Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!news.quux.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: "Evelyn C. Leeper" <evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom
Subject: MT VOID, 12/20/24 -- Vol. 43, No. 25, Whole Number 2359
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2024 10:58:53 -0500
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 153
Message-ID: <vk9d00$me7q$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2024 16:58:56 +0100 (CET)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="374955570f8bf095dd7809a0f12c7e0a";
	logging-data="735482"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/Or5kL4zFsH5q9GOtR3AIX"
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:vrgFA0j+vRC9bm9nB1vQTk5iIr4=
Content-Language: en-US
Bytes: 7077

THE MT VOID
12/20/24 -- Vol. 43, No. 25, Whole Number 2359

Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Sending Address: evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
All material is the opinion of the author and is copyrighted by
the author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent or posted will be assumed authorized for
inclusion unless otherwise noted.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to eleeper@optonline.net
The latest issue is at <http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm>.
An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at
<http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm>.

Topics:
         Mini Reviews, Part 10 (MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF
                POWELL AND PRESSBURGER, MERCHANT IVORY, MY NAME
                IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK) (film reviews
                by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)
         This Week's Reading (Christmas stories) (book comments
                by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 10 (film reviews by Mark R. Leeper and
Evelyn C. Leeper)

Here is the tenth batch of mini-reviews, all 2024 documentaries
about film:

MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER (2024):
There's a "game" Jews play: "And you know who else is Jewish?"
First this week was Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico.  And
now from watching MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL AND
PRESSBURGER, we discover that one those those quintessentially
British filmmakers known as "The Archers" , Emeric Pressburger,
was a Hungarian Jew.

Two documentaries this year seem to indicate some sort of
synchronicity.  Not only are both are about filmmakers, but both
are about a pair/team of filmmakers.  (The other one is MERCHANT
IVORY.)

(There is also a documentary about a single filmmaker, MY NAME IS
ALFRED HITCHCOCK.)

MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER is narrated
(and presumably written) by Martin Scorsese, and is one of his
many love letters to the cinema he grew up with.  In this case, he
also points about what it has influenced in his own films.

But he also talks about the trials and tribulations that Michael
Powell and Emeric Pressburger went through and which eventually
broke up their partnership (but apparently not their friendship).

This is a dangerous film--it made me what to watch most of the
films Scorsese talked about.  However, it hasn't figured out a way
to put more than 168 hours in a week, so ...  (But some will
definitely make it to the stack.)

As with all of Scorsese's film documentaries, this is highly
recommended.  [-ecl]

Released theatrically 12 July 2024.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19895822/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/made_in_england_the_films_of_powe
ll_and_pressburger>


MERCHANT IVORY (2024): This two-hour documentary covers the films
of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, many of them with with writer
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins.  The longevity
of their partnership is astonishing--forty-four years from 1961 to
2005--as is their output, coincidentally four-four films,
averaging one a year.  (It is claimed to be the longest
partnership in independent cinema history.)  The film covers both
their professional and romantic partnership, as well as details
such as Merchant's cooking, giving a more complete view of them
than just a catalog of award-winning films.  [-ecl]

Released theatrically 30 August 2024.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14493970/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/merchant_ivory>


MY NAME IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK (2024): There have been previous
documentaries about Alfred Hitchcock, such as DIAL H FOR HITCHCOCK
(1999) and I AM ALFRED HITCHCOCK (2021).  There was also a
narrative film, HITCHCOCK (2012), about the making of PSYCHO.
However, MY NAME IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK differs in that all the words
are Hitchcock's, taken from interviews, articles, and so on, and
formed into a coherent thread covering his work.  As such, it
provides a different perspective (although obviously one could
pick and choose to present almost any representation of
Hitchcock's position).  A bit drier than some of the film
documentaries of 2024, but worth seeing.  [-ecl]

Released theatrically 25 October 2024.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21154428/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_alfred_hitchcock>

===================================================================

TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

I will once again give you my recommended Christmas reading list,
with a couple of additions:

     "Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus" by Frederik Pohl
     "'Tis the Season" by China Mieville
     'Newton's Mass' by Timothy Esaias
     "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke
     "Rebuttal" by Betsy Curtis

"The Star" is added because Charles Harris found "Rebuttal", a
response to it.

The ISFDb can help you find these.

You'll notice none of Connie Willis's Christmas stories are here.
They are a bit too syrupy for the anthology I am putting together
in my mind.  You can find these in A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS (an
expanded edition of MIRACLE AND OTHER CHRISTMAS STORIES), which I
reviewed in the 12/24/21 issue of the MT VOID.  See my review of
THE BEST OF FREDERIK POHL in the 09/04/09 issue of the MT VOID for
more comments on some of these stories.  Or find these (and all my
on-line reviews) at <http://leepers.us/evelyn/reviews.htm>.  [-ecl]

===================================================================

                      Mark Leeper
                      mleeper@optonline.net


           Physicists who want to protect traditional Christmas
           realize that the only way to keep from changing
           Christmas is not to observe it.
				            --xkcd #679