Indiana University Cinema

Physical Media Isn’t Dead, It Just Smells Funny: Blu-ray Reviews for June 2021

Posted on June 30, 2021 by David Carter

Full transparency: all Blu-rays reviewed were provided by Kino Lorber and Criterion.

Summer is here and that means things are gonna wind down around here at the blog for the month of July, but I had one more round-up of Blu-rays to bring the people while we try and get some rest before the pandemonium of August brings us out of our sleep. This month, we’re rollin’ with Kino and Criterion to bring you an underseen “cops and robbers” film from across the pond with Basil Dearden’s The Blue Lamp, while Criterion’s on a welcomely humanist kick in June with their releasing of the seminal Seattle-set documentary about unhoused and abused youth Streetwise and its follow-up, Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell. Criterion has also finally brought Masaki Kobayashi’s towering achievement, The Human Condition, to Blu-ray (about time!). We then wrap things up with some comedy double features in the form of Tamra Davis’s cable staples CB4 and Half Baked and I talk about a couple of Mae West comedies with my *tries to think of something nice to say* great editor, Michaela Owens! We chat about My Little Chickadee and She Done Him Wrong, and get into what makes Mae West and her leading men so interesting. (more…)

Melodramatic Spaces in Smooth Talk

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Laura Ivins

a man in sunglasses points menacingly at Connie, a blonde teenager played by Laura Dern — Laura Dern and Treat Williams in *Smooth Talk*

In the classic teen melodrama Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961), the central conflict arises because Wilma (Natalie Wood) is torn between her desire and social mores. She knows what she wants — she wants sex with Bud (Warren Beatty). But society, represented most strongly in the film by the voice of Wilma’s mother, tells her that not only should she not do what she wants, but she shouldn’t even want it in the first place. She’s a bad girl for wanting.

Twenty-four years later, after the sexual revolution and in the midst of the Reagan era, Smooth Talk (Joyce Chopra, 1985) features another teen girl (Connie, played by Laura Dern) experiencing conflict around her emerging sexuality. Only this time, the divide between the central character’s desire and social repression are not so clear. Connie owns her desire, but it is tangled in a mass of uncertainty and contradictory social messages. (more…)

In Dreams: Sternberg / Dietrich

Posted on June 22, 2021 by Jack Miller

Marlene Dietrich as X-27 in Josef von Sternberg's Dishonored (1931) — Marlene Dietrich as X-27 in Josef von Sternberg’s *Dishonored* (1931)

Between 1930 and 1935, Josef von Sternberg directed seven movies starring the German actress Marlene Dietrich. This extended collaboration represents one of the most fruitful and dazzling creative partnerships in film history, a director-actor pairing that rivals Yasujirō Ozu & Setsuko Hara or John Ford & John Wayne. The films they made together (one in Germany, six in Hollywood) are a series of glittering, almost nauseatingly stylized objects. One gets the sense that the initial idea behind each plot was Sternberg’s desire to dress Dietrich up and place her in a new, exotic setting: she becomes a cabaret singer (Morocco, The Blue Angel), an international spy called X-27 (Dishonored), a sex worker (Shanghai Express), a destitute mother (Blonde Venus), Catherine the Great of Prussia (The Scarlet Empress), and a femme fatale in turn-of-the-century Spain (The Devil Is a Woman). Rarely has Hollywood’s reputation as the “dream factory” been so potently fulfilled. (more…)

Rita Hayworth’s Quiet Rebellion in You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

Posted on June 21, 2021 by Michaela Owens

Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire in You Were Never Lovelier — Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire in *You Were Never Lovelier*

How do you solve a problem like Maria? That’s the question on many people’s lips in You Were Never Lovelier, a stellar 1942 musical about an American dancer (Fred Astaire) who is mistaken for the secret admirer of Maria Acuña (Rita Hayworth), an Argentinian hotelier’s daughter. As embodied by Hayworth, Maria is a clever and vivacious woman blessed with stunning good looks, and yet her family is convinced that there is something wrong with her simply because she isn’t interested in hunting for a husband. While I enjoy You Were Never Lovelier for the enchanting escapism it so clearly offers, I’m also fascinated by its portrayal of Maria and what it means to watch her cling to her agency as she subtly transcends the misogyny of her environment while still conforming to the conventions of a traditional musical from Hollywood’s Golden Age. (more…)

The Technical Brilliance of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Posted on June 14, 2021 by Jesse Pasternack

Original poster for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) — Original poster for *Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?* (1966)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), which turns 55 on June 22nd, is best known for its performances. It features Academy Award-winning turns from Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis, as well as very effective work from Richard Burton and George Segal. But to view this film as merely a collection of great acting is to ignore its most fascinating and important element: its technical style. (more…)

Monthly Movie Round-Up: June

Posted on June 7, 2021 by A Place For Film

Dangerous When Wet

The Hole Story

Dekalog: Five

Magic Mike XXL

Some Came Running

Singin’ in the Rain

Every month, A Place for Film brings you a selection of films from our group of regular bloggers. Even though these films aren’t currently being screened at the IU Cinema, this series reflects the varied programming that can be found at the Cinema and demonstrates the eclectic tastes of the bloggers. Each contributor has picked one film that they saw this month that they couldn’t wait to share with others. Keep reading to find out what discoveries these cinephiles have made, as well as some of the old friends they’ve revisited.

To hear more about this month’s picks, be sure to join us for the live portion of this round-up, which will be presented as a virtual event tomorrow, June 8. Register now! (more…)