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- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- “I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
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- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
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- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
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Tag Archives: Quentin Tarantino
“I’m really confident. I had a perfect childhood. I had perfect parents and grandparents. They just love me, simply. So I have no fears.” — Mélanie Laurent
Today is the birthday of French actress and director Mélanie Laurent. Probably most American audiences (and international audiences, outside of France) were first introduced to the extraordinary Mélanie Laurent in her perfoƒrmance as the revolutionary Shoshanna in Inglourious Basterds. Laurent … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged France, Mélanie Laurent, Quentin Tarantino, women directors
10 Comments
Warren Beatty, Quentin Tarantino, and Elvis
My thanks to my friend Jeremy Richey for uploading this clip of Quentin Tarantino talking about Elvis to David Letterman. (For context, because it comes up as a joke, the guest before Quentin was Priscilla Presley.)
2022 Books Read
Some re-reads this year, but a lot of new-to-me authors as well. New novels written by faves. Been a year of upheaval and transitions. I’ve managed to keep up my regular reading schedule. I just don’t feel right if I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alfred Hitchcock, Anne Fadiman, art, Australia, Biography, books read, Canada, Christopher Hitchens, Edmund Burke, Elinor Lipman, England, entertainment biography, essays, Eve Babitz, friends, Germany, Greece, Hitler, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Janet Malcolm, Joan Didion, Joseph Cornell, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Master and Margarita, Memoirs, Michael Curtiz, Mikhail Bulgakov, Mitford sisters, nonfiction, Paul Zindel, politics, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Beatles, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Victor Klemperer, Victor Serge, war, William Hazlitt, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, WWII, YA fiction
10 Comments
Eating in cars with boys: QT tips his hat
Pulp Fiction (1994) Speedway (1968) I assumed most people knew where the Pulp Fiction nightclub set came from, and the inspiration it acknowledged, in a no-bones-about-it kind of way, but that would mean people would need to watch Elvis movies, … Continue reading
Bugliosi’s and Tarantino’s rattling ice cubes
“It was so quiet, one of the killers would later say, you could almost hear the sound of ice rattling in cocktail shakers in the homes way down the canyon.” — the first line of Vincent Bugliosi’s book Helter Skelter … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Directors, Movies
Tagged Helter Skelter, Quentin Tarantino, true crime, Vincent Bugliosi
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July 2022 Viewing Diary
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019; d. Quentin Tarantino) I like it more every time I see it. I’ve seen it maybe 7 or 8 times. Desert Fury (1947; d. Lewis Allen) I adore this messed-up homoerotic Technicolor fever-dream. … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Australia, Baz Luhrmann, Brad Pitt, comedy, documentary, drama, Elvis Presley, film noir, France, Georgia, Juliette Binoche, Kurt Russell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mary Astor, Peter Bogdanovich, Quentin Tarantino, Rebecca Hall, Robert Altman, romantic drama, Supernatural, What's Up Doc, women directors
65 Comments
June 2022 Viewing Diary
Watcher (2022; d. Chloe Okuno) I was super impressed – and totally freaked out – by this thriller, psychological and otherwise. The mood is HEAVY with omnipresent DREAD. I reviewed for Ebert. Russian Doll (Season 1 and 2, 2019-2022) I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged animation, Australia, Baz Luhrmann, comedy, David Mamet, drama, Dustin Hoffman, Elvis Presley, Emma Thompson, England, France, George Cukor, Judy Garland, literary adaptation, Meryl Streep, musicals, Paul Schrader, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, Robert Walker, short films, Supernatural, Susan Sarandon, thrillers, true crime, Vincente Minnelli, women directors
43 Comments
July/August 2020 Viewing Diary
Let’s get to it. July and August have been very … extra. Movies are fine, but I am gravitating towards series, anything I can binge-watch. I get clicked into something that interests me, and then feel so relieved that I … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged biopic, Brad Pitt, comedy, coming of age, documentary, drama, Eminem, Flannery O'Connor, horror, Jackass, John Garfield, Leonardo DiCaprio, musicals, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, religious movies, romantic drama, sci-fi, Shelley Winters, women directors
41 Comments
January 2020 Viewing Diary
Hell Is for Heroes (1962; d. Don Siegel) A spare lean and mean war movie – pretty standard, actually – except Steve McQueen is actually presenting a character study here, a character he probably knows something about. He is eerie … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Al Pacino, Brad Pitt, children's movies, Colin Farrell, comedy, coming of age, crime movies, Dean Stockwell, documentary, Dorothy Arzner, drama, Dustin Hoffman, England, France, Ginger Rogers, heist movies, Iran, Iranian film, Jean Arthur, Joaquin Phoenix, Joel McCrea, John Sturges, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lucille Ball, Martin Scorsese, Maureen O'Hara, musicals, Nick Nolte, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, romantic comedy, screwball comedy, Steve McQueen, Supernatural, true crime, war movies, women directors
3 Comments