Hello, Friends!
En route to Atlanta, again. It’s good. I like the place. I have another week and change on the Aretha Franklin biopic ‘Respect.’ It’s actually been fun. Focused. Working with great people.
I’ve been thinking about film lately in a way I haven’t in a while. At least not as specifically. As art, with a context.
I’m not a film nerd. I’m not a film academic. I’m not an intellectual. I know some things that get me by and enable me to appreciate film in a deep way with some historical context and some understanding of the medium and the art of it. I studied film in college, film criticism. I paid attention for a bit of it. I watched movies. I read some of the books, mostly. Over the years I’ve been able to expand my appreciation and understanding of art and film in a general way. I don’t seek out the art as much as I should or think I should.
A guy I kind of know, a fan of the podcast, a musician and film archivist, Peter Conheim, reached out to me about a program he was involved with. It’s a series at the UCLA Film and Television Archive called American Neorealism Part One: 1948-84. Peter has been reaching out to me for years with stuff. I’ve tried to wrap my brain around his band Negativeland and all the other stuff he does but it’s been hard. This seemed doable. Go to a movie at The Hammer Museum.
Peter had restored the film Spring Night, Summer Night by the director J.L. Anderson. I knew nothing about it. It has been called a lost masterpiece and this was the first time it was screened in the form the director wanted it to be in, maybe ever. It was made in ’67 and is basically an independent film with a convoluted history including being recut and released with lurid content to make it appealing at B-movie drive-ins. The process of getting it to this screening took 14 years.
I went to the screening which was well attended. The mission of the Archive is to save old films and television programs from disappearing forever. It is a life’s work for some people. Saving films and integrating them into the intellectual history of film and presenting them, making them available. Noble stuff.
The entire series is about establishing American Neorealism. I know a bit about Italian Neorealism, Rome Open City and The Bicycle Thief. I saw the movies. I did some of the reading. It was just the passion of the people involved in presenting and salvaging and celebrating the movie that I respected. It’s necessary for the survival of film as art but also for educating and inspiring appreciation which I sometimes forget.
It’s a dark, beautiful film. Obviously done on a tight budget with unknown and some non-actors. It had a rawness and energy to it that comes off the screen. It was a rare experience and I dug it. It rejiggered my intellectual appreciation of non-mainstream films from another time. It triggered all the buzz words from my limited art crit education: montage, mise en scène, new wave, etc.
I’m glad I went.
It also coincided with me screening Nashville by Robert Altman in preparation to talk to Lily Tomlin, my guest today. What an astounding movie. As are most of his films. Lily is an amazing woman. It was a real honor chatting with her. Thursday, I talk to Randall Park about his journey to acting and writing success. Great guy. Solid. Great talks.
Enjoy!
Love,
Maron