Getting People Over the Beatles: A Series Examining the Greats of British (and UK) Pop Music (part 30)

by Jamie It seems to be excessively obvious to say that Jon Lydon is an important figure in rock history, but what isn’t obvious is just how important a figure he is, especially here in America where large swaths of the populace either don’t know the name or treat him with relative indifference. One could [...]

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What is the Greatest Work of Art Produced post World War II to you (one per customer!)?

by Jamie Uhler After the fun piece on ‘Who is the Greatest Genius the Cinema Has Ever Produced’ that Sam queried a few weeks back, I thought it fun if these sort of general  conversation inducing questions become a sort of mini series around here. After (sort of) asking the following question in the tumultuous [...]

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Mother Krause’s Journey to Happiness – 1929, Phil Jutzi

by Allan Fish (Germany 1929 121m) not on DVD Aka. Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück Having nothing left to lose p  Willi Münzenberg  d  Phil Jutzi  w  Willy Döll, Jan Fethke  story  Otto Nagel, Heinrich Zille  ph  Phil Jutzi  ed  Elfriede Bottrich  m  Paul Dessau, Wolfgang Sternberg  art  Karl Haacker, Robert Scharfenberg Alexandra Schmitt (Mother [...]

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“Passione,” “Leap Year,” “Beginners,” and Buster Keaton on Monday Morning Diary (June 27)

by Sam Juliano Summer is now officially upon us, and many of us are hoping to avoid the kind of heat that baked many northern hemisphere people in 2010.  Other than weather, everyone is firming up summer plans, while concluding the big June events that include graduation parties, proms, and weddings.  I was proud to [...]

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Toutes les Godard(s): A Blogathon Proposal

Ordinarily, I spend Saturdays devoted to works of anime and science-fiction, but this week I thought the time right to announce an idea that’s been slowly germinating among a handful of us Wonders writers in the wake of Sam’s summary dismissal of Film Socialisme, the latest film by French New Wave maestro Jean-Luc Godard, as [...]

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The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrowna – 1929, Hanns Schwarz

by Allan Fish (Germany 1929 100m) not on DVD Aka. The Wonderful Lie; Die Wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna The fourth ten p  Erich Pommer  d  Hanns Schwarz  w  Fritz Rotter, Hans Székely  ph  Carl Hoffmann  m  Maurice Jaubert  art  Robert Herlth, Walter Röhrig  cos  Renée Hubert Brigitte Helm (Nina Petrowna), Francis Lederer (Lt.Michael Rostof), [...]

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Getting People Over the Beatles: A Series Examining the Greats of British (and UK) Pop Music (part 29)

by Jamie Rarely are we as fanatical rock fans able to hear, at the touch of a button however many times we want, a defining moment in which rock and roll changed forever. A moment on which the entire zeitgeist, the entire culture apexed (or descended) upon—perhaps even by accident— to which a sly transcendent [...]

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A Tall Order: Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line”

Copyright © 2011 by James Clark       The Coens’ rejoinder, in No Country for Old Men, to Cormac McCarthy’s sense of being driven through history like a hapless beast is in fact a variant to be savored in light of Terrence Malick’s film, The Thin Red Line (1998), derived from a 1962 novel by [...]

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Jail Bait – 1973, Rainer Werner Fassbinder

by Allan Fish (West Germany 1973 102m) not on DVD Aka. Wildwechsel; Wild Game Why not? p  Gerhard Freund  d/w  Rainer Werner Fassbinder  play  Franz Kroetz  ph  Dietrich Lohmann  ed  Thea Eymesz  m  Peer Raben  art  Kurt Raab Eva Mattes (Hanni Schneider), Harry Baer (Franz Bermeier), Jörg von Liebenfels (Erwin Schneider), Ruth Drexel (Hilda Schneider), [...]

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Stage Play “Unnatural Acts,” “Bringing Up Baby,” “La Dolce Vita,” Buster Keaton and “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” on Monday Morning Diary (June 20)

by Sam Juliano Father’s Day, Graduation, Senior Proms, and the beginning of summer.  Late June is air-conditioning time, and the opportunity to finally get to long-delayed projects.  Sadly and almost inevitably, many of the plans remain dormant, and some of us do well just to ward off the heat and relax.  But not everyone in [...]

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