Pre-Code Diva Smackdown

by Cláudio Alves

Though postwar film noir is de rigueur for Noirvember, the Criterion Channel prepared a nifty bit of counterprogramming with a program dedicated to Pre-Code Divas. Going back before 1934, when the second coming of the Hays Code went into effect, one finds that time when sound was new and moral standards were, if not low, more libertine than they'd become. It was a time for sex comedies and sad stories about fallen women, moralist shockers and amoral delights, starring a cadre of starlets who became synonymous with the era. Some would go on to thrive within the Code, while others fell to obscurity when their vehicles dried up under new norms.

Since we all had so much fun with the last readers' poll, let's do another one. This time, you'll be voting on your favorite Pre-Code Diva. After the jump, discover our contenders and their Criterion-selected titles…

Click to read more ...

The many screen faces of Catherine the Great

by Cláudio Alves

Hulu's The Great is just the latest in a long string of portrayals of Catherine II of Russia, most commonly known as Catherine the Great. Since the time of the silents she's been a recurring topic for filmmakers, whether they're portraying her as the sex-crazed tyrant some propaganda painted her as, or trying to celebrate the legend and legacy of her time as empress. The Great makes her the spunky heroine of a black comedy, but she's also been a romantic lead and a romance's foil, an innocent pawn, and a Machiavellian master.

Looking back at the documentation we have about the real Catherine, one thing's for certain – she was incommensurably more interesting than any single movie character can ever hope to be. That's not going to stop us from exploring her various screen portrayals…

Click to read more ...

The Unbearable Linkness of Being

The Hollywood Reporter Dianne Wiest to headline The Corrections. I know this will be old news to some but I can't believe I haven't mentioned it. A lead role for Our Miss Wiest, only one of the greatest living actresses in the world.
Tom Shone grades the movies. I love when critics explain their grading systems as it's always such a personal and inexact science. Only six "A+" ever.
Film Studies For Free looks back briefly at Brokeback Mountain, which happens to be one of Mr. Shone's six "A+" films.

Salon offers up a library of film criticism essentials
They Live by Night great piece on the super complicated editing challenges of The Tree of Life.

We had folders for Earth, Sky, Water, Animals, Miscellaneous, and then within those, bins that were more specific."

Guardian on Amélie's (2001) cultural endurance. The whimsical worldwide hit is now ten years old.
Laughing Squid "Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses"
Felix in Hollywood "can someone please explain this picture to me?"Tallulah Bankhead lol.
Awards Daily They aren't reading the Best Picture nominees in alphabetical order this year. Nor will the board show us how many titles will be announced. Suspense! 

Kaufman on the set of Quills (2000) with Kate WinsletFinally, a very happy 75th birthday to the writer/director Philip Kaufman, who people unfortunately rarely talk about these days. Why this is is surely a combo of his infrequency of working (only 12 features in a 47 year career), his lack of masterpieces, and his films being soundly of the adult persuasion in an era when the movies have become increasingly 'you know... for kids.' (I mean, even Scorsese is making family pictures now.)  My favorites from Kaufman's oeuvre are three: The Right Stuff (1983) which was nominated for 8 Oscars though Kaufman was oddly not one of them - they had to make room for Ingmar Bergman in Best Director which we shan't ever complain about but it's strange that the competition that wasn't dropped came mostly from what one might call "actor's films" which are usually the first to go when the lone wolf directorial nod comes-a-calling; The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988, Kaufman's sole nomination - Best Adapted Screenplay); and the NC-17 scandal that was Henry and June (1990). This trinity of "bests" is not-so-coincidentally composed of consecutive projects. When artists are on a roll, they're on a roll. It always seems to come in waves, doesn't it?

He's finally made another movie. His thirteenth film is Hemingway and Gelhorn (2012) which stars Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen. 

Have you seen any Philip Kaufman pictures?