Klueless Kael
The upcoming release of Alain Resnais’s classic Last Year at Marienbad on Blu-ray DVD reminds us that Marienbad was one of the many formally ambitious films released in the 1960s[…]
My Dinner with Andre again…Again!
The post before last made me unearth these notes I once wrote after first seeing the film. Maybe they’ll add a little something here. Although from a stylistic perspective[…]
My Dinner with André and the Meaning of Life (well, sort of)
[My Dinner with André comes out on DVD from the Criterion Collection on Tuesday] Watching My Dinner with André for the first time at age 15 was my introduction not[…]
10 (or More) Film Books That Made Me What I Am Today
Speaking of books – having been invited by Movieman to contribute to his Reading the Movies meme, I submit a list of the 10-plus film-related books that had the greatest[…]
DRAG ME TO HELL / STUCK – Women in Trouble
The first is a supernatural horror film. The second is a horror story without any trace of the supernatural. Otherwise, they are remarkably similar. Both apply the horror film’s fundamental[…]
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
The Great Roles of Christopher Lee’s Maturity
How can anyone not marvel that two of Gothic Cinema’s greatest performers, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price, were born on the same day? Christopher Lee was born on May 27,[…]
Actors & Personalities · Directors · Reviews
Josef Von Sternberg’s Super-Masochist Sublimation Power!
Reading Joseph Aisenberg’s excellent piece (below) I’m compelled to offer my understanding of the great Von Sternberg’s stylistic obsessiveness, especially since it’s something I understand and share. (This began as[…]
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[…]
Book review: Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters. . ., by Derek Hill
Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers: An Excursion into the American New Wave, by Derek Hill. London: Kamera Books, 2008. Paperback $16.95/£9.99. 192pp. ISBN: 978-1-84243-253-2. “There[…]
Book review: Douglas Fairbanks, by Jeffrey Vance
Douglas Fairbanks, by Jeffrey Vance, with Tony Maietta. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press and Los Angeles, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2008. Cloth, $45.00, 368 p. ISBN: 978-0-520-25667-5.[…]
Books: Fred Astaire, by Joseph Epstein
Fred Astaire, by Joseph Epstein. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2008. Cloth $22, 198pp. ISBN 978-0-300-11695-3. Does it count as a labor of love if you don’t work very[…]
Book review: Everything Is Cinema, by Richard Brody
Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard, by Richard Brody. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2008. Hardcover $40.00. 720pp. ISBN: 0-805-06886-4. It is 634 pages long, with nearly 100[…]
Book review: You’ll Like this Film Because You’re in It, by Michel Gondry
You’ll Like this Film Because You’re in It: The Be Kind Rewind Protocol, by Michel Gondry. New York: Picturebox, 2008. Paperback $16.95. 80pp. ISBN: 0-979-41538-1. If film is a religion,[…]
Book review: Frankly, My Dear, by Molly Haskell
Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited, by Molly Haskell. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009. Hardcover $24.00. 272pp. ISBN: 0-30011-752-3. In a pique of literary inspiration, Yale[…]
Book review: Jack Hill, by Calum Waddell
Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxpoitation Master, Film by Film, by Calum Waddell. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009. Paperback $35.00. 224pp. ISBN: 0-78643-609-3. Exploitation filmmaker Jack Hill only directed a small number[…]
Book review: Joseph P. Kennedy Presents, by Cari Beauchamp
Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years, by Cari Beauchamp. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2009. Hardcover $35.00. 528pp. ISBN: 1-400-04000-0. Previous books on Joseph Patrick Kennedy, of which there are many,[…]
Book review: Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy , ed. by Richard Greene
Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy Series), ed. Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad. Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court, 2007. Paperback $16.95. 288pp. ISBN: 0-812-69634-4. The aim[…]
Book review: Hollywood’s Ancient Worlds, by Jeffrey Richards & Movie Photos by Alex Bailey
Hollywood’s Ancient Worlds, by Jeffrey Richards. New York: Continuum, 2008. Hardcover $29.95. 227pp. ISBN: 1847250076 The “ancient world” epic has been one of cinema’s most curious. For every major auteur and[…]
Moments of Xtreme Method
Maybe this has happened to you: you’re watching a film, dum de dum, suddenly… METHOD! Where did it come from and where does it go when it’s gone? Let’s take[…]
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Come Back To The Five And Dime Sandra Bernhard, Sandra Bernhard
Once upon a time a strange sassy redhead with a big nose and giant lips cropped up as a pathetic obsessed fan in Martin Scorcese’s heavy-handed satire The King of[…]
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