Intimations of Lifelessness: Sirk’s Ironic Tearjerker
This article appeared first in our all-Sirk print issue (#6, Winter 1977) and was reposted in the March 1997 online version of Bright Lights. We offer it here for readers[…]
Author: Stephen Handzo
Stephen Handzo taught film at Columbia University. Since then, he has contributed to the books Film Sound : Theory and Practice, Space Patrol, The Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film, and the late lamented Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Gay Old San Francisco: Hitchcock’s Closet Case and Other Thoughts on Vertigo
“Could Scottie’s real beau ideal be Gavin Elster?” Vertigo is famously about obsession. Brian Da Palma’s homage/rip-off is even called Obsession. But what is Scottie’s obsession, really? San Francisco’s past[…]
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Directors · Genres · Noir · Westerns
Going Through the Devil’s Doorway: The Early Westerns of Anthony Mann
“Mann’s 1950 threesome — The Devil’s Doorway, Winchester ’73, The Furies — was the most auspicious quantum jump by an American director since John Ford’s equivalent Americana triumvirate of 1939 (Stage Coach, Young Mr. Lincoln, Drums Along the Mohawk) lifted him into the major phase of his career. Yet Mann’s achievements seem destined to remain unappreciated and the director himself obscure.”
