MENSA BULLETIN - April-May 2009

Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa: The Foreign Film in America

by James N. Selvidge.

(2008, 393 pp., 63 b/w and 330 color photographs, three indices;

publ. Truline Legacy Inc., Burlington, WA.,

http://www.foreignfilmsinamerica.com, ISBN 978-0-9818679-0-8)

Some call them art films, some call them foreign films, but I think we all recognize them when we see them --- if only because many of them are in a language other than English and come with subtitles. And now a book has emerged --- written by someone who was there and can tell you how it all started. Back in the political hot bed of the 1950's and 1960's, Hollywood did its best to ban their importation, distribution and exhibition, presumably because they doubted the public was interested, but more so because they feared the McCarthyites who branded such films a part of the Communist conspiracy. Together with Cy Harvey and a few other radicals, James set out to form his own art theater circuit in Seattle, which soon became the national battle field for film censorship. The battle went from challenging the Seattle City Council and Board of Theater Supervisors all the way up to the Supreme Court. The first third of this book is a detailed history of these two decades, while the remainder profiles the 330 greatest films of this era (200 of which are currently available on DVD) --- each with a color photo of the poster. Additionally there are three indices: general, director and film. As an aside, I spoke with James by phone a while back, and he told me an interesting story about a frequent patron of one of his Seattle theaters. She was a young college-age white woman who had developed a strong attraction to a black foreign actor in the films, and often talked to James about this. Years later Stanley Ann Dunham became the mother of our first black President, Barack Obama.

Tom Elliott

The Book Flood Continues

MENSA BULLETIN - April-May 2009 Number 524

THE MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN MENSA

Internationally Acclaimed Theatre Director Arne Zaslove says:

"Brilliant!"

Arne Zaslove
Internationally Acclaimed Theatre Director
"Master of Masks"

Meet a Real-Life Movie Hero

He Introduced Foreign Films to U.S. Audiences, Defeated Censorship via the Supreme Court.

In 1956, James Selvidge wanted to introduce little-known, foreign films to the public in his Seattle theatre, then found himself in a controversial battle with prudes and politicians who wanted to control what he screened. Determined to give his favorite films the exposure they were due, he took on the establishment and changed the landscape of American culture.

Selvidge knows film. He was at the frontlines of the war for freedom of speech. His theatre is remembered as a landmark of American cinema, and he is considered one of the foremost experts and advocates of foreign language films.

He'll talk movies (he's seen 30,000 of them!)

Radio-TV Interview Report (Early May 2009)

It's an honor!

I did go to the website and read the publicity for the book and the description of the contents. There is no doubt in my mind that the work I do now is possible because of what people like you did to promote foreign films in the 1960's and beyond.

.....Prof. Robert E. Yahnke, PhD

Professor of Film & the Arts

College of Education & Human Developments

The University of Minnesota

I was there!

We just got a nice email from an old friend. Les McWatters writes:

"I was there the night they were going to put Selvidge in jail for showing Brigitte Bardot in the French film "The Truth". Night was like day - all three networks were there with their floodlights blazing. There was a line-up about two blocks long. Don't know if they were wating for the movie, or to see Selvidge hauled away."

Thanks Les! Good to hear from you!

What people are saying about the book

“Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa: The Foreign Film In America”

“Just got the book you sent me, and after looking through it, I am positive you produced the finest, most beautiful volume devoted to film art that has ever been written! I kept saying “Wow!” at every page. Ordinarily, it might be rather difficult to associate such qualities as courage, imagination, compassion, and artistic wisdom with the owner-operator of a movie theatre in America. But all those attributes and several more mark the character of James N. Selvidge.”
---- Lou Guzzo
Drama Editor, The Seattle Times

“I did indeed get your book, for which I thank you. It’s an important book and I’m both gratified to relive through it my own immersion in these landmark films, and to feel above all a measure of relief that you are playing no small role in keeping them alive. At the time, we took their timelessness for granted, but now we know better, and with this in mind, my hat goes off to you!”
---- Jay P. Carr
National Society of Film Critics

“As a longtime Seattle film buff, I am loving your new book! I’m only up to page 81, but it has brought back many memories for me. I just wanted to say that I am greatly enjoying your book. For the price of a hundred dollars, it has brought back a million dollars worth of memories to me!”
---- John F. Black
Film Buff, Seattle, WA.

“The name Jim Selvidge has largely been forgotten in local movie circles, but he was Seattle’s pioneering exhibitor of foreign-language films in the 1950’s and 1960’s and the spiritual godfather of the vibrant specialty film scene the city now enjoys.
Over those two decades, Selvidge successfully ran several Northwest movie venues, including the Ridgemont, the first Seattle cinema to book foreign films as a regular policy and - - from 1956 to 1971 - - one of the most influential art houses in the country.
The book is full of reflection on Seattle’s odyssey from provincial backwater to cultural mecca, observations about the role of the exhibitor in the ever-changing film business and entertaining anecdotes about a host of long-vanished West Coast movie characters.”
---- William Arnold
Movie Critic, Seattle-Post Intelligencer

“In the age of Netflix, when just about any film made anywhere can be summoned painlessly to your mailbox, we do well to remember that once upon a time there were only a handful of independently operated movie theaters in the United States dedicated to showing foreign-language cinema. Prints were few, sane distributors fewer, and even as the beleaguered exhibitors struggled to build an audience for “movies you had to read,” often as not they had to fight off local censor boards, right wing xenophobes, and self-appointed arbiters of morality and decency. Jim Selvidge was one of these cultural heroes. Single handedly at times he championed Bergman, Godard, Bunuel, Kurosawa, et al., put the Seattle Censor Board out of business, founded the Seattle Film Society and enticed his community to take the first steps toward acquiring a reputation as one of the savviest movie towns in the country. It’s an important story.”
---- Richard T. Jameson
Manger Edgemont Theatre (1967-1970)
Editor Movitone News (1971-81) and Film Comment (1990-2000)

First Looks

Author James N. Selvidge is one of the last survivors intimate with the history of the foreign film in America circa early 1950’s through early 1970’s. The author is the former owner and operator of the Ridgemont Theatre in Seattle, Washington. In Part 1 of Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa: The Foreign Film In America, Mr. Selvidge details his experiences and adventures as a young man, acquiring and opening the Ridgemont, and pioneering the foreign film market in the Seattle area. Mr. Selvidge brings to light the little-known side of those early days: hypocrisy, corruption, censorship, greed, violence, and ultimately a battle fought in the Supreme Court itself. Mr. Selvidge also includes his wry and insightful views of the major players in the foreign film industry at that time.

Part 2 of Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa: The Foreign Film In America is the author’s synopsis and personal review of 330 of the top foreign films of that era. Including full-color illustrations of each movie’s original poster, this section constitutes a unique and invaluable reference tool.

Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa: The Foreign Film In America is hardbound with a full-color dust jacket, 7 x 10”, 373 pages, most prints in color. ISBN: 978-0-9818679-0-8.
Published by: Truline Legacy, Inc., 716 So. Anacortes, St. Burlington, WA. 98233.

Check our website at: www.foreignfilminamerica.com The author may be reached at: horsestk@horsestalk.com