“The thumb isn’t good enough for you. You have to use your whole body.”  Naked underneath her trenchcoat, frightened hitchhiker Christina Bailey (Cloris Leachman) gets private eye Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) to stop his car by standing in the middle of the highway with her arms outstretched in an X pattern.  This is the first time we ... read more »

Consider the following plotline:  A young man travels to another world where he infiltrates the indigenous people and adopts their ways.  He is befriended by a beautiful young woman who is very important to the tribe and ultimately becomes her lover.  Although at first the tribe has doubts about him, he proves his worth by ... read more »

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 »

The following short films, each less than one minute in length, were created for the compilation project, OneDreamRush. First, we have Asia Argento on the fluidity of SEXUAL IDENTITY. Next is Kenneth Anger looking - not for the first time - at DEATH. And finally, David Lynch looks - not for the first time - at DREAMING. I hadn’t ... read more »

La Belle Captive (1983) is an erotic noir mystery by Alain Robbe-Grillet, the screenwriter of Last Year at Marienbad. It is also quite tongue-in-cheek. The following three images which appear in succession in the film capture something of the movie’s fetishistic flavor. If the last shot reminds you of the orgy sequence in Kubrick’s Eyes ... read more »

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 »

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a screening of some of Kenneth Anger’s most recent short films – hosted by Mr. Anger himself. The legendary “underground filmmaker” was surprisingly youthful and energetic for a guy born in 1927, looking not much older than he does in the picture at left, taken decades ago. ... read more »

At the L.A. Weekly, a story about the making and promotion of David Lynch’s Eraserhead, and about the musician, Peter Ivers, who composed the unforgettable song, “In Heaven,” lipsynched by the Lady in the Radiator (above). Again at the L.A. Weekly, a piece about neglected director Richard Quine, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, ... read more »

I’d like to join Tim Lucas and others in acknowledging the passing of Freddie Francis, a fine underrated director and one of the greatest of English cinematographers. He deservedly won an Academy Award for his photography of Edward Zwick’s Glory, and probably should have won for his work with Martin Scorsese (the Cape Fear remake), ... read more »

Eugenia from Los Angeles writes: I just watched Otto Preminger’s Laura (1944) and didn’t find it to be all that noir! The heroine was too clean-cut, and the movie was more of a regular murder mystery to me than a noir, by my understanding of that term. I think of noirs as dealing with the ... read more »