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38th Telluride Film Festival
In case you missed it, the Telluride Film Festival had its 38th bash last Labor Day Weekend, September 2-5. It included the latest films by Aki Kaurismäki, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese, Alexander...
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I’ve Always Liked Bad Girls: Dorothy Malone
When I was a little girl, I watched soap operas with my mother, making me a life-long fan of the many subgenres and stylings of melodrama. In addition to the daytime dramas, we faithfully tuned in...
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High & Low: Harun Farocki and John Landis
Two sixty-something masters of their domain have new work showing in the U.S. John Landis, a dean of the low farting arts, has his morbid comedy Burke and Hare playing cable-on-demand services and a...
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Technically Speaking, I’m not really a Technical Guy
Art is an act of communication. I heard that a lot in college. I majored in theatre and usually the term was applied directly to the subject at hand, i.e., “theatre is an act of communication” but...
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Seijun Suzuki’s EVERYTHING GOES WRONG (1960)
I recently signed up for a temporary “Plus” account with Hulu.com so I could sample some of the rare Japanese films that Criterion has made available there. Earlier this year Criterion signed an...
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Eye caramba!
Often shortlisted as one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time, Larry Buchanan’s THE EYE CREATURES (1965)… nah, I’m just messing with you. Nobody says it’s one of the greatest science...
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The Hollywood Economist
A few weeks ago, my post about Judex and comic book movies prompted an astute reply by Suzi about the extent to which contemporary film has been distorted by an emphasis on attracting an audience of...
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Something Wicked This Way Comes
Although Luis Bunuel never made a straight up horror film in the traditional sense, many of his movies contained elements of the horrific and the fantastical such as the “mother meat” nightmare...
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Interviewing the Stars, Then and Now
Brad Pitt was featured this past week in Parade magazine, the tiny Sunday supplement to most major-city newspapers. In the cover article, he beams about family life with wife Angelina Jolie and their...
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The Minnellium: Yolanda and the Thief (1945)
Vincente Minnelli had been interested in making a surrealist musical since his days as a Broadway set designer and director. After he saw successful stagings of “Four Saints in Three Acts” (with...
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That Certain Look of… Isolation
A movie can provide a wealth of riches to a movie lover, from pointed social commentary and profound character development to thrilling adventure and terrifying horror. The movies provide so much...
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Maddin Madness — Celebrating “My Winnipeg”
Kevin Lee of the Keyframe Blog at Fandor, the subscription internet video service, is holding an important event this week — “The Maddin-est Blogathon in the World” – celebrating the dazzling...
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Something Is Always Left Behind
“Though I wait for thee a thousand years, Through waiting will I love thee yet the more. And though I fill an ocean with my tears My joy will thus be greater than before. And this my prayer for...
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“Pleasant dreams… heh heh heh heh…”
For years, I was unsure as to whether SH! THE OCTOPUS (1937) was a real movie. Long before the IMDb, when all I had to go by was the odd reference book and the occasional muttered remark, I convinced...
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The Nostalgia Merchants
Let me start with an anecdote: when I was producing my DVD compilation of the restored films of Harry Langdon, I had gone to my bank to take out a loan to help finance the project. I sat down with a...
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What do H.G. Wells and Wallace and Gromit have in common?
Both are English, but the title is a trick question. To be more accurate, it would read: “What should H.G. Wells and Wallace and Gromit have had in common?” Around the mid-1990′s a very interesting...
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Musings from an Avid Soap-Opera Fan
Last Friday, the ABC soap opera All My Children aired its last episode on television after a 41- year run. In January, One Life to Live will broadcast its last episode, and though, it hasn’t been...
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The 2011 New York Film Festival, Part 1
The 49th New York Film Festival begins this Friday, September 30th, with a main slate of 27 features and an abundance of sidebar and retrospective screenings, including a massive survey of Nikkatsu...
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The Stars That Never Shone
Every star started out small. Depending on the time and era of any given star’s ascendance they may have done time on stage, television or played bit parts in films working their way up the ladder....
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Exploring the past with Cinema Retro
The new issue of Cinema Retro arrived in my mailbox this week and I immediately made some time to flip through its glossy pages. The cover features an image of young Malcolm McDowell staring out from...
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