Page 127 – Establishing Shot

Wounded Galaxies 1968: Beneath the Paving Stones, the Beach

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Establishing Shot

Still from Daisies — Still from *Daisies*

Guest post by Joan Hawkins, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at Indiana University.

It’s hard for people coming up now to understand how important movies were in the 1960s.
1968 especially.

1968 was a year of international revolution. It was the year of the Chicago Democratic Convention; Prague Spring and the subsequent Soviet Invasion of Czechoslavakia; France’s Mai 1968; the Tlatelolco massacre of students in Mexico City; uprisings in Poland, Spain, Italy, West Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, China, India, Argentina, Brazil, Scandinavia, Japan, Pakistan, and many nations across the African continent. It saw the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, and the COINTELPRO infiltration of the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords. (more…)

Chanting Afrosurrealism: Primer to Avant-Noir 2 at IU Cinema

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Establishing Shot

Still from Kuhani (Ntare Guma, 2013) — Still from *Kuhani* (Ntare Guma, 2013)

Guest post by Terri Francis.

African Diaspora cinemas and experimental films are established galaxies of research and creative endeavor, but rarely do they overlap in our everyday sense of things, despite a substantial and growing number of relevant and prominent artists and scholars whose work requires just such a comparative approach. You have to go out of your way to see them. They screen on loops in galleries or play for cozy audiences in microcinemas. And you’ll find the avant-noir in museums or grand theaters like the IU Cinema. We need programs like Avant-Noir 2 screening tonight at IU Cinema that provide the rare opportunity to see these types of out-of-the way movies, and to participate in the post-film discussions that offer learning and affective opportunities for conversation and sharing ideas. (more…)

Frames of Reality in Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman

Posted on January 17, 2018 by Laura Ivins

As audience members, we seem to intuitively know how to interpret films. We accurately categorize films as fiction and documentary without giving it a second thought. But how do we know which films are fiction or nonfiction? What conventions do filmmakers draw from to code their films as representations of fantasy or reality? (more…)

A Prescient Mirror: How Patton Reflects America

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Jesse Pasternack

“So as through a glass and darkly

The age long strife I see

Where I fought in many guises,

Many names – but always me.”

– General George S. Patton, Jr.

George C. Scott as the title character in Patton (1970) — George C. Scott as the title character in *Patton* (1970)

Patton (1970) was a major success for 20th Century Fox. Its depiction of General George S. Patton, Jr.’s exploits during World War II did well at the box office and won seven Academy Awards. These awards include Best Actor for George C. Scott’s performance as Patton, Best Original Screenplay for Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North, and the coveted Best Picture prize. Some film buffs might argue that M*A*S*H or Five Easy Pieces should have won Best Picture. But Patton certainly possesses one of the key qualifications for that award: the ability to reflect American character and temperament. (more…)

Ida Lupino: Actress, Director, Screenwriter, and Producer

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Katherine Johnson

One of my favorite actresses from Studio Era Hollywood is Ida Lupino; in fact, she’s one of the reasons I love Raoul Walsh’s High Sierra (1941). Many people know of Lupino as a Hollywood actress, but few know her as a director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in film and television from the mid- to late 1940s through the 1960s. (more…)

Rita Hayworth is Ready for Her Close-Up in Cover Girl

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Michaela Owens

Rita Hayworth in Cover Girl — Rita Hayworth in *Cover Girl*

I’m always curious to know how people remember Rita Hayworth. Is it as the woman who was pictured seductively sitting in bed, making thousands of soldiers’ hearts beat faster during WWII? Or is it as Gilda, singing “Put the Blame on Mame” while playfully stripping off her gloves? Or maybe you recall her high-profile marriages to Prince Aly Kahn (making her a princess seven years before Grace Kelly), multi-hyphenate Orson Welles, and singer Dick Haymes. Perhaps all some people remember is her gorgeous red hair and her stunning smile, a combination that proved irresistible to audiences and ultimately labelled Hayworth as “the love goddess.” (more…)