Hallelujah the Hills (1963)

Hallelujah The Hills (USA, 1963) 82 min B&W DIR-SCR-EDITOR: Adolfas Mekas. PROD: David C. Stone. MUSIC: Meyer Kupferman. DOP: Ed Emshwiller. CAST: Peter H. Beard, Martin Greenbaum, Sheila Finn, Peggy Steffans, Ed Emshwiller, Jerome Raphael, Blanche Dee, Jerome Hill, Taylor Mead.

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Jonas Mekas was a more prolific filmmaker, and perhaps more “the voice” of the New American Cinema. But he co-founded the influential Film Culture magazine with his brother Adolfas, and based on this program offering a long overdue glimpse at his own films, it is clear that Adolfas Mekas (1925-2011) was a unique talent as well, harbouring a poetic blend of absurdity. After tonight’s show, we can only say… more, please!

A self-confessed homage to the cinema that has influenced him (even abruptly lifting the classic “ice floe” sequence from Griffith’s Way Down East) Adolfas Mekas’ Hallelujah The Hills is justly regarded as a classic of the New American Cinema. This equally comedic and dreamlike tale is evocative of Buster Keaton slapstick, Marx Brothers anarchy, the playful lyricism of Vigo, Clair, and early Renoir, and the improvisatory feel of the French New Wave as two dorky would-be suitors, Jack (Peter Beard) and Leo (Marty Greenbaum) court the same woman, Vera. In a move predating Bunuel’s That Obscure Object Of Desire by fourteen years, Vera is played by two women (Sheila Finn, Peggy Stefans): each representing how (respectively) Jack and Leo “envision” her.  The exquisite black-and-white cinematography is by filmmaker-illustrator Ed Emshwiller (Thanatopsis), who also acts (credited as “Emsh”) as Gideon, the one who Vera marries in the film’s opening, and thereby sets the boys off on a voyage… somewhere… playing their little war games- these young men are still little boys. The fragmented narrative radically blends the present with the pair’s past ill-advised attempts at wooing Vera -each over a seven-year period, one in summer, another in winter, each with a montage that will recall the breakfast sequence from Citizen Kane- become more pathetic with each new season. No wonder they lost Vera. Filmmaker Jerome Hill and underground superstar Taylor Mead appear as convicts in the jaw-dropping finale that nicely sums it all up. The gimmick of the “two Vera”s doesn’t quite work, but this is a delight all the same, which will reward with further viewings. Beneath the exuberant innocence, one is tempted to read a somber semi-autobiographical parable of the Mekas brothers’ wartime experiences. A tour de force for writer-director-editor Mekas, although I can’t help but wonder if the line of dialogue “I haven’t seen a movie for ten days” was suggested by brother Jonas. It sounds just like something from his Movie Journal column. The lovely New England winter setting added a perfect “you are there” feeling to viewing the film, while under a blanket as the winds howled outside.

Added Attractions!

An Interview With Ambassador From Lapland
(USA, 1967) DIR: Adolfas Mekas.

A hilarious four-minute short in the guise of a Time-Life newsreel, with stock footage, cartoon segments and Adolfas Mekas as a dictator spouting rhetoric, all with quite a prescient Vietnam subtext that mainstream cinema was still catching up to. It’s just long enough to crack its big joke, and it’s a doozy!

Hallelujah The Villa
(Italy, 2006) DIR: David Avallone.

This has a lot more going on than the typical format of a DVD extra. This 27-minute opus apes the same goofy style of its inspiration, as director-interviewer David Avallone tracks down the elusive Adolfas Mekas for an interview at his beautiful Italian coastal property “which the film paid for”. Lots of fun, with Mekas savouring a glass of wine, recounting its making, and his lack of pity towards “the two schmucks” in the film.