the more I am fascinated by her. Loved her in Mann’s Public Enemies and as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. I was even impressed by her Vanity Fair Psycho photoshoot (Marion Cotillard as Marion Crane, above). She’s not just posing in these shots. She’s giving a real performance — and a far more ... read more »
Jul 222010
Nine out of ten bloggers agree – the dreams in Christopher Nolan’s INCEPTION are not particularly dream-like, at least, not much more so than the action sequences in your average James Bond film. Whether that makes INCEPTION a bad movie is another issue. Nolan essentially uses the dream invasion scenario as a MacGuffin – an excuse to ... read more »
Jul 152010
To wrap up her gothic novels, Ann Radcliffe explained away her supernatural trappings at the conclusion. Imagine a story that explains away its action in every scene. Hitchcock was heavy-handed when diagnosing Norman Bates and unmasking his own mystery; Nolan extends what the master of suspense couldn’t pull off in one scene. Sisyphean from the drawing ... read more »
Dec 282008
With a tip of the hat and, perhaps, apologies to Nathaniel R, here is my version of his 20 Actress meme – not just 20 favorite actresses, but 20 outstanding 20th Century co-stars. Here are 10 pairs of actresses (with two bonus pairs for the 2000s) who were not just wonderful individually, but who, co-starring ... read more »
Sep 202006
The ‘30s M (Lang) Two Seconds (LeRoy) Scarface (Hawks) Fury (Lang) You Only Live Once (Lang) Sabotage (Hitchcock) The ‘40s Stranger on the Third Floor (Ingster) The Seventh Victim (Lewton/Robson) Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock) Laura (Preminger) Phantom Lady (Siodmak) Fallen Angel (Preminger) The Woman in the Window (Lang) The Killers (Siodmak) Scarlet Street (Lang) ... read more »
Aug 072006
Certain images have such resonance that they seem to leap from film to film. Do these recurring images represent stirrings in the collective unconscious? Or are they merely motes in the eye of the beholder? THE BLUE FLOWER is one of the central images in the book and film versions of A Scanner Darkly. It ... read more »
