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  American Beauty

Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 26 | November/December 1999

features

The Day the Bronx Invaded Earth: The Life and Times of Mike and George Kuchar — Jack Stevenson turns his searchlights on New York’s legendary underground kitschmeisters

Poets of Everyday Life: Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin — Two more 1950s New York indie pioneers, but so sweet

interview

Chatting About Other Things: An Interview with Federico Fellini — The Master on life, death, and a vision in a forest at Gamboletta

dvd reviews

Maverick Metzger: Dark Odyssey and Little Mother — A tormented Greek Fury and an ersatz Eva Peron in Radley’s latest DVD releases

Radley Metzger

Radley's Metzger's The Dirty Girls; Carmen, Baby; The Princess and the Call Girl — Will Metzger mania never end?

Mario Bava's Baron Blood — This middle-range Bava looks better than ever on DVD

Antonioni's Red Desert — The Italian maestro's stroll through the modern wasteland

Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin’s Little Fugitive Escapes to DVD — This time the print is crisper and the director’s commentary speaks volumes

Tragic Poignancy: Mizoguchi’s The Loyal 47 Ronin — The great Japanese director’s landmark version of Chushingura sparkles on DVD

Lonesome Leni: The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl — The definitive filmic study of the eternally controversial, apparently immortal Riefenstahl

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Visit the archives for hundreds of other articles, dear.

 

old hollywood

Fred and Ginger Take Off in Flying Down to Rio — The inimitable duo’s first, with a guest appearance by a great big plane

Pre-Code Follies: Murder at the Vanities — Marihuana isn’t the only sweet thing in this raunchy pre-Code musical

Forgotten and Fantastic: The King of Jazz — Revisiting a rare early musical

reviews

Beatnik Chic: Chuck Workman’s The Source — The Beats, meet the Gap; the Gap, meet the Beats

American Beauty: Why It Sucks and Why the Critics Love It — Beautiful it ain’t, says an outraged Alan Vanneman

homo corner

Shifting Sexualities: Bedrooms and Hallways — Even an eleventh-hour hetero conversion doesn’t capsize this fun farce

All Roads Lead to Love: Tanya Wexler’s Finding North — Big-haired bimbos and bitter gay boys apparently do mix

Draining the Drama: Simon Shore’s Get Real — Give it points for sincerity; take them back for all that damn sunshine

Unhappy, Critic on Happy, Texas — Isn’t this put-on homo dramedy a few decades too late?

Deadly Crawl: The Velocity of Gary — This one needs a little more speed — and sense

book reviews

Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew, by John Oller

VideoHound’s War Movies: Classic Conflict on Film, by Mike Mayo

100 Years of Oz: A Century of Classic Images from The Wizard of Oz collection of Willard Carroll, by John Fricke. Stewart

Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir, by Foster Hirsch

Eccentrics of Comedy, by Anthony Slide

The Ultimate Directory of Film Technicians: A Necrology of Dates and Place of Births and Deaths of More Than 9,000 Producers, Screenwriters, Composers, Cinematographers, Art Directors, Costume Designers, Choreographers, Executives, and Publicists, by Billy H. Doyle

The Ultimate Directory of Silent and Sound Era Performers, by Billy H. Doyle

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