The Filmic 5: Making Waves Edition
Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley
I. Film Anniversary I Am Participating In This Week
"You all know me. Know how I earn a livin'...writing films essays and critiques and such. I've been waiting half a century for this fish to circle back, Chief. But let’s not romanticize it. This ain't some cheerful anniversary screening with plastic fins and nostalgia-tinted glasses- and it ain't like chasing bluegills and tommycocks. This is mythic monster made celluloid. A bad fish, Chief...but a PERFECT film, and the blueprint for the blockbuster age. I’m not here for the beach chairs and retro popcorn buckets—I’m here to watch the great beast breach again, in a glorious anniversary restoration, devouring a new generation that thought it was safe to go back in the theater. Call it celebration. Call it pilgrimage. Call it what it is: fifty years later, the shark still swallows us all whole, and I love EVERY minute of it...he head, the tail, the whole damn thing..."
JAWS returns to theaters for it's 50th Anniversary all through the summer.
II. Film Out of Cannes I Am Most Excited About This Week
Anyone that knows me long enough knows that I will EVENTUALLY corner them at a party to tipsily profess my love of the French New Wave. (I devote a rather large segment of my film appreciation course HOW TO WATCH A MOVIE to its impact on cinema). But does it still matter to us? I would argue that the French New Wave STILL matters because it detonated the myth of cinematic objectivity, replacing it with a self-reflexive, auteur-driven language that insisted cinema could be RADICAL- and provocatively bold enough to be as fragmented, personal, and political as the post-modern world it sought to capture.
Richard Linklater’s ingenious and elating docudrama about the making of Jean-Luc-Godard's BREATHLESS seems something made, perhaps, SPECIFICALLY for me...but I hope for you as well. Enjoy this first look trailer and join me in reveling in la politique des auteurs...
III. Podcast About A Film That Is Inspiring Me This Week
You NEVER forget your first love...and while I am now wedded to the greatest art form ever conceived, there WAS a time when a fresh-faced young Jack took to Paris to pursue his culinary ambitions. While becoming a chef was not to be, cooking remains a serious passion for me, and few "mentors" proved as influential through their works as the great Marcella Hazan.
It was with great nostalgic pleasure that this week's episode of Special Sauce with Ed Levine centers on the great Marcella's legacy. And I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a new documentary about her amazing life and legacy has entered the world.
Enjoy both the episode and the trailer. And if this humble cinema newsletter has brought you ANYTHING, let it be her simple tomato sauce recipe that I PROMISE YOU will change your pasta game FOREVER. Seriously.
Marcella's 3 Ingredient Sauce: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/tomato-sauce-onion-and-butter
IV. Curation Program I'm Diving Into This Week
I've been doing a deep dive into the brilliant curations of the Criterion Channel as of late- and perhaps got a bit of a lump in my throat at the newest program. (I am particularly excited to finally remedy a cinematic blindspot by FINALLY sitting down with SCARECROW.) Give this teaser a watch. I'm not crying- you're crying. Goodnight, Gene.
V. Film Quote I'm Pondering This Week.
Jack Hanley is a film scholar, podcaster, and critic based in Boulder, CO. He is a programmer with the Chicago Underground Film Festival, Slamdance's Indies Awards, and the Boulder International Film Festival. He is one-half of Blindspotting: A Film Discovery Podcast and the founder of the Reel Horrors Short Film Festival. Find him at Kinophilia on Medium and at HanleyOnFilm.com