Welcome to BlogHub: the Best in Veteran and Emerging Classic Movie Blogs
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
Paul Morrissey’s Baron Frankenstein: The Great Villain Blogathon
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
There is a lot of yelling in Paul Morrissey’s “Flesh for Frankenstein,” primarily overbred aristocrats shouting at peasants. One of the things that makes this film so special is what the rich are yelling about: zombies. And sex. If Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein was a man dri read more
Having Your Cake in Fritz Lang’s “Ministry of Fear” (1944)
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
After the first couple of paragraphs, this post is pretty much nothing but “Ministry of Fear” spoilers. Ye’ve been warned. During the 30s and early 40s, Austrian-exile Fritz Lang wanted to make not just anti-fascist pictures, but anti-Nazi pictures. In the American studios where Lang beg read more
New series – A Random Weekly Roundup
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
I’m going to try a regular Sunday series: a weekly roundup of interesting movie tidbits–essays, posts, news, etcetera. I’ll keep it short this week, with three items. First up, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, second time around. Here’s the trailer for Ben Stiller’s new read more
Phantom of the Opera (1925): A Sense of Theatricality
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
I have a question – what is this thing on my head? (still from kinpoisk.ru) The Bay Area’s economy may suck, but it can still be an amazing place to be if you love films (and can afford the occasional pricey event). 2015 was my first year back, after an absence of about 15 years—really, I read more
AFI Fest 2014: “A Hard Day” (South Korea) and “Run” (Côte d’Ivoire)
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
My two Sunday movies at the Fest were “Run,” written and directed by Philippe Lacôte, and then “A Hard Day,” written and directed by Kim Seong-hun, both from this year. I was excited to see “Run” not only because it sounded great, but because it’s a movie fr read more
Sunday Random Roundup for August 18, 2013
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Welcome back, dear readers, for this week’s edition of the Sunday Random Roundup. Big Films in Other Places Remember last week’s rant about the state of film distribution in the U.S.? Well, here’s some potentially good news: Local films seem to be outdoing Hollywood “blockbus read more
AFI Fest 2014: A “Fish and Cat” from Iran
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
So this is the movie I took my Mom to. Mind you, that wasn’t the original plan. We planned to see “Mr. Turner,” Mike Leigh’s new film about the painter J. M. W. Turner. That was before we realized the film was 149 minutes, and we agreed we weren’t ready to commit to al read more
Sunday Random Roundup for September 1, 2013
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Greetings and salutations, dear readers. It’s been another week, somehow. First, a little blog-related news. I have plans for some posts about specific films that I hope to have ready sometime this week. Second, great news about the Alice Guy-Blaché Kickstarter project I mentioned last week: read more
Why You Were Probably Wrong about Verbinski’s “Lone Ranger”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Various critics have talked about why Gore Verbinski’s “Lone Ranger” (2013) deserved to do better, box-office-wise, than it did, about its interest in how events are turned into history and its visual delights, which are, I should think, inarguable. Thus far, I haven’t come across read more
The Heart of the Matter (1953): British Empire in Film Blogathon
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
This post is my hopelessly late contribution to the excellent British Empire in Film Blogathon (thank you, crippling four-day migraine). Go check out some of the other fine entries! When you’re done reading this one, of course. George More O’Ferrall’s “The Heart of the Matter read more
Wherefore Art Thou Zombie? “World War Z” Takes Another Shot at the Apocalypse
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
The Husband does not like zombie movies. Neither is The Husband a fan of apocalypse movies, though he’s perfectly happy reading Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year. Which is, let me assure you, much less action-packed than even the worst zombie movie. Unlike The Husband, I am a fan of zombie read more
The Merry Widow Waltz: Lubitsch’s Heaven Can Wait
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
This post is part of the Romantic Comedy Blogathon, hosted by Backlots and Carole & Co.! It’s hard to imagine Ernst Lubitsch, director of “The Love Parade” (1929), “Design for Living” (1933), and “Ninotchka” (1939), making something that isn’t a classy, urbane read more
Johnny Eager (1941):What’s the Angle?
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Dir. Mervyn LeRoy David Thomson’s The New Biographical Dictionary of Film refers to Johnny Eager (1941) as “fatuous,” which I think unfair. (The IMDb hordes gave it a 7.1, for whatever that’s worth.) Casting the famously good-looking Robert Taylor was something of a gamble; Thomson’s other read more
SBIFF 2015: “Partners in Crime”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
O woe is me, attending film festivals is getting in the way of my watching classic film. Luckily, I’ve got several blogathons coming up (see banners at right) to get me back into the classic swing of things. Before we return to our regularly scheduled programming, however, I’d like to te read more
Army of Shadows (L’armée des ombres, 1969), Part 2: Snoopathon
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Director Jean-Pierre Melville is famous for his lack of female characters, and the few women who do populate his universe frankly don’t have much character. Women are generally superfluous in Melville’s films; he is fascinated by (and makes fascinating) relationships among men. So the fact that read more
What is Clara Bow’s ‘IT’?
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Inspired by the oracular Self-Styled Siren (can sirens be oracles?) and her post on MOMA’s 10th Edition of the “To Save and Protect” screenings, I watched Clara Bow’s classic It (dir. Clarence Badger, 1927) for, I’m ashamed to say, the first time. Bow has been hopelessly neglected, not just read more
Madeleine Carroll Blogathon: I Was a Spy (1933)
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
One of the great pleasures of blogathons is discovering an old film, or an actor, or director and realizing that there’s still so, so many wonderful classic films yet to see. It’s sort of like knowing that there’s still a bunch of Graham Greene novels I haven’t read. Maybe t read more
Jacques Tati’s Playtime (1967): The Social Art of Tativille
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
(and then I got horribly sick—children are Petri dishes of contagion —so it’s only, uh, three weeks late) Anyway, check out the plethora of great posts from the Blogathon! French filmmaker Jacques Tati was only able to make six feature-length films, but each film, right from the beginning read more
The Hoodlum (1951) Stars “the Meanest Man in Motion Picture History”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Dir. Max Nosseck “The Hoodlum” (1951) screened at UCSB, January 2013, with Q&A with Dir of UCLA Film & Television Archive, Jan-Christopher Horak If you’ve never seen Lawrence Tierney in his prime, you’re missing out. Described as “quite possibly the meanest man in motion picture read more
The House on Trubnaya (1928): Russia in Classic Film Blogathon, Part 2
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Thanks to Movies, Silently and Flicker Alley for hosting the Blogathon! Despite what “Aelita: Queen of Mars” (1924) might have lead you to believe, Bolshevism did not destroy the Russian sense of humor. Although the “message” of “The House on Trubnaya” (1928) read more