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Laukaus tehtaalla [A Shot in the Factory] (Erkko Kivikoski, 1973)
Feb
21
Nixon goes to China
Workers and bosses negotiate the situation. DP: Esko Nevalainen.
The killing of the factory's boss by one of the workers leads to endless negotiations between the two parties.
Shot in cinéma vérité style, with a mostly amateur cast, Laukaus tehtaalla mirrors the working classes' insecurity caused by the 1973 energy crisis in more ways than one.
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Sochaux, 11 juin 1968 [Sochaux June 11th 1968] (Bruno Muel, 1970)
Jun
11
1968
Several of the striking workers in a row. The composition echoes the famous propaganda image of Marx, Engels, Lenin etc. DP: Groupe Medvedkine de Sochaux.
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Kid 'N' Hollywood [Kid in Hollywood] (Charles Lamont, 1933)
Jun
12
Child Labor Day
A movie set on a movie set in Kid 'N' Hollywood. Shirley Temple can be seen on her knees scrubbing the floor as the character Morelegs Sweettrick. Standing next to her with a bullhorn and adult spats is Arthur J. Maskery as the tyrannical movie director Frightwig von Stumblebum. As in all the Baby Burlesk shorts, the kids are only half-dressed with their diapers showing.
Despite Shirley Temple's clear statements of what was going on on set during her child actress days, her output remains wildly popular. Who cannot resist her precocious lines, her cute dimples and baby doll innocence? And tapdancing with ánd befriending a Negro, during the segregation years? Miss Shirley truly was wise beyond her tender age.
“This isn’t playtime, kids, it’s work.”
– Charles Lamont, Baby Burlesk director
In the Baby Burlesk Kid 'N' Hollywood, Temple plays a Hollywood hopeful called Morelegs Sweettrick, who gets her break when the star doesn't feel like showing up (kids, right? no discipline).
While Kid 'N' Hollywood is relatively innocent, others in the series are much more sexualised (War Babies (1932) stars Temple as prostitute Charmaine) or plain racist (Kid 'in' Africa (1933) with Temple as Madame Cradlebait, bringing civilisation to Black kids portraying fearsome cannibals).
I'm not the one to take events from the past out of context and apply modern-day sensibilities to them, and with the advent of #ChildLabor laws for #Hollywood child actors, many of the horrors recalled by Temple and her peers are history. School is mandatory, long hours restricted, and using twins to split the workload is definitely not unheard of.
And then I watched teevee, and saw chubby, precocious blondes with dental plates to hide their missing baby teeth, wearing lipstick and baby-dolls, grinding and crooning with no backup in sight. And I remember Miss Temple say:
“Any star can be devoured by human adoration, sparkle by sparkle.”
– Shirley Temple
