Cinema Canada (Apr-May 1974)

BOOK REVIEWS Screenplays, filmscripts, scenarios, whatever the term, are on the increase in the book world. The following is a selection of just ten of the most recent ones published. These range from the revolutionary to the classics in the cinema. Public response to them is good. The young seem to enjoy the interview format (conditioned by Playboy); the screenplay is also a form they are beginning to enjoy. El Topo, a Book of the Film, Alexandro Jodorowsky. Paperback $3.95. The book is in two parts. The first contains a scene-by-scene, image by image narrative of the film. The following part is a conversation with Jodorwsky. The conversation is in the interview format. A side issue of this film and the book is an economic one. Jodorowsky wants it two ways. He wants to appear as the artist, but he is aware that the business of film is mainly economic. He quotes his theories, ‘‘Fortunately, the bourgeoisie is dying. The number of young people are increasing. So the only way to keep art from being bourgeois is to make art for the young ... and survive.”’ This is a very questionable statement. When Jodorowsky talks in this manner he is a bore. In contrast his images, his style, his freshness in the film is another world. He knows what he is talking about when he has his film in his mind. ‘“O.K. Ah! Such a pleasure: such a pleasure! What a pleasure it is to sing...” The film and the script has this feeling of singing in the delight of filmmaking. Memories of Underdevelopment, The Revolutionary Films of Cuba, Edited by Michael Myerson, $4.55. This is a publication of far reaching importance. It is a first and there is nothing to compare it to in the publications on the cinema. Apart from the important scripts and a list of feature films, shorts and documentaries made in Cuba recently, it contains a lengthy introduction by the editor. This essay attempts to recreate for the reader the atmosphere, the goals and the technique employed to make the cinema a political and human force in Cuban society. Myerson recounts the interest Cubans have in film from other countries even the U.S.A. He tells of the bootlegged prints that are shown in Cuba. In contrast one remembers the suppression of the First United States Festival of Cuban Films. This publication also whets the appetite. Cuban films should be shown for all to see. WR: Mysteries of the Organism, Dusan Makavejev. Paperback $1.65. Seen only once in awhile, the film has no equal as a work of political comment. Yet the script recreates the comedy and seethes with the vitality of the writer. There are a number of photographs and an interview with Makavejev. And of course the complete script. It is like the film a masterpiece of political writing. The dialogue has a comic brilliance that is unmatched. When I think of films such as M*A*S*H in comparison, the lightness, the deftness of European political humor comes through. The North American political humor (on film) is deadly serious, ponderous and calculated. Those who peddle it know exactly what the audience wants. WR hits the audience with the unexpected image and the word. Always on the target; always with the spirit of freedom as its energy. Quote from script: L. “Consider yourself protected by the Yugoslav Army” J. “But who’ll protect me from you?” L. “You're so fuckable.”’ And soon... 80 Cinema Canada Five Screenplays, Harold Pinter. $3.95 The Servant, The Pumpkin Eater, The Quiller Memorandum, Accident, The Go-Between. The Five Screenplays cover a period of about ten years in Pinter’s work. From a study point of view it is worth noting that all the screenplays were based on novels. For the student or the screenwriter this is a valuable tool to use. When one considers Pinter’s plays the question arises, How could Pinter do a commercial screenplay and make it successful? The answer is in Pinter’s mastery over his craft. The dialogue is superb. Cut to the bare bones it works. The scenes are compressed to a starkness that make them rich in essence. The descriptions of the objects make them almost alive in their relationship to the action: To read the screenplays is a pleasure. To read them for awareness of what a screenplay should be is wisdom. O Lucky Man! Lindsay Anderson/David Sherwin. $4.25. Published at a time when the film was still at its height of popularity many have read the screenplay to find out how it was put together. Anderson points out in his introduction to the work something that many must think when confronted with a new script. ‘“When I read the same document (O Lucky Man!) through again to day, I marvel that we were ever given the money to make it”. Anderson pays tribute to others who made a contribution to the script i.e. Malcolm McDowell. The script, as he says, does not answer questions such as Why did the same actors play various roles? In this publication Anderson has tried to assist the reader by clearing the script of extraneous material and adding items that might help. One warning. The paperback edition is shockingly bound and the cover will fall off it at page 5. At page 35 the whole book falls apart.So! Last Tango in Paris, Bernardo Bertolucci, $2.95.The screenplay with photographs from the film and a critical essay by Pauline Kael and another something by Norman Mailer. Like O Lucky Man! and WR the screenplay of Last Tango does not give the details of the individual shots and movements. The Pinter Screenplays provide these necessary details. The lack of coloured stills in the Last Tango book is unfortunate because in the film this is a decided element of importance. But for the price it is impossible to add such items. To preserve the script and Kael’s comments in book form is worthwhile. The Mailer is a bit of a laugh. How he keeps doing it to us is a mystery — a rather tiresome one. Tke War Trilogy, Roberto Rossellini. $8.00. The volume includes Open City, Paisan and Germany—Year Zero. This publication arrives when interest in Rossellini’s work is reviving. These screenplays are at the high point of Rossellini’s career. While Rossellini’s work has been overshadowed by other more popular directors, it is forgotten that he has made a continuous contribution to the cinema over a long period and much longer than most. His later work has not received the credit and exposure it deserves. The present volume includes a short piece by Rossellini. His comments are not bitter, but they have regret and truth. He writes, ““The critics have always been against the young and the experimenters — an attitude substantially the same today as in the past.’ Of course the young filmmaker who stays within the tradition of commercial films will not be hampered by the critics. But like others before him