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Tag Archives: Marlene Dietrich
“In America, sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it’s a fact.” — Marlene Dietrich
It’s her birthday today. When I interviewed Dan Callahan about his book The Art of American Screen Acting, we discussed Marlene Dietrich. He has been obsessed since college, and also obsessed with trying to put her into words. What exactly … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Germany, Josef von Sternberg, Marlene Dietrich
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Dynamic Duo #38
Marlene Dietrich and Konstantin Paustovsky. This moment occurred after a concert she gave in Moscow, 1964. She had been blabbing to the press about the revered (and sometimes suppressed) author Konstantin Paustovsky from the moment she arrived in Russia, declaring … Continue reading
Dynamic Duo #21
Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne Yeahhhhh, they just stumbled out of bed. They look wrecked. In a good way.
July 2018 Viewing Diary
Supernatural, Season 4, episode 5 “Monster Movie” (2008; d. Robert Singer) A movie-mad feast. Plus, my favorite one-night-stand-girl. (Piper is a close tie.) Supernatural, Season 4, episode 6 “Yellow Fever” (2008; d. Philip Sgriccia) An example of what the show … Continue reading
From Lillian Gish to James Dean: My Interview with Dan Callahan
I had a lot of fun interviewing Dan Callahan about his new book The Art of American Screen Acting, 1912-1960. It’s now up at Slant Magazine: Mystery of Screen Acting: An Interview with Dan Callahan.
Posted in Actors, Books, Movies
Tagged Bringing Up Baby, Cary Grant, friends, Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, Holiday, Humphrey Bogart, interviews, James Cagney, James Dean, Joan Crawford, Josef von Sternberg, Katharine Hepburn, Kim Stanley, Lillian Gish, Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich, Marlon Brando
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Kristen Stewart. Androgyne. Beautiful Boy. Gamine. Epicene. Tomboy. Either/Or. Neither/Nor. Both.
Camille Paglia is not the only one to observe that the great movie stars – of any era – are those with androgynous characteristics. The same could be said for literary characters (people always seem to forget the cross-dressing incident … Continue reading
Posted in Actors
Tagged Alain Delon, Kristen Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Marlon Brando, mirrors, Supernatural
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September 2017 Viewing Diary
Nightcrawler (2014; d. Dan Gilroy) Such a good film. I wrote about it here. Rancho Notorious (1952; d. Fritz Lang) Marlene Dietrich rules. I totally buy her as that ranch owner. It makes no sense but she makes it make … Continue reading
Marlene Dietrich’s Marginalia
I love marginalia so much that I created an entire “tag” for it on my site. I love to read about the marginalia of famous people. The tiny markings Thomas Jefferson would place beside lines of text that … interested … Continue reading