The Aviator
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Protagonist
Caché
Paranoiac
The Spaghetti West
Juno
The Darjeeling Limited
Mad Money
Boarding Gate
No Country for Old Men
Office Space
Exterminating Angels
There Will Be Blood
Diary of the Dead
Lifeforce
The Duchess of Langeais
I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar
Be Kind Rewind
The March of the Penguins
Cinematographer Gary Graver, a close friend of Orson Welles, who shot many late projects for the master — most prominently THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, which was never completed — died this past November.
Looking back through Graver’s credits is a strange exercise, as he photographed a broad range of material, including: BUGS BUNNY SUPERSTAR; Ron Howard’s directorial debut, GRAND THEFT AUTO; THE ORSON WELLES SHOW with Jim Henson, Angie Dickinson, and Burt Reynolds; five (count ‘em, f-i-v-e) made-for-TV-movies with Gary Coleman; interviews for IT’S ALL TRUE, the 1993 documentary about Orson Welles’ unfinished follow-up to THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS; a music video for Kool and the Gang; documentaries on subjects as diverse as Douglas Sirk and the Harlem Globetrotters; Welles’ late masterpiece F FOR FAKE; and a TV re-make of John Ford’s STAGECOACH, starring Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, and Waylon Jennings.
Believe me, there were many more. Gary worked steadily from the mid-Sixties on.
According to his website, he and Oja Kodar were planning to complete Welles’ THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND when Graver died. A memorial service was held for him at the American Cinemateque in Los Angeles this past Sunday.
The lobby of Film Forum in New York, after a screening of Chris Marker’s THE CASE OF THE GRINNING CAT. [Silent]
A few moments grabbed from Jacques Rivette’s rarely screened OUT ONE: SPECTRE.
Shot at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City. [Silent]
A sensual island masterpiece, Tabu began as the collaboration between two talented Hollywood outsiders — accomplished documentarian Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North), who had recently been fired from his first attempt at fiction filmmaking, and German expatriate Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, whose American debut, Sunrise, was an artistic triumph that had failed miserably at the box office. The pair set out for the South Seas in 1929 and, working from an original story by Flaherty, hashed out a tragic screen tale of youthful love destroyed by societal conventions. Tabu relates the elemental story of a young island fisherman (the exceptionally virile Matahi) whose nascent romance with the beautiful Reri (Anna Chevalier) is dashed when a visiting tribal chief decrees her a holy maid whom it is taboo for any man to touch. Despite the directors’ shared romanticism and affinity for lyrical beauty, their collaboration fell apart once it moved to the directing stage. Flaherty found himself confounded by Murnau’s imperious approach and eventually abdicated control of the film. As a result, the sun-drenched Tabu gradually drifted into darker thematic waters, leading to a fateful finale so perfectly composed and rhythmically edited that it still has the power to make modern audiences swoon. The film’s sumptuous black-and-white cinematography earned cameraman Floyd Crosby an Oscar. And although Tabu wasn’t released until 1931 — four years after The Jazz Singer — it is a resolutely silent film, with images so distilled that not a single title card is necessary to convey dialogue. Sadly, Murnau would never again climb to such artistic heights; he was killed in an automobile accident only a few short weeks before the premiere of this cinematic jewel. — D.G. (written for Barnes & Noble.com)
Perhaps the greatest living American film director died this past Monday.
Robert Altman, American maverick, dies aged 81
Robert Altman, arguably the most colourful and distinctive film-maker of his generation, has died in a hospital in Los Angeles, California. He was 81 years old.
A late bloomer, Altman was a middle-aged TV director when he took over the reins of 1969’s Korean war satire MASH, reportedly after 15 other directors had turned it down. The movie tapped into a groundswell of opposition to the war in Vietnam and became a mammoth hit. It also established the director’s genius for loose-limbed narratives and overlapping dialogue; a kind of controlled chaos that caught the mood of a culture in flux….
Even in white-bearded old age he was an unapologetic dope smoker, a famous raconteur and a fierce critic of George Bush’s policies. He also continued to make films that beguiled and exasperated in equal measure….
Earlier this year Altman was presented with a lifetime achievement Oscar at the annual Academy Awards. Accepting the statue, he admitted that he had received a heart transplant from a female donor who was in her late-30s. “By that calculation you may have given me this award too early,” he told the audience. “Because I think I’ve probably got another 40 years left in me.”….
I was fortunate enough to interview Mr. Altman in 2000, when NASHVILLE was released on DVD.
The Q/A is located here. Please give it a read.
You are currently browsing the archives for the Movies category.
