“…not as much fun as Tokyo”: Hiroshi Teshigahara’s “Woman in the Dunes”
Copyright © 2012 by James Clark This widely recognized to be surreal film (from 1964) less widely but no less magnificently reveals an Impressionist infrastructure about its climb toward the “more...
View ArticleGetting People Over the Beatles: A Series Examining the Greats of British...
by Jamie Wrapping up the glam grouping after covering the de facto leader, David Bowie last week I come up with essentially 2 groups since I’ve swept aside many of the one hit wonders and hanger ons in...
View ArticleJane Greer – Bigger than Napoleon
by Allan Fish It was in a casino, somewhere on the East Coast, if memory serves. Kathy Moffat is round the roulette table and has just squandered a fairly large amount in one spin of the wheel. Her...
View ArticleDeath and Rebirth: Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” on Page and Screen
By Bob Clark In the modern film age, it’s possible for projects that began and failed to find a foothold in the movie industry gain a new life in any number of other ancillary markets. Projects that...
View Article1936 – Best Picture, Director, Short, Actor, Actress, S.Actor, S.Actress &...
by Allan Fish again, straight to it… Best Picture Modern Times, US (12 votes) Best Director Charles Chaplin, Modern Times (10 votes) Best Short I Love to Singa, US, Tex Avery & Popeye the Sailor...
View ArticleTribeca Film Festival Mania, William Wyler Blogothon and Dee Dee Interview on...
by Sam Juliano As I write this brief lead-in at 11:40 P.M. on Sunday evening, April 29th, I will admit being bushed and completely spent after a torrid week at the Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan, a...
View ArticleGao hai ba zhi lian II – 2012, Johnnie To **1/2
by Jaime Grijalba. a.k.a. Romancing in Thin Air (China/Hong Kong, 111 min) For some reason we’ve been having a surge of ‘known’ asian directors that have released films in early 2012 (if at this time...
View ArticleA Diary of Chuji’s Travels – 1927, Daisuke Ito
by Allan Fish (Japan 1927 95m) not on DVD Aka. Chuji tabi nikki A Tale of Edo d/w Daisuke Ito ph Rakuzo Watarai, Hiromitsu Karasawa Denjiro Okochi (Chuji Kunisada), Hideo Nakamura (Kantaro), Ranko...
View ArticleTop Ten Films of 2012 Tribeca Film Festival led by Canadian ‘War Witch’
by Sam Juliano Tribeca 2012 is over, but for some the memories will be deep. The nine day festival, originally founded by the actor Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal, was created as a panacea for the...
View ArticleFinding Ford / The Long Voyage Home (1940)
By Peter Lenihan Finding Ford is a biweekly series on the films of John Ford. The next entry will be on The Searchers. “Every time we get near the land you get that look on your face. When a man goes...
View ArticleA legend at 95 – Danielle Darrieux
by Allan Fish When dear Lillian Gish died in 1993, months short of her hundredth birthday, I remember thinking that surely hers would be the longest career in film we would ever see. Starting in 1912...
View ArticleArthur Housman & Willie Ross – The Great Inebriates
by Allan Fish I think it was Richard Burton who once said that he always had trouble playing a drunk, because he could never remember how he acted when he was drunk. Drunks on screen have been a...
View ArticleSome Assembly Required: Marvel’s “The Avengers” on Page and Screen
By Bob Clark Truth be told, I’ve always been a lot fonder of the idea of the Marvel Universe than how it usually plays out in the comics themselves. Oh sure, it’s fun to think about how, starting from...
View Article1937 – Best Picture, Director, Short, Actor, Actress. Supp Actor, Supp...
by Allan Fish Again, results first… Best Picture La Grande Illusion, France (10 votes) Best Director Jean Renoir, La Grande Illusion (11 votes) Best Short The Old Mill, Wilfred Jackson, US (4 votes)...
View ArticleGoodbye First Love, Marigold Hotel, The Avengers, Bonjour Tristesse and new...
by Sam Juliano All good things must come to an end? Well, I’m not so sure this adage can be taken with much more than a grain of salt, but it does seem applicable for a long-standing practice here at...
View ArticleStanley Kubrick’s “Killer’s Kiss”
by Joshua Rutstein Sometimes less is more. More often than not, filmmakers feel obliged to attempt to cram their works with schlock to the point of tragic overflow, and we as an audience are left to...
View ArticleOnce Upon a Time in Anatolia – 2011, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
by Allan Fish (Turkey 2011 150m) DVD1/2 Aka. Bir zamanlar Anadolu’da Darkness and cold with enfold my weary soul p Zeynep Ozbatur d Nuri Bilge Ceylan w Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ercan Cesal, Ebru Ceylan...
View ArticleThe Wild Man Passes
by Dennis Polifroni I remember the first time I read a book by myself. It was a frightening proposition. I was just beyond the realms of still sounding out words like FAN-TAS-TIC and IN-CRED-IBLE and...
View ArticleMystery and the Artist: John Huston’s ‘Moulin Rouge’; Henri-Georges Clouzot’s...
© 2012 by James Clark Like Billy Wilder and Howard Hawks, John Huston was a film artist locked into a time and place where being beyond the pale involved pressures not merely implacable but imperial....
View ArticleGetting People Over the Beatles: A Series Examining the Greats of British...
by Jamie Jumping into the Progressive rock genre this week, a grouping we’ll remain in for a number of weeks, I must start with an admission: this isn’t my favorite set of bands or artists (mostly...
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