Every month, A Place for Film brings you a selection of films from our group of regular bloggers. Even though these films aren’t currently being screened at the IU Cinema, this series reflects the varied programming that can be found at the Cinema and demonstrates the eclectic tastes of the bloggers. Each contributor has picked one film that they saw this month that they couldn’t wait to share with others. Keep reading to find out what discoveries these cinephiles have made, as well as some of the old friends they’ve revisited.
Jesse Pasternack, contributor | Gas Food Lodging (1992)
I first saw Gas Food Lodging in my American Independent Cinema class at IU. It was one of the many great films which my fantastic professor Dr. Ryan Powell programmed for us to watch. It’s an underrated American classic with excellent cinematography and great performances. It was especially fun to watch during Women’s History Month because it has insightful depictions of female relationships.
Gas Food Lodging takes place in New Mexico during the early 1990s. Sweet and excitable teenager Shade (Fairuza Balk) spends most of her time going to see old Mexican movies starring her beloved Elvia Rivero. She decides what her overworked mother Nora (Brooke Adams) needs is a boyfriend. But the problems that she, Nora, and her older sister Trudi (Ione Skye) face will require more interior solutions, even as they all pursue romantic relationships with men to varying degrees of success.
Writer-director Allison Anders demonstrates a great talent for creating interesting shot compositions throughout this movie, which was also her directorial debut as a solo filmmaker. Her long shots encapsulate the majesty of the American West, but they also depict the loneliness of those wide open spaces in a way that most filmmakers fail to capture. Anders excels at blocking, too, and constantly finds interesting ways to arrange her characters in the frame. One example is when Nora goes on the “date” which Shade has devised for with Raymond (Chris Mulkey), who she does not know is married and already engaged in an on-again-off-again affair with Nora. As the couple makes sarcastic conversation in the background, Shade sits in the foreground as she realizes that her “date” was a bad idea. Gas Food Lodging is full of similar, interesting visual ideas which challenge mainstream conceptions of how a film should look.
My favorite thing about this film is its performances. Balk’s sensitive, sweet work as Shade is a far cry from the wild characters she would go on to play. She won an Independent Spirit Award for her performance in this movie, and she is so good that you wish she would have been the lead in more movies. Adams, who was in such great films as Days of Heaven (1978) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), shines as Nora. Skye is fantastic as Trudi, and her scenes where she argues with her mother are some of the film’s best.
The complex, intergenerational relationships between these women are the centerpiece of the film. Anders isn’t afraid to depict the emotional ruthlessness with which Nora and Trudi treat each other. But she also never forgets to show us the love that they feel for each other, which is also a part of the complicated ties that bind them. They feel like real people in the best way.
There are a lot of great films to watch to celebrate Women’s History Month. You could watch something by iconic directors such as Agnés Varda, Claire Denis, or Chantal Akerman. But Gas Food Lodging — with its astute group portrait of a family of women — deserves your attention as well. Its sensitive and realistic portraits of the lives of three different women make it a perfect film to watch to celebrate the everyday contributions of women to the fabric of the world.
Michaela Owens, Editor | The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
While certainly not an iconic classic like Some Like It Hot or Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes has often been maligned as a stodgy, bloated mess. To this Sherlock obsessive, though, it is actually a charming blending of Arthur Conan Doyle and Wilder (and I.A.L. Diamond), and, to my shock, features one of the best portrayals of the detective I’ve seen yet.
To start, the film is brilliantly cast. Colin Blakely’s fine depiction of Watson retains some of the character’s bluster and enthusiasm from the books, while also giving him a dash of goofiness and a clear love for his friend. Wearing a bald cap and adopting a stuffy, holier-than-thou demeanor, Christopher Lee is Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft, which isn’t supposed to be a showy role, but if anybody can make a meal out of a small part, it’s Lee. (I mean, there is a two-second moment where he takes off his monocle just by moving his face and it is RIVETING.) As Holmes, Robert Stephens gives a performance I adore. It is exactly what I want from a Sherlock portrayal and I couldn’t be happier with it.
One of the things I find most annoying about a Holmes adaptation is the inevitable inclusion of Irene Adler, the remarkable woman who was one of the few people to ever outwit Holmes. It just becomes a clear lack of imagination to have her appear every single time, you know? Thankfully, Wilder and Diamond substitute Irene with the new character of Gabrielle Valledon, who arrives at 221B one night in a daze after being attacked by the people who have kidnapped her husband. Without giving too much away, Gabrielle, played marvelously by Genevieve Page, is slowly revealed to be a strong match for Holmes and she provides the film with its poignant, perfectly bittersweet ending.
While not exactly laugh-out-loud funny like, say, The Major and the Minor, this movie thrives on Wilder and Diamond’s trademark wit. It’s impressive that the two writers decided to construct their own intriguing mystery rather than adapt one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s; the final outcome of their mystery is a touch disappointing to me, but it is still fun and often keeps you guessing until the very end. The production design is gorgeous in an understated way and the overall look of the film is rather lovely. There are some unexpected moments with shadows that are just splendid and the location shooting in Scotland towards the end can be breathtaking. Plus, Wilder straight-up directs the hell out of it. I can only imagine how beautiful this would look on the big screen. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is not quite a Billy Wilder masterpiece, but it is, without a doubt, a terrific film that deserves a far better reputation than it seems to have.
Noni Ford, contributor | Jane Eyre (2011)
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre was introduced to me through the BBC series released in 2006. After finishing this adaptation, I plunged headfirst into reading the novel sans footnotes and then wisely decided to re-read it only a few months later with ample footnotes on the historical context of the language. When Cary Fukunaga’s adaptation came out, I was slightly nervous to see what he could add that I hadn’t already seen before.
While the film contained some of the fundamental aspects of the novel (Jane’s childhood traumas, the darkness of Thornfield Hall, and the finishing school), Fukunaga was able to give the titular character more fire and depth than I’ve previously seen. The scenes between Mr. Rochester and Jane are charged, their words quick and their wits sharp. We see him goad her only to be surprised when she rises to the occasion and gives her sentiments and opinions freely without demureness. There’s a tension between them from the onset; along with the fire often in the background of these dialogues, it creates a sort of Beauty and the Beast comparison. As they talk more, Jane sees the man behind the bitter mask and Mr. Rochester sees a purer heart than he has ever known.
There is an odd nature to the book and the film doesn’t shy away from it — they are an odd couple and rather than try to convince us they are meant to be together, we do see their visual incompatibility often. Their romance isn’t sudden and it isn’t fated either; it’s a slower building of love. The gothic elements in the novel are included in the film, and while we do see a beautiful Thornfield Hall, resplendent in the sun, it changes suddenly overnight into a maze of hallways and closed doors full of secrets. When the fairy tale/storybook elements begin to come together, we can almost see the rot at the center of the seemingly perfect façade. It makes the film more compelling, even for someone like myself who knows all the beats of the story.
Adding to the success of the film is the exceptional cast, with Mia Wasikowska at the helm giving a transformative performance and Michael Fassbender showcasing both the harsher and softer sides of Rochester. The score by Dario Marianelli twists and turns with the characters and is the final perfect touch to this retelling of a classic.
Laura Ivins, contributor | Hoosier Films Annual Festival (March 24-27, 2022)
Last weekend Hoosier Films held its third annual film festival (first in-person) at the Buskirk Chumley. The festival showcases work by Indiana-based filmmakers, a celebration of the filmmaking talent in our state.
Among the screenings I was able to attend, my favorite was the Saturday afternoon shorts block “On the Periphery.” The six films ran the gamut from narrative to documentary to animation, all featuring stories that somehow center people usually relegated to the edges.
For the two documentaries — Fourth & Goal (dir. Mykal McEldowney) and Welcome to the Dollhouse (dir. Elizabeth Miller-Derstine) — this meant focusing on people creating their own powerful communities as a way of coping with harmful social structures. The openness of the participants in both documentaries was so moving, and I appreciated their generosity in sharing their experiences.
In two of the narratives — Teacher Fight (dir. Sarah Potter) and The Armor (dir. Sebastian Russell) — the filmmakers take us into the perspective of characters who are normally secondary to the story. Teacher Fight exhibited skillful writing, but The Armor was a standout for me. It opens with cheesy fantasy costumes but then takes a hilarious turn.
The final two films — the narrative Some Kind of Hero (dir. Jason Doty) and the hand-drawn Courier 2 (dir. Ken Avidor) — bring us into the world of criminals and questions of right and wrong. Some Kind of Hero contained one of the most polished performances of the films I saw at the festival, featuring Jaime Callaco as an ex-con turned family man struggling with the straight life.