1958 poll

[ofrene]

Let's dedicate a whole calendar month to each year-poll! From the first to the thirty-first (or thirtieth, or twenty-eighth).

Vote now!

Vote to you

[...]

I'm for it since it means I'll be able to hem and haw over paring down my choices for a while longer and also maybe get a chance to sneak in a couple more movies before the end. I'm really having a tough time deciding between the excesses of the old school and stripped down dynamics of the new.

[pabs]

I'm really having a tough time deciding between the excesses of the old school and stripped down dynamics of the new.

You've noticed a transformation in film style in 1958? V. interesting. Please elaborate and give examples of old vs. new. Thanks.

And thanks for your votes for a fixed month, guys.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Making this change (if the votes are in favor of it) probably won't affect the way we handle the *really* short years, like 1904... but I'm wondering about years like 1914-1917 that might need more than a week but probably do not need 31 calendar days. Any thoughts?

[pabs]

I also took it for granted that the short years would be managed as they are now and run concurrently sometimes.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Yeah, but like I said, there are a few years where that approach isn't likely to work.

[...]

Well with so few years left, maybe running '14 and '17 for the whole month wouldn't be so bad as long as there's something else going on at the same time. The nice thing about the silent years is that it's easier to find movies online already and many aren't that long, so you can actually view a lot more if you're interested. It'd just be a good time to for there to be some other poll or competition or whatever for people to get into if they don't want to watch the silents, or maybe just more time to catch up on some other stuff unrelated to polls and whatnot. Anyway, I think it'd be fine to have then run a month like the others for the sake of consistency, but I won't make a big deal about it either way.

[...]

You've noticed a transformation in film style in 1958? V. interesting. Please elaborate and give examples of old vs. new. Thanks.

Not entirely specific to '58, it started a bit earlier but really starts to develop and grow in '58 and sets the stage for the changes to come in the sixties. The influence of TV style and more low budget indie producers like Roger Corman and William Castle is another factor as is simply the changing demographics and associated values of the era along with the decline of the old studio system, which I mentioned earlier in the thread.

It's essentially B movies finding a style that is more their own, though indebted to TV and earlier B's (particularly the so called noirs), and running with it to fit new "youth oriented" or anti-studio film subjects. While the "A" level studio pictures were wallowing in excess in their attempt to lure people from TV to the theaters, the low budget films start to adopt some of the methods of TV while maintaining a more cinematic sense of movement and action, to whatever degree they could afford it, and the dialogue and stories filmed in this manner were a good fit to the looks of the films as they too were trimming the fat of character development and leisurely tone setting to get to the excitement quicker, such as they may have had in any given movie.

Whether purposeful or not, the many films aimed at sub-groups, like teens or genre fans, seemed to work almost directly against the studio design as if setting up a alternative for new audiences. It isn't just in the US either. You can see the same thing happening in Japan, for example, with Suzuki and others adopting similar measures. It's almost a move away from one kind of sensibility of connection to character to one of incident first, which is what they sort of took from the "noirs" and other Bs of the forties while shooting more in the style of cheap 30s films or TV. They didn't rely on shadows to hide the cheapness of the sets and seedy locales, they just filmed then as part of the story, almost as an anti-aesthetic that developed into a look of its own. William Castle, for example, had been making movies since the 40's, mostly genre films like westerns and crime thrillers that didn't/don't get much notice, but he moved to horror films in '58 and found a match of subject and style that worked. Macabre was his movie in '58, which I've yet to see, but House on Haunted Hill in '59 exemplifies the change. Corman also started in older genres in the early fifties but found his match for style and subject in '57 or so, with a bunch of cheap teen and horror films that have a sort of ugly beauty to them notwithstanding their innate silliness. '58's She Gods of Shark Reef is flat out ugly by any previous film standard, but that ugliness has a sense to it that he would better develop as he went on. It suggests a world that isn't "picture perfect", where the base of the screen world is already deeply flawed, which the characters actions then have a different sort of sense to them for coming out of that milieu than they would in the standard Hollywood film.

Even some of the movies that were higher budget studio works that dealt with B subject matter, like The Fly and The Blob, were adopting different looks and framing for their stories to fit a new market and compete with TV by telling stories that weren't going to be part of on-going shows. Less family drama, which TV excelled at, and more movies challenging social norms or feigning to do so anyway, while filming the stories in ways that would still work for TV where they would eventually turn up on broadcast TV movie specials or late night shows. It was both a match to TV for efficiency a competition with TV for viewer and acknowledgement of the reality of the TV market needing movies for their channels. Mostly I'm sure there wasn't any plan for all this, just movie makers siphoning what they could from older films as concepts than adapting them to be new enough to use again while trying to maintain the interest of an audience who were familiar with the old forms and stories. That's the common element of art/movies/tv, the need to keep finding something new to keep audiences interested and/while recycling the old to keep things familiar enough to be understood. Every now and then the cycle tilts more towards the new than the old both because of demographic shifts, more young people, and because the old is getting too familiar so some more radical change needs to happen. '58 was one of those moments, but the shift wouldn't fully reveal itself until the early sixties when movies like Psycho started to hit the screen. The aesthetic I'm talking about sets the stage for that.

Sorry for some repetition with what I said earlier, but I don't have the time at the moment to go into more specific examples, I'd need to look at all the titles again to go more in depth with what I'm suggesting. And it's also not a suggestion anyone should seek out movies like She Gods on Shark Reef thinking they'll be great or something, it's just that movie happened to trigger some of the thoughts on the subject for me, so it comes to mind more quickly than others.

[greennui]

The calendar month suggestion seems perfectly reasonable but I want a new year now

[pabs]

Thanks, greg. Appreciate the time you put aside to write that, and your knowledge and insights are a pleasure to read, as usual. Yes, I see what you're talking about and it's fascinating to notice these transitions.

greennui wants to start a new year now, but can a new year started today run until the last day of next month, and this 1958 poll stay open until the last day of this month? I have Equinox Flower and a few others in my sights now that this 1958 poll might stretch to the 30th.

[Lencho of the Apes]

I don't believe the next year in queue will sustain five weeks, I think greennui should just wait. If he favored month-long polling, let it begin now. There are more '58s for him to conquer.

[pabs]

ok greennui, you heard him, watch 10 more 58's.

[Lencho of the Apes]

10 more

Not even kidding, suddenly I have time for Ashes And Diamonds, The Hidden Fortress, Ballad Of Narayama, The Line Up, Rosaura A Las 10 and Wind Across The Everglades. But I probably still won't be able to squeeze in the Egyptian Tarzan movie, or the Malaysian teen-com.

[greennui]

ok greennui, you heard him, watch 10 more 58's.

I've already watched everything I wanted to watch Main reason I wanted the new year now is because I'm going away travelling next week so I'm probably gonna miss the first two weeks of the next one.

[pabs]

If you deposit funds into his bank account, Lencho can tell you right now what year is next.

[...]

the Egyptian Tarzan movie, or the Malaysian teen-com

???

Now I have movies i want to watch! If I only knew what they were....

[Lencho of the Apes]

i want to watch!

One is called Ismail Yassine Tarazane, and the other is Satay, directed by K M Basker. They're both on youtube with subs.

[kanafani]

i want to watch!

Ismail Yassine Tarazane

Ah Ismail Yassine, beloved buffoon of Egyptian cinema!

[Lencho of the Apes]

beloved buffoon

The few moments of it I skimmed through reminded me a great deal of the Mexican comedian Tin-Tan, parody versions of widely-recognized popular narratives. Not usually my thing (shudder), but an African movie lampooning US-imperialist fantasies about Africa looks like it could open a whole different can of meta worms that might be rewarding to look into.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Oh, by the way... The polling period has been extended to 4/30 at approximately 1 PM Pacific Time. Blame Pabs.

[rischka]

ok i'll go with it. maybe catch that cottafavi... oooooh it looks a treat too

[karl]

Maybe then I'll watch the Macedonian movie.

[Curtis, baby]

watched HARIKOMI (alternately translated as "the chase" or "the stakeout") by yoshitaro nomura... pretty standard widescreen b&w japonoir fare, which is to say, quality... starts off slow but certainly picks up in both pace and poignancy as the thing goes along. toshiro mayuzumi adeptly on the score (starting to notice that bloke), with sparse, evocative percussion at all the right moments

won't quite make the list tho

[pabs]

The polling period has been extended to 4/30 at approximately 1 PM Pacific Time. Blame Pabs.

Just watched Equinox Flower. I'm loving this extension!! All those who want to thank me please form an orderly queue.

.

[Angel]

I see myself feeling nervous and getting angry in a weak year of the 70s/80s/2010s. Then I'll tell you a couple a things, pabs.

[arkheia]

Speaking of queer resonance, as far as I can see no one has thus far mentioned my sure-to-be #1 of 1958: Bell, Book, and Candle, a kind of rom-com Vertigo that pairs Novak-Stewart and is worth seeing if for no other reason that its status as an accidentally-in-dialogue-with companion to the Hitch version. But the bigger attraction for me is the way the film encourages us to read its witchcraft as an allegory for queer community, and all the tugs upon my heart that that implies. Imperfect, but beautiful and makes tears stream down me. There's also cats, for those so inclined.

Okay, this sold me and I checked it out a few days ago.
Loved the contrast in Stewart and Novak's performances as well as the lush color palette. Lanchester, Lemmon, and Kovaks give some great supporting bits too. Added to my list!

Saw a nice 1080p copy which I'll linked in resources if anyone else is looking to be bewitched.

[pabs]

Thanks, a. I already got a copy but this one looks even better. Hope to cram it in somehow.

[arkheia]

ひばり捕物帖 かんざし小判 / Detective Hibari 1: The Golden Hairpins / Edo Girl Detective (Tadashi Sawashima)
(Included in Satō Tadao’s Top 300 Japanese Movies)

Had quite a good time with this - added to my list!

A strong star vehicle for Hibari Misora as a detective/secret princess who solves women’s murders by donning disguises to uncover clues and corruption. The light-hearted tone is carried by equal measures of confidence and exuberance running consistent across the performances (in particular Shunji Sakai as the flailing sidekick and Kotaro Satomi as a drunken ronin who fights alongside Hibari). Adept at shuffling between sleuthing, comedy, action choreography, and musical numbers, the film's playful exploration of gender roles in genre tropes and Hibari’s androgynous image culminates in its showdown set-piece, intercutting kabuki performance and samurai dueling until spatially crashing them together into a seamless collision of Tōei-jidaigeki artifice.

[Curtis, baby]

AJANTRIK... tonally this was all over the place. i mean, i guess that's part of the point. but i could just never really get into it. well, i liked it well enough, i just wasn't enamoured
2.5/4

ORDERS TO KILL by asquith... man... this is sooooo asquith. everything is repressed self-loathing and release and self-pity, ain't it bud? if only i'd seen this when i was managing asquith for the directors cup
4/4

[pabs]

I'm so grateful that these year polls will now take up a whole month. I think I might have watched a record number of films for this poll, and this lengthening has a lot to do with it.

Seen for this poll:

Orders to Kill √
Equinox Flower √
Mon oncle √
Eroica √
Edes Anna √
Ashes And Diamonds √
Une vie √
A Time to Love and a Time to Die √
The Vikings √
Véronique et son cancre √
The Magician √

And I'm free the rest of today so I'll try to sneak in three more! Bell Book and Candle, the peplum and Je suis un noir.

Lencho, the "small" years you can have two going at the same time as a big year, no? They'd show as links on the front page (thanks to bure).