THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE — The TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME of 1933!
I wrote the description below back in 2009 (full review here) based on a rare screening years before at the Film Forum pre-code festival. It used to be so very[…]
Category: Uncategorized
Asian · Essays · Uncategorized
Notions of Gender in Hindi Cinema: The Passive Indian Woman in the Global Discourse of Consumption
“During the so-called ‘repressive’ ages sex was a joy, because it was practiced in secret and it made a mockery of all of the obligations and duties that the repressive power imposed. Instead, in tolerant societies, as the one we live in is declared to be, sex produces neuroses because the freedom granted is false and above all, it is granted from above and not won from below.” —Pier Paolo Pasolini, Pasolini prossimo nostro (2006) “Have you noticed how fashionable couples are today? But it is a completely false and insincere couple, frighteningly insincere. See these kids under the power of who knows what romantic notion, they walk hand-in-hand, or arm-in-arm, a young man and a girl. ‘What is this sudden romanticism?’, you may ask. Nothing. It is simply the new couple as revived by consumerism because this consumerist couple buys.” —Pier Paolo Pasolini, Pasolini prossimo nostro (2006)
Opera Rules
Warsaw/Chicago Film Diary 1. Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky The perils of virginity, or I Was a Teenage Were-Swan. Black Swan is a hot mess: preposterous if you listen to the[…]
Experimental & Underground · Uncategorized
Sex, Death, Dreaming
The following short films, each less than one minute in length, were created for the compilation project, OneDreamRush. First, we have Asia Argento on the fluidity of SEXUAL IDENTITY. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgIgiQ-2TNo][…]
Early 3D: A Case Study: The Teleview and The Man from M.A.R.S.
“Less than a month after premiering for an ‘indefinite time’ at the Selwyn, the Teleview was pulled.”
Music & Musicals · Reviews · Uncategorized
The Runaways Get Bio-Picked
If the brief stardom of Buddy Holly and the even briefer star of Ritchie Valens should get the Hollywood biopic treatment, then why not the first all-girl balls-out rock act?[…]
Books · Essays · Uncategorized · Writers & Critics
On the Escarpment, Off the Escarpment: It Helps When the Love Is Strong
Especially when the lovers aren’t
Drama · Essays · Uncategorized
An Atheist’s Guide to Wise Blood: The Doctrine of the Auto-Redemptionist
“It’s almost as if The Misfit himself were behind the camera.”
Loving Michael
One of our writers, Prof. Stephane Dunn, sent in this personal tribute to dazzling, wounded, now dead Michael Jackson. We loved his artistry and his mysterious and powerful presence in[…]
Actors & Personalities · Directors · Uncategorized
Falling in love again
Recently I re-watched Josef Von Sternberg’s The Scarlet Empress (1934) and found myself again surprised by the sickly gushy tasteless humor of the piece; had forgotten most of the film’s[…]
Harry’s Wager
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[…]
Classic Film Smackdown!: MCGINTY vs GODFREY
The Great McGinty, Preston Sturges’ directorial debut and one of my personal favorites from his all-too-brief filmography, was on TCM the other night and I caught it from about the[…]
Uncategorized · Visual Artists
The Gorey Factor
Some still dispute whether Edward Gorey (1925-2000) was fundamentally an artist who wrote, or a writer who drew. Gorey was, in fact, both an accomplished writer and an accomplished artist[…]
Bright Sights: Recent DVDs An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases
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[…]
A SCANNER DARKLY II – The Kaufman Version
In 1997, Charlie Kaufman wrote a screenplay adaptation of A Scanner Darkly that was never produced. You can read it here. Surprisingly, Kaufman’s version follows Philip K. Dick’s novel as[…]
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · LGBT & Queer · Uncategorized
Put the Camera on Us! Documentaries at the 2003 San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
Reality cinema celebrates homos of this year and yesteryear
Molls with Claws: Three Classic Girl Gang Movies: Girl Gang, Teenage Doll, Teenage Gang Debs
These “dolls” paved the way for the riot grrls of the ’80s – but were too busy kicking ass to notice Cultural memory is often about as fragmented as a[…]
LGBT & Queer · Reviews · Uncategorized
Boys on the Side: A Survey of Adult/Youth Relationships in Movies and TV
Surprise – it could be a lot worse. In a February 2002 commentary for her syndicated column “Lesbian Notions,” Paula Martinac recalls her angst at browsing through her local lesbian[…]
Robert Altman’s Gosford Park: Not Renoir, but Not Bad
Robert Altman gets all warm and fuzzy on your ass Say what you like about Robert Altman, the guy doesn’t quit. Altman didn’t hit the big time until 1969, when[…]
Russian Cinema After Perestroika: Notes from the 2000 Thessaloniki International Film Festival
A heady tour of alternative world cinema from one of Europe’s oldest festivals Repentant sinners, ideological misfits, vindictive peasant workers, obsessed lovers, and aging prostitutes are but a few of[…]
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