9. Annie Hall

by Dennis Polifroni

(USA 1977 93m) DVD/Blu Ray

p. Jack Rollins, Charles H. Joffe d. Woody Allen w. Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman  ed. Ralph Rosenblum ph. Gordon Willis art. Mel Bourne cos. Ruth Morley

Woody Allen (Alvie Singer), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall), Tony Robert (Rob), Paul Simon (Tony Lacey), Carol Kane (Allison Portchnick), Janet Margolin (Robin), Colleen Dewhurst (Mrs. Hall), Christopher Walken (Duane), John Glover (Annie’s Ex), Shelley Duvall (Pam), Marshall McLuhan (himself), Truman Capote (himself)

April 27, 1977

This was it.   The date that would change the world in their perception of a comedian and film-maker named Woody Allen.

There is a moment, almost half way through ANNIE HALL, where the main character, one Alvie Singer, is sitting at a dinner table with his girlfriend and, for the first time, her family.  Jewish, nervous, a bit of an intellectual and brought up on the streets of Brooklyn, Alvie sits quietly, observing the camaraderie of a very tight-knit, white-bread, WASP family.  The family speaks of swap meets and familiar, local drunks that amuse them while they shopped in town.  They praise Annie’s Grandmother on a wonderful dinner (“it’s a great sauce!”), but the old lady doesn’t respond.  Grandma just keeps chewing and, regularly, eyes her grand-daughters new beau with looks of bewilderment and disdain.

It’s a seemingly ordinary moment with a family that resembles, as Alvie would comment on earlier in the film, a Norman Rockwell painting from the cover of an issue of THE SATURDAY EVENING POST.

BUT…

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17. It’s A Gift

by Dennis Polifroni

(USA 1934 70m) DVD

p William le Baron d Norman Z. McLeod w Jack Cunningham story W.C.Fields,

J. P. McEvoy ph Henry Sharp art Hans Dreier, John B.Goodman

W.C. Fields (Harold Bissonette), Kathleen Howard (Amelia Bissonette), Jean Rouverol (Mildred Bissonette), Julian Madison (John Durston), Tommy Bupp (Norman Bissonette), Baby le Roy (Baby Ellwood Dunk), Charles Sellon (Mr Muckle), Tammany Young (Everett Hicks), Morgan Wallace (Jasper Fitchmueller), Josephine Whittell (Mrs Dunk), T.Roy Barnes (salesman)

There is a deep, almost personal connection I have with the work of W. C. Fields. Unlike the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, The Stooges, yeah, even my beloved Chaplin, Fields holds a special place in my heart. To me, he’s more connective, speaks to me directly, and comes off as a real person.

My father, the greatest guy I ever knew (and know), is the toughest man I ever met. Standing up at a height of 6-feet 5-inches and built like a stone statue of a Greek god, he is the very essence, even at his current age (70), of what the ideal male form is. In his working life, he pounded steel with a hammer and blow-torch, carried and fused miles and miles of electric cables up hundreds of flights, over-hauled cars and created and monitored a thriving restaurant through years of sweat and determination. My father was a rock. He worked long hours, never missed a days work and, through thick and thin, ALWAYS provided for his family. He was a dreamer as well. After years of physical labor he saw his dreams of owning his own business (the aforementioned restaurant) come to fruition and he struggled every day that he oversaw his business to make it the rousing success it is still remembered as. Even when he retired he dreamt. Florida was always on his mind. An avid golfer and a lover of athletics, my father dreamt of a simple place in the sunshine state, overlooking green grass and bodies of moving water, that he could nestle into and live out the rest of his days in fresh air and peace.

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Singin’ in the Rain (No. 1)

by Dennis Polifroni

(U.S.A. 1952 103 min.) DVD

p. Arthur Freed  d. Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen  w. Betty Comden, Adolf Green  m. Nacio Herb Brown  lyrics. Arthur Freed  ph. Harold Rosson  e. Adrienne Fazan  art. Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell

Gene Kelly (Don Lockwood), Debbie Reynolds (Kathy Seldon), Donald O’Connor (Cosmo Brown), Jean Hagan (Lina Lamont), Millard Mitchell (R. F. Simpson), Rita Moreno (Zelda Zanders), Douglas Fowley (Roscoe Dexter), King Donovan (Publicity Head), Judy Landon (Olga Mara), Madge Blake (Radio Interviewer), Cyd Charisse (Dream Girl/Gun Moll)

It really is an iconic moment when you think about it…

The protagonist struts out of a doorway and onto an open-air set that fans out to the entire expanse of the film frame.  Smiling, he strolls past the camera with a slight spring in his step.  The slow appearance of a curl that will lead to a big smile begins to grow on his face the way a weed would grow in the presence of many a rainy night.  He continues to stroll, the happiness of his day has lead to his evening and the man begins to hum.

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Beauty and the Beast (No. 25)

by Dennis Polifroni and Sam Juliano

When Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast opened in November of 1991, the New York Times’ famed theatre critic Frank Rich called it “the best Broadway musical of the year” even though the object of his praise was not a play, but a movie.   Fully stocked with melodic music and Busby Berkeley-styled show stopping tunes, the film did indeed invite comparison with the Broadway shows of old and musically eclipsed anything that was being done on the Great White Way at that time and several years hence.  The second release in the ‘Disney Renaissance’ that began in 1989 with The Little Mermaid, and ended in 1999 with Tarzan, the Gary Trousdale-Kirk Wise-directed feature was a major triumph of traditional animation and computer-generated imagery.   The celebrated score by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken is the most vital ingredient in the film’s success, as it represents the high water mark of their musical collaboration, wedding energy and audacity with lyrical felicity and melodic invention.  Rising to the demands of the story’s emotional underpinnings, composer Menken wrote some of his most ravishing melodies, and lyricist Ashman responded with his own measure of poetry.  Ashman, who died from AIDS complications eight months before the film released, never got to see the resurrection of a genre that had in large measure laid dormant for decades.  Ashman, who wrote the lyrics for The Little Mermaid, also provided the words for four songs that were used in the final cut of Aladdin, releasing in 1992.  But while the interest in musicals were beginning to take hold with those films, Ashman never could have imagined where he would be taking the genre with Beauty and the Beast.  By many critics’ accounts, Beauty and the Beast is the musical by which all modern musicals are now measured.

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Frankenstein (1931, dir. James Whale) • Fixing a Hole: Universal Horror Month

“Fixing a Hole” is a new series, edited and sometimes written by Joel Bocko, whose sole purpose is to review films that have not yet been covered on Wonders in the Dark. Every month has its own theme, and October 2011 is “Universal Horror.”  While Joel selected all the titles, he has assigned certain films to guest writers.

This first essay is by one such guest – a “?” in the spirit of the film being reviewed.

•

Frankenstein (1931/United States/directed by James Whale)

stars Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Dwight Frye

written by Francis Edward Faragoh, Garrett Fort, Robert Florey, John Russel, from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel and Peggy Webling’s play • photographed by Arthur Edeson • designed by Charles D. Hall • music by Bernhard Kaun • makeup by Jack P. Pierce

The Story: On a dark and stormy night, lightning strikes, Dr. Frankenstein flips the switch, and his monstrous creation stirs – “It’s Aliiiiiiiiiiive!”

_____________

Dead Man Walkin’

Usually, I’m the first one to say that the visuals are the key.  Toss out the writer.  Who cares about the actors?  Damn the composer and the sound men.  The rulers of the roost are the ones in charge of what we see.  King Director.  Vice President Cinematographer.  Let’s not forget about the good citizen production designers and editors.  As a fine artist (I paint and draw, sculpt on occasion), I’m immediately drawn into a film by what is SEEN.  My feelings about everything are informed by my eye and, more often than not, the story and the characters are secondary to what the visuals can do to me.  For me, it’s the visual world a movie can create, more than anything, which grabs me.

Visuals. This is my connection, my relationship with film that almost acts like a direct blood line in a personal heritage.  I feel that I am tied directly to film because I CAN create visual art.  My connection to film is a tether because I know what (slightly) the artist (director) goes through during his creative process (and, if it’s a true vision, you can bet your last nickel that it’s full of blood and sweat and neurosis).  I look at film the same way many look at paintings or sculpture in an art museum or gallery presentation and allow the visual to stir me from the outside into the inner parts of my mind and soul.  I have rallied behind recent films like Road to Perdition and Minority Report and Boogie Nights and sang their praises because, beyond everything else, their visuals are what made them transportive experiences.  I cheer for the film that can take me to another place and time and this can only be truly done by what is seen.  These worlds can be from times forgotten long ago or, perhaps, from places only found in the imagination and taking place a million light years away.

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Little Shop of Horrors (No. 55)

by Dennis Polifroni

(U.S.A. 1986 94mins) DVD

Downtown. Where your life’s a joke.

p. David Geffen d. Frank Oz w. Howard Ashman lyrics. Howard Ashmanm. Alan Menken score. Miles Goodman p. Robert Paynter e. John Jympsen art. Steve Spence, Roy Walker

Rick Moranis (Seymour Krelborne), Ellen Green (Audrey), Vincent Gardenia (Mr. Mushnik), Steve Martin (Orin Scrivello, DDS), Tichina Arnold (Ronette), Michelle Weeks (Shirelle),Tisha Campbell (Crystal), Jim Belushi (Patrick Martin), Christopher Guest (Florist Customer), Miriam Margoyles (Nurse), Bill Murray (Arthur Denton), John Candy (Wink Wilkenson),Levi Stubbs (voice of Audrey II)

It’s really hard to believe that prior to THE LITTLE MERMAID anyone knew who the hell Howard Ashman and Alan Menken were. Starting with that little gem based on the Hans Christian Anderson story, this duo song-writing team took home six consecutive Oscars in the categories of Best Original Song and Music Score for their work on three back-to-back Disney animated films (THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ALADDIN) and, in one glorious foul swoop, made themselves a household name. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, basically, ushered in a whole new interest in the film musical and reminded everyone seeing these films what a Broadway show was like without ever having to step foot near Times Square. They borrowed from many (in the case of BEAST it was Busby Berkeley) and turned what they liked so much about popular music into their own. Big band jazz (ALADDIN), Karen Carpenter (THE LITTLE MERMAID) and hints of Max Steiner (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) were all evident in their work and it had viewers from around the world not only embracing every phrase, flourish and lyric, but loving the familiarity they brought to each song. Surely, this was a matter of two guys just being in the right place at the right time and giving it everything they got to a company desperate to regain the old glories of the 30’s and 40’s that happened with films like PINOCCHIO, BAMBI and SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Two true originals were busting out into the sun-light and two newbies in the music world were born.

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The Nightmare Before Christmas (No. 61)

by Dennis Polifroni

(U. S. 1993) DVD/Blu-Ray

Dr. Seuss meets Frankenstein as performed by the Metropolitan Opera

p. Denise DiNovi, Tim Burton  d. Henry Selick  w. Caroline Thompson,
Micheal McDowell, Joe Ranft  poem/designs. Tim Burton
m/songs. Danny Elfman  ph. Pete Kozachik  art. Dean Taylor  ed. Stan Webb

Danny Elfman (Jack Skellington-singing voice), Chris Sarandon (Jack Skellinton-dialogue), Catharine O’Hara (Sally), William Hickey (Dr. Finklestein), Glen Shadix (Mayor), Danny Elfman (Lock), Catharine O’Hara (Shock), Paul Reubens (Barrel), Ed Ivory (Santa Claus), Ken Paige (Oogie Boogie)

An iris slowly opens and a crooked scarecrow appears, clinging to its post.  A leaf strewn gust of wind turns the straw-man on its hitch and the pumpkin-headed specter of the fields points with an outstretched, wooden, knobby finger.  He beckons and suggests a path we might not readily take.  The path is towards a dark place and the ghosts that seemingly rise from nowhere, jelly-like apparitions with deep black holes for eyes, begin to chant.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thumpaaaa.  Thump!

But, what’s this?  MUSIC?

It’s here that all fears and feelings of uneasiness drag slowly away like a corpse towards dissipation and we find ourselves in a town square.  The squares designs are a combination of cartoonist Charles Addams and the architectural masters of German Expressionism.  An assortment of ghouls and creatures that lay dormant till night jump for joy and sing, like a chorus of children rowdy from too much sugar and games heavy with competition, glee filled and anxious.  This is music of celebration, a chorus of affirmation, and the excitement in the singers voices signify the congratulations wished upon each other for jobs well done.   It is a social celebration of a community that has pulled together in a joint effort.

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Anticipating ‘The Tree of Life’

  By Dennis Polifroni

    
Right around this time of year, as it often happens, the film year begins
to rev up and start strutting its stuff in anticipation for a big movie summer.
Amidst the kiddie garbage that dots this season coming, many a big-time director
decides to alleviate the tension by unleashing their newest project on an
unsuspecting film-going world.  For every ten TRANSFORMER and FAST AND THE
FURIOUS franchise dud that surfaces, often the work of an inspired director
slips in and bowls us over.  Spielberg often saves us from the doldrums of the
season (his upcoming LINCOLN biography starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field
has movie hounds salivating with anticipation), and PIXAR seems to never let
most of us down (particularly if we have children in the house) but, rarely,
does the work of a reclusive genius rear its head towards us with the promise of
something truly special.

Terrence Malick is a slow mover in the same vein of the late, great Stanley
Kubrick.  His work takes time and his work habits are methodical and as paced as
a great thinkers should be.  Taking his time to perfect and make perfect every
frame of film that will click at 24 a second, his films often show themselves as
works of inspired intelligence that were truly worth the wait. 

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Oscar Predictions with Dennis and Sam

 

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6. Nosferatu

PART I: OVERTURE

In his public life, my Grandfather, Carmine (father to my father) was a jack of all trades.  He was proficient in carpentry (a skill taught to him in his early teens by his future father-in-law), plumbing, and running a small farm in the yard of the house he grew up in (mainly chickens, ducks, a few hogs and a milking cow).  He married my Grandmother at a very early age (she was thirteen to his nineteen) and they immigrated to America , from Italy , in 1901… Al Smith was the very popular Governor of New York from the years 1918 to 1928.  On that final year he ran, unsuccessfully, for the Presidency and was bested by Herbert Hoover.  In lieu of his loss and knowing of his want to go back to some kind of work, the heads of a new company, Empire State Inc., saw fit, as a publicity stunt, to make the most popular man in New York the President of their company and to overlook the building of what would become THE definitive landmark of Manhattan Island.

Carmine had worked for Governor Smith for several years, keeping the repairs and up-keep of Tammany Hall (where Governor Smith kept his offices in Manhattan) and the reliance’s that Smith had placed upon my Grandfather during his employment were growing greater and greater with each passing day (sometimes he even chauffeured, as he did the day the Governor, his wife and two grandkids were to meet motored over to the Budweiser wagons the day after prohibition was declared over and the public celebration of its repeal could commence on 34th street). Smith trusted my Grandfather and Carmine trusted Smith. According to my Grandmother’s stories of her husband; they knew they were going to “take a ride on easy street” the day the former Governor, a man my Grandfather deemed his friend, named Carmine his head superintendent of the Empire State Building.  Almost immediately, money started to flow bigger on the way to my Grandfather’s pocket.  Savings were made and, by 1954, my Grandparents had not only weathered the wrath of the Great Depression and the onslaught and conclusion of WWII without much muss to the head, but put away enough to never truly worry about bills and the want for anything.  They weren’t necessarily rich, but well-off to say the very least and, in that year, they bought the family house, a Brownstone.  My Grandfather retired from his work with The Empire State company in the spring of 1968 (Smith had died of heartbreak and heart failure years earlier in 1944 at age 70), a little more than a year after my birth.

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