Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- “I have a fan base that’s super, super loyal.” — Lance Kerwin
- Happy Birthday, Ralph Macchio, or: How one episode of Eight is Enough saved my life
- “A mind which really lays hold of a subject is not easily detached from it.” — journalist Ida Tarbell
- “People say I’m a one-note actor, but the way I figure it, those other guys are just looking for that one right note.” — Joel McCrea
- “If the thing is there, why, there it is.” Happy Birthday, Walker Evans
- “I’ve had the kind of fame which I felt was just the right amount.” — Lois Smith
- Dynamic Duo #45
- “I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not to be among the greatest.” –John Keats
- Trailer for The Art and Making of Frankenstein, by me.
- Dynamic Duo #44
Recent Comments
- Pam on The Books: “Rally Round the Flag, Boys!” (Max Shulman)
- Steve on The Books: Ellen Terry & Bernard Shaw: A Correspondence
- sheila on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- Maddy on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- sheila on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- sheila on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- sheila on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- sheila on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- sheila on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- Frances on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- Lyrie on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- mutecypher on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- Melissa Sutherland on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- Maddy on Publication day: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
- Jay on The Books: “Talk To Me Like the Rain … And Let Me Listen” (Tennessee Williams)
- O on “Since when was genius found respectable?” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- sheila on “The other girls weren’t singing quite like I was.” — Wanda Jackson
- sheila on “If my life wasn’t funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable.” — Carrie Fisher
- sheila on “Acting gives me permission that maybe I don’t give myself in real life.” — Gillian Jacobs
- Bill Wolfe on “Acting gives me permission that maybe I don’t give myself in real life.” — Gillian Jacobs
-
Tag Archives: Orson Welles
More 2018 Movies to See
So all this Top 10 stuff gets a little bit too competitive for me sometimes. There can’t be a “winner” anyway, in art. It doesn’t work like that. This has been a really good year and I’ve seen a lot … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Al Pacino, Burt Reynolds, documentary, Elvis Presley, Iran, Iranian film, James Baldwin, Keanu Reeves, Orson Welles, Oscar Wilde, Sanaa Lathan, women directors
10 Comments
Film Comment Countdown and Live Talk
Last night, I participated in a Film Comment live talk at Lincoln Center, hosted/moderated by Film Comment editor-in-chief Nic Rapold, which involved “unveiling” Film Comment‘s Top 10 of 2018. The other critics there were Michael Koresky, Nick Pinkerton and Molly … Continue reading
2018 Top 10 Movies
To cut off people who want to say “But what about …” or “You forgot …”, let me just say: No. I did not. I did not forget. There will be another list to follow of all of the films … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Abbas Kiarostami, documentary, Ethan Hawke, Japan, John Huston, Nicolas Cage, Orson Welles, Paul Schrader, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, women directors
13 Comments
Stuff I’ve Been Reading
— Farran Smith Nehme (a friend) has written a gigantic essay called “Bluebeard at the Movies,” about movies where women marry men who turn out to be BONKERS. So many references, so many films! — Farran, again, with a gorgeous … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Directors
Tagged friends, Orson Welles, stuff I've been reading, Tana French
Leave a comment
November 2018 Viewing Diary
Mr. Soul! (2018; d. Melissa Haizlip) The opening night film of Indie Memphis, which already feels like it was 20 years ago. I wrote about it briefly in my recap of the festival for Ebert. It’s a gorgeous film. Supernatural, … Continue reading
On This Day: October 30, 1938 – “Radio Play Terrifies Nation”
Conversation between Peter Bogdanovich and Orson Welles in This Is Orson Welles: PB: I’ve often wondered if you had any idea, before you did it, that War of the Worlds was going to get that kind of response. OW. The … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, On This Day
Tagged Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich, War of the Worlds
10 Comments
“You might say that Falstaff was the great-great-grandfather of all the flower children. He was a bohemian and he was a bum. A beautiful bum.”
I wrote about this clip a long time ago, of Orson Welles transforming himself into Falstaff at a makeup mirror, talking about Falstaff, and then turning INTO Falstaff – a “bit” that appeared on The Dean Martin Show. Then the … Continue reading
Dynamic Duo #5
Orson Welles and Anthony Perkins
March 2017 Viewing Diary
The Goddess (1958; d. John Cromwell) Written by Paddy Chayevsky. Starring Kim Stanley and Lloyd Bridges. Stanley plays a character clearly based on Marilyn Monroe, rather extraordinary when you consider Monroe was still alive. It’s a brutal movie about stardom … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Bette Davis, Carroll Baker, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, documentary, England, Frances Farmer, Horton Foote, Israel, Jack Garfein, Joan Crawford, John Huston, July and Half of August, Kim Stanley, Orson Welles, Ralph Meeker, Robert Aldrich, Supernatural, Sydney Pollack, Tennessee Williams, Tommy Lee Jones, women directors
59 Comments
November 2016 Viewing Diary
Elle (2016; d. Paul Verhoeven) I loved it. People HATE this movie. One lady on Twitter said that men should be banned from making films about rape. How you would enforce such a rule is beyond me. Also: No fucking … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Agnes Varda, China, Citizen Kane, Claudette Colbert, documentary, England, France, Gary Cooper, Golshifteh Farahani, Hong Kong, Isabelle Huppert, Jim Jarmusch, Mia Hansen-Løve, Orson Welles, Patricia Neal, Paul Verhoeven, Sophia Takal, South Korea, Supernatural
9 Comments