751-753 Gates of Heaven/Vernon, Florida & The Thin Blue Line

[HitchcockLang]

I put the Gates of Heaven/Vernon Florida disc in my external blu-ray drive on my Mac and found that the file name for the disc is actually GATES_OF_HELL_VERNON_FL (Hell instead of Heaven). I got a kick out of that little mistake (probably).

[hearthesilence]

The Herzog extras are very relevant here (the repeated short arguably fits better here than on Burden of Dreams, where the only things in common were the names involved). Remember, if it weren't for Herzog's encouragement and enthusiasm, Morris might never have become a filmmaker.

I'm surprised they didn't at least get Morris in for a commentary on these. His narration over Standard Operating Procedure is absolutely fascinating

FWIW, as part of the ongoing tribute to Tom Luddy at the Paris Theater (which includes select free screenings and a public memorial tomorrow), Morris gave a Q&A today after the screening for Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe and Gates of Heaven. The latter was apparently from a DCP with a Criterion logo - I have to say Criterion's color timing looked a hair too saturated when presented this way as the colors really popped off the screen, looking a bit garish.

Anyway, Morris was hilarious. First off, he said he was apprehensive about showing the movie because "it’s such a weird movie...I'm not even sure if it is a movie!" He gave Wim Wenders a lot of credit because when he screened it for the time outside of an editing room, I think Luddy asked Wenders what he thought or if there was anything there, and Wenders said "it's a work of genius." Since Morris was otherwise an unproven filmmaker, it immediately gave Morris some credibility. (Luddy was a huge fan of the New German Cinema and was instrumental in bringing their work to America - as a result, he developed a strong relationship with Herzog and Wenders which is how Morris got to know them through Luddy. Morris joked that Luddy was the kind of guy who had everyone's phone number, "even the Pope! He wouldn't even look it up, he'd have it memorized!")

Later when Morris met Douglas Sirk, he convinced him to watch Gates of Heaven but the filmmaker and his wife left halfway through the screening, with Sirk telling him, "you know, this isn't really a movie" and then 'warning' Morris "people might think it’s ironic" which made Morris laugh.

Morris had a strange history with Luddy. When Morris was a philosophy student, he went to the Pacific Film Archive all the time and fell in love with cinema, and I guess he spent too much time there or something because other people pushed Luddy to ban Morris from the Archive. Luddy didn't want to - he ended up doing that for a week, but then he brought Morris back and let him do things like write the film notes or even program something himself. (Luddy is actually the emcee in Eats His Shoe.)

Luddy was also part of the selection committee for the NYFF, so Morris said it was probably Luddy who got them to premiere Gates of Heaven. Unfortunately a newspaper strike was happening so he got no press from the screening. He also had a Q&A that didn't go so well, with one woman telling him the movie would be more effective if it was cut in half - Morris replied "so would you."

But then he mentions "two guys in Chicago" changed everything, which of course was Siskel & Ebert. "They didn't review it once. They didn't review it twice. They kept talking about it ALL the time." He mentions how Ebert even proclaimed it one of the ten greatest films ever made. From then on, whenever Morris had a new film out, he would ask Ebert, "how much less do you like this compared to Gates of Heaven?" He would also take Ebert to task about rating Gates of Heaven that high, saying "the film ain't that good!" and they would proceed to argue about that - or as Morris put it, the kind of argument filmmakers dream about having with a critic.

As to why Morris wasn't in Eats His Shoe, Morris says he was unhappy with Herzog at the time, adding he had absolutely NO recollection of Herzog's bet with him (that he'd eat his shoe if he made the film). He then said he was probably caught up in one of Herzog's myths or stories (forgot what euphemism Morris used), "or what I would call a 'lie.'" So he didn't want to go to the event in Berkeley, California as seen in the film, even though he was booked to fly there. The weather intervened, delaying his flight, and rather than scramble to find another way to Berkeley, Morris believed it was decided for him, so he turned around and went back home.

It was mentioned he had to fire his first two cinematographers on back to back days, and he also fired the soundperson as well because when he interviewed that woman who's seen in the doorway in the film (IIRC she was sitting in a car when they were shooting this), she said "here today, gone tomorrow" and the soundperson interrupted her with a loud "NO." Morris wasn't sure what was more offensive, the fact that she responded with "NO" or the fact that she interrupted the interview in general, but he found a better soundperson after that.

He also mentioned an awkward moment when he was having dinner with the Harberts and "the anti-semitic brother" asked him "are you a Jew?" ("I'm Jewish by the way.") Someone in his family then responded with "Phil! Don't insult him!" Ugh.

Anyway, he mentions that the fires that have been getting progressively worse in Napa Valley eventually claimed the cemetery. He went back to visit and you could still see where the various sections of the park used to be, but it was all burned and the only thing still intact on the ground was a plate, so he took that back to his office in Cambridge as a keepsake. FWIW, I looked it up, and I think the cemetery has been rebuilt as that fire happened several years before the pandemic. (Dan, the brother that played guitar, now runs it - he eventually married and has an adult son who will take over the business someday. His parents both have passed away, though they seemed to have lived to a very old age. No word on Phil though.)