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- Film director Hitchcock discusses his life and career in long talks with Pia Lindstrom (newscaster and daughter of Hitchcock star Ingrid Berman) and with film historian William Everson. Excerpts from several films illustrate these interviews. Discussion topics include: what is fear?, method acting vs. film acting, the difference between the usual "Who Done It" mystery and what he considers to be real suspense. His choice of leading ladies and why (Bergman, Baxter, Kelly, Marie Saint, Leigh, etc.).
- Documentary about kendo, the senior martial arts form, in which contestants use bamboo staves as dueling weapons. Includes scenes filmed in practice studios, competitions, the Budokan -- Tokyo's main exhibition hall. Also includes demonstrations of many other martial arts forms, and of art and film that illustrate the importance of disciplined fighting in Japanese culture.
- George Dunning -artist, illustrator, film animator - explains his work, draws, tours his studio in England showing how film animation is produced from hand-drawn cells. Many examples of his pictures and films, including "The Flying Man", "Damon the Mower," and the Beatles animated film "The Yellow Submarine". Topics: Techniques that transform drawings and paintings into film --exposure sheets, levels where characters should appear, "peg" animation. Dunning shows how he achieved sequential drawings for "Damon the Mower." His acknowledged debt to Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren.
- The work of photographer Diane Arbus as explained by her daughter, friends, critics, and in her own words as recorded in her journals. Illustrated with many of her photographs. Mary Clare Costello, narrator Themes: Arbus' quirky go-it-alone approach. Her attraction to the bizarre, people on the fringes of society: sexual deviants, odd types, the extremes, styles in questionable taste, poses and situations that inspire irony or wonder. Where most people would look away she photographed.
- Musical biography of Fats Waller. Ken Prymus, and the actors and actresses from 1980 off-Broadway production of "Ain't Misbehavin'", in a portrait of Fats Waller, his life and the music he wrote or made popular. With rare "soundies" film and photographs. Selections performed include "T'aint Nobody's Business", "Ain't Misbehaving", "What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue?", "The Joint's Jumpin'", "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Your Feet's Too Big."
- Anais Nin, filmed at the point in her life when she was passing from being a bohemian writer to being a widely read figure taken up by a new generation, reads selections from volume one of her just (1966) published Diary. This diary eventually went into many volumes and through its brutal honesty made her something of a cult figure on college campuses and in the new "women's liberation" movement. Many photos from her personal collection illustrate her life and world. The key passages read here deal with her childhood, her decision to keep a diary as a never-ending letter to her absent father, Europe in the 1930's, Henry Miller and his friends, and her fascination for the Surrealist movement and for psychoanalysis.
- Painter-draftsman-filmmaker-printmaker Alexander Alexeieff, with his wife and co-worker Claire Parker, discuss the use of their "pin-board" technique for illustration and film animation. With excerpts from their films, a demonstration of the pin-board, and film made on location in Paris about the reception of their art.
- Profile of the great film director D.W. Griffith. Ron Mottram, professor of cinema history and director of the Griffith retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City (1975) interviews silent film stars Blanche Sweet and Lillian Gish about their careers and working with Griffith. Illustrated with many film clips and photographs. Film excerpts include portions of "Way Down East" (1920), "Intolerance" (1916), "True Heart Susie" (1919) and "Birth of a Nation." Ms. Gish reminisces about the long hours, dangerous situations, and the presentation of character without recourse to spoken dialogue. Film excerpts include portions of "Death's Marathon", "The Painted Lady", "Feud in the Kentucky Hills", "A Corner in Wheat", "The Informer", "Country Doctor", all made in the early years when Griffith worked for the Biograph company, 1908-1913. Ms. Sweet starred in many of these films and reminisces about the method of shooting in those days. These films and dozens of others were often turned out two or three a week, shown briefly, and then never seen again. Some of these films include the first "pans", "zooms" or "close ups" ever used. Griffith invented as he went along.
- Artist, painter, photographer, filmmaker Rudy Burckhardt explains his aesthetic (voice only) and demonstrates his techniques. With many film excerpts, Burckhardt's own voice and comments by critic Faubion Bowers. Plus still pictures of Burckhardt at work on location and in his studio. Burckhardt was born in Switzerland and has worked in several media, including still photography, film, and paint. At this time he was experimenting with painting on images projected onto his canvas. He was one of the earliest "time lapse" photographers, a technique by which processes that may take weeks or months to achieve in real time are compressed to a few minutes. Included here are excerpts from his films "Pursuit of Happiness", documenting the patterns of pedestrians on a New York City street; "See Naples and..." examining ordinary moments in the life of a busy Italian city; "Haiti", images from the island nation; "Doldrums" about Jersey City, N.J.; "Trash Lives", glorifying the banality of what we leave lying on the streets; and "Caterpillar", a time-lapse view of a day-long journey by an inchworm -- presented in one minute.
- Overview of the life and art of sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Interview of Noguchi, film of many of his sculptures, designs, stage sets, fountains, public spaces, drawings, etc. Filmed in his studio in Long Island City, NY. With scenes of the artist at work and reflecting on his aesthetics. He is interviewed by Faubion Bowers, well-known writer on the arts. Noguchi at 70 talks about art, space, awareness of gravity, balance, the influence of Japan on his work, early influences (Brancusi, Gorki), playgrounds, Martha Graham sets, sheet metal, the IBM Headquarters in Armonk, NY. Other themes and film segments: New York City work, Osaka fountains, in the Alps working where Michelangelo mined his stone, environments in Paris, gardens ("time is either friendly or it destroys...; all returns to earth"), the nature of sculpture ( "it is reflected light"), paper lanterns, in Japan learning from nature and natural mediums, apparent contradiction between nature and the modern world: "Industrialized civilization requires industrial tools... machines instead of hands."
- Overview of the work and aesthetics of the remarkable self-taught painter Shalom of Safed. Shalom Moscpvitz (1887 - 1980) was a religious Jew, born in Safed and raised during the years when Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. He was a watchmaker and scribe until at age 60 he began to paint. His work immediately attracted attention. He concentrated on moments from Bible history, depicting that history in the context of the world he knew as a youth; for example, young men wear the Turkish fez. He established an international reputation but remained much as he had always been, a humble man from Galilee.
- The state of radio in a world of television. Hosted by the famous comedy team Bob and Ray, with examples of various kinds of radio shows in production and interviews with the men who are the stars of the medium. Film and photographs illustrate the golden age of radio that was pushed aside by television. With Bob Elliott, radio personality, Ray Goulding, radio personality, E.G. Marshall, actor, Himan Brown, producer-director, Lou Adler, radio news director, Gene Klavan, radio personality, Norm N. Nite, FM radio personality, Tom Meehan, writer, playwright. Featured: production of the "CBS Mystery Theater", sound effects, reflections of how comedy differs when it is only heard and not seen, production of an all-music format. Also: reflections on "top 40's" radio, on "old-gold" and "black" radio, and on the new "listener-sponsored" stations.
- Craig Claiborne, Food Editor of the N.Y. Times, gives a brief history of the state of American cooking at the time of America's third president, Thomas Jefferson, and lauds him as a gourmet who awakened a new view of our palates. Claiborne and Chef Pierre Franey prepare a feast that was served at the White House in the year 1800. Themes: American cooking as "plain". The Puritans had complained, "God sent me; the Devil sent cooks." Jefferson championed "fine food" in America and wrote on food and recipes. His presidency was an "age of hand power:" slaves labored at every level. It was a time of the introduction of the fork in polite society. Jefferson bought the waffle iron and the first pasta machine; he was among the first to make spaghetti here, and helped promote capers, baking powder, vanilla bean, almonds, broccoli, and tomatoes (which were at first considered poisonous). Claiborne announces the menu for this meal: duck, venison, rabbit stew, deviled squabs (prepared to look like frogs), and galantine of turkey --all examples of Jefferson's intention to have the finest kitchen possible in the White House. Claiborne and Franey explain and demonstrate the preparation this meal.
- A survey of American comic strip art with comments by well-known artists and scenes of them at work. Commentary by Mort Walker, comic artist ("Beetle Bailey", "Hi and Lois") and president of the Museum of Cartoon Art in Rye, New York. Scenes and interviews with Dean Young and Jim Raymond, Ralph Bakshi, Dik Browne, Ray Bradbury, George Lucas, Will Eisner, Milton Caniff, John Cullen Murphy, Sean Kelly, Johnny Romita. 1978. "Comics" has come to mean one-panel drawings, strips with daily continuity, whole books, and several other forms, whether "comic" or not. This footage illustrates the whole range, plus film animation as well. Artists visited include Dean Young and Jim Raymond ("Blondie", then the most widely seen comic strip in the world), Ralph Bakshi (the film "Wizards" and "Lord of the Rings"), Dik Browne ("Hagar the Horrible.") Also included are illustrations from the earliest days of comics ("The Yellow Kid") to "Doonesbury." Ideas, opinions, sacred cows (eg: there are only four comic themes: eating, sleeping, raising children, and making money--"things the whole world can relate to.") Hearst changed comics when he made them a whole section in newspapers. The language of comics: symbols that mean confusion, speed, sleep, etc. and accepted conventions like the dialogue balloon and the dream balloon.
- Stephen Sondheim, composer-lyricist; John Weidman, writer; and Frank Rich, theater critic, in a close study of how one Broadway musical song came to be: "Someone in a Tree" from "Pacific Overtures". Members of the Broadway cast join Sondheim in a performance of the number. Filmed in Sondheim's apartment in New York City. Members of the cast of "Pacific Overtures": Mako, James Dybas, Geddie Watanabe, Mark Hsu Syers. "It's my favorite song of anything I've written," Sondheim said. He demonstrates how he created the song, how the music tracks the libretto, gaining complexity and tension as the text becomes more urgent, how the song becomes a study of perceiving details in a seamless world.
- Wide ranging exploration of the ideas of architect Paolo Soleri. With Paolo Soleri, architect, philosopher; Stewart Udall (former Secretary of Interior and head of an environmental consulting firm); Kenneth Gibson, Mayor of Newark, N.J.; Alvin Toffler, author ("Future Shock", etc.); scientist/future-thinker Arthur C. Clarke ("2001: A Space Odyssey", etc.); Moshe Safdie, architect ("Habitat"); Prof. John Gallahue (Columbia Univ., New York City.) and others. An illustrated series of interviews about Paolo Soleri's ideas. Themes: architecture, the future of urban centers, the Earth's ability to sustain itself under the increasing load of human population, the interaction of art and utility, the future of ideas we take for granted,( such as progress and technology), and the changing nature of man himself. Stewart Udall is on-camera host and voice-over narrator. Soleri is seen in dialog with a wide range of persons whose concerns and expertise intersect his own ideas. A great deal of film and photographs illustrate the themes discussed. The main theme discussed in this footage: cities are the man made landscape and are essential to the continuation of civilization; but new cities must evolve in response to a changing world; they must be integrated places, built up into three dimensions, not out endlessly across the landscape..
- Profile of film director Richard Lester, who speaks of his career, from early work in commercials to the experimental "Running, Jumping, Standing Still Film" with Peter Sellers and The Goon Show cast, through features: the Beatles' film "A Hard Day's Night", "The Knack and How to Get It", "How I Won the War", "The Bed Sitting Room", "The Three Musketeers", "The Four Musketeers." Clips from all these works. Lester talks of "the benevolent dictatorship of being a director", his commitment to the subject of his films, his anti-war message, his desire to widen the understanding of the audience.
- John Whitney, Sr. one of the early pioneers in films made by computer-driven cameras explains and demonstrates his work. Shot on location at Whitney's home in California, includes excerpts from his films "Matrix 3", "Catalog", "Permutations" and "Lapis." 1975. Making abstract motion in time, and impinging directly on the viewer's emotions as music does -- these were among Whitney's early goals. "Music organizes time in a special way, creates tension in us, then satisfies, gratifies. We can do the same for patterns-- something is going to happen, make it happen in a way you don't expect. Film permutations can be parallel to tones in harmonic sequence; dominant chord resolves into tonic chord." To do this, says Whitney, "we need new tools, and to learn how to control them. They're unlike musical instruments which we have been practicing on for 300 years. We have to start from scratch. "
- Perspectives on poetess Anna Akhmatova, the celebrated Russian poet who bridged Tsarist and Revolutionary Russia, was adored and called "the soul of her time," and who suffered desperately under Stalin's disfavor. Irene Moore, a founder of the American Stanislavsky Theatre, recites Akhmatova's poetry in Russian. Samuel Driver, professor (Brown Univ.), Irene Kirk, professor (Univ. of Connecticut.) who have written about Akhmatova, reminisce about her life and times. Narrated by critic Faubion Bowers. With many photographs of Akhmatova and her world. Themes: Akhmatova, partly because of her vanity and her sufferings, partly because of the American feelings about the Stalin era, and mainly because her poetry weaves so many purely Russian idioms and contexts together, is usually inaccessible in translation to Americans. The academics here are passionate to change that. Driver is the author of a new book on the poet, and Kirk was one of the last Americans to see her alive and hopes to convey something of her importance to the Russians.
- America's great film director-actor Buster Keaton, discussed by film critic Andrew Sarris and Raymond Rohauer, cinema historian, with some unusual perspectives on his goals and motivations. Illustrated with many film excerpts from 1917 to 1928. Rohauer knew Keaton and was partly responsible from rescuing many of his old films from destruction. Sarris is a leading film critic who has often written about Keaton. Excerpts include portions of "The General" (1926) a film illustrating "man versus machine." "Cops" (1922), which questions the meaning of "law and order." "Frozen North", a satire on William Hart films, and "The Boat" in which Keaton goes down but then wades to shore. In "Sherlock, Jr." Keaton is a film projectionist who in dream enters the movie. "College" (1927) spoofs the happy ending, "Steamboat Bill, Jr." mocks the cyclone that destroys everything in its path. Rohauer describes rescuing Keaton's films from a garage and talking with Keaton at the end of his life when he had been forgotten.
- French Chef Pierre Franey and N.Y. Times Food critic Craig Claiborne, plus assorted culinary colleagues Hughes Franey, Jean Vergnes, and Jacques Pepin, produce an authentic American clambake -- with a few Gallic touches -- on the beach outside Franey's house at East Hampton, Long Island, N.Y. Scenes include: Gathering clams, digging the pit, making the bed of stones, gathering wood for the fire, raking seaweed, shucking corn, wrapping food in cheesecloth, sifting sand, raking off burned logs, sealing pit with seaweed, slicing cooked lobsters, putting food on trays, guests taking food. The menu includes French sausage, the dessert is watermelon. The crowd seen enjoying this banquet included about twenty neighbors and friends, children and dogs, and Howard Johnson, owner of the restaurant chain which was soon to be Franey's employer.
- Profile of composer Earl Robinson, who sings and plays the piano, and discusses his career. Robinson performs the entire "Ballad for Americans," accompanying himself on piano. Robinson discusses his work for The Federal Theater Project (1936) collecting folk songs, and the first performance over CBS Radio of "Ballad for Americans", sung by Paul Robeson and choir, a huge success. He also performs his "The House I Live In" and "Black and White."
- Master tap dancers Honi Coles and Cholly Atkins demonstrate favorite tap steps and routines from the time of World War One ("Over the Top and Through the Trenches") to the mid-sixties ("Bebop"). Music is provided by a small combo. Includes incisive perspectives on tap as the dancers talk with dance authority Marshall Stearns (author of "Jazz Dance.")
- Two of Brecht's "practice pieces for actors" are performed: "Romeo and Juliet" translated by George Tabori and "Hamlet" translated by Michael Lebeck. (These pieces are virtually unknown to students and are never performed.) Performers: Lotte Lenya, Micki Grant, David Rounds, Rudolph Weiss, Oliver Clark, Roscoe Lee Browne. These are dramatic scenes which Brecht wrote and had his own actors rehearse as preparation for full-length productions of the corresponding Shakespeare plays. The scenes reduce the "heroic" stature of the Shakespearean characters by showing them as ordinary people with the usual needs and vices, living in a world where economics is inevitably more influential than principle. The idea, in Socialist East Germany where Brecht lived and worked, was that the actors' own egos would be deflated by these scenes, and the result would be a more "human" portrayal. The scenes were therefore rehearsed but then omitted from actual performance of the full play.
- The pioneering film experimenter Stan VanDerBeek at home discusses his work, found images, toys, inventions, the importance of his family and friends, and tours his "moviedrome" for seeing films against the inside of a giant hemisphere. He reflects on "film as an experience, not an artifact". "It is the aesthetic of anticipation, as distinct from that of meditation." Includes excerpts from his films "Will", "See Saw Seams", "Image After Image After Image," and "Poemfield #1".