My introduction to Germaine Dulac many years ago in film school revolved around the surrealists. I learned about her fraught collaboration with Antonin Artaud, which resulted in a group of surrealists rioting at the premiere of The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928). However, Germaine Dulac was so much more than an object of surrealist ire and… Read more »
The Dracula story has been told countless times on film, from F.W. Murnau’s unauthorized 1922 adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel to a surge of re-imaginings and modernizations over the past decade. Werner Herzog’s version, inspired by F.W. Murnau’s film, has long been one of my favorites. It’s both faithful to the story in many ways,… Read more »
Cat (played by Orangey, trainer Frank Inn) is one of the most popular characters in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards, 1961), possibly more well-liked than Holly Golightly’s (Audrey Hepburn) love interest, Paul Varjak (George Peppard). Cat watches Holly’s parties from above, preferring to perch himself on a high shelf, using men’s shoulders as stepping stones… Read more »
La Pointe Courte (1955), Agnès Varda’s first film, is often considered one of the major precursors for the French New Wave, a movement that would begin a few years later with (depending on who you ask) either Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge (1958) or François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959). Varda has been branded the… Read more »
Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971) opens on a street race. Engines roar prominently on the soundtrack, and we get a montage of tarmac, cars, and a few close-ups of The Driver (James Taylor) that will become one of our main characters. No one speaks. When The Driver finally does speak – after the opening credits… Read more »
Rosalind Russell’s career was somewhat different than other starlets of her era. Getting her start in her mid-20s, later than other women actors of her generation, Russell’s star persona was strongly associated with the “career woman.” When she starred in Auntie Mame (dir. Morton DaCosta, 1958), she was 51 years old, age-appropriate for the role, and… Read more »