Notorious

1946 - Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 28th November, 2009

In the hands of many another director, “Notorious” would have been merely a film noir - a cruel story of a courageous, patriotic young woman turned inside out by manipulative and unscrupulous men, one of whom uses her love for him to force her into extreme danger. But with Hitchcock it becomes something deeper: a glorious exercise in film style, where virtuoso camerawork combines with the characters to create a wonderful harmony of visuals and narrative. Even sixty three years after the film's initial release, the simplicity and subtlety of Hitchcock's direction will have you holding your breath in anticipation, at almost every turn.
Hitchcock made this film in 1946, when the war was over but the Cold War was just beginning. A few months later, he would have made the villains Communists, but as he and Ben Hecht worked on the script, Nazis were still uppermost in their minds. In 1946 the United States Government was still very sensitive about the atomic bomb, and J Edgar Hoover, then head of the FBI was violently opposed to the making of “Notorious”. Only after long discussions between David O Selznick, Hitchcock and Hoover did it go ahead, on the understanding that there was no mention in the script of the FBI or nuclear weapons.

• Notorious contains what was billed as “The longest screen kiss in the history of the movies”. It lasts an impressive 3 minutes but is a bit of a phoney. The actors break off every now and then to satisfy the Hayes Code (the American censor) which insisted that kisses should only last 3 seconds.
  
• Claude Rains was somewhat challenged in the height department. He had to stand on a box for scenes with Cary Grant who was a full 7 inches taller.
  
• Hitchcock makes his usual on screen appearance - no prizes for spotting him - look for the portly gent in theparty scene.
  

A Prairie Home Companion

2006 - Dir: Robert Altman
Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 13th November, 2009

“What a lovely film this is, so gentle and whimsical, so simple and profound. It is nothing less than an elegy, a memorial to memories of times gone by, to dreams that died but left the dreamers dreaming, to appreciating what you've had instead of insisting on more.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
This movie is the product of the meeting of two great minds. It’s written by Garrison Keillor (of Lake Wobegon fame) and directed by Robert Altman (who made MASH, The Long Goodbye, Nashville, Gosford Park and over a hundred more films). The dry, wry, laid back wit of Mr Keillor is ideal material for Mr Altman who worked with multiple cameras in a free flowing, semi-improvised style. The dialogue is spoken in a natural way and is presented, uncut, un-tampered with and at its natural pace. Mr Altman lived for the movies and gave each project his all. He said he kept track of time not by the years but by the film he was making. Given an Honorary Oscar in March 2006, he astonished his audience by revealing he had been living 10 or 11 years with a heart transplant. He didn't mention that he also had leukaemia. He died just after this film, his last, had its first showings . At the time of his death, he had two films in pre-production.
If this film bears Altman’s directorial stamp, it owes its inspiration and its title to the imagination of Garrison Keillor. Since 1974 Mr Keillor has been presenting a weekly radio show on Minnesota Public Radio called...”A Prairie Home Companion”. It was his creation - all the characters in this film regularly appear (played by Mr Keillor and a small cast of regulars). One of the show's best known features is News from Lake Wobegon, a weekly story-telling monologue, claiming to be a report from Mr Keillor's fictitious hometown of Lake Wobegon, "the little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve ... where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."
The show is "sponsored" by the fictitious product "Powdermilk Biscuits", whose slogan is "Made from whole wheat raised in the rich bottomlands of the Lake Wobegon river valley by Norwegian bachelor farmers; so you know they're not only good for you, but pure ... mostly",

• The film was shot largely on-site at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, the home of the actual A Prairie Home Companion radio show.
• Altman reputedly directed most of the film from a wheelchair. Despite being over 80 he embraced new technology and shot his last film in High Definition video.
• All the musical numbers were recorded “live” in front of an audience - no miming to playback or editing. The audience voted for the best take.