Offscreen Notes
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Gina Lollobrigida (1927-January 16, 2023)
The Italian superstar Gina Lollobrigida has died at age 95. For people of my parent’s generation Gina Lollobrigida was a source of pride, a stunningly beautiful woman who became a star, and sex symbol, but who always retained an air of royalty and dignity. Once dubbed “the most beautiful women in the world” (though she has lots of competition in Italy, by actresses such as Sophia Loren, Sylvana Mangano, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti, Stefania Sandrelli, Ornella Mutti, Monica Bellucci, and others!) Gina was one of the first Italian actresses to make it big in Hollywood, when Howard Hughes (who was madly in love with her) signed her to a multi-picture deal in 1950. Her best films were Beat the Devil, (1953, John Huston) where she showed a comic touch alongside Humphrey Bogart, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre and Jennifer Jones (what a cast!), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956, with Anthony Quinn as Quasimodo), Topaz (1956, by Sir Carol Reed), Woman of Straw (1964,Basil Dearden, starring Sean Connery), The Law (1959, Jules Dassin, opposite the wonderful Pierre Brasseur of Les Yeux sans visage, and Marcello Mastroianni), The Unfaithfuls (1953, co-directed by the great Mario Monicelli and Steno), Solomon and Sheba (1959, dir. King Vidor), and Bread, Love and Dreams (1953, Luigi Comencini, opposite matinee idol turned director Vittorio De Sica). Perhaps not as great an actress as Anna Magnani, Monica Vitti, Alida Valli or Stefania Sandrelli, but there were few actresses who epitomized big screen glamour and beauty more than Gina. RIP.
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Film Festivals, 2023
The Cannes Film Festival is scheduled for May 16 through May 27, 2023; and, as usual, there is anticipation for the kinds of works that might gain the attention of its accomplished judges. Past judges have included Luis Bunuel, Andre Bazin, Dolores Del Rio, George Stevens, Henry Miller, Francois Truffaut, Ousmane Sembene, Anthony Burgess, Mario Vargas Llosa, Raul Ruiz, Luc Besson, Toni Morrison, Joel and Ethan Coen, and Rebecca Hall. The Golden Palm—the Palme d’or, named for the coat of arms of the city of Cannes on the French Riviera—is the most prestigious award at the Cannes Film Festival; and in 2022 it was given to Triangle of Sadness, a satire of fame and wealth focusing on the survival of a luxury cruise disaster, and featuring actors Charlbi Dean Kriek and Woody Harrelson, and directed by filmmaker Ruben Östlund, who had won the award in 2017 for his art world portrait, The Square, starring Claes Bang as a museum curator whose sophistication and success are sabotaged by a lapse in judgement. The film The Square suggests the limits of attempting to make art relevant – the issues roiling outside the museum or theatre world are not easy to control.
A visit to Cannes to see pleasing and provocative motion pictures is one of the highlights of the year for resourceful film lovers. The Cannes Festival began in 1939, and its attendees were welcomed to international cinema in a beautiful location with fanfare and elegant parties, despite the threatening atmosphere of military conflict (Hitler and Mussolini had interfered with another festival, and an early September 1939 declaration of war delayed aspects of this one); and after the war’s end, Cannes began anew in 1946. Black Orpheus won the Palme d’Or in 1959, La Dolce Vita in 1960, and The Leopard in 1963. Taxi Driver won it in 1978, The Mission in 1986, and Wild at Heart in 1990. The rest, as they say, is history; and registration for the official selections for 2023 is now open. Of course, Cannes is one of many significant festivals, part of a contemporary film culture that includes technical skills, business trade, and aesthetic theory; theatrical screenings, television, and digital streaming; and commentary and reviews in books and periodicals as well as the most ordinary conversations.
Film festivals offer the opportunity to celebrate the appeal of cinema beyond box office receipts: art; and the origins of festivals may be found in the film appreciation clubs of the 1920s that affirmed serious work and sought to articulate the unique qualities of motion pictures—and the ability of films to recharge the possibilities for new perceptions as they provided both novel and mundane objects of consideration. However, these days, the recognition and recommendations of international festivals are used to buttress the reputations of films for commercial purposes (the complexities of our human existence!). Film lovers are there and so are film marketers—sometimes in the same body. Before the Cannes Film Festival in May, there will be the Sundance Film Festival January 20 – 30, 2023; the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, January 25 – February 5, 2023; the Berlin International Film Festival February 16 – 26, 2023; the South by Southwest Conference and Festival March 10 – 19, 2023; the Istanbul Film Festival April 7 – 18, 2023; and the Harlem International Film Festival May 18 – 28, 2023. The festivals will allow for the introduction to new talent and the ongoing exploration of established masters.
Once the parade of celebrity and contemplation and controversy is finished at this year’s Cannes festival, many will turn their eyes to other places, other premieres: The Tribeca Film Festival is from June 7 through June18, 2023; and the Jerusalem Film Festival is July 13 – 23, 2023; the Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada July 13 – August 2, 2023; the Zurich Film Festival September 28 – October 8, 2023; the Adelaide Film Festival in Australia October 18 – 29, 2023; and the Stockholm International Film Festival November 8 – 19, 2023. One can find festivals devoted to particular cultures and orientations. They will open windows to wander and wonder. (Daniel Garrett)
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Michael Snow (1928-Jan. 5, 2023)
The great Canadian multi-medium artist Michael Snow died on January 5th, 2023 at the age of 94. Born in Toronto, Snow was a giant in the field of experimental cinema, which he helped scale to soaring heights in the 1960s with fellow contemporary filmmakers Stan Brakhage, Hollis Frampton, Paul Sharits, Tony Conrad, Kurt Kren, Standish Lawder, (his wife of many years) Joyce Wieland, and others. Snow’s films were infused with his equal talents in other arts, being a proficient musician, sculptor, painter and photographer. Often contrasted to Brakhage’s more emotive and impressionist style, Snow excelled in pushing the technical and formalist parameters of cinema, culminating in such masterstrokes as Standard Time (1967), Wavelength (1967), La Region Centrale (1971), One Second in Montreal (1969), (Back and Forth (1969), Breakfast (Table Top Dolly) (1976) and his last film, a condensed redux of his moving camera masterpiece La Region Centrale, Cityscape (2019). Wavelength is a cornerstone of one of our foundational Film Studies classes where I teach at Concordia University and continues to provoke, frustrate and inspire (not always in equal measure) students till this day. I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Snow along with colleague André Habib back in 2002 when he was an invited guest of the 2002 Festival International Nouveau Cinéma Nouveaux Médias (FCMM). You can read the interview (and other essays collected in our Michael Snow Dossier) on Offscreen.
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Ruggero Deodato (May 7, 1939-Dec. 29, 2002)
Another Italian legend leaves us, at age 83. Ruggero Deodato (1939-Dec. 29, 2022) was no doubt one of the most divisive and controversial Italian directors of his contemporaries but still leaves an undeniably important legacy, if only for Cannibal Holocaust, Cut and Run, Jungle Holocaust and House on the Edge of the Park. He remained active as a spokesperson of his generation, frequently appearing on DVD and Blu Ray features as an interviewee and commentator. Is there a film more out of step with today’s social climate than Cannibal Holocaust? And yet, although it is rarely viewed by mainstream audiences in today’s climate, it remains an explosive (and highly influential) blend of mondo, mockumentary, jungle epic, Third World expose, horror, snuff film and disingenuous social commentary.
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CALL FOR PAPERS 2023 MUSIC & THE MOVING IMAGE CONFERENCE XIX
CALL FOR PAPERS 2023
Conference at New York University: Friday, May 26 th – Sunday, May 28th
The annual Music and the Moving Image Conference invites abstracts for paper presentations that explore the relationship between the vast universe of moving images (film, television, streaming media, video games, and advertisements) and that of music and sound. We encourage submissions from scholars and practitioners, as well as from multidisciplinary teams that have pooled their knowledge to solve problems or to develop new perspectives regarding the relationship between music and moving images. Abstracts will be selected based on their originality, relevance, significance, and clarity of presentation.
➢ Paper Abstract: (up to 250 words) should be submitted no later than December 16, 2022, via this link: https://form.jotform.com/222984255845164
Keynote Speaker: Kathryn Bostic
Kathryn Bostic is a composer and artist known for her work on award-winning films, TV, and live theater, including scores for Clemency (2019) and the Emmy-nominated films Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir (2021) and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019). Songwriter, pianist and vocalist, Bostic is the recipient of the Sundance Institute/Time Warner Fellowship, and Best Music in Film by the African American Film Critics Association. In 2016 she became the first female African American score composer to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Keynote Panel: The Role of Screen Music in the Music Theory Classroom
Moderator: Frank Lehman (Tufts Univ)
Panelists: Julianne Grasso (Florida State Univ), Sarah Louden (New York Univ), Táhirih Motazedian (Vassar College), and Scott Murphy (Univ of Kansas).
Conference Committee:
James Mc Glynn: Royal Holloway, University of London (“The Adaptation of Narrative and Musical Source Material in HBO’s Watchmen” in After Midnight: Analysing the Post-Watchmen Sequels) — Táhirih Motazedian: Vassar College (Key Constellations: Interpreting Tonality in Film [forthcoming, Univ. of California Press]) — John Richardson: University of Turku (An Eye for Music: Popular Music and the Audiovisual Surreal [Oxford Univ. Press]) — Ron Sadoff: New York University (The Moon and the Son / co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound) — Katherine Spring: Wilfrid Laurier University (Saying It With Songs: Popular Music and the Coming of Sound to Hollywood Cinema [Oxford Univ. Press]).
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This year’s conference will run for three days, from Friday, May 26th – Sunday, May 28th, 2023 with sessions until Sunday evening. The conference will run prior to the NYU Film Scoring Workshop in Memory of Buddy Baker (May 29th – June 9th, 2023).
Email MamiConference@nyu.edu for more information.
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Jeff Barnaby Dies at age 46 on October 13, 2022
I am absolutely floored by the news that Jeff Barnaby has died at the age of 46, from a year-long battle with cancer. Just last week I mentioned to my classes that Jeff Barnaby was coming to Concordia University (to which he is an alumni) on October 26 to present his film Blood Quantum. My students would have loved his honest views on life. What a terrible loss, for his family (wife and son) and the world of cinema. Barnaby directed two striking feature films, Blood Quantum in 2019 and his debut feature in 2013 Rhymes for Young Ghouls. His legacy also includes some stunning short films, namely the political SF film File Under Miscellaneous (2010), Colony (2007) and Cherry English (2004). All his works were laced with political and social commentary from the perspective of his Indigenous Mi’kmaq roots. Barnaby grew up on the Listuguj reserve in Quebec, Canada and his films never shied from delivering strident political commentary along with his stated love of genre cinema. His films were a potent blend of entertainment and commentary. It is so sad that the nature of making films in Canada is at it is, to the point where someone as talented as Barnaby with as much to say as he did only had the chance to make two features since his first short film in 2004. A frustration which Barnaby had not been shy to talk about on social media. Offscreen wishes our deepest condolences to his family, his community and his fans.
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Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022)
The filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard (1930 – 2022) was a great and inventive artist, a man with a curious intellect and an impudent spirit, someone whose creativity sparked that of others. His films— from Breathless (1960), Contempt (1983), Band of Outsiders (1964), Alphaville (1965), Masculine Feminine (1966) and Weekend (1967) to Every Man for Himself (1980) and Hail Mary (1985) to Notre Musique (2004), Film Socialisme (2010) and The Image Book (2018)—were provocations. “Godard, one of the original pioneers of the French New Wave, has been an international celebrity for decades, and a controversial one. He’s feuded with some of the major figures in world cinema and major film festivals, and with luminaries in the arts and politics,” wrote film critic Matt Zoller Seitz in his January 25, 2019 comment (via Roger Ebert’s website) of Jean-Luc Godard’s 2018 film The Image Book, a work of contemplation and connections, a history of images and ideas. Godard’s work, whether dramatic or documentary, was alive to the moment. Whereas the films of many directors could seem like filtered memories, Godard’s work has an expansive vision and energy that carries some of the chaos of reality: thus, his films seemed part of our world, and we seem part of his. Matt Zoller Seitz wrote of The Image Book: By the time it ends, it has ruminated on the rise of the image, the fall of the word and the pulverization of every form of information into a nonstop stream of “content;” drawn connections between the mechanization of genocide during the Holocaust and colonization; created a kind of self-contained film-within-a-film, romanticizing the Arabic-speaking world through four decades’ worth of movie clips; and handed viewers a continuous analogy for the film’s own stylistic techniques by grouping together dozens of clips from movies involving trains (“trains of thought,” perhaps?).
Jean-Luc Godard, born in France, died in Switzerland. He had been a bourgeois boy, the son of a clinic director; and he studied ethnology at the University of Paris, and became interested in documentaries. The improvisatory Breathless (1960), about a small criminal, a variation on the American crime picture, had glamour without false romance, and was said to have invented the jump cut. Sometimes the associations in his films were created by something other than logic. He brought a revolutionary approach to cinema. He defied established methods of both craft and narrative. The American girl in Breathless is not true to the infatuated French boy—it might have been an allegory. Godard did make a contentious study of women —his female characters were difficult to manage and sometimes inspired both admiration and hostility. That occurs in Masculine Feminine (1966). His works were interventions in both domestic politics and personal psychology. Some of the best work of writers such as Susan Sontag and Pauline Kael (and many others) has been inspired by Godard, who challenged expectations of what a film might be and mean. Godard did not merely contemplate film; he interrogated cinema. He was unique and he will be missed.
by Daniel Garrett
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Gerard Potterton
R.I.P Gerald Potterton. Important British born Canadian animator/documentarist Potterton has passed away (1931-2022). His most important works remain the 1965 short The Railrodder that brought some recognition back to the silent comedy genius Buster Keaton, and the cult 1981 animation feature Heavy Metal, which included a who’s who of Canadian comedy and acting greats doing voice work (John Candy, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, Jackie Burroughs, John Vernon, Al Waxman, Harvey Atkin, and others. Some of his works can be watched online for free at the NFB website.
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Michael Walker (1942-2022)
Sad to announce the death of prolific film writer and analyst Michael Walker. Read friend Keith Withall’s excellent obit.
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Jean-Louis Trintignant (1930-June 17, 2022)
Cinema lost one of its most versatile actors today, the great French performer Jean-Louis Trintignant. Trintignant could be smooth, sexy, funny, cool, and charming. He played in arthouse and genre films and approached both with the same dedication and commitment. He starred in two of my drop dead favorite films of all-time. Films that I never tire of watching. Sergio Corbucci’s nihilistic spaghetti western The Great Silence, where he gave his own stamp to a particular type of ‘silent’ type with no name. A film that influenced a whole generation of 1970s American filmmakers, Il Conformista, where he played a sexually confused petite bourgeois who climbs the Fascist corporate ladder by staging a Shakespearean assassination of an anti-Fascist intellectual. And many other (mainly) French and Italian films with some of the greatest directors of his time.
