The Big Picture Magazine - Issue 4.pdf - Film - MKTK

www.thebigpicturemagazine.com

SEXUAL POLITICS

AND SOCIAL

ALIENATION:

DISCOVER

THE UNSEEN

BRITISH CINEMA

OF JANE ARDEN

AND JACK BOND.

contents Issue Four. September/October ‘09

Features

06 / Spotlight

Family Matters:

Crime families on

the silver screen

14 / Art & Film

Box Clever: Seriously

smart artwork by

Brendon Schaeffer

LOST

24 / Widescreen

Past Projections:

South East Asian movie

theatres on the dec line

AND FOUND

38 / 1000 Words

The Birth of The

American ‘Indie’:

The moment movies

Stateside got their

groove back

Regulars

04 / Reel World

Lebowski Fest

“Some day, and that

day may never come,

I will call upon you to

do a service for me. But

until that day, consider

this justice a gift on my

daughter’s wedding day.”

Don Corleone

18 / One Sheet

Crime Films

34 / On Location

Rome, Italy

38 / Screengems

The Tommy Gun

42 / Parting Shot

Hand Brushing Crops

44 / Competition

Guess The Film Tit le

44 / Listings

Films coming to a big

screen near you

DVD & Blu-ray 13 July

Editorial oice Tel. 0117 9589910 / e: info@thebigpicturemagazine.com Publisher masoud yazdani Editor / Art Direction gabriel solomons Contributors gail Tolley,

Nicholas page, scott Jordan harris, chris Barraclough, John Berra, Tony Nourmand, alison elangasinghe Special thanks to John letham, sara carlsson and all at park

circus, michael pierce at curzon cinemas and gabriel swartland at city screen / info@thebigpicturemagazine.com / www.thebigpicturemagazine.com

Also screening at the BFI Southbank, 14 - 17 July and at The Cube Microplex, Bristol, 20 - 22 July

Available at

Published by

intellect books & journals |

Produced in partnership with

www.parkcircus.com

To ﬁ nd out more visit

www.bfi.org.uk/ardenbond

september/october 2009 3

reel world

F ew ‘cult classics’

opposiTe walTer aNd The dude geT ready To roll / aBove i’m a leBowski, you’re a leBowski

are genuinely

worthy of the

title, but The Big

Lebowski fulils

every cultish criteria. In

‘The Dude’ it has a modern

messiah; in ‘Walter Sobchak’

a crazy and charismatic

prophet; and, in ‘Lebowski

Fest’, a spectacular revivalist

roadshow. Lebowski Fest was

conceived by Kentuckians

Scott Schufit and Will

Russell after a suitably

inactive afternoon trading

Lebowski-isms whilst failing

to sell T-shirts at a tattoo

convention. Soon after, they

hired a bowling alley and

prepared for what they

expected to be a one-off

gathering of a handful of the

ilm’s fans.

Seven years later, the festival

is a phenomenon. Touring the

major cities of America, it

attracts masses of Lebowski-

devotees – AKA ‘Achievers’ –

who congregate in costume ‘to

drink white Russians, throw

some rocks and party with an

array of Dudes, Walters and

Maudes’. (But not, we hope,

urinate on each other’s rugs

or chop off each other’s toes.)

Film and real life have seldom

become as entangled as they

are here. In 2002, Lebowski

stepped off the cinema screen

and into the real world at the

irst Lebowski Fest – and, in

2009, Lebowski Fest stepped

out of the real world and onto

the cinema screen in Eddie

Chung’s documentary The

Achievers: The Story of the

Lebowski Fans .

The festival thrives on its

underground atmosphere but

– as more and more cinephiles

cotton onto the brilliance

of The Big Lebowski and as

mainstream moviegoers be-

come increasingly accustomed

to the Coens’ unique output

– that atmosphere may be

endangered. I can’t imagine

anyone is worried, though.

After all, the Dude abides.

find out more :

www.lebowskifest.com and

www.theachieversmovie.com

w h e n l i f e a n d t h e m o v i e s c o l l i d e . . .

Roll

Call

Dressing up as a purple-shirted paedophile wouldn’t go down

well at a Star Wars convention. But Lebowski Fest is anything

but your average get-together. Scott Jordan Harris grabs his

bowling ball, dons some shades and takes us behind the scenes.

4 www. thebigpicturemagazine .com

september/october 2009 5

spotlight

c r i m e f a m i l i e s o n t h e s i lv e r s c r e e n

The Godfather (1972)

Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Family

Affairs

The deinitive juxtaposition of

the family and ‘The Family’,

The Godfather ’s portrait of the

American dream realized by

un-American means is unlikely

ever to be equalled. As Citizen

Kane did for ilms in general,

so Francis Ford Coppola’s irst

instalment of the Corleone

crime family saga did for

gangster movies – surpassing

everything that came before

and inluencing everything

that came after. Practically

no aspect of the ilm (in which

the acting, script, costumes,

cinematography and score

are all iconic) can be faulted

and, without being wilfully

silly, its impact on modern

American moviemaking is

hard to overestimate. Making

movie immortals of Coppola,

Al Pacino, James Caan and

Robert Duvall, and solidifying

Marlon Brando’s status as

the great American actor,

The Godfather has, since

its release, been the movie

against which everyone

measures any ilm to even

mention the Maia, and against

which millions of fans measure

any ilm they see.

Whether they’re the orphans in Oliver! or the

itinerant evil-doers of The Last House on the Left ,

criminals on ilm are often as preoccupied with

creating surrogate families alongside other outlaws as

they are with actually doing anything illegal. Here are

some classic examples. Words by Scott Jordan Harris

The Godfather is back in UK

cinemas from 25 September.

See page 46’ for further details

he Godfather ’s

impact on

modern

American

moviemaking

is hard to

overestimate.

➜

lefT marloN BraNdo leNds aN ear

september/october 2009 7

spotlight Crime Families

Image Courtesy of Park Circus Limited

Bollywood

aside, this is

the only crime

family that can

carry a decent

show tune.

hrough their

outlaw lifestyle,

their surrogate

family succeeds

in breaking the

bondage of the

Great Depression.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Dir. Arthur Penn

Oliver! (1968)

Dir. Carol Reed

The eponymous anti-hero and

anti-heroine play Ma and Pa

to America’s irst family of

bank robbers in Hollywood’s

last great gangster ilm of the

pre- Godfather age. Through

their outlaw lifestyle, their

surrogate family succeeds

in breaking the bondage of

the Great Depression whilst

the law-abiding equivalents

around them struggle to hold

off starvation. Tellingly, it is a

traditional family connection

that brings about their bloody

downfall in cinema’s most

imitated ambush.

With the light-ingered Fagin

operating as patriarch; the

bullish Bill Sikes as an abusive

big brother; and Nancy as an

older sister, Oliver! ’s fraternity

of juvenile pickpockets is

– despite its appearance in

a family-friendly sing-along

sensation – as deserving a

subject for our spotlight as any

other. The group is one of ilm’s

most prominent examples of

the disenfranchised, forced

to ensure their survival by

creating surrogate kin from

those who live outside the

law – and, Bollywood aside, is

the only crime family that can

carry a decent show tune.

aBove guNs oN The ruN: BoNNie aNd clyde

8 www. thebigpicturemagazine .com

september/october 2009 9

The Big Picture Magazine - Issue 4.pdf

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