-
-
-
Recent Posts
- “Everyone thought I was bold and fearless and even arrogant, but inside I was always quaking … I don’t care how afraid I may be inside — I do what I think I should.”– Katharine Hepburn
- “My dear child, I’m sure we shall be allowed to laugh in Heaven!” — Edward Lear
- “And that’s the other thing about [Green], by acknowledging that these feelings exist I feel like then you see it, and you recognize that in yourself.” –Sophia Takal
- “I know that for myself, what is deeper than I understand is often the most pertinent to me and the most lasting.” — Lorine Niedecker
- Substack: on All I’ve Got & Then Some (2024)
- Review: Force of Nature: The Dry 2 (2024)
- Natasha Richardson as Sally Bowles
- “To me, Martha Graham is one of America’s few authentic geniuses.” – Bette Davis
- R.I.P. Steve Albini
- News about Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof
Recent Comments
- Johnny on Alain Delon: Eyes So Deep There’s No Bottom
- sheila on “I put my soul through the ink.” — Proof
- Jayme on “I put my soul through the ink.” — Proof
- sheila on R.I.P. Steve Albini
- sheila on R.I.P. Steve Albini
- Scott Abraham on R.I.P. Steve Albini
- sheila on R.I.P. Steve Albini
- sheila on R.I.P. Steve Albini
- Scott Abraham on R.I.P. Steve Albini
- sheila on News about Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof
- mutecypher on News about Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof
- sheila on “I would rather take a photograph than be one.” — Lee Miller
- Kelly C Sedinger on “I would rather take a photograph than be one.” — Lee Miller
- sheila on The Books: The Making of The Misfits, by James Goode
- sheila on “My films are about ideals that clash with the world. Every time it’s a man in the lead, they have forgotten about the ideals. And every time it’s a woman in the lead, they take the ideals all the way.” — Lars von Trier
- sheila on Photo of the Day
- Jincy Willett on “My films are about ideals that clash with the world. Every time it’s a man in the lead, they have forgotten about the ideals. And every time it’s a woman in the lead, they take the ideals all the way.” — Lars von Trier
- Nino on Photo of the Day
- Owen O'Neill on The Books: The Making of The Misfits, by James Goode
- art puff on Cagney’s Death Scenes: “He used to be a big shot.”
Categories
Archives
-
Tag Archives: Czechoslovakia
“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
“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” — Václav Havel Václav Havel, whose birthday … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day, Theatre, writers
Tagged Czechoslovakia, Golshifteh Farahani, Iran, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Shabnam Toloui, Vaclav Havel, war
2 Comments
December 2022 Viewing Diary
The Whale (2022; d. Darren Aronofsky) I thought it was appalling, and not just for the obvious reasons (i.e. his body is viewed as literally a movie monster, with all these horror-movie shots of his gigantic ankles, etc.) And it … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged action movies, animation, Austria, Brad Pitt, Brian De Palma, Charles Dickens, Christopher Walken, Claude Chabrol, Claudette Colbert, comedy, coming of age, Czechoslovakia, Darren Aronofsky, David Bowie, documentary, drama, England, France, Germany, heist, historical drama, Hungary, Isabelle Huppert, Kentucker Audley, Natasha Richardson, Paul Schrader, Paul Thomas Anderson, Preston Sturges, Punch-Drunk Love, Russia, Sandrine Bonnaire, screwball, thrillers, Ukraine, war, women directors
3 Comments
Dynamic Duo #37
Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanov, Daisies, 1966 (directed by Věra Chytilová)
2020 Books Read
What a year, huh. What a dumpster-fire year. I read a lot, mostly in the mornings, and it helped create rituals for the days, which often seemed endlessly the same, interchangeable. I read a lot of long and challenging books … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Austria, ballet, Ballets Russes, Belfast, Biography, books read, Croatia, culture, Czechoslovakia, Czeslaw Milosz, dance, Dubravka Ugrešić, Elinor Lipman, Elizabeth Bishop, Eminem, essays, Ezra Pound, fiction, H.D., Hannah Arendt, history, Hitler, Ireland, Jane Austen, Jean Arthur, Marcel Proust, Nick Tosches, nonfiction, Olivia Laing, poetry, Poland, politics, Rebecca West, Robert Kaplan, Robert Lowell, Roman empire, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Shirley Jackson, Stalin, true crime, Ukraine, war, WWII, Yugoslavia
38 Comments
Recommended Books: Memoirs
More recommendations: Recommended Fiction Recommended Non-Fiction MEMOIRS The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties, by Harold Clurman Probably the most famous of all the Group Theatre-related books. Harold Clurman writes his memories of that time and what those … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Directors, Music, writers
Tagged African Queen, Anjelica Huston, Austria, Baby Doll, Benjamin Franklin, Born Standing Up, Bruce Springsteen, Carroll Baker, Charles Grodin, Czechoslovakia, Diane Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Elia Kazan, Ellen Terry, Elvis Presley, Frank McCourt, Ginger Rogers, Goldie Hawn, Group Theatre, Harold Clurman, Ireland, James Salter, Jeanette Winterson, John Strasberg, Katharine Hepburn, Kathleen Turner, Lana Turner, Lauren Bacall, Lee Strasberg, Marlon Brando, Maud Gonne, Memoirs, Patricia Bosworth, Primo Levi, Robert Evans, Rosalind Russell, Russia, Shelley Winters, Shirley MacLaine, Stefan Zweig, Steve Martin, The Kid Stays In the Picture, Victor Serge, WWII
2 Comments
R.I.P., Vaclav Havel
A hero of mine has died. Another great intellectual light has left the planet. R.I.P., Vaclav Havel. Update: Friend (and high school prom date) Trav S.D. has a wonderful reminiscence about Havel and the Havel Festival at the Brick Theatre. … Continue reading
Kolya (1996); Dir. Jan Sverák
Cranky confirmed bachelor gets stuck taking care of a little kid. At first the bachelor is harsh and unfriendly to the kid. The kid puts a cramp in his ladies’ man lifestyle. Bachelor just wants to pawn the kid off … Continue reading
Today in history: December 29, 1989
Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia after 40 years of Soviet Communist rule. Havel, a playwright, spent a ton of time in jail for his political writings, and his philosophy was that, yes, he lived in an un-free society … Continue reading