When thinking of the films of John Ford, one often doesn’t think of them as romantic. They may often think of them as noble, tough, and old fashioned in the best sense. But in many of his films there’s a longing for something that was past, and perhaps the most famous example in his career of this theme is his 1952 masterpiece The Quiet Man, which turns 70 today.
Read MoreThe effect the war had on moviemakers like John Ford, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Jimmy Stewart, Toshiro Mifune, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, George Stevens, William Wyler, Frank Capra, Marlene Dietriech, and countless others who fought in it is clearly visible in the increased complexity, directness, ambivalence of all the cinema that came after. Not to mention the incredible wave of foreign talent that came to Hollywood to escape persecution: folks like Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, etc.
John Ford himself embodies so many contradictions of the war years. And at the same time he also embodies what was best about the collective war effort.
In many ways, it was World War II which would eventually produce movies like My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Ford almost immediately enlisted…
Read MoreKilmer wanted to be an actor from childhood, and his brother, Mark, made movies, so there is much footage of comic remakes of Jaws, etc, and Val in school plays, all in an early ‘70s glow. He dated Mare Winningham in high school, and was the youngest person ever accepted into Julliard.
Read MoreWho is on First? is hard to classify as a specific, definite thing. Is it a comedy sketch? An art project? An act of aggression? Each of those descriptors are accurate to a degree but the filmmakers’ website includes it under their “Films” rubric so I’m inclined to defer to them on this one and why not?
Read MoreEven John Ford, a world class moviemaker, alternated between masterpieces like The Grapes of Wrath & Wagon Master-and head-scratching misfires like Tobacco Road. Often in the same year.
Read MoreThis past weekend, the UCLA Film and Television Archive held their first Festival of Preservation since 2019, at the Billy Wilder Theatre at the Hammer Museum. I was able to see several of the programmes, and rather than just pick one to write about, I thought I’d say a little bit about all of them.
Read MoreFor any reader who did not immediately close the page upon encountering the “bleak movies” descriptor in the previous paragraph, first of all, hello, I am you. Secondly, La Cabina is a comedy – a very dark comedy – about a man’s increasingly difficult challenge to maintain his dignity under trying circumstances. This summary admittedly sounds an awful lot like another dark comedy called, you know, life. In other words, it’s entirely relatable.
Read MoreIn our daily lives we’reLegendary film critic Pauline Kael once remarked, “Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash, we have very little reason to be interested in them.” While there are many unpopular opinions of Kael’s I would disagree with, this is one that I’ve grown to agree with.
Read MoreAt the end of 2021 I decided my project for the year would be to watch the entire output of one actor, that actor being Hugh Grant. An Oevre-view, if I may brazenly steal the term from Filmspotting. It is now mid-May and the whole “of the year” thing of this project seems to be wildly optimistic on my part, but if I start this second, perhaps I won’t have to slop too much into 2023. Perhaps. He’s been kind of prolific, has our Hugh.
Read MoreThe first short film that I remember understanding as a standalone piece of cinema was the 1982 Academy Award winning Best Animated Short Film, Tango, from Polish director, Zbigniew Rybczyński. Though, “animated” is a bit misleading.
Read MoreI am part of a monthly online movie-watching group called Bollywood Club. My friend Amber is a huge fan of Bollywood and for her birthday she invited a group of us to watch a Bollywood movie together. I decided to do it because she is my friend, not because I had the slightest interest Bollywood, but by the time the film was over, all of us newbies were raging fans. Bollywood will do that, it is magic!
Read MoreIn our daily lives we’re often bogged down by things that don’t matter such as cynicism, worry, consumerism, gossip, and fear. In Celine Sciamma’s latest film Petite Maman she reminds us of the childlike innocence we inherit in our early years before we’re ruined by…
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