The Star Trek Universe: A Warp Speed Tour

Star Trek Into Darkness opens in the United States this Friday after having opened in a couple dozen countries since its May 2 London premiere. Once again, Chris Pine essays the iconic role of Capt. James T. Kirk and all of the key actors in the Enterprise crew return intact from 2009’s Star Trek, which rebooted the franchise by taking the property’s original characters and shaving several years off their ages. Reboot director-producer J.J. Abrams, was also back on board for this latest voyage.

Unlike most other sci-fi sagas, which take place in other solar systems, galaxies, universes, and/or eras, the Star Trek saga traces its origins to planet Earth and takes place in the not-too-distant future. Due to the vast number of TV series, movies, books, games, etc., fans now refer to the franchise as the Star Trek universe. After 47 years of Star Trek in all its many guises, that’s not too much of an exaggeration, that’s a fairly apt description!

Writer-producer Gene Roddenberry first created the concept for Star Trek in 1964. NBC commissioned a pilot from Desilu Studios (later purchased by current Star Trek franchise owner Paramount) starring Jeffrey Hunter as Capt. Christopher Pike. NBC passed on the show, but still had enough interest to finance a second pilot in 1966 starring William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk. That version was picked up and the series premiered on the peacock network on September 8, 1966. The progressive-thinking Roddenberry had sold the show to NBC as being like a western set in space, but used the series to comment on hot-button social issues  (racism, religion, imperialism, human rights, feminism) through slyly-disguised allegories. Star Trek, featuring one of TV’s first interracial casts, started strong, but found its ratings slowly erode over the show’s three-year, seventy-nine episode run.

The series had already developed a cult-like audience as a network series, but it really built a fanatical following once it went into syndication in fall 1969. By 1973, there was enough interest in reviving the show for NBC to bring it back as a Saturday morning cartoon. That version of the series, now dubbed Star Trek: The Animated Series, ran for a season and a half with twenty-two episodes. Although many Star Trek fans choose to ignore the series’ very existence, it should be noted that all of the principals from the original cast provided the voices for their characters.

A  mid-seventies attempt to reunite the original cast for another primetime network TV show was scrapped, but eventually formed the basis for the first theatrical film, 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Neither fans, nor critics, were wholly satisfied with the result, but the box office numbers showed Paramount that there was still plenty of interest among Trekkies (or Trekkers, as some prefer to be called). Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan arrived in 1982. Although it grossed less than the first film, its much lower production cost resulted in the studio earning a higher profit. Now that Paramount had figured out a workable model, they were just getting started. Soon, there would be more Star Trek titles than Cyrano Jones had tribbles.

More films followed with the original actors: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). In the meantime, Paramount had also created a new television series – Star Trek: The Next Generation – following different characters and set roughly 100 years after the original. Bypassing the networks, Paramount ran TNG in first-run syndication. The series, starring Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, premiered September 28, 1987, running seven seasons and 178 episodes.

Months after TNG ended, 1994’s Star Trek: Generations arrived in theaters with a storyline seeking to bridge the Capt. Kirk and Capt. Picard eras, but with the TNG cast taking center stage. Three more TNG movies followed: 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact, 1998’s Star Trek: Insurrection, and 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, before the public tired of that crew.

Star Trek: Generations may have passed the figurative baton from the original series to TNG, but Paramount wasn’t just relying on the latter to keep the Star Trek banner flying. In 1993, the studio introduced Star Trek: Deep Space Nine while TNG was still in production. Like TNG, DS9 was also shown in first-run syndication, running for seven seasons and 176 episodes. Just two years later, Paramount launched yet another series in the franchise, Star Trek: Voyager. Voyager, which premiered on the newly-created UPN television network, also ran seven seasons, but for four fewer episodes than DS9. Each of those series (TNG, DS9, Voyager) ended by the decision of the producers, not by cancellation.

In 2001, just months after ending Voyager, Paramount introduced Star Trek: Enterprise. Unlike the three previous Star Trek series, which all took place in the same time period, Enterprise took place halfway between the original series and three seven-season entries.  Like Voyager, Enterprise was a UPN show. Unlike Voyager, its ratings steadily declined. During its fourth and final season, Enterprise was canceled, though it was allowed to complete the season, having produced 98 episodes. The cancelation of Enterprise in 2005 made it the first Star Trek series to suffer that fate since the original in 1969. It also ended an uninterrupted 18-year run of new Star Trek product on television, with several of those years featuring concurrently running series.

All told, there have been six Star Trek series, totaling thirty seasons and 726 episodes. Now, with the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, there have been twelve films, featuring three distinct casts.  Where can you find your favorite Star Trek TV series/season/movie, or the one that has eluded you? The answer, of course, is the Des Moines Public Library, where DVDs (even entire TV seasons) check out for seven days for just one dollar. And so ends this warp speed tour of the Star Trek universe. “Take over, Mr. Sulu. Steady as she goes.”

Boy Bands, Now and Then

It may have passed under your radar, but earlier this month, New Kids on the Block (or NKOTB as they sometimes prefer to be called) released their latest album: 10. Why is it called 10? I really don’t know. There are five members in the band, it’s only their seventh album, and they’ve certainly been around for much, much longer than a decade. Could it be because the album features ten songs? Gee, I hope not, as I’d like to give them more credit for originality than that. In any case, the Kids — can we still call them kids now that they’re all over 40? – are still trying to prove that they have “The Right Stuff.”

At their zenith in the late eighties and early nineties, New Kids were about the hottest thing in the pop music world, and a formidable money-making machine. Not only did they sell tens of millions of albums worldwide, they licensed just about anything you could imagine, from earrings to bed sheets. At one point, they were the highest paid entertainers in the world. Beyond all that, they are often credited with creating the boy band phenomenon.

OK, wait right there! I’m going to take issue with that last statement myself, at least for the most part. It’s true that New Kids’ success did pave the way for other similar groups in the nineties and beyond, but they were hardly the first. They can, however, be acknowledged as the one who most solidified the blueprint. A quick definition of a boy band would need to include the following traits: they generally have four or five members, sing close harmony pop tunes, are squeakily clean cut, incorporate synchronized dance moves in their live performances, and target the young, female demographic.

In the New Kids’ wake, we’ve had more boy bands surface than at any time in the rock era. Other nineties phenoms such as Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys, ‘N SYNC, 98 Degrees and Hanson all owe a debt of gratitude to the Kids, as do dozens of others who got a moment in the spotlight before being pushed aside by other contenders. In the new millennium, such boy bands as Westlife, O-Town, and The Jonas Brothers took up the mantle, though the trend seemed to be winding down. With the ascent of The Wanted, Big Time Rush, and One Direction, however, boy bands appear to be alive and well once again.

If New Kids weren’t the first, then who were? It may be impossible to know, but it was most likely a fifties-era doo-wop group, such as Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers. In the decades since, countless other groups would aptly fit the general definition. I’m now going to list half-a-dozen major acts that most helped to develop that definition, even if some aren’t necessarily thought of in those terms.

1)      Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, most famous for the fifties’ classic “Why do Fools Fall in Love,” wouldn’t have been too out of place if they had been miraculously transported forty or fifty years into the future to the heyday of the boy bands. In updated duds (although Boyz II Men often rocked suits back in the day) and modern arrangements, they’d have been right at home on Total Request Live.

2)      The Beach Boys had the well-groomed looks of modern-day boy bands and most of their early repertoire consisted of songs about love (like “Don’t Worry Baby”), good times (“Surfin’ U.S.A.”) or not-altogether believable attempts at posturing (“I Get Around”), which are all staples of the boy band repertoire. Incidentally, they covered “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” early in their career.

3)      Although The Beatles caused a commotion with their “long” hair in 1964, their manager, Brian Epstein, made them presentable, even loveable, to all ages. Their multi-part harmonies and simple love songs made America embrace them to the point of coining the term “Beatlemania.” It wasn’t long, of course, before they threw off the pretense of innocence and really ruffled a few feathers.

4)      The Jackson 5 seemed born to become pop superstars. The way that their father-manager-coach, Joe Jackson, pushed his children to excel in music, perhaps they were. Ultra-talented (and youngest brother) Michael was only eleven in January, 1970 when “I Want You Back” hit number one, the first of many to come.

5)      To some, The Osmonds were just a white rip-off of The Jackson 5, but, in truth, they were entertainment veterans long before the Jackson clan cut their first record; The Osmond Brothers were regulars on Andy Williams’ network TV show from 1962-69 as a barbershop group.  Like their so-called rivals, The Osmonds’ career lasted long after their initial boy band-type pop success of the early seventies.

6)      If ever there was a blueprint for the nineties boy band phenomenon, it was New Edition. The group, whose fame peaked in the mid- to late-eighties, was in every sense a modern boy band. In fact, writer-producer Maurice Starr created New Kids on the Block after legal issues created a falling out between him and New Edition. Ronnie DeVoe, Bobby Brown, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ralph Tresvant (also, Brown’s replacement, Johnny Gill) were each very capable performers, who either solo, or in combination, had significant chart success post-New Edition.

Boy bands have been with us for decades, though they may not have been labeled as such. Enjoy the crush-inducing, safe-sounding melodic pop of boy bands – past or present – by checking out music at the Des Moines Public Library, where CDs circulate for three weeks without charge.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Career Continues Its Upward Trajectory

For someone primarily known as an “indie actor,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt has really been racking up appearances in blockbuster movies recently: Lincoln, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. I guess the big paychecks allow him to continue the kind of challenging character work in low-budget features that he says is his passion. It also helps fund his personal projects, such as Don Jon, a comedy that he wrote, directed, and stars in that will be released later this year. As his first full-length writing and directing effort, it’ll be interesting to see what lessons he’s learned along the way as an actor by which ones he applies in his new role as a filmmaker.

14-year-old Joseph is far right

I first became aware of Joseph Gordon-Levitt when he was co-starring in the hit NBC sitcom 3^rd Rock from the Sun in the mid-nineties. Although he was playing an alien living in a teenager’s body, I thought it unlikely that he was an actual teen. For one, because his acting was very good, beyond the usual scope of a teen, and two, because a customary practice in Hollywood is to cast young-looking adult actors as teens to avoid having to observe the strict work rules that protect underage performers.  As the show made its way through six seasons, Gordon-Levitt’s ever-increasing height made it obvious that he really was a talented teen actor.

If he already seemed like a seasoned pro at the start of that show’s run, it’s because he was. By the time 3rd Rock premiered in January, 1996, Gordon-Levitt had been acting professionally for over eight years. Having started in commercials at age six, he’d quickly landed numerous roles in TV shows, TV movies and feature films. Prior to 3rd Rock, he had already been a series regular on two short-lived shows: the Dark Shadows reboot in 1991, and the sitcom The Powers That Be in 1992-93. In addition, his big screen credits included significant roles in A River Runs Through It and Angels in the Outfield.

You are your own worst enemy!

Even during the run of 3^rd Rock, Gordon-Levitt actively pursued other acting opportunities. Some of his higher profile work during that time includes the movies Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and 10 Things I Hate About You. It was lower profile productions, however, that gave him his first starring roles, roles that allowed him to grow as an actor. Among those is 1998’s Sweet Jane, in which he plays a parentless AIDS victim.

From the time that 3rd Rock from the Sun ended in 2001 until 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Gordon-Levitt appeared in a succession of independent and low-budget Hollywood films, often in the lead. Since then, he’s mixed mega-budget and no-budget films in about equal ratio. One of my favorite films of the past year was Looper, a crime drama/time travel flick, which while not a mega-budget movie was certainly no indie. Many of Gordon-Levitt’s best performances, however, have been in indies and low-budget films. The following five films (listed chronologically) are ones that I feel include examples of his finest work, with the movies as a whole being of like quality.

Manic (2001) – Set in the juvenile wing of a mental institution, Gordon-Levitt plays a teen with rageissues but who is slow to deal with them in this exceedingly intense drama.

The “Summer” of love

Brick (2005) – It may not even be a recognized category, but this tale of high school student (Gordon-Levitt) investigating the disappearance of his one-time girlfriend may be the best ever Teen Neo-Noir film.

The Lookout (2007) – Gordon-Levitt plays a once-promising athlete now suffering from brain damage caused by an auto accident; his life gets even worse when a gang of thieves attempts to take advantage of the fact that the only job he can hold is as a janitor at a local bank.

(500) Days of Summer (2009) – “This is not a love story” proclaims the voice-over narration that begins the movie, and yet it is a charming, if unconventional story about love.

50/50 (2011) – Given just an even chance of surviving a rare form of back cancer, Gordon-Levitt’s character learns about friendship and love by the reactions of those nearest to him.

The Des Moines Public Library has many DVD titles starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Click on any of the linked titles above to check out the work of one of America’s best, and most versatile, young actors. DVD checkouts are good for one week at the cost of just one buck. So what’s stopping you?

Do You “Doo Wop”? I Do (Wop)

Earlier this month, Iowa Public Television showed the special Rock, Pop and Doo Wop as part of their “Festival” fundraising programming. Judging from the frequency of such shows featuring doo wop during their crucial funding drives, I can’t help but conclude that these shows are popular, at least among those who might be willing to open up their pocketbooks. For younger viewers and younger music fans, in general, the term doo wop may not hold a lot of meaning.

Doo wop is a label applied (retrospectively) to a music style that grew out of R&B during the late 1940s/early 1950s and became a major component of rock and roll during its formative stage. The hallmark of doo wop is that it relies on vocal harmonies, often sung a cappella, or with very limited instrumentation, to create the bulk of its sound. As R&B is a historically black music idiom, all of the earliest doo wop practitioners were indeed black vocal groups. Doo wop originated in New York City and Philadelphia, but also thrived early on in other cities of the northeast United States before spreading to cities nationwide.

Many doo wop tunes became national hits on the U.S. singles chart starting in the mid-fifties – the white Canadian vocal group The Crew-Cuts cover of the black R&B group The Chords’ song “Sh-Boom” is generally considered to be doo wop’s first number one single. Although the majority of doo wop groups continued to consist of all-black lineups, doo wop increasingly attracted the interest of white singers, especially among Italian Americans, but remained an urban phenomenon. Interestingly, at a time in which there was still very little interracial mixing, there were a number of instances where blacks, whites and/or Hispanics came together in doo wop groups, including such major artists as The Crests, The Del-Vikings, and Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers.

Doo wop was an almost entirely male style, although a few otherwise male groups – The Platters being the most notable example – employed a single female singer. There was a female school of doo wop, headed quite prominently by The Shirelles, but “girl group” quickly became the tag used for those female vocal harmony acts, whose heyday was from the late-1950s to late-1960s.

Doo wop’s success only lasted until the mid-sixties, when the British Invasion radically changed musical tastes and realistically ended the doo wop era. The black doo wop groups that were able to adapt to the new scene moved into the soul genre (The Miracles, for example), while the white ones moved into mainstream pop (like Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons).

One problem posed by the recording norms of the doo wop era is that most songs were only released as singles, often by small labels that soon went out belly up.  As a result, many of the best-loved doo wop songs are by one-hit wonders, whose time in the limelight was fleeting. Even many of the groups who charted multiple times never released a proper album. Fortunately, many of these singles have been gathered together on compilations that hit the highlights of the doo wop era. The Des Moines Public Library has a fine collection of such albums, so if you’d like to try one or more of them, click here.

Several doo wop groups, of course, were able to have long careers, though even many of those acts can only be heard on career compilations. The following is an alphabetical list of ten significant doo wop artists and the albums owned by the Des Moines Public Library that best represent their musical legacy.

The Coasters – The Very Best of the Coasters

The Crests – The Best of Johnny Maestro, 1958-1985

The Diamonds – Little Darlin’: 25 Golden Hits

Dion & The Belmonts/Dion – The Essential Dion

The Drifters – All-Time Greatest Hits

The Five Satins – The Five Satins Sing Their Greatest Hits

The Flamingos – The Best of the Flamingos

Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers – The Very Best of Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers

The Heartbeats – The Best of the Heartbeats: Including Shep & The Limelites

The Platters – 20 Greatest Hits

American Teen Comedies Come of Age

When American Graffiti was released in August, 1973, it set in motion a chain of events that would be felt across the entertainment industry for years to come. Set in 1962, its success brought on a nostalgia craze for late-50s/early-60s music, influenced contemporary music, and reenergized the careers of such period icons as Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, and Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. It also helped get the similarly-themed Happy Days onto ABC’s primetime schedule, a decisive first step in turning the perennially last-place network into a ratings king in just a few short years. And, it greatly advanced the careers of several future movie and TV stars, as well as that of one of the most influential filmmakers of our time.

My brother and I really wanted to see American Graffiti when it came out, but living in a small town, the opportunity never seemed to arise. Back then – before VCRs/DVD players, cable TV and pay-per-view – if you missed seeing a movie while it was in theaters, you really missed it. At that time, hit movies might play in theaters for a year or more, but once you missed that theatrical run, it meant waiting several years before you might catch it on network television, minus “the good parts.”

When my brother and I were invited by friends to go with them to finally see it, we were immensely psyched. By that time, it had already been a surprise Oscar nominee for best picture (and had lost to The Sting) and was nearing the end of its run. Could it, however, live up to our considerable expectations? To our delight, it didn’t just meet those expectations, it obliterated them.

What an impact that film had on us! We’d never seen anything like it. The setup was simple: one long, late-summer night of various teenagers cruising the strip of a mid-sized California town. Oh, but what a night! American Graffiti was hilarious, exciting, and occasionally raunchy. The world created onscreen was so enticing that we longed to give up our own comparatively humdrum lives and somehow become a part of it. That world was the creation of an unknown young writer-director named George Lucas. It was just his second film and we couldn’t wait to see what he’d do next. It wasn’t until 1977 that Lucas’ next movie finally came out. If I remember correctly, it was something called Star Wars. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

Aside from the reasons discussed above, American Graffiti was foremost a watershed film because it was the first successful modern, teen comedy. Sure, there had been plenty of movies featuring teenagers previously and some of them had jokes. The truth is, however, that before the cultural shift of the mid-sixties and the creation of the MPAA’s film ratings system in late-1968, those movies were generally lame, family-friendly, second-tier fodder about first kisses, hot rods, or surfboards. OK, American Graffiti actually has first kisses and hot rods, but it has so much more, even though there are no surfboards in sight. Lucas proved that an intriguing story and a good directorial eye could trump the perceived deficit of a low budget and a cast of little-known, if talented, young actors. Among those young actors whose careers were greatly helped by the film were Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Harrison Ford, and Suzanne Somers.

Ever since American Graffiti, unproven filmmakers (like Lucas had been at the time) have tried to capture that same lightening in a bottle, hoping that their off-screen talents will combine with the untapped charisma of onscreen neophytes to create the breakout teen comedy of their era. Frankly, it seldom happens. Every few years, however, a teen comedy comes along that helps define a generation. Like American Graffiti, they have large fresh-faced ensemble casts, myriad intersecting storylines and just the right amount of good-natured humor and raunchiness to strike a chord among the targeted demographic.

Here are a few teen comedies that have carried on the tradition of American Graffiti:

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) was helmed by first-time director Amy Heckerling (Look Who’s Talking, Clueless). On release, it became one of the biggest hits ever directed by an American woman. The movie boosted the careers of Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, Nicolas Cage, and Anthony Edwards.

Dazed and Confused (1993) was the third film directed by Richard Linklater (The School of Rock, Bernie). After a relatively minor theatrical release (but with lots of special late night shows), it gained momentum through rentals, premium cable airings and VHS/DVD sales. It provided early roles for Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Matthew McConaughey, Joey Lauren Adams, Adam Goldberg, Renée Zellweger, Cole Hauser, and Milla Jovovich.

American Pie (1999) was the directorial debut of Paul Weitz (About a Boy, In Good Company). A huge summer hit, it spawned a series of films of variable quality. It gave acting early acting opportunities to Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Alyson Hannigan, Shannon Elizabeth, Seann William Scott, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari, and John Cho.

Superbad (2007) was just the second feature film for director Greg Mottola (Adventureland, Paul), though he’d had extensive seasoning in television between then and his debut feature eleven years prior. Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Emma Stone, and Martha MacIsaac all benefited from their being cast in starring roles.

American Graffiti is the blueprint for just one type of teen comedy. Other great teen comedies of the modern era that were made in different styles include Risky Business, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Clueless, Mean Girls, and Easy A. Along with the titles above they make a solid list of teen comedies that shouldn’t disappoint any fan of the genre. Visit the Des Moines Public Library and get in touch with your inner teen by checking out these ten terrific titles.

From Berlin to Hollywood

This past week I watched a film titled People on Sunday. No, you’ve probably never heard of it. For one, it’s 83 years old. Secondly, it was produced in Germany (actual title: Menschen am Sonntag) outside of the studio system. Thirdly, it has no stars in it – not even German ones. Finally, it’s a silent film, so it doesn’t get shown very often.

Are you still with me? If so, you may be asking yourself, “so, what makes that movie worth writing about?” Well, I’ve got three good reasons why People on Sunday is an important piece of cinematic history: 1) it was made outside the German studio system as an experimental project, 2) it provides fascinating footage of Berlin during the latter stages of the Weimar Republic (the federal republic that would be overthrown by the Nazis), and 3) no less than five members of the creative team later emigrated to the United States and established themselves as major Hollywood talents.

People on Sunday mostly takes place on a summer Sunday and tells the interrelated story of five Berliners who plan to picnic at the beach. Shooting took place on several weekends during 1929 with much of the story improvised. The film exclusively features non-professionals in the starring roles, though the relaxed, unselfconscious acting belies that fact. The numerous shots of the city give the film a semi-documentary feel. Combined with the seemingly carefree narrative of these lower-middle class young adults, it creates the illusion that the camera is unobtrusively spying on real-life events.

Mid- to late-twenties Germany was a time of moderate prosperity, having survived the economic collapse that occurred after, and as a result of, World War I. In 1929, the country was just beginning to experience the runaway inflation that would create the severe political instability that paved the way for the rise of Adolf Hitler. The Berlin of People on Sunday, however, is one of normalcy: the mood of the characters is lighthearted and the city seems robust. The movie provides a rare view of the period.

I enjoyed the film, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to oversell it to you as a must-see example of German silent-era filmmaking; for that, my must-see picks would probably include such titles as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, and Pandora’s Box. No, the appeal of People on Sunday is as much for being a notable social document as it is an entertaining film. So, if you’re interested in the period, or in experimental film efforts, it‘s something you’ll want to check out.

You may have noticed that I haven’t yet further mentioned the third reason for discussing the film. Depending on your interest in film history, the third reason may provide more cause to watch People on Sunday than the other two, combined. That’s because the credits show that the film was directed by Kurt (Curt) Siodmak, Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer and Fred Zinnemann, while the screenplay was by Kurt Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer and Billy Wilder, based on source material by Robert Siodmak.

That group of filmmakers (all of whom were Jewish) saw the writing on the wall when the Nazis started consolidating power in the early thirties and those five left either before, or slightly after Hitler placed Joseph Goebbels in his cabinet as Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Goebbels strictly controlled all forms of media, ensuring that they conformed to Nazi political philosophy. Some of the filmmakers went to Paris or London first, but they all eventually wound up in Hollywood.

Robert Siodmak entered the movie business writing titles for imported American films and progressed to film cutter. He was the one who convinced producer Seymour Nebenzal to finance People on Sunday. When the independent film became a surprise hit, Siodmak was signed by the giant German studio UFA as a director. Despite some success there, Robert and younger brother Curt fled Germany when all Jews were kicked out of the film industry by the Nazis. Robert spent several productive years in France before landing in Hollywood, where he would become an A-list director, particularly known for his stylish film noir thrillers. Among his many hits were The Suspect, The Spiral Staircase, The Killers, Criss Cross, and The Crimson Pirate. Robert later returned to Germany, where he made several more films.

Curt Siodmak was a journalist when he took a job as an extra in Metropolis so that he could write an article on the film’s director, Fritz Lang. One thing led to another and he soon became a screenwriter. He would later direct and produce several bottom-of-the barrel films near the end of his career, but he remains best-known for the horror scripts he wrote for Universal, king of that low-budget genre. Many of his works were unexceptional, but among the best were the classics The Wolf Man and I Walked with a Zombie. Curt also wrote several novels, including the notable Donovan’s Brain.

Fred Zinnemann worked as an assistant cameraman in Germany before his fateful association with People on Sunday. He immediately moved to Hollywood, where he became an assistant director for a short time before graduating to directing short films. From 1942, when he made his Hollywood debut as a feature director, Zinnemann worked his way up to becoming one of the industry’s leading directors. His resume includes such significant titles as The Search, High Noon, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma!, A Man for All Seasons, and The Day of the Jackal. He was nominated for eight Oscars and won four.

Edgar G. Ulmer was a set designer and art director in German films before moving to Hollywood shortly after the release of People on Sunday. In Tinseltown, he would work in those same positions before breaking into the ranks of film directors. Ulmer bounced around the second tier of Hollywood studios, but is most identified with Poverty Row outfit PRC. Ulmer was PRC’s top director, helming their biggest-budgeted projects (I know, it’s kind of an oxymoron), and served as an unofficial head of production. Among his erratic output is what many consider the quintessential low-budget film noir classic Detour.

Billy Wilder, like Curt Siodmak, was a journalist who became a screenwriter. After spending the early thirties in Paris, he came to the United States, where he became one of Hollywood’s top writing talents. In 1942, he was given the opportunity to direct The Major and the Minor, and the rest, as they say, is history. Wilder created hit after hit into the sixties, when his output finally became somewhat spotty. Who doesn’t know these titles? (if you don’t, you should): Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Blvd. , Stalag 17, Sabrina, The Seven Year Itch, Witness for the Prosecution, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and One, Two, Three. There’s not room enough to list them all! He worked in several genres, yet had equal success in each. In my mind, Wilder was the greatest director of the Classic Hollywood period. He won six total Oscars covering three categories (screenplay, directing, producing) and was nominated a whopping 21 times!

The Des Moines Public Library checks out DVDs for seven days for just $1.00. Our new policy allows you to have 15 DVDs at a time, so take advantage and create your own German émigré film festival today!

Under (and East of) the Land Down Under

If you watched the Grammy Awards earlier this month, you’d have seen that the song “Somebody That I Used to Know” won the prestigious Record of the Year award. The ubiquitous single, a former number one hit in the United States and over twenty other countries, is by Gotye featuring Kimbra. Gotye (real name: Wouter De Backer) was born in Bruges, Belgium, though his parents moved to Australia when he was just two years old. In Sydney, his parents enrolled him in school as “Walter,” the English equivalent of Wouter. They would later move to a suburb of Melbourne and the name “Walter” eventually transformed to the less formal “Wally.” Similarly, the name Gotye, is an intentionally modified spelling of “Gauthier,” the French version of Wouter/Walter. Suffice to say that Gotye has the variations on the name pretty well covered. Now 32, Gotye has released three albums as a solo artist while maintaining concurrent membership in the indie-pop trio The Basics, who also have released three albums. Well, enough about Gotye, he’s already gotten plenty of press lately.

Who, on the other hand, is Kimbra, who provides the female vocal on “Somebody That I Used to Know” and came to the Grammys wearing what looked like a Björk castoff? That’s what I wanted to know, so I did a little digging into her biography and I checked out her album Vows. Kimbra Lee Johnson was born in Hamilton, New Zealand in 1990 and (like Gotye) is now based in Melbourne, Australia. Although she is yet to have a solo single chart in the United States, Vows, her first album, peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard album chart. I have to say, it’s one of my favorite albums from this past year. Ostensibly an alternative rock album, Kimbra visits so many genres in the course of the CD as to make it virtually uncategorizable. No matter, `cause she effortlessly moves from one genre to the next, or combines aspects of various ones, yet manages to deliver a satisfying whole.

New Zealand seems an unlikely place to produce an international music star. The country’s population is fewer than 4.5 million people (slightly less than that of Louisiana) and they’re spread over two main islands and several much smaller ones in a rather remote area of the globe. Off the top of my head, I could come up with only a few Kiwi artists who have had an impact internationally. After further research I found that there have actually been only a few Kiwi artists whose fame has traveled beyond the national boundaries. Most, if not all, of those artists tackled the world by way of Australia, a nearby country having a fully-fledged music industry that New Zealand itself lacks. As a result, it’s somewhat difficult to talk about New Zealand music acts without acknowledging an Aussie influence.

The Kiwi acts that have made a sizeable impact outside of New Zealand are truly a diverse lot:

Crowded House was formed from remnants of the Auckland, NZ band Split Enz, which remains one of the country’s all-time most successful rock groups. The major creative force in Crowded House was Neil Finn, who with his brother Tim had been major songwriters for Split Enz. Besides Neil,  the trio known as Crowded House originally featured a pair of Australians and was based in Melbourne. Later on, Tim Finn also came on board for a time, making it a bit more Kiwi. Both New Zealand and Australia claim Crowded House as its own and each ranks the band among the most popular in their nation’s history.

Lyric soprano Kiri Te Kanawa was born in Gisborne, NZ of Māori and European ancestry. She is among the most popular opera singers of the last fifty years, starring in productions internationally, especially in Great Britain and the United States. Te Kanawa is comfortable singing in a variety of languages and performing works from the 17th to the 20th Centuries. Although she has now retired from performing operas, she continues to give concerts and recitals. Her career on disc includes literally dozens of recordings and she is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini.

Country singer-guitarist Keith Urban was born in Whangarei, NZ, though his parents moved the family to Australia before he was school age. Urban had four number one country hits in Australia before heading to the states to try his luck in Nashville. After several years of near anonymity, doing session work and leading a band called The Ranch, Urban broke out in 1999 with his self-titled solo album debut. That disc featured “But for the Grace of God,” the first of his fourteen number one country singles in the United States. Urban is a multi-instrumentalist who has recorded nine hit studio albums and garnered numerous major awards.

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie first met at Victoria University of Wellington (NZ), originally appearing together in the five-person comedy troupe So You’re a Man, before reducing to a duo as Flight of the Conchords. After stops in various corners of the British Empire, they landed in London, where they were given their own series on BBC Radio 2. That series eventually led to their HBO TV show, also called Flight of the Conchords, which aired for two seasons. The duo’s comedic songs have led to several hit albums, one of which (the EP The Distant Future) won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 2007.

Here’s a reminder that CDs at the Des Moines Public Library check out for three weeks (with two possible renewals) at no charge. DVDs check out for seven days for just one dollar. Stop in at your nearest branch, or visit us online at dmpl.org, and check out New Zealand’s greatest music exports.