Here is a very informative documentary on the great Georges Melies, father of the fantasy film. He invented a lot of techniques still used today.
And here is a great website with an excellent article on Melies:
Jessica Beshir grew up in the city of Harar, Ethiopia. She became a filmmaker and wanted to show the semi mythical relationship between Yussuf Mume Saleh and the hyenas he fed outside the walls of the ancient city. On her way to film him she met a young poet, Elias Shagiz Adonay Tesfaye and his poetry was incorporated into the film. This is pure magic and proves once again that Black and White is beautiful.
Before he started making Muppets Jim Henson made films, here’s one of them: Time Piece.
Here’s another gem you can watch on Amazon Prime. Chang Cheh’s Kid With The Golden Arm. It’s very entertaining, a lot of fun with great fight choreography. You can see what an influence this film had on Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill) and The RZA (Man with the Iron Fists) . I should know I worked on both those films. Chang Cheh reunites his cast from the 5 Venoms another hugh hit! The story does have parallels with MWTIF, a shipment of Gold sent to help a province afflicted by a Famine, Off beat Government agents secretly helpiong to protect the Gold, Poison used as a weapon. The list goes on. Buit watch them all and decide for yourself!
And here’s a link to The Kill Bill Bootleg Trailer I edited with Quentin.
MM Ginsberg has passed on. He was an editor of documentaries, a writer and a director. screen them for the class. I met him through my friend Dean Wetherell, he worked with Milton’s broter Arthur, who is a film editor and directed the Iceman documentaries about a prolific serial killer. .Milton would edit big documentaries to earn cash then write scripts in his time off. He made a film called Coming Apart, all shot from one angle, kind of Andy Warhol style but with good actors, Rip Torn, Sally Kellerman. He complained to me that a trailer company put some money into the film on the conditioon that one of the principals of the company got credit as the editor. “It’s all one shot!” He yelled, “What editing?!” He was still pissed off about it years later. But he was a nice, talented guy and he kept at his Art no matter what. A lesson to us all. Fare Thee Well, MMG.
Last night I watched parts of both of these great films. We are so lucky to be able to see world cinema like this when we want to. It used to be very hard, you had to wait till a film shoed up at a revival house or on late night TV, then you had to find a video store that rented esoteric cinema. But now you can stream amazing films on Amazon Prime! So Cool. Run Man Run stars ther incredible Tomas Milian as Cuchillo , A Great Film , Check it out.
The Sword Stained With Royal Blood has as a finale one of the most Amazing Fight Scenes in Cinema, watch it and see.
Just make sure it’s the one produced by the Shaw Brothers and directed by Chang Cheh. There are other versions but I have not seen them.
I just got the 4K BluRay of Kubrick’s 2001. And I have to say it is stupendous! It looks incredible!
Especially the outer space footage. All done with miniatures and opticals and it looks better than what they do today. Why? Great Artisans and great taste! Stanley held everyone to the highest standards and you can tell when you watch the film. Plus shot in 65mm! With great talents like Doug Trumbull and Wally Veevers. Astonishing! The SlitScan sequence and liquid abstractions have never looked better. So cool. I was friends with the great editor Ray lovejoy.
Ray Lovejoy
A really nice super talented guy. He was the assistant editor on Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Strangelove. 2001 was his first editing job! Talk about starting at the top! He said Stanley was very nice to work with on Dr. Strangelove.
Pablo Ferro
He also said my friend the late great Pablo Ferro drove the English negative cutters and Lab people crazy! They resigned in protest! Pablo was a bit unorthodox but a sweet talented guy. I guess he showed up at the Lab in the middle of the night to make some changes to the title sequence and the lab people had had enough! They resigned! Kubrick (so the legend goes) got an armoured vehicle to transport his precious negative to a new lab! Anyway Ray said that 2001 was such a huge job with opticals being done all over the world, no one optical house could possibly get it done in time, and Kubrick was trying to stay on top of every minute detail. It drove him crazy. Ray said he was never the same after 2001. The giant complicated film took it’s toll on Stanley. Anyway watch the 4K if you are able and be blown away by it’s beauty!
Stanley Kubrick
Hey film programmers listen up. Here’s a great double bill of two very inexpensive sci fi films that definetley influenced Alien. First up the B&W 1958 Classic It, The Terror from Beyond Space! A monster sneaks in the hold of a space ship and starts killing the crew. This movie scared the heck out of me as a kid. They really make you wait to see the monster and it’s very effective. Alien follows suit. Smart because the monster in both after all is a guy in a rubber suit. I won’t tell you too much about it, watch it and see the parallels for yourself. here’s the trailer
Then we have Mario Bava’s masterful Space Opera, Terrore Nello Spazio. Released in the USA as Planet Of The Vampires. The crew lands on a weird planet. They find an ancient Space ship with a dead Alien at the controls. Very similar to ALIEN! But you should watch the movie for yourselves. Here’s the trailer. PS Check out the baddass Italian Leather space uniforms! Super Cool!
Here is one of my favorite scenes from The Sunchaser, a movie I edited for Michael Cimino. This was the last film I edited on film, in 35mm on a KEM editing machine, with splicing tape! It was a lot of work. But I did get to work with some amazing talents, Woody, Jon Seda, Anne Bancroft, Maurice Jarre, Michael Cimino. PS The whole part of them following the hawk to the sacred mountain was created by me. Wasn’t shot that way or in the script, I did it all in editing. Thanks to the person who put this clip up, and if any of you are interested in watching the entire movie please make sure to get the Scope version not the square 4X3 that they put out. It’s a totally different experience.
Robert Parrish
Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming
Here is a supercool film noir, Robert Parrish’s Cry Danger. It’s worth watching for several reasons, the cast which is great, the locations, including a great trailer park that must have been on Bunker Hill before it was razed. Directed by Robert Parrish, a talented guy who was a child actor in Chaplin films, he wrote a terrific book, Growing Up in Hollwywood that I whole heartedly reccomend. I saw this at a Film Noir festival and Rhonda Fleming was there. I talked to her about this film and we emailed each other. She was real nice. Unfortunately I just read that she passed on in 2020. Farewell! She was 92 I think. Anyway take a trip down Noir Alley into old L.A. and relax.
They have released a new transfer of Sergio Leone’s Masterpiece The Good, The Bad and the Ugly in 4K! This film deserves it! One of the greatest films ever made. And Ennio Morricone’s magnificent score accompanying these hi rez visuals is a delight for any lover of Cinema. Be sure to pay close attention to the title sequence as this is the best it has ever looked on something you can watch at home. In all honesty some of the exteriors were a bit bright for my taste but you judge for yourself. I did think the final duel was spot on. Really looked great. So here it is from youtube. Check it out.
I just heard Monte Hellman has passed on to the next dimension. God Speed! I met him a few times and he was a very nice guy. One time he hosted a readsing of a script by Dennis Bartok at his Hollywood Hills Home, which was a real nice thing for him to do. I used to know Rudy Wurlitzer, a good friend of Monte’s and the screenwriter of Monte’s seminal Road Movie Two Lane Blacktop. the film that gave Lew Wasserman nightmares. I met Rudy through Bob Downey. When I mentioned Rudy to Monte, he broke out in a smile and said”I talk to him everyday.” Monte, I hope you are happy wherever you are, talking film with the greats up there in Film Heaven. Here’s the trailer for 2LBT