MFS Members-only Screenings 2016
Program Notes
Our films for 2016, chosen at a meeting of members, span nearly 90 years of cinema and
includes Australian, American and European productions with diverse styles and subjects.
What follows provides some context for each film, indicating where it fits in cinema history.
Important common themes are outlined. These allow us to make connections between films
that might seem quite different. Why would we want to do so? Well, it means we look more
closely at a film than we otherwise might have done. There can be enjoyment in analysing a
film even if it is not quite ‘our cup of tea’. We also take away a heightened awareness of
certain themes. When they crop up again in later films, including those we see at home, we
will be more alert and discerning viewers.
While our discussion sessions following each screening can and will consider other aspects
too, these concepts provide a framework to which each movie can be related.
SCREENING SCHEDULE
Our films for 2016 will be screened in this order:
February
Casablanca
March
Dead Poets Society
August
The Jazz Singer
September
The Wild Duck
April
Bornholmer St
October
The Leopard
May
For The Term of His Natural
Life
November
Singin' In The Rain
June
Persona
December
My Life as A Dog
July
Breaker Morant
LOCATING OUR FILMS IN TIME
These are our films in order of when they were made:
Film
For the Term of His
Natural Life
Year
1927
Significance
Silent film based on the Australian novel by Marcus Clarke
first published 1870.
The Jazz Singer
1927
First feature film with spoken dialogue
Casablanca
1942
Set in Vichy-controlled Morocco. USA entered war in 1941.
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Singin’ in the Rain
1952
Colour. Reflects postwar optimism (?) though set in 1920s.
Makes fun of silent movie era (mentions The Jazz Singer)
The Leopard
1962
Mid-career film by Italian director Luchino Visconti. Set in
Sicily 1860
Persona
1966
Mid-career experimental film by Swedish director Ingmar
Bergman. By this time some directors are confident about
departing from conventional realism and trying more
subjective approaches.
Breaker Morant
1980
Dir. Peter Weir. One of the ‘new wave’ of Australian films
that began in 1970s. Set in Boer War when Australia was
on the brink of nationhood.
The Wild Duck
1984
Dir. Henri Safran (French-born Australian). Based on 1884
Norwegian play. Set in 1913 Tasmania but by now no
longer a need to stridently assert ‘Australianness’.
My Life as a Dog
1985
Dir. Lasse Hallstrom (Swedish). Set in late 1950s.
Dead Poets Society
1989. Also directed by Weir though set in USA in late 1950s.
Bornholmer St.
2014
German TV movie about events of late 1980s
Note that from The Leopard on all the films are known for their directors, who have
distinctive styles (though the director of Bornholmer St may not be known outside
Germany). The prominence given to directors (taken to an extreme in auteur theory) has
not always applied in the history of cinema.
Only three, The Jazz Singer, Casablanca and Persona have stories that can be imagined as
happening close to the time they were made. All the others look back at least a few
decades.
THEMES
1. Defiance of authority
This is an important theme in at least five of the films.
For the Term of His Natural Life -- the wrongly-accused Rufus Dawes is up against
the brutal British convict system.
Casablanca. Rick (Humphrey Bogart) contends with the tinpot local authorities but
he can do that comfortably enough. The real power to be confronted is the Nazis in
Europe who Victor is in a position to fight. This sets up the moral choice Rick has to
make at the end.
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Breaker Morant. Like Dawes, Morant is a prisoner of the British. Note how both
Dawes (temporarily escaped) and Morant (who helps fight off an attack on the base)
are allowed to demonstrate their courage, resourcefulness and selflessness as free
men. This reinforces our sense that they have been wronged.
Dead Poets Society. Boys encouraged to resist the repressive power of an elite
boarding school. This is largely at the level of values and emotions, not physical
restraint, though the stakes are high. In a more general sense the film indicts the
conformist values of the 1950s more generally. It includes defiance of parental
power—see ‘Family’ below. Like Rick, the boys face a moral choice at the end: will or
won’t they endorse the values of Keating (Robin Williams)?
Bornholmer St. Confronting the power of communist East Germany. A whole society
imprisoned but with freedom getting closer. The situation treated with humour
(comic ineptitude of the guards and so on) but basically a serious situation.
The Jazz Singer. The Al Jolson character defies his father and Jewish cultural
heritage to pursue the dream of singing jazz rather than being a cantor in synagogue.
With all these films we can look for the way visuals contribute to the idea of
powerful forces being confronted. What (apart from the plot itself) invites us to see
power as villainous or illegitimate or excessive? What are ways in which exuberant
resistance is shown? (Examples: the singing of ‘La Marsellaise’ in Casablanca and the
improbable ripping out of pages from poetry books in Dead Poets Society. Neither
are required by the plot but they provide compelling images of defiance.)
2. Personal identity
For the Term of His Natural Life – part of the suffering of the hero is being deprived
of his true identity. At the outset he feels forced to assume another name to protect
his father and throughout the story others take credit for his good deeds or ensure
he is blamed for their bad deeds.
The Jazz Singer—Al Jolson’s character changes his name and forges a new identity
for himself in the course of pursuing his ambitions. A further complication is the
frequent use of ‘blackface’ as he adopts the appearance of a Negro minstrel in his
performances. This becomes a literal ‘mask’, a visual element relevant to the
concept of hiding or changing who you are.
My Life as a Dog—the title itself signals the significance of identity. The troubled boy
identifies with the lonely and doomed dog sent into orbit in a Russian sputnik.
The Wild Duck—the character Harold constructs for himself the identity of a good
provider for his family who is on the brink of great success as an inventor. Dr Roland
suggests most people comfort themselves with a false self-image and are best
allowed to do so. Gregory sees his role in life as a truth-teller. (I’m assuming film
follows the play faithfully.)
Persona—explores the question of identity in profound and complex ways. The
patient (Liv Ullman) is unable to make a coherent self out of her experiences. Her
identity is at times appropriated by her look-alike nurse (Bibi Andersson). The word
‘persona’ was the Greek word for the masks used by actors.
Singin’ in the Rain—in a lighter vein, the plot turns on a partial adoption of
substituted identity in that the voice of Kathy is dubbed for that of Lina, the silent
movie star who can’t sing. This reflects Kathy’s identity as the true object of Gene
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Kelly’s affections, whereas the studio bosses want to maintain the pretence of his
romantic links with Lina.
See also Family.
3. National Identity / history
Works of art generally reflect the needs and biases of the time when they are
produced, even if they have a historical subject.
For the Term of His Natural Life—when the novel was written the Australian
colonies had to come to terms with the stigma of the convict past. Hence a story
about a framed innocent. The fact that it was an Australian novel known overseas
may have been enough reason to film the story but it still had to suit what
Australians in 1927 wanted to say about their origins. It accords with the general
pioneer myth-making (across various arts) about Australia as a place requiring
physical endurance, a place of struggle against a hostile environment, where mere
survival is a heroic achievement.
Breaker Morant—reflects the surge in Australian national pride and new attempts at
self-definition in the 1970s, also seen in movies like Gallipoli, Sunday Too Far Away,
etc. The emphasis is still on outdoor action, resourceful practicality rather than
intellect, and capacity to endure. The British are portrayed negatively, reflecting the
baby boomers’ rejection of the earlier deference to the ‘mother country’.
The Leopard—again a famous novel as source. Postwar Italy needing to reflect on its
history? Perhaps more a matter of Visconti’s own preoccupations. A number of his
films involve eras coming to an end (The Damned, Death in Venice).
Bornholmer St.—made for the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Doubtful if quite the same film could have been made just ten years after the event.
Casablanca—The USA had only been in the war for eleven months when it was
released and before Pearl Harbour many Americans did not want to get involved.
The film’s anti-fascist sympathies are clear but it is less gung-ho than it might have
been (e.g. Rick doesn’t resolve to go home and join the army).
Attention can be paid to how far films do or don’t try to recreate the past accurately.
However hard they try, it is impossible to avoid selecting and emphasising some
aspects and ignoring others; i.e. myth-making is inevitable.
4. Family
The Leopard—a crumbling aristocratic dynasty.
The Wild Duck—the links between a wealthy dysfunctional family and a humble
family whose happiness is precarious.
My Life as a Dog—loss of family; recovery of a wider ‘family’
The Jazz Singer and Dead Poets Society—rebellion against fathers who want to stifle
creative instincts.
Families are an interface between the individual and the wider world. They provide
nurture and protection but they can also be conduits for imposing unwelcome
cultural values. Fathers can be good, bad or missing. Note mistaken or suspect
paternity in For the Term of His Natural Life and The Wild Duck (relates to identity).
Characters who are not related can still function as a sort of father. E.g. the boy with
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the hostile father in Dead Poet’s Society has the teacher Keating as a ‘good’ father
(but at what cost?). Harold in The Wild Duck can be said to have three fathers (one
being his self-appointed moral tutor Gregory).
Sometimes it is important that characters have no family ties. This is the case with
Breaker Morant and Rick in Casablanca for instance.
5. Value of Art
A less prevalent theme but worth mentioning. The Al Jolson character wants to sing
jazz; the schoolboy in Dead Poets has ambitions to act, and poetry is esteemed in the
film. Singin’ in the Rain engages with movie history. Persona, arguably, is centrally
concerned with Bergman’s subjective frustrations as a film maker: how can film
relate to the real?
6. Love and sex, gender relations
Unusually, not all that prevalent in this selection, given the ubiquity of love stories in
movies, but that in itself is interesting. It is always worth asking: what is the role of
women in a film? Are they are source of comfort and completion, moral guides,
problems, missing altogether? Only Persona has women as the main characters.
GENRE
Most of the films are dramas. One is a definite musical; another probably qualifies as one.
Bornholmer St, as I understand it, is more or less documentary, albeit recreated. There
probably isn’t a lot to say about genre but the following are some distinctions that can be
made under this broad heading.
1. Popular versus Highbrow
This is not a value judgement. There is no intrinsic reason why a film designed to
appeal to a wide audience should be regarded as inferior. It took French
intellectuals to convince American snobs of the greatness of Alfred Hitchcock, who
always aimed for commercial success. However, there are constraints in devising a
popular movie: it can’t be too complex or unfamiliar or, at least until recent decades,
too morally ambiguous. A more limited but more sophisticated audience allows
more risks to be taken with subject and style.
Popular --------------------------------------------------------------------- Highbrow
For the Term of His Natural Life
The Leopard
Casablanca
The Wild Duck
Singin’ in the Rain
Persona
What about the rest? Where would you put them on the spectrum?
2. Psychological Depth
If we consider the degree to which personalities and motives are explored in depth
and shown to be complicated we could again set up a spectrum: Shallow--Deep. It
would tend to match the previous spectrum of Popular – Highbrow. Certainly the
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same movies would be at each extreme. The others might be in somewhat different
positions along the spectrum though. Where would you put them?
This is not to say that the films with less psychological depth just involve ‘flat’
characters or stereotypes, but they will tend to have clear-cut heroes or villains.
TECHNIQUES
Every film deploys a range of techniques. Some are unique to cinema and it took a while for
them to be developed or exploited. A story told using cinema will inevitably be different from
the same story conveyed by some other medium. A good film will be one that exploits what
the medium of cinema can do particularly well.
Techniques have to be related to the meanings and/or feelings they are meant to convey.
These are a few that can be considered (of course there are many more):
1. Visuals
What is shown by the camera? Are there camera movements? What do they
contribute? In what ways do visual aspects add to or replace words?
How does the sequencing and timing of shots convey meaning, contribute to
pace (e.g. building suspense) etc.?
2. Dialogue
What is the role of dialogue in the film? Are there particularly significant
speeches or memorable words?
3. Use of stars
Casablanca would be quite different without Bogart and with, say, Rita Hayworth
instead of Ingrid Bergman. A star brings a certain persona, partly dependent on
previous roles (and subsequent roles if viewed decades later). The character of
Rick isn’t too predictable; it helps that Bogart had played characters on the
wrong side of the law, not always knights in shining armour. Imagine Robert de
Niro instead of Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society. The suitability of Jeremy
Irons for the part he plays in The Wild Duck has been questioned.
4. Endings
Films vary in the way they end. There may or may not be strong closure with all
loose ends resolved. There were two versions of the novel of For the Term of His
Natural Life with quite different endings. The ending of the film is a bit different
again.
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