Post by klep on Jul 29, 2019 6:53:28 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/29: Shirkers
WOMEN OF COLOR WEEK!
Some films are lost, and others are stolen.
When Georges Cardona absconded with Shirkers, it left a huge hole in its wake. Sandi Tan and her friends had sacrificed their summer and savings and, along with Georges, had worked tirelessly to bring Sandi's script to reality. It was something they believed in, and something that was a part of them. And then it was just gone.... with no explanation, and no closure. They never even saw a frame of the finished film.
And then 25 years later, Georges died and the footage was recovered - perfectly preserved for some reason for all that time. Sandi had her film back, but why? Why had Georges kept it preserved all that time, and why had he stolen it in the first place? Georges had discarded the sound recordings, so rather than try to release her film at long last, Sandi decided to use it as a vehicle to investigate those questions, as well as the effect Georges' disappearance had had on her and her friends.
A fair amount of Shirkers is standard documentary fare - talking heads in interviews. But the vast majority of the film is footage from the movie that never was and some amount of home video. Sandi's voiceover muses over dreamily edited footage about the way this man had entered her life, ushered her into a brilliant new world, and then abruptly slammed the door on her with no explanation.
Over the course of the film a picture emerges. Georges was a serial fabulist, making up stories about his age and upbringing to conceal his class and ethnicity. He seems to have been deeply insecure, and in particular seems to have been haunted by the success he never had. Sandi finds a kindred spirit in Stephen Tyler, a man who was also a protégé of Georges' and who also had footage of his stolen by his mentor. Georges apparently could not bear to see these people who looked up to him have any success in film themselves.
In the end its unclear how much closure retrieving the footage gave Sandi. Its loss certainly left a huge hole in her life - she devolved from filmmaker to critic to film student (opposite, as she mentions, from the usual progression), and for a long time abandoned film entirely. The footage is now recovered, but questions still remain unanswered. Why did Georges keep the footage? Was it some kind of sick trophy? Did he prize it because he was the director, and had a heavy hand in its creation?
What would Shirkers have been, if it had been released? We only see clips of it, but what's there is alluring. It's unquestionably first film material, but there's a daring inventiveness to it - a playfulness and willingness to explore that suggest it could have been something special. Sandi notes multiple shots that seemed to have unwitting echoes in beloved indy films like Rushmore and Ghost World. The brief bit of soundtrack composer Ben Harrison could remember all this time later, and it's beautiful. A melancholy, summery sound that paired with the footage suggests could bes and might have beens all at once.
And who would Sandi have been had the film been completed and released? She characterizes her own star performance in the footage as awful, but still seems to have respect for the material overall - and her fellow castmates' performances in particular. What success would she have had? What films would she have written or made? Could she have become Singapore's answer to Godard?
We'll never know the answers to these questions. When a film just gets lost, sometimes it can be found and we can see what was. But when a film is stolen like Shirkers, an entire future gets stolen with it.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 8/5: In A Lonely Place
BLACK & WHITE WEEK!
It's perhaps only fitting that for our celebration of black & white cinematography we should pick a noir. Next week we'll be looking at In A Lonely Place, one of the finest noirs ever created and featuring what is perhaps Humphrey Bogart's best performance. Opposite Gloria Grahame, he plays a screenwriter who finds love only to find it threatened by a murder. Join us next week for In A Lonely Place, available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 7/30: Fight Club
The podcast tackles toxic masculinity with its next pairing, starting with David Fincher's frequently misunderstood satire Fight Club. Join us Wednesday for our discussion; Fight Club is available for rent in the usual places.
WOMEN OF COLOR WEEK!
Some films are lost, and others are stolen.
When Georges Cardona absconded with Shirkers, it left a huge hole in its wake. Sandi Tan and her friends had sacrificed their summer and savings and, along with Georges, had worked tirelessly to bring Sandi's script to reality. It was something they believed in, and something that was a part of them. And then it was just gone.... with no explanation, and no closure. They never even saw a frame of the finished film.
And then 25 years later, Georges died and the footage was recovered - perfectly preserved for some reason for all that time. Sandi had her film back, but why? Why had Georges kept it preserved all that time, and why had he stolen it in the first place? Georges had discarded the sound recordings, so rather than try to release her film at long last, Sandi decided to use it as a vehicle to investigate those questions, as well as the effect Georges' disappearance had had on her and her friends.
A fair amount of Shirkers is standard documentary fare - talking heads in interviews. But the vast majority of the film is footage from the movie that never was and some amount of home video. Sandi's voiceover muses over dreamily edited footage about the way this man had entered her life, ushered her into a brilliant new world, and then abruptly slammed the door on her with no explanation.
Over the course of the film a picture emerges. Georges was a serial fabulist, making up stories about his age and upbringing to conceal his class and ethnicity. He seems to have been deeply insecure, and in particular seems to have been haunted by the success he never had. Sandi finds a kindred spirit in Stephen Tyler, a man who was also a protégé of Georges' and who also had footage of his stolen by his mentor. Georges apparently could not bear to see these people who looked up to him have any success in film themselves.
In the end its unclear how much closure retrieving the footage gave Sandi. Its loss certainly left a huge hole in her life - she devolved from filmmaker to critic to film student (opposite, as she mentions, from the usual progression), and for a long time abandoned film entirely. The footage is now recovered, but questions still remain unanswered. Why did Georges keep the footage? Was it some kind of sick trophy? Did he prize it because he was the director, and had a heavy hand in its creation?
What would Shirkers have been, if it had been released? We only see clips of it, but what's there is alluring. It's unquestionably first film material, but there's a daring inventiveness to it - a playfulness and willingness to explore that suggest it could have been something special. Sandi notes multiple shots that seemed to have unwitting echoes in beloved indy films like Rushmore and Ghost World. The brief bit of soundtrack composer Ben Harrison could remember all this time later, and it's beautiful. A melancholy, summery sound that paired with the footage suggests could bes and might have beens all at once.
And who would Sandi have been had the film been completed and released? She characterizes her own star performance in the footage as awful, but still seems to have respect for the material overall - and her fellow castmates' performances in particular. What success would she have had? What films would she have written or made? Could she have become Singapore's answer to Godard?
We'll never know the answers to these questions. When a film just gets lost, sometimes it can be found and we can see what was. But when a film is stolen like Shirkers, an entire future gets stolen with it.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 8/5: In A Lonely Place
BLACK & WHITE WEEK!
It's perhaps only fitting that for our celebration of black & white cinematography we should pick a noir. Next week we'll be looking at In A Lonely Place, one of the finest noirs ever created and featuring what is perhaps Humphrey Bogart's best performance. Opposite Gloria Grahame, he plays a screenwriter who finds love only to find it threatened by a murder. Join us next week for In A Lonely Place, available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 7/30: Fight Club
The podcast tackles toxic masculinity with its next pairing, starting with David Fincher's frequently misunderstood satire Fight Club. Join us Wednesday for our discussion; Fight Club is available for rent in the usual places.