I’ve recently discovered a sassy feature that has been in the MoMA collection for more than 40 years. Don’t Bet on Women, a drawing-room comedy produced by the Fox Film Corp. in 1931, encompasses all of the risqué behaviors, modes of dress, suggestive situations, and freewheeling alcohol consumption that the Motion Picture Production Code hoped to curtail.
Posts in ‘Film’
February 11, 2015
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Film
Documentary Fortnight 2015: Everyday Hauntings
Around the World in 50 Concerts. 2014. Netherlands. Directed by Heddy Honigmann. Courtesy of Cobos Films
The selections in this year’s Documentary Fortnight: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media (February 13 through 27) cast an intriguing look at life using a range of storytelling approaches—poetic, hybrid, observational, and dramatic. Many of these films, which center, at their core, on stories of human resourcefulness, are haunted by the concerns of our age: environmental disasters, wars, austere immigration and economic policies, urban and rural overdevelopment, and the repetition and ellipses of history.
January 9, 2015
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Film
The Contenders: Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu
Timbuktu. 2014. France/Mauritania. Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. Courtesy of Cohen Media Group
Alongside Citizenfour, Timbuktu might be the most urgently topical film of the year, but unlike Citizenfour, Timbuktu is not a documentary. This narrative film, the latest by Malian auteur Abderrahmane Sissako, was inspired by a 2012 entry in a local Malian newspaper about a couple being stoned to death for having children out of wedlock. Sissako’s interlocking stories of Timbuktu residents bring texture to tragically frequent headlines chronicling the rise and bloody tactics of foreign jihadists on the African continent.
January 7, 2015
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Collection & Exhibitions,
Film
Popcorn Allowed: Matisse Goes to the Movies
It’s a dream job: my role in marketing and communications at MoMA is to get the public excited by telling stories about our exhibitions and programs. It’s also a fast-moving and fluid media environment; we need to constantly experiment with new ways of telling those stories, and test new channels for connecting with an audience that has many options for enjoying art and culture.
December 30, 2014
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Film
The Contenders: Paul W. S. Anderson’s Pompeii
Pompeii. 2014. Canada/Germany/USA. Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. Image courtesy of Sony Pictures/Photofest
Paul W. S. Anderson’s Pompeii is the very model of the kind of movie usually dismissed from contention during awards season. It’s a genre piece, pure and simple, directed with great skill and efficiency but innocent of any desire to impress Oscar voters with flashy performances or profound moral lessons.
December 2, 2014
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Film
An Interview with Art Wehrhahn, MoMA Film Vault Manager
Art Wehrhahn at work in The Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center in Hamlin, PA. Photo: Mary Keene
Those of you who follow my blog posts know I generally write about issues relating to the MoMA film collection. When my colleague and dear friend Art Wehrhahn announced his retirement this summer, it seemed fitting to devote a blog post to an interview with Art that examines an extraordinary career spanning more than four decades.
November 26, 2014
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Film
Going to the Engine: Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer
Snowpiercer. 2013. South Korea/Czech Republic/USA/France. Directed by Bong Joon-ho. Courtesy of Radius TWC
The first time I remember going to “the Engine,” I was probably six or seven years old and I was taking my little sister with me. We were flying across the country alone, unaccompanied minors in the late 1970s. I remember feeling in charge; I’d been on planes since I was 10 days old.
Bill Morrison: Old Films, Contemporary Music, Timeless Themes
The Great Flood. 2013. USA. Directed by Bill Morrison. Courtesy of Bill Morrison
Music is a central component of the films of Bill Morrison (currently the subject of a mid-career retrospective at MoMA) and his collaborations with contemporary composers reflect his early interest in music as “a soundtrack in [his] life” and are informed by his artistic training as a painter and filmmaker.
November 13, 2014
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Film
A Knight at the Opera: John Boorman’s Excalibur
Excalibur. 1981. Great Britain. Directed by John Boorman. © Orion Pictures. Courtesy Orion/Photofest
On Saturday, November 15, as part of </i>To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation</a>, director John Boorman will introduce a screening of his Excalibur (1981) in an excellent 35mm print. A second screening takes place on Monday, November 17.
October 15, 2014
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Film
Bill Morrison: Compositions
Light Is Calling. 2004. USA. Directed by Bill Morrison. Courtesy of Bill Morrison
A key component of curatorial work is the discovery of a new artist, the study of their continued output, and the development of a long-term, supportive relationship. Following an artist’s work over many years and investigating their growth or, in certain cases, their failure to evolve, is an essential endeavor for a curator.
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