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NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:My spotlight title is 'Kilka opowiesci o czlowieku' from Bogdan Dziworski.
It's not inconceivable that a top 50 could be made up from the PWA collections alone.

So wait--is there a PWA set devoted to Dziworski? I'm not seeing it anywhere.

Viewing Log:

20 Feet from Stardom (Morgan Neville, 2013): Near universally hailed upon its release (it currently stands at 87-1 on Rotten Tomatoes), Neville's documentary chronicling the disservice done to backup singers over the last 50 years stands as a competent, if rather jejune work. The singers profiled here are truly great, but the format is so bland that it acts as a disservice to those that its profiling. I did find the film's use of isolated vocal track particularly interesting. Hearing the background singers with all of the other music removed really showed the heights that these artists are capable of achieving. Also, the discussion of the odious "Sweet Home Alabama" left me smiling. Even after this film was released, its subjects are still being screwed over. Over at Rotten Tomatoes, Bette Midler receives top billing despite only being in the film for about four seconds in an award show clip. #-o


The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, et al., 2012): In 1965 Indonesia used a failed coup attempt as pretext for the systematic genocide of the nation's communist party members and those that were suspected of having leftist leanings. The killings were done with the sanction of the government by so-called "cinema gangsters", right wing thugs that scalped tickets and modeled themselves after the stars of American gangster films from the 30s. Today these killers are treated as patriotic celebrities in their home country, but to say that this film captures the absurdity of this arrangement would be a gross understatement. Every shot is drenched in the absurdity of the fact that these unrepentant killers are treated like heroes. Insisting that their name means "free men", the group proudly recreate the killings in an attempt to make a movie about the events of '65. This truly unforgettable look at evil is a lock for my list.

Demon Lover Diary (Joel DeMott, 1980): Although I've never seen the film Demon Lover, this behind the scenes look at its production in no way requires familiarity with the original film to understand this flick. The film is shot by Joel DeMott, the girlfriend of cinematographer Jeff Kreines, who has been asked by his friend Mark Rance to help make the movie. The documentary chronicles pretty much everything that could go wrong in a film, as the director has no idea what to do, the actors can't remember their lines, and funding never comes in. The end of the film, which I won't spoil here, comes as a complete surprise and left me wondering whether or not it was staged. Who knows? Regardless, this is a great behind the scenes film.

Dialogue with a Woman Departed (Leo Hurwitz, 1981): In 1971 documentarian Peggy Lawson was diagnosed with cancer, and died before the year was out. This film, made by her husband, Leo Hurwitz, is his attempt to write a love letter to his dead wife. By chronicling the history that led his wife to political activism (The Dust Bowl, WWII, Native American relations, etc.) we get a portrait of Lawson that is both intimate and public. The reflections on Lawson herself that bookend the film showcase the genuine love for her that Hurwitz had, and help bring focus to a film that is otherwise all over the map. Consider this one another strong contender for both the documentaries and 80s lists.

Inequality for All (Jacob Kornbluth, 2013): Jeez, if I had seen this one prior to compiling a horror list, then this one would have had a good shot at making it on there. This truly chilling look at the utter devastation wrought by income inequality in America also serves as a biographical look at for Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich. While I like Reich, and his story is connected to the larger narrative about economics, the film works best when it examines both the cause and impact on widening inequality. Still, its an easy recommendation.

Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel, 2012): Fish. Lots of fish.

You should check out Castaing-Taylor's previous movie: Sheep. Lots of Sheep.

I thought the stars of Leviathan were the birds.

I thought the stars of Leviathan were the cartoon Zs which appeared over my head while watching

Lazy call back time.
Sweetgrass
Given the reputation Leviathan has gotten I'm mostly surprised at how ordinary this film was. It has a few beautiful moments and is effective overall, but the style isn't some grand impressionistic thing though I do see how it could advance that way especially in scenes like the sheering, bear attack, or the phone call with 'mother'.

Life in a Day
Indulgent and lazy mess. It aims for some pseduo profound "everything is, like, the same man. Like, we totally are all people and aren't so different man" type claptrap. As awful as that damnable Babies films.

Law and Order
The most impressive thing for me about this film, and really all of the Wiseman's I've seen, is how it makes every filmic element it uses seem totally needed. For instance I assume the use of black and white was a practical choice given the expense of going colour even in 16mm at the time. The choice though feels absolutely necessary to the movie almost as if it helped to determine the subject as many of the actions seen would appear grotesque or at least radically different in colour. I suppose that presents a minor irony as the film is about, more than the police force itself, the division the police are an element of for race in the country. Even before it gets called out explicitly in the film there's an uneasy and sometimes even sickening feeling to how the film contrasts white treatment and black treatment. Even in relatively benign scenes where the police are working in aide such as the cab fare one there's always this waiting danger that they would absolutely ignore the situation (I can't remember if the soldier bit came before or after the taxi one). Ultimately the police seem like this giant wall of indifference indiscriminately following what they see fit. Even the human side as revealed in a few car conversations seems to separate itself from the function of the occupation. The one major exception to this is naturally in a moment that recalls race and how they ignore that they might unconsciously be acting racist.

Home
Wow, I almost have to respect this bullshit for taking a form as innocuous as the nature documentary and pushing out some sub-Reggio claptrap of pretentious hypocrisy. I mean this is a film which opens with a bunch of companies making up its title and proceeds to for two hours slut shame the audience for, and I quote, throwing the world out of balance. I suppose the shaming wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't phrased in such bad poetics liking even fucking agriculture to ritual sacrifice. This is so embarrassing to watch and I wish I had just stuck with Palin and Attenborough.

Paradise Lost
This for most of its run time is a pretty good Leacock imitation that brilliantly exposes small town corruption and ordinary small mindedness. It's certainly easy to understand why it is considered such a major film, but about two hours in it really shoots itself in the foot in terms of its own responsibility when in an attempt to get the kids off they essentially do what the film has been implicitly criticizing up until this point. It changes what is otherwise a very good film with a great deal of good going for it beyond the simple think pieces most films could attain to into a yellow journalism piece that seems to hold the morality that this one type of weirdo is okay because it is the same as us while this other type of weirdo is a bad person because we can't relate. Hopefully the other two are better in this regard.

For those who are interested in type, the newspaper era, and the underpinnings of the expansion of literacy in the twentieth century, as well as for all those who enjoyed Helvetica (A Documentary Film), do try Linotype: The Film. It's really well done. I ran a Linotype for quite a few years, so I'm biased in favour of the subject, but by the same token I'm pretty demanding of its treatment, and I have to say that I had a really good time watching the film. Bought the DVD last year but am now giving it to a friend so I can justify double-dipping for the Blu on my new Oppo (the film was shot in HD). It's available direct from the makers.

Has anyone seen Alfred Hitchcock's documentary on the Nazi concentration camps (Memory Of The Camps)? Apparently all six reels have been restored and will be shown in British theatres on a double bill with Night Will Fall, a new documentary by the producer of The Act Of Killing.

Some of it has been broadcast on Frontline and can be seen here.

How many WWII/Holocaust films do people anticipate filling up the list (not to mention which)? Any suggestions for the most comprehensive WWII/Holocaust documentary list that really identifies (well) which are the strongest contenders (must include The Sorrow And The Pity of course)?

IMDB doesn't list it as documentary, but rather as Biography/Drama, but I'm very tempted to include Derek Jarman's Blue on my list & include it as one of my recommendations. It's a first person account of the declining health of someone with HIV in the UK in the 90s. I find it clever in the same manner as other films that made use of limited resources to tell a compelling story on film (La Jetee, Tarnation,... But in this case, it's an experienced director who has lost use of his eyes, so Jarman replicates his own experience by simply presenting a blue screen (the last color he sees) and recording the audio. The music is provided by a number of 90s alternative acts, sewn together with instrumentals by Simon Fisher Turner (composer on BFIs The Great White Silence disc) and mixed by Brian Eno. This device really forces the viewer to think more about the content of what Jarman narrates, while at the same time emphasizing the effects of a disabling disease. While some may find the device to be a bit of a gimmick, I found it to be emotionally devastating. You also don't really need to track down the film (it's one of the included discs in the Kino Glitterbox dvd set), but just grab a hold of the soundtrack.....and imagine a blue screen (courtesy of 35mmm, complete with scratches, dust, flicker, etc.).

My other recommendation is simultaneously a similar project to Blue and its antithesis. The War Photographer also documents an artist at work through partial use of first person narrative using a clever device. In The War Photographer Christian Frei straps a digital camera onto James Nachtwey's head while he's at work, giving the viewer a first person account of what it's like to be a photographer in a war zone. This footage is interspersed with the requisite interviews, but the overall effect is anything but your typical talking head doc, as it gives the viewer first hand account of the issues a war photographer in the field.

Cinerama Holiday (Robert L Bendick and Phillippe De Lacy 1955) This isn't my first exposure to Cinerama-- I've seen the Smilebox version of How the West Was Won and the corrected version of Custer of the West-- but it is my first non-fiction (sort of) Cinerama pic and I was floored by the film. Literally-- my gf and I sat on the floor about two feet from the dead middle of the TV screen for the 2+ hour duration of this travelog. There's no shortage of reasons why the Cinerama process takes a bit to adjust to-- for one, you have to stop moving your eyes and train on the center of the screen, which is counter-intuitive for most of us, especially for a widescreen film. But you start to get the hang of it pretty quickly and it's worth the hassle of re-calibrating yourself to see the often extraordinary sights on display.

The film presents two international couples, one from Kansas City and the other from Zurich, exploring North America and Europe via Cinerama's curved lenses. The filmmakers clearly have staged every immersive spectacle we see, and far from being a distraction, this lends the film an otherworldly feel, and the combination of borderline still-life stationary figures holding their place as the camera moves through them and the awkward glances and staredowns occasionally directed at the camera by those being photographed directly confront the viewer and our complicity in such ethnographic exploits as those on parade here. For anyone fascinated with mid-50s American society, be it through fashion, architecture, or transportation, this film is one of the sexiest things imaginable. There's also some interesting choices-- one of the more jarring sights displayed takes us into a black church to hear a rousing song from the congregation, and indeed, this would be as novel a peek into a place the viewer is unlikely to visit as the skating rink in Switzerland or the Louvre. We also get a look into sights as varied as a New Orleans second line, the "Old West", a Navy plane landing on an aircraft carrier, a daily service at Notre Dame, a bobsled race, and so on. The actual human figures at the center of this are usually pushed to the side, which is good since the Americans are dull as tapwater and the Europeans are given hokey lines but seem cooler (though I regret to say that the Zurich husband displays some of the art inspired by his travels near the end of the film and one of the drawings is watermelon eating black folk-- doh!). The film also ends on a weird self-reflexive note as the subjects make time to go see their own movie, which we're watching now. Sorry Tashlin, looks like you got beaten to the punch on that joke!

Flicker Alley put this out on Blu-ray a couple months ago and I give it a strong recommendation. I'm not sure I've ever seen something with quite feel of this movie, and I look forward to exploring the other Cinerama adventures Flicker Alley's been putting out. This one'll definitely be placing high on my list.

I think I'll participate a bit in this thread now that the 80's list seems to get all the attraction. I've not started compiling my list yet, so I have no idea if these films will make my final list.

Place de la République (Louis Malle, 1974)
For 10 days, Malle and his crew were talking to random people on a pavement in Paris. The result is charming and I absolutely love the concept (and the simplicity of it), and and would have loved to see more films like this from other cities or other eras. I particularly enjoyed the moment when one of the girls joined Malle's team. But maybe Phantom India is a stronger contender for my list (assuming it counts as one entry).

Livet i Danmark ("Life in Denmark", Jørgen Leth, 1972)
On the outset, Leth's aim seems somewhat similar to Malle's in Place de la République. Leth is presenting life in Denmark in a small provincial town c. 1972. But Leth's approach is completely different. 100 ordinary people or so (including himself and his family) are placed in a black studio setting very similar to Godard's Le gai savoir. They present themselves with name, age, gender, occupation, and sometimes add some brief oddities about their lives. It all seems very stiff and artificial, but it's done with a deliberate self-irony which you would probably have to be Danish to recognize. The persons are wonderfully odd, and it's actually quite charming in it's own peculiar stilted way.

Leth has directed a lot of documentaries, but The Five Obstructions (co-directed with Lars von Trier) is probably the most accessible, and probably also the most likely of his films to make my list.

So as we're nearing the one month to go mark, I want to do something that worked out well in the animation thread and encourage people to just spew titles out- obviously the writeups are wonderfully valuable, but I just mean big long lists of things you have watched without commenting on or mean to watch or think might be worth watching, above and beyond your spotlight titles. It's hard to do a TSPDT style list for these, and around now is when I usually start converting over to watching nothing but list-relevant films, so anything you've got would be helpful.

In lieu of recommendations, I would encourage people to think about what constitutes a documentary and what they're voting for in general, as, to give an example, my top ten contains the most famous and effective presidential campaign commercial of all time. Documentaries are more than narrative true life feature films, &c

I'm certainly planing on voting for at least one if not more of the Attenborough Life series entries, which are particular favorites of mine- I think this list is one that fits a lot of works produced for television, be it commercials or miniseries or what have you. I would definitely encourage people to bring up anything about which they're unsure, format-wise, as I'm inclined to be liberal overall.

Well, things like commercials, infomercials, filmed musical performances, and educational shorts should be def be in play for anyone contributing

I hadn't thought of commercials, but I think it's certainly possible to have a documentary commercial that would fit- this one for example.

matrixschmatrix wrote:I hadn't thought of commercials, but I think it's certainly possible to have a documentary commercial that would fit- this one for example.

Except of course one hopes you'd vote for the version with the original soundtrack of Jose Gonzalez covering the Knife (which comes on my favorite Pandora stations all the time): see it and download it here while it lasts

For random acts of rec I hope people are considering some of the Eames' films. They mix between experimental poems and informational docs, but truly come up with genius works when they're able to mix those tendencies together like with their Markeresque House film. Also while I'm generally not a fan of Kevin MacDonald his take on the Munich games with One Day in September is one of the most effective documentary as genre film you'll ever encounter giving a real and chilly sense of danger throughout broken only by the humour the idiocy of its players sometimes present. I'll bring up a few more by name once I've collected my list.

Sorry for cross-posting from the Avant-garde/Non-narrative thread, but I urge everyone with an interest in free-form docufiction / essay films to check out this Peter Liechti retrospective on dafilms.com (streaming worldwide for free until Sunday the 16th) - especially Hans im Glück and the amazing Sound of Insects. Can't commit to participating in the project, just wanted to recommend these

the Golden Globes: Hollywood's Dirty Secret (Vikram Jayanti 2003) Though it's an open secret at best that the Golden Globes are a total joke, this hour-long exploration of the phony awards ceremony's relevancy and institutional composition adds more concrete evidence to the case against. Some of the revelations about the 80-odd members of the Hollywood Foreign Press are eye-opening-- one is shown running an auto consultancy business in Southern California "when he's not writing magazine articles for Poland", another operates a bed and breakfast-- and the discovery that most legitimate members of the foreign press can't get in even if they want and existent members are just celeb ass-kissers who want extra face time with famous people (HPFA members get an hour with stars on a press junket, instead of six minutes)-- the doc has a lot of fun showing many of the secretive members' Geocities-level websites with awkward celeb posing photos.

It becomes clear early on that the HFPA is blackballing the filmmaker, so a significant portion of the film is spent following a new candidate for membership, a then-current member of the Danish press living in California and hitting the junkets hard. This young woman is everything you assumed about celebrity reporters: so empty-headed and full of herself and sycophantic on the level of a Tumblr fandom that it's kind of amazing to see someone blather on with such unchecked egotism and lack of self-awareness. The film buries her by just letting her speak, and one of the funniest moments of the doc finds her defending how hard it is to work the celebrity press junket since it involves both "Seeing the movie and coming up with the questions you're going to ask." Cut to the Danish correspondent asking Angelina Jolie on the red carpet at Mann's Chinese Theater: "So, you like Chinese food now?! That's what I hear, anyways!"

As you could expect from an examination of the Golden Globes, the Pia Zadora scandal is also heavily covered (I didn't even realize that shortly afterwards the Globes went off the air and remained untelevised by network TV til the early 90s) and maybe the biggest laugh of the doc comes from one interviewee's surprise role in the whole debacle.

Hollywood Babylon (Van Guylder 1972) If one grades films on audacity alone, this thing ranks near the top. In what could legitimately be called the most slanderous and litigation-daring docudrama in history, Kenneth Anger's notorious exploration of early Hollywood's decadence and whispered secrets is co-opted for a series of vignettes in which a serious-sounding narrator introduces a notorious Hollywood scandal over period-footage before the movie then shows the incident in question as re-imagined for soft core porn. When Olive Thomas' dead body is disrobed by the discovering hotel clerk within minutes of the film starting, the overall mood is established: There is no chance in hell this will be tasteful. Suspicions are soon confirmed and before long the film presents its most mind-blowingly offensive sequence, in which we are treated to the Fatty Arbuckle bottle rape (here with a champagne bottle) in some detail, but not before an extended seduction sequence made all the worse for knowing where it was all going to end.

This whole movie is such a bad idea on such a fundamental level that some part of me just switched off the section of my brain that was interested in dealing with this out of anything other than an incredulous interest in what the film could possibly reclaim next. Depending on whether or not the principles were alive and capable of legal action, the film does or does not name its subjects, but anyone with passing knowledge will recognize the various Chaplin escapades, the murder of Thomas Ince, Marlene Dietrich and von Sternberg playing for both teams, Erich von Stroheim directing orgy sequences, and probably some others that I'm forgetting. And just when you think the film has run out of notorious rumors from 20s-era Hollywood to pervert further, the picture ends with Clara Bow laying the entire USC football team. I mean, what other response could there possibly be to a film like this other than a slow clap and a place on my final list? Matters of taste seem far beyond the point here.

Hollywood Confidential (Angus Cameron 2003) Well, the obvious reason why this exploration of notorious Hollywood-directed scandal sheet Confidential is so entertaining is obvious: it just repeats back all the slanderous and shocking allegations that got the magazine noticed, popular, and sued. It helps that it's all well made and laid out in a respectable fashion. Even a commentator who doesn't always add much to the party perks up here-- I can't prove it, but in classic Confidential style, I will state anyway that Richard Schickel got shitfaced right before they interviewed him, and as a result he is loose and quite funny with his barbs. Lots of new info for me in this doc, the best of which has to be the tale of what transpired between Robert Mitchum, Charles Laughton, and some ketchup. It's so much better/horrible than you could imagine!

Hollywood Harems (Tania Kamal-Eldin 1999) Well-edited and conceived look at Hollywood's depiction of Middle Eastern culture throughout the classic era (with a brief post-script involving Executive Decision and some 80s hijacking movie that proves to be one of the few missteps here). Kamal-Eldin adopts a presentational style that serves the thesis well: Hollywood, the director argues, cancelled any possible gain out of their depictions of Eastern culture by blithely smearing any given cultural identity with several others into a homogenized exotic "Other." Not a ground-breaking thesis, but the director clearly knows her stuff and draws on both the popular and the obscure (I love any film doc that inspires me to jot down some new titles) to show a concise glimpse into a larger issue. The doc only runs some twenty-odd minutes and it's a shame the director never followed it up with a larger, more-specific and encompassing study, because her promising work here demands it.

Hollywood: the Fabulous Era (Jack Haley Jr 1962) An angry-looking Henry Fonda hosts this scattered clip show of Hollywood royalty in and out of movies. There isn't really any rhyme or reason or theme beyond "Here's some stars," but I did like the montage of all the stars hanging out at the racetrack. Pleasant in an I Love the 40s! way.

Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters and Ricky Jay (Rex Bloomstein 1996) Too-brief profile on Ricky Jay, with a couple impressive performance pieces woven in with a futile attempt at exploring the notoriously guarded slight-of-hand artist's life. As anything starring Jay would be, this is highly entertaining stuff, and one of the best segments (which I'd previously seen excerpted on YouTube) finds Jay discarding all of his steady charm to show how con artists operate on a mark's hesitancy in the face of intimidation.

Well with a call for less commentary & more names, I searched, but was surprised no one has mentioned these two so far. Because I think these 2 are as important to watch for stylistic reasons (from the vantage point of film-making and how easy it is to make documentaries today) as they are for their content, I had been planning on spending a little more time on them, but time is running out, so here goes:

Harlan County USA (1977) (available on Hulu) documents the struggle of striking miners in rural Kentucky in the mid 1970s. The 1970s saw a number of Hollywood films tackling issues of rural life & the struggles of blue collar work not seen in Hollywood films today (Norma Rae, Coal Miner's Daughter, Silkwood, The Deer Hunter...)...and Harlan County USA was an antidote the Hollywood version. Kopple used cinema verite, interviews, and written descriptions covering the image to tell the story in a way which contrasts sharply to the documentaries of today. Even the documentaries of student films today make use of powerful editing tools, have carefully styled title cards and fonts, and draw from vast libraries of available (digital) material. So while the film's cinematography and technical choices may seem crude (like filming the television to get examples of news stories), they add to the film's authenticity (from today's vantage point). Kopple's use of coal miner's songs as a backdrop really sets the tone and setting well. A film maker today would be much more inclined to use recognizable tunes that would appeal to a broader audience, ie. Bruce Springsteen or Dolly Parton, and to a much different (ie diminished effect. There's nothing in the footage that comes off as unexpected or out of the ordinary (outside of the developments of the workers) and Kopple adds tidbits on the history of coal miners to put things in perspective.

American Dream (1990) (available here) tells the story of meat-packers (for Hormel) in small-town Minnesota who are fighting their wages being cut by 20%. The difference in style between the two is subtle, but noticable. Kopple uses a more generic (and 80s-sounding) sountrack in transitions. She also editorializes less (on screen titles are just sparse factual info). The end result is a bleaker film.

It's also interesting to see the films back-to-back, as it really highlights the change that occurred in the US with the election of Ronald Reagan. With all of the current talk of the loss of blue-collar jobs in the US & declining wages, it is pretty difficult to revisit these films & not conclude that, "yeah, but we really knew this was the case all along". I would really love to see Criterion revisit Harlan County USA and add American Dream, perhaps making it a box set with new material revisiting the subject matter & updating on the current state of the labor movement, as the 2 are more timely than ever (or perhaps Kopple needs to do another labor struggle documentary today).

Would anyone have strong feelings about putting off the deadline on this one? For various life related reasons, I'm behind where I wanted to be on watching, and way behind where I wanted to be on posting- but I don't want my life to dictate the whole list.

Only because I'm really excited to start the War list, I'm not looking forward to any delays-- but that's obv selfish on my end! I personally wouldn't utilize an extension properly, and while I'm still contributing a list, I kind of lost enthusiasm for this particular list a while ago. I'm not sure even six more months would get us any closer to a consensus 100 from a large number of contributors, but Musicals ran into the same wall so it'll be in worthy company!

Final Viewing Log:

Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoyqatsi (Godfrey Reggio 1982, 1988, 2002): I may be the last viewer on the forum to finally get around to Reggio's trilogy of "life out of balance" (or something like that), but now that I'm finally through them, I have to say that I'm not a fan. Yes, there are some truly beautiful images in the Qatsi films, but they mainly struck me as empty calories; something interesting to look at, but with nothing (or at least nothing worth mentioning) going on behind the scenes. Koyaanisqatsi begins the series with an examination of the industrialized world, while Powaqqatsi switches the focus to the developing world. Of the three films, I found Powaqqatsi to be the high watermark by a country mile. There's no real reason for this other than I found the images documented here to be of greater interest to me, and is certainly not the result of anything that I can attribute to Reggio's intentions. Naqoyqatsi, a look at the role that technology plays in the lives of modern man, was the nadir of the series, with a repetitive montage that tries to hammer its message home with the subtlety of a rampaging elephant. The films make for great eye candy, but I can't imagine appreciating them on any other level.

The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (Connie Field, 1980): Now here is a great documentary that merits consideration for both this project and the 80s list. Producer/director Connie Field gathered together a group of women who took up steel manufacturing jobs during WWII like the fictitious Rosie, and explores their experiences both good and bad. Of particular interest here are the struggles that the interviewees went though facing unfair labor practices, racism, sexual harassment, and broken promises of gainful employment once the war was over. Despite encountering enough nonsense to make the average human quit in disgust, these tough broads all pushed on both for their own good and to help out with the war effort. The stories are truly remarkable, and the women inspiring. I should also say that this is a great example of what can be done on a microbudget with the flashiest element being stock footage. I've seen too many films for this project that try to coast by on slick graphics, but without the basic story behind it it's all a waste.

I too vote against extension. It's already been done once, and it's time to move on.

the Brothers Warner (Cass Warner 2007) I don't think I could possibly care less about the personal angle to the original Warner brothers' struggle and subsequent success in the film industry, and having one of the descendants tie everything potentially interesting together with clips of her going through a photo album of her birthday party was a total eye-roll. I'm not entirely sure who the audience for this film is, as it doesn't relay any new info about Warner Brothers and I don't think the market for "Daddy had a big desk"-style remembrances is all that big.

Gangland: Bullets Over Hollywood (Elaina Archer 2005) Did you know… that Bogart, Cagney, and Robinson made gangster movies? Well, if not, those three names will be used in the same sentence about a hundred times over the course of an hour, with no insight besides and with little attempt to engage with any other iconic actor from the genre (They even show the clip from Bugsy of Warren Beatty watching George Raft… and then don't even talk about George Raft!)

Hollywood: My Home Town (Ken Murray 1965) TV special hosted by Hollywood hanger-on Ken Murray, who obviously has friends in the right places (He brags about Bing Crosby performing at his wedding) who didn't mind being filmed for his home movies. This is exactly what it sounds like: Famous people filmed during leisure time, underlayed beneath sycophantic narration. That said, it is kind of fun to see the stars of the classic era cut loose, but there's not much else to be gained beyond that.

Hollywood at Your Feet (Michelle Farinola 2000) It starts to get kinda funny about twenty minutes or so in when all the talking heads keep going on and on about what an honor it was to have your hands/feed/body parts dipped in cement in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater as if it were the same as winning an Oscar or something. The film dances around the central problem of considering this a metric of fame or taste-- namely that this was always a promotional stunt to coincide with a newly released film starring the actor or actress immortalizing their part in the mud. I was also confused as to why so many of the stars getting placement were Fox contract stars until almost all the way through the doc it's revealed in passing that 20th Century Fox bought the theater (or its central interests) pretty early on and used it almost exclusively to bolster their own contract players. Gee, that sounds interesting, why not tell us about that instead of jerking off the self-imposed mystique of the process? Because then you couldn't get Leonard Maltin to show up and spout off about how you can't "buy a place in front of the theater." Excuse me while I laugh myself to death!

Hollywood Out-Takes and Rare Footage (Ron Blackman / Bruce Goldstein / Stanley Sheff 1983) Fun VHS compilation of random bits and pieces of Hollywood ephemera. Some highlights: Bugs Bunny in black face; the 1939 Oscar acceptance speeches (including the hilariously ponderous and pompous introductions by Spencer Tracy), wherein Thomas Mitchell goes up several points in my book for his brief and punchy acceptance "speech"; the receiving line for 1954's A Star is Born, in which every star imaginable espouses on the brilliance of the film and how it's bound to sweep the Oscars (whoops); Bette Davis selling a washing machine; Bette Davis explaining to her kids that instead of Christmas presents, she gave all their money to the War department; Joan Crawford putting her children to bed like a loving mother in an ad for childrens' cancer research; Movie stars swearing when they mess up their lines (Swear of choice: "goddammit"); Constance Bennett going through her beauty routine; and my favorite, a clearly planned but nonetheless off-the-rails Golden Globes presentation by Jayne Mansfield, in which Mickey Rooney accepts the award on behalf of whoever the winner was, and his eyeline is directly at Mansfield's heaving bosom, with the whole thing quickly devolving into one of the most protracted breast jokes in history as the audience completely looses their shit (I have no idea where this footage would ever have aired, because no way would it fly on TV at the time). This "doc" is the equivalent of clicking on a random YouTube playlist, but I enjoyed it more than all the other films from this write-up combined.

You Must Remember This (Richard Schickel 2008) As if anyone needed further proof that Schickel is concerned with riding Clint Eastwood's dick above all other endeavors, Eastwood unbelievably gets maybe 20% of the screentime in this five hour doc that alleges to tell the Warner Brothers story but instead seems to be the product of someone only passingly familiar with the studio. Any documentary that purports shove 85+ years worth of material into five hours and then gives five minutes over to fucking Bird has serious, serious issues. Did you know that the most artistically successful era for Warner Brothers was… the 1970s? Are you fucking kidding me with this shit, Schickel? Don't do this to yourself, everyone. Learn from my mistakes.