Guest post by Michaela Owens. Let me start this by saying that it was a miracle I didn’t end up writing 10,000 words. When it comes to a woman named Esther Williams, I honestly can’t stop myself from blubbering. Strong, confident, funny, self-aware, and resilient, Esther Williams became an instant role model to me when… Read more »
Idiosyncratic films have an interesting relationship with genre. The fact that they are so unique separates them from more formulaic movies. But more often than not idiosyncratic films bear traces of generic structures that make them palatable to audiences. Idiosyncratic films have the potential to create their own genres, but more often than not they… Read more »
There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signor Benedick and her. They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them.” Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing. Act 1. Scene 1 “Your ego is absolutely colossal” “Yeah, yeah, not bad, hows yours?” Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in It Happened One Night
Born in Austria but raised in New York, director Josef von Sternberg is best known for a series of movies he made with Marlene Dietrich in the 1930s. Through films like Blonde Venus (1932) and Shanghai Express (1932), Sternberg established a reputation for glamour, but also for pretension. He added the “von” to his name for… Read more »
Last semester I did a blog post on the Lilly Library’s David Bradley Collection, a resource used in the selection of titles screened in the City Lights Film Series at the IU Cinema. In my explorations of this wonderful collection I discovered that not only does it have a rich history, but so too… Read more »
Guest contributor Michaela Owens extols the virtues of Cary Grant. When you think of The Philadelphia Story, your first thought is likely of Katharine Hepburn. Who can blame you? Hepburn had a stunningly powerful cinematic presence, and The Philadelphia Story is without a doubt her film — playwright Philip Barry wrote it for her, after… Read more »