Saturday, January 8, 2011
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
In Living (techni)Color, no. 2
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| Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn & Lucille Ball from 1946's Easy to Wed. |
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The Sweethearts, no. 1
Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman
(This picture is so fantastic I had to start a photo theme in order to justify posting it.)
(This picture is so fantastic I had to start a photo theme in order to justify posting it.)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
The Missing Person
Today I braced the pouring rain in coat and boots to the local video store, Movie Madness. Inside I walked by one of their many window displays of authentic movie props, and let the rather small Maltese Falcon from the 1941 movie put me in the mood for noir. I'm sure the weather helped as well. I have been repeatedly disappointed by the more recent throwbacks to noir (Brick, The Man Who Wasn't There, to name a few) but eventually I stumbled across The Missing Person (2008) and decided to give it a try. And this is why I'm breaking the rules, and talking about a contemporary film on a site that I'm so obsessed with dedicating to old movies that I'm even wary of uploading color photographs onto it.
This film was one of those rainy day surprises when you're kind of already content just plopping down on the couch and taking whatever comes but are soon wide awake and loving every moment. Of all of the noir tributes, I'm going to make a bold statement and say this is the most successful one I've seen. Going down the required elements, you've got cigarettes, trains, your Marlowe-esque P.I., liquor, jazz, dingy hotel rooms and even a femme fatale clothed in black. It takes on the noir persona so flawlessly that the eventual appearances/mentions of cell-phones, Google, segways and a few other 21st Century gizmos or references do nothing to shatter the mood. Michael Shannon (where has this actor been all my life?) takes you through the film (and its contradictory modern L.A. & NY locations) like a lazy saunter, or a Southern drawl, or warm wine in your stomach. Add to this a supporting role by Amy Ryan, a jazzy soundtrack and wonderful dialogue. By the end credits I was left completely satisfied, and a bit sleepy--as if I actually had warm wine in my stomach, or had been put into a trance.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Metropolis, 2010
Okay, it is high time I intersperse all of these depressing obituaries with an actual post. Last night I ventured out into the Portland night life to catch the new "completely restored" (a misnomer since, as I felt jaded to discover before the screening, certain scenes were still missing) Metropolis. The missing scenes in question probably lasted no more than a full minute, so I'll give the newspapers and film scholars and archivists a break by agreeing this is the first time Fritz Lang's sci-fi masterpiece is being shown in full form since its Berlin premiere in 1927. 
Some 25 minutes of "lost" footage was found and restored by two Argentinian film archivists who will, hopefully, have it made from now on as far as film restoration and preservation. Though the found footage was too damaged to perfectly sync in with the pristine crispness of the rest of the film (seriously, some of the fully restored scenes are jaw-droppingly gorgeous) they definitely add to the plot and overall comprehension of Lang's vision. To get a peek at the restoration, here is the official website: http://www.kino.com/metropolis/
and a wonderful article on the SF screening, which was introduced by none other than Eddie Muller, and included a visit and commentary by the now quite famous archivists: http://twitchfilm.net/interviews/2010/07/sfsff-2010-metropolis-1927--onstage-interview-with-eddie-muller-paula-felix-didier-and-fernando-mart.php
(After Portland, I believe the film returns to SF's the Castro Theater next week. I highly recommend it.)
Monday, August 9, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
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