Hi, all--
Thanks, Abbott! I am thinking that if /What Price Hollywood/ doesn't
work out, then we should seriously consider /Rashomon/. Two Bergman
films in a six-movie series might be a bit much. Yes, I know he was
brilliant, but we are not doing a Bergman retrospective. Anyway,
something to think about.
Also, Abbott, you might like to know that because of you, I have
requested /Rashomon/ through interlibrary loan. Might come just in time
for Thanksgiving. ;)
Laurie
On 11/14/2018 7:18 PM, Nancy Meader wrote:
Hi all,
An apology to Laurie since I did indeed read her observations and forgot that she/you put in a good word for Kurosawa, Mifune, et al. Pretty good line up in a timeless classic - but what the hey. So, Laurie, should we make a couple of T- shirts, perhaps?
Seriously, I'll simply reiterate that my own yearning remains to see really fine work, (a judgement which is of course partly, but certainly not entirely a subjective one). And I maintain that there is an audience for great films that they've heard of but never seen, on the BIG SCREEN! And I remain among that number.
CHOW, (and with pop corn, natch)
A
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Laurie Graves <mailto:laurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*To:* cinemaexp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:cinemaexp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Sent:* Wednesday, November 14, 2018 10:37 AM
*Subject:* [cinemaexp] Re: MAKING SOME FINAL DECISIONS
Hi, all--
Some wrap-up thoughts. We watched /Un Traductor/ last night. Clif
liked it better than I did, although I didn't hate it. For me it
was just a "meh," even though there were some good things about
it. There were a few too many contrivances or unanswered
questions. For example: Why, exactly, was a translator needed
during the nighttime shift when the children would mostly be
asleep? Wouldn't a daytime shift make more sense? Of course, if he
had worked in the day, then he wouldn't have been separated so
much from his family, and that was definitely part of the plot.
Maybe there were other translators for the children. If so, we
never saw them. Or at least I didn't. ;) Anyway, I didn't hate the
movie and watched it until the end, but...
Clif and I watched the trailer for the Bergman doc, and it looks
good. Also read the reviews, which were positive. I wouldn't start
the series with this film. I'd put it near the end. Instead, I
would recommend starting with /Ramen Shop/. While I agree that it
doesn't have the pizzazz as, say, /Kings of Pastry does/, it is a
film that is likely to appeal to our audience and a good way to
kick off the series. It's a gentle film about the power of food
and forgiveness while at the same time exploring a heavy subject.
A little too sentimental, but, heck, many people like that. In
fact, Clif and I liked the film so much we wouldn't mind seeing it
again.
I really like the idea of showing /Hale County/ for black history
month. Great idea, Joel.
As I wrote previously, I would be perfectly comfortable going with
a film that you and Alice have already seen and recommend. /3
Faces/ also sounds intriguing. I am comfortable with either.
Where does this leave us? /Ramen Shop/; /What Price Hollywood/;
/Hale County/, /the Bergman Flick; The Third Wife or 3 Faces; The
Waldheim Waltz; //Wild Strawberries/ if /What Price/ /Hollywood/
doesn't work out? Abbott has also suggested /Rashomon, /another
one to keep in mind. Maybe /Un Traductor /if the other foreign
narratives don't work out? Not necessarily in that order, except
for the first two.
Have I left anything out?
Laurie
On 11/12/2018 3:57 PM, Joel Johnson wrote:
There is no link for “HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING” or
for “ON THE SEVENTH DAY.” Both are from The Cinema Guild
http://www.cinemaguild.com/ . There are reviews available through
Metacritic (via IMDb) or RottenTomatoes.
I don’t have any problem with you and Clif choosing to view
either of those two films. I would forewarn you that “LA FAMILIA”
starts out pretty rough as it shows how youth are kind of on
their own. It takes a while for the father-son relationship to
coalesce. There are some other FilmMovement films for which I
sent out screener links that are part of what I proposed you
might want to see if you haven’t already taken a look at them.
The only other one that you might want to look at is “GENESIS
2.0.” Bob Stewart forwarded a link for that to you this mornng.
Joel
*From:* cinemaexp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<cinemaexp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> *On Behalf Of *Laurie Graves
*Sent:* Monday, November 12, 2018 1:55 PM
*To:* cinemaexp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [cinemaexp] Re: MAKING SOME FINAL DECISIONS
Thanks for the update, Joel. We were planning on screening /Un
Traductor/ and /Familia/ tonight and tomorrow. Are there other
films you would rather have us screen? /Hale County this
Morning/? Is there a link for this? I am sorry to be so
forgetful, but my focus for the past two months has been on
/Library Lost/, and there isn't much room for anything else. The
little brain is working at maximum output. ;)
If you and Alice like a film, then I am perfectly comfortable
going with your recommendation.
Onward, ho!
Laurie
On 11/12/2018 1:43 PM, Joel Johnson wrote:
Even before the e-mails of the last couple of days, it had
occurred to me that we were definitely running out of time
(next week is Thanksgiving!) and needed to come to some
resolution on what films to include and when to show them.
Attached is a proposal with some options for your
consideration. This leaves a lot of the films on our list out
in the cold.
I have compressed our schedule to work around the Women’s
Protest Marches called for 1/19/19 and for the weekend of
satellite screenings of MJFF films for 3/9-10/19.
OPENING THE SERIES ON 1/12-13/19: We have usually tried to
have an upbeat, fun film to start our series. Food-oriented
films—usually docs—have been ideal in this position.
Obviously, there seems to be growing interest in the
food-oriented drama “RAMEN SHOP.” I had leaned toward
possibly placing it in the middle of our series as I was
concerned that it might not have the dynamism that would be
ideal as an opener. You may not share that concern and
certainly not all of our opening films would have been
described as “dynamic.” “RAMEN SHOP” might be the consensus
choice for a food-oriented opener. We might also decide to
start with something other than a food-oriented film. We had
wanted to show “WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD?” before it screened on
TCM on 1/31/19 which gives us our opening weekend of
1/12-13/19 or our second weekend 1/26-27/19. Another option
would be to show the Bergman documentary “SEARCHING FOR
INGMAR BERGMAN” as an opener. This might be a good way to
honor his legacy, provide an overview of his films, and to
demonstrate how his films continue to influence filmmakers.
SECOND WEEKEND 1/26-27/19: Obviously, if we do decide to go
with the food-oriented narrative or the Bergman doc, that
would leave “WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD?” as our second weekend
film. If we chose “WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD?” as the opener, then
we would have a number of options for this slot.
THIRD WEEKEND 2/2-3/19: February is Black History month. Our
screening of “LIFE AND NOTHING MORE” didn’t work out very
well, but “HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING” has very
strong reviews and seems to address many of the same issues
as “LIFE AND NOTHING MORE.” It would have the advantage of
being shorter and allowing more opportunity for a post-film
discussion. Another very highly regarded film from The Cinema
Guild is the Latino immigrant film “ON THE SEVENTH DAY.”
Another option for this slot would be “RAFIKI” which is the
Kenyan lesbian film from FilmMovement.
FOURTH WEEKEND 2/16-17/19: This one has a number of options
with films that we have had on our list for many of which we
have had screeners. We have not had screeners for “THE THIRD
WIFE”—though Alice and I did see it in Toronto and were quite
impressed—and “3 FACES” from Iranian director Jafar Panahi
which has good critical support
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8269552/criticreviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt
and https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/3_faces I didn’t
initially include “ICEMAN” for this slot because I thought
the title might be something of a downer for the middle of
winter and that it might be perceived better at the end of
the series when there may be more light at the end of the
winter tunnel. If we decide to include “GENESIS 2.0” in our
final time-slot and want to include “ICEMAN” we would need
to consider it for this slot.
FIFTH WEEKEND 3/2-3/19: This is the weekend before MJFF and
last year probably helped boost the attendance for MJFF
satellite screenings at RRSQ. “THE WALDHEIM WALTZ” is
probably the most attractive of the films that I discussed
with Barbara Merson of MJFF. I don’t think it was initially
one that was going to be offered to us. I specifically asked
about it and was told that we “could negotiate on that one.”
Anyway, “THE INTERPRETER” is another film that has fairly
favorable reviews
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_interpreter My wife and
maybe some others were intrigued by the noirish thriller
“BUDAPEST NOIR.” The IMDb webpage has a handful of reviews.
The biggest problem noted in one was that it seemed quite
similar to other noir-type films. This seems to me to be the
type of criticism that might come from a film critic yet
wouldn’t be a big problem for an average filmgoer—or to
borrow from Garrison Keillor—an above-average filmgoer as we
know all of our CINEMA EXPLORATION filmgoers are. I think we
are likely to be fairly well satisfied by which ever option
we choose from the films already part of the MJFF. The one
that I think might not be quite as attractive is the
documentary “INSIDE THE MOSSAD.” I was concerned that this is
the would be perceived kind of documentary that will make you
a better person for having seen it, but probably won’t be
much fun (the bad-tasting medicine-type documentary).
SIXTH AND FINAL WEEKEND 3/16-17/19: I was proposing three
films that could be seen earlier depending on our choices,
but would make fairly good closing films. If for some reason
we could not schedule “WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD?” at a workable
price, we could consider the runner-up classic “WILD
STRAWBERRIES” for this slot as well. “GENESIS 2.0” was the
only one that we pretty much agreed had issues for which our
audience might have negative reactions (i.e., bored,
pervasive sense of dread, comprehending the issues) and,
therefore, could affect the overall series and so it would be
best shown only as the final film. I’m a little leery about
showing films for which I know there could be negative
audience reactions even though we have shown films in the
past and even may be including other films this year for
which audiences may have been or may be challenged. Clearly
there are ethical issues that probably will need to be
addressed about the artistic and genetic use of what is
recovered from long-dead mammoths. “GENESIS 2.0” definitely
tries to shed light on these issues, but is there a
distinction between some of our other films and this one in
how the knowledge gained empowers our audience to understand
and take action after seeing it?
So I’d like to hear from folks about their recommendations
for which films to show during each of our six weekends. I’d
like to hear from everyone by Wednesday evening.
By my count, everyone except for my wife Alice and I is
unavailable to meet this Thursday. It, therefore, makes no
sense to have any meeting at RRSq this week. Assuming we can
come up with some consensus on a plan for each weekend we may
not need to meet again. Once we have some consensus, I will
contact Barbara at MJFF (about any MJFF selection) and then
Ken about booking all of our choices. Hopefully, we can wrap
this up before Turkey Day. Thank you for your input.
Joel
-- Laurie Graves
hinterlandspress.com
hinterlands.me
-- Laurie Graves
hinterlandspress.com
hinterlands.me
