The Criterion Collection Goes Hulu

The Criterion Collection re-vamped their site last week, adding an Online Cinematheque (Click under Festival) in which a company sponsors an online film festival for a month and you're able to watch the titles for free. For November 2008 the theme is "Cruel Stories from Our Youth." The films? The Spirit of the Beehive, Fat Girl, Au Revoir Les Enfants, Lord of the Flies, Ratcatcher, and Sweetie.

Enjoy for yourself at: http://www.criterion.com/festival

SCMS 2009 Notices Sent

According to the SCMS Website, acceptance and rejection notices for the 2009 Tokyo Conference have begun to be sent out. The website (cmstudies.org) states that "The SCMS office started sending the accept and decline proposal notifications today (November 25). Please be patient as it will take time for the system to process all of the notifications. Please do not e-mail the SCMS office until Monday, December 1 if you do not receive a notification."

You can also check the status of your submission under Conference/Proposal Submission Forms and you'll see it on the table describing your submission.

While I've heard of a few people getting rejection notices, I have yet to hear from anyone who has been accepted. As for my own case, my status is simply listed as "Submitted," so I'm assuming it's still up for consideration.

Anyone else hear anything yet?

CFP: Journal of Information Ethics

Journal of Information Ethics
Call for Papers

Documentary films combine “message” and “metaphor” to balance arguments (message) with narrative, visual effects, symbolic imagery, and score (metaphor). Ethical issues are crucial because documentary filmmakers use message and metaphor to make representations or mount arguments about subjects to persuade audiences of their views.

The Journal of Information Ethics invites essays that analyze how ethics shape the filmmaker’s representation of a subject in a specific documentary and/or the audience’s reception of the film.

Please submit 250 word abstract ASAP and a 10-20 page manuscript by March 1, 2009 to Chris Jordan at cjjordan[at]stcloudstate.edu. Use current American Psychological Association guidelines.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: My Love Affair

A little while back on Mabuse, I posted on ‘cult curiosities’ as part of the Bond Blogathon. In retrospect, the post was primarily an excuse to embed a video of Operation Double 007, a god awful James Bond rip-off featured on a great episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). The not-so-hidden purpose behind the post was to expose one of my cult obsessions (MST3K) in a venue tied to a not-so-cult obsession (Bond). Was this a selfish act? Sure. But welcome to the world of fan obsession. For all the talk of ‘community’ in the scholarship on fandom, a fan still loves partaking in games of mental masturbation – solo pleasure.

All this got me thinking about my long relationship with the cult show. If you don’t remember, the bizarre, yet hilarious, program was about a human stranded in space with wisecracking robot sidekicks (the ‘bots Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot) and forced by a mad scientist to watch horrible movies. The show started with creator Joel Hodgson as the ‘human,’ but eventually featured Mike Nelson in the lead role. The sci-fi premise was a means to get into the theater, where we witnessed running, wisecracking commentaries through some truly awful films – from Mitchell to Manos: The Hands of Fate to High School Big Shot to Angles’ Revenge.

Marking the show’s 20th anniversary this year, I thought I would play a little brainstorming game to contemplate the question: Why does MST3K still mean something to me? I am hoping my answers will run the spectrum from intellectual to personal to inexplicable:

1. Personal Investment (Part 1: Ownership) – Unlike other shows, I discovered MST3K. It was not sold to me. Flipping through the channels as a teenager ultimately defined my discovery. As such, I feel like I have some ownership in the show.

2. Personal Investment (Part 2: Family Ties) – While I was sometimes a removed teenager, MST3K was something I could always share with my mother. To this day, we still watch horrible movies and mock them when I visit.

3. Viewing the Viewers – the most distinctive visual created by MST3K is the silhouettes positioned on the bottom of the screen during the movie, consisting of a row of movie seats with the heads of Joel/Mike and the two ‘bots in the corner. Creator Hodgson reportedly got the idea for the visual upon seeing the album cover for Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which features this reproduced image on the back. Christian Metz writes in The Imaginary Signifier, “The film knows that it is being watched, and yet it does not know. [. . .] The one who knows is the cinema, the institution (and its presence in every film, in the shape of the discourse which is behind the fiction); the one who doesn’t want to know is the film, the text (in its final version): the story.” MST3K understood that the most effective way to re-contextualize film as a comedy exercise is to distance the television viewer away from cinema as a text – a story for us to emerge ours within. Instead, by allowing us to view the viewers in the forms of silhouettes, the experience constantly exposed cinema as an institution – a pop culture product no longer existing within a supposed vacuum. By watching the watchers, we partake in the criticizing of cinema as an institution and, as such, feel empowered as viewers.

4. My Cat – My cat’s name is Torgo – named after the weird goatman ‘house-sitter’ for the dark lord in Manos: The Hands of Fate - possibly the most notorious film ever played on MST3K. My cat is cool.

5. The Fictional Premise of MST3K is Blissfully Geeky – Instead of simply mocking movies, Joel Hodgson created a strange sci-fi premise to frame the films. Fittingly, the entire premise is based in numerous geeky pop references. The scenario of a man stranded in space with robot companions is a direct reference to Silent Running. The employment of puppet costars was influenced by numerous children’s shows. Hodgson’s character name of ‘Joel Robinson’ is a reference to the castaway family ‘The Robinsons’ on Lost in Space. The space ship is known as The Satellite of Love (a reference to the Lou Reed song) and any outside shots of space were supposedly from ‘Rocket Number Nine’ - a reference to the freaky Sun Ra song “Rocket Number Nine.”

6. To Be a Fan, You Must Have Patience – Unlike most TV comedy, MST3K is never really a laugh-a-minute. Some sequences in the films do not warrant much comedic commentary, thus there will be long lulls. The show is also famous for very obscure references, which means no matter how intelligent you are, you will not catch every joke. Fans must be OK with both these facts and just go along for the ride. To me, you must embrace the show on its own terms as opposed to expecting it to cater to the viewer - something that annoys me in a lot of entertainment. As such, when I hear a ‘bot make a joke referencing an obscure W.C. Fields’ film, I feel somewhat special that I caught it.

7. Democratizing the “Riff” – the show ultimately made the word “riff” something applicable to the masses:

Riff - 1: an ostinato phrase (as in jazz) typically supporting a solo improvisation ; also : a piece based on such a phrase 2: a rapid energetic often improvised verbal outpouring ; especially : one that is part of a comic performance 3: a succinct usually witty comment 4: a distinct variation

8. Refining the “Riff” (Part 1- Pop Jazz) - Many riffs on the show were based in finding connections to past films, TV shows, sports, literature, music, etc ... Mockery could now be an art form – freeform, pop culture jazz. Riffing on bad movies with friends becomes a ‘jam session.’ Who will make the best comments? MST3K’s room of writers riffed so well that they feel like jazz masters, thus never losing the musical connotations of the word.

9. Minneapolis-St. Paul – Produced for its entire ten year run in the Midwest as opposed to the East or West Coasts, the show never lost its low budget outsider charm throughout its various incarnations, from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Network. As such, the writers and performers of the show felt, more-or-less, “of the people” rather than elitist celebrities. They could get away with being obscure and, at times, vicious in their comedy without losing their charm or seeming too smug.

10. Refining the “Riff” (Part 2- Sub-Narratives) – One of my favorite ways of riffing is to discover what one might call a ‘sub-narrative’ in a bad movie (or to continue the musical connotations, a sub-melody). You single-out a particularly weird character(s) and give this person his/her own consistent personality and dialogue throughout the film. Classic example: a child actor in a Japanese monster movie vaguely looks like a tiny Richard Burton. Joel and the ‘bots proceeded to have the character partake in a Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff sub-narrative with his young sister for, essentially, the whole movie. He constantly berates her by scolding in a Burton-esque voice, “Martha, …”

11. Refining the “Riff” (Part 3- New Alliances) - Good riffing can make one change alliances while watching a movie. For example, the title monster of The Giant Gila Monster is given a wiseass raspy voice (like some old Catskill comedian). Since Joel and the ‘bots consistently use this voice anytime the creature appears, the monster now has his own separate movie due to the mocking comments provided. Therefore, watching MST3K’s version of this film, you find yourself rooting for the monster to kill the teens.

12. So Many Meanings, So Little Time – Henry Jenkins in “Interactive Audiences?” writes: “Commodities are a limited good and their exchange necessarily creates or enacts inequalities. But meaning is a shared and constantly renewable resource and its circulation can create and revitalize social ties.” In essence, this was the remarkable goal of MST3K long before the spread of the Internet made everybody key to re-appropriate old media for new meanings. The show understood that long dead commodities of culture simply needed a new meaning to make them interesting. Nothing is worthless if given new perspective.

13. Social Ties – To finish contemplating the above Jenkins’ quotation, MST3K created a social network of people through these dead commodities. Fans found themselves renting horrible films for the expressed purpose of riffing with friends. (Jason undoubtedly remembers some riff sessions from the OSU days). The show legitimized a whole new way to socializing that cost relatively little money.

14. Thanksgiving - Some of my warmest memories of Thanksgiving are of the once-annual Comedy Central holiday marathons of the show, which was dubbed ‘Turkey Day’ (bad movies = turkeys, get it?). While other family members watched football, I spent the holiday with Joel, Mike, Tom, Crow, Gypsy, TV’s Frank, and Dr. Forrester. Luckily, many of the original episodes are online if you look hard enough – which means I can nostalgically revisit such experiences, if I wish.



And on that note, I want to wish all our American readers a HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

Brief (P)reviews of Oscar Season Fodder

Brief (P)reviews of Oscar Season Fodder

Che:
Let me preface by acknowledging three things: I am a scholar of Steven Soderbergh, I realize not all of his films are successes, and I realize that many, many people will despise "Che." When I screened Soderbergh's latest, it was on a digital print that had a running length of roughly four hours (this version has been dubbed the "roadshow version" due to the fact that credits have been replaced with a printed program and that there is an overture and intermission) and for a film that focuses on what are probably considered mundane aspects of the subject of a biopic's life, this film will probably play as extremely boring and tedious. At the same time, Che Guevara has become such an icon (literally), that this film goes a long way in de-mystifying the life of a revolutionary. Basically, it's a lot of walking and meetings. The first half of the film depicts Che reminiscing about the Cuban Revolution on the eve of his address to the United Nations. Soderbergh, however, skirts bio-pic conventions by focusing more on Che's theory and method than his personal life and even goes so far to deny the audience the ability to take satisfaction in the Cuban Revolution, as the first half ends on Che's march to Havana and the second half picks up on his entrance into what will become the failure of his attempt at a revolution in Bolivia, minus the flashback structure of the first half. The film will strike some as bloated and cerebral, but this is where I found a great deal of satisfaction to be taken from it. I normally detest bio-pics (more on that below), but Soderbergh's revision of a stale genre and his gorgeous Malick-esque cinematography make for incredibly fruitful viewing.

Milk:
I HATE, HATE, HATE bio-pics. This genre was practically founded on Oscar baiting and has relegated the best actor/actress categories to best impressionist. I'm actually shocked that Frank Caliendo has yet to win one. With this predisposition noted, I found "Milk," like "Che," to provide a refreshing take on the genre. This is mainly done through director Gus Van Sant's use of documentary film footage intercut with D.P. Harris Savides's superb cinematography (the pair's work with reflections is masterful). In addition, Sean Penn's performance as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected public official, surprised me a great deal. Penn has been performing like Al Pacino lately, taking his emotions way over the top far too quickly but he actually shows a great deal of restraint here. The film had the added impact of feeling much more bittersweet after California's passage of Proposition 8 (which is a constitutional amendment which defines marriage as being between a man and a woman), but perhaps that makes it all the more relevant.

Revolutionary Road:
The suburban angst drama has become stale since the release of Sam Mendes' "American Beauty," which is why it puzzled me even more that he decided to make this stale adaptation. It's not that "Revolutionary Road" is poorly made, it's actually skillfully constructed, but the material of a married man and wife finding displeasure in the American dream (played here by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) has quickly become melodramatic. Moreover, Mendes uses many of same cinematic tools (characters framed within frames, red and blue define the house at times) he brought to "American Beauty" and it certainly doesn't help that Kate Winslet is playing a variation on her "Little Children" character. The best scenes involve the disjunction between verbal expression and action (like the breakfast scene that the film climaxes with) or the absurd comedy of this situation (the PhD who has been mentally broken by suburbia comes off like Heath Ledger's Joker, constantly trying to make disorder out of the facade of suburban order).

Frost/Nixon:
I find Ron Howard to be a hack director most of the time. "Apollo 13" aside, I struggle to find any work by him in the last ten years that was truly memorable ("A Beautiful Mind" is one of my least favorite movies of the decade). "Frost/Nixon," on the other hand, is quite good...I'm just unsure of how much of this is Ron Howard's contribution as both the play and the two leads have been ported over from Broadway. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, following the resignation of President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella), British talk-show host David Frost (Michael Sheen) solicited the President for a series of interviews in which he eventually pushed Nixon into apologizing to the American public and to take personal responsibility for Watergate. Sheen and Langella are amazing in their roles and Howard makes theatrical material cinematic but the real problem with this film is its objective: what purpose does it serve? It dramatizes the interviews, but why shouldn't we just watch the interviews for ourselves? Yes, the production context behind the interviews is interesting, as are Frost and Nixon's interactions off-screen (Nixon's drink and dial is quite powerful), but why bother taking a true event that has been documented so greatly via the media into a movie while only adding maybe 25% original material?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:

I held extremely high expectations of David Fincher's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and I walked away from the screening being only mildly disappointed. The problems with the film are mainly pacing (BB's early life takes up nearly 2/3rds of the film's two and a half-hour running length) and with the structure of the screenplay. Written by Eric Roth, I found a lot of parallels with his earlier adaptation of "Forrest Gump" (the feather has been replaced with a hummingbird) except for the fact that this film was rather amazing. The reason to see this film is obviously Brad Pitt's performance as Benjamin Button, a man who is born an 80 year old man who gradually ages into the body of an infant. I was stunned to hear director David Fincher discuss the film afterwards and disclose that Brad Pitt's actual body does not appear until the one-hour mark. Instead, Fincher performed motion capture on Pitt's face and composited it onto the body of one of four elderly gentleman and it is both seamless and an amazing blend of performance and technology. I highly recommend the film and assume Brad Pitt has an Oscar nomination ensured for his work here.

Gran Torino:

Having seen the trailer for "Gran Torino," I cracked a lot of jokes about it, fearing the worst. The footage made the film look to be "Dirty Harry: The Retirement Years" and while the film does indeed have a lot of fun with Clint Eastwood's earlier roles, his performance and the film are amongst the year's best (and far better than Eastwood's earlier effort this year, "Changeling"). The story follows Walter (Eastwood), a retired Korean War vet (who reminded me a lot of my late grandfather in a bittersweet way) who is culturally challenged. Faced with a rising Hmong population in his neighborhood, Walter greets their presence with unmasked hostility until he begins to get to know them. Now, this sounds rather conventional but Eastwood handles it in an extremely unconventional fashion as he allows Walter to retain his negative characteristics (his overt racism) while expanding his empathy for these kids and the results are incredibly refreshing. In a sense, Eastwood's role in the film reminded me of Fred Astaire in "The Band Wagon," a legend dealing with the icons of his life with contemplation, care, and with a slight smile.

My favorite films of 2008 thus far:

Che
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Gran Torino
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Synecdoche, NY
Wall-E

Cinematic Predecessors of the Vampire Renaissance

Between the cinematic release of Twilight and HBO’s successful True Blood series, it has been said that vampires are currently in some sort of pop culture renaissance. Vampire legends have been widely accepted for over 200 years and popularized through books, TV shows, and films. Some have been charming and romantic tales that have appealed to mass audiences, while others have missed the mark completely (I’m looking at you, Van Helsing). Here’s a look back at some of the influential cinematic predecessors of the vampire renaissance:

Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915)



Louis Feuillade’s ten part silent film serial is one of the first popular appearances of the vampire. Designed to compete with American multi-part serials, Feuillade utilized dark, almost Expressionist cinematography to tell the story of journalist Philippe Guerande (Edouarde Mathe) as he investigates a criminal organization known as the Vampires. The series is perhaps best known for launching the career of Musidora, who played Irma Vep (an anagram of “vampire”), the leader of the Vampires. Musidora slinks around the stage in a form-fitting black outfit and performs all of her acrobatic stunts herself. It would inspire Olivier Assayas’s Irma Vep (1996), with Maggie Cheung playing the new version of Musidora’s character.

Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)



Originally, Nosferatu was meant to be a direct adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but the filmmakers’ inability to get the rights caused all the names to be changed. But other than that, it’s essentially the same story. While the plot may be unoriginal, Murnau’s dark and shadowy mise-en-scene makes the film absolutely iconic – that, and lead actor Max Schreck’s completely affected acting style which is the subject of numerous parodies in my class. Noseferatu is a landmark of the German Expressionism movement and its influence can be directly seen in Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1992). The equally original and enjoyable Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merhige, 2000) takes a revisionist behind-the-scenes look at the making of Nosferatu by suggesting that Schreck was an actual vampire.

Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931)



This is the granddaddy of all American vampire films. The film features Bela Lugosi’s seminal performance of the titular role and it still permeates in popular culture today. The character, in fact, would follow Lugosi to the grave as he is buried in one of his Dracula costumes.

Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1958)



The Hammer Horror version of the Dracula tale with Christopher Lee starring in the title role. The film is best known for reimagining the character of vampire hunter Van Helsing from an aged professor into a younger and physically active person. Fisher makes full use of this change with more action scenes including the fantastic climactic fight. The trailer, embedded above, showcases the almost-exploitational feel of the piece.

Blacula (William Crain, 1972)



Dracula goes Blaxploitation! It’s pure fun and camp and fans of exploitation films will love it. It also marks the first racially distinct vampire and is a major breath of fresh air from the aristocratic vampires of Lugosi and Lee.

The Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, 1987)



Far more than just a film with “The Two Coreys,” The Lost Boys made being a vampire cool. Schumacher injects healthy doses of humor, attractive teens, and rock-and-roll music into the genre and ultimately re-energizes it for the MTV generation. Twilight fans have to thank this film for bringing the vampire story to a younger and hipper audience. A great companion piece to this is the more intelligent but less popular Near Dark (Katheryn Bigelow) that similarly revises the genre in the same year.

Interview with the Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994)



Unlike the previous “cold-blooded killer” versions of vampires, Interview with the Vampire brought a sense of melancholic brooding to the genre. Brad Pitt’s Louis tells reporter Daniel Molloy (Christian Slater) the story of his life as a vampire and it’s not a pleasant journey. All of the negative parts of being a vampire – namely killing people and drinking their blood – are turned into existential problems that one has to deal with for eternity. Interview’s neo-Gothic and darkly romantic flourishes match the sorrowful tone of the piece. Maybe being a vampire isn’t as cool as The Lost Boys made it seem…

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1997-2003)



…Or maybe it is. The “Buffy” TV series returns vampires to the high school setting. The series subverts Carol Clover’s idea of the “Final Girl” by turning her into the hero. It also features the female-human and male-vampire romance between Buffy and Angel that later appears in Twilight. It would be impossible to fully summarize the cultural impact of “Buffy” in such a short space as philosophical, sociological, postmodern, and feminist readings of the series have all been made by academics in the field of Buffy Studies.

The question now is whether Twilight will join this pantheon of great vampire stories or if it will be tossed aside as pop culture fluff.

Alternative Theme Songs for Quantum of Solace

With the discussions in the blogathon regarding possible alternative theme songs for Quantum of Solace (from among others, Amy Winehouse) I thought you might be interested in the following theme written by Joe Cornish:



A little background info: Joe Cornish is half of the British lo-fi comedy duo Adam and Joe and produced this song as part of their 'Song Wars' feature where they both compose songs on a specific theme each week and play them on their radio show.

Will's "Quantum of Solace" review

Here it is.

And, to add to Jason's 007 roundup, here is a short review from a buddy of mine. Dave wrote this for his blog, but he's also a columnist for Rope of Silicon. Although he has never been much of a Bond fan, he loved Casino Royale and liked Quantum of Solace despite the largely negative reaction to the latter. If anyone else comes across other positive reviews from non-Bond fans, feel free to follow-up. I think this raises an interesting discussion about the reception of atypical Bond films.

Bond Blogathon Round-Up

So, the day's finally here.

Please check back later in the day or during the weekend, as Will updates his blog with his own thoughts on the movie, which he's not seeing until 9 tonight.

My initial thoughts on Quantum of Solace are now up over at my blog, Jamais Vu. I saw that film last night during a pretty packed midnight screening and wrote up my thoughts this morning. In retrospect, the review is much harsher than my thoughts on the film, which are more ambivalent than it might seem on a first read. There were things I deeply loved about the new film (unexpectedly so), but overall it didn't quite work for me.

I had meant to blog a little bit more on Bond, but I got caught up in finishing the first draft of my diss to meet a self-imposed deadline. All in all, though, it looks like a lot of good material from a lot of bloggers.

As usual, please email me with more links and I will update.

Some other links:

First off, a lot of good links over at Lazy Eye Theatre's Bond blogathon--please check them out.

Aaron Brady at the Valve offers a fascinating account of how Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace fundamentally shift the nature of Bond's notorious misogyny to one rooted in a particular personal trauma.

Erich Kuersten has a great post on "the Amnesiac Bond": the ways in which Craig's Bond manages to emerge without the collective weight of all the other actors who previously defined the role.

Reel Whore's tribute to Shirley Bassey. Also check out the piece on the new Bond theme song, the memorable Bond heroines and henchmen. One thing I had thought about blogging on was that's been a really long time since there was a great henchman in a Bond film (Goldeneye, maybe?)--its a lost art, even in the Craig era.

Scott's great post on the marginal cult texts of Bond--I can honestly say I never watched or read any of it, even though I was aware of all of it at an early age. FWIW--interesting was the rumor earlier this year (or last) that none other than Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) was rumored to do a new franchise based on James Bond, Jr.

Will's interesting post on the after-life of Bond actors, the careers they had after being typecasted. I would add to his list that my favorite pre-Bond role for Daniel Craig was actually his work as a psych ward inmate coming to grips with the fact he murdered his wife in The Jacket (2004), an otherwise forgettable Adrian Brody thriller. The movie's junk, but Craig will blow you away.

Finally, my tribute to Bond songs and to Timothy Dalton.

And here are some older links from the blogathon:

My autobiographical initiation to Bond: "Bond and Nostalgia."

Based on Will's similar post: "Nostalgia for the Present."

Will, meanwhile, documents his own anticipation for Quantum of Solace (taking my feelings about Marc Forster to task): "World Premiere of Quantum of Solace."

Scott's take on the "Another Way to Die" Music Video.

A few more posts of mine over at Jamais Vu:

"Spoiler Alerts" on the danger of UK audiences posting all the secrets (I've already stumbled upon one plot development I'd wish I hadn't).

My ranking of the best and worst Bond films.

Blogging Pedagogy

I'm planning out my spring assignments for my classes and was considering including a weekly blog for students to do some film analysis. Have any of your used blogs as a pedagogical method in your classroom or have they been avoided? If you have, I would love to hear your experiences.

I currently do a weekly private "creative journal" assignment where the class is free to write whatever they want to about the film, but these usually turn out to be a brief recap of their emotional response ("I liked it" or "I didn't like it") that was probably written in 5 minutes. I would love to find a way to boost their intellectual analysis of the cinema.

I keep running into a few problems, however, that need to be addressed:

1. Should the blogs be private or public? Having them be public creates the chance for plagiarism, but a private blog seems too similar to my journal assignment. Plus, private journals don't encourage any intellectual debate - but can I really expect that out of my undergrads anyway?

2. Is this too much writing? It seems like a weekly assignment wouldn't be enough time to fully analyze a film, and the quality of their work would decline rapidly. I'd rather see quality assignments from them rather than something that is thrown together.

3. How difficult is grading going to be? I average around 40 students a class with no TAs or SAs to help out. That means 680 posts in each class in a semester! Plus grading midterms, finals, and any other assignments... Well, basically I won't be doing anything BUT grading during the semester.

I'd certainly be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on this matter.

Alphabet Meme

I've just discovered a fun little meme going around on the nets lately, and this seemed like the perfect place to get lots of voices to respond to it. This very restricted list of favorite films seems like the kind of thing that benefits from a number of people throwing their opinions into the ring.

Here are the basic rules as outlined originally at Blog Cabins:

1. Pick one film to represent each letter of the alphabet.

2. The letter "A" and the word "The" do not count as the beginning of a film's title, unless the film is simply titled A or The, and I don't know of any films with those titles.

3. Return of the Jedi belongs under "R," not "S" as in Star Wars Episode IV: Return of the Jedi. This rule applies to all films in the original Star Wars trilogy; all that followed start with "S." Similarly, Raiders of the Lost Ark belongs under "R," not "I" as in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Conversely, all films in the LOTR series belong under "L" and all films in the Chronicles of Narnia series belong under "C," as that's what those filmmakers called their films from the start. In other words, movies are stuck with the titles their owners gave them at the time of their theatrical release. Use your better judgement to apply the above rule to any series/films not mentioned.

4. Films that start with a number are filed under the first letter of their number's word. 12 Monkeys would be filed under "T."

My own list is posted over at Whimsical F-Bomb, and everyone should feel free to post her/his own list either in the comments section below or as a link to her/his own blog posting. Tag others as well, and get them to post here as well.

CFP: Representing and Identifying Film Style, 3/20-3/21 (deadline: 1/2/09)

The 17th annual Midwest Conference on Literature, Language, and Media (MCLLM)
will be held March 20-21, 2009 at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.

Considerations of film style are multifaceted. There are films that expertly make their cinematic representation clear, such as Terrence Malick's The New World (2005), while others aim for a more invisible and neutral, though some might derisively say neutered, representational style. Yet, as Timothy Corrigan notes, "Even when they go unnoticed, stylistic strategies and conventions […] are sometimes the most important and distinguishing features in a work of literature or film" (85). This call for papers asks for essays that consider the representation of style, and desires essays that question and interrogate classical film notions of invisible as well as visible film style.

For example, do Judd Apatow's brand of films gain any more legitimacy for film style after indie director David Gorden Green comes in and directs Pineapple Express (2008)? How does a stylist like Green alter and transform the invisible film aesthetic that had been formerly established by Apatow? Similarly, how does Green's aesthetic become co-opted and subsumed by the Apatow brand?

These questions also shift to matters of film style as they relate to directors adopting methods that have been customarily used by foreign or art cinema. In Darren Aronofsky's upcoming The Wrestler (2008), to make one example, Aronofsky has drawn attention from critics such as Nick Schager for "exhibit[ing] an economic precision typified by Dardennes-ish tracking shots from behind." How do these co-opted methods of style inform a given film and its modes of production? How do its liberal uses of homage to other filmmakers shape our perception of the cinema in general? How are these films gaining import through their tracing, appropriating, or expanding of the historicity behind cinema? How do the modes of production prevalent in film today complicate notions of purity or cinema verite?

These questions of film style range from the arthouse to the multiplex, from the James Bond series to the Bourne series aesthetic. As such, all topics or considerations about film and film studies are welcomed, from aesthetic, to reception theory, to issues of affect, etc.

Deadline for submission: January 2, 2009. Please include a cover page with your name, affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address.

Accepted contributions will be notified via e-mail by January 19, 2009.
Please submit your 250 word (one page) abstract as an attachment to mcllm2009@gmail.com

Election Fallout: Why Milk Will be the Timeliest Movie of 2008

Two main stories have emerged in the wake of 2008’s historic elections: America will have an African-American president for the first time in its history and same-sex marriages were banned in California, Arizona, and Florida. While seemingly independent, reactions to the votes show that they are inextricably linked. Ellen DeGeneres may have summed up their relationship the best: “Here we just had a giant step towards equality [by electing Obama] and then on the very next day, we took a giant step away [by passing Prop 8].” Both issues will be placed center-stage in Gus Van Sant’s upcoming biopic Milk.

Milk follows the life of Harvey Milk, a former San Francisco city supervisor and the first openly gay man to hold a public office. Both Milk and Obama are firsts in the political world, which only adds to their respective controversial legacies. While I was not alive to see Milk in office, I can only imagine the vehement and venomous reactions to both his election and term in office. Obama has already received some criticism and he hasn’t even begun his term yet! The film will certainly be an interesting look into the opposition faced by a polarizing politician and likely a plea for equality, as seen in the latest promotional clip released by Focus Features (clip below).

Milk was also one of the leading voices against California Proposition 6 in 1978, which would have mandated that schools fire homosexual employees and those who supported equal rights for gays. Due in part to Milk’s campaigning, Prop 6 was resoundingly shot down. This episode in Milk’s life will surely play an important part in the film. Since both propositions generally reflect the issue of gay rights, audiences should find similarities between the two. Any interested readers should see Jesse McKinley’s recent article in the NY Times that compares and contrasts these two elections.

It is with these two issues in mind that I claim that Milk will be the timeliest movie of the year. It seems to not only tap into our current national political landscape, but relates it back to the late 1970s to give the audience some distance on the issues. Kristopher Tapley even suggests that an earlier release of the film may have swayed Californians to vote against Prop 8. While we can't go back in time to verify this theory, I cannot recall another film released this year that might have a significant impact on a person’s political views. Oliver Stone’s W. could have been it, but appears to be an apologetic paean rather than the condemnation audiences were expecting. In light of the election results, Milk should be the most anticipated film of the fall season.

Bond Cult Curiosities: Nephews and Brothers

Just a question? Were any Bond fans brought into the mythology from the minor popularity of James Bond Jr. in the early 90s:



James Bond Jr. was the nephew (a nephew named 'Jr?') of Ian Fleming's masterspy. According to that "great" resource Wikipedia:

"The name 'James Bond Junior' was first used in 1967 for an unsuccessful spinoff novel entitled 003½: The Adventures of James Bond Junior written under the pseudonym R. D. Mascott. The idea of Bond having a nephew was used again in 1991 as an American animated series for television in which the title character defeats threats to the safety of the free world. The series was mildly successful and spawned six episode novelisations by John Peel writing as John Vincent, a 12 issue comic book series by Marvel Comics published in 1992, as well as a video game developed by Eurocom for the NES and the SNES in 1991."

To be truthful, this is not my favorite Bond curiosity. That sell-out text is actually something I originally saw on one of my favortite TV shows of all time, Mystery Science Theater 3000 - the Italian pop freakshow that is Operation Double 007(1967) - also with the release titles Operation Kid Brother, Secret Agent 00, and my personal favorite OK Connery.

This film stars Sean's actual younger brother Neil Connery as Dr. Neil Connery! The reallife Neil Connery was broke and needed cash and is refered to in the film as the brother of the world's greatest secrect agent - called Dr. Neil Connery. So, it is never clear if he is the brother of Bond or Sean Connery or some other agent. Oddly, making things weirder, Neil's Scottish accent was deemed too thick for US audiences and dubbed in by an American.

Oh ... it gets odder!

The film is filled with Bond regulars getting easy paychecks for playing familiar parts: Adolf Celi in a similar role to Thunder ball; Daniela Bianchi, from From Russia With Love; Anthony Dawson from Dr.No and even Bernard Lee (aka M) and Lois Maxwell (aka Ms.Moneypenny)! While essentially playing their same characters, they never use the proper names, probably in fear of lawsuits. So it somewhat feels like the world of 60s era movie Bond. Needless to say, the whole thing is what might be defined as a pop freakshow upon viewing it today.

Anyway, if you have time to waste this weekend, do yourself a favor Bond fans and watch the bizarro weirdness that is Operation Double OO7 the only way tolerable- via my vote for the greatest cult TV show of all time - MST3K. Google has the entire 90 minute episode posted.

An extra bonus for those fellow MSTies who discovered the program in its early 90s prime like me, this is a "Joel" episode:



Of course, this all brings up the real question.

Is James Bond Jr. the son of Dr. Neil Connery, the brother of the world's greatest secret agent? I suppose if so inclined, you could create an alternative family narrative - though I am still unclear what the hell Neil is supposed to BE in relation to Bond his film! He is called "Connery" - yet is placed in the fictional world of Bond!

Perhaps this is a family lineage only 'real' in the dirty residue of popular culture - where paycheck trumps everything, even basic narrative logic. It is kind of interesting that in that messy world, "meta" narratives just sort of happen by mistake.

Of course, I haven't even touched upon the all-star mess of 1967's "comedy" version of Casino Royale. But, oddly, being a clearer "spoof" - it almost feels unrelated to this sub-history.

Bond Poll

Head over to Reel Whore and vote for your favorite Bond. There is also the "they all suck" option, if interested.

Prophecy

From March 12, 2008, "Memories of a Rainy SCMS:"

"I have visions of a brighter SCMS 2010 - where we all have jobs, happier outlooks, and a progressive democrat in the White House. And the California sun shines down on all of us."

From November 6, 2008:
One part of that prophecy is now fulfilled . . . let us now sit back and see what else the future brings.

hopefully yours,
Scott

Bond Blogathon Update

Hi Everyone,

Here are some links compiled over the first week or so of the Bond blogathon. If you know of others, please email me.

Best,
Jason

My most recent addition on my autobiographical initiation to Bond: "Bond and Nostalgia."

Based on Will's similar post: "Nostalgia for the Present."

Will's latest, meanwhile, documents his own anticipation for Quantum of Solace (taking my feelings about Marc Forster to task): "World Premiere of Quantum of Solace."

I don't have much to say in response yet, not because its not a good debate to have, but primarily because I feel I've blogged QofS to death and probably won't have much else to say about it until the damn thing is actually out in the States, and I can actually see it for myself--at which point I will be delighted to re-engage in battle. Short of that, its all academic at this point. :)

Scott's take on the "Another Way to Die" Music Video.

A few more posts of mine over at Jamais Vu:

"Spoiler Alerts" on the danger of UK audiences posting all the secrets (I've already stumbled upon one plot development I'd wish I hadn't).

My ranking of the best and worst Bond films.

Happy Halloween with Pearl Jam and James Whale!

Here is a Youtube find that I just LOVE - James Whale meets Pearl Jam:



As some might know (well, Jason might know), Bride of Frankenstein (1935) is one of my favorite horror films of all time. It is certainly the first great example in film history of the sequel exceeding the original - here Whale's great Frankenstein (1931). As such, it is a highly ranked on my general list of favorite 1930s films (my primary research area) and number one on my list of the best sequels of all time. (Yes, even above Godfather 2, since Bride improves SO much on the original).
My students were a bit perplexed when we watched Bride in my film analysis class last year around Halloween time. I finally got them into discussing it through mentioning how similar it is in tone to Tim Burton. (In truth, Burton WISHES he was as stylish, inventive, emotionally powerful, and campy/witty as Whale in this film!) The approach was a nice doorway to get students talking about a queer and gendered subtext - a general sexuality as horror/attraction reading building off of previous weeks' discussions of gender and spectacle.
Anyway, as an old horror movie fan, the real reason I love Bride might have less to do with any queer subtext or general camp vide in the movie - though both are there and fantastically executed by Whale. My Bride-love actually might be based in something uncovered in this wonderful little fan video.
Taking off from Mary Shelley, to a degree, the film is an anomaly as a horror sequel in that it evolves its monster. Other sequels, including the rest of Universal's Frankenstein films, try to play it safe by giving the audience more of the same. Bride universalizes its monster, making him more identifiable and, as such, universalizes the story and evolves the film series as well. The sequel now exposes the monster as tragic Christ figure in broad daylight, only then to have the creature reject spirituality in his rampage through the graveyard's religious statues. This is a shockingly atheist film ... humorous in many parts, but also bleak and devastating in others. Man is God and man is misguided and selfish. If we suspected that was the message underlying the original Frankenstein, we can be sure of it with Bride.
By mashing Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein with the great cynical rock song "Do the Evolution" by Pearl Jam, this cool little video taps directly into the crowning achievement of Whale's version of Shelley. It is not only the style. Not only the camp. It is the 'nothingness' at the films' spiritual centers.
Whale's films are about a dark and godless humanity - hence the cloudy World War I phony skies. The films harbor an underlying cynical suggestion of the empty desperation underneath all human evolution. Little girls can be killed simply through play. Old blind hermits are godly, only to have their society condemn their ‘faulty' love. And, in the climax of Bride, we see the promise of love mutated into loneliness and rejection as the monster is rebuffed by his supposed mate.
There is no happy ending in this version of evolution - with God as man. Only a sad 'nothing.'

I am ahead, I am a man
Im the first mammal to wear pants
Yeah I am at peace with my lust
I can kill cause in God I trust, yeah
It's evolution, baby!
-Pearl Jam

Now THAT's scary!!!!

Happy Halloween! - Scott

James Bond Blogathon Reminder (10/24-11/14)

Hi Everyone,
Just a reminder that the James Bond Blogathon, in anticipation of Quantum of Solace, begins this Friday, Oct. 24th.

I will be co-hosting at my own blog with Will Scheibel posting at his. Links to those entries and others will be periodically collected here at Mabuse.

Feel free to email me with any heads-up to blogs or posts you know of. I will read them and link to them from here.

While much of the discussion may be geared towards the newest film, any aspect of any Bond text, or of Bond Culture--films, books and other media--as well as negative and positive takes, are welcome.

Scott has already started us off with a post about the new Bond song, "Another Way to Die," which Will had likewise blogged on earlier.

I've since discovered that there will be another Bond blogathon from Nov. 5th to 7th, which was originally intended to coincide with the first initial release date, which has since been moved back a month. No word on whether they are shifting accordingly. In any case, I will be linking to those posts as well.

Finally, a special thank you to Girish, GreenCine, Mystery Man and The Listening Ear for helping to spread the word.

The Home Stetch: 2008 Movie Round Up

I was just reading a special in The Onion's AV Club on the big upcoming movies of fall and winter (http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/oscar_o_meter_the_a_v_clubs) and, as we did this last year, I thought we might share some quick thoughts on our movie experiences thus far and what we're looking forward to.

Out of all the movies I've seen this year, I find only 4 of them sticking with me:

The Dark Knight (See my summer reviews for more.)

Happy-Go-Lucky (My first run-in with Mike Leigh and Sally Hawkins is bubbly and intoxicating as hell.)

In Bruges (I never knew what was coming next, one of the most refreshing things I can find in a movie.)

Wall-E (See summer notes.)

**I still have yet to see Man on Wire and Tell No One, which I've heard are great.

Out of the coming months, I'm excited to see:

The Bloom Brothers (Rian Johnson's Brick was superb, so I have to give this a watch.)

Changeling (Eastwood has been on a roll the past five years. He's supposed to be at the screening I'm attending, which should be amazing. I guess he has another movie coming out in December too.)

Che (Not sure what expectations to have, but since it's Soderbergh I have to see it.)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher's "Zodiac" was perhaps his best film but this looks a little too Tim Burton for it's own good.)

Rachel Getting Married (Reviews thus far have been very polarized, but I'm intreged.)

The Road (Director John Hillcoat's "The Proposition" is extraordinary.)

Slumdog Millionare (Love Danny Boyle. Millions is perfect.)

The Spirit (Frank Miller's adaptation looks to be more his than Will Eisner's, but I'm still drawn to it for aesthetic reasons.)

Synecdoche, New York (Can Charlie Kaufman direct? We'll find out!)

W. (Seeing this next weekend. I've often thought that Oliver Stone and Spike Lee are two American directors who are capable of greatness but often seem to find a way to blow it. Will this change Stone's course?)

The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky, could this be a return to form?)