Hallelujah the Hills (film)

Nota Bene: Hallelujah the Hills (the film) has nothing whatsoever to do with a rock group calling themselves Hallelujah The Hills. The Movie was made in 1963 and the rock group appeared on the scene in 2005.

Hallelujah the Hills
“Plotless and pointless, seemingly without a care for structure or cinematic style, it is infuriatingly unconventional and wholly disarming.” THE NEW YORK TIMES December 17, 1963
Directed by Adolfas Mekas
Produced by David C. Stone
Written by Adolfas Mekas
Starring

Peter H. Beard
Martin Greenbaum
Sheila Finn
Peggy Steffans
Jerome Raphael
Blanche Dee
Jerome Hill
Taylor Mead
Emsh

[1]
Music by Meyer Kupferman
Cinematography Ed Emshwiller
Edited by Adolfas Mekas
Production
company
Vermont Productions
Release dates
 1963
Running time
 82 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Hallelujah the Hills (1963) was written, directed and edited by Adolfas Mekas. The picture was his first feature film.

Chicago Tribune The MOVIES

“Hallelujah the Hills, the funniest comedy you’ve never seen.......”

“An obscure farce from 1963 comes to the Siskel Film Center for a rare screening on February 6, 2014....” by Nina Metz See entire review at AdolfasMekas.com [2]

Plot

"Two young men, Jack and Leo, are both courting the same girl. For seven long years they persist, but she finally gives herself to the 'horrible Gideon.' In a sense, just as this is the pretext for the film, so the courtships of Vera is a pretext for Jack and Leo to camp out together in the Vermont woods near her home, and to indulge themselves in the wildest of horseplay and high jinks. The film has a Giffithian flavor, a lyrical naivete, which is extremely touching. At the same time it is full of sophisticated film parodies - Rashomon, the New Wave, Douglas Fairbanks, Ma and Pa Kettle. In short, this is one of the most completely American films ever made, in its combination of anarchistic wackiness with a nostalgic sense of the lost frontier and (maybe they're both the same) the magic of youth." -Richard Roud, in the program notes for The First New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center NY, screening September 14, 1963.

In 1963 after screenings in the Cannes Festival Critics’ section, the Montreal Film Festival and the Locarno festival where it won the Silver Sail, HALLELUJAH THE HILLS, Adolfas Mekas’ first feature film made its USA debut at the The First New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center on September 14, 1963, at a 6:30pm screening. It received rave reviews and went on to a 15-week engagement at the Fifth Avenue Cinema in New York, and movie theatres around the country. Currently, it is available in 35mm from Anthology Film Archives and the Museum of Modern Art, where it is also available in 16mm.

For further availability go to: www.HallelujahEditions.com

Photos

Convicts in Hallelujah the Hills
Adolfas Mekas on set of Hallelujah the Hills (1963)
“A zany film, filled with fresh images, rare wit, it won rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival. “ GLAMOUR Magazine, December ’63.
Jerome Hill and Taylor Mead caught red-handed in the snowy Vermont mountains.
Marty Greeenbaum and the summer Vera, Peggy Steffans Sarno
Sheila Finn (the winter Vera) and Peter Beard
“Written and directed by Adolfas Mekas, a hard-shell cinema nut….Hallelujah The Hills is the weirdest, wooziest, wackiest comedy of 1963.” TIME Magazine, December l3, 1963


Publicity

In Books

In Periodicals

References

  1. ↑ "Hallelujah the Hills." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 10 June 2014.
  2. ↑ Metz, Nina. "'Hallelujah the Hills,' the Funniest Comedy You've Never Seen." Chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune, 6 Feb. 2014.

External links