A couple of weeks back I noted an interesting item in The Hollywood Reporter stating that in the latest Sight and Sound poll conducted among 846 “movie experts”, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo had displaced Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time. I confess I was stunned that this august group had picked a movie that, in my humble opinion, … More Details
Brett Ratner’s recent anti-gay slur wasn’t the first thing he said that sounded just plain stupid. Did anyone notice his quote in the recent puff piece about him in the New York Times (“Forget the Art House; He’s Making Blockbusters,” 10/30/11)? Ratner, all ready to foist the lame Tower Heist on an unsuspecting mass audience, made this dubious claim: “It’s … More Details
To feed my all-consuming, ongoing obsession with great movies, I asked myself the following question: which Hollywood director actually made the most great movies? It’s astonishing to me that my answer will likely have lots of people scratching their heads. In the Alsace area of Germany, on the first of this month early in the last century, future director William … More Details
With today heralding the official arrival of summer, I’m thinking about those great movies that reflect the heat, transition and sheer release of the season in exciting, unexpected ways. Yet when I did a Google search of top summer movies to inspire me, I actually found a lot of less-than-stellar movies being served up- among them, “Meatballs” (1979), “One Crazy … More Details
Walking around the city of Bologna on my recent trip there, I was struck at how often I saw images of female stars long past from our scene – specifically, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly – and how seldom I glimpsed the faces of today, like Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie. This may simply be a matter of what attracts … More Details
On the first of this month, actress Olivia de Havilland turned 94 in Paris. For some time, she has held the distinction of being the last surviving principal cast member of the storied film “Gone With The Wind”. Meanwhile, younger sister Joan Fontaine also survives at 93, living comfortably in Carmel, California. What is exceedingly strange and more than a little sad is that the sisters have been estranged for many years, the result of an intense sibling rivalry which has never dissipated.
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I scan the Huffington Post Entertainment section today, and I’m reading about what a box office winner “Toy Story-3” is shaping up to be. Wow – this is a surprise. As I scroll down the page, I see names like Miley Cyrus, Lindsey Lohan, and Megan Fox. I note that Angelina Jolie visited Haiti and that Jake Gyllenhaal was caught … More Details
Among film directors of the twentieth century, Alfred Hitchcock stands apart. Just last Thursday marked the thirtieth anniversary of his death, and still he endures as a highly recognizable name and personality, with his best films eagerly consumed, discussed, admired and imitated all over the world. Hitchcock had already established himself as the foremost director of motion picture suspense by … More Details
