Some of Hong Sang-soo’s vibrant color palettes from The Power of Kangwon Province. Our complete Hong Sang-soo retrospective runs through June 19, 2016.
Five Things You Might Not Know about Sidney Poitier’s Early Years
Sidney Poitier is revered as the iconic African American actor who broke new ground as Hollywood’s first black leading man. As the Museum opens its nine-film Poitier retrospective, which runs April 9–17, 2016, here are five things you might not know about his early years, in his own words.
“I started my film career where the museum is now housed,” said Sidney Poitier, about his appearance in a short training film called From Whence Help Cometh, made in 1949, at the Astoria studio which was then in use by the U.S. Army Signal Corp.
"I'm going to go to Hollywood and become a cowboy," a young Sidney told his sister. Growing up in the Caribbean (on Cat Island and then in Nassau, Bahamas), Poitier watched a lot of American movies, many of them westerns, and he fell in love with them. His directorial debut in 1972 would be the revisionist western Buck and the Preacher.
“When I was very young, I came to New York. And I had no friends or relatives here so what I did to earn a living was I washed dishes a lot.” In those days, he looked for dishwashing jobs in the classified section of The Amsterdam News, where he one day stumbled upon an ad for “Actors Wanted.”
“I bought a radio. From that day on for six months solid, I listened to that radio every day, every night, when I wasn't at work.” His first audition with the American Negro Theater was a total disaster in part because of his strong Caribbean accent. “I intended to change my accent, so I listened to Americans speaking.”
“So I understudied for Harry Belafonte.” And when Belafonte did not show up in their first student production at the American Negro Theater, Poitier went on stage. A casting director in the audience then offered him a role in the Broadway production of Lysistrata.
These quotes come from a 1989 talk at the Museum featuring Poitier in conversation with Richard Koszarski, then the Museum’s senior curator of film, and historian Donald Bogle. This event took place just after MoMI feted Poitier at its fourth annual Salute (and the first one since it opened to the public in 1988). Read the whole transcript here.
Top image: Sidney Poitier in Edge of the City (1957)
Labyrinth is a film that has always meant a great deal to me personally. It feels particularly poignant to watch this film as we remember David Bowie. None of us who worked on Labyrinth will forget how kind Mr Bowie was to every person on this film. Whether dancing with the goblins or playing with baby Toby Froud, sharing a cigarette with my brother or having a pint in the studio pub, he was kind to everyone. We were so lucky that my father asked David to play Jareth and that he accepted. Brave man. Sometimes people forget that David wrote Jareth's songs. Performers on the closing song "Underground" include great musician friends of his like Chaka Khan and Luther Vandross. It was a great, fun film to make and he was an essential part of it. My mother said that Labyrinth was the most personal of my father's films. That may be because he had three daughters who he watched go through that transition from girl to woman. For me, this film is about choices. Watch out for all the many choices, bad and misguided, that Sarah makes. In some ways Jim struggled the most with the ending. In the final scene, when Sarah is putting away her childhood, she stops and sees her friends and realizes that she doesn't have to let it all go in order to grow up. Jim gives her permission to hold on to the part of her fantasy life that gives her emotional support, just not the part that obsesses and controls her. It is a message that could apply to any of us. Thank you for enjoying this film.
—Cheryl Henson
The Museum is presenting a special tribute screening of Labyrinth on Sunday, January 31, 2016 as part of its ongoing series Jim Henson’s World.
We have many dedicated members, but every once in a while a member surprises us with his devotion. When Samuel Rojas posted on Facebook that he had seen over 100 films at the museum, we knew we had a case of extreme cinephilia on our hands. Below is an interview with him about his moviegoing habits, favorite films, and more.
You've reached the 100 film mark: how does it feel to reach that milestone? What have been some of your favorite programs at the museum?
I am happy that many of the films in that number were outside of my normal purview, I pushed myself to see more films outside of my personal scope and the museum gives more than a few chances to experience some very unique works that aren't often available. I've loved the Halloween programs; it's pretty fun to see horror films around that time of the year. I think Halloween was the first film I went to see after I obtained my initial membership.
I love See It Big! too and it serves as a statement of sorts: you can see films at home in more than a few ways but watching in a house of cinema, designed for the sole purpose of film is something that can't be matched to this day.
The Mizoguchi retrospective was a major highlight; he was someone I was unfamiliar with and the body of work shown was fantastic!
How did you become interested in movies and moviegoing?
Just going to see movies like anyone else, I would always go with my Dad and he had a bunch of stuff recorded onto VHS tapes. He may have inadvertently set me on the path to being as enthusiastic about film as I am today.
Film serves as both a personal and collective experience. It allows the exploration of concepts and ideas that aren't easily explained in words, provides a medium for an individual to show their culture and country, and it gives your imagination multiple paths to travel.
How long have you been a member at the museum?
Since October 2013. The film programs coupled with the great theater (the small screening room is also quite nice) and the exhibits were more than enough to draw me in.
What are some of your favorite places to grab a bite or a drink around the neighborhood?
Sunswick has good beer and food. Further into Astoria, you'd also do well not to miss out on the abundance of Greek dishes.
What are some of your holy grail films or dream retrospectives?
There was a showing last year of Robocop; and I still can't quantify my joy. I shouted at the end because I have an immense love for that film, It's incredibly well written, directed, acted and designed—the total package. As much as it’s a commentary on violence, corporate influence, and the political atmosphere of the time, It is also about a ghost in a machine and allows itself to have a sense of humanity throughout.
A Tarkovsky retrospective is at the top of my list. The screening of Solaris last year was incredible.
What is your most prized cinephile possession?
My film posters!
What's a film you could watch on a loop endlessly?
Airplane.
Name the director you would most want to have dinner with.
John Carpenter. Maybe David Cronenberg would show up for dessert.
Other than going to the movies, what do you like to do for fun?
I go to concerts a lot throughout the year, one of my favorite venues is Saint Vitus bar in Brooklyn. Otherwise I read a ton and still have a decent stack of books to get to.
What's the one film or tv show that everyone should see before they die?
That's a big question, I can't give a definitive answer, but for a film I'd throw out The Face of Another, which I saw at the museum during a previous retrospective and left a serious impression on me. The television show is easy though: The Twilight Zone. Rod Serling was well ahead of his time and created something that was both entertaining and compelling.
Widely credited as the director who revolutionized Tamil-language cinema—an industry just as prolific as its far better known “Bollywood” Hindi-language cousin—Mani Ratnam is that rarest of film directors nowadays: an artist capable of making exquisitely crafted, hugely entertaining, yet intelligent and provocative films on a range of social and political issues. The false dichotomies that are used to categorize films—art vs. commercial cinema, entertainment vs. political filmmaking—disappear when one sees how easily Ratnam is able to combine aspects of all of them into his work.
Born into a film family—his father was a noted film distributor—Ratnam was sent off to study business in Mumbai, earning his degree in 1977 and landing a job with management firm soon after. But there was celluloid in his blood, and soon he drifted into film production, writing and directing his first film,Pallavi Anu Pallavi, in 1983. Although it fared poorly at the box office, his talent was definitely noted, and soon he had invitations from a number of producers to develop projects. His 1986 Mouna Ragamwas seen as a decisive new direction in Tamil cinema, with its closely observed tale of difficult first months of a newly-wed couple. That was followed by Nayakan (1987), Ratnam’s gloss on The Godfather, which became an enormous hit all over India and received three national film awards. Without any doubt, after Nayakan, Mani Ratnam was widely considered one of India’s leading directors, a position he managed to maintain for almost 30 years.
If one can sum up the special quality of Mani Ratnam’s work, it might be to think of it as tales of “innocents adrift.” So often Ratnam’s protagonists believe that the world is a better place than it actually is; the audience, sadly knowing more than the characters do (at least about this), feel sorry and even protective of them, knowing their eventual education won’t be long in coming—even if they get blown up in the process. A consummate craftsman himself, it is clear that Ratnam demands the absolute best from his collaborators, and it is no accident that so many of them would continue working for him for years.
Mani Ratnam is a treasure, and this program offers a rare opportunity to see his gorgeous films on the big screen, presented in 35mm.
—Richard Peña
Mani Ratnam wiil appear in person with his trilogy: Roja, Bombay, and Dil Se, as part of the Museum’s tribute Politics as Spectacle: The Films of Mani Ratnam.
Museum of the Moving Image mourns the passing of video game pioneer Ralph Baer (1922–2014). In 1966, Baer designed a prototype for an interactive digital game that could be played through a television receiver. This prototype, known as the “Brown Box,” was licensed by Magnavox and released in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first commercial home video game console. For this and other seminal contributions, Baer is known as the “father of video games.”
Read more about Baer and see examples of his work in the Museum’s collection here.
Photo: Ralph Baer with his "Brown Box" at the Museum on April 22, 2006. Credit: Brian Palmer
Annette Insdorf on Krzysztof Kieślowski's BLIND CHANCE
"Like most of Kieślowski's earlier feature films, Blind Chance, the director's third full-length feature, is a technically straightforward production, devoid of special effects. It was completed in 1981 on the eve of martial law and was immediately banned. It was finally released in 1986. Although not a political film, it nevertheless reflects the political reality of its time. Its significance lies in the philosophical exploration of chance in human existence, and the part we play in shaping our destinies through our ability to make conscious choices. However, more than just a fascinating account of how chance influences fate, Blind Chance brings up the question of how one ought to live."
Read the full article: Fate and Choice in Kieślowski's Blind Chance by Annette Insdorf
Blind Chance screens on Thursday, November 13 as part of the series Ways to Freedom: Polish Film and the Rise of Democracy.
Opening today at the museum is a new animation by the artist Ezra Wube. Commissioned especially for the Museum and organized by Jason Eppink, Associate Curator of Digital Media, the piece is based on present-day observations from Wube's personal experiences, walks and interactions around the museum's surrounding neighborhood. Here's a description from Wube about his process:
I began with the idea of walking in the four directions from the museum building (north, south, east, and west), to experience the area. To make the animation I painted scenes from memory and photographed them. Each frame was painted on top of the previous one, each scene triggering the following scene. Memory interests me, perhaps because of my own personal biography. Time and place are not static for me. I grew up in Ethiopia, and now I live in the US. Not having a singular home might have influenced the fluidity of place and time in my work. When places and time continuously shift memory becomes a vehicle that connects and makes meanings to understand my existence. The performative aspect of the short reflects the bodily experience of the story. The body becomes the only definite witness that connects multiple realities. Sound was collected from the actual places I depicted in the animation. I remade the conversations, music and sounds of the environment. —Ezra Wube
Watch a video excerpt of the piece here. A Memory of Astoria will be on view at Museum of the Moving Image through January 8, 2015.
Museum of the Moving Image mourns the passing of master makeup artist Dick Smith (1922-2014). Smith’s pioneering work on such films as Little Big Man, The Exorcist, Amadeus, The Godfather, and many more, forever changed the way special-effects makeup is created and applied. Smith’s legacy will endure through the work of the many special effects makeup artists to whom he was a generous mentor.
Read more about Dick Smith and the examples of his work in the Museum’s collection here.
The great Tanaka Kinuyo (in top photo, with Toshiro Mifune) in Kenji Mizoguchi's The Life of Oharu (Saikaku Ichidai Onna) (1952). Photos courtesy of Janus Films.
Check out our trailer for Mizoguchi at Museum of the Moving Image. The 30-film retrospective of the great Japanese director runs May 2 through June 8, 2014 http://bit.ly/QhiGdK
Mizoguchi, a 30-film retrospective of the great Japanese director, runs May 2 through June 8, 2014. Our brochure opens up to reveal this poster! http://bit.ly/QhiGdK
"There was a wonderful sense of revolution and innovation in the studio in Queens."—Gloria Swanson, on the Astoria studio, subject of a new exhibition now on view at Museum of the Moving Image
Swanson is seen here in her backstage “bungalow” during production of The Humming Bird (1924) with director Sidney Olcott (standing) and co-star Edward Burns (in uniform).
Photo: John Barrymore and Carole Lombard in Twentieth Century (1934). Courtesy of Sony Repertory.
If film critics Andrew Sarris and Molly Haskell didn't exist, Howard Hawks would have had to invent them; a garrulous, witty cinephile who became a paragon in his field, a woman who could match him insight for insight, and distinguish herself in an enclosed, nearly all-male world.
Chief Curator David Schwartz interviewed them about Hawks in 2008 for Moving Image Source:
[Schwartz] Howard Hawks is a great example of a director who was rescued by film critics.
SARRIS: Well, by the French!
Could you talk about how that happened? Hawks was successful as a director in Hollywood, but not really known.
SARRIS: He was successful, but he wasn't prestigious.
HASKELL: Wasn't taken seriously.
SARRIS: I think he was only nominated for one Oscar, for Sergeant York. And he never won an Oscar, of course. The first time I heard about him was when my friend Eugene Archer, went to Paris in the 1950s on a Fulbright. He wrote me a letter and said, "Who the hell is Howard Hawks?" He had signed a contract for a book that he was going to do about six directors: Elia Kazan, John Ford, George Stevens, and so on. The Cahiers people said, "Ugh! What about Howard Hawks and Hitchcock?"
Read the full conversation here. The Museum's complete Hawks retrospective continues through November 10.
Louise Brooks and Victor McLaglen in A Girl in Every Port (Howard Hawks, 1928). Showing Sunday, September 13, 2013, 6:00 p.m. with live music by Donald Sosin
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