Starting on Friday, October 5, 89.7 KMSU FM will be having its fall pledge drive. This is your chance to help the station stay on the air. Aside from supporting the overhead costs of running the station, KMSU is preparing to construct a new tower and needs to install an antena system for the new transmitter. This is going to be extraordinarily expensive, but is vital to keeping the station on the air.
As with every pledge drive, there are some premiums available. This year, Shuffle Function hosts Tim and Shelly has put together a 12 Hour Film Fesival to screen on the MSU campus on November 3rd. For a $50 pledge, listeners will get a t-shirt and admission to the film festival. The films to be screened include: This Is Spinal Tap, Dr. Strangelove, Gimme Shelter, Animal House, Shaun Of The Dead, and Blue Velvet. You can find out more about the film festival here.
In the interest of full disclosure, I do not see a penny of the pledge funds. Maverick at the Movies, like many local programs on 89.7 the Maverick, is produced on a volunteer basis.
To pledge, call 507-389-5678 or 1-800-456-7810, or visit this page to make an email pledge. If you get voice mail or send an email, include your full name, mailing address, phone number, and the amount you wish to pledge. Thank you.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Maverick at the Movies Celebrates Halloween
All throughout the month of October, Maverick at the Movies will be playing Halloween themed programing. This will be reflected in the music and DVD picks as well as some other features to be added as the month goes on.
This Sunday, October 7, will feature music from films about ghosts and the other side, including music from Ghostbusters, Poltergeist, and Candyman.
Throughout the rest of the month, Maverick at the Movies will include music of slasher films, vampire movies, and other Halloween related content. Be sure and tune in for a very special broadcast of the entire score to Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising to be broadcast later this month.
This Sunday, October 7, will feature music from films about ghosts and the other side, including music from Ghostbusters, Poltergeist, and Candyman.
Throughout the rest of the month, Maverick at the Movies will include music of slasher films, vampire movies, and other Halloween related content. Be sure and tune in for a very special broadcast of the entire score to Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising to be broadcast later this month.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Indy IV Title
The new Indiana Jones film now has a title: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. More information on the new film, which is due out Memorial Day weekend 2008, can be found at www.indianajones.com.
Maverick at the Movies: September 16, 2007
This Sunday's program will feature the music of Hans Zimmer. Because Zimmer writes such long pieces of music, the film news and reviews content of the show will be eschewed for this episode, but should return next week.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Ingmar Begman Screenings at Oak Street Cinema
The Oak Street Cinema will be holding a small Ingmar Bergman tribute starting on Friday, September 7th and running until Wednesday, September 19, 2007.
Friday, Sept 07 - Sunday, Sept 09
Wild Strawberries
Nightly @ 7:15 p.m. with a Sat. & Sun. matinee @ 5:15 p.m.
Monday, Sept 10 - Tuesday, Sept 11
A Lesson in Love
Nightly @ 7 p.m. & 9 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept 12 - Thursday, Sept 13
Through A Glass Darkly
Nightly @ 7 p.m. & 9 p.m.
Friday, Sept 14 - Sunday, Sept 16
The Seventh Seal
Nightly @ 7:15 p.m. with a Sat./Sun. matinee @ 5:15 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept 18 - Wednesday, Sept 19
Cries & Whispers
Nightly @ 7 p.m. & 9 p.m.
More information can be found at their website: http://www.mnfilmarts.org/
Friday, Sept 07 - Sunday, Sept 09
Wild Strawberries
Nightly @ 7:15 p.m. with a Sat. & Sun. matinee @ 5:15 p.m.
Monday, Sept 10 - Tuesday, Sept 11
A Lesson in Love
Nightly @ 7 p.m. & 9 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept 12 - Thursday, Sept 13
Through A Glass Darkly
Nightly @ 7 p.m. & 9 p.m.
Friday, Sept 14 - Sunday, Sept 16
The Seventh Seal
Nightly @ 7:15 p.m. with a Sat./Sun. matinee @ 5:15 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept 18 - Wednesday, Sept 19
Cries & Whispers
Nightly @ 7 p.m. & 9 p.m.
More information can be found at their website: http://www.mnfilmarts.org/
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The Balcony Archive
Film reviews by Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert, and Richard Roeper from their syndicated program can now be found on the web at http://www.atthemoviestv.com/. The site contains streaming video of over 5,000 reviews.
The program, which has gone by various names over the years, has been on the air in some form since 1975. Unfortunately many of the reviews from the first ten years were never saved. But what has been saved is a very entertaining and informative archive of reviews and special segments on film. Although I have not always agreed with these critics, I do have a great deal of respect for them. This program was and is one of the only outlets in mainstream media for serious discussion and criticism about film. Siskel and Ebert were the first to introduce to me the idea that film could be talked about as an art form, as popular entertainment, and as an exercise in social discourse.
The program, which has gone by various names over the years, has been on the air in some form since 1975. Unfortunately many of the reviews from the first ten years were never saved. But what has been saved is a very entertaining and informative archive of reviews and special segments on film. Although I have not always agreed with these critics, I do have a great deal of respect for them. This program was and is one of the only outlets in mainstream media for serious discussion and criticism about film. Siskel and Ebert were the first to introduce to me the idea that film could be talked about as an art form, as popular entertainment, and as an exercise in social discourse.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman
Filmmakers Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman passed away last Monday. That the two men died on the same day is odd, but their passing is a chance to reflect on how cinema has changed. When film initially began, it was essentially a new feature to the scandalous world of vaudeville. When films were expanded to features and obtained story lines, mostly ripped from literary sources, they started to be regarded as an acceptable form of popular entertainment. From there major filmmakers arose, people who dedicated their lives to the form in the way a writer dedicates them self to written language or a musician dedicates them self to music. And out of that environment came the filmmakers who were true masters of their form. Antonioni and Bergman were among the first of these film masters and they were some of the first filmmakers who can be truly considered artists. Their influence, especially Bergman's, can be seen in contemporary American filmmakers such as David Fincher, Martin Scorcesse, Steven Spielberg, George A. Romero, Francis Ford Coppola, Wes Craven, the Wachowski Brothers, and Stanley Kubrick.
The New York Times has published a very nice article by A. O. Scott about the influence of these two men. Among the things Scott has to say, I think he makes an important point that filmmakers are still struggling to define themselves as artists:
Mr. Antonioni and Mr. Bergman, for their parts, were the supreme modernists of world cinema. Mr. Antonioni helped to push Italian film beyond realism, infusing landscapes with psychological rather than social meaning and turning eroticism from a romantic into a metaphysical pursuit. Mr. Bergman, heir to a Nordic strain of modernism represented by Strindberg and Ibsen, developed a film language dense with psychological symbolism and submerged emotion. The two of them upheld, as filmmakers, T. S. Eliot’s observation that “poets, in our civilization, as it exists at present, must be difficult.” “L’Avventura” and “The Seventh Seal,” though they have little else in common (apart from exquisite black-and-white cinematography, courtesy of Aldo Scavarda and Gunnar Fischer), are both hard to watch. Not because the content or the imagery is upsetting, but because they never allow the viewer to relax into a conditioned expectation of what will happen next or an easy recognition of what it means.
There was, among certain filmgoers in the 1960s, an appetite for difficulty, a conviction that symbolic obscurity and psychological alienation were authentic responses to the state of the world. More than that, the idea that a difficult work had special value — that being challenged was a distinct form of pleasure — enjoyed a prestige, at the time, that is almost unimaginable today. We would rather be teased than troubled, and the measure of artistic sophistication is cleverness rather than seriousness.
Given all that, it may be hard for someone who wasn’t there — who never knew a film culture in which “La Notte” didn’t already exist — to quite appreciate the heroic status conferred on Mr. Antonioni and Mr. Bergman 40 years ago. I don’t believe that the art of filmmaking has necessarily declined since then (I’d quit my job if I did), but it seems clear the cultural climate that made it possible to hail filmmakers as supreme artists has vanished for good. All that’s left are the films.
I don't know that I agree with Scott's final statement, but I do think that the death of these two men allows audience members and current filmmakers the chance to reflect on film, where it has come from, and where it is going. For better or worse, the future of film will be tied to the Internet and to commerce, among other things, and while the net has the effect of democratizing the medium, the globalization, consolidation of major media outlets, and the current trend of wide releases by major studios, has the opposite effect. This will make it difficult for a filmmaker to create personal work in the current studio system, but it may allow for an alternate outlet for cinema.
The New York Times has published a very nice article by A. O. Scott about the influence of these two men. Among the things Scott has to say, I think he makes an important point that filmmakers are still struggling to define themselves as artists:
Mr. Antonioni and Mr. Bergman, for their parts, were the supreme modernists of world cinema. Mr. Antonioni helped to push Italian film beyond realism, infusing landscapes with psychological rather than social meaning and turning eroticism from a romantic into a metaphysical pursuit. Mr. Bergman, heir to a Nordic strain of modernism represented by Strindberg and Ibsen, developed a film language dense with psychological symbolism and submerged emotion. The two of them upheld, as filmmakers, T. S. Eliot’s observation that “poets, in our civilization, as it exists at present, must be difficult.” “L’Avventura” and “The Seventh Seal,” though they have little else in common (apart from exquisite black-and-white cinematography, courtesy of Aldo Scavarda and Gunnar Fischer), are both hard to watch. Not because the content or the imagery is upsetting, but because they never allow the viewer to relax into a conditioned expectation of what will happen next or an easy recognition of what it means.
There was, among certain filmgoers in the 1960s, an appetite for difficulty, a conviction that symbolic obscurity and psychological alienation were authentic responses to the state of the world. More than that, the idea that a difficult work had special value — that being challenged was a distinct form of pleasure — enjoyed a prestige, at the time, that is almost unimaginable today. We would rather be teased than troubled, and the measure of artistic sophistication is cleverness rather than seriousness.
Given all that, it may be hard for someone who wasn’t there — who never knew a film culture in which “La Notte” didn’t already exist — to quite appreciate the heroic status conferred on Mr. Antonioni and Mr. Bergman 40 years ago. I don’t believe that the art of filmmaking has necessarily declined since then (I’d quit my job if I did), but it seems clear the cultural climate that made it possible to hail filmmakers as supreme artists has vanished for good. All that’s left are the films.
I don't know that I agree with Scott's final statement, but I do think that the death of these two men allows audience members and current filmmakers the chance to reflect on film, where it has come from, and where it is going. For better or worse, the future of film will be tied to the Internet and to commerce, among other things, and while the net has the effect of democratizing the medium, the globalization, consolidation of major media outlets, and the current trend of wide releases by major studios, has the opposite effect. This will make it difficult for a filmmaker to create personal work in the current studio system, but it may allow for an alternate outlet for cinema.
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