"Tosh Talks" first Podcast: with guest Jeff Mizushima

This is my first podcast production. I'm still doing "Tosh Talks" on YouTube, but wanted to try out another medium, and not worry about the visual aspect of chatting to you - the audience. Here, Jeff and I discuss the issues of film viewing. And making various lists of film watching. Do listen! -Tosh Berman

"From The Third Eye: The Evergreen Review Film Reader" Edited by Ed Halter & Barney Rosset (Seven Stories Press)

ISBN: 978-1-60980-615-6

The Evergreen Review was an off-shoot publication/ journal of the Grove Press, edited by the legendary publisher Barney Rosset.   When I went to used bookstores, it wasn't hard to find old issues of the Evergreen Review.  What strikes my fancy is that reading the review in the late 1960s is so different than reading it in the 21st century.  Even the stylish prose of that period is so 1968 and almost dated in a beautiful manner.  Languages do change, and it's interesting to pick up a book or especially a magazine from a specific decade or time and notice how the style has changed.  "From The Third Eye" is a collection of articles and even ads from The Evergreen Review that focused on the film culture of that period.  For me, the most important film magazine of that era was Jonas Mekas' "Film Culture," which he published through the Filmmaker's Co-op and Film Anthology.   Evergreen Review, although they did essays and reporting of either film, filmmakers, and film festivals, at its heart was a literary magazine.  The publication was set-up as a promotional tool for Grove Press, but also here, for Grove Films, which distributed and produced European films, and actually help made/presented works by Jean-Luc Godard, and writers/filmmakers Marguerite Duras and Alain Robbe-Grillet, which by the way, are all interviewed for the magazine as well as being in the book.  

Without a doubt, a perfect snapshot of the concerns of underground or radical cinema, but also the politics of the Vietnam world, and the counterculture that was lurking in Manhattan at the time.   Nat Hentoff, Norman Mailer, Parker Tyler, and Amos Vogel are the writers that comment on cinema, but the featured filmmakers are Andy Warhol, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ousmane Sembène, Duras, Robbe-Grille and William Klein.  Also two pieces on Dennis Hopper, one on "Easy Rider," and the other focusing on the making of his "The Last Movie."  

Throughout the book there are the original ads that were placed in the magazine, all either focusing on film scripts published by Grove, or film ads distributed by Evergreen/Grove.  In a sense, it was a small world, but everyone in that world was an essential figure for culture and the arts.  And here at that time, politics was very much part of the creative cultural world.  A fascinating document and a fun trip back in time, when things were lively. 

Jean Luc Godard Soundtrack Music on Tosh Talks

Being a long-time fan of Jean-Luc Godard's cinema, it's interesting how important the music or sound is to all his films.   I don't imagine Godard ever thought about the separation of sound and image, but more with the relationship between the two mediums.  Over the years I have collected both on vinyl and CD numerous soundtrack compilations or the original soundtrack to Godard's works, but this hand-made bootleg, with the images pasted on the record sleeve, is perhaps the best of the lot.  

This compilation on vinyl goes from 1959 (A Bout de Souffle) to 1980 (Sauve qui Peut La Vie), and what one would consider the iconic Godard years.  Due to avoiding the legal issue, this album is the best representation of Godard and sound/music of those years.   The one thing that struck me is the sadness in the music. Composed by various writers such as Martial Solal, Michel Legrand, Georges Delerue, Paul Misraki, Antoine Duhamel, Gabriel Yared, and singing by Chantal Goya (Masculin Feminin) which is superb French Yé-Yé and the ultra-rare (and the excellent) Claude Channes' "Mao Mao." The instrumental passages are very somber when you listen to it without the Godard images.  Not sure if Godard instructed the mood that is in the music for his film, but the above composers all wrote magnificent pieces for the Godard soundtrack. 

The album is not that easy to locate, but one can through by chance your local store, or more likely on the Internet.   If you are a fan of Godard, it's a must that you obtain this specific recording.  Beyond that the music here is gorgeous.  - Tosh Berman

Jonas Mekas A Dance With Fred Astaire on Tosh Talks

Tosh Berman of "Tosh Talks" chats about the wonderful book by Jonas Mekas "A Dance With Fred Astaire" published by Anthology Editions. In great detail, Mekas talks about working with Yoko Ono/John Lennon, Andy Warhol, Jack Smith and other greats in the independent underground film world.

"Slow Writing : Thom Andersen on Cinema" by Thom Andersen (The Visible Press)

ISBN: 9780992837723 The Visible Press

In the 1960s there were a lot of great 'film' related books that speak to the fan of the medium, but also express a viewpoint of the world as well.  Thom Andersen's "Slow Writing" reflects that series of perfect moments when I used to haunt the bookshelves at Samuel French and Larry Edmunds bookstore in Hollywood. 

Cinema was not separated from 'real' life - even Hollywood had to reflect on the outside world once in awhile.   For me, and this is entirely a subjective view there is two type of fans of cinema.  The one that gets into the merchandising and the inner world of that medium - mostly the comic.com generation, that offers a peculiar view of the world that is half-made up and almost have a will of steel in bringing that world up in their everyday lives.  And then there is the cinema that reflects on the politics, the concerns, and the nature of being human in a world that's often unsettling.  These two sometimes go hand-in-hand, or more likely take two separate highways to get to their destination.    "Slow Writing" is a book that reflects on the 'outside' world but through the medium of the cinema.  It's a fantastic series of essays focusing on Ozu to Christian Marclay, Warhol, and for me an obscure filmmaker Pedro Costa.  

Thom Andersen writes clearly and doesn't have the slightest whiff of academia confusion or stance.  He's a guy who goes to the movies and thinks about them afterward.   His interest in politics, film noir, and the Hollywood Red scare era is a toxic seduction to get the reader involved with 20th-century pop cultural history.   It is also a world that bites very hard and doesn't let go of its fans or those who dwell in the history of the urban landscape - especially Los Angeles in this case.  "Slow Writing" is a perfectly paced book.  The essays blend into the others as if one is bathing in its water.  Over the years I have read great books on film, and "Slow Writing" is without a doubt a classic volume on the subject matter, as well as commentary on Los Angeles seen through the medium of film, and how that reflects on the actual world, that most of us dwell in. 

Also, praise to The Visible Press for making a beautiful book to behold and treasure.  It's elegant, which is also very much like Thom Andersen and his writing. 

(I will be having a discussion with Thom Andersen on his book "Slow Writing" at Skylight Books on October 12, 2017, at 7:30 PM. )