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Ridiculous Plot, Ham Acting, Sledgehammer Direction – Awesome Movie!
To view The Boys from Brazil click here. Alternate histories have always had a devoted following and have been around for years. Since World War II’s end, many alternative histories have focused on...
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A Look at David Lean’s BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945)
To view Brief Encounterclick here. It’s not often you come across a story centering around infidelity that is portrayed as sweet and innocent, deserving of the respect and empathy of its audience. In...
View ArticleJohn Alton and Film Noir: Painting with Light and Shadow
A shadowy, expressive photography defines film noir. It creates the kind of heavy mood and atmosphere that the German Expressionists called stimmung. The genre seemed to bring out the best in...
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Personal Moral Codes
To view My Night at Maud’s click here. Éric Rohmer, “the most durable film-maker of the French New Wave”, according to his obituary in The Daily Telegraph, established international prominence when My...
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Street Grand Prix: Ronin (1998)
To view Ronin click here. An Audi S8 sluices through the country roads outside of Nice, running down a trio of anonymous sedans. With the aid of pinpoint braking and navigational support, the Audi...
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You’re Invited to Muriel’s Wedding (1994)
To view Muriel’s Wedding click here. Last year, I took a look at the enduring (and sometimes unexpected) impact the music of ABBA, the wildly adored Swedish pop group, has had on the world of cinema....
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Adolescent Adventure: The World of Henry Orient (1964)
To view The World of Henry Orientclick here. FilmStruck has been singled out as a great resource for film aficionados but it also includes exceptional family friendly entertainment that can provide...
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Before Cable, There Was Korda
To view Conquest of the Air click here. Perhaps I’m alone in this (though I hope not) but I find watching old info docs as much fun as watching old movies. When I first got TCM years ago, I quickly...
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To Share or Not to Share: Kids and Classic Film
To view Stagecoach click here. One of the things I like to write about most is the journey of introducing my daughter to classic films, especially my personal favorites. From the time she was about...
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You’re Going Into Space a Man, But You’ve Got To Come Back a Monster!
To view First Man Into Space click here. This has to be one of the firsts in movie studio history: A script is rejected by AIP (American International Pictures) only to be later picked up by MGM...
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On Forugh Farrokhzad
To view The House Is Black click here. Documentary often focuses our attention on something we might not otherwise notice—a forgotten event, an overlooked historical figure, an ignored social problem,...
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Mad Men: Putney Swope (1969)
To view Putney Swopeclick here. In 1969 Robert Downey Sr. waited outside a screening of Putney Swope (1969) at the Cinema II in NYC to see if the film was still working as intended. As reported by...
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Manage Your Great Expectations (1946)
To view Great Expectations click here. The phrase “read the book, see the movie” was something you heard a lot in the second half of the 20th century, and using a work of popular literature as the...
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Margaret Lockwood is The Wicked Lady (1945)
To view The Wicked Lady click here. “I’ve got brains and looks and personality. I want to use them!” - Barbara Worth (Margaret Lockwood) in The Wicked Lady (1945) During WWII, many British citizens...
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A Deafening Silence
To view Le Silence de la Mer, click here. Jean-Pierre Melville directed Bob le flambeur (1956), Le Samouraï (1967), L’ Arme des ombres (1969) and Le Cercle rouge (1970), all acclaimed works by an...
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A Look at the Short Films of Harold Lloyd
To view Just Neighbors click here, to view Billy Blazes, Esq. click here and to view Never Weaken click here. As I prepare for this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, I am revisiting the...
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The Original Castaway: Robinson Crusoe (1954)
To view Robinson Crusoe click here. Luis Buñuel, the controversial and much banned filmmaking genius, has become so associated with the surreal cinema that the idea of him directing a straightforward...
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Smackdown: Wuthering Heights vs. Jane Eyre
To view Wuthering Heights click here and to view Jane Eyre click here. Currently available on FilmStruck for your streaming pleasure is “The Brontë Sisters,” a modest selection of titles related to...
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Robbing Them Blind: The Silent Partner (1978)
To view The Silent Partner click here. In The Silent Partner, the devil is in the details. Elliott Gould’s mild-mannered bank teller Miles is transformed into a criminal strategist because he notices...
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Sister, Act: English Lit, French Style with The Brontë Sisters (1979)
To view The Brontë Sisters click here. The love affair between European cinema and the literary works of the Brontë sisters has been a fascinating one for decades, though it’s often overlooked in...
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