David Meeker's Ten Favourite Jazz Films

Duke Ellington behind the scene of NBC's What Is Jazz? (1958) episode#1 [Source: GettyImages]

David Meeker, the author of Jazz in the Movies (and its online, massively updated version, Jazz on the Screen, available on the website of the Library of Congress), has been kind enough to furnish me with the list of his favourite jazz films. I don't think anyone in the world has seen as many jazz films as David has and certainly no-one has bothered spending years retrieving information (including song lists and personnel) from these films, compiling the indispensable encyclopedia that he has given us. For that reason, I think this list should be cherished more than other similar listings — this is the work of a man who has almost seen everything! - EK 

By my reckoning the first ever sound film of a jazz performance was produced in 1922, a short featuring pianist Eubie Blake. Therefore, faced with almost 100 years of world cinema and taking a degree of masochistic pleasure in sticking my neck out I have managed with considerable difficulty to reduce untold millions of feet of celluloid to a necessarily subjective choice of 10 favourite titles, undoubtedly quirky but hopefully not pretentious. Try and see them if you can - they all have much to offer both intellectually and emotionally.

David Meeker

Murder Over New York (Harry Lachman, 1940)

 

https://cinearchitecture.tumblr.com/post/615818115090186240/murder-over-new-york-harry-lachman-1940-art

 

5 Nowruz Recommendations [1398]

جوسلین صعب

پنج پیشنهاد تماشا برای نوروز 1398، به درخواست ماهنامۀ سینمایی فیلم.

سه‌گانۀ بیروت (جوسلین صعب، 82-1976): این معادل تابلوی گِرنیکای پیکاسو در سینماست، همان اندازه تکان دهنده، موحش و ساخته شده سر یک بزنگاه تاریخی و اخلاقی. یک زن آن را در زیر بمباران‌های دائمی و در بین منظری از بچه‌هایی که بدن‌هایش از گرسنگی دفرمه شده و بدن‌های تحت تأثیر بمب‌های شیمیایی اسرائیل به رنگ آبی درآمده ساخته است. فیلم مناسب عید نیست، اما آیا واقعیت مخصوص مواقع مشخصی از سال است؟

ای آفتاب (مد هوندو، 1970): بزرگ‌ترین کشف من در سال گذشته. اگر چارلی مینگوس (نوازنده باس و رهبر ارکستر موسیقی جاز در طرف مدرنش) فیلمساز بود، فیلمش اثری چنین خشمگین، زیبا، و با فرمی سیال از کار درمی‌آمد. فیلم دربارۀ تنهایی یک آفریقایی در اروپاست و این فیلمساز اهل موریتانی هر ثانیه‌ این دنیای دشوار را تجربه و لمس کرده است.

From the Archives: Iran - Rich Land, Poor Land

click to enlarge

Poster (newsmap) produced by the US Army Information Branch in February 1946 to provide the army members with the basic information regarding the post-war landscape of Iran. Courtesy of the University of North Texas.

Citation:

[United States.] Army Information Branch. Newsmap for the Armed Forces : Iran, rich land poor land, poster, February 18, 1946; [New York]. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc830/m1/1/?q=iran: accessed April 11, 2020), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.

On Film Curating [Scalarama Newspaper Interview]

London

Interviewed by UK's Scalarama Newspaper in late summer 2019. EK


A VIEW FROM ABROAD


What inspired you to get into film programming?

I was playing films, from VHS tapes, for my two sisters. Every day we were lying on the floor , putting our heads in 30 degree angels towards each on a big pillow -- almost like mummies -- totally transfixed by Singin' in the Rain or Citizen Kane, without understanding a word of English. It came out of that, a sort of natural tendency to share what you think is good. Later I thought if I could entertain my sisters, I might be able to keep more people entertained.

Moonfleet, Gothic and Scope

فريتس لانگ، گوتيك و سینمااسكوپ

مونفليت تلخ‌ترين و احتمالاً گوتيك‌ترين فيلم "ماجرايي" سينماي كلاسيك آمريكاست. ژانري كه با طنز، ماجراهاي عاشقانه، رنگ‌هاي دلفريب و لباس‌هاي فاخر انبوهي از فيلم‌هاي محبوب و پرفروش را به سينما ارزاني داشته، در دستان لانگ به شرحي از تباهي دنيايي تاريك و غم‌زده تبديل مي‌شود. این‌که قهرمان اصلی فيلم يك پسربچه (جان وايتلي) است و ستارۀ بزرگ فيلم‌هاي شمشيرزني از خانوادۀ اسكاراموش، يعني استوارت گرينجر، کنار اوست کمکی به تلطیف نگاه لانگ نمی‌کند.

فيلم فضايي گرفته، مرده و حتي ترسناك دارد که در آن از پایان خوش یا شور و عشق نشانی نیست. به جایش لانگ هرزگيِ شخصیت گرينجر در برخورد با زنان را نشان می‌دهد. مي‌گذارد. بیش‌تر نشانه‌‌های آشنای ژانر مثل گنج‌هاي مدفون، مخفيگاه‌هاي زيرزميني، مهماني‌هاي رقص و زنان حسود وجود دارند، اما به قول اندرو ساريس در مقایسه او بین مونفلیت و متروپولیس «هر دو فيلم در آن نگاه تلخ به دنيا مشتركند، در هردو انسان با تقديري محتوم دست به گريبان است، كشمكشي كه قطعاً به شكست انسان مي‌انجامد.»

The Night Before the Divorce (Robert Siodmak, 1942)

https://cinearchitecture.tumblr.com/post/614111030086385664/the-night-before-the-divorce-robert-siodmak

 

Richard Boleslawski

بولسلاوسکی (راست) پشت صحنۀ تئودورا وحشی می شود با شرکت آیرین دان (وسط)، 1936

ريچارد بولسلاوسكي

متولد چهارم  فوريه 1889 در دبووا گورای لهستان – درگذشته در هفدهم ژانويه 1937 در هاليوود كاليفرنيا

فارغ‌التحصيل مدرسه افسري سواره نظام Tver. تحصيل در تئاتر هنري مسكو زير نظر استانيسلاوسكي. شركت در جنگ جهاني اول به عنوان افسر سواره‌نظام ارتش تزار روسيه (لهستان در آن زمان بخشي از امپراتوري روسيه محسوب مي‌شد). بازي در چند فيلم روسي پيش از انقلاب که یکی از آن‌ها نسخۀ صامت ایوان مخوف (1915) بود و کارگردانی یک فیلم در همان سال. ترك روسيه بعد از انقلاب اكتبر و سپس جنگ علیه شوروی در ارتش لهستان. کارگردانی چند فیلم در لهستان که یکی از آنها، معجزه در ويستولا (1921) دربارۀ پيروزي لهستاني‌ها در مقابل سرخ‌ها در نبرد رودخانه ويستولا زباني مستندگونه داشت.

I've Got Something to Say that Only You Children Would Believe — A Book Illustrated by Abbas Kiarostami

Abbas Kiarostami had a long, colourful career as an illustrator, graphic and film title sequence designer, and photographer before his career as a filmmaker got kick-started in the early 1970s.

His slow success and even a slower international recognition meant that this first part of his artistic life had vert little chance to be appreciated in time and not surprisingly, it was overlooked even by his ardent audience. One could argue, his eventual coming back to these fields (plus poetry and installation) in the 21th century was itself a classic case of Kiarostamian "return" as often seen in his films: returning to a home, to a place, to a landscape, in this case, to old passions.

A great portion of the achievements of these early years remain unavailable but here we have a wonderful example of his illustration work which he contributed to a children book, written by modernist poet and author Ahmad Reza Ahmadi.

One of Kiarostami's illustrations for the book

Abbas Kiarostami, a Cinema of Participation [Introduction to Harvard Film Archive Retrospective, May 2020]

Abbas Kiarostami circa late 60s, probably in his studio. On the wall (left) the poster for Masoud Kimiai's Come Stranger (1968), designed by Kiarostami.

Written for Harvard Film Archive's forthcoming retrospective dedicated to Kiarostami. More info here. — EK


Known for single-handedly putting Iran on the map of international cinema, Abbas Kiarostami’s filmmaking style was shaped by a variety of Persian arts, especially poetry. Reframing the world and the relationships between individuals through his creative involvement with actors—often amateurs, often children—and showing a keen eye for the beauty of landscapes, he produced philosophical works that reinvigorated the genres of documentary and narrative fiction.

Born in 1940, Kiarostami developed a love of painting at a young age, which led him to enroll in Tehran’s University of Fine Arts. During the 1960s he was involved in the film and television industry, both as a director of commercials and as a title designer for films. After the initiation of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (known as Kanoon), which as part of its artistic activities provided funding and facilities for the production of films for or about children, Kiarostami joined the organization and made The Bread and Alley, a short film about a boy’s fear of a stray dog.