SIDNEY****

SIDNEY is a beautifully constructed documentary about the life and career of the iconic black actor Sidney Poitier, directed by Reginald Hudlin, produced by Oprah Winfrey, and featuring a candid and moving interview with Poitier himself in the year before he died.

The film begins with Poitier's childhood in West Indian poverty - he describes with relish the first time he saw a car in the capital, or the first time in New York he took the subway.  We also see him come to New York and work in a diner before realising he could take acting workshops and then join a local theatre group. His career is interwoven with that of his long-time friend and sparring partner Harry Belafonte. Poitier's big Hollywood break comes from taking a part that Belafonte passed over. But once he got that break he didn't look back, transforming small parts into mesmerising performances and radically challenging Hollywood ideals of male beauty and black power. He became a bankable headline actor in a period when black men were not accorded respect or civil rights. No-one who has ever seen it will forget Poitier slapping Rod Steiger in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.  

In his personal life, we hear of Poitier's two marriages and many children. He seems to have taken the business of being a father and breadwinner seriously and it's moving to hear how he felt he couldn't go home until he had money, something that will resonate with a lot of migrants whose remittances are so important. 

But clearly it's Poitier as activist who is of most interest to the contemporary audience and this film benefits from interviews with his contemporaries who were also active at that time - notably Belafonte but also Streisand and Redford. It's also fascinating to see how Poitier was outcompeted by later cinematic trends, most notably Blaxploitation, and was accused of being an assimilationist Uncle Tom by naive fools who had no appreciation for the context in which he was operating.

The best thing about documentaries like these is that they make you wonder how much has really changed.  One of the key provocative questions it sparked in me was how far Poitier would've become a star had he not had his break in the era of black and white film. It does rather feel as though colourism remains rife, and standards of black beauty still tend to be centred on "white" features. Think Beyonce or Will Smith's face, hair, colour. It makes you realise just how unique and strong and talented Poitier was to make it, for decades, in this industry.

SIDNEY is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 111 minutes. It played Toronto 2022 and was released on Apple TV.

MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND - BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Day Eight

MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND is an absolute must-see doc for anyone who loves cinema. It's a fascinating primer on all those behind the lens talents who create the soundscape of the films we watch.  With admirably clear organisation director Midge Costin takes us through the history of sound in cinema, from the silent era, to those mono sound-tracks with unimaginative off-the-shelf sound FX, to the rise of stereo, then quadrophonic sound, to the modern age. We hear from all the greats - whether those who commissioned or created the sound. I was delighted to see Barbra Streisand given real credit for how she pushed the studio to give her the time and money she needed to get the sound just right on her version of A STAR IS BORN.  We hear from her, as well as pioneers such as David Lynch, Lucas, Spielberg and Lassiter. And as for the talents in the sound business, we begin with Walter Murch of APOCALYPSE NOW fame, then onto Ben Burtt from STAR WARS, and onto the contemporary men, AND women, who create the sounds that pique our imaginations.

Not only was the history of sound fascinating, but I also loved the final segment which took us through what each individual part of the sound spectrum did - from recording voices in production, to adding in sound effects, to ambient environmental sound, to the score.  If you ever wondered what ADR was, or what a foley artist did, this is your film.  You also get to see what re-recording mixers do.

I learned so much from this documentary, but what was really wonderful was just feeling the passion and talent of all the interviewees.  This is why I love movies about making movies!  They simply reignite my passion for this craft, and make me appreciate all the more the unsung heroes who make it happen.

MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND has a running time of 94 minutes. The film played Cannes, Tribeca and London 2019. It will be released in the USA on October 26th and in the UK on November 1st.

A STAR IS BORN (1976)

Spoilers follow.

Where to begin with the third version of A STAR IS BORN, and by far my least favourite. This was produced in 1976 and starred Barbra Streisand in the Esther Blodgett - now Esther Hoffman role.  She's a Jewish soul singer with an afro, an of-its-time wardrobe and a thirst for success and stumbles into the life of Kris Kristofferson's John Norman Howard - an alcoholic stadium rock star and all around arsehole.  The movie is directed by screenwriter Frank Pierson, who never directed a feature again so burned was he by dealing with Streisand. Kristofferson also had nothing good to say. But I am cast back to a line in the film where Streisand's Esther says "I know you think I'm being difficult, but I just want to get it right."  Amen, sister.  And this really does signal one of the profound changes from the first two films. The Esther Blodgett's may have been ambitious but earnest and wide-eyed but Esther Hoffman is much more street-wise and tough.  Unlike her predecessors she refuses to change her name or image or sound to confirm to what the studios want, and takes her success on her own terms. In fact it doesn't feel like she compromises at all. She also gets her man, except that he's a raging alcoholic.  And when he dies - more of which later, she doesn't need much persuading to go back on stage.  She does so as if it's her birthright. Where her predecessors' tearily announced themselves to be Mrs Norman Maine, Ms Streisand is always only and always Ms Streisand.  The final concert shows her singing to him but utterly her own woman. 

The character of John Norman Howard is the second major change from the first two movies where the protagonist was an actor called Norman Maine, a tragic jaded cynic who wanted the best for his wife.  Maine may have been a drunk but he was never infantile or wantonly destructive. Even the awards show incident was never silly or feckless - but rather came from a place of deep hurt and self-destruction.  Norman Maine is a noble figure and we sympathise with deeply, making his final act suicide a tragedy. He is in many ways the true dramatic centre of the film.   But in this version, John Norman Howard is an indulgent man-child who behaves recklessly putting other people's lives in danger from the first scene of the film. He's unlikeable and unrelatable and it seems entirely appropriate that he would cheat on his wife, and that his final sacrifice would be ambiguous. Does he commit suicide when he realises that Esther won't leave him, even after infidelity, or is his car accident just another alcoholic fuck-up? Who knows.  Who cares? And a version of A STAR IS BORN where I don't care about its tragic hero is thin indeed.

So the drama doesn't work, even though it does get a pleasingly feminist spin. And then we have all the songs, and costumes, which have REALLY dated - I mean beyond how the Judy Garland song and dance numbers have dated.  There's not a scene worth watching here, unless you're a fan of Streisand and Paul Williams hit Evergreen, which I am not.  Worse still, the style of the film comes across as a kind of pastiche of NASHVILLE. Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion's script often tries to do that Robert Altman thing of having characters talk over each other.  It felt fake and pretentious here. 

There is literally nothing worth watching in this film.

A STAR IS BORN is rated R and has a running time of 139 minutes. 

MARVIN HAMLISCH: THE WAY HE WAS - LFF 2013 - Day Four

Dori Berinstein's documentary about the legendary musical theatre and cinema composer Marvin Hamlisch is an absolute joy to watch, thanks to the wonderful, exuberant personality of its subject, and the access to so many of his collaborators sharing what are evidently authentic feelings of warmth and tenderness for him.  You leave the cinema feeling like you really knew the man, and that his musical achievements were really secondary to his humour, passion, and empathy.

But of course, we wouldn't be here if it weren't for his talent, and it's worth taking a moment to recap just how amazing he was.  A musical prodigy born to a Viennese Jewish family who'd escaped the Holocaust for New York, he entered Juilliard at seven, won three Oscars in a single year in his mid twenties, and had a smash hit musical and Pulitzer Prize by his thirties.   He scored Woody Allen flicks like Bananas, as well as The Way We Were, The Spy Who Loved Me and Sophie's Choice. He left Hollywood for a little off-Broadway production that became A Chorus Line.

If there's any sadness to the story it's that his key collaborators on A Chorus Line died so young.  One wonders just what other smash hit musicals he might have written had he been able to find a stable long running collaboration along the lines of Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Lowe.  Not that I want to sound like I'm calling him an underachiever.  It's just that - and the movie tackles this in some detail, when you've one three Oscars in your early twenties, where do you go from there?

Dori Berinstein's movie pays full tribute to the man and his music.  Her long track record on board way has given her access to all the key people, most movingly Hamlisch's family and his early home videos.  Her organisation is impeccable and the movie a joy to watch.  I also think it's not going too far to say that this movie has something to teach, and laughter to give, whether or not you care about musical theatre.  And that's testament to the greatness of the man at its heart.

MARVIN HAMLISCH: THE WAY HE WAS has a running time of 82 minutes.