Indiana University Cinema

Iris Film Festival: A Conversation with Filmmaker Matt Lutz

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Barbara Ann O'Leary

A Place For Film editor Barbara Ann O’Leary chatted this week with experimental filmmaker Matt Lutz, whose work will screen Saturday at IU Cinema during the 2017 Iris Film Festival.

BOL: You have two films in the 2017 Iris Film Festival: Thunderstorm (0:30) and Western Segment (7:19). Can you share a little about the films and how they were made?

ML: Thunderstorm is a direct animation 16mm film. I painted and scratched directly onto blank film in ways resembling the shapes, colors, and movements of a thunderstorm. The thing about animating this way – especially on small gauge film – is that the images are erratic from one frame to the next, it is impossible to get a smooth transition. Our hands are very imprecise, and direct animation exaggerates this unsteadiness, which I find beautiful. I’m interested in taking common occurrences (such as thunderstorms) and filtering them through this process.

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The Audience is Dead: Looking, Form, and Distance in Xie Fei’s Black Snow

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Nathaniel Sexton

Still image from Black Snow directed by Xie Fei.

Guest contributor Nathaniel Sexton explores ways in which Chinese filmmaker Xie Fei plays with and disrupts our ideas of audience in Black Snow. [Warning: contains spoilers.]

“Above all, the Chinese artist never acts as if there were a
fourth wall besides the three surrounding him. He expresses
his awareness of being watched. This immediately removes
one of the European stage’s characteristic illusions. The
audience can no longer have the illusion of being the unseen
spectator at an event which is really taking place.”

— Bertolt Brecht,
“Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting,”
from Schriften zum Theater, 1957

Xie Fei’s 1990 film Black Snow opens with a steadicam shot of its protagonist Li Huiquan (played by actor later turned director Jiang Wen) emerging from a blackened subway terminal. At first indistinguishable from the darkness of the subway, Li is suddenly silhouetted by the grey light of Beijing. He rises up a flight of stairs, breaking out into the air above. We can see our actor. He is playing someone who has just been released from jail. A dark heavy coat, a duffle bag, gloves and a hat—Beijing is cold and unwelcoming to a free man. (more…)

In Praise of Cary Grant

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Michaela Owens

Still Image of James Stewart, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn from The Philadelphia Story directed by George Cukor. — Still of Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, and Katharine Hepburn from *The Philadelphia Story,* directed by George Cukor

Guest contributor Michaela Owens extols the virtues of Cary Grant.

When you think of The Philadelphia Story, your first thought is likely of Katharine Hepburn. Who can blame you? Hepburn had a stunningly powerful cinematic presence, and The Philadelphia Story is without a doubt her film — playwright Philip Barry wrote it for her, after all. However, in order for the movie to be successful, Hepburn needed to be matched with two actors who wouldn’t be totally devoured by her. On Broadway, she had Van Heflin and Joseph Cotten (can I travel back in time to see that?); on film, she wanted Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, but what she got was just as wonderful: Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant. (more…)

Jacques Demy in La La Land

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Jesse Pasternack

Still image from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg directed by Jacques Demy. — Still image from *The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,* directed by Jacques Demy

When I was a freshman, I saw two Jacques Demy musicals at the IU Cinema. They were The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort. I saw them on Saturdays that were a week apart. My friends and I sat near the front both times, the better to absorb the spellbinding mixture of bright colors and catchy music. Those experiences formed the bedrock for my adult love of musicals. The visual and aural delights that Demy and composer Michel Legrand brought to the screen showed me that this genre could be as entertaining and thought-provoking as any other. (more…)

IU Cinema turns 6!

Posted on January 13, 2017 by Establishing Shot

Six years ago today Indiana University Cinema launched its first season with an unforgettable screening of Lawrence of Arabia—officially transforming the University Theatre from its origins as a live performance space to an amazing place for film. I was finally seeing the film as it was meant to be experienced—beautifully projected on the big screen. (more…)

Pain is Art Because Art is Life

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Noni Ford

Guest contributor Noni Ford reflects on the complexities of grief and the staying power of One More Time with Feeling.

The greatest element of art is its capacity to transform pain into an experience that can be shared and understood in some measure by all people. While Nick Cave was in the midst of making his sixteenth studio album with the Bad Seeds, his son Arthur died tragically young, and it rocked his family member’s lives as well as his own. Instead of choosing to stop the project he soldiered on and created a uniquely beautiful album about his grief. In lieu of conducting a press tour he decided to release a film called One More Time with Feeling with music from the album Skeleton Tree in order to give his music coverage while also staying with his family. This event was shown across the country for only one night and I was lucky enough to see a screening of it at the IU Cinema. Even though there was a torrential rainstorm that night, I didn’t let it stop me from getting to the theatre since I knew this would be my only chance to see the film. The film was a journey and an experience that I couldn’t forget. I has stuck in my memory since September. (more…)