Ken Russell 1927-2011

by Kimberly Lindbergs | November 28, 2011

Categories | News, Directors, British Cinema, Ken Russell

The news about Ken Russell’s death hit me hard. Just last week the great man actually took the time to befriend me on Twitter (I’d been following him there for a year or more). I exchanged a brief note with him. Got the opportunity to tell him I was honored that he had taken the time to follow me and I hoped that he knew he was one of my favorite directors. He was jovial online, seemed extremely friendly and still very young at heart. I had imagined sending the 84-year-old director some interview questions soon that I hoped he would answer about the upcoming DVD release for my favorite Russell film, THE DEVILS (1971), which featured production design by Derek Jarman. He seemed very excited about that upcoming DVD release but also disappointed that his work was still being censored in 2011. Obviously that email interview wasn’t meant to be. Que sera, sera! You will be greatly missed Unkle Ken. You and your amazing movies made the world a much more interesting place to live in.

Recommended Links:
- Ken Russell: A True British original @ BBC
- Ken Russell Dead: Film loving stars lead tributes on Twitter @ The Daily Mirror
- Ken Russell Obituary @ The Guardian
- Ken Russell: A Life in Photographs @ The Guardian
- Ken Russell: His Film Career @ The Guardian
- The Musical Legacy of Ken Russell @ The Guardian
- “Pity we aren’t madder”: Ken Russell links in his magnificent memory @ Film Studies For Free

Comments Off

Blake Edwards and THE PARTY (1968)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | April 27, 2011

Categories | Movie Reviews, Directors, American Cinema, Comedies, 1968, Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers and Claudine Longet in The Party (1968)

I recently wrote a piece about The Party (1968) for the newest issue of Screening the Past that you can read online. Issue #30 of Screening the Past is a tribute to the late director Blake Edwards and The Party is my favorite Edwards’ film. I really enjoyed delving into the movie again and discussing the ways in which Edwards’ film dealt with identity and the cultural climate of the the late 1960s. I admire the way that Edwards used The Party to take a swipe at old Hollywood, which is so often celebrated as “The Golden Age of Cinema” while its worst aspects like the subtle but abundant racism, sexism and religious intolerance is too often swept under the rug although not a lot has changed really. I love old movies but I have no problem discussing their faults and The Party is a great example of why I like to refer to the ’60s and the ’70s as “The Platinum Age of Cinema.” The following link will take you to my piece on The Party:
- The Party @ Screening the Past

Comments Off

Happy Birthday Joseph Losey!

by Kimberly Lindbergs | January 14, 2011

Categories | Movie Reviews, Directors, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Dirk Bogarde, Joseph Losey

Two of my favorite people: Director Joseph Losey & actor Dirk Bogarde

Today marks what would have been Joseph Losey’s 102 birthday. Unfortunately very few of us live that long and Losey died in 1984 at age 75. Lately critics around the world seem to be rediscovering his work and rethinking their opinion of the director’s impressive legacy. Joseph Losey is gaining new fans every day and it’s wonderful to see this sudden resurgence of interest in his films. As a lifelong Losey fan this makes me extremely happy! I’ve enjoyed writing about Losey’s work here at Cinebeats as well as contributing to Harkit Records release of John Barry’s soundtrack for Boom! which happens to be one of my favorite Losey films. I hope to write more about his work in the future but if you would like to read my previous posts about the director you can find them here:
- Joseph Losey @ Cinebeats

Comments Off

‘Tis the Season

by Kimberly Lindbergs | December 1, 2010

Categories | News, Directors, Blogathons, Thrillers, Julie Christie, Paul Naschy, Irvin Kershner, Gene Tierney, Deborah Kerr, Eli Wallach

Happy Holidays from Cinebeats & Julie Christie!

‘Tis the season. I’ve been preoccupied with home renovations, work and holiday plans lately so I haven’t had a lot of free time to watch movies or blog and I don’t think I’ll be updating much in December. In an effort to keep things interesting here at Cinebeats I thought I’d compile a bunch of brief updates into one post and wish you all Happy Holidays!

Giving Thanks
I celebrated Thanksgiving at the Movie Morlocks last week by writing about a bunch of movie related people and characters that I’m thankful for. We don’t say thank you enough anymore and I’m not sure when good manners became so passé but I suppose I’m a little old fashioned. I decided to share my thanks for a few things I’ve had on my mind lately including Joseph Cotten, Gene Tierney, Deborah Kerr, Richard Harris, director Fritz Land and Eli Wallach who recently received his first Academy Award at age 95.
- Giving Thanks @ The Movie Morlocks

Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)

The Paul Naschy Blogathon
Over at Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies The Vicar of VHS is hosting a Paul Naschy Blogathon November 29 - December 3. I love Paul Naschy and I don’t know if I’ll have the time to participate in the blogathon, but you can bet that I’ll be doing a lot of reading in December! The Vicar is gathering links to all the blogathon submissions and the response has been tremendous so far. Naschy would have celebrated his 76th birthday this week and he’s still fondly remembered by his fans. It’s wonderful to see this Spanish horror icon getting so much attention and The Paul Naschy Blogathon is a great way to keep Naschy’s memory alive.
- The Paul Naschy Blogathon @ Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies

Irvin Kershner 1923-2010
Over the Thanksgiving holiday I watched a bunch of terrible new or “newer” movies including James Cameron’s ridiculously expensive cartoon Avatar (2009), Peter Jackson’s mind-numbingly bad The Lovely Bones (2009) and Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables (2010), which (once again) wasted the talents of Jason Statham and Jet Li and only served to remind me why I disliked so many ’80s action movies. In the midst of all this crap I re-watched one of my favorite Irvin Kershner films, the deliciously decadent murder mystery, The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978). During the film I kept being reminded of Kershner’s talent and wondering why he never made another film as interesting and stylish as The Eyes of Laura Mars? I’ve written a little about Kershner’s A Fine Madness (1966) as well as his odd comedy S*P*Y*S (1974) but I haven’t written about The Eyes of Laura Mars or another Kershner favorite, The Flim-Flam Man (1967). Today Irvin Kershner is mostly remembered for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), which many consider to be better than the first Star Wars film. When news spread that the director had died on November 27th after suffering from lung cancer for 3 years, The Empire Strikes Back garnered the most headlines and attention but I think of it as the movie that ended Kershner career. After making that Star Wars sequel he seemed to slowly fade away and didn’t take on any more challenging projects. I wish Kershner would have worked with director & writer John Carpenter (the writer of The Eyes of Laura Mars) again. They made a really interesting team and delivered one of the most fascinating American thrillers of the ’70s. If you want to see Irvin Kershner at his best watch The Eyes of Laura Mars.
- Irvin Kershner’s Obituary @ The Los Angeles Times

Fay Dunaway stars in The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)

Comments (7)

Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1967)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | September 16, 2010

Categories | Movie Reviews, Directors, British Cinema, Comedies, Movie Morlocks, TCM

I recently watched Clive Donner’s teenage sex farce Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1967) for the first time. Soon afterward I learned that the director had died at age 84 so in tribute to Donner I decided to write about the film for TCM this week. I really enjoyed Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush and had so much fun taking screen grabs from the movie that I created a small gallery for them over at Flickr. If you’d like to read my piece about Clive Donner’s film you’ll find it at the Movie Morlocks Blog.

Comments (3)

Alfred Hitchcock Needs Our Help

by Kimberly Lindbergs | July 8, 2010

Categories | Directors, British Cinema, Alfred Hitchcock, Movie Morlocks, TCM

From my newest post at TCM’s Movie Morlocks Blog:

“This week the BFI (British Film Institute) launched a new campaign called “Rescue the Hitchcock 9” that asks the public to help them rescue 9 of Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest films. The original movies were shot on nitrate film, which is notorious for its incendiary properties. Nitrate film can also decompose over time and film archivists are forced to take drastic measures in order to preserve and restore these old films. The 9 silent films that Hitchcock made during the 1920s have badly deteriorated through the years due to general use and they’re currently in dire need of restoration. Thankfully there is new digital technology in place that can help repair worn and damaged films but the process is time consuming and costly.”

You can read the entire piece here.

Comments (4)

Happy Birthday Akira Kurosawa!

by Kimberly Lindbergs | March 23, 2010

Categories | Movie Reviews, Directors, Japanese Cinema, Crime, War, Ishiro Honda, Akira Kurosawa

Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune in Stray Dog (1949)

Stray Dog (1949) was the ninth film made by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and I think it’s one of his very best. Like many of my favorite Kurosawa films, Stray Dog features no rogue samurai or mad emperors and it’s set in modern Japan instead of feudal Japan, but it does contain many of the major themes that Kurosawa enjoyed exploring in his work throughout his long career. Stray Dog began life as a novel that the director wrote after being inspired by the crime fiction of French author Georges Simenon, but when Kurosawa adapted his novel for the screen his work took on a life of its own. Stray Dog was transformed into one of the best noir thrillers made in the late ’40s and it’s one of the director’s most compelling films.

The film stars a very young and incredibly handsome Toshiro Mifune in one of his earliest roles as Murakami, an ex-solider turned rookie detective in postwar Japan. The aftermath of the war and the American occupation has taken its toll on the Japanese people who were literally baptized by fire and have been reborn in a cruel and often brutal representation of the modern westernized world. With little food and even less hope, many people have naturally turned to crime in an effort to survive. Others like Detective Murakami are attempting to forge a new life for themselves out of the destruction, but it isn’t easy. After starting his new job Murakami has his gun stolen by a thief (Isao Kimura) who uses it to commit terrible crimes. Guns are a rare commodity in postwar Japan and Murakami’s shame at loosing his weapon forces him to hunt down the criminal so he can retrieve his weapon with help from an older and wiser detective named Sato (Takashi Shimura). This hunt will take them through the war torn city streets of Tokyo’s criminal underworld made up of shanty towns, black markets and seedy night clubs.

Stray Dog takes place during an unprecedented heat-wave and you can literally feel the steam rising from the city streets. Akira Kurosawa enjoyed using the effects of the changing weather such as falling rain, snow storms or the blossoming spring in his films to represent the changing moods of his characters and to signal important events. In Stray Dog the hellish summer heat almost becomes a character of its own.

One of the movies most remarkable qualities is the way in which the film makes use of Tokyo’s battered and burned exteriors to create an unsettling mood of destruction and desperation that haunts every frame. It presents a part of Japan that was rarely if ever seen in previous films of the period. Some of the credit for the look and feel of Stray Dog must go to Ishiro Honda who worked as a second-unit director on the movie. Honda is mostly known to western audiences as the director of Godzilla (1956) but before becoming a filmmaker Ishiro Honda served with the Japanese military during WW2 and the experience left him deeply troubled. His firsthand knowledge of the firebombing of Tokyo and a visit to Hiroshima after the war left psychological scars on Ishiro Honda that he never fully recovered from. Honda often seemed compelled to revisit the trauma he had suffered in the films he created later on. During the making of Stray Dog Akira Kurosawa asked Ishiro Honda to explore the ruins of post-war Tokyo and film whatever he saw there. Honda made exceptional use of his personal observations and experience while he was shooting and almost everything that he caught on camera was used in the final cut of Stray Dog.

There’s just no getting around the fact that the aftermath of WW2 and its effect on the people who survived it is what really fuels Kurosawa’s film. Tohsiro Mifune’s detective is an ex-soldier but the criminal he is chasing is also an ex-soldier. Both men survived similar circumstances but afterward they followed very different paths. The detective and the criminal are both “stray dogs” trying to find their way in a new and unfamiliar world that has risen from the ashes of war. As a filmmaker Kurosawa’s sympathies seem to be with no one and everyone. You’ll find very few cookie-cutter bad guys or good guys in the movie. I think that’s a reflection of what postwar Japan was experiencing at a very trying time. The examination of their previous alliances and adversaries is mirrored in Kurosawa’s film. The complexity of the characters that populate Stray Dog is something that you don’t often see in crime movies made during the ’40s and that’s just one of the reasons why it’s so rewarding. Stray Dog is one of the most nuanced film noirs I’ve seen but it’s also one of Kurosawa’s most style-conscious efforts.

The film is full of perfectly composed interior shots as well as lingering close-ups that seem to focus on the most mundane things in unexpected ways. Police procedures are meticulously depicted in the film, but unpredictable moments such as a wonderful dance number and a baseball game, keep the movie exciting. There’s an intimacy between Kurosawa and his actors that is reflected in the way the director’s camera lingers on their warm limbs and sweaty brows. It could be argued that women are often reduced to background characters in Kurosawa’s work but Stray Dog features a remarkable performance from Keiko Awaji as a beautiful but troubled showgirl named Harumi. Like many of the best femme fatales, Harumi isn’t given as much screen time as her male costars but she’s unforgettable as the criminal’s feisty girlfriend.

Stray Dog isn’t my favorite Akira Kurosawa film (that would be High and Low) but if you’re looking for the perfect film to watch while celebrating Akira Kurosawa’s 100th birthday today, I highly recommend giving Stray Dog a look. It’s a thrilling viewing experience and arguably the director’s first true masterpiece which makes it the perfect introduction to his body of work. It also features Kurosawa’s longtime collaborator, the great Toshiro Mifune, in one of his best roles. Mifune is so beautiful in Stray Dog that he’ll take your breath away. Few male actors have looked as good as he does in a white linen suit. You’ve been warned!

Stray Dog airs on TCM today (March 23rd) and it’s currently available on DVD from Criterion.

“A stray dog sees only what it chases.”

Comments (6)

Emilio Vieyra (1920-2010)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | February 9, 2010

Categories | News, Directors, Horror

Emilio Vieyra (1920-2010)

I recently learned that director Emilio Vieyra passed away on January 25th at age 89 thanks to a tribute to the director written by Robert Monell for his blog.

As Robert pointed out, Emilio Vieyra was often referred to as the “Roger Corman of Argentina” because he also produced and wrote his own films but unfortunately Vieyra is not very well known outside of Latin America. I’ve only had the opportunity to see three of the directors movies myself (Blood of the Virgins aka Sangre de vírgenes; 1967, The Curious Dr. Humpp aka La venganza del sexo (1969) and Feast of Flesh aka Placer Sangriento; 1967) but I’ve wanted to write something about his work for a long time. His low-budget horror films stand-out from his contemporaries due to their surreal atmosphere, impressive cinematography and creative use of sound. There’s something mesmerizing about Emilio Vieyra’s work that is almost intangible but once you’ve seen an Emilio Vieyra’s film you never forget it.

Here’s a set of still shots from his film Feast of Flesh that I took a few years ago and had in my Cinebeats Flickr Gallery. Today seems like an appropriate time to share them. They’re beautiful frames and show off Emilio Vieyra’s obvious talent for composition and lighting. Besides directing, writing, producing and acting in his own films, Emilio Vieyra was also responsible for the production design in Feast of Flesh and that could be why it’s my favorite Vieyra film.

Recommended Links:
- Emilio Vieyra (1920-2010)
- Emilio Vieyra’s Wikipedia Page
- Emilio Vieyra’s IMDB Page

Comments (6)

Paul Naschy 1934-2009

by Kimberly Lindbergs | December 1, 2009

Categories | Movie Reviews, News, Actors, Directors, Horror, Spanish Cinema, Paul Naschy

I was gutted by the news of Paul Naschy’s death today due to complications from cancer. He was 75 years old and had a very full and productive life but I didn’t realize he was so ill. Naschy directed and appeared in some of my favorite Spanish horror films and as I’ve mentioned before, I came up with the name for my blog thanks to one of the movies he directed and starred in. I had been going over blog names in my mind for a week back in 2006 and suddenly after watching Paul Naschy’s gothic horror extravaganza Panic Beats I was inspired to come up with the name for Cinebeats and the rest, as they say, is history.

If I wasn’t feeling so awful I’d write something more in-depth about the director and actor who I admired a lot. But after a year of notable deaths I’m more than a little burnt out and not all that motivated to write another obituary. Instead I’ll just share a clip from Paul Naschy’s last interview done for the DVD release of The Hanging Woman (1973), which was recently released by Troma.

To learn more about Paul Naschy visit The Mark of Naschy.

Comments (8)