This week at the AFI I saw A Man Escaped (aka  The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth), the 1956 masterpiece by Robert Bresson.   For a little over an hour and a half, the audience follows Le lieutenant Fontaine (François Leterrier) as he meticulously and relentlessly forges ahead with an escape plan that involves slow, methodical […]

Once, years ago, someone had the idea to make a movie about a man at a hotel who insists to a woman that he met her a year before at the same location.  A second man shows up and becomes a part of the process, playing the first man in a game that the second […]

When we go to the movies, we want to be entertained, enlightened, delighted, frightened, amazed and an endless number of other menu choices that make the movies such a great and consistently rewarding art form.  But how often do we want to see the movie, as in, the mechanics at work on the screen before […]

I often take in movies at the AFI Silver for all the obvious reasons; it’s a beautiful theater, has great audiences (always quiet, respectful and attentive) and I get to see countless classic movies on the big screen.   Sometimes, however, the unexpected occurs.  A little over a week ago I saw the Michael Powell, […]

With the release of the new movie version of The Great Gatsby (I haven’t seen it yet), the subject of book versus movie rears its ugly head yet again.   Some books are said to be unfilmable and Gatsby usually falls in that category.  Others include Moby Dick, Catcher in the Rye (never made into […]

A few months back I wrote a post on The Other Great Performance in the Movie, about great performances (usually by supporting actors) in movies with famously great lead performances.  I’d like to further that theme now, only with great scenes.   Last night, my wife, daughter and I took in Black Narcissus at the […]

The movies are now and have always been eager to please.   They want you to like them, even if they’re giving you a bit of history along with the entertainment.  They want you to know they have you in mind no matter what, and when I say “you,” I don’t mean whoever is watching […]

I shouldn’t do this, I really shouldn’t.  I’m leaving on a long trip today, heading out for a couple of days to retrieve my stepdaughter from college and bring her back home.  What little free time I’ll have online will be mainly concerned with quick surfing, facebook notifications, e-mails and the like.  So I shouldn’t […]

When people talk about a great supporting character, the character can be good or bad.  The character of Mr. Potter in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life is a great supporting character brought to full life in a magnificent performance delivered by Lionel Barrymore.   But he’s also the King of Jerks.  A selfish, scheming, […]