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Sergei Eisenstein, one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, was also a brilliant plastic artist. His thousands and thousands of drawings are superb–as are the hundreds of homoerotic drawings he made for his own amusement, never meant for publication. In this video, the homoerotic references in Eisenstein’s films are examined and explored in ways that they never had been before.Read More »
Synopsis:
Documentary essay about actor John Garfield. A rebel, but also sexy and Jewish. Discusses his work in film and theater, as well as his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee.Read More »
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Despite its many connotations, black and whte is most frequently used to signify the past––especially the past ihabited by our parents and grandparents, which we can see in old movies but never experience directly. A highly intelligent commentary on this phenomenon is independent filmmaker Mark Rappaport’s EXTERIOR NIGHT, made for high-definition color TV (HDTV) which combines original color imagery with archival footage of sets or backgrounds from THE MALTESE FALCON, THE BIG SLEEP, MILDRED PIERCE, POSSESSED, DARK PASSAGE, THE FOUNTAINHEAD, YOUND MAN WITH A HORN, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, and a score of other black-and-white movies. Using a blue-screen technique, Rappaport and HDTV cameraman Serge Roman frequently pose contemporary actors against studio nightclubs and streets from the 1940s.Read More »
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The new film by Mark Rappaport, which spans René Magritte and Michelangelo to Bonnie & Clyde. Let’s mask up to rob a bank! But make sure that you are home before the curfew.Read More »
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Near Munich, in Bavaria, Germany, is the Schleißheim Palace, where French filmmaker Alain Resnais shot his film Last Year at Marienbad in 1960. Nearby is the Dachau concentration camp, where thousands of people were killed between 1933 and 1945. An essay about the present and the past, beauty and horror, life and death.Read More »
Autotranslated description:
Joan Crawford’s close-up in HUMORESQUE. Michelangelo’s David and Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus”. Stendhal was overwhelmed by the cultural overstimulation in Florence, which Graziella Magherini described scientifically in 1979 as Stendhal syndrome. Mark Rappaport describes his fascination for the Austrian actor Turhan Bey, who made a career in exotic roles in Hollywood in the 1940s. A very personal essay about the effect of close-ups, the canvas idols of the dream factory and the role of their admirers and fans.
(Stefan Drössler)Read More »
Autotranslated description:
Scenes from New York in the 1960s. Four young people, friendship, jealousy, separation. Filmed in black and white, with an agile camera, without dialogue. Mark Rappaport’s early work was shot in 16mm on superimposed film material. Mark Rappaport’s instruction to the light controller in the “Movielab” copier: “Scenes are overexposed. Please try hard to get this to look good.” The camera and optical sound negative was found by Rick Prelinger. The Munich Film Museum has digitized it and redefined it. Sound disturbances at the beginning of the film and image damage at the end of the film are due to water damage.
(Stefan Drössler)Read More »
Mark Rappaport’s creative bio-pic about actress Jean Seberg is presented in a first-person, autobiographical format (with Seberg played by Mary Beth Hurt). He seamlessly interweaves cinema, politics, American society and culture, and film theory to inform, entertain, and move the viewer. Seberg’s many marriages, as well as her film roles, are discussed extensively. Her involvement with the Black Panther Movement and subsequent investigation by the FBI is covered. Notably, details of French New Wave cinema, Russian Expressionist (silent) films, and the careers of Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, and Clint Eastwood are also intensively examined. Much of the film is based on conjecture, but Rappaport encourages viewers to re-examine their ideas about women in film with this thought-provoking picture.Read More »
[google translate]
“I was a star waiting to be born.” Anna Sten, actress in Russian silent films and early German sound films. She should become a star like Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich. Sam Goldwyn had that in mind with a lot of money and publicity. In 1934 Anna Sten has a leading role as Nana, the starting signal for a Hollywood career that never happened. ANNA / NANA / NANA / ANNA: actor name, role, film title, novel. How many nanas did we see on the screen? And with what meaning is the name Nana now charged? From Anna Stens Nana to Anna Karinas Nana S. in Godard’s VIVRE SA VIE – things are going badly for all Nanas.
(Martina Müller)Read More »