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AFI Fest 2014: “Réalité” and “Alléluia”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
I’m not sure why every screening at the AFI’s annual Fest isn’t packed, regardless of the day or time. It’s FREE. F.R.E.E. I have a ticket to see Sophia freakin’ Loren honored at a screening of Marriage Italian Style (1964, Vittorio de Sica). Technically, it’s a read more
The Expedient Exaggerations of “North by Northwest”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
“North by Northwest” (1959) ticks off a lot of Hitchcock’s favorite boxes. And yet, it seems always to have lingered in the shadow of “Vertigo” (1958). “Vertigo” is amazing, of course, but deeply disturbing. (Bonus points for casting All-American Nice Guy Jimmy read more
“Cactus Flower” (1969): An Unexpected Gem
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Unexpected gem: “Cactus Flower,” directed by Gene Saks, viewed thanks to Turner Classic Movies. Saks, who also directed “Barefoot in the Park” (1967) and “The Odd Couple” (1968), worked a fair amount with writer/producer Neil Simon. More recently, he played Woody read more
Bluebeard in Black and White: Fritz Lang’s “Secret Beyond the Door”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
This is my contribution to the Fairy Tale Blogathon hosted by the always-fascinating Movies Silently. Check out more of the posts there! Let me start this post about Secret Beyond the Door by blaming the enchanting Angela Carter. Carter (1940 – 1992) wrote some of my favorite books, including The 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
Tyrone Power Lurches Down “Nightmare Alley”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
An odd but now well-regarded film noir, with A-list stars and production staff, and a larger-than-normal budget, “Nightmare Alley” is based on William Lindsay Gresham’s squalid 1946 novel. In an attempt to move away from his usual roles as a romantic lead and adventurer, Tyrone Power bou read more
AFI Fest 2014: Takashi Miike’s Over Your Dead Body
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Day Four: Takashi Miike’s Over Your Dead Body (2014) I had a ticket to “Song of the Sea,” the new animated film by Tomm Moore (“The Secret of Kells,” 2009) but couldn’t make it. I’m looking forward to seeing it, albeit on a much smaller screen, when it come 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
The “Austere Wickedness”* of Alain Delon in “Purple Noon”
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
My husband refers to Alain Delon as “farcically good-looking,” and, really, Delon is so good-looking, it’s practically an insult. He was a mere 25 when he made “Plein Soleil” (known in English as “Purple Noon” for no good reason I can find) with director René Clément. read more
AFI Fest 2014: Villa Touma (Suha Arraf)
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Day Five: Suha Arraf’s Villa Touma (2014) In the spirit of recent posts at Krell Laboratories (“Rethinking the American Canon”) and Girls Do Film (“A Realisation…and a New Year Resolution”) on the paucity of work by women directors, and in the less lofty spirit 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
Army of Shadows (L’armée des ombres, 1969), Part 1: Snoopathon
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Once again, I seem to have chosen the one of the least typical examples of the genre for a genre-based blogathon. “L’armée des ombres” (“Army of Shadows”), Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1969 film about a small group of French Resistance fighters during World War II, is undeniably a spy film. And read more
SBIFF 2015: “Second Chance” (2014) & “Confession” (2014)
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Taiwanese film number two of the festival was the frothy “Second Chance,” directed by Wen-yen Kung. Okay, maybe not frothy exactly, but definitely bubbly. “Second Chance” is (I assume) one of the only action movies about pool. Yes, that kind of pool, where you stand around 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
Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938): A Brackett-Wilder Collaboration
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
A contribution to the Billy Wilder Blogathon, hosted by Once upon a screen… and Outspoken & Freckled. Brackett, reclining, and Wilder hard at work on something awesome. Ernst Lubitsch’s 1938 comedy “Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife,” starring Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper, read more
Aelita, Queen of Mars (1924): Russia in Classic Film Blogathon
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
You will never get my fabulous headgear! Never! (Yuliya Solnetseva as Aelita) Well, it’s some kind of thing. As a portrait of the early Soviet state, “Aelita: Queen of Mars” (1924) is fascinating. As a film, less so. What makes it interesting is probably also what makes it not a gr 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
Go see “Snowpiercer” … if you can
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
Go. Now. I had the good fortune to be in Los Angeles when Bong Joon-ho’s new film, “Snowpiercer,” opened there mid-July. So, I dragged my mom to see it at the only place it was playing on the West Side, a somewhat run-down multiplex on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade. L read more
House of Bamboo (1955): Cinemascope! Blogathon
Random Pictures Posted by Amy on Nov 30, -0001
1) Samuel Fuller. Samuel Fuller did not mess around. His films are usually described as “in-your-face,” “pulpy,” and “crude.” They are, and they are magnificent. Fuller made films about things that mattered to him, and you can tell. He said films should start wit 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