It was the 1960s, and revolution was in the air. For French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, cinema was the way to express ideas artistic, political, and otherwise. He opened the decade with Breathless, a free-flowing anarchic take on cinematic language that was … Continue reading MASCULIN FÉMININ
First things first: No harm comes to the dogs (it’s hard to harm a digital dog). True, there’s one outfit that appears to be fashioned out of Dalmatian hide, but it’s a ruse. Come to think of it, the very … Continue reading CRUELLA
A man goes to the movies. The critic must be honest enough to admit he is that man. —Robert Warshow Like a lot of you, I spent 2020 at home. And, as you probably know, that meant an awful lot … Continue reading A QUIET PLACE PART II
Elizabeth and Monty opens not with a movie but with an incident. Arguably the most infamous incident of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift’s relationship: Him lying on the ground in a pool of blood, her in a white satin cocktail dress fishing broken teeth from his throat. Continue reading ELIZABETH AND MONTY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THEIR INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP
Cefn Fforest of South Wales has seen better days. Storefronts are boarded up, and the residents shuffle between jobs that provide no purpose, no sense of meaning. This used to be a mining village—emphasis on used to be. And it … Continue reading DREAM HORSE
He’s just so damn handsome. Smooth skin, full head of shiny black hair, snappy dinner clothes, thin as a rail—what girl wouldn’t fall for Jerry Corbett? Coffee heiress Joan Prentice sure does. She falls for his charm and she falls … Continue reading MERRILY WE GO TO HELL
They’re all sort of home movies—a vacation documented… —Orson Welles to Peter Bogdanovich Paris, February 1955: Orson Welles is trying to get a staged version of Moby Dick off the ground. Enter English writer Wolf Mankowitz. Armed with means, Mankowitz convinces Welles … Continue reading AROUND THE WORLD WITH ORSON WELLES
Middle East peace is always a very attractive proposition,” Gamal Helal says. “It’s a very sexy topic. I cannot think of a secretary of state who did not want to get involved in the Middle East. And, by the way, … Continue reading THE HUMAN FACTOR
A young woman knows where she is going. She always has. Today it is to the island of Kiloran in the Scottish Hebrides. It will take a day and a night to get there—first by train, then by boat—but when … Continue reading I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING!
Michael J. Cinema 
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