Canon, when it comes to film, is a funny thing. Once a particular film is anointed to the pantheon of “classics” it tends to stay there, but the way subsequent generations interact with it can shift with changing social mores. Such is the case of John Ford’s landmark western “The Searchers” (1956), which screens on glorious 70 mm at the Somerville Theatre this Thursday and Friday. John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, an unrepentantly racist Civil War veteran on a mission to rescue his kidnapped niece (Natalie Wood) from her Comanche captors. “The Searchers” was and is considered the apogee of the genre – on the most recent Sight and Sound critics poll of the greatest films ever made, it ranked at No. 15 – but one can’t help but imagine that it plays differently in 2024 than it did in 1956. Edwards’ vitriolic bigotry is a difficult pill to swallow, but “The Searchers” also interrogates his racism, and the racism inherent in the genre, in a way that is fascinating in hindsight (Edwards is kept in check throughout the film by his more progressive nephew, played by Jeffrey Hunter). Unchanged by time is the fact that “The Searchers” contains some of the most striking visuals of Ford’s career, rendered all the more breathtaking in the extra-large film format; the final shot of Wayne’s antihero, framed against the endless plains of the frontier, is one of the most unforgettable in all of cinema.
While “The Searchers” has been revered since its inception, other films take a more circuitous route. Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Army of Shadows” (1969), which screens Sunday as part of the Harvard Film Archive’s continuing retrospective of the director’s work, was doomed upon its initial release by timing. Melville’s white-knuckled tale of World War II espionage had the misfortune of coming out less than a year after the political upheaval that rocked Paris in May of 1968, and the left-leaning film critics of the influential film journal Cahiers du Cinema excoriated it as a reactionary throwback. So toxic was the film’s reputation that it didn’t even get an American release until 2006, at which time it was reappraised and hailed as one of Melville’s finest works. It’s a reminder that canon is never set in stone, and that there will always be more hidden gems worthy of rediscovery.
One such discovery makes its presence known this weekend, gracing the screen of The Brattle Theatre for the first time since its initial theatrical run nearly 30 years ago. Bridgett M. Davis’ “Naked Acts” (1996) has been out of print and nearly impossible to see for decades – which is a shame, as it has long been considered a key work of Black independent cinema, and a rare POC-centric entry in the indie-film boom of the 1990s. Perhaps it was just waiting for its time to come; its story, about a Black actress working to overcome insecurities surrounding the shadow of her Blaxploitation-star mother and her own past sexual trauma, seems tuned uniquely to the conversations of the present day. “Naked Acts” screens in a new restoration Friday through Sunday.
The Harvard Film Archive’s collaboration with acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hamaguchi Ryusuke continues this week with a trio of screenings. On Friday, Hamaguchi will be on hand to introduce and discuss Somai Shinji’s “Moving” (1993), one of the director’s favorite films and a stated influence on his work. On Saturday, Hamaguchi will be present for a screening of “Drive My Car” (2021), the film that made him a household name among aficionados of world cinema (this screening is sold out at press time, but there will be a first-come, first-served rush line in the event of unclaimed tickets). Finally, on Sunday, Hamaguchi and composer Ishibashi Eiko will present two screenings of Hamaguchi’s “Gift” (2023), a silent film created to be augmented by Ishibashi’s live performance. Needless to say, these screenings may constitute a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and remind us of just what a special institution the HFA is.
This year marks the centennial of the birth of one of international cinema’s most indelible stars. With his raffish good looks and world-weary demeanor, Marcello Mastroianni was an icon of midcentury international cool, particularly when serving as leading man (and frequent on-screen alter ego) for the great Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. To celebrate, The Brattle has booked screenings of two of the star and director’s greatest collaborations. Monday brings the international sensation “La Dolce Vita” (1960), in which Mastroianni plays a disillusioned tabloid reporter drifting through the glamorous parties and nightlife of swingin’ Rome. On Tuesday, catch Fellini’s metatextual masterpiece “8½” (1963), in which Mastroianni plays a distinctly Fellini-esque filmmaker trying to make sense of his personal and professional lives while working through a crippling case of creative block. Both films are masterful depictions of existential ennui, yet Mastrioanni is so magnetic you’ll envy his characters all the same.
What does the future of U.S. politics look like? Your guess is as good as mine, but documentary filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss have spent the past years in the trenches trying to map out the shape of it. In “Boys State” (2020), the directors followed participants in the titular summer leadership program, in which thousands of high school boys hone their political instincts by staging a massive mock election cycle; “Girls State” (2024) naturally examines the program’s yearly female counterpart. On Wednesday, they screen in a double feature at The Brattle, presented by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy of the Harvard Kennedy School. The directors will be present after “Girls State” for a discussion with some of their young subjects. Are the kids all right? Come to The Brattle and find out!
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
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