Creative Think

Berlin Film Festival

I am at the 57th Berlin Film Festival (aka Berlinale) for four days (en route from Egypt back to San Francisco). I believe there are about 19,000 movie industry professionals here from around the world. Some of the super-duper huge celebs include: Clint Eastwood (promoting "Letters from Iwo Jima"), Robert de Niro and Matt Damon ("The Good Shepherd"), and Richard Gere (promoting peace).

Celeb high point for me was a brief conversation with actor Steve Buscemi ("Fargo," "Ghost World," "Big Fish") when I asked him if the Sopranos were going to bring him back to life for the final season. He smiled and said, "Even if I were, you know I couldn't tell you."

About 180,000 tickets will be sold to approximately 300 different films from around the world.

These are some of the films I've seen so far.

The best is "The Bubble" (poster with cast at left). It's an Israeli production about a gay relationship between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian man in Tel Aviv. It's funny, poignant, highly amusing, riveting, and ultimately tragic. After the screening, the film's director, Eyton Fox (director of "Walk on Water"), and co-star, Yousef Sweid, took questions from the 700 person audience. I highly recommend this film. (It has just been released on DVD in the US.)

Another enjoyable film is "Woman on the Beach" from South Korean director Sang-soo Hong ("Woman is the Future of Man"). It's about four thirty-something Koreans who go to a seaside resort in Korea and confront their feelings of love and betrayal. Interesting window into another culture.

I also saw the French documentary "Lagerfeld Confidential" by Rudolphe Marconi. Takes you into the world of Chanel and haute couture icon and super designer Karl Lagerfeld (shown at left). Fascinating stuff. The audience loved it!

Part of the retrospective section was "The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman," a 1963 Japanese film from director Kihachi Okamoto, which dealt with the life of a "Salaryman" and his mixed feelings about World War II and Japan's post-war prosperity.

I love coming to Berlin (my first visit was in 1973 during the Cold War). I remember just enough of my college German to get around, and festival audiences are always friendly!

My Ingmar Bergman Marathon

I just completed my "Ingmar Bergman Marathon"! Over the past three weeks, my wife and I watched 11 classic films from the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman (born 1918).

It started off about three weeks ago when I rented "Wild Strawberries" on a whim. I had first seen it in 1970. After thoroughly enjoying it, we decided to re-immerse ourselves in Bergman. These are the films we watched: (the ones with the * are ones I had seen before in the early 1970s)

Smiles of A Summer Night* (1955)
The Seventh Seal (1957)*
Wild Strawberries (1958)*
Virgin Spring (1960)
Through A Glass Darkly (1961)*
Winter Light (1962)*
The Silence (1963)
Persona (1966)
The Passion of Anna (1969)*
Cries and Whispers (1972)*
Scenes from a Marriage (1973)*

As I watched them, I couldn't help but compare my feelings about these films to the feelings I had when I first watched them over thirty-five years ago. Back then, I was a student in my early twenties trying to open my mind up to the big issues of life. At that time, these films helped do just that. Today, I'm in my late fifties and have had my own life experience, and these films helped to put that in perspective.

When I first saw "The Seventh Seal," "Wild Strawberries," and "Winter Light," I was entranced, delighted and provoked by the big metaphysical issues Bergman confronted and explored. Plus Bergman's writing is outstanding. These three films still stand up well today, and rightly deserve to be called "Classics."

When I saw "The Passion of Anna" and "Cries and Whispers" in theatrical release in the early 1970s, I was amazed by their ideas, boldness, and subject matter. When I saw them again, I was less impressed. The late 1960s and early 1970s were a confusing time, and Bergman's own confusion comes out clearly — especially in "The Passion of Anna." Now that I've had my own taste of life (business, marriage, fatherhood, death of loved ones, etc.), I scratched my head over some of the decisions his characters made. These films, nonetheless, are still provocative and worth seeing. 

What's especially enjoyable about Bergman is he presents us with consistent glimpses into his evolving vision of God, man's place in the world, love, human relationships, and fear. I use the word "consistent" because Bergman uses the same film technicians and actors repeatedly. In a way, it's comforting to see Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, and Gunnar Bjornstrand, and then Liv Ullman, and Erland Josephson adopt different roles in his work. I use the word "evolving" because Bergman moved from a religious/metaphysical orientation to an existential one.

Bergman, along with Kubrick, Kurosawa, and Fellini, is one of the six or seven greatest directors of the second half of the twentieth century. Watching eleven of his films in a short period was fun, personally revealing, and above all inspiring!

If you haven't seen a Bergman film in a while, check one out. Criterion has done a fine job of bringing the films to the DVD format and adding special features and commentaries. The so-called "Trilogy" from the early 1960s — "Through A Glass Darkly," "Winter Light," and "The Silence" — is not a bad place to begin.

What are your favorite Bergman films?

 

My Stanley Kubrick Marathon

Stanley Kubrick — along with Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, and Ingmar Bergman — is generally recognized as one of the half dozen most important directors of the second half of the 20th century.

Over a two week period earlier this year, I sat down and watched all of his films. It was my own personal Kubrick marathon. It was wonderful experience which I heartily recommend!

          

Viewing all these stimulating films over a short interval felt a little like living inside Kubrick's head. Of course, it was fascinating to watch him evolve as a director. Kubrick's shot making abilities were superb throughout his career. I also noticed that he was an ongoing early adopter of new film technologies because they allowed him to bring his ideas to life. But for me, what ultimately makes Kubrick such an inspiration is his ability to tell his stories in a fresh and compelling manner.

Actually, there are just twelve films in all. They are (with links to IMDB):

Killer's Kiss (1955)
The Killing (1956)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Spartacus (1960)
Lolita (1962)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
2001 (1968)
Clockwork Orange (1971)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
The Shining (1980)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

With the exception "Killer's Kiss," "Barry Lyndon," and "Eyes Wide Shut," I had seen all the films before. It was good to see these "old friends" again — and make some "new friends" as well.

Kubrick didn't repeat himself— he was continually moving from one setting and genre to the next. He went from a pacifist World War I film "("Paths of Glory") to one about forbidden love ("Lolita") to a Cold War parody ("Dr. Strangelove") to a science fiction glimpse of the future ("2001") to a social experiment setting ("Clockwork Orange") to Thackeray's story of an 18th century dandy ("Barry Lyndon"). What range!

Here are a few quick thoughts:

• "Killer's Kiss" is a tight little film made by a 26 year old on a shoe-string. I loved the chase through the mannequin warehouse. I thought about the actors' predicaments for several days afterward.
• "The Killing" is the story is about a gang — not of hardened criminals but people from all walks of life — that knocks off a race track. This is Kubrick's first film in which he battles the Hollywood unions.
• The ending of "Paths of Glory" of the German woman singing to the French soldiers is haunting. The whole film is emotionally draining. This film was banned in France until 1974.
• "Spartacus" was my least favorite and didn't seem like a full-fledged Kubrick film. That's probably because actor/producer Kirk Douglas fired the film's first director part way through shooting and brought in Kubrick with whom he had worked on "Paths to Glory."
• "Lolita"— great cast: James Mason as Humbert Humbert, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon, and of course Peters Sellers as Clare Quilty. The Clare Quilty role was a lot smaller in Nabokov's novel, but Kubrick was so taken by Sellers' improvising that he made the role much larger.
• "Dr. Strangelove." What's not to like about George C. Scott as a caricature of Curtis LeMay, and Sterling Hayden as General Jack D. Ripper? No fighting in the War Room?
• I saw "2001" on its opening weekend in 1968. Just about everyone who saw it was blown away — especially by the final 20 minutes. I had a college friend who said, "If you go in straight, you'll come out stoned; if you go in stoned, you'll come out on acid; and, if you go in on acid, you won't come out." A whole new generation discovers the music of Richard Strauss.
• I liked "Clockwork Orange" when I first saw it, and even more this time around. Alex and the droogs. The chase with the giant phallus is hysterical. Fresh uses of "Singin' in the Rain" and Beethoven's Nine Symphony.
• My biggest surprise was "Barry Lyndon" which opened to mixed reviews in 1975 (I didn't see it then). I was impressed by the scope, the setting, the scale, and even Ryan O'Neal's acting (and boxing). I would like to see it again.
• Red Rum! The cinematography in "The Shining" is wonderful as is the scary pace. The kid is a trip and, of course, so is Jack.
• R. Lee Ermey's Oscar nomination for the drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket": well-deserved. I liked the film's first half more than the second.
  
• "Eyes Wide Shut" is mesmerizing. It's based on Schnitzler's German novella "Rhapsody: A Dream Novel." The sexual odyssey choreography drew me in completely. I also liked Sydney Pollack as an actor (he's the director of "Tootsie," "Out of Africa," etc.).

What are your favorite Kubrick films?

McCabe and Mrs. Miller

Film director Robert Altman died on November 20, 2006.

Earlier this year, I rented and watched about ten Robert Altman films over a two-week period (MASH, "The Player," "Short Cuts," "Nashville," among others).  It was an "Altman Orgy." My clear favorite of all of these was the 1971 "McCabe and Mrs. Miller."

I first saw "McCabe" in the early 1970s at a Sunday Night "Flicks" at Stanford along with 1,500 "enthusiastic" students. It's the story about John McCabe, a gambler (Warren Beatty) who goes to a Northwest frontier town to start a brothel. Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie) arrives and convinces him his brothel needs a woman to turn it into a more profitable enterprise. The two build the business into a success. Then the bad guys from a mining company arrive on the scene to buy McCabe out.

When I saw "McCabe" thirty-five years ago, I thought it was hauntingly beautiful. When I watched it again recently, I still agree. It's one of those rare movies you see when you're younger that still holds up today. In fact, I liked it so much I watched it twice — the second time with the Robert Altman commentary running.

One especially interesting point was Altman's comment, "McCabe was the only movie I ever made in which I shot the movie entirely in sequence." (This was because the film had to follow the weather changes from autumn through to winter.) This must have been challenging, but Altman and his team handled it well. (I don't think I've ever created anything from beginning straight through to end. I jump around a lot, and I would imagine most of you do as well. Can you imagine having to execute your next creative project in a linear fashion?)

There are two things I always liked about Altman. First was his working style: he'd have a clear plan of what he wanted to do, but he'd always leave plenty of room for improvisation in the execution of that plan. It was often messy for others, but it gave him the results he was after. (I can identify with that type of creative process.)

And second, fame and glory came relatively late to him — his first feature, MASH, was released when he was 45. Before that, he was making baseball instructional videos, among other things. I think that helped him keep a relative sense of humility in the ego-crazed culture of Hollywood.

"I'm mad as hell . . . "

Recently, Paul McEneny had a post in which he decried the "displaced reality" of today's marketing tools. In my comment to him, I said that he sounded like the Howard Beale character in the 1976 film Network. Beale is a wisely deranged TV newscaster who wants to wake up America. He tells his audience, "I want all of you to get out of your chairs and go to the window and yell, 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.'"

This me got to thinking, "I haven't seen "Network" in a long time. Let's see how well it holds up 30 years later." And so through the miracle of Netflix I rented it. And I can report that "Network" holds up quite well. It was nominated for 14 Oscars and won 4 -- including one for Peter Finch who played Howard Beale. The movie's got it all: New York big media, office romance, terrorist groups who become media darlings, corporate power, lots of 70s facial hair, and four buckets of cynicism. I heartily recommend it. Also with Faye Dunaway, William Holden, and Robert Duvall.

After watching Network, I thought to myself: "What things bug me?"

Well, here's something. And maybe it bugs you too. I went to the movies on Saturday. I don't mind sitting through a couple of previews before a movie, but lately it seems as though there are just too many previews. Three previews and I think, "Okay, let's watch the movie." Four previews and I think, "This is crazy -- don't they respect the audience here?" Before yesterday's movie I sat through a 2-minute Coke commercial and SIX previews for a total of 22 minutes of stuff before my movie came on (all of this AFTER the posted start time). This had clearly crossed the line.

So this is what I did after the movie. With Howard Beale's words ("I mad as hell . . . ) still fresh in my mind, I asked to see the cineplex manager. He came out and I introduced myself to him as one of his customers. I told him that, in my opinion, six previews was excessive -- you're stealing time from me." He said, "No one else complains." And I said, "Maybe they're not here. You ever wonder why film attendance is flat? People realize that they can wait three months and watch the DVD at home without having to be bombarded with 22 minutes of ads." "Good point -- I'll look into it," he said. And he gave me a free ticket for an upcoming movie.

What bugs you?

The Battle of Algiers

A movie I've wanted to see for a long time (and finally did several days ago) is the classic "The Battle of Algiers" (Battaglia di Algeri), Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 film about the Algerian violent struggle for Independence from the French colonial forces in the late 1950s. It's shot in gritty black-and-white documentary style. The film has terror bombings, insurgents, torture, political conversion, counter-terrorism measures, and patriots. I was especialy taken by the chase scenes in the town's Casbah. The insurrectionary mood of the film makes for an emotionally high temperature throughout. With the advent of the "war against terror" in recent years, the film's relevance has only intensified. The film was banned intially in France for fear of creating civil disturbances. (DVD, in French and Arabic, with English subtitles.)

I was motivated to see it because Morocco's struggle for independence from France occurred in the mid-1950s. It was violent, but nothing compared to the Algerian struggle. Having just been to Fes and Marrakech in Morocco, the film helped me imagine what their battles in the streets 50 years ago might have been like.