Scratch “HARRY AND THE SNOWMAN.” I have already made changes on our lists.
Unfortunately, these things seem to be quite fluid and change can happen pretty
quickly.—Joel
From: cinemaexp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:cinemaexp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Alan Sanborn
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2016 1:10 PM
To: cinemaexp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [cinemaexp] Re: UPDATE from Most recent meeting, New Lists, and Next
Meeting Date
FYI: Saw Ken this morning and it seems likely that RRSQ will be showing HARRY
AND THE SNOWMAN.
— Alan
On Oct 11, 2016, at 1:00 PM, Joel Johnson <joel_johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear friends:
As many of you already know, Alice and I will be heading to London this
Thursday and will be there until October 21st. I wanted to update you on where
we are in our process before we left. The group did meet on Wednesday, October
5th, but it was only the Johnsons, the Sanborns, and Bob Stewart. Ken Eisen
joined us at 11:00.
First of all, I want to update you one some holdover issues from our first
meeting:
Clif had suggested three “foodie” movies since food-related movies have done
pretty well for us in the past. “FOR GRACE” is currently available from Amazon
Video. “SERGIO HERMAN: FUCKING PERFECT” doesn’t seem to have a US distributor.
“BABETTE’S FEAST” won the Best Foreign-language Oscar in 1988. I know many
people really love the film, although I have never seen it. When I was checking
it out on IMDb, I immediately noticed that it was available through Amazon for
$2.99. I felt that the two films that were so readily available for home
viewing were not good choices for us and the other one simply does not seem to
be available for American filmgoers.
I neglected to include this in my e-mail on 9/29/16 and it was a concern that
some folks expressed. Ken does not have any DVD screeners that we could share.
Most of his previewing of films is through links and streaming.
Laurie had sent me the Graves’ suggestions from the initial list I provided and
the follow-up e-mail after Bill had shared the film list for the New Hampshire
Film Festival in a separate e-mail. Clif shared those same suggestions in an
e-mail late Wednesday morning using our shared mailing list. The reason I
mention that is that the earlier e-mail from Laurie provided the impetus for
much of our discussion at our meeting and you might assume that the Graves’
suggestions would not have been incorporated into our meeting discussion based
on when Clif sent his message.
Specifically, we did have further discussion on the availability of “HARRY &
SNOWMAN” for CINEMA EXPLORATIONS since Ken had expressed some interest in
booking it. Subsequent to our Wednesday meeting he has informed me that it did
not do well enough at the box office for him to want to book it for Railroad
Square. Laurie’s suggestion that it also be scheduled as our lead-off film also
makes sense since it appears to potentially be a crowd-pleaser and it could be
shown before it becomes available on DVD on 1/17/17. Anyway, the film is
available to us if we want it in the series.
We also discussed “TO KEEP THE LIGHT” which was a film being shown at the New
Hampshire Film Festival. Ken indicated that it had been submitted for MIFF and
they had decided to not include it. This happened even though there is a
somewhat lower bar for including Maine-made films. The film does look
professional and the cast does have professional actors (though none who are
particularly well-known). Ken did not describe exactly in what way it was
deficient, but that the other programmers had seen it and were not especially
impressed. Ken then reviewed it and made the final decision. In looking at the
trailer, I thought that the film was austere and appeared to be very
deliberately paced. This seemed consistent with a film that was telling a story
about isolation, loneliness, and harsh conditions. Anyway, we might not agree
with Ken and the MIFF programmers if we were to see the film. If you check out
the film’s website: http://www.tokeepthelight.com/tokeepthelight/film.html you ;
will see that the film has been shown in quite a number of smaller film
festivals and that it has received favorable reviews. Ken was going to see what
they had received in reviewing the film to see if we can use that. It may also
be help to receive feedback from Bill after he goes to the New Hampshire Film
Festival. We could have a first-hand observation or a second-hand report as to
how it worked for an audience.
We did not discuss “OLD STONE.” This is a first film by a Chinese-Canadian who
immigrated to Canada at age 10. He went to graduate school for film at
Columbia. The film’s trailer does look interesting, though I admit I was
somewhat less enthusiastic about the references to “battling bureaucracy and
legal manipulation” in its description on IMDb. There’s something about
“bureaucracy” that comes across as un-cinematic and enervating. However, it
opens next weekend. We will probably get some reviews to check out. It has
played at some high-profile film festivals.
“STARVING THE BEAST” and “THE LOVER AND THE DESPOT” are both interesting
possibilities. We did not discuss these films. Who else is interested in the
stories these two films tell?
I had been interested in “THINGS TO COME,” but Ken is also somewhat interested
in it. He would probably base his decision on how it does on opening and what
types of reviews it may receive. Any film with Isabelle Huppert probably has a
better-than-average chance of being interesting. Because it doesn’t open in NYC
until 12/2 I think we should focus on other films and I have removed it (and
another December opener Asghar Farhadi’s “THE SALESMAN”) from consideration and
our lists. I just don’t think we can wait that long to set our line-up.
I have developed a new list (see attachment). I went through multiple US
distributor websites that I have researched in the past and added a number of
films that either are already in release or are expected to be released in the
near future (but perhaps not in the NYC area) to the CINEMA EXPLORATIONS
Possibilities List and these have been added to the CINEMA EXPLORATIONS
Possibilities List on IMDb. This should be helpful in trying to evaluate them.
While I suspect your enthusiasm for looking at these new additions may be
somewhat measured, I am quite confident that this is likely the last time a
significant number of additional films will join the list.
I have put the five films that are 2017 Best Foreign-language Film Oscar
submissions in red. These are films that could—although it is probably
unlikely—advance in the competition to the nine-film shortlist, to getting a
nomination, and, ultimately, to winning the Oscar. Ken wishes to defer his
decision on including them in the Railroad Square Cinema schedule until these
decisions on which films advance are made. I haven’t heard anyone express any
particular interest in those films although I think they have potentially
interesting storylines and very few of these films typically get shown
otherwise. Is anyone else interested in any of them?
“IXCANUL” is last year’s Best Foreign-language Oscar submission by Guatemala.
It has played in many high-profile film festivals including Berlin, Telluride,
Toronto, London, and several others. It has received favorable reviews. Ken has
seen the film, but was not especially impressed.
“AQUARIUS” is marked in blue because Ken is considering booking it. The
director also did “NEIGHBORING SOUNDS” which some of us may have seen a couple
or three years ago for CINEMA EXPLORATIONS before Ken decided to book it as a
Members Film. “AQUARIUS” stars Sonia Braga who has been a very big
international star and is the aunt of Alice Braga. The film will be opening
this coming weekend and how it does may help Ken determine whether he wants to
book it.
There are six new foreign-language films on the list. I like the director of
“AFTER THE STORM” who did “OUR LITTLE SISTER” that showed in this year’s MIFF.
I have also enjoyed a couple of his other films. His films seem to be quite
warm and humanistic. These are also of interest to me. “APOSTATE” is a comedy
about a man trying to officially leave the Catholic Church. “DON’T CALL ME SON”
is by the same director who did “SECOND MOTHER” that we had on last year’s list
(it was Brazil’s submission). This film explores a similar theme as “LIGHT
BETWEEN THE OCEANS” as a teenager discovers that he was taken from his
biological parents as a very young child and as a near-adult is “reunited” with
them. As you may gather from the title this doesn’t go especially well.
“NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH” is a French mysterious metaphysical thriller set in
Afghanistan.
We have several new documentaries in the mix. Most have potentially interesting
stories. Ken did not think that the Sidney Lumet documentary would have much of
a release. I suspect that it is being opened in New York to make it eligible
for the Best Documentary Oscar, but that it is basically intended for showing
on PBS’ “American Masters” series. This would make it pretty unlikely that we
could show it—at least at a price that would fit into our customary costs.
Ken had recently looked at a documentary film called “NOTES ON BLINDNESS” and
shared a link to stream it from Vimeo. Both Alice and I have watched the film.
The film was constructed using audio tapes made by a theologian encountering
his progressive loss of sight. Actors play the man, his wife, and their
children creating visual scenarios consistent with what is being said and the
actors lip-synching to the voices on the audio tapes. It is a strangely
cinematic film, but not for the reasons we usually say that about a film.
Typically we say a film needs to be seen in a theater because of its visual
richness. This is cinematic because of the immersive nature of the disability
and, in essence, for what the film doesn’t show. While it is a good film, we
would not advocate for this film because we are not sure that it would attract
much of an audience and it is also fairly slow and relatively low energy. It
would be very easy to fall asleep watching this film. That being said if you
are interested in taking a look at it, here is the link and the password:
<https://vimeo.com/181931956> https://vimeo.com/181931956 PW: noteson360.
I had found a film called “BEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS” about a young Maine
woman who is dealing with autism and blindness. Ken indicated that he was
arranging for a screening of this film. So I have now removed it from our
lists.
English-language films are difficult for us to find for our series. Ken was
somewhat incredulous that genre films like “MY DEAD BOYFRIEND,” “COME AND FIND
ME,” and “A KIND OF MURDER” were included on the list. “CLOSET MONSTER” is
still on the list, but since it comes out on DVD on 1/10/17 I am inclined to
remove it from consideration. “MAX ROSE” is a film featuring Jerry Lewis.
Reviews were not that good as it has Metacritic score of 38. “RAINBOW TIME” has
an outside chance of being included in the RRSQ regular schedule and therefore
is in blue. In addition to “TO KEEP THE LIGHT” which was previously discussed,
there was the second New Hampshire Film Festival narrative film with a Maine
link called “ALWAYS SHINE.” This film has shown at several film festivals and
has received an 8.4 rating from users on IMDb. It doesn’t open until 12/2 so if
Ken has any interest in it (he didn’t express any interest, but I’m not sure
how much attention he paid to the list) we may not want to wait until he sees
how it performs at the box office. We may get some feedback from Bill about
whether this one may be suitable for us.
Ken did have some interesting input regarding possible classic films.
Apparently, the matinee schedule for Railroad Square weekend shows will have
all the early matinees beginning at 12 noon. This would impact all of our
films, but many of our classic film choices at present are two hours or more in
length—some by quite a lot. That will force us to make decisions about whether
to start early and by how many minutes; and whether or not to have a post-film
discussion. Ken did feel that “HOWARD’S END” was likely to be able to attract a
good audience and it has been playing in NYC for several weeks. It had a very
good run when it was initially released and shown at Railroad Square. It is,
however, 140 minutes and that would require some accommodation. “DOWNFALL” is
even longer at 156 minutes. In addition to being a definite downer and the
tie-in to our current election having been over for two or three months, the
film would probably need to start at 9:15 am. These factors would certainly
compromise our capacity to get much of an audience. I have added a handful of
films from Rialto. Unfortunately, Ken indicated that Rialto has gotten a bit
pricey wanting a minimum guarantee of $450. The list does include reference to
a distributor Park Circus which has offices in the US, UK, and France. Park
Circus has a very extensive library of films that are very old to those that
are much more contemporary. As noted on the list, Park Circus’ library does
include 22 films by Sidney Lumet should we still be interested in showing
something by him. However, Ken did provide some information about this company
that is important to know. The company does have rights to a wide variety of
films, but their rights to certain films may not extend to everywhere or,
specifically, the US as we would need. Therefore even though there are 22 films
by Sidney Lumet listed in their catalog, the ones that could be booked for us
may be only a portion of that number or none. Ken did acknowledge, however,
there may be other avenues to pursue for showing a wide variety of classic
films. In the course of my perusal of the Park Circus list, I came across an
old Kirk Douglas-Burt Lancaster western “GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL” (1957).
MIFF has occasionally shown westerns and they are typically quite cinematic.
Kirk (who turns 100 this December) and Burt were very big stars then and many
of the supporting actors either were or became big stars. This particular film
is 122 minutes long which puts us potentially overlapping the 12 noon start
time. If you have another Kirk Douglas film or another classic film in mind
altogether, we certainly should consider it.
Of course, we can decide to set up our schedule with or without a classic film.
We could break down our schedule between new foreign-language narrative films,
documentary films, and English-language narrative films in a variety of ways. I
would recommend that everyone develop a list of 5-10 films from the list that
you would like to see us consider. Hopefully that will help us limit the number
under consideration by quite a few. If anyone can find out which films might be
destined to hit Netflix before we get our series going, that would be helpful
to know.
Works-in-progress, Short films, and Student films were on the agenda as
possibilities. At present, there is no specific plan or prospect for these
types of films becoming part of our series. However, there is a contact at
Colby for making an inquiry for Student films. Alan was planning to contact
Erin Murphy at Colby about this.
There are some things I put on the agenda (see attached) for which over the
last few years we have relied on Shannon and her staff to do. I plan to
specifically ask Shannon about these things as it is not expected that there
will be a replacement for Shannon until December.
NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, October 25th at 10:00 am at Railroad Square Cinema.
Joel
<CINEMA EXPLORATIONS POSSIBILITIES Draft 3.docx><CIMEMA EXPLORATIONS 2017 FILM
SERIES AGENDA 100516.docx>
