Frederick Wiseman

Hopefully I will get myself to a few of the screenings at the Film Center.

i've seen a lot of disturbing films, but titicut follies is the absolute most disturbing thing i have ever seen.

Actually seeing films there can be a frustrating experience, since they often have problems with the prints and projectors so you never quite know what (or how long) you're in for.

This is the company that distributes all of Wiseman's films on 16mm (and video as well); I believe it may be Wiseman's own.

Both were great movies, but pretty heavy viewing

I've seen High School 1 & 2 and loved them. I'm so ass-deep in documentary here that I don't even bother to check the rest out - maybe I'll do that this weekend.

Documentaries are extremely expensive to purchase - the Wiseman ones are about $400-500.

Any ?s about film / video buying, you can direct right here.

I was curious, though, about a comment made in the Chicago Reader review of High School (by Dave Kehr): that Wiseman's roving camera, with its "pointless" close-ups, obscured the social issues and was thus "intellectually dishonest." He claims that Wiseman later learned to tame his camera and developed into a better filmmaker. I can understand this point theoretically, but it seems harsh to apply to this example, which I don't think suffered for its camera-work. And doesn't this ignore the fact that Wiseman (or any documentarian) manipulates his films in myriad ways through editing?

I think it's careful to note that even though all documentarians manipulate their material via editing and other means, one shouldn't jump to the fashionable conclusion that all is subjective and there are no more or less truthful documentaries. Manipulations can be in the service of the truth or of lies.

Noël Carroll has a brilliant essay on this issue in a book entitled Post-Theory. I believe it's called something like "The Documentary Film and Postmodern Skepticism." Also worth reading on truth and form in the documentary is an essay in Gilberto Perez's The Material Ghost which touches on Robert Flaherty and Buñuel's Las Hurdes.

But I do agree with you about the potential of manipulation to serve truth. The reason I mentioned editing was merely to say that all movies are manipulated in some way, whereas Kehr seemed to be wary of manipulation period.

I'll have to check out the Carroll essay -- I generally enjoy his work, even when I disagree with him.

He said that most of his films are getting DVD releases over the next year, by the way.

Why didn't anyone tell me there was a new Wiseman movie out?

http://www.zipporah.com/calendar/press/7

STATE LEGISLATURE

A new documentary film by Frederick Wiseman

STATE LEGISLATURE shows the day-to-day activities of the Idaho Legislature, including committee meetings, debates of the House and Senate, informal discussions, meetings with lobbyists, constituents, the public and the press. The workings of a democratic government are not of interest solely to Americans, but, because so many countries in the world are currently trying to adopt a democratic form of government, the issues presented have relevance on a global scale. The film is an example of the achievements, values, constraints and limitations of the democratic process.

Just watched Public Housing - a revelation, honestly.

Anyone else have recommendations along this line? I added Robert Drew's Primary and Crisis to my queue; any other direct cinema types working today?

i saw meat MEAT once, about 25y ago, and still can remember images.

This has been going on here, gonna try to catch some:

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1028

i was actually kinda disappointed when all of this guy's stuff became available because it meant having to sit down and watch it all, rather than just talking about how it was tragic that it wasn't in print.

how long's meat? i have a thing for les sang des betes

From whom is it available? the NYPL only holds VCs you have to watch IN the library!

last time i was at kim's they had a shelf of his stuff?

for purchase btw, not rental
seems like zipporah has put out pretty much all of them, $30 each - maybe a lil cheaper at kim's.

ah, I very seldom buy.

im guessing i shd go see Titicut Follies tonight if I'm not buying, then

if you're feeling long-ass documentary fatigue, you can use 'i'll see it on dvd' as the new 'i'll wait until it plays at the cinema'.

Boxing Gym is one of the best things I've seen this year tbh

There are a number of Wiseman films I love--Welfare and Near Death topping the list--but I didn't get much out of Boxing Gym. I just found that an inordinate amount of time was devoted to various people pummelling the practice bag.

Just watch The Store! Didn't realize it was going to be two hours long, but still really enjoyed it. Felt like I had spent the day at Neiman's but without having a nice shirt or shoes to show for it. I want to watch more docs like this.

i finally broke down and t0rr3nt3d a bundle of wiseman films... this stuff just isn't available ANYWHERE to buy or stream.
Already seen Boxing Gym, Missile and Zoo; all so very good. Now I have beat up copies of Public Housing, High School, State Legislature, Meat, Adjustment and Work, Essene, Juvenile Court, Law and Order, Primate, The Store, Hospital, Welfare, Blind, and Titticut Follies. Kinda excited.

u can buy them directly from his company fyi - http://www.zipporah.com/films

Hospital is on youtube in a high quality rip, in full.

His latest will be at the NYFF

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/at-berkeley

opens in US Nov 8

Thought At Berkeley was very good. I don’t like every Wiseman film I see--found Boxing Gym a bore, didn’t care for his horse-racing film from the early ‘70s. But I’d put At Berkeley just a notch below Welfare and Near Death.

There’s so much that, unless you were taking notes for a review, it’s hard to summon everything afterwards. (The film runs four hours.) There was a point in the first half where I thought, “This is well made, no surprise, but it’s not the ‘70s anymore, and all those sequences of incredible tension and confrontation that would flare up all of a sudden in Welfare and Hospital, you’re just not going to have that here.” And you don’t; Wiseman never manufactures drama, so mostly it’s an endless procession of meetings and seminars. I don't think Mario Savio's even mentioned for the first couple of hours, and when he finally is, it's at a talk given inside something called the Free Speech Movement Cafe. But it did start to involve me more and more as it went along; the last hour, given over to a student protest/building-takeover concerning fees and other grievances, is not handled like you might expect (especially the resolution), and that’s the hour I’m mulling and puzzling over right now, in the best way possible. I do think Wiseman is editorializing there, but I also know my own personality and biases come into how I viewed his handling of the protest. Maybe he isn’t--I don’t know. From a review I found: “Has Frederick Wiseman, the patient filmmaker whose long documentaries listened to the voices of ordinary people in public housing and on welfare, gone over to the dark side of authority? He clearly gives credence to the Cal executives, but, as ever with Wiseman, he leaves plenty of footage with information that gives you a chance to make up your own mind.” Yes--people will see that hour different ways.

Not a great deal of humour, but three things did made me laugh. A couple of shots of a guy on a John Deere mowing the campus lawns--you need the set-up for that one. There’s one seminar where a white girl identifies herself as “squarely middle-class,” says her mom’s a teacher whose income is stagnant while her own fees go up, and the only support she can get are unsubsidized loans; she starts to cry, and the black girl beside her gives her a supportive “now, now” pat on the shoulder. I don’t think there was any intentional irony there, but I did laugh. And I found it funny when Robert Reich showed up halfway through to lead a class, sharing anecdotes from his Clinton days. There was a jarring disconnect between the world of a venerated documentarian and the much-despised political class. I figured that would be enough right there to ruin the film for some people, and that amused me.

From the same Indiewire review: "Another question: Based on the proportion of women filmed by Wiseman in At Berkeley, you might think that the student body was 80% female. That's more a question of taste than reporting chops. Remember, Wiseman is the first person to say he’s not objective. He clearly likes attractive women -- not a sin, even at 83."

Well, at 51, I wasn't immune. Especially noticed the girl to the immediate right of the Thoreau/Emerson lecturer, and Sofia in Reich's class. Shame on Wiseman, shame on me.

...

feel as much shame as u need to just don't be so fucking creepy about it?

Meant as a mild, throwaway joke. No actual shame--just laughing at myself, and laughing at human nature.

at berkeley was excellent and sparked a good conversation later on with an activist friend who was in the library that day. she, unsurprisingly, had a different take on the administration than the one the film more or less lands on.

i haven't seen it yet, but i am extra curious about it for a number of reasons.

in fact, i was explaining that there are different types of documentaries to my students on tuesday and i showed them about 10 min of Juvenile Court and they were visibly repulsed when i turned the lights back on to get their reactions. they were just like OMG THAT WAS SO BORING, like they were going to die of boredom right there in the classroom.

haha

berkeley IS 4+ hours so you damn well better have a taste for wiseman's patient pacing and subtle subfrequency didacticism if you're gonna watch it. There are a bunch of "wiseman moments" where he juxtaposes the near surreal with the quotidian, like when you jump cut from watching a board room meeting to seeing three women dissecting a vulture. The movie plays like his Tempest; like he's looking back on a long creative life and surveying how modern youth is processing. There's a lot of holistic humanism too, both explicit (lengthy talk about Walden and how any disturbance in the pond sends out ripples but ultimately all is quiet unless you look beneath) and implicit (watch for the single lawn mower!). Workers sweeping stairways and laying water lines don't get to talk but Wiseman's point that "you are what you do" keeps everyone equally anonymous and equally honest (or dishonest). He did a brief skype interview from paris following my viewing and he commented that the only thing they didn't let him tape was the tenure committee meetings and that the administration had no oversight or editing capability on the piece.

Seems like the most overlooked Wiseman (and I've seen most of them) is ESSENE. If he only made that and PRIMATE, that would have been enough -- retire, you done good.

i don't like to think that his movies are ultimately about him and his career (rather than his subjects), but maybe at this point, they are? i didn't feel that way about high school 2, which was the most recent one i saw? i think?

oh, i dunno that's what it really was "about" exactly, it just resonated in that way with me.
prob my two faves are "zoo" and "missile" - the former is almost like a dream and the second is like wandering through an alternate military reality

At Berkeley premieres on Independent Lens tonight --some reviews here http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/berkeley-reviews

"National Gallery" is terrific.

i've been watching CANAL ZONE while i practice speed drills and it's surprisingly dull.

man, national gallery is GREAT

boffo ending too

"I’m of the opinion that Duck Soup is a documentary, but I’m not sure how widely shared that is. If you want to understand how government or large institutions work, see Duck Soup."

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/frederick-wisemans-top-4-documentaries

haw

well it's definitely not a comedy

why do you say that

Watched most of Adjustment & Work last night. Classic classic Wiseman, beautiful color too. It looked like I remember 1985-1986 looking too, which I find enjoyable. The guy learning how to walk around the town square and cross 4 streets consecutively while making turns made me feel genuinely nervous for him. Still got maybe 20 min left, but subjects are treated with utmost dignity afaict.

I saw him do a Q&A after National Gallery last month; he's in postproduction with a portrait of Jackson Heights, Queens.

I'd like to see National Gallery once more, at home and with time to pause over all the art talk. There's a lot of it; I drifted for a few minutes about an hour into the film. Gratifyingly, none of it sounded the least bit pretentious to me, or at least not until the woman who reads the poem near the very end. I liked At Berkeley just a bit more than this, but they're of a piece: the talk never stops, the funding may. My favourite images were the simplest, people in repose looking at art. The faces in the paintings were amazing; I sensed an implicit argument that the faces of the gallery goers were just as interesting. I found the dance piece at the end very odd. At first I thought it was being performed for a small gallery group, but it seems to have been created for the film. Very un-Wiseman-like, which was maybe why it was there. The last 30 seconds were perfect.

opening this fall

http://filmforum.org/film/in-jackson-heights-film

Awesome!

National Gallery is on PBS this week or next, check yr local listings

In progress:
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3husr6/i_am_documentary_filmmaker_frederick_wiseman_amaa/

My next big project is - I'm working with a choreographer on a ballet based on my first film, Titicut Follies. Part of the ballet will be performed at the Toronto Film Festival on September 11. And the world premiere will be in October of 2016 in New York.

RollOnYouBears123 1 point 5 hours ago
As a graduate film student focused on documentary, I've been very much inspired by your body of work.
What is your advice to aspiring documentarians looking to make a career out of documentary filmmaking?

FrederickWiseman 3 points 4 hours ago
Marry rich.

hahaa, true

cannot believe there's going to be a choreographed titicut follies
that's beyond what my brain can comprehend

IJH is playing in DC this weekend as well as NYC

http://www.zipporah.com/films/44

Film Comment reported he's been shooting at the 42nd Street library.

Basic Training, not surprisingly, is far from the hyper-stylized set pieces and confrontation you find in most of even the greatest war films. (Not my favorite genre, I'll note.) You get the more mundane side of basic training instead--and when generals and such dress down recruits, they don't have veins bulging in their foreheads, it's done with mild condescension and sarcasm. Also not surprisingly, the black recruits get the worst of it. I'm sure it's a film that had more resonance when it appeared in '71, in the wake of Cambodia, Kent State, and Nixon's ongoing machinations--there was probably a disconnect, too, because of how mundanely and un-cartoonishly the military brass is presented. I liked it, but not as much as Hospital or Juvenile Court, which bracket it, and by the time of Welfare four years later (which I just re-watched), Wiseman's working at a whole other level.

In Jackson Heights is the 2015 film I most wish I'd seen in the theater (it never screened here).

I'm annoyed that I missed it in theaters also.

This is starting up next week - have planned my next few months around it:
http://www.cinefamily.org/films/the-complete-works-of-frederick-wiseman-pt-1-1967-1976/

honorary Oscar! the shame got to them.

Primate was this weekend's film at Cinefamily's Wisemen fest - I wish I had a picture of the audience faces when *that* scene came up.

Such a great scene. You keep thinking it can't go farther, and it keeps going farther. One of his best, most morally conflicting films.

Film Forum in NYC launches first half of their complete Fred retro

http://filmforum.org/series/the-complete-wiseman-part-i-early-wiseman-series

also, somehow, Titicut Follies[ is now a ballet (at Wiseman's instigation).

Just missed the chance to see that here:

http://www.jsballet.org/16-17-season

Ex Libris is very much of a piece with At Berkeley and National Gallery: the day-to-day flow of what happens there, mixed with endless meetings where board members try to figure out ways to secure funding and keep the institution operational. I've thought all of Wiseman's recent films with the exception of Boxing Gym were great, and this one is too. I will say, though, that he finds more interest in those meetings than I do. They have to be there, but after 20 years of staff meetings and workshops and P.D. days at my job, my meeting enthusiasm-meter is at nil. It's a language and a way of interacting I can't hear anymore.

Monrovia, Indiana

fuck bbcode - go see this

I liked it more than the last two NYC features. He really makes meetings about hydrants and benches count.

His rhythm was off by a few minutes this time, but distinguishing great from good Wiseman is silly. Watch it, ILX!

I thought the library and Jackson Heights were both, by his standards, a little shapeless. The ending really sticks here.

who needs a remake of The Loved One, right?

I've been waiting forever on Monrovia, Indiana; just googled the title + Toronto and discovered it played for three days in October. How I missed that, I have no idea. I feel terrible about this--may not get another chance short of a Wiseman series at the Lightbox or a ridiculously expensive DVD.

Do you have Kanopy access? There are about 40 Wiseman films on there right now; Monrovia not yet, but I'd guess that it's coming.

That actually worked, I'm signed up--thanks. Monvoria's not on there yet, but with so many Wiseman films, right up to the last few, I assume it will be soon.

that's the medium through which I saw High School at last

really urge those who have not yet seen Monrovia, Indiana to do so

and then listen to this analysis, around 27 mins in

http://www.thecinephiliacs.net/2019/01/2018-countdown-with-keith-uhlich-part-1.html

Monrovia, Indiana has been added to Kanopy. Will make an effort to watch it soon--but then I said the same thing about State Legislature, also on Kanopy, and never followed up. I hate the idea of watching a film on a computer screen.

State Legislature is so good!!! Get your hands on a projector and watch it on a wall or something. So many meetings!!

Just got Monrovia in the mail & am really looking forward to it.

Saw State Legislature in a theater and it felt like I was really there at those budget debates!

Finally watched Monrovia over coffee this morning, one of his best. The funeral at the end got me so hard. Fave part though was when it cut to the meeting of the town council for the first time, and the lady goes “Now about this new BENCH...” I was like oh hell yes Fred, give me that sweet sweet meeting content.

The Store is good but feels slight at two hours. Not enough customer interactions

any word on what his next film is? i know he's 89 and owes nobody anything but he's been on a real tear with the last five and i'd like at least a few more.

90 yo yesterday

i don't see news of anything he's working on

when did he shoot Monrovia, Indiana? a couple years ago?

I recall him saying that he filmed it over nine weeks in 2016(?)

Email from Zipporah says not only is FW well, he's got a new movie out this year.

Yay! I gotta get on that mailing list.

Good news!

I hope he didn't schedule anything to shoot right now.

Watched Monrovia, Indiana -- classic subject, classic focus on civic activity & cooperation. Was not surprised whatsoever that there was a long, distressing, and unspeakably gnarly extended scene in the vet's office. Made me wonder if you have to get a release form from the animal's guardian in return for capturing video of the animal in such a vulnerable state?? Shirley's funeral was so boring. Not my favorite, but it was good.

FYI
https://thefilmstage.com/frederick-wiseman-reveals-his-next-film-is-about-boston-city-hall/

aw man i loved that funeral #teamshirley

City Hall will debut at Venice, runs a touch over 4.5 hours.

feeling blessed to get at least one more out of him.

really loved In Jackson Heights and Ex Libris: NYPL so I decided to go back and watch all of his films from the beginning. So far have seen Titicut Follies, High School, Law and Order, Hospital, Basic Training, all released between 1967 and 1971 and all available on Kanopy

opening this thread with more and more trepidation these days!

titicut follies and law and order are hard to watch!

High School was filmed at northeast high in Philadelphia. The best scene I thought was where “The Dangling Conversation” by Simon and Garfunkel was recited and then played by the teacher, and the students’ and her reactions are shown. I also liked the sex education scenes and the letter from a former student in the military that a teacher read at an assembly at the end. It was made in the era of my older siblings. It felt like a real time capsule

xp agree

Hospital was filmed at Metropolitan Hospital Center in NY. The transgender teenager’s description of her experience in that film was moving to me, I can’t think of another film from 1970 that might have shown something like that (I may be wrong, correct me if I am)

High School is a top-10 favorite film of mine, every scene is a killer. Sometimes I wonder if it just hits me so hard only because it's the subject of his that I have the most firsthand experience with, never having been in family court, basic training, a ballet troupe, or the Idaho state legislature.

I've never been to Jackson Heights, and that's probably my top Wiseman.

i'd be happy to show you J Heights if NYC ever comes back

(or is that where yr spouse is from?)

i visited jackson heights shortly after seeing the film (a friend lives there) and it was much nicer than anywhere else in nyc

didn't think Essene (1972) was all that compelling, but liked the confessional monologue toward the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=Q-i1Ee1i25M

what's up with youtube imbeds lately? does ILX not embed unless it's https?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-i1Ee1i25M

I've seen Titticut Follies and High School, probably in my documentary and propaganda class in undergrad. The Lincoln Center was streaming Ballet about a week ago. Alas, I missed it.

I feel like this clip would be more engrossing if the film had been shot on 16 like his other films. But I am an inveterate analogue loyalist.

At the same time, as happens with artists working in one mode their entire careers, the work kind of loses its flavor for having been rehashed. One can only be a maverick so many times in one's lifetime.

They still have almost all of his films on Kanopy

Last time I checked they just had High School and one other film, probably Titticut Follies

We've been watching City Hall over the past couple of days and the highlight so far has been an unusually fascinating scene with a garbage truck that can apparently eat everything.

variable, that's weird. I looked again and I still see three pages worth of his films. Maybe it depends on which library you subscribed with.

ya kanopy is institution-specific

there’s a big torrent with most of his movies on em

oh, that is weird. you'd think SAIC would be all over his filmography.

I think it does depend on the library, don't know particulars

Excellent long piece on Wiseman:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/magazine/frederick-wiseman-documentaries.html

Nobody talks seriously about writing the Great American Novel anymore, but Wiseman belongs to a generation that used to, and his body of work, when considered in the manner he lays out above, represents the nearest contemporary equivalent I can think of. Especially when viewed in Wiseman’s terms — as a single, ongoing project — the scope and ambition become panoramic, a national monument. Norman Mailer used to refer to his desire to write the Great American Novel in tragic-heroic terms, casting himself as an Ahab in doomed pursuit of what he called “the big one.” Wouldn’t it be funny, though, if the Great American Novel actually does exist, only it’s not a novel and has been quietly appearing in serialized form on public television for the past 50 years?

I'm going to go back to Monrovia, Indiana, probably tonight. I started it months ago, but just couldn't get in the mood.

The film, not the place--forgot the italics.

Essene and Canal Zone are both low-key mood pieces that get overlooked.

Looking forward to Canal Zone, I ordered that one along with State Legislature and Sinai Field Mission for the holiday2020 sale, which I think is still going.

caught a bunch of city hall on pbs on tv. there’s like 8 minutes of it that’s just Fred filming a garbage truck trash compactor destroying some large furniture and kitchen appliances

love that scene tbh

Garbage truck scene one of my fave scenes in any 2020 movie.

i get so excited irl to watch garbage trucks crush large furniture. how great would it be if wiseman did a garbage truck movie

Looks like PBS is making City Hall available for a couple days

https://www.pbs.org/video/city-hall-ozdubs/?fbclid=IwAR18fpau2nGVT5JGm3EtdHn4jaoQfRDETS2WhXZmDAbLl4fNq7gb9lOGbs4

Aargh--missed this!

Just watched Blind & Central Park. Both really hit the spot.

State Legislature is a very good cynical/pessimistic companion to City Hall. and Good GOD we need to fix nutrition in the state of Iowa STAT

Law & Order is my fav of the half-dozen ive seen so far. all criminals are beautiful

If you guys have library cards, join Kanopy for a bunch of Wiseman.

Um...

...did he die?

DON'T DO THAT

I’m sorry guys

Go on, James...

Meant to say my libraries stopped doing Kanopy years ago.

okay, was fearing the obit!

saw Primate, thought the statement "after a time watching it is possible to wonder which ones of these two sets of primates is the more strange" made sense

I just watched Meat, which I found several degrees less disturbing/difficult to watch than Primate. Really, really tough.

City Hall is on Kanopy now. I still haven't watched Monrovia...I was just telling a friend that I have so much movie access at home--Kanopy, Criterion, Prime, Netflix, Tubi, Hollywood Suite (not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of DVDs I've bought and filed away unseen)--that I often find I'm paralyzed; I end up rewatching some bit of fluff instead of the thousand films I should be watching. But I am going to make a concerted effort in the next couple of weeks to watch the two Wisemans.

I wonder if the Kanopy selection is different depending on your library, but all 43 Wiseman films are available in mine. I've been going through them chronologically and recently saw Meat, which was another gruesome one in the vein of Primate

yea kanopy varies dramatically by library

Canal Zone (1977) was interesting, mostly visually, but I thought Sinai Field Mission (1978) and Manoeuvre (1979) were both kind of dull

Wiseman’s four-part film series on disability - Deaf (1986), Multi-Handicapped (1986), Adjustment and Work (1986) and Blind (1987) - were all interesting.

I thought they expressed really well that communication is not just about speech or writing but also touch, sound, gesture, comportment

Apologies for recycling social media posts, but I've been thinking about Sinai Field Mission a lot.

But what it’s really portraying is a group who have fenced themselves off in the desert and (in the name of trying to maintain peace between Israel & Egypt) can’t even make peace among themselves. pic.twitter.com/v0aDfw21c2

— Chris Barrus (@quartzcity) October 29, 2021

It opens with a near wordless scene of a guy driving out in the middle of the desert to brush sand. Legit thought that Wiseman was making an Antonioni movie. pic.twitter.com/nXXvrh8Xcu

— Chris Barrus (@quartzcity) October 29, 2021

Some of the best depictions of boredom. pic.twitter.com/2feH2ypj3M

— Chris Barrus (@quartzcity) October 29, 2021

thought that film was inscrutable

I like that he moves methodically from subject to subject

going through them chronologically, the next one for me is Missile (1988)

"Frederick Wiseman Goes Fictional for the First Time - After nearly 60 years of non-fiction filmmaking, Wiseman tells IndieWire why he picked "A Couple" as his first fiction film."
https://www.indiewire.com/2022/08/frederick-wiseman-interview-a-couple-1234747847/

I am about halfway through a VHS rip of The Garden, his doc about Madison Square Garden filmed from '97-98 that is apparently his only currently suppressed film. James Dolan apparently withdrew legal permission to release it due to scenes of MSG execs plotting labor negotiation strategy (more info here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/04/25/secret-garden). It would no doubt have been up there as one of his most colorful and accessible films were it released, and Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mary J. Blige among others would officially be considered Wiseman vets.

A couple months back I asked one of the hosts of Wiseman Podcast (big, big recommendation for this BTW - better than all film podcasts) if they were going to cover The Garden - they will and apparently the film will get an official release next year.

Whoa, cool; thanks! I think I follow the Wiseman podcast guy on Twitter but have not checked it out yet.

If you check out any episode, listen to their interview with Wiseman himself. It's good and covers a lot of subjects that I haven't heard in any other interviews with him.

I'm in the middle of Belfast, Maine right now. Heavy, miasmic, rough road of American gothic but some of the scenes are among Wiseman's best.

(I love that he's into Down By Law)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOpRVNqOZUA

Love that clip. Going to guess he and Jarmusch know each other, but if not, can you imagine sitting there and watching this and hearing Frederick Wiseman say he loves your film and he's seen it six times?

Watching “Central Park” over the last few days.

Early takeaway: I would like to visit this park, but, um, not in the late 1980s.

We watched City Hall over the weekend and I sorta think it should have been called Mayor??

Early takeaway: I would like to visit this park, but, um, not in the late 1980s.

The Midnight Oil show wasn't that bad!

It was nice to see LeVar Burton!

And yeah, the Midnight Oil performance is great!

Damn, people seemed to love Ed Koch.

Happy 93rd birthday today Fred!

La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009), the last Wiseman joint shot on film and the first in a wide format (though interestingly 5:3 rather than 16:9 or 1.85 like the films that follow) is a good deal weirder than you might expect going into it. pic.twitter.com/Py1RQQUIBO

— arlin golden (@cerealburrito) May 13, 2023

Watching “Missile”.

worth turning on the subtitles on that just for the “bland music “ cues

Kinda electric to encounter “Planet Claire” and “Pop Music” in Model.

And … there’s Andy Warhol!

We had to pause Crazy Horse midway through because I outbursted with "this is Fredrick Wiseman's verison of the James Bond opening credits!" and then we wondered what a Wiseman James Bond movie would even be like - we made up more and more preposterous and funnier scenes. Frederick Wiseman's UNIVERSAL EXPORTS: Endless meetings with photo-interpreters, do we/do we not burn fuel on the spy satellite to get a better photo? Lots of one sided telephone calls, many pained looks into screens, others repetetively cleaning up audio transcriptions. A janitor empties the paper shredders and burn bags and night, Bond himself is never direcly on camera, we only see him through drone overheads and surveillance video.

Will never forget the critic who dubbed that movie Tittie-butt Follies.

The restaurant movie gets a title: Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros and a premiere at TIFF this year. It's 4 hours long too - stoked!

I hope it gets a decent run in the U.S.

sounds really good

going through all of his films in order by year I have still only made it up to High School II from 1994

There are a couple of reviews of Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros out - this one maybe the most considered?
https://outskirtsmag.com/Menus-Plaisirs

Tonight: Essene.

oh man, the scene with the flyswatter

watched Ballet, about the American Ballet Theater, from 1995. It is one of my favorite films of his so far. It is, as always for him, about an institution but features an amazing extended interview with Agnes de Mille before she died and many beautiful rehearsal sequences and performances

"Most striking might be the sounds Wiseman captures, not just of the music, hardly at all of the music (there isn't even an orchestra at the Athens performance: Wiseman gives us a close-up of the giant tape recorder filling in for the band), but rather the grunts and thuds and squeaks of the dancers' shoes on the surface of the stage. The sound of gravity in an artform that aspires to weightlessness."

https://theendofcinema.blogspot.com/2014/09/on-frederick-wisemans-ballet.html

this goes about exactly how you'd expect fred wiseman appearing as a talking head in a documentary called "cinema verite: defining the moment" might. pic.twitter.com/hiZR7s4irT

— arlin golden (@cerealburrito) February 3, 2024

(last bit of it) pic.twitter.com/FJE5IHuAOD

— arlin golden (@cerealburrito) February 3, 2024

Man, the judge in “Juvenile Court”… what a job

Apparently you can watch the latest film here

https://www.pbs.org/video/menus-plaisirs-les-troisgros-rbfnou/

we just watched that -- it was very long and medium enjoyable imo. i enjoyed the kitchen scenes and seeing the chefs foraging and clowning around, but it was definitely bougie Wiseman (not my favorite)

i did like that it was an entry into the behind-the-scenes kitchen films/media that did not portray the kitchen as a chaotic/abusive/stressful place. everything was extremely placid.

I’m sure i will eventually get around to it and probably enjoy it, but even as a Wiseman buff i’ve had a hard time working up much enthusiasm for it just based on the subject

After years of having it on my watchlist i finally got around to Near Death a couple weeks ago and it completely rocked my world, i havent been able to stop thinking about it since, might be his masterpiece imho. It wasnt as disturbing or difficult to watch as i’d always feared, but just unbelievably rich & complex.

Such a great film--my second favourite (seems like a weird word to use) after Welfare.

His new film is not as good as "Near Death", however, it is still worth checking out. Wiseman has great rhythm to his films. This latest one is no exception. The 4 hours zoom by really quickly.

Going through his films in order - after Ballet (1995) I had a hard time with La Comédie-Française (1996), I just couldn't relate to it.

Public Housing (1997) is about the Ida B. Wells housing project in Chicago (which was torn down in the 2000s). It is pretty great.

I am watching Belfast, Maine (1999) now and loving it. It is over 4 hours long though, so I'm taking my time

I’m watching “Welfare” in chunks of 15-20 minutes. Just really painful to watch

(The family kitchen documentary was … it was pretty good, not my favorite. It’s playing on a one night basis here in June and I have to think about whether I’m committed enough to spend four hours watching it on a week night.)

Painful riveting, though, right? As I've said many times, I think his greatest film.

which one?

Welfare.

Frederick Wiseman’s Filmography Has Been Restored and is Coming to Theaters

Zipporah Films is pleased to announce that, for the first time, all Frederick Wiseman films are now available in digital formats. The process, which took nearly five years, involved the restoration and digitization of 33 Wiseman films from 1969 through 2006 that have not previously been available, except in film. Now 45 Wiseman films are available in digital formats, removing barriers so that these films can reach a wider audience, as many were only available in 16mm prior to the restoration.

I am enormously grateful to the individuals and organizations whose support made possible the digitizing and restoration of my films, which will now provide new access to the films. ~ Frederick Wiseman

This project involved the Library of Congress delivering the original 16mm negatives for 32 films and one 35mm negative for the narrative THE LAST LETTER along with the Harvard Film Archive sending the sound elements to DuArt Laboratory and then to Goldcrest Post Production, after the historic DuArt closed. The negatives were scanned, conformed, color graded and then matched with the original sound to create the 4K restored digital versions. Colorist, Jane Tolmachyov, who has worked with Wiseman for decades, handled all the grading, while Wiseman personally reviewed and approved all 33 films.

Beginning in the fall of 2024, the Wiseman films will be exhibited in retrospectives starting at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles and at Film at Lincoln Center in New York, in addition to many other exhibitions around the world. Also, the restored 4K version of LAW AND ORDER will premiere at Cannes Classics this month. The films are available for additional programming worldwide at Zipporah Films.

No one ever posted about this--wish I were there, I'd be all over it.

https://www.filmlinc.org/series/frederick-wiseman-an-american-institution/#films

I know! If I was there, I'd be all over it too. Ms T. is in NYC and managed to catch both Near Death and Central Park. At some point, I really want to see Near Death in a theater.

BTW, the American Cinematheque has been running this:
https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/frederick-wiseman-an-american-cinematheque-retrospective/

(probably going to see Public Housing this Sunday.)

Near Death is great, but I will always insist that Welfare stands above everything else.

There's room for more than one masterpiece. In Jackson Heights is every bit as crucial but for differing reasons.