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- “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
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- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
- “Only the bad directors tell you how to read a line, how to define your character. The good ones let you do your job.” — Carroll Baker
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Tag Archives: France
Review: Titane (2021)
Titane is INSANE. I can’t stop thinking about it. Body-horror but philosophical. I reviewed this second film from French filmmaker Julia Ducournau.
Review: The Mad Women’s Ball (2021)
I loved the latest from Mélanie Laurent (also an actress. I wrote about one of her moments in Inglourious Basterds – a great “teaching tool” for anyone who wants to learn something about acting and technique). Laurent is also a … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged France, historical drama, Mélanie Laurent, reviews, women directors
3 Comments
R.I.P. Jean-Paul Belmondo
The outpouring of love for Belmondo has been very heartening to see and I was particularly touched by Mickey Rourke’s Instagram post about him. Mickey Rourke is in a direct line from Belmondo. It’s like a baseball play: Brando/Dean to … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, RIP
Tagged Alain Delon, France, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Mickey Rourke, mirrors
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August 2021 Viewing Diary
Pig (2021; d. Michael Sarnoski) I wish I could write at length about some of these. I just don’t have the time these days. I absolutely loved Pig, about an isolated woodsman-truffle-hunter (Nicolas Cage) whose beloved truffle pig is stolen. … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Aline MacMahon, Ann Dvorak, backting, Belgium, Bette Davis, comedy, documentary, drama, film noir, France, Golshifteh Farahani, Howard Hawks, James Cagney, Jean Arthur, Jim Jarmusch, Joan Blondell, Marion Cotillard, Mervyn LeRoy, musicals, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Pre-Code, Richard Linklater, Robert Mitchum, Supernatural, surfing, William Carlos Williams
44 Comments
Review: Annette (2021) Been waiting for this one!
… and it did not disappoint. I went to an actual screening of this – at the IFC Center in New York – my first actual press screening in over a year – and it was so EXHILARATING. I love … Continue reading
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
Screengrabs: Betty Blue (1986)
I saw this in the theatre back when it first arrived here. It knocked me on my ass. I fell in love with Béatrice Dalle. It would be a couple of years before Julia Roberts “arrived” with Pretty Woman (1990), … Continue reading
Review: Mandibles (2021)
A surrealist French Dumb and Dumber. I mean, that’s the closest to describing what is happening in this demented and often very funny movie by French director Quentin Dupieux. I reviewed for Ebert.

