Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (1931)

Directed by "William Goodrich," says the title card of Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (1931), but that's actually Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's pseudonym after he was banished from the business following charges of rape and manslaughter that never resulted in conviction; he was nonetheless, convicted in the public's eye. Windy Riley is a short bonus film at the front of the Kino DVD release of G. W. Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and both star the sharply designed Louise Brooks. Isn't she wonderful?
I have a soft spot for the 1920s vampy, flapper look that Ms. Brooks embodies so perfectly. She has a faint squeek of a voice in the harsh transfter of Windy Riley where she plays a Hollywood movie star caught in the middle of a tabloid scandal, a secondary story to race car driver Windy Riley's (Jack Shutta) race across country from New York to San Francisco. Shenanigans ensue when the sign reading "San Francisco and Los Angeles" with arrows pointing in either direction gets turned around, landing Windy in Hollywood for a car crash, spin out with studio execs, and the strange capture of a "Hollywood Pictures" director.

The opening sequence delivered big laughs, but they were awkwardly silenced soon thereafter. Perhaps we can blame the spotty DVD transfer with missing material? I'd like to think so. But in either case it's worth a look-see if you've got the Diary of a Lost Girl disc.

Diary, the main feature, is a sublimely lit melodrama featuring a knot of creepy caricatures that you really ought to see. I'd like to tell you more, but I am still recovering from that recent surgery. Trust me when I tell you Vicodin-enhanced movie analysis isn't nearly as fun as it sounds. However, I am in the midst of a G.W. Pabst movie marathon--surely more thoughts on the German silent master are in the works? Surely!

Ramin Bahrani's film, Goodbye Solo, Opens Today!!!

It's no secret that we here at Scarlett Cinema absolutely love Ramin Bahrani.

Bahrani first made waves on the festival circuit in 2006 with his first feature film, Man Push Cart, a quietly moving portrait of one of New York City's most ubiquitous yet commonly ignored characters: the pushcart vendor. The film was adored by critics, was nominated for and won a slew of awards, yet flew under the radar of most audiences, having only ever had a very limited release into theaters here in the U.S.

Ahmad Razvi as the pushcart vendor, "Ahmad," in Man Push Cart.

I personally only ever got to see Man Push Cart because it was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards in 2007 (for Best Cinematography, Best First Film, and Best Male Lead), and easily found it to be one of the most visually affecting films of the year. Bahrani was on-hand at the screening that I attended for a Q & A immediately following the film, and it was clear then to everyone in the room that this was a young filmmaker who possessed an extraordinary intellect, who gave much serious thought to his art form while meticulously translating his vision to the screen, yet who possessed an almost uncanny sense of humility and groundededness about him. Bahrani cited directors such as Truffaut and Kiarostami as inspiration for his films, but spoke just as candidly about his desire to portray aspects and people of New York City that most often go ignored, unnoticed, or are categorically dismissed by people in general. Though some might interpret this agenda as more political than artistic, to be sure, Man Push Cart speaks for itself as a simply truthful and elegant representation of the everyday realities of a common man trying to find meaning in his life-- even while calibrating his days by the number of pastries and cups of coffee he is able to sell. Though unconventional for its choice of subject-- a former Pakistani rock star reduced to pushing a food cart through the streets of Manhattan-- the film's gentle observations on the city, shrewdly composed frames, understated performances by non-actors, and unwillingness to succumb to either cliche or melodrama in its writing are arguably its most noteworthy attributes.

Alejandro Polanco as "Ale" in Chop Shop.

In 2008, Bahrani was once again lauded by critics for his second venture, Chop Shop. Like Man Push Cart, Chop Shop features mostly non-actors portraying characters who occupy little-known corners of the the city, or who more or less exist within the shadows of society. The film follows the travails of two young Dominican kids living and working in a sprawling autobody yard in one of the roughest sections of Queens. (Incidentally, Ahmad Razvi, who stars as "Ahmad" in Man Push Cart, resumes his character in a supporting role in Chop Shop.) In July, our very own Pam Kerpius had a conversation with Bahrani about the film, which she then integrated into an essay that appeared in last year's program for the Asian American International Film Festival. In the essay, she quotes Bahrani as saying that one of the main reasons for casting unestablished or non-actors in his films is to help him portray the worlds in which his characters live as they actually are in real life. Undergoing what would seem to most people like an extreme form of research, Bahrani and his cast members often live amongst the inhabitants of his films' locations for months at a time, becoming fixtures in their world so as to be able to capture an authenticity on the screen that is unparalleled by most other fictional narrative films.

This notion of authenticity in film was also the recent topic of discussion in a NY Times Magazine essay written by A. O. Scott, who seems to view Bahrani as a kind of standard-bearer for a new neorealisim movement emerging in American independent cinema. Unlike the directors of Italian Neorealism (i.e. De Sica, Rossellini, Visconti), however, Bahrani is not aligned with, nor does he espouse any kind of political ideology in his work. Rather, as Scott writes, Bahrani is more so concerned with "the necessity of communicating, at any given point in the story, what the characters are doing and why," insisting that the tiniest details of camera movement, expression and composition serve as reminders that "transparency, immediacy and a sense of immersion in life are not the automatic results of turning on a camera but rather effects achieved through the painstaking application of craft."

In the age of YouTube, when viewers are constantly being bombarded with home-spun movies produced by doing nothing more than turning on the camera, Bahrani is clearly a filmmaker whom true cinephiles can get behind.

Red West as "William" and Souleymane Sy Savane as "Solo" in Goodbye Solo.

Though I knew Bahrani's third film, Goodbye Solo, was coming out soon, it wasn't until just yesterday that I discovered it is actually being released into New York and Chicago theaters today. (The film will have further limited release around the country in the coming weeks.) And even though, at least in this humble blogger's opinion, Bahrani is one of the next generation of great filmmakers, the fact remains that he, like directors Kelly Reichardt and Lance Hammer, is continually relegated to the margins of the film marketplace because of his insistence upon form and content over commercial value. In other words, he finds himself in the same plight as so many other independent filmmakers in America, which is that opening weekends have become just as important for their projects as they are for studio productions. Without a high enough turnout and good enough word-of-mouth, such works have little to no chance of ever receiving wider distribution, let alone generating revenue which helps these artists to survive and continue to produce more work.

So the gist of my post is if you either love Bahrani's work, if you love wonderfully executed independent films, if you may be looking to discover a filmmaker who is currently working outside of the Hollywood system and is making movies unlike most other movies today, or even if your interest has been slightly piqued by my writing-- please go out and see Goodbye Solo this weekend! And if it isn't playing yet at a theater near you, then please stay tuned to see where it may play soon in order to support its limited run.

You can find more information about Goodbye Solo by clicking on the following links:

Goodbye Solo Facebook event page

Goodbye Solo Facebook fan page

Goodbye Solo MySpace page

Goodbye Solo IMDb page

Goodbye Solo official site

Redesign!

Scarlett was officially christened over two years ago, and in all that time, not once has she had a makeover.

Well, we just changed that.

Hope people like the new look. We think she's sleeker and shinier than before, and that makes us happy.

Entre nos: Surviving Against All Odds

Scripts written on spec by unknown filmmakers hardly ever make it to the big screen, let alone get sold, or even noticed. Hence, it has been a special kind of joy for me to have discovered, supported, and in some cases worked with a number of incredibly talented but little known filmmakers through my work with the Independent Feature Project and Tribeca All Access these past four years. Still, I have to admit that nothing quite beats the thrill of seeing these artists and writers' vision actually come to fruition and finally get the notice they deserve!

I am absolutely ecstatic to announce that the project once titled, We Can, written by Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza, which won at the 2007 IFP awards and participated in last year's TAA program, was produced and will make its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York this spring! Now titled, Entre nos, the film stars co-writer and director Mendoza as its heroine, a single mother of two named Mariana, who has brought her young children from Colombia to the United States to reunite with her estranged husband. But, when Mariana discovers that her husband has abandoned her and the kids, she must rely upon her guts, wits, and iron-clad will to keep her family together in order to survive her first summer in the unfamiliar streets of New York City. (The role of 'Mariana' is indeed quite a departure for Mendoza, whom most audiences may recognize as the cynical, strung-out crack addict 'Magda' in last year's indie-hit thriller, Sangre de mi sangre.)

Please stay tuned for further details about the film's screenings as the festival draws nearer!

Keep An Eye On: Lance Hammer

One of my favorite topics to write about is discovering new films and filmmakers who have been grossly neglected by the masses, if not by the critics. Perhaps this is because as my own personal tastes continue to diverge further away from the commercially-driven product of Hollywood, my faith in American cinema is constantly being renewed by the appearance of such movies as Lance Hammer's Ballast.


Ballast is Hammer's astonishing first feature film. A former architect-turned-art-designer, Hammer had always dreamed of eventually directing his own movies; but like many writers and artists for whom money was never a main priority, he quickly disavowed himself from the industry of Tinseltown. Soured to the vacuousness and artifice of Hollywood, Hammer set out to create a piece that he felt would capture an undeniable truth on the screen, a work of visually arresting art that had the ability to both move audiences emotionally as well as tell a narratively compelling tale. The result is this spare, yet achingly poignant drama about a single mother and her teenage son as they try to get along-- with or without the help of the boy's uncle-- amidst the stark and sorrowful landscape of the Mississippi Delta.

Using virtually all non-actors, naturalistic dialogue, and no music, Hammer and DP Lol Crawley give us long, sweeping master shots of dead fields that crackle under the feet of the movie's young protagonist, James; drab and claustrophobic interiors in which James' uncle Lawrence and mother Marlee come to grips with the demons of their past; and gorgeously composed closeups of the film's subjects as they timidly begin to trust in one another and in the future. By the film's end, one doesn't feel as much that one has been led through a plot so much as one has actually experienced the lives of real people, the desolation of an actual and indescribable place, and-- by extension-- a certain kind of imagistic poetry that is intensely quiet, elegiac, and brave.

I would go on to provide a more in-depth analysis of this film, which is surely deserving of a much more thorough review. Alas, time does not permit (and for that, I sincerely apologize). I do, however, hope to continue to highlight more obscure yet important films from up-and-coming directors in the weeks ahead. So, please stay tuned.

2009 Tribeca Film Festival films announced!

Featured films at this year's Tribeca Film Festival are now listed on the festival's main page.

Though not yet heavily advertised, insiders have told me that this year's slate has been drastically reduced from previous years-- as have the festival's peripheral programs-- due to severe budget cuts. Whereas the sheer number of films and venues housed under the TFF umbrella used to stymie New York audiences, this year's festival will feature a more manageable number of 100 films, all of which will screen at only one theater in the East Village. I personally think that this can only be a good thing in that picking fewer films to showcase hopefully put greater pressure upon the selection committee this year to choose only films of the highest caliber (rather than films with the most commercial appeal or political connections... though a few of those are inevitable).

I must also concede dismay, however, at seeing that TFF may have had to cut out their shorts programs altogether, which in my experience often delighted and surprised by exposing audiences to a great many rising talents within the field. Here's hoping that I'm wrong on that count. And I'm crossing my fingers, too, that the festival's usually fascinating and dynamic industry panels have not been left by the wayside either (past topics have included: films depicting the crisis in Africa; women in comedy; and women in the roles of producer/director).

This year's festival will run from April 22nd through May 3rd.

UPDATE: TFF WILL in fact have a nicely rounded-out shorts section. A total of 46 short films will screen in 6 different thematic programs. (Thanks to Twitter for the live news feed! Huzzah!)

Get Well Soon!

Here's wishing a smooth, successful, and speedy recovery to our dear friend Pam!

Jerry Lewis: A Maverick Who Did More Than Just "Make 'Em Laugh"

Jerry Lewis' appearance at the Oscars last week reminded me of how much I used to adore watching his films growing up. While the other kids were out playing Little League and going to soccer practice, I was likely to be found on most Saturday afternoons fixed squarely in front of the television set, giggling my head off as I watched Lewis' extraordinary brand of slapstick comedy play out in such films as Sailor Beware (1952), The Geisha Boy (1958), and Who's Minding the Store (1963). It wasn't until I was much older, however, that I came to appreciate how big a star Lewis really was, as well as the incredible impact he had on the comedy genre and filmmaking in general.

Lewis first ascended to stardom in the early 1950s as one half of the performing duo, Martin & Lewis, singing, dancing, and generally acting crazy alongside straight man, Dean Martin. After their split in 1956, Lewis quickly became a major comedy star in his own right. As the actor's contract with Paramount drew to a close, he began to produce his own films, since he felt that longtime producer, Hal Wallis, was in fact beginning to hinder his comedy. After Lewis' Cinderfella (1960) was shelved for a Christmas release date, Paramount was hard-pressed to fill their summer release schedule; so, they held Lewis to his contract to produce one more film that year. The result was Lewis' directorial debut, the ingeniously performed and shot (one of my all-time favorites), The Bellboy. Filming without a script, Lewis shot the entire feature at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, FL, with a small budget and an incredibly tight schedule. It was during this production that Lewis first developed the technique of using video cameras and multiple closed circuit monitors, allowing him to view scenes while he was filming them (now known as "video assist," the practice has become an industry standard, indspensible to virtually all present-day film and television directors). The Bellboy is also a wonderful example of Lewis' ability to pantomime and perform great physical feats of comedy a la such silent legends as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.

Like his comedic predecessors in silent film and vaudeville, Lewis became known especially for taking simple premises and turning them into impossibly complicated physical operations. Two such examples from The Bellboy still land me in stitches every time I watch them:

Going up the elevator:



Answering the phones:



(For more such examples of Lewis at his slapstick best, check out these clips from The Errand Boy and Who's Minding The Store?)

Lewis, however, was also fully aware of what audiences had come to expect of his onscreen persona, which was that of a manic, flailing, childish nincompoop. He never failed to deliver, but every once in a while, Lewis would dream up a surreal and absurdist sequence that delightfully turned the audience's expectation on its head:



Finally, one could usually expect a Jerry Lewis production to include at least one pantomime sequence set to music. Here is perhaps his most famous one, from the movie, Who's Minding the Store?




(Another couple of such lovely examples can be found in The Bellboy as well as The Errand Boy.)

As Lewis progressed in years, he began to teach film directing at the University of Southern California, becoming a mentor to such students as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. His movie roles also continued to mature into more complex and sometimes darker characters, such as when he played himself in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy (1982). Eventually, beset by chronic back pain incurred by a slapstick stunt that went disastrously wrong in the late 1960s, two heart attacks, and a case of meningitis, Lewis' genius not only as a comedy performer but as a film director was eclipsed in later years by his telethon work for muscular dystrophy-- a cause for which he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 81st Academy Awards last Sunday.

It is true that Lewis' public persona has been marred in recent years by his controversial statements about people with muscular dystrophy, female comedic performers, and the gay & lesbian community. These remarks should not be excused nor minimized. Nevertheless, neither can Lewis' legacy be overstated, as his iconic characters and unique brand of comedy have unquestionably influenced television shows such as Seinfeld and The Simpsons, as well as hundreds of comedians such as the late John Ritter, Jim Carey and Eddie Murphy. And in these dire times, who couldn't use a little dose of nature's best medicine?

From The Geisha Boy (1958):