SFSFF 2012: PREVIEW—By Michael Hawley

Just four months after blowing everyone away with the awesome spectacle that was Abel Gance's Napoleon, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) returns for its 17th annual event at the Castro Theatre from July 12 to 15, 2012. When the line-up was first announced I heard a few people grouse about it having a "greatest hits" vibe; but, the reality is only two of this year's 17 programs are repeats—Wings (from back in 1999) and Pandora's Box (shown in 2003). Personally, I've never seen any of them on a big screen and am therefore completely psyched. Big Names from the silent era are much in evidence, both in front of the camera (Clara Bow, Emil Jannings, Felix the Cat, Pola Negri, Louise Brooks, Douglas Fairbanks, Roland Colman, Buster Keaton) and behind it (Ernst Lubitsch, Victor Fleming, Georg Wihelm Pabst, Joseph von Sternberg, William A. Wellman). There are several tempting, unfamiliar rarities as well. I searched for films I might skip out on—if only to get a breath of air and a decent meal—but came up empty handed.

An issue that's sure to be a subject of discussion this year—and it's one the festival isn't shying away from—is that of digital exhibition. SFSFF dipped its toe in the digital waters two years ago with the restoration of Metropolis, saying it was the only option available. This year they're wading ankle deep with two DCP presentations, Lubitsch's The Loves of Pharaoh and Wellman's Wings. The latter is SFSFF17's opening night film, which is clearly making a statement. The great digital vs. 35mm divide is also the focus of this year's Amazing Tales from the Archives presentation (see below for details). So no matter which side you're on—if a side needs to be taken at all—there should be plenty here to chew on.

Plain and simple, if you've never attended the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, you owe yourself the experience of seeing a silent film the way it was meant to be seen, in a landmark 1922 movie palace with accomplished live musical accompaniment. What follows is a stroll through SFSFF17's line-up with some hopefully interesting facts, figures, gossip and trivia—a bit more than what's available on the festival's website and brochure, but considerably less than what we'll find in the scholarly essays that appear in the complementary program guide during the festival.

Thursday, July 12

7:00 P.M. Wings (1927, USA, dir. William A. Wellman)—Until The Artist, this drama about two WWI pilots in love with the same girl was technically the only silent film to win the Best Picture Oscar®, or rather, Most Outstanding Production. While I've never seen Wings, I am familiar with the famously heartbreaking kiss between Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen (both of whom served as pallbearers at the 1965 funeral of Wings co-star Clara Bow). Gary Cooper, who turns up in a supporting role as a doomed pilot, began a much-publicized affair with Bow during the shoot. The film seems best remembered for its aerial stunt photography—with director William Wellman having been hired specifically for his WWI aviator experience. None other than William Wellman, Jr., author of The Man and His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture, will introduce this screening. The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra will accompany, with Ben Burtt providing live Foley effects. Burtt is a nine-time Oscar® nominee for Best Sound / Sound Editing, with wins for ET: The Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Following the screening, a festive opening night party will be happening at the top-floor loft of the McRoskey Mattress Company.

Friday, July 13

10:30 A.M. Amazing Tales from the Archives: Into the Digital Frontier—One of the hottest topics amongst cinephiles this spring was the "This is DCP" series at NYC's Film Forum, where several digitally restored classics, including Five Easy Pieces, The Red Shoes and Rear Window, were screened in DCP, or "digital cinema package" format. The highlight was a comparative 35mm vs. DCP, side-by-side showing of Dr. Strangelove. This series was the undertaking of Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures executive vice president in charge of asset management, film restoration and digital mastering. I'm excited Crisp will be at the Castro performing another side-by-side demonstration for SFSFF audiences. (For an in-depth report on the Film Forum series, check out Miranda Popkey's piece at Capital New York). Also on the program will be Andrea Kalas, vice president of archives at Paramount Pictures, who will discuss the restoration of Wings, which will have opened the festival the previous evening in DCP. Admission is free.

1:00 P.M. Little Toys (1933, China, dir. Sun Yu)—Director Sun Yu is known for a string of socially conscious dramas made in the silent era's twilight years. In 2009 the festival brought us Sun's 1932 Wild Rose and now follows up with this decade-spanning epic about the calamities which befall a rural toymaker during a time of political upheaval. Sun made the movie to rouse nationalism following Japan's invasion of Manchuria. It stars two of China's most popular actresses of the 1930's playing mother / daughter protagonists; Lingyu Ruan (who we saw two years ago in A Spray of Plum Blossoms) and Li Lili (Wild Rose).

4:00 P.M. The Loves of Pharaoh (1922, Germany, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)—This historical melodrama was Lubitsch's last German production, a Hollywood calling card to prove he could indeed helm large-scale epics boasting 6,000 extras, lavish costumes and gargantuan sets. The great Emil Jannings (The Last Laugh, The Blue Angel) stars as an Egyptian ruler who spurns an offer of marriage to the Ethiopian king's daughter and thereby ignites a war by choosing the king's beloved slave girl instead. Long considered a lost film, this new digital restoration—assembled from fragments found in far-flung places—was executed by the same company (Alpha Omega GmbH) that resurrected Fritz Lang's complete Metropolis. Ten additional minutes are still thought to be missing. And who best to accompany this grandiose presentation than the incomparable Dennis James on the Castro Theatre's Mighty Wurlitzer. The photograph below is one of only 17 stunning, high resolution stills from The Loves of Pharaoh to be found on the festival's Press Room page.

7:00 P.M. Mantrap (1926, USA, dir. Victor Fleming)—Clara Bow makes her second appearance at 2012's festival in the film she claimed her personal favorite. Released shortly before It—the movie that gave her a moniker—Bow got rave reviews as the man-eating Minneapolis manicurist who strays from her backwoodsman husband and aims straight for a famous divorce lawyer. The story is adapted from a Sinclair Lewis novel, with Bow's character considerably softened, and the titular "Mantrap" is actually a Canadian boondocks town where the action is set. Cinematography is by the great DP James Wong Howe and the film's intertitles are said to be quite witty. Mantrap also witnessed the beginning of a hot and heavy affair between Bow and the film's director Victor Fleming, who would of course go on to direct The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. Noted film critic Michael Sragow, who wrote Victor Fleming, an American Movie Master, will introduce the screening. Stephen Horne accompanies on grand piano.

Mantrap will be preceded by Twin Peaks Tunnel, a recently restored short about the construction of one of the world's longest railway tunnels—one that just happens to begin right outside the festival's doorstep. Parts of the film are available to watch on YouTube and there's some terrific footage of Castro and Market Streets circa 1918.

9:15 P.M. The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrovna (1929, Germany, dir. Hanns Schwarz)—Each year SFSFF engages a contemporary filmmaker to choose a film from the line-up and present it as a Director's Pick—with past pickers ranging from Alexander Payne to Terry Zwigoff. The Bay Area's Philip Kaufman has selected this tale of a St. Petersburg courtesan who leaves her officer lover for the affections of a lowly lieutenant. It's considered the best of Austrian director Hanns Schwarz' 24 films, with one ardent IMDb user gushing "it's more poignant and visually dazzling than Ophuls, more erotic and atmospheric than Sternberg, with a camera more sinuously alive than Murnau or Lang." The film stars Brigitte Helm as Nina Petrovna, two years after her mesmerizing screen debut in Metropolis and one year after starring in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Argent (SFSFF 2011 Winter Event). Accompaniment will be provided by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

Saturday, July 14

10:00 A.M. The Irrepressible Felix the Cat! (1924-1928, USA, dir. Otto Messmer & Pat Sullivan)—Felix the Cat was the first cartoon character with a name famous enough to draw people into movie theaters. He was so iconic that Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic with a Felix doll and Aldous Huxley wrote the cartoon proved "what the cinema can do better than literature or spoken drama is to be fantastic." These cartoons were also noted for integrating social issues and current events into their storylines. The festival will present seven Felix animated shorts, all but one from his days at the Educational Pictures distribution company. Leonard Maltin and film scholar Russell Merritt will introduce the screenings, which will be accompanied by Donald Sosin and Toychestra, an all-woman experimental music ensemble from Oakland. And remember, as with all SFSFF screenings, children under 10 are admitted free!

12:00 P.M. The Spanish Dancer (1923, USA, dir. Herbert Brenon)—Pola Negri was one of the biggest stars of the silent era and the first European actor to be lured to Hollywood (by Paramount in 1922). Her German mentor, Ernst Lubitsch, had been the first European director to cross over. I haven't seen any of her movies so I'm excited to experience this, her third American film and first big spectacle. Based on a Victor Hugo novel, it's the story of a gypsy singer who becomes involved in 17th century Spanish court intrigue. Negri's co-stars include the handsome Antonio Moreno as her lover and Wallace Beery as the King of Spain!? Adolphe Menjou also has a small role. The print we'll be seeing is a new restoration done by the Dutch EYE Film Institute, which also restored last year's Lois Weber film, Shoes. Rob Byrne, who worked on the restoration, will introduce and Donald Sosin accompanies on grand piano.

2:30 P.M. The Canadian (1926, USA, dir. William Beaudine)—This is a remake of a 1917 film, The Land of Promise, which bears the name of the Somerset Maugham play on which both films are based. A destitute woman journeys to the wilds of Canada to live with her brother and then marries a rough homesteader (actor Thomas Meighan, who played the same part in both movies) to evade her sister-in-law's ire. (Yes, it does sound a lot like Lillian Gish's 1928 vehicle The Wind (SFSFF15). Director William Beaudine was known for his efficiency and prolificacy, directing nearly 30 silents. He later became known for making series films like The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys. But for me he's the guy who helmed notorious 1945 sex-ed feature Mom and Dad for exploitation pioneer Kroger Babb. Stephen Horne accompanies on grand piano.

Preceding the screening of The Canadian, the 2012 SF Silent Film Festival Award will be presented to the Telluride Film Festival "for their longtime dedication to the preservation and exhibition of silent film." Fest directors Tom Luddy, Gary Meyer and Julie Huntsinger will be there to receive the honor.

5:00 P.M. South (1919, UK, dir. Frank Hurley)—The festival follows last year's The Great White Silence with another Antarctic expedition documentary, South. It's an assemblage of photos and film footage taken by Australian photographer / adventurer Frank Hurley, when he accompanied Ernest Shackleton on that ill-fated trans-Antarctic trip aboard the ship Endurance. These materials exist today only because the intrepid Hurley dove into icy Antarctic waters ("stripped to the waist" as he wrote in his diary) to rescue them from the sinking ship. If you saw the 2000 documentary The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, you've already been exposed to Hurley's work, which is said to have changed expedition photography forever. The festival will screen a new restoration by the British Film Institute with original tints and toning. Actor Paul McGann (Dr. Who, Withnail & I) will read from Shackleton's letters accompanied by pianist Stephen Horne.

7:00 P.M. Pandora's Box (1926, USA, dir. Georg Wilhelm Pabst)—Of all the programs in this year's festival, this tops my list—a new frame-by-frame restoration of one of the great films of all time, starring iconic Louise Brooks as cinema's quintessential femme fatale. I'm embarrassed that I've never seen it on a big screen, but am happy I've saved the experience for this opportune moment. Diary of a Lost Girl (1928), another memorable Pabst / Brooks collaboration, played the festival two years ago. This new restoration—paid for by good old Hugh Hefner—was produced by San Francisco-based Angela Holm and David Ferguson, who will introduce the film with some on-screen "before and after" comparisons. Sweden's Matti Bye Ensemble will provide accompaniment for this, the festival's 2012 Centerpiece Presentation.

10:00 P.M. The Overcoat (1926, USSR, dir. Grigori Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg)—It's become a SFSFF tradition to reserve Saturday's final screening as a Late Show slot for silent cinema's off-kilter output. Past selections have included Häxan: Witchcraft through the Ages, Aelita, Queen of Mars and a trio of Tod Browing / Lon Chaney collaborations (West of Zanzibar, The Unholy Three, The Unknown). This year's unsettling oddity is an adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's most famous short story about the repercussions of a lowly office worker's obsession with obtaining a new overcoat. An acquaintance who attends the Pordenone Silent Film Festival wrote me that it's "a real jaw-dropper" and said people came out of the screening "completely mind-blown." I recently watched it on YouTube in the hopes of being disappointed—an early evening might have been nice, but nothing doing. This should be excellent and I can only imagine what the Alloy Orchestra has cooked up in the way of a score.

Sunday, July 15

10:00 A.M. The Mark of Zorro (1920, USA, dir. Fred Niblo)—This is a movie I've wanted to see for ages and I'm surprised the festival has never shown it. Based on Johnston McCulley's 1919 short story "The Curse of Capistrano," the film was Hollywood's first big swashbuckler and made Douglas Fairbanks a bigger star than he already was. He had a hand in writing the script and was responsible for coming up with that unmistakable Zorro "look." It was released the same year Fairbanks married Mary Pickford and was the debut release of United Artists, the company he co-founded with Pickford, Chaplin and D.W. Griffith. Director Fred Niblo would later work with Ramon Navarro in Ben Hur and Rudolph Valentino in Blood and Sand. Be on the lookout for 12-year-old Milton Berle in the uncredited role as "Boy." Dennis James on the Mighty Wurlitzer would seem the perfect choice for accompaniment. And once again, kids under 10 are admitted free!

12:00 P.M. The Docks of New York (1928, USA, dir. Josef von Sternberg)—No less than renowned film historian Kevin Brownlow considers this von Sternberg's finest film, which was released one year before he'd depart for Germany to make The Blue Angel. It's also his last silent film—excepting 1929's The Case of Lena Smith which is lost—and was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 1990. Betty Compson, a major silent star largely forgotten today, plays a prostitute who gets involved with the sailor (George Bancroft) who rescues her from a suicidal drowning. The film is by all accounts visually stunning, with an unsentimental and non-judgmental mindset towards its characters. I'm especially interested in seeing Olga Baclanova—best known as Cleopatra the trapeze artist in Tod Browning's Freaks—in a supporting role as the sailor's wronged wife. The intertitles are supposed to be something else. A wedding scene carries one that reads, "If any of you eggs know why these heels shouldn't get hitched, speak now or forever hold your trap." Donald Sosin will provide accompaniment on the grand piano.

2:00 P.M. Erotikon (1920, Sweden, dir. Mauritz Stiller)—Don't confuse this with Gustav Machatý's 1929 Czech film of the same title which played the festival three years ago. Stiller's Erotikon is a drawing room comedy about an entomologist studying the sex life of bugs. He has a mutual infatuation with his niece and a free-wheeling wife who's juggling the affections of a sculptor and an aviator. Detached and observational, the film is noted for its complete lack of moral judgment, unlike Hollywood films of the period. It sounds like a major highlight is the opera scene, with a half naked "Queen of the Shah" writhing lubriciously on a stage set worth of Busby Berkeley. Five years after Erotikon, Stiller would set sail for America with a little known actress he had discovered and given the name Greta Garbo. The Matti Bye Ensemble, who accompanied Stiller's The Blizzard at last year's festival, will repeat that honor for Erotikon.

4:30 P.M. Stella Dallas (1925, USA, dir. Henry King)—I knew the name Stella Dallas growing up because whenever I'd complain about how tough life was, one or both parents would respond, "Kid, you've got more problems than Stella Dallas." Oddly, I never sought out the famous 1937 Barbara Stanwyck vehicle—or the 18-years-running radio serial or Bette Midler's 1990 remake—so this will be my first exposure to the ultimate tale of maternal self sacrifice based on Olive Higgins Prouty's 1923 novel. The film was Belle Bennett's big break, as she was chosen over 73 other actresses by Samuel Goldwyn. Tragically, her 16-year-old son, whom she'd been passing off as her "brother" to hide her age from Hollywood producers, died during the production. The film co-stars Ronald Colman as Stella's wealthy husband, reuniting the actor with Henry King, who had directed his first Hollywood starring role (1923's The White Sister). Also making an appearance is 16-year-old Douglas Fairbanks Jr., in his fourth screen appearance. Czar of Noir City Eddie Muller will provide one of his customarily entertaining introductions, and Stephen Horne will accompany the film on grand piano.

7:30 P.M. The Cameraman (1928, USA, dir. Edward Sedgwick & Buster Keaton)—The festival ends with what many consider Buster Keaton's final masterpiece. It was his first film for MGM (a move he'd later call "the worst mistake of my career") and never again would he possess the independence and control necessary to create films worthy of his talents. Shot on both NYC locations and Hollywood sets, the film stars Keaton as accidental news photographer who becomes embroiled in Chinatown Tong Wars. Highlights include a hilarious sequence shot at a public swimming pool and one of film history's best performances by a monkey. The Cameraman was considered lost until an entire print was discovered in Paris in 1968. The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra will accompany the film, with introductions by Leonard Maltin and SFSFF board member Frank Buxton, who was an acquaintance of Keaton.

Prior to The Cameraman, the Bay Area will finally get to see the most recent restoration of George Méliès' beloved 1902 short, A Trip to the Moon, which premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival. In 1993, a hand-colored print of the film was discovered at the Filmoteca de Catalunya in a state of almost total decomposition. Restoration began in 1999 and took over 10 years to complete. Actor Paul McGann will be on hand to read the film's narration and Stephen Horne will accompany on grand piano.

Cross-published on film-415.

FUSION MAGAZINE (VOL. 1, NO. 4)—Idaho Film Industry Revealed

I'm pleased to announce the publication of my overview of Idaho film production in the Summer issue of Fusion Magazine (Vol. 1, No. 4). The digital version of the magazine can be found here, and the print edition will show up on newstands next week. My thanks to Pete Grady for his stellar portraits.

PANAMÁ IFF / FANTASIA 2012: LA CHISPA DE LA VIDA (AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT)—The Evening Class Interview With Álex de la Iglesia

As luck would have it, the bevy of journalists clamoring to query Álex de la Iglesia at the inaugural edition of the Panamá International Film Festival (Panamá IFF) happened to be in the wrong place at the right time (at least as far as I was concerned). Assembled on the sixth floor veranda of Panama City's Hotel Meridien, the journalists were unaware that de la Iglesia was waiting downstairs in the lobby. As was I. Thus, I had a window of opportunity before the throng advanced to ask de la Iglesia a few questions about his latest film La Chispa de la Vida (As Luck Would Have It). I now offer the transcript of that conversation on the occasion of the film's Canadian premiere at the 2012 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Compared here and again to Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951), La Chispa de la Vida is arguably de la Iglesia's most accessible film to date, though some might argue it is de la Iglesia-lite. Further, as noted by Jonathan Holland in his Variety review, the literal translation of the film's Spanish title (The Spark of Life) would be not only accurate but more appropriate since "The Spark of Life" references the successful advertising slogan that made an aging and down-on-his-luck publicist a one-shot wonder for the Coca-Cola company. Just as Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) fanned a media blaze around the tragic plight of trapped miner Leo Minosa, an equal fervor surrounds beleaguered Roberto Gómez (José Mota) who—after an accidental fall in the ruins of an ancient coliseum—has found himself pinned to a life-threatening situation. As Panamá IFF's program note details: "From there we're taken on a non-stop freak show of desperate civil functionaries trying to conceal their liabilities, media network execs showing their money teeth to get exclusive rights to broadcast live the agonizing drama of Roberto's family, and the vulture audience that fills the classic coliseum where the events unfold."

Director, producer, writer and cartoonist Álex de la Iglesia holds a degree in philosophy from the Universidad de Deusto. His career in film began with the short Mirindas asesinas (1991) and his first feature film was Acción mutante (1993). His provocative dark comedies such as The Day of the Beast (1995), Perdita Durango (1997), Muertos de risa (1999), The Commonwealth (2000), 800 balas (2002), Ferpect Crime (2004), The Oxford Murders (2007) and The Last Circus (2010) have earned him a celebrated following few Spanish directors enjoy. His films cross borders and genres, and have helped bring new audiences to the world of Spanish-language cinema. Because of his ability to transcend, to travel and engage across the boundaries of language, de la Iglesia was fêted with a five-film showcase at Panamá IFF. [This conversation is not for the spoiler-wary.]

* * *

Michael Guillén: Álex, what I appreciate most about your films is that they are genre hybrids and that, as a spectator, I can feel when you are shifting from one genre into another. Arguably, La Chispa de la Vida could be understood as a horror film in the sense that the dilemma of your protagonist Roberto reflects the horror many people are currently experiencing as victims of the economy, losing their jobs, and being unable to control the corporate forces negatively impacting their lives; but, at the same time, your film is a comedy. Is that particular sensorial quality of shifting from one genre to another something you intentionally work into your scripts?

Álex de la Iglesia: It's not that conscious of a process; but, I have to say that's how I feel life works. I can't believe in just one genre because I don't trust people. Nobody's just honest. Nobody's just humorous. It's always a mixture within each person. Everything is mixed. In every day of your life you will have beautiful moments, honest moments, and dignified moments; but, you will also have ridiculous moments. It's all mixed up together.

Let's say you go to a funeral and—as you are standing there beside the grave—you realize how the life you had with this guy is suddenly dead. You feel all the love and remember the beautiful and funny moments you had with this guy. And you begin to cry. Then suddenly something stupid happens and you can't help but laugh. Because nothing is perfect. Nothing works. In the same moment that you are suffering, you are laughing and vice versa. One moment you're having a really good time with your friends when, suddenly, your soul takes a big hit because someone comes up to you to tell you your mother is dying or your father is dying. Nothing is perfect. Life is a confusion of sentiments. Thus, it's absolutely impossible for me to make the kind of genre film that an audience might expect and adore.

I love genre films. I love comedies. I love dramas. I understand that the work of cinema is to know the feelings caused by certain genres to best express life. But I can't make a film in just one genre because, as I said, life isn't like that for me. For example, in La Chispa de la Vida there's the scene where the main character Roberto is talking with his son and says, "Hey, now we'll have money. And now you can do whatever you want in your life. Try to be free. Try to be honest with yourself." In that intimate moment his son unknowingly steps on him and—seeing his dad in sudden agony—asks, "Dad, are you dying?!" To which Roberto answers, "No, you're stepping on me." [Laughs.]

Guillén: Both dark and funny, yes. Along with Mota's lead portrayal of Roberto, I was particularly impressed with Salma Hayek in the role of Roberto's wife Luisa. For me, she embodied an integrity that went past surface appearances.

De la Iglesia: I don't want to destroy everything. I don't think that's fair. We need some kind of dignity. In this movie, that dignity is in the hands of a woman. Salma plays Luisa, a regular woman, a normal wife, who tries to be charming for her husband and honest with her family and her relationships; but—in this moment of crisis—she realizes that she has made a big mistake. She has been encouraging her husband, telling him, "Someday you're going to win. Someday you're going to get a job"; but, at the end this is not possible and she realizes that trying to be positive all the time has been a big mistake.

Guillén: There was that moment of exquisite suspense when Luisa is offered the valise of money in exchange for media rights. The film sardonically skewers so much hypocrisy up to then, that you don't quite know if she's going to take the money or not. I was glad she didn't and grateful for that grace note of integrity.

De la Iglesia: Though many people in Spain have asked me, "Why didn't she take the money? It would be better for her family and would give them financial security."

Guillén: That particular scene likewise accentuates a characteristic rhythm in your work. Often your films go to excess and then—as in this scene where Luisa walks past the valise of money—you suddenly exercise restraint, which restores dignity.

De la Iglesia: Thank you very much for that. That is the idea of the movie. The idea of the film is about what happens to people when they don't have time to think about what to do? Because, in truth, that's how life often is. Everything rushes by so fast that a person doesn't have time to think much past the moment. They don't know what to do about the future. Suddenly they find themselves near death and they wonder, "What do we do now? What sense can be made of my death?" That's why I wanted to make this film. To give audiences the chance to think about these things. In the first half of the film their sympathies are with Roberto and his plight, but in the second half their sympathies are with Luisa and what she's going to do after Roberto's death. This is how I found the rhythm for this film.

Guillén: You're known for your repertory casting, using the same actors again and again in your films. I was watching your early shorts, specifically Mirindas asesinas (1991), enjoyed the central performance of Álex Angulo, and then noted you cast him again in The Day of the Beast (1995). And the actor who played the doctor in La Chispa, I've seen in your other films. What is the value of repertory casting for you?

De la Iglesia: I love to work with friends! When I'm writing a script, I'm already thinking ahead to what face I will need. I love to work with the same pieces in this chess game. John Ford did this as well. He always worked with the same actors. I love to work with my friends and with people that I know.

Guillén: How then do you negotiate the problem of audiences identifying more with recognized actors than with the characters they're intended to portray? Because, admittedly, as a filmmaker you're trying to create a fiction, an illusion, so does the fact that their faces are familiar hinder your storytelling in any way?

De la Iglesia: But that's what I'm trying to do! I know I need a certain kind of face or a certain kind of reaction so that makes me use the same actor again who I know will give me the reaction I need. I know, "This guy is good to say this sentence or that dialogue." At the same time, to make movies is a game. For example, José Mota is not really an actor; he's a comedian. I mean he's a wonderful actor for me, but in his "real" life he's a comedian. He primarily works on Spanish TV. So it was something of a shock to Spanish audiences that I cast José Mota in a serious role, which was like casting Jerry Lewis in a serious role. Martin Scorsese did just that when he cast Jerry Lewis in The King of Comedy (1983). The idea to use José Mota in La Chispa de la Vida was a joke, a bit of a naughty joke, because I needed a comedian to make this drama work. I knew it would put the audience in an uncomfortable space because they expected to see this guy crack a joke and suddenly there's no joke. I knew it would upset audiences to see José Mota suffering. It's not exactly my idea. Scorsese already did this with The King of Comedy. Using a funny guy to tell a sad story.

FILM INTERNATIONAL (VOL. 10, NO. 2)—Between Past and Future: Looking For Buenos Aires in Hugo Santiago's Invasión (1969)

I'm pleased to announce the publication of my interview with Hugo Santiago in the current issue of Film International (Vol. 10, No. 2), on the occasion of the archival screening of Santiago's 1969 classic Invasión in the Argentine City to City sidebar at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

FANTASIA 2012—SUSHI GIRL: MARK HAMILL & TONY TODD

Also by press release, the Fantasia International Film Festival (Fantasia) "will be presenting the international premiere of Kern Saxton's hotly anticipated crime thriller Sushi Girl (2012), featuring Mark Hamill in a startlingly sinister lead.

"Hamill's portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the originating Star Wars trilogy is one of the most iconic performances in Fantastic Film history and remains among the most beloved screen characters in the annals of pop culture.

"Sushi Girl was produced by—and co-stars—the inimitable Tony Todd (Candyman, the Final Destination films). Also appearing in the film are Noah Hathaway (The Neverending Story), James Duval (Donnie Darko), Danny Trejo (Machete), Michael Biehn (The Terminator) and none other than Sonny Chiba (Street Fighter). Hosting the Fantasia launch will be Mark Hamill, Tony Todd, Michael Biehn and Kern Saxton—with additional guests to be announced!

"This, of course, is especially exciting news for [Montreal] as it cosmically coincides with the ongoing blockbuster Star Wars: Identities exhibition at the Montreal Science Centre, a show that has been regularly packing out since its launch on April 19 and will be continuing until September 16.

"The gala Sushi Girl screening will take place on the night of Saturday July 21. Hit it raw."

The interviews are already piling up with regard to this project. Noah Hathaway talks it up at Fruitless Pursuits, Sticky Trigger, and Spotlight Report. Destin Pfaff, Kern Saxton, Neal Fischer and Suren Seron talk to Media Mikes, who also talk to Cortney Palm and Tony Todd. Todd also talks to Bloody Disgusting. Mark Hamill talks to FEARnet, A.V. Club and The Hollywood Reporter.

FANTASIA 2012—JENNIFER LYNCH

Per the press release from the Fantasia International Film Festival (Fantasia): "From the day she exploded onto the scene with the largely misunderstood and still-controversial Boxing Helena (1993) 19 years ago, Jennifer Lynch has been a spellbinding iconoclast on the American indie landscape, her provocative approach to filmmaking seeing her alternately championed and demonized. She is a fascinating filmmaker who has made several works across her near-29-year career. Each have been standouts, their connective tissues threaded in baroque aesthetics, unconventional performance styles, darkly eccentric streaks of humor and subversively compelling gazes into our capacities for cruelty, obsession and sexual deviancy.

"This year, Fantasia will celebrate the wildly individualistic work of Jennifer Lynch with a pair of special screenings. First up is the world premiere of Lynch's brand new production, Chained (2012), which stars Vincent D'onofrio as a taxi-driving serial killer who abducts a young boy and raises him as his son—fully expecting the child to grow into being a mass murderer himself. In Lynch's hands, what could have been a simple 'how to make a monster' serial killer film turns into a black discourse on parenthood and instinct. Also starring is Eamon Farren and Julia Ormond, the latter reteaming with Lynch after 2008's brilliant Surveillance.

"Fantasia will also be presenting the Quebec premiere of Australian filmmaker Penny Vosniak's recent Hot Docs smash Despite the Gods (2012), which documents Lynch's star-crossed adventures in India directing Hisss, an ambitious Bollywood film (and a rare Bollywood / U.S. co-production) whose production spiraled out of control due to producer mismanagement and various twists of fate. It is one of the strongest films about the trials and madness of moviemaking that you will ever encounter. Screenings of both films will be hosted by Jennifer Lynch."

Portrait of Lynch courtesy of Dan Tuffs.

FANTASIA 2012—POSTER ART

For their 2012 poster commemorating their 16th edition, the Fantasia International Film Festival (Fantasia) once again enlisted the services of gifted Quebecois illustrator Donald Caron.

Creating the 2012 art, Caron has brought back the "Fantasia Cheval Noir" that he painted last year—also the likeness of Fantasia's highest jury award—brilliantly incorporating it into his own vision of that of the prophet Ezekiel's from 592 B.C. According to the bible, Ezekiel claimed to have seen a "vehicle" coming in from the sky, landing in the Cheber River in Chaldea (now Iraq). Some believe that this Vehicle was not of this earth and that this happening was, in fact, one of the earliest documented UFO sightings.

FANTASIA 2012—THE FIRST WAVE

The 16th annual Fantasia International Film Festival (Fantasia) is gearing up to take Montreal by storm with three weeks of inspiration and thrills beginning July 19, 2012 and continuing through August 7, 2012. Their full 2012 lineup of programming and special events won't be revealed until later this month, but—in anticipation of same—Fantasia announced several selected highlights mid-June to whet appetites.

11/25 The Day Mishima Chose His Own Fate / 11/25 Jiketsu No Hi, Mishima Yukio to Wakamonotachi (Japan) Dir.: Kōji Wakamatsu—Yukio Mishima's masterwork isn't his literature, but the political commitment he pursued even unto death. By retracing the journey of the revolutionary writer, Japanese cinema's enfant terrible Kōji Wakamatsu delivers a violent, rabid critique of militancy. A timely, necessary film. Official Selection: Cannes 2012 [PDF press kit]. IMDb. Wikipedia. North American Premiere.

At Japan Times, Mark Schilling complains: "Kōji Wakamatsu's documentary-like film illuminates the motives behind this quixotic coup attempt, including Mishima's tempestuous relationship with the four young disciples who accompanied him that fateful day, but as a drama it is on the wordy, wooden level of a cable-channel historical reenactment." At Screen, Jonathan Romney describes the film as "glacially analytical" and predicts, "The film's chilly execution and cumbersomely fact-laden narrative will make it a tough export, although it can be expected to thrive at festivals with a bent for rigorous austerity." At Variety, Maggie Lee concurs: "Devoid of drama and shorn of superfluous technical flourishes, the pic uses characters as mouthpieces for political ideology in a manner as indigestible as raw potatoes. Hard going as cinema, yet admirable as an unbiased analysis of misplaced idealism at a particular moment in history, the pic is a worthy study topic but likely commercial suicide for distribs." Mincing no words in his bottom line, The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy concludes: "This thinly realized film makes the Japanese author and militant nationalist look like nothing but a political nutjob."  At Fandor's Keyframe, Anna Tatarska interviews Wakamatsu.

As Luck Would Have It / La chispa de la vida (Spain) Dir: Álex de la Iglesia—Spain's madman auteur reworks Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole for today's world as an absurdist comedy. Stars José Mota and Salma Hayek. Official Selection: Berlin 2012, Tribeca 2012. IMDb. Canadian Premiere.

At Variety, Jonathan Holland writes: "A would-be Death of a Salesman for our times, given that it studies a man prepared to swap his dignity for his family's future, As Luck Would Have It reps an entertaining but unsubtle satire on the moral confusions of a marketing / media-driven world. Though it slickly offers up drama, black comedy and enjoyable perfs in due measure, the pic never develops much bite, though it does bare its fangs. Arguably helmer Álex de la Iglesia's most accessible item to date...." At indieWire, Gabe Toro describes the film as "mordantly funny and sharp as a razor" and proclaims it as "one of the treasures of the Tribeca Film Festival."

Blood-C: The Last Dark (Japan) Dir: Naoyoshi Shiotani—In a futuristic Tokyo where youth struggles for its freedom, Aya must face off against the man who has a stranglehold on the city and nightmarish creatures that are spreading terror. Twelve years after Blood: The Last Vampire, here is the big comeback to the big screen of this influential Japanese animation franchise. Official site [Japanese]. IMDb. International Premiere.

Beast (Denmark) Dir: Christoffer Boe—Nicolas Bro, Marijana Jankovic and Nikolaj Lie Kaas star in this disturbing and poetic nightmare drama that treats Love as both a force of nature and a chemical imbalance. Official Selection SXSW 2012. IMDb. Canadian Premiere.

At Variety, Alissa Simon praises the sharp dialogue and strong performances in this "perversely fascinating psychodrama." At Twitch, Shelagh M. Rowan-Legg characterizes Beast as "A visceral, dark and disturbing portrait of a man whose love drives him to chaos."

Crave (USA) Dir: Charles de Lauzirika—The long anticipated feature directorial debut from regular Ridley Scott collaborator de Lauzirika stylishly depicts an alienated crime scene photographer (Josh Lawson) teetering on the verge of vigilantism. Also stars Ron Perlman and Edward Furlong. IMDb. Facebook. World Premiere.

Citadel (Ireland-Scotland) Dir: Ciarán Foy—A man suffering from extreme agoraphobia confronts murderous packs of feral, hooded children in this powerful and frightening film that took home the Midnighter Audience Award at this year's SXSW. IMDb. Canadian Premiere.

At Variety, Joe Leydon states that Citadel "will be especially nerve-wracking for any parent who's ever doubted whether he or she could overcome immobilizing fear and spring into action to defend an endangered offspring. Foy exploits that cruel doubt with ruthless efficiency in this impressive debut feature." At FEARnet, Scott Weinberg writes: "Citadel employs simple and effective horror tropes in service of a film that has something a little bit angry to say about crime in low-income neighborhoods, but says it in a frank and starkly entertaining fashion." Quiet Earth claims that "Citadel is one of those films that works not because it has a groundbreaking setup or movie monster (it doesn't), but rather because it fully explores its main character's conflict...."

Doomsday Book (South Korea) Dir: Yim Pil-sung and Kim Ji-woon—Yim Pil-sung (Hansel & Gretel) and Kim Ji-woon (A Tale Of Two Sisters) join forces in this anthology film featuring three stories tackling in very different ways as many apocalyptic scenarios. Be prepared to deal with a zombie invasion, a delicate moral dilemma raised by a robot who's the reincarnation of Buddha, and a most unusual object that's about to destroy the planet! Official website [Korean]. Wikipedia. Canadian Premiere.

Graceland (Philippines / USA) Dir: Ron Morales—A working class chauffeur is dropped into the darkest side of the Philippine underworld when his daughter is kidnapped by ruthless mobsters in this shocking crime drama that won major acclaim at the Tribeca Film Festival. Official website. IMDb. Facebook. Canadian Premiere.

 At Complex Pop Culture, Matt Barone describes Morales' Graceland as a "vigorously breathless thriller" that "quickly presents his case, raises the stakes to gargantuan heights, and roars through a plethora of shocks, dangerously concealed secrets, and thick intensity so to-the-point that you'd think he's got a bus to catch." In a separate entry, Barrone commends Morales for turning "a lean storyline into a muscular and aggressive showstopper." At Sound On Sight, Mark Young qualifies that Graceland's "brisk" running length of 83 minutes is all that's "needed to change a film's delivery from 'wallowing' to 'riveting.' " Tasha Robinson interviews Morales at Tribeca for A.V. Club. Gene Shalit likewise speaks with Morales and lead actor Arnold Reyes.

Errors of the Human Body (Germany-USA) Dir: Eron Sheean—Written and directed by Sheean, who penned last year's The Divide, Errors of the Human Body is an unsettling, stylistically bold look at the personal and ethical horrors of modern genetic engineering, oscillating quite ambiguously between pure science and terrifying science fiction. Stars Michael Eklund. IMDb. World Premiere.

Funeral Kings (USA) Dirs: Kevin McManus & Matthew McManus—They're rebellious, irreverent and vulgar. They're ... 14-year-old! Even though they're altar servants, Andy and Charlie are hardly choirboys. When they meet David, a little mama's boy, they'll do anything to force their life philosophy on him. From then on, they'll really get into trouble. With this debut film that was a sensation at SXSW, the McManus Brothers impose themselves a new comic duo to keep a close eye on. Official Selection: SXSW 2012. Official website. IMDb. Facebook. International Premiere.

At Twitch, Scott Weinberg describes Funeral Kings as "a very funny, generally fast-paced, and resoundingly foul-mouthed little comedy. It's got some edge and a little hint of darkness, but it's mostly a rather humane tale about how boys are often forced to become 'mature' at one of the most egocentric stage of their lives." At Hitfix, Drew McWeeny writes that Funeral Kings "is confident and controlled and, with an unabashed vulgarity underscoring everything, about as pure a piece of movie memory as I can name."

The Human Race (USA) Dir: Paul Hough—From the director of The Backyard comes this stunning action / sci-fi / horror film that challenges conventions and takes enormous risks (among them the casting of a charismatic one-legged lead, a deaf performer who execute his scenes via subtitled sign language, etc). An astoundingly impressive achievement. Official site. IMDb. World Premiere.

Isn't Anyone Alive? (Japan) Dir: Gakuryū Ishii—Filmmaker Gakuryū Ishii, who notably directed Electric Dragon 80.000 V under the name Sogo Ishii, returns with this completely off the wall adaptation of an absurdist play about students at a university campus who mysteriously die one after the other. The apocalypse has rarely been this strange and funny. Canadian Premiere.

La Memoria del Muerto / Memory of the Dead (Argentina) Dir: Javier Diment—This bedazzling giallo-inspired supernatural horror film boasts a strong visual design and a ferociously Grand Guignol sensibility. Prepare for Latin American demonic fury. IMDb. Facebook. World Premiere.

A Night of Nightmares (USA) Dir: Buddy Giovinazzo—One year after winning an award at Fantasia for his entry in The Theatre Bizarre, Combat Shock director Giovinazzo is returning to Montreal with this hair-raising and unique occult chiller that stars Marc Senter and Elissa Dowling. World Premiere.

Poongsan (South Korea) Dir: Juhn Jai-hong—In this dark, intense thriller written by Kim Ki-duk (Bad Guy), a mysterious man who regularly crosses the border between the two Koreas to smuggle goods or people finds himself being hunted down by both sides, which will have their hands full with him. IMDb. Wikipedia. North American Premiere.

At Variety, Jay Weissberg says Poongsan "plays like an enjoyable Cold War-themed TV pilot featuring a mute protag of uncertain political persuasion whose physical endurance puts him in the near-superhero category." At The Hollywood Reporter, Maggie Lee declares that "Poongsan injects new life into Korean North-South espionage thrillers with its edgy portrayal of a mysterious man who crosses the DMZ to provide a unique kind of courier service. From its heart-wrenching opening shot to its breathtaking end, the film is unfaltering in its momentum and often unbearable in its intensity, delivering shocks to the system as it runs the extraordinary gamut of love, longing, jealousy, hate, desperation, intrigue, cruelty and madness."

Resolution (USA) Dirs: Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead—A captivating waking nightmare of a film, Resolution tore out of nowhere when it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and made almost every critic's best-of-fest lists. Be prepared for something truly original, scary and special. IMDb. Canadian Premiere.

At Twitch, Peter Gutierrez interviews the directors and writes: "Resolution uses its smarts and DIY feel to create something that works on its own terms, achieving moods and moments that would be impossible to duplicate with a much bigger budget." indieWire also interviews Benson and Moorhead, as does You Won Cannes, Andrew Lucre at Vimeo, and Matt Barone at Complex Pop Culture.

Roller Town (Canada) Dir: Andrew Bush—A riotously funny, high-energy send-up of that ever-so-brief but immortal trend of disco celebration films that boogie-blasted cinemas in the early '80s, Roller Town is the warped brainchild of comedy collective Picnicface, brilliant sketch comedians hailed by many as the SCTV of our day. Official Selection: Slamdance 2012. Official site. IMDb. Facebook. Quebec Premiere.

V/H/S (USA) Dirs: David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid, Radio Silence, Joe Swanberg, Ti West, Adam Wingard—The latest in an ongoing wave of both sledgehammer-strong anthology horror features and subjectively-shot found-footage chillers, V/H/S ranks among the best of the pack in both camps. Official Selection: Sundance 2012. Official site. IMDb. Wikipedia. Facebook. Quebec Premiere.

At The Hollywood Reporter, Justin Lowe states: "Refreshingly, V/H/S promises no more than it delivers, always a plus with genre fare." At Variety, Dennis Harvey notes that this "passel of rising indie horror helmers and writers, plus a couple of talents new to the genre, put several spins on found-footage fright in V/H/S. Omnibus feature brings energy and diverse story ideas to the subgenre kickstarted by The Blair Witch Project and kept commercially viable these days by Paranormal Activity sequels, but the segments vary in quality and the whole overstays its welcome at nearly two hours."

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan) Dir: Wei Te-Sheng—The most expensive Taiwanese action epic ever made, Warriors is the extraordinary untold story of the indigenous tribe, the Seediq and their fight for survival. Executive produced by John Woo. Presented roadshow style for the first time in Canada, uncut four-hour version with intermission! Official site. IMDb. Wikipedia.

At Variety, Justin Chang describes the film as a "wildly ambitious rumble-in-the-jungle battle epic arrives bearing so heavy a burden of industry expectations, one wishes the results were less kitschy and more coherent", but "still, the filmmaking has a raw physicality and crazy conviction it's hard not to admire." Chang also writes "there's an impressive degree of variation and anthropological detail in the weaponry and fighting techniques." At The Hollywood Reporter, Deborah Young finds the film "stunning to look at, authentic to a fault and a little tedious to follow", and praised the action set pieces as "spectacular, almost non-stop sequence of grisly hand-to-hand combat scenes." Young nonetheless cautions that "no matter how ingeniously it is varied, the non-stop fighting becomes oppressive in the long run" and the film's best scenes are in its "quieter moments."

Within his preview piece of the New York Asian Film Festival for The Village Voice, Michael Atkinson considers Warriors: "Wei Te-sheng's two-part Seediq Bale (2011) clocks in at more than 4.5 hours, but it moves like a runaway herd through the story of 'the Wushe Incident,' the bloody 1930 uprising of Taiwanese tribes against the occupying Japanese forces. It's a fresh slice of crazy history to us (I didn't know that Taiwan had so many loincloth-wearing headhunter clans deep into the 20th century), and Wei moves methodically, from the 1895 invasion and subsequent years of uneasy coexistence, to the eventual explosion of jungle combat (axes hack, heads roll, blood rivers flow) and the subsequent retaliation by Japan. The robust Seediq tribespeople all look like hunky members of Powers Boothe's extended family, and the film is daffy about the Seediq 'rainbow bridge' mythology, but the unrelenting battles are shot and cut with breathless intensity." [Hyperlinks omitted.]

Wrong (USA) Dir: Quentin Dupieux—If you were among those who caught the international premiere of Dupieux's previous oddity Rubber at Fantasia in 2010, you've got an inkling of the spectacular brand of absurdist imagination you're in store for here. As officially synopsized: "Dolph Springer wakes up one morning to realize he has lost the love of his life, his dog, Paul. During his quest to get Paul (and his life) back, Dolph radically changes the lives of others. In his journey to find Paul, Dolph may lose something even more vital—his mind." Official Selection: Sundance 2012. Official site. Canadian Premiere.

Anticipating Wrong at Sundance (where the film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize), Eric Kohn noted at indieWire: "French director Quentin Dupieux—also known as the DJ artist Mr. Oizo—last caught the attention of the film world with the highest high concept to hit theaters last year with the outrageously meta 'killer tire movie' known as Rubber. Love it or hate it, Rubber was an utterly unique exploration of cinematic narrative, a riotous takedown of Hollywood formula and unapologetically amused with itself from start to finish. Now Dupieux has made a movie seemingly eager to state its edginess in title alone: Wrong, which stars William Fictner and Steve Little, apparently involves one man's quixotic journey to find his missing dog. Early buzz suggests that Dupieux really brought the crazy this time out, and the official synopsis makes it sound that the story really tracks the dissolution of its protagonist's sanity." Kohn then followed suit with his review.

"From the start," Dennis Harvey writes at Variety, "Dupieux seems more delighted with the pic's forced quirkiness than most audiences will be." At The Hollywood Reporter, John Defore notes that lead actor Jack Plotnick's "unkempt persistence" and "a wry score by Tahiti Boy and Mr. Oizo (Oizo being the nom de musique of Dupieux himself) give the film just enough narrative momentum to carry it through short stretches in which cryptic plotlessness threatens to sink it."

Wrong's press kit (PDF) offers insightful interviews with both Director Quentin Dupieux and Producer Gregory Bernard. Further interviews with Dupieux are available at The Hollywood Reporter (which also offers a sneak peek of the film), Anthem, and The Film Stage. An alternate interview with Bernard is available at Screen International.

FRAMELINE36: REVEALING MR. MAUGHAM (2012)—The Evening Class Interview With Michael House

Michael House and I last conversed when his documentary The Magnificent Tati (2009) premiered at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Part of that conversation went up on SF360 with the balance appearing on The Evening Class. House has followed up his portrait of Jacques Tati with the equally informative Revealing Mr. Maugham (2012), premiering in the Bay Area as part of the 36th edition of the Frameline Film Festival.

With earnest thoroughness, House recounts W. Somerset Maugham's fascinating literary career and reveals intriguing elements of his personal life that enrichen an appreciation of Maugham's body of work. Archival materials are ample—photographs, film clips and rare interview footage with the author—and are supplemented by commentary from several talking heads who are either professed experts on Maugham or family members offering personal recollections. House's reliance on scholastic expertise backfires a bit, especially when said experts lack on-camera charisma, and one wishes all of this information could have been scripted into a narrative voiceover delivered by a recognized actor. Among his ensemble of talking heads, Pico Iyer comes across as the most energized speaking to why Maugham's work remains accessible to reading publics across the globe and it is, of course, always a pleasure to hear Armistead Maupin opine on any subject, his comments on how creativity is fueled by pain being especially noteworthy here. Maupin is the first to admit his reluctance to put words in Maugham's mouth as to how he went about writing his books.

Revealing Mr. Maugham succeeds as another entry in the queer historical canon—not so much as a homostylized fantasy of a known cinematic icon (Joshua Tree (1951): A Portrait of James Dean), or a rescue from the dustbins of memory of a nearly forgotten rock star (Jobriath, A.D.)—but as an accentuation and inclusion of someone admittedly famous and world-reknown into a brethren that—despite increased membership over the years—still comes off now and again as famished for fellowship. How insecure can a queer community be? And how important is Maugham's homosexuality to an understanding of his work?

If, as suggested by one of the film's experts, Maugham guised his sexual interests in female characters who have since become some of the most famous women of literature (and filmic adaptation), he joins the ranks of such writers as Tennessee Williams and Noel Coward in having an indelible impact on culture, albeit indirectly, for expressing what at the time was the love that simply could not speak its name. It's amusing to consider how much the foundations of culture rest upon the constraints of the closet, which—almost as much as poverty—inspire artists to be clever and circuitous in their creative self-expression.

More significantly, however, is the role that Maugham's long-time companion Gerald Haxton played in procuring access to the experiences and personalities that informed Maugham's stories. Maugham, suffering from a stammering speech impediment and characterized as introverted, might never have met the prostitute who became the template for Sadie Thompson, for example, had it not been for Haxton providing introductions. Important for capturing the mannered climate of the time, Revealing Mr. Maugham likewise recapitulates the complicated sex lives of the early 20th century, limned by impropriety, scandal and unhappy marriages of convenience.

Perhaps one of the most interesting inclusions in the documentary's commentary on Maugham is the montage of entries from Maugham's Facebook page, where videotaped testimonials from Maugham fans illustrate the author's continuing relevance to contemporary audiences.

I'm grateful to Michael House for providing streaming access to Revealing Mr. Maugham and to being amenable to answering a few questions via email.

* * *

Michael Guillén: Taking a look at your IMDb profile this morning, I took note that you consider yourself an editor more than a director? How would you distinguish the two?

Michael House: In fact, I really don't consider myself either. I am a guitarist if I am anything. In my mind directing and editing are just another two labels applied to the complicated process of making a film. Nowadays, an individual can do nearly all the jobs on a factual film so all the little steps—such as directing or editing—are within the whole process, but for me the films are largely made in the edit so the editing is really important. Interviewing and filming (things that fall under "directing") are often sheer luck and very unpredictable so I tend to seize control and find the narrative in the edit.

I never look at IMDb. My profile is not accurate and I am not keen on IMDb because I know much of the voting for films on IMDb (at least on my films) are not real votes. They also make it hard for film makers to list things. I guess I just don't like IMDb.

Guillén: I note that Tati scholar David Bellos, who contributed to your Tati documentary, is likewise a producing credit here. Can you speak to your continuing collaboration with Bellos and the formation of SWiM Cinema?

House: David Bellos is a professor at Princeton University. He is also one of the world's most respected and important translators. His best selling book Is That a Fish in Your Ear? is simply wonderful. David and I became friends because he wrote a book on Jacques Tati that I love. After the film on Tati, David offered to help me make more films about artists and, well, here we are.... He understands that arts education needs all the help it can get and that factual films on art are a wonderful way to introduce overlooked icons (i.e., Tati and Maugham) to people. He is a true supporter of the arts and I adore him.

SWiM cinema is a project I started in March to make films on art available to anyone on earth with the internet. Most people don't understand how a film is distributed but I can tell you it is not easy, nor practical to have a small factual film made available to a viewer in, say, Japan or Russia. Even places such as Brazil are really hard to get a film made available. It is not because there are not people who would like to buy the films in these places but because iTunes or DVD companies make it nearly impossible for the indie film maker to distribute their work there. People think that the internet has opened up the global market for indie film makers but that is not really true. One must find a distribution company such as iTunes in each market, and there are like 650+ markets, so for a small niche film the idea of selling it everywhere is still really hard.

I set up SWiM cinema to try to solve this problem and to create a global platform where I could offer my films, and other film makers' films, ("artumentaries" I call them). Obviously I have to subtitle them and find promotion methods to let people know the films are available—all of which we are doing. SWiM does PR by screening its films with non-profit organizations, museums and by other methods. For example, we team up with an organization and donate a portion of each sale to them. Revealing Mr. Maugham shares its proceeds with the British Stammering Association and Pride London. As you know, Maugham was a stammerer and gay. So SWiM is a new way for factual films to find viewers. We don't do DVDs, only downloads. DVDs are, in fact, very bad for the environment and we want to keep it as green as possible. (When I say "we", I mean "me".)

I think with specialized films on art the audience is not massive but it is certainly international. I gave all that some real thought and came up with SWiM cinema. It is slowly working. We sell the films to people all over. I think Maugham was bought first by someone in Iceland then in India, both on the day SWiM released it. That could never happen if we tried to sell with normal "traditional" sales methods. I plan on growing the catalogue to include many artumentaries from numerous countries as well as some films of stage plays and concerts, nothing super mainstream, just interesting things you won't ever find on BBC or PBS.

Guillén: Can you speak to the genesis of this project and how you went about shaping it? What is your personal engagement with Maugham?

House: I owe Maugham a lot because The Razor's Edge (1944)—which I read when I was 19—really inspired me to live my life as I wanted to and not to follow the normal path I was raised to follow. It gave me the idea to move to Europe and be an artist. After The Razor's Edge I read all of Maugham's work (and I still do read him). I love his stories. He is a true "internationalist", which is very rare in fiction. His "voice" is also one I really like, never anything but interesting and compatible to me.

I knew Maugham had gotten a bad rap in his last years and so I had (for years) wanted to make a film that looked into that. I felt it needed to be cleared up. Selina Hastings wrote her biography The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham about three or four years ago and she really unlocked all of the misunderstandings about Maugham, so she and I got together and asked the Royal Literary Fund to allow us permission to use Maugham's work. He willed them his copyrights.

I then started trying to find writers on the best seller list who were into Maugham. Armistead Maupin was the first, then Pico Iyer, Alan Furst, Alexander McCall Smith, these are all giants in the world of publishing so I asked them and they all basically said, "Yes, I'd love to talk about Maugham. He is a major inspiration to me."  To me the measure of an artist is how seminal he / she is with real artists working today and Maugham truly takes the cake on that point. So I started interviewing all these "big" writers and was pleased to find they were all "mini-Maugham-experts". I then asked Maugham's family to be in the film and they agreed, thanks to Selina Hastings. So it all came together, as these things do, because wonderful, intelligent people agreed to participate.

Guillén: In your NPR interview you made a point of correcting the description of Maugham as bisexual to assert he was homosexual. Some might argue—as the comments section heatedly reveals at Towleroad—that this is "bisexual erasure on behalf of Gay, Inc." Why is it important for you to understand Maugham as a homosexual, and not a bisexual?

House: We know Maugham only involved himself with women after he was the age of 40. More importantly, he only involved himself with women after he was London's most famous playwright. Up to that point—when he was a mere struggling writer—he was only involved romantically with men. Fame was the reason he got involved with Syrie and other women. Remember, Maugham became famous only 10 years after Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for being queer.

Maugham lived his whole life with men as lovers. Gerald Haxton was his main lover for 30 years but—before Gerald—Maugham was deeply in love with a man named Harry Phillips. They left England together to live as a couple in Paris around 1905, in fact. I am certain that marriage, women lovers and fatherhood would have never entered Somerset Maugham's life if he had not become the world's most famous playwright by 1912. Being gay and famous was not possible back then and a "conventional marriage" was your cover. It is hard to understand how famous Maugham was in the 1910s. We are talking mega-star of his time so public image was a real consideration.

I also think one has a serious obligation to be fully honest when you make a "factual" film and I found no evidence while making this film that Maugham ever felt sexual love towards a woman—men, yes, over and again—but never towards a woman. So to me he was homosexual, not bisexual.

Guillén: How important is Maugham's homosexuality to an understanding of his work?

House: I think Maugham was an outsider and his writing is from that perspective. His being gay was one of those elements. Armistead Maupin says being gay helps one live like a "spy"—growing up keeping secrets, observing people's reactions very closely, things like that. I think this all added to Maugham's perspective and helped him observe better, which made him a better writer. But to be honest, I think Maugham's work is for anyone who in their heart is an outsider—gay or straight.

Guillén: I note the documentary is already available for purchase online. Does this mean that—other than for a festival presence—a theatrical release is not in the works? In terms of festivals, where is it booked next?

House: Revealing Mr. Maugham is for the festivals only. I haven't really had any thoughts beyond that. It will be in festivals in Greece, Ireland, South Africa and loads of others. Every week a new one asks to screen it. It was at the BFI in March and will show at the very cool Chichester Festival in August, also in Germany, Russia and Japan. Although I have festivals asking for it, I don't think Revealing Mr. Maugham is a film for general theatrical release, but what do I know?

THE INVISIBLE WAR (2012)—By Frako Loden

The Invisible War (USA: Kirby Dick, 2012) (In theatres June 22)—The statistics that bolster the shocking subject matter of this documentary—an epidemic of sexual assault in the US military—threaten to overwhelm any criticism of its presentation. The numbers are simply astonishing. For example, 15 percent of all military recruits have raped someone in the past. Since sexual assault is a crime of repetition and obsession and not taken seriously by higher-ups, the military is a "target-rich environment" for repeat offenders. Over 30 percent of all female veterans are raped, but 80 percent of the sexual assaults are never reported. Why not? Because in many cases the officer to report to and the rapist are one and the same man. The film profiles soldiers who have reported and have even filed a lawsuit, amply demonstrating that trying to make perpetrators accountable and to recover the monetary and therapeutic costs are akin to a second rape. These women (and some men) are on the frontlines of a hidden war that can only be described as a self-destructive conspiracy given the eerily consistent patterns of these crimes. Kirby Dick avoids linking rape with military ideology and instead focuses on its criminality. His suggestion that adjudication be taken out of the hands of the military brass and placed with civilian authorities drew protests during the film's San Francisco International Film Festival Q&A from members of the audience who think civilian jurisdiction is no better.

FRAMELINE36—FOUR (2012)

It seems anymore that an American independent doesn't have sufficient credibility unless it's mounted one or two successful crowd sourcing campaigns. Joshua Sanchez's performance-driven feature debut Four (2012) [Official site / Facebook] has managed to achieve just that, securing its requisite $5,000 in Kickstarter funds for the film to traffic to its world premiere at the recent Los Angeles Film Festival. I usually suffer from compassion fatigue when it comes to Kickstarter campaigns—as a film writer I'm hit up by every project imaginable—but, supporting Four was a no-brainer. This film—adapted from the play by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie winner Christopher Shinn—brightens the cinematic landscape with its eschewal of lazy softcore porn for an authentic and complex treatment of gay characters.

Initial reviews from L.A. have been stellar. At Variety—though couched in staged reservations—Andrew Barker notes that Four spotlights "a quartet of furiously committed performances, ...burnished by vivid, atmospheric lensing." At indieWire, Emma Bernstein characterizes Four as "a quiet and poetic meditation on the solitude of the human condition." At Ioncinema, Nicholas Bell states that Four "manages to create a brooding atmosphere that slowly tightens its grip, sloughing off familiar tropes concerning race and sexuality and hitting enough subtle notes to become more intense the more quiet it becomes."

In the Bay Area, where Four is featured in the 36th edition of San Francisco's Frameline Film Festival, Jackson Scarlett observes in his festival capsule that Four "upends typical expectations of race and gender, reading Shinn's drama with an intensity that invariably invites comparison to the early films of Neil LaBute for its candor, carnality, and explicit focus on the mechanics of longing." LaBute, in fact, serves as Four's Executive Producer. At the SF Bay Times, Gary Kramer writes: "An outstanding character study, Four boasts a quartet of brilliant performances—with [Wendell] Pierce in particular a standout—and a seductive rhythm that will rivet viewers as the characters come to terms with themselves and each other."

Wendell Pierce—familiar to fans of HBO programming The Wire and Treme—bravely tackles the role of Joe, a closeted black, middle-aged, married man out on an internet sex date with young white teenager June (Emory Cohen). indieWire asserts that "Pierce steals the show with his multi-layered performance that is often best at its quietest: small facial movements and seemingly inarticulate grunts illustrate everything the character is unable to say aloud." Variety adds that Pierce manages "to convey Joe's warm, big-brotherly qualities alongside his sexual menace" and argues that—as "the film's most pronounced relationship"—its illegality is neither judged nor whitewashed and "might almost seem an argument for old-school Athenian pederasty."

That argument wouldn't have any credence were it not for the hungry reciprocity of June in a knockout performance by Emory Cohen, familiar to fans as the troubled son on Smash. Brooding, petulant, indecisive but anxious for experience, Cohen tempers longing with self-loathing in one of the most accurate portrayals of teenage sexuality this reviewer has seen in some time. June's shift from cagey indecision to seductive certainty is one of the film's most sensual moments, even as its hidden truth is painfully accentuated by the expressions of fear and disgust flickering over June's face during his uncomfortable sex with Joe. That truth—that a young man must do whatever he has to do to gain experience and find himself—is both sad and sobering.

Consummate performances are also achieved by E.J. Bonilla as the thoroughly charismatic and wisecracking Dexter striving to find an identity past the fading glory of his high school basketball years. In a brilliant stroke of sound design, Michael McMenomy layers in the sound of a dribbling basketball when Dexter and Abigayle first kiss. Aja Naomi King delivers a tortured performance as Abigayle, Dexter's love interest and Joe's daughter who—with considerable less back story than the other characters—beautifully suggests the damage inflicted by her father's not-so-secret indiscretions.

Shinn's script and Sanchez's adaptation offer insights riddled with conflicted American values. Offering to buy June some fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July (the quintessential American holiday), June protests that fireworks are illegal in their town, to which Joe responds that breaking the law is a core American quality. This scofflaw attitude concerns not only their sexual liaison, but suggests that the rules that need to be broken are those that demand people desire in certain ways, when in truth they must desire elsewise. At film's end, Joe offers June a gift of condoms and sparklers: a transgressive blessing that confirms that rules must be broken in order to discover an authentic self.

Four plays Framline36 on Thursday, June 21, 7:00PM at the Castro Theatre. Expected guest: director Joshua Sanchez.