Showing posts with label John Ford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Ford. Show all posts
Saturday, June 27, 2009
A Bandit's Wager
US 1916. D: Francis Ford. Ass. D: John Ford; SC: Francis Ford, Grace Cunard; CAST: Grace Cunard (Nan Jefferson), Francis Ford (il bandito), John Ford (il fratello); PC: Universal; 35mm. Orig: 273 m. 245 m. 13’ a 16 fps. B&w. English intertitles From: BFINA / Printed in 2009 by the BFI from an original nitrate print. Presenta John Oliver, grand piano: Maud Nelissen, viewed at Cinema Lumière 1, Bologna, 27 June 2009. - From John Oliver's introduction: In 1914-1916, John Ford worked in a number of capacities for Francis Ford and other directors such as Allan Dwan. John would later credit Francis as the greatest of influences on his own directorial career. During this period, it is believed that John acted in at least 13 films, all directed by Francis. With Francis as the titular bandit and Grace Cunard the heroine whom he promises to kiss, A Bandit's Wager is possibly the only one of these films to survive (John appears as Grace's brother). - Print from a scratched source. - Grace Cunard is put to a test. She thinks she has been caught by a bandit (Francis Ford), but displays formidable resistance, destroying his effects, including the mirror and the guitar. In fact, the bandit is Grace's brother's (John Ford) friend. She passes the test. "You belong to the West".
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
THE ANN RUTLEDGE THEME (from Young Mr. Lincoln) is the main music theme of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. (There is also a theme song recorded called The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, but it is not heard in the film.) The Ann Rutledge theme is played seven times:
1) Hallie and Link arrive in their cart at Tom's burned hut.
2) Ransom promises Hallie to teach her to read.
3) Tom brings a cactus rose to Hallie.
4) Hallie alone in the classroom.
5) Hallie binds Ransom's wound.
6) After the statement "print the legend", the train whistle, "getting late", Hallie's cactus flower on Tom's coffin.
7) After the statement "nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance", the train disappears in the horizon, THE END.
THE PSYCHOANALYTICAL ANGLE
1) The main symbols: the cactus rose and the gun.
2) The psychologically sensitive actors Vera Miles and James Stewart, both Hitchcock regulars.
3) Das Unbehagen in der Kultur: the theme of civilization being built upon the repression / control of our wild primitive forces.
4) The unhappy, unsatisfied woman, the childless Hallie.
5) Alcoholism. What makes the man drink: Tom loses Hallie, takes to the bottle, burns his house, almost commits suicide, and in a way the rest of his life is a slow suicide.
THE JOHN FORD STYLE
The unique combination of the over-the-top (the character of Liberty Valance, several other characters verging on the caricature and parody) and restraint. The most beautiful scene of restraint is the one where Hallie sits besides Link, and their looks tell everything. During the film, Vera Miles acts with her eyes.
THE SCREEN AND THE MONITOR
The eloquence of the restraint is evident on the cinema screen but may pass unnoticed on the home monitor. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is readily available on dvd and in tv programming, but to evaluate it it's necessary to see it on the screen.
1) Hallie and Link arrive in their cart at Tom's burned hut.
2) Ransom promises Hallie to teach her to read.
3) Tom brings a cactus rose to Hallie.
4) Hallie alone in the classroom.
5) Hallie binds Ransom's wound.
6) After the statement "print the legend", the train whistle, "getting late", Hallie's cactus flower on Tom's coffin.
7) After the statement "nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance", the train disappears in the horizon, THE END.
THE PSYCHOANALYTICAL ANGLE
1) The main symbols: the cactus rose and the gun.
2) The psychologically sensitive actors Vera Miles and James Stewart, both Hitchcock regulars.
3) Das Unbehagen in der Kultur: the theme of civilization being built upon the repression / control of our wild primitive forces.
4) The unhappy, unsatisfied woman, the childless Hallie.
5) Alcoholism. What makes the man drink: Tom loses Hallie, takes to the bottle, burns his house, almost commits suicide, and in a way the rest of his life is a slow suicide.
THE JOHN FORD STYLE
The unique combination of the over-the-top (the character of Liberty Valance, several other characters verging on the caricature and parody) and restraint. The most beautiful scene of restraint is the one where Hallie sits besides Link, and their looks tell everything. During the film, Vera Miles acts with her eyes.
THE SCREEN AND THE MONITOR
The eloquence of the restraint is evident on the cinema screen but may pass unnoticed on the home monitor. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is readily available on dvd and in tv programming, but to evaluate it it's necessary to see it on the screen.
Cinema and Psyche: The Touch of Horror (Symposium 13-14 March 2009)
Cinema Orion, 190 participants
FRIDAY 13 MARCH, 2009
Chairman AA
9.00 Film: El espíritu de la colmena (Victor Erice, ES 1973)
- an infinitely rich film, inspired a high level discussion with several in-depth interpretations; the print was not brilliant
11.00 Lecture: Christel Airas: The Spirit of the Beehive by Victor Erice
11.45 Recital: Arto Leppänen: the commentary to La Morte Rouge (ES 2006, Victor Erice)
- the film itself is not yet available for screenings (it is reserved for viewing at the marvellous Erice / Kiarostami exhibition only), but in this case, the commentary is highly rewarding in itself, as the film is largely speech-driven
12.15 Lunch break
Chairperson Aune Raitasalo
13.45 Lecture: AA: Media and Violence
14.45 Film: Retour en Normandie (Nicolas Philibert, FR 2006)
- a fascinating documentary look on the countryside, mirroring the making of Moi, Pierre Rivière 30 years earlier, the changes and fates of the performers
16.40 Coffee break
17.05 Lecture: Jussi Kotkavirta: Retour en Normandie
18.30 Film: Moi, Pierre Rivière (René Allio, FR 1976)
- the first screening of this film in Finland, based faithfully on the dossier edited by Michel Foucault's team, an unique film made on location with lay performers, on a turning-point in the French history of jurisdiction and psychiatry, Pascal Bonitzer and Serge Toubiana among the screenwriters
SATURDAY, 14 MARCH 2009
Chairperson Stig Hägglund
9.00 Film: Nosferatu (DE 1922)
- the Lumière project restored version (1995), always rich and fascinating
10.25 Break
10.40 Lectures: Mikael Enckell: Nosferatu, and Aune Raitasalo: Latterday Vampires
11.45 Film: Tuholaiset [Devastators / Pests / Vermins] (Katja Lautamatti & Mina Laamo, FI 2007) 39 min + discussion with Stig Hägglund and Mina Laamo
- an excellent documentary on the reality and nightmare projections of household insects
13.00 Lunch break
14.30 Film: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (US 1962)
- see separate entry
16.30 Coffee break
17.00 Lecture: Vesa Manninen: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
- the male images of Tom Doniphon and Ransom Stoddard
18.00 Conclusion
18.15 Buffet dinner at Restaurant Dubrovnik
FRIDAY 13 MARCH, 2009
Chairman AA
9.00 Film: El espíritu de la colmena (Victor Erice, ES 1973)
- an infinitely rich film, inspired a high level discussion with several in-depth interpretations; the print was not brilliant
11.00 Lecture: Christel Airas: The Spirit of the Beehive by Victor Erice
11.45 Recital: Arto Leppänen: the commentary to La Morte Rouge (ES 2006, Victor Erice)
- the film itself is not yet available for screenings (it is reserved for viewing at the marvellous Erice / Kiarostami exhibition only), but in this case, the commentary is highly rewarding in itself, as the film is largely speech-driven
12.15 Lunch break
Chairperson Aune Raitasalo
13.45 Lecture: AA: Media and Violence
14.45 Film: Retour en Normandie (Nicolas Philibert, FR 2006)
- a fascinating documentary look on the countryside, mirroring the making of Moi, Pierre Rivière 30 years earlier, the changes and fates of the performers
16.40 Coffee break
17.05 Lecture: Jussi Kotkavirta: Retour en Normandie
18.30 Film: Moi, Pierre Rivière (René Allio, FR 1976)
- the first screening of this film in Finland, based faithfully on the dossier edited by Michel Foucault's team, an unique film made on location with lay performers, on a turning-point in the French history of jurisdiction and psychiatry, Pascal Bonitzer and Serge Toubiana among the screenwriters
SATURDAY, 14 MARCH 2009
Chairperson Stig Hägglund
9.00 Film: Nosferatu (DE 1922)
- the Lumière project restored version (1995), always rich and fascinating
10.25 Break
10.40 Lectures: Mikael Enckell: Nosferatu, and Aune Raitasalo: Latterday Vampires
11.45 Film: Tuholaiset [Devastators / Pests / Vermins] (Katja Lautamatti & Mina Laamo, FI 2007) 39 min + discussion with Stig Hägglund and Mina Laamo
- an excellent documentary on the reality and nightmare projections of household insects
13.00 Lunch break
14.30 Film: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (US 1962)
- see separate entry
16.30 Coffee break
17.00 Lecture: Vesa Manninen: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
- the male images of Tom Doniphon and Ransom Stoddard
18.00 Conclusion
18.15 Buffet dinner at Restaurant Dubrovnik
Sunday, June 01, 2008
The Last Hurrah
Viimeinen koetus / Det sista försöket. US (c) 1958 Columbia. P+D: John Ford. SC: Frank Nugent - based on the novel by Edwin O'Connor (1956). DP: Charles Lawton. Starring Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster, Pat O'Brien, Basil Rathbone, Donald Crisp, James Gleason, John Carradine, Willis Bouchey, Ricardo Cortez, Anna Lee, Jane Darwell. 121 min. Vintage print with Finnish / Swedish subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 1 June 2008. - Good definition of light in this daringly darkly photographed film. Works fine in the Academy ratio. - I watched a portion only of this moving farewell film about the elderly Boston politician. It portrays American political life with a special blend of satire and tenderness.
Thursday, October 30, 1997
How Green Was My Valley
024943 / G / US / 1941 / Ford, John / / drama
How Green Was My Valley / Vihreä oli laaksoni. PC: 20th Century-Fox. P: Darryl F. Zanuck. D: John Ford. Based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn. DP: Arthur Miller. CAST: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowall. 119’. B&w. MPAA Production Code Seal of Approval 7480. A beautiful NFTVA print. Viewed in Helsinki, SEA, Cinema Orion, Thursday 30 October 1997. **** I knew the film previously only from TV. I had had trouble with the idealization and sentimentalism, and was now able to look through them for the first time. The idyll now seems like a sugar coating to the bitter story. The conditions in the mine are harsh, causing death and suffering. The central romance remains unrequited as the bride marries money. Because of his humble origins the boy-protagonist is brutally harassed at school both by the teacher and by his classmates. All this is acknowledged, and still the film is a praise to the triumph of the spirit, about never giving up. The climax is the final sermon of the preacher portrayed by Walter Pidgeon. It is a highlight in the whole Ford oeuvre. Among the joys of the film: the faces are wonderful down to the smallest parts. They all live the drama.
How Green Was My Valley / Vihreä oli laaksoni. PC: 20th Century-Fox. P: Darryl F. Zanuck. D: John Ford. Based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn. DP: Arthur Miller. CAST: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowall. 119’. B&w. MPAA Production Code Seal of Approval 7480. A beautiful NFTVA print. Viewed in Helsinki, SEA, Cinema Orion, Thursday 30 October 1997. **** I knew the film previously only from TV. I had had trouble with the idealization and sentimentalism, and was now able to look through them for the first time. The idyll now seems like a sugar coating to the bitter story. The conditions in the mine are harsh, causing death and suffering. The central romance remains unrequited as the bride marries money. Because of his humble origins the boy-protagonist is brutally harassed at school both by the teacher and by his classmates. All this is acknowledged, and still the film is a praise to the triumph of the spirit, about never giving up. The climax is the final sermon of the preacher portrayed by Walter Pidgeon. It is a highlight in the whole Ford oeuvre. Among the joys of the film: the faces are wonderful down to the smallest parts. They all live the drama.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
