POV: Happy Birthday AK

Akira Kurosawa would have turned 100 today.

For me he is the greatest filmmaker who ever lived. His ability to entertain while delving deep into the human condition is second to none. There is a reason why he is known as The Emperor, and it is a title well deserved.

Akira Kurosawa 1910-1998

Frame from Yojimbo (1961).Note the use of planes and deep focus.

One of the paintings he'd created for storyboards

POV: The Futurist

The Futurist:
The Life And Films Of James Cameron
Author: Rebecca Keegan



As far as biographies go, this one is fine. Keegan keeps the pace brisk, which is nice, but never gives a sense of a full human being. She was given access to the friends and family of Cameron, yet never seems to get any deeper than a few basic bullet points.


1. Cameron is a smart dude who loves real science as much as he loves film.

2. He has a drive that can cause a lot of friction but even when he seems like a jerk, he's a good guy.

3. He continues to push himself.

There is some discussion about the themes of his films and the tensions that it takes to continue to push the envelope, but never any deeper analysis than a few paragraphs that continually reference his other films to show how they link together.

The best part in the book is delivered by Cameron's friend and fellow genius director Guillermo del Toro. He discusses the kidnapping of his father and how important Cameron was at helping Del Toro not only help get his father back, but the real compassion and deep rooted support that Cameron delivered. It's a great story and is the one real glimpse into a man who is a lot more complex than the book wishes to explore.

This biggest shame is that Keegan was given access to Cameron's latest film Avatar, but we learn little more than what has been discussed on the internet or through making of videos. Even his other films are mainly discussed using information that can be found in the special features of DVDs.

There is also no discussion of the film Solaris (2003) which was produced by Cameron and directed by Stephen Soderbergh. These are two men who are the exact opposite when it comes to making movies. If you take the time to listen to the commentary on the DVD which features Cameron and Soderbergh, you get a real sens of how Cameron sees himself and how he respects and honors the way other filmmakers. It's a very solid commentary and feels like a better peek into the way the man operates than most of the book does.

That being said, it's a fast read and it is very enjoyable for what it is. It may not be the definitive biography of one of the worlds most powerful filmmakers, but it's an interestig peek that leaves the reader wanting to know more.

The Eclectic Choice: Family Plot

Family Plot (1976)
dir. Alfred Hitchcock

This isn't Rear Window (1954), Psycho (1960), Vertigo (1958) or Strangers On A Train (1951). Hitchcock has a list of classics a football field long, and sure, this isn't one of them. Sure it may be flawed, silly, fluffy fun, but it is Hitch's last film and there is a lot more to it than you might expect.

The main plot circles around a fake, or is she, psychic who along with her cab driving boyfriend decide to hunt down an heir to a fortune. These characters are played with charisma and some real genuine chemistry by Bruce Dern and Barbara Harris. It's a blast to watch these two together. they have this rhythm that feels like a couple in love, even through the minor bickering of everyday life. Dern is a very different character than we are used to seeing. Sure he's quirky, but far from the nut-ball borderline psychos hat he is famous for. It is a real shame Barbara Harris was dealing with personal problems that stifled her career. Between this, Nashville (1975) and Freaky Friday (1968), it's impossible not to notice her incredible range and the cute-as-a-button looks this lady has. I really wish she was able to do more.

The weakness of the movie is William Devane who is always dependable, but is always William Devane. The character is weak and his subplot to kidnap people and ransom them for diamonds never really takes off. Karen Black plays Devane's accomplice, but isn't given much to do.

It's fun and frothier then most of Hitchcock's work, but it also includes a lot of the masters touches that made him such a great filmmaker. Does it stand up to his best films? Of course not, but few movies can or ever will be able to hold up such standards. Hitch may have not gone out with a bang, but as he literally ends his cinematic career with a wink at the camera, it reminds us that the man was never about delivering the normal set of expectations.

R.I.P. John Hughes

John Hughes (1950-2009)

The Loss of writer Bud Schulberg is sad but not at all shocking, the guy was 95 after all and he left behind some of cinemas greatest work.

The loss of John Hughes is quite shocking and very sad to me, a child of the 80's. One of my first major crushes was on a girl who resembled Molly Ringwald and it was at the time that Hughes was at his peak. I had seen Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985) and Pretty In Pink (1986) hundreds of times at that age. To not own one soundtrack from his films would be considered sacrilegious. Mr. Hughes passing is like a nail in the coffin of my youth.

As I look back at the films he wrote, directed, or produced it makes up a large portion of my childhood. Mr. Mom (1983), Vacation (1983) and even Nate & Hayes (1983)! I didn't know he wrote that, crazy! I also can't forget the classic Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) and my personal favorite Some Kind Of Wonderful (1987).

He had retired from the biz as a director, but continued to produce and write under the psudonym Edmond Dantes, the name of the main character from Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo.

He has left behind a body of work that defined a generation and will be missed.

Not On DVD: The Crimson Kimono

The Crimson Kimono (1958)
dir. Sam Fuller

If you are a true lover of movies, then you are a fan of Sam Fuller. Fuller, a movie maverick, former newspaper man and thrilling raconteur gave us films that were entirely original. Every frame stamped with his mark. Just a hint of his dialog, framing or direction of the actors screamed a Sam Fuller movie. Some may find it over the top, more over though, it's a cinematic gut punch that the audience has to be willing to take.

Fuller was always forward looking and decided to take on the theme of race and racism from a very different perspective. The Crimson Kimono flip-flops the ideas so it is the minority of the picture who cries wolf. It's an interesting idea and deeper look into the human psyche than any Sidney Portier fist pumping portrayal could deliver.

A great opening scene, like all Fuller films, we get a stripper who is gunned down in the streets of Los Angeles. Homicide detectives Charlie Bankroft and Joe Kojaku are assigned to solve the murder. They were buddies in Korea and Joe even saved Charlie's life, so these guys are tight. They both fall for the same girl, Christine, who is a witness in the case. It beocmes an awkward love triangle, but it is Joe that Christine loves and end up breaking Charlies heart. When Charlie confronts Joe, Joe plays the race card. The film goes from murdeous melodrama into a tale about how we see ourselves through the faces of others. Luckily the murder plot and human issues are able to solve themselves in tidy little wrap up in the end.

It's an excellent addition to the Fuller cannon, but has let to see the light of day on DVD. It's not too shocking to know this is a Columbia Pictures release who seem to put nothing out on DVD unless it's new or an Oscar winner.

If you see this title floating around on TCM late at night, grab a drink and settle in for what Fuller would descibe as, "One hell of a yarn!"

POV: I'm Scared Of Ingmar Bergman

I, much like most film geeks have holes in my movie watching history. I don't know much about the Iranian New Wave or Tony Richardson films. I've never been a huge fan of Marylin Monroe, so I'm always taken a little off guard when I see one of her movies and like it. These are just examples of course, there are many more.

The biggest of these crimes is my total and unequivocal fear of Ingmar Bergman. I have only seen Persona (1966) back when I was in college. I remember really enjoying it, but it never made me say, "It's safe, I'm comfortable with this. I can watch these."

The problem is fear, very simple. I've always known that Bergman was a thinking mans filmmaker. I don't see myself as much of a thinking man and fear the mysterious knowledge that these films impart will fly over my shallow skull. My feeble mind is just too frightened of not getting it.


Will I lose my own sense of cineaste credibility if I discover I can't understand his movies? Am I simply over thinking (very ironic) this whole thing and should just relax and view them like an other film? All I know is that the thought of tackling his movies leave me with an odd petrified fear that I have with no other filmmaker.

I'm a fan of Antonioni, Fellini, Godard, Tarkovsky, Tarr and many others. As a matter of fact, I'm a bit of a foreign film nut. I have no fear of subtitles or themes or nonlinear storytelling. As a matter of fact there isn't anything in film that does intimidate me when it comes to choosing something to watch. I even prefer the challenge. There is just something about Bergman that overcomes me with a certain type of cinematic panic. I don't get it and there is a part of me that really wants to understand it.


The only logical conclusion that I have been able to come up with is pretty simplistic. I'm worried about not liking him. That's pretty straight forward. He is an admired and honored director. He has made movies that are considered classics in form and narrative. The visuals, created mostly by frequent collaborator Sven Nykvist, are world renown. Anyone who even dabbles in movie circles knows the shot of Max Von Sydow playing chess with death against those back lit clouds. It's an incredible image and I only know it through still photos.

It's all a sad, sad thing. A place where I shouldn't be and a corner I have painted myself into. Someday, hopefully soon, I can pull myself out of this pit of despair and just relax. I'll throw a couple of Bergman's films onto the top of my Netflix queue and make a day of it. These feelings I have, these emotions that hold me hostage are sure to melt away once those first few frames flicker across the screen, right? Right?

24 Frames: Black and Whitezation

Recently two movies have been released with a new bent on realization.


The first was Frank Darabont's The Mist (2007) which was released over the Thanksgiving weekend and quickly disappeared. Then came the DVD release which offered a two disk special edition with an alternate version in black and white. This is a curious and new approach. Apparently Darabont originally wanted to make the movie in b&w, but the studios refused. See, he wanted it to be like those great matinee horror and sci-fi films of the 50's. It's an interesting idea and Darabont got his wish with the DVD release. This of course makes it even more interesting for the cinephile who would like to see this alternate version and see if it improves the film.

Now I didn't like The Mist the first time I saw it. It was a late show and was packed with a bunch of drunk teens who made tons of noise and talked on cell phones the entire time. Really, you spend ten bucks on a movie and talk on the phone the entire time? Officially, you're an idiot. Anyway, the audience had a major impact on my movie going experience so I was not thrilled with the film.

When the DVD was released with this b&w Director's Cut, I was intrigued and decided to check it out. I'm glad I did, but not for the reasons you might think. I watched the new version and I must say, I was disappointed. Even with the aid of computer technology, you can time something to look black and white, the film itself wasn't shot for the look. Costumes, production design and visual effects were designed for a color film and it doesn't mesh very well when transferring over. Scenes were too dark and details would be lost. At times it just looked muddled.

The Mist (2007)

Plus all of the handheld camera work didn't feel right when used with the format. The older films that Darabont wanted to imitate never used this type of style so the entire experiment feels unfocused. But it did make me re-watch the color version and I discovered that it is quite an enjoyable little horror film with some standout performances. The visual style also works incredibly well in color and I found myself really engrossed. The idea of presenting it in black and white may have been unsuccessful, but it does help a person appreciate the original.

Then this past week Peter Bogdanovich released a movie that he also originally intended to release as a black and white movie. Nickelodeon (1976) was Bogdanovich's homage to the silent film era, a slapstick comedy about those pioneers of the silver screen. It stars Burt Reynolds, Ryan O'Neal, John Ritter, Stella Stevens and Tatum O'Neal.

Apparently this ran into the same problem as The Mist and the studio felt shooting in color would be beneficial to the film. Odd since Bogdanovich had already had two very successful b&w films prior to this one, The Last Picture Show (1971) and Paper Moon (1973). It could be Bogdanovich rewriting history by saying the studio wouldn't let him, but it really doesn't matter because the move to black and white actually helps this film quite a bit.

Nickelodeon (1976)

Some of the initial reviews were that it was a little old fashioned and slapsticky. Which is dead on because it's designed to be that way. It's supposed to reflect all those old comedies that Bogdanovich adores so much. The entire project is mannered and some of the humor seems goofy when you witness it in color.

This time though because the film itself is a period piece, all of the costumes and sets were designed with a bent towards b&w and shots are designed to reflect an older visual style. According to Bogdanovich's commentary track, cinematographer Lazlo Kovacs even styled some of the lighting after old b&w movies. All of these factors add up to make it feel like you're watching a different film. Scenes of slapstick have a different energy and feel more natural and less gimmicky. This is most apparent in a bakery scene where Reynolds keeps hitting a guy with an oven board.

Even though only one of these movies seems successful though its de-colorization, it is a great way to show that black and white is an esthetic choice that is underused and under appreciated these days.

Review: Anthony Mann Double Bill

Every year, the Film Noir Foundation comes down to Los Angeles to present Noir City, a collection of movies most of which aren't on DVD. It's always a great series and you can discover some real gems as well as catch up on titles that you've always read about, but never seen.

This year included a double feature of rare Anthony Mann movies from his early career. So without further ado:

O'Clock Courage (1945)
starring: Tom Conway, Anne Rutherford, Jane Greer, Richard Lane, Emory Parnell
dir. Anthony Mann

This is one of those films that shows signs of what Mann will become, but isn't fully formed. The opening shot as our hero Tom Conway walks down a street and leans against a signpost looking dazed is a classic hard edge Mann shot that would come into common use in a few years when working with John Alton. The rest of the film is rather visually plain as it deals with our hero battling amnesia, aided by cutie taxi driver Anne Rutherford to help prove that he may or may not be a murderer. The film moves fast and furious as it introduces characters and we try to piece events together along with our heroes.

Its a fun film, but not a great one. It has a lot of humor, which is nice, but you could punch holes through the plot at any moment if you take the time to do any thinking. It's a blast though to watch each conversation add one more small piece to the puzzle. Rutherford is adorable and fires off one liners with an ease and playfulness that never falls into cynicism. She brings a lot of energy to the piece and that's a good thing since most of the movie hinges on her performance. Conway is workable and plays well with Rutherford, but when on his own seems to lapse into mannerism rather than performance. With a running time of 67 minutes, it's an entertaining little B-movie that is well worth the time.

8 out of 10

Desperate (1947)
starring: Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond Burr, Douglas Fowley, William Challee, Jason Robards Sr.
dir. Michael Mann

Just prior to starting his string of classic B's, Railroaded (1947), T-Men (1947) and Raw Deal (1948), Mann made some leaps and bounds with this first great film. Some may argue that his first great film was Strange Impersonation (1946), but it falls a little too much into melodrama and has some pacing problems to be considered a great noir.

Steve Brodie plays a trucker who accidentally gets involved with Burr's fabulous baddie and ends up running from the mob as well as the law with his pregnant wife in tow. They find a place to start over, all the while everyone is closing in on catching him. Brodie and Long are great as the couple on the run and the rest of the cast is just fantastic, especially Fowley as a scumbag PI out to find the couple.

The real star through is Mann's direction. It is filled with imagery and compositions that really show off Mann's talent for making a lot out of very little. Cinematographer George Diskant deserves some major kudos for his work here and would go on to do other great noir like On Dangerous Ground (1952), The Narrow Margin (1952) and Kansas City Confidential (1952) before moving into a lengthy career in television.

When it comes to stunning visuals, two scenes in particular come to mind. The first, when Brodie is being beaten up by Burr and his cronies in a basement. A single overhead light swinging back and forth creates monstrous images, casting moving shadows and hard light on faces that become ghoulish when struck. The second is a tour de force in editing and sound as minutes tick down before Burr is going to execute Brodie in the final act. The sound of the ticking clock overpowers as they cut slowly between faces that get tighter and sweatier until all we see are eyes piercing through the screen. It's Sergio Leone 20 years before Sergio Leone! The knock at the door that finally breaks the tension sounds like an explosion of relief as the viewer can finally exhale.

It's a great piece of underrated work and is shocking to think that it's not available on DVD. It's a seminal piece in Mann's canon and should be celebrated more. If you get an opportunity to see it, drop everything and go.

9 out of 10

POV: Ki-duk Kim

I recently discovered the films of Ki-duk Kim. This guy is amazing. I've only seen three films, but I've loaded them up in my queue and started with his first film to watch his progression of style and themes. I watch one a week so I don't run out too quickly.

I started with 3-Iron (2004) and was blown away by the assured of his storytelling. How he develops relationships and characters. His willingness to use silence. Hell the guy creates characters that never say a word to each other. I couldn't tell you how much dialog is in 3-Iron, but there is very little and almost none by the two leads. It's all done with glances and simple actions that create a relationship that you can believe in.


His visuals can be simple or complex, but both create a feeling of a higher plain. There is a spirituality to it, even when he delves into the grotesque. Like his characters need to descend into hell before they learn how to fly. These are compositions that suck you in and you eat it up waiting for what you'll see next.

In the simplest of terms, he creates pure cinema. Check him out if you haven't seen his work already.

R.I.P. Ray Dennis Steckler

Ray Dennis Steckler (1938-2009)

I ran across this today, six days late. I hadn't read about it on any of my regular movie sites, so it seems to have slipped through the cracks.

Instead of eulogizing him in a brief paragraph, here is a nice little article about him. There is also a great piece about him in Re/Search #10: Incredibly Strange Films.

I've seen a few of his movies and they have their charm and a level of energy that proved he liked what he was doing. He was a man who knew what he wanted to make and made them. Exploitation was his game and he played it well.

I feel he also holds the record for best title ever: The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed Up Zombies (1963). Yes, that is the actual title.

On The Boulevard: Ida Lupino

Ida Lupino is one of those women that, in my book, has it all. She had looks attitude and a brain. That is an awsome package. Just look at her cute as a button nose and you'd never know she could play hard ass femme fatales or even have the nerve to start her own production company and succeed as a director for the second half of her career. She's a pretty amazing woman in my book, but then again I tend to romanticize.

For me it was movies like They Drive By Night (1940) and High Sierra (1941) that showed me she could hold her own and even control scenes against the likes of Humphrey Bogart and George Raft. In Moontide (1942) she gave a layered performance of a tough girl who wanted real love and found it in Jean Gabin. In Roadhouse (1948) she made me fall in love with her singing, if it was her. If not, I'm in love with someone out there. Last but not least she tamed a savage Robert Ryan (his best performance) as a sensitive blind woman in On Dangerous Ground (1952).

According to Wikipedia, Lupino is uncredited as director for On Dangerous Ground. There is no reference to it other than that so I don't know how valid it is. But Lupino did direct several great films. She had grown tired of the fact that women’s issues were never portrayed accurately on screen, so she decided to do it herself.

Outrage (1950) dealt with a woman who was raped. Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951) dealt with a woman deciding over a career or love. She is also considered the first woman to direct a film noir with the B classic The Hitch-Hiker (1953). She also directed the young ladies classic Trouble with Angels (1966), but I've never seen it so I can't comment. She'd go on to a directing career in television where she worked on The Twilight Zone, Batman, The Untouchables and Gilligan's Island just to name a few. That alone is an impressive resume.

She'd continue to act and direct until the late seventies and passed away in 1995 at the age of 77 from a stroke. At the time she was undergoing treatment for colon cancer, so it seemed she was gonna-get-got one way or another around that time. But it was a hell of a life and career she lived the way she wanted to. That's more than most people can say.

Lupino actually has two stars on the Boulevard, one for her work in television and one for her work in film. Beat that.

POV: Some Boetticher And Scott Love

I just finished watching Decision at Sundown, a Budd Boetticher western starring Randolph Scott and I have to admit, it may be the most depressing yet uplifting western ever put to film.


It’s about Bart Allison (Scott) spending three years tracking down the man he feels is responsible for his wife’s suicide. When he catches up with Tate Kimbrough, really well acted by John Carroll, Allison comes to discover that not everything is as it seems and the price tag way too high.

Through the course of events, these really interesting psychological and sociological themes bubble to the surface. What is the price of revenge and how do we use it to mask our own denial about our lives? That is the biggie on the psychological front and on the sociological front, how do we as a society allow tyranny and injustice to rule over us when all we have to do is stand up together and reject it?

The answer to the second question is: you are pushed to the point of being unable to take it any more and you finally do something about it. This makes for a very uplifting ending where a town silently ruled by a man who uses money to control is finally cast out. The first question though ends with the destruction of the soul for our main character. Allison is broken as he rides out of town even though the town itself will praise his name for showing them how to stand up for themselves. It is very reminiscent of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai where the real winners are the farmers not the samurai.

This is a film that plays with expectations and wears its questions on its sleeve, but never gets pretentious or soapboxy. The visual style is simple and clean, as most of Boetticher’s films are and allows for performances that carry a level of nuance while still being very upfront about the message being delivered.

Scott is solid as always and the supporting cast holds its own. As I mentioned earlier though it is John Carroll who really breaks out thanks to a well constructed character. Kimbrough is a rich scumbag, but is willing to stand up when he has to. He has a code of honor that he respects and when crunch time comes, takes care of his own business. Carroll handles it with a charisma that I wouldn’t call charming, but you feel he has earned his right to be smarmy. Noah Beery Jr, who most people will remember as Rocky in The Rockford Files, plays Scott’s reliable and full of life sidekick. Beery tries to play the voice of reason to Scott and does so with a heart and compassion that never becomes melodramatic.

This is a gem of a movie that is in the new Budd Boetticher Box Set that was recently released on DVD. So far every film in this set has been a winner and I hope it helps bring some praise to Boetticher and Scott who are long overdue for their contributions to cinema.

POV: Oh, Mann

I remember when Steven Soderbergh mentioned that it was tough to grow and try new things as a filmmaker. He felt the system wants directors to spring fully formed from the head of celluloid. This sucks of course. What fun is it to watch a fully formed filmmaker, or someone who will never change? It’s boring.

History of Violence is a really impressive movie, but becomes even better if you have witnessed the progression of David Cronenberg’s films. The guy who made Shivers, The Fly, and Dead Ringers seems like such an odd choice to make History of Violence, but at the same time it fits together like a perfect puzzle. All of these carry themes of identity and sexuality. You may scratch your head a bit but trust me, I’m much smarter than you. Yes there are major differences, but that’s the point of evolution. The ability to grow and work the craft, to become a better filmmaker, and explore themes through different constructs.

Which brings me to Anthony Mann. I just finished watching The Furies on DVD. This is another one of those Criterion releases that made me wonder why they would release it. Then I witnessed its grandeur, its scope of story and human psychology. Just glancing at his resume, it looks like Mann’s breakout from Noir into the Western genre and he said, “Fuck you, the western can be as good as Shakespeare!”(My quote, not his.) He set out to prove it and did.

The Furies was his Tempest with a little bit of King Lear thrown in for good measure. An exquisite piece that demands the viewer to invest in characters that wallow in the emotional grays of life. By the end, these don’t seem like people on a screen, but Greek gods clashing over who rules the heavens. If you decide to sit down and give this a watch, you'll think I’m crazy at first. But don’t fight it, let the film take over. Roll with it and by the time all of the betrayal, revenge, and scheming is set up, you’ll be glued to the screen. Walter Huston is mesmerizing and Barbara Stanwyk has one of her best roles and one of the best lines of dialog that she’d ever get outside of Double Indemnity. To witness these two spar on screen is like standing in the eye of a tornado. You are perfectly safe and secure as the world around you is torn up from the roots.

Mann would never have achieved this if he didn’t have the time to grow and practice his craft. By working among the poverty row film companies, pumping out quickie noirs, Mann honed his storytelling style and personal voice. He came into his own with films like T-Men, Raw Deal, He Walked by Night, forming a visual style that feels like images carved in rock. Hard edges, high contrast, meaning within the composed frame itself. He’d transfer all he learned into the western and drive the genre in his own direction.

I wasn’t just waxing Mann’s car when I said his work was comparable to Shakespeare. Winchester '73 and The Naked Spur strike chords of Hamlet and Macbeth. The Man From Laramie drips the King plays from every pore. I hate to say that I have no idea what to compare The Tin Star to, but by that point, I feel Mann had stepped into his own. Exploring the myth of these characters and letting them ride off into the sunset where we’d never hear from their chorus again.


Here is what I find ironic. When Mann moves into the period epic, all of the emotions I carry from his other films disappear. All of those things that seem classic and epic in his noir and westerns, which are smaller and more intimate, go away when he gives us Fall of the Roman Empire or El Cid. It’s like the epic scale of the visual, displaced the epic quality of the characters. His visuals in these epics are amazing and just as solid as anything seen in Ben Hur or Cleopatra, they just lack in soul when compared to his other films.

If you have never taken the time to follow the evolution of a filmmaker, give Mann a shot. From small no budget noirs where he honed his skills, to the physical and psychological vistas of the old west, to the biggest budget mega-epics of the 50’s. Mann put up on screen a mosaic of humanity that very few have or will. There is reason why it is important to allow filmmakers to grow through their art and Mann is a legendary example.

Film Geek Primer: Episode #5

Film Geek Primer:
Episode #5
Russ Meyer






This week, the geeks discuss the winner of their first viewer poll, director Russ Meyer.