BEFORE: After months of planning and preparation, the DOC BLOCK is finally here! Because of the way the linking worked out, I had this film at the top of the order practically from the start, and then when I learned that Sigourney Weaver had a role in the new Star Wars movie, well then by linking to THAT film I was really killing two birds with one stone, I could just keep the docs in the order I planned, no need to re-shuffle anything. Umm, except for a couple of exceptions, like I had one doc in the middle of things that I moved to the final slot, just to increase my chances of getting a good outro for the Block. And as I stated recently, I had maybe 43 or 44 Docs in the Block, which I have now bumped up to a very solid FIFTY, which should work out unless the linking fails and I have to cut something.
But let's hope for the best - let me just do a quick check of my numbers for the rest of the year, I've got just under 140 slots left, if I use 50 of them for the Doc Block that will leave 90 slots. That could mean 30 for September, 30 for October, that should leave me 10 for November, 10 for December, and 10 for late August, if needed. Yeah, the math kind of works out, even if I don't know WHAT I'll be watching in those months yet. OK, we're good to go.
So Sigourney carries over from "Avatar: Fire and Ash" - Now here's the linking for July, this should get me more than halfway through the Doc Block: Barack Obama, Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, John Lennon, Dinah Shore, Dick Clark, David Bowie, Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Kenan Thompson, Lorne Michaels, Conan O'Brien, Sean Penn, Sandra Bernhard, Johnny Carson, Paul Reubens, Dan Rather, Bill Clinton, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, David Lynch, Carl Reiner and Carol Burnett. Now that seems like an odd assortment of people to bring to the party. Speaking of parties, how about a belated birthday SHOUT-out to Dan Aykroyd, born on July 1, 1952 and appearing in "Ghostbusters" footage today...
The other programming note is that I did NOT take the time to re-organize the Block by subject matter, last year I put all the docs about musicians together, all the docs about athletes together, and so on. There was no need to do that this time around, because some of the linking here is SO niche that I felt if I re-organized everything, the chain was likely to break at some point - look, I've got a framework with a working chain already, so I'm just going to roll with it, but we're going to be bouncing around a LOT with the subject matter. The unifying factor this year seems to be that these people and things are very uniquely American - well, at least most of them are, there are some Canadian-Americans, one Italian and a Swedish pop group thrown into the mix, but mostly it's about American stuff like rock music, baseball and Hollywood stars.
But since I have FIFTY docs coming up, and since it is America's 250th birthday, let me add a new feature for the semi-quincentennial. I can't promise I can keep this up for all 50, but let's try a segment I call "Get to Know a State", here are some facts and figures and things I made up about my first profiled state, NEW YORK.
Date admitted to the U.S. July 26, 1788 (the 11th state, but come on, really it's #1)
Claim to fame: Sigourney Weaver was born there
Nickname: Empire State
Favorite "Star Wars" movie: Episode V, obviously
Prevalent language: All of them
State Motto: "Excelsior", which is Latin for "You talkin' to me?"
State Flower: Rose
State Fruit: Apple (as in "The Big Apple")
State Fruit: Apple (as in "The Big Apple")
State Reptile: Snapping turtle (don't ask me how I know this...)
State Bird: Eastern Bluebird
State Insect: Ladybug (some of which were once Manbugs)
State Mammal: North American beaver (too easy)
State Tree: Sugar Maple
State Beverage: Milk (Yeah, right, really, it's Long Island Ice Tea)
Notable Sports Teams: None that come to mind, maybe the Buffalo Bills or New York Liberty?
Fun Fact: New York City was once the U.S. capital, the first one, but then it decided it was too cool for the job, also there was no chance for advancement and the pay was horrible so it quietly quit and let Philadelphia take over.
Seriously, though, I've lived in New York City for 40 years now, and so I know there are really TWO different New York States of Mind - there's NYC & Long Island and then everything else is "upstate" - some people supposedly live north of Yonkers, but this is as yet unconfirmed. I've been all over the state, to Cooperstown, Lake George, Rhinebeck/Kingston, and as a kid my family took me to Ithaca, Rochester, Niagara Falls and Fort Ticonderoga. I would like to visit Woodstock and/or Tarrytown and maybe the Finger Lakes someday. Especially the Middle Finger Lake. New York State is also known for the invention of Buffalo Wings, the Garbage Plate (Rochester) and just ONE restaurant in NYC is where lobster newburg, eggs benedict and baked alaska were first served. That's Delmonico's, which has been open since 1837!
NYC is also the culinary home of bagels, pizza, cheesecake, pastrami sandwiches and black and white cookies, and that's just for starters. Every type of cuisine - Chinese, Indian, Japanese, deli - is available there, sometimes 24/7. How can you not love that? Come hungry, leave happy. Just don't get me started about the abomination called Manhattan Clam Chowder.
THE PLOT: This German documentary explores the career and films of Sigourney Weaver, classifying her as the Most Iconic Action Heroine of all time.
AFTER: There's some precedent for this, of course - two years ago the first film in my Doc Block was the one about Sylvester Stallone, and last year it was the film about Faye Dunaway. This kind of seems right in line with that, Sigourney Weaver is maybe part Faye and part Sly, if that makes sense. Dramatic actress plus action star, all in one package, which is kind of the point of this German documentary. This came into my possession because the PBS station here in NYC ran it on a double-bill with "Gorillas of the Mist" one Saturday night, and I figured I'd just grab it and pair it something else, like maybe the "American Masters" profile of Marlee Matlin, which of course they have not rerun since. C'est la vie - I don't miss out on documentaries, if they're not streaming somewhere then THEY have missed out on being part of my Doc Block.
I've seen searching for the proper word for this kind of documentary, one that uses mostly archive footage, maybe they interview one or two people who happen to be available (and will sit down for an interview for free, or close to it). I mean, we have "Rockumentary" for docs about rock music, we have "Mockumentary" for staged docs like "This is Spinal Tap", in my mind I was calling these "Schlockumentaries", but that's not really fair, they do serve a purpose as they make my linking possible, even if they're not ground-breaking in any way. But they do pay fees for the licensing of footage and music, so I suppose they're good for the movie-studio economy and they run a TON of them on channels like AXS, Fuse and once in a while, PBS. (That means I already own the films, as PBS is owned by us all, so I might as well record them.). Well, damn, the word "Stockumentary" was RIGHT THERE, so from now on, around these parts and soon, hopefully everywhere else, that will be the new name for docs comprised mainly of archive footage from other films and other interview sources.
Well, it's good to know that Sigourney herself was not inconvenienced in any way by the making of this German doc, they did sit down with some of her co-stars from this weird French comedy series that she appeared in, in which she poked a bit of fun at her non-reputation as a spoiled Hollywood star. Then they used a bunch of footage of her on various red carpets, attending the Cannes Festival, then of course a ton of dramatic movies that didn't do much bank, but really what they want to concentrate on here is the big franchises - "Alien", "Ghostbusters", and "Avatar", now of course we can add "Star Wars" to that list, but that happened after this doc was made. Really, nobody has a better track record when it comes to franchise films, even Stallone only had two, "Rocky" and "Rambo", maybe you can add "The Expendables" in there if you want. But Sigourney can do it all, from horror-scifi to comedy-scifi to fantasy-scifi.
Her parents were Pat Weaver, who literally invented "The Today Show", her mother was an English actress named Elizabeth Inglis, and her uncle was Doodles Weaver, who performed in Spike Jones' band on old novelty records. Born in New York City, as mentioned above, she's famous for a number of films set in NYC, like "Ghostbusters" and "Working Girl". Her first name used to be Susan, but she re-named herself after a character from "The Great Gatsby". After doing some acting in NYC prep schools, she attended Sarah Lawrence College but transferred to Stanford as an English major, then got a Master's from Yale School of Drama in just 2 years. In 1974 she made her Broadway debut (acting opposite Ingrid Bergman!) and then her first movie role was of course "Annie Hall", a tiny character out on a double-date with Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.
Everything changed, of course, with the release of "Alien" in 1979, Ridley Scott's sci-fi/horror ensemble piece, and the sequel directed by James Cameron - picking up as an action hero where Carrie Fisher left off and then like REALLY running with that. She kept working in both stage and screen, movies like "The Year of Living Dangerously" and plays like "Hurlyburly" and works of Christopher Durang and Stephen Sondheim. All that led to "Ghostbusters", "Gorillas in the Mist", "Working Girl", "Dave", "Death and the Maiden", "Copycat" and "The Ice Storm", some of which are mentioned here in this stockumentary. Three Oscar nominations, no Oscar (yet) but she has won a BAFTA, a Grammy and two Golden Globes. SEVEN Golden Globe nominations and four Emmy Award noms, obviously a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The film really makes a case for her being one of the most successful actresses of all time, and it's hard to disagree.
There's plenty of movies they didn't even get to, like "Heartbreakers", "The Village", "Wall-E", "The Tale of Despereaux" and "Galaxy Quest". Near the end of this doc she's seen speaking out in defense of equality (gay rights, gorilla habitat conservation and preserving the oceans are among her supported causes, and she's jokingly introduced as a future President of the U.S. Sigourney for President? Well, I suppose we all know we could do a lot worse, and we have.
Directed by Bärbel Merseburger-Sill
Also starring Carlo Chratian, Matthias Harder, Valerie Steele, Neil deGrasse Tyson,
with archive footage of Woody Allen (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "The House of Mirth"), Ursula Andress (last seen in "The Kid Stays in the Picture"), Marlon Brando (last seen in "God Is the Bigger Elvis"), James Cameron (last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Veronica Cartwright (last seen in "The Children's Hour"), Chevy Chase (last seen in "Pee-Wee As Himself"), Doris Day (last seen in "Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story"), Kevin Dunn (last seen in "Gridiron Gang"), Carrie Fisher (last seen in "Music by John Williams"), Jodie Foster (last seen in "Nyad"), Gal Gadot (last seen in "Heart of Stone"), Mel Gibson (last seen in "Force of Nature"), Cary Grant (last seen in "Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 24 Frames"), Pam Grier (last seen in "The Package"), Melanie Griffith (last seen in "Martha"), Linda Hamilton (last seen in "Terminator: Dark Fate"), Gregory Hines (also seen in "Music by John Williams"), Ian Holm (last seen in "Night Falls on Manhattan"), Ernie Hudson (last seen in "Champions"), Rock Hudson (last seen in "Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed"), Gale Anne Hurd (last seen in "De Palma"), John Hurt (last seen in "Hercules" (2014)), Scarlett Johansson (last seen in "Jurassic World: Rebirth"), Angelina Jolie (also last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Milla Jovovich (last seen in "No Good Deed" (2002)), Diane Keaton (last seen in "Love the Coopers"), Ben Kingsley (last seen in "Jules"), Kevin Kline (last seen in "The Extra Man"), Yaphet Kotto (last seen in "Live and Let Die"), Frank Langella (last seen in "Draft Day"), Brie Larson (last seen in "Stan Lee"), Janet Leigh (last seen in "The Fog" (1980)), Joel David Moore (also carrying over from "Avatar: Fire and Ash"), Rick Moranis (last seen in "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves!"), Carrie-Anne Moss (last seen in "Disturbia"), Bill Murray (last seen in "The Phoenician Scheme"), Helmut Newton, Barack Obama (last seen in "Mile 22"), David Hyde Pierce (last seen in "Vampire's Kiss"), Paul Reiser (last seen in "The Book of Love"), Ron Perlman (last seen in "Conan the Barbarian" (2011)), Harold Ramis (last seen in "Belushi"), Winona Ryder (last seen in "Homefront"), Arnold Schwarzenegger (also last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Martin Scorsese (last heard in "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu"), Jim Simpson, Tom Skerritt (last seen in "A Hologram for the King"), Harry Dean Stanton (last seen in "Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project"), Uma Thurman (last seen in "The Life Before Her Eyes"), Sam Worthington (also carrying over from "Avatar: Fire and Ash")
RATING: 6 out of 10 photography sessions with Helmut Newton
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