Link roundup

Link “roundups” are so 2003, but here are some things I’ve read in the last week that I love.

Of the Father of my Children and the Orphans We Carry. This is one of the finest pieces of writing I’ve read on the Web in a long long time. Lisa Rosman starts out interviewing director Mia Hansen-Løve, and then it becomes a tribute to her mentor. Phenomenal writing.

Zoom, Zoom. Jim Emerson on the “gratuitous zoom”.

Transcendental style in the cinema of John Ford by Glenn Kenny. Don’t miss it. And also, don’t miss the comments. Kenny says o” the moment at the end of The Searchers between John Wayne and Natalie Wood: “For the first time, Edwards’ lifting and drawing in of Debbie struck me as a transcendent moment, transcendent in the Schraderian sense. The whole point being that it doesn’t parse in any rational way, and it’s not meant to. It is an unabashed and matter of fact depiction of the mysterious workings of grace in the same fashion that the finale of Bresson’s Pickpocket is.” Not to be missed, the whole thing, post and comments.

I am so psyched that Greg hates me.

The terrifying motion picture from the terrifying No. 1 bestseller. One of my new favorite blogs, this is another one of his posts about Jaws, a movie he obviously feels very strongly about. Watch the clips. Follow the links. Guy knows his stuff. It’s fascinating.

Two Black Belt Cakes. This past weekend, my friend Mere got her 2nd degree black belt, and I was up in RI to go to the big ceremony. Her sister Jayne, also an excellent friend of mine, baked two cakes for the after-party. Woman is an artist, and that’s all I have to say.

It was Billy Wilder’s birthday yesterday, and the incomparable Kim Morgan discusses two of his films: The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard.

Titty Tales. Kelly Oxford skewers Kim Kardashian being grossed out by breastfeeding in public.

Movie poster art by Jack Davis, by Flickhead. Instantly recognizable, and it fills me with nostalgia in our current movie-poster heyday of Photoshopped floating giant heads.

A beautiful post at Allure about the early films of Bette Davis.

More John Ford: a moving post from The Siren for Father’s Day.

I love this post from Edward Copeland, about the devaluation of history and culture. He has some modest proposals to rectify the situation. Great comments, too.

Egyptian film critic Wael Khairy gives a shot-by-shot commentary of Hitchcock’s Psycho. Not to be missed. “In probably the most famous, and well edited scene in all of cinema, also known as the shower scene, Hitchcock uses editing and sound as cinematic manipulation to create a carefully thought out horrific murder scene. Perfection is the result. In less than one minute, we witness a combination of 78 shots, in relation to the sound of a knife slashing against skin. We never actually see the knife enter the woman’s flesh, yet we’re convince we do through the sight of stabbing (hand motion), sound effects, the musical score (horrible animalistic screeching), and of course the careful editing. Celluloid cuts replace flesh cuts. When Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut that ‘Psycho’ belongs to filmmakers, he wasn’t joking.”

I love Ed Howard’s thoughts on Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The wonderful Ali Arikan analyzes Psycho. I loved this bit: “The power of the scene also emanates from the murder’s mundane setting. Hitchcock taps into the audiences’ inherent insecurities about the shower, in which we are not just restricted, but also completely defenseless. So, naked, not just literally, but also figuratively. For the women in the audience, the murder is the breakdown of all personal barriers, and represents total vulnerability and the consummation of their basest fears. And for the men, who’ve been ogling Leigh since her first appearance, half naked and lustful, on a seedy motel bed, it is a perverse wish-fulfilment fantasy. Only, instead of rewarding them with vicarious fornication (also a rape, of sorts), Hitchcock makes the men complacent in the crime. ‘If you were happy peeping at Marion when Norman did, then you’ll have to be there for the money shot, too,’ he implies.”

Jason Bellamy outdoes himself, if possible, in his review of The Two Escobars, the latest documentary in ESPN’s 30 for 30 series. If you haven’t been reading Jason’s essays on 30 for 30, you are seriously missing out.

My friend Patrick just put up a video called “City Slickers Pumping Gas”. It’s hilarious. I particularly love the music Patrick chose as accompaniment.

Dennis Cozzalio has a great tribute post up for the 40th anniversary of National Lampoon, lots of links to follow too.