Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- September 2025 Snapshots
- Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Getting unstuck
- “Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A fusillade of question marks.” — Ciarán Carson
- Frankenstein coming to life …
- “I grew up believing that I was fundamentally powerless.” — Thom Yorke
- Frankenstein and Tiffany, part deux
- “I want to live, not pose!” — Carole Lombard
- “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- “If someone spends his life writing the truth without caring for the consequences, he inevitably becomes a political authority in a totalitarian regime.” — Václav Havel
Recent Comments
- sheila on Getting unstuck
- Daniel V. on Getting unstuck
- sheila on That’ll Learn Ya reunites
- joe franco on That’ll Learn Ya reunites
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- Kristen Westergaard on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Frances on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- sheila on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- sheila on Getting unstuck
- Frances on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Walter Biggins on Getting unstuck
- Amir Lauber on All That Jazz: Remembering and Loving Erzebet Foldi
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- Krsten Westergaard on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- sheila on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- Sheila Welch on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- sheila on “I wish I had not been so reserved.” — Joseph Cornell’s final words
-
Tag Archives: Robert Altman
For Arrow Films: An essay on Robert Altman’s Gosford Park
What a treat this project was! Another DVD booklet for Arrow Films in the UK (my first was an essay on the under-talked-about masterpiece Another Woman included in a Woody Allen boxset): I wrote the booklet essay for their DVD … Continue reading
2017 Books Read
I got into a good rhythm with reading this year. I did a lot of re-reading, going back to books I haven’t read in 20 years or whatever. It was fun, like a reunion with an old friend. Much of … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 1984, A.S. Byatt, Bette Davis, books read, Camille Paglia, Christopher Hitchens, Edgar Allan Poe, England, France, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Herman Melville, Hitler, Ireland, Jack London, Janet Malcolm, Jean Renoir, Jeanette Winterson, Joan Crawford, Joan Didion, John Milton, Kim Stanley, Mark Danielewski, Mary Astor, Mary Gaitskill, Olivia Laing, Poland, politics, Robert Altman, Robert Conquest, Robert Kaplan, Russia, S.E. Hinton, Shirley Jackson, Tana French, Tennessee Williams, The Great Terror, war
4 Comments
November 2017 Viewing Diary
This viewing diary may be tough going for those of you who are not Supernatural fans. But there’s a lot more mixed in there that is not that damn show. I was on a viewing tear, in general, to get … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Afghanistan, Agnes Varda, Cate Blanchett, Dennis Hopper, documentary, England, France, Isabelle Huppert, Israel, Joachim Trier, Joan Didion, Kentucker Audley, Kristen Stewart, Paul Thomas Anderson, Robert Altman, Russia, Sebastián Lelio, Steven Spielberg, Supernatural, Terrence Malick, Tiffany Haddish, women directors
29 Comments
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
How To Make a Scene Happen: Bruce Davison in Short Cuts
Mitchell said to me once, “Bruce Davison is so good at making a scene happen. He is one of those actors who just knows what needs to take place in order for the scene itself to happen.” The best acting … Continue reading
Things I Love About Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs Miller
1. The & in the title. This is a business partnership. 2. The fact that when she is alone in her room at the whorehouse, she is always reading. It’s just such a nice unexpected detail. I was dying to … Continue reading
“I was a director for hire. I needed the job.”
Joe Valdez has another movie review up – and this time it’s about one of my favorites: Robert Altman’s The Player. I did not know that Sidney Lumet was originally attached as a director, and that Robert Altman did the … Continue reading
“Bruuuuce Williiiiiis …” Dean Stockwell in The Player
I love Stockwell’s frenetic cameo in The Player. He and Richard Grant play a pair of writers who have a brilliant mind-blowing idea for a film and are desperate to get it made. They buttonhole poor Griffin Mill at a … Continue reading