Yeah, I spent an unreasonable amount of my weekend peering up at The Hollywood Theatre's screen during Noir City Portland. Do I regret it at all? Of course not; if I have any regrets, it's that I missed 3 of the 8 features, but sometimes a guy has things he's gotta do, y'know. Even so, those other priorities haven't kept me from spending a good deal of time thinking about and craving more noir and film noir related highs. For instance, after skipping out on the third feature on Saturday night, I still ended up streaming Gun Crazy at home on the Warner Archive Instant service.
DEADLY IS THE FEMALE aka GUN CRAZY
I was also pleased to stumble across the film noir episode of the fairly great 1995 PBS series American Cinema on YouTube. I hadn't viewed the series since it first aired on public television, so it was great to take another look at a series that, at the time of its release, had a strong influence in reinforcing my obsession with old films.
It's been seven years since 49 Up and, like clockwork, director Michael Apted returns with 56 Up, the latest installment in his groundbreaking Up series. Checking in with the lives its English subjects every seven years since they were young schoolchildren, this series of made-for-television documentaries has yielded an amazingly emotional look at ordinary lives lived; their failures and triumphs aired for all the world to witness. It's one thing to appreciate the idea that informs these films, but watching them is an entirely different experience, as it's possible to be drawn into the otherwise private details of the lives of complete strangers.
If this sounds roughly like the effect of watching a season of reality
tv, it's probably due to the undeniable influence that the Up series has
had on that genre; Apted's initial chapter in the series
predates An American Family, PBS' 1971 experiment in reality-based television, by seven years. The difference between the Up series and, say, Jersey Shore, is profound; whereas most reality television takes on a leering gaze, the Up series has always had more anthropological aims in mind. In Apted's hands, the 14 subjects who have taken part in the series have been less representatives of themselves than of the universal experience that is living life and gathering stories along the way.
As we pick up once again with the familiar faces in 56 Up, many of them are beginning to evaluate where they are in their lives, often within the context of the series and how it has and has not fairly represented them. Some complain that it has offered the public a sense of identification that isn't earned, and, surely, being repeatedly approached by complete strangers who want to commiserate with you over the private details of your life must be exhausting. Neil Hughes, whose past struggles with homelessness made him the subject that most viewers worried about in prior chapters, has found stability and is probably the most vocal in his protests that people don't know how he feels just because they've seen small slices of his life on the telly every seven years.
All in all, 56 Up isn't going to surprise viewers, whether or not they've checked in with the series before. But it does offer the same comforts as the past few chapters, mainly the possibility of transformation over time, as many of the "characters" found within have achieved some form of peace with the way their lives have unfolded. Like previous installments, 56 Up betrays its roots in television, especially how each person's story remains a discrete section of the larger whole; Apted doesn't cut between the tales as he might were he presenting a feature documentary, so, even if we're seeing it in theaters in the U.S., the overall style is that of the small screen. This should in no way dissuade anyone from checking in with it, though, as this latest chunk of the Up series retains its fascinating power to pull viewers into the lives of its subjects.
Highly recommended.
56 Up premieres at the IFC Center in NYC on Friday, January 4th. It opens locally at Cinema 21 on January 25th. More info available here. Remember to find and "like" us on our Facebook page.
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Hey, it's been a while. This lil' experiment in blogging got put on the back burner for a number of reasons. My wife and I are having a baby in less than a month. I've been working on a really exciting non-fiction film project. And there's the day job, of course. I'm sure that anyone reading this can identify with how quickly time disappears if you let it.
My love of movies certainly hasn't diminished; just the amount of time I have to go out to see them. To that end, when I do find the time to blog, the content that is discussed here is likely to include home video and television, as well as the occasional first-run theatrical stuff that had previously been the exclusive subject of this site. I figured I'd open it up a bit and maybe that would make it easier to post more often.
So, um...welcome back:
This whole notion of "opening up" the style of the blog will likely include shorter, topical postings, as well as a few longer ones here and there. If I encounter an online article about the decline of 3D cinema, for instance, I might post it, jot down a few thoughts of my own and invite others to comment on the topic. As soon as this entry goes live, I'll go ahead and enable comments for all posts on the blog (a feature I'd previously kept disabled), so feel free to comment on this or any future (or past) posts.
As for the first regular review in many months, I'll be uploading a look at Amer, which is making its dvd and blu-ray debut this week. It should be up within the hour, so keep an eye out for it.
And, finally, it'd feel weird to not at least mention a couple of pop culture crumbs that I've run into and enjoyed lately, so--briefly--here we go:
The NW Film Center recently hosted a four-night run of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "lost" 1973 sci-fi epic, World on a Wire. I happily rejected the opportunity to see (the seemingly ubiquitous) Drive in favor of the catching the limited run feature...and, MAN, was it worth it! I'll probably post in more depth about World on a Wire in the future, either soon or when it hits blu-ray and dvd next year.
I also caught a mid-August showing of Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 Stalker (also at the NWFC). It's long been my favorite film by the Russian master but I'd never had the chance to see it theatrically. All those beautiful textures blown up larger than life...you can be sure that I was in heaven.
Last night, I streamed the first episode of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's latest documentary project for public television, Prohibition. While I completely get that many people aren't down with the very much defined style that Burns has employed in his decades long career, I was drawn in by Burns usual attention to detail and his ability to unearth lost kernels of our shared national history. The take away from episode one? That, as is still the case in modern American life, much of what the temperance movement of the 20s and 30s was about can be linked to entrenched ideologies about how others should conduct themselves in society. If this doesn't sound familiar, you're probably not keeping up with the news of the day.
A quick reminder: we're still on Facebook and, every once in a while, an exclusive post will end up on that page, so hit us up there and be sure to "like" the page while you're at it.
And that's pretty much it for now. Like I said, keep an eye out for that review of Amer. It should be up within the hour. And, since those of us living in the Pacific Northwest are currently welcoming the return of old friend "the rain," I'll leave you with this:
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