Cinematical

• The History of Cinema, from A to Z
  

  Filed under: Critical Thought, Out of the Past, Lists

  I have no idea what the purpose of this list is, other than that somebody on the Arts beat for The Telegraph was bored, but it's pretty entertaining. Starting with A and going to Z, encyclopedia-style, every letter gives us a benchmark in the history of cinema or an interesting piece of trivia. Example? B is for Bollywood: this trivia item tells us that Britain is now a major shooting locale for Bollywood films, so much so that London tourism guides are now catering to Indian tourists who want to see where certain movies were shot. F is for First Film,...
  




• It Was Ten Years Ago Today
  

  Filed under: Drama, Romance, Box Office, Fandom, Out of the Past

  An article over at Cinema Blend reminds me that today marks the tenth anniversary of the opening of the biggest film in history, Titanic. Movie studios are still scratching their heads over that one -- how did a downer, a period piece, a movie with unknowns and a runtime of over three hours smash the box-office records so profoundly that even today's globular, 'one-size fits all so bring the entire family' movies like Shrek and Harry Potter haven't even come close to touching its title? When you look at the all-time list, you see...
  




• Like Godard Wasn't Cool Enough Before: Now Says He Stole To Finance Films
  

  Filed under: Classics, Critical Thought, Fandom, Out of the Past, Cinematical Indie

  Jean-Luc Godard, director of my favorite film of all time, Vivre sa vie, has come out of his self-imposed cocoon for an interview with German weekly Die Zeit. The highlight of the interview, which I haven't read, is apparently an admission by Godard that he stole money to finance his early classics. "I had no choice," the 76 year-old legend tells the paper. "Or at least it seemed that way to me. I even stole money from my family to give (fellow French director Jacques) Rivette for his first film. I pinched...
  



• 'Dark Victory,' Definitive Bette Davis Bio, Coming This Fall
  

  Filed under: Classics, Critical Thought, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Home Entertainment, Out of the Past

  I've only read two memorable movie star biographies in the last year or so. One of them was Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing, by Lee Server. I highly recommend this book to anyone -- it's one of the rawest and most insightful bios of a movie star from the old-timey days that I've ever read in my life. The writing, research and overall focus is exceptional from start to finish. The other memorable bio I read was Nicole Kidman, by David Thompson. This was a book so...
  




• Retro Cinema: The Virgin Suicides
  

  Filed under: Drama, Paramount Classics, Out of the Past, Retro Cinema

  
  
  
  With only three feature films, Sofia Coppola has already roused supersize portions of both praise and disdain. I am firmly planted in the former camp; Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), is the best American movie I've seen since the year 2000. It's only too easy to explain the latter camp: Americans have never been too fond of women in powerful positions, and because of her obvious connections her detractors believe that she doesn't deserve her position. To many, she's just "daddy's little girl," and is only allowed to play on the big...
  




• Retro Cinema: Psycho Beach Party
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Theatrical Reviews, Out of the Past, Remakes and Sequels, Retro Cinema

  
  
  
  What happens when you take psychological suspense films and merge them with 60's beach party movies? You get Psycho Beach Party -- a modern, warped homage that gives hope to spoof flicks -- especially in the days of eye-travesties like Epic Movie. The film is by no means a modern marvel of satire, but it is a fun, gender-bending, groovy surfing send-off to the old and loved, yet terrible movies of the past.
  
  Psycho Beach Party focuses on Lauren Ambrose, pre-Six Feet Under, as Florence Forrest. A social...
  




• Early Review: The Shark is Still Working
  

  Filed under: Action, Classics, Documentary, Drama, Deals, Universal, Critical Thought, Fandom, Distribution, Steven Spielberg, Out of the Past

  
  
  
  Jaws is not a perfect film, like some say -- I tend to agree with Peter Benchley that any dummy should know that a compressed air tank will not explode like an oil refinery if punctured by a bullet -- but flaws aside, Spielberg's masterpiece is, I believe, a rather important and uniquely American work of art. The idea of a small-town flatfoot realizing that his duty requires him to step on a boat and...
  




• Jeffrey M. Anderson's 400 Screens, 400 Blows - Revival Fever
  

  Filed under: Classics, Out of the Past, Columns, 400 Screens, 400 Blows

  
  

  One of the joys of reviewing movies is the chance, every so often, to see a restored classic on the big screen. In 2006, I had the opportunity to see the restored cut of Alfred E. Green's nasty pre-code classic Baby Face (1933), with Barbara Stanwyck in all her glory. Better still, I saw Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist (1970) for the first time (both films screened at San Francisco's Balboa Theater). The Balboa also showed a recently uncovered war film, Stuart Cooper's Overlord (1975), a...
  




• The Observer Unveils '50 Lost Movie Classics'
  

  Filed under: Critical Thought, Newsstand, Out of the Past, Lists

  The Sunday Observer has a big surprise -- a nearly 5,000 word list of '50 Lost Movie Classics,' as compiled by the paper's film critics with assistance from filmmakers like Joe Wright and Peter Webber. By 'lost', they don't mean silent films that failed to survive to the present day or anything like that. They mean films from all eras that the critics supposedly got wrong and now should reevaluate. About half of the list is intriguing, while the other half is crazy. One of the most intriguing selections is Dreamchild, a 1985 fantasy-bio of Alice Liddell,...
  




• BTC Review: Hello, Sister!
  

  Filed under: Classics, Comedy, Drama, Festival Reports, Critical Thought, Hollywood Truths, Out of the Past, Other Festivals

  
  
  
  

  
  The debate over Erich von Stroheim's reputation as a filmmaker exists in a state of suspended animation: it's more or less settled, but could conceivably fly open one day if the 9-hour version of his masterpiece, Greed, is ever discovered. The film was a page-for-page rendering of Frank Norris' classic American novel McTeague, about a man of limited intellect who fails at his ambition to be a dentist and winds up chained to a dead man in Death Valley. With...