Where We Live: Steve Alves’ Western Massachusetts Film Collection
[DVD]
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Filmmaker Steve Alves has been making movies about Franklin County since 1997. These six short documentaries were produced over a period of several years and explore the cultural, economic and natural world from the hyper-local point of view.
Titles: Beneath the River (about the Connecticut) — A Sweet Tradition (maple syrup production), Together in Time (contra dancing) — Everyone’s Business (local entrepreneurs and economic history) — Life After High School (jobs and education) — Talking To The Wall (Big Box sprawl vs. small town Main Street).
If you live here it’s hard not to be fascinated by the lives going on around us, both human and environmental. Steve really gets it, and he’s a fine director too. He is currently working on a new film called Food For Change. Watch for it!
Reviewed by Faith
Tagged: Documentary, Local history
The Rolling Stones: All 6 Ed Sullivan Shows
[DVD]
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Recently added to the steadily-growing Forbes DVD collection is this wonderful 2 disc set I recently checked out. It has all of the Rolling Stones appearances on the Ed Sullivan show. From black and white to color television shows, the quality is the best I’ve seen so far and to watch the musical performances was a treat. An added feature is being able to select single acts or watch the complete show (vintage commercials included). Seeing early Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield AND Tom Jones all on one evening’s show was a fun experience for me.
Reviewed by Susana
Tagged: 1960s, Rock music, TV shows
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Film recommendations certainly play a role in a day’s work at the Arts & Music department. It’s often my favorite task to help someone find a film that fits their taste and am always flattered when a patron asks for me to select something that I enjoyed. Recently, the favor was reciprocated. A regular patron suggested, based on our many movie conversations, that I might enjoy the film Kes. He was correct and to continue the dialog, here’s my take:
Kes is a story that I consider the Northern England equivalent of Truffaut’s 400 Blows. Made a decade later, director Ken Loach, who certainly chooses not to glamorize youth or pander to children, creates a nearly bleak portrait of childhood. His central character, Billy Casper, lives in a poor, working class mining community and seems to have his future decided for him at 15 years of age. While not absolutely going for the heavy handed approach, Loach is suggesting flaws in, what he considers, the still existing English class system.
Billy eventually finds an escape from the constant bullying from adult figures (his headmaster, classmates, older brother, gym teacher, etc.) when he notices a nest on a neighbor’s property. He studies the science of training birds and eventually develops trust with a kestrel he appropriately christens “Kes”. His dedication and care earns him the respect from a group of classmates and a caring English teacher (who is possibly the only kind adult in the film).
Kes, which is heartbreaking and desolate feeling at times, is a remarkable work. Loach’s nonjudgmental camera style, the simple and lyrical imagery, the falconry scenes with young Billy’s textbook narration and soft English landscape gives the film a quality not unlike a documentary.
Reviewed by Jason
Tagged: British film, Drama, Falconry, Feature film
Page One: Inside the New York Times
by Andrew Rossi
[DVD]
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Andrew Rossi’s film Page One explores the role of print media in a rapidly changing technological landscape. The documentary goes inside the Eighth Avenue tower and we watch events unfold and become shaped into articles that eventually get delivered to our doorsteps.
The Internet has redirected the way in which many people seek information and this proves to be a financial threat to the survival of every newspaper. When Julian Assange’s initial YouTube barrage is dropped on the heads of the public, the Times writers not only have to think how to cover the event, they also need to ponder how it affects journalism on the whole. The WikiLeaks organization may upload footage, reach millions of people in a matter or moments and have little accountability in how they present their broadcast. The Times realizes that though they must follow the guidelines of responsible reporting, they still need to compete with this brand of information giving on some level.
Staff members are also profiled and followed around through the course of pitching and working on articles. We go inside meetings and presentations, too. David Carr, arguably the star of this film, is seen laying down the law in a meeting with Vice personnel, seeing his elderly father and giving a presentation on technology and media. Carr and many of the staff on screen, discuss the role of technology and Twitter and other social media.
Though the advertising and subscriptions that power the New York Times are at all time lows, the paper continues to move forward. Page One documents this tense, transitional period and shows the organization working on the fly to stay in the business.
Reviewed by Jason
Tagged: Documentary, Journalism, Technology
Talking heads Chronology
[DVD]
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An official retrospective DVD compilation of rare footage and performances from throughout the Talking Heads illustrious career. The footage spans chronologically from mic tests and rough 1976 black and white footage of the band in NYC to television and festival performances during the height of their fame in the early 80’s. As the quality of the footage improves, the band becomes tighter and more assured, adding members until it culminates in the art-house funk monster period of Remain in Light and Speaking in Tongues. This development and gradual expansion of the band in style and number mirrors the sequences of Stop Making Sense, the bands epic masterpiece concert film, but also allows a rare live glimpse of the late 70’s Heads whose angular tightly structured charm was just as innovative for its time as their later afro-cuban funk explorations. Talking Heads fans have waited for years without any significant “archived material” from the band and few releases outside of greatest hits compilations, and this release provides the perfect companion to Jonathan Demme’s 1983 concert film. The DVD is bound within a book with some great photographs of the band and extensive liner notes by Lester Bangs, who lets loose with his usual unrestrained hyperbolic blurt.
Reviewed by Dylan
Tagged: Documentary, Live recordings, Rock music
Submarine
by Richard Ayoade
[DVD]
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Olivier Tate (played by young actor Craig Roberts), the protagonist in Richard Adoaye’s quiet, quirky, charming, dark and thoroughly enjoyable film Submarine is a likeable precocious Welsh boy searching for an identity and direction in the stifling climate of small town coastal Southern Wales. He tries on affectations:”I’ve tried smoking a pipe, flipping coins – listening exclusively to French crooners, I’ve even had a hat phase”. This quote is immediately followed of course, with a shot of him at the family dinner table, wearing a Blue Stetson, looking fairly ridiculous. His teenage flailing about for identity finds its focus when he discovers the dark and indifferent charms of classmate Jordana (Yasmin Paige), who lures him into more and more morally reprehensible schoolyard acts. She is outwardly resistant to his charms except when he is misbehaving, and seems most allured by his taking part in the bullying of a fellow school girl. The cast is fantastic, both Paige and Roberts inhabit their roles fully and believably, while the adult characters (Sally Hawkins and Noah Taylor as Olivier’s parents), are comically stuck in their own lazy unspoken despair, too wrapped up in their own ridiculous melodramas to offer guidance to Olivier. Paddy Considine appears as an almost incongruously broad comic foil and rival to both Olivier Tate and his father. Adoaye, most famous for his work on the UK sitcom “The IT Crowd”, who adapted the script from a novel by Joe Dunthorne, directs the film with care and fills it with beautiful shots of the beaches, woods and amusement parks of the Welsh Coast. There are aspects of the film’s plot, details and cinematic style which will appeal to fans of many other refreshingly offbeat comic films (Wes Anderson’s films in particular) but the unique characters, acting performances and Welsh character give it a charm all its own.
Reviewed by Dylan
Tagged: Comedy, Drama, Feature film, Fiction, Romance
Winter in Wartime
[Blu-ray, DVD]
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This beautifully shot period film follows 13 year old Michiel, a small town boy in Nazi-occupied Holland in the Winter of 1945. Michiel’s childhood innocence and restless desire for adventure lead him into increasingly dark and morally ambiguous territories when the realities of war, resistance and adulthood collide and converge upon his small town life. He is apprehensive about his father’s uneasy cooperation with their German occupiers and looks up to his uncle Ben, a resistance fighter whose connections, gifts and attitude intrigue Michiel. When an allied fighter pilot crashes near the village, Michiel and his sister, a young nurse, are drawn into the search for the pilot and must debate whether to take action or remain silent, and question who they can truly trust. The film, while somewhat conventional in some of its WWII era plotlines, offers enough twists and intrigue to keep the viewer’s attention, but its real appeal is grounded heavily in the films setting. The scenes are filmed beautifully and the village, woods, snow, bicycles, knitwear and natural light combine to give the film an enchanting sense of place, and ground the viewer in Michiel’s conflicted world, caught between action and fear, occupation and resistance and childhood innocence and the risks of adult responsibilities. This film is one of several Forbes films now added in Blu-Ray and DVD (both discs are included in one case, so patrons will not mistakenly get home and find the film unplayable), and the Blu-Ray is especially recommended for its crisp picture, which captures the film’s setting wonderfully.
Reviewed by Dylan
Tagged: Drama, Feature film, Foreign film, Historical fiction, History
Doctor Who: The Awakening
[DVD]
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Peter Davison stars as the Doctor with the cricket inspired get up and celery stalk fastened to his lapel. You’ll have to wait until Davison’s last appearance however to learn the purpose of the mysterious vegetable! Regarding this particular shorter story, the Doctor promises to reunite his companion Tegan with her grandfather in her present time of 1984.
If it were only that simple…
When they arrive at the quaint village of Little Hodcombe, they are greeted by people with long flowing beards in suited armor on horseback. The Doctor and his companions are led to believe the townspeople are taking part in some sort of reenactment of a famous civil war battle from 1643.
We soon discover that they have actually landed in a time parallel between the years 1643 and 1984 due to an underground beast who is also warping the minds of Little Hodcombe’s citizens and projecting humans from the 17th century in their reality. Confused yet? Check it out for yourself and enjoy this entertaining two-part Doctor Who adventure.
Reviewed by Jason
Tagged: British TV, Science fiction, TV series
Let’s Spend the Night Together
by Hal Ashby
[DVD]
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I remember watching the Rolling Stones in Let’s Spend the Night Together a few times on television when I was in high school. I know this sounds unbelievable, but VH1 used to show concert films and was actually a music station back in the day. Maybe I couldn’t get behind the 1981 renditions of the classic 60’s tunes at the time or was distracted by Mick Jagger’s football tights … truth is, I didn’t really dig the concert film when I first watched it.
Fast forward to last night. I popped in this dvd for nostalgia sake and wound up really enjoying myself. The performances are unbelievable! In addition, I made the statement to my friend who was sitting next to me on the sofa that “this just might be the best Stones concert film ever.”
The boys barrel through 24 songs in under 90 minutes with the right blend of machismo and camp that we expect from the band. Despite playing a huge stadium, they’re very, very loose with unexpected bendy guitar riffs distributed throughout by Ron and Keith , jazzy drum fills care of Mr. Watts and Mick’s wild singing. If you look close enough, you may even see a smile on Bill Wyman’s face, too. Some of the older songs appear to be unrehearsed to a certain extent while more recent cuts from Tattoo You, Emotional Rescue and Some Girls are played tight like a classic rhythm and blues review. We’re also treated to a bonus keyboard section featuring Ian McLagan (of the Small Faces & Faces fame) sitting behind the organ and classic stones session man Ian Stewart on piano.
It’s also important to note that a serious filmmaker was on staff for Let’s Spend the Night Together. Hal Ashby, whose credits include Harold & Maude, The Last Detail, Being There and many other fantastic titles, directed the film. It’s always interesting to see the difference between a standard concert film and one that was overseen by a true artist. Martin Scorsese’s work on the Last Waltz and D.A. Pennebaker’s Montery Pop are other excellent examples. They tend to spend more time with the performers and not make pointless quick cuts. There is something to be said in what these filmmakers find interesting and insist the audience see on stage.
The real lesson learned however is that it doesn’t hurt to revisit films you may not have enjoyed at one stage in your life. You never know in what direction your taste may take you.
Reviewed by Jason
Tagged: Classic rock, Concert film, Film, Live recordings, Rock music
Kansas City
by Robert Altman
[DVD]
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It’s 1934 and on the eve of a local election in Kansas City, Missouri.
Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as Blondie, a comically fast talking wife of a petty thief. When her husband gets picked up by an intimidating local jazz and gambling club owner stroke gangster named Seldom Seen (played by the great musician and activist Harry Belafonte), Blondie hatches a kidnapping scheme of her own. At gunpoint she drags Carolyn Stilton, the opium addicted wife of a local senator, along through the city in an attempt to free her husband. Miranda Richardson and Altman mainstay Michael Murphy are cast as the seemingly loveless Stilton couple.
Tension enters the film only moments after it begins and it continues to build and build throughout. The backdrop of this chilling drama is the soulful and swinging jazz music that pulsates from Seldom Seen’s Hey Hey Club. In addition, Steve Buscemi, in a role that seems to have served as a warm up for his stint on Boardwalk Empire, is one of the many actors who appear in memorable smaller parts.
Kansas City, though not as loose and off the cuff as many classic Altman movies of the 1970’s, is possibly the director’s most suspenseful.
Reviewed by Jason
Tagged: Drama, Feature film, Jazz
Day For Night
[DVD]
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La Nuit Américaine, or Day for Night, is one of my favorite films. This 1973 film by French director François Truffaut shows the cast and crew of a dramatic film on and off the set. In addition to the obvious work necessarily to make a film—selecting costumes and props, learning lines, building sets, performing for the camera, adjusting lights, etc.—we also see these men and women as they make friends, suffer nervous breakdowns, fall in love, gossip, run away, return, and otherwise live rather complicated lives.
The film stars Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Léaud as the film within the film’s young stars, but the film truly has an ensemble cast, with many talented actors portraying a wide array of interesting and memorable characters. Truffaut himself is part of the cast, as he not only directs the film, but also plays the director of film within the film. The music is by Georges Delerue, who also worked with Truffaut on a number of other films.
Reviewed by Ben
Tagged: Drama, Feature film, French language
Last Train Home
[DVD]
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There are 130 million migrant workers in China, many of whom only journey home to see their families once a year on Chinese New Year. Lixin Fan’s 2009 award winning documentary follows the journey, conflict and struggle of one such family and is a film of remarkable impact. To its western audiences, the film is an eye opening look into the arduous lives of the thousands of low wage workers who produce assemble and manufacture many of our imported goods. While the film exposes the insidious impact of globalization and the poor working conditions of Chinese low wage workers, it is equally successful in capturing universal family conflicts and generational differences. The ‘mass exodus’ of Chinese workers home for the Spring Festival is the world’s largest human migration. The arduous journey of the Zhang family from their urban factory and cramped living conditions back to their poor rural village vividly illustrates the dramatic changes Chinese society has undergone as a result of its economic role in the global marketplace. The film is shot in a cinema-verite, fly on the wall style and the viewer is confronted not only by our role and responsibility as the world’s largest consumers, but by our perspective as the viewer of this hauntingly intimate look into the lives of this family. The parents of the family have sacrificed being present to raise their children for the purpose of sending enough money home to allow their children to pursue their education and have a better life than they have. When their rebellious teenage daughter confronts them about their continual absence and the pressure they place on her to succeed, she addresses the camera directly and the viewer can’t help but feel connected to this extraordinarily personal, politically relevant and remarkably timely film.
Reviewed by Dylan
Tagged: China, Documentary, Film
