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Recent Posts
- “Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.” — poet/engraver/visionary William Blake
- “You can’t dance in a long dress.” — Tina Turner
- Happy Birthday, Emir Kusturica
- “What’s the difference between an exile and an expatriate? It seems to me that an Englishman in France is an expat, but an Irishman is an exile.” — Irish poet Derek Mahon
- Posters in Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves (2023)
- “[I wish] to trace the gradual action of ordinary causes rather than exceptional.” — George Eliot
- “There were so many things I wanted to say, stream-of-consciousness things, designs and patterns while listening to music. I felt I might be able to say [them] if I had an unending canvas.” — pioneering experimental animator Mary Ellen Bute
- The (Fractured) Male Gaze
- “Being understood is not the most essential thing in life.” — Jodie Foster
- Happy Birthday, Graham Parker
Recent Comments
- Chris on “There were so many things I wanted to say, stream-of-consciousness things, designs and patterns while listening to music. I felt I might be able to say [them] if I had an unending canvas.” — pioneering experimental animator Mary Ellen Bute
- Mitch Berg on “What’s the difference between an exile and an expatriate? It seems to me that an Englishman in France is an expat, but an Irishman is an exile.” — Irish poet Derek Mahon
- Sean Giere on “I don’t like being approached by people who look at me too intensely, who needed something from me that I didn’t have. I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- Jessie on Review: May December (2023)
- Jessie on Review: Holy Frit (2023)
- Jessie on She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
- Ginny SH on “There’s nothing you can tell me about guilt.” — Martin Scorsese
- Clary on The (Fractured) Male Gaze
- sheila on “I don’t like being approached by people who look at me too intensely, who needed something from me that I didn’t have. I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- SeanGiere on “I don’t like being approached by people who look at me too intensely, who needed something from me that I didn’t have. I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- sheila on She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
- Melissa Sutherland on She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
- sheila on “There’s nothing you can tell me about guilt.” — Martin Scorsese
- sheila on “There’s nothing you can tell me about guilt.” — Martin Scorsese
- sheila on Review: May December (2023)
- sheila on Talking 1953 movies with Jason Bailey and Mike Hull: A Very Good Year podcast
- sheila on Review: Holy Frit (2023)
- sheila on “Given as much to the gutter as to the gods” — Nick Tosches
- sheila on She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
- sheila on She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
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Category Archives: Directors
Happy Birthday, Emir Kusturica
This Bosnian-born Serbian filmmaker will have my love forever for his film Arizona Dream, his first American film, starring Faye Dunaway, Johnny Depp, Lili Taylor, Jerry Lewis, and Vincent Gallo. I wrote about it for my Film Comment column. The … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Arizona Dream, Balkans, Faye Dunaway, Jerry Lewis, Johnny Depp, Lili Taylor, Serbia, Yugoslavia
3 Comments
“There were so many things I wanted to say, stream-of-consciousness things, designs and patterns while listening to music. I felt I might be able to say [them] if I had an unending canvas.” — pioneering experimental animator Mary Ellen Bute
If ever I was born to write a piece, it’s this one: For Film Comment, I wrote about experimental animator Mary Ellen Bute, and her 1966 adaptation of James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake”. She was a pioneer. Way out in front. … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, James Joyce, Movies, On This Day
Tagged animation, Finnegans Wake, Ireland, literary adaptation, women directors
1 Comment
“There’s nothing you can tell me about guilt.” — Martin Scorsese
It’s his birthday today. It will be a huge loss when this man goes. He holds up the torch for continuity of cinema history, and his breadth and depth of knowledge – which he is so eager to share – … Continue reading
R.I.P. Dariush Mehrjui
In the sweepstakes for the title the Most Interesting and Accomplished Filmmaker the United States Has Never Heard Of, Dariush Mehrjui has certain obvious advantages. While still in his twenties, the Iranian director made ‘The Cow’ (1969), a film so … Continue reading
“All my life I have been happiest when the folks watching me said to each other, `Look at the poor dope, wilya?” — Buster Keaton
It’s Buster Keaton’s birthday today. As a small boy with a talent for acrobatics (and a high tolerance for pain), Keaton performed with his parents in a family act (an act notorious for its wild violence) before launching off on … Continue reading
“I swear my next project is going to be something really simple and focused and minimal.” — Baz Luhrmann
It’s his birthday today. “I think what I’m saying is, when you get to where I am in your journey, you just have to start to accept that there’s something inside you that you’ve been trying to get out and … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day, Theatre
Tagged Australia, Baz Luhrmann, Ewan McGregor, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicole Kidman, The Great Gatsby
9 Comments
Meeting Elia Kazan
For Elia Kazan’s birthday I met Elia Kazan once. He showed up at a production of Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing, which was being put on at the Actors Studio. I was involved in the production as a general Girl … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, On This Day, Personal
Tagged Actors Studio, Awake and Sing, Clifford Odets, Elia Kazan
11 Comments
“Reach out, take a chance, get hurt even, play as well as you can.” — Hal Ashby
It’s his birthday today. One of the leading lights of the New Hollywood, bringing fresh energy into a landscape that was busy cracking-apart, and holding on tightly to old stable familiar forms. He believed in the crack-up. He helped the … Continue reading
“It’s important not to indicate. People don’t try to show their feelings, they try to hide them.” — Robert De Niro
I haven’t written about the majority of his roles – not for lack of admiration (and in some cases, awestruck wonder) – but here is what I have written: I included his “you talkin’ to me” scene in my gigantic … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Martin Scorsese, mirrors, Robert De Niro, Taxi Driver
2 Comments
Happy Birthday, Martha Coolidge
It’s the birthday of director Martha Coolidge. I have always loved her work – cherished it, really – and finally got to pay tribute to her in my Film Comment column. And it’s funny how things work out. Mitchell and … Continue reading