Activist & Political · Crime · Historical & Epic · Reviews
The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover: Larry Cohen’s The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover
How a movie exposé of “abuse of power” defends those in power and their institutions
Category: Crime
Roman Polanski: What’s on Trial?
What is fascinating about the Polanski case is that it is not particularly about Polanski. Looking at the debate raised in France (where I live) and the United States –[…]
Playing It Safe with John Dillinger: Michael Mann’s Public Enemies
“Dillinger had recently undergone plastic surgery to alter his face and to try to remove his fingerprints. But Public Enemies does not dare to depict that kind of desperation and that determination to survive under any circumstances.”
Of Perfect Plans and Acts of Creation: Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing
“His plan mirrors Johnny’s, that is, pieces of the plan are known to one person: Johnny and Stanley; and not until the end do we see most of their pieces come into place.
Crime · Drama · Noir · Reviews
Women Larger Than Life: Program Notes 2: King Vidor’s Beyond the Forest (1949) / Gerd Oswald’s Crime of Passion (1957)
Note: The humble program note has a long and noble history. Sometimes anonymous, sometimes not, cheered as often as they were reviled, these brief, ephemeral, often illuminating handouts, likely destined for the dustbin the same night they appeared, offer “wisdom in a nutshell,” as one of Ivy Compton-Burnett’s characters aptly put it. This article is the second in Bright Lights’ series of vintage program notes from those heady days of the 1970s when unstoppable auteurists started their own cine clubs and commandeered movie theaters to bring their idea of cine-culture to audiences. Our late friend Roger McNiven continues the series with fascinating write-ups of two more works on the subject of “women larger than life,” in this case Bette Davis in King Vidor’s woefully underrated Beyond the Forest and Barbara Stanwyck in Gerd Oswald’s undeservedly obscure Crime of Passion. This double feature was screened at the legendary Thalia Theatre in New York City on Monday, December 3, 1979. We have added images but not edited the text, deferring to the time and spirit in which it was written.
Crime · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Early Jeanne, Early Louis, Early Miles: Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows
“Paris at night in black-and-white with Miles on the soundtrack? It’s a perfect fit.”
To Slap a Dame: Sexual Violence in the Age of Reason
“Skip is the only one that enacts incest with one hand and bats away communists like flies from a dung pile with the other.”
Crime · Reviews · Writers & Critics
Critics Cornered: On Reviewers’ Reactions to David Ayres’ Street Kings
“Anyone who speaks unsanitized thought is going to lose.”
Downward Mobility: On Roger Corman’s Bloody Mama
“You never could make a decent living … you never did mount me proper.”
Oh What a Lovely Jail: Crime Is Old, Crime Is New
Just Like Those Mind-Forged Manacles Blues A desire for revenge is a normal response to crime. Ask anyone who has just had his house burgled or car stolen. But there[…]
Crack Christ: The Excess and the Ecstasy of Bad Lieutenant
“Lord, my Lord! How true it is that whoever work for you is paid in troubles.” ~ St. Teresa of Avila Junkies and saints know about giving. After shooting up[…]
A History of Violence: A Minimum of Thought
“A whole load of ‘Aw’ with not a lot of ‘shucks,’ updated only by a little cunnilingus.” If David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence were an actor, it would be[…]
Everyone Has Something to Hide: On Cronenberg’s A History of Violence
Unmasking (the) America(n) Two of the largest influences on postwar American life were the virtual invention of the teenager and self-help. Something for nothing underlies the idea behind each development.[…]
Pulp with a Soundtrack: Getting Elmore Leonard on Film
“My sound is the absence of me.” – Elmore Leonard The curious thing about Elmore Leonard is that while his books move fast, the films that capture his tone seem[…]
Activist & Political · Crime · Horror
Training Day (for the Pacification of Iraq): Baghdad in the Ghetto
“You know what I learned today? I’m not like you.”
Asian · Crime · SF & Fantasy
Camp Carnage: Takashi Miiker’s Full Metal Yakuza
And Frankenstein begat Robocop, which begat Ken
Bonnie and Clyde: Together Again
Warren Beatty’s seminal sixties shoot-’em-up revisited
Capturing the Beauty of the Beast: Aileen Wuornos, Charlize Theron, and Monster
The “monster” Wuornos and why she won’t go away
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