Man vs. Nature: “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” on Page and Screen

By Bob Clark The overlap between the manga and anime industries in Japan is an interesting thing to consider for how relatively rare it is in the way that comics and animation are produced worldwide. Japan obviously isn’t the only country in the world where both mediums thrive, but in a sense it’s the only [...]

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Getting People Over the Beatles: A Series Examining the Greats of British (and UK) Pop Music (part 55)

by Jamie Just as I did in the last installment, I’ll be offering just quick synopsis of several Shoegazer acts with the hope that it will just be the beginning of a spirited discussion and discovery. Today’s entries should effectively wrap up the Shoegazer grouping as well with next week being the initial entry in [...]

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‘The Cubs’ by Mario Vargas Llosa (1967)

by Jaime Grijalba. Well, that wasn’t long, was it? Just as this review, that may feel a bit short to some, but it has a reason to be that way. Anyway, I feel like I have to repay you after all this time of inactivity, after all I made a promise and I have to [...]

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War Horse, Pina, Margaret, A Separation, Dragon Tattoo, Tin Tin and Charity Xmas Concert on Monday Morning Diary (December 26)

by Sam Juliano I was awakened at around 2:30 P.M. on Sunday morning by a loud crashing sound on the roof of my home.  I immediately realized that our expected visitors had arrived with several sacks of gifts and goodies for the sleeping children.  I opened the front door and offered the bearded fellow with [...]

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Scrooge – 1951, Brian Desmond-Hurst

by Allan Fish (UK 1951 86m) DVD1/2 Aka. A Christmas Carol Are there no prisons, are there no workhouses? p  Brian Desmond Hurst  d  Brian Desmond Hurst  w  Noel Langley  story  “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens  ph  C.Pennington Richards  ed  Clive Donner  m  Richard Addinsell  art  Ralph Brinton, Stanley Couzins  cos  Doris Lee, Constance [...]

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What’s in a Name?: The Girl Chewing Gum, Rabbit, A Walk Through H • (Fixing a Hole: Avant-Garde Month)

We began avant-garde month by defying language – with silent films whose currency was visual, whose ideograms were images. Today we openly confront, pull apart, and reassemble language, on a kind of a cracked-looking-glass Sesame Street, numbers and words thrown in the air, land where they may, brought to you by the letter X – [...]

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Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (It May Be Your Last): Harman & Ising’s “Peace On Earth”, Hanna & Barbera’s “Good Will to Men” and Shane Acker’s “9″

by Bob Clark Of all the early pioneers of animation in Hollywood, perhaps none have gone so unduly forgotten as Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. The crucial part they played in the genesis in many of the first great cartoon characters has been largely overlooked nowadays. Few remember the work they did in the “Oswald [...]

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Penda’s Fen – 1974, Alan Clarke

(UK 1974 88m) not on DVD Balance of the mind p  David Rose  d  Alan Clarke  w  David Rudkin  ph  Michael Williams  ed  Henry Fowler  art  Michael Edwards Spencer Banks (Stephen Franklin), Georgine Anderson (Mrs Franklin), John Atkinson (Rev. Franklin), Jennie Hesslewood (Mrs Arne), Ian Hogg (Arne), Graham Leaman (Sir Edward Elgar), Geoffrey Staines (King [...]

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Two of a Kind: Henri-Georges Clouzot’s ‘Quai Des Orfèvres’

Copyright © 2011 by James Clark Henri-Georges Clouzot as a Christmas fabulist? Well, his Quai des Orfèvres (1947) does race over a Christmas time-frame. But where is the “peace on earth, goodwill toward men”? At the end, the principals do stagger up to their living-room Christmas tree and a day of celebration. But, despite fulsome [...]

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Mughal-e-Azam – 1960, Karim Asif

by Allan Fish (India 1960 195m) DVD2 A pretty petrel p  Karim Asif  d  Karim Asif  w  Karim Asif, Aman, Kamal Amrohi, Ehsan Rizvi, Wajahat Mirza  ph  R.D.Mathur  ed  Dharamvir  m  Naushad  art  M.K.Syed  cos  Jaggi Prithviraj Kapoor (Emperor Akbar), Madhubala (Anarkali), Dilip Kumar (Prince Salim), Durga Khote (Maharani Jodha Bai), Nigar Sultana (Bahai), Ajit [...]

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