Written for Sight and Sound‘s documentary film poll in their September 2014 issue, and posted online with partial corrections (and some new errors, such as spelling James Benning’s RR “Rr”). . Two unfortunate differences between my ten-best list and the one they published on paper is (1) the exclusion (through an oversight) of my 9th selection, Peter Thompson‘s Universal Hotel/Universal Citizen (although online they now list only Universal Hotel and exclude Universal Citizen) and (2) my specification that I was referring only to the French version of Rossellini’s India — a version that I vastly prefer to the Italian version, though more as fiction than for any “documentary” reasons (which applies to most or all of my other choices). This gives an added truth to James Benning’s own bold contribution to the same poll, well worth quoting in full: “Titanic (Cameron). This is my only vote: an amazing document of bad acting. And, I might add, all films are fictions.” — J.R.
SHOAH
There are documentary filmmakers who plant their stakes within existing traditions and those for whom cinema has to be reinvented. Claude Lanzmann clearly belongs in the latter category. Of course cinema already had to exist in order to allow Lanzmann to make Shoah (1985) — named after the Hebrew word for annihilation — but he also had to rethink what cinema could be. Read more
From Monthly Film Bulletin, November 1974, Vol. 41, No. 490. — J.R.
Portiere di Notte, Il (The Night Porter)
Italy, 1973
Director: Liliana Cavani
Cert—X. dist—Avco-Embassy. p.c—Lotar Film. A Robert Gordon
Edwards/Esa De Dimone production. A Joseph E. Levine presentation
for Ital Noleggio Cinematografico. p—Robert Gordon Edwards. p. staff—
Umberto Sambuco, Dino di Dionisio, Roberto Edwards, (Vienna) Otto
Dworak. asst. d–Franco Cirino, Paola Tallarigo, (Vienna) Johann
Freisinger. sc–Liliana Cavani, Italo Moscati. story–Liliana Cavani,
Barbara Alberti, Amedeo Pagani. ph–Alfio Contini. co1–Technicolor;
prints by Eastman Colour. col. sup–Ernesto Novelli. ed–Franco Arcalli.
a.d–Nedo Azzini, Jean-Marie Simon. set dec–Osvaldo Desideri. m/m.d—
Daniele Paris. cost–Piero Tosi. sd. ed–Michael Billingsley. sd. rec—
Fausto Ancillai. sd. re-rec–Decio Trani. post-synchronisation d–Robert
Rietty. sd. effects–Roberto Arcangeli. l.p–Dirk Bogarde (Max),
Charlotte Rampling (Lucia), Philippe Leroy (Klaus), Gabriele Ferzetti (Hans),
Giuseppe Addobbati (Stumm), Isa Miranda (Countess Stein), Nino
Bignamini (Adolph), Marino Mase’ (Atherton), Amedeo Amodia (Bert),
Piero Vida (Day Porter), Geoffrey Copleston (Kurt), Manfred Freiberger
(Dobson), Ugo Cardea (Mario), Hilda Gunther (Greta), Nora Ricci
(Neighbour), Piero Mazzinghi (Concierge), Kai S. Read more
From Monthly Film Bulletin, October 1974 (Vol. 41, No. 489). Postscript: Thanks (once again!) to Ehsan Khoshbakht for providing me with an extra illustration for this review. — J.R.
Born to Swing
Great Britain, 1973
Director: John Jeremy
Dist–TCB. p.c–Silverscreen Productions. p–John Jeremy. p. manager—
Angus Trowbridge. sc–John Jeremy. ph–Peter Davis, Tohru Nakamura.
photographs–Ernie Smith, Valerie Wilmer. ed–John Jererny. m–Buddy
Tate, Earle Warren, Joe Newman, Dicky Wells, Eddie Durham, Snub
Mosley, Gene Ramey, Tommy Flanagan, Jo Jones, The Count Basie
Band (1943). m. rec—Fred Miller. sd. rec—Ron Yoshida. sd. re-rec—
Hugh Strain. narrator–Humphrey Lyttelton. with–Buck Clayton, John
Hammond, Andy Kirk, Jo Jones, Albert McCarthy, Gene Krupa, Snub
Mosley, Joe Newman, Buddy Tate, Earle Warren, Dicky Wells. 1,773 ft.
49 mins. (16 mm.).
This engaging jazz film has both a general subject and a specific
one. Generally, it is about American swing music of the past;
specifically, its main focus is six veterans of Count Basie’s band in
the present. Interspersed with a 1943 clip of the Basie band inspiring
some athletic dancers are album covers, flurries of sheet music,
neon signs, and a string of short reminiscences: by Andy Kirk,
about his stint with the Eleven Clouds of Joy; Snub Mosley, about
New York in the Thirties; the doorman at Jimmy Ryan’s, about
52nd Street; Gene Krupa, mainly about himself. Read more
From the Chicago Reader (July 23, 2004). — J.R.
The Corporation
**** (Masterpiece)
Directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott
Written by Joel Bakan, Harold Crooks, and Achbar
Narrated by Mikela J. Mikael.
A month ago I attended back-to-back press screenings of two major documentaries, Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Corporation, which finally opened here last week. Though it would have broken with industry protocol to have said so at the time, before both movies had opened, it was clear that The Corporation — a 2003 Canadian film by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan — was a better film, and second looks at both movies has only confirmed this impression. Michael Moore’s movie probably startles people who rely mostly on TV for their news, but The Corporation will shock even those who keep close track of newspapers and magazines. In fact, it goes beyond shocking in obliging us to ask ourselves how far we’re all prepared to go in our defense of capitalism.
Far enough to jeopardize our health and the survival of the planet? Maybe not, but at the moment it’s corporations that appear to have the power to decide. And the stories this film uses to demonstrate that are chilling. Read more
