His name might not be as synonymous with the development of cinematic grammar as Alice Guy-Blaché, Orson Welles, or Jean-Luc Godard, but experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage’s ripples are still felt in contemporary cinema. From The Act of Seeing With One’s … Continue reading Sunday Streams — BRAKHAGE
One of my favorite TCM discoveries of 2018 was a 10-minute short Warner Bros. and Vitaphone production: So You Want to Be a Detective. Starring George O’Hanlon (who would go on to voice George Jetson), and created by Richard L. … Continue reading Sunday Streams — (So You Want) Joe McDoakes Comedies…
For his first five films, writer/director James Gray set his stories in New York City. Makes sense, considering Gray is a born and raised New Yorker, but with his two most recent films, Gray looks far beyond the Burroughs. Releasing … Continue reading Sunday Streams — THE LOST CITY OF Z
It’s been one week since wrapping the 46th Telluride Film Festival, which means it’s high time for reviews and fall previews. In the spirit of the festival, let’s kick things off by first looking back. Each year, TFF invites someone … Continue reading Sunday Streams — LATE AUTUMN
With the 46th annual Telluride Film Festival opening next weekend (Aug. 30–Sept. 2), now seems like a fine time to dig into TFF’s past and highlight a few recent masterpieces. Let’s start with 2017’s First Reformed, a movie whose righteous … Continue reading Sunday Streams — FIRST REFORMED
At the first bullfight I ever went to I expected to be horrified and perhaps sickened by what I had been told would happen to the horse.” That’s the line Ernest Hemingway chose to open his 1930 masterwork, Death in … Continue reading Sunday Streams — THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
On August 1, 2019, D(onn) A(lan) Pennebaker, Penny to most, died. He was 94. A true titan of cinema, Pennebaker leaves behind a plethora of work, almost all of it falling under the category of Direct Cinema. His purpose was … Continue reading Sunday Streams — D. A. Pennebaker
Cinematographer Jack Cardiff was born for Technicolor. One of the company’s first technicians, Cardiff mastered the three-strip process in the late-1930s with industrial and instructional films before getting a chance to work as a 2nd unit cameraman on Michael Powell … Continue reading Sunday Streams — 10 from Cardiff
History, by its very nature, is reductive. There’s simply too much to consider, too many players to figure, and too many stories to remember. To the victor go the spoils the saying goes. And when the history of cinema was … Continue reading Sunday Streams — BE NATURAL
Jonathan Gold was one of a kind. He was the “belly of Los Angeles,” LA Weekly‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic, a chronicler of culture, and one of the best writers and thinkers about the great city of Los Angeles. His book Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles, is a must, as were his weekly appearances on Evan Kleinman’s KCRW show, “Good Food on the Road.” Sadly, Gold died on July 21, 2019, from pancreatic cancer. He was 57. It was a loss, not just to the writing community, but also to those who refuse to think of … Continue reading Sunday Streams — CITY OF GOLD
