Happy Easter!

May you find something to do today that's as sexy as feeding Paul Newman eggs...

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Barbara Stanwyck: Comedy Goddess

by Cláudio Alves 

Despite being one of Old Hollywood's most electrifying actresses, Barbara Stanwyck feels somewhat forgotten (apart from cinephiles) when compared to her contemporaries like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford or Ingrid Bergman. The one role that arguable does keep her immortal with the mainstream is the devilish Phyllis Dietrichson in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, the noir to end all noirs starring the greatest femme fatale of them all. Still, to believe that Stanwick was essentially a noir vixen is unfair to her grand legacy. More than many actresses of her time, she rejoiced in hopping from genre to genre, unencumbered by exclusive contracts to studios that might want to pin her down to one type of role. 

Because of that, she was able to experiment with the extremes of Pre-Code libertinism (Baby Doll), weepy melodrama (Stella Dallas), historical epics (Titanic), tragic romances (There's Always Tomorrow) and even camp classics (Walk on the Wild Side). Her tonal flexibility was unparalleled as she was able to mold her trademark toughness and sexual confidence into almost any role conceivable. She was much more than just the venomous Mrs. Dietrichson, even though that is one of her greatest achievements. I'd go so far as to say that she was one of the great comediennes of her era, on par with Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard, and Jean Arthur. Just take look at her second Oscar nomination…

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Emmy Watch: Best Actress in a Drama

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

We’re looking at another Emmy Awards category today – Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series.  All but two of last year’s nominees are eligible again.

The remaining nominees – defending champion Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Sandra Oh (Killing Eve), Laura Linney (Ozark), Mandy Moore (This Is Us), and Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder) – will have to fight hard for their slots due to a major influx of contenders from shows that are once again in the running this year or in the running for the first time.

The past four years have gone like so... 

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How you holding up out there?

We're worried about everyone's mental health. How are you doing during this astonishingly strange moment in our collective history? What new things have you discovered about your home while shut in? Which things do you miss most about the outside world? How are you preventing feeling too isolated? Share tips in the comments.

As for us we're finding virtual happy hours with friends on zoom, skype, or facetime are helping a lot. As is chasing whatever filmic obsessions occur and list-making (April Foolish Oscar Predictions coming very soon... even though we really don't know which films will arrive this year given the shutdown).

Eric Rohmer Centennial: Six Moral Tales

by Eric Blume

Last weekend marked the 100th birthday of one of France’s greatest directors, Eric Rohmer, and we here at TFE figured that a nice way to celebrate him would be a look back at the six-film series that launched his career, the Six Moral Tales, which were released between 1962 and 1972.  

These films basically have the same plot:  a man obsessed or in love with one girl finds himself distracted by another woman, only to return to the first girl.  Rohmer uses this framework to examine the stunted male psyche, the rationalizations of behavior, and the mystery of love...

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