Ramblings and Miscellany

Happy Birthday, Orson Welles.

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:03:20 -0400

Actor, director and frozen pea spokesperson Orson Welles would have been 98 years old today. While Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) may be one of the most important American films of all time, I have always been fascinated with his shadowy role in Carol Reed’s postwar thriller, The Third Man (1948). Welles’ impact on the film (and the character of Harry Lime) has become almost mythic. Many critics refer to the film as “Graham Greene, Carol Reed and Orson Welles’ classic film.” Almost mirroring his character’s exaggerated importance in the film (Lime is only in a 1/3 of the film but is talked about throughout), Welles seems to have an exaggerated importance in the making of the film.

Oh, that impish smile!

“The traditional approach to The Third Man aligns the audience’s sympathies with the sympathies of Anna. Harry Lime, a figure who stoops so low as to steal medicine from children and replace it with a harmful substitute, is seemingly forgiven solely because of his charm. Lying, stealing, even endangering the lives of children are nothing compared to that charm. The character was so appealing that Orson Welles reprised his role as the enigmatic racketeer in a series of radio prequels that chronicled the early adventures of Harry Lime” (The Lasting Influence of the War on Postwar British Film 93).

I consider the importance of American expatriates (in The Third Man and Night in the City) and put forward a reading of a distinct British film noir in The Lasting Influence of the War on Postwar British Film, published by Palgrave Macmillan. It’s available on Amazon (Canada, US, and UK). Or, request your local public library to order it.

My goddaughter, Delphine, reading.

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:52:39 -0400

My goddaughter, Delphine, reading.

Today, in 1413, Henry V was crowned King of England.

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:13:23 -0400

Today, in 1413, Henry V was crowned King of England.

Children and Postwar Dickens Adaptations

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:00:00 -0400

“The British worried about how children who had been evacuated would develop into adulthood and whether parents and the social system could raise these children. The Dickens novels [Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and A Christmas Carol] provide fruitful source material for stories about neglected children and cruel or ineffectual parental figures. I have opted for the term “parental figures” as it more accurately represents the characters we encounter in these films. Not all are literal parents, but rather surrogate or substitute parents: uncles, sisters, grandparents, teachers, Workhouse administration. In British society, these concerns are addressed most clearly in the groundbreaking psychoanalytic work of D.W. Winnicott, as well as that of the Sub-Committee of the Women’s Group on Public Welfare’s 1946-47 “Study on the Neglected Child,” which came out of the government-sponsored Curtis Report. All four Dickens films concern children who are abandoned, orphaned and/or neglected by parents and parental figures. There is also a sustained scrutiny of unfit parental figures: either “weak” parental figures, who, however kind and loving, are ultimately unable to adequately care for, or protect, their children, or ruthless, abusive, and cruel “negligent” parental figures. In choosing to adapt these particular Dickensian narratives, the filmmakers foreground concern for children and reflect the growing distrust and distance between adults and youth in postwar Britain” (The Lasting Influence of the War on Postwar British Film, 146).

Magwitch holds Pip, David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946)

Pip hides from his sister and “Tickler”, Great Expectations (1946).

The Squeers’ school, Cavalcanti’s Nicholas Nickleby, (1947).

Deborah Kerr

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:06:05 -0400

“[M]ost of Kerr’s distinct features are covered by her costume. The nun’s habit hides all but Kerr’s face, which must, as a result of the confining costume, bear the weight of her performance. Her face must express the whole of her screen identity: her strength of character and independence, as well as her vulnerability, her desire, and her uncertainty. The wimple acts as a kind of costume close up, like an iris shot: the white that surrounds her face serves to emphasize her expressions while hiding the rest of her.” (The Lasting Influence of the War on Postwar British Film, 42).

The lovely Ms. Kerr

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:21:19 -0400

Michael Powell directs Deborah Kerr and Roger Livesay in The Archers’ wartime masterpiece The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

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Guinness

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:03:00 -0400

Stuart Freeborn transforms Alec Guinness into the pickpocket Fagin for David Lean’s Oliver Twist (1948). The make up, modeled closely on George Cruikshank’s original illustrations, and Guinness’s characterization were considered anti-Semitic by many. The film was banned in Israel (and in Egypt because, ironically, of the sympathetic portrayal of Fagin). When the film was finally released in the US in 1951, seven minutes of Guinness’s performance were trimmed.

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Alec Guinness

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:51:00 -0400

“Guinness can be anyone: Victorian Jew, Arabian sheik, Russian general, or Jedi master…By transforming from one character to another, Guinness suggests that there might be nothing behind the identity of middle-class masculinity, and that it is all just a façade. These performances highlight the performative nature of Guinness, subtly reminding the audience of the elusiveness of Guinness and the characters for which he stands.”

Michael W. Boyce, The Lasting Influence of the War on Postwar British Film, 50.

Lady Killers (1955)

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 09:33:00 -0400

Great publicity photo for Alexander Mackendrick’s dark comedy, The Lady Killer (1955). Gotta love those teeth on Alec Guinness.

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A long time ago, we used to be friends One of the most rewarding...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:53:00 -0400

A long time ago, we used to be friends

One of the most rewarding things about being a teacher is introducing students to literature, films and television that become meaningful to them. It doesn’t always work out this way - I still tie myself up in knots over the Doctor Who debacle - but when it does work, it’s magical.

Back in January, I introduced the students in my Television Studies class to Rob Thomas’s Veronica Mars. Everyone liked the show; many of them have since watched the whole series. Today, the Veronica Mars movie has been confirmed.

In my media studies persona, this announcement highlights a number of academic-y questions: the future implications of fan-generated movie financing, the adaptation of television narratives to film, the film industry’s general obliviousness to the television industry.

In my fan-boy persona, I’m just happy to reconnect with Veronica.

This is my friend, Dana. She just beat breast cancer AND bought my book!

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:19:06 -0500

This is my friend, Dana. She just beat breast cancer AND bought my book!

An early morning walk.

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:22:08 -0500

An early morning walk.

Know thyself.

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:21:34 -0500

shitmystudentswrite:

Alfred Hitchcock was a master at making Hitchcock films.

What's the matter with bigamy?!?

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:51:01 -0500

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This weekend's actual viewing

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 10:42:27 -0500

No complaints.

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With any luck,

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 10:39:37 -0500

This weekend’s viewing.

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Merry Christmas, Baby

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 13:24:00 -0500

So decided to repost this list of favourite holiday films from my old blog.

These are, in no particular order films (feature length, mind you; perhaps this year I will finely do my top Christmas television special list) that I try to watch every holiday season. Some will be the classics that appear on everyone’s list, some will be hidden treasure that you’ve never heard of before.

1) Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944) I love Preston Sturges movies and The Lady Eve might just be the best comedy ever made. Miracle is a great holiday movie because it’s so wonderfully, shockingly subversive! It’s about a girl, Trudy Kockenlocker (how did that name get by the censors?), who goes to a GI dance with her friend, Norval Jones. Well, Trudy has such a good time that she winds up married and pregnant… but has no idea who the father might be. Norval steps up and tries to do the right thing. It all comes to a head at Christmas … a fitting time for a young girl who’s been unexpectedly knocked up to deliver her “miracle” child.

2) It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) This classic film deserves every iota of praise. A truly inspired reinterpretation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol with George Bailey, a good and honest man who has placed the interests of others ahead of himself, believing that his life has been misspent. This film reveals the fragility of life - suggesting that one person could make the difference between a whole community’s happiness/success and misery. This is my advisor’s favourite movie of all time, and the fact that he lost a job at a prestigious American university because he unrelentingly defended this film when someone’s wife dismissed it as sentimental nonsense makes me proud.

3) Scrooge (aka A Christmas Carol) (1951) Many versions of Dickens’ ghost story of Yuletide redemption have been made over the years, but this is the definitive. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an absolute moron. I feel as deeply and passionately about this film as any other. I usually watch it three or four times a year and can recite most of the dialogue from memory. One of the great joys and proudest moments of my dissertation has been working this film into a highly praised chapter on Dickens adaptations.

4 & 5) About a Boy (2002) and Love Actually (2003) I can’t imagine there are many other people with two Hugh Grant films on their must-see holiday lists, but both of these films are great Christmas movies. In About a Boy Grant’s character is haunted by his father’s very popular, but ultimately innocuous Christmas song, “Santa’s Super Sleigh”. All but rejecting the holiday, he holes himself up in his apartment watching Frankenstein until he learns that family can be about a community you choose. In Love Actually Grant is one of a dozen or so actors whose intertwined stories portray the highs and lows of the holiday season.

6) Santa Claus (1959) I’m pretty sure I could only ever sit through the “Mystery Science Theatre 3000” version of this piece of Mexican yule-poo (that’s for you, Kyler). I recently inflicted this on some friends… and I’m not sure they’ll ever forgive me. Basic premise: Santa and his multinational child labourers battle the devil, Pitch, who tries to convince children to steal, vandalize and be naughty. You read that right. Santa fights the devil. I’m sure it’s going for “quaint,” but it hits “creepy” nearly every single time. Particularly disturbing are the giant toy reindeer that pull Santa’s sleigh, Pitch’s Busby Berkleyesque dancing, and most of Santa’s facial expressions.

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For this weekend's viewing

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:38:10 -0500

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A sign of the impending animal revolution.

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 18:17:32 -0500

A sign of the impending animal revolution.

Got this very nice review of the book from a former student....

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:55:00 -0500

Got this very nice review of the book from a former student. And, to clarify: yes, I did have my stiff upper lip removed in childhood… along with my compassion.