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- Documentary series focusing on great American artists and personalities.
- An intimate and candid look at the life and art of the legendary composer-lyricist.
- Anais Nin, filmed at the point in her life when she was passing from being a bohemian writer to being a widely read figure taken up by a new generation, reads selections from volume one of her just (1966) published Diary. This diary eventually went into many volumes and through its brutal honesty made her something of a cult figure on college campuses and in the new "women's liberation" movement. Many photos from her personal collection illustrate her life and world. The key passages read here deal with her childhood, her decision to keep a diary as a never-ending letter to her absent father, Europe in the 1930's, Henry Miller and his friends, and her fascination for the Surrealist movement and for psychoanalysis.
- Author-critic Anthony Burgess explores in a free-wheeling way perspectives of James Joyce's great experimental novel "Finnegans Wake". He is in the unusual setting of an Irish pub, utilizing a variety of props to illustrate his points. Burgess, erudite and ironic, brings in photographs, history and even sings a song from the book -- the "Ballad of Persse O'Reilly." All this with Burgess leaning on the big wooden bar of the pub. Internationally known author Burgess ("A Clockwork Orange", "ReJoyce", etc.) has always been fascinated by "Finnegans Wake", its idiosyncratic language, its enormously complicated structure, and its attempt to address those most universal human questions of life, death, sex, mind, and mankind's fall and resurrection.
- An interview with 'Tex Avery'.
- Three distinguished theater producer-directors recapture the heady days of the famous Group Theater and discuss its origins, successes, failures, and eventual decline. Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg and Bobby Lewis - all actively involved in American theater production, as well as criticism and history - were among the young pioneers who gave life to one of the country's great experiments in the theater during the 1930s. Clurman and Strasberg, with Cheryl Crawford, were the Group's original founders. Many photographs from the period recall their efforts and collaborators, which included Elia Kazan, Stella Adler, Clifford Odets, Franchot Tone and John Garfield. The Group Theater was active from 1931 to 1940. It came in with the Depression and went out with the World War. It was intended as a forum for plays that would make a political difference in a world that seemed to be sliding backwards. It was intended as a new start in the choosing, casting and presentation of plays. It was a way of exploring acting techniques and of forging a cohesive group of talent that would work together and stay together. And it was intended to be socially conscious and have an effect on American society. To some extent it achieved all these aims. But as Mr. Clurman points out at the end of this vital discussion, its also labored against itself by not having a thoroughly thought out program and the finances to keep it going. Among the Group Theater's most memorable successes were "Awake and Sing" (1935), "Waiting for Lefty" (1935), "Johnny Johnson" (1936), "Golden Boy" (1937), and "My Heart's in the Highlands" (1937). The Group Theater was the first to present the work of Clifford Odets and Marc Blitzstein. Mr. Clurman has written about The Group Theater in his book "The Fervent Years."
- Overview of the life and art of sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Interview of Noguchi, film of many of his sculptures, designs, stage sets, fountains, public spaces, drawings, etc. Filmed in his studio in Long Island City, NY. With scenes of the artist at work and reflecting on his aesthetics. He is interviewed by Faubion Bowers, well-known writer on the arts. Noguchi at 70 talks about art, space, awareness of gravity, balance, the influence of Japan on his work, early influences (Brancusi, Gorki), playgrounds, Martha Graham sets, sheet metal, the IBM Headquarters in Armonk, NY. Other themes and film segments: New York City work, Osaka fountains, in the Alps working where Michelangelo mined his stone, environments in Paris, gardens ("time is either friendly or it destroys...; all returns to earth"), the nature of sculpture ( "it is reflected light"), paper lanterns, in Japan learning from nature and natural mediums, apparent contradiction between nature and the modern world: "Industrialized civilization requires industrial tools... machines instead of hands."
- Two of Brecht's "practice pieces for actors" are performed: "Romeo and Juliet" translated by George Tabori and "Hamlet" translated by Michael Lebeck. (These pieces are virtually unknown to students and are never performed.) Performers: Lotte Lenya, Micki Grant, David Rounds, Rudolph Weiss, Oliver Clark, Roscoe Lee Browne. These are dramatic scenes which Brecht wrote and had his own actors rehearse as preparation for full-length productions of the corresponding Shakespeare plays. The scenes reduce the "heroic" stature of the Shakespearean characters by showing them as ordinary people with the usual needs and vices, living in a world where economics is inevitably more influential than principle. The idea, in Socialist East Germany where Brecht lived and worked, was that the actors' own egos would be deflated by these scenes, and the result would be a more "human" portrayal. The scenes were therefore rehearsed but then omitted from actual performance of the full play.
- Documentary about kendo, the senior martial arts form, in which contestants use bamboo staves as dueling weapons. Includes scenes filmed in practice studios, competitions, the Budokan -- Tokyo's main exhibition hall. Also includes demonstrations of many other martial arts forms, and of art and film that illustrate the importance of disciplined fighting in Japanese culture.
- A survey of American comic strip art with comments by well-known artists and scenes of them at work. Commentary by Mort Walker, comic artist ("Beetle Bailey", "Hi and Lois") and president of the Museum of Cartoon Art in Rye, New York. Scenes and interviews with Dean Young and Jim Raymond, Ralph Bakshi, Dik Browne, Ray Bradbury, George Lucas, Will Eisner, Milton Caniff, John Cullen Murphy, Sean Kelly, Johnny Romita. 1978. "Comics" has come to mean one-panel drawings, strips with daily continuity, whole books, and several other forms, whether "comic" or not. This footage illustrates the whole range, plus film animation as well. Artists visited include Dean Young and Jim Raymond ("Blondie", then the most widely seen comic strip in the world), Ralph Bakshi (the film "Wizards" and "Lord of the Rings"), Dik Browne ("Hagar the Horrible.") Also included are illustrations from the earliest days of comics ("The Yellow Kid") to "Doonesbury." Ideas, opinions, sacred cows (eg: there are only four comic themes: eating, sleeping, raising children, and making money--"things the whole world can relate to.") Hearst changed comics when he made them a whole section in newspapers. The language of comics: symbols that mean confusion, speed, sleep, etc. and accepted conventions like the dialogue balloon and the dream balloon.
- French Chef Pierre Franey and N.Y. Times Food critic Craig Claiborne, plus assorted culinary colleagues Hughes Franey, Jean Vergnes, and Jacques Pepin, produce an authentic American clambake -- with a few Gallic touches -- on the beach outside Franey's house at East Hampton, Long Island, N.Y. Scenes include: Gathering clams, digging the pit, making the bed of stones, gathering wood for the fire, raking seaweed, shucking corn, wrapping food in cheesecloth, sifting sand, raking off burned logs, sealing pit with seaweed, slicing cooked lobsters, putting food on trays, guests taking food. The menu includes French sausage, the dessert is watermelon. The crowd seen enjoying this banquet included about twenty neighbors and friends, children and dogs, and Howard Johnson, owner of the restaurant chain which was soon to be Franey's employer.
- The celebrated African-American author and long-time expatriate Chester Himes discusses his life and work with the young poet-author-political activist Nikki Giovanni. Himes also relates an illustrated memoir of Harlem in the 20's and 30's that he wrote especially for this interview. It features many personal photographs that trace his life and many archive pictures of the times. Himes has had an "underground" following for years for his "surreal" detective fiction and his best known work "Cotton Comes to Harlem." Here he reminisces about the Harlem he knew so well before World War Two, and about America's racial situation which finally drove him into his long exile in Europe. He and Giovanni also discuss the art of fiction and the role of the black writer in America today.
- Wide ranging exploration of the ideas of architect Paolo Soleri. With Paolo Soleri, architect, philosopher; Stewart Udall (former Secretary of Interior and head of an environmental consulting firm); Kenneth Gibson, Mayor of Newark, N.J.; Alvin Toffler, author ("Future Shock", etc.); scientist/future-thinker Arthur C. Clarke ("2001: A Space Odyssey", etc.); Moshe Safdie, architect ("Habitat"); Prof. John Gallahue (Columbia Univ., New York City.) and others. An illustrated series of interviews about Paolo Soleri's ideas. Themes: architecture, the future of urban centers, the Earth's ability to sustain itself under the increasing load of human population, the interaction of art and utility, the future of ideas we take for granted,( such as progress and technology), and the changing nature of man himself. Stewart Udall is on-camera host and voice-over narrator. Soleri is seen in dialog with a wide range of persons whose concerns and expertise intersect his own ideas. A great deal of film and photographs illustrate the themes discussed. The main theme discussed in this footage: cities are the man made landscape and are essential to the continuation of civilization; but new cities must evolve in response to a changing world; they must be integrated places, built up into three dimensions, not out endlessly across the landscape..
- Film director Hitchcock discusses his life and career in long talks with Pia Lindstrom (newscaster and daughter of Hitchcock star Ingrid Berman) and with film historian William Everson. Excerpts from several films illustrate these interviews. Discussion topics include: what is fear?, method acting vs. film acting, the difference between the usual "Who Done It" mystery and what he considers to be real suspense. His choice of leading ladies and why (Bergman, Baxter, Kelly, Marie Saint, Leigh, etc.).
- George Dunning -artist, illustrator, film animator - explains his work, draws, tours his studio in England showing how film animation is produced from hand-drawn cells. Many examples of his pictures and films, including "The Flying Man", "Damon the Mower," and the Beatles animated film "The Yellow Submarine". Topics: Techniques that transform drawings and paintings into film --exposure sheets, levels where characters should appear, "peg" animation. Dunning shows how he achieved sequential drawings for "Damon the Mower." His acknowledged debt to Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren.
- Profile of the great film director D.W. Griffith. Ron Mottram, professor of cinema history and director of the Griffith retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City (1975) interviews silent film stars Blanche Sweet and Lillian Gish about their careers and working with Griffith. Illustrated with many film clips and photographs. Film excerpts include portions of "Way Down East" (1920), "Intolerance" (1916), "True Heart Susie" (1919) and "Birth of a Nation." Ms. Gish reminisces about the long hours, dangerous situations, and the presentation of character without recourse to spoken dialogue. Film excerpts include portions of "Death's Marathon", "The Painted Lady", "Feud in the Kentucky Hills", "A Corner in Wheat", "The Informer", "Country Doctor", all made in the early years when Griffith worked for the Biograph company, 1908-1913. Ms. Sweet starred in many of these films and reminisces about the method of shooting in those days. These films and dozens of others were often turned out two or three a week, shown briefly, and then never seen again. Some of these films include the first "pans", "zooms" or "close ups" ever used. Griffith invented as he went along.
- Profile of Jean Gabin, the great French actor of 100 films, who died in 1976 at the age of 73. Here his career is traced and he is remembered by some of the many producers, directors, writers and actors with whom he worked. Illustrated with many photographs and film clips. Narrated by Nadia Gray who played opposite Gabin in the early 50's. Interviews with Directors Rene Clement, Jean Dellanoy, Denys de la Patelliere, Granbier-Deferre. Actors Madeleine Renaud, Michele Morgan, Simone Simon, Jean Desailly, Francois Arnoul, Lino Ventura, Danielle Darrieux. Cinema Critics and Historians Claude Beylie, Robert Chazal. Screenwriter Michel Audiard. 1978.
- Profile of film director Richard Lester, who speaks of his career, from early work in commercials to the experimental "Running, Jumping, Standing Still Film" with Peter Sellers and The Goon Show cast, through features: the Beatles' film "A Hard Day's Night", "The Knack and How to Get It", "How I Won the War", "The Bed Sitting Room", "The Three Musketeers", "The Four Musketeers." Clips from all these works. Lester talks of "the benevolent dictatorship of being a director", his commitment to the subject of his films, his anti-war message, his desire to widen the understanding of the audience.
- Stephen Sondheim, composer-lyricist; John Weidman, writer; and Frank Rich, theater critic, in a close study of how one Broadway musical song came to be: "Someone in a Tree" from "Pacific Overtures". Members of the Broadway cast join Sondheim in a performance of the number. Filmed in Sondheim's apartment in New York City. Members of the cast of "Pacific Overtures": Mako, James Dybas, Geddie Watanabe, Mark Hsu Syers. "It's my favorite song of anything I've written," Sondheim said. He demonstrates how he created the song, how the music tracks the libretto, gaining complexity and tension as the text becomes more urgent, how the song becomes a study of perceiving details in a seamless world.
- Playwright and Screenwriter David Mamet teaches his time worn acting techniques to his students.
- Perspectives on poetess Anna Akhmatova, the celebrated Russian poet who bridged Tsarist and Revolutionary Russia, was adored and called "the soul of her time," and who suffered desperately under Stalin's disfavor. Irene Moore, a founder of the American Stanislavsky Theatre, recites Akhmatova's poetry in Russian. Samuel Driver, professor (Brown Univ.), Irene Kirk, professor (Univ. of Connecticut.) who have written about Akhmatova, reminisce about her life and times. Narrated by critic Faubion Bowers. With many photographs of Akhmatova and her world. Themes: Akhmatova, partly because of her vanity and her sufferings, partly because of the American feelings about the Stalin era, and mainly because her poetry weaves so many purely Russian idioms and contexts together, is usually inaccessible in translation to Americans. The academics here are passionate to change that. Driver is the author of a new book on the poet, and Kirk was one of the last Americans to see her alive and hopes to convey something of her importance to the Russians.
- Profile of composer Earl Robinson, who sings and plays the piano, and discusses his career. Robinson performs the entire "Ballad for Americans," accompanying himself on piano. Robinson discusses his work for The Federal Theater Project (1936) collecting folk songs, and the first performance over CBS Radio of "Ballad for Americans", sung by Paul Robeson and choir, a huge success. He also performs his "The House I Live In" and "Black and White."
- Painter-draftsman-filmmaker-printmaker Alexander Alexeieff, with his wife and co-worker Claire Parker, discuss the use of their "pin-board" technique for illustration and film animation. With excerpts from their films, a demonstration of the pin-board, and film made on location in Paris about the reception of their art.
- The character of Falstaff as seen by Shakespeare and Verdi. With performance of scenes from Verdi's "Falstaff" by Geraint Evans and Regina Resnik (Falstaff and Mistress Quickly respectively at the New York City Metropolitan Opera's production, 1964) and Maynard Mack, Professor of English at Yale University. Includes a photo montage of the stages of make-up construction for Mr. Evans and Ms. Resnik. Discussion topics include: did Verdi change the Shakespearean character of Falstaff?, Verdi's identification with Falstaff, who really was Falstaff?