In the twelve years I have covered Seattle International Film Festival for Watching Classic Movies, the event and the number of archival offerings have gotten exponentially smaller. For those who define classic movies as being the studio age of Hollywood, the pickings have become increasingly slim. However, while the archival slate is lighter, there are still many documentary and modern classic offerings for those with an interest in film history and the overall culture behind it. This year's festival takes place May 7-17 at SIFF Cinema and several other venues around the city.
Director Erich von Stroheim was notorious for his grand, impossible cinematic visions. By shooting higher than reality would allow, he never got quite what he wanted, but still succeeded in creating unusual and enduring classics like Greed (1924), Foolish Wives (1922), and The Wedding March (1928). In keeping with his reputation, Queen Kelly is more famous for on-set drama that led to it being incomplete rather than its content. Star Gloria Swanson objected to von Stroheim’s methods, including his instructing an actor to dribble tobacco juice on her hand and excessive multiple takes. She had him fired, leaving future archivists to cobble together the film as best as possible. This new restoration (the first after a 1985 attempt) uses previously unseen material and the director’s shooting script to fill out the end of the story.
One of the best things about SIFF is how it always includes a classic film in the “International” and this year it is an Argentine classic helmed by Mario Sofici, one of the country’s most celebrated directors. Its artistically rendered story of the trials of indentured workers on a yerba maté plantation is especially relevant in this moment.
Director John Boorman (Deliverance) thought he had the opportunity of a lifetime when after the culture-altering success of The Exorcist (1973), he was offered the job of directing Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). This documentary traces the production from the anticipation of a sure hit to the disaster it would become from beginning to end.
Long-time festival guest DJ NicFit has previously created live soundtracks for flicks like The Dark Crystal(1982) and The NeverEnding Story(1984). While this horror classic might seem like a dramatic departure from previous NicFit productions, it fits neatly into the DJ’s themes of exploring the dread and peril within fantasy. Also of note, Nightmare on Elm Street star John Saxon’s final resting place is in Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery, a few feet north of the graves of his martial arts teacher Bruce Lee and Lee’s son Brandon.
The nineties were a unique time of DIY ethos in music and film. Some of the key bands who were a part of that cultural explosion appear in this found-footage music fest documentary by prolific music video director Tamra Davis. The groups include Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Beck, Pavement, Rancid, The Amps, and Bikini Kill, many of whom continue to mold our culture.
If the nineties were about the intertwining mediums of DIY culture, the sixties were about breaking apart a restrictive culture and mining the pieces for deeper humanity and a new world. With her work in music and film, Marianne Faithfull embodied that rebellion. The film’s unusual structure and framing mechanism of a "Department of Not Forgetting” suits its equally unusual and impactful subject.
The independent filmmaker Barbara Hammer also pushed culture beyond its boundaries with a bold, queer, feminist vision that blasted out intimate truths in 16mm. She worked for five decades, so there’s plenty to unravel in this collection of archival footages, images, and audio interviews. They reveal a prolific, fearless, and influential artist who showed new possibilities to future generations of filmmakers.
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