant and present art forms on the planet, but completely misunderstood; seemingly loved or hated for all the wrong reasons. I wanted to humanize the artists. Not trying to make them likeable but relatable. The advertising geniuses in ART & COPY, like illegal taggers, were similarly vilified (advertising being the devil’s work, and all), but their creative struggle was the same: success gained only by taking huge risks. To me, even the very people who were creating mass media seemed to be frustrated outsiders, with a lot to say.
My fourth film, BIG RIG began as a mindless celebration of chrome and ‘70s trucker songs (which I loved). But after I found out that fun wacky culture didn’t exist, it morphed into a 25,000 mile moody journey into this rather depressed community of workers who carry the nation on their backs and get little or nothing in return. Independent truck drivers aren’t artists or musicians, but they are maverick individuals who are often extremists in their behavior or beliefs, not unlike Doc Paskowitz or Michael Heizer or life-long graffiti writers. They are people who have set out to make bold statements, who are independent.
With each new film I thought was rebelling against my last film. After SURFWISE I knew I’d never do another surf film. After INFAMY I didn’t want to do another graffiti film. Yet the more I tried to change the channel away from my last subject– just to keep life interesting – the more each documentary found similar themes. Only today, looking back, can I see these patterns for the first time—a formed constellation of what I thought were disconnected stars.
Joshua Triliegi: BIG RIG takes us on the road in a behind-the-scenes style of 18 wheel truck drivers coast to coast. Discuss the building of trust when covering documentary subjects.
Doug Pray: It is hard for me to defend the importance of trust when making documentary films because it is so essential. It’s as important as having air to breath. I think trust, between director and subject (just as it is between a director and actor) is essential, and makes for good interviews and good films.In some ways, I have it easy: I don’t make overtly political films. I don’t have to interview enemies. I admire people who can go into war zones and get the truth from all sources, even those not trusted. I respect filmmakers who have the guts to confront their most hated adversaries (so long as those privileges aren’t abused and quotes taken out of context for purely sensational edits, which backfires and annoys me to no end.)I have no enemies in my movies, nor do I judge my subjects. I leave that to the audience. I believe every individual on the planet is equally fallible and lovable, and—in some small way—can be relatable. I’m always grateful that they are letting me film their lives and thoughts. They’re giving me a gift and it’s never the other way around. My whole approach to an interview subject is geared to gain trust. A small example: I rarely ask someone to sign an interview release form before their interview starts, even if I know I’m taking that person to places that are extremely uncomfortable. I tell them to feel free to stop or rethink or delete whatever they’re saying while we’re talking. This approach fosters trust and results in more in-depth, uncensored responses than I might get if there was mistrust. We are working together and not in a hunter-prey situation (no pun intended), their degree of comfort directly results in more honest responses. Despite my last name, I am not very religious. But I was raised as a Quaker and one of the interesting things about their history is that they assumed trust. This played out in courtrooms where they refused to take oaths when in court. After all, if you were always telling the truth, why would you separate out a certain part of your day to swear that you are going to be telling the truth? Why would I expect someone to sign a release if I wasn’t going to reciprocate and treat them with respect? With BIG RIG trust had to be gained in a matter of seconds. There was no pre-casting or research to find characters. We found all of our interview subjects in truck stops parking lots. Most truckers are in a hurry and the last thing they want is to be solicited in a parking lot (I quickly learned that the only people who do are prostitutes, drug dealers, and documentary filmmakers). I needed to spend a few hours or half a day in a truck with a driver so I had to have my pitch down to 10 seconds flat, like speed-dating. I’d immediately tell them who I was, what I wanted, and how it would work. I had to be completely transparent. I’d joke about how absurd it was that a filmmaker from LA was approaching them at this moment, disarming them with self-deprecation. I held the camera in my hands so they saw it and knew it was real. I had a flyer that made it legit. My producer and I were still chased out of numerous truck stops by cops, owners, people with broomsticks… but about one out of ten let us into their truck, and once they were rolling and I was rolling, let me into their lives. I told them we could talk about anything they want. They needed to trust that I was not trying to abuse or exploit them and that I didn’t have a political agenda. I just wanted the truth about life on the road and their lives themselves. I said that to every trucker. They said loads of things that were compelling, sometimes crazy, and other times personally disagreeable, but that only made them more interesting to me. More than any other I let that film write itself, in the same way a hitchhiking journey finds its own route.
Joshua Triliegi: Tell us about your graffiti film INFAMYand how you actually became a documentary filmmaker?
Doug Pray: INFAMY is the most hands-on, scrappy film I’ve ever done, and maybe my favorite because it demanded more immediate, thinking-in-the-moment filmmaking skills from me than any other film. I was shooting illegal activities, and underground figures who like to stay anonymous and aren’t used to throwing up interviews. We couldn’t show up with a four-person crew or have the apparatus of typical location filming. So I’d shoot and interview at the same time, and wanted to be able to ditch the camera (and myself) if caught in the act of graffiti.
Though it’s a lifestyle choice they’ve made early on, there’s nothing easy or fun about most hardcore graffiti writers’ lives, once they’ve dedicated their lives to it. INFAMY brought up a lot of pain, regrets, and emotion. It also was a blast (danger is, after all, fun). The careening unpredictability of their lives allowed me, as a filmmaker, to be freer and find the story on the spot – what to film, where to go, and what lives to focus on. This idea of writing while you are filming and writing while you are editing (though I didn’t edit INFAMY) is what I love about making documentaries.
I’m terrible at inventing stuff out of thin air. I’m useless with a blank page and have never been able to write fiction. Movies, to me, were something you had to do – they were never some “big idea”, they were assigned by life. After taking a few film classes at Columbia College in Chicago and making some completely confusing shorts, I moved to San Francisco and started working for a documentary film producer named Woody Clark. I was in charge of shipping for a whole year, and sent 16mm prints of the first-ever documentary about sexual harassment in the workplace to hundreds of companies suddenly worried about lawsuits (the phrase had just been coined). So, the first lesson I learned in the “biz” was wrong: you can make a lot of money on socially relevant documentaries. Woody did, and it threw me off for life!
At that company I got my first break, editing and producing a semi-corporate but gut-wrenching documentary project for a hospital in Virginia that treated children with traumatic brain injuries. That got me into the UCLA Producers Program and from there I snuck into their directing-production program. I went there for four years but never took a documentary class. Instead I learned about working with actors, getting performances, cameras, lenses, lighting—all of which made me a better non-fiction director—and film structure, the most important skill I ever learned.
After graduating, it took me a year to realize that I’d never write that great American screenplay, that I wasn’t actually Francis Ford Coppola (which was a shame), and that nobody gave a damn that I had an MFA. This whole time, a fellow producer, Steve Helvey, was bugging the hell out of me, wanting to make a film about the Seattle music scene. I hated the idea and kept putting him off until I was, in fact, directing that film, HYPE!, my first feature doc.
Joshua Triliegi: ART & COPY is all about advertising, art and ideas for sale, When do you know you have enough material, interviews and images for your documentaries?
Doug Pray: You don’t ever realize. There is no moment when you are done shooting. There is no magic moment when you realize you are done editing. You can keep doing it for the rest of your natural life, and we’ve all met filmmakers who do just that. Usually you just have to stop you’re so exhausted and depressed, occasionally because you’re happy with the cut.
You start with a rough idea of all the things you think you need. Then you set up a production plan and figure out how you will go about getting it all. For my films, it’s usually been about five or six weeks of shooting spread out over six months or a year. We’ll usually edit rough sections as we accumulate footage, and once we have a full rough cut, it becomes much clearer what we need to tell the story that we don’t yet have. I’ll go shoot more interviews and that later footage often becomes the essential glue to hold things together.
For ART & COPY we knew who the advertising legends we wanted to interview were. In each case the request was similar: I wanted an in-depth interview, possibly a follow-up interview, and a half day with them shooting b-roll. It was while shooting b-roll that I’d often get freer, better quotes, stuff that might not have come out in the interview. For example, I met George Lois in his apartment in New York City and we did a two-hour interview. Then we went to the West Bronx and he walked around his old neighborhood and we just had a conversation. He talked about getting into fights as a kid, of being an outsider, and his quotes and this neighborhood and the energy of the city supported this idea that he was a fighter throughout his whole life. From 1960s protests to his in-your-face ad campaigns which punched you in the gut.
After we’d shot most of ART & COPY and were deep into editing I got frustrated that it was all talking heads. I wanted this film to operate on a higher, more inspirational level, since the whole movie was, after all, about creative inspiration, taking risks, and big ideas. I wanted to get out of these advertising campaigns and physically show how these people are affecting our daily lives without just running a bunch of ads. I wanted to see the mechanics of mass communication, not just talk about them. My producers and I brainstormed and this led to the idea of showing communications satellites. Within a few months, we were in French Guiana shooting a massive satellite being launched. The justification? Ads pay for TV. TV comes from satellites. But editorially, the rocket launch gave a subtle, building structure to the whole movie, a climax and a payoff.
I must say, most docs could use a rocket launch. Too often people forget that feature documentaries are still movies. Regardless of the subject they ought to be cinematic and entertaining. That extra two or three months of finishing (re-editing, re-writing, re-structuring, re-working my sound-design until it rocks) is my favorite part of the whole process.
Joshua Triliegi: What are you working on now?
Doug Pray: LEVITATED MASS was my seventh feature doc and there’s something about the number 7 that is allowing me to change things up. So, aside from supporting its theatrical release this fall (LEVITATED MASS is coming out on iTunes, DVD and other digital platforms this month), I find myself involved in a number of projects and acting more as a producer than a director. At the moment, I am executive producing and editing a music-based project that Allen Hughes (of Hughes Brothers fame) is directing for HBO. I’m working with the producers of ART & COPY to make a non-fiction television series about the results of creative thinking around the world, filming innovative individuals, organizations and businesses in Detroit, Peru, and elsewhere. I’m working with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on a film for their 50th anniversary. I’m doing some exciting commercial work with Bob (Bob is a company, not a person). I am also helping a filmmaker named Patrick O’Brien finish his ten-year-long feature-length documentary about his life with ALS. It is called TRANSFATTY LIVES. At first I just brought on an editor for him (Lasse Järvi who cut INFAMY and SURFWISE), but now I’m heavily involved as a producer and post supervisor. It’s not my film, but Patrick is an amazing, magnetic personality and I’ve enjoyed helping him realize his documentary. He lives in Boston and is completely paralyzed but with a lucid, brilliant mind. His movie is fairly crazy and super emotional and it’s been a wonderful challenge. It will premiere in 2015.
Joshua Triliegi: Do you foresee an evolution into non-documentary filmmaking?
Doug Pray: It’s funny to me that I ended up having a career directing non-fiction film. I love working with actors. I love directing actors to the point where they seem like they are not performing at all, as if they are in a documentary. I also love getting “performances” out of non-actors and working that grey area. Years ago I used to imagine making dramatic films that were unscripted but based on providing a set of motivations for the characters who are journeying through documentary locations. Some would argue this is the definition of reality TV, but I was more interested in making loose, emotional features. More and more great filmmakers are doing exactly that today. To that end, there are three dramatic films I’m currently developing for me to direct. They are open-ended enough to allow for strong non-fiction texture and influences. Stepping back from the documentary genre as a whole… the changes in the last 25 years since I started directing are so outstanding it’s hard to imagine where we’ll all end up. It used to take $100,000 and lots of meetings with investors to even consider mounting the most raw documentary because you had to pay for processing, film stock, and the mechanics of post. Being a filmmaker in the ‘80s seemed very special and rare. Today’s filmmakers have to compete with thousands more like them, which is a drag, but they also can. They have crowd-funding, small cameras with superb imagery, and distribution venues so prevalent it’s annoying. Everyone is a cinematographer, everyone is an editor, everyone is an director. This is Silicon Valley’s dream, that we are all masters of our destinies, fulfilling our unique potentials and creating beautiful little films about ourselves through our devices and apps. It’s kind of fun, but ultimately kind of narcissistic and meaningless to me. In the end, great stories, well told, are the only things that last. This has been true for 20,000 years of human history. Whether it’s a six-second Vine video or a four-hour linear doc, it only matters if the story moves us.
Joshua Triliegi: What is the single most challenging aspect of creating a documentary, in your experience?
Doug Pray: It is almost always just after I arrive at the first rough cut of a new movie. This is the first big “step-back” from the project, the first time my producers or collaborators get a decent look at the fruits of our labor, it’s the single biggest moment of assessment in a doc. And it just never looks, sounds, or smells any good. For me, it is awful and heartbreaking. All that great footage is actually in there and none of it seems to work. I always feel like I made a huge mistake in taking on the project but at that point it is way too late to turn back. What’s worse is that I KNOW this is going to happen and then it does, yet again, each time. Why? I don’t know, there must be some law laid down by the gods of creativity. (maybe it’s the “blood on the pages rule”: that scripts which do not have actual blood or perhaps tear stains on the pages aren’t worth reading). Regardless, it’s at this point in a project’s life that I will inevitably need an outsider – usually a producer or writer or advisor – to come into the editing room and basically kick my ass and force me to rethink the film in a bigger and better way. I have to hit bottom for me to start re-finding the film. Sometimes it’s a different film than I thought I was making in the first place, sometimes it’s a reaffirmation of exactly what we were after in the first place. The most challenging moment on my film LEVITATED MASS wasn’t during the edit. It was during production when, no less than six months into production, I finally met my main character, the reclusive and amazing American land-artist Michael Heizer, and suddenly realized that he had absolutely no interest in being interviewed or letting me film his personal life, and that he would not compromise. I had to rethink the whole project and figure out how to make it as compelling as the film I’d originally set out to make. In the end, it worked out well—Heizer generously gave me access to his work and his process, but while his backstory is a key part of the film, it’s not about him. That realigning… just like rewriting your film’s edit, it’s never easy. And it’s an essential component of all non-fiction filmmaking.
Joshua Triliegi: Where did you study and what advice would you give young readers and filmmakers?
Doug Pray: I studied sociology at Colorado College (liberal arts undergrad) and received an MFA from the UCLA School of Film and Television. I don’t think film school is required, at all, for people to become professional filmmakers, but I needed it for sure and I loved every minute of it. It gave me the confidence to call myself a director and the knowledge to be one. Some directors know exactly what they want and how to get it without school. Marc Webb, a good friend of mine (who directed 500 Days of Summer and the last two Spiderman movies), didn’t need one minute of film school. He knew how to teach himself and studied other directors and their styles and had enough initiative to work his way into becoming one of America’s more prolific music video directors, which led to his first feature. Whether by crewing, or just directing your own low-budget DIY feature, or going to film school, or writing a script, or making a doc about your cat, there are many many ways to become a filmmaker. And… many, many filmmakers. So the question remains: what do you have to say, and are you a good story teller? Pencils and paper have been around for hundreds of years: did the availability of those tools result in many more great novels? But aside from story, I ultimately think the main difference between people who are successful in non-fiction and those who are not, is tenacity. They persist. They don’t quit. They get through the downs and the depressions and they keep on trying to make it work. Whether they have to keep shooting, keep editing, bring on another editor, or change their story altogether. They bury their ego, face the truth, and find a way to make it work. They are able to re-access their initial passion and energy for the project. Again and again. There have been, sadly, a number of projects I had to walk away from in my career, for various reasons (usually myself to blame). They were failures and it’s painful for me to think about them. They were all great stories about real lives, they featured real people whom I admired and had (nearly) committed to. Trust had been built, but then things didn’t work out. Those are the sad anomalies, the exceptions that prove the rule, that—in fact—directing documentaries is an absolutely wonderful adventure. I feel pretty lucky. Visit The Official Doug Pray Website to learn more about current releases: http://dougpray.com
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE BAY AREA SITE FILM PAGE PRESENTS
THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY FILM REVIEW ROBERT REDFORD'S QUIZ SHOW
QUIZ SHOW at TWENTY
Robert Redford is a Master Film Director of The American Landscape. His style is so deeply rooted in Realism that even when the story hindges on magical realism, such as, "The Legend of Bagger Vance", we as the audience are taken in, wholeheartedly. "A River Runs Through It" took Brad Pitt and insured that his career would not be one of how a handsome man can become succesful, Redford pushed the actor to find a personality that would surpass looks and it worked. "Quiz Show" takes on the almighty Power of Television and puts it on Trial. Today, we take a look at "QUIZ SHOW" on The 20th Anniversary.
This is a large film, with a brilliant cast, a flawless tone and leading actors that include John Turturro as the whistle-blowing contestant Herb Stempel and Ralph Fiennes as Charlie Van Doren, a wealthy second generation Columbia University teacher who gets sucked into cheating himself, the public and his families repuatation simply by allowing the network's televison producers of The Quiz Show entitled, "21" to, "… give him the answers." Which are said to be, "… sealed in a bank vault."
Enter investigating lawyer and Harvard graduate at the top of his class, Richard Goodwin. A former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter, who is on the subcommiitte for oversight. The film begins with undertones of the times, "Mack The Knife" by Bobby Daren is the films musical opener and on the radio, we are told that, "The Russians have launched Sputnik and all is not well in America." Redford knows the American historical backdrop well and informs his drama with the preceding years between 1950 and 1959 when this film takes place. the dreaded blacklist, which some how connected the Russian communist fear of an invasion with Jewish writers and leftist entertainers who were demonized by Joe McCarthy. More than once, Goodwin tells his fellow associates and his wife, "This is not McCarthy-ism here." Attempting to explain that he is simply going after the fact that the answers were being given to contestants and the public was dooped into tuning in night after night while the sponsors of these shows reaped in millions. The film marches in step between four worlds, Herb Stempel's blue collar neighborhood in Queens, Charlie Van Doren's uppercrust family in upstate New York, Richard Goodwin's moderate post graduate career life and the big and awe inspiring world of major network television with all its new bells, whistles and "APPLAUSE" signs.
Early on, an ad executive, played by Martin Scorsese, warns the television producers that Herb Stempel, who has been the winning contestant for several weeks is, 'not working'. The producers say that Stempel has that, "Everyman quality…" and that he represents the idea that anyone from New York can make it in America, The Ad Exec exclaims, "Queens is not New York …" and soon Herb Stempel is told he must take a dive. Dan Enright, the shows producer, delivers the bad news over steak and wine. When Stempel begs to stay on the show, he is reminded that, "It's an arrangement, It's always been an arrangement." He is ordered to give the wrong answer to a question that everyone in America knows and he is given the number of a psychiatrist free of charge, welcome to the network.
The Stempel character breaks and eventually demands some restitution from the television producers who quickly move into cover up mode by launching Charlie Van Doren into the stratosphere of T.V. fame and fortune, he eventually makes upwards of 120,000 thousand dollars, surpassing even his famous father and uncles riches awarded by simply great writing, Pulitzer prizes and the like. By the time Charlie Van Doren graces the cover of Time magazine, Herb Stempel, who is schlumping around like a schmuck without a life, goes to the district attorney and an investigtion ensuses. The judge on the case, who regularly plays golf with the president of the network, conceals Stempels statement to "protect repuations from an unstable whistleblower." The concealment is the first of any such case in New York in the past hundred years, it attracts the likes of Richard Goodwin and things begin to heat up at this point on.
In the history of motion pictures, there have been other examples before and since this film was made. Paddy Chayafsky famously wrote NETWORK which was a dark and comedic opera like parody of television with brilliant performances by William Holden as a burnt out television executive and as a upwardly mobile television producer who will do anything for ratings. This film brought us the famous line, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Since the making of QUIZ SHOW, George Clooney directed the somber, yet honest, story of Edward R. Murrow's fight with the networks to tell certain truths that were better left untold. This is also a brilliant film told in black and white with performances by a cast of incredible actors all working in unison to bring this chapter of netwrok television to the fore. Clooney, who was a child of T.V. knows very well how to explain the tone of advertiser vs truth and he delivers well. Quiz Show sits somewhere between these two versions, both cinematically and sequentially. Redford's realist style and tone are not colored in any expressionistic way whatsoever, this is not a parody like NETWORK, nor is it a black and white report, like Clooney's, "GoodNight". Redford plays it straight and allows us to simply experience the events in real time, from all angles of a four cornered world. The film rolls out like a giant 1959 American made automobile, sexy, funny, bold, he's working with an ample budget, an outstanding cast and crew and top of the line costume, camera and production team. There are no tricky camera angles, nothing brings attention to the story accept simply great performances, a brilliant and balanced screenplay, as usual Redford always works with the most perfect script that encompasses the act one two and three format that then goes one step further and adds both a preamble and a post event wrap up that completely leaves the audeince informed, entertained and often times enthralled.With Quiz Show, he does all three: This is pure Cinema.
As Richard Goodwin begins to investigate The 21 Show, he is given personal contact information about Van Doren and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Goodwin, who is Jewish, a Harvard Grad at the top of his class, a brilliant lawyer and a keen mind himself, is slow to suspect Charles Van Doren of any wrong doing. The two lunch at high brow restaurants and run into Charlie's father, who is a famous literary figure among a circle of writers such as Thurber and Edmund Wilson. It is not until Goodwin's wife pushes him to dig deeper that the drama really cranks up and Goodwin does indeed uncover the scandel. All along the way, previous contestants deny any commiseration, they all know too well the power of the networks and just when it seems hopeless, a Greenwhich Village artist and former contestant submits a self addressed stamped envelope with the questions of the show mailed to himself, several days prior to the actual live television airing. Goodwin now has evidence and gets his teeth into the television producers pantleg. "Your a very disruptive young man." he is told by Dan Enright, the show's hapless producer and netwok stooly who eventually flees to Mexico when the shit really hits the fan. Meanwhile, Richard Goodwin and Charlie Van Doren play poker, go sailing and celebrate Van Dorens father's birthday with background commentary from family members exclaiming that, "Charlie's famous, like Elvis Presley." The senior Van Doren has never seen Charlie's appearance on television and so for his birthday, he receives a TV set from his son Charlie.By the time that Richard Goodwin gets to actually speak to television executives, he is given a list of Herb Stempel's psychiatric bill and a recording made while Stempel was heatedly unravelling. When Goodwin speaks to Stempel again, he admits that he was given the answers and goads Goodwin on to go after Van Doren, exclaiming, "Just 'cause you went to Harvard, you think you have a stake in the sytsem ?"
The TV Exec's convince Charlie Van Doren that the investigation will not reach him and that Stempel is just a crackpot. But with Goodwin on the case, the other contestants self adressed letter and an impending investigation by the subcommittee, Charlie begins to buckle. During a poker game with a bunch of wealthy pals of Charlie, Goodwin begins to 'QUIZ' Charlie, who happens to be working on a book about, of all people, 'Honest Abe Lincoln'. At one point, Goodwin tells Charlie, "I know your lying." Charlie retorts with a simple response, "Bluffing. the word is, 'Bluffing'." This particular exchange is what makes Redford's world so damn compelling, he is a master of the slow but steady storytelling that unravels on the screen as a great book unravels on the page. Bob Redford is probably one of the most well respected and truthful directors when adapting books of the popular or well written variety in the past several decades. He simply works with best writers and those able to adapt a screenplay into something incredibly special from sometimes very thick and exaustive source material like in "A River Runs Through It". Which is based on a series of stories that were ignored by publishers for decades. When watching the film, it is hard to even fathom how they turned it into such a beautiful work. With Quiz Show, just the facts and historical details would confound most directors. Redford and his team take these facts and utilize them in a sequence that simply delivers the best and most honest surmisation of the event, allowing the audience to be edified as well as entertained.
As the pressure mounts, Charlie attempts to seek council from his father, but just can't seem to come clean about the truth. Meanwhile, Goodwin approaches the president of the network as if he's got them on the ropes in the final round of a championship boxing match, only to be left standing in the lobby with an insinuating statement by the fat cat exec that ends with the words, "…Then why are you the one sweating ?" Goodwin is pushed even further by his wife and with the support of some of his fellow lawyers on the committee, he finds his stride and pushes on. By this time, Charlie Van Doren decides to give a wrong answer to a question on the show simply to get off the roller coaster. Unfortunately, the question he misses surrounds a conversation and repartee that Goodwin witnessed between Charlie and his father during a party in upstate New York and now Richard Goodwin realizes that Charlie threw the answer on purpose and he goes after Van Doren, not publicly, but privately. Goodwin knows that Charlie was also given the answers "Why, Charlie, Why did you do it ?" he asks and when he presses furhter, Charlie caves in answering, "What would you have done ? Throw in the money, the fame, the cover of Time magazine ?" Goodwin stares the man down, he holds his moral ground until Charlie simply admits, "Well, thats the differnece between you and I." The television executives offer Charles Van Doren fifty thousand dollars and a morning show to teach children about, 'literature and the importance of reading'. He accepts the offer and is sucked even further into the networks spider web like offerings. By the time Goodwin nails the Television producers to the floor, they actually offer him his own show, he declines and instead suggests that the producer implicate the network. The producer admits that if he said a single word that, "They would never let me through the door again." Goodwin pauses, looks at the man and simply states,
"I have a feeling your not walking through that door anyway." By this time, the film and its impending investigation roll forward with a non stop pace that is both rewarding and gratufying. Not surprisingly, the networks are untouched and the producers, we are told in a final scene, later returned with popular quiz shows some years later. In a final tit for tat dialogue exchange session between Richard Goodwin and the head advertising executive played here by Martin Scorsese, the ad exec exclaims, "It isn't about what I know, it's about whay you know… The Public has a very short memory, but corporation, they never forget… Look young man, you have a very promising future, watch yourself out there."
About the time that the elder Van Doren, Charlie's father exclaims that, "All this talk about cheating on a quiz show is like plagiarizing a comic book," Charlie comes clean, "They gave me the answers." Father's reaction is total surprise, "They gave you the answers ? Oh my god Charlie, How are you going to tell the committee ?" In a final scene, in front of the subcommitte and a host of swarming reporters, Charlie Van Doren finally admits to wrong doing in a speech that starts with, "Everything came to easy … " which is an echoing line from one of Robert Redford's earliest successes as an actor, his portrayal of Hubbel in, "The Way We Were." Redford's character writes a story which begins with the opening line, "Everything had come to easy …" and so we come full circle. The entire committee begins to congratulate Charles Van Doren for coming clean in an overly acceptable and non critical manner, until finally, a working class representative steps up and exclaims, "Although, I think it is commendable … I am from another part of New York … and I don't think by simply telling the truth you should be so easily forgiven." The audience begins to applaud, the camera view is now from high above the precedings and a gavel pounds for order. We hear Richard Goodwin's voiceover, "I thought we were going to get television, the truth is, television is going to get us." Which is true in more ways than one as even Robert Redford's Sundance Channel now has just as many commercials between independent films, as the big three network broadcasters.
One thing for sure, nobody would ever have expected Robert Redford the actor to ever even dream about, let alone realize his ability to direct films at the level with which he has delivered time and time again. Redford is one of America's best and brightest and we, here at BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE, love his work, respect his artistic output and also honor his contribution to filmmaking.
MARLON BRANDO: The WILD One
By Joshua Triliegi
Marlon Brando is the quintessential original wild one. He broke down the barriers for acting styles. He conquered Shakespeare, Hollywood and Racism. He is The Godfather. He owned an island. And like all the great ones, he had his demons and had to walk back down the flight of steps that he walked up to begin with and meet all the same people on the way down. Many of them never got to the top. It's cold up there and you are all alone, thats the way it is when you are number one. When you are the highest paid, the most revered, the greatest, the best, the most talented, the one. The top of your game can only last a lifetime for some, decades for others, a few seasons for most, and for many, just a few days, but for most: never. That explains why we honor, respect, revere and enjoy those that have it going on. It also explains why many do the exact opposite and try to strip that all away, they never had it, never will and wouldn't know what the hell to do with it, even if they had.
Marlon Brando told the world to f*ck off. He stood up against white property owners in the 1960's, thankfully accepted his first Oscar from Hollywood and years later, sent a Native American to say, basically: No Thanks. He knew when film makers and studios were going to make millions off of him and so, he flipped the script. He's more than a legend: he's real, a man, flesh and blood. Actors will tell you that he was their original inspiration. Everybody sights Brando as an inspiration. He is alive, exciting, scary, unpredictable, sexy, funny and underneath it all, he's vulnerable. Simply and quite honestly: he's a big baby. But what a beautiful baby he is. He is intuitive, curious, mischievous, sly, brooding, delving, stubborn: all this and so much more. Fill in the adjective(s) .
Marlon Brando seemed to personify a time and place in America, a glimpse into the psyche of men in transition. Post War American men came back from the war, toughened, suspicious, some damaged, others with a certain confidence and reinstated rebelliousness. Brando's career follows the trajectory of post war America and parallels that line straight through to Apocalypse Now. From The Nineteen Forties straight through to the Nineteen - Seventies he's in the game. The comebacks are phenomenal and the mistakes and fumbles are equally outstanding. Brando's dancing in Guys & Dolls is simply amazing. To see a man that large, with a boxers physique, move so cat - like with a cool daddy - o style that seems to precede a sort of beatnik smoothness is a joy to behold. A man who admitted few regrets publicly, though whole heartedly exclaims that he wished he had treated James Dean with more respect and attention during his short lifetime. There is no James Dean without Brando. Its safe to say there is no: Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, the list goes on and on. We are talking about explosiveness, sex appeal and raw magnetism, mixed with a perfect sense of craft, curiosity and hard work that makes up what we call great and unparalleled acting. And thats just the American list. Some times, we in America thinks its always about us, hate to burst your bubble here, but people around the world are influenced by our greatness and that effects their work too. Brando often made films in Europe and his influence can be seen in actors like the great Toshiro Mifune of Japan. Brando's roles are often an explanation for the very thing that is wrong with human kind and some times he is there to fight against that very thing. The photograph by Phil Stern is a Hollywood Classic and a perfect example of a man at work, like any other man. Well, that's stretching it a bit. Maybe it's more honest to say: A Man at Work, Like No Other Man.
Motion pictures that are created at the end of a decade tend to encapsulate, envelope and regurgitate that time and place. Sometimes, they throw the entire experience back at us, either in celebration of it, or, as is often the case, rebelling entirely against the values of that time and of that place. These films, for some reason or another are important, they are the ' punctuation mark ' at the end of a stylistic sentence. Sometimes a simple period,other times a question mark and, rather effectively, every now & then, the ever defiant: exclamation point ! Looking at the decades in a linear fashion allows the viewer to put in perspective the decisions being made by the film maker.
In 1939, films like Gone with The Wind, The Wizard of OZ and The Hunchback of Notre Dame expressed a certain something of the decade that was. In 1949, it was, All The Kings Men, The Third Man & Twelve O'Clock High. 1959: North by Northwest,Imitation of Life & Some Like It Hot. In 1969, Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. 1979 gave us: Apocalypse Now, Being There and Norma Rae. In 1989, we were given films such as Sex, Lies and Videotape, Batman & My Left Foot.
Though, the film we are discussing is Spike Lee's, opus feature, Do The Right Thing. An exclamation point film that entirely coughs up the indulgent artifice that we now know as the Nineteen Eighties. A completely retro progressive time and place, a decade for the so-called white man. Conservative values, commercial qualities and a return to the 1950' s America, which, deep down inside, was a big step backwards from the cultural and ethnic advances made in the 1960' s and 1970' s, especially for a young African American such as Mr. Spike Lee. An outspoken Brooklynite through and through. The son of a Jazz purist, raised in the 1960' s & '70' s in New York City. The center of defiant cultural celebration and often upheaval. " I was raised in a household where we were all encouraged by my parents to speak your mind. ", the film maker admits and indeed in Do The Right Thing, that is exactly what most, if not every character does. A speaking of the minds often leads to some form of friction, and with the melting pot experience, the mix of origins, ethnicities, values and the long hot summer in the city, friction leads to fire and fire leads to ashes, with ashes, there is closure and then a rebirth.
Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing is indeed an American landmark film. I recall viewing the film on opening weekend with a rather light skinned audience on Wilshire boulevard in West Los Angeles, by the end, there was indeed confusion. By the time the ever famous trashcan scene ensued, even I was a bit embroiled in a recognization [ new word ] of values. Did Mookie, the pizza delivering protagonist, quote-unquote : Do The Right Thing ? We had to ask ourselves, what happened here ? A man was killed, there was an injustice, no one in authority seemed to care, there was a 'cover up' of the facts. There was a history of this type of act and someone, somewhere, somehow needed to make a statement, Mookie, [ played here by Spike Lee] made the statement. Even to this day, it can be debated, wether Sal' s Pizzeria should have bit the dust. Which is exactly what makes this film important. All too often, films answer the questions that we as humans need to ponder. Original, author style films don't answer questions, they ask questions, leaving the viewer to delve, wonder and eventually ask and maybe, even answer, for themselves, what the right thing to do actually is.
For a film to stand the test of time, there are several criterion. Does the film hold up to audiences today? Does the film still speak to any social truth or endearing value ? Does the film encapsulate a time and a place as a historical document which is worth preserving ? Yes. Yes. Yes. Do The Right Thing is not a 'perfect ' film, in terms of balance or so - called structure, or narration, but it is a very original, truthful and heartfelt film with a certain ' energy ' that is difficult to describe here. The film has a visual style not unlike, West Side Story, with rich colors, costumes, ensemble cast choruses & of course the clashing of cultures on the streets of New York City. African, Italian, Puerto Rican, Asian and indeed White or Anglo Americans vying for their own space to live, to walk, to inhabit in equal parts. Add to that rules, mob mindset and one long hot summer and you have a great drama with many touches of humor, slice of life moments and heroic situations: Such as Da Mayor saving the life of a young boy recklessly crossing the street.
Spike Lee has Woody Allen on his left: humor, love of women, family story telling & a 'do it your own way' style. On his right, he has Martin Scorsese : bold visual style, muscular camera movements, music appreciation & a 'this is the way it really is' style. But no one can say he is overly influenced by any director, writer or film maker.Nor is he the 'first African American director' to have success. Spike often sites Charles Burnett and Gordon Parks, but like any great director or artist, Spike Lee has an appreciation for film history . In that way, he is like Mr. Scorsese, a sort of encylpedic like mind for his craft, it's rich history and why we love, make and celebrate the art of film making.
The question rises here as to wether Spike Lee would have received the kind of accolades that he did not receive [ Canne Fim Festival ] for instance, had he not played the character of Mookie, the person who is ultimately responsible for the demise of Sal' s Pizzeria ? The connection audience members make on a visceral level can often effect the judgement on a larger level. Spike Lee is a writer, director playing a character in a movie that he has written and directed. Something that he has in common with Woody Allen, another influence on Lee, specifically his first film, She's Gotta Have It. Film makers take what they know, film history, life experience, social concerns, story telling and when they step up to the hoop, walk into the ring, take the bat, the utilize the skills from previous players / directors and give it their all.
So what if Spike Lee is outspoken ? Since when has that become such a big deal, to speak your mind ? Is that not what we are all about here in America ? Did we not, originally enter onto this beautiful continent, to have a few more freedoms? And did we recently forget that, also brought on ships involuntarily, were a group of people who had no say in many of the goings on here ? That after a few hundred years we finally have an African American President ? And at this years Oscar ceremony Best Picture went to Twelve years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen, an African-English director. Sometimes it takes an outsider to tell the inside truth. So Spike Lee is outspoken, good for him, what's your problem ? Cat got your tongue ? People often tell me that I am too outspoken. Well, I guess I am in good company then. My people went through a form of slavery, years of oppression, even an attempt at extinction.
Spike Lee's films are inspiring, energetic, funny, outrageous, risky, engaging, sexy, socially relevant, even dangerous: that's the stuff of good story telling. If Spike Lee had been Latin, Asian, or Swedish & still made the films he had made, this appreciation of Do The Right Thing would still remain the same, with the exception of the previous paragraph. I did not graduate from film school, though I am a film maker, screenplay writer and film critic or historian, if you will. One of my teachers, informally speaking, is Spike Lee. His books & diaries published after making, She's Gotta Have It, his first feature, were instrumental in helping me to overcome any obstacles that ever stood in my way. For many of us, his career is our career, someone from the so-called neighborhood made it happen, one of us got to tell our stories. Do The Right Thing is turning twenty - Five this year and it is time for a new generation to discover this film and ask themselves those important questions.
The film also has a cast of actors that will go on to have careers that include: Samuel L. Jackson, Rosie Perez, John Turturro, Martin Lawrence, Roger Guenveur Smith & Giancarlo Esposito. Many already had stalwart creds such as Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, John Savage and Danny Aiello . [ http://www.google.com/#q=cast+of+do+the+right+thing ]
Another way to test a film for longevity factor is: Do the characters still exist in your minds eye ? Where are they today, when you think of them ? Mookie, Da Mayor, Senior Love Daddy, Buggin-Out, Smiley, Tina, Sal, Vito, Mother Sister, Jade, Ahmad, Ella, Sonny and much more
importantly, Radio Raheem, where would Radio Raheem be today ? That is the real question. Do The Right Thing doesn't claim to answer that question. You have to answer it. Like Da Mayor tells Mookie early on in the film, " … Always Do The Right Thing. " , and Mookie's answer back ?, " Thats It ?, I got it, I'm Gone. "
BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE CLASSIC FILMS:
TWELVE MUST SEE FILMS and WHY
BY JOSHUA TRILIEGI
AMERICAN GRAFFITI .
BIG WEDNESDAY .
BREAKING AWAY
CROOKLYN .
LA BAMBA .
OUTSIDERS .
QUADROPHENIA .
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
REPO MAN .
SWING KIDS .
WEST SIDE STORY
These 12 Classic Youth Films Express a certain Social Angst that is
still very much relevant for the Youth of Today's Current Society.
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
One of the most important films reflecting on American Pop Culture ever.
One of the most important films reflecting on American Pop Culture ever.
Williams, Suzanne Somers, Kathleen Quinlan, Candy Clark, Charles Martin Smith,
Mackenzie Phillips, Bo Hopkins. A Film that holds up every time it is viewed.
A nostalgic look at a time and a place in America just before we were hit with
the death of the Kennedy's & other social leaders, Vietnam and a complicated
world which forever changed our lives in America. This film went onto inspire
the Television Show : HAPPY DAYS. As well as many teen/music films such as
DAZED & CONFUSED by Independent Film Maker Richard LINKLATER. One can
also see that this film production opened the door for Alan ARKUSH's Classic
Musical Teen Film: ROCK & ROLL HIGH SCHOOL.
BIG WEDNESDAY
The most authentic fictional SURF FILM ever created. Directed & co - written
BREAKING AWAY
Growing up poor or middle class in an area where others are more privileged
QUADROPHENIA
The first of several great films created by The Classic Rock & Roll Band:
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
The benchmark of all great films about growing up. There had many teen
films before, but none could ever touch it after. The fact that it was filmed
been mostly filmed in low budget black & white. Of course, the pinnacle
performance by James Dean in a role that absolutely never goes out of style.
Each generation rediscovers this film and immediately relates. His sensitivity,
his search for truth, his sympathy towards Sal Mineo and his love for Natalie
Wood as well as the need to be accepted and respected all ring true to the
kids of today's society. The other films in this article could never have existed
without the creation and popularity of Rebel without a Cause. This is the
quintessential teen film. Although, it also speaks to the ever changing evolution
from one generation to another. A great original soundtrack, rich technicolor
with realistic and dramatic performances. Supporting roles by Jim Backus
[ the Voice of Mr Magoo ] and Dennis Hopper. Directed by Nicholas Ray and
written by Stewart Stern based on a story by Irving Schulman.
REPO MAN
Another small but interesting film about life in Los Angeles by director Alex
COX, who would later direct the classic Sid and Nancy biop on Sid Vicious of
SWING KIDS
Music, politics and friendship collide into a whirlwind force among a group
THE GRADUATE
A hilarious, sensitive and heartbreaking story of one young man's journey into
would lay ahead for an entire generation in search of truth, love and once again, breaking away from the values of those that have preceded us. A great film with
that Hoffman's character is thrust into. An entirely different kind a surprise ending that still to this day, is embarrassing, exulting & entertaining. Somewhere between the sympathetic soundtrack, the innocent performances
WEST SIDE STORY
The classic updated version of Romeo & Juliet told here in New York City,
A nostalgic look at a time and a place in America just before we were hit with
the death of the Kennedy's & other social leaders, Vietnam and a complicated
world which forever changed our lives in America. This film went onto inspire
the Television Show : HAPPY DAYS. As well as many teen/music films such as
DAZED & CONFUSED by Independent Film Maker Richard LINKLATER. One can
also see that this film production opened the door for Alan ARKUSH's Classic
Musical Teen Film: ROCK & ROLL HIGH SCHOOL.
BIG WEDNESDAY
The most authentic fictional SURF FILM ever created. Directed & co - written
by John Milius, who would go on to put a surf scene in just about every film
he would ever participate in, famously: the surf scene in APOCALYPSE NOW.
This film seems to capture West Coast Surf culture with the perfect blend of the nostalgic aspects of the early days on into the more cynical ones. Friendships, initiations, love, war and growing up with the waves. Another perfect ensemble
cast, an original musical score and a voice over narration that perfectly tells the
story like a good book. For a full Review Scroll down.
BREAKING AWAY
Growing up poor or middle class in an area where others are more privileged
is one of the themes running through this hilarious and charming film about
Biking, Friendship, Playing by the Rules and yes, ' Breaking Away ' from the
pack, traditions and false ideals. A story about finding & respecting yourself
in a world that refuses to do so. Dennis Quaid in an early and heartfelt
performance. Directed by Peter Yates with a screenplay by Steve Tesich.
A great use of Classical Music throughout the entire production. Other cast
members include: The incredible Paul Dooley as the dad, Barbara Berrie as
the Mom and Dennis Christopher, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley as
' The Cutters ' [ for cutting school ]. A fabulous uplifting production.
CROOKLYN
Spike Lee dishes up this family film which is loosely based on scenarios
Spike Lee dishes up this family film which is loosely based on scenarios
created by his brother and sister and thier early childhood in Brooklyn.
A hilarious film that personifies the 1970's with all the pitch perfect hooks
and props, music and experiences that define the period. A heartbreaking
and yet wonderfully funny film that nails exactly what many of us went
through during our childhood experiences in America at that particular
time and place. Outstanding performances by the entire cast. As usual
Spike Lee's casting choices from Del Roy Lindo as the dad, Alfre Woodard
as the mom and a whole crop of new actors as well as Isaiah Washington,
RuPaul, Vondie Curtis-Hall and of course Zelda Harris as the young girl
who plays our lead character. With a great soundtrack, richly produced
and as usual great direction.
LA BAMBA
A musical bio that lovingly tells the story of singer Ritchie Valens, though
LA BAMBA
A musical bio that lovingly tells the story of singer Ritchie Valens, though
at the same time, tells a basic family dynamic of growing up, falling in love,
being accepted or not and dealing with life's opportunities under pressure.
A fabulous soundtrack that helped to put the band Los Lobos on the map.
This was a follow up to the success of Luis Valdez's play & film ZOOT SUIT.
With themes that describe the latino experience, musical prodigies, inter
racial love and crossing over into the mainstream American music charts.
This film, along with the Buddy Holly Story, Great Balls of Fire and the
many films on Elvis Presley,opened the door for the entire genre of music
biographies that have lead up to: RAY, Walk the Line, Sid and Nancy.
Lou Diamond Phillips in his first starring role, Esai Morales in a pinnacle
supporting role as Ritchie's brother, Rosanna DeSoto as the mom and
Joe Pantoliano, Elizabeth Pena, Brian Seltzer and Tony Genaro supporting.
The OUTSIDERS
An outstanding adaption of an S. E. Hinton novel by Francis Ford Coppola.
The OUTSIDERS
An outstanding adaption of an S. E. Hinton novel by Francis Ford Coppola.
The perfect film that reflects life on the, ' other side of the tracks '. Another
film that has a cast of new stars that will all go onto great careers in film:
C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Emelio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze,
Tom Cruise, and Coppola regulars: Tom Waits, Diane Lane & Glen Withrow.
Heroic & authentic, sympathetic & rough, innocent & tough, all without
any slips in performance, style or structure, a really great film about family,
friends, tribes and looking back one more time, before moving forward again.
What's it like to be an American in middle America ? This is what it's like.
QUADROPHENIA
The first of several great films created by The Classic Rock & Roll Band:
The WHO. A semi autobiographical tale of Mods and Rockers in and around
the London music scene just prior to the creation of bands like the WHO.
The clash between the Mods & the rockers, not unlike the same clash we
see within the other films listed in this review: The Outsiders, Breaking
Away, Rebel without a Cause, Big Wednseday. The Who will go onto create,
The Kids are Allright & the Classic Rock opera TOMMY. Being authentic,
demanding respect from authority, rebelling against previous values and
searching for acceptance, but ultimately tossing it all away for self respect
are just a few of the themes in this great fictional film. Once again, many
of the cast members will become regulars and have entire careers and
comebacks time & time again. Most notably: Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast,
Timothy Spell in the films by the great Mike Leigh, Sting and of course a
very young Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Mark Wingett, Phil Davis. Directed by
Franc Roddam. With music by The WHO and the use of period music specifically
Booker T and the MG's classic 'Green Onions', which is also used in American Graffiti and The Flamingo Kid [ another great film ].
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
The benchmark of all great films about growing up. There had many teen
in technicolor put it a cut above the juvenile delinquent genre that had
REPO MAN
Another small but interesting film about life in Los Angeles by director Alex
the Sex Pistols Punk rock band that helped to start an entire revolution in
rock and roll music that still exists. Repo Man weaves between the new
music of the time and the different types of folks who inhabit Los Angeles.
The film is a satire on all types of people, much like the music of that time,
bands like Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, Iggy Pop, Suicidal Tendencies, The
Plugz and FEAR all made fun of society, so too does this film. With Emelio
Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton battling it out with for and among space
aliens, low riders, musicians and of course stealing back automobiles. Car
chases through the L.A. River, Low budget special effects and performances
by many real musicians such as band members of The Untouchables and
Circle Jerks make this a sort of time capsule of a time and a place. At the
time, this film was considered a cynical look at society, looking back at it
today, its almost innocent.
SWING KIDS
Music, politics and friendship collide into a whirlwind force among a group
of friends in Germany during the take over of Europe. Inspired loosely on
actual events in the life of people such as Django Reinhardt. Another cast
of important actors including: Christian Bale, Frank Whaley, Robert Sean
Leonard and Barbara Hershey. Loyalty is the running theme in this music
filled portrait which starts out as a story of friendship but swiftly veers into
a political thriller of the historical variety. An outstanding sound track with
great performances by an ensemble cast. The film asks us how far will we
go to be a success in our own time and place ? Loyalty to friends, to our own
values, to our life may be more important than acceptance by the group,
especially when the group is a destructive, controlling and obvious plague
on a free society such as ours.
THE GRADUATE
A hilarious, sensitive and heartbreaking story of one young man's journey into
self discovery after graduating from college. The film that put Dustin Hoffman
on the map. A soundtrack that launched Simon & Garfunkle into music stardom.
As well as introducing the directing career of, up to that point, comedian Mike
Nichols who with Elaine May, had a string of successful comedic albums based
on their night club act. With a screenplay co written by Buck Henry of Saturday
Night live fame and career making appearances by Anne Bancroft, Norman Fell, Katherine Ross, William Daniels and Murray Hamilton uttering the now classic, phrase,
" I have one word for you … PLASTICS." Which seems to personify the artificial world
of comedy that broke the mold on controversy, humor and the sad realities that
and the heartfelt realities of life, a strange and original cinematic experience
emerges. No film has ever matched this blend since. The graduate opened the
door to a slew of new films that became a sort of a new and different genre:
The Heartbreak Kid & Carnal Knowledge among them.
WEST SIDE STORY
The classic updated version of Romeo & Juliet told here in New York City,
between two rival gangs of kids from different ethnic backgrounds. This
film still holds up in every way, shape and form. Cinematography, costumes,
dialogue, songs and of course the transformative choreography and music.
Leonard Bernstein developed this project for well over a decade and to this
day it is as fresh and relevant as any film about the youth of society today.
Romance, violence, loyalty and the difficulty in crossing over from the folks
you were born with into the person you are in love with, are just a few of
the themes touch on here. The song lyrics are so entirely up to date, that it
is downright astounding how fresh and relevant this film is. Marijuana, Cops
and Detectives, Gangs, Social Workers, Fashion and most of all Love. This film
becomes more and more impressive as time goes on. West Side Story contains performances by natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, Russ Tamblyn, David Winters,
George Chakiris, Tucker Smith and a cast of outstanding actors /dancers and
of course a soundtrack that makes it an utter and complete classic film that
will never go out of style.
[ Tap the titles below to visit links to these great classic youth films ]
FILM MAKING AWARD SEASON : Hollywood Storytelling
Joshua A. Triliegi / BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine
About a 100 years ago, a group of storytellers descended upon Hollywood.For years, outsiders said we live in a Town & not a City. They called us shallow, vague, an all surface industry, a total facade, a dream factory heavy on the nightmare. We were the butt of their jokes, yet somehow, somewhere within that criticism, judgement and scrutiny, we perserveered. We created a machine that tells stories, reflects on life, death, passion, love, hate, suppression and on liberation. Eventually, it really started to piss us off, so we dug down into it, we dug deeper, worked harder, smarter, better and faster than ever and we came out the other end of it : A City. This is not a town anymore. We are all touched by Los Angeles or Hollywood as they sometimes like to call us. Well, lets face it, we are like the girl at the party that everyone wants to go home with, but when it doesn't happen, those who didn't make the grade all start talking.
Hollywood is constantly criticized and we who live here, work here and grew up here, take a lot of flack. At the same time, we get to be a part of an industry that like any industry has it's ups and it's downs. The perks truly happen when we decide to be a part of it. When we demand that we have something to offer it, when we study, work and create something that can contribute to it and when we realize, that we were a part of it all along. Everyone has a story. Telling those stories, writing those stories, performing those stories, lighting those stories, photographing, narrating, recording, developing and editing those stories is what we do out here in Hollywood and from there it expands. France, Japan, England, India, China, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia have all created incredible contributions to film making : Truffaut, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Satyajit Ray, Fritz Lang, Bunuel, Fellini , Tarkovsky to only name a few examples. Did I leave someone out ? Of course I did. You know why ? Because film making has become an industry that has spread to everyplace and everyone & everybody has a story.
The native Americans and tribal Africans and Ancient Ancestors sat around a fire and discussed the visions of the fathers and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, people gathered to hear these stories, word got out and the best story tellers were honored. This is a tradition that has been with us as humans since the very existence of language itself and quite possibly before we even spoke with words. Today, various groups of people gather to do this with the contemporary tellers of stories. Writers, Film makers, Artists, Performers, Musicians, Technicians and a great deal of media that sometimes, somewhere, makes a whole lot of money. I personally, never stepped up to tell a story for the money. From the stream that I flowed from, the family I was raised in, the neighborhood I walked through, the tribes that I met along the way, the only reason to tell a story, the only purpose for the effort as I recall, was that you told a story for the glory. You told a story because it happened, you told a story because you survived it, you told a story because others did not. You told a story because it was the right thing to do and you did your best doing it. There were times in life that were so astounding, amazing or absurd that to tell the story to soon would only cheapen the beauty, the power, the stoic nature of it's participants. Yes, we tell stories out here in Hollywood or we help release those stories told else where. Sometimes
these stories are historically significant, other times they are a relief from the grueling aspects of life, others times simply a way to relate to others and still at other times to make us laugh at how ridiculous life can be. " Make 'em laugh, Make 'em laugh … " or make them cry as the old adage goes, " No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." Award season is in full effect. The Golden Globes being part one of a long and often grueling and frankly difficult period for those wonderful and talented individuals who ALL DESERVE recognition from their peers.
Here at the BUREAU of Arts and Culture, we have decided to participate this year, creating lists of who we think will win, what the word on the street is and who we would like to win as well as who we think will win. Its a horse race of sorts and with the Golden Globes, we actually picked Sixteen Awards right on the money. We also garnered Four 'Word on the Street' decisions, One 'Deserves the Award', recognition and only missed five categories entirely. The problem with all of this is how extremely unfair it is to put some of our top performers through this some times embarrassing process. The excitement, the pressure, the wackiness is all part of the so called game. That said, you have to hand it to people like Leonardo DiCaprio, who knows how to thank every single actor in their category by name. With the Golden Globes, it is especially awkward & difficult to understand some of the categories, films & performers competing against one another. Film and Television are entirely different mediums and yet with cable, the two have much more in common than ever before. The future of our medium, that of film making, that of story telling, that of the spectacular situations we call entertainment is constantly evolving and sometimes it devolves a bit, a sort of expand and contract.
Obviously, with living film makers such as Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese & Spielberg, for example, we have in our very lifetime, extremely important story tellers here and now. With history, we have the careers of endless actors, writers, directors & producers to draw inspiration from. Hollywood and the ever expanding industry of film making is an awesome piece of machinery. We need to honor our heroes, our storytellers, our musicians and performers and technicians, but more than that, we need to be sure that we protect, procure and provide for those up and coming. Lets turn to the great city of Detroit and the unstoppable automobile industry to understand what indeed can happen to any thriving industry. No less than a few decades ago, something was there and now it is gone. A hundred years ago, a group of people came out West to start an industry which we all love, in one way or another, everyone has a favorite film, a favorite writer, director, musician, etc … Who receives the awards is always fun to see, sometimes frustrating, other times sad, sometimes exhilarating and often some what unfair. So, as we move deeper into awards season, lets consider what we sometimes in quantum theory call, 'The Other Universe', the place where an entirely other set of choices happens, all choices happen and understand that everyone up there is a winner too. Take it a step further and understand that many who are not up there at all are winners. There are films that you will never see that are indeed winners and so it goes, such is life, all is well, 'goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow', kind of thing, if you know what I mean. In today's day and age, we never really know who will become a great story teller, performer or musician. Who would ever have thought that Robert Redford would grow into one of the best film directors in the United States, if not the world. I certainly never did. But then it happened: A River Runs through It, The Legend of Bagger Vance & Quiz Show. A perfect trio of films that are each equally American, important and entertaining. Careers in this industry can be amazingly surprising, they go up, they go down, and so it goes. What an incredible machine this is, you get to tell the story and quite possibly, it lasts forever. As long as whatever 'forever' actually means to us.
So then, congratulations to the winners, congratulations to the nominees and a big congratulations to the people who were never nominated, the girl who almost got the part, the guy who ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor and the poor person who contributed a majority of ideas & may have never been credited, payed or thanked along the way. This is a big machine and in working with big machinery, people get hurt and sometimes they get retired and even worse, they sometimes leave us forever. Is there a way to humanize this process ? Is there a way to protect, procure and provide for important up & coming talent in this industry ? Is there a way to keep this incredible city and industry we call Hollywood open to new talent. I wouldn't know. But for those on the inside, those with the money, those with the ability, those with the resources, those with the reputations, those with the track
record, those with the nominations, those with the awards, look around you. Take a good look around you and remember that first time you got the part, that first time you received a check, that first time you were invited to collaborate, that first time you read a fabulous story, that first time you were attracted to this machine we call Hollywood, Film Making, Story Telling and ask yourself who is next ? Who deserves the kind of chances I received ? Who has a story that may not actually be sitting on my agents desk. Who is worthy of telling a story? Who can I assist to get where I am now ? How can I recognize it when I see it ? For the individual who looks out for another while on top, is the individual who looks in the mirror every single day and recognizes the fact that THEY are a winner. With or without, 'The
Envelope please … '.
TRIUMPH OF THE WALL
A DOCUMENTARY BY BILL STONE
FIRST RUN FEATURES
Film Review by Joshua A. TRILIEGI for
Bureau of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine
A documentary which chronicles the building of a wall ?
Yes. Funny. Inspiring. Thought provoking. A well made
film which looks at the dogged decisions that humans
make to accomplish the un accomplishable. Expecting to
complete the making of a thousand foot long wall and
finding that it will take more than a few years surprises,
frustrates and ultimately inspires both the subject(s) as
well as the filmmaker of this interesting & funny film.
Chris Overing decides on a whim that he wants to make a
lasting work of art by hand: A Stone Wall. He finds that life,
art, craft and obstacles that get in our path are just a few of
the problems along the way. Bill Stone ( All puns intended )
follows Chris on the journey, camera in hand, a sort of reluctant
documentarian searching for the perfect subject and finding
life's larger questions looming behind every crack & crevice
in the project as well as in his subjects bravado attitude.
The camerawork is brilliant. The voiceover narration
is both funny and poignant. An ongoing philosophical
ramble which is entertaining and ultimately inspiring.
Artists often get themselves into some terrible situations
when they decide to make a work of art. If no one was
watching, maybe they would not continue, but with a built
in audience, there is a need to follow through. Chris and
Bill bond through this strange experience, like brothers or
partners and through it all the audience is taken on a journey.
Eventually, the filmmaker is given a grant for the film and
his subject is joined by a rock & roll duo, moonlighting as
helpers.
When the filmmaker tires of Chris' antics, he travel
overseas and we learn about the craft of building stone
walls from a few elder craftsmen in Europe. These older
men are magical in their awe for nature and building
stone walls by hand. Their patience rubs off on the
filmmaker, the film and the original subject and goal.
An unexpectedly interesting documentary due to it's
craftsmanship, commentary and painstakingly beautiful
camerawork and editing. Highly recommended for those
needing to complete any long term project or inspire artists
and or art students to commit themselves to the fine craft
of creating art for a living. One thinks of the long arduous
art processes centuries before filmmaking: The Pyramids,
Easter Island, The Sistine Chapel, what we might have seen
and heard had there been someone such as Bill Stone nearby.
We are highly suggesting this film. Brought to you by the
brave folks at First Run Features. Look for more reviews
as we focus on their catalogue of Documentaries throughout
the season.
Film Review by Joshua A. TRILIEGI for
Bureau of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine
A documentary which chronicles the building of a wall ?
Yes. Funny. Inspiring. Thought provoking. A well made
film which looks at the dogged decisions that humans
make to accomplish the un accomplishable. Expecting to
complete the making of a thousand foot long wall and
finding that it will take more than a few years surprises,
frustrates and ultimately inspires both the subject(s) as
well as the filmmaker of this interesting & funny film.
Chris Overing decides on a whim that he wants to make a
lasting work of art by hand: A Stone Wall. He finds that life,
art, craft and obstacles that get in our path are just a few of
the problems along the way. Bill Stone ( All puns intended )
follows Chris on the journey, camera in hand, a sort of reluctant
documentarian searching for the perfect subject and finding
life's larger questions looming behind every crack & crevice
in the project as well as in his subjects bravado attitude.
The camerawork is brilliant. The voiceover narration
is both funny and poignant. An ongoing philosophical
ramble which is entertaining and ultimately inspiring.
Artists often get themselves into some terrible situations
when they decide to make a work of art. If no one was
watching, maybe they would not continue, but with a built
in audience, there is a need to follow through. Chris and
Bill bond through this strange experience, like brothers or
partners and through it all the audience is taken on a journey.
Eventually, the filmmaker is given a grant for the film and
his subject is joined by a rock & roll duo, moonlighting as
helpers.
When the filmmaker tires of Chris' antics, he travel
overseas and we learn about the craft of building stone
walls from a few elder craftsmen in Europe. These older
men are magical in their awe for nature and building
stone walls by hand. Their patience rubs off on the
filmmaker, the film and the original subject and goal.
An unexpectedly interesting documentary due to it's
craftsmanship, commentary and painstakingly beautiful
camerawork and editing. Highly recommended for those
needing to complete any long term project or inspire artists
and or art students to commit themselves to the fine craft
of creating art for a living. One thinks of the long arduous
art processes centuries before filmmaking: The Pyramids,
Easter Island, The Sistine Chapel, what we might have seen
and heard had there been someone such as Bill Stone nearby.
We are highly suggesting this film. Brought to you by the
brave folks at First Run Features. Look for more reviews
as we focus on their catalogue of Documentaries throughout
the season.
BUREAU: FILM
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
" In The Kingdom of Kitsch "
A Twenty Five Year Anniversary Appreciation
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI
In 1988 director Phillip Kaufman brought to the screen a novel by Milan Kundera.
Mr Kaufman has always been at least, a decade ahead of the times. His films have
constantly created genres, influenced directors and bravely translated literature &
historical events to the screen. His adherence and loyalty to source material is
unmatched. The Wanderers, The Right Stuff, Henry and June, to name a few, have
inspired and set the stage for other films within the genre, consistently raising the
bar on truth, quality, reverence to the originator and entertainment well beyond the
current trends. Mr. Kaufman brings to life words with a keen sense of detail and a
wide world view which brings the viewer into a realm of reality or fantasy that seems
to punctuate humanity and specifically the boundaries with which life presents.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being might be considered his masterpiece, although,
due to his prolific and influential output in other genres, it is safe to say that Kaufman
will not be remembered for any one film. He is under rated, in terms of being what
they call a house hold name. But to directors in the industry, film students and
international film festivals, associations and aficionados, Mr. Kaufman is heroic.
The Right Stuff opened the door for a slew of astronaut films including Apollo 13.
Kaufman practically created the genre. By setting an absolute tone, fabulous casting,
flawless research and collaboration with top costumers, photographers and producers
his influence is felt far beyond the time and the place with which his films are released.
In The Unbearable Lightness of Being a stellar cast of actors bring to life historical
events. Politics, passion, literature and history meld into a contemporary take on a
situation which relates to and possibly rivals director David Lean's, Doctor Zhivago.
Film history relies on itself to continue certain traditions. Film makers grow up watching
films which inspire works of art that later influence the next generation and so on.
As Zhivago was based on a great novel about love that just so happens to be placed
in a time of political upheaval, so to does the source material for Milan Kundera's novel.
Daniel Day - Lewis spreads his wings in this production which for the first time truly
employs his talents to an international audience in a story that juxtaposes his love
for life, women and country and the complications that arise between politics, change,
revolution and expressing one's self as a writer while making a living at another trade,
in this case : brain surgery. One can imagine Mr. Kaufman's desk covered with book
options through the years & muttering to his producers cliches' such as, 'It's not rocket
science.' or 'It doesn't take a brain Surgeon.' But for Kaufman it definitely is rocket
science & as far as this writer is concerned, it is brain surgery, for Kaufman is a genius.
I never use the word and yet there it is on the page. There is something about his films
that generate a certain amount of passion, interest and bon vivant. His take on life is
liberated, his characters are on the edge of history, pushing the envelope into a new
time & place. Sam Shepard' s characterization of astronaut Chuck Yeager in the
Right Stuff is a perfect example. Characters who break boundaries and later seem to
go uncredited or under the radar. Or bringing to life the triangular love relationship
between Henry Miller and his lovers. Source material that few directors would know
how to approach, let alone, how to raise the funds for and bring to life on the screen.
Unbearable Lightness of Being also visits this type of triangular passion and complicated
relationship that make for great drama. Kaufman's take on life, love & history are dramatic,
but laced with a pathos, irony and humor that keeps one interested through out. He has
a rare viewpoint that illustrates life's issues and relationships in an original & complicated
way. With stellar performances by Lena Olin and a fresh faced newcomer on the scene,
Juliet Binoche. Supporting cast includes Stellan Skarsgard. This erotic, yet human feature
film takes us inside Czekloslavakia during a particularly tumultuous time in their history
with an oppressive an invasive Russian takeover during the nineteen sixties. Politics, passion
and provocation abound. Kaufman's films almost never come in at the usual commercial
time of ninety minutes. He is an artist, most of his features are two hours or more.
Unbearable Lightness of Being comes in at an epic 172 minutes, just under three hours.
Every scene, every line, every moment is fresh, alive, undeniably truthful, unabashedly
human & heartbreakingly real. Originally a part of the Orion Pictures catalogue. Produced
by The Saul Zaentz Company. A brave and bold historical film well worth celebrating.
This has been an appreciation of UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING on the 25 year
Anniversary. An ongoing Series of articles marking the Films, Books & Artworks that
are worth remembering, re-watching, re-reading and re-celebrating time & time again.
by Joshua A. TRILIEGI
