ISSUE #76
BEAM FROM THE BOOTH | GRAND RAPIDS FILM SOCIETY
[EDITED BY: GRIFFIN SHERIDAN & SPENCER EVERHART]
Hello and welcome back to an all-new, very special installment of BEAM FROM THE BOOTH brought to you by GRAND RAPIDS FILM SOCIETY!
After a thrilling conclusion to our October programming last week, we are moving right into all the exciting stuff we have planned for our November lineup which kicks off TONIGHT at 8:00PM with the penultimate installment in our SEASONS OF BERGMAN series: AUTUMN SONATA. Be sure to check out David’s foreword to the film further down, and join us later tonight for this late-Bergman masterpiece starring...another legendary Bergman!
But first — take a look at everything we have planned for you this month...
COMING UP IN NOVEMBER 2024
NOVEMBER 4th: AUTUMN SONATA (1978)
[THE SEASONS OF BERGMAN SERIES]
A primary example of Bergman’s late mature style, this is the film that paired “the two Bergmans” (Ingmar and Ingrid) for the first and only time in their respective legendary careers. Here Ingrid Bergman is in the role of a renowned classical pianist who also happens to be the mother of a character portrayed by Liv Ullman, Ingmar’s former lover and creative muse throughout the 1960s and 70s. The film captures a day and a night they spend together as they recognize a rare opportunity to address serious ruptures that occurred in years past, even while escalating the intense risks that accompany the reopening of old wounds. Featuring indelible, powerfully gripping performances from two of cinema’s most accomplished female actors, Autumn Sonata will launch a series of cathartic moments for viewers who empathize with the turmoil and regret that exists within so many parent/child relationships.
NOVEMBER 13th: FILM SOCIETY ROUNDTABLE
[FREE SOCIAL EVENT]
Our signature FREE social event returns! Join like-minded Grand Rapids film fans and filmmakers for an evening of discussion and mingling.
NOVEMBER 18th: THE TIME MASTERS (1982)
[MICHIGAN PREMIERE OF THE NEW 4K RESTORATION!]
Directed by visionary science-fiction animator René Laloux (Fantastic Planet) and designed by the legendary Jean Giraud The Time Masters is a visually fantastic foray into existentialist space adventure.
After his parents are killed on the dangerous planet Perdide, young Piel survives by maintaining radio contact with Jaffar, a pilot transporting the exiled Prince Matton and Princess Belle from their former kingdom. Jaffar seeks the help of Silbad, a cheerful old-timer who knows how to circumvent Perdide’s hazards, including brain-devouring insects and watery graves.
Along the way, Jaffar and company encounter a pair of impish homunculi stowaways, identity-less angels controlled by an amorphous hive mind, and the Masters of Time, mysterious beings who can bend reality and perhaps reveal to the heroes their secret origins and destinies.
NOVEMBER 20th: OPEN PROJECTOR NIGHT
[SUPPORT MICHIGAN INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING]
Celebrate short films with the Open Projector Night series, a recurring cinematic event presenting the work of local, regional, and national filmmakers with a Michigan connection. Enjoy a diverse range of movies from animated narratives, and commercial work, to experimental pieces. After the event, participate in a question-and-answer panel with the filmmakers and vote for your favorite short film.
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Tickets for all events— and more— are available now at GRFILM.ORG
Tell your friends. We hope to see you there!
AUTUMN SONATA: A TRUBUTE TO INGRID BERGMAN
[BY: DAVID BLAKESLEE]
As I’m gathering my thoughts about what I want to say in the minutes allotted to me to introduce our screening of Autumn Sonata, I want to focus our attention (for now) in this article on Ingrid Bergman, one of the film’s two female leads (along with Liv Ulmann). She was an immensely talented actor, with a consensus reputation as one of the greatest female actors from Hollywood’s classic golden age era. She was the star of all-time classics like Casablanca, Notorious, and The Bells of St. Mary’s, and the winner of three Academy Awards (and a seven-time nominee!). Her performance in Gaslight (1944) earned her one of those Oscars, and its relevance strongly endures some eight decades later as the source that introduced the term “gaslighting” to describe the phenomenon of men who brazenly lie and insist on the truth of false statements as a technique to sow confusion and self-doubt in the minds of women they seek to manipulate. Almost ridiculously photogenic, Ingrid Bergman’s ability to captivate audiences through the beauty and power of her expressive talents is about as legendary and acclaimed as an actor could ever hope to achieve.
But as impressive as these career accomplishments are when listed out, what I love most about Ingrid Bergman is her courage and determination to pursue excellence as an artist and purposeful autonomy as a human being. While I immensely enjoy her work of the 1940s, during which her face was forever framed by the glamorously flattering light that Hollywood studios bathed her in, it was the boldness of her personal and career decisions as that decade came to an end — and the creative filmmaking adventures that they led to — that elevated her to the highest tier of my personal favorite screen actors.
I don’t have the time or space to provide an adequate mini-biography here for those who are not familiar with the fuller story of Ingrid Bergman’s life, but I will share a rough outline of events that make her career so remarkable:
Born in Sweden in 1915
Grew up as a favorite photographic subject by her father which taught her command and comfort in front of the lens
Began acting in her late teens and soon took on lead roles in Sweden in the mid-1930s
Though she was married and had a daughter at the time, she came (by herself) to Hollywood, age 24, at the invitation of David O. Selznick, producer of Gone With the Wind, who also had a major hand in bringing Alfred Hitchcock to the USA
She was an instant sensation due to her natural unaffected beauty, her vivaciously charismatic presence, and, as an actor, for her intensely conscientious and dedicated work habits
Throughout the 1940s, she was highly in demand but recognized how Hollywood treated women actors as they aged and began branching out in other directions, including stage acting
In 1950, Bergman’s wholesome and widely admired public image was scandalously tarnished after her affair with Italian neorealist director Roberto Rossellini became public knowledge
She was denounced on the floor of the US Senate by a politician who shamed her as “a powerful influence for evil” due to the breakup of her marriage, and her name became a byword as she was on the receiving end of brutal insults and threats by supposed guardians of public morality
Her attraction to Rossellini was partially due to her admiration of his work on film, which presented human dramas and characters in a manner radically different and more authentic than the elaborate artifice that Hollywood specialized in
Rossellini and Bergman collaborated on a series of films throughout the 1950s that met with mixed receptions on their original release but are now regarded as some of the most outstanding features of the times, in particular Stromboli and Journey to Italy
As social attitudes about divorce and marriage evolved, Bergman eventually reconciled with Hollywood and the American public and went on to have a highly satisfying second half of her career, performing on stage and TV throughout the 50s, 60s, and into the 1970s
Her impeccable composure, dignity, and personal warmth held up over the course of her entire life, and she serves as an influential role model for women who want to maintain fidelity to a self-defined vision of their personal expression and fulfillment
When Ingrid Bergman was approached by Ingmar Bergman to finally collaborate on a movie project, as had been widely envisioned by many as an intriguing possibility ever since the “two Bergmans” of the film industry became household names, she knew she was ill with cancer and that her opportunities to make movies were becoming much more limited. She regarded the opportunity to work with her fellow Swede as a fitting and honorable way to wrap up her career, and that’s exactly how it turned out. Autumn Sonata was Ingrid’s final appearance on the big screen, though she did give one more performance in a TV mini-series about Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, for which she won a posthumous Emmy Award.
I’ll have more to say about the resonance between the character she plays in Autumn Sonata when I introduce the film, but for now I’ll just say that the correlation between Ingrid Bergman’s real-life story and her performance as world-renowned pianist Charlotte Andergast is poignant (that’s one way of putting it), and her courage to take on such a challenging role — and to convey such complex emotions so profoundly — is nothing short of heroic. I’m eager to share the experience of watching her, and Liv Ullmann, do their soul-searing thing under the masterful eyes of Ingmar Bergman and cinematographer Sven Nykvist with those who come out to join us for our third installment of “Seasons of Bergman”!
UPCOMING EVENTS
AUTUMN SONATA (Bergman, 1978)
WHAT: Part of our SEASONS OF BERMAN SERIES. A primary example of Bergman’s late mature style, Autumn Sonata holds a series of cathartic moments for viewers who empathize with the turmoil and regret that exists within so many parent/child relationships.
WHEN: TONIGHT! Monday, November 4th, 8:00pm
WHERE: The Wealthy Theatre
WHAT: Join us for another FREE social event and chat about filmmaking, screenwriting, and all things cinema with other like-minded members of the GR film community.
WHEN: Wednesday, November 13th, 7:00pm (Doors at 6:30, arrive early to mingle!)
WHERE: The Front Studio Annex — right next to the Wealthy Theatre!
THE TIME MASTERS (Laloux, 1982)
WHAT: MICHIGAN PREMIERE! Directed by visionary science-fiction animator René Laloux (Fantastic Planet) and designed by the legendary Jean Giraud, The Time Masters is a visually fantastic foray into existentialist space adventure.
After his parents are killed on the dangerous planet Perdide, young Piel survives to encounter hazards like brain-devouring insects, watery graves, angels, and the Masters of Time — mysterious beings who can bend reality.
WHEN: Monday, November 18th, 8:00pm
WHERE: The Wealthy Theatre
And so we’ve arrived at the end of another BEAM FROM THE BOOTH! We appreciate you taking the time to read it and truly hope you’ll continue to do so. Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to get each issue in your inbox every week, and stay up-to-date on all things GRFS.
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Until then, friends...
