4 peculiar short films

Lolita's back! At least for today. You know the story, right? I got caught up in a role playing game on the Nintendo DS, and I can't write any blog posts if demons are attacking me all the time. I have to defend Tokyo from the fire demon, and therefore I have to spend a lot of time leveling up. I'm sure you understand.

Yesterday in school was quite interesting. The morning started with the British postal service and ended with the assassination of Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy and his brother Bob. Oh, and some soldiers on fire in "Nam". I believe the subject for the day was documentary/experimental films, but I must say that murdered people almost made my newly finished take away coffee end up on the seat in front of me.

Now, let me introduce you to British GPO informative films, American avant-garde and Cuban anti-USA satire!



Night Mail
Director: Harry Watt, Basil Wright
United Kingdom 1936
25 min
Starring: random post office workers
GPO Film Unit
See it on YouTube.

Do you want to become a hero? Start delivering letters to the British countryside! Really, this little piece of educational/information film leaves one feeling that the most honorable men in the world work for the GPO (General Post Office).

Night Mail is generally known as the most famous of the GPO educational films made in the United Kingdom. And oh, is it British! 'Ello, mate!

The subject for the film might seem pretty uninteresting, but through Soviet montage movement inspired editing, Night Mail cleverly delivers an amusing behind-the-scene look at the British postal system of the 1930's. Although some interior scenes are obviously filmed in studios and the actors have clear instructions to move rhythmically, the cast consists only of real postal workers.

The earlier mentioned rhythm of this short film makes me think about music videos. But of course, the one thing Night Mail can be called famous for is the W. H. Auden poem "This is the Night Mail" that is read over rapid cuts toward the end of the film. Quite the climax, if I may use that word in this context. If you don't intend to spend all of 25 minutes on this (bad, bad person), at least watch that poem (1930's rap!):






The City
Director: Ralph Elton
United Kingdom 1939
20 min
Starring: random people
GPO Film Unit
See it on YouTube.

Just look at that. How is the human race supposed to survive among smoking chimneys, indifferent crowds and sad children playing in the dirty streets? Hear the music of the doomsday, watch the sun hide behind black industrial clouds.

Even though the introductory text of this film clearly states that this is a documentary, I am not certain. Of course, the footage is probably not manipulated in itself. But a lot can happen when a scissor gets to go wild on the film strips, different soundtracks are added to different kinds of pictures and material not supporting ones opinions end up in the trash bin. Considering that, The City might be some kind of documentary after all.

In short, this film promotes small neighborhoods and fair weather, and condemns big, filthy cities with miserable children. That one thing not necessarily equals the other is never taken into consideration. Of course. I must say that I actually thought that the city children looked quite happy and normal, even though the filming crew most certainly tried to find the most awful city suburb available.

All in all, this "documentary" made me laugh out loud. Of course, some person with a large stick up his/her ass exclaimed a dramatic "Sssssshhhhhh!" to my merry reaction, but pretty soon the rest of the audience couldn't help laughing too.

Meshes of the Afternoon
Director: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
USA 1943
14 min
Starring: Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid
See it on YouTube.

Well, this is interesting. Meshes of the Afternoon is an avant-garde film written and co-directed by American-Ukraine Maya Deren, who also acts in the film together with her husband, co-director and co-actor Alexander Hammid.

The film explores dreams, unconsciousness and female sexuality (yes, in the prude American 1940's!). To me this is like a film adaption of a regular nightmare - everyday things that change meaning or form, the repeating of seemingly the same actions, while some details change, disappear, re-appear or remain in duplicates. It's strange and beautiful.

This Maya Deren work is often mentioned as the most important and influential experimental film of the 20th century. Deren believed that film should be more than just a recording of reality, but rather an artistic medium. She was strongly influenced by French filmmaker and film theorist Germaine Dulac, of who's work I can recommend the following YouTube clip. Danses Espagnoles (1928) is a beautiful experimental film, and comparing it to Meshes of the Afternoon makes Deren's source of inspiration apparent.

Meshes of the Afternoon was filmed entirely silent, and that was how I saw it. With no sound at all the dreamlike quality of the film becomes inconveniently real. But the soundtrack on the YouTube clip works very well too, so give it a watch.

The beautiful Maya Deren. (Picture not from the film.)

LBJ
Director: Santiago Álvarez
Cuba 1968
18 min
Starring: or rather, including Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and others.

"I have a dream!"

The last short film on the list brought tears to my eyes. Lo and behold! A political experimental documentary dealing with the assassination of not only John F. Kennedy in 1963, but also of Martin Luther King in April and Bob Kennedy in June the year of the film's release. That's pretty quick.
Includes doomsday music by Carl Orff and jazzy tunes by Nina Simone.

Pretty much everything in these mere 18 minutes is quite ambiguous, starting with the title. Now, what could "LBJ" stand for? One explanation is of course Lyndon B. Johnson, who's face shows up between the several traumatic events the film deals with (obviously Álvarez wanted to point towards his involvement in the happenings). By first thought about the title was not however the most obvious, but rather the initials of the victims: Luther King, Bob Kennedy and Jack Kennedy. Probably Álvarez had thought about both options.

Now to the film itself. This is not a narrated documentary of any sort, but rather an ambiguous (yes, that word is very suiting in this context) scrapbook of images from the murders, Lyndon Johnson, the "I Have a Dream" speech and the Vietnam war. About those tears in my eyes: they appeared when a short film clip from Vietnam was shown depicting a man covered in flames, falling to the ground. Not very nice at all.

The part that amazed me most when talking about editing is the "I Have a Dream" part. We see pictures of Martin Luther King giving the speech (from which the tiniest extract gives me goosebumps), and every time he exclaims "I have a dream!" we cut to a firing squad shooting in his direction. Knowing what happened to him, and how fresh his assassination was when LBJ came, you have to get emotional in one way or the other.

It's hard to describe LBJ, you just have to see it. And do. I have no doubts about Castro being glad to let this film be produced, but now that years have healed most of the wounds relating to the topic - see LBJ if you get the chance. It's overwhelming, but liberating in a strange way.

I include the first eight minutes below: you might have to wait until about 2:35 before you understand what the hell I have been writing about. This was pretty cool to see in a movie theater!

The Birth of Cinema

A Kinetoscope parlor.

Part one of my film studies is done, and this Monday we started to take things from the beginning. As you probably know, there was no single inventor of film, but rather several independent contributors that together invented a new medium that we today take for granted.

Miss Monty Python

British comic actress Carol Cleveland was born this day, 1942 in London, England.
I bet almost everyone recognizes her solely as the main female actress in the Monty Python's Flying Circus series (1969-1974), and she was also referred to by the cast members themselves as the unofficial "Seventh Python" (when they didn't call her "Carol Cleavage"). She appeared in 30 of their 45 episodes, often as a parody of the typical blonde bombshell.

I thought I could honor her birthday with three of her most famous sketches (at least a couple of my own favorites):

Sketch: "Marriage Guidance Counselor" from Season 1, Episode 2: Sex and Violence (1969).
Cast: Eric Idle (Marriage Counselor), Michael Palin (Arthur Pewtey), John Cleese (Southerner) and Carol Cleveland (Deirdre).

Sketch: "Seduced Milkmen" from Season 1, Episode 3: How to Recognise Different Types of Tree from Quite a Long Way Away (1969).
Cast: Michael Palin (Milkman) and Carol Cleveland (Milkman Seducer).

Sketch: "Mattress Skit" from Season 1, Episode 8: Full Frontal Nudity (1969).
Cast: Graham Chapman (Mr. Lambert), Eric Idle (Mr. Verity), Terry Jones (Groom), John Cleese (Store Manager) and Carol Cleveland (Bride).

I love the British... Here's a couple of photographs of Miss Cleavage:

Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Be Kind Rewind
Director: Michel Gondry
United Kingdom/USA 2008
102 min
Starring: Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow and Melonie Diaz, among others.

Night of the Demon (1957)

Spanish film poster.
[Correction: Italian film poster.]

Night of the Demon aka Curse of the Demon
Director: Jacques Tourneur
United Kingdom 1957
95 min
Starring: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Athene Seyler and Liam Redmond, among others.

"Dana Andrews said prunes

gave him the runes"

 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981)

Today is the birthday of the brightest shining female animation pioneer in motion picture history - Lotte Reiniger. She was also a director, in collaboration with her husband, and most of her films were based on famous children tales.

Lotte Reiniger was born in Berlin, Germany, June 2, 1899. As a child, a fascination for the Chinese art of puppetry commenced - a fascination that would colour the rest of her life. As a teenager the works of the technical film pioneer George Méliès and Der Golem director Paul Wegener would enchant her even more, that lead Lotte to convince her parents to register her in the theatre group Wegener belonged to - the Theatre of Max Reinhardt.

Her fascination for Paul Wegener developed into something more like a devotion, and attracting the attention of her busy hero was not the easiest task. She succeeded by starting to make silhouette portrait of the actors of the group, showing her natural talent ofr handling paper and scissors. She soon got the job of creating title cards of Wegener's films.

In 1918 the 19 year old Lotte Reiniger impressed with her work of making wooden rats for Wegener's The Pied Piper from Hamelin (Der Rattenfänger von Hameln, 1918), and was admitted to the Institut für Kulturforschung (Institute of Cultural Discovery), an experimental animation studio. There she met her future husband and co-worker Carl Koch.

Lotte's first work as a director resulted in a short animation film called The Ornament of the Love Struck Heart (Das Ornament des verliebten Herzens, 1919), a film involving two lovers and ornaments that reflect their moods. The film was very well recieved, and over the next few years Lotte mad six more animated films, all produced and photographed by her husband. She also worked with Fritz Lang, making the silhouette falcon for a dream sequence in Die Niebelungen: Sigfried (Sigfried's Death, 1924).

Lotte Reiniger made a Cinderella animation in 1922, Cinderella (Aschenputtel), and in 1954 the text was replaced with an English narration. Here is the latter version:

In 1923 Lotte's big breakthrough came along. With the help of a banker, who had Lotte as his protegée and his children's Art Teacher, Lotte Reiniger worked hard for three years with an animated film, which would result in The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuerdes Prinzen Achmed, 1926). The plot is put together by pieces from "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights", and by the support of her friend Jean Renoir the film became a huge success when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Even though many people think that the first feature-length animated film was Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Adventures of Prince Achmed really is the oldest surviving animated feature film. Lotte Reiniger was also well over a decade before both Walt Disney and his special effect favourite Ub Iwerks when it came to the use of multiplane camera for certain effects.

Working with the first multiplane camera on the Prince Ahmed project. The multiplane camera was used to be able to animate different types of actions at the same time.

After the success with The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Lotte could now continue with animation without having to worry about being noticed. She soon came up with a Dr. Doolittle and His Animals (Dr. Doolittle und seine Tiere, 1928), and also co-directed her first live-action film with husband Carl Koch and Rochus Gliese. The film was called The Pursuit of Happiness (Die Jagd nach dem Glück, 1930) and starred earlier mentioned Jean Renoir. It told the story about a shadow-puppet troup, and included a 20 minute animated sequence by Lotte Reiniger. The film did however finish just as the sound film arrived to Germany, so the film was delayed for a year to add dubbed-in voices of other actors - of course with the result of ruining the film and making it unsuccessful.

Working with Prince Achmed and his magic horse. Look at that lulu haircut!

When the Nazi Party started taking a grip on Germany, Lotte and Carl Koch (who were Leftists) tried to move out of the country. They spent 1933-1939 travelling from country to country, staying as long as their travel visas allowed them. Even if they had to move all the time, they still managed to make animated films such as Carmen (1933) and Papageno (1939) , based on famous operas.


Lotte Reiniger also made a few short advertising films for the General Post Office. Here you can see the four minute long The HPO - Heavenly Post Office from 1938.

When World War II started they had to stay in Berlin, and somehow they managed not to upset the regime. In 1949 the couple finally was able to move to London and become British citizens. In 1955 she got the commission from Telecasting America to make animated shorts of the Grimms' fairy tales, thus resulting in Hansel and Gretel (1955) and Jack and the Beanstalk (1955).

Hansel and Gretel (1955). The squirrel the children follow is a perfect example of Reiniger's expertise.

Carl Koch passed away in 1962, and Lotte Reiniger died at the age of 82 in Germany, 1981.

Basil Rathbone and radio

"Radio is unquestionably a superior medium to television because it makes us use our imaginations. . . . In the days of radio, The Theatre Guild of the Air . . . was ever striving for quality, intelligence, and good taste. I have played many times for them and every time I was invited it was a worthwhile experience."

Basil Rathbone

Before I tell you anything in this subject - listen to this. I have listened to it so many times that I know it in and out by now.
Broadcasted in 1939, Vivien Leigh and Basil Rathbone read love poems to each others, here.

Listened? Okay. If you can be interested in anything else after that, you may go ahead:

Basil Rathbone worked a lot with radio broadcasts during his career. In those days it was common to do radio adaptions of popular films (often with the same actors as in the film), and so did Rathbone. For example he, Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland appeared in a radio play of Captain Blood (1935), broadcasted in February 22nd, 1937 (listen to it on YouTube here), and in May 1938 Rathbone narrated a radio adaption of The Adventures of Robin Hood, the same year the film was released.




During the same years the Sherlock Holmes films were made, 1939-1946, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce aired a lot of radio plays of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories about the famous detective (them being more true to the originals than the film adaption!).
I have included an example of a radio play below.

"I have been told by literally hundreds of people that when we were doing the Sherlock Holmes series they would turn out the lights or if they had a fire sit round it and let their imaginations go fancy free."

- Basil Rathbone

Radio broadcast from January 28th, 1946. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce play their usual roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in this radio play of "Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber". (Does someone get the hickups during the ending?)

Since Rathbone by the time of the Second World War was too old for combat (47 years old), he contributed by making radio broadcasts, encouraging the people in war and making political statements.

Wartime radio broadcast by NBC with British stars Greer Garson, Leslie Howard, Vivien Leigh, Brian Aherne, Ronald Colman and Basil Rathbone.

But the radio wasn't an entirely serious business. Basil Rathbone made comical guest appearances in, among others, The Bob Hope Show and The Jack Benny Show. I have a fine example of Basil Rathbone finding Jack Benny behind a bush in November, 1941, here. (The entire program is included below.)
In 1939 Rathbone was on the panel of an intellectual quiz program called "Information Please". Listen to him answering a series of Shakespeare questions correctly here. Quite amusing!

Here follows a Jack Benny Program from 1941 with Basil Rathbone as a guest star, very funny! (But quite silly, too!) Rathbone appears in part three, but I included the whole program (just because). Jack Benny harasses Rathbone at his house. But he conceals himself as Charles Boyer, so it's cool.

Love From a Stranger (1937)

Love From a Stranger
Director: Rowland V. Lee
United Kingdom 1937
86 min


YouTube link to the first part of the film: link




Carol Howard (Ann Harding) lives with her best friend Kate (Binnie Hale) and a pretending-to-be-sick aunt (Jean Cadell) in a worn down apartment in a small neighbourhood in London. One day she wins a fortune with a winning lottery ticket, and she sees a great opportunity to re-new her life.
The new fortune starts a disagreement with her fiancé Ronald (Bruce Seton), and they leave each other. Carol and Kate goes to Paris to pick up the price money and have a swell time. On the boat they meet and befriend a charming gentleman, Gerald Lovell (Basil Rathbone), who they earlier had come to overlook Carol's apartment which she was going to rent out.

Carol having a great time in Paris.

While in Paris, Carol and Gerald fall in love and get married, much to the despair of her former fiancé Ronald.
The couple soon moves to an old country house, far from civilization, an account of Gerald Lovell's nerves and a recent heart attack. It is now the film gets really interesting.
Gerald starts behaving more and more strangely. He forbids anyone to visit the cellar, where he keeps his photography equipment. He gets delirious when he hears Carol playing the piano, telling her to play faster and faster. It reminds him of the war in the dawn, he says... (Don't tell me you're not curious!)



Let me give you an example of the brilliant way the film builds the suspence.
We find Gerald Lovell alone in his cellar. He's whistling while fixing with some papers.



The whistling becomes music, the first notes of Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King.



The music becomes more and more intense and plays faster and faster, while we get a close-up on Lovell's concentrated face.



The music abruptly ends when Carol opens the cellar door. Gerald is furious and indignant, screaming at her to leave the room.



At this point it's obvious that something is wrong with Gerald Lovell, and the tension is unbearable.
I found an extract from a 1937 review of this film, written by C. A. Lejeune in The Observer, January 10th.

"was a bit slow in getting started, but once the extra characters of the early scenes are dropped and the film gets the two leading players alone in their Kentish farmhouse, it becomes a hair-raiser of the first order."

He continues:

"Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone…overplay a little in the final conflict, but I'm not at all sure that it isn't what is wanted for the picture. The whole treatment of the climax is strained, overwrought, and hysterical; on the border-line between laughter and madness. There is one shot, when the wife throws open the last door to escape and finds her husband standing dead-still on the threshold, that hasn't been equalled for horror since Cagney's body fell through the doorway in Public Enemy. A woman in front of me let out a scream like a steamship siren at this point in the first performance. That scream was the natural voice of criticism testifying to the film's success."

I quote this because it was so accurate in my opinion. It was the last third of the film where the actual suspence gets into the picture, and the acting is brilliant. There are so many lines delivered by the slowly-going-mental Basil Rathbone that I'd like to quote, and I will try to pick out a few.
But really, if you haven't seen this picture - do it!




An American poster for the film, which in the US was called A Night of Terror.
(Anyone thinking about the Eddie Izzard sketch on British vs American movies? "A Room With a View of Hell! Staircase of Satan. Pond of Death."

Quotes:

Carol: Don't you think you'd better lie down?
Gerald Lovell: No. We must be getting to work soon.
Carol: Don't you think it's better if you did't do anything more this evening?
Gerald Lovell: No. I've made my plans, and I never alter my plans.
Carol: Alright.
Gerald Lovell: You're a sensible girl, aren't you?
Carol: How do you mean?
Gerald Lovell: Well, you don't go on at a man. Very few women can say "Alright", and leave it at that. Then, most women are fools.
Carol: You think so?
Gerald Lovell: I don't think, I know! Born fools. "Woman's weakness is man's opportunity." Did someone write that? Or did I think of it myself? If I did it's good. It's very good! [chuckles] "Woman's weakness is man's opportunity."



Even though this film isn't a romantic one, per se, I'll end it with a kiss anyway. It's such a nice tradition!