Fellini’s Society Rehearsal: Orchestra Rehearsal Reconsidered
In which “Fellini takes us beyond our frailties and chaos”
Author: Robert Castle
Robert Castle has been contributing to Bright Lights Film Journal since 2000. His book The Interpretive Odyssey of Stanley Kubrick, is available on Kindle. In 2006, his first books were published: The End of Travel, a memoir (Ravenna Books); Odd Pursuits, a collection of 16 stories (Wild Child Publishing); and A Sardine on Vacation, fiction based on the feature columns appearing in Unlikely Stories (Spuyten Duyvil). His new novel, The Hidden Life (Atmosphere Press), is available at Amazon. Daddy and Father in The Emerald Forest
On civilization and its discontents I recently saw a list of Luddite movies that listed Cameron’s The Terminator (1984), Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936), and Lang’s Metropolis (1927), among others. Luddites[…]
Actors & Personalities · Essays · Reviews
Andy Kaufman, Tony Clifton, Mr. Ripley, and the Elisions of Identity
I had an opportunity to see a double feature a couple of years ago on a British Airways flight to Madrid. The size of the screen certainly reduced any desire[…]
Fritz Lang’s Assumption Factory: Social Agreements and Schisms in Fury, Modern Times, and A Clockwork Orange
Two films of 1936, Chaplin’s Modern Times and Fritz Lang’s Fury (with Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney), appear to have little in common. The former sardonically depicts a man at[…]
Recalling the Dream of Parenthood in Raising Arizona
Of babynappings and bodily fluids, Coens and Kubricks In Raising Arizona (1987), a blatantly obscure graffiti can be seen in the lavatory wall behind escaped convicts, Hale and Evelle (John[…]
Activist & Political · Reviews
The Clinton Syndrome, or the Survival Legacy: Wag the Dog
Revisiting the failure of Wag the Dog and other, more troubling failures “And the public, by and large, seems willing to live with the fact that the most powerful man in the[…]
Directors · Essays · Producers & Studios · Reviews
The Dharma Blues: Or How I Brooded but Did Not Weep Over Kubrick’s Bomb
Opening the Eyes Wide Shut censorship battles for a close look A recent viewing of Eyes Wide Shut (1999) on HBO reminded me when, three summers ago, I had counted[…]
On and Off, On and Off: Riding Through Roger Rabbit’s World
There’s more trouble in Toontown than even the Toons imagined Cartoons and animated features have never been strictly made for children. But not until the 1960s did the cartoon gain[…]
Crime · Reviews · Thrillers & Action
Average Nobodies: The Dark Knights of Goodfellas
Scorsese’s wiseguy gangsters as modern-day knights errant In medieval times there were no countries and few strong kings. Monks hid in fortress monasteries while marauding knights brutalized the peasants. Most[…]
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