Michael C. back again from Serious Film. It's time to wrap up the first season of Unsung Heroes and I thought what better way to do that than to focus on a film that's still in the 2010 conversation while there's a chance to upgrade its status from "unsung" to "frequently honored".

The editing of Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop would be a long shot even if it didn’t come from a documentary. The fact that it does puts its chances for recognition outside of a guild award somewhere just shy of nonexistent. Too bad since I saw no more effective use of montage at theaters in 2010, communicating a variety of complicated ideas while on the surface telling a simple, compelling narrative.

If you didn’t know anything about how awards voters marked their ballots you might logically assume that documentaries would have a big advantage in the editing categories due to the challenges they present. After all, fiction films have the advantage of working from a set script while non-fiction movies are handed the task of sculpting a narrative out of the raw material of real life. That was certainly the case with Gift Shop, which is drawn from the archives of a man who shot video compulsively, every day, for the better part of a decade. (the truth of this, like most of the film, is open to debate, but there was undoubtedly a wealth of material to sort through) That ninety of the sharpest minutes of the year were fashioned out of this vast ocean of footage is stunning.

It’s a testament to the skill of editors Chris King and Tom Fulford that accusations of the film being a hoax are so widespread. It’s hard to believe that the sloppiness of real life could yield results that put the vast majority of Hollywood productions to shame. Nobody is going to accuse a boring, flat documentary of being staged. Big ideas about art aside, this film moves. It’s got energy and zip. The dismal blockbusters from last Summer would have been fortunate to match half of this film's energy. 

Gift Shop juggles so many separate strands so skillfully we don’t realize how much they packed into the narrative until we think back on it. It is introduced as a character study of eccentric art world gadfly Thierry Guetta, and on that level it is fascinating enough. It adds to that a portrait of an artistic movement with rare intimacy and understanding of its subject, and then peppers in enough character beats to make the stunning story twists of the last third believable. That it then tops it all off with an in depth meditation on the nature of art is what elevates this to a special level of achievement. I didn’t expect a doc about street artists to deepen my understanding of what separates a good artist from a bad one, but that’s what it did. Anybody who looks at graffiti and sniffs, “How could that be art?” could well find the answer here.

We've seen the same dynamic repeated in this series in which work that falls outside the conventional wisdom of what is award worthy goes unnoticed. I thought it would be worthwhile for the season finale of Unsung Heroes to recognize something that still had hope of finding larger recognition. So have at it voting bodies. Open your minds when you mark those ballots. Don't just mark Waiting for Superman because it seems important. And while you're at it, take another look at the production design of Black Swan, the score of The Social Network, and the cinematography of Somewhere. Make my job hard. 

Season 1 of Unsung Heroes:

Paths of Glory, Punch-Drunk Love, Dumbo, Duck Soup, In Bruges, The Descent, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Big Lebowski, Ratatouille, Election, The 25th Hour, Rob Roy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Pulp Fiction

documentary· editors· Exit Through the Gift Shop· Oscars (10)· Unsung Heroes

Unsung Heroes: The Editing of Exit Through the Gift Shop

Michael C. back again from Serious Film. It's time to wrap up the first season of Unsung Heroes and I thought what better way to do that than to focus on a film that's still in the 2010 conversation while there's a chance to upgrade its status from "unsung" to "frequently honored".

The editing of Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop would be a long shot even if it didn’t come from a documentary. The fact that it does puts its chances for recognition outside of a guild award somewhere just shy of nonexistent. Too bad since I saw no more effective use of montage at theaters in 2010, communicating a variety of complicated ideas while on the surface telling a simple, compelling narrative.

If you didn’t know anything about how awards voters marked their ballots you might logically assume that documentaries would have a big advantage in the editing categories due to the challenges they present. After all, fiction films have the advantage of working from a set script while non-fiction movies are handed the task of sculpting a narrative out of the raw material of real life. That was certainly the case with Gift Shop, which is drawn from the archives of a man who shot video compulsively, every day, for the better part of a decade. (the truth of this, like most of the film, is open to debate, but there was undoubtedly a wealth of material to sort through) That ninety of the sharpest minutes of the year were fashioned out of this vast ocean of footage is stunning.

It’s a testament to the skill of editors Chris King and Tom Fulford that accusations of the film being a hoax are so widespread. It’s hard to believe that the sloppiness of real life could yield results that put the vast majority of Hollywood productions to shame. Nobody is going to accuse a boring, flat documentary of being staged. Big ideas about art aside, this film moves. It’s got energy and zip. The dismal blockbusters from last Summer would have been fortunate to match half of this film's energy. 

Gift Shop juggles so many separate strands so skillfully we don’t realize how much they packed into the narrative until we think back on it. It is introduced as a character study of eccentric art world gadfly Thierry Guetta, and on that level it is fascinating enough. It adds to that a portrait of an artistic movement with rare intimacy and understanding of its subject, and then peppers in enough character beats to make the stunning story twists of the last third believable. That it then tops it all off with an in depth meditation on the nature of art is what elevates this to a special level of achievement. I didn’t expect a doc about street artists to deepen my understanding of what separates a good artist from a bad one, but that’s what it did. Anybody who looks at graffiti and sniffs, “How could that be art?” could well find the answer here.

We've seen the same dynamic repeated in this series in which work that falls outside the conventional wisdom of what is award worthy goes unnoticed. I thought it would be worthwhile for the season finale of Unsung Heroes to recognize something that still had hope of finding larger recognition. So have at it voting bodies. Open your minds when you mark those ballots. Don't just mark Waiting for Superman because it seems important. And while you're at it, take another look at the production design of Black Swan, the score of The Social Network, and the cinematography of Somewhere. Make my job hard. 

Season 1 of Unsung Heroes:

Paths of Glory, Punch-Drunk Love, Dumbo, Duck Soup, In Bruges, The Descent, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Big Lebowski, Ratatouille, Election, The 25th Hour, Rob Roy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Pulp Fiction

Hey everybody. Michael C. from Serious Film back again. This week is all about Kirk Douglas, and although his acting career has enough high points to fill this blog for a month, today we're here to honor the hand he had in launching one of the most important directorial careers of the last century. 

One fact everyone in the film business seems to agree on is that it is incredibly difficult to get anything made and borderline impossible to produce something good. When quality movies somehow miraculously find their way into theaters it is most often because a star got involved who believed in the project and had the clout to get the money men to cough up the loot. Kirk Douglas was such a star in the mid-1950’s when he came across a script named Paths of Glory being shopped by a young Stanley Kubrick. Douglas had been a big fan of Kubrick’s previous film, The Killing, and was so impressed with the new script that he decided his company, Bryna Productions, would produce the film with him as co-producer. Douglas did this even though, as recounted in the gorgeous new Criterion edition, he was convinced the film was unlikely to be a commercial hit.

Of course, it wasn’t a completely altruistic endeavor on Douglas’s part. It did give him the chance to play one of the greatest (for my money the greatest) roles of his career. Douglas’s Colonel Dax is a more clearly heroic character than in the original novel, an oasis of courage and decency in a world warped by war and corruption. They even work in a moment for Douglas to take his shirt off, which legend has it was contractually stipulated in all his movies.

So what raises Kirk Douglas above the typical star scouting out opportunities to look noble? The fact that he sought out the opportunity to make a film with Kubrick, that’s what. Douglas did what we always hope politicians would do with power, which was to surround himself with smart people who will stand up to him. Kubrick was no yes-man, and Paths is no Kirk Douglas vanity project. Kubrick elevates the material above the typical star vehicle into one of the most shattering anti-war statements ever put to film.

Viewers of the film don’t remember Douglas's heroism; they remember the stark, horrifying black and white world of trench warfare, a world where the execution of innocent men is found to be an acceptable idea. Douglas’s Dax is strong-armed into leading an attack he knows to be doomed, and his attempts to preserve justice in the fallout prove to be a futile, almost naïve, exercise. His famous late in the film explosion at the obscenely corrupt General Broulard is less a moment of triumphant defiance and more a choked howl at his own powerlessness in the face of insanity. My reaction to his character has always been less, “Hooray for Colonel Dax!” and more, “That poor bastard.”

At the end of the day Paths of Glory is Kubrick’s film and Kubrick’s success, but it’s fair to say it is unlikely it would have occurred without Douglas’s support and leadership. There are accounts that the idea of using a happier, more commercial ending was suggested and that Douglas fought against it (Kubrick’s position in this debate varies between versions). Generations of film lovers are grateful that Douglas prevailed and the heartbreakingly perfect ending won out, but the instinct behind the idea wasn’t wrong. Despite being a critical success that launched Kubrick into the top tier of working directors it fizzled at the box office. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on the new disc of Paths check out some of the bonus interviews with Douglas and witness the pride on his face when the film is mentioned. He doesn’t seem to be mourning those lost box office dollars. 

Check back next week for the first season finale of Unsung Heroes where I will shine some attention on a 2010 release.

Kirk Douglas· Kubrick· Paths of Glory· Unsung Heroes

Unsung Heroes: Kirk Douglas for Producing Paths of Glory

Hey everybody. Michael C. from Serious Film back again. This week is all about Kirk Douglas, and although his acting career has enough high points to fill this blog for a month, today we're here to honor the hand he had in launching one of the most important directorial careers of the last century. 

One fact everyone in the film business seems to agree on is that it is incredibly difficult to get anything made and borderline impossible to produce something good. When quality movies somehow miraculously find their way into theaters it is most often because a star got involved who believed in the project and had the clout to get the money men to cough up the loot. Kirk Douglas was such a star in the mid-1950’s when he came across a script named Paths of Glory being shopped by a young Stanley Kubrick. Douglas had been a big fan of Kubrick’s previous film, The Killing, and was so impressed with the new script that he decided his company, Bryna Productions, would produce the film with him as co-producer. Douglas did this even though, as recounted in the gorgeous new Criterion edition, he was convinced the film was unlikely to be a commercial hit.

Of course, it wasn’t a completely altruistic endeavor on Douglas’s part. It did give him the chance to play one of the greatest (for my money the greatest) roles of his career. Douglas’s Colonel Dax is a more clearly heroic character than in the original novel, an oasis of courage and decency in a world warped by war and corruption. They even work in a moment for Douglas to take his shirt off, which legend has it was contractually stipulated in all his movies.

So what raises Kirk Douglas above the typical star scouting out opportunities to look noble? The fact that he sought out the opportunity to make a film with Kubrick, that’s what. Douglas did what we always hope politicians would do with power, which was to surround himself with smart people who will stand up to him. Kubrick was no yes-man, and Paths is no Kirk Douglas vanity project. Kubrick elevates the material above the typical star vehicle into one of the most shattering anti-war statements ever put to film.

Viewers of the film don’t remember Douglas's heroism; they remember the stark, horrifying black and white world of trench warfare, a world where the execution of innocent men is found to be an acceptable idea. Douglas’s Dax is strong-armed into leading an attack he knows to be doomed, and his attempts to preserve justice in the fallout prove to be a futile, almost naïve, exercise. His famous late in the film explosion at the obscenely corrupt General Broulard is less a moment of triumphant defiance and more a choked howl at his own powerlessness in the face of insanity. My reaction to his character has always been less, “Hooray for Colonel Dax!” and more, “That poor bastard.”

At the end of the day Paths of Glory is Kubrick’s film and Kubrick’s success, but it’s fair to say it is unlikely it would have occurred without Douglas’s support and leadership. There are accounts that the idea of using a happier, more commercial ending was suggested and that Douglas fought against it (Kubrick’s position in this debate varies between versions). Generations of film lovers are grateful that Douglas prevailed and the heartbreakingly perfect ending won out, but the instinct behind the idea wasn’t wrong. Despite being a critical success that launched Kubrick into the top tier of working directors it fizzled at the box office. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on the new disc of Paths check out some of the bonus interviews with Douglas and witness the pride on his face when the film is mentioned. He doesn’t seem to be mourning those lost box office dollars. 

Check back next week for the first season finale of Unsung Heroes where I will shine some attention on a 2010 release.