ROGER’S FAVOURITES

As this is my last Festival, I am indulging myself by sharing some of my favourite films. I must emphasise that these choices are not the best or greatest films – just some of my favourites. Otherwise, I would of course have selected some from the pantheon: Eisenstein, Lang, Stroheim, Buñuel, Welles, Lynch, etc. I hope to pop in to introduce some of the films. Most are being screened in the Studio.

Fantasia

Ambitious 1940 animated epic from Walt Disney Productions, which includes sequences set to music by – among others – Bach, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky, Schubert and Beethoven.

USA 1940 SAMUEL ARMSTRONG, JAMES ALGAR, BILL ROBERTS, PAUL SATTERFIELD, HAMILTON LUSKE 120M

“This was my first ‘event’ film. I saw it with my father in South Africa when I was about eight and it left a lasting impression on me. Some of the sequences are dated now, others kitsch, and Beethoven’s cute Pastoral is difficult to watch today. However, I loved the ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’, the scary ‘A Night on the Bare Mountain’ (Mussorgsky) and especially the dinosaurs in ‘The Rite of Spring’, which turned me on to modern music. Most of all I loved the abbreviated Stravinsky score. In many ways it was a very courageous thing for Disney to do in 1940.” – RG

For full details see the Animation strand on pg86.

JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY

‘Jazz on a Summer’s Day’ is widely regarded as being one of the greatest jazz movies ever made. It was shot over the four days of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. Here are truly memorable performances from some of the greatest players and singers of the time, including Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Dinah Washington Gerry Mulligan, Anita O’Day and Bob Brookmeyer. The film concludes with the peerless gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

USA 1958 BERT STERN 85M

“To me jazz and film are the finest art forms created in the 20th century. Patrons will be aware of the jazz documentaries and live events presented at the Festival each year (don’t miss this year’s, on Ronnie Scott). Many fine documentaries have been made and we have shown most of them, but ‘Jazz on a Summer’s Day’ presents complete performances without interruptions and with no voiceover. Bert Stern lets the music speak for itself. And the film is beautifully shot.” – RG

Sun 20 Aug 18:15 – Studio

Fri 25 Aug 13:15 – Studio

THE FIREMEN’S BALL

It’s the annual firemen’s ball, and the organisers decide to liven up the usually dull event with a raffle and a beauty contest. With thievery and bribery, the event rapidly descends into farce, and that is before a fire breaks out. The last film that Milos Forman (‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, ‘Amadeus’) made in his native country and language is a sparkling comedy and also one of the best showcases of the director’s uncanny ability to extract flawless performances out of a entirely non-professional cast. Although it was nominated for an Oscar, the Czech authorities were so convinced the film was a satirical allegory about official incompetence that it was banned. It’s now regarded as one of the greatest of all Czech films. (Subtitles)

CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1967 MILOS FORMAN 73M

“I have always enjoyed the droll and sometimes black humour in Czech films, and this is one of the best. Apparently Forman and two regular collaborators wrote it after witnessing a real ball in a local town where they were holed up writing a screenplay. They were so transfixed by the comic possibilities that they produced this script, knowing that the natural satire would spell out the required message to their audience. Although the film was considered a deeply comic political satire at the time, with the country under communism, I saw it more as a critique of Czech officialdom, bureaucracy and blundering incompetence. It needs to be better known.” – RG

Sunset Boulevard

This ranks among the most scathing satires of Hollywood and the cruel fickleness of movie fandom. Intense, enthralling and unforgettable, it stars Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a faded silent-movie star, and William Holden as Joe Gillis, a down-onhis-luck screenwriter whom she enlists to help her make her triumphant return to the screen. Most of the actors were to a large extent playing themselves. Swanson plays the ageing star attempting to make a comeback – which was true. Erich von Stroheim plays a failed film director working as Desmond’s butler who once directed her in a careerending movie – which was also true. There are cameos from a number of well-known figures such as Cecil B. DeMille, who plays the director on whom Swanson sets her sights as the man to help revive her career; DeMille had directed Swanson during the silent era. USA 1950 BILLY WILDER 110M

Thu 17 Aug 13:30 – Studio

Sun 20 Aug 15:45 – Studio

“So difficult to choose a film noir from so many of my favourites, including ‘Double Identity’, ‘The Big Sleep’, etc, but this film also explores different areas not portrayed in this wonderful genre, especially that of the film industry itself, with stars playing parodies of themselves. But the hard-boiled dialogue, voiceover, cynicism, expressionist visual style and Franz Waxman’s score are all potent elements of typical film-noir tropes.” – RG