AFI Fest 2014: “Réalité” and “Alléluia”
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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
What is Clara Bow’s ‘IT’?
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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
The Expedient Exaggerations of “North by Northwest”
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“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
Bluebeard in Black and White: Fritz Lang’s “Secret Beyond the Door” (3)
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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
The Hoodlum (1951) Stars “the Meanest Man in Motion Picture History”
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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
Tyrone Power Lurches Down “Nightmare Alley”
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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
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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
Hitchcock Double Vision: “Blackmail” and “North by Northwest”
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Det. Frank Webber (John Longren), Alice White (Anny Ondra), and Mr. White (Charles Paton) On Tuesday, June 18, I got to see the silent and sound versions of Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929) back to back at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles read more