Based on the you’re only allowed to use your memory rule I was almost tempted to try to merge my vision of this with my vision of Magnificent Seven but that would have defeated the purpose of the exercise.
Anyway, the thing with Seven Samurai is like Citizen Kane in it is so wonderfully complete it’s difficult to find any scene that really says Seven Samurai (without copying the original poster) until I finally thought the best scene would be when the samurai arrive in the village to discover while they are desperately needed they are so, so, so not wanted. And it takes the clownish Kikuchiyo to spell this out to them.
Anyway I’m mostly pleased with this though in hindsight I would have done this as a vertical composition so that I would have had room to show the village and the terrified villagers. Also because faces were done from memory I don’t think I drew Katsushir?bishi enough. Finally before anyone points this out, I know there are only six samurai in this picture… Just pretend Gor?bei is standing in the back of the group.
Well yesterday was the Seattle Art Museum’s first thursday free day so I went and did an hour sketching there and then went and then and went and did the Pioneers Square art walk. It was raining and yellow rain gear isn’t very practical when you are trying to mingle with the Seattle hipster art crowd.
But back to the museum they had rotated all of the exhibits bringing out quite few new material from storage and because of this I spent much more time looking than drawing and came out with only two sketches. So today’s sketch is of Calvin Hunt’s Thunderbird mask and Regailia. This is the third timeI’ve drawn this piece but the first time I’ve drawn in it’s entirety. I’m not sure what I think of it so far. The other two are more accurate but I think this one has more vitality. Anyway here’s the original from the angle I was looking at it from. See what you think.
This is one of the times I do not like the random factor of this exercise because if I’d been making my own daily choices on this thing I would not have chosen two Orson Welles films in the same week! The great thing about Citizen Kane is that it’s one of the great character studies in film. The bad thing about Citizen Kane (from this humble illustrator’s perspective) is that’s pretty much all it is.
Sure I can go on for hours about the mes en scene, the amazing cinematography and chiaroscuro but I couldn’t think of an image that said Citizen Kane (at least not in five minutes) sure there’s the Kane for Governor poster and Kane and his partners standing on the newspaper… but everyone does that.
So I’m afraid I phoned it in with a very quick and rough sketch of the Xanadu estate sale.
“Leave your troubles outside, So- life is disappointing? Forget it! We have no troubles here! Here life is beautiful… The girls are beautiful… Even the orchestra, is beautiful.”
For the fifth day of my film sketch challenge I drew Bob Fosse‘s Cabaret.
I’m a huge fan of Bob Fosse’s work and since most of that was theater it is always a regret that it is impossible to see more. Caberet is easily one of his best and certainly one of his darkest and most depressing.
It was kind of hard to decide what to think Cabaret is about, visually I mean. Joke’s about Liza Minnelli aside, her performance as Sally Bowles is one of the best character portraits in film simultaneously sexy, fun loving, broken and pathetic It would be very easy to coast on just drawing a pin up of the Mein Herr number.
Ultimately I think Cabaret is about the disintegration of Weimar Germany and the rise of the Nazi Regime with the Kit Kat Club as the last place to go to deny this terrible reality for one more minute before the curtain comes down. Joel Grey as your host to this happy state of denial is brilliant. Grinning and amoral he comments on these states of affairs on stage through song. Off stage he is mysterious and silent almost acting as Sally’s conscious as he seemingly exists in her peripheral vision quietly mocking her.
I confess based on the rules of this month’s challenge I kind of cheated. I briefly looked up a couple of images to refresh my memory on Arab robes and Dromedary Camels for this sketch of Lawrence of Arabia. I think I blew it anyway as I have Lawrence way too low looking like he’s sitting on the camel’s neck rather than on top of the hump. I suppose I could argue that I was trying to fit everything in the page but I don’t think anyone will buy that.
Anyway this is the scene of T. E. Lawrence leading the attack on the Turkish base in Aqaba which is heavily fortified against a naval attack but open to a land attack since nobody thought anyone would be crazy enough to trek through hundreds of miles of desert to do it.
This week’s theme was a bit of a comedy of errors. I started with the intent with going for corporate marketing based around the Hudsucker Proxy but when I arrived at Scarecrow I found both of their copies out. So I went with yellow journalism and media sensationalism instead. One movie very funny and the other was most definitely not.
The funny one, The Front Page. was directed by Billy Wilder and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and was the third film to be based on the play of the same name. It takes place in the press room of a Chicago courthouse on the night before a hanging where a half dozen newsmen (I’m not completely sure if it’s accurate to call them journalists) wait for the hanging to occur and battle to get the most sensationalistic scoop… even if they have to make it up! Then the prisoner escapes and hilarity ensues.
I saw the original play back when I used to usher at Trinity Repertory Theater and loved it. Unfortunately it’s been years so I don’t quite remember it well enough to tell just how straight an adaptation Wilder’s film is. But I think it makes for a good example for my on going pondering about what makes a good film adaptation of a film. I believe Wilder does a good job expanding the story from the single newsroom set of the play and moving around from the courthouse, to a newspaper office, to the train station and elsewhere throughout Chicago.
This was well paced comedy with a great performance from everybody with Jack Lemmon as a cocky star reporter who’s trying to quit the business to get married but can’t resist one last scoop and Walter Matthau as his hilariously amoral editor who will do anything for a story. As far as I’m concerned this is pretty much Matthau’s movie as he dominates every scene he is in with his fast-talking and manipulation.
Burt Lancaster plays J.J Hunsecker, a powerful columnist who forces publicist Sidney Falco to attempt to break up his sister and a handsome jazz guitarist.
This is easily my favorite Lancaster performance; He plays Hunsecker as a completely driven and narcissistic demanding respect and stopping at nothing to get what he wants provided it doesn’t tarnish his reputation. Curtis is wonderfully pathetic as Falco who, doing whatever it takes to make a buck and completely dependent on Hunsucker desperate for his approval and trailing behind him like a jackal does a lion.
This is a wonderfully brutal cynical film that paints a dark picture of humanity in a dark vision of New York captured brilliantly by Howe’s camera and accentuated by the jazz soundtrack performed by the Chico Hamilton Quintet.
