Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-50 of 51
- The work of photographer Diane Arbus as explained by her daughter, friends, critics, and in her own words as recorded in her journals. Illustrated with many of her photographs. Mary Clare Costello, narrator Themes: Arbus' quirky go-it-alone approach. Her attraction to the bizarre, people on the fringes of society: sexual deviants, odd types, the extremes, styles in questionable taste, poses and situations that inspire irony or wonder. Where most people would look away she photographed.
- 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.
- 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.
- John Whitney, Sr. one of the early pioneers in films made by computer-driven cameras explains and demonstrates his work. Shot on location at Whitney's home in California, includes excerpts from his films "Matrix 3", "Catalog", "Permutations" and "Lapis." 1975. Making abstract motion in time, and impinging directly on the viewer's emotions as music does -- these were among Whitney's early goals. "Music organizes time in a special way, creates tension in us, then satisfies, gratifies. We can do the same for patterns-- something is going to happen, make it happen in a way you don't expect. Film permutations can be parallel to tones in harmonic sequence; dominant chord resolves into tonic chord." To do this, says Whitney, "we need new tools, and to learn how to control them. They're unlike musical instruments which we have been practicing on for 300 years. We have to start from scratch. "
- 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.).
- 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.
- 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.
- Filmmakers Costa-Gavras and Marcel Ophuls discuss the nature of films with a sharp political edge, with clips from Costa-Gavras' films. Two internationally known directors who have made a specialty of films with an outspoken political edge discuss the values and methods in the genre, and the problems they have faced. Costa-Gavras was best known for "Z" and "State of Siege", and Ophuls for "The Sorrow and The Pity" and "Sense of Loss" when this conversation -- illustrated with film clips -- was produced. Costa-Gavras' film "Special Section" had just been released. Costa-Gavras' films, though based on real facts and issues, are scripted and professionally acted. Ophuls' work is documentary in style. They address such themes as the difference between "objective" and "subjective" truth, and their personal motives for choosing this form of film art.
- 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.
- America's great film director-actor Buster Keaton, discussed by film critic Andrew Sarris and Raymond Rohauer, cinema historian, with some unusual perspectives on his goals and motivations. Illustrated with many film excerpts from 1917 to 1928. Rohauer knew Keaton and was partly responsible from rescuing many of his old films from destruction. Sarris is a leading film critic who has often written about Keaton. Excerpts include portions of "The General" (1926) a film illustrating "man versus machine." "Cops" (1922), which questions the meaning of "law and order." "Frozen North", a satire on William Hart films, and "The Boat" in which Keaton goes down but then wades to shore. In "Sherlock, Jr." Keaton is a film projectionist who in dream enters the movie. "College" (1927) spoofs the happy ending, "Steamboat Bill, Jr." mocks the cyclone that destroys everything in its path. Rohauer describes rescuing Keaton's films from a garage and talking with Keaton at the end of his life when he had been forgotten.
- Overview of the work and aesthetics of the remarkable self-taught painter Shalom of Safed. Shalom Moscpvitz (1887 - 1980) was a religious Jew, born in Safed and raised during the years when Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. He was a watchmaker and scribe until at age 60 he began to paint. His work immediately attracted attention. He concentrated on moments from Bible history, depicting that history in the context of the world he knew as a youth; for example, young men wear the Turkish fez. He established an international reputation but remained much as he had always been, a humble man from Galilee.
- The story of the Jews of The Netherlands, their long presence there, their fate during World War Two, and the rebirth of the community after the war. This one-hour special was produced by the Religious Affairs Department of CBS News and was broadcast by CBS Television during the "high holy days" period in the fall of 1964.
- 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.
- Excerpts from the 1937 musical comedy by composer-lyricist Harold Rome. Originally written for the International Ladies Garment Union, it ran for four years. Here Rome with two pianos and five singers discusses and performs songs from the current revival. Includes "Sing me a song of social significance", "Nobody makes a pass at me", "It's better with a union man", "I want to be a G-Man", "Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones" (Rome himself sings here), "One big union" (Rome himself sings here), "Sunday in the Park" (Rome's first Hit Parade "hit").
- The pioneering film experimenter Stan VanDerBeek at home discusses his work, found images, toys, inventions, the importance of his family and friends, and tours his "moviedrome" for seeing films against the inside of a giant hemisphere. He reflects on "film as an experience, not an artifact". "It is the aesthetic of anticipation, as distinct from that of meditation." Includes excerpts from his films "Will", "See Saw Seams", "Image After Image After Image," and "Poemfield #1".
- Two paintings owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City) are compared. They are called "masterpieces" by museum Director Philippe De Montebello. One: Rembrandt's self-portrait of 1660. Two: Velazquez' portrait of Juan De Pareja. This half hour contains two separate short films.
- Profile of Andre Kertesz, the "father of 35mm photography," 80 years old and living in New York (1978). He talks about his life and career and describes the genesis of some of his best known works. Several scenes show him at work in the streets of New York. Illustrated with many photographs.
- Francois Truffaut in conversation in 1977 with Richard Roud, then Director of the New York Film Festival. Truffaut, director of "Jules and Jim," "The Four Hundred Blows," " Bed and Board," "The Story of Adele H.," etc. was in America for the premier of "The Man Who Loved Women" at the 15th New York Film Festival. It was Truffaut's first US television appearance. The conversation is in French, with voice-over translations. A French-only version also exists. Mr. Roud gives a brief biography of Truffaut and his career. This footage includes clips from several Truffaut films, including his first, "Les Miston" ("The Mischief Makers", 1958.) The film director speaks of his childhood, the moral challenge of World War Two, the real meaning of the "auteur theory", how the conservative French film industry was forced to change, Truffaut as a "culture hero" in the US, making a film that is as personal as a novel, the difference between French and American approaches to cinema, individual films seen in the totality of one's work, gaining understanding and sympathy for a character in a film, Alfred Hitchcock's relationship to his characters, plot and story-telling, and many other themes.
- Portrait of composer Marvin Hamlisch, winner of Academy Awards for his scores of the motion pictures "The Sting" and "The Way We Were", and winner of a Tony Award for his music for the long running Broadway hit "A Chorus Line." On this documentary he is seen at work composing, arranging, and recording, chatting with collaborators, and conducting a studio orchestra for the soundtrack of the film Starting Over". The program includes excerpts from several of the films Hamlisch scored, including "The Spy Who Loved Me", "The Swimmer" and "Bananas." Reminiscing about collaboration with Hamlisch are his old friend Joel Grey and Priscilla Lopez, who had a leading role in "A Chorus Line."
- 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."
- An adaptation of the off-Broadway production of Nicolai Gogol's short story, "Diary of a Madman", about a clerk's disintegration into madness. Written in 1834, the story contains one of the earliest descriptions of schizophrenia, by turns bizarre, funny and sad. It represents the kind of cutting edge writing that placed Gogol in the forefront of Russian writers, with great influence on the generation that came after him.
- 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."
- History of "The March of Time" newsreel series, which, before television, covered the news for motion picture audiences 1935 to 1951. Interviews with creative team of producer, director, editors. Many excerpts from the newsreel series. With: Louis De Rochemont, producer. Maury Wiseman, film editor. Jack Glen, director. Lothar Wolff, editor. (All creative personnel on "The March of Time.") Interview subjects cover reporting styles, logistical difficulties with 35 mm. cameras and big lights, the use of reenactments, the difference between the "truth of yesterday and the truth of today and how truth in film is perishable." Reflections on technical details for a "natural look", no zooms or panning, flat lighting, wide angle lens and distortion; and "The March of Time's" influence on today's television journalism. With many excerpts from "The March of Times".