Dir. Sidney Lumet. Starring Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch In Sunset Blvd, Joe Gillis recognizes that he has seriously damaged two women and decides to bail out back to Ohio: not because he’s running away from them, but because he sees it as a penance for his sins. (Of course, we know what happens to… Read More Network (1976)
Dir. James L. Brooks. Starring Holly Hunter, William Hurt, Albert Brooks Within a stretch of about twenty minutes, each of the principals in this movie has a moment where s/he asks someone else to hold on for a minute. Tom and Aaron (Hurt and Brooks) ask Jane (Hunter) to hold on for a second while… Read More Broadcast News (1987)
Dir. Todd Haynes. Starring Julianne Moore, Xander Berkeley, Peter Friedman Carol (Moore) flips through her guide to Wrenwood. Peter Dunning (Friedman) appears to have founded the center all the way back in 1978; by now it could be 1988, although the given year for the movie is ’87. 1978 is an interesting year for him… Read More Safe (1995)
Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville. Starring Emmanuelle Riva, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Irene Tunc Just as monster movies are often highly successful when the monster is hidden from our sight (Jaws, The Thing), so too can romances be terribly erotic when there’s absolutely no sex. Brief Encounter is such a film; it turns even the idea of a sexual liaison between the… Read More Leon Morin, Priest (1961)
Dir. Brad Bird. Starring Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Janeane Garofolo Up until 2007, here’s how Pixar movies had ended: Toy Story – Woody and Buzz chase down a moving truck on an RC car, fall with style into a minivan, and then have their first Christmas together A Bug’s Life – After the gruesome death of… Read More Ratatouille (2007)
Dir. Peter Weir. Starring Helen Morse, Margaret Nelson, Rachel Roberts More than forty years later it’s nearly impossible to come to Picnic at Hanging Rock without knowing that you’ll not receive satisfaction from the movie, at least in terms of the plot. That’s not to say that some kind of satisfaction – or at the very least… Read More Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Jane Asher, Phoebe Nicholls (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) Like anyone who has just been broken up with – perhaps “divorced” might be an even better word – Charles veers from haughty calm to disconsolate sadness. Charles is back from Morocco in this episode (only, about… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E8, “Brideshead Deserted”
Dir. Michael Curtiz. Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains “They don’t make movies like [x type of movie] anymore” is more often than not the most prosaic sort of movie criticism, a “Saturday Night Live had its best cast when I was sixteen” for film fogies. Typically it’s a statement of nostalgia more… Read More The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Jonathan Coy (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) Anthony Blanche can’t hide his revulsion when he thinks of Kurt (Coy), the German ex-soldier who is something between Sebastian’s ward and his pet. Anthony, who has acclimated to ’20s London in a way that he never… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E7, “The Unseen Hook”
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Diana Quick, Charles Keating, Jeremy Irons (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) “Julia” signifies a shift in focus for Brideshead Revisited, equal parts palate cleanser and the seeds of a reboot. Less than ten minutes into episode, Charles intones, “It is time to speak of Julia” in a way… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E6, “Julia”
Seeing Things Secondhand 