Gary Morris founded Bright Lights Film Journal as a print publication in 1974; it became a web-only magazine in 1996. He is the author of the monograph Roger Corman (Twayne Publishers, 1985) and the editor of Action! Interviews with Directors from Classical Hollywood to Contemporary Iran (Anthem Press, 2009). “A seemingly average person continually surprises and unsettles us by doing something strange and following it up with something even more spectacularly strange.”
Herewith is a new occasional announcement entry for various and sundry doings by Bright Lights writers and friends that may interest readers. First, our pal Bob Moricz, future reviewer of[…]
Hollywood’s Ancient Worlds, by Jeffrey Richards. New York: Continuum, 2008. Hardcover $29.95. 227pp. ISBN: 1847250076 The “ancient world” epic has been one of cinema’s most curious. For every major auteur and[…]
Hollywood Dreams Made Real: Irving Thalberg and the Rise of M‑G‑M, by Mark Vieira. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2008. Cloth $50.00. 240pp. ISBN: 978-0-8109-7234-6. Not a conventional biography, though all[…]
“The film was shot in what would become a blueprint for the director’s production style — without authorization, studio resources, or sufficient funds.”
“Story, characters, and other reassuring elements are simply obliterated by what appears to be Maybury’s elaborate private mythology.”
“Heterosexual brides-to-be are one of the demographics that arrive by the busloads to partake of Darcelle’s mad mix of risqué zingers, over-the-top musical routines, and mother-hen reassurances.”
Festivals & Awards · LGBT & Queer
Feisty orthodox Jewish dykes, globe-trotting ladyboys, fascistic Armani queens you know, the gang
Festivals & Awards · LGBT & Queer
Seeing queer lives from the U.S. and Canada to South Africa and Iran
“Don’t these children deserve the respect of a beautiful film?”
The final presidential debate was about domestic policy, as it should be — we’re in a financial crisis. But, I’ve been thinking more about foreign policy lately. There are huge[…]
Director Jack Hill took the time to send along his thoughts on Noah Berlatsky’s article “Men in Women-in-Prison: Masochism, Feminism, Fetish” in the most recent issue of Bright Lights. Hill,[…]
“The gays they make too much big crazy!”
“You never could make a decent living … you never did mount me proper.”
“Don’t know, don’t care. Beads for boobs!”
“Ride away . . . ride away . . .” John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) opens with the arrival of Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) at his brother’s home in southern[…]
“We couldn’t figure out how to divide the cat . . .” Queer documentaries have had a special place in homo history at least since 1978’s Word Is Out, the pioneering showcase[…]
Note: With so much queer media happening lately — from feature films to reality TV shows to movies-of-the-week — I decided, like Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby, to “go[…]
Night Train (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1959) Call it Train of Fools. In Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s masterwork, a crowded night express travels overbooked with the despairing, the lovelorn, the lustful, a handful of priests[…]
