I have been away from astronomy for many months now, but am hoping to resume operations beginning around Sept 17th. A run of clear nights can seriously hamper reading, practicing piano, and TV viewing, not to mention my own biological clock. At least with the darker nights as we speed towards Equinox, I am able to be in bed at a not too terrible hour. This is one of the reasons I didn't observe at all this summer.
Lots of interesting viewing to report, beginning with our monthly film festival. It was my turn, and I chose a program of short features from Criterion called Oscar-Nominated Shorts. Even though the poster said there were 17 films, there were only 14. All had been either Oscar winners or nominees. I'll mention a few of the better ones.
Return To Gennascaul is from 1953, and is 23 minutes long. It features Orson Welles, on a break from Othello while in Ireland. He picks up a hitchhiker on a dark and gloomy night, who proceeds to tell him a ghost story that happened to him once, beginning on the same lonely road. A pretty traditional story, but quite well done. A Chairy Tale, a Canadian film from 1957 and lasting for 10 minutes, is still great fun to watch, and still a classic of stop motion cinema. Who knew that a simple wooden chair had so much personality? We have seen Moonbird before, a film by the Hubleys from 1959, and lasting for ten minutes. Two young boys try to capture a moonbird in the dark of night. Quite priceless. Skyscraper is from 1960, and is 21 minutes long. It details the amount of planning and work that goes into building a very tall building. The music for the film is quite bad, but the film itself is quite eye opening.
Windy Day is another Hubley family animated film, this time starring their two young daughters, playing make-believe outside on a windy day. Just as funny and charming as the film about the boys, this one is 9 1/2 minutes long and is from 1968. Christo's Valley Curtain is a 1974 film that details the hanging of a vast curtain between two mountains, and is 26 minutes long. Though a ridiculous idea, and rather silly looking when all is said and done, the project is a remarkable feat of pure engineering, if not great art. Paul Robeson: Tribute To An Artist is from 1979, and is 29 1/2 minutes long. It is a decent biography of the actor/singer/political activist, and quite compelling to watch. Weekends is a totally brilliant animated feature from 2017, lasting nearly 15 minutes. A very young boy lives with his mother, and is shuffled off to visit his dad on weekends. His concept of his surroundings and what is happening to him is realized with near perfection. A really terrific little film.
There were others we had already seen and decided not to rewatch, including yet another one by the Hubleys (The Hole), and The Anniversary by Pierre Etaix, and a very bad one by Richard Lester. And there are a few not being mentioned here, for the sake of space. All in all, it is a worthwhile collection to view if you have Criterion.
We watched a pretty amazing documentary called Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice-Guy Blache. She was a French film director at Gaumont Studios in Paris from the very beginning, and was the first female film director, with many one reel films to her credit. Except that she was quickly forgotten and left out of the history books. This fascinating documentary, which uses a detective format to get at the truth, goes a long way to setting the record straight. Alice never received the credit due to her in her lifetime, but things seem to be realigned at last. the film is directed by Pamela Green, is from 2019, and is narrated by Jodie Foster, also one of the executive directors. This is a don't miss film. We saw it on AMC+.
After watching the doc, we checked out Criterion. Sure enough, they had six of her short films, which were quickly added to our watch list. We saw films from 1902-12, including the very funny Miss Dundee And Her Performing Dogs (1902); the experimental A Story Well Spun (1906), about a man rolling down a hill in a barrel; On The Barricade (1907), about a bloody skirmish in the street during a revolution; The Girl In The Arm Chair (1912), a melodrama featuring foreground and background action, and a disturbed dream from a card player who lost a small fortune and can't pay the debt; Making An American Citizen (1912), about a male immigrant learning the ways of America, the hard way (he is a wife beater who learns to change his ways); and Falling Leaves, a sentimental but decent story about a young girl dying of consumption, saved by a doctor with a miraculous serum when he meets her younger sister. The films range in length from 3 to 12 minutes.
Mapman Mike
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