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DMLR*Newsletter — Xtra GOLD_58
I. PREMIERE.
 2024 was not a memorable year for the movie-goers, including me. It started with Poor Things and ended with Anora. Poor things again.
My interest to the cinema is going fieble, like my sight, even tough the last time I entered the movie theater I could get an over-65 discount ticket for the very first time (7 euro).
Much better had the previous year gone, for I managed to view some films praiseworthy if you consider that 2023 I went out to watch premieres as The Banshees of Insherim by Martin McDonagh, The Old Oak by Ken Loach, Io Capitano by Matteo Garrone, or reprise old films as L'Atalante by Jean Vigo, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce... by Chantal Akermann, Mean Streets by Martin Scorsese; three masterpieces I revisited after many years. Going older I like to recover films in order to know if my memorized high evaluation of them survives despite the long time passed. For old celluloid times' sake. I wrote already many times on films—not in the www.cahiersducinema.com, but throughout www.dmlr.org—especially when I tried to resume a wide fimography for the marketing essay about the Big Picture.
If I had got 24 hours to look at my ten favourite movies in a sequence, it would be a grueling hike through the memory: which titles would I choose among hundreds?
I have mentioned my larger than a life films here and there, while I was introducing direct marketing or meta marketing: I really paid tribute to films I appreciate to the max. Just to recall some titles:
Meanwhile a bunch of Italian films are collectively presented as filmography inside DMLR*News no. 51. Also filmographies you find as well at these geography oriented storytelling pages: Album, Chung-kuo and S.O.S.. Moreover the contents of DMLR*News no. 50 I wrote under the influence of 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS by John Singleton, unique prototype of the digital era. But the examples of filmic connections inside www.dmlr.org could be a great many. Keep on reading!
II. KOLOSSAL.
One of the movies I have attended more times so far was a kolossal released in 1939, the famous Gone With The Wind—a 221-minute filmed adaptation from the novel by Margaret Mitchell, and branded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Why do I like to remember it? It was my mother's favourite movie indeed and she liked to quote the incipit of both movie and book that reads: "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were."
For some years I was her young knight when she wanted to rewatch Vivian Leigh engaged with Clark Gable during the Secession War—epic historical romance film winning ten Oscars as a whole and, when adjusted for monetary inflation, it is stil the highest-grossing film in history. Yeah, we as family contributed a dozen times to the box office.
Now one might be aware of my inclination to prefer the long-running movies, even tough not strictly Kolossal: I consider to watch only films whose full length is from 120 minutes up. The second consequence of my childhood approach to the cinema is that I like historical actions.
Waterloo by Sergei Bondarchuk (1970), a 155-minute stereotype of this kind, currently on www.napoleon.org. Napoleon and Wellington, as well as Louis XVIII i.e. Orson Welles in a cameo role, played by inspired actors for a theatrical battle filmed thanks to the Soviet Army accredited on the titles. The French emperor speaks out in English, the evidence History is always counterfeited by Cinema.
The Russian Revolution, or "ten days that shook the world", made the subject for Eizenstein's October* (1927). Next step up to reality means to get on to the documentary films, Chung Kuo* (1963) by Michelangelo Antonioni. From rural to industrial China, Not One Less* (1999) by Zhang Yimou shows us children with special educational needs.
Vice versa American movies could be considered a history of Capitalism. Introducing a place called Hollywood, who was never seduced by the glitz of American movies? Even tough Hollywood was considered all the same a nest of communist filmakers blacklisted during the Cold War.
If not faked, Cinema happens sometime to be explanatory, see the epic political thriller JFK by Oliver Stone (1990), why still an open case? History results less undecipherable thanks to the vision of the 8mm silent Zapruder sequence, shot with a home-movie camera and used in that motion picture after being paid $85,000 in order to be commercially reproduced.
Is Cinema repellent, like Carmelo Bene used to say? It's never original, always debtor to Literature or History or Journalism. With a good few exceptons: they are brave film directors inclined to denounce the orgy of power, A Ciascuno Il Suo* (1967) by Elio Petri and Z* (1969) by Costa-Gravas.
Turning back to the point, the relationsip with my parents in filmic terms, our ways divided forever when I sent them to watch Dersu Uzala* (1975) by Akira Kurosawa. They came home and put on their we-don't-like-sad-films-real-life-is-already-difficult-to-bear face. In the middle of 1970s, I was engaged in a Cine Club as member and husher, where I could expand my own culture on movies signed by great filmakers.
Even the Western genre that had been a steady inspirational background for my first adventures at home—the wooden fort presided by toy soldiers wearing red serge and surrounded by redskins—it had been changing their perspective on things, the breakthrough represented by McCabe and Mrs. Miller* (1971) by Robert Altman, where capitalism is a menace to the settlers of the Wild West themselves, or the significance of the Frontier in American History. Early in 1970s again Soldier Blue by Ralph Nelson, had changed the traditional narrative on naive Indians and the progressive United States. For youngster like me, the new American cinema was symbolized through films like The Deer Hunter by Michael Cimino (1978) where a working class community awards the patriots coming back from Vietnam and converted yet again into damned souls.
Released only on small cine clubs, a film to keep in mind as for the independent cinema, the alientated Liquid Sky* (1983) by Slava Tsukerman. The New Wave was coming up.
III. HOME SWEET HOME.
I owe my first name to an actor's, being this more a confession than a conjecture, that tallies with the issue I'm writing now—it's Valentine's day and I'm watching The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover* (1989) by Peter Greenaway to celebrate the sweethearts' event.
Here that actor's surname ain't important, but let's say that some years before I was born, Robert Mitchum played an unpleasant malefic role on The Night Of The Hunter* (1955) by Charles Laughton, much time ahead my appreciation of Robert Redford from The Great Gatsby to All Is Lost, Robert De Niro from Taxi Driver to Jackie Brown, Robert Duvall from The Godfather to We Own The Night and (why not?) Robert Preston from S.O.B. to Victor/Victoria.
Beside my desktop there is a CD-film collection increasing in size. As a film-goer I didn't usually consider to keep copies of films on my own. Now at 65 it's just a matter of nostalgia when I get myself in store searching for old movies I want to watch on the home computer screen.
This cinematheque comprises 20 films, from Woody Allen's Annie Hall to Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, two most recent acquisitions, from Stanley Kubrik's Barry Lyndon to Robert Altman's M*A*S*H, from Paul T. Anderson's Inherent Vice to Aleksandr Sokurov's The Russian Ark. And the Prince-music manifesto Purple Rain (1985, Warner Bros) for its soundtrack won the Oscar.
Over these milestones of the film history, I have been affected by The Story of Film. An Odyssey by Mark Cousins, a 9-disc set documentary on the cinematography during its 120-year technological and creative developments. This 915-minute-detailed resume of films shown around the world wants to testify that cinematography is an art, the art of making motion pictures. It's interesting to know how many artists and filmakers contributed to make it the most popular entertainment during the 20th century. Driven by a passion for creative collaboration and technical innovation—explore panavision.com and technicolor.com. Beyond imagination.
As a child grown up at the beginning of the 1960s in a family without the Television, I was used to get to the cinema with my parents from the lowest age. And the movie theaters were a common place where to go regularly. Cartoons apart I saw my first motion pictures at the age of six. I remember the vision of films attended together with my father Sergio, for sure we went to watching It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World* (1965) and The Great Race* (1966), the genre of screwball comedy I always watch with pleasure even tough dated like me. Later I was introduced to the 'gun-fight' films of the Trilogy of the Dollar by Sergio Leone who initially was best known by the pseudonym Bob Robertson. I felt like a grown-up, almost ten years old.
Peace!
IV. TRAILER!
The Disappearance of Alice Creed. One of the few films I gladly remember even tough I watched it just on TV in the course of 2000's—the diversity of the European Film confirms the importance to protect its distribution over local movie theaters (europa-cinemas.org)! As a film critic I write up my commentary hereafter.
A fucking working class film. Not by Ken Loach. Or the degrade of contemporary values. Polyvinyl acetate tracksuit and sweatshirt with hood. A film on the not-being working class indeed. Desperate seeking for... Susan like Alice. Make me feel better. Lots of money to ask for after a kidnapping, before sharing or loathing it. She's a middle class daughter, to be sacrificed. Fine plot really. Kind of Kammerspiel. There are no middlemen, no security agents. Just real fiction. Did you know the story of Alice Creed, folks? Come out rough stuff. Beaten up criminals against Alice. Don't need to be hooligans out of a pub to get blows, rage and stir up trouble. One urban girl is enough. A factory shed. Where fucking is that place? A neglected warehouse since manufacture went abroad to East Europe or Far Asia. Working class live matters no more in Middle England. Fucksake.
When a pretty girl goes for it, be looking over your shoulders, if not the balls. And you good assistant, beware of the fucking boss before it's too late...
(According to JustWatch the film's currently available on ten streaming services. But... Under the new EU law on data protection, they inform you that they share your history of pages you visited on JustWatch. With that data, they may show you trailers on external social media and video platforms.)
This is how they know you are intrigued by the talent of Gemma Arterton. So you would be interested in Tamara Drewe, dark comedy directed by Stephen Frears, originated from a British comic strip by Posy Simmonds, the creator of Tamara Drewe. Sounds familiar the connection? The Pink Panther* (1963) was an American comedy directed by Blake Edwards, that introduced the cartoon character of the same name in an opening credits animated sequence—music by Henry Mancini. The Dark in Theatre!
V. Direct Marketing.
The DIRECT MARKETING glossary is available on DMLR in a 3-document edition (PDF) you can browse here or easily download onto your desktop.
It consists of 19 pages as a whole, 311 paragraphs/terms, 236 Kb, 7450 words, 44772 types!
Select and print the three parts of the glossary in English from PDF::Menu.
Sure the Internet has been changing the traditional snail-mail based direct marketing. And yet the Internet marketing is a consequence of the old direct marketing somehow. Many terms you'll find inside the DM glossary are suiting for the e-mail marketing too... but they come from a business development initiative of Canada Post Corporation [hommage à Connexions --centre de resources en marketing direct].
VI. Linked
Resources.
On DMLR Guide there is a regular URL, Archive.org. Why does it matter? "On January 1st, we celebrate published works from 1929 and published sound recordings from 1924 entering the public domain! The passage of these works into the public domain celebrates our shared cutural heritage. The ability to breathe new life into long forgotten works..."
As free download and streaming from Archive.org I have been recovering films to better circulate oddieties reely available for us all. Best exemplar of unknown filmed masterwork Touch of Evil* (1958) by and with Orson Welles, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, Zsa Zsa Gabor. Or the Paramount film with the innovative style of shooting by Robert Altman in Nashville* (1975), a complex collective of characters acting by means of multiple microphone lines. P.S. Other movies that are uploaded on Archive.org I have linked to from this page above and marked with (*).
VII. MyQuiz.
 What are the Major Companies?
For many years the greatest American film companies were considered these "majors" as follow: Paramount, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox and Rko. As "minors" they were told Universal, Columbia, United Artists.
And what is the TRAILER? A series of excerpts from a movie used to advertise it, here a preview of SAVE THE TIGER* (1973). |
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