Page 94 – Establishing Shot

The Heartwarming, Star-Studded Charms of There’s No Business Like Show Business

Posted on December 5, 2019 by Michaela Owens

The main cast in the finale of There's No Business Like Show Business — The main cast in the finale of *There’s No Business Like Show Business*

“Show business isn’t just scenery, lights, greasepaint and glitter, it’s heart. Because if your show hasn’t got a heart, you haven’t got a show. That’s what I tried to convey when I wrote the song ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business.’” — Irving Berlin

If it weren’t for the presence of Marilyn Monroe, what would our knowledge be of the 1954 musical There’s No Business Like Show Business? Would it be known for housing the dynamic talents of Donald O’Connor at his prime? Or would it be used as an example of what Mitzi Gaynor was like as her star was rising? Or, if it weren’t for Marilyn, would this film be all about Ethel Merman, the boisterous songstress who could belt out a song like you wouldn’t believe?

While I do adore the blonde bombshell, Show Business is so much more than an exhibition of Monroe’s considerable talents. In addition to her, there is the aforementioned Gaynor, O’Connor, and Merman, as well as Dan Dailey. As if that weren’t enough, we get sixteen Irving Berlin tunes, direction from the ever-reliable Walter Lang, the lusciousness of DeLuxe Color, and a never-ending parade of jaw-dropping costumes from Charles LeMaire and Travilla. What might be most important, though, is the film’s very sweet story about a show business family, which never fails to make me a bit teary-eyed thanks to the stellar cast and the screenplay written by Phoebe and Henry Ephron (yes, Nora’s parents). (more…)

Those Bells

Posted on December 4, 2019 by Jon Vickers

Still from Sátántangó — Still from *Sátántangó*

I was recently visited by a good friend named Max Westler, who drove down from Northern Indiana. Truth be told, he did not come to see me, but traveled to Bloomington to spend two days in IU Cinema, with the hook being Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó. Max is a brilliant published poet (retired creative writing professor from St. Mary’s) and cinephile who has been writing as long as he has been seeing films as a kid in NYC. We first connected after a screening of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai in Michigan at the Vickers Theatre in 1997. (more…)

Disney, Dine, and Collodi: The Many Faces of Pinocchio

Posted on December 2, 2019 by Establishing Shot

Guest post by Leah Marie Chizek.

Ahead of the Eskenazi Museum of Art’s recent reopening, I had the opportunity to walk through the galleries, where I ran across Jim Dine’s 44-print Pinocchio suite just after it had been installed. Dine first saw Walt Disney’s Pinocchio (1940) when he was six years old, and his prints are a complex tribute to both the film and the original Italian series of tales on which it is based. There is an intrigue, even a darkness about them that I hadn’t fully expected to see, and which I couldn’t recall from the film. All I could remember was the tale of a lovable puppet on his quest for boyhood, joined by his dapper crooning sidekick, Jiminy Cricket. Sure, he may have had to endure his fair share of humiliations and trials, like that pesky nose that grew longer every time he told a lie! Ultimately, though, Pinocchio proved deserving of his wish to become an actual boy, the son his father and maker Geppetto had always longed for. (more…)

Monthly Movie Round-Up: November

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Establishing Shot

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.
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Montage as Conflict: Sergei Eisenstein’s October: Ten Days that Shook the World

Posted on November 25, 2019 by Laura Ivins

silhouette of men with guns on a boat — *October: Ten Days that Shook the World* (Sergei Eisenstein, 1928)

Sergei Eisenstein’s theories of montage are well known but often oversimplified. In this video, I offer my interpretation of Eisenstein’s film theory, drawing from his 1928 film October: Ten Days that Shook the World to illustrate his ideas about montage. Within Eisenstein’s writings, he repeatedly returns to the importance of conflicting lines of form and movement within and between frames, and he conceives of montage as much more than aesthetic principles of editing. (more…)

The Art of Self-Creation: Minnelli’s Brigadoon

Posted on November 18, 2019 by Jack Miller

The cinema of Vincente Minnelli (1903-1986) can be divided into three categories in terms of genre: he made musicals, melodramas, and marriage comedies. Though the pictures in each of these camps differ from one another in tone and technique, it’s always been particularly easy for those of us who love Minnelli to unite them without doing much auteurist detective work, to discern in them the sensibilities and overarching vision of a singular artist. Minnelli’s films are extremely and exquisitely stylized – he began his professional life as a window dresser in Chicago, and this early predilection toward tasteful decoration seems to have informed his cinema a great deal. One might observe that design and décor even fuel the drama in a number of Minnelli’s films, wherein space and texture interact with action and character psychology in illuminating ways. The critic Christopher Small once remarked that he believes Minnelli was attracted to directing Father of the Bride (1950) only because he knew he’d be allowed to design and stage a full-blown wedding ceremony and reception using MGM’s money. (more…)