William Friedkin and Al Pacino made the unhappy undercover-in-gay-bondage-world police drama ‘Cruising’ in 1979. Friedkin, in his memoir ‘The Friedkin Connection’, makes it very clear how little the two men liked working with each other. In the above interview clip–in case Friedkin wasn’t clear enough in his book–he makes it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDq6MkwtMgEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fIqBAuBquE The other day I posted a trailer of a doc about director William Friedkin which revealed him to be a most bracing public personality. Today I’m posting two clips of Friedkin, one historical and one hysterical. The first is Friedkin’s acceptance speech for his Oscar win in 1972 for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBLUKjrdH3M The director William Friedkin, who died in August of this year, was not one to mince words. He was volatile, sometimes crude, always controversial and extremely refreshing in a bracing sort of way. For time and space reasons I won’t go into his many quotable comments but I urge
‘Spooks’ (1953) was the 148th short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Monday, May 11th through Friday, May 15th 1953 and was released a scant one month later on Monday, June 15th of that year (the 166th day on the Gregorian Calendar). The
Yesterday I posted about German Singer/Bandleader/Performance Artist Max Raabe. One of the things that Raabe and his Palast Orchestra does that distinguishes them from ‘nostalgia’ acts is create a compelling visual experience in their shows, using different color schemes, shadows and mood lighting and other techniques to bring you into
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiaNQG7HPpc When I was at the Deauville Film Festival in 2010 I was invited to see a live performance of a German orchestra that specialized in playing music of the 1920s and 30s. With great enthusiasm the person who invited me explained that the front man/singer was a perfect replica
Enjoy a condensed day/evening in the Berlin of 1927, featuring some awfully well-dressed Menschen, lovely streets and shops, a fine looking Neutrum for luncheon and an evening at a Nachtclub that may well have featured Anita Berber (our subject of Monday’s post which has kicked off this weeks interest in
CLICK HERE TO WATCH the three-and-a-half minute screen test that Marlene Dietrich made for ‘The Blue Angel’ in 1929. This is presumably the first time a camera fully captured the multi-faceted genius of this ground-breaking performer. The film’s director, Josef Von Sternberg, also directed the test and used two angles;
Behold Anita Berber, a dancer/actress/performer/scandalous provocateuer of the late teens/1920s German cultural landscape. Berber was daring, mad, wildly admired and reviled and died young in 1929 of multiple drug addictions and a general exhaustion of excessive existence. Little of her film work is extant but the above video features two
‘They Stooge To Conga’ (1942) is the 67th short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Wednesday, May 6th through Saturday, May 9th 1942 and released on Friday, January 1st 1943 (the first day on the Gregorian Calendar). Generally ranked as the most violent