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THE CREEPING FLESH
The Creeping Flesh (Freddie Francis, 1973) screens on TCM later this week and it’s worth highlighting for several reasons. Oddly enough, for me anyway, the skeleton found in New Guinea by a Victorian...
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MOLLY HASKELL ON THE IMAGE OF WOMEN IN THE MOVIES
This month, TCM spotlights “Trailblazing Women–Actresses Who Made a Difference,” a series of movies featuring female stars who contributed to the industry, culture, and society. The series covers all...
View ArticleFrom TCM HQ: Pardon the Interruption
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this important message. Readers of the Movie Morlocks blog have likely noticed that our last post is dated Monday October 17, 2016. Behind...
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Ghost Town: The Fontainhas Trilogy (1997 – 2006)
Fontainhas no longer exists, but the three films that Pedro Costa shot there guarantee the torn-down Lisbon slum an afterlife. Ossos (1997), In Vanda’s Room (2000) and Colossal Youth (2006) compile a...
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Ingrid Bergman, a Legend in Any Language
Chances are any film lovers worth their salt encountered Ingrid Bergman at a fairly early age, most likely through her iconic role in Casablanca (1942) or her trio of films for Alfred Hitchcock:...
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Angry Cinema: The British New Wave
In the late 1950s, Britain was a country in transition. The destruction caused by two world wars remained evident but the economy was booming and unemployment was at an all-time low. Popular music was...
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The Trouble with Making Music
“What really makes me want to play music is when I really hear an individual thought pattern placed in an environment to make something actually come about that is not an obvious thing that everyone...
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Beatlemania: A Family Tradition
My mom’s first experience with The Beatles was like most people of her generation; her first glimpse of the mop-topped foursome was on February 9, 1964, on America’s favorite Sunday night pastime, The...
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Scanners: Cronenberg, Existence, and Body Horror
Scanners (1981) is a movie lacking in almost every area of cinematic showiness: Its locations, in and around Toronto and Montreal, are plain and dull. The film’s protagonist is practically...
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Just a Shot Away: Reflections on Gimme Shelter (1970)
Gimme Shelter (1970) is frequently labeled the greatest “rockumentary” ever made. The term gives the film a currency so that young bloggers can include it on their “best of” lists, or marketers can...
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‘Til Death Do They Part: La Poison (1951)
When inspiration failed Francois Truffaut, he would look at a 1957 photo of Sacha Guitry sitting on his deathbed, working on a moviola. Truffaut said looking at the image made him “recover my good...
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Mad for Tchaikovsky: Glenda Jackson and The Music Lovers (1970)
The online theater community practically exploded this past weekend when reviews started hitting for the great Glenda Jackson’s return to the stage with a landmark production of King Lear at the Old...
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The Devil Made Me Do It: La main du diable (1943)
Cinephiles and film aficionados come in all stripes. Some of us are drawn to the star quality of performers while others may obsess over scriptwriting, set designs or a director’s unique skill set....
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The Light in the Darkness: Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
On November 20th, 1975, the dictator of Spain, Francisco Franco died. It could be said that on that day the director Pedro Almodóvar was born. Almodóvar, who had wanted to study film in school but...
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A Queen Too Many
Mary of Scotland (1936), released by RKO, is an interesting historical drama with a touch of romance directed by John Ford. In 1936, Ford was hardly a novice; he had directed over eighty productions,...
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TAKE A TRIP OFF THE BEATEN PATH WITH ARTURO RIPSTEIN
FilmStruck subscribers should take special note of the opportunity to acquaint themselves with one of the masters of Mexican cinema: Arturo Ripstein. Chances are that even ardent supporters of local...
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Robert Mitchum as The Face of Film Noir
A tough week for America. After a long, bitter election year, the end game is a divided and angry country. Disillusioned with both sides, I find escape—and solace—in a pair of moody film noirs in which...
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Dirty Pool: La Cienaga (2001)
La Ciénaga (2001) translates as “The Swamp”, and it is a fetid, decaying film—its forests overgrown and its characters unwashed. For her feature debut, Lucrecia Martel depicts the dissolution of a...
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Truffaut’s Waltz into Darkness
Though he still doesn’t quite enjoy household name status, Cornell Woolrich might be the most influential American mystery writer of the past century. The adaptations are an obvious place to start...
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Surveying the Red Desert (1964)
“There’s something terrible about reality and I don’t know what it is.” – Giuliana (Monica Vitti) Modern malaise and alienation are two themes that Michelangelo Antonioni (L’Avventura [1960], La notte...
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