The reverberations of the late 20th century seem to be endless. The neoliberal politics of the ’90s have come back to haunt us on social and financial policies that have morphed and evolved in ways we couldn’t imagine. Progressive and outspoken attitudes at the time, such as the unveiling of police corruption targeted at black… Read more »
The cinema of Jerry Lewis is nothing if not bodily, and its capacity to formally display certain anxieties regarding the physical relationship between himself and his audience can sometimes result in feelings of discomfort and aversion in the viewer. Lewis, as filmmaker and as performer, draws upon the kinetic devices of multiplicity and metatextuality in… Read more »
“I love to laugh. It’s the only way to live. Enjoy each day — it’s not coming back again!” — Doris Day May 13, 2019 became the day I had been dreading for years when, after 97 years of sharing her impossibly bright light with the world, Doris Day passed away. All I wanted to… Read more »
There have been many film genres that the United States of America has either made famous or perfected. One of these genres is the crime film. From The Public Enemy (1931) to The Godfather (1972) and GoodFellas (1990), some of the most popular and memorable American movies have been about criminals. These films are classics,… Read more »
Although the great Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu (1903-1963) now enjoys a kind of central position in the mainstream canon of film history, his work was not seen in its totality in the United States until the 1970s – and at that time, his work was subjected to some of the most inept and derogatory criticism… Read more »
As Robert Preston cuts her hair, Julie Andrews tries to clarify the charade that they are going to perpetuate: “A woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman?” Preston gleefully responds, “It’s so preposterous, no one would ever believe it!” This is the simplified foundation of Blake Edwards’s Victor/Victoria (1982), a comedy… Read more »