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Tag Archives: silent films
“The camera is always where it needs to be with him.” — Interview with Dana Stevens, author of Camera Man
I interviewed Dana Stevens about her wonderful book Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century, after a screening of Keaton’s The General last week at the Jane Pickens Theater in Newport, Rhode … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Directors, Movies, writers
Tagged Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, interviews, silent films
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July 2021 Viewing Diary
Sally, Mary and Irene (1925; d. Edmund Goulding) For some reason, I forgot to include this gem in my June viewing diary. Considered lost forever, it is one of Joan Crawford’s earliest films – and one where she is actually … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Ann Dvorak, Bette Davis, Billy Wilder, Bong Joon-Ho, comedy, dance movies, documentary, drama, France, Fred MacMurray, Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Jack Lemmon, Japan, Jimmy Stewart, Joan Blondell, Joan Crawford, Juliette Binoche, Marilyn Monroe, Mervyn LeRoy, Miriam Hopkins, Pre-Code, Shirley MacLaine, silent films, thrillers
16 Comments
Mirrors #7
Joan Crawford in one of her earliest successes, Sally, Irene and Mary (1925). What do you want to bet her character is headed for a rocky road? You know I love mirror shots. Adding it to the collection.
For Ebert: On Stanley Kwan’s 1991 masterpiece Center Stage
It’s Women Writers Week over on Ebert (Table of Contents), and I wrote about the biopic with which I measure all other biopics: Stanley Kwan’s Center Stage about the brief intense life of “the Chinese Greta Garbo,” silent film star … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged biopic, China, Hong Kong, Maggie Cheung, reviews, silent films
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May 2020 Viewing Diary
Homeland, Season 1-6 I finally caught up with Homeland, binge-watching it as I endured my lonely quarantine. Binge-watching has been a comfort. I’m having a hard time absorbing new things. I’ve been re-reading books. Re-watching things. Or, succumbing to the … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged David Lynch, documentary, drama, Germany, Robert Aldrich, sci-fi, Shirley Jackson, silent films, Twin Peaks, women directors
26 Comments
Ebertfest Day 3: A Page of Madness (1926), with the Alloy Orchestra
Every year a silent film is screened at Ebertfest, with music performed (and composed) by the three-man Alloy Orchestra. It’s always a highlight of the festival. They have such interesting careers. They are film historians, but also artists, who choose … Continue reading
April 2016 Viewing Diary
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016; d. Taika Waititi) My favorite thing I saw at Tribeca. It hasn’t opened yet but this is one you want to see. My review here. Midsummer in Newtown (2016; d. Lloyd Kramer) I was … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged AFME, Al Pacino, Brian De Palma, Claude Chabrol, Denmark, documentary, drama, France, Guillermo del Toro, historical drama, Howard Hawks, Jean-Paul Belmondo, July and Half of August, Lily Tomlin, Mervyn LeRoy, Michael Mann, New Zealand, Pre-Code, Preston Sturges, romantic drama, silent films, Supernatural, war movies
81 Comments
More Ebertfest 2015
The next film shown at Ebertfest was Celine Sciamma’s Girlhood (an extraordinary film about 4 black girls, teenagers, living in a housing project in a Parisian suburb – my review here). As with many of these films, I had seen … Continue reading
The Crowd (1928); directed by King Vidor
Last night was a really special evening: my friend Farran Smith Nehme has written a wonderful novel called Missing Reels. It’s about a bunch of movie-mad characters in 1980s New York who start on a wild goose chase to track … Continue reading
Ebertfest 2014: He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
One of the highlights of Ebertfest this year (and we’re not even done yet) is getting a chance to see the 1924 silent film He Who Gets Slapped on the gigantic Virginia Theatre screen, surrounded by a packed house, and … Continue reading