Much has been made of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s relationship with the great Hollywood auteur Douglas Sirk, and of Fassbinder’s predilection toward working within a mode of overwrought melodrama – the kind of “weepies,” largely intended for female audiences, that Sirk was most comfortable working with in the ‘50s. Those who study Fassbinder have even come… Read more »
The first time I met Fred Astaire, I hated him. Except I didn’t know him as Fred Astaire, I knew him as Ted Hanover, the conceited hoofer in Holiday Inn who kept stealing the girlfriends of the man who was supposedly his best friend, Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby). My poor, six-year-old heart felt so sad… Read more »
The Provost’s Office for Indiana University has been doing a wonderful documentary project since 2016. It is called IU 2020 and it follows twelve students from the class of 2020 during their time at IU. There are new episodes to come in the fall, but the two seasons that have been released are excellent. The… Read more »
If you’ve seen a film by Terry Gilliam, Wes Anderson, or Tim Burton, you’ve likely seen the influence of Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman. An artistic genius who often combined live action and animation to spellbinding effect, Zeman worked as an animator and director from the 1940s up until his death in 1989. I first discovered… Read more »
“The artist is the medium between his fantasies and the rest of the world.” — Federico Fellini Scholars and film fans tend to divide the career of Federico Fellini, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year, into two periods. The first half is more influenced by the Italian neorealist movement that his mentor… 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 »