A glib advertising man with two ex-wives and a drinking problem becomes the victim of mistaken identity. Foreign spies want to kill him, and the police want to arrest him for the murder of a man killed by the spies. Clever witticisms won't help him this time. Alfred Hitchcock made thrillers more frightening and thoughtful … Continue reading A+ List: North by Northwest
Category: Great Films
Adapting Shakespeare: Ran and Chimes at Midnight
400 years after his death, people still love William Shakespeare. I can think of no other story teller whose works have remained popular so long. His talent, obviously, has a lot to do with it. But so is his adaptability. His plays, written with almost no stage directions, give actors and directors countless interpretations. Most … Continue reading Adapting Shakespeare: Ran and Chimes at Midnight
Late Spring at the Pacific Film Archive
As people grow, the way they relate to their family inevitably changes. Some fight the change, and others accept it. I went to the Pacific Film Archive Wednesday night to see Yasujirô Ozu's 1949 masterpiece, Late Spring, about a young woman resisting change. She wants to stay with her widowed father, but he senses that … Continue reading Late Spring at the Pacific Film Archive
A+ List: The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
Has there ever been an ingénue with a more perfectly comical name than Trudy Kockenlocker? Or a code-era Hollywood movie that so deftly outwitted the censors of its time? There are funnier movies than The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, but not many, and none this funny that flew in the face of traditional morality with … Continue reading A+ List: The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
A+ List: The world ends with a bang, a whimper, and a lot of laughs in Criterion’s Blu-ray of Dr. Strangelove
Stanley Kubrick's only out-and-out comedy, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, manages to terrify the audience, hold them in suspense, and trick them into rooting for people about to cause Armageddon, all the while generating side-splitting laughter. As the darkest of dark comedies, Dr. Strangelove earns its place … Continue reading A+ List: The world ends with a bang, a whimper, and a lot of laughs in Criterion’s Blu-ray of Dr. Strangelove
John Ford’s The Long Voyage Home at the Pacific Film Archive
John Ford directed seven films in the three years preceding Pearl Harbor. That in itself wasn't so remarkable in the days of studio assembly lines. But the quality of those seven show the power of a mature artist at his height. They include Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, Young Mr. Lincoln, and How Green Was … Continue reading John Ford’s The Long Voyage Home at the Pacific Film Archive
A+ List: The Last Waltz
Talk about the musical stars aligning perfectly. The Band decides to break up. Bill Graham produces their farewell concert--a Thanksgiving extravaganza filled with some of the greatest names in rock and roll. Then Martin Scorsese, fresh from Taxi Driver, brings together some of Hollywood's brightest to record the event. The Last Waltz captures one of … Continue reading A+ List: The Last Waltz
A+ List: The Last Picture Show
Making the transition from teenager to adult is hard enough anywhere. But when college isn't an option and your home town is turning into a ghost town, your life just might feel like a dead end. Peter Bogdanovich's masterpiece, The Last Picture Show, just may be the bleakest coming-of-age movie ever made. The two young … Continue reading A+ List: The Last Picture Show
A+ list: McCabe and Mrs. Miller
I visited the Castro Sunday afternoon to see my all-time favorite Robert Altman film, McCabe and Mrs. Miller. (It was on a double bill with the Woody Guthrie biopic, Bound for Glory, which I saw long ago and didn't care for. I skipped it this time.) For its daring rethinking of the western genre, it's … Continue reading A+ list: McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Marriage, alienation, and Alfred Hitchcock: Why Rear Window belongs on my A+ list
You hardly notice the knot growing in your stomach. The glamorous movie stars on the screen are doing little more than talking as they try to work out whether or not there has been a murder. Slowly you begin to realize, long before they do, that they're putting themselves in danger. Your hand starts squeezing … Continue reading Marriage, alienation, and Alfred Hitchcock: Why Rear Window belongs on my A+ list
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