by David Chute \\1 tape and record only at the slowest speed , for economy's sake: quality Distraction is the conspicuous mode of poorer; at worst you have prevented a doesn't matter because, for them , modern repression. few already over-compensated chaps home-vid fever isn' t an outgrowth of a from scarfing up a few more dollars. prior interest in movies, it's a fun refine- -Raymond Durgnat mentofTV. Still, I can't honestly turn around and In high-tech circles, the remote con- declare that the machines represent a The approach I'm interested in cen- trol device used to send commands like welcome flow of \"power to the people\" ters around the dream of a home film li- \"pause,\" \"reverse\" and \"fast-forward\" -not in any progressive emotion. The brary, a dream that most of us would to a Video Cassette Recorder is called a button confers power upon us, but only never entertain before the advent of the zapper. And that futuristic buzz word as individuals; it does not promote a VCR. Collecting film is expensive, cum- corresponds exactly to the way we feel sense of solidarity. If anything, the im- bersome and illegal (you read Variety sto- when we operate a VCR, retarding the mediate sensation is a territorial spasm ries about these people getting raided flow of images in, say, 48 HRS, to make a of possessiveness. \"This movie is mine and arrested; especially if they've got a close study of Walter Hill's editing tech- now,\" you say to yourself. \"And I want few more feet of footage from A Star is nique-or Annette O'Toole's torso. that too; and that, and THAT. .. \" Born). LaserDiscs are also expensive, New-coined phrases like \"time shift- and the limited catalog tends toward the ing\" may sound harmless and mundane, The moguls are dead right about one stodgy middle-brow; you can't get Russ but they're just euphemisms: The dark thing. Their control over the product is Meyer or Robert Bresson pictures on heart of the machine's appeal is finally being steadily diluted. Armed with a LaserDiscs, and it still costs $60,000 to no different from the familiar childhood zapper, you become a home film pro- buy a disc machine that will record. fantasy of pointing a magic finger and grammer and a home archivist-even a freezing people in their tracks. Or blast- basement editor. In fact, our relation- But any film that's broadcast or cable- ing them to smithereens. ship with movies shifts the second we cast can be easily copied and shelved for realize that we can now do much more posterity. All you have to do is lie in wait I thought of this recently when howls than just watch passively. We can take with your finger on the zapper. I've only of frustration went up, from media possession of a film, and then step in and had the machine for a month-and-a-half, greed-heads on both coasts, over a Su- alter it. We can slow it down or speed it myself, and my permanent collection al- preme Court decision favorable to home up or stop it dead in its tracks, keep all of ready includes three vintage Von Stern- video recording. The key argument of it or just selected chunks , replace the bergs, Viva Las Vegas, The Long Riders , the anti-horne-taping militants (who call sound track with music and commentary The Girl Can't Help It, The Rutles, From it \"piracy\") is apparently that Clint of our own. If there's anything you don't Here To Eternity, Attack of the 50-Foot Eastwood and Ray Stark are being like about a film on tape, you no longer Woman, David Cronenberg's Fast Com- robbed blind by a fiendish conspiracy of have to grin and bear it. You can do pany, Laurence Olivier's King Lear and VCR owners. That claim, I'm afraid, is a something about it, right this minute. all eight hours of Nicholas Nickleby. Bet bit difficult to swallow. Video recording my collection is bigger than yours! does usurp the manufacturer's right to For some people, of course, VCRs are determine how his products will be dis- just a convenient home appliance, on a • tributed and marketed; theoretically it par with telephone answering machine. eats into his income. But there is evi- From my film-snob's point-of-view, The principal drawback of cassettes dence (as Gregg Kilday reports on page these \"time shifters\" are just television as compared with discs (not to mention 62) that the VCR and theatrical markets addicts who want to watch the Letter- film itself) is diminished picture quality. aren't competitive, but actually re-en- man show in the morning while they A copy made even on the best blank force and promote each other. Bootleg- dress for work. They buy only discount tape, on the best machine, at the fastest ging film collectors who amass 35 or 16 speed and from the strongest cable sig- mm prints have pilfered real property nal, will still produce a somewhat de- with a fixed monetary value.The pro- graded image. A good disc picture, on duction of home tape, however, is more the other hand , is close to broadcast like taking a gravestone rubbing; the quality. But even with their pastel tints broadcast signal leaves an image of itself that tend to lose gradations and coalesce behind on a length of tape, but the origi- into monochromatic blocks, some nal signal hasn 'tbeeneliminatedor even movies look quite lovely on tape , partic- weakened. Something new exists (the ularly if the original film lighting is rela- copy), but nothing has been destroyed. tively high-key and the colors are vivid . You are not restricting anyone's access to The big sacrifice is surface texture and the movie, you have not made anyone detail. In this respect, black and white makes a better copy than color (perhaps because there are fewer levels of visual information to record) and, of course, 49
older movies in boxier aspect ratios The best movies have an imposing aesthetic aren't procrustified as much on televi- dignity that repudiates the very concept ofhome sion. Some excellent color films with a video recording . .. When I went to see the rough-edged visual quality also look fine complete Leopard last year, some jerk stood up on tape; Pixote, for example, is a much afterward and said, \"Jesus, they oughta take the better VCR movie than The Grey Fox. scissors to this one. \" I care enough about image quality to mind .Well , all the latter-day equivalents familiar can they get before losing that buy decent blank tape and to record only at the fastest speed. For some reason, of those shows can now be yours , at the invigorating edge of freshness? Unless though , I resi st the \"videophile\" ap- proach to home taping, which insists touch of a button. your favorite pictures are exceedingly upon stereo-sound hook-ups, studio- quality \"monitor\" screens, and perhaps But the dream has something night- esoteric, there's a good chance they'll even a clandestine 3/4-inch machine for \"dubbing\" purposes. I resist videophilia marish about it, too. Do we really want turn up at revival houses quite fre- partly because I find it tempting and can't afford it. But I also don' t want to the detritus of dozens of cast-off fads and quently enough to satisfy the craving. get suckered into a frame of mind that values picture quality even over content infatuations piling up around our ankles? So it may be a waste of time and blank -like those hardened audiophiles who are listening for \"tape hiss\" rather than It might be like going back to your old tape to record your most cherished key changes when the y hear Beethoven . Moderation in pursuit of children's books and realizing, appalled, movies-and that goes double when image-quality helps us keep things in perspective: tape is tape and, visually, it how second-rate they were. Obviously they' re Masterworks of World Cinema. will never be a match for film. the besrchildren's books (the Oz stories, The best movies have an imposing aes- But the pride of ownership, I find , is compensation enough for the inevitable say, or The Wind in the Willows) still look thetic dignity that repudiates the very loss of texture-there's just so much that you can confiscate! There's the rock pro- good when we return to them as concept of home video recording. If gramming on USA and MTV; the vin- tage Republic Westerns and the cheesy grown-ups, and so might the best films you're like me, the thought of confining Forties horror pictures on the Nashville Network; the skin flicks and the bounc- and television shows . But will the stuff all seven Samurai to a meager cassette ing Bunnies on The Playboy Channel; the art on Bravo and the Golden Age we are ' inclined to save today still look will leave you feeling slightly ill. If you revivals on CBN Oack Benny, Dobie Gil- Lis, Burns and Allen). A VCR owner leaf- terrific twenty years from now? And love movies , instinctively you will want ing through the latest issue of On CabLe feels like Jackie O. examining a what would you have recorded if you'd to preserve the theatrical integrity of the Neiman-Marcus catalog: it's a garden of goodies waiting to be plucked . (\"Now had a VCR when you were is? You are best specimens. You'll want to go to a let's see. I'll take some of that, and a thinking of items that look good now, theater and let them structure the experi- little of this and .. . \") Part of the excitement is anticipatory, but were those your real favorites at the ence, without admitting even the nag- of course. How terrific it feels to have all time? Did you really prefer Leave It to ging temptation to revise. When I went those tapes at you r fingertips , five or ten or even twenty years from now. You Beaver to Dennis the Menace? Were you to see the complete Leopard last year, think , \"What If VCRs had already been introduced in the Fifties , in the so- secretly bored stiff when your parents some jerk sitting nearby stood up after- called Golden Age?\" Imagine possess- ing a complete set of The Prisoner; or watched Dick Van Dyke? There are all ward and said, \"Jesus, they really ought The Avengers with Diana Rigg; or Ernie Kovacs' shows; or Playhouse 90; or the sorts of pitfalls, and no assurances that to take the scissors to this one.\" That's Nixon-Kennedy debates; or Elvis or Buddy Holly, or The Beatles on The Ed digging into your tape collection in the the attitude that watching great movies Sullivan Show; or Elvis' comeback spe- cial from Hawaii; or every last install- year 2000 won't be depressing rather on cassette would stimulate. ment of Laugh In; or The Smothers than exhilarating. Comedy Brothers' Hour; or Saturday • Night Live; or Zero Mostel in Waitingfor • GodOl; or Captain Kangaroo with Mr. A good many pictures will drop off Greenjeans and The Banana Man. Or The quality of a program , or the in- your want-to-tape list all by themselves. any other vintage video that comes to tensity of your affection for it, is not a When it comes to the crunch of actually reliable guage of tape-ability. Your taste allocating time and tape and shelf space, will surely shift with time and, even if it you may suddenly discover that you doesn't, how often would you want to don't really need a copy of L'Avventura re-read even your favorite novels or to after all. Or else you catch The Road re-see yo ur favorite films? The whipper- Warrior again on HBO, with a third of snapper \" repeat\" filmgoers obviously the image missing, and without stereo, want to see their favorites over and over and realize that a home tape of that pic- again-that's why theatrical teen-hits ture would be as inadequate as a Xerox like Raiders and Flashdance are consis- copy of a Bosch landscape. You learn to tent best-sellers on cassette. Tape is live with the limitations of the equip- tailor-made for material you want to see ment, but only to a point. frequently (like sex or exercise posi- Short term copies-an extension of tions); and it can actually seem rather time-shifting-are something else wasteful to use it in any other way. But again. A film critic may tape Out of the no matter how much you may love The Past or Unfaithfully Yours because a big Seven Samurai or Top Hat or The Flavor of new remake is coming up. Or you might Green Tea over Rice, could yo u watch have From Here to Eternity on tape for a any of them more than once a year with- while, because you're reading the novel out killing a little of the pleasure? Don't and want to finish it before seeing the you want to keep on being startled and film. A good general rule of thumb is: delighted by your favorite films? How When in doubt, make the tape; then let 50 t
~~------\"\"~HE NATIONAL BESTSELLER! \"EXCELLENt ALL-ENCOMPASSING\" - New York Post \"A SAVVY, GOSSIPY BOOK\" - The New York Times Book Review \"ILLUMINATING...AJOY TO READ\" -Variety 8ytwo-time Academy Award- winn ing screenwriter and author of Boys and Girls Together; Marathon Man, and other bestsellers \"Surprising , refreshing and informative. I movie gossip ... and anyone with a serious interest in writing for the screen.\" cannot recommend it too highly .... -Philadelphia Inquirer Conducts the reader splendidly through Goldman's 20-year relationships with the \"Lets us in on a lot of trade secrets ... 1 don 't know of a more readable book on movie business, including a good many Broadway than Goldman 's 'The Season .' Now he has matched that with one of the encounters with celebrated stars and breeziest of all Hollywood books.\" directors.\" -Chicago Sun-Times -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette \"Pound for pound, page for page,Adven- \"Generous with caustic sound-stage glimpses of movies in the making.\" -Time tures in the Screen Trade spills over with more solid, practical , pragmatic advice ''At his best Goldman is the most enter- taining writer around ... .But one doesn 't than any book about moviemaking I've have to love Goldman or aspire to a career in the movies to find Adventures in the ever read. It makes no difference whether Screen Trade good reading .\" you love Hollywood or hate Hollywood -Houston Chronicle (and Goldman does both), you cannot \"Insider-anecdotes, zesty bias, cynical read this volume without furthering your wisdom , and the-way-it-really-is atmo- sphere: must reading for savvy followers understanding of American movie- of the commercial movie-biz scene.\" making .\" -St. Louis Post-Dispatch -Kirkus Reviews ''A fascinating look at the creative and crit- m=~~o~!~~!~com\"'y ical process ... gossipy, ironically humor- ousand pragmatic ...Mr. Goldman has To order, send check or money order for $10.20 in U.S.A. or succeeded admirably\" -Baltimore Sun $11.00 in Canada(includes postage and handling) to: Dept. PAA-H37-625 ( Fe), Warner Books,666 Fifth Avenue, New York, \"He writes entertainingly and author- NY 10103. Please allow four to six weeksfor delivery. itatively-and sometimes, a tad bitchily -about the neurotics, back-stabbers, tired hacks and dedicated craftsmen who spin movie fantasie~ .. .it's informative, opinionated-and a lot of fun to read .\" -The Houston Post \"Hilarious.... Goldman 's book can be enjoyed by those who like high-caliber
natural selection do the rest. If a tape You think ofyourselfas a tasteful, discerning isn't fated for permanence, the fact will be magically revealed to you one fine adult-and then you're confronted ·with a hard day when you' re running low on blanks. andfast choice between Jules and Jim and The It's all relative, and you can't really make those decisions until the moment of Beach Girls ... truth has actually arrived. Then you find out what your real priorities are. theaters at least that frequently, then The use of the hardware becomes al- most a self-sufficient activity; the zapper The upshot is often surprising, if not you won't get much use from it. You may is the joy-stick of a new kind of \"video downright disheartening. You think of game.\" But to play the game you must yourself as a tasteful, discerning adult- not play your tape of a \"rarity\" even that have software. And the software that en- and then you' re confronted with a hard courages maximum manipulation of the and fast choice between Jules and Jim often, but if the tape constitutes your hardware is preferred. Thus, we are and The Beach Girls, and self-doubt drawn away from movies that are not creeps in. Do you now stand revealed as only access to the picture, it is neverthe- \"video friendly, \" toward those that are. an aesthetic hypocrite? Not necessarily. If movie classics and tightly-plotted Jules andJim may simply be one of those less extremely useful : The situational- story films render most operations of the film s that you respect too much to VCR irrelevant, then you won't think squeeze onto a cassette. (You tell your- ethics of the video-cassette recorder. first of the those movies when you think self). How could you possibly do any about doing something with your VCR. appreciable damage to a picture like The Usefulness is crucial , because you've Beach Girls?It is , in fact, one of the most Handling the zapper allows us to re- distinctive characteristics of home-video purchased the machine and gone to the spond actively to the hints we've picked activity that it tends to favor the films up from the machines.If the VCR draws that have the least to lose in translation. trouble of making tapes, and you feel us away from movies with consecutive The machines steer you away not just story structures, the zapper allows us to from the mainstream movies but also like a sap and spendthrift if you're not transform any picture into an anthology away from the best and inexorably to- of peak incidents. With the zapper skip- ward the fringe. using them. What happens is that you ping over the tedious connective pas- sages , even a four-star slogger like Of all the home-vid formats , the VCR deliberately select films for taping that Heaven's Gate becomes as zippy as The exhibits this tendency most starkly, be- Road Warrior: Slow down for the cause fringe pictures tend to turn up far you think might contribute something violence and Isabelle Huppert's nude more often on the broadcast screen than scenes, and eliminate the rest. Movies at your local tape-and-disc emporium. special to a nice evening with your without what we used to call \"good All form s of television, broadcast and parts\" can be written-off altogether, and cablecast alike, have an insatiable appe- friends-and these, again, do not al- bad films that do contain a few choice tite for movies, and TV mavens are well- morsels suddenly become watchable, schooled in tolerance. Films we would ways turn out to be Masterworks of because we no longer have to wade never exert ourselves to see in theaters through all the other stuff to get to them. look perfectly acceptable when they World Cinema. The noxious habits asso- come to us (if not for nothing, then with- The only fly in the ointment is an out much effort) courtesy of the accom- ciated with ordinary TV viewing also element of poetic justice: It's just such modating cathode ray. You shouldn't strenuous functions as \" Pause\" and hold your breath waiting for a Margue- apply to cassette consumption: you like \"Search\" that cause the greatest visable rite Duras Film Festival even on L.A. 's wear-and-tear to the tape image-rather famous Z Channel. But you can hope for to eat Cheese Doodles and drink beer like the psychic gifts in a Stephen King occasional screenings of an uncommon or David Cronenberg story that confer Hammer horror picture, a neglected So- and throw wisecracks at the screen. And unimaginable power, but also destroy nia Braga nudie, or a cast-off American brain cells. You have to play with those release like Heaven's Gate. These pic- while it might cause you pain to see Jules tempting buttons to feel you' re getting tures would have no audience at all if the full value from the machine, but you TV systems didn' t need great gobs of and Jim under these conditions, things never get anything for nothing. \"filler\" for the wee hours. In that con- text, an otherwise inadmissable movie like Invasion ofthe Bee Girls may actually The \"Search\" buttons help you hunt can be fairly satisfying. down the high spots, and the \"Slow\" improve, and the natural selection and \"Pause\" buttons help you savor So we' re pushed firmly in a particular them. You can study a favorite director's direction (precipitously downward) both process tends to favor them. For all so- editing techniques and discover won- by the limitations of the machine, and ders in his work that were previously by the particular range of material it cial functions , the most successful films visable only to film students armed with opens up to us. You may also be consid- Moviolas. (The opening credits of The ering how you will use the tapes when are those that can be thoroughly enjoyed King of Comedy appear against a freeze- you've acquired them. If you can't for- frame of Robert De Niro's face. But the see playing a tape more than once a year, even if you' re not paying close attention: frame that's frozen is also intercut into and if the film is readily available in the shot a fraction ofa second earlier, out gag-oriented comedies, where you can watch a sequence here and there and tune out in between; musicals, for the same reason; horror and sex and action pictures-films , in short, that break down easily into a series of discreet \"set pieces.\" It's often said that the great thing about cassettes is that they allow you to watch a film the way you'd read a book; skimming the dull parts, setting it down whenever you please and picking it up again, right where you left off. Well, those benefits are even more ben- eficial when you're watching movies en masse . • Just as buying a new stove makes you want to cook something, and buying a new car makes you want to go some- place , the things you can do to movies with a VCR are the things you' ll want to do. We interact primarily with the ma- chines themselves, which have fixed characteristics (hence the term \"hard- ware\" ). We interact only indirectly, through the machines, with the mallea- ble films (hence the term \"software\"). 52
The Historyof Movie Photography ALL NEW IN '84 INTERNATIONAL FILM GUIDE: 1984. Peter Cowie , ed . Celebrating 21 years as the world's most useful film annual. News , THE SHAPE OF RAGE: The Films of reviews, and stills from 60 countries . THE HISTORY OF MOVIE David Cronenberg. Piers Handling , ed. Over 500 pages of vital information. Illus- PHOTOGRAPHY. Brian Coe . A The first book about Canada's \"Baron of trated. Paper $11 .95. fascinat ing study of the art of Blood .\" Director of THE DEAD ZONE, VIDEODROME, SCANNERS, THE INTERNATIONAL MUSIC GUIDE: 1984 cinematography from its beg innings BROOD ... creator of everyone's ultimate Jane Dudman , ed. This all new '84 Edition through sound and color to widescreen fantasies and nightmares. A detailed focuses on trends in good music and and 3-0 . Lavishly illustrated with full - exploration of his films plus an extensive music-making around the world . Reports color photos and diagrams . Oversize . interview offer unique insights into the from more than 25 countries take you to 176 pp. cloth $24 .95 . man and his controversial works. Illus- trated with many previously unpublished the best concerts and operas, and intro- MOVIES FROM THE MANSION: A photographs, this book is a must for all duce you to world reknowned composers History of Pinewood Studios . George horror/science-fiction fans and Cronen- and soloists. Plus expanded sections on Perry. Th e story of England 's most berg followers. Complete filmography Early Music, major music festivals , music famous and colorful movi e studio . with credits. Paper $11.95. schools, scores, music shops, etc . Illus- Oversize and heavily illustrated . 192 pp. trated. Paper $11 .95. cloth $19 .95 . INTERNATIONAL TV AND VIDEO GUIDE: 1984. Olli Tuomola, ed . The HOLLYWOOD: THE FIRST HUNDRED brand new 2nd Edition of this com- prehensive annual is packed with infor- YEARS . Bruce T Torrence . The story of TH~ FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY mation on visual technology, from current programming to the latest equipment. America's own Shangri-la by one of CALENDAR . With an essay by James Reports from more than 30 countries on television and video programs, movies , Hollywood 's native sons . Illustrated with Monaco . In 1792 , the French had a and personalities. Plus surveys of the best video cassette sources, magazines, more than 300 stunning duotone better idea : a new calendar free of shops, U.S. cable stations, etc. Illus- trated . Paper $11.95 . photographs from the author's personal unreason , superstition , and tyranny! We archives. 288 pp. cloth $24 .95/paper think it's time to revive the calendar $15 .95 . (even if the revolution must wait). Twel ve NEW YORK ZOETROPE months of thirty days (plus five holidays publishes more than ninety at the end of the yea r). And best of all- ten -day weeks . Think of the weekends l books on film, media and paper $5 .95 . other subjects. ---------- - -- -------- --. - - -- - ---------- .. Hello Zoetrope : o Send me the following books, I've o Also send me your free catalogue . enclosed the proper amount plus NAME ____________________ ADDRESS ________________- $1 .50 for postage and handling (2 .00 for 5 or more books). Thanksl Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. _ -________ ZIP _ _ __ NYS residents add 8 V.% sales ta x. NEW YORK ZOETROPE Suite 516 Dept M384 80 East 11th Street New York 10003
of sequence, for a subliminal flashbulb When a typical Hollywood peek-a-boo skin effect. For confirmation, study the mo- scene pops up in a movie, you don't feel cheated ment with your \"Frame advance\" con- or enraged; you feel downright smug, as one trol. ) who can afford to be patient . .. Who among us, however, is hypocrit- as stories; to understand how they can solve into a succession of movie clips. tical enough to claim that studying cuts lie and yet contain an element of truth. The roster of commercially marketed is the first best use that springs to mind? (\"Plausibility\" is a word critics often use compilation tapes already includes sev- Or maybe it depends on what you mean to refer to a fictional event that seems eral collections of trailers and porn se- by \"cuts.\" Watching Dawn of the Dead truthful in this way: if it hasn't hap- quences, and a self-explanatory item (as a rental, of course; it's still too strong pened, it certainly could, and if it did called Film Gore. The illicit tape, Holly- for any known cable system) you can happen it would seem exemplary.) wood Out-takes (sold in some porn stores begin to see through George Romero's Striking the mental balance necessary to in L.A.), turns out to be a sampler of quick-cut-to-the-blood-bag trickery; enjoy fiction is a fairly sophisticated ex- big-budget nude scenes, copped from squinting at the frames immediately ercise, and it doesn't seem to come natu- cable and then duped half to death- preceeding impact, you spot the seams rally, like the perception of patterns in Sissy Spacek taking a shower in Carrie, and bulges of Tom Savini's clever gore music. With movies, in particular, our Kathleen Beller going swimming in The implants. There's an undeniable fasci- first impulse is to accept everything we Betsy, and many more. Similar catch-all nation in watching blood spurt from the see as literally real. It's easier for our tapes of musical and dance numbers, or same wound over and over again, at a instincts to grasp that a man can lie when of the best routines from comedies, slo-mo speed far slower than even Sam he speaks or writes, than that a photo- would probably be even more popular graph can lie. It takes some acquired on cassette, where we can hop around at Peckinpah could stomach. With skill and will-power to absorb fiction; to will, than they have often been on TV violence, the impulse is to break it down hold ourselves in this unnatural mental and even in theaters (cf. That's Entertain- and analyze the effect, and to some ex- attitude. And some fictions (often the ment!). tent neutralize it. The zapper transfers best) require more willpower than control of the images to you, and dilutes others. The attraction is obvious: The so- their emotional force. Repetition drains called Out-takes collection is a sort of a the scenes of meaning, just as repeating VCRs aren't going to reverse this long \"Celebrity Skin\" anthology with the joy a word several times makes it sound like process of training and habituation all by of movement included. And few would gibberish. You are relishing the bloody themselves, but they do make it easier contend that the average Bruce Lee or incident as pure spectacle, but also re- to set aside. It can be remarkably pleas- Busby Berkeley movie is up to much in ducing it to the status of an isolated ant (you might even call it \"liberating\") the intervals between the numbers. stunt. to leaf through a few movies searching Here too, however, the do-it-yourself for the cheap thrills hidden in the crev- approach is more cost-effective, and With bloodless martial arts displays or ices. And the new video-age hits, like more satisfying than buying off the rack. musical numbers, you may often get Flasluiance, Footloose, and Sudden Im- Putting together home-made compila- more pleasure from the sequences if the pact, understand our impatience; tion tapes transforms the ordinary TV surrounding padding is cleanly excised. they're anthology movies already, owner into a dedicated hobbiest: You And if you've always resented the dopey snazzy Greatest Hits packages of inter- tune-in movies like Cat People or The romantic sub-plots in the later Marx changable set pieces, tailor-made for Gang's All Here with a purposeful glint in Brothers pictures, you can now re-editA VCR manipulation. They take the ero- your eye. Film critics and the most dedi- Night at the Opera to make it more like sion of the fiction sense for granted and cated civilian moviegoers have always Duck Soup. With nude scenes (especially pander to the new fragmented sensibil- been adept at savoring the occasional the frustrating brief snippets that are pleasing flourish even in dismal pic- usually all we get in major studio pro- ity. tures, seeking some compensation for ductions), you're slowing down and VCR consciousness, which is a process the misspent hours in-between. \"You freezing the action not to diminish the know each other at once,\" as Pauline impact, but to heighten it. When a typi- of finally making some of our implicit Kael explained in \"Trash, Art and the cal Hollywood peek-a-boo skin scene relationships with movies explicit, Movies,\" \"because you talk less about pops up in a movie, you don't feel might as well go all the way now and good movies than about what you love in cheated and enraged; you feel down- turn figurative anthology movies into bad movies.\" Nothing has really right smug, as one who can afford to be real ones. There are people who get changed, except that now you don't just patient. You're already planning what their strongest sense of zapper-power talk about it; you pull out the cassette you will do to the picture when you get from the \"Forward search\": They delib- and take a look. your hands on it in the privacy of your erately leave the commercials in when own living room-making a mental note recording from a broadcast signal, be- Those privileged moments in bad to conduct a close study of, say, the cause it gives them such a kick to whiz movies may be more meaningless than boiler room scene in Reckless when the through them later on. For others, the most, of course, when surgically re- film plays HBO. The pretense of plot is VCR is at its best on \"Pause,\" proudly moved from their context in the film the first casualty of VCR fever. And not ignoring what its master doesn't wish to they helped redeem-and from the just the pretense: No movie still tells a see. If you think you'll just fast-forward context of your existence at the time. story when you process it through a zap- through something anyway, why bother The collection and the collecting take per. At times this is no great loss, and to record it in the first place? on lives of their own, but you may find those are the times the machine prefers. In VCR heaven, all movies tend to dis- At some time in our lives, we had to learn to perceive film, books, and plays 54
Images and Imagemakers Concepts in Film Theory DUDLEY ANDREW. A master at Howard Hawks, The Man You making the world of film theory Loved To Hate accessible to a largely mystified Storyteller public, Dudley Andrew, author of Erich von Stroheim and Hollywood the classic Major Film Theories, GERALD MAST. This lively, continues the debate concerning the in-depth study reveals the complex RICHARD KOSZARSKI. Stroheim's proper approach to film . He skill- art behind such Hawks classics as career, which included such gran- full y guides the reader through Scarface, Red River, Bringing Up Baby, diose p rojects as Foolish Wives, Greed, discussions of semiotics, structur- and The Big Sleep. \"Illuminating and and Queen Kelly, changed the face of alism, genre, psychoanalytic theory, fascinating ... One is gra teful to Mr. America n movies. The Man You Loved and hermeneutics. \"Concepts in Film Mast for his fight to place Hawks at to Hate recrea tes von Stroheim's Theory once again establishes the top among Hollywood directors. meteoric career and takes a fascinat- [Andrew] as tbe foremost metathe- His case for Hawks is eloquent, ing look at moviemaking. \"Surely orist of film . . .. This book is certain exciting, often persuasive, enter- fated to become a classic of film to elicit discussion, but will inevit- tainingand -yes, fun .\"- The New biography, an amazingly docu- ably change the tenor of film York Times Book Review. \"What Gerald mented study of the old Hollywood studies.\"-Donald Crafton, Director Mast has done in his newest book is system and its bosses . . . fin e, of the Film Study Center, to talk about Hawks in a way that readable p rose . . . deserves unlimited Yale University the director might well have hurrahs. - Variety 253 pp. paper $7.95 endorsed , not only by w riting in a 355 pp., 30 illu s. paper $13. 95 clean and fa miliar style whose grace The Altering Eye and effiCiency complement the Documentary subj ect, but also by talking about the Contemporary right things.\"-Film Quarterly A History of the Non-Fiction Film International Cinema 415 pp., 200 illu s. paper $10.95 Revised Edition ERIK BARNOUW. A leading film historian has updated his pioneering work to encompass the wave of recent docume ntaries, including Life on Earth, From Mao to Mozart, and The Atomic Cnfe. \"Richly researched and compactly organized into easy prose by Barnouw, writing at th e peak of his competence. \"-Vnriety, on the first edition 368 pp., 160 illus. paper $8.95 ROBERT PHILLIP KOLKER. Focusing on those films \"made in a r- - - - - - - - - - - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ srepfiuristaol,f\"reKsoislktaenrcien,vreesbtiegllai otens, tahned I TO.' OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Dept. EC stylistic innovations ana the political I Iand psychological concerns of the 200 Madison Avenue • New York, N .Y. 10016 postwa r international cinema. I Please send me th e fo llowing: Qty. Qty. _ HOWARD HAWKS, Cutting across a wide range of I - CONCEPTS IN FILM THEORY movements and styles, he illumi- $7.95 #503428-7 nates the work of directors from _ THE ALTERI NG EYE $10.95 STORYTELLER $10.95 #503233-0 _ THE MAN YOU LOVED TO HATE IRossellini to Godard to Fassbinder, #503302-7 Iand concludes with a fascinating - DOCUMENTARY $8.95 # 503301-9 $13. 95 #503379-5 Ilook at Latin American and III Hunga rian filmmakers. \"An exciting Please encl ose check or money order. Add appropriate sa les tax. Na me _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ Iand cn allenging 'study of aesthetic Ihistory.' . .. Cri ticism at its searching best. \"- The Los Angeles Times Add ress - - -- - - - - - - - - - -_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ I Ci ty I 416 pp. ,50illus. paper $10.95 Sta te Zip L-_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _---I._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - '
you don' t refer to the m as often as you Life got too short a few years ago for hauling thought you would. The really g~od myselfto the theater, paying the five bucks and so ngs and sequences will remain effec- then sitting through some stinker waitingfor the tive, and will probably seem even more heroine to peel, orfor the monster to rip impressive if they continue to move you when the nostalgic glow wears off: one -somebody's ear off. .. serviceable definition of a \"class ic,\" af- [t[ ter all , is precisely that its effectiveness transcends its immediate personal or his- rette. The habits and associations of the- may be easier to adjust to these develop- toric context. ater-going provoke a behavior-modifica- ments if we've been practicing at home; tion response that eliminates the craving and the faster cultural pace has already It doesn' t see m to be the case, how- like magic, for tw'O hours at stretch. Of been drummed into us a bit by speedy ever, that the new video distractions are course, I was watching movies regularly phenomena like punk rock and video havi ng a noticeable, deleterious effect before I started smoking, and I was games. on taste . They may encourage impa- watching movies long before I got a VCR. tience wi th traditional narrative forms , SO my itchy-fingered friend could be a We can certainly adjust if we care to, but can we learn much about narrative special case: The new, more impatient and those who don' t will be cheerfully from wa tching movies anyway? Most habits of mind fostered by the VCR may abandoned by the on-rushing zeitgeist people who know anything about story- not have much direct impact on the way -which might not be a bad idea, since telling also read lots of novels , so they're real movie lovers feel about movies. the latest \"advances\" in domestic im- presumably immune. And the so-called age-c0nsumption (superficially so \" mass audience\" probably has very little But whatabout those forwhom video, streamlined and futuristic) seem to be story sense left after three solid decades and not film , is the primary medium? encouraging some fairl y primitive re- of commercial tube experience. For those , in effect, who were already sponses. In their most immediate ef- addicted to cigarettes before they ever fects , the ones we feel as we sit there One of the things we do grow out of, set foot in a theater? Many of us have glued to the tube , these new technologi- though , is the almost limitless willing- been disturbed at the movies by people cal marvels are not sweeping us forward ne ss of yo uth to waste time sitting conversing complacently nearby, and into a utopian new realm of ever more through sch lock, just to see a single good gripe, \"They seem to think they' re subtle and sophisticated perception, as or even stimulating episode. The adult home watching television. \" Those the video-visionaries claim. On the con- says, \" Life's too short. \" In this respect, chatty habits were formed by the old- trary, they seem to be slowly desubli- the effect of the VCR is certainly regres- style (pre-cable and pre-VCR), home mating our pre-aesthetic impulses. sive. Ifwe still have some vestigial fond- video experience. Isn' t it reasonable to ness for the great gore sequence, or assume that the new-style vid-people There's a supposedly blissful notion dance number, or shower scene in a will also carry their habits into theaters , floating around of a \"video hearth,\" trash movie, the machine makes them and make fresh demands upon film. which will re-enforce family and friendly much easier to track down , and can re- Writer-director George Miller says that ties by bringing the divisive diversions kindle a repressed fixation-at least for watching teenagers zipping through the back home. What I see looks more like a a while. For me, already, the novelty is dull patches of cassette movies was di- world of machine-age cavemen, hud- wearing off and the law of diminishing rectly responsible for the unprece- dling around the cathode ray campfire, returns has begun to take effect. Life dented editing pace ofThe Road Warrior. surrounded by thickets of machines that got too short a few years ago for hauling Pundits have been muttering lately create a dangerous illusion ofhighercivi- myself to the theater, paying the five about \"video-game movies\" like Star lization. The environment is more ad- bucks and then sitting through some Wars and \"MTV-mo vies\" like vanced, but the people are more primi- stinker waiting for the heroine to peel or FLashdance ; Miller's Road Warrior may tive. Perhaps a good analogy would be a for the monster to rip somebody's ear be the clearest example yet of the \"VCR- power failure during a thunderstorm, off. Well, life is also too short for trek- movie,\" the aesthetic off-spring of the when nobody has an oil lamp; the higher king to the video store to buy blank fast-forward button. technology goes out, and we're plunged tape, spending ten hard-earned dollars into a deeper darkness than ever before. for it, then making the tape and care- The way we watch theatrical movies When the computers and calculators full y sifting through it on \" Forward may not be directly affected by our fail , there may not be anyone out there search\" to find something that is disap- home video experience, but it will who can still do math on paper. pointing anyway. Life is much too short surely be affected indirectly, as the perkier rhythms and tempos come back And when the VCRs go out, will there •for this malarkey. at us in the VCR in home made films. It still be anyone who knows how to tell a One VCRowner I know has confessed story? ~ that at times now, sitting bored stiff in a movie theater (like at The Keep when the monster isn' t on, or BLame It On Rio, when Michelle Johnson isn' t naked) , he feels his zapper-finger twitching invol- untarily, reach ing for the \"Forward sea rch \" that isn't there. So far, I've no- ticed no direct spill-over to the theatrical experience myself. I smoke, too , but at the movies I never get a yen for a ciga- 56
Moore , Kinski, & Assante in Unfaithfully '84. Kurt Kreuger, Linda Darnell, Rex Harrison in the pre-make. by Veronica Geng when you laugh at the statue. But be- The first time I saw Unfaithfully Yours , cause Sir Alfred has been so clearly char- I came away with what seemed then an During the slapstick climax ofPreston acterized, your laugh grows out of the inexplicable fascination with that prop; I Sturges' 1948 Unfaithfully Yours, Sturges sense that nothing could annoy him didn' t know why I remembered it so gets at least three laughs from three more, in his desperate state, than the clearly or found it so funn y. I didn' t identical objects found in a closet. Sir sight of this particular aesthetic eyesore. understand it until I saw the current re- Alfred de Carter (Rex Harrison), the .make, in which there's nothing-liter- symphony conductor who suspects his Rushing to another closet, he stands ally or figuratively-in the closet. wife of infidelity, is trying to act out the on a chair, reaches in, and finds ... again first of three revenge plans; and because not the box but first one and then an- In the slapstick scene parallel to Rex we've seen him rehearse its every detail , other replica of the statue: two more Harrison's, Dudley Moore, frantic in his in a fantasy sequence, while conducting laughs, set off not just by the repetition hunt for a tape recorder, opens a great Rossini, we know just what to expect but by the suggestion that, at this cruelly many drawers. Only there's nothing in when he opens the closet: a record- inappropriate moment, albatross wed- them. Or if there is, we don' t see it. The making machine (needed to rig an elab- ding presents are coming home to roost. scene is devoid of content, except for orate murder-alibi) in a big box. This time you get a longer look at the the rudimentary fact of a man looking for statue and another laugh at its vacuous something and being unable to find it. He reaches up to the top shelf of the semi-abstract features-its arty enigma He isn't unable to find it in a funny way. closet ... and finds not the big box but further maddening a man who's in no He just opens and closes the drawers- an irritatingly unattractive little sculp- mood for doubt when hellbent on so he doesn't even milk the repetition for ture. The foiled expectation triggers the decisive an act as murder. funny rhythms (the way Steve Martin laugh-and then the laugh builds, be- did brilliantly when he poured endless cause the statue itself is funny. It's not a In a scene that would otherwise be coffee from a paper bag in Dead Men monstrosity-that would be an easy mere skillful slapstick, the statue strikes Don't Wear Plaid). gag. It's an ersatz-African carving of two deeper comic chords of anxiety. Two- stylized heads joined at the shoulder: headed , anonymous, multiplied , it's a There are so many drawers (shallow suburban Brancusi. Its badness is mocking totem of both marriage and in- ones, in what may be sheet-music cabi- pitched at exactly the level-midcult- terchangeable couplings. It's constancy, nets) that at least one joke was asking to to offend the elegant Sir Alfred, whose and it's a mystery. It's this damned real be made: an apprehensive shot estab- taste is highbrow consciously spiced thing that's with you for life, and this lishing the formidable task of opening with lowdown: melodramatic cymbal elusive, tormenting whatsit that you them all. But even that didn't occur to clashes in the Rossini (\"Never be afraid can't get to the bottom of. Stashed away the moviemakers (director Howard to be vulgar!\" he yells joyfully at his in the dark, brought to light just in time Zieff; screenwriters Valerie Curtin and percussionist), a kitsch mantel-clock to put a hitch in the murder plan, it's also Barry Levinson, and Robert Klane), be- that plays \"Jingle Bells,\" and an Ameri- a totem 'of repression, of the need to cause they're not interested in drawers, can wife (Linda Darnell) whose favorite know, and of permanent uncertainty. or cabinets, or closets-only in what's dress is \"purple with plumes at the The themes of Sturges' Unfaithfully right out on the surface. Where Sturges hips.\" You don'tthink all this, of course, Yours, articulated in every line of the made a comedy worthy of Freud-an screenplay, are perhaps most fully em- elegant rationale for coming to terms bodied by a prop in the closet. with vulgar secrets-Zieff et al. work 57
exclusively in the middle range of banal fantasy-a scrap-heap of ragged exposi- movie is about his mind, which is never pop-psych explicitness. They unravel tion , shifting settings, and gags not more articulate than when it's baffled. Sturges' plot and use it as a line on which worth the stretch, like putting the char- You can't have much of a movie about a to hang Dr. Ruth Westheimer's spanky- acters in Halloween masks. The fantasy mind that comes up with \"No ... I was clean underpants. is visually indistingui shable from reality ... I was . . .. \" • and bears no relation to the music. (Not • The movie is overeager to give you that there is much music. After a while, I When Harrison accepts Darnell's fac- the bad news so that it can spend most of forgot Moore was a conductor-a pity, ile explanation for her behavior, calls for its time reass uring you that the worst since he conducts better than Rex Harri- a \"vulgar\" celebration with champagne can't happen. Opening with a flash-for- son. And the movie's telling finale is a and \"plumes at the hips,\"and embraces ward voice-over by Dudley Moore- pop tune that belonged in Arthur.) his tawdry enigma, we're left in doubt \"To nigh t I'm going to kill her\" -the In that sense , Zieff is certainly not about the literal truth , yet aesthetically very first scene pushes him into frenzied \"afraid to be vulgar,\" but he is afraid to satisfied. The remake, sacrificing this sus picion of his apparently lovey-dovey look murder in the face, even in fantas y. kind of artistic truth to a hasty muddle of wife (Nas tassja Kinski). Sturges took In Sturges' high-comedy version, the reconciliation blabber in a cluttered several scenes to tease that information straight-razor murder is handled with an street-scene wrapup (you didn' t believe into the open , and several more to tease icy intensity that's shocking; you don' t in me, it was all a mistake, I'll never it into the conductor's consciou s aware- see the razor touch her, but as Harrison mistrust you again, etc.), simply mimics ness-thus creating a mechanism to slashes in the direction of Darnell's the confusion oflife, and left me not just drive the central character and the plot: a throat, even today's audiences gasp. in doubt but in disbelief, as ill-satisfied tension between the need to repress and Zieff burlesques the scene, with Moore by the movie as I am by reality. the need to know. There's no drive or in a pig mask , and fearfull y edits out the The conflict between the need to tension in the remake, because it has no slightest suggestion that a knife might know and the need to not know is cen- layers of consciousness. It can't posit the contact the fair Nastassia's flesh. He just tral to Sturges' finest screenplays-Un- closet. It can' t tolerate for very long even can't believe there's anything so bad. faithfully Yours , The Lady Eve, and Sul- the poss ibility that Kinski could have He's forgotten that it's a fantasy-that it livan's Travels. Unfaithfully Yours isn' t a been unfaithful, let alone that her hus- takes place in the closet, whose precise justification of repression, any more band might love her without ever quite function is to contain such a dreadful than the other two are justifications of knowing the truth. Early on, it hints at Image. romantic delusion and social detach- and then rushes yo u with the explana- With everything set on the same com- ment. Sturges evidently did believe that tion: a private eye confused Kinski with forting realistic level , Moore's character there are bad things in life which we her sister, who's having the affair with is lost in the shuffle. Nobody figured out have to live with. But I would not be too the violinist. This movie is not a study of how to focu s our attention on him and quick to classify this attitude as conser- repression but itself an act of repression. his inner life. The supporting actors do vati ve or akin to , say, Roman Polanski's It says that life has no scary secrets-just too much (little though it is) , because \" Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown\" fatal- mix-ups and discussions of contempo the movie wants to be mentally healthy: ism . Sturges' confident revelling in in- sex ethics. \"Eve r think about sc rewing Look, these other people have feelings, stability gives hopefulness a fighting around anymore?\" is as deep as it dares too. Kinski acts vaguely hurt and con- chance against despair, which is why he to go. It isn' t about anything except the fused (generating at least one narrative could invent happy endings that don' t antics of Moore, as a man we never get red-herring) ; and Armand Assante gives feel like lies; and he was willing to go to know , trying to deal with so mething a distractingly well-shaded, appealing deep into Chinatown and have a fit we know never happened. performance as the pained, hey-I-make- about it. Whereas Zieff and company are Moore's character has no layers of psy- no-apologies DonJuan violinist-a rival the so rt of goody-goody liberals who chology or personality to vie with each more complex than the hero . Only Al- won't even admit Chinatown exists. other and structure the story. He just bert Brooks , as Moore's cuckolded, Preston Sturges made movies out of runs around in a lather of assorted emo- horny brother-in-law, mouthing grubby personal concerns-the most basic be- tions. Probably the biggest mistake the human-potential cliches as no one else ing perhaps the simple, vulgar fact of not sc reenwriters made was jettiso ning can, strikes the right note: like Rudy knowing, and never forgi ving, his real Sturges' three-part musical structure, in Vallee in the original, he's bland and flat father: needing to know him , and need- which Sir Alfred, while conducting Ros- enough to remain a comic subordinate ing not to need to know him. There was sini , Wagner, and Tchaikovsky, has -ifonly he had a superior to be subordi- no way to \" remake\" Unfaithfully Yours three revenge fantasies, projecting him- nate to. Dudley Moore talks like this: except by turning it over to an equally se lf with exquisitely aestheticized con- \"No . .. I was .. . I was ... .\" perso nal filmmaker. I'd have given it to trol into three different emotional states Rex Harrison stood out because- Brian De Palma, who would have been matched by the mu sic. Sturges, not re- well, because he was Rex Harrison , far better off testing himself against the garded as a particularly \"visual\" director, sharp and love ly as a fox-headed walking demands of high comedy than against gave these fantasy sequences a unity of stick; but also because Sturges wrote mindlessness, as he did in Scarface. setting and a lampli ght-and-shadows and directed his character as the movie's With Unfaithfully Yours, he could have tone that keep us constantly aware of the central and only consciousness. The played to his strengths and tempera- conductor's level of consciousness. The wife and the rival are perfectly played as ment: his taste for art and schlock, his variety-within-unity allows for comic perfect blanks, OntO whom he projects schematic script sense, his ability to and emotional range without ever con- his desires and suspicions. Our never make flat characters refract meaning, his fu sing us. The remakers , in the interests knowing who they are is a refraction of humor, and his musicality. Best of all, of \" realism ,\" provide a single murder his neve r knowing who they are. The closets turn him on. ~ 58
Claudette Colbert: She played by the rules ofthe gam. by Stephen Harvey artifice made to look like a spontaneous The shrewd actress who aims to be- jeu d' esprit. • come one of posterity's pets can choose from three likely strategies for immortal- This illusion of effortlessness was no ity. The first is to start shining a key light on your eccentricities when young, and mean trick, for the fledgling Colbert intensify the glare as the years accumu- late; look what this did for Joan Craw- wasn't exactly to the giggle-and-riposte ford's granitic grandeur, or for a patrician crybaby like Katharine Hepburn. The manner born. There was still plenty of second is to peak early and expire pre- maturely-or more drastic yet, retire Ruby Stevens from Brooklyn, U.S.A. before the fans have had time to tire of you for good. This ruse is pretty surefire, clinging to the screen persona of Barbara but the drawbacks are obvious. The last option requires forbearance, cooperative Stanwyck, whose theatrical apprentice- chromosomes, and a tinge of coy duplic- ity. You chart a long and unruffled screen ship and ascendant movie career closely career, in the course of which you exude complementary doses of sauciness and paralleled hers. But it's doubtful that sensibility, consistency and versatility. After a dignified slow fade from the very much of French-born Lily movies, all you must do next is live for- ever, looking preternaturally splendid Claudette Chauchoin (alumna of Man- decade after decade. Make selective public appearances, under the classiest hattan's Washington Irving High School) circumstances only. (Broadway is best, followed by Vogue and the Style page of remained in that subsequent apparition The New York Times.) When eventually summoned for the homages which are who seemed to have volleyed quips in your just desserts, radiate your patented grace and smarts: Admit that such ac- those trans-Atlantic tones forever. claim is still gratifying after so many years, while stressing that with a per- This transformation demanded re- sonal life as rewarding and busy as your own, you could manage quite nicely solve as well as talent. She certainly without all that. didn' t achieve it right away on the stage; For the past half century or so, Claudette Colbert has been giving ev- as a hardworking Broadway ingenue of erybody lessons in the school of impec- cable star deportment. Along the way, the Twenties, her natural habitat was she proved to be the most steadily ingra- tiating, and possibly the most all-round not the drawing room world of Philip proficient American screen actress of her generation. She was never the sort to Barry or S.N. Behrman. In addition to inspire paroxysms among the cultists- one of those artistes who give the im- appearances in lesser plays by those no- pression that acting is a private crusade or personal Calvary, who devours the torious wits Elmer Rice and Eugene camera or is consumed by it. Her range O'Neill, she scored her biggest stage success as a flinty but good-intentioned sideshow doxy in The Barker, opposite Walter Huston. This performance Claudette as Cleopatra. earned her the immortal monicker of didn' t really extend to those archetypes \"Legs\" Colbert, courtesy ofWalter Win- dearest to the Academy Award nominat- ing committee: the neurotic and the ide- chell. At the dawn of talkies, Paramount alist. .(Retrospective blessings on who- ever i't was that doused the flames when snatched her up in its wholesale raid of Warner Bros. threatened to exalt Colbert in a screen bio of Joan of Arc in the late Broadway (among its incoming class of Thirties.) Onscreen-and, one sus- pects, in private-Colbert was far too 1929 were Fredric March , Ruth Chatter- level-headed for any of that. Disconcert- ing the public with an excess of sweat or ton, Sylvia Sidney, Miriam Hopkins, hysterics was emphatically not her style. Instead she proved that work could look and Kay Francis). Her theatrical pedi- like pleasure when you were really good at it. Watching her sail over the hurdles gree notwithstanding, Colbert's most of a screwball comedy plot was like the spectacle of Astaire gliding around a touted attributes to date seemed to qual- bakelite dance floor. This was intricate ify her as the logical successor to Para- mount's silent purveyor of hotcha, Miss Clara Bow. The microphone soon proved that she was not to be so easily pegged. That voice, feminine but resonant, cultured without affectation, was slightly out of sync with her looks, which were slightly kewpie-Mediterranean: round cheeks, brunette curls, brown eyes made to look even darker with a fringe of black mas- 59
C.C. with Walter Huston in The Lady Lies. A bath ofasses milk in Sign of the Cross. Wearing Clark Gable's pj's in It Happened One Night. Temple, C.c., & Jennifer Jones in Since You Went Away. cara. Capable and vivacious as Colbert learn how to shape these varied roles to early reels of Manslaughter, among was, the studio was unsure quite what to express different facets of her own inim- others, had prepared the fans for that. do with her. Accordingly, for the first itable self, rather than bidding to be- But a flighty deb who has to be taught four years of her tenure, Paramount cast come Hollywood's most adroit chame- the realities of life by a brusque and Colbert as everything short of the fifth leon. Colbert achieved this burly type like Clark Gable? Not our Marx Brother. She played mistresses triumphantly in 1934 (her Academy Claudette. It's no accident that the most (Honor Among Lovers), decorous inge- Award year) with the triathlon of Cleo- anthologized scene in the movie cele- nues (The Big Pond), unwed mothers patra, Imitation of Life, and It Happened brates the return of \"Legs\" Colbert, as (Torch Singer), heiresses both giddy (The One Night . Beneath the trappings of she teaches her companion that there's a Misleading Lady) and chastened (Man- camp history, soap opera and screwball, better way to flag down a ride when slaughter), valiant war widows (The Man these heroines were all quintessentially you're footsore. from Yesterday) and Depression- Colbert-clear-eyed, energetic, re- spawned working girls (Secrets of a Sec- sourceful, and chic. Her Egyptian mon- For all her Gallic origins, what made retary), queens (Tonight Is Ours) and arch, looking like a Pierce-Arrow hood Colbert such an indelibly American star cons (The Hole in the Wall). In Ernst ornament in motion, is a pragmatic co- was that, in caste terms, she was so hard Lubitsch's The Smiling Lieutenant, as a quette who manipulates males with her to place. When impersonating great lowborn entertainer regretfully spurned canny feminine ways, and gets slightly ladies, as in Tovarich, she is most win- tiddly when her defenses are down. She ning when forced to shoplift goodies by Chevalier for a marriage of state, she also imbues Cleopatra with just enough from the corner charcuterie. In her best even got to give virginal princess Miriam vulgarity to make it clear why Cecil B. comedies, Colbert usually found herself Hopkins a musical lesson in allure with a De Mille's Romans deem the Queen of penniless but with a plan: to infiltrate ditty entitled \"Jazz Up Your Lingerie.\" the Nile to be slightly below the salt. As the plutocracy and make off with the More than once in these early years, the a cash-poor widow who turns her house- gains a girl with her pluck and prettiness piquant specter of \"Legs\" Colbert resur- keeper's pancake recipe into uncounted so richly merits. In the tailor-made Col- faced, particularly in the actress' more batches of dough, she is again ambitious bert farce, romance is tempting, but it amphibian moments: a nude swim in 1 and soignee, capable of everything but usually has to wait until Claudette has Cover the Waterfront, a sensuous dunk in insuring happiness for her loved ones. taken care of Priority Number One. a tubful of asses milk for De Mille's The Sign ofthe Cross, in which she imperson- Although it firmly established Colbert Both Midnight and The Palm Beach ated Poppea, the wickedest girl in pre- in what was to be her patented genre, Story, Colbert's most irresistible come- Christendom. her role in It Happened One Night was in dies, give her the chance to play a most respects the least characteristic of streamlined Cinderella. Dizzy million- This versatility was both Colbert's these three. A pampered and petulant aires just can't help heaping Travis Ban- glory and the prime hindrance to an im- Colbert was one thing; Poppea and the ton finery at her feet, and the Colbert mediate star career. The trick was to eyes widen to their farthest extremity, as 60
she ponders, \"How did all this happen forting the grieving, rebuking slackers Pin-Ups • Portraits • Posters • Physique to lucky little me?\" As if she didn' t like heedless Agnes Moorehead, sitting Poses • PressDOoks • Western • Horror • know. Colbert's biggest struggle in the still while unlettered immigrant Alia Na- Science Fiction • Musicals • Color Photos • succeeding reels is to persuade her zimova informs her that she sees the true 80 Years of Scenes From Motion Pictures square, unimaginative love object with spirit of America-Hitler just didn't no money and too many scruples that if have a chance. Rush $1 .00 FOR OUR ILLUSTRATED BROCHUR E this be sin, you might as well relax and enjoy it. It was always captivating to It's tempting to conjecture what 134 WEST 18th STREET, DEPT. FC listen to Colbert deliver a lecture in the might have happened to Colbert's career NEW YORK, N.Y. 10011 ways of the world to some humorless in the Fifties had it not been for a series (212) 620-8160-61 male. First came that infectious titter, of unforeseen mishaps: a last-minute then the velvet-sheathed stiletto. Not back injury which forced her to abandon MOTION PICTURE that the Colbert heroine was ever en- All About Eve to Bette Davis; a Max SCRIPTS WANTED. tirely without heart. As she explains to Ophuls film with a Peter Ustinov script the hapless Gary Cooper of Bluebeard's about an American matron at the Salz- Human and capital resources development cor- Eighth Wife while applying first aid to his burg Music Festival, for which the fi- poration is searching for NEW theatrical motion pic- knee, \"I always put iodine on people nancing fell through on the first day of ture scripts. We offer comprehensive evaluations. when I bite them.\" shooting. Colbert was not one to com- Inquire: Grasshopper Productions, Box 67, Man· promise just for the sake of perpetuating chaca , TX 78652. • her movie tenure on any terms. She had long since learned what suited her: the Some of our In her peak period, from the mid- fluffy auburn bob and butterfly-anten- posters Thirties into the war years, Colbert al- nae eyebrows, the flattering camera an- ternated these sequined Machiavellis gles emphasizing her photogenic left available : with a series of unflappable Janes-of-all- profile, and the congenial roles to trades and epochs. In Private Worlds, match. If she couldn't command such Quality stills The A f rican Queen 22)(28 she calmly shrinks heads while everyone perquisites from Hollywood anymore, original posters Meet Me in St. Louis 27)(4 1 else in the asylum is losing his grip; in tant pis. She could always transfer her rare lobby cards The Littl e Foxes 27)(4 1 Drums Along the Mohawk she spars with allegiances back to the stage-when- Personal Property 27)(41 Indians and clears the frontier while ever she could be lured away from her bringing a touch of Eastern class to the eyrie in Barbados, that is. In Ol d Chicago 22)(28 wilderness. Arise, My Love really put her Last of Mrs. Cheyney 27)( 41 ambidextrous spunk to the test. In the And so, for the past thirty years, Col- Giant 14)(36 co-pilot seat of a purloined plane being bert has periodically returned to Broad- On t he Waterf ront 14)(36 used for target practice by Franco's air way with adroitly updated samples of force, Colbert's Augusta \"Gusto\" Nash that old Paramount sparkle. Colbert cer- CI~~ '\"@~()~ blithely types up her flash of a story, tainly didn't have to work, either finan- parries a pass from Ray Milland, and cially or otherwise, bu t wasn' t it amusing Collections Bought, Soid,1huied keeps her ears from popping, all at the to prove that she still had it in her? And same time. In film after film, Colbert she certainly did that-at the perform- Prompt Mail Orders was so palpably resilient that audiences ances I caught of her last two Broadway balked on those rare occasions when vehicles, her first entrance was greeted Specific inquires welcomed , $5 .00 catalog Colbert turned wimp. As George Cu- with the same communal gasp of aston- (415) 776-9988 kor's Zaza, she made a delectable fin de ishment and burst of applause. There siecle music-hall star with a raffish man- was 80lbert, playi ng 60-odd and looking 1488 Va llejo St. . San Francisco. C.... 94109 ner and refined soul; but the spectacle of frankly 44, then proceeding with cus- Colbert weepy and tremulous just be- tomary dispatch, to transform pages of If you like movies, you 'll love Films in cause she couldn't have Herbert Mar- dross into gossamer. Review. $16.00 a year. Sample copy shall, of all people, was really a bit $1 .00. Dept. B, Box 589, New York much. (A decade later, she made a per- Perhaps a little more of that compul- 10021 fectly lousy victim in Sleep My Love . sion to stretch those histrionic muscles Imagine her as putty in the homicidal and expose the soul, which has driven SOUNDTRACK ALBUMS hands of Don Ameche, whom she had other actresses, migh t have become Col- AND SHOW run rings around in Midnight.) bert. The Marriage-Go-Round, The King- fisher, and the like were pleasant in their RARE, OUT-OF-PRINT LP 's. During the Forties, Colbert made a way, but what if she'd been willing to 64 Page List ... $1 .00 graceful segue to mature motherhood, tackle Mrs. Alving, say, or that vindic- BROADWAY/HOLLYWOOD RECORDINGS both surrogate (So Proudly We Hail, The tive crone in The Visit? Colbert had long Secret Heart) and biological (Since You since demonstrated that she could do Went Away, Tomorrow Is Forever). This just about everything she tried, but wasn't an inevitable transition so much there was really no need to take chances as a throwback to Imitation of Life; hers at this late date. It's remarkable enough was still the sturdiest, most beautifully that at 79, she can still conjure that un- tailored shoulder in pictures, just made mistakable essence of Claudette-wry to succor the young and unsure. With and insouciant and nobody's fool- someone like Colbert pitching in on the whenever she chooses. And the pleasure homefront-taking in boarders, com- is still, most gratefully, ours. ~ 61
Ninth Annual Grosses Gloss and the industry were unimpressed, lion), the industry is not alarmed. Seem- by Gregg Kilday concurring, \"Why it's nothing but a sit- ingly, the burgeoning videocassette In 1977 when Hollywood Oscared com! Surely, ticket-buyers won't leave market could begin to compete with the Paddy Chayevsky for his screenplay, Network, the angry old man snarled that their homes for that!\" Wrong again. Its boxoffice for disposable entertainment \"Television is a goddamn amusement park,\" and the Academy of Motion Pic- release timed to coincide with the pay- dollars, but that's not the way the ex- ture Arts and Sciences applauded madly. In light of the new alliances that TV bookings of star Michael Keaton's perts see it. Marketing consultant Mi- the movies were forging with television in the Seventies, that applause had a previous film Night Shift, Mr. Mom chael Mahern theorizes, \"There may be hollow ring. For by the end of the dec- ade, the marketing revolution that re- proved surprisingly popular, earning a certain amount of cannibalization of vived the fortunes of the movie business was already well underway. $31.5 million in rentals and ninth place the audience going on, but generally the The decade's blockbusters like Jaws on the Variety list. videocassette buyers are very movie-ori- and Star Wars owed a large measure of their success to two major changes in By November and the introduction of ented to begin with. It's commercial TV Hollywood 's modus operandi: satura- tion release of \"A\" pictures and satura- Terms of Endearment, the pattern they've turned their backs on.\" tion TV campaigns. The movies had struck a bargain with the devil of TV, and had become established. Nobody de- Gordon Weaver, Paramount's market- by 1983 the devil could claim that it owned the movies' soul. nied that the rhythms of the movie's ing president, concurs. \"As far as we can If the proposition sounds a trifle hy- mother-daughter tug-of-war owed less tell, the moviegoers and the videocas- perbolic, consider the abundant evi- dence offered by the year just past. to Larry McMurtry's source novel than sette buyers are not separate and distinct When Flashdance first jiggled into view last April, the nation's movie critics to producer-writer-director James L. audiences. They seem to complement -as well as a good many industry sa- vants-shrieked, \"Why it's nothing but Brooks' tenure in Mary T yler Moore- each other.\" Best-selling videocassettes an MTV video!\" But try to tell that to the public. Thanks to Paramount's masterly land. Did the public care? But no. Earn- like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Flashdance, media blitz, flash-fans stormed the the- aters, then bought the record, then the ing $25 million in rentals in its first two and An Officer and a Gentleman, all Para- video cassette, then went home to in- stantly replay it all over again on TV. months of release, Terms vaulted to 16th mount, appear to represent an extension Flashdance was the pop-culture phe- place on the Variety chart, making it the of the repeat audience for films. The nomenon of the year, amassing $36 mil- lion in film rentals, placing sixth in Va- holiday season's biggest hit. promise of a videocassette may take a riety's 1983 performance chart. Of • little wind out of a blockbuster's sails: In course, we're only talking rentals here- F rom the vaudevillian press corps of inflation dollars , Return of the Jedi the studio's share (generally between 35 and 50 percent) of ticket receipts. In Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff to the outdistanced both its predecessor, The pure box-office gross, Flashdance rang up $95 million, placing second among omnipresent surveillance cameras of Empire Strikes Back (which earned $120 the top draws released in 1983, and out- classed only by the year's unavoidable Sam Peckinpah's The Osterman Week- million in its first year of release) , and its super-hit, Return ofthe Jedi. end, TV was pictured as an insidious granddaddy, Star Wars ($127 million in So, then, a lesson was learned? But no. In mid-summer came an unpre- temptress (quite literally in David its opening year). If insiders felt it suf- possessing little domestic comedy called Mr. Mom. Once again, both the critics Cronenberg's Videodrome) , the latest in- fered slightly from an erosion of repeat carnation of that old bitch goddess, suc- business, the marketeers now appear cess (especially in Martin Scorsese's The willing to sacrifice a little rental income King of Comedy). But for all the Cassan- in exchange for the burgeoning riches of dra cries, the audience isn' t buying. The the cassette market, where Raiders, sell- Right Stuff, produced at a cost of $27 ing 500,000 copies this Christmas at a million, earned a disappointing $6 mil- lowball $39.95, grossed nearly $20 mil- lion in rentals, coming perilously close to lion. (Taking further advantage of this earning a citation as the Heaven's Gate of newest bonanza, Paramount tacked a 1983. Osterman ($2.5 million), Video- teaser for the upcoming Indiana Jones drome ($1.3 million) and The King of onto each Raiders cassette.) As to exhibi- Comedy ($1.2 million) barely registered tor worries, the September release of the on the scale. Flashdance cassette, when the movie But while a few stalwarts may con- was still in general release, actually im- tinue to resist TV's incursions, most Hol- proved ticket sales the week the cassette lywood producers and virtually all the went on the market thanks to the added industry's marketing forces have learned advertising push. If videocassettes pose to stop worrying and love it. In 1983, a threat, it seems it's to pay-TV, not to boxoffice revenues amounted to a rec- theatrical exhibition. ord $3.697 billion by Variety's reckoning Once sparring partners, films and tel- -the third record-setting year in a row. And, although individual tickets sold evision have climbed into bed together. numbered 1.173 billion (down slightly And, increasingly, it's those movie exec- utives who were schooled in TV who are from 1982's 21-year peak of 1.175 bil- thriving in the new environment. Oflast 62
year's top 20 films, for example, Trading one can find a semblance of studio style. exploitation of the PolyGram Places ($40.6 million) , Flashdance, Stay- ing Alive ($33.3 million) , 48 Hrs . ($30.3 Under Price, Columbia, whether it was soundtrack album. million) and Terms of Endearment were financing comedies like Tootsie or pick- Downplaying the movie's storyline, all produced by Paramount, under the ing up dramas like Gandhi, most often Paramount developed graphics display- auspices of chairman Barry Diller and struck a careful middle-road , usually PC ing Jennifer Beals in a deliberately pro- president Michael Eisner, both formerl y course. While Universal launched the vocative, open-legged, naked-shoulder of ABC-TV; two more, Tootsie ($94.6 mil- Saturday Night Live cast into movies with pose. Comments a rival marketing exec- lion) and The Toy ($24.5 million ), issued National Lampoon's Animal House, the utive , \"Paramount didn't know what from Columbia Pictures under the reign adolescent social satire sensibility is now they had , but they knew where to sell it. of then chairman and president Frank most firml y rooted at Warners, with the The MTV buys allowed them to aim a Price, who previously headed Universal dubious credit going to the surviving shot-gun directly at their target, instead Television and who has just returned to baby-mogul executive triumvirate of of scattering buckshot through a general the fold as head of the Universal Motion Mark Rosenberg, Lucy Fisher, and TV approach.\" And when Staying Alive Picture Group; and two more were per- Mark Canton, sponsors of Vacation , Twi- popped up three months later, all Para- sonally produced by pre-eminent TV light Zone: The Movie ($16 million) , and mount had to do was push the same producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Deal ofthe Century ($4.5 million). Mean- buttons all over again. Goldberg. Goldberg oversaw WarGames while, Paramount, from Saturday Night As far as Hollywood was concerned, ($36.6 million) , while his ex-partner hit Fever to American Gigolo to video-style razzle-dazzle was all the with Mr. Mom. Flashdance , has aimed for something ur- rage, but not always with the same re- ban , hipper, guttier, and hard-R. With sults. To prepare the way for Rumble • its corporate headquarters and market- Fish, Francis Coppola's high school True, as documented by industry ana- ing team situated in Manhattan rather honors course in existentialism, Howie lyst A. D . Murphy, Twentieth Century- than the palmy dreamland of L.A. , Para- Deutch concocted a striking trailer full of chiaroscuro imagery set to Stewart Copeland's drivingly rhythmic score. \"But,\" complained one seasoned ob- server, \"trailers are different from videos. You're trying to sell a story and not just the music. Few movies deliver the sizzle in an hour-and-a-half that you can pack into a couple of minutes.\" And Rumble Fish (scraping up just $1.3 mil- lion in rentals) fizzled out. • For all its fascination with the new visual frissons of high technology-both in making and marketing movies-Hol- lywood is discovering that technology, in and of itself, is no panacea. As futurolo- Jennifer Beals prepares to call in the Marine. gist John Naisbitt argues in the best-seil- ing Megatrends: \"Whenever new tech- Fox dominated the domestic market mount somehow seems to have a more nology is introduced into society, there with 21 percent of all film rentals , but intuitive sense of what's happening on must be a counterbalancing human re- that was largely due to the runaway suc- the street, and its street smarts show. If sponse-that is , high-touch.\" With its cess of Jedi , which nearly doubled the it had a studio anthem , it would have to high-tech look joined to a high-touch income of its closest competitor, Tootsie, be \"Zeitgeist. .. what a feeling!\" heart (a young girl dreams . .. ), a potent holdover from Christmas 1982. Forget, if you will, that Flashdance Flashdance performed a perfect balanc- With Superman III ($36.4 million), Na- was designed to exploit a psuedo-fad ing act. In Jedi, though, that balance was tional Lampoon's Vacation ($29.5 mil- that ' was essentially the invention of off. Even Lucas loyalists complained lion), Risky Business ($28.5 million) , screenwriter Tom Hedley. Nor is it ma- that the movie gave short shrift to the Never Say Never Again ($25 million) and terial that the studio hedged its bet by emotional climax of the trilogy for the Sudden Impact ($23 million), Warner selling off a share of the film before it sake of a final orgy of special effects. Bros. ranked second with a 17 percent opened. Once the Paramount market- Though the movie couldn't help but be share of rentals , while Paramount and ing machine looked at a half-hour of a hit-and Lucasfilm and Fox set up a Columbia each claimed 16 percent of rough footage in the late fall of 1982, smooth launch, including a laudatory the market. But while both Paramount they knew exactly where to direct their Time cover-Jedi's cultural cachet and Warners could point to five movies sell. In retrospect, it's easy to say that quickly faded. By Christmas, Ewoks among the top-20, Paramount alone Flashdance was perfectly suited to a gen- were upstaged by their rival computer scored four movies-all modestly bud- eration weaned on the non-stop \"educa- cuddlies, the Cabbage Patch Kids. geted-in the top-10, making Para- tional\" hype of Sesame Street, of which Consider the failure of 1982's Tron mount's the most cost-effective produc- MTV is simply the latest development in versus the success of 1983 's War- tion schedule of the lot. non-stop video stimulation. But Para- Games. Both movies set out to capital- Even today, when studios are more mount certainly knew how to exploit it, ize on the teenage fascination with com- distribution than production operations, with advance ad buys on MTVand savvy puters , but the coolly high-tech Tron 63
Staying Alive With Word-of-Mouth dove straight into the soul of the new machine, while the high touch War- The following chart lists 1983 re- sold\" ingredients: Flashdance and Games remained user-friendly by never straying far from its teen hero, MGM leases in the order of their U. S.-Cana- Risky Business. And, finally, there was sent out promotional clips featuring not the forbidding war-room, but the engag- dian rentals, which are then compared 48 HRS., an amalgam of urban melo- ing Matthew Broderick changing his grades by remote control. with the same pictures' opening-week drama and hip comedy that ultima£ely More often in 1983, Hollywood over- grosses at the boxoffice. (Unlike Gregg reached audiences for both genres. dosed on high-tech. Blue Thunder may have grabbed $21.8 million in Kilday's article, the chart excludes Just as teenagers are the most de- rentals, but Columbia had expected and spent more. Graphics featuring the late-1983 releases on which final pendable \"core audience\" for a film's menacing whirly-bird may have looked great in color mock-ups, but when re- rentals are not yet available and in- opening, they are the first to abandon a produced in muddy newsprint, they lost their zap. Unable to shake the ghost of cludes late-1982 releases omitted from film that fails to deliver the promised Natalie Wood, Brainstorm was also hampered by ads that looked as if they last year's chart.) The typical major- goods. Three adolescent sex comedies were pushing the newest Sony Walkman, Debuting in over 170 the- studio film grosses 15 to 25 percent of -Private School, Spring Break, and aters in brain-bending 70-mm prints, the movie wanted to be a \"head\" pic- its eventual boxoffice total in its first Class-opened robustly but then ex- ture, but the old psychedelic audience didn ' t show, as a $3-million rental figure seven days, and it earns rentals of pired after a few weeks. The other six demonstrates. Christine-the third Stephen King adaptation to make it to slightly less than 50 percent of its total tailspinners were all in the horror/ the screen in almost as many months- could conceivably have been promoted boxoffice gross. thriller/fantasy modes that have re- as a male Carrie, but instead its commer- cials and trailers lavished attention on Nine films on the chart showed un- cently dominated studios' teen-ori- the sensuous curves of a 1958 Plymouth Fury. The commercials were great to usual staying power, and an equal ented release schedules. Two Stephen look at, but the movie was totaled by its Christmas competition. number collapsed after promising King adaptati0ns (Cujo and The Dead Perhaps the biggest Tech-Touch di- openings. Three were \"serious\" films Zone), a 23-year-late sequel to a horror lemma surrounded the year's most sur- prising failure, The Right Stuff. The from Christmas '82 that translated ex- classic (Psycho If), and a sword-and- Ladd Company's own research disturb- ingly showed profound audience apathy cellent notices, ten-best citations, and sorcery entry (Krull) did not sustain toward the early astronauts. Philip Kauf- man's movie had romance, adventure, Oscar nominations into extended in- their encouraging openings. And 3-D, an old-fashioned hero in Sam Shepard's Chuck Yeager, a bunch of comic fly- terest among filmgoers: Gandhi, The while retaining its lure as a novelty, boys, and John Glenn stumping for President and serving as an electronic Verdict, and Sophie's Choice. Another could not camouflage flimsy horror one-man sandwich board, but the televi- sion spots focused primarily on the three were audience-pleasing come- (Jaws 3-D) or cheesy science-fiction. rather arch press conference set-piece, while print ads hid the appealing actors dies without much initial appeal to the One 3-D sci-fi, Spacehunter: Adven- inside faceless silver space suits. \"They should have gone with Chuck Yeager in teenagers who are generally the first to tures in the Forbidden Zone, handily an Indiana Jones campaign,\" said one advertising executive. line up at boxoffices: Tootsie, Mr. Mom, won 1983's Worst Word-of-Mouth But the countdown was rushed. In a and The Big Chill. Two other releases honors by earning lower domestic vain attempt to bolster the Ladd Com- pany's faltering fortunes, The Right Stuff with long \"legs\" were aimed at teens rentals than its opening-week boxof- was hurried out in October, booked into 229 theaters its opening weekend in- but needed word-of-mouth to offset fice gross. -LEE BEAUPRE stead of a limited release closer to Christmas, when it might have benefit- their lack of \"names\" or other \"pre- Ranking by ted by inclusion on so many ten-best lists, Newsweek, debating right up to Ranking Domestic First·Week No,of First-Week press time whether to put John Glenn or by Rentals Film (Distributor) Rentals\" B.O: Gross\" Theaters B.O.Gross I. Rerum o/the Jedi (20th Century·Fox) 2. Tootsie (Columbia) $162.5 $45 . 3 1002 I. 3. Trading Plnces (Paramount) 4. WarGames (MOM/UA) 94.6 10.6 943 12. 5. S''Perman III (Warner Bros.) 6. Flashdance (paramount) 40.6 11.1 1375 10. 7. Sroying Alive (Paramount) 8. Octopussy (MOM/UA) 36.6 9.3 843 15. 9. Mr. Mom (20th Century·Fox) 36.4 20.5 1759 2. 10. 48 HRS . (Paramount) 36.2 5.7 1140 II. Naliontli Lampoon's Vacation (Warner Bros.) 12 . Risky Business (Warner Bros.) 33.7 19.4 1660 4. 13. The Verdict (20th Centurv-Fox) 14. Jaws 3-D (Universal) . 33.2 14.1 13 11 5. 15. Never Say Never Again (Warner Bros.) 31.5 7.0 734··· 27. 16. The Tov (Columbia) 17. Gandhi (Columbia) 30.3 6.2 850 30. 18. The Dark Cr),stal (Universal) 19. Blue Thunder (Columbia) 29.5 13.5 1175 6. 20. Best Friends (Warner Bros.) 21. Porky's 11: The Next Da)' (20th Century·Fox) l8.5 7.2 670 25. 22. The Big Chill (Columbia) 23. Twilight Zone-The Movie (Warner Bros.) l6. 7 4.1 615 24. Psycho 11 (Universal) 25. High Road ro Chi\"\" (Warner Bros.) 26.4 20.3 1300 3. 26. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Reissue (Buena Vista) 27. Ea.ry Money (Orion) 25.0 13.2 1550 7. 28. Sophie's Choice (llniversal) 29. The OUlsiders (Warner Bros.) 24.5 8,3 1381 20. 30. Airplane 11: The Sequel (Paramoun[) 31. Spring Break (Columbia) 24.4 3.4 350···· 32. Breathless (Orion) 33. Class (Orion) 23.4 7.4 858 23. 34. Cujo (Warner Bros.) 37. Krull (Columbia) 21.8 11.3 1539 9. 39. The Dead Zone (Paramount) 40. Spaahulller: Adventures in lite Forbidden Zone (Columbia) 19.0 6.5 1062 29. 48. Privare School (Universal) 17.5 10.8 1511 11. 16.8§ 5.S 722 16.0 10.4 1275 14. 15.6 11.8 1448 8. 15.0 8.2 1508 21. 14.5 10.6 1362 13. 14.0 9.1 1130 16. 14.0 2.6 2IS§§ 12..1 7.3 829 24. 11.3 6.8 1150 28. 11.2 8.5 1493 19. 10.0 6.1 1161 31. 10.0 7.2 839 26. 9.6 9.1 1239§§§ 17. 8.5 8.0 1281 2l. 8.2 6.0 1293 33. 8.1 8.8 1338 18. 6.6 6.0 1024§§§§ 32. -Figures in millions of dollars. million of ilS total rentals from its continuing playoff in 1984. •• Did nor place among tOP 31. §§This \" first·week\" gross for Sophie's Choice covers January ···This \"first-week\" gross for Mr. Mom covers August 1<}- 21-27. six weeks aftt:r its December 10th opening in nine 25, actually [he film's fifth week ofre1ease: i[ originally opened in a few west-coast markets on July 22 but did nO[ open selected theaters. §§§This \"first-week\" gross for Cujo covers August 12·18, nationally until August 19. ····This \"first-week\" gross for Gandhi covcrlii January ZJ- five weeks after it opened in a few test Gngagements on July 8. §§§§This \"first·week\" gross for Private School covers July 27. six weeks after its December 8th opening in exclusive engagements in a handful of leading markets. 29-August 4, more than three months afrcr it was tested in the §The Big Chill can be expecred to add at least another 15 midwest starting April 22. 64
actor Ed Harris on its cover, opted for million) by not recognizing Mel Gib- its soundtrack or fine-tune an ad cam- Harris, but spent much of its cover story son's obvious sex appeal and opening paign that was changed in mid-stream, speculating on the movie's impact on the picture too broadly. (When Frank the movie lost its expected audience to the presidential campaign. And Holly- Yablans took over the studio in Febru- such other urban rabble-rousers as Sud- wood, which had criticized Ladd mar- , ary, he immediately cut down the run by den Impact and Scaiface. keting chief Ashley Boone for a too con- at least half the nearly 700 theaters in servative release of Star Wars in 1977, which it was foundering.) And, Orion Given the choice, the studios pre- did an about-face and slammed him for Pictures could not sell its Under Fire ferred to present their comedy-dramas opening The Right StuJftoo widely. Even ($3 million), shackling it with a print ad as comedies. No mention was made of Academy Award nominations may not reminiscent of a Fifties adventure the funeral that brought Lawrence Kas- send TheRight StuJfinto orbit. movie. Say goodbye to politics. dan's careerist seven together in any of Columbia's promotion for The Big The movie's doomed trajectory • Chill ($16.9 million), which was billed pointed toward another danger: In the as \"the feel-good movie of '83.\" And midst of the information explosion, Fear not: Hollywood hasn' t aban- rather than risk pathos with Terms ofEn- movies that brush up against current af- doned its stand-bys: comedies, action! dearment-as in, say, \"The BigC means fairs run the risk of capsizing in the wake adventures, and sentimental dramas. never having to say you're sorry\"-Para- of the nightly news. Taking a lesson mount created a neutral campaign that from The China Syndrome, Jack Tootsie, unwrapped in time for hinted at tears but guaranteed laughter. Brodsky, marketing boss at Fox, ex- Christmas 1982, played well into '83, The movie's fortunes were also bol- plained , \"We were careful not to link breaking all sorts of records: with $94.6 stered by a middle-road release sched- Silkwood to the nuclear issue. If people million in rentals , it surpassed Close En- ule devised by Frank Mancuso, presi- read the stuff on the front page and see it counters ofthe Third Kind ($83.5 million) dent of Paramount's marketing division. on TV, they're going to stay away from to become Columbia Pictures' all-time Eschewing both narrow platforming and the movie.\" Though Fox couldn't pre- biggest hit; it edged out The Exorcist wide release, Mancuso opened Terms in vent entertainment writers from debat- (which earned $89 million in 1973) to 260 theaters on November 23. With the ing Silkwood's factual accuracy, the stu- become the biggest Christmas release film firmly established in all major mar- dio specifically did not invite any ever; and it also claimed title to most kets, he then gradually broadened the political columnists to advance screen- successful comedy. With Dustin Hof- release pattern as good word-of-mouth ings lest they seize upon the film as fman himself out barnstorming for the spread. In contrast, Woody Allen's Zelig fodder for their word processors. (Even movie-and helping build his profit opened in just three houses in New so, The New York Times saw fit to editori- stake in the picture to an estimated $13 York; by the time it went wider, the alize against the docu-drama.) Similarly, million to date-all Columbia had to do critics' ecstatic praise had begun to fade. Paramount deleted any reference to the was hold on for the ride. Print ads were Nor was the movie served by its enig- final apocalypse in its relentlessly taste- characteristic of the Antonowsky touch: matic print campaign, which left the de- ful ads for its relentlessly tasteful lots of copy spelling out the movie's terminedly off-beat Zelig with a modest pickup, Testament. Even before the premise. Riding the crest of the Oscar $6.5 million and 52nd place on the Va- day after ABC's The Day After aired , Tes- nominations, Columbia opted for tan- riety list. tament was dead at the boxoffice. dem TV spots, divided between 15 seconds in praise of Gandhi and 15 more With Yentl, on the other hand , Always eager to discern a trend , sev- on behalf of Tootsie . From Bob Hope to MGM/UA decided that a little honest eral Hollywood correspondents an- Dallas mayor Kathryn Whitmire, Tootsie obfuscation couldn't hurt lest the nounced that Hollywood was riding a jokes became common parlance. movie's ethnicity-Barbra Sings Shiva new wave of political films in 1983. But -hinder it in the hinterlands. Although the perceived \"trend\" probably had Comedy, of course, is an unpredict- the TV ads couldn't obscure its Jewish more to do with the vagaries of produc- able commodity. In general, Hollywood roots, the print approach, a dramatic tion schedules than with any sudden rise promised more laughs than it delivered left-profile of La Streisand, sold little of political consciousness in Bel-Air. last year. Chevy Chase lost his SNL audi- more than the unadorned diva. And Surely, by the time the shrewd and inde- ence only to find a host of pre-teen fans: Streisand, in another of the year's yeo- fatigable Richard Attenborough finished though they spurned Deal ofthe Century, man-like jobs of self-promotion-are stumping for Gandhi, the film was tho- they lined up for National Lampoon's yo u listening Warren?-sold herself. roughly apoliticized. An Oscar vote for Vacation, a Disney movie despite its The movie should earn about $25 mil- Gandhi was virtually a vote for world naughty Warners/Lampoon credentials. lion in rentals, the general rule for a peace. (Warren Beatty, who could have In much the same fashion, Mr. Mom- Streisand film . performed a similar service for Reds, whose star Michael Keaton is a house- should take note.) Marvin Antonowsky, broken Bill Murray-scored by playing • who engineered Gandhi's release, esti- both to kids and to their befuddled mid- mates the Oscar translated into an extra 30s parents: the perfect movie for the With so much of the audience looking $5 million in domestic rentals (which shopping-mall set. Steve Martin, not so for nothing more than a good time, amounted to $24.5 million) and an extra fortunate , was almost literally jerked off straight dramas had their work cut out $10 million worldwide, ensuring profit- the screen. When his summer comedy, for them. With the cultural imprimatur ability. The Man With Two Brains ($4.6 million) of a Time cover and a heavy advance bombed, Universal postponed its screening schedule designed to mau- Hollywood sabotaged most of its planned Christmas openings of The mau the opinion makers, Paul New- other politically tinged films. MGM, for Lonely Guy, hastily replacing it with man's The Verdict was the year's most instance, bungled the release of The D.C. Cab, or Mr. T in traffic. Holly- successful drama, thirteenth on Variety's Year of Living Dangerously ($3.7 wood expected the low-rent comedy to chart with $26.7 million in rentals. But click, but without the time to promote even with the assist of Meryl Streep's 65
Oscar, Sophie's Choice climbed no during the fall months. When John Mi- keep; but pseudo-sequels like Sting /I higher than 33rd with $14 million, while lius' rabid Uncommon Valor turned ($3.5 million) , Amityville 3-D ($3.5 mil- most of the other more serious con- up a surprise underdog hit in December, lion) , Smokey and the Bandit III ($3.3 tenders hung out together in the cellar: it became obvious that there is more of a million), and The Curse of the Pink Pan- Without a Trace ($4.2 million) , Star macho, blue-collar audience out there ther ($1.6 million) all went bust. Univer- Chamber, ($2.8 million ), Tender Mercies than is usually anticipated. sal Pictures, whose release schedule re- ($2.6 million), and Fanny and Alexander, lied heavily on sequel retreads, suffered which couldn't break out of the foreign • a humiliating year. film ghetto with $2.3 million. More dis- cerning film goe rs still need not despair. Common trade wisdom holds that the With only Jaws 3-D exempted , 3-D Though the major studios appear less core movie-going audience is a monolith pictures produced headaches: witness than enthralled with their \"Classics\" di- of 12- to 24-year-olds, but that audience Spacehunter:Adventures in the Forbidden visions, they have supported the limited is probably more factionalized than nor- Zone ($8.1 million) and The Man Who theatrical release of small films like Be- mally assumed. Certainly, girls led the Wasn' t There ($1.5 million). Another trayal ($1.8 million) and revivals like first wave of ticket-buyers to Terms , genre that's fading fast is fantasy. From Hitchcock's Rear Window ($1.6 million). while boys first headed off to Sudden the high of Dark Crystal ($23.4 million), Impact. But even within the sexes, dif- the magic of sword and sorcery faded to Pity, instead , good but culturally sus- ferences rule. According to Irv Ivers , Krull ($8.5 million) and totally disap- pect movies like Jonathan Kaplan 's president of marketing at MGM/UA, peared with Yor ($2 million). Heart Like a Wheel. Figuring that the college kids won't go to a youth film if female audience would not cotton to a they perceive that it's targeted at lowly Meanwhile, slightly older filmgoers drag racer and that dragsters wouldn't high-school students. Though Francis yawned in the face of the so-called rela- support a movie about a woman, Fox Coppola's The Outsiders opened tionship comedies that continue to first tried an exploitation campaign in promisingly, it was promoted largely in spawn in the face of rampant disinterest. the South and Midwest. When it the teen magazines which loved its One marketing executive opined, \"I call flopped, and Kaplan cried foul , the stu- \"dreamy\" cast. It caught on with the them Sherry Lansing movies-you dio backed off the low-road and ac- high-school trade, but because Warner know, two people in a room talking- cepted an invitation to the New York failed to publicize it in mainstream pub- what do you do with them?\" To be fair, Film Festival. But, oblivious to the lications, it stalled at $12.3 million. By the whole genre owes as much to Neil warm reviews, Manhattanites refused to contrast, Risky Business, overcoming Simon as it does to the former produc- be charmed when the movie opened a plot-line that certainly sounded like tion chief at Fox, but it's true that Lan- commercially. By the time Fox had just another teen fantasy, had enough sing's Fox projects like Max Dugan Re- turned the whole wreck over to its clas- sleekly New Wave visual style-com- turns ($8.5 million) and Kiss Me Goodbye sics division for fine-tuning, the film had municated in its tres hip graphics-to ($7.6 million) should perform better on earned linle more than $ 150,000 in anract the older kids. It's arguable HBO than they ever did at the box-of- rentals. whether the audience for Staying Alive fice . Dudley Moore, the Elliott Gould came ou t of fond regard for its predeces- of the Eighties, presided over the dud Violent action/adventure entries per- sor Saturday Night Fever, or whether in list of the year: Romantic Comedy failed formed far better. After striking out with fact the movie attracted a new pubes- with $2.2 million, while Six Weeks and the ambling Honkytonk Man ($2.8 mil- cent wave ofTravolta fan s. In any event, Lovesick didn't even make Variety's list, lion ) during Christmas 1982, Clint his partisans wavered when it came to which has a $1 million cut-off. Eastwood returned as Dirty Harry in his reteaming with Olivia Newton-John Sudden Impact this Christmas. Some in Two ofa Kind, a failure despite its bid Burt Reynolds became Hollywood's critics of Warners' campaign carped that for MTV immortality. Lonely Guy of 1983. Replacing him not enough was made of the movie's with Clint Eastwood , the National Asso- antagonistic catch phrase, \"Make my Hunkdom is actually a dubious virtue ciation of Theater Owners demoted day\"-it appeared in trailers, but not in these days. Both Travolta and Richard Reynolds to second place on its annual print-but within six weeks Sudden Im- Gere are more problematic stars than is list of box office draws, but within Hol- pace had become the top-grossing Dirty generally supposed. Girls may love lywood's own firmament, Reynolds' star Harry picture. Sharing the Christmas them (masochistically in the case of dropped even further. Best Friends season with Terms and Sudden Impact, Gere), but unless you pair them with an flopped, and Stroker Ace, which Scarface (another nasty number helped equally seductive woman, guys can be should have represented a return to red- by a fooli sh controversy surrounding its turned off by their self-satisfied strut- neck form , bottomed out with $8.8 mil- X-to-R ratings transplant) benefited ting. Certainly, Valerie Kaprisky was no lion. And December's The Man Who from Universal Pictures' clever market- Debra Winger-she wasn't even al- Loved Women nearly buried Burt. But ing maneuver that used a paperback lowed to invade Gere's space in the print there was good news overseas, Cannon- novelization to preview the movie on TV ads-and so Breathless ($10 million), ball/l, opening in Tokyo, was a monster six months prior to release. though it opened well, quickly faded. hit. Burt's likeness, of course, was prom- inently displayed in first position, left- And, ever civilized, the two James Say one thing for them , the hard-core hand side of all the ad displays. Only in Bonds avoided mano-a-mano combat moviegoers aren't easily conned. Tokyo, first position, left-hand side is when Warners moved Sean Connery's They've begun to turn against sequels. not considered the position of honor. It's Never Say Never Again to October, Jedi quite aside, sequels like Superman the center spot that counts and that was leaving June to Roger Moore's Octo- III, Jaws 3-D, ($26.4 million), and reserved for chop-socky star, Jackie pussy. Though Moore outearned Con- Porky's /I: The Next Day ($17.5 million) Chan. It's a sobering, cautionary tale. nery ($33.2 million to $25 million), Con- were all judged commercial disappoint- Remember, Burt, that thou came from nery's was the strongest movie to open ments; the modestly-budgeted Psycho Tvand unto TV thou could return. ~ /I ($15.6 million) managed to earn its 66
NEW RELEASES FROM NEW YORKER FILMS \"GENUINELY STARTIJNG! VISUALLY New Yorker Films is pleased to announce the BRIGHT AND ARRESTING. The right 16mm non-theatrical availability of IJQUID S~ the outrageous and startlingly original low- audiences are bound to appreciate the originality budget \"sleeper\" hit of 1983. Directed by Rus- sian emigre Slava Tsukerman, IJQUID SKY is a displayed here. not to mention the color. rage. modern fairy tale-a fabulous sci-fi fantasy nonchalance. sly humor. and ferocious fashion with a gorgeous high tech/high fashion look, sense.\" -Janet Maslin, N.Y. Times ~, about aliens from space who descend on the inhabitants of Manhattan's downtown \"punk\" scene in search of a strange euphoria-inducing chemical substance. Adazzling, funny, disturb- ing New Wive black comedy that David Denby of New lVrk Magazine calls \"the funniest, craziest, dirtiest, most perversely beautiful science fiction movie ever made.\" \"'UQUID SKY' HAS STILE TO GIVE AWAY! Imp~essively high-slick-strenously exotic. The films humor is midnight dark.\" -J, Hoberman. Village Voice \"A RARE AND UNUSUALTALENT! Tsukermans deadpan delirium of a drug dream provides relief from the general run of movies.\" -Vincent Canby, N.Y. Times ALSO: New Yorker Films is proud to announce the acquisition of selected titles from the Unifilm Collection: THE BAnLE OF CHILE BYE BYE BRAZIL GAIJIN THE LAST SUPPER LUCIA MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT MUDDY RIVER PIXOTE PORTRAIT OF TERESA XICA Please call or write for our 1984 Special Attractions Supplement. 1!!~!J:tn~a Stree~16West 615t New Yorl<, NY 1()()23 (212) 247·6110
Lamenting the late Trylon and P erisphere by Kenneth C. Spence Moto Man with Sparko. ity that was always just around the cor- ner would reach us a bit sooner. \"For every image of the past that is not and indulge in fanciful diversions. This recognized by the present as one ofits own tomorrow is a mixture of serious pro- To help bring the nation out of its concerns threatens to disappear irretriev- grams and risque pleasures. The film stagnation, a combination of business ably.\" -Walter Benjamin, \"Theses on shows colors and tints that one hasn't and government groups conceived a the Philosophy of History.\" Spring, seen for decades. Buildings, exhibits, world's fair. The construction ofa monu- 1940. vehicles, clothing-all bring forth mem- mental international fair would create ories-as fragile and fleeting as the jobs, spur tourism, stimulate the econ- Back in 1939 when Mr. Smith went to buildings and exhibits which heralded omy, and generate an excitement that Washington, the Joad family to Califor- that world of tomorrow. would have a real message, not just a nia , and Dorothy to Oz, some gimmick. Chicago in 1933 had been a 26,000,000 people came to a 12161/z acre Tomorrow is an e1egaic study of how celebration of the previous century. site in Flushing, Queens to the New we view our past; is about the dreams of New York in 1939 would herald the fu- York World's Fair, \"The World of To- generations, dreams interrupted by ter- ture. The enthusiastic New Dealers morrow Full of spectacle and reverie, rifying reality; is an anthem to our inner- among the fair's planners, Grover Wha- it held the keys to the future in a mixture most thoughts of youth, our brightest len, Robert Moses and Fiorello LaGuar- of profound wonder and breezy honky- hopes. The reflective narration, spoken dia , believed that a rebuilt system of tonk. by Jason Robards, Jr. , slowly confronts government could effectively eliminate these aspirations with an adult's wistful poverty and create an era of comfort for There have been other world's fairs, recognitions. all in our lifetime: the Depression would of course. Only six years previous Chi- vanish along with its fear. If they could cago had celebrated \"The Century of The Wizard of Oz opened the same put the best minds to work on this ex- Progress\" with Sally Rand's fan dance. year as the Fair, and Tomorrow sees in it traordinary project-architects, de- Later, the very same Flushing, New a parallel that is worth the allusion: while signers, composers, artists, sculptors- York site in 1964 would yield a world's panning over the Fair's remarkable plant they could mount a full-fledged assault fair whose chief accomplishment was and cityscape, a Judy Garland voiceover on the imagination and inspire people to Belgian waffles. -we must not be in Kansas anymore- begin to shape their own destiny. The speaks to the historical moment that theme: \"Building the World of Tomor- The past always remains elusive, yielded both Fair and film. This side of row. \" filled with selected memories, recollec- the rainbow was not as cheerful or color- tions, traces of dreams, and fragments of ful. Bird and Johnson offer us black and Ground was broken for the World of delusions. Tom Johnson and Lance white newsreel footage. The Depres- Tomorrow on a dumping ground for the Bird's new film , The World ofTomorrow, sion: breadlines; soup kitchens. In 1939 refuse of the city's furnaces. F. Scott begins in the dark: A phonograph nee- there was still poverty and unemploy- Fitzgerald had described the spot in his dle drops on a record and the first strains ment but New Deal programs such as 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, as \" ... a of a familiar melody begin. Images come the WPA, CCC and NRA provided both certain desolate area of land ... a valley into sight, as if recalled from our uncon- jobs and the feeling that things were of ashes ... a fantastic farm where ashes scious, home movies changing from changing, however slowly. We wished grew like wheat into ridges and hills and black and white to color. for change; we wished that the prosper- grotesque gardens.\" And out of the gray hills and torpid pools would rise some of What is it about the 1939 Fair that stirs the most monumental pieces of archi- something within us, something at once tecture this century has yet seen. The exciting and disturbing? Through John- wasteland was transformed into broad son and Bird's window , we glimpse an avenues with green plazas and sparkling inspired amalgamation of newsreel fountains, surrounded by heroic statues clips, home movies, snapshots, color and vivid murals. Symbols of an era. post cards, cartoon animation, profes- sional industrial footage, and pulp maga- The signature buildings of the 1939 zine covers that gain us entrance to World's Fair were as startling and lofty as \"The World of Tomorrow ,\" that techni- the Fair's ambitions. A 700-foot Trylon color assemblage of futurist buildings pierced the sky and, beside it, a 200-foot and dreams that brought forth their diameter Perisphere appeared to rest on creation. a pool of water. In pure white-the only buildings at the Fair to be pure white- The World of Tomorrow takes us on an the Trylon and Perisphere not only sym- imaginary tour through the eyes of a bolized the grandness of the theme but lO-year old . We see the major exhibits 68
were perceived as the capstone to the novels, comic books, a golf tee, a soaring dreams , just old-fashioned na- Depression. kewpie doll, films, radio programs, a dollar and change-emissary objects tionalism . Housed within the Perisphere was sent to a civilization five thousand years the focal exhibit, the one exhibit from hence. They also presented Elektro, Watching newsreel footage here of a which all other exhibits nourished: \"De- the Motoman, a robot that blew smoke mocracity.\" Seen from a revolving bal- and counted the number of Dionne cheerful Franklin D . Roosevel t opening cony inside the huge sphere, Democrac- quintuplets. ity was a model city of the future, a \"The World of Tomorrow\" in 1939, one modern river city surrounded by verdant Other countries had exhibits that hills. \"A center built in greenery,\" said looked to the future as well. Italy cele- is still struck by his ability to summon its designer, Henry Dreyfuss, \"with a brated Rome with a statue of Mussolini; perfect traffic system-and surrounding the Soviet Union built a towering stain- forth hope. The film clip shows FOR it, separated by a green belt, are indus- less steel statue of the new Soviet citizen trial and residential towns-and all (nicknamed \"Joe\" by Fair visitors); Ja- declaring \"our wagon is still hitched to a these towns, with the business and so- pan constructed a tranquil Garden of cial section at the center, together con- Peace and a replica Shinto shrine; and star-a star of friendship and interna- stitute Democracity.\" Clean and or- Great Britain and France extolled the derly, with no poverty or slums, this was wonders of their colonies. Yet, before tional good will. Above all, it is a star of the future, an interdependent society, the Fair opened, Lithuania was parti- living in harmony. tioned, and Czechoslovakia, and Alba- peace.\" • nia had fallen. During the first year of Beside taking us inside the Peris- the Fair, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, The grounds of Flushing Meadow phere for a view of the new city, Johnson and France were invaded by Germany, and Bird visually, if not philosophically, and Britain was at war. Park are virtually empty now of any re- underscore this theme. The City, a docu- mentary film made especially for the The WorLd of Tomorrow offers us the minder of the 1939 World of Tomorrow. Fair and shown in the Perisphere's the- rare footage of a film by two Lithuanians ater, chronicles the nation's poverty. By that showed their families in native The Trylon and Perisphere were bought Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke, dress, dancing and celebrating the re- The City showed a town already built by wards of democracy and freedom in the soon after the close of the Fair by Beth- the New Deal, Greenbelt, Maryland. In United States. The children are smiling Steiner and Van Dyke's film everyone and happy; their parents and other lehem Steel, melted down and turned cheerfully worked together, lived in adults more troubled. The world soon clean houses, played in beautiful parks intruded upon Flushing's World of To- into scrap metal for wartime industries. and playgrounds. It all made so much morrow. Some exhibits never opened; sense. This was not fantasy; it was not some closed; some remained open for In the park, in the meadows , and amidst idealistic; planners really believed this 1940. Once and briefly a celebration of could be the future. Forty-five years af- interdependence, the Fair became the relics of 1964's mediocrity lies a still- ter the Fair, John Crowley, who wrote transfigured into a pale homage \"For the narration for The World of Tomor- Peace and Freedom.\" Celebrating \"the ness, the void oflong-demolished build- row, succinctly summed the challenge: Dawn of a New Day\" seemed impossi- \"All it would take would be informed, ble; the public mood was more anxious, ings and long-broken promises and democratic assent to central planning cautious, and well-characterized by the and a willingness to shake off the past. \" words of the then-popular song: \"I don't dreams. Yet we remember. want to set the world on fire/I just want • to start a flame in your heart. \" We see a time pass before us , in John- Exhibits at the Fair were to be learn- By 1940, the mood at the Fair-and son and Bird's The WorLd ofTomorrow , as ing tools toward that vision. Business in the world-had turned from festive corporations and industry sectors (Food optimism to melancholy sorrow. The if it were a parade of images, truths, and Transportation, for example) would Soviet exhibit was dismantled and have buildings that were to be centers of shipped back home. In its place stood memories, and secrets. Secrets, per- information and showcases of products the American Common, an open-air to implement the future. Major exhibits stage on which people of all nationalities haps, because now we are as hamed that which stressed the future attracted tre- were asked to present pageants for mendous crowds. The WorLd of Tomor- peace. A new exhibit, the American Ju- we dreamed such grand dreams or that row shows us General Motors' mam- bilee, opened in the amusement zone moth gray building, with legions and featured a series of patriotic tab- we lack the courage to dream as auda- snaking their way into \"Futurama\", leaux: Abe Lincoln swigging a Coke, Norman bel Geddes' view of the new Uncle Sam confessing that regardless of ciously again. That is where the film 's tomorrow. For him 1960 was future party he was an American. Kate Smith enough: huge skyscrapers with their came to sing \"God Bless America\" and heart lies: we see the Trylon and Peris- own heliports; and fourteen-lane safe, \"I am an American.\" Tomorrow's jarring high-speed highways to divide the land jump cut from the official World's Fair phere one last time in a series of quick into vast expanses of farmland and for- flag to the American flag sums the est. Westinghouse's exhibit memorial- abrupt change in possibilities. No more shots, from dawn to day to dusk to night. ized 1939 in a Time Capsule filled with Jason Robards, J r. reads from Matthew Arnold's \"Dover Beach\": \" ... Ah, love let us be true to one another.\" The words do not come easily; it is no wonder that Robards in rehearsal was moved to tears. Robards graduated from Holly- wood High School in 1939. John Crowley's most moving words are spoken to us as we view a slow inver- sion of the theme symbols. We are stopped, startled by these images. The poignant words are spoken slowly: \"There are moments when yo u can see the world turning from what it is to what it will be. For me the ew York World's Fair is such a moment. It is a compass rose pointing in all directions- to imaginary future and real past, false future and immutable present. The World of Tomorrow contained in a lost American yesterday.\" We hear Jack Teagarden's Orchestra on a remote broadcast during the Fair's closing night, playing a pop tune, \"Man and His Dream.\" The screen turns dark once again while the song continues. The memories linger, thrill, and finally haunt us. We remember that we once dreamt such a wonderful future. ~ 69
Johnny Weissmuller (1904-84) and nurtured by apes. There had been plenty of Tarzans in by David Thomson those first years-cheap movies , or se- I can remember when Tarzan publicity might do for a stooge, and one rials, with Elmo Lincoln, Gene Polar, P. changed. It was 1948 or '49. In myearli- of the first athletes promoted for his re- Dempsey Tabler, James Pierce, Frank est years of filmgoing, I had grown used luctant speech, his pectoral splendor Merrill. No one was sure who had the to a flabby, grumpy king of the black- (with not a hair in sight), his rough-hewn rights, and in the early Thirties there and-white jungle. It was a dank, claus- head, and the voodoo eroticism of some were three screen Tarzans: Weissmuller, trophobic place with wooden floors and kind of gorilla dong that might beat be- Herman Brix and Buster Crabbe. But it cutaways to ill-matched travelogues, neath those twin flaps of dark loin cloth was Johnny who made the difference, sunny spaces in which you never saw hooked on a string. just because he wasn't an actor and be- Mr. T , just the herds of antelope or cause he conjured up the notion of a whatever that he was looking at. He In 1932, when he first played the part swimming superman, a radio and news- bellowed sometimes, suddenly and in Tarzan the Ape Man, Johnny was 28. reel hero, now lighted like a god and without conviction, like a Viking horn He had collected five gold medals at the seen in live action. with a bird caught in it, but he spoke as Paris (1924) and Amsterdam (1928) seldom as possible, to spare his high- Olympic Games. He had held world More important, at last a big studio pitched flutter. Johnny Weissmuller was swimming records at every distance up got in on the racket. In the past, Tarzan replaced at that time by Lex Barker, a to half a mile, and he had developed the had been material for small companies much better equipped Tarzan: lean and most efficient crawl stroke yet seen: two and fast hucksters. Now, MGM liked handsome, a golden Muscle Beach hus- arm strokes for six leg kicks. Ever after- the idea: didn't they have a lion alread)f tler who could handle dialogue and let ward, his anxious eyes seemed to be as their trademark? They saw the poten- you know why Jane had spurned civili- concentrating on the count, drugged by tial in Johnny; they cast a promising zation to live in his tree-house pad. that old tom-tom. He might have ex- young actress, Maureen O'Sullivan, as celled again at the Los Angeles Olym- Jane; and they gave the project to W.S. Somehow Barker was unconvincing pics of 1932, but he was in another part Van Dyke, a reliable pro, and the best or inappropriate. He was too appealing, of that forest by then. Three years ear- director ever to get his hands on Tarzan. too straight, too plainly a savage capable lier, he had turned pro, giving up com- Until then, Tarzan had been a part for of getting an athletics scholarship and petition to promote bathing suits. strapping actors in movies cheerfully seducing coeds. Johnny Weissmuller given over to adventure, stunts, and re- was a dump of a hero. But once you Tarzan had been around for nearly 20 tired circus livestock. Tarzan was kids' accepted his ponderous image, he years before Weissmuller surged stuff, a harmless stew of silliness at a brought a beseeching dignity to those through studio tanks and wrestled amia- time when Africa was a never-never land half-baked films. He believed in them ble animals. Edgar Rice Burroughs' first and the Crusoe-like imperialism of the as much as the kids in the dark. It was Tarzan story had been published in original story was never questioned. because he looked out of condition, dis- 1914: as the English nobility was about gruntled, and forlorn that Tarzan to fertilize the Western Front, Bur- There are no politics in the Weissmul- seemed other than human. If Kong was roughs conceived his naked ape of a leg- ler films , either. But there's a contained ever to make it with Fay Wray, this end, with the baby lord lost in the jungle sultriness, the smell of a true alien,and might have been their boy. No actor, the first signs of surrealism in the jungle. Johnny had to understand Tarzan to Tarzan the Ape Man was made in 1932, make the pictures. In his forties, ruined before the Production Code took full by high living, he was like a bloated little effect, and the starring couple came sur- boy, powerful but innocent. He could prisingly close to nakedness. It was a talk to the animals more easily than to skin picture in which, for the first time humans; it wouldn't have been a shock on screen, audiences could look at a if the lion had taken its head off and great male body without the redeeming chatted about parrots. - prissiness of John Gilbert's head on top of it. Weissmuller looked like a divine Johnny Weissmuller related to the barbarian. His face from 1932 could real in the way Big Macs compare with work today; it hasn't lost the menace of beef cattle. He was a Toys-R-Us noble carved rock, juiced up by wicked Tartar savage, a Greystoke from Viennese par- eyes. He could fight Rocky, threaten ents, the bashful Hyde to Victor Ma- Brooke Shields in a Blue Lagoon, or be ture's con-man Jekyll. He was an early the face of Darth Vader. and glorious example of what fame and Tarzan the Ape Man was a big studio picture, 99 minutes long, properly pro- moted, with star presences and a budget to make the jungle look equatorial. It's still worth seeing, and the romantic stills from it remain as unequivocal as they are dreamlike. Weissmuller was as thrilling and dangerous as Boris Karloffs mon- ster. Tarzan was a fantasy figure for would-be victims, a rescuer but a rav- isher, the best since Valentino. 70
Johnny had 15 years in the part, but OR IGINAL AM ERICAN & EURO PEAN.'I-+-+--+---+--+----1f---+--+-+-+-1 only ten years at MGM, and only six films with Maureen O'Sullivan. She MOVIE POSTERS went on to be an \"all-round actress;\" she married director John Farrow and LOBBY CARDS AND PRESSBOOKS f+-+-+-+-+--t--t-+--+--+-+-+--1 started having thin blond daughters. In 1943, MGM dropped out, and Weiss- fll~ ~()112/()1(1\\1~()411 muller was rehired by Sol Lesser, who had been making rival Tarzan pictures: (()12~4~/()()[)412[)/l4~fJ There were another five years for Johnny on smaller sets, with second- 1111(11(()(l\\/f4SSI3I~[)112 best Janes and chimpanzees. By the time I saw him, he looked depressed flJllll2/f()I2[)/ll2lJff4lJl and debauched , but somehow still un- manageable. As a kid , I never knew ... MANy MORE what to make of Tarzan. He didn't seem trained or rehearsed: he was somewhere HEAVILY ILLUSTRATED CATALOG FILLED WITH INFO between a beast and an impossibility. For the Advanced Collector & Novice . $5. Walter Reuben/Box He offered a grim resistance to wacky -'+--+--12696, Dept. 1/Austin, TX 78768 plots and flimsy decor. He breathed an appetite that seemed to need raw meat. You could believe that this half-caste- half-true, half-fatuous-had no Bel Air home, but lived in the small paddock of jungle Sol Lesser kept for him. In fact, Johnny was really living it up. The sex appeal worked. He was married five times, and he was a dumb swinger, like heavyweight champs. You can trace the deterioration, film by film. Lupe Velez was one of the wives-and, like three others, she divorced him. He mar- ried actresses, socialites, and a golfer. None of them solved the riddle of where Tarzan stopped and a squeaky-voiced giant smelling of chlorine took over. It must have been a hard life to get through, on the way to being an invalid in Acapulco. In the Fifties he did a TV series, Jungle Jim , but there he had to talk, wear clothes, enter houses. Movies were going to the real Africa. He spent his money and sank into prolonged tax troubles. For the last 20 years, he col- lected indignities. He grew large and he sounded more like a eunuch in his scat- tered game-show appearances. He lived in Fort Lauderdale, where he was hon- orary chairman of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, and for a time he was an employee of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas-the sad days of a gladiator. Today, someone just as paradoxical, and just as unlike other people-Mi- chael Jackson-is a cultural hero who lays down the terms by which he is to be believed. Michael is as confident as Weissmuller was lost. But perhaps this weird grandson of Tarzan might reflect once or twice on how Weissmuller was a pulp hulk, a looming image and a bereft inhabitant of the suit called Savage, an early mutant who had wanted to be a man.~ 71
Polanski and Biskind: On exile and kingdom by James Toback Polanski in Chinatown. tion). Roman by Polanski by Roman Polanski, ing Auschwitz, assuming false identities He became American-earning 451 pages, William Morrow and Com- even prior to puberty, bearing the mur- money, renting estates, doing parties, pany, New York, 1984. $17.95 der of a wife, jail in California, and exile running with stars-and making two from home and art), Polanski would movies which Americans (in large num- I first saw Roman Polanski's name in have needed to repeat the miracle of bers crossing all lines of background) Playboy in the early Sixties. He was \"up Joseph Conrad (his compatriot), would went to see: Rosemary's Baby and China- and coming. \" A photograph showed him have needed hold of a voice so subtle town. Two movies in the mainstream, with hair uncharacteristically long for and allusive, so commanding and re- not one. (\"Once a philosopher, twice a the time, a prominent nose, squinty fined, so natural in authority as to have pervert,\" said Voltaire). Which is not to eyes, and a small mouth. A woodpecker. made the epic novel-not the personal say that by selling, Polanski was selling Or a rodent. But attractive-with an un- film-his calling from the start. out. If he abandoned originality, he ashamed aestheticism, a cocky narcis- pressed his cunningly mischievous and sism projected from the picture which Polanski's early films both connected casually anarchic spirit onto tired genres, seemed to say: \"Appreciate me or fuck him to and distinguished him from his darkening them back to life. off.\" Knife in the Water and Repulsion exportable European contemporaries. sounded like titles only an artist fond of Truffaut, Bergman, Fellini, Visconti, Necessarily he remained apart as assertion and eager to offend would se- Antonioni, Reisz and Godard were also well. He made the most disjointedly lect. arriving during this period, announcing surprising film ever of a Shakespearean to the fringes of American audiences a play (Macbeth) and then filmed The Ten- I next saw Polanski on grainy black new European cinema (a cinema itself ant, a nightmare which allowed the and white TV, the subject of an interview thoroughly indebted to Chaplin and choice of outright walk-out, dismissal- by Stanley Kauffmann. Kauffmann was Welles). The American mainstream- or screeching horror at one's own exist- earnest, reverential and asphyxiatingly Hollywood-ignored, rejected, toler- ence-nothing in between. pompous. Instead of playing to the hero ated, courted, and then imitated these worship, Polanski responded to Kauff- filmmakers. But it did not co-opt them. The work, as always, was only half of mann's questions and interpretations Except for Polanski. At first look, the it. The number of directors who have first with impatience, finally with con- least likely candidate for incorporation become legends (among acquaintances tempt. \"I know what I am doing,\" Po- (the atmosphere of his films and the and friends) for their horniness, pur- lanski seemed to be saying, \"and I know intransigence of his sensibility clearly suits, and explosions is hardly inconsid- what my movies are about. I don't need the most severe), he was, at bottom, the erable: Michael Curtiz, George Mar- a windbag to explain them to me.\" But most susceptible (a refugee nearly from shall, Howard Hawks, John Farrow-all he was, after all, there. He would bite birth, a director without a sense of na- had private reputations as rich and large the hand that fed him and eat from it as as Errol Flynn's. But there was no dis- well. semination. Calculated understanding of popular ideas about how \"serious\" IfRoman-his oddly detached , often people should not conduct their lives led sad, always interesting autobiography- to secrecy as the only alternative to faith- finally disappoints ,it is at least partly by ful marriage. comparison with his films, the best of which fill all the spaces of their ambi- Polanski played not only without tions. Knife in the Water, Repulsion, and shame but with added pleaslue from ad- Cul de Sac defy category, ignore tradi- vertisement of the play-advertisement tion, and insult conventional expecta- which would tease, provoke, unsettle tions of narrative centrality and psycho- and enrage the world (which to a spiri- logical pattern. But they are always tual outsider as confirmed as he, meant controlled, their nice perversities fully everyone-except, sometimes, him- within the designs of their creator. The self). This delight in provocation is not consciousness of the memoir, by con- acknowledged. It is even, by implica- trast, seems perforated with wounds, tion, denied, and one cannot be certain numb in peculiar places-as if the man that the profession of innocence is disin- relating his own adventures was never genuous. quite present while they were taking place. Of course, to have done stylistic • justice to his vast and heroic life (avoid- Polanski is not an epic novelist. He is not even, after all, a writer. (Which is not for a moment to say that his book is not written with skill far more persuasive 72
than the tripe of the journalists and re- FILm FORum viewers whose slurs he cites through- out.) One must take the uneven virtues ATWIN CINEMA NEXT DOOR TO SOHO of Roman where one finds them with a ready eye for gratitude. If he fails him- Presenting NYC premieres of independent films self as a soloist a cappella trying to fill the & retrospectives of foreign & American classics dimensions of his opera, he yields en route much news of more than fleeting March 7-20: THE WORLD OF tOMORROW interest. March 21-27: THE SECRET AGENT and SL-1 He makes us, for instance, feel with- March 28-April10: THE GOOD FIGHT out apparent effort-but with accumu- April 11-24: TURUMBA by Kidlat Tahimik lating vividness-the sleazy dishonesty April 25-May 8: TEX AVERY CLASSICS of the respectable middle-brow press. When Time and Newsweek \"report\" the Open 7 days a week. Call or write for calendar & member dlacount Information. murders of Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring, the ugly writing serves as an appropriate 57 watts Street, NYC 10013 Box Office: (212)431·1590 vessel for the grotesque misrepresenta- tions they transport. Critics in France, Partially supported by the NYS Council on the Arts & the National Endowment for the Arts Germany, England, and America carry on personal vendettas through nasty re- 73 views of his films. And editors-posing as guardians of style and civilized life- reveal themselves as moral slime. (When Polanski, needing a letter from the editors of French Vogue and Vogue Hommes in Paris to validate his truthful claim that his photographs of the 13-year old girl charging him with rape were taken for a Vogue assignment, he is told by one of them, a man who had pan- dered to Polanski for years: \"We can't. We've already been questioned by In- terpol. We said we knew nothing about it. \") Polanski's endless undercurrents and double edges will not permit simple rev- elations-even if the complicating side is shown without intention. If journalis- tic lice are indicted by no more than the reproduction of their own words un- adorned, those words-unjust, vile- are quoted with such far-ranging variety and in such profusion, quoted with such relish , and quoted by Polanski, that it would require the deftest of escapes to avoid the conclusion that the object of these assaults is proud of them. Such an inference would not violate Polanski's angry rejection of the notion of the vic- tim as accomplice in his own slaughter (a costume that anti-semites favor slipping onto Jews). It would rather suggest again the simple pleasure he takes in cracking others, stirring up the world outside, and fending off their stones. (The world out- side being, after all, somehow unread; the real world consisting of his con- sciousness which the best of hi s films transforms and which Roman practically ignores). If the press is parasitic scum, the po- lice (in both L.A. and New York) and the prison guards (in Chino, where Polanski spent six weeks) are princes-direct, ?
unpolluted by envy, rancor, or dishon- on the way to kissing the hand that isn't What, exactly, were the Fifties? esty, and tolerant. There are few words feeding him, Biskind extends the decade from of praise quoted in this memoir (Po- Mildred Pierce (1945) to Dr, Strangelove lanski's modesty seems unassumed) but Is Polanski sorry? Should he be? Was (1964), a generation corresponding to the report on his conduct in jail written he wrong? (Wrong enough to warrant the twenty years between World War II by \"Shenck, the toughest guard in and Vietnam. By implicitly bracketing Chino, who handled himself like a Ma- prison?) If his account is true-then the the Fifties as an epoch of uneasy peace, rine Corps sergeant\" is clearly of such seduction was mutual, and the girl had Korea notwithstanding, it becomes a more experience going in than many woman twice her age. Facing the logic of fundamental worth to him that he can- his (and her) passion, Polanski would chapter in American history not unlike not resist presenting its admiring assess- demand to know at what age a woman is the period between the World Wars, a ment verbatim. He is referred to to be thought competent to act on her time during which the American film throughout the document as \"Inmate desires. And if the answer is 18 (as it is in industry thrived and prospered, The Polanski\" and praised for efficiency, dis- California), then why is it 12 in Georgia? difference? Since World War II, Holly- cipline, consideration, organization, (Surely Californians are not so much wood has only tenuously survived and cleanliness, leadership, and a refusal to slower to develop than women in the scrimped. use his social status \"as a lever or land of peanuts). Biskind is not so interested in chart- crutch.\" Finally, he \"gets along with It is not the aim of Polanski's memoir ing Hollywood's spectacular demise as both staff and inmates.\" These are qual- to reform the American legal system, he is in establishing the political typo- ities without which survival in a life lit- but since sex, totalitarianism, harrass- logy of Fifties films. Sorting synopses tered with so many jagged obstacles ment, young women, sensationalism, and heroes into pigeonholes of Left- would have been impossible. provocation of authority, hypocrisy, hon- Center-Right (the center bordered by Roman, like Tess (a film more well-be- esty, the relation of photography to life, \"Corporate Liberal\" and \"Conserva- haved than Hardy ever was), feels like and freedom of action and movement tive\"), he demonstrates how, in film something of an application for readmis- are the tissue and sinew of his life, and after film, the denouement pulls the sion to America. The material of his life since they are distilled as if by design in audience back to Center, having illus- is presented whole but in a tone of such this single freakish episode-whose trated how extremism is moderated vi- enlightened reasonableness, balance, consequences are still reverberating for gilantly by other forces. The prevailing and sobriety that Polanski seems to be Polanski and for everyone who cares ideology of centrism, the celebration of alternately describing himself and some- about these forces-it would have been the middle-of-the-road, is in Fifties one he has never met, someone who a fine crescendo on which to shoot his films nonetheless subject to continued could not possibly have lived his life. story out. He is a true chosen one among attack by enemies from within (non- When etching the scenes leading to the chosen people into which he was comformists, radicals from either end, and including his sex with the 13-year born. And it is the fate of those who have women, minorities) and from without old girl who became his nemesis, Po- endured greatly and forged great gifts (aliens, Communists, warmongering lanski does his first and only good, erotic from their suffering to be called upon to killer ants and grasshoppers). Thus writing. The detail is precise, the obser- endure even more and give gifts even Biskind's book, which spends its early vation complex, the tension fine. But greater. chapters tracing the pendulum's inexo- when discussing the legal disaster that rable return to center, concludes with a followed (a disaster believably portrayed by Carrie Rickey catalogue of the social undercurrents as the result of country club pressures on that demonstrated why the center a judge whose gutlessness and evasions Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood would not hold. would qualify him as editor of French Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the The decade exerts fascination for Vogue or reporter at Time or Newsweek), Fifties, by Peter Biskind, Pantheon. cultural historians, because it's the mo- Polanski swerves into a u-turn. He $22.95 (cloth), $10.95 (paper). ment of the baby-boomer's indoctrina- claims not to have wanted his teenage Ah, the Fifties: when men were tion, nuclear nightmare and nuclear accuser to go through the ordeal of a trial men, women were grasping, furniture family, the spawning of rock'n'roll and for fear that she would be \"exposed to a and aliens biomorphic! Peter Biskind's the space race. Though discredited by blaze of publicity that would sear her Seeing Is Believing, the second ambi- late Sixties activism, the period is now memory for life.\" He now understands tious book in as many years about the seen as a wistful golden age by the that he has \"already caused her consid- ideological subtexts of Hollywood Reagan administration. Reconsidering erable harm.\" Nothing in the previous movies during that decade (the first: the Fifties is a means of deflating such twenty pages has prepared for-or Nora Sayre's Running Time), greedily bloated nostalgia: it's also useful to would permit-this emission of re- bites off more than it can digest, let tneditate upon the films that sublimi- morse. If it is lip-service felt essential to alone chew. Yet its ruminations over nally shaped an ethos so violently repu- restoration of his freedom (which should certain movies and how they shaped diated since. have been his all along), one can hardly popular belief are both provocative and If Sayre identifies the changing form blame Polanski. Still, it is the first step edifying. of the enemy (fingered in one film as blinkered patriotism, in another as MotIon P\\ct\\n and TelevIsion WIlling Consultants AUTHORS WANTED BY mono-maniacal Communism), then NEW YORK PUBLISHER Biskind is obsessed with establishing Detailed, professional evaluation of your script tor the authority for who decides which a tee by ex-studio development executives, Leading subsidy book publisher seeks manuscripts (among various) enemies is most men- (Zoetrope Studios and United Artists), Qualifying , of all types: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, scholarly acing. His shift of emphasis centers not screenplays will be forwarded to bona tide liter- on the problem but on the problem- ary agents with our recommendation. For tree in- I and juvenile works, etc, New authors welcomed. formation Motion Picture and Television Writing Consultants.1523 N. La Brea #210 , Hollywood CA. Send for free, iIlustrated 40-page brochure H- 83 90028 (213) 876-9415 , ext 210 Vantage Press, 516 W. 34 St., New York, N.Y, 10001 74
solver. teamwork for corporate liberals, \" aptly -----.,-. . IT'S 1 Instead of seeing the Fifties from a analyzing the operative metaphor of such films as Bombers B-52 and Twelve ( 1=1RTS consistent Eighties vantage, Biskind's O'Clock High. Demonstrating the sub- method (avoided by Sayre's stream-of- tle ways in which the clergy and psychi- for Film consciousness anti-structure) regretta- atry became conflated, he describes the bly accepts the decade on its own recurring image of confession-as-sacra- Music and terms. Witness his chapters: \"Who's in ment, particularly apposite to the nam- Charge Here?\" \"The Organization ing-names era. \"In both analysis and Video Man Goes to War,\" \"The Enemy confession, the patient or penitt;nt Within,\" \"All in the Family.\" He fo- made public what once had been pri- Exclusive Soundtrack Selections cuses on the contrast between forces of vate, became transparent to the gaze of And Limited Editions! authority: Does the individual triumph authority,\" writes Biskind, concisely over the bureaucracy? Psychiatty over evaluating decisive moments in movies Over 1.000,000 LP'S available: police? Which prevails, one ideology or like On the Waterfront . Summing up the In-Print and Out-of-Print, an array a consensus? Is the family patriarchal or fundamental dilemma of the individual of imports, highly-desired reissues, matriarchal? within the democracy, characterized in original casts, and nostalgia. Broken Arrow and Underworld U.S .A. , With such a focus, what's excluded Biskind provocatively suggests, Plus we offer the finest selection from the picture? Namely sex, race, \"Whereas in corporate liberal films, in video tapes and video discs (from and class with their compelling subsets only by acting in the public interest can \"G to X\") and the only monthly of miscegenation, denial, and transcen- the hero satisfy his private needs, in Filmusic Newsletter \"Music dence. Though these issues are men- conservative films, only by acting in his Gazette\". tioned, they are relegated to the back- own interests can he satisfy public ground. In its introduction, Seeing Is needs. \" For YOUR copy of our extensive Believing promises to be an iconography catalog and a sample of \"Music of values and mores during the Fifties, Sticklers for detail might gripe at See- Gazette\" ($2 value), Please Remit but Biskind's close reading of some ing Is Believing's imprecise recollection $1.00 TODAY TO: thirty-two films, though often excel- of plot moments in The Marrying Kind, lent, confirms a basic Fifties assump- The Fountainhead, and Magnificent Ob- RTS, Dept 21B tion that the powerless-women, mi- session (in each case a minimization of norities, extremists-exist only as the heroine's relevance to the course of PO Box 1829 definers of white, male power. events-consistent with the book's era- Novato, California 94948 sure of the female experience). But 415/883-2179, Tues 12-4 pm With men as the centerpiece of this even the most fastidious viewers re-ex- analysis of centrism and its malcon- periencing Fifties films are impelled to JRec1.ilm Jlna(ysis 8.eries tents, it's possible for Biskind to discuss reassess the era and its products. 12 Angry Men solely as a paradigm of Biskind scants biblicals, musicals, and presents a series of guides for consensus, never criticizing its implicit melodramas in favor of sci-fi, policiers, screen writing study. assumption that the judiciary is an all- and westerns (because the latter are male bastion, that justice and con- more masculine?), but he makes a de- Each book analyzes a film in sensus are shown to be male preroga- termined brief for even the most forget- detail , including the sequence tives. And, given the masculinist thrust table films among these genres. Has of the book, it's de rigueur to margina- anyone else written seriously about _.....structure, the plots and subplots, lize the role of certain Fifties heroines, Arch Oboler's The Twonky? to see the Eva Marie Saint character in act climaxes, scene structure, On the Waterfront and the June Allyson Biskind's foreground of men at cor- and the elements of theme , role in Strategic Air Command as agents porate war, men at the frontiers of space characterization , and . . ._P.!I~ of social control, rather than as half of a and civilization, and men entangled in motivation . sexual dialectic. bureaucratic red tape might better have been the background to men and Guides are available Seeing Is Believing's is the only anal- women at sex war, whites and non- for the following movies, as well ysis of The Big Heat I've ever read ne- whites striking a balance of power, and as others: glecting to mention the important Glo- the sudden presence of forces that ria Grahame role of Debby, the moll make all the above struggles look petty • E. T.- The Extra-Terrestrial with the half-scarred, Manichean face, and minor; unfortunately, the latter is an embodiment of the Fifties Good/ not in the purview of the book. Both • Gandhi Evil woman. Apropos of The Big Heat, thoughtless and thoughtful, Seeing Is as with so many of the close readings in Believing asks the probing question , · Tootsie Seeing Is Believing, the exegesis is does \"good\" ideology make for good male-identified and male-dominated. movies? Though Biskind doesn't ex- • Raiders of the Lost Ark plicitly answer, he favors debate over Though scarcely cognizant of many paranoia. Never nervously counseling • Chariots of Fire key issues, Seeing Is Believing nonethe- us to \"watch the skies,\" he does en- • Star Wars ,....-------, less is abundant with original thinking courage us to \"watch the screens.\" about other aspects of the Fifties. • Chinatown S11 .95 each Cracking the iconographic code of the Closely.~ era, Biskind observes, \"If teamwork · Citizen Kane (shipping was warfare for rightists, warfare was • Casablanca included) Send check to: The Film Analysis Series 5515 Jackson Drive, Suite 246 La Mesa, CA 92041 For catalog , send $1 .00, which will be refunded on first purchase . 75
to volume 19, 1983 Chute, David. Outlaw cinema: its rise and tall. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 9- I 5. ill. Includes a discussion of M idnight MOVies, book by Linda Batty Beln.lx, J.en-Jacqu•• by J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum. Yakir, Dan. Man in the moon: Jean - Jacques Beineix inter- This index is based on indexing rules Haas, Charlie. Headsploitation, 19:3 May-June '83, 67 -71. and subject headings for fIlm periodicals viewed, 19:4 July- Aug '83, 16-19. ill. His filmmaking style, ill. Lale '60s early '70s psychedelic cinema, developed by the Federation of Interna- fulure projects, etc. Ref. THE MOON IN THE GUTTER. tional Film Archives (FIAF). It is di- See also: Dlrectora end DI..ctlng Curti., Dan vided into four parts:a subject index, an B.llocchlo, Marco See: THE WINDS OF WAR author index, a film title (English lan- Yakir, Dan. The Italians: Marco Bellocchio. 19:2 March-April Del Mont., P.t., guage) index and a book review index. '83, 35-38. ill. Includes interview. Career. Ref. LEAP INTO Yakir, Dan. The Italians: the new generation: Peler Del Monte, The names of interviewers are included THE VOID . III the author index. a.rgman, Ingm.r 19:2 March-April '83, 49. ill. Corliss , Ric hard. God, sex , and Ingmar Bergman . 19:3, Dlrectora and Dlr.ctlng copyright © 1984 Linda Batty. All rights reserved May-June '83, 13, 18- I 9, ill. Career, Chule, David. The 1982 movie revue: new faces ot 1982. Wolf, William, God, sex, and Ingmar Bergman. 19:3 May-June Subjects '83, 13- 17, ill. Ref. FANNY AND ALEXANDER. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 18-19. ill. Includes directors Jean- B.rlln Film F..tI.al Jacques Beineix. George Miller and Sam Raim i. Acad.my ot Motion Plctur. Art. and Sclanc•• Award. Kennedy , Harlan . Journals: Berlin. 19:3 May-June '83 , Pally, Marcia. Ordinary people. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 11 - 15. ill. Oh I'd love 10 be an Oscar major winner. 19:2 March-April 2,4,6,8-9 . Rei . Women directo rs' portrayals of women : Chantal Vogel, Amos. Independents: more apocalypse now. 19:3 Akerman (LE S ANNEES 80, JEANNE DIELMAN): Joyce '83, 6. ill. David Ansen, Lee Beaupre, Sluan Byron, Roger May-June '83, 76-77. Independent cinema at the Festival. Bunuel (DIRTY DISHES): Diane Kurys (ENTRE NOUS): Ebert, Myron Meisel, Dale Pollock, Andrew Sarris and Rich- B••t Film. Susan Lamben (ON GUARD): Trinh Minh-ha (REASSEM - ard Schickel predict Oscar winners from the nominees. Six ten-bests. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83 , 20-21. Richard Corliss , BLAGE) : Marleen Gorris (THE SILENCE AROUND CHRIS· Thompson, Anne and Richard Corliss. The t 982 movie revue: Harlan Jacobson, David Chul e, Richard T. Jameson, Ste- TINE M.): Ana CarOlina (HEARTS AND GUTS). and Ihe nominees are, maybe, .. . 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 15-17. phen Harvey and Elliott Stein each list their 10-best for Zeichner, Arlene. Rock n' video: encyclo-vldeo. 19:4 July-Aug ill. Aljean Harmetz, Dale Pollock, Gregg Kilday, Peter Rainer, 1982 . '83, 46-47 . ill. Top video auteurs proliled: Brian Grant, Stuan Byron, Lee Beaupre and Bruce Feldman speculate: See also: Acad.my of Motion Plctur. Art. and Scl.nc.. DaVid Mallet, Russell Mulcahey, Sieve Barron, Thomas best actor, best actress, best supponing actor, best suppon· Awerd.; Guilty PI...ur•• Dolby, Don Letts, Annabel Jankel, Paul Justman, Steve ing aclress, best original screenplay, best screen adaptation, Big Budg.t Film. Kahn, John Sanborn, Ken Walz, Graeme Whitter. besl direclor. Ehrenstein, David. The hard pan: getting it right: the aesthe- Zeichner, Arlene. Rock 'n video: video auteurs. 19:4 July-Aug Acting lics of failure . 19:3 May-June '83 , 44-47 . ill. Big budgets / '83, 42-45. ill. Top music video directors: MTV. Yakir, Dan. The Italians: acting, Italian style. 19:2 March-A pril big failures: a correlation? '83, 46-47. ill. Claudia Cardinale, Vittorio Gassman, Sophia Body, Gebor DI.trlbution Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Stetania Sandrelli and Ugo Vogel, Amos. Independents: works of despair. 19:4 July-Aug Farber, Stephen, The hard pan: getting it shown: shelf life. Tognazzi on acting. '83, 76-77 . Includes THE DOG 'S NIGHTSONG . Acto\" end Act...... Bonderchuk, S.rg.1 19:3 May-June '83, 39-43. ill. Theatrical release problems. Chute, David. The 1982 movie revue: new taces of 1982. 19:1 See: RED BELLS ReI. WHITE DOG (Sam Fuller) and EUREKA (Nicolas Roeg). Jan-Feb '83, 18 -19, ill. Ref. Eddie Murphy, Amanda Plummer, Book. See also: Ind.p.nd.nt Cln.me Mickey Rourke. See: Adeptetlona: Book Review section of this index. Docum.ntery Cln.ma Th omson, David. Mouslache: thai obscure wound of desire. See: L.lpzlg Int.rnellonel Docum.ntery Film Fe.tI.al 19:3 May-June '83, 20-27. ill. Leading men and Iheir Borao., Phillip Exploltellon Film. mustaches . See: THE GREY FOX See: Cult Mo.les Adeptetlon. Fallur•• et th. Box Olflc. Mate, Ken and Pat McGilligan. Burnell. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, Box Olflce See: Box Olflc. 58-70. Includes inlerview with W.R. Burnett. ill, Filmogr. Beaupre, Lee and Anne Thompson. Industry: eighth annual Far E..t.rn Cln.me completed by Dennis L. While. Writer William Riley Burnett See: A.len Cln.ma and th e movies. grosses gloss. 19:2 March -April '83, 62-73. fge2 's box- Farn.worth, Richerd See also: Scr••nwrlt.n and Scr••nwrltlng office hits and lIops. Thomson, David. People we like: Richard Farnsworth. 19:4 Ae.th.tlea Ehrenstein, David. The hard part: getting it figh t: the aesthetics July-Aug '83 , 78-79. Ref. his role in THE GREY FOX. Thomson, David. The big fix, 19:4 July-A ug '83 , 24-32 . ill. Is of failure. 19:3 May-June '83, 44-47. ill. Big budgest/big seeing or making films like taking drugs? failures: a correlation? Fa.orll. Film. Ah.arn, Chari•• Brook., Jam•• See: Best Film.; Guilty PI...u... See: WILD STYLE See: TERMS OF ENDEARMENT Ak.rman, Chantal Bunu.l, Lui. Fe\"ara, Abel See: N.w York Film F••tI.al; Wom.n In Film Yak\", Dan. Luis Bunuel: 1900- 1983. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 27 -28. See: FEAR CITY Akermerk, Marg\".te ill . Ferr.rl, Marco Koch , Joanne. Back page: Margareta Akermark, 1913- 1983. Burn.tt, W,R, (William RII.y) Yakir, Dan. The Italians: Marco Ferreri. 19:2 March- April '83, 19:4 July -Aug '83 , 80. ill. Mate , Ken and Pat McGilligan. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 58-70. ill. Arcad... Vld.o Includes interview with Burnett. Filmogr. completed by Den- 38-4 t . ill. Includes interview. Career. See: Vld.ogem •• nis L. White. W.R. Burnett and the movies. F••tI.el 01 F••II.el. A.lan-Amerlcen Cln.me Burtt, Ben See: Toronto'. F••tI..1of F••II.el. See: A.lan Cln.me Mancini, Marc. Sound thinking. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 40-47 . ill. F••II.al. A.lan Cln.ma Sound design and designers, Includes Bunt. See: Berlin; Cenn••; Chicago; L.lpzlg; N.w York; Toron- Midsection: the Asians. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 3 I -53, ill. Includes: The last rising sun (Imamura ), by Dave Kehr : B OAT Cebl. TV to'. Festl.el of Festl.al.; Vanlc.; Wortd'. Fal\" and PEOP LE (Hui) by Harlan Kennedy: Beyond Kung Fu: 7 Hong See: T.I••I.lon exposition. Kong fire crackers, by Harlan Kennedy: Manila's angels Cannes Film F••tI.al Filipino Cln.ma (Filipino cinema) by Elliott Siein: Made in America (Asian- Corliss, Mary. Journals: Cannes. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 2,4. ill. Stein, Elliott. Manila'S angels. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 48-58. ill. American cinema). by Luis H. Fran cia. Cannon Group Full.r, Sam Att.nborough, Richard Rehfeld, Barry Cannon fathers. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 20-24 . ill. Farber, Slephen. The hard pan: getting it shown: shelf life. See: GANDHI 19:3 May -June '83, 39-43. ill. Theatrical release problems. Award. Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan: new kings of new Holly· Includes WHITE DOG . See: Aced.my of Motion Plctur. Art. and Scl.nce. Award.; Fest ivals wood 's new cheapies. Ga\"al, Philipp. B-Mo.l. . C...ldy, Joanne Vogel, Amos. Independents: works of despair. 19:4 July-Aug See: Low Budg.t Film. Corliss, Richard. People we like: Joanna Cassidy and Bonnie Badham, John '83, 76-77. Includes THE SECRET CHILD . Jacobson, Harlan, Thunder on the right. 19:4 July-Aug '83, Bedelia. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 83. ill, 9-11 , 74 . ill. Mililary / war in lilms. Ref WAR GAMES (Bad- Glraldl, Bob ham) and STAR WARS trilogy. Chlcego Film F••tI.el Schulman, Elliot. Rock 'n video: Bob Giraldi. 19:4 July-Aug '83, Mancini, Marc. Thunder and lightning: Dan O'Bannon inter- Coburn, Marcia Froelke. Journals: Chicago. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, viewe d, 19:4 July- Aug '83, 52-55. ill. SCience fiction cinema. 48. ill. Career. Ref. BEAT IT. ReI. BLUE THUNDER (Badham). 6,8.79 . B.daUe, Bonnie Cln.metography Globu., Yorem Corliss , Richard. People we like: Joanna Cassidy and Bonnie Mancini, Marc. 5293. t9:6 Nov- Dec '83, 34-39. ill, Kodak5293 See: Cennon Group Bedelia. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 83. ill. Golan, M.nah.m and 5294: major advances in film Slock technology. See: Cannon Group Guilty PI...ur•• Color Cln.metography Dante, Joe. t 9:3 May -June '83, 56-59, ill. See: Cln.metography Walers, John. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 20-23. ill. Coppole, Francl. Ford Thomson, David and Lucy Gray. Idols of the king: Francis Gulnne.., Alac Kennedy, Harlan. Sir Alec. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 12- 15. ill. Coppola interviewed. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 61 -75. ill. Career, projects, etc. Ref. RUMBLE FISH . Career. Cron.nberg, Da.ld Hili, Walt.r See: THE DEAD ZONE Sragow, Michael. Ghostwriters: unraveling the enigma of Cuben-Am.rlcan Cln.ma Fernandez, Enrique. Journals: Irom New York: 19:4 July-Aug movie authorship. 19:2 March-April '83, 9- 18. ill. Includes '83, 4,6-7. ill. Ref. the Mambru Group and CROSSOVER 48 HOURS . DREAMS (Ichaso). Hlro.hlma/Neg..ekl Bombing. on Film Cukor, G.org. Vogel, Amos. Independents: the atom and eve of destruction. Clarens, Carlos, The Cukor touch. 19:2 March - April '83, 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 76-77. Documentary footage . 58-60 . ill. In memoriam. Holdt, Jacob Cull Mo.l.. See: AMERICAN PICTURES Hollywood See: Indu.try Hong Kong Cinema Kennedy, Harlan. Beyond Kung Fu: 7 Hong Kong lirecrackers. 19:5 Sepl-Oct '83, 46-47 . ill, Hul, Ann Kennedy, Harlan. BOAT PEOPLE, 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 41 -47 . ill. Includes career profile. Ich..o, Laon Fernandez, Enrique. Journals: Irom New York. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 4,6- 7. ill. Cuban-American cinema. ReI. the Mambru Group and CROSSOVER DREAMS. Imamura, Shoh.1 Kehr, Dave. The last rising sun, 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 32-40. ill. 76
Career. Rehfeld, Barry. Cannon fathers . 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 20-24. ill. O'Toole, Annelle Independent Clneme Globus and Golan (The Cannon Group): new kings of new Chute, Da vi d. Man and superwoman. 19:3 May-June '83, 53. Lebby, Marsha J, Independents: to market, to market. 19:6 Hollywood's new cheapies. ill. OToole's star qualities. Nov-Dec '83, 76-77 . ill. Growth of the independent feature Luc_, Georg. Oullaw Cln.ma film movement: European distribution. Ref. American Inde- Jacobson, Harlan. Thunder on the right. 19:4 July-Aug '83 , See: Cult MoolH Paaoltnl, Pier Paolo pendent Feature Film Market. 9- t 1,74 . ill. Military / war in films. Includes STAR WARS Vogel, Amos. Independents: works of despair. 19:4 July-Aug Vogel, Amos. Independents: the atom and eve of destruction. trilogy. '83 , 76-77 . Includes LA RABBIA. 19:t Jan- Feb '83, 76-77. Hiroshima / Nagasaki bombings MTV Phlllpino Cln.ma Midsection: rock 'n video. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 33-51. ill. In- See: Filipino Cln.ma footage. Pollack, Sydn.y Vogel, Amos. Independents: more apocalypse now. 19:3 cludes: The medium is the maximu m (characteristics, fulure Sragow, Michael. Ghostwrilers: unraveling the enigma 01 movie of MTV), by Richard Corliss: Video rad io (characleristics, May-June '83, 76-77 , Independent cinema at the Berlin future of MTV), byJ . Hoberman: The MTV aestheti c, by Rich- authorship . 19:2 March - A pril ' 83 , 9 - 18. ill. Includes ard Gehr: Pre-MTV (Scopitone, Busby Berkeley, Richard TOOTSIE. Film Festival. Lester . the avant-garde) , by Da vi d Ehrenste in : Video P.yched.llc Cln.ma Vogel, Amos. Independents: works ot despair. 19:4 July-Aug auteurs, by Arlene Zeichner: Encyclo -video, by Arlene See: Cult Mo.le. Zeichner: Bob Giraldi, by Elliot Schulman: MTV's super mar- Rapha.l.on, Sam.on '83, 76-77. THE DOG 'S NIGHTSONG (Body), LA RABBIA ket (cross-pollination: see the MTV piece, Ihen the movie, Corliss, Rich ard, Bob Rafelson, and Andrew Sarris. Samson (Pasolini), THE SECRET CHILD (Garrel). then buy the record), by Mary Billard. Raphaelson: 1896-1983, 19:5 Sept-Oci '83, 26,29. MacDonald, Jimmy R.I.... Probl.m. India Mancini, Marc, Sound thinking. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83 , 40-47. See: Dlatrlbullon Stein, Elliott, The other India. 19:3 May-June '83 , 28-32. ill. ill. Sound design and designers. Includes MacDonald. Rock Mu.lc on TV See: MTV State of the industry. Mann, Mtcha.1 Roeg, Nicol•• Indu.try (Hollywood) See: THE KEEP Farber, Stephen, The hard part: getting it shown: shelf life. 19:3 Beaupre, Lee and Anne Thompson, Industry: eighth annual McBrld., Jame. May-June '83, 39-43. ill. Theatrical release problems. Ref. See: BREATHLESS EUREKA. gloss. 19:2 March - April '83, 62-73 . 1982's box -office Midnight Mo.I•• Ke nnedy, Harlan. Roeg: warrior. 19:2 March-April '83, 20-23. See: Cult Mo.I•• ill. hits and flops. M l d• • c l l o n Salklnd, AI.xand.r and lIya Midsection: the hard part, 19:3 May-June '83, 33-47. ill. In- Arcadia. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 33-42. ill. Videogames. Kennedy, Harlan. Super Salkinds. 19:3 May-June '83 , 49-55. The Asians. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 31-58. ill. ill. Includes interview. The Salkinds' produ ction hislory and cludes: Gelling it made: BREATHLESS diary, by L.M . Kit Car- The hard part. t9:3 May-June '83, 33-47 . ill. Hollywood: pro- empire. son: Gelling rt shown: shelf life (distribution) by Stephen Scandlna.lan Cln.ma Farber: Gelling rt right : the aesthetics of failure (box-office duction, distribution, failure. Wolf, William. God, sex, and Ingmar Bergman. 19:3 May-June fa ilures), by David Ehrenslein. The Italians. 19:2 March-April '83, 32-49. ill. '83, 13- 17. ill. Includes survey of Scandinavi an film induslry. The 1982 movie revue. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 11-21. ill. Includes: Rock 'n video. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 33-51 . ill. MTV. Schepl.l, Fred E.T\" by Richard T. Jameson: And the nominees are, may- Sight and sound. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83 , 33-47. ill. Kodak 5293: See: ICEMAN be, .. (Academy Awards), by Anne Thompson and Richard Sclenc. Flcllon Film. Corliss: New faces of 1982. by David Chute: 1982 and all sound design and designers. Mancini, Marc. Thunder and lightning: Dan O'Bannon inter- thai (pokes fun at 1982). by Stephen Harvey and Richard Military LII. In Film. viewed. 19:4 July-Aug '83 , 52-55. ill. Sci-fi screenwr iter Corliss. Jacobson, Harlan. Thunder on the right. 19:4 July-Aug '83, Dan O'Bannon on his work specifically and the genre gener- Thomson. David. The big fix. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 24-32 . ill. Is ally. seeing or making films like laking drugs? 9-11 , 74. ill. Military / war in films. Ref. STAR WARS trilogy and Scola, Ellore See also: T ....I.lon WAR GAMES (Badham). Yakir, Dan. The lIalians: Ettore Scola. 19:2 MarCh-April '83, 41- Iran Mlou Mlou 43. ill. Incl udes interview. Career. Motavalli, John. Exiles. 19:4 July-Aug '83. 56-59. ill. Recent Yakir, Dan. 1can legally fulfill all my dreams. 19:4 July-Aug '83, Scr••nwrlter. and Scr••nwrltlng history of the industry. 67. ill. Includes interview. Mancini, Marc . Thunder and lightning: Dan O 'Bannon inter- Ironl, Jeremy Mo.kowllz, Gen. viewed. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 52-55. ill. Includes inlerview. Bygrave. Michael. Hot Irons. 19:2 March-April '83, 53. ill. In- Landry, Robert J. Orbits: Gene Moskowitz, 1921-1982, 19:2 Writing science fiction scripts. cludes interview. Career. March-April '83, 77. ill. Sragow, Michael. Ghostwriters: unraveling the enigma of Mu.lc movie auth orsh ip. 19:2 March-April '83, 9-18. ill. Ref. THE I.ra\" See: MTV; Opera on T.levl.lon PURSUIT OF D.B. COOPER (Spottiswoode), TOOTSIE Yakir. Dan. Eye on Zion. 19:3 May-June '83. 60-63. ill. Stale 01 Mu.tach•• (Pollack) and 48 HOURS (Hill).. Thomson, David. Moustache: thai obscure wound of desire. See also: Adaptallon. the industry. 19:3 May-June '83, 20-27. ill. Leading men and their S.ralln., Frank naly mustaches. Midsection: The Italians. 19:2 March -April '83, 32 - 49. ill. In- N.w York Film FHII.al CONTRIBUTORS Harvey, Stephen. The 21 st New York Film Festival. 19:6 A Washington, D.C. writer, Pat Auf- cludes: Toppled gods (chronology of Italian cinema). by Nov-Dec '83 , 60,65-67 . ill. RUMBLE FISH (Francis Cop- derheide is contributing editor to In Stephen Harvey: Marco Bellocchio: Marco Ferreri: Ellore , pola), NOSTALGHIA (Andrei Tarkovsky), PASSION (Jean- These Times. Veronica Geng's collec- Scola: The Tavianis: Acting Italian style: The new buffoons: Luc Godard), IN THE WHITE CITY (Alain Tanner), LA VIE tion of satires will be issued as Partners The new generation: Peter Del Monte. all by Dan Yakir. EST UN ROMAN (LI FE IS A BED OF ROSES) (Alain Res- in Julv by Harper & Row _ Gregg Kil- Journal. nais), LES ANNEES 80 (THE GOLDEN EIGHTIES) (Chan- day writes for the L.A . Herald-Exam- Chule, David. STRANGE INVADERS in Toronto and Chicago. lal Akerman) , FORBIDDEN RELATIONS (Zsolt Kezdi - iner. Todd McCarthy is a staffwriter 19:1 Jan-Feb '83 .2, 6. The Michael Laughlin / William Kovacs) , LOST ILLUSIONS (Gyula Gazdag), SEEING RED for Daily Variety. Carrie Rickey is film Condon director /w riter combo. Ref. STRANGE INVADERS (Julia Reichert and James Klein), BOAT PEOPLE (Ann Hui), critic for the Bostoll Herald. Richard and STRANGE BEHAVIOR. STREAMERS (Robert Altman), ERENDIRA (Ruy Guerra), Schickel, a film critic at Time, is the au- Coburn. Marcia Froelke. Chicago. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83. 6.8.79. ENTRE NOUS (COU P DE FOUDRE) (Diane Kurys) , L'AR - thor of new books on Cary Grant and 18th Chicago Film Festival. GENT (Robert Bresson). D.W. Griffith . Kenneth Spence is a Corliss, Mary. Cannes. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 2.4. Cannes Film Jacobson, Harlan. The 21 sl New York Film Festival. 19:6 freelance writer li ving in Ne w York . Nov-Dec '83 , 61-64 . ill. LAST NIGHT AT THE ALAMO James Toback's next film is titled The Festival. (Eagle Pennell), RED LOVE (Rosa von Praunheim), BUR - Pick-Up Artist. Kenneth Turan is film Fernandez, Enrique. From New York: 19:4 July-Aug '83. 4, 6-7. ROUGHS (Howard Brookner), HEART LIKE A WHEEL (Jon- critic for California magaz ine and athan Kaplan), SECRET AGENT (J acki Ochs) , SEEING NPR's All Things Considered. Cuban-American cinema. RED (Julia Rei c hert and James Klein). Gunst, Kathy. Reds remake REDS, 19:5 Sept-Oct '83. 6. Stein, Elliott. The21 st New York Film Festival. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83 PHOTO CREDITS: Andrew Achscn: p:60 60-61,68-74 . ill. FORBIDDEN RELATIONS (Zsolt Kezdi- (2) . Holl y Bowe r: p. 46 ( I ). Callaw\\' Editions : p. RED BELLS (Bondarchuk). Kovacs), L'ARGENT (Robert Bresson), LA SIGNORA 01 45 (I ). Columbia Pictures: p. 36 (I), 40 (2) Kennedy, Harlan. Berlin. 19:3 May-June '83 , 2.4,6,8-9. Berlin TUTTI (M ax Ophuls), THE NEW BABYLON (Grigori Kozint- Gamm a-Liaiso n: p. 43 , p. 46 (3, 4). I\\lichac l sev and Leonid Trauberg), CAMILLA HORN WATCHING Hal sba nd Studio: p. IS. Harmon\\' Books: p. 42. Film Festival. HERSELF PLAY GRETCHEN IN MURNAU'S SILENT FILM Ladd Co.: p. 32, 35 (2 , I) , 36 (2) Bob I\\larshak: Kennedy, Harlan. Venice. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 2.4,6. ill. Venice \" FAUST\" (Hans Sachs and Hedda Rinneberg), DHRUPAD p. 4. I\\ledia Studv/ NY: p. 68. Museum of I\\lod- (M ani Kaul), SO FAR FROM INDIA (Mira Nair) , LIFE IS A BED ern Art Film Stills Arc hive: 24. 25. 26 ( I , 2) , 3'1 Film Feslival. OF ROSES (LA VIE EST UN ROMAN ) (Alain Resnais), (2),44 , 57 (2), 59, 60 (1 ,3,4), 70. MTI\\I: p. 20. Linfield, Susan. Leipzig. 19:2 March-April '83, 2.4. ill. Leipzig NOSTALGHIA (Andrei Tarkovsky ), DANTON (Andrzej New Line Cinema: p. 12, 13. Paramount Pic- Wajda), ENTRE NOUS (COUP DE FOUDRE) (Diane Kurys ), tures: p. 11 , 18,2 1, 22,39 (1) , 72. Quartet/Film s International. Documentary Film Festival. ERENDIRA (Ruy Guerra), BOAT PEOPLE (Ann Hui), RUM - Inc.: p. 16, 17. RCA: p. 49. Roge r Sandler p. 2'1 , Tuchman, Mitch. From Niagara-on-the- Lake, Ontario. 19:3 BLE FISH (Francis Coppola), THE BIG CHILL (Lawrence 30. Kenneth Spence: p. 69 Sygma : p. 46 (2). Kasdan), STREAMERS (Robert Allman), LAST NIGHT AT Twentieth Ce nturv-Fox: p. 57 (1). Unite d Art- May-June '83, 9-10. On the set of THE DEAD ZONE (Cro- THE ALAMO (Eagle Pennell), LOST ILLUSIONS (Gyula ists: p. 14,37 (I) , 40 (1). Warner Brothers: p..B , nenberg). Gazdag), THE STORY OF PIERA (M arco Ferreri). 37 (2), 38 (2),4 1. Dan Yakir: p. 6. Verniere, James. Altered states in the great white north. 19:5 N.w York Unl••r.lty Film School Sept -Oct '83, 4,6. ill. ICEMAN (Schepisi). See: Study and T.achlng K••d.n, Lewrence O'Bannon, Dan See: THE BIG CHILL Mancini, Marc. Thunder and lightning: Dan O 'Bannon inter- Kaufman, Philip vi ewed. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 52-55. ill. Sci-fi screenwriter Pally, Marcia. Ordinary people. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 11-15. ill. and speculative cinema. Ref. BLUE THUNDER (Badham). Women in new films. Ref. films directed by women and THE OIl.ler, Laur.nc. RIGHT STUFF. Thomson, David. Our lord of danger. 19:2 March-April '83, 24-30. ill. Stage and screen career. Thomson, David. Shepard. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 49-56. ill. In- Opera on Televl.lon cludes interview. Sam Shepard's art and career. Ref. his Engstrom, John. Television: Wagner on the tube: RING around role in THE RIGHT STUFF. the color. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 78-79. PBS's RING OF THE NIBELUNG (Large). Kodak 5213 O.ca.. See: Cinematography See: Acad.my of Mollon Plctur. Arta and Scl.nc•• Award. Kuryl, Diane Yakir, Dan. Kurys. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 65-69. ill. Includes interview. Career. Ref. ENTRE NOUS (COUP DE FOUDRE) See also: New York Film FHII.al; Women In Film Large, Brian See: RING OF THE NIBELUNG Laughlin, Mlcha.. Chute. David. Journals: Toronto: STRANGE INVADERS in Toronto and Chicago. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 2,6. Director Laughlin / scriptwrrter William Condon combo. Ref. STRANGE INVADERS and STRANGE BEHAVIOR Leipzig Intarnallonal Docum.ntary Film F••II.al Linfield, Susan. Journals: Leipzig. 19:2 March-April '83, 4. ill. Lmman, Lynne See: TESTAMENT Low Budget Film. 77 >
Mancini, Marc. Sound thinking. 19:6 Nov - Dec '83, 40-47 . ill. Journals: Toronto: strange invaders in Toronto and Chicago. bk. rev. Biro, Yvette, Profane mythology: the savage mind olthe Sound design and designers. Includes Serafine. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83 .2,6. cinema . t9;3 May-June '83, 73-74. Sheperd, Sam Man and superwoman. 19:3 May-June '83, 53. Thomson David. Shepard. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 49 - 56. ill. In- The 1982 movie revue: new faces 01 1982. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83 . Lebby, Ma..ha J. cl udes interview. Shepard's art and career. Rei. his role in 18-19. Independents: to market. to market. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 76-77. THE RIGHT STUFF (K aufman). Outlaw cinema: its rise and fall . 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 9-15. Sound Six ten -bests: 1982. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83. 20-21 Llnlfeld, SUlan Mancini , Marc . Sound Ihinking. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 40-4 7. ill. Clarenl, Carlol Sound design and designers. ReI. Frank Serafine, Jimmy The Cukor touch. 19:2 MarCh-April '83, 58-60. Journa ls: LeipZig. 19:2 March-April '83. 2.4. MacDonald and Ben Burtt. Cobum, Marcia Froelka Spiegel, Sam Journals: Chicago. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 6,8,79. Lithgow, John Jacobson, Harlan. Big Tusker. t 9 :2 March-A pril '83 , 5t -56. il l. Journals; Toronto. 19:6 Nov- Dec '83, 6- 8. Career as a pr oducer. Corll.., Mary Coming to TERMS: diary of an itineranl actor. t 9:6 Nov-Dec Spielberg, Ste.en Journals : Cannes. 19:4 July -Aug '83 . 2.4 . See: E.T , Corll.., Richard '83 , 28 - 32. Spollilwoode, Roger God, sex, and Ingmar Bergman. 19:3 May-June '83. 13,18-19. Sragow, Mich ael. Ghostwriters: unraveling the enigma of The lively adventures of play TV. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83. 51-57. McGIlligan, Pat movie authorsh ip. 19:2 March-April '83. 9-18. ill. Includes 1982 and ail ihai. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 20-21 . THE PURSUIT OF D.B. COOPER. The 1982 movie re vue: and the nominees are, maybe. 19:1 Burnett. 19:t Jan-Feb '83. 58-70. Study and Teaching Arkush . Allan. I remember film school. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83 , Jan- Feb '83, 15-17. ManCini, Marc 57-59 . ill. Happy days at NYU in Ihe '60s. People we like: Joanna Cassidy and Bonnie Bedelia. 19:5 Ta.lanl, Paolo and Vittorio 5293. 19;6 Nov-Dec '83 . 34-39. Yakir , Dan. The Italians: the Tavi anis. 19:2 March-April '83, Sept-Oct '83, 83. 44-45. ill. ReI. PADRE PADRONE , TH E MEADOW, and THE Rock 'n video: the medium is the maximum. 19:4 Ju ly-Aug Pictures al an exposition. 19:1 Jan - Feb '83. 43- 49. NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS. Tele.llion '83, 34 . Sound think ing. t9:6 Nov-Dec '83. 40-47 . Corliss, Ric hard. The lively ad ventures of play TV. 19:1 Jan- Samson Raphaelson: 1896-1983. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 26,29. Feb '83 , 51-57 . ill. Plays on TV. Dante, Joe Th under and lightning: Dan O'Bannon interviewed . t 9:4 Farber, Stephen. The hard part: gelting it shown. 19:3 May- Guilty pleasures. 19:3 May-J une '83, 58-59. June '83 , 39-43. ill. Cable TV is often the only viewing med - Ebert, Roger July-Aug '83 . 52-55. ium lor films with theatri cal release problems. Oh I'd love 10 be an Os car malar winner. 19:3 March-April See also: MTV: Opera on TV; Vldeogamel Mate, Ken Trumbull, Douglal '83, 6. See: BRAINSTORM Ehrenlteln, Da.ld Burnelt. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 58-70. Ulmer, Edgar G , The aeslhetics of lailure. 19:3 May- June '83, 44-47 . Krohn, Bill. King of Ihe B's. 19:4 July -Aug '83, 60-64. ill. Career. LEOPARD redu x. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83. 16-18. Mellel, Myron Venice Film Feilivel Rock 'n vi deo: pre-MTV. 19:4 July-Aug '83. 41-42 . Kennedy, Harlan. Journals: Venice. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83 , 2.4 ,6. Engltrom, John Oh I' d love 10 be an Oscar major winner. 19:2 March-April '83, ill. Televi sion: Wagner on Ihe lube: RING around the color. t 9:1 Video 6. See: MTV; Televillon; Vldaogamel Jan-Feb '83. 78-79. Vldeogamel Farber, Stephen Moore, Mike Midsection; Arcadia. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83. 33-42 . ill. Incl udes: Brainstorm ing. 19:5 Sept-Oci '83. 76-82 . Videogames: son of pong, by Mike Moore ; How to read a Getting ~ shown: shelf life . t9:3 May-June '83.39- 43. Videogames: sons of pong. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 34-37 . videogame, by Ric hard Gehr; Holl ywood is game (movie Fernandez, Enrique industry' s foray inlo Ar c adia), by Sue Adams; Video-games Journals: from New York: 19:4 July-Aug '83. 4.6-7. Mota.alll, John pro-rated (the \" latest\" games). by Harlan Jacobson. FranCia, Lull H. Vllconll, Luchlno Made in Amer ica: 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 56-58. Exiles. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 56 - 59. See: THE LEOPARD Galbraith, John Kenneth War and the Cinema GANDHI. t9:1 Jan - Feb '83 . 26 -2 9. Pally, Marcia See: Mlillary Llle In Fllml Gehr, Richard Women In Film How to read a vi deogame. t9:t Jan -F eb '83 , 37-39. Ordinary people. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83 . 11 -15. Pally, Marc ia. O rd inar y people. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83. 11 - 15. ill. Rock 'n video: the MTV aestheti c. 19:4 July-Aug '83 . 37 -40 Women portra yed In films. ReI. THE RIGHT STUFF (Kauf- Video: tubing with TFT. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 75. Pollock, Dale man ) and films directed by women: Ch anta l Akerman Goodman, Joan (LES ANNEES 80 an d JEANNE DIELMAN) , Joyce Bunuel The Empir e shoots ba ck. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83 , 30-32 . Oh I'd love to be an Oscar major winner. t 9:2 March-A pril (DI RTY DISHES). Diane Kurys (ENTRE NOUS), Susan Gray, Lucy Lambert (ON GUARD ). Trinh Minh-ha (REASSEMBLAGE ). Idols of the king: Fran cis Coppola intervi ewed. t 9:5 Sept- '83. 6. Marleen Garris (THE SILENCE AROUND CHRISTINE M ), Ana Carolina ( HEARTS AND GUTS). Oct '83. 61 - 75. Ratellon, Bob World'i Falrl and Expolilloni Gunll, Kathy ManCini. Marc. Pic tures at an exposition. 19:1 Jan - Feb '83, Journals: Reds remake REDS. 19:5 Sept-Oct '83. 6. Samson Raphaelson: 1896-1983. t9:5 Sept-Oct '83. 26,29. 43-49. ill. Movi es shown at world 's fairs , 1900- present. In- Ha.., Charlie clud es Epcot Cenler. Headsploitat ion. t 9:3 May-June '83 , 67 - 71. Rehteld, Barry Harvey, Stephen Authors The Italians: toppled gods. t 9:2 March-April '83, 32 -34 . Cannon falhers. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 20-24 . Television: TWOW: Wouk 's windy war. 19:2 March- April '83, Adamo, Sue Rickey, Ca\"le Hollywood is game. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 40-41 . 74-75. An..n , Da.ld The 21s1 New York Film Feslival.19:6 Sept-Oct '83. 60.65-67. bk. re v. McCread ie. Marsha. Women on film: the cflllcal eye. Oh I' d love to be an Oscar major w inner. 19:2 March-April Hoberman, J. Rock 'n video: video radio. 19:4 July - Aug '83, 35-36. 19:4 July-A ug '83, 72-73. '83, 6. Jacoblon, Harlan Arkulh, Allan Big tusker. 19:2 Marc h-April '83, 51 - 56. Sa\"ll, Andrew I remember film school. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83 , 57 - 59 . Survivi ng. 19:5 Sept-O ct '83 . 20-25. Barth, Jack Thunder on the right. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 9-11,74 . Oh I'd love to be an Oscar major winner. 19:2 March -April bk. rev . Lenburg, Jeff, Greg Lenburg and Joan Howard Maurer. The 21 st New Yo rk Film Festival. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83. 61 - 64 . Video games pro -rated . 19:1 Jan - Feb '83, 41-42. '83, 6. The Three Sfooges Scrapbook . 19:3 May-Ju ne '83, 74-75. WILD ST YLE : Charles Ahearn Intervi ewed. 19:3 May-June '83, Beaupre, Lea Rickey, Ca\"le Induslry: eighth annual grosses gloss. 19:2 March-April '83. 64-66. Jakob, Dennll bk. rev. McCr eadie, Marsha. Women on film: the critical eye. 62 - 73 . bk. revs. Leyda, Jay and Zina Voy now, Eisens tein at work; The 1982 movie revue: and the nominees are , maybe. 19;1 19:4 July - Aug '83, 72-73. Thompson, Kirst in, Eisenstein 's 'Ivan the Terrible.' 19:2 Jan -F eb '83, 15- 17. March-April '83. 78-79 . Sa\"ll, Andrew Oh I'd love to be an Os car major winner. 19:2 March-April Jamelon, Richard T. The 1982 movie re vue: E.T. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83 , 11-14. Oh I' d love to be an Oscar major winner. 19:2 March - April '83 , 6. Kehr, Da.e Benlon, Sheila The Asians: the last rising sun. 19:5 Sepl-Ocl '83, 32-40. '83 , 6. Industry: Lynn e Liltman 's 90 - minute lifetime . 19:6 Nov-Dec Kennedy, Harlan The As ians: Beyond Kung Fu: 7 Hong Kong fi recrackers. 19:5 Samson Raphaelson: 1896-1983. 19:5 Sept - Oct '83, 29. '83 , 78-79 Sepl-Oct '83, 46-47 . Billard, Mary The Asians: BOAT PEOPLE . t9:5 Sepl-Ocl '83, 41-47 . Saylel, John . Rock 'n video: MTV's super market. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 48-51 . Castle KEEP. 19;6 Nov- Dec '83, 16-19. Bygra.e, Michael Journals: Berlin. 19:3 May-June '83 , 2.4.6,8-9. bk. rev. Goldman, William, Adventures In the screen trade. Hot Irons. 19:2 March-Apr il '83, 53. Journa ls: Veni ce. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 2.4 ,6. Byron, Stuart Roeg; warr ior. t 9:2 March-April '83, 20-23. 19:3 May - June '83, 72 - 73. The 1982 movie revue; and the nom inees are, maybe . 19:1 Sir Alec. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 12-15. Super Salkinds. 19:3 May-J une '83 , 49-55. Schlckel, Richard Jan-Feb '83. 15-17. Oh I'd love to be an Oscar major winner. 19:2 March -Apr il Koch, Joanne Oh I'd love 10 be an Oscar major winner. 19:2 March - April '83, 6. Margareta Akermark, 1913 - 1983. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 30. '83 , 6. Carlon, L.M, Kit Krohn, Bill BREATHLESS diary. 19;3 May-June '83, 34-38. King 01 the B's. 19:4 July- Aug '83 , 60-64 . Schulman, Elliot Chute, Da.ld Landry, Robert J. FEA R CITY. 19:6 Nov -Dec '83 , 25-27 . Orbits: Gene Moskowitz. 192t - 1982. 19;2 March-April '83. 77. Rock 'n video: Bob G iraldi . 19:4 July-Aug '83. 48. L8wlon, Steve bk. rev. Insdorf , Annette, Indelible shadows: film and the holo- Sragow, Michael caust. 19:5 Sepl-Oct '83. 84 . Ghoslwrilers: unraveling Ihe enigma of movie aulhorship. 19:2 Leamlng, Barbara Marc h -April '83, 9-18. Stein, Elliott The As ians: Manil a's angels. t 9:5 Sept-Oct '83, 48- 58. The other India. 19:3 May-June '83, 23-32 . The 21s1 New York Film Festival. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83 . 60-61 , 68- 74. Thomplon, Anne Industry: eighlh annual grosses gloss. 19:2 March-April '83 , 62 -73 . The 1982 movie revue: and the nominees are, maybe. t 9:1 Jan - Feb '83 . 15-17. Thomlon, Da.ld bk. rev. Selznick, Irene Mayer, A private View. 19:4 July-Aug '83 . 70 - 72 . The big fix. t9:4 July-Aug '83. 24-32. Idols of Ihe king: Francis Coppola interviewed. 19: 5 Sept- Oct '83. 6t-75 . Moustache: Ihat obscure wound of desire . 19:3 May-June '83, 20-27 . Our lord of danger. 19:2 March -April '83, 24-30. People we like: Ri ch ard Farnsworth. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 78-79. Shepard. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83 . 49-56. Tuchman, Mitch AM ERICAN PICTURES. 19:1 Jan -F eb '83 , 22,25 Journals; from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. 19:3 May- June '83 , 9-t O. V.rnl.r., Jem•• Journals. 19:5 Sept-Ocl '83. 3-4 , 6. Vogel, Amol Independents: Ihe atom and eve of destruction. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83 . 76- 77 . Independents: more apocalypse now. 19:3 May-June '83. 76-77. Independenls: works 01 despair. 19:4 July-Aug '83, 76 -77. Wate.., John Gu il1y pleasures. 19;4 July-Aug '83. 20 -23. WolI, William God, sex, and Ingmar Bergman. 19;3 May-June '83, 13 - 17. Yaklr, Dan Eye on Zion. 19:3 May-June '83, 60-63. I can legally fulfi ll all my dreams. 19:4 July-Aug '83. 67 . Luis Bunuel: t900- 1983. 19:5 Sepl-Oci '83, 27 -28. Man in the moon: Jean-Jacques Beineix. 19:4 July-Aug '83, t6-19 . 78
Midsection, the Italians, 19:2 March-April '83, 35-49, LOST ILLUSIONS (Gyula Gazdag ) FBATUB,B Mile , Kurys, 19:4 July-Aug '83, 65-69, See: New York Film Fe.II••1 FILMMAKING MOON IN THE GUTTER, THE (Jean-Jacques Beineix) Zeichner, Arlene AT Rock 'n video: encyclo-vldeo, 19:4 July-Aug '83, 46-47, See: Belnel., Je.n-Jacque. VSDD CAB.. PRICES Rock 'n video: video auteurs, 19:4 July-Aug '83, 42-45, NEW BABYLON , THE (GllgOII Koz intsev and Leon id \" I read recently that Ameri cans are buying used Film Titles Trauberg) cars for an average of $4,300 and I thought why See: New York Film Fe.lI.al don't they take the bus to work and make a feature AMERICAN PICTURES (Jacob Holdt) NOSTALGHIA (Andrei Tark ovsky) film instead? \" (Rick Schmidt) Tuchman, Mitch, American pictures, 19:1 Jan-Feb '83 , 22-25, See: New York Film Fe.II••1 PASSION (Jean-Luc'Godard) A 90 minute color/sound feature will be written , ill. Includes interview with Holdl. See: New York Film Fe.llvol directed, filmed , edited ANNEES 80, LES (Chantal Akerman) PURSUIT OF D.B. COOPER, THE (Buzz Kulik, originally; See: New York Film Fe.II••I; Women In Film by ARGENT, L' (Robert Bresson) then Roger Spottiswoode) your name here See: New York Film Fe.II••1 See: Spolll.woode, Roger BEAT IT (Bob Giraldi) RABBIA, LA (Pier Paolo Pasolini ) Rick Schmidt (Dir.l Producer of A MAN , A See: Glr.ldl, Bob See: P.tollnl, Pier P.olo WOMAN , AND A KILLER , 1988-THE REMAKE, BIG CHILL, THE (Lawrence Kasdan) RED BELLS (Sergei Bondarchuk) and EMERALD CITIES) will produce a feature Jacobson, Harlan, Surviving, 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 20-25, ill. Gunst, Kathy, Journals: Reds remake REDS, 19:5 Sept-Ocf film in a production workshop at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland , May-August Includes script extracts. '83, 6. 1984, See also: New York Film Fe.II••1 RED LOVE (Rosa von Praunheim) BLUE THUNDER (John Badham) See: New York Film Fe.II••1 Fifteen students will each collaborate on a See: B.dh.m, John RIGHT STUFF, THE (Philip Kaufman) screenplay (first session) , direct and film the script BOAT PEOPLE (Ann Hui) See: K...fm.n, Philip (second session), edit and complete a feature film See: New York Film Fe.II••I; Hul, Ann RING OF THE NIBELUNG (Bllan Large) for 9 unifs college credit (t hird session) and own BRAINSTORM (Douglas Trumbull) Engstrom , John . Telev iSion: Wagner on the tube : RING the film in equal percent with the other class Farber , Stephen. Brainstorming , 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 76-82, ill. members, Students will be selected only for all around the color. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 78 - 79, ill. three sessions, and this production workshop will Includes interVIew with Trumbull. RUMBLE FISH (Francis Coppola) be limited to the first 15 to register, BREATHLESS (James McBride) See: Coppola, Francl. Ford; New York Film Fe.II••1 Carson, L,M, Kil. BREATHLESS diary, 19:3 May-June '83, SECRET AGENT (Jacki Ochs) Attn : write or call: See: New York Film Fe.lI.al Admissions Office 34-38 , ill, SECRET CHILD, THE (Philippe Garrel) California College of BURROUGHS (Howard Brookner) See: New York Film F••II••I See: G...el, Philippe Arts and Crafts CAMILLA HORN WATCHING HERSELF PLAY GRET- SEEING RED (J ulia Reichert and James Klein) CHEN IN MURNAU'S SILENT FILM 'FAUST' (Hans Sachs See: New York Film Fe.lI.al J.... 5212 Broadway at College and Hedda Rinneberg) SIGNORA 01 TUTTI, LA (Max Ophuls) See: New York Film Fe.II••1 See: New York Film Fe.ll.al _ Oakland , CA 94618 COUP DE FOUDRE (Diane Kurys) SO FAR FROM INDIA (Mira Nair) See: Kury., DI.ne; New York Film Fe.II••1 See: New York Film Fe.II••1 (415) 653-8118 CROSSOVER DREAMS (Leon Ichaso) STAR WARS TRILOGY Fernandez, Enllque. Journals: Irom New York, 19:4 July-Aug See: Luc.., George FEATURE FILM PRODUCTION WORKSHOP STORY OF PIER A, THE (Marco Ferreri) '83, 4,6-7 , See: New York Film Fe.lI.al There are very few people that come anywhere DANTON (Wajda, And rzej) STRANGE BEHAVIOR (Mic hael Laughlin) close to Jean-Luc Godards breakaown techni- See: New York Film Fe.II••1 See: Laughlin, Michael ques (including a very rich decoupage) but at DEAD ZONE, THE (David Cronenberg) STRANGE INVADERS (Michael Laughlin) moments EMERALD CITIES makes you wish Tuchman, Mitch, Journals: Irom Niagara-on-the-Lake, On- See: Laughlin, Michael Hollywood had been the one without the bucks STREAMERS (Robert Altman) and that filmmaking was an affectionate tank be- tario, 19:3 May-June '83 , 9-10. Includes interview. on the See: New York Film Fe.lI.al ing driven into the heart of America , sel 01 TH E DEAD ZONE. TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (James Brooks) DHRUPAD (Mani Kaul) Lithgow, John, Coming to TERMS: diary of an itinerant actor. Wade Novy See: New York Film Fe.lI.al DOG'S NIGHTSONG, THE (G abor Body) 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 28-32, ill, Rick Schmidt features (A Man , A Woman , And See: Body, G.bor TESTAMENT (Lynne Littman ) A Killer, 1988-The Remake, and Emerald Cities) E.T . (Steven Spielberg) Benson, Sheila, Industry: Lynne Littman's 90-minute lifetime , now available in VHS/BETA video cassettes. Jameson, Richard T. The 1982 movie revue: E,T, 19:1 Jan- Feb '83, II -14, III. 19:6 Nov-Dec '83 , 78-79, ill. (201) 891-8240 ENTRE NOUS (Diane Kurys) TOOTSIE (Sydney Pollack) Or write : See: Kury., DI.ne: New York Film Fe.lI.al See: Pollack, Sydney ERENDIRA (Ruy Guerra) VIE EST UN ROMAN, LA (Alain Resnais) See: New York Film Fe.ll.al See: New York Film Fe.II••1 EUREKA (Nicolas Roeg) WAR GAMES (John Badham) See: Roeg, Nicola. See: B.dham, John FANNY AND ALEXANDER (Ingmar Bergman) WHITE DOG (Sam Fuller ) See: Bergman, Ingmar See: Fuller, Sam FEAR CITY (Abel Ferrara) WILD STYLE (Charles Ahearn) Chute, David, FEAR CITY, 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 25-27, ill. On Jacobson, Harlan, WILD STYLE: Charles Ahearn interviewed, location in L.A. Ref. director Ferrara, screenwriter / partner Nick SI. John , and producer Bruce Cohn Curtis, 19:3 May-June '83 , 64-66, ill. FIRESIGN THEATRE WINDS OF WAR, THE (Dan Curtis) Gehr, Richard, Video: tubing with TFT, 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, Harvey, Stephen. Television: TWOW: wouk 's windy war, 19:2 75 , ill, FORBIDDEN RELATIONS (Zsoll Kezdi-Kovacs) March-April '83, 74-75 , ill, See: New York Film Fe.II••1 48 HOURS (Wal ter Hill) Book Reviews See: HIli, W.lter GANDHI (Richard Attenborough) Biro, Y.ette The Empire shoots back, 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 30-32, ill, Prolane M ythology: the Savage Mind 01 the Cinema , Bloom· Galbraith, John Kenneth . GANDHI. 19:1 Jan-Feb '83, 26-29, ill. ington: Indiana Univ\" 1982, 19:3 May-June '83 , 73-74 . rev. GOLDEN EIGHTIES, THE (Chantal Akerman) Barbara Learning. See: New York Film Fe.II••I; Women In Film Goldman, WIIII.m GREY FOX, THE (Phillip Borsos) Adventures in the Screen Trade . New York: Warner Books, Thomas, David, People we like: Richard Farnsworth, 19:4 1983, 19:3 May-June '83 , 72-73, rev , John Sayles, July-Aug '83 , 78-79, ill. Farnsworth in THE GREY FOX. Hoberman, J. and Jonalhan Ro.enbaum ,HEART LIKE A WHEEL (Jonathan Kaplan) Midnight Movies, New York: Harper and Row, 1983. 19:5 See: New York Film F••II.al Sept-Oct '83, 9-15. rev , DaVid Chute, ICEMAN (Fred Schepisi) In.dor!, Annette Verniere, James, Journals, 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 4,6, ill, Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust. New York: Ran - IN THE WHITE CITY (Alain Tanner) dom House , 1983, 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 84 , rev , Steve Lawson, See: New York Film Fe.II••1 Lenburg, Jell, Greg Lenburg and Joan Howard Maurer KEEP, THE (Michael Mann) The Three Stooges Scrapbook , Secaucus , New Jersey : Kennedy, Harlan, Castle KEEP: Michael Mann interviewed, Citadel , 1982. 19:3 May-June '83, 74-75, rev , Jack Barth, 19:6 Nov-Dec '83, 16- 19, ill. Leyda, Jay and Zina Voynow LAST NIGHT AT THE ALAMO (Eagle Pennell ) Eisenstein at Work, New York: Pantheon Books and The See: N.w York Film Fe.II••1 Museum 01 Modern Art, 1982, 19:2 March-April '83, 78-79. LEAP INTO THE VOID (Marco Bellocchio) rev . Dennis Jakob. See: Betlocchlo, M.rco McCre.dle, Martha LEOPARD, THE (Luchino Visconti) Women on Film: the Cntlcal Eye , New York: Praeger, 1983, 19:4 Ehrenstein , David, LEOPARD redux, 19:5 Sept-Oct '83, 16- 18, July-Aug '83 , 72-73 , rev , Carrie Rickey, III. Restoration of the original footage , Set,nlck, Irene M.yer LIFE IS A BED OF ROSES (Alain Resnais) A Pnvate View, New York: Knopf. 1983, 19:4 July-Aug '83 , See: New York Film Fe.II••1 70-72 , rev, DaVid Thomson, Thomp.on, Krl.lln Elsenstetn 's 'Ivan (he remble.' Princeton, New Jersey: Prince· ton Univ\" 1981 , 19:2 March-April '83, 78-79, rev, Dennis Jakob, 79
First determine the answer to a Quiz #6: Cinemacrostic clue. Then enter the answer, letter by letter, into the diagram according to the bilateral indications: e.g., AI refers (with acknow led gments to Leon of The Listener and Stephen Sondheim) to the upper left-hand corner square and H20 refers to the lower right cor- 2 3 4 5 6 7 S 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 IS 19 20 ner. When the diagram is completed you will be able to read (across, with no A A spaces between words) an observation on the art of criticism. Answers in each B B category are in alphabetical order, and contain one to four words; a semicolon C C indicates the beginning of a new word. One clue identifies the author of the o0 ' quotation; the others test your movie lore. Hint: Most of the diagram E E squares can be filled with letters from two answers, so don't get discouraged F F if you don't know all the answers. Send the completed diagram to FILM G G COMMENT, Quiz #6, 140 West 65th Street, New York, N.Y. 10023 , by H H April 16. A correct solution, drawn at random, wins a free year of the maga- 2 3 4 5 6 7 S 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 IS 19 20 zine. COMMON FACTORS 15. Hannony Heaven; The Manxman; Blackmail; Elstree Calling; Juno and the Paycock; ... ; AS, 01, HS, F6, C4, G20 (Example: AI; Harry; Jack; Sam; Answer: Warners) 1. Crazylegs ; M*A*S*H; The Longest Yard; All the Right Moves; GENERICS G2, C20, H17 , A6, B7, E6, 010, F17 2. High; Hills; Hotel; lawn; 09, H9, El, C13, Cl, E20, A3, GIS , (Give a name associated with the words below. Example: The F13 Movies; Answer: Michener) 3. The Letter; Letter from an Unknown Woman; The 13th Letter; 16. Film; OS, DIS, F14, ES, BS, G3, G17 Dead Letters; FlO, B16, 014, A19, ElO, 04; C12 , G16, A10, 17. Motion Pictures; H2, 015, ClO, G9, F7 H12 IS. A Movie; E7, B16, A2, FS, E17, HS 4. Elia Kazan; Budd Schulberg; Lee J. Cobb; Martin Berkeley; 19. Picture; G20, C20, H20, F20 B4, A4, CIS, OS; 016, E16, H7 , Ell , AS, GS, F4, B1S, GIl, F20 20. Cinema; 07, p, C3, F7, B12, 04, E4, F16 5. Village Voice ; New York; Harper's; Vanity Fair; ES, Fll, HlO, A9, 020; C7, G12 , B2, F14, 011 , A13, C2 RELATIONSHIPS IFS (Example: Dorothy Gish is to Lillian Gish as Joan Fontaine is to (Example: If Gable was Rhett, who was Scarlett? Answer: Leigh) .... Answer: Olivia de Havilland) 21. A Pain in the A-- is to Buddy Buddy as One Wild Moment is to .... 6. If Mel Blanc got Daffy, what did Dan Dailey get? F6, AI, B1, A20,06 B7, H4, E6, GS, H13; A14, 017; G1, BlO; 019, C14, F1S 22. Sigourney is to Sylvester as Stephanie is to .. .. Fl, GIS, F12, 7. If Joan Perry stands for Columbia, who sits for MGM? H16, B3, G1 B9, HlO 23. Anatole Litvak is to The Snake Pit as Bernard L. Kowalski is to S. If Emmanuel Goldenberg became Edward G. Robinson, who did Avrom Goldenborgen become? GlO, A12, F3, BS; Hll , .... B6, CS, 07, E19, F19, G7, H6 F1S, A1S, F13 24. Philip Marlowe is to Philip Carey as Mike Hammer is to .... 9. If Asta belonged to Nick Charles, who belonged to Travis H20, C2, A19, OS, C1; 013, B14, B12, F9, G14 Coates? E14, H4, A1S; 06, F1, A17, E12, HI, C19 25. The Freshman is to Mad Wednesday as The 400 Blows is to . .. . 10. If March and Mason went to Maine, who went to Detroit and C16, HII , G12, C13, GS, BlO; E9, E2, H6, 02, ClO, 020 Rome? B6, A7 , CS, BS, Bll, All, A16 FAMOUS LAST WORDS GROUPS AND SERIES (Example: Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friend- (Example: Dr. No; From Russia With Love; Goldfinger; ... ; An- ship. Answer: Casablanca) swer: Thunderball) 26. Throw that junk in, too. AlO, G19, Bll, FS, B1, H13, E16; 11. Hall; Sennwald; Nugent; . .. ; Adler; A1S, B19, E14, E1S, E3, H3, FS, C6 017, FlO, G6, HIS 27. Oown?lNo-up. B4, GS, A16, B17, 03, H19; 012, F4, A2; 12. Brennan; Schild kraut; Brennan; Mitchell; Brennan; Crisp; C9, FlI, F1S, G3 .. . ; G14, C4, E1S, HS , C14, H19 2S. Good luck, Legionnaire Brown. AS, G16, 015, H9, 012; A1S, 13. Macbeth ; Ward; Riley; Thompson; ... ; ES, H3 , F9, A3, B20, H17 F19, GIS, CS 29. Well, nobody's perfect. C16, 011 , GlO, DIS; B2, G4, E9, 14. Reunion; Stock; Sonata; ... ; B13, HIS, E13, A17, CS B14; H14, A6; H12, Ell, G17 30. You with your visions and dreams. GIl, C3, B1S; G13, F2, B17, CIS , B1S, A13, 09; G7, Cll, CIS, E1 QUIZ #5: Dennis Bingham of Sunny- the last issue (left to right, top to bottom): Knee, The Deer Hunter (heart = lonely dale, N. Y. , came closest to assembling the Hair, The Horse's Mouth, Eye of the Needle, 39 film stills into a composite of the human Jaws, Deep Throat, The Rise and Fall ofLegs hunter), Head, Fingers, Adam's Rib (24 body. The photo clues, as they appeared in Diamond, The Devil's Eye, Torso, Claire's times), Shoulder Arms (three times). Con- gratulations to Mr. Bingham. -R.C. 80
UlTRA LIGHTS
Search
