Categories
Archives
-
Recent Posts
- Review: Being Maria (2025)
- “Every choice I’ve ever made has been dictated by a formless hunch rather than by strict logic.” — Peter Brook
- March 2025 Supernatural Viewing Diary Season 11, working backwards
- “Reality is always extraordinary.” — Mary Ellen Mark
- “I think my cinema is minimalist because so is my gaze: I’m very interested in people.” — Joanna Hogg
- “I got my first guitar at age of 7 and never laid it down. Momma taught me G, C, and D. I was off to the races son!” — Jerry Reed
- “Can’t no man play like me.” — Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- “The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority.” — Henrik Ibsen
- Happy Birthday, Rhode Island’s first poet laureate, Michael Harper
- “If it hadn’t been for the videocassette, I may not have had a career at all.” — Kurt Russell
Recent Comments
- Lyrie on Don’t you DARE take Elvis away from me.
- sheila on “Tennyson’s rank is too well fixed and we love him too much.” — Oscar Wilde
- sheila on “I think my cinema is minimalist because so is my gaze: I’m very interested in people.” — Joanna Hogg
- sheila on Review: Being Maria (2025)
- Kristen on Review: Being Maria (2025)
- Lee on “Tennyson’s rank is too well fixed and we love him too much.” — Oscar Wilde
- Maddy on “I think my cinema is minimalist because so is my gaze: I’m very interested in people.” — Joanna Hogg
- Michael James Cobb on The Books: “Master & Commander” (Patrick O’Brian)
- sheila on The Books: “Master & Commander” (Patrick O’Brian)
- sheila on The Books: “Master & Commander” (Patrick O’Brian)
- sheila on February 2025 Viewing Diary
- nighthawk bastard on The Books: “Master & Commander” (Patrick O’Brian)
- sheila on February 2025 Viewing Diary
- Lyrie on February 2025 Viewing Diary
- Lyrie on February 2025 Viewing Diary
- sheila on February 2025 Viewing Diary
- sheila on February 2025 Viewing Diary
- sheila on February 2025 Viewing Diary
- Lyrie on February 2025 Viewing Diary
- Lyrie on February 2025 Viewing Diary
-
Tag Archives: Rudolph Valentino
More Ebertfest 2015
The next film shown at Ebertfest was Celine Sciamma’s Girlhood (an extraordinary film about 4 black girls, teenagers, living in a housing project in a Parisian suburb – my review here). As with many of these films, I had seen … Continue reading
The Books: A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing, “Valentino,” by H.L. Mencken
Next up on the essays shelf: A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing, by H.L. Mencken H.L. Mencken, as can be expected, didn’t have much good to say about this new-fangled business of movie-making. He thought it … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books
Tagged A Mencken Chrestomathy, Elvis Presley, essays, H.L. Mencken, Italy, Rudolph Valentino
24 Comments
“For this stunt, hire a woman dressed entirely in black mourning, complete with veil, and have her visit the local newspapers. . .
… and ask permission to go through their files for stories and pictures of [Rudolph] Valentino. Instruct her to be as mysterious as possible.” — Quote from Paramount Picture’s press booklet to theatre owners, encouraging them to hire their own … Continue reading
The Sheik.
No wonder Rudolph Valentino was, according to IMDB: “Considered to be the first male sex symbol of the cinema during the silent era.” Wow.