18. Laura

Director and Producer: Otto Preminger Screenwriters: Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Elizabeth Reinhardt Cinematographer: Joseph La Shelle Music: David Raksin Studio: 20th Century Fox 1944 Main Acting: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Vincent Price, and Clifton Webb Otto Preminger’s crowning achievement is one of the most elegant and dreamlike of film noirs. Made in 1944, the [...]

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Getting People Over the Beatles: A Series Examining the Greats of British (and UK) Pop Music (part 19)

essay by Jamie Nearly at twenty posts for this Series, roughly one-fifth or one-sixth of the way in, it’s interesting for me to think about some of the realizations I’ve come to. Mainly the importance and reluctance of pop/rock fans have to accepting a strangers (allegedly) dismissively titled Series on the subject of ‘Getting Over [...]

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When Things Go Wrong: The Films of Denis Cote

   Copyright © 2011 by James Clark     Like  the films of Antonioni, those emanating, over the past five years, from Denis Côté do not lend themselves to sharp sound bites piercing to the heart of the matter. What reportage does have to work with, however, is a remark by the writer/director himself, disclaiming that [...]

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19. Force Of Evil

Director: Abraham Polonsky Producer: Bob Roberts Screenwriter: Ira Wolfert and Abraham Polonsky Cinematographer: George Barnes Music: David Raksin Studio: Enterprise and MGM 1948 Main Acting: John Garfield and Thomas Gomez There is much more to Force Of Evil than what appears on the surface. As I once wrote on another blog: “The scene where John [...]

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20. On Dangerous Ground

Director: Nicholas Ray Producer: John Houseman Screenwriter: A. I. Bezzerides Cinematographer: George E. Diskant Music: Bernard Herrmann Studio: RKO Pictures 1952 Main Acting: Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino Opening on the typically tough urban streets of most film noir, On Dangerous Ground adds a surprising twist less than halfway through its running time. Detective Jim [...]

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Plein Soleil – 1960, René Clément

by Allan Fish (France 1960 116m) DVD1/2 Aka. Purple Noon A preface on Fra Angelico p  Robert Hakim, Raymond Hakim  d  René Clément  w  René Clément, Paul Gégauff  novel  “The Talented Mr Ripley” by Patricia Highsmith  ph  Henri Decaë  ed  François Javet  m  Nino Rota  art  Paul Bertrand Alain Delon (Tom Ripley), Marie Leforêt (Marge [...]

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Brooding and Beautiful “Jane Eyre” Bows

by Sam Juliano      Since the advent of the silent era there have been no less than 26 films and television properties based on Charlotte  Bronte’s Jane Eyre.  This would surely place the Victorian Age gothic melodrama among the most filmed stories of all time, standing in the overall pantheon with the likes of Bram Stoker’s [...]

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21. Act Of Violence

Director: Fred Zinnemann Producer: William H. Wright Screenwriter: Robert L. Richards Cinematographer: Robert Surtees Music: Bronislau Kaper Studio: MGM Pictures 1948 Main Acting: Van Heflin and Robert Ryan Many film noirs deal with the aftermath of World War II and the effects it had on the surviving combatants and their families. Act of Violence is [...]

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Jamie Uhler, Murderous Ink, Opera “The Elixir of Love,” Stage Play “Treasure Island” and 2 New Films on Monday Morning Diary (March 28)

by Sam Juliano Jamie Uhler’s ‘Rilke designs’ will now be published as part of an upcoming project.  As per Jamie’s recent report on an e mail: “At least three of my ‘Letters’ from the Rilke designs will be published in an anthology book highlighting unique visual designs for classic works of literature. The publisher is [...]

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Master Harold… and the Droids: Yasuhiro Yoshiura’s “Time of Eve”

By Bob Clark In the first episode of Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s Futurama, there’s an exchange  that more or less sums up a whole generation’s worth of sci-fi imagination– “You’d really want a robot to be your best friend?” the hard-drinking, chain-smoking tinman Bender asks, incredulously. “Sure,” the fish-out-of-20th-century-water Fry responds, ”ever since I was a kid.” [...]

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