A Book Review by John Duncan Talbird. The film critic Robin Wood (1931-2009) was one of those writers who helped the general public to take cinema seriously as an art form and who, like many critics of the sixties – at least the ones who didn’t become filmmakers themselves – would […]
In Memoriam: Robin Wood
By Michael Tapper. When thinking about Robin Wood, his book Personal Viewsalways comes to mind. He published it in 1976 – a transitional period between what he called his life as ‘an ideal bourgeois man’ and his coming out as a gay, feminist and socialist in his manifesto ‘Responsibilities of […]
Facing It Head-On – Criminalization/Assimilation: Chinese/Americans and Chinatowns in Classical Hollywood Film
Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young in The Hatchet Man (1932) A Book Review Essay by Matthew Sorrento. Author Philippa Gates doesn’t excuse or shy away from the racist stereotyping of the Chinese but pinpoints issues of complexity.” Though this ambitious study doesn’t mention the issue by name, Philippa Gates’ […]
Some Grace Notes from Tarantino: Thoughts on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
May 18, 2020
Christopher Sharrett
By Christopher Sharrett. Those who know me will be shocked to read this piece, a partial valuation of Quentin Tarantino’s last film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I have considered the filmmaker a nihilist – the word popped into my head when I saw Reservoir Dogs at its premiere (today, I […]
Blackwood Politicized – William McGregor’s Gwen
October 8, 2019
By Tony Williams. Gwen (2019) is one of those rare surprises in contemporary film reviewing. Rather than fall into the usual mindless patterning of most generic films constantly regurgitating and exhausting past formulas in the usual “repetition-compulsion” of most studio productions, it excitingly offers something different. Produced by a number […]
Daredevils of the Red Circle and Other Cliffhangers: Hollywood (1939-1942) and Spy Smasher
September 24, 2019
“Daredevils of the Red Circle and Other Cliffhangers” is a blog on serials by Geoffrey Mayer, the author of Encyclopedia of American Film Serials (McFarland, 2017). The Hollywood studios, except one, studiously ignored Hitler and the fascists throughout the 1930s. The exception was Warner Brothers who, under the leadership of Harry Warner, tirelessly fought […]
“If You Don’t Learn from the Greats, You’d Be Stupid”: An Interview with Cinematographer Robin Vidgeon
June 6, 2019
David A. Ellis
By David A. Ellis. Robin Vidgeon BSC born in August 1939 is a retired cinematographer. For many years he was a focus puller, working with the late cinematographer Douglas Slocombe and camera operator Bernard (Chic) Waterson. His last outing with them was on Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple […]
Probing Bannon: Alison Klayman and Marie Therese Guirgis on The Brink
March 27, 2019
Elias Savada
By Elias Savada. The Kimpton Hotel Monaco is just 9 blocks east of the White House, the work place of Stephen K. Bannon, a friend and strategist of the Commander in-Chief until his banishment from official duties in 2017. He still haunts the Capitol Hill neighborhood where he lives and […]
From a Longtime Insider/Outsider – Two Cheers for Hollywood: Joseph McBride on Movies
October 24, 2018
A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. Joseph McBride, currently Professor of Film Studies at San Francisco State University, has had a long and varied career both in the film industry and as an independent critic for many decades. Soon we will finally get to see his long-awaited role as […]
Far from Paradise: Dietrich and Von Sternberg in Hollywood (Criterion Collection)
By Tony Williams. A box set containing the Josef Von Sternberg (1894-1969) and Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) collaboration, even if copyright reasons exclude The Blue Angel (1930), would appear the fulfillment of any film collector’s dreams. This recent release of the Paramount Studio films should have been the most heralded event […]