Movie Buzz: Tameshk Film Club (2)

Tameshk Interactive Film Club (2): (September - October 2008)


Sorry for the gap between the film club sessions, hopefully it won't happen again. I will post the films both here, on Tameshk, and on the Facebook. You can find Tameshk Film Club (1) here.

Let's start:

Animation and Documentary: Remember we switch between documentary and animation and It is documentary time: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) directed by Errol Morris. Morris is my favorite contemporary documentary film director: His documentaries are based on interviews, where the presence of the interviewer/filmmaker is not dominant; I like him because he counts on the intelligence of the audience and expects them to be intelligent; he presents an interview to the viewer as the raw material hiding his own views and judgment behind his smart camera shots, bold compositions of his frames and sudden cuts in editing. In Morris' style, the judgment is yours to make. If you have seen The Fog of War check out The Thin Blue Line (1988) another award wining documentary by Errol Morris. This last one is a Must See for those of us living in Texas.

Recent films (from 2006 to present): I will put two films in this category, just to make sure everyone gets to see something which hasn't seen before and also to cover up for my own delay: Mongol (2007) directed by Sergei Bodrov (suggested by Daisy), I really like us to discuss this film, and Once (2006) by John Carney (suggested by Roya). I think Mongol and Once both have a sense of documentary in them; I will explain in our discussion.

Cinema History and Film Genre: I hope you all got to see Tretya meshchanskaya (Bed and Sofa, 1927) directed by Abram Room, which is an excellent example of Russian cinema specially in its ending; this grotesque reality in finishing the story is so common in Russian dramatic arts that can be easily called Russian ending. Being in the documentary mood for this month I have chosen the 1929 documentary film by Dziga Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera. Vertov is the father of Kino-Pravda which can be translated to Cinema-Truth. Vertov believed that the camera is the most reliable recorder of the reality of out time; the reality that is the closets to the truth. Vertov’s aesthetic views had lots of influence on the French avant-garde cinema and namely Jean-Luc Godard. I really hope you watch The Man with a Moving Camera; it is available on Netflix. Soon we will get to one of the first movements in cinema history: German Expressionism (1920s and 30s).

Miscellaneous & Suggested Film: Well I personally didn’t enjoy our previous film in this category – Daddy Long Legs (1955). I thought it had too much unrelated dancing, even for a musical. I will put two films in this category as well: One is N.J.’s tempting suggestion Dead Man Walking (1995) directed by Tim Robbins, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. The other is the three times Oscar winner film, Roman Holiday (1953) directed by William Wyler also suggested by Daisy; it is a romantic comedy with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.

Man with a Moving Camera, Dziga Vertov, (1929)
Original film poster