Oddball Celluloid Sex

I can't stop writing on this blog.  I've been writing and writing and writing and by my count, I'm still 13 films from being caught up on this blog.

On August 16, I went to Oddball Films for the second time to see a program titled Celluloid Sex.

Among the highlights were:

Getting His Goat; silent with intertitles; (1923)
Lovemaking; directed by Scott Bartleet; (1970)
The Game; directed by George Kaczender; (1966)
Buried Treasure; animated; (1928)

I believe the programmer for the evening was Kat Shuchter.  The "official" program started late as there were a series of films screening as I entered.  The projectionist (whom I assume was Ms. Shuchter) had two projectors rolling at the same time.  One image was a nude or scantily clad woman while the other film image was a nude man, frequently exercising.  The images of the two people frequently overlapped and created interesting juxtapositions.  The films featuring the women mostly looked like strippers or burlesque dancers performing.  The films featuring the men appeared to be exercise videos.  Rather than attempting to titillate the audience like say Chippendales dancers, these young men seemed to be doing a normal calisthenics exercises...except they were nude.  Jumping jacks seemed to be the exercise of choice for the men.  I thought the dual images were fascinating; especially when the overlap of images was almost exact.  It seemed like the directors of the films had placed their cameras at the same height and distance from the subjects.

Buried Treasure is part of the vintage erotica compilation film The Good Old Naughty Days which screened annually at the Red Vic.  Buried Treasure is an animated cartoon starring Eveready Harton, a prodigiously endowed man who apparently suffers from priapism & satyriasis.  Oddball only screened a short clip but I saw the entire short film at the Red Vic.  Popeye animator Max Fleischer was rumored to have worked on the film.  The film was rumored to have been commissioned for a party honoring Winsor McCay.  By coincidence (or perhaps by design on the part of the programmer), there was a Winsor McCay presentation at this year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival.  Unfortunately, I missed that program.

Getting His Goat was purported to star Creighton Hale who appeared in D.W. Griffith's Way Down East but that claim is in dispute.  Regardless, the film is interesting for the way pornography was approached in the 1923.  In Getting His Goat, a young man comes upon three women swimming nude in the ocean.  He takes their clothes and agrees to return their clothing if they agree to have sex with him.  They agree to the act but only if the sex occurs through a hole in a tall wooden fence.  Never trust a glory hole.  As the protagonist protrudes himself through the hole (which is conveniently located at waist level), he unknowingly couples with not one of the women but rather a goat which the women have procured.  I guess the goat didn't make any noise because after the man climaxes, he proclaims it was the best sex he had ever had.  The obvious comparison is to Edward Albee's The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia, but Albee's play (which I saw at an ACT production in 2005) was a serious drama whereas Getting His Goat is clearly a comedy.  In today's world, I doubt there is such a thing as a pornographic comedy.

Lovemaking consisted of an extreme close-up of two people having sex.  I believe it was a man and a woman but it was difficult to make out which body parts were being shown or exactly what act was being performed.  The film reminded me of biology when we would increase the power of magnification on the microscope and the image would completely change going from the original to something unrecognizable.

The Game had a plot, dialog and everyone kept their clothes on so it stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest of the evening's program.  An 11th grade boy with a reputation as a ladies man bets his friends that he can score with the class virgin.  He goes with the soft sell to charm the girl who is initially hesitant.  He eventually breaks down her defenses but his conscience gets the better of him and he cannot bring himself to deflower the girl.  He reacts with depression and frustration towards his family and friends.  I thought it was a little overwrought for what it was but then by 2013 standards, it was kind of quaint the way teenagers interacted in 1966; at least the way it was portrayed in The Game.

There were a string of television commercials which were very amusing too.  I cannot recall them all except one for a detachable shower head which all but stated it's primary purpose was for women to masturbate with in the shower.

Overall, it was another enjoyable evening at Oddball.  I wish I could make time to see more of their programs.

Saul Bass, Woody Allen & Jasper Johns at Oddball

On Thursday, I went to Oddball Films for the first time.  Located in the Mission District, Oddball is located on Capp Street, a narrow street which runs parallel to Mission St. starting at 15th Street until it curves around to end on Mission around Army Street (aka Cesar Chavez St.).  Notorious for streetwalkers, I don't believe I've ever been on Capp St.  In fact, I rarely venture "East of Mission."

Not sure what I would encounter, Capp St. was a surprising mix of well tended residences and businesses included a car repair place and a business having an NFPA 704 placard.  Oddball shares its building with Sutter Furniture Manufacturing Company.  Oddball, a company specializing in offbeat films, looks like what you would expect a film archive to look like.  Housed on the top floor of an old warehouse space (with wooden beams in the middle of the floor space), Oddball has reels of film piled floor to ceiling.  The room was drafty and the well worn wood floor did not help acoustics.  The film projectors were in the middle of the audience with the whirring motor clearly audible to all.  The bathroom had a shower stall in it.  There was a makeshift bar in the corner and wall ornaments which made it looked like a cineaste's clubhouse.

A few years ago, I noted Saul Bass' distinctive title sequences from several Otto Preminger films.  When I read the title of Thursday's program (Saul Bass and the Creative Impulse), I decided to visit Oddball for the first time.  RSVP was required and I assumeed cash only payment at the door.  There were probably 20 to 25 people in the audience who took up 80% of the seats.

Four short films were screened.

Why Man Creates; directed by Saul Bass; animation and live action; 29 minutes; (1968)
Bass on Titles; directed & written by Saul Bass & Stan Hart; documentary; (1977)
Woody Allen: An American Comedy; directed by Harold Mantell; documentary; (1977)
USA Artists: Jasper Johns; documentary; (1966)

The screening  was scheduled for 8 PM, but didn't start until after 8:15 and the total program took just over two hours.  Guest curator Landon Bates operated the two projectors.  He cut short the ending credits as he switched from one film to the next.  The screening had a "vacation movie" feel; like I was a kid going to one of my parents' friends' house to watch their vacation film or slide projector photos.

Why Man Creates won an Oscar in 1969 for Best Documentary Short Film.  It looks very much like a film from the 1960s.  It reminded of some of the stuff I saw on PBS as a kid in the 1970s.  Comprised of several unrelated parts, my favorite segment from Why Man Creates was called The Edifice.  It was an animated history of civilization.  The animation reminded me of the comic strip B.C. and was clever at moments.

Bass on Titles consists of the complete title sequences from 10 films which Bass worked on.  The ten films were The Man with the Golden Arm, The Big Country, West Side Story, Walk on the Wild Side, Nine Hours to Rama, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, The Victors, In Harm's Way, Seconds & Grand Prix.  In between title sequences, Bass talks about his approach and goal regarding each title sequence.  In a nutshell, Bass started off making logos for films.  Before, during and after his foray into film-making, Bass was a graphic designer who designed the logos for United Airlines, AT&T and many other companies.

Bass' first film job was to create the film poster for Preminger's Carmen Jones. Bass quickly realized film allowed his images to move so the rose consumed by flames was integrated into the title sequence.  These animated sequences (often using geometric shapes) are my favorites.  Their aesthetics match my preferences.  In addition to numerous Preminger films, Bass titled several Hitchcock classics (Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho).

As Bass described, these title sequences foreshadowed the film.  The burning rose represents the beauty and danger associated with Carmen Jones, the sharp points in The Man with the Golden Arm are the syringes Frank Sinatra's character uses to shoot heroin, the kaleidoscopic images in Vertigo show the jumbled state of Jimmy Stewart's mind & psyche.  Once Bass moved towards live action scenes which were essentially prologues to the film, my interest in them waned.  It's purely a matter of personal preference but those animated sequence appealed to something very deep within me.  Not emotionally but rather visually hypnotic, I could watch them over and over.

Woody Allen: An American Comedy was a talking head documentary featuring Woody Allen and clips from several of his early films.  I didn't really learn much.  I had seen an American Masters two parter on Allen last year so I was familiar with the material.  I am surprised at how little Allen has changed over the years.  Certainly he has aged but his dress and mannerisms have remained constant.

USA: Artists was a program on National Educational Television, the predecessor to PBS.  Apparently profiling American artists, Jasper Johns was the subject of this particular episode.  With halting speech as he changes course in mid-answer, Johns is not an ideal interviewee.  Whatever Johns lacks in polished oration, he makes up for with the earnestness of his commitment to art.  At times appearing ill at ease in front of the cameras, John's on-screen persona is hard to imagine in today's culture of media saturation.  A successful artist would be schooled in interview skills before being allowed in front of the cameras.  That a visual artifact like this footage even exists made the trip to Oddball worthwhile.

All said, the evening at Oddball was very satisfying if not somewhat physically uncomfortable.  Many people brought food and drink with them.  The cushioned seats were all occupied when I arrived so I will attempt to arrive earlier next time.  Cold on Thursday night, I imagine the space traps heat on warm days.  Still, if I see a program which interests me in the future, I will make it a point to attend.

Dennis Nyback Triple Play and FOFF's Bricks in the Wall

Dennis Nyback came to town in April. He screened five programs in five days. I was able to catch three of the screenings.

I watched two programs at the Red Vic.

Terrorism Light and Dark is a revealing program of cartoons, short films and propaganda clips displaying America’s schizophrenic view of terrorism before 9/11. It includes the Cold War US Government film, What You Need to Know About Biological Warfare and Buster Keaton’s Cops.

I Know Why You’re Afraid is Nyback’s program of educational films that should never have been shown to impressionable children! Included are the darkly hilarious bus safety film, Death Zones (1975), an excerpt from the drivers ed shocker, Mechanized Death (1961) and many more macabre films that does much to explain our culture’s paranoia.

I caught a third program at the YBCA.

So, You Wanna Fight! - Film archivist and raconteur Dennis Nyback returns to YBCA for his annual screening of weird and wonderful delights from the past. Today he'll present boxing films of the 20th Century from the teens to the fifties. Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Max Baer, "Jersey" Joe Walcott, Tex Avery, many others, plus the ferocious fightin' eight-year-old girl, Pam Sproul. Don't get too close to the screen or you might be splattered with blood.

Of the three, I enjoyed I Know Why You’re Afraid which closed with a fantastic 14 minute short film called Caught in a Rip-Off featuring a pitch perfect synthesizer soundtrack and Sam Peckinpah inspired slow-motion action scenes.

I sensed that Nyback was expecting more audience interaction than what occurred after the screenings I attended. I actually felt bad enough for him to ask a few questions since everyone else was reticent after Terrorism Light and Dark.

My favorite moment came after So, You Wanna Fight!. Nyback introduced the show by saying he had been asked in the past to create a boxing related program. Nyback said boxing never appealed to him so he would regularly throw out or give away boxing related films that were donated to his archive. For reasons which escape me, Nyback decided to program So, You Wanna Fight! when the YBCA asked him. After the program, a man in the audience asked Nyback if he had changed his mind about boxing after creating the program. Nyback replied that his opinion had not changed and he felt boxing was barbaric and should be banned. The questioner expressed his disappointment that Nyback could not appreciate finer points of the sweet science.

Caught In A Rip-Off (1974)

A/V Geeks | MySpace Video

Nyback also screened two programs at Oddball Film and Video which I did not attend. In fact, I've never been to Oddball. I'll have to get out there sometime.

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I notice that the Film on Film Foundation's next event is at Oddball on May 15. The progam is titled Bricks in the Wall: Humans and Their Built Environment.

In this program we explore how we construct our urban milieu... and how it constructs us. It is said necessity is the mother of invention and the converse is just as true. We are shaped by and made dependent on the environment we build around us. First Lewis Mumford sets the tone with his as-relevant-as-ever views on urbanism. Then we examine methods of construction from the ultra-primitive to the super-modern. After a personal and poetic detour into lyrical city-history by future Oscar-winner István Szabó, we conclude with a couple of films delving (somewhat ham-fistedly) into the psychological fallout of our urban obsession.