Re: 1950s List Discussion and Suggestions
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:05 am
swo17 wrote:2. Number of lists the film appeared on (out of 31 submitted)
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swo17 wrote:2. Number of lists the film appeared on (out of 31 submitted)
Yes I did (my number 9) -- it's on my very long list of films that "escaped" inclusion on this year's list. See:matrixschmatrix wrote:Did you also vote for Burmese Harp? It's a shame that one fell off, particularly with the gorgeous MoC blu...
Saw this only recently and it very nearly made my list. Very interesting clashes of acting styles and it looks majestic.10 the Long Hot Summer ALSO ORPHAN
Recently learned this book was adapted to a series, with Halberstam's full participation, by the History Channel in the the 90s as David Halberstam's the Fifties. Many (all?) of the episodes are up on YouTube, and from what I've seen so far, it's about what you'd expect (mainly surface-level bulletpoints, on the nose needledrops), but there's some fun participants (including multiple contributions per episode from Halberstam himself) and a lot of interesting footage I've never seen before-- and Edward Herrmann was born to narrate things like this
Bumping this ancient discussion to chime in that I loved this too, especially for the contradictions in style and function. It’s obviously a part of the neorealist tradition even if it is far more mannered and constructed than a shot on location film about crime, class, and melodrama amidst the sheep might sound (and Bandits of Orgosolo belatedly delivered a more neorealist version of this material that pales to this odder concoction nevertheless). I see a lot of a director like Huston in the film, and yes, some of the deliberate framing seems culled from silent cinema greats as well. As Bazin put it, “One is hard put to discover any synthesis between the formal ambitions of the mise en scène and the childishness of the screenplay.” But, as he adds, “In a hundred places of this baroque endeavor, a cinematic genius that cannot leave us indifferent reveals itself.” Highly recommended, if you can find it.Tommaso wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:03 pmA very fine film, but I simply can't see how this would fit into either neorealism or Hollywood styles. While the social conflicts may be apparent, much more important are the visuals, which are extremely stylized. Fascinating close-ups, fine editing and the like. With its semi-mythical tone and its reliance on professional actors, the closest comparisons I can think of are some of the early, pre-50s examples of German 'heimatfilm' perhaps, and of course some of the Soviet silents. I couldn't help thinking of Riefenstahl's "Tiefland" and (considering the very 'male-ish' main character) Trenker's "Der Rebell", either. Not a very modern film, but that doesn't work against it, I think. And of course Lucia Bosè is a knockout, but I'd probably say that about every film she was in from that period....Wu.Qinghua wrote:There's No Peace Under the Olive Tree (Giuseppe de Santis, Italy 1950)
This may be one of my major discoveries of the last months. It's the last part of de Santis' postwar trilogy dealing with everyday life, popular culture and social conflicts in late 1940s Italy and a somewhat hybrid example of late Neorealism, as it's not only star-driven (Raf Vallone and Lucia Bose play the main roles), but also aesthetically rather hybrid merging elements of Hollywood Westerns etc. with elements of Socialist Realism, and has already been somewhat dated when it came out, as it's obviously been made in anticipation of the victory of the Italian leftist movement, though premiered only after its electoral defeat. It's set in Ciociaria, a mountainous rural region in Central Italy, and portrays the landscapes as well as the customs and social conflicts between its inhabitants who mostly live from shepherding. If you have any interest in Neorealism or in the early works of the British historian Eric Hobsbawm you will definitely want to hunt this film down; there's only a non-subbed Italian disc available but subtitles seem to be floating around the web. Here's a little Youtube excerpt without subtitles which features a short conversation between two lovers, who according to de Santis follow local customs in their somewhat strange behaviour, and which gives a pretty good example of the film's aesthetic design.