The Invisible Imaginary Ubiquitous Winged Witness

When looking at various lists of great and/or important directors of the last fifty years, few will include Alexander Mackendrick, which is a bit of a shame. With only nine features to his name, his somewhat scattershot oeuvre is rarely considered as a whole. People either think of him as the director of some outstanding Ealing comedies (The Man in the White Suit, The Ladykillers, etc.), adventure films that appeal to children (Sammy Going South, A High Wind in Jamaica), or his dark masterpiece, Sweet Smell of Success. (The greatest screenplay ever, in Filmbrain's not-so-humble opinion.) Though his style changed over the years, his approach to filmmaking remained consistent, and his masterful technique can be found in all of his films. When Mackendrick finally called it quits as a director (he wasn't much interested in playing the Hollywood game), he decided to share his passion for and philosophy of filmmaking with others by becoming a professor at the California Institute of the Arts. For the next twenty-five years (until his death in 1993) he taught a select group of students from around the world everything he knew about filmmaking, and then some. British author and director Paul Cronin has spent the last few years pulling together anything and everything available related to these courses, as well as conducting extensive interviews with former students of Mackendrick, and the resulting book (On Film-making) and film (Mackendrick on Film) are so utterly vital that it will establish a place for Cronin in the history of cinema. The material in both the book and the film will no doubt become more valuable as time goes by -- with each passing year there are fewer and fewer directors who consider filmmaking as a process the way Mackendrick did (his mantra to students was "process, not product"). As technological advances continue to simplify the "craft" of filmmaking, these lectures will become all the more important, for they serve as a blueprint for cinema itself, described in detail by somebody who truly mastered the craft. Cronin was in town last week for the Tribeca Film Festival, where they screened two of the seven hours of material he has. To say that the experience was enlightening would be an understatement. The bulk of the material shown concentrated on the screenwriting process, and Mackendrick's approach might at first seem hostile to some screenwriters. Though he never downplays the importance of a good screenplay, he emphasizes that film is a visual medium -- the pictures should tell the story. (He believes you should be able to understand 60-80% of a foreign film without subtitles.) He would work with his students, paring down screenplays to the barest minimum. He'd have them do something called "The Streetcar Exercise", where they would have to take five to six pages of dialog from Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, and recreate the scene as a bit of silent cinema, limited to five title cards of eight words each. Fascinating. One might find this approach odd coming from the director of Sweet Smell of Success, a film comprised of non-stop verbal darts. Yet as Mackendrick shows, watching the film without the soundtrack still tells us so much about J.J. Hunsecker and Sidney Falco. What's brilliant about the Odets/Lehman screenplay is the absence of even a single line of expository dialogue -- Mackendrick takes care of all that with the camera, the lighting, the positioning of the actors, etc. Unlike Robert McKee (and his ilk) who concentrate solely on the analysis of story structure, Mackendrick felt that film grammar and dramatic construction should never be considered separately -- "form can never be entirely distinguished from content." The interviews with Mackendrick's former students, including James Mangold (Heavy, Cop Land) and screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist), are incredibly useful in that each provides examples of how they have applied Mackendrick's teachings to their own films. They also go into detail about particular lessons, including Mackendrick's fascination with the Watergate Hearings, which he believed to be directed by a true artist -- somebody who understood the rules and grammar of cinema. (Cronin includes footage from the hearings, and Mackendrick was right -- it is remarkable.) Less a documentary and more of an illustrated lecture, it goes without saying that Mackendrick on Film is essential for any serious student of film, but its appeal is such that it will be of great interest (and use) to even the armchair cinephile. (The liberal use of film clips to illustrate the teachings is a huge benefit.) As a struggling screenwriter, Filmbrain found himself walking away with newfound inspiration, something that no screenwriting book (or class) has ever come close to achieving. The book (On Film-making) will be published in the States in August by Faber & Faber. The film will be screened in its entirety in the fall at the Museum of Modern Art and (hopefully) elsewhere. Do not miss it. As for the title of this post, it's probably best to let Mackendrick explain it himself, in this excerpt from the book.

Comments

[phyrephox]

Wow that sounds really interesting, thanks for the report FB.

[Kza]

"Me too" post. Never heard of this, and now I have to see it -- sounds awesome. Thanks again, FB.

[Flickhead]

Thanks for writing about Mackendrick. He's been a favorite of mine for years. Other than Sweet Smell of Success, his Ealing films are excellent. But I'd warn anyone unfamiliar with his work to avoid A High Wind in Jamaica and his last (worst) film, Don't Make Waves, which shows up regularly on TCM.

[Filmbrain]

Is Don't Make Waves really that bad? I've been dying to see it (as it is the one film of his I've yet to see.)

Though it's been many years since I've seen A High Wind in Jamaica, I recall it being quite good for it's kind.

[Flickhead]

As late '60s, TV-style "groovy" comedies go, I suppose Don't Make Waves is a cut above most others. I'll admit that it takes full advantage of Sharon Tate's physique.

I saw High Wind... as a kid and loved it. But seeing it again after 35 years, when it came out on DVD, it took everything for me to stay with it to the end.