The original American trailer for Children of Paradise (1945) called it France’s answer to Gone with the Wind, but there are so many better ways to describe this incredible film. You could spend hours discussing its beautiful recreation of 19th century Paris or its excellent cast. But more than anything it is one of the… Read more »
We don’t talk about Esther Williams enough. That’s basically what I’ve been shouting from the rooftops ever since I started learning about Esther in 2013, after her death at the age of 91 encouraged me to take notice of the remarkable life and career of the woman deemed the Million Dollar Mermaid. As a longtime… Read more »
When I learned that I was one of the lucky IU Cinema employees to be randomly picked for the Staff Selects series, I was over the moon. I mean, a chance to program a film at one of my favorite places in the world? Seriously? Incredibly enough, my first choice worked out — a 1953… Read more »
The dense and austere film melodramas of Douglas Sirk pose a problem of interpretation to their viewers, a problem which strikes me as being founded on cultural paradox and compounded by misleading appearances. Sirk, who began his artistic career as a leftist playwright in pre-Nazi Germany and who finished his career as a studio filmmaker… Read more »
“A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it up and makes it again.” – Jean Renoir “Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has a price.” – Joan Didion There Will Be Blood has been acclaimed by some as one of the greatest American films so far… Read more »
Guest post by Barbara Grassia, the technical director for the IU Cinema. On November 9th, IU Cinema will screen a rare 35mm print of The Simple-Minded Murderer, my choice for the series Staff Selects. The last time I saw this film was in 1984, which was my first year as projectionist at the Roxie Theatre… Read more »
