Film
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I first came across The Bird People in China after I had watched Departures and I wanted to find out more about Masahiro Matoki who played the protagonist in the film. The name of the movie (Bird People) intrigued me, so I ordered it from Netflix. I have to admit that I did not enjoy
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If you do, here are a couple of reviews that I thought were interesting: Christopher Orr in The Atlantic Carl Eric Scott in National Review Really, the main thing I found interesting in Orr's review was this: And so with The Force Awakens, Abrams has begun one of the most important reclamation projects of our time: the
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This may seem an odd choice for the first entry in this series. Until a couple of days ago I had thought I would write about some high-class work that would fall into the general category of Art Film made by an Artist, probably something by Bergman. But for some reason I’ve been thinking about
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The little town where I live, Fairhope, Alabama, has always had an artsy element, which is nice, but over the past few decades the town has grown fashionable and attractive to wealthy people, which is not so nice. And now the artsy crowd also tends to be wealthy and fashionable. I don't care for this
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Not Hobbes's book, but a recent movie from Russia, by director Andrey Zvyagintsev, whose name I would probably recognize if I were more knowledgeable about contemporary film-making. I only know about it because my late friend Robert recommended it. He described it as "a Bergmanesque masterpiece," and I regret that I didn't have a chance to
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Last night I watched The Silence for the second time. The first time was somewhere between five and ten years ago, and I thought I had discussed it here at least briefly, but if I did I can't find the post now. At any rate, what I remember thinking is that I didn't like at as
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I watched this noir classic for the second time recently–the first time was probably more than five years ago–and immediately pronounced it the best of its kind. On reflection, I thought I might back off from that, as I considered others like The Maltese Falcon and The Postman Always Rings Twice. But I won't back off very far;
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I've been reading Robert McCrum's biography of P.G. Wodehouse (Wodehouse, 2004). In passing, discussing Wodehouse's decision to try writing for Hollywood in the late 1920s and early '30s, the author mentions this: According to George Cukor, the premiere [of The Jazz Singer, the first talking picture], on the night of 27 December 1928, had been 'the
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I mention these as more or less curiosities. I wouldn't recommend them for their merits, especially not the second one, but if you're interested in the authors and books which are their sources, you may find the films interesting. Pride and Prejudice (1940) I suppose zealous Austen fans have seen this. It's certainly worth a
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I recorded both of these some time ago, and by "some time ago" I mean at least a couple of years. Probably they were on Turner Classic Movies. They were two of many that I recorded out of a slight sense of duty–"Oh, I've heard of that, the critics talk about it, I should see
Light On Dark Water 