JUNE 16, 2024 Second Broadcast
This is Annakarinaland, and I'm your host, Moira Sullivan. San Francisco film
critic and scholar. Annakarinaland is broadcast on Saturdays at 10 p .m.
with a focus on women and film with interviews, film reviews, and festival reports.
Music:
Sorcerer - Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow.
"I'm tired, I'm thirsty, hey,
I'm wild -eyed, in
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Timeless ♪ ♪ In your final rehab ♪ ♪ It's a high price ♪ ♪
For your love to rehab ♪ ♪ Sister Ruth ♪ ♪ Who is the master ♪ ♪ A man and
woman on a star screen ♪ ♪ In your finale In the middle of a snow dream So I
surrender, show me the highlight
Come on over, let me put you on night Alright
♪ Lady from the mountain ♪
I'm tired,
I need you badly, I'm wild -eyed In my misery,
yeah yeah I'm timeless When your finally hate Oh,
it's a high price For your luxury, yeah yeah
Just a run, who is the master?
Man and woman on a star screen In the middle of a snow dream Just a run,
show me the highlight
I'm all over
♪ Put you on a
game, darkness ♪
Won't you tell me who I'm bad?
Baby, don't look
♪ Won't you tell me who you are ♪
(upbeat music)".
You've been listening to Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow in "Sorcerer."
For the second
broadcast, I will look at two films by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Ackerman, A
filmmaker of great importance in the world of women and cinema. A filmmaker who
would have been 74 on June 6th. She was a teacher at City College of New York in
filmmaking, so we'll look at her film Jeanne -Dielmann with Delphine Serig,
and if you've never seen it, it's time, from 1978. Which helped finance her next
film from the the same year, Rendez-vous d'Anna, The Meetings of Anna, with Aurora
Clément. After that, we'll return to the 77th Cannes Film Festival that I just
returned from, where I will report on Out of Competition Furiosa by George Miller,
starring Anna Anya Taylor. And the show tops off with a review of The Red Shoes by
Michael Powell, based on a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen and starring Scottish
actress Moira Shearer.
Next up will be a short compilation homage to my sister Monica
Sullivan following a tribute that was heard in the first Annakarina broadcast on
June 8th Monica for 30 years was an independent voice in community radio. She hosted
two shows, which are featured on Saturdays for KXSF from 10 a .m.
to 11 a .m. Movie Magazine International, a 30 -minute entertainment program that looks
at films with interviews with directors and actors and festival reports in the San
Francisco area and around the world. Movie Magazine International broadcasts classic
programs from its 30 -year run that you can still hear in the U.S. and in the U.K. on KXSF.
And Shoestring Radio Theater, sent from all over the world that are
produced by a team of actors and playwrights, and engineered by Steve Rubenstein,
the producer of Movie Magazine and Shoestring Radio Theater, Monica's husband. His
compilation contains the many voices of Monica Sullivan. Take it away,
Monica.
"Good evening. You're listening to Shoestring Radio Theatre. What's the
matter? Anyone would think you loathe the side of me these days. This time,
we're going to visit Tracy and Chris. We're trying to sleep after watching the late,
late movie about a homicidal eight -year -old girl named Rhoda Penmark. Won't you come
in and have tea with us? We've been away in England the whole year. You know my
husband and I would love to see you again. There now, it's all right.
It's all right, Andy. I'm here
Mr. Hildebrand, do you realize how grateful some children would be to eat that
apricot pie? Well, you take my word for it, Mr. Hildebrand. This spy might mean the
difference between life and death in certain parts of the world. Live things in much
fresher than dead ones, and you humans eat all sorts of dead creatures.
While they pick on her, your precious Harold Hung isn't exactly finding a sister -in
-law off with a whip. No, I am a queen. I do not perform tricks.
Nya -nya -nya -nya, come and get me - screw!
In alliance with the President's Commission on Health, I've decided to initiate the
most advanced nutritional regime available. As of 0700 hours,
all inmates will be duly placed on the newly established dietary standards inspector
ah then Mr. Ide's in trouble. What's he done now of course, it is going to be
select your house; it is really one of the few houses in London where I can take dear
Agatha I've noticed the dear sisters, your precious jewels shall be returned to you
just as soon as one of our three master loo's can correctly deduce who stole the
diamond and just where it is hidden.
How could I ever forget you? You broke my heart Oh,
these years ago.
Only a very naive person could possibly be shocked these days.
Mr. Vargas, any more outbursts, and I will hold you in contempt of court.
Dump him. That's my feeling. Put this guy out with the trash and paint a big red
P in the middle of his fat forehead while you're at it"
Hello everybody,
I'm Monica Sullivan. Welcome to issue number 940 of Movie Magazine International."
Those were the many voices of Monica Sullivan-- radio journalist, radio host,
San Franciscan writer, historian, chronicler. We will miss you Monica,
but you're here all the time with us on the radio waves.
Support for KXSF is provided by Rainbow Grocery, a worker -owned cooperative that has
been serving San Francisco vegetarian food and providing a model for sustainable
living since 1975. Rainbow is located at 1745 Folsom Street.
Visit them online at rainbow.coop. KXSF would like to thank Rainbow Grocery for
its continued support.
Singer -songwriter François Hardy died on June 11. She was born in Paris in 1944.
And her debut was in 1962, on the show "Salut les copains", "Tout les garçons et
les filles", "All the girls and the boys" became a breakthrough hit. With her
soulful lyrics, she was a beacon for disillusioned French youth. She wrote in this
song, "Without joy and full of ennui, when will the sun shine for me, like the
girls and boys of my age?" I asked, "When will my day come, the day when my soul
is no longer in pain. Hardy is considered one of the top 200 singers of the world
by Rolling Stone magazine.
"On nage, ça veut bien ce que c 'est qu 'être heureux Qu 'est -ce que les yeux dans
les yeux Qu 'est -ce que la main dans la main Il sent bon,
amoureux, sans peur du lendemain Oui mais moi,
je vais seul, par les rues La m 'empenne, oui mais moi,
Je vais seul, car personne ne m 'aime Mais jour comme minuit
Son temps tout point pareil
Sans joie et plein d 'ennui
Personne ne m 'a Personne murmure "Je t 'aime à mon orêt" Tous les garçons et les
filles de mon âge font ensemble des projets d 'avenir Tous les garçons et les filles
de mon âge savent très bien ce qu 'ils m 'éveillent Et les yeux dans les yeux et
la main Dans la main, ils s 'en vont, amoureux,
sans peur du lendemain Oui mais moi, je vais seul,
par les rues, l 'âme en pleine Oui mais moi, je vais seul,
car personne ne le mène Mais je ne ferai Comme mes nuits sont en tous les points
pareils
Sans joie et plein d 'ennui
Au pendum pour moi, brillera le soleil Comme Les garçons et les filles de mon âge
prenaient très bientôt ce qu 'est l 'amour Comme les garçons et les filles de mon
âge me demandent quand viendra le jour Où les yeux dans ses yeux et la main dans
sa main J 'aurai le carreur sans perdu l 'endemain J 'aurai le jour,
je n 'aurai plus du tout".
When Chantal Akerman made Jean Dielmann, 23, quai commerce, 1080 Brussels in 1975, she
was only 24 years old.
The road to making the film began with contacts. And one of them was French
filmmaker Babette Mangolt, currently a professor of visual arts at UC San Diego,
who wound up doing the cinematography on this film. Akerman and Mangolt met in New
York, a city that would later become the young Belgian director's at home. Mangold
introduced Akerman to experimental filmmaking, a small and exclusive world she loved.
Success came early to Akerman whose film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival
Directors Fortnight in 1975. Suddenly, fifty international festivals wanted to screen
it. It starred a brilliant French actress, Delphine Seyrig, as a housewife and widow,
who stayed at home to take care of her teenage son. Once a week she solos as a
prostitute for one of her regular clients. Of the film, Akerman said she wanted to
value the rare subject of a housewife whose ritualistic work is at home.
She has said that a woman almost certainly would have had to make the film, since
a man barely pays attention to his wife's work at home. To that extent Akerman
does a meticulous study of the daily motions of Jeanne Dielmann, and as she later
explains, the film was based on watching the routines of her mother at home,
a survivor of Auschwitz, whose parents died in the camp. Jeanne Dielmann is two
hundred minutes long, and is a fascinating film, which breaks down and
compartmentalizes Jean's various chores and activities, such as putting coffee into a
thermos, boiling potatoes, shining her son's shoes, making up his bed,
or putting the money from her clients into a large cupboard dish in the living
room. Each day the routines are shot and the procedures give an extraordinary
importance. This is especially because of Akerman's framing of the kitchen and the
hallway, an almost claustrophobic environment where we as spectators engage in Jean's
activities. We are forced to acknowledge how the order is exact and strictly kept in
Jean's schedule. We notice how Akerman is careful to present the one day when Jean
has some time to think for a bit, unlike previous films, and the film changes its
trajectory. This is the compelling force of the film that remains an intanting
narrative construction to this day. Chantal Akerman died in October 2015 at the age
of 65. Her final film was on her mother, No Home Movie.
On June 6th, it was Chantal Akerman's birthday, and she would have turned 74.
We'll return in a minute with another review of one of Chantal Akerman's films,
"Rendez-vous d'Anna, Meeting with Anna".
"Mère, mon carpèze détourne et mon corps se rendonne si léger à la mer La mer
pleure, c 'est vague, qui ont un goût de l 'âme et son vent est faim
Se perdre en la terre,
se fondre à la terre
Mais, magique d 'origine dans son rythme essentiel Le ventre de la mer Au cœur pour
vous jeter dans un mur des séchers Qui n 'est fait que de terre Où je n 'ai jamais
Sur ce qu 'il faut faire Et
la vague dans ses jours puisse briser Et la mer toute à coup devient grise Mon
amour est si lourd à porter
Je voudrais doucement me coucher dans la mer Magique originelle dans son rythme
essentiel Je voudrais que la mer me reprenne pour honnête Ailleurs que dans ma tête,
ailleurs que sous le terre Pour son amour
You've been listening to another song by François Hardy, "Mer".
French actress Aurore Clément was the guest of honor at the Creté International Film Festival i
n 2015.
In many ways Clément defines the film, whereas Chantal Akerman's Jean Dielmann is
considered the late director's best work, Le Rendez -vous d'Anna would likely be second.
In many ways Clément defines the film with her particular gait and presence in front
of the camera. At the face -to -face, she still has this exactitude and her evocative
and graceful persona. The movement of figures within the frame is one of the
components of mise en -scène, and Akerman uses this technique brilliantly. As with
Dielmann, the mise en -scène, or composition of the frame, is rigidly structured for the
direction and artistic intention of the narrative. narrative. Whereas a director like
Alfred Hitchcock is known for a strict adherence to the mise -en -scène, often to the
detriment of his female characters, such as icy blonde meltdowns typified by Tippy
-Hedren in The Birds, Kim Novak in Vertigo and Janet Lee in Psycho,
Akermann uses this space to accentuate women in three dimensions. Anna is one such
character who fills every scene and in almost every one of them her sturdy brown
pumps define space and sound. Where she goes, the camera goes,
and the sound of her shoes tells us something about her.
The philosopher Helene Cixous wrote about "Ecriture Feminin" in her essay The Laugh of the
Medusa (1975),
I asked Chantal Akerman on a visit she made to Stockholm about the fact that the
meeting Anna has with women is the only time in which she is allowed to speak.
She said that she hadn't planned it but added that it was not intentional, with a
smile. Nevertheless, nearly forty years later it is clear that Anna's inner language
is spoken to women. Through most of the film, Anna listens as men and women speak.
But there is a difference when she listens to women. For them, she is emotive.
Tears fill her eyes. Something stirs in her. That does not, in her one -sided
conversations with men. In Rendez-vous d'Anna she has more to say to women, because they
do not talk to her, but to her. This includes her mother, played by Lea Massari
and her old friend Ida, played by Magali Noel. When she says no to a suitor,
Henrik Schneider, played by Helmut Grimm, she also says no to boredom and a
bourgeois life. When she seems to say yes to Daniel, an indifferent suitor, played
by Jean -Pierre Cassell, he turns his back to her, or turns on the radio. Ackerman
freely uses the arches or facades of buildings to place her characters.
Who for the most part are in hotels or train stations. Trains and train tracks are
prominent and artistically arranged, evoking sounds and compromising images in the
film. Anna is a filmmaker on the road who travels to meet with publicists, leaders,
friends, family, or lovers. On the way she has erotic encounters. The figures within
these buildings do their duties in a repetitive fashion. Maids turn down the beds or
strip them of bedsheets, blank -looking clerks, check messages or reservations.
Ana realizes her own boredom and emptiness when she arrives home and walks through
her apartment, and the fridge is only a bottle of water. The echo of her pumps are
heard through the apartment, devoid of anything but function. In her bed,
as she listens to her messages on her answering machine, she realizes her lack of
connection to the world and to others. The 1978 film shows its dates with a
terribly modern looking but nonfunctional TV with push buttons and a large answering
machine that is situated underneath the telephone in Anna's apartment. All calls are
made in phone booths, telegraph offices, or hotel rooms. There are no cell phones or
computers. We're Anna to be young today. Would you feel less empty with the
predominance of social media and smartphones?
I was in an elevated seat when I saw Mad Max Fury Road in Stockholm in 2015 and
it had all of the elements of a roller coaster ride. I'll never forget the ecstatic
feeling I had watching the momentum of that film. And then we had the brilliant
editor Margaret Sixel, maybe she was the one that was responsible for the many
mothers mythology. I remember a professor at San Francisco State where I attended
film school about Sally Gerhard Miller. She wrote a book called The Wanderground,
an enchanted story that was really very precious to the women's movement of the
1970s. It was about what was going to happen in the future to women, that we were
going to wind up as breeders and that's exactly what the Fury Road film was about
This mythology is not in the new prequel. The Australian director decided to cast a
younger Furiosa as he couldn't make Charlize any younger. The prequel seems
to have a more polished look compared to its predecessor with modern and updated
elements the Mad Max franchise has certainly gotten beefed up. The film lacks strong
female characters with Furiosa, the only female besides her mother, Mary Jobasa.
The Vulvalini with the Valkyrie and the Keeper of the Seeds have been replaced by
Chris Hemsworth and his wife, Elsa Potaki, doubling as a Vulvalini general and a
biker. The storyline leaves out important details about Furiosa's background and the
world she inhabits. Overall, the film raises questions about the portrayal of strong
women in cinema. The five rides are missing, and instead we get the dominating
Dementus, played by Chris Hemsworth, who symbolizes why this film is not a prequel
to the character of Furiosa, but bifurcates her legend and posits a new narrative.
I am not interested in this story, and we were promised a prequel—a Furiosa.
This is how female legends are often usurped by male characters. The film kicks off
with Mary Jobassa as she attempts to rescue her daughter from Dementus. Then suddenly
she is not in the film anymore, or the Green Place, or the many mothers. I booked
my ticket to Cannes the second I learned that Cannes was screening the prequel. The
thing about opening night is that the new film reviewers, such as IndieWire,
come in with their Apple Watches to time how long the standing ovations are for the
films. Nobody ever did that before, but they're doing it now, and it is no
indication of the film's worth. But, being with the actors in the same room, it
gives the wannabes who are star worshipers the feeling that they're one and the
same in this film creation. It must be very exciting for them, of course. While
Theron may not have resettled her younger self; this trope of de-aging for Furiosa
requires a better narrative, not the creation of a new character, for her warlord,
Captor. Chris Hemsworth takes up a significant portion of the film and overshadows
Furiosa whatever they are together on screen. Furiosa's art direction and set design
alludes to potentially a better film than its predecessor, with everything appearing
fresh and polished, yet Mad Max is a saga after the Apocalypse,
where everything is sour and poisoned from the human body to the water, air,
and earth. Oscar -winning editor Margaret Sixel, editing of Fury Road was a
masterpiece of intricate camera angles with match cuts, and continuity editing
especially when applied to fight scenes, and the mobile Armada of old vintage cars,
Polk hats swinging from one car to the other, and the blind guitarist Coma Doof
Warrior. A bold touch from the creators of Mad Max was that this warrior is wearing
a mask made up of the skin of his dying mother. There are a lot of mother
metaphors in this sequel film. Immortan Joe, played by the late Hugh Keesburne in
the 2015 film is replaced by a younger, tamer, less dreadful, and domineering
character, which is probably why they felt that the role played by Chris Hemsworth
as villain was all that was needed. And it felt anticlimactic to see,
for example, the people -eater and the bullet farmer. The absence of women in
speaking roles is noticeable, especially in a time when films featuring strong female
leads are more prevalent. Anya Taylor -Joy delivers a strong performance, but her
character still feels overshadowed by the men around her. The absence of Mad Max is
also felt as he has been a central figure in every other installment, and in this
film only has a cameo. Anya Taylor -Joy's stoic portrayal may be intentional, but it
doesn't necessarily make her character more powerful. The lack of emotional range in
her performance is noticeable, despite a standout scene of rage that she explained
she stood by with the character that has been known as the Praetorian, warrior
woman, and the Imperator. The many mothers have also been stripped down to nothing,
and they were a strong handful, and Fury wrote, "Our babies will not be warlords.
We are not things," were the adages of images of the wives. I wish I could say
more about Furiosa, but as it stands now, Charlize Theron is the ultimate Imperator
and will forever be. She did not have to become younger for this film, for she is
eternal.
[Music]
"Even if I feel the sun on my skin Every day,
if I don't feel you If
I see the most beautiful things Up in the sky, if I don't see you,
take me, Oya take
me, Oya, take
me, Oya,
take me, Catch
the wind, catch the clouds, if I don't see you Listen
to my skin every day, If I don't feel you Take me oh yeah
Take me Oya
Take me Oya
Take me oh yeah
take me oh yeah
take me oh yeah
take me oh yeah...."
You've been listening to the the French Cuban duo Ibeyi Naomi and Lisa-Kaindé Diaz
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The Red Shoes connects me, my sister, and my parents in a special way. My parents are San
Franciscans. My sister, Monica Sullivan, was born in Visalia approximately 227 miles from San
Francisco. But during that time, my father worked as a youth parole officer in
Alameda while my mother taught at elementary school in Berkeley. The story goes that
one day my parents ducked into a movie theater to escape the rain and saw the red
shoes. They were so impressed by the character, played by Moira Shearer, that they
decided to name their next child after her. However, my name has the American
pronunciation, not Celtic. Monica went to Boston with my parents,
where my father continued his studies at Boston College, and my mother reconnected
with relatives on her father's side. Soon after I was born in Boston on Symphony
Road, a street that was involved in a scandal when arsonists set fire to the
apartment building in the 1970s, the Symphony Road arsonists that made national news.
Later, we all returned to San Francisco and lived in Park Merced. Michael Powell and
Emeric Pressburger, The Red Shoes, based on a fairy tale by Hans Christian
Andersson, is about a ballerina who comes under the control of an obsessive director
who tries to mold her career into his vision. He also tries to prevent her from
marrying the man she loves, which results in a tragic end. The film opened in major
film festivals in Venice, Cannes, Berlin and London, and was released in 1948,
afterward receiving two Oscars for our direction and musical score. Moira Shearer
plays Victoria Page, who dreams of becoming a prima donna ballerina, and whose goal,
like many dancers, is to get noticed by the head of a prominent ballet company.
Anton Walbrook plays the arrogant director, Boris Lermontov, who treats the women in
his ensemble horribly, especially if they have any romantic pursuits. The young women,
who aspire to be the best, fall short, according to Lermontov, because if they are
not married to their art, they are failures. The pressure on being great for him
compels him to treat his ensemble like machines. Rather than people, and his
obsession with creating the greatest dancer is for his own reward with little
attention to what consequences this may have for the people who esteem him as a
great director. Victoria watches this happen to her colleagues and then it happens to
her. Not only does Lermontov have eyes on Victoria but also the ambitious composer
Julian Craster played by Marius scoring. However,
when the two of them fall in love, he is bent on breaking them apart. The film is
shot in Villefranche sur Mer, where the company is touring. It is during this time
that Victoria realizes that she can't live without Julian and runs after him.
While making a giant leap nearer Cannes at the train station, she falls on the
train tracks and will never dance again. Though it is the red shoes of the ballet
she wears that seem to have a life of their own. Her momentum is motivated by love
towards Julian and away from Lermontov. The Scottish actor Mauritius is performed as
exceptional and it is the role she is most remembered for in her screen career.
However, her primary career was to the ballet. The Blu-ray second DVD edition of
the Red Shoes contains a special section with Martin Scorsese about the restoration
of the film. The digital version is an HD digital master of the restoration by the
UCLA Film and Television Archive and Film Foundation. This work began in 2006,
the year that Moira Shearer died at the age of 80 and was completed in 2009. The
film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival that year. Here now is the extended
version of the Red Shoes ballet by Brian Easdale.
"(upbeat music)
(dramatic music)
(dramatic music)
(upbeat music)
[MUSIC]
(dramatic music)
(upbeat music)
(upbeat
music).
For Annakarinaland, this is Moira Sullivan. Thank you for joining us.
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Support for KXSF is provided by Rainbow Grocery, a worker -owned cooperative that is
conserving San Francisco vegetarian food and providing a model for sustainable living
since 1975. Rainbow is located at 1745 Folsom Street.
Visit them online at rainbow.coop. KXSF would like to thank Rainbow Grocery for its
continued support.
