Some of the films of Noël Coward, some of the films of Ernst Lubitsch, and one of the films of Oscar Wilde
Category: Artists
Play-Actor: On Trevor Howard
“The whole point of Howard’s screen persona was surely its combination of the ramrod-straight and the slyly subversive, and its creation of a façade that was eternally gruff yet perpetually seemed to be in on some wonderful joke.”
Allan Dwan: Between the Lines
“Dwan was never afraid of melodrama, so often disdained for its contrivance, implausibility and heightened emotion; nor of farce, with its tendency to reduce characters to spastic puppets or wind-up toys. Dwan’s skill at visually expressing relationships — the legacy of his nearly two decades making silent movies — cannot by itself salvage stories or characters that fail that test of engaging us; but when combined with his crisp narrative intelligence and detached yet compassionate eye for human behavior, it gives his best films an apparently effortless power to engross.”
Directors · Documentaries · Experimental & Underground · Historical & Epic · Interviews
Histories Private and Public: Talking with Péter Forgács about Letters to Afar
“We wanted to do a writing of history through a sensual observance of the films. By having those details opened up, we show how the daily life was — not by explaining didactically but rather offering this inner representation.”
In Illuminated Memory of Richard Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013)
“Matheson was able to get right to the heart of the matter, to expose the raw nerve at the base of our collective paranoia and atomic anxiety, to realize all inner demons were projections outward, and vice versa…”
Shyamalan’s a Ding-Dong: After Earth (Will Smith is a great dad, please)
We don’t want to see dead people, but we damn sure want them to see us.
Vincente Minnelli’s Descents Into Hell
Vincente Minnelli’s reputation is that of a stylist – someone who did not author his own screenplays, but who directed whatever the studio (usually MGM) assigned to him (usually musicals), and[…]
Directors · Reviews · SF & Fantasy
The Man Who Shot John Ford — in 3D: Spielberg Retrofits Jurassic Park with Mixed Results
“As cold and insincere as it may be for Spielberg to flush an ‘updated’ version back into theaters as a marketing blitz for the forthcoming 3D sequel, Jurassic Park still[…]
Actors & Personalities · Directors · Producers & Studios · Silents
Who Was the Real James Young Deer? The Mysterious Identity of the Pathè Producer Finally Comes to Light
“With his acting experience and technical know-how, Young Deer soon advanced to one of Pathé’s leading filmmakers. His Indian identity served him well: no one in the cast or crew at that time would have taken orders from a black man.”
Reading Movie Reviews as a Religious Experience: Roger Ebert as the Rashi of Cinema
“The wonder of life and the resources of imagination supply all the adventure you need.” — Roger Ebert (in his Great Movies review of My Neighbor Totoro)
The Strange Case of Basil Rathbone: The Life and Work of the Man Who Made Olivier — and Audiences — Swoon
“That God-damned play I bought for a song and made such a great success in — a great money success — it ruined me with its promise of an easy fortune. I didn’t want to do anything else, and by the time I woke up to the fact I’d become a slave to the damned thing and did try other plays, it was too late. They had identified me with that one part, and didn’t want me in anything else. They were right, too. I’d lost the great talent I once had through years of easy repetition, never learning a new part, never really working hard. Thirty-five to forty thousand dollars net profit a season like snapping your fingers! It was too great a temptation.” — James Tyrone, Long Day’s Journey into Night
“Drunk Literature”: On Malcolm Lowry, John Huston, and Under the Volcano
“Somebody threw a dead dog after him down the ravine.”
Activist & Political · Directors · Documentaries · Interviews
“It Could Cause a Popular Uproar”: Interview with Amir Ramses on his controversial documentary Jews of Egypt
“They were educated in security, and these guys are raised with the concept that the word ‘Jew’ means ‘enemy.’ They all look at themselves in the mirror, and they imagine themselves to be superheroes, spy killers . . . I doubt they even saw the film before banning it.”
The Man Who Shot John Ford — in 3D: Spielberg Retrofits Jurassic Park with Mixed Results
“As cold and insincere as it may be for Spielberg to flush an ‘updated’ version back into theaters as a marketing blitz for the forthcoming 3D sequel, Jurassic Park still exemplifies, for better and worse, the staying power and effectiveness of Spielbergian theme park ride filmmaking, independent of the fact that it is actually about a theme park, and its success is a testament to how skilled he can be at showing an audience what it wants to see.”
Actors & Personalities · Books
Book review: Lee Marvin, Point Blank, by Dwayne Epstein
Lee Marvin: Point Blank, by Dwayne Epstein. Tucson, AZ: Schaffner Press, 2013. 303pp. Hardcover. $27.95. With his many iconic films, his record of combat action in the Pacific during WW2,[…]
Bright Lights on Bright Lights!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Our innate modesty and abhorrence of insularity, self-referencing, self-reflexivity, and, well, self-everything would normally prohibit us from publishing this piece. But we were so captivated by this tribute[…]
Happy Birthday, Bette Davis (Apr. 5, 1908-Oct. 6, 1989): A Talent for Hysteria
Note: This tribute to Bette Davis appeared previously in online Bright Lights in 1997. “Millions of moviegoers responded to the challenge of her headstrong, neurotic heroines who, like Frankenstein’s monster,[…]
Michael Curtiz – Auteur Without a Theme?
Hungarian-born filmmaker, Michael Curtiz (pictured with Joan Crawford, above), is considered by many to be one of the quintessential Hollywood directors – he is, after all, the man who[…]
Actors & Personalities · Comedy · Directors · Silents
Looking at Charlie — Limelight: An Occasional Series on the Life and Work of Charlie Chaplin
“I have ideas!” If only that were true!
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