Professional Documents
Culture Documents
March/April 2011
www.thebigpicturemgazine.com
contents Issue Thirteen. March/April 2011
Features
06 06 | Spotlight
Good Sports:
Six Cinematic Stories of
Real-life Sporting Heroes
world
Cult Film-Themed T-shirts
24 | Widescreen
Small But Perfectly Formed:
cinema
The World's Smallest
Travelling Movie Theatre
28 | 1000 Words
First Past The Post:
The Influence of Eadweard
Muybridge and Sallie
Gardner at a Gallop
Regulars
0 4 | Reel World
Rocky Runners
1 8 | One Sheet
Sporting Greats
‘The horse is too small, the
jockey too big, the trainer 2 6 | Four Frames
too old, and I'm too dumb The Natural
to know the difference.'
3 6 | Screengem
guide to the cinema of each region. To contribute to the project or purchase copies please visit the website. The Big Picture ISSN 1759-0922 © 2011 intellect Ltd. Published by Intellect Ltd. The Mill, Parnall Road. Bristol BS16 3JG / www.intellectbooks.com
Editorial office Tel. 0117 9589910 / E: info@thebigpicturemagazine.com Publisher Masoud Yazdani Senior Editor & Art Direction Gabriel Solomons Editor Scott Jordan Harris
Design Assistant Persephone Coelho Contributors Jez Conolly, Nicholas Page, Emma Simmonds, Neil Mitchell, Nathan Francis, Scott Jordan Harris, Gabriel Solomons
Please send all email enquiries to: info@thebigpicturemagazine.com / www.thebigpicturemagazine.com l The Big Picture magazine is published six times a year
To view our catalogue or order our books and journals visit www.intellectbooks.com. Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG. | Tel: +44 (0) 117 9589910
March/April 2011 3
Left Slyvester Stallone as rocky BALBOA
f i l m b e yo n d t h e b o r d e r s o f t h e s c r e e n
refuses to languish at the
bottom of life powering
himself to the top
through sheer effort...
Rocky
Runners
No sequence in cinema
is as simply inspiring as Syl-
vester Stallone’s first sprint up
the 72 steps that lead to the started its Millennial festivities
Philadelphia Museum of Art with 2000 Rocky fans, all in
(Rocky [Avildsen, 1976]). The costume, making the famous
When Rocky Balboa ran up the steps beneath scene is a strong metaphor – upwards dash. The motiva-
Philadelphia’s Museum of Modern Art, he here is a man who refuses to tions for the thigh-pumping
languish at the bottom of life,
inspired innumerable real-life runners to the powering himself to the top
pilgrimages made by Rocky
Runners are often, though,
same. Scott Jordan Harris tries to keep up. through sheer effort – but it greater than a simple desire
appeals to audiences not only to ape a movie scene – or
because of its figurative power, even participate in city-wide
but also because it can literally celebrations – and some of the
be imitated. The Rocky Steps, most compelling were cap-
as they are now universally tured by Michael Vitez in his
known, returned for four of 2006 book Rocky Stories.
Rocky’s five sequels, and each The same year as Vitez re-
appearance increased the leased his book, Stallone gave
number of fans who headed to some Rocky Runners an even
them to recreate Rocky’s run. greater honour than immortal-
Indeed, so much a feature isation in its pages: immortali-
of Philadelphia have ‘Rocky sation in a Rocky movie. After
Runners’ become that the city the final bell rings in Rocky
Balboa (Stallone, 2006), the
credits scroll alongside images
of dozens of delighted Rocky
Runners. Seldom have the
movies and real life collided as
famously, or as powerfully, as
do at the Rocky Steps. [tbp]
gofurther Read Rocky Stories: Tales of Love, Hope, and Happiness at America’s Most Famous Steps by Michael Vitez (Author) and Tom Gralish (Photographer)
Good
Sports 'Knute Rockne All-
The sports biopic is perhaps the most popular sub-genre of American' AKA 'A
the sports movie. J e z C on olly and N e il M itc h e ll team up Modern Hero' (1940)
to look at six cinematic stories of real-life sporting heroes. Dir. Lloyd Bacon
Kobal
Seabiscuit was
a knock-kneed,
undersized, overlooked
Seabiscuit (2003) thoroughbred...His
Dir. Gary Ross was a classic story of
the underdog winning
Seabiscuit was the perfect hero through against
for Depression-era America – his
was a classic story of the under-
the odds
dog winning through against the
odds – but we have to wait over
40 minutes into Gary Ross’ screen
adaptation of the Laura Hillen-
brand 2001 bestseller, Seabiscuit:
An American Legend, before we
actually get to see the eponymous
legendary racehorse. This is a film
focused at least as much, if not
The Damned United more, on the human story of the
three men behind Seabiscuit’s suc-
(2009)
Tom Hooper’s Dir. Tom Hooper
cess as about Seabiscuit himself.
The horse’s owner, car magnate
adaptation of David Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges),
trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper)
Peace’s novel...is One of the fiercest rivalries Eng-
lish football has seen came not
and jockey Red Pollard (Tobey
Maguire) all carry deep emotional
an affectionate and between two teams but between
legendary manager Brian Clough
wounds and are brought together
by a damaged horse – Seabiscuit
humourous portrait of (Michael Sheen) and Don Revie
(Colm Meaney), whose cham-
was a knock-kneed, undersized,
overlooked thoroughbred – in
the hubris, arrogance pionship-winning Leeds United
Clough dubbed ‘the dirtiest and
which they see hope and find
Prefontaine (1997)
Somebody Up There
Likes Me (1956) Dir. Steve James
Dir. Robert Wise
The short life of American middle
and long distance runner Steve
Paul Newman’s career-making
Prefontaine (Jared Leto) is cele-
portrayal of Rocky Graziano’s
troubled life and turbulent Rocky’s early life brated in this film by Hoop Dreams
(1994) director Steve James.
rise to boxing’s middleweight
championship of the world tells was marred by an Prefontaine was tragically killed
in a car accident at 24, but his life
a real life tale of sporting glory
achieved very much against abusive father, street story was packed full of sporting
achievement, dramatic events and
the odds. Born Thomas Rocco
Barbella in New York City, the
fighting, petty crime, moments of controversy.
Displaying an aggressively
future champ was, as respected
boxing writer Bert Sugar noted,
reform school, jail and single-minded determination, the
‘raised on the Lower East Side,
where both sides of the tracks
eventually military diminutive Prefontaine, born with
one leg slightly shorter than the
were wrong.’ Rocky’s early life
was marred by an abusive father,
prison. other, was a central figure in the
‘running boom’ that swept Amer-
ica in the 1970s. James’ film en-
street fighting, petty crime, reform
compasses his dramatic failure to
school, jail and eventually military
take a medal at the 1972 Munich
prison; but it was his fearsome
above Olympics, his much-criticised dis-
reputation as a brawler that RONALD LEE ERMEY, ED O'NEILL AND JARED LETO
eventually gave his wayward life
the focus it needed. Graziano was
above left
Paul Newman
The diminutive Prefontaine, born pute over appearance fees with the
Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)
firmly established in American
sporting legend by the three
with one leg slightly shorter than and his staggering record of 120
victories in 153 races. Coached
ferocious title bouts fought against
his fierce rival Tony Zale (Court
the other, was a central figure by Bill Bowerman (R. Lee Er-
mey), whose Blue Ribbon Sports
Shepard). He may have only held in the ‘running boom’ that swept company later became Nike, Pre-
fontaine was adored by his fans,
the title for a year, but his is an
inspirational story for all of life’s America in the 1970s. smashed records and ran his way
into sporting history.
underdogs. [Neil Mitchell]
[Neil Mitchell]
Kobal
Yankees (1942)
Dir. Sam Wood
left
Gary Cooper
go further [bookS] The Damned United by David Peace and Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Exit
of cinema, collecting
to Nowhere
a feeling of being creatively
stifled at the design agency
I worked for at the time. My
brother is a screen printer by
above trade, and I’ve always been
Superman II (1980) able to take ideas from popu-
lar/retro culture – including
films – and design and produce
bespoke garments.
their sharp and witty designs. The Big Picture caught up with Ford to
discuss Last Exit To Nowhere’s cinematic couture.
Have you ever wanted to de- What has been your most
velop a detail from a film into popular design to date?
a new design but have been Our sci-fi T-shirts are probably
denied the right to do so? the most successful.
Not so much denied, but
encouraged not to – for legal What are your company’s
reasons. We’d love to be able to forthcoming projects and
do references from the Duncan overall plans for the future?
How long does the design
process take from original The first film based Jones film Moon (2009). We’d like the company to con-
tinue in the way it has been
idea through to the finished
T-shirt? design was a Thorn Have you ever received re-
quests for any particular
developing, offering new and
interesting designs along the
Some ideas come and it can
take just a couple of weeks to Industries T-shirt films or details to be made
into a design?
way. If you ‘Join Us’ at Last
Exit To Nowhere you can
turn it around. Other ideas stay
locked away for months before based upon the Yes, we encourage people to qualify for discounts and spe-
send in their ideas and sug- cial membership offers. With
making an appearance.
fictional company gestions to us. It’s good to enough members we are hop-
know what folk think about ing to conquer a small country.
Do you often find yourself
noticing details watching re-
seen in The Omen what we do. [tbp]
cent films which would make
great Last Exit to Nowhere
trilogy in 1998.
designs?
Yes. It’s almost impossible for
me not to now.
Sporting
Greats
Whether about tennis or football, surfing or skiing,
cinema has served up some memorable sporting stories.
Nic hol as Page looks at a few of the posters that sold them
to us. Images courtesy of The Reel Poster Gallery, London.
s
ports are an increas- Chariots of Fire (1981)
ingly important part of Original US One Sheet
our culture and society
and so it is fitting that The use of space and composition in
the sports movie has this poster for Hugh Hudson’s Chari-
become such an important part ots of Fire is outstanding. The poster,
of cinema. As the following which shows a group of athletes from
examples prove, the genre is re- the film training for the 1924 Olym-
sponsible for some wonderfully pics in Paris, uses negative space in
designed movie posters. order to emphasise (to quote the Brit-
ish writer Allan Sillitoe) ‘the loneli-
ness of the long distance runner’. Un-
fortunately, this brilliant and some-
what unconventional design wasn’t
initially used to market the film in the
West. After the success of Chariots
of Fire at the 1981 Academy Awards
(where it scooped four awards), the
film was a promoted in America us-
ing a more standard poster so as to
show off these recent achievements.
18 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951)
Original US Insert
This poster for Ida Lupino’s tennis
drama Hard, Fast and Beautiful is
slightly more conventional than the
other posters here, but does well to
encapsulate the importance art once
held in the creation of successful
movie marketing material. Just as we
see with the posters for commercial
releases these days, it has always
been important to feature each of the
movie’s stars in order to sell it suc-
cessfully – and at the very least this
meant employing an artist who could
accurately draw characters that would
then be recognised by the general
public. This, of course, isn’t the finest
artistic example, but it does also show
us an early use of the tagline.
20 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
one sheet sporting greats
new
The Endless Summer (1966)
Original US One Sheet
Art by John Van Hamersveld The Film International Website
www.filmint.nu
Illustrator and graphic artist John
Van Hamersveld is perhaps best
known for designing the album
sleeves and concert posters of
popular and psychedelic bands
during the 1960s and ‘70s. He was
22 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
widescreen
seeing film in a wider context
small
but
perfectly
formed
developed by Swansea
based non-profit production
company Undercurrents, The
Sol Cinema is just one in a
series of initiatives set up by the
company to highlight envi-
ronmental issues in a fun and
creative way. The Sol Cinema
certainly ticks both these boxes
plus a few more as it reflects
both the macro Eco-cool con-
sumer trend for all things green
as well as the nostalgic vintage
trend. The 1960s caravan con-
version snugly seats 8 adults and
offers up a unique cinematic
experience - screening an ec-
lectic range of short films with
inspiring environment themes.
Lavished with pride, style and
Powered entirely by the rays of the sun, the a bubbly crew of usherettes, the
aptly named Sol Cinema is the World's smallest micro cinema uses lithium bat-
teries to store the energy from
(and sweetest) travelling movie theatre. the Sun to power the cinema
throughout the day and night
to f i n d o u t m o r e v i s i t w w w. t h e s o lc i n e m a . o r g
and the photovoltaic panel har-
nesses the sunlight, even as the
films are being shown, so they
never run out of power.
The cinema is currently in the
running to win £5,000 from
The Co-operative group for the
best project to educate about
climate change, so to cast your
vote simply visit www.co-oper-
ative.coop and click on the 'Join
The Revolution' link. [tbp]
24
24www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
www.thebigpicturemagazine.com March/April
March/April 2011
2011 25
25
four frames
t h e a r t o f a b b r e v i at e d s t o r y t e l l i n g
Beyond Baseball
baseball fans, he hit a
home run. J e z C o n o l ly
The Natural, Dir. Barry Levinson, 1984 takes us out to the ball
game.
1 2
First
Were films assessed by
a similar method, with a
movie’s amount of influence
divided by its running time,
there would be one undisput-
Past
ed pound for pound cham-
pion of the cinema. Eadweard
Muybridge’s three-second
short, Sallie Gardner at a Gal-
lop, has legitimate claims to
be both the first and most
influential film ever made
x the x
– and, while the influence
of most monumental films
extends only to other films, its
influence reaches into science,
art and photography.
Muybridge shot Sallie
Post
Gardner at Palo Alto, Califor-
nia, on 19 June 1878. Present
were an array of reporters
and Leland Stanford, an
industrialist with whom (de-
pending upon which sources
you consult) Muybridge was
either engaged in a noble
experiment or locked in a
The Influence of Eadweard Muybridge high-stakes wager. Their pur-
pose was to answer a simple
and Sallie Gardner at a Gallop but puzzling question: did
a horse at full gallop ever
lift all four of its feet off the
ground simultaneously?
Muybridge, already a re-
nowned photographer, had
found the answer a year ear-
lier, when he took a series of
pictures of a racehorse called
Occident; but questions over
the processes to which he
subjected his photographic
negative caused his findings to
➜
be discredited. His set-up at
Palo Alto ensured the results
of the Sallie Gardner experi-
ment could not be doubted.
go further... [book] Read Muybridge’s Horse: a poem in three phases by Rob Winger and Eadweard Muybridge, the Complete Locomotion Photographs by Hans-Christian Adam
30 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
on location
t h e p l a c e s t h at m a k e t h e m o v i e s
xmilan x
Standing in the shadow of its colossal
cathedral under typically grey skies, it’s
difficult not to feel inspired by Milan’s
Gothic beauty. N i c h ol as Pag e takes a tour.
kobal
32 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com March/April 2011 33
on location
left
Miracle in Milan The bored daughter-in-law of a
wealthy Italian textile baron, upon
below
t h e p l a c e s t h at m a k e t h e m o v i e s I Am Love
I Am Love (2009)
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Italy, 120 minutes
Starring Tilda Swinton, Flavio
Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini
go further... [film ] Watch Il posto (1961) Cronaca di un amore (1950), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963)
jake
lamotta's
Championship
y
Robert DeNiro’s Jake what we already know: that has no such faculty, and
LaMotta is seldom up on the jewels themselves are nor does anyone around
his luck, but in one of the worthless – but the belt they him. And so it is his actions
passages of Raging Bull came from was a unique that define him – and no
when he is most definitely item that could surely have action defines him more
down on it, he becomes sold for a high price. succinctly than the way
desperate for money. Seizing It is seldom discussed as he treats his title belt, the
the title belt he earned as such, but the championship physical symbol of his
middleweight champion belt in Raging Bull is one best accomplishments.
of the world, he smashes of the most evocative Like almost everything of
it with a hammer to break objects in American cinema. importance in LaMotta’s
off its jewels. Taking these Most big biopics centre life, he battles to get it –
to a pawnshop, he is told on a subject – a politician and then wilfully destroys
given to making quotable it thinking he is doing the
speeches, say, or a writer right thing. [tbp]
whose aphorisms may be
easily appropriated for the
script – with a talent for
verbal expression. LaMotta
36 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
Intellect
Books & Journals
publishers of original thinking | www.intellectbooks.com
NEW
Book
Copycat
Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake
of Alfred Hitchcock’s
Psycho (1960) is essentially
one long act of audacious
imitation – for the most part
Killer
a shot-for-shot copy, with
the action transposed to the
modern day. Although it’s
inferior in every respect,
it’s perversely watchable as
there’s a certain mileage in
comparing and contrasting it
to the superior original.
Gus Van Sant’s lurid, near-identical rehash of In this brazen facsimile,
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is an act of earnest the unfortunate Marion
but ultimately misguided experimentation. Crane is played by Anne
Heche, who, as before, ab-
e mma si mmo nd s can’t believe her eyes. sconds with a fortune before
kobal
meeting a grisly end in the
Bates Motel at the hands of
mummy’s boy, Norman –
now Vince Vaughn.
Psycho ‘98 retains both
the original’s script and the toutlecine.com
iconic Bernard Herrmann
score, with minor tweaks by
the original screenwriter Jo-
seph Stefano and celebrated Although it’s inferior
contemporary composer
Danny Elfman respectively. in every respect, it’s
The darting horizontal and
vertical lines of the opening perversely watchable
credits also remain intact,
but the monochrome is re-
as there’s a certain
placed by vibrant flashes of
wicked green.
mileage in comparing
Hitch’s cameo is replaced
by one by Van Sant himself,
and contrasting it to the
who is wittily shown being superior original.
reprimanded by a Hitchcock
impersonator. Van Sant also
adds candy colour, masturba- above and right toutlecine.com
tion, male and female nudity Psycho (1998)
– and adjusts the stolen cash
for inflation. It is both a gar-
ish, cynical imposter and cin-
ematic curio; it may well have
introduced a new generation
to Hitchcock as intended, but
ultimately it’s testament to
the reality that you just can’t
fake greatness. [tbp]
kobal
left and bottom right
Psycho (1960) go further Read ‘Ace in the Hole: Your Guide to Anal Fixation in Psycho’ on TheBigPictureMagazine.com
thebigpicture
t h e a r t o f a b b r e v i at e d s t o r y t e l l i n g
A s a t r i b u t e to Elizabeth Taylor
let us linger for a while over what
is surely one of the greatest ever
onscreen kisses. If proof were needed
that, in her heyday, Taylor photo-
graphed better in close-up than pretty
much any other actress, this George
Stevens romance surely provides it.
To begin with, it’s worth noting that
unlike most other characters in the
film George (Montgomery Clift) is
shown most frequently in medium
or long shot, quite deliberately so
as to suggest that he is the object of
scrutiny. The distance also implies his
relative anonymity; he often seems
somewhat dwarfed in both his exterior
and on-set scenes. We only really get
to see him in close-up when he is with 3 4
Angela (Taylor), as though it is only
when he is with her that he is in focus,
as though she has drawn him in and
somehow completed him.
In among the many slow, languid
dissolves that Stevens employed to tell
his story, this kiss stands out as espe-
cially rapturous and all-consuming. It
is during this clinch, when the couple
are dancing, that they express their
deep love for each other for the first
time. The lines that are exchanged
emphasise the intimacy but no words
are really needed. The extreme close-
ups, with mouths mostly obscured or
occupied in the kiss, speak volumes:
this is love.
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