Here’s a riddle: how many characters does it take to make a Woody Allen? Judging from Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the answer is two: one blond and one brunette. The blonde (Scarlett Johannson) is Cristina and the brunette (Rebecca Hall) is Vicky, two Americans spending the summer in Barcelona. While there, they are hustled by Juan [...]
There, Lapper … try to tell me I stole this post title! I dare you!
Well, maybe not frabjous, exactly, maybe more like groovy, but Carl Th. Dreyer’s Day of Wrath has a new, digitally-restored print. And now, more people than ever — maybe more than 10? — can see this dark, uncompromising critique of organized Christianity from Denmark’s most illustrious director. In celebration, here’s a still:
GreenCine Daily has the [...]
Woody Allen’s new Vicky Cristina Barcelona is getting decidedly mixed reviews, and some of the negative reviews are like they’ve been personally betrayed or something by Woody . . . they’re like critics scorned, saying things like “the same old tripe he’s been doing since ‘Annie Hall’” and “why doesn’t he just go away and [...]
Here’s brief scene from François Truffaut’s Day for Night that evokes a love of cinema better and with more economy than any other I can think of. Truffaut (right) plays Ferrand, the director of the film Meet Pamela, and Jean Champion (left) is his producer. As Ferrand receives a package of books about film, he [...]
François Truffaut’s Day for Night opens on a small, grassy plaza. Immediately, a bus roars by in the foreground; the sound of its engine drowns all others out. The camera picks up a woman and her dog and tracks along with her, pausing at a subway entrance long enough for a man to [...]
30 Days of Night has an ingenious premise: vampires attack Barrow, Alaska during its annual period of darkness, when the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon for thirty days. That’s convenient, because in addition to being immortal, sunlight kills them as well. In fact, they’re pretty-much old school vampires, except for the fact that they [...]
Embedding trailers in posts is a lazy way of filling up blog-space, and so I have one question (for myself): Why haven’t I done more of it? Well, I’m not sure, but being as one of my weaknesses is the Coen brothers, I couldn’t resist. Here’s a trailer from their new film [...]
This summer, movies have done boffo business at the box-office, with so-called comic-book movies like Iron Man, Hellboy II and Hancock making boodles of cash. The clear-cut winner in all of this is something called The Dark Kite or The Masked Blight or something like that, a violent rip-off of Tim Burton’s Batman. Of course, [...]
The past few days we’ve been showing my sister and niece around Alabama during their whirlwind visit from the Olson ancestral home in Washington State. Thursday was our “Southern Heritage Tour,” wherein we saw Antebellum homes, alligator ponds, and Klan marching grounds. Friday was “Local Culture Day,” during which we ate soul food at Maggie’s [...]
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