#237 The Birth of a Nation (1915)

**

Director: D.W. Griffith

Cast: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, Mary Alden, Ralph Lewis, George Siegmann, Walter Long, Robert Harron, Wallace Reid

Appropriately described as one of the most revered and reviled films of all time, The Birth of a Nation is a film we simply wish to discard despite its groundbreaking stylistic and technical elements. Based on a rather racist play by Thomas Dixon entitled "The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan," the film spans from a pre-Civil War era, through Lincoln's assassination, to a post-war age where racial rivalry is at its peak. Showing African Americans in the worst light with the most blaring racial stereotypes, the film dually functions as a piece of racist propaganda, suggesting that their rise to liberty was the downfall of Aryian civilization. Showing Klan members parading in on stallions to a song of victory, murdering "crazed" blacks all along the way, certainly makes the film's standpoint clear, and sickeningly so.

Despite the horrors that this film projects, it simultaneously offers some of the greatest leaps and advancements made by any film. It is often said that this is the pioneer motion picture to define modern cinema, being the first to include key shots such as match-on-action, shot-reverse-shot, and even camera techniques such as tracking.

The three hour long drama is widely-debated and of course rightfully controversial, and I by no means would suggest the film is any form of pleasant viewing. The sick feeling it will leave in your stomach is probably not worth its historical significance to the artistry of film. But nevertheless, if you are persistent on seeing where it all started (or are just pursuing a crazy goal of watching all 1001 like me), try to prepare yourself for what is sure to be, however relevant, a difficult viewing experience.

#236 Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

***

Director: Mervyn Leroy

Cast: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks, Ginger Rogers

An imaginative, comedic, and even politically-pointed musical comes in the form of Gold Diggers of 1933. The film is essentially the story of a few young showgirls who are struggling to keep food on the table by any means–stealing milk from the neighbor, begging for jobs, and even canoodling with wealthy men. When one of the girls, Polly Parker (Keeler), falls for the musician across the alley, Brad (Powell), the women are surprised to find he is not only talented and kind, but he also happens to conveniently be from an extremely wealthy Boston family (only in Hollywood, I swear!). Providing music for the girls' latest musical (and even volunteering to be a stand-in when the leading man hurts his back), Brad is able to formally court and become engaged to Polly. When Brad's family finds out about his relationship and on-stage escapades, his brother chooses to intervene.

However, when the brother mistakes Polly's roommate Carol for Polly, he offends the wrong person when he calls showgirls cheap and vulgar. To seek her revenge, Carol enlists their friend Trixie to continue to dupe the brother (and the family lawyer) into falling for their false affections and also into buying them tons of lavish gifts. With Brad and Polly in on the joke, they even trick the brother into thinking he has drunkenly made love with Carol, and to "pay her off," he writes a check for 10k. It's only when Carol's true identity is revealed that we find that these two characters have real affection for one another.

The film includes four extraordinary stage productions, all coordinated by Busby Berkeley. Highlights include a sparkling rendition of "We're in the Money," light-up violins playing "Shadow Waltz," and the sparked-with-politics "Remember My Forgotten Man." Forgotten Man demonstrates the difficulties for the men and women during the depression, taking into account the veteran's of WWI whose owed-admiration was already being tossed aside.

The film is short, funny, and takes drastic plot twists. The musical numbers are quite segregated from the film, though brilliantly directed and performed, and interesting as well for their strong hard-hitting political statements. A light, easy watch.

#235 Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)

*****

Director: Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola

Cast: Francis Ford Coppola, Eleanor Coppola, Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, George Lucas, Dennis Hopper, Sam Bottoms, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne

A brief look into the making of Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola's epic, ruinous masterpiece that immediately followed his success with parts I and II of the Godfather trilogy. This documentary includes footage, diary entries, and sound recordings collected by Coppola's wife, Eleanor, all chronicling the making of the film.

Filmed on location in the Philippines, Coppola brought his entire family along with an enormous Hollywood production team to shoot the film over the course of what was supposed to be only a few weeks. Instead, it turned into years of filming and editing, with endless disaster: financial, physical, and emotional. Dealing with typhoons, firing main actors, the jungle conditions, the Philippine army warding off rebels, a heart attack, an overweight, unprepared Brando, placing all of his personal assets up for collateral to cover the new budget, and Coppola and his wife seriously both teetering on the edge of total insanity, the documentary focuses on the overwhelming obstacles behind the final product.

Despite all these obvious hurdles, some of the most interesting moments of the film were the views into Coppola's struggle with his own faith in the film's outcome. Often staying awake for days on end, personally re-writing the script, making up new scenes, and basically winging it, Coppola's methods during the shoot can only be described as feverish intoxication. His wife was able to capture via sound byte (unbeknownst to Francis at the time) much of his insecurities about the project turning out. Footage of Francis obsessively working and smoking cigarettes over a typewriter, giving actors' inspiring character direction, along with general interviews about his "artistic vision" for the project brought me back to memories of my own creative fever in the past. It made me wonder why I ever stopped craving that, and at the same time, I felt relief to not have a life full of such anxiety anymore.

Regardless, it's a great documentary to go hand-in-hand with viewing Apocalypse Now, and I highly recommend it. If it does not, on some level, inspire you then I truly question your being alive at all. It's really that grand.

#234 The Red Shoes (1948)

****

Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Cast: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine, Albert Bassermann, Ludmilla Tchérina, Esmond Knight

This film chronicles the story of Victoria Page (Shearer), a girl discovered by a sharp-edged, stuffy ballet director for her raw passion for the art form. When his leading lady announces she plans to marry, Boris Lermontov (Walbrook), seeks his new star. Victoria's rise to stardom happens in tandom with a young composer who Boris also gives a chance, a young Julian Crasner (Goring). Together the trio put on one of the greatest ballets entitled "The Red Shoes,"which tells the story of a young girl's red dancing shoes which once put on, dance her to her death.

Unbeknownst to Boris, however, Page and Crasner fall in love, and it's then that Boris is forced to scheme a way to get back his star (with whom he is undeniably infatuated). The film slips off into a dreamy dance sequence of the ballet "The Red Shoes." It was this inner-film performance that set the stage for so many other films' long production numbers (think An American in Paris)! Beautifully performed, it not-so-surprisingly becomes a foreshadow of the real heroine's demise.

Recently having seen Black Swan in theatres, I can't help but draw a comparison between these two plot structures. Without the sex and special effects, we are taken on a similar ride through the ill-fated course of a great, recently-discovered dancer. Also, over the summer, I read Anna Karenina, which I, again, can't help but draw connections to from this film. The allusions and inspirations preceding and following this film seem endless, and it's not hard to understand why. A must-see for any dancer, but also well-worth anyone's time who can appreciate stage-style performance.

#233 Diner (1982)

****

Director: Barry Levinson

Cast: Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Tim Daly, Ellen Barkin, Paul Reiser, Kathryn Dowling, Michael Tucker, Jessica James

A bunch of college-age buddies gather together at the Fells Point Diner to shoot the shit until sunrise in the winter of 1959. Walking into the scene, you know they are the regulars: hollering at the waitress and looking as comfy in the booth as they might in their own beds. The group of six chums, despite their individual trials (an upcoming marriage, a pregnant friend with benefits, a gambling problem, a marriage going stale), the camaraderie between the guys remains the solid baseline of the film's plot.

Supposedly a semi-autobiographical account of director and writer Levinson's own experiences, the film's mini-plots are almost entirely irrelevant. The mood of the film is truly its core: nostalgia and the nerves that accompany a coming-of-age period. Supposedly, all of the scenes shot in the diner were saved for last after the cast had had time to get to know one another on a comfortable level– a clever move by Levinson to bring genuinity to the scenes. It's more fair to call the film a series of comedic vignettes as opposed to a full-on narrative, which only heightens the nostalgic sensation. Their memories become ours.

Although I am by no means a horny man with 6 best friends in 1959, I am nevertheless a post-college girl with a fond diner history of my own. The film is merely a popcorn, feel-good comedy, but with the heart that most of these 80s era movies also inexplicably pack. Safe for repeated viewing, and in fact, I even encourage it.

#232 A Star Is Born (1954)

****

Director: George Cukor

Cast: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson, Charles Bickford, Tommy Noonan, Lucy Marlow, Amanda Blake, Irving Bacon, Hazel Shermet

Esther Blodgett (Garland) is a small-town girl who has worked her whole life toward making it big. When she finally makes it to a touring gig with a live orchestra, she gratefully bides her time while she awaits "the big dream." But her big break comes in a most unexpected form: the famous actor, Norman Maine (Mason), now working his way to the bottom through the habit of heavy drinking, sees something special in Esther. Together, they jumpstart her career into full-on stardom, celebrating their union in marriage along the way.

But while it was a beginning for the duo, it was the end of something else for Norman. As his career continues to plummet, his drinking continues to escalate. When Esther decides to leave her career to be by his side during recovery, Maine takes matters into his own hands.

The film is vibrant and inventive, and Garland's performance of "The Man That Got Away" was something I've been long overdue to experience. (Her 1961 comeback performance of that song has been spun as one of my favorite records for a few years now.) For its time, this film was one of the most expensive ever made by Warner Bros., however, it unfortunately will never be seen in its original form again. While it was released with astounding interest, 30 minutes were evidently butchered out of the film to shorten its run-time at the suggestion of some east-coast moneymen. And though the soundtrack remained in the Warner Bros. vaults, the footage was never recovered. Eventually the film was "restored" with stills and the original soundtrack running... I knew something was fishy when that long stretch of stills and montage ran after the first hour. This portion of the film is actually somewhat awkward and unsettling.

Still, on many occasions, I felt like this film was truly just a stage for Judy Garland to showcase her talents. The surrounding narrative, though at times extremely heavy, at times still seems toss-away against her musical performances.

Frankly, despite Judy's odd facial expressions and over-plucked technicolor look... and despite the somewhat obvious cheap-shots to stick in a song... I loved the film. A great classic musical to rival all others. Judy Garland enthusiasts... must-see.

On another interesting note: this film and the film I watched just prior, Apocalypse Now, both quote the same T.S. Eliot poem within their scripts. In Apocalypse Now, the insane photojournalist via Dennis Hopper quotes, "This is the way the fucking world ends. Look at this fuckin' shit we're in, man. Not with a bang, but with a whimper, and with a whimper, I'm fucking splitting, Jack." In A Star is Born, Mr. Libby quotes the same line when referencing the end of Norman Maine's career, "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper."

#231 Apocalypse Now (1979)

*****

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Cast: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Albert Hall, Harrison Ford, Dennis Hopper

During the Vietnam War, Captain Benjamin Willard (Sheen) is prescribed a dangerous and top-secret mission to track down and terminate the command of a certain Colonel Kurtz (Brando)... with extreme prejudice. Having gone renegade in Cambodia, Kurtz is believed to have made himself a god to the natives, carrying out murderous and insane practices under the command of no one but himself. Captain Willard faces a harrowing journey of both the physical horrors of war as well the mental/emotional, as he battles with his own renegade feelings, doubts of authority and waning dedication to "the cause."

Setting aside all of the details of the creation of this film, (which I believe are very much a part of what makes this film so fascinating), Apocalyse Now is already an epic masterpiece. Perhaps one of my favorite films of this project so far, (having viewed a number of war epics for this project already), I am stricken and entranced by the way Coppola has chosen to remove the story from "the horrors of nam" to simply the madness of war. The ethereal take on the opening and end portions of the film provide a trance-like view into the fog of psychosis surrounding the organized execution of a nationwide mass-murder mission.

Some of the most intense moments of the film were those which were unplanned, unedited, and unscripted. Sheen's tirade alone his room at the film's start was merely Coppola letting the cameras run as Sheen drunkenly stumbled and threatened the film staff. Brando's shadow mystery (and strongest line "You're just an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill") were all unintentional due to Brando's unpreparedness for the shoot. Some of the most captivating wreckage and violence were the result of an unexpected typhoon which devastated most of the sets, and the murderous slaughter of the bull... was real.

A very powerful film, which now added to my dossier, will no doubt be on regular rotation. Also, looking forward to someday soon reading the book The Making of Apocalypse Now by Peter Cowie. From what I've already sampled, the story of this picture's filming seems intense.