Bluebeard: Breillat on Myth
There’s a strange defamiliarization going on in Catherine Breillat’s films. It could result from her frequent use of a stable camera, or what must be a controlled directing style. Through[…]
Book review: America’s Film Legacy, by Daniel Eagan
America’s Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, by Daniel Eagan. Trade paperback $39.95. New York: Continuum Pub. Group. ISBN 0-826-42977-7. The National[…]
Book review: Robert Altman, by Mitchell Zuckoff
Robert Altman: The Oral Biography, by Mitchell Zuckoff. New York: Knopf, 2009. Hardcover, $35.00. 576pp. ISBN 0-30726-768-7. Mitchell Zuckoff did a clever thing in Robert Altman The Oral Biography. He captured[…]
Book review: A Short History of Cahiers du Cinéma, by Emilie Bickerton
A Short History of Cahiers du Cinéma, by Emilie Bickerton. London: Verso, 2009. Hardcover , $22.95. 156 pp. ISBN 978-1-84467-232-5. The sober, aptly descriptive title that Emilie Bickerton has given[…]
Book review: Hollywood Under Siege, by Thomas R. Lindlof
Hollywood Under Siege: Martin Scorsese, the Religious Right, and the Culture Wars, by Thomas R. Lindlof. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. 2008. Hardcover $32.50, 394pp. ISBN 78-0-8131-2517-6. No one can[…]
Tivo Alert: FACE BEHIND THE MASK (1941) 8 AM Monday Morning on TCM (5/24)
The pathos is never maudlin or icky, but rather soothing (thanks to Lorre’s velvety vocal delivery), creepy and a little post-modern – with Lorre’s own weird real life looks keeping him from ever ‘getting the girl’ no matter how many movies he’s in.
Two in the Wave: Fathers of a Revolution
If any movement made cinema history into a reactionary narrative, it would be the French New Wave. A batch of cinephiles, most working as critics for Cahiers du Cinema (established[…]
Godard Abides
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhqOFWdtDdY] Remember when Jean-Luc Godard made films that were avant-garde but still, somehow, comprehensible? That was a long time ago, the 1960s to be precise. Yet, like The Big Lebowski’s[…]
Frazetta and the Mothman
Another masterpiece by the late Frank Frazetta (1928-2010), and a classic example of how Hollywood studio thinking — a misguided attempt to reach the widest demographic possible — destroyed the potential[…]
Babies: A Nature Doc Starring Humans
From the outset, it seems to be a bold-faced cash-in culled from little investment. In Babies, a French-produced doc which got a surprisingly wide release this past weekend, we have[…]
Directors · Reviews · SF & Fantasy
William Cameron Menzies and the Totalitarian Menace
Can a film’s designer be its effective auteur? He can, if his name is William Cameron Menzies. Menzies is best known for directing and designing two classics of the science[…]
Memoir · SF & Fantasy · Writers & Critics
Wild Love: Spike Jonze Meets Maurice Sendak in Where the Wild Things Are
“I’ll eat you up. I love you so.”
The Children Are Watching You: Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon
“Like any old-style modernist, Haneke likes to make the audience work.”
Reconceptualizing the Uncanny Vampire: Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day
“We are no longer in an era of vampire stories.” — Jean-Luc Nancy
Valentine’s Day: It Sucks Being a Woman
“Traditional gender roles seem to be in no danger of evolving.”
Essays · Exploitation & Erotica · Horror
Someone to Fight Over Me: Feminism, S&M, and the Daemonic in Twilight
“The pain is my only reminder that he [Edward] was real.” — Bella (Kristen Stewart)
Animation · Crime · TV & Streaming · Westerns
TV Notes: Bandits, Crime Fighters, and Bounty Hunters
“When you come at the king, you best not miss.”
When Luck Runs Out: Preston Sturges’ Gallic Swan Song
“I have always contended that in addition to talent, success depends on a little bit of luck, and my luck seemed to have run out, professionally at least.” –Preston Sturges, on the making of The French, They Are a Funny Race1
Activist & Political · Documentaries
Troubled Waters: Crashing into The Cove
“To twist Gayatri Spivak’s famous phrase, it’s a case of (mostly) ‘white men saving cute dolphins from yellow men.'”
Portrait of a Soundscapist: An Interview with Peter Strickland
“I had to allow time to let experience ferment inside me, and by then you forget whether what you went through was useful or not!”
Links + BSA
