MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: CARNEGIE HALL (1947)

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Thursday, May 15, 2008

CARNEGIE HALL (1947)

The inexplicable career of maverick filmmaker Edgar G. Ulmer got a shot at something near a standard budget in this indie pic (United Artists released it) which turned out to be a swan song for ex-Paramount execs (producer Wm LeBaron & music director Boris Morros) as well as silent actress turned scripter Seena Owen. The puerile storyline (widowed mom lives & works at Carnegie Hall hoping that some ‘good’ music will rub off on her boy only to have him go Swing!) is merely an excuse for some classical turns. Wade thru the turgid dramatics of the first half and you’re gifted with 75 minutes of choice bits, staged to fine effect & stunningly shot by William Miller who also did Ulmer’s remarkable zero-budget Yiddish pic, GREEN FIELDS. Heifetz, Piatigorsky, Walter Damrosch, Stokowski, Lili Pons (suspect intonation even then), Ezio Pinza, Jan Peerce, Rise Stevens, Bruno Walter an eye-popping turn w/ Artur Rubinstein literally throwing his hands at the piano and all too briefly Fritz Reiner showing unexpected chops as a Hollywood character actor. Who knew?

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Thursday, May 15, 2008

CARNEGIE HALL (1947)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE