Film Forno

The Beautiful Muse Of Jesus Franco, Lina Romay

Yowza! What a film! Jess Franco is a genius. So rich with styles, ideas, images, acting, nudity, music! All Franco’s obsessions boil beneath the seemingly calm surface of this mirror. Lina Romay strips nude and kills herself as her sister tries on her wedding gown. The wedding is off and with her father’s blessing (Howard Vernon) Anne ( Emma Cohen) sets off for the city to be a musician. Unfortunately her sister haunts her from any nearby mirror, calls to her to come to her, puts her in a trance where she kills whatever man she’s with, and acts strangely in general. It’s like a fairy tale for adults, full of plot elements from many different genres, all pulpy! It’s like Godard, sort of improvised but not trying to be arty, instead telling a lurid tale that nonetheless pulsates with creativity. There’s a scene in a theater that reminds me of Argento’s Four Flies On Grey Velvet. Everything is grist for Franco’s mill and his unerring eye can set a mood with one or two seemingly banal shots, a flower, a seascape at dusk, home movie material yet in Franco’s capable hands they become images loaded with foreboding. I watched the Italian version of this film which has hardcore inserts cut into it. Even they didn’t ruin it for me. Did Franco cut them in himself? I don’t know. I think this film is great, I’d love to see the other versions but I really liked this one and I love Lina Romay, I don’t want to see someone else playing the dead sister. Check it out if you can find it.

I’d like to take a moment to salute the great Jess Franco. A true Alchemist of Cinema, taking the dross of genre film and turning it into Gold. Making almost 200 films, how cool is that. A multi lingual jazz musician super prolific filmmaker. He may not be wealthy, living in a mansion in the south of France but he is one of the richest men on the planet in terms of his life and his accomplishments. Like the Magus and The Alchemist of old he ignored materialism and “success” and concentrated on what was important to him, creating Pure Cinema in every moment. He has done so more than any other man.

 

Tony and Sue Monroe

Tony Munroe passed away this morning at the too young age of 47. He was a partner in the firm Triage Motion Picture Services. He and his company restored such films as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Woman in The Window, A Fistfull of Dollars, All That Jazz, Sweet Smell Of Success, Flashdance, It’s A Gift, Once Upon A Time In The West, Duck You Sucker, Tom Jones, etc. etc. Too many to mention. I first met Tony back in 1991, I was editing a short film, Tony was working for an optical company. He had just learned about optical printing and this was his first film job. I heard about a custom Black and White Lab in the Valley called Cinetech, I hired them to handle the printing of the film. The owner met Tony and hired him to work at his lab. That’s where Tony learned the ins and outs of film restoration. A few years later he partnered up with Paul Rutan and they founded Triage. I helped them move into their HQ on Larchmont. Tony was a great writer, a guitar player, a wonderful guy that everyone will miss. My heartfelt condolences go out to his wife Sue, his son Calvin, his dad and everybody that knew him and loved him.

My great friend Daniele Luppi has collaborated with Danger Mouse to produce an album of cinematic music entitled ROME. Inspired by their love of Spaghetti Western Soundtracks they recorded in Rome at the same studio (Forum) used by Morricone, Bacalov, Umiliani, etc. during the Golden Age of Italian Cinema. They also worked with some of the same musicians that played on the classic soundtracks. They were joined in this labor of love by two magnificent contemporary artists, Norah Jones and Jack White. Incredible. And it was recorded in all analog glory on magnetic tape! I’m getting the record, vinyl that is, I can’t wait. As some of you may know Daniele composed the score for my film One Night With You so I’m very familiar with his work. Here’s a little movie about the project.

I just watched  A Bout De Souffle on TCM and I noticed something that struck me as one of the most interesting moments in the film. Jean Seberg is at the airport at a press conference for an author who has just published a book. The author is played by Jean Pierre Melville, the great director and hero to the New Wave. Seberg tries to ask him a question but is overpowered by the other reporters shouting their questions. Finally she breaks through and asks “What is your greatest ambition?” Melville looks at her  through his cool aviator shades and after a beat says “To become immortal, then die.” Godard plays some film noir music on the soundtrack and Seberg breaks the fourth wall, looks directly into the camera as we dissolve to another scene. What a brilliant moment, it is the essence of filmmaking, films will live on far beyond their makers, expressing their thoughts for generations after the artist is dead. That is what Melville/Godard is saying and in a poetic way. Beautiful.

Check it out at 3:18

I saw this film as a kid on The Twilight Zone. Rod Serling really dug it so he made it into an episode of his show, the only time he ever did such a thing. It was made as part of an omnibus film, Chickamauga, a film comprised of three short films based on the writings of Ambrose Bierce. I’ve never seen the other two parts of this film but I will track them down one day. An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge should be studied by young filmmakers, it offers many insights into economy of style, simplicity, artistry. It’s beautifully made, a study in tension and fantasy. And thanks to the miracle of Youtube you can see it as it was presented on The Twilight Zone oh those many years ago.

What can I say, the great Jean Renoir working at RKO in the 40’s with Charles Laughton, no less! A powerful combo, also starring the beautiful protege of Laughton’s , Maureen O’Hara and as added treats RKO stock players George “I am bored with Life” Sanders and Cat People’s Kent Smith, in a very good performance I might add. The film seems kind of slapped together in a rush but a beautiful rush of enthusiasm, patriotism and little money. I wonder if Dudley Nichols wanted to create something inspirational for people living under Nazi occupation and everyone joined in and made this film from nothing, shot on the back lots and Euro streets of RKO, the filmmakers manage to create a convincing French town albeit small. Then there are the wonderful scenes on trains as Kent Smith tries to escape his Nazi pursuers. Renoir loved trains and this sequence shot on location is a prime example of his fascination with their mechanical majesty. It’s funny how trains and cinema go together so well, from the very first days (to be continued)

I’ve been obsessed with Val Lewton lately, I even bought the box set of his films, The Val Lewton Horror Collection. It’s well worth the price, here are 9 great films produced by a true low budget genius at my favorite studio, RKO, made by some of Cinema’s greatest artists and artisans. A wonderful treat. Anyway while watching The Leopard Man I noticed it was based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich, the pulp writer who has had more books turned into films than any of his contemporaries. A reclusive writer that has had an enormous cultural influence on contemporary psychic reality. So I thought I’d order his novel, Black Alibi, then I found out someone had beaten me to the punch, a little research led me to a brilliant article on The Leopard Man. Here’s a link to it,The Strange Pleasure Of The Leopard Man it’s well worth reading.

Here is some rare footage of iconoclastic director Jean Pierre Melville and actors Lino Ventura and Paul Meurisse being interviewed while makingLe Deuxieme Souffle. Melville and Ventura clashed repeatedly during the making of this film, Ventura allegedly vowed never to work with Melville again. But he did although the two artists only spoke through intermediaries never face to face.

That’s right, here’s your chance to beat the unemployed holiday blues by watching a magnificent film about a super rich guy looking for love and it’s FREE! 35mm projection no less, the Grand Daddy of all Primitive Accumulators, Charles Foster Kane! SEE Deep FOCUS cinematography as pioneered by GREGG TOLAND and his custom made F-stops, hear Bernard Herrmanns first film score. See the great actors of the Mercury Theater. Here’s a piece I wrote about KANE. Here’s the info for the screening. Tuesday Dec 21, 11am LACMA.

XANADU!!

I have always been fascinated by the story of the no hitter pitched by Dock Ellis while under the influence of the mind altering psychedelic LSD-25. When I was a kid I had a Time/Life book called The Mind.

There were photos of a spider spinning a perfect web after being fed a LSD laced fly.

The Acid took away the distractions that are programmed in and enabled effortless concentration. Anyway here’s an animated film by James Blangden set to the pre-recorded telling of the tale by Dock Ellis.

I went, I watched, I walked with I Walked With A Zombie. It was incredible! Really the best way to see this film is in a big theater with 35mm projection! There is no substitute, you pick up so many more nuances, the atmosphere becomes all pervasive, your psyche is opened up to the incredible images and fantasy pours in through your eyes and ears to your very soul! This is how the makers designed the film to work, they didn’t think about TV or video. To say the least it was a moving experience and it clocked in at a rocket fast 70 minutes!

This film is crammed with ideas, Lewton and his team did exhaustive research and it shows, the music, the dancing, the Afro Caribbean culture give Zombie a rock hard foundation on which to build a castle of fantasy and terror. But terror in a Fairy Tale like way, sort of innocent yet savage, ruthless as Nature and as pure. This film is a textbook of studio filmmaking at a peak of artistry. The B&W photography,the lighting, the production design, the process photography, amazingly executed.

The Great RKO Artisans of Storytelling-P.S. Check out the legal disclaimer at the bottom of the frame for a joke.

We start in Canada, in a Victorian office, snow falls furiously outside the window. Our Heroine (Francis Dee) is ta nurse being offered a job in the Caribbean, one stock shot of a big sailing schooner later we’re on board (thanks to process photography) with the boss of the plantation and his men, who sing a strange island song in the background. The scene here between Francis Dee and Tom Conway is a brilliantly written piece, it expertly sets the mood for the rest of the film. “It’s so beautiful” Dee thinks to herself only to be interrupted a second later by Conway telling her “It isn’t beautiful” Dee answers “You read my mind” , Conway replies, “You see those flying fish, they’re jumping in terror to escape being eaten, that phosphorescence in the water? The putrescent bodies of dead organisms, This is a place of death.” He sets a tone of unease, he unsettles Dee by reading her mind(supernatural), he belittles her naivety, he fascinates her with his honesty. That sets up their complicated relationship for the rest of the film. All in a couple of minutes.

Then theirs a scene in the town of San Sebastian, probably the RKO backlot dressed up by D’Agostino and Keller. They filmed here maybe a day or two at most, it’s used a couple of times in the film but sparingly, you really get the impression that everything was planned out and organized with maximum efficiency, the budget was $134,000! A scene in a buggy (process) as an old black islander drives Dee to the plantation is also illuminating. The driver tells her how the slaves were brought to the island in chains on a ship, the figurehead of which is now prominently displayed at the plantation. “It’s so beautiful here” “He replies “If you say so miss, if you say so” She naively ignores the whole slavery aspect, the inherent inhumanity, brutality, focusing on the lush scenery. Lewton’s comment on Western insensitivity.

Figurehead of St. Sebastian, a representation of the slave based history of the island

The story continues and some of the high points are, the first night at the plantation, Dee is awakened by a woman crying, she goes out to investigate and enters the Tower where the wife of Ellison is kept. It’s pretty creepy, the tower set is particularly effective consisting of a stone stairway slashing across a black frame. Dee climbs the stairs and is confronted by the wraithlike zombie wife of Conway, Jessica Holland. The zombie advances upon her and I swear they applied a skull like make up to her face, it’s shot in a long shot so you can’t see her too clearly but I want to watch it again and check.

The next great set piece and my favorite scene of the film is when Dee brings Mrs. Holland to a Voodoo ritual, she leads the entranced blonde through a swamp, all artfully created on soundstages, the native drums beat ominously, they come across several talismans , a cow skull, a hanging goat, a human skull and finally a huge zombie guard, he reminds me of Gort from Day The Earth Stood Still.

But due to their protective amulets , pinned to them by the maid at the plantation, they pass unmolested. The ceremony is great, excellent music by real voodoo drummers and authentic dancing that must have blown peoples minds back in 1943. Here’s another aspect of this film that added to it’s tabu appeal, the underlying hint of interracial sex, the way the maid wakes Dee up by tickling her foot, the fascination of the voodoo priests for the tall beautiful white zombie. The confession by Conway’s mother that she participated in zombie rituals and was possessed by a voodoo god! This is 1943! Lewton so skillfully implies all this and gets away with it! Genius! Also he employed a lot of black actors, including Sir Lancelot, the calypso singer who Lewton also used in Curse Of The Cat People and Theresa Harris who is wonderful as the maid Alma. She is funny and sexy and appears in Out Of The Past and many other classic films.

The beautiful Theresa Harris-she is the crying woman that awakened Francis Dee on her first night on the Island. She was crying because her sister had a baby. The Islanders cry at a birth and rejoice at a death. The only freedom from their slavery.

There’s a transitional device used in this film that’s very subtle. I first noticed this technique in Cat People which was edited by the same person, Mark Robson. It’s a sort of a wipe, but it’s as if a black shape passed in front of the lens, in Cat People it feels like a black panther crossed very close to the camera, it creates a subconscious sense of unease, you’re not really aware of what happened, it seems like a quick fade out fade in but it isn’t. Watch Cat People and Zombie carefully and try to catch it. In Zombie it occurs late in the film, a transition between Dee talking to Conway at night at the plantation and Mrs. Holland trying to leave. Somewhere around there. A very subtle masterful stroke that I’ve never heard anyone speak of. The end of the film is a brilliant study in visual poetry, economy of storytelling, and the power of an ending. The drunk half brother kills Mrs. Holland with an arrow from the figurehead in the garden, just as the voodoo priest pierces the doll of Mrs. Holland with a pin.

The half brother(James Ellison) carries Mrs. Hollands body away pursued by the giant zombie guardian. He walks into the ocean to escape the zombie only to be swallowed up by pounding waves.

Dissolve to native fisherman spearfishing in the shallows ( a tank on a sound stage artfully lit and decorated) as they fish and sing they discover Mrs. Holland’s body,

Studio Artifice

dissolve to them carrying her in a funeral procession back to the plantation where Dee and Conway wait. The END! No dialog explaining what happened, no happy ending with Dee and Holland rushing off to get married, we don’t know what they’re going to do, it’s ambiguous and it’s great! As a matter of fact there is no dialog at all in the last 10 minutes of the film! Pure visual poetry accompanied by music! Try that today. All I can say is thank you LACMA for showing this film in a theater, with 35mm projection! And every film lover out there should see it this way, it’s a blessing!

Treat yourself to a Holiday Zombie Afternoon. Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur’s classic I Walked With A Zombie will screen Tuesday Dec.7th at 1pm, how delicious an afternoon screening! When you come back from your trip to Zombie Island it will still be light outside, be like Woody Allen, share his guilty pleasure of seeing a movie in the daytime. Plus it’s a rare opportunity to see this gem in glorious 35mm B&W! Movie theaters are turning more and more to digital projection soon you’ll only be able to see film at museums and revival houses, Bah! Humbug!

I want to see it in 35mm!

Here’s all the info. This is a great example of how Art Directors Albert S. D’Agostino and Walter Keller were able to create a poetic mystical world on a shoe string budget, ably abetted by Cinematographer J. Roy Hunt. So check it out, see for yourself what all the hubbub about Val Lewton and his gang of tricksters is about. Too Bad the Tiki Ti is closed or we could all meet there for a post screening Zombie.