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- March 2024 Viewing Diary
- “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- “I don’t like being approached by people who look at me too intensely, who needed something from me that I didn’t have. I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
- “At some point, you have to set down the past. At some point, you have to accept that everyone was doing their best. At some point, you have to gather yourself up, and go onward into your life.” — Olivia Laing
- “It’s just one of the mysteries of filmmaking that sometimes you do something that you don’t even think it’s important, then it turns out to be.” –Lili Horvát
- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
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- sheila on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- sheila on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” Happy Birthday, Poet Christopher Smart
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- Mike Molloy on Three unknowable men from the same angle
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- Shaharee Vyaas on The Books: “Finnegans Wake” (James Joyce)
- Mike Molloy on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- Mike Molloy on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “That’s the Irish People all over – they treat a serious thing as a joke and a joke as a serious thing.” — Seán O’Casey, Shadow of a Gunman
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Tag Archives: Josef von Sternberg
“In America, sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it’s a fact.” — Marlene Dietrich
It’s her birthday today. When I interviewed Dan Callahan about his book The Art of American Screen Acting, we discussed Marlene Dietrich. He has been obsessed since college, and also obsessed with trying to put her into words. What exactly … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Germany, Josef von Sternberg, Marlene Dietrich
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March 2022 Viewing Diary
I’m going along my own viewing way, and then I get a gig, and everything changes. You can tell when it happens. Not announcing this gig yet, and will not be confirming or denying anything. The viewing diary is what … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies
Tagged Al Pacino, Australia, Cary Grant, Charles Grodin, comedy, Diane Keaton, documentary, drama, Francis Ford Coppola, horror, Ireland, Jerry Lewis, John Cazale, Josef von Sternberg, Martin Scorsese, Miriam Hopkins, Palestine, Pre-Code, Robert De Niro, Romania, Shelley Winters, Sylvia Sidney, women directors
2 Comments
Ringing in the new year like …
… Phyllis Brooks in Shanghai Express. It’s such a great character because Shanghai Express is a super weird very dark noir … but SHE thinks she’s in a screwball comedy. … Which is a pretty healthy attitude, if you think … Continue reading
July 2018 Viewing Diary
Supernatural, Season 4, episode 5 “Monster Movie” (2008; d. Robert Singer) A movie-mad feast. Plus, my favorite one-night-stand-girl. (Piper is a close tie.) Supernatural, Season 4, episode 6 “Yellow Fever” (2008; d. Philip Sgriccia) An example of what the show … Continue reading
From Lillian Gish to James Dean: My Interview with Dan Callahan
I had a lot of fun interviewing Dan Callahan about his new book The Art of American Screen Acting, 1912-1960. It’s now up at Slant Magazine: Mystery of Screen Acting: An Interview with Dan Callahan.
Posted in Actors, Books, Movies
Tagged Bringing Up Baby, Cary Grant, friends, Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, Holiday, Humphrey Bogart, interviews, James Cagney, James Dean, Joan Crawford, Josef von Sternberg, Katharine Hepburn, Kim Stanley, Lillian Gish, Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich, Marlon Brando
6 Comments
April 2015 Viewing Diary
About Elly (2009; d. Asghar Farhadi). At long last. Wrote it up here. Misery Loves Comedy (2015; d. Kevin Pollak). Navel-gazing documentary about comedians and how they think about what they do. A cast of thousands. Lots of great anecdotes. … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Agnes Varda, Albert Maysles, Argentina, Asghar Farhadi, baseball, Chantal Akerman, Denmark, documentary, France, Iran, Iranian film, Italy, Jean-Luc Godard, John Wayne, Josef von Sternberg, Nicholas Ray, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Sandrine Bonnaire, Supernatural, Sweden, X-Files
32 Comments
Iron Ladies, Hollywood-Style
This article originally appeared on Capital New York. It’s still up there, although it’s now part of Politico, and so I have reprinted the piece here, because I fear all of the dead links in my future. In lieu of … Continue reading
Brooksie Remembers
Phyllis Brooks and Cary Grant, 1938 (photo from the personal collection of Phyllis Brooks) Katharine Hepburn recalled: Cary was linked with many women in those days. He knew all the girls and introduced many of them to Howard Hughes, whom … Continue reading
Posted in Actors
Tagged Cary Grant, Josef von Sternberg, Rosalind Russell, Shanghai Gesture
17 Comments
Noir of the Week: The Shanghai Gesture (1941)
My piece on Josef von Sternberg’s truly bizarre film The Shanghai Gesture is now live at Noir of the Week. Go check it out! And definitely check the film out. It is unlike any other.
Shanghai Gesture (1941); Dir. Josef von Sternberg
A very strange movie, corrupt and bleak and fantastical, with a glacial pace, and phenomenal crowd scenes in a giant Shanghai casino (with the awesome Marcel Dalio again playing a croupier, as he did in Casablanca), Shanghai Gesture features Ona … Continue reading