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Brian Darr

@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social

Cinephile, music lover & library worker originally from San Francisco now based in Maine. These are personal opinions that may not reflect the views of my imp lawyer.

5370 Posts800 Follower409 Folgt
Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · 20h ago

Further research tells me that Chilean director Carlos F. Borcosque made FIGHTING LADY in 1935, so Fregonese wasn’t strictly the first. But he’s gotta be the most prominent from the classic studio era. And Mexican-born Melendez surely deserves to have one of the films he directed in the Registry.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · yesterday

Day 15: pioneering cineastas Repeat: Argentine Hugo Fregonese was the first Latino to direct Hollywood feature films in English, like 1954 noir BLACK TUESDAY. New: José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Melendez was the first Latino animator to direct for TV & film, such as 1969 classic A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN.

BLACK TUESDAY (1954) is a stylish prison-break film noir directed by Hugo Fregonese, an Argentine director whose success making films in his home country led him to Hollywood, where he became the first person from anywhere outside the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Europe to direct a studio film. If selected, this would be the first Fregonese film in the National Film Registry. It would also be the first for the film's female lead, Jean Parker. Image description: A black-and-white screen capture from the 1954 film noir BLACK TUESDAY, capturing the characters gathered in a dimly lit warehouse hideout with exposed brick walls. On the left, Jean Parker, sporting a retro blonde updo and a light-colored blouse with a knotted front, stands behind a table looking downward. In the center, Edward G. Robinson leans forward in a dark suit jacket, extending his hand across the table toward Milburn Stone, who is seated on the foreground right and seen in profile. In the background, Peter Graves bends over a chair. A metal pitcher, glasses, and loose papers rest on the table in the foreground.
Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · yesterday

Off the top of my noggin’: 1920: The Penalty 1921: The Blot 1922: Haxan 1923: Fire On Board 1924: Sherlock Jr. 1925: L’Hereuse Mort 1926: Adventures of Prince Achmed 1927: The Kid Brother 1928: The Circus 1929: Man With a Movie Camera

Sylvie@slywit.bsky.social · yesterday

Favorite film for each year of the 1920s: 1920: Way Down East 1921: The Kid 1922: Nosferatu 1923: The Grub Stake 1924: Sherlock Jr 1925: Lady Windermere’s Fan 1926: 3 Bad Men 1927: The Cat and the Canary 1928: The Wind 1929: Hell’s Heroes What are yours? #Filmsky 📽️🎞️🎬

A couple in fancy dress sits talking in a library in a scene from LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN
Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · 2d ago

I don’t know if the current acting Librarian of Congress is likely to induct a film directed by Zohran Mandami’s mother into the National Film Registry this year, but it seems to me like an ideal “populist” sort of pick, even just one year after another Denzel Washington movie’s induction.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · 2d ago

Day 14: African diasporic migration to The South Repeat: Is Mira Nair's MISSISSIPPI MASALA (1991) the first film about an interracial romance between 2 non-whites? New: Akosua Adoma Owusu's non-fiction short RELUCTANTLY QUEER (2016) visualizes UVA scholar Kwame Edwin Otu's letters back to Ghana.

Director/producer MIRA NAIR shot MISSISSIPPI MASALA (1991) largely on location in Greenwood, Grenada, Biloxi, and Ocean Springs, MS. It would be the first Registry representation for Nair, an India-born New Yorker and long a naturalized US citizen, as well as for writer Sooni Taraporavela and actors Sarita Choudhury, Sharmila Tagore and Charles S. Dutton. Image description: A screenshot from MISSISSIPPI MASALA (1991) featuring Sarita Choudhury and Denzel Washington walking along a wide, sandy beach at sunset. On the left, Sarita Choudhury faces slightly right, wearing a vibrant, long-sleeved orange tunic and matching pants. On the right, Denzel Washington walks with his back partially to the camera, his hands clasped behind him, turning his head left to look at her. He wears a light green button-down shirt and light-wash blue jeans. The background shows a calm ocean under a soft, gradient sky that transitions from pale yellow near the horizon to a warm pink and purple hue.
Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · 2d ago

Heading to Chicago in two days! My first time there since the 1990s and Kerry’s first time ever! She’ll be presenting four of her 16mm films alongside some by a few of her favorite filmmakers (Scott Stark, Gunvor Nelson, Phil Solomon & Chuck Strand) this Friday at Elastic Arts. Tell your friends!

Tone Glow Presents: 'I'll Walk With God' — Elastic Arts Foundation

Tone Glow is excited to present "I'll Walk With God," a screening of nine 16mm experimental short films that grapple with mortality and death. This event was curated by Kerry Laitala, an award-wi...

elasticarts.org

Darren Hughes@longpauses.bsky.social · 2d ago

A top 5 screening of my life was Tsai Ming-liang introducing The Wild, Wild Rose and then hanging out and talking about his childhood love of Hong Kong musicals for nearly an hour.

Dylan Cheung@dylancheung.bsky.social · 2d ago

It's been reported that Grace Chang, Hong Kong's preeminent Mandarin screen diva of the 50s, passed away this afternoon, one day shy of her 93rd birthday. Watch Mambo Girl and The Wild, Wild Rose to see her at the height of her powers.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · 4d ago

July notable first views (order viewed): The Wishing Ring: an Idyll of Old England (1914) Fantômas: the False Magistrate (1914) Last of the Line (1914) Zero Woods of the Wild Place (2023) Ju Dou (1990) Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country (1993) Léontine Keeps House (1912)

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · last wk.

SILVER LODE wouldn’t just be a long-delayed ticket for director Allan Dwan’s entry to the Registry (as I say in my alt-text, I consider him “almost inarguably the classic-era Hollywood auteur most glaringly absent from the Registry”.) It would also be the NFR debut for actor Lizabeth Scott!

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · last wk.

Day 7: the Western, critiqued & critic Repeat: In 1957 Puerto Rican artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz ritually destroyed a 16mm reduction of a Hollywood oater. Then he reassembled it as COWBOY & "INDIAN" FILM. Return: In 1954 Registry-absent Allan Dwan directed SILVER LODE as critique of HUAC madness.

COWBOY AND “INDIAN” FILM (1958) is an experimental collage film begun in 1957 and completed the same year as Bruce Conner's A MOVIE (NFR selected 1994) by Puerto Rican artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz; it would be his first Registry appearance. Image description: A stark, high-contrast black-and-white film still framed within a wide black border. The upper half of the image is completely dark. A sharp, diagonal white beam of light cuts across the lower half, illuminating a group of dark silhouettes. These dark figures resemble cowboys or riders on horseback, but they are inverted upside down, appearing to hang beneath the line of light. Further to the right, a couple of softer, upright silhouettes on horseback fade into the darkness.
Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · 2w ago

I wouldn’t mind if other people took any of my suggestions for nominations to the National Film Registry, either from my current thread of last year’s, but if you asked me which I’d be MOST excited to see people taking my lead on it would probably Fredrick Wiseman’s BLIND AND DEAF SERIES from 1986.

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · 2w ago

Day 4: perception-changing non-fiction Repeat: The late Fred Wiseman's BLIND & DEAF SERIES would be a great Registry inclusion; his work with other cinematographers is in but nothing with John Davey. Return: Jeanne Liotta's OBSERVANDO EL CIELO, perhaps this century's greatest US experimental film?

BLIND AND DEAF SERIES a.k.a. DEAF AND BLIND SERIES (1986) is a four-part documentary (including titles BLIND, DEAF, MULTI-HANDICAPPED and ADJUSTMENT AND WORK) made by Frederick Wiseman and his most-frequent cinematographer John Davey at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Talladega, AL. Though Wiseman has several prior films in the Registry, none of his color work or his work with Davey or his longtime producer Karen Konicek, both of whom were mainstays of the better part of Wiseman's career, have been selected. Inducting this portrait of four distinct schools in the Institute (which sometimes are thought of as four separate films, though they were originally funded as one film, and filmed and released as a group) would provide a much more well-rounded section of Wiseman's quintessentially American filmography onto the Registry. Image description: An eye-level photograph shows two teenage musicians rehearsing indoors in a scene from Frederick Wiseman's 1986 documentary BLIND. In the foreground, a Black youth looks slightly upward while blowing into a large white fiberglass sousaphone. He supports the brass valves with his right hand and has a concentrated expression. In the background, a white youth in a blue button-down shirt sits behind a drum kit, his mouth open as if counting the beat or singing along. The room is dimly lit, with dark furniture and musical equipment visible in the background.
Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · 2w ago

Parminder Nagra. Not that she was bad looking in BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM, but she was playing about a decade younger than her real age in that, and seeing her in person in front of the Castro Theatre once when I was a festival volunteer she was so much more striking. (Not that we really “met”.)

Jeremy Dauber@jeremydauber.bsky.social · 2w ago

Random question: what celebrity have you met in real life who was dramatically better looking than ypu thought they were based on on screen appearance?

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · 2w ago

I swear when I paired these I wasn’t thinking about the STREET/DRIVE title symmetry, but the shattered-persona theme the films share. And did you know Angelo Badalamenti and Mary Sweeney are completely absent from the Registry?

Brian Darr@hellonfriscobay.bsky.social · 2w ago

Day 3: fragmented identity narratives Repeat: Wendell B. Harris Jr's landmark independent film CHAMELEON STREET brilliantly fictionalized the true story of a Detroit con man. Return: It's been a bit since I nominated MULHOLLAND DRIVE, which would be David Lynch's second NFR entry after ERASERHEAD.

CHAMELEON STREET (1989) This Michigan-made Sundance prizewinner was the only narrative feature directed by Wendell B. Harris, Jr. Nobody involved in the film has prior National Film Registry representation. Image description: A man with short dark hair and a few days' growth of stubble sits at a desk cluttered with open and stacked books inside a prison. He looks upward with a thoughtful or exasperated expression while holding a pair of glasses. In the background behind a barred prison cell partition, another inmate wearing a blue head covering grips the bars and looks toward him.