Not the Girl Next Door: Doris Day Reconsidered (Happy 92nd Birthday)
We’ve reposted this piece before because, really, can there ever be enough Doris? Now that she’s passed away at 97 – despite our fervent hope that she’d be the one[...] The post Not the Girl Next Door:...
View ArticlePolitical Correctness Run Amok: Life and Lillian Gish at Bowling Green State...
Those who affect a superior attitude toward a great artist such as Lillian Gish are not only ignorant of our cultural heritage but stubbornly unaware that art usually comes from[...] The post Political...
View Article“Newest Ideas about Brain Power”: Hair Color and Jean Harlow, Hollywood’s...
INTRODUCTION Jean Harlow (1911-1937), born Harlean Carpenter, rose to screen fame in the early 1930s playing characters with an unaffected, uninhibited, spontaneous sexuality. [See Figure 1.] Dubbed...
View ArticleShe-Gods, Gangsters, and Gunslingers: The “New Woman” in the Early Films of...
As part of their liberation from convention, Corman empowers female characters with choices both real and metaphorical. Even a common love triangle can represent female empowerment, with the choice...
View ArticleAdios, Compañeros: Living the Dream of Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
QT’s films are commonly hurtling toward darkness, yet Once Upon feels like a repudiation, as much as a culmination, of his oeuvre. There’s a point in the experience where the[...] The post Adios,...
View ArticleMetallica’s Kirk Hammett on Introducing Kids to Scary Movies, Why He Likes...
* * * It’s The Day of the Triffids’ fault: when he was a wee lad stuck at home in front of the television with a sprained arm (fault: sister,[...] The post Metallica’s Kirk Hammett on Introducing Kids...
View ArticleThe Last Black Man in San Francisco: Talking with Production Designer Jona...
We spent a lot of time going through references for the film as well as scouting iconic locations, but what it came down to was devoting ourselves to creating a[...] The post <em>The Last Black...
View ArticleOrpheus Unending, or Beyond and Behind The Fugitive Kind
For a variety of reasons, then, despite its high-gloss finish, the film did not achieve any real commercial success. This is not to say it was an artistic letdown, as[...] The post Orpheus Unending, or...
View ArticleThe Architecture of Horror: Space, Light, and Atmosphere in Ari Aster’s...
We encounter filmic atmosphere vaguely, imperceptibly, but emotively and reflexively; a movie is a mood. Hereditary and Midsommar creep into our consciousness through subtle shifts in light, sound, and...
View ArticleLost Letter: HUAC, Immigration, and William Wellman’s My Man and I (1952)
In My Man and I, “it seems that America has fallen into decline and the Stones and Nancy Walkers of America need the redemptive power, the cultural revivification offered by[...] The post Lost Letter:...
View Article8 Million Ways to Die (1986): An Autopsy of the Great L.A. Noir That Never Was
So what the fuck happened? * * * 8 Million Ways to Die is a mess. Not a glorious mess, or an interesting mess. It’s not a fiasco on the[...] The post <em>8 Million Ways to Die</em> (1986):...
View ArticleAt Sea, In Port, Up the River: Orson Welles’s Conrad Adaptations
Conrad was more than a mere influence. He was also a direct source of story material. Welles considered himself “made for Conrad” and frequently returned to Conrad’s original stories. Adaptation[...]...
View ArticleWomen in Film: Interviews with Mati Diop, Marie Kreutzer, Haifaa al-Mansour,...
Our globe-trotting correspondent Amir Ganjavie spoke with four emerging women directors at the 2019 Berlinale and Toronto International Film Festivals and the 2020 Sundance Festival. Collectively, they...
View Article“How Stupid the Whole World Is!” An interview with Paul Morrissey
"There was no movement! I was not part of a movement, I. Made. My. Own. Films. They. Were. Not. Part. Of. Any. Movement. You're incapable of understanding that, aren't you? I have to be in a category....
View ArticleUncut Gems: Talking with Production Designer Sam Lisenco
We were really careful in coming up with the look of Howard’s world to make assumptions about how old he was when he would’ve formed his taste, and what that[...] The post Uncut Gems: Talking with...
View ArticlePortrait without a Face: Faces and Facelessness in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait...
With Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma offers us an unexpectedly timely commentary on our present moment of social distancing, self-quarantines, and curfews. This film about cooped-up...
View ArticleHappy Happy Birthday Baby! Steve McQueen (b. 3/24/30): Fifty Years of the...
"Steve understood real people, particularly misfits, like nobody else.It was just the Hollywood brass he loathed." The post Happy Happy Birthday Baby! Steve McQueen (b. 3/24/30): Fifty Years of the...
View ArticleNot the Girl Next Door: Doris Day Reconsidered (Happy 98th Birthday)
We’ve reposted this piece before because, really, can there ever be enough Doris? Her talent, humor, and joie de vivre are a tonic in a world increasingly locked down and[...] The post Not the Girl...
View ArticleBooks: Best Actress: The History of Oscar-Winning Women by Stephen Tapert
Big picture book is a fun peruse for cineastes * * * Stephen Tapert’s Best Actress: The History of Oscar-Winning Women (2020, Rutgers University Press, 504 pages) is a coffee[...] The post Books: Best...
View ArticleThe Cinematic Faulkner: Framing Hollywood
“The Cinematic Faulkner” includes excerpts from The Life of William Faulkner, Volume 1: The Past Is Never Dead 1897-1934 (March 2020) and Volume 2: This Alarming Paradox 1935-1962 (September 2020),...
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