Ryerson Lecture Series: September 25, 2007 – Steve Marx

Hollywood’s Truthtellers
Remarks in relation to two films:
The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance (John Ford, 1962)
Written on The Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
Railroad is a “thing”, primary theme is ‘actual” beginning of film.
Filmmakers are the primary audience for the nuances.
To tell the truth you have to give falsehood very strong arguments (you risk total misunderstanding).
America became a great place when the train came, i.e. when the great people came.
Ford changes visual style to that of a character talking (seen as a fault by film critics).
Disorder contained in an orderly fashion.
Silhouette: two dimensional character.
The newspaper editor isn’t “real” until he gets hurt.
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
The real truth matters.
Fred Camper at M.I.T. influenced Steve’s choice of films to illustrate truth.
Part of telling the truth is being true to the medium you work in.
Manny Farber: “White Elephant and Termite Art, “ eg. Paul Cezanne

~ by epkfilms on June 14, 2008.