I've been watching bits and pieces of The Story of Film: An Odyssey on Amazon Prime. A 15-part documentary series made for British TV in 2011.
One of my longtime friends recommended it as brilliant... but as a far more serious film scholar, I think it's a worthwhile attempt... but it misses...
Via TCM, Girl With Green Eyes, a 1964 British kitchen sink drama with Rita Tushingham, Peter Finch, Lynn Redgrave and Julian Glover. The story of an innocent girl having an affair with a married man in early sixties Dublin.
I was pleasantly surprised by this film, which is less downbeat than...
Yes, the Vivian Maier story is fascinating, an awesomely talented photographer who worked alone entirely for her own interest in photography, unknown in her lifetime. FYI, many of her wonderful pictures are online:
https://www.vivianmaier.com/
Buddha statues at the local flea market:
Shot with my 1979 Olympus OM-2n 35mm SLR, 100mm/f2.8 Zuiko lens, Tri-X 400 film developed in D-76 1:1, negative scanned at 2400dpi.
Edward, I totally agree that the ending of the 1994 film, with Lestat popping up in Daniel's car, is godawful. It was and remains a big disappointment after all the things the film does right. I can't imagine why Anne Rice - who got solo credit for the screenplay - agreed to it.
Of course...
I liked it a lot, I loved it... but I must take issue with it being "better" than the Neil Jordan film.
The 1994 version was and remains a good adaptation of the book. What the new series does is frankly admit that the 1994 film is a good, straight take on the book... but it's now decades...
He's not a familiar name, but TV director Robert Butler directed the great pilot episodes - and set the tone - for many classic shows - Batman, Star Trek, Hill Street Blues, etc.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/robert-butler-dead-batman-star-trek-hill-street-blues-1235644907/...
I live in Beacon. It was a thriving manufacturing center for hundreds of years...
Alas, after the postwar collapse of industry along the Hudson River towns, the entire Beacon riverfront factory neighborhood was torn down for urban renewal in the 1970s. Ferry Street, once a vital artery to the...
Oh, Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003) is a wonderful film.
I first saw it at a pre-release screening after already having read the excellent novel it's based on - it's a stellar adaptation. Such incredible production design and cinematography - every shot looks like a Vermeer painting. And...
Actress Lara Parker, who played the witch Angelique - who'd turned Barnabas Collins into a vampire, and was still tormenting him centuries later - in the original 1960s spook opera Dark Shadows:
https://www.avclub.com/r-i-p-lara-parker-dark-shadows-angelique-1850932426
I watched the show daily...
On Netflix, a new film from Denmark, Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction.
Based on a posthumously published story by Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen, it's set in a fictional 1800s kingdom and concerns the ruler utilizing a painter's seduction skills to help a young prince produce an heir. The most...
Adventures of Superman's Phyllis Coates, television's first Lois Lane.
https://www.avclub.com/r-i-p-phyllis-coates-tv-s-first-lois-lane-superman-1850921993
https://www.supermanhomepage.com/phyllis-coates-tvs-first-lois-lane-dies-aged-96/
I always preferred her feisty, competitive take on...
Coincidentally, today is Buster Keaton's birthday (10-4-1895), but atypically, TCM isn't showing any of his films.
Personally, I find most of his 1930s films pretty unwatchable, but there's no question that they have their moments. He was always a comic genius, and it showed - even amidst low...
I was underwhelmed with Loki (apart from Richard E. Grant as "Old Loki" in the original 1962 costume) and I can't say I'm too upset that I'm going to miss the second season. (I lost Disney+ access when my daughter moved out.)
Edward, I could go on gushing about Agent Carter, but I'd like to...
I watched an outstanding new documentary on PBS about German-Jewish photographer Fred Stein, Out of Exile: The Photography of Fred Stein.
As a lifelong photographer, I'm surprised that I hadn't heard of him before. His 30s/40s photos of Paris and New York - shot with Leicas and Rolleiflexes...
Ooh, that's a great film, one of Mankiewicz's best.
The only thing you didn't mention: the author/narrator of the letter was voiced by Celeste Holm (uncredited.)
Oh man, I loved Agent Carter. I bought the first season on DVD. The second season only came out on Blu-Ray... and I bought it too, even though I don't have anything that plays Blu-Rays!
And Hayley Atwell is still playing Peggy Carter in the MCU. Besides her cameo in Avengers: Endgame, one of...
I have one of those "summer" ATF M-41s with the same-cotton-as-exterior lining. It IS a really good summer jacket... although this year it's just been too warm for any kind of jacket around here, even at night.
I recently rewatched most of the 1974 Gatsby movie for the first time in decades. It's still too mannered and largely inert, but you know, it's not a terrible adaptation.
The Baz Lurhmann version does some things a lot better, but only if you can look past its nonstop overwrought excess...
My kids were still watching Sunday morning cartoons then, so I saw some of The Batman (which was pretty meh), but I entirely skipped Beware the Batman for the same reason - my devoted love of B:TAS.
Of course, B:TAS was followed by the Superman series, which while not quite as brilliant, was...
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