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- “Elvis may be the King of Rock and Roll, but I am the Queen.” — Little Richard
- “The ability to think for one’s self depends upon one’s mastery of the language.” — Joan Didion
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- A Streetcar Named Desire: That’s What Williams Wrote. Deal With It.
- “Intellect and taste count, but I cut with my feelings.” — legendary editor Dede Allen
- “My aesthetic is that of the sniper on the roof.” — Jean-Luc Godard
- “I have trouble working off things that are too preconceived, like storyboards.” — Terrence Malick
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Category Archives: On This Day
“Even to this day, I watch The Wizard of Oz like I did when I was five years old. I get really involved in it.” — Lynne Ramsay
“When I go to the cinema, I want to have a cinematic experience. Some people ignore the sound and you end up seeing something you might see on television and it doesn’t explore the form. Sound is the other picture. … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Joaquin Phoenix, Lynne Ramsay, Scotland, Tilda Swinton, women directors
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“Elvis may be the King of Rock and Roll, but I am the Queen.” — Little Richard
It’s his birthday today. One of the best documentaries of the year is Lisa Cortes’ Little Richard: I Am Everything, which I had the pleasure of reviewing for Ebert. Little Richard. Live performance of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On”, 1963. … Continue reading
“The ability to think for one’s self depends upon one’s mastery of the language.” — Joan Didion
It’s her birthday today. Someone said that Didion’s (seemingly) simple sentences are like a perfect puzzle. If you remove one line from a paragraph, everything falls apart. Her writing is that well-constructed. She was a notoriously painstaking self-editor. She would … Continue reading
A Streetcar Named Desire: That’s What Williams Wrote. Deal With It.
A re-post for the anniversary of Streetcar debuting on Broadway. I wrote this essay after seeing a 2011 production of Streetcar at Williamstown. Directed by David Cromer Starring Sam Rockwell as Stanley Kowalski, Jessica Hecht as Blanche DuBois, Ana Reeder … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, On This Day, Theatre
Tagged A Streetcar Named Desire, Sam Rockwell, scripts, Tennessee Williams
54 Comments
“Intellect and taste count, but I cut with my feelings.” — legendary editor Dede Allen
It’s her birthday today. Here’s a list of just some of her credits as an editor: The Hustler America America Bonnie & Clyde Rachel Rachel Alice’s Restaurant Little Big Man Serpico Night Moves Dog Day Afternoon Missouri Breaks Slap Shot … Continue reading
“My aesthetic is that of the sniper on the roof.” — Jean-Luc Godard
He was born on this day. Coincidentally, the year before Jean-Luc Godard died, I decided to watch his filmography in chronological order, starting with his shorts (many of which are on YouTube). I wrote about this experience in my December … Continue reading
“I have trouble working off things that are too preconceived, like storyboards.” — Terrence Malick
“When people express what is most important to them, it often comes out in cliches. That doesn’t make them laughable — it’s something tender about them. As though in struggling to reach what’s most personal about them they could only … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Badlands, Days of Heaven, Terrence Malick
6 Comments
“I thought girls in their teens might like to read [Anne of Green Gables], that was the only audience I hoped to reach.” — L.M. Montgomery
As with Sylvia Plath, my relationship with Lucy Maud Montgomery has spanned the entirety of my life. It graduated from a childhood voracious yearning to read all the books immediately to a longer period when I “grew out of them”, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Anne of Green Gables, Canada, Emily of New Moon, fiction, L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle
4 Comments
“I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is toward individuals.” — Jonathan Swift
“When a man of true Genius appears in the World, you may know him by this infallible Sign, that all the Dunces are in Conspiracy against him.” — Jonathan Swift I don’t have much time to read for pleasure these … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Alexander Pope, Charles Lamb, Charlotte Bronte, Dr. Samuel Johnson, fiction, Gulliver's Travels, H.L. Mencken, Ireland, Irish poetry, Jane Eyre, Jonathan Swift, Michael Schmidt, poetry, Rebecca West, Robert Graves, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats
12 Comments
“Look in thy heart and write.” — Sir Philip Sidney
“[The poet] doth grow in effect another nature, as the Heroes, Demigods, Cyclopes, Chimeras, Furies, and such like: so as he goeth hand in hand with nature, not enclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts, but freely, ranging only … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, England, Harold Bloom, John Aubrey, Michael Schmidt, poetry, Shakespeare
2 Comments