Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: All These Years Edition, Part I

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies

All These Years Edition, Part I

What's a year? 365 days... and the key word for today's Let's All Go To The Movies post.

In fact, there are so many years to consider, this is a five part series. 

Don't worry, I mixed them up really well. As I see it, variety is the spice of life. And yes, I've included a lot of foreign films and documentaries, but who among us couldn't use our horizons broadened?

So, now, without further ado... let's take a look at All These Years...

Part I

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The Eleventh Year 

(1928)

(A montage-driven documentary, this film depicts the rise of the U.S.S.R. as a major world power, spurred on, in part, by the high caliber industrial production generated via hard laboring countrymen. Image after image, it touts the feats of Soviet technology and construction during the October Revolution's 11th year.)

("The man on the poster is an image of (the director) Dziga Vertov himself. His eyeglasses reflect the agricultural and industrial machinery. This is an illustration of one of his main theories – that a true documentary is not about mere snap-shooting of life, but instead it is about life, run through the eyes of the observer, whoever he is - or whatever it is.")

(The film's main purpose was to show the progress the young soviet state had achieved, and although it's propagandistic nature appears quite obvious and simple, the construction of the images move to create a complexity which continues to reverberate long after such an ode to socialist power has ceased to be relevant.)

("This was a silent black and white documentary. But the cut was done in a way that illustrated the sounds of the machinery and other things shown. This was a staggering technique for the twenties and it did earn Dziga Vertov international acclaim.")

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Woman Of The Year

(1942)

(Rival reporters, an international affairs correspondent and a sports writer, fall in love and get married, only to find their relationship strained when the husband comes to resent his wife's hectic lifestyle once she is chosen 'Woman of the Year'.)

(The story outline was developed by Garson Kanin, a close friend of Katherine Hepburn's. Hepburn then approached Joseph L. Mankiewicz at MGM, and said the asking price was $250,000 – half for her, half for the script. Hepburn also demanded that she have the option of selecting her co-star and the director. Mankiewicz took her up on it. At the time, Kanin was off fighting in the war, so the script was written by his brother, Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr. Hepburn, uncredited, contributed significantly to the script.)

(Spencer Tracy and Hepburn met for the first time during the making of this film, the first of nine films the two would make together. It was the beginning of a romantic relationship that would last until Tracy died in 1967. As Hepburn recalled during an interview for a documentary, she was wearing high heels when they first met and said, "I'm afraid I'm a bit tall for you, Mr. Tracy.' To which producer Mankiewicz, who made the introductions, replied, 'Don't worry, Kate, he'll cut you down to size.")

 

(The film's original ending proved unpopular at test screenings. It seems the audience wanted Hepburn to meet with a bit of a comeuppance due to her strong-willed ways. The last fifteen minutes of the film were re-written and re-shot, much to the chagrin of Hepburn - and the original screenwriters, who were not informed or involved.)

(For their efforts, Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr. won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and Katharine Hepburn received a nomination for Best Actress.)

Katherine Hepburn

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Last Year At Marienbad

(1961)

AKA: L'Année dernière à Marienbad / Last Year In Marienbad

(A man meets a woman in a strange and isolated château. Memories come flooding back, leading the man to claim they know one another from the past. An affair, perhaps? The woman, though intrigued, insists he is nothing but a stranger to her. Set in a palace in a park that has been converted into a luxury hotel, this visually stunning film stars Delphine Seyrig and Giorgio Albertazzi.)

(The screenplay Alain Robbe-Grillet wrote was so detailed, it specified not only dialogue, gestures and décor, but also camera placement, framing, and movement; it even included the sequencing of shots for the film's editors. On the other hand, the director, Alain Resnais, did not entirely share the screenwriter's vision, causing Robbe-Grillet, who has long insisted that it was he, and he alone, who wrote Marienbad, to declare Resnais's filming of it as nothing short of a betrayal. However, since Robbe-Grillet found the end results to be quite beautiful, the screenwriter decided not to hold it against the director.)

(Filming took place over a period of ten weeks between September and November 1960. Black-and-white film and the Dyaliscope widescreen process was employed to capture a timeless, nostalgic atmosphere. For the visual appearance of the film, Resnaisv wanted to recreate "a certain style of silent cinema," by means of his direction, choice of film stock and even the actors' make-up.)

(Contrary to the film's title, not one frame was filmed in the actual Czech spa town of Marienbad. Instead, the bulk of the filming took place in and around Munich. The palaces of Schleissheim and Nymphenburg were used for most of the interiors and all the gardens, along with the Amalienburg hunting lodge, and the Antiquarium of the Residenz.)

(Resnais showed his costume designer photographs from Marcel L'Herbier's 1924 film, L'Inhumaine and 1928's L'Argent. Both films featured costumes designed by the top fashion designers of the 1920's. And so it was decided that Seyrig's dresses for the most part, were to be designed by none other than Chanel.)

(The director wished to capture the flavor of G. W. Pabst's 1929 classic, Pandora's Box. In particular, he hoped Seyrig's appearance and manner would bring to mind the iconic look of Louise Brooks, including that actress' signature bob. However, Sevrig had her own ideas, and cut her hair (in a style that would become quite iconic in its own right), dashing Resnais' vision.) 

(In one of the most surrealistic and visually stunning scenes in the film, the two characters - who are never named - rush out of the château to find a tableau of people frozen in a geometric garden. The people cast long shadows - which were painted on the ground - while the trees - which were fabricate set pieces - do not.)

(During filming, there was a very unpopular war being fought by France in Algeria, which would eventually lead to Algeria's independence. Resnais desperately wanted to do a film to express his views on the war, but knew that to do so would be career suicide. So, he chose to make Marienbad, instead. However, Resnais, who was pro-Algeria, signed Jean-Paul Sartre's Manifesto of the 121 to protest the Algerian War, an act that did not go unnoticed. For, when it came time for the Cannes Film Festival, Marienbad was barred from entering. Not that it did not receive its share of accolades; the film went on to win the Golden Lion at the 22nd Venice International Film Festival and screenwriter Robbe-Grillet was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.)

(There's no shortage of striking graphics for the marketing of this film.)

(It is a 'must see'!)

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In The Year Of The Pig

(1968)

(Politically controversial, this documentary detailing the background and history of the Vietnam War was released in 1968 while the U.S. was in the middle of the conflict.)

 

(The documentary "was greeted with hostility by many audiences, with bomb threats and vandalism directed at theaters" showing it. When critics accused the film of having a leftist perspective, director Antonio de Antonio shrugged his shoulders and replied: "Only God is objective, and he doesn’t make films.")

(Despite the controversy, the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.)

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The Year 01

(1973)

(This French comedy, directed by Alain Resnais, who directed Last Year At Marienbad, Jacques Doillon and Jean Rouch, is based on the comic strip by cartoonist Gébé and has since earned cult film status.)

(Emblematic of the many issues raised during the 1970's, the film covers such diverse topics as ecology, rejection of authority, free love, communal living, reconsidering the concept of private property and labor issues.)

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Jonas Who Will Be 25 In The Year 2000

(1976)

(A group of thirty-somethings reexamine the gains and follies of  the 1960's; in particular the social and political unrest experienced in the wake of events in France during May of 1968. Seeking answers while living life as part of a farm commune, the eclectic group includes a dissatisfied copy editor, a redheaded bohemian into tantric sex, a trade unionist, a history professor, and a supermarket checker who gives unauthorized discounts to the elderly. They all pin their hopes for a brighter future on the shoulders of Jonah, a six-year-old child.)

 

(The movie was filmed entirely in the city of Geneva.)

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And Next Year At Lake Balaton

(1980)

(When a mother surprises her family and her daughter's new boyfriend - whom she do not approve of -  with  a beach vacation in  Bulgaria, the initial response is less than enthusiastic; it seems the young couple made travel plans of their own. However, after persuading them to join the family, they all board a train headed to Nessebar. Quite quickly, issues and complications arise, splitting up the family. The story then follows each family member as they try to find their own way to the designated holiday spot.)

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Next Year If All Goes Well

(1981)

(A cartoonist and a statistician live and love in perfect harmony, until one of them announces they want a child. The cartoonist, who doesn't make enough money to support a family, flatly refuses. This leads to a series of breakups and makeups with several amorous side roads.)

(Filmed in Paris, this was director Jean-Loup Hubert's first feature film. It stars Academy Award nominee Isabelle Adjani. The comic strips and drawings used in the film are by André Juillard.)

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My Favorite Year

(1982)

(In 1954, a young comedy writer must keep a swashbuckling has-been matinee idol ready and sober for the broadcast of a live TV variety show.)

(The film's star, Peter O'Toole, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.) 

(The film had a bit of a television pedigree: executive producer Mel Brooks was a writer for Sid Caesar's variety program Your Show of Shows and director Richard Benjamin actually worked as an NBC page at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in 1956.)

(The film is also rife with television-insider jokes and trivia. Brooks claimed that movie swashbuckler Errol Flynn, who was a guest on an episode of Your Show Of Shows, served as the  inspiration for Dennis Palumbo's fictional screenplay - although Flynn's appearance on the program was actually uneventful and none of the writers or staff had an opportunity to interact with the former star. He also said the role of the young comedy writer was based, not only on himself, but also, in part, on Woody Allen, who was a writer for Sid Caesar's show. Selma Diamond, yet another writer on Your Show of Shows - and, incidentally, the inspiration for Rose Marie's character on The Dick Van Dyke Show - appeared in the film as the wardrobe mistress. And the character Herb, a comedy writer who whispers rather than speaks, is based on former Your Show Of Show's writer and future Tony Award winning playwright, Neil Simon, who, according to Carl Reiner, whispered ideas into the ears of fellow writers rather than attempting to shout over the cacophony of the show's chaotic writers' room.)

(It was adapted into an unsuccessful Broadway musical in 1992, with Tim Curry taking on O'Toole's role and Lainie Kazan reprising her original role for the musical version. Both Curry and Kazan were nominated for Tony Awards, but it was Andrea Martin, who was also in the show, that walked away with a Tony as Best Featured Actress In A Musical.)

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2010: The Year We Make Contact

(1984)

(In search of answers, a joint USA-Soviet crew is sent to Jupiter to learn the fate of the original spaceship 'Discovery' and its H.A.L. 9000 computer.)

(Written, produced, shot and directed by Peter Hyams, this is a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on Arthur C. Clarke's 1982 sequel novel, 2010: Odyssey Two. The film stars Roy Scheider, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban and John Lithgow, and features Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain from the first film. Candice Bergen, listed in the credits as Olga Mallsnerd, is the voice of the SAL 9000.)

(Upon publication of the sequel novel in 1982, Clarke telephoned Kubrick, and told him "Your job is to stop anybody [from] making it [into a movie] so I won't be bothered." Hyams reached out to  Kubrick, who was not interested in directing the movie, to get his blessings before proceeding. He then communicated with writer Clarke via a very early form of computer email. Their correspondence was later published as a book.)

(The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: all technical awards.)

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Year Of The Beaver

(1985)

(A documentary detailing blue collar worker issues in the UK during the late Seventies, in particular, the Grunwick dispute; a British industrial dispute involving the recognitions of a trade union at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories, whose workforce was predominantly composed of Asian women who'd recently arrived in the UK. In order to get management to recognize and work with union officials, the women went on a strike that lasted two years - from 1976-1978.)

(Released during the Thatcher years, the film was not warmly received in certain quarters of the UK.)

 

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Hero Of The Year

(1987)

(Another sequel!  This Polish film features an all new story for the character first introduce in 1978's Top Dog, AKA: Wodzirej. Actor Jerzy Stuhr returns as the smooth-talking hustler with an ever expanding waistline. Fired from his first TV show back in 1981, the man with the golden tongue is all prepared to make his big comeback. His new show is called Hero of the Year, and for his first guest he will spotlight a quiet storekeeper who saved an apartment building full of people by alerting them about a gas leak. The program proves so popular that the host and his local hero embark on a nationwide tour. However, the shopkeeper soon learns that he will not be allowed to speak freely, and, instead, must only read prepared statements. As the tour heads for it's grand finale, a much ballyhooed concert, the hero storms off the stage mid-act, leaving our slick host at a loss for words and in the lurch.)

 

(This Polish drama directed by Feliks Falk was entered into the 15th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI Prize and a Special Prize.)

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next week.

Same time, same channel.

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My Favorite Year - Margaret Whiting w/ Michele Brourman