#arthur ibbetson

[nine-frames]

"Well, I've done some riding in my time, you know." "Oh?" "Junior Silver Spurs, Brockbrook, 1910."

Murder at the Gallop, 1963.

Dir. George Pollock | Writ. James P. Cavanagh | DOP Arthur Ibbetson

[thejacksmit]

First Take Classics: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - re-enter a world of pure imagination

SYNOPSIS: A poor but hopeful boy seeks one of the five coveted golden tickets that will send him on a tour of Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory.

It's always a great time when you return to the madcap world of Roald Dahl's work - we've covered a lot of his books within the film world, most recently with the musical adaptation of Matilda, but there's one Dahl book that remains beloved, one which this Christmas (should strikes resolve by then), the makers of Paddington will take on with prequel of sorts Wonka. Naturally, Warner wanted to put the original 1971 film back in cinemas, and with National Cinema Day this weekend in England, now felt like the right time.

Mel Stuart's take on the film, even with a heavily changed script from what Dahl was commissioned to write (to a point where the man himself disowned this production), it packs a lot in to just 1 hour 40 minutes, and at times, it's hard to believe that it deals with the entire factory sequences in just 40 minutes. It looks right at home on the big screen these days, with a lovely new 4K remaster showcasing Arthur Ibbetson's cinematography, 35mm grain and all, very well on modern digital equipment, and of course that score from Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley has become iconic. Pure Imagination, The Candy Man... so many iconic songs, and so many cultural moments were born back in 1971.

Onto the performances, and before we go in depth, we have to speak about the late, great Gene Wilder. This was, for many, the first exposure to his comic talent, his ingenuity, his style, and at the time, a taste of what would follow with a fellow director named Mel (Brooks) with Blazing Saddles four years later - he made Wonka his own, and even with Johnny Depp, and very soon Timothee Chalamet playing the character, everybody compares a depiction to this undeniably unique performance that showcases what it take to carry a film of this nature - and you have the perfect foil to Wonka's madcap nature with Peter Ostrum as Charlie, in his first and only performance. Rounding things out is Jack Albertson, Roy Kinnear, Paris Themmen, Julie Dawn Cole, Denise Nickerson and Diana Sowle - this is a real ensemble piece for the whole family, and to this day... boat sequence aside, still a safe U certificate.

THE VERDICT

52 years on from initial release, Wonka still has his charm, and whether you prefer the Wilder/Stuart version, or the 2005 Depp/Burton remake, the story still holds up so incredibly well. It's great to have it back on the big screen, and who knows, maybe another generation will carry this with them - it sold out on National Cinema Day at the local after all.

RATING: 4/5

[miguelmarias]

Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)

No sabe Arthur Penn —cuando estuvo por aquí no la había visto— lo hábil que fue escapando, en el último minuto, de esta empresa. Porque si bien no es totalmente descartable que el inspirado autor de Four Friends hubiese logrado extraer de este argumento de Paddy Chayefsky —que adaptó él mismo bajo el seudónimo de Sidney Aaron— la «extraña historia de amor» que intuía —y cabe imaginar, durante algunos instantes, mientras se ve lo que ha hecho de ella Ken Russell—, no parece lo más probable, ya que ni el propio guionista pensaba que ese aspecto fuese interesante ni, obviamente, los productores habían de considerarlo el más rentable: prueba de ello es que le sustituyeron por un especialista en efectos (no especiales, ni especialmente eficaces) que gozó de cierto prestigio, hace unos años, en los círculos más snobs de la afición y entre los más advenedizos de los empresarios cinematográficos. El hombre que destrozó a D. H. Lawrence, que hizo un musical tan soso y aburrido como The boy friend, que escupió reiteradamente sobre la tumba de varios músicos más o menos apreciables, que se sirvió de algún otro artista como señuelo y carnaza, y que perpetró la obra suprema del mal gusto (Tommy), no era, ciertamente, el hombre llamado a salvar de un ridículo amasijo de temas de moda (hace diez años), aquellas gotas o migajas de interés potencial que hubieran podido desprenderse, por descuido, de la imaginación cansada y deseosa de ponerse al día del pseudo-Zavattini americano: Chayefsky tal vez supiese mucho de carniceros, solteronas, vendedores ambulantes y oficinistas frustrados —me aseguran que ya no tanto sobre periodistas—, pero demuestra que acerca de hongos alucinógenos, experimentos científicos, el evolucionismo y los viajes en el tiempo, no sabe nada, y que no pudo suplir su ignorancia con una imaginación —la de Verne, H. G. Wells, Poe, Stevenson, Jack London, C. S. Lewis, Arthur C. Clarke, J. G. Ballard, Ray Bradbury, etc.— de la que nunca dio muestras. Que William Hurt —excelente en Body Heat y notable en Eyewitness— actúe aquí como un primate no se debe meramente a las indicaciones o exigencias de un guión que parece documentado en el Reader's Digest y trabado por un deficiente mental con pretensiones literarias, porque lo mismo hacen los restantes intérpretes y, en general, cuantos actores —veteranos o noveles, con talento o sin él— han estado a las órdenes de Ken Russell. Así que eso tiene tan poco fundamento como el resto, y resulta igual de escasamente misterioso. Lo que sí me intriga es que la Universidad de Harvard no haya interpuesto una querella por difamación contra los productores o artífices de la película, ya que presentar como profesores de dicha universidad a los absolutos mentecatos que protagonizan Un viaje alucinante al fondo de la mente, no parece la mejor publicidad para un centro de enseñanza de prestigio. El grado de cretinismo de los personajes —hasta la pobre Blair Brown padece de esa contagiosa enfermedad, sin duda inoculada por Russell— imposibilita, por otra parte, que sus muy inverosímiles y aburridas desventuras nos afecten, y mina el terreno en el que Penn creyó posible que floreciera algo parecido a una historia de amor: haría falta inventar otros protagonistas, que fuesen por lo menos personas medianamente inteligentes, para que pudiese existir entre ellos alguna relación creíble. Sólo entonces, alejándose todo lo posible de Chayefsky y sus tardíos afanes de aggiornamento, cabría imaginar una conmovedora historia de amour fou, digna de Vertigo, Marnie, Peter Ibbetson, Cumbres borrascosas y The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

Publicado en el nº 15 de Casablanca (marzo de 1982)

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“CLEAR POLICE AT PROBE INTO FINN’S DEATH,” Owen Sound Sun Times. November 3, 1932. Page  1. --- No Evidence Port Arthur Unemployed Man Struck by Police ‘ ---- INQUEST HELD ---- Death Due Lockjaw, Due Scratch by Wire on Nose --- (Canadian Press Despatch) ---- PORT ARTHUR, Nov. 3— How Urho Jaaska, 28-year-old Finn participant In a disturbance in fount of the home of Mayor Ibbetson on Oct. 18, died Oct 27th in hospital, was unfolded before a coroner's jury here last night. The inquest had been called at the request of the chief of police, fallowing charges made in mimeograph circulars spread about the city that Jaaska had been ‘murdered by police while seeking the right to live.’ 

The verdict of the jury was that Jaaska had died in St. Joseph’s hospital, Oct. 27, adding that "the evidence is clear that the body of the deceased showed no evidence of blows or other violence or even any discoloration but shows that the deceased had a small cut on the side of his nose which was caused not by a blow but by something sharp, and we accept the medical evidence, and find that the deceased died from lockjaw and that the tetanus germ causing lockjaw had entered through this cut. There is nothing to indicate when or where or how the deceased came in contact with the tetanus germ." 

Behind the verdict was a compilation of evidence which gave those in the court room a picture of the whole affair. Seven witnesses told of being In the assembly of Oct. 18. When the police dispersed the gathering, they, with Jaaska, ran across the W. P. Langworthy yard, where there was a fence with a strand of barbed wire. 

No one saw Jaaska struck or clubbed by an officer but they did see him on the ground at the fence. Evidently the cut on the nose was caused by Jaaska coming in contact with a barb.

[AL: This verdict just ends up saying that police didn’t directly kill Jaaska, but by using violence on the protesters, scared him enough he ran away and was injured by barb wire - and that killed him. Hmm.]

[byneddiedingo]

Alec Guinness in The Horse's Mouth (Ronald Neame, 1958)

Cast: Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Renee Houston, Mike Morgan, Robert Coote, Arthur Macrae, Veronica Turleigh, Michael Gough, Reginald Beckwith, Ernest Thesiger, Gillian Vaughan. Screenplay: Alec Guinness, based on a novel by Joyce Cary. Cinematography: Arthur Ibbetson. Art direction: William C. Andrews. Film editing: Anne V. Coates. Music: Kenneth V. Jones.

The artist as mad eccentric is such a tired and familiar trope that artists should complain about it. But it remains true that the only way art can find new paths for itself is by going against the grain. It just remains to be seen how much anti-establishmentarianism one can get away with. Gulley Jimson gets away with a a lot -- theft, trespassing, and malicious destruction to start with -- in The Horse's Mouth, mainly because people think he's a genius (and his art a good investment). And in spite of his grubby egocentricity, there's something lovable about him -- at least the way Alec Guinness writes and plays him. The film doesn't really have much to say about the role of the artist in society or the venality of the art business beyond the obvious points, but director Ronald Neame keeps it buoyant with the help of Guinness and company, and with the especial help of Sergei Prokofiev, whose music for the film Lieutenant Kije (Aleksandr Faintsimmer, 1934), Kenneth V. Jones borrowed to great effect. Guinness was nominated for an Oscar for his adaptation of Joyce Cary's novel, to which he added the great visual gags of Abel's block of stone crashing through the floor into the apartment below and the Beeders and Alabaster being swallowed up when they unwittingly step out onto the rug placed over the resulting hole.

[tvln]

the medusa touch (uk/fr, gold 78)

[filmy420]

[bigspoopygurl]

undefined

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)

Director: Mel Stuart

Cinematographer: Arthur Ibbetson

[scenesandscreens]

Where Eagles Dare (1968)

Director - Brian G. Hutton, Cinematography - Arthur Ibbetson

"Fear lent him wings, as the saying goes."

[sesiondemadrugada]

I Could Go on Singing (Ronald Neame, 1963).

[genevieveetguy]

We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Mel Stuart (1971)

[movingpictureball]

Elsie Ferguson in a promotional portrait for the presumed lost Forever (1921)

[judyfashion]

I Could Go On Singing (1963) // Dir. Ronald Neame

Cinematoraphy: Arthur Ibbetson

[vintage-archive]

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) // Dir. Mel Stuart

Cinematography: Arthur Ibbetson

[facesofcinema]

Where Eagles Dare (1968)

[solarfilmworkshops]

CANDY is dandy, but LIQUOR is quicker DIRECT A WORLD OF PURE IMAGINATION! LIGHT & SHADOW: 2-Day Directing Workshop FEB 25-26 http://www.solarnyc.com/workshops/ Join us, IT’S A GOLDEN TICKET INTO DIRECTING!