"Venice, another Kodacolor achievement by John V. Hansen, ACL, exemplifies in a new way the amazing versatility of the amateur color medium in the hands of a master craftsman. The significant accomplishment in this case is capturing the brilliant, yet delicate, Andrea del Sarto mosaics in the arched recesses above the doors of St. Marks in Venice. Although the sunlight does not strike these mosaics directly and lighting conditions for any type of photography are difficult, Mr. Hansen succeeded in registering the tones and colors, from the most subtle pastel shades to the brilliant yellow of metallic gold. This latter quality, so difficult to simulate in any medium other than the real thing, here is shown with the rich luster of the metal itself. Turneresque interpretations of Venice in another section of the reel are equally beautiful, if less obvious accomplishments, while studies of colors of buildings, as reflected in shimmering water, succeed in preserving what otherwise would be the most elusive memories of beauty. Mr. Hansen richly deserves the accolade of the Ten Best." Movie Makers, Dec. 1934, 534, 545-546.
"An impressionistic look at the sights of Venice from morning until evening." (EAFA Database)
"Filmed in color during the war years of 1941-1944, this silent film shows the Vermont State Guard holding muster at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds and at Camp Wills, which later became Camp Johnson in Colchester, Vermont. The film also shows a bond rally on the steps of the Statehouse in Montpelier, and maneuvers at the airfield in Berlin, Vermont, and at a camp in Moscow, Vermont. The State Guard began as Company H, 1st Regiment, Infantry in 1941 and was re-organized in 1943 as Company H, 2d Battalion. This film is an important documentation of the State Guard's early history and Vermont's home front activities during World War II. Although silent, intertitles are inserted with an explanation of the scenes to follow, as well as scrolling text of explanation at the beginning and end of the film." Vermont Historical Society.
"the story of a man who attempts to get to the moon in an aeroplane. This took three months to complete as it entailed a lot of model work" (HMHT 1933: 79).
"Era una película muy sencilla, filmada al estilo de cine directo, que seguía los pasos y la vida de un personaje urbano singular: un hombre que acompañado de su perro recorre las calles de la ciudad, las barriadas miserables. La cinta lograba momentos de una gran intimidad al mostrar la vida de este paria solitario y marginal, como aquel en que comparte con su perro un pastel para celebrar su cumpleaños en la soledad de su cuarto" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012)
"It was a very simple film, made in the style of direct cinema, that followed the steps and the life of a singular urban character: a man that in the company of his dog walks through the city streets, the miserable neighborhoods. The film achieved moments of great intimacy by showing the life of this lonely and marginal pariah, like the moment when he shares a cake with his dog to celebrate his birthday in the loneliness of his room" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012)
"How shall we film the almost unfilmable — when the world's greatest city goes mad with victory? How, even more, can we film it, when we lack the trucks and vantage points of the newsreel men? F. Clark Tufaro, in Victory Celebration, gives an outstanding and successful answer with his record of New York City's community frenzy, when Japan gave up. He goes from the heart of Times Square to Little Italy, Chinatown and other quarters, everywhere finding something interesting and something that he could actually film, in spite of pushing crowds. He adds fine footage of the welcome to General "Ike" and to General Wainwright and something of the celebration when Germany capitulated. With surprisingly good cinematography, in view of the difficulties. Mr. Tufaro's film is a miracle of persistence, patience and intelligence — and a thoroughly interesting movie." Movie Makers, Dec. 1945, 497.
"Vida Pacoima, a two reel study of Mexican life in the southern California village of Pacoima, by Randolph B. Clardy, represents a near miracle in portraying a mood in motion pictures. Whether one likes (i.e., is entertained by) the film or not, there is no gainsaying the amazing emotional effect of its intelligent and beautiful cinematography. Here, in easy going and seemingly unstudied sequence, is the utter aimlessness of the slatternly village and its defeated people. Chickens and children, billy goats and black gowned old women, these are the life of Pacoima. Mr. Clardy has caught them all—either dreaming or drowsy in the sunshine—and presents them with a telling reiteration against the background of their broken homes and through the slats of their sagging fences. A sensuous delight, the photography is as nearly perfect as circumstances would permit, outstripped only by an unerring and often ineffable sense of motion picture continuity. In Vida Pacoima, Mr. Clardy is an artist to his finger tips and a movie maker down to the ground." Movie Makers, Dec. 1938, 617.
"Luc Fauvel is a Norman, and he turned to his own pays to contrive as sensitive and trenchant a study of French provincial life, in miniature, done by the medium of film, as did giants like Flaubert and de Maupassant through the medium of words. His Vieille France has irony, pathos, humor and plain reporting. It is the tale of an old bonnet maker of Normandy, who goes through her daily tasks, in which she has grown old, but who, at the end of the labor, reviews the past, by means of her photograph album, and meditates on her son, who died on the field of honor in the World War, and on her daughter who has become a great dancer and is far removed from the little Norman village of her origin. Mr. Fauvel accomplishes most by suggestion, by indirect statement and by a kind of insidious comment on life, never more than fleetingly presented. This young Frenchman, now studying at Cambridge, in England, will give us better and more technically well knit pictures as times goes on." Movie Makers, Dec. 1937, 630.
"Vigeland on Life is a poetic study of the work of Gustav Vigeland, famous Norwegian sculptor. The narrator reads passages from the poetry of Kahlil Bigran, selecting excerpts from "The Prophet" while on the screen the camera gives us several dozen glimpses of Vigeland's statuary" PSA Journal, Sept. 1965, 50.
Total Pages: 292
Amateur Cinema