Whoever thought that one day Woody Allen would be even more detested than William F. Buckley? I personally must confess to having great respect and affection for each of these freaks of nature, something that pretty much nobody I know shares anymore. Above we see them in action as they
A couple of months ago I posted about Howard Hawks 1939 movie ‘Only Angels Have Wings’. The discussion largely centered on the magnificent aerial photography by Elmer Dyer. It turns out that the Criterion Collection has included the film in their august DVD pantheon of classic cinema and provided a
Celebrate the season of the arrival of public domain with Springtime (1929)! This early Walt Disney Silly Symphonies animated short film is a exploration of nature set entirely to classical music. The cartoon features flora and fauna, including charming flowers, busy ladybugs, crawling centipedes, soaring birds, and hopping frogs. Without
This year a slew of entertainment from 1929 has entered the public domain and can now be reused, re-recorded, re-edited and re-enjoyed for free. Songs, movies, books–the world is now awash in uncopyrighted cultural riches, and the family members of the creators of those works are now shit out of
What better way to usher in the holiday that celebrates munificence, family, warmth and generosity than with two videos of Woody Allen discussing death and the meaninglessness of life. For somebody who thinks that nothing ultimately matters, Woody has certainly been prodigious in his output. In fact, it could be
Tomorrow night I’m hosting a fiftieth anniversary screening of ‘Dog Day Afternoon’, Sidney Lumet’s terrific 1975 ‘fiasco flick’ starring Al Pacino. (What is a ‘fiasco flick’ you ask? A movie about a crime that goes instantly wrong at the very opening and which you then watch in horrified delight as
The other day we took a look at the Best Picture nominees of 1928 and I commented on the very different, staid acting styles of the era. It’s always been my contention that screen acting–maybe all acting for that matter– was changed forever with the sudden, shocking appearance of James
It’s humbling to realize that the films considered the best acheivemernts of the year and celebrated at the legendary awards evening known as the ‘Oscars’ may well turn into utterly unwatchable obscurities in a quick ninety to one-hundred years. (Actually it’s more likely that a couple of decades is enough
Yesterday we looked at two examples of the ‘upper berth as comedic set-piece’ genre. As far as I know, the first extended example of this routine is in Laurel & Hardy’s ‘Berth Marks’ (1929), their second sound film. To be honest, that statement is based on no research whatsoever on
Do trains still have sleeper cars? If so, do they still have upper and lower berths? Perhaps the bigger questions is: do people still sleep on trains other than falling asleep in their uncomfortable seat, jammed next to somebody with a service dog. (This happened to me on a long