Page 148 – Establishing Shot

President’s Choice: An Introduction by IU President Michael A. McRobbie

Posted on November 12, 2016 by Establishing Shot

IU President Michael A. McRobbie introduced A Year of Living Dangerously at IU Cinema to launch the President's Choice: Reporting Conflict Film Series. — IU President Michael A. McRobbie introduced A Year of Living Dangerously at IU Cinema to launch the President’s Choice: Reporting Conflict Film Series.

The blogging team at A Place For Film extends thanks to IU President Michael A. McRobbie for supporting our new blogging adventure by inviting us to share the transcript of his remarks, which kicked off this fall’s President’s Choice: Reporting Conflict Film Series.

Introduction of Peter Weir’s The Year of Living Dangerously
President Michael A. McRobbie
IU Cinema, IU Bloomington on October 9, 2016

Thank you, Jon [Vickers].

And let me once again commend you and your staff for your commitment to highly innovative programming that has helped the IU Cinema become one of the finest university cinemas in the nation, not just in the view of thousands of us who frequent it regularly, but also in the opinion of such legends of the cinema as Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. The cinema has very quickly become one of the jewels of the Bloomington campus.

I am delighted to be here tonight to say a few words about the films I have selected as part of this semester’s President’s Choice Series, “Reporting Conflict,” and to introduce the first film in the series—Peter Weir’s The Year of Living Dangerously. (more…)

Wash Out Your Eye

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Laura Ivins

Since the earliest days of avant-garde cinema, experimental filmmakers have interrogated vision. They have defied or ignored norms of cinematography to create images that appear distorted, abstract, fantastical, or visually confusing. Historically, the reasons why individual filmmakers distort the image have been diverse. Some seek a “pure” cinema akin to classical music. Others feel that marginalized stories need to be told differently than mainstream cinema. (more…)

A John Boorman Crime Double Feature

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Jesse Pasternack

Lee Marvin in John Boorman's POINT BLANK Credit: [ MGM / THE KOBAL COLLECTION ] — Lee Marvin in John Boorman’s POINT BLANK Credit: [ MGM / THE KOBAL COLLECTION ]

I had the great pleasure of being invited to have lunch with John Boorman during his visit to the IU Cinema. He was so sharp and intelligent, and he told wonderful stories. I ushered a screening of Point Blank just so I could hear him talk. I loved the movie, but at the time seeing it was more of a bonus compared to Boorman’s stories about making it.

Boorman’s versatility has served him well throughout his career. It has allowed him to make many different kinds of films and satisfy different types of audiences. But he has achieved something special with Point Blank and The General. Both films are about driven, principled criminals and are made with great technical creativity. They differ in several respects, but are united by the clear-eyed intelligence and clever storytelling that are trademarks of John Boorman’s work as a filmmaker. The two crime films were made 31 years apart, but bear some interesting resemblances. A viewing of both films reveals stylistic and narrative similarities that enhance the audience’s enjoyment of both films. (more…)

…Pulled from the David Bradley Collection

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Katherine Johnson

bradley_00003-1 — David Bradley. Bradley mss. Photo courtesy of the Lilly Library.

Each semester when I introduce my selection for the City Lights Film Series at the Indiana University Cinema, I begin by saying that all of the series’ titles are pulled from the David Bradley Collection, housed in the Lilly Library here on the Indiana University Campus. That is to say, the titles, specifically, are selected from the Collection. The physical films themselves are another matter. Many of the 16mm film prints are in delicate condition, and the process of projecting them might actually be harmful to the material. As a result, the IU Cinema often choses to obtain, from elsewhere, more modern copies or prints that can handle the sometimes rough process of film projection. (more…)

“Goodness won” — John Boorman on The Exorcist II: The Heretic

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Aja Essex

Sequels are notoriously hard to make. In 2016 alone we have had movies like Zoolander 2, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and Blair Witch come and go without making a dent with the audience, with critics, or with the box office. This isn’t a modern problem. People have been trying to make follow-ups to cherished and long-beloved movies for years to varying degrees of success. There are accomplishments with movies like The Godfather 2, Spider-Man 2, and more recently with Magic Mike XXL and Mad Max: Fury Road, but for every one of those films you get twenty Blues Brothers: 2000’s, movies that are just re-hashes of the first film with more of the surface-level details filmmakers mistakenly thought were what drew audiences in the first place. That is why my favorite type of sequels are the ones helmed by directors with specific visions. The Alien franchise is a famous example of this. It takes directors who have a very specific style and has them inject it into the property. James Cameron, David Fincher, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet all took Ridley Scott and Dan O’Bannon’s concept and story and refracted it through their very specific lenses. It is not “more of the same” but “left of the same.”

(more…)

In Favor of Imperfect Films

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Laura Ivins

Cinematic detritus: bits of unused film from projects years ago, with scratches and dust, out of focus, overexposed. Found footage with faded color. The mic catching wind. A man singing to us as these disparate images flitter past.

In 2006, experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas made forty films for his newly launched website in order to introduce his work to an online audience. Among them was Imperfect Film, a 4-minute film that pieced together older footage that never made it into his previous films, as well as some found footage shots of monkeys climbing on rocks. As the title suggests, the film is imperfect, but also lovely, like a string of memories. (more…)