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FYI Nov. 10th film screenings
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Topic: FYI Nov. 10th film screenings
mtodd
Oscar® Winner
For those who may be interested, there will 2 screenings at the Brooklyn Museum of films directed by Jack Garfein on Nov. 10th. I don't expect anyone to know who he was--he only made 2 films (not surprisingly, the two they are showing)!The first one at 1pm is THE STRANGE ONE (1957) starring ben Gazzara and George Peppard which is a Columbia Film about the mysterious pull a military schoolteacher has over his cadets and the aftermath of a students expulsion. The MPAA forced the film to lighten up the adult/gay themes on this one at the time. I have never seen the film myself.
Jack and Ben will be talking and answering questions after the screening.The second is SOMETHING WILD (1961) at 4pm. This is one I have been directly working on myself! Jack directed his then wife Caroll Bakker in this low budget shocker about a girl who deals with the trauma of being assaulted in NYC. This film was buried by MGM/UA for 4 decades and this is its first East Coast screening in almost 40 years. Jack Garfein was a Holocaust survivor and this film may very well be the lone American representative of Euro existentialism ever made. I have been involved in the score, which was Aaron Copland's last one he did and is a jazzy, visceral and biting work that is very removed from what most people associate with him. Saul bass also did the main title sequence. Jack will discuss this film after the screening with film historian/author Foster Hirsch.
One of the main thrusts of the screenings is the discussion of the emerging 'method acting' of the 50s and 60s films.
You can go to http://www.brooklynart.org Admission is free I think.
posted 11-08-2001 09:27 AM PT (US) Lou Goldberg
Oscar® Winner
I've seen Something Wild--Ralph Meeker and Carroll Baker in a bleak B&W NYC. Copland's arranged his score into a suite entitled 'Scenes from a Great City' or something like that. I have it on LP but I'm sure it's on CD as well. I'm unfamiliar with the other film.
posted 11-08-2001 08:29 PM PT (US) mtodd
Oscar® Winner
The story behind what happened to this score is pretty extraordinary. Originally United Artists refused to pay for Copland or the sessions. The director, Jack Garfein, and his then wife Carroll Baker personally financed the music. Then UA refused to release the score even though Copland expressed personal interest in its release (probably because of heavy studio backlash against the film). So Copland used the opportunity of a commission by the London Symphony Orchestra for its 60th anniversary 3 years later to adapt 50% of the score into Music for a Great City. Originally it was to be called Music for New York City, and then the LSO director suggested Symphony No.4(!!!) But it was called Music for a Great City since it was being premiered outside the USA. posted 11-09-2001 09:38 AM PT (US) mtodd
Oscar® Winner
The SW suite is only available on a Sony 2 CD set. It was also availbale on a BMG CD released 11 years ago with Slatkin/St. Louis Symph but that one is long out of print. Copland's later works are not represented much on CD.
posted 11-09-2001 09:41 AM PT (US) Lou Goldberg
Oscar® Winner
The odd thing was that when I saw Something Wild, I didn't really think the score worked well in the film. This was the kind of film, with this B&W 60s look that I've seen in a number of other films, that Kenyon Hopkins used to score and it required a much lower-key score than Copland gave it. There'd be all these quiet scenes, just Meeker and Baker in his apartment, and then they'd go outside on the street and traffic would go by and the Copland would play full out and it just kind of shocked me. The problem is that I haven't seen the film in a long time and Copland may have scored some of it in a moodier way that I just don't recall right now. Thinking about this film makes me really want to see it again---you don't happen to have a reviewer's copy on VHS you can get to me?
posted 11-10-2001 08:12 PM PT (US) mtodd
Oscar® Winner
Yesterday was a lot of fun. I had never seen Th Strange One. As it turns out director Jack Garfein was not pleased with the score to that movie. The reason being that his producer Sam Spiegel had a fall out with him over including blacks in the movie (remember this was shot in the South in 1957). Jack literally had some blacks smuggled on to the set without Sam's knowledge and shot the scenes he wanted. Sam retaliated by choosing and supervising the music without Jack's involvement and changing the title--which was originally END AS A MAN (same as the play from which the movie comes from).SOMETHING WILD, as usual, upset and beguiled the audience. I think because unlike most movies which spell it all out for you, this one uses looks and silence in a way which forces you to piece it together. Apparently it was a cleaned up 35mm print rather then the 16mm everyone expected (Jack's lawyer told me there was a heifty charge on the royalty sheet for that). The VHS copy I have is earmarked for a home video company here in NYC in our continuing efforts to get this thing to the public after 4 decades. I will be happy to talk with anyone else who has any real connections/interest in viewing the movie.
posted 11-11-2001 09:32 AM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB