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Sinister Cinema 1932-1989
Monthly Archives: July 2011
“Stage and Spectacle”: The Golden Coach (Jean Renoir, 1953)
Upon returning to Europe after spending WWII as a Hollywood exile, where he had turned out studio product ranging from the sublime (The Southerner) to the not-quite-ridiculous (Woman on the Beach, which suffered more from studio interference, by all accounts, … Continue reading
“Frantic”: Zazie dans le métro (Louis Malle, 1960)
Director Louis Malle’s third feature signals a sea change in his work: gone are the dark visuals and themes of the neo-noir Elevator to the Gallows, let alone the envelope-pushing erotic fireworks of The Lovers (though, like Elevator, Zazie is … Continue reading
Posted in film, movie reviews
Tagged italo calvino, louis malle, oulipo, philippe noiret, raymond queneau, tex avery, umberto eco, william klein, zazie dans le metro
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“Death in the Afternoon”: The Hit (Stephen Frears, 1984)
An unexpectedly unconventional British gangster film, The Hit avoids for the most part any of the usual trappings of the genre–a penchant for brutal ultraviolence, for one–opting instead to present a thoughtful, even philosophical, character study. For one thing, anti-hero … Continue reading
“No Exit”: Brute Force (Jules Dassin, 1947)
This explosive, powerhouse prison film effectively reunites a large number of cast and crew from the previous year’s The Killers: producer Mark Hellinger, composer Miklos Rózsa, screenwriter Richard Brooks (uncredited for his Killers work), star Burt Lancaster and actors Edmond … Continue reading
Posted in film, movie reviews
Tagged asphalt jungle, battle of alcatraz, brute force, burt lancaster, charles mcgraw, edmond o'brien, existentialism, hamlet, hume cronyn, jean-paul sartre, jules dassin, mark hellinger, miklos rozsa, richard brooks, richard wagner, sam levene, tannhauser overture, the killers, william shakespeare
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“Flower of Evil”: Pale Flower (Masahiro Shinoda, 1964)
Japanese New Wave meets old-style film noir in Masahiro Shinoda’s exceptional black-and-white film, every bit as extraordinary as his later Double Suicide (1969), a cubist/minimalist deconstruction of a well-known Kabuki drama. In addition to the prevalent noir tropes (location shooting … Continue reading
Posted in film, movie reviews
Tagged andre breton, charles baudelaire, crazed fruit, cruel story of youth, dido and aeneas, double suicide, film noir, flowers of evil, gambling film, henry purcell, j-horror, japanese new wave, kabuki drama, luis bunuel, masahiro shinoda, nadja, nagisa oshima, pale flower, rebel without a cause, sun tribe film, toru takemitsu, yakuza genre
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Take Two: Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946 & Don Siegel, 1964)
[Introducing Take Two, a new feature on this blog that will explore the contextual (historical, aesthetic and otherwise) similarities and differences between two versions of the same material, whether two films based on the same source or simply original and … Continue reading
Posted in film, movie reviews
Tagged andrei tarkovsky, angie dickinson, ava gardner, billy wilder, bonnie and clyde, burt lancaster, charles mcgraw, citizen kane, cliff robertson, clu gulager, david newman, don siegel, double indemnity, dragnet, edmond o'brien, elwood bredell, ernest hemingway, film noir, german expressionism, goodfellas, jfk assassination, joe pesci, john boorman, john cassavetes, john travolta, johnny staccato, lee marvin, made-for-tv movie, mark hellinger, marshall mcluhan, miklos rozsa, nbc, nick adams, orson welles, point blank, pt 109, pulp fiction, ray liotta, robert benton, robert siodmak, ronald reagan, samuel l. jackson, the killers, touch of evil, universal studios, vgik, walter schumann, william conrad
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“Disaster Capitalism”: Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Michael Bay, 2011)
For its first twenty minutes or so, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is not only eminently watchable, it’s also downright fascinating, putting forward—in a clever and calculatedly streamlined fashion—an Autobot-centered conspiracy theory behind the Space Race, leading up to Apollo … Continue reading
Capsule Reviews: June 24 – July 11
For Your Height Only (Eddie Nicart, 1981) Queen of Black Magic (Liliek Sudijo, 1983) Two from cult DVD label Mondo Macabro’s schlockmeister of choice, producer Dick Randall. Hands down the more amusing entry, Height towers over the competition—if by competition … Continue reading
Posted in film, movie reviews
Tagged 12 angry men, aldo ray, all that heaven allows, anna may wong, anne bancroft, anthony mann, border incident, brian keith, burnett guffey, dark passage, david goodis, dennis wilson, douglas fairbanks, douglas sirk, dr. strangelove, easy rider, elizabeth sanxay holding, fail-safe, for your height only, francois truffaut, frank nugent, gunman's walk, henry fonda, henry kissinger, humphrey bogart, jacques tourneur, james cagney, james mason, james taylor, jane wyman, joan bennett, john ford, karl marx, kris kristofferson, laurie bird, max ophuls, me & bobby mcgee, michael bay, monte hellman, nicholas ray, nightfall, on dangerous ground, phil karlson, queen of black magic, raoul walsh, rock hudson, rudy bond, russell metty, shoot the piano player, sidney lumet, singin' in the rain, stanley donen, tab hunter, terrence malick, the band wagon, the blank wall, the deep end, the driver, the reckless moment, the roaring twenties, the searchers, the thief of bagdad, the tree of life, tony scott, transformers: dark of the moon, two-lane blacktop, unstoppable, van heflin, vanishing point, vincente minelli, walter hill, warren oates
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