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"A good movie is not objective. A story done without personal conviction, on whatever level--political, social, or moral--is not worth doing and certainly not worth watching." Actor Ed Asner

I've been looking back in American film history to find those films done with personal conviction. I recently reviewed two films that were created with passion and still have plenty to say to us in our current political and social climate.

Medium Cool Film Review
Downhill Racer Film Review

"There is a renaissance in the independent film world right now with incredible work being done. You’re also seeing that there’s enough independent money that you don’t have to work on a micro budget anymore. There are ways to make a $50-$60 million movie independently and that is a real threat to the studio system. All they’re trying to do is Marvel. The only game they’re playing is the $200 million budget film. At some point, people will get tired of seeing Batman, no matter how many new circumstances they put him in. They just will." Taylor Sheridan, writer-director of "Wind River" and the television drama "Yellowstone" which premieres on June 20th

"I am very loyal: if people don’t hurt me or betray me, I stick with them. The same goes for film. It has never disappointed me; it has never caused me any problems, so I really have no reason to move to digital. It’s a powerful, beautiful, tangible technology, and at the end of the day, you have your reels and dailies to go through. Film has its own life, and it’s completely independent. It’s a real threesome: the actors, the filmmakers and film stock." Director Alice Rohrwacher whose film "Happy as Lazzaro" was selected for the 2018 Cannes Film Festival

"Nothing moves people like great narrative storytelling; nothing disarms people to go beyond their prejudices like great acting can; nothing has the ability to take people on a journey into a world that they could not fathom like fictional film. That’s what I wanted to do, give people an experience that they could immerse themselves in and “enjoy”… and yet, I also wanted to change the world."

Filmmaker Jennifer Fox. "The Tale", Fox's autobiographical film about surviving sexual abuse, aired on HBO last night.

"There's a difference between Hollywood films and mine. Hollywood is doing them because they will make money. Mine will make money too, but that is not my motivation. My pleasure is to show women in their totality--their joys, problems, potentials. And above all, the unique rhythms by which they live their lives." Filmmaker Agnes Varda, whose 2017 film "Faces Places" was nominated for an Academy Award. Varda turned 90 on May 30th.

Am currently reading a great book on post-WWII Los Angeles. I'll write a review for one of my newsletters when I'm finished. In the meantime...I came across a great quote from screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.

"Silence the artist, and you silence the most articulate voice the people have. Destroy culture, and you destroy one of the strongest sources of inspiration from which a people can draw strength to fight for a better life."

Film editor Barry Malkin died on April 4th, 2019. He was known for cutting many of Francis Ford Coppola's films, including "The Godfather: Part II", "Apocalypse Now", and "Peggy Sue Got Married". The following Malkin quote is taken from Gabriella Oldham's book "First Cut: Conversations with Film Editors".

"Some people respond to flash. It's generally easier to cut stuff like that, action scenes, where you have the option to go to any one of many places...than it is to edit a dialogue scene with a lot of characters sitting around a table...I know anytime I've ever won anything, or if people talk about it, even my peers, it's the razzle-dazzle, it's the flash, it's the quick stuff. The average dialogue sequence is more difficult to edit than the rumble scene. That's why I so admire Dede Allen's work."

"I really believe in the liberating and humanizing power of cinema. I believe that images and ideas that are carried by stories can have the power to strike you in your solar plexus, and really change your mind. I think the frequency can be spread with a little drop in the ocean with a film can really have a big, big power." Filmmaker Alejandro Inarritu

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese received some backlash recently for calling the Marvel films "not cinema" and "theme park" movies. Fellow director Francis Ford Coppola backed up Scorsese in some comments he made at the Lumiere Film Festival in France. What is notable in Coppola's interview is his concept of wealth, in both economic and artistic terms.

"There is a philosophy that a person of riches can be just or unjust. It’s very important when you talk about it. To gain riches unjustly, just uses up, it doesn’t contribute. Wealth is only what is just, what brings more to the society. Cinema is the same way. Real cinema brings something, a wonderful gift to society. It doesn’t just take money and make people rich. That’s despicable."

The Cannes Film Fest officially opens tonight with a screening of "Annette", starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. The film's director Leos Carax made some perceptive remarks about the relationship between cinema and music: "Music is haunting, as cinema should be. I would’ve wanted a life in music. The vertigo of music. That is my biggest regret.... Cinema is the closest I could get to composing, creating rhythms and melodies. To direct is to conduct. When I film a scene, I’m pretty sure my hands unconsciously move the way a conductor’s hands do. Cinema and music are the only places where I feel at home: I never doubt what I like or dislike, and I feel I know if what we’re doing is right or out of tune."