The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009): Inflating Pelham
“To be a star, or thought of as a star, was not enough.”
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974): The Ultimate NYC Film
“What is this New York-ness?”
In Lonely Places: Film Noir Outside the City
“Noir films with non-urban settings exploded the idea that escape into a safer or healthier world was possible, showing how temptation and violence can attack anyone, anywhere.”
Directors · Essays · Writers & Critics
All Tomorrow’s Playground Narratives: Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita
“Kubrick’s 1961 film is really the first 1970s movie.”
No Transcendence: Cannes Film Festival 2009
“It’s becoming more and more rare that a fresh, original film gets into the Cannes competition.”
“True Glamour Never Fades”: Michael Sucsy’s Grey Gardens (HBO)
“Two roads diverged in yellow woods,and pondering one, I took the other,and that made all the difference.”
Ghidorah Attacks! Modern Narrative’s Three-Headed Monster
“The concept of pure art pure poetry, pure painting, and so on is not entirely without meaning; but it refers to an aesthetic reality as difficult to define as it is to combat. In any case, even if a certain mixing of the arts remains possible, like the mixing of genres, it does not necessarily follow that they are all fortunate mixtures. There are fruitful cross-breedings which add to the qualities derived from the parents; there are attractive but barren hybrids and there are likewise hideous combinations that bring forth nothing but chimeras.”
Sleep Stalking: Jerzy Skolimowski’s Four Nights with Anna
“Just like you wanted, grandma. I’m seeing a woman.”
Activist & Political · Reviews
Dark Harvest: Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc.
“It’s not a tomato, it’s the idea of a tomato.”
Here Come the Bromides: Living in the Era of the Bromantic Comedy
“Nothing is more exhilarating than philistine vulgarity.” — Vladimir Nabokov
Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: Bardelys the Magnificent, Monte Cristo, Cleopatra, In the Realm of the Senses, Au Bonheur des Dames, Daisies, The Saragossa Manuscript
Bardelys the Magnificent (King Vidor, 1926); Monte Cristo (Emmett J. Flynn, 1922) Just as they deepened our appreciation of Rudolf Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks, Flicker Alley, with this magnificent release[…]
Essays · Film Technology & History · Music & Musicals
Art Thou Troubled? Musicals May Calm Thee
But don’t forget DVD opera
The Miracle Worker: An Interview with Arthur Penn
“If the system is inimical to you, then you do whatever you can to alter your relationship to the system.”
Jesus Fucking Christ: Lars von Trier’s Antichrist
The scandal-plagued release of Lars von Trier’s latest film inspired Jack Stevenson, American expat in Copenhagen, to take a deeper look at the film in a Danish context.
Atom Egoyan’s Adoration: A Return to Form(s)?
“In classic Egoyan style, the humor is always also terrifying. . .”
Quickies: Random Short Reviews from The Country Teacher to Osessione to Underbelly
“As soon as my health is in jeopardy, everybody shows up to lick my ass!”
We Got Announcements
Herewith is a new occasional announcement entry for various and sundry doings by Bright Lights writers and friends that may interest readers. First, our pal Bob Moricz, future reviewer of[…]
A Couple of Bagheads
Saw a couple baghead movies over the weekend and am still sleeping with the lights on. What’s so scary about a bag over a head? Who knows, but it works.[…]
Two More for the Movie Bookshelf
Having already submitted a list of ten to Movieman’s Movie Bookshelf meme, a “gathering of all the movie books that influenced, enlightened, and excited me, you, and everyone else,” I[…]
Fellini, Michael Jackson, and La Voce della Luna (1990)
In America, the 1960s were the golden age of the foreign film. Film directors like Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard, Ingmar Bergman, and Alain Resnais were considered “superstars,” and[…]
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