The Criterion Collection posts a YouTube series made up of short, informative, celebratory videos called Three Reasons, which lay out, you guessed it, the three best reasons to explore a classic piece of cinema in their collection. In the spirit of stealing from the best, I’m going to pilfer that premise and present to you, THREE REASONS to purchase tickets …
Although remakes of earlier films by later directors are far from uncommon, it is a very rare thing for a director to remake one of his or her own movies; and there is just a handful of examples in the realm of vintage film. One of the best known is Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 remake of his 1923 silent The …
There are a handful of films that I will watch again and again, because every screening is just like the first time. One of these is Charles Laughton’s dark southern gothic fairytale, The Night of the Hunter (1955). Even though I know the story so well, I am knotted up with fear, and hostage to the dread and panic that …
“One of us, one of us, gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble, we accept her, we accept her.” This chilling chant of acceptance welcomes an outsider into a tight-knit family of outcast carnival sideshow performers at a wedding dinner. The so-called freaks in director Tod Browning’s infamous 1932 shocker aren’t family by blood, but rather by function, living by a code that protects one …
Great satire has always been about punching up — whether it’s the Marx Brothers continually terrorizing Margaret Dumont in all her high-society finery, or The Philadelphia Story lampooning the comings and goings of socialite Katherine Hepburn’s poolside bedroom. But by 1967, when The Graduate was released, the cultural landscape had shifted. The end of the Second World War brought about …
Vintage film watching is like genealogical investigation. Sometimes engaging in a movie from decades ago can feel like you’re watching the quirks and obsessions of ghostly personalities long lost to the ether. But the truth is that with great movies, just like branching family trees, the apples fall and seed entirely new progeny, creating a continuum and a conversation between …
Separating the art from the artist. Do you think it is possible or moral to do so? This is a choice we each have to make for ourselves personally. You must choose if you want to read the following and see the film we have chosen as best represents the brilliance and virtuosity of Roman Polanski as a director, Chinatown …
Of the 53 feature films directed by Alfred Hitchcock over his remarkable half-century career (1926-1976), just over half were adapted from novels (25) or short stories (2). Their authors ranged from paperback thriller writers like Robert Bloch (Psycho) and Vincent Canning (The Rainbird Pattern, filmed as Family Plot) – through more distinguished suspense and adventure novelists like Patricia Highsmith (Strangers …
For the better part of a century, the ghoulish mugs of Universal Studios’ Rushmore of classic monsters have been plastered across lunch boxes, transmogrified into Halloween costumes, and stuck on cheap collector’s cups. The lineup is legend: Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, and The Creature (from the Black Lagoon); but almost always absent, even …
1939 is considered by many film historians to be the greatest year in American movie history. Gone with The Wind, Stagecoach, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, to name just three, all belong in the pantheon, but it is MGM’s The Wizard of Oz that holds a place in the hearts of generations of moviegoers. It could be the unforgettable …
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the smallest cinema in the world is in Stratford, Ontario. The Little Prince Cine Lounge seats 13, then it’s full. Your bedroom might be bigger. Looking at the other end of the spectrum, a big city auditorium that held 6,000 or even more was not unusual in big cities during the 1920s and …
Conceived in terror, born in fear. Pray for Rosemary’s baby. By the late 1960s, horror fiction was a legitimate literary genre. Rosemary’s Baby sold millions of copies, opening the doors to the likes of William Peter Blatty, Thomas Tyron, and Stephen King. Spooky tales found a comfortable spot on the corner store paperback rack, then into the homes of millions …
When reminiscing about his time editing From Russia With Love, editor Peter Hunt intoned: “You have to get the film, and fight with it.” How apt for a movie like From Russia with Love (1963), which not only faced an uphill battle following so closely behind the first Bond outing, Dr. No (1962), but was also one of the most …
The British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound magazine began, in 1952, to conduct a decennial poll of film critics, programmers, curators, archivists and academics. Every ten years, the poll produces a ranked list of what a given year’s pool of professionals feels are the 100 greatest films of all time. In 1952, the No. 1 film was Vittorio de Sica’s …