thakur@eddie.MIT.EDU (Manavendra K. Thakur) (06/10/89)
Films That Preserved or Enhanced the State of Filmic Art
Commentary by Manavendra K. Thakur
This article is in the public domain.
There were many films shown in 1988 that either preserved or enhanced the
state of cinematic art to a significant degree. This is obviously a highly
subjective judgment, but for better or for worse (and several months late),
here is one interested observer's compilation.
Compilations like these almost always require a film to have its
theatrical premiere during the year in question. This has two effects, both
of which necessarily corrupt the evaluation process. First, the requirement
results in the unconscionable elimination of excellent candidates. The
achievement of greatness or artistic merit rarely, if ever, has anything to do
with the year of original release. Secondly, the requirement is essentially a
requirement that the film gain commercial distribution -- which is almost
always based on economic factors and marketing considerations. The moment
these issues begin to influence one's decision, they have destroyed the
integrity of the evaluation of artistic merit.
In addition, any film that is seen for the first time can be considered a
"premiere" by the person seeing it -- regardless of when the film was first
made or originally shown. Consequently, the only two criteria used in
selecting the films for this list were 1) the films must preserve or enhance
the state of cinematic art and 2) that they must have seen by me for the first
time in 1988 as a projected film in a theater or screening room.
The list is presented in no particular order.
AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS [Goodbye, Children]
With complete mastery over the filmmaking process,
writer-director-producer Louis Malle lays bare the enormous moral complexities
that confront a young boy (representing Malle himself) who comes of age in
Nazi-occupied France. Malle proves that there is much left to say and feel
about the tragic effects of the Nazi past.
(France / 1987)
DER HIMMEL UBER BERLIN [The Skies Above Berlin / The Heavens Above
Berlin / Wings of Desire]
Director Wim Wenders and writer Peter Handke celebrate human love in this
tale of an angel who longs to take a human form to ease the existential
loneliness of his eternal vigil and to fulfill his yearning for the love of a
a trapeze artist. With Jurgen Knieper's soaring and enveloping score and with
Henri Alekan's breathtaking black and white cinematography, Wenders has
crafted a beautiful love poem that renews one's faith in the value and meaning
of human artistic expression.
(West Germany / 1987)
MOJ DRUG IVAN LAPSHIN [My Friend Ivan Lapshin]
This Soviet film may not appear to be much on first viewing, but it is in
fact an excellent example of how filmmakers can flourish even when confronted
by heavy censorship and other external barriers. Shooting in color, black and
white, and sepia with cinema verite (handheld) camera techniques, director
Alexei Gherman takes viewers to a remote Russian village in 1937. Gherman
casually recalls places and people from his childhood memories of the Great
Terror of Stalin. Far from being histrionic or polemical, Gherman's rich
subtlety leads one to realize that virtually nothing -- not even the film's
title -- is what it appears to be on the surface.
(USSR / 1984)
LOS AMBICIOSOS [Republic of Sin]
The great Luis Bunuel took a breather from his usual insults and savage
satire to create this powerfully restrained melodrama about an idealistic
young man who wants to redress the injustices of a fascist South American
regime but ends up strengthening the dictatorship instead. Although not
usually regarded as one of Bunuel's greatest works, the film conveys a
strong sense of the same theme that permeates many of Bunuel's acknowledged
masterpieces: the seductive nature of power and the inevitability of being
corrupted by it.
(Mexico-France / 1959)
JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES
HINDERED
The titles of these two films say it all. Both films strongly lead
viewers to experience a stifling reality, but the former does it from the
outside in and the latter from the inside out.
JEANNE DIELMAN (Belgium, 1975) is a relentless 3-1/2 hour account of
three days in the life of a Belgian housewife who has structured her life to
such a high degree that her morning bathroom visits are synchronized with the
time it takes to boil a pot of water. Dielman, the housewife, silently takes
care of her grown son, babysits the neighbor's children, and works as a
part-time prostitute -- all from within her middle-class house. Director
Chantal Akerman makes her viewers feel for themselves the oppressive nature of
Dielman's existence by always shooting with perpendicular, eye-level camera
angles while photographing long takes of Dielman peeling potatoes or washing
dishes. Both Dielman and the camerawork lose their highly compartmentalized
feel when an unexpected development near the film's end shatters the daily
housewife routine. It is the one-to-one correspondence between content and
form that allows this unique epic to transform its passive viewers into active
participants in Akerman's feminist exploration of Dielman's nightmarish
housewife existence.
From the opposite perspective comes Stephen Dwoskin's HINDERED (Great
Britain, 1974), which is an intensely personal film chronicle of Dwoskin's
efforts to have a romantic affair with a German actress. What makes this film
far more interesting than Ross McElwee's SHERMAN'S MARCH (1987) is that it
transcends its theme rather than succumbing to it. There is virtually no
dialogue in the film, and the soundtrack consists mainly of grating noises
that tend to get on one's nerve after a few minutes. Contrary to all
expectations, this technique actually strengthens the film's impact. The
reason is that the American-born Dwoskin does not have the use of either leg,
and his romance with the German actress is complicated by the fact that she is
not handicapped. And because Dwoskin shoots his films himself from a
wheelchair, he is able to shun gratuitous sentimentality as he gives viewers a
taste of the vast hurdles and difficulties he must overcome every single day.
Not even the most stringent cinema verite documentary could hope to match the
devastating impact of this film.
POINT OF ORDER
Radical documentarian Emile de Antonio works with a simple technique --
editing raw documentary footage shot by others -- but he was tremendously
successful at it in this cohesive and eye-opening documentary about the
Army-McCarthy hearings of the 1950s. de Antonio was one of the first to
employ the powerful technique of eliminating narration to allow images to
speak for themselves. As a result, McCarthy's words and mannerisms
demonstrate the full import of his rabid anti-communism and at the same time
prove that McCarthy was a human being to be pitied rather than a vicious
monster to be reviled. Few other documentary filmmakers have done so much
with mere television footage.
(US / 1964)
TOKYO OLYMPIAD
This sprawling and monumental film record of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics is
as close to an epic as any documentary is likely to get. Director Kon
Ichikawa shied away from spectacle and glitz to concentrate on the essence of
athletic competition and the beauty of the human body in motion. Endearingly
democratic in its division of of screentime among winners, losers, spectators,
and stadium personnel, the film creates an artistic vision from impeccably
shot sports footage. Conventional sports television has yet to even conceive
of, much less attain, the epic feel and impact of this film.
(Japan / 1965)
Various shorts by John Paizs
John Paizs is a filmmaker from Winnipeg, Canada, whose short films are
miniature masterpieces. The genius of Paizs is that he is able to condense
interesting stories down to their barest essentials without losing nuance or
detail. Along with Paul Bogart's TORCH SONG TRILOGY, Paizs has exposed the
dirty little secret of contemporary narrative filmmaking -- namely that most
filmmakers try to expand already flimsy scripts to feature length. Paizs'
work extends even further his country's tradition of brilliant short films,
documentaries, and (to a lesser extent) feature films.
(Canada / 1979-82)
Films that didn't quite make the above list:
VINCENT The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh (1988)
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING (1988)
DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES (1988)
BIG (1988)
A QUESTION OF SILENCE (1985)
THE PASSION OF REMEMBRANCE (1984)
WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (1988)
SHATTERED DREAMS: Picking Up the Pieces (1987)
SOMEONE TO LOVE (1987)
KAMIGAMI NO FUKAKI YOKUBO ("The Profound Desire of the Gods" - 1968)
GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM (1987)
THE BLOB (1958)
PATTI ROCKS (1987)
MATADOR (1986)
LOLA LA LOCA (1988)
TORCH SONG TRILOGY (1988)
ASHIK-KERIB (1988)
RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX (1977)
LOS MOTIVOS DE BERTA ("Berta's Motives" - 1984).
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
... and many others
Most disappointing films by established filmmakers:
BETRAYED (Costa-Gavras, 1988)
MISSISSIPPI BURNING (Alan Parker, 1988)
BIRD (Clint Eastwood, 1988)
THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR (Robert Redford, 1988)
TALK RADIO (Oliver Stone, 1988)
FULL MOON IN BLUE WATER (Peter Masterton, 1988)
TEQUILA SUNRISE (Robert Towne, 1988)
STARS AND BARS (Pat O'Connor, 1988)
Needless to say, these lists are hardly comprehensive or complete.
Manavendra K. Thakur
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thakur@eddie.mit.edu
thakur@cfa.harvard.edu