Fixed, amplified and clarified all that for you.
MrTibbs
2784
Having just finished reading one of Jonathan Rosenbaum’s contrarian takes arguing that Texasville is in fact Bogdanovich’s greatest work, I’m in the mood to agree with your brutal takedown, Nava! I think a large part of the director’s initial appeal was that he emulated a classicist style during a time when the popular thing in Hollywood was to introduce elements of New Wave formal experimentation into standard genre formats. He was at least novel in the early days.
This Twenty has the man in the song.
MrTibbs
2786
It’s Nickelodeon. I watched the director’s cut last week. Overall, I didn’t enjoy it, but I appreciated Brian Keith’s sappy speech at the end about the universal power of cinema was rather sweet, and I laughed at how Bogdanovich imagined the premiere of Birth of a Nation where the whole auditorium falls over themselves to applaud Griffith. So director-centric!
What, not a single reference to him knowing Orson Welles? I don’t buy it.
How wooden.
I have come to bury Peter, not to praise him…today.
After this one, the Orson references begin to abound at an alarming rate.
You’re a film critic and scholar. After you’ve made a genuinely great film (The Last Picture Show) updating the “Small Town” genre, you make a popular one (What’s Up, Doc?), updating the 30s “Screwball Comedy” genre. Then you make another possibly great film (Paper Moon) updating the 30s Depression Road Film genre. You’re on a roll! Reinvention using content, language and ideas the Hayes Code (and 30s mores previously) wouldn’t allow explicit display of back then.
But then you take your trick too far. You cast your muse/girlfriend in a dreadful period piece of a Henry James novel (Daisy Miller) trying to channel 30s “Great 19th Century Period Piece” genre like Oberon in Wuthering Heights. Its bad and bombs. You blame the audience’s failure to accept something non-commercial (not the poor performances, direction, and stultifying pacing). So you try your old tricks with lighter fare again with the Jukebox Musical (At Long Last Love), casting Burt Reynolds and some notables from previous efforts (Madeline Kahn). It bombs. The trick is wearing thin. So what do you do?
You do it again, “Talkies looking at the Silent Era” and you lazily cast the guy from Paper Moon to basically play the guy from What’s Up, Doc? again. You cast his daughter to play the same role she played in Paper Moon. And you miscast Burt Reynolds again.
It bombs horrifically. Its really bad. But you blame the studio for bad marketing.
This will continue until Texasville. But its OK. Critics and scholars will come to your defense for decades trying to convince the world that the dreck is good and try to create an oeuvre for you ('cause they are critics and scholars - solidarity!) when what you really were was a guy who made a great film and had a troika of success reinterpreting genres.
The Forty:
The Sixty:
The Eighty:
The Hundred:
The One Twenty:
“Harrigan, @MrTibbs. H-A-double R-I-G-A-N. Like the man in the song.”
MrTibbs
2789
Great write-up, Navaronegun.
Here’s my last 20:20 for 2020.
MrTibbs
2791
That would’ve been a great pick, but the frame is from another B&W flick.
MrTibbs
2793
Sorry, Djscman. I missed your post because it wasn’t a direct reply. It’s a another film.
Anyways, time for the 40:40
MrTibbs
2794
Last frame. I would be shocked if I was the only poster here who has seen this.
60:60
Matt_W
2795
I only know 2 or 3 black and white films so this is probably wrong, but I’ll guess Song of Bernadette.
MrTibbs
2796
I so, so wish I could give a hint right now. I might be heading for a loss on this one. :(
Buckaroo
2798
Looks like a pre-WW2 movie, especially the forty. Maybe a Dreyer?
MrTibbs
2799
All good guesses, and there are certain strategies deployed here that resemble much of what’s been put forth, but this is rather different.
MrTibbs
2800
I accept the “L” on this one. It was Guy Maddin’s semi-autobiographical My Winnipeg, a surreal mockumentary/reflection on his home town, supported by the techniques of classic Hollywood cinema. I absolutely adored this one, and have been seeking out his other work like Careful and Brand Upon the Brain! but this remains my personal favorite. I think there’s some echoes of the tall tales of Peter Jackson’s Forgotten Silver, which also embellished local history in a playful manner, but the direct connection of the director to his city makes this extra special.
A friend recommended it, but I’ve yet to get to it. Look forward to the day.
