I guess you could say the low point arrived on March 27, 2022, with the broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards. No, the “slap heard ’round the world” wasn’t it—though that cast a pall over the proceedings, didn’t it?—but the … Continue reading Cinema 101
When America went to war in 1941, Hollywood followed suit. By the end of the 1930s, the dream machine had hit its stride with a roster of homegrown talent and a steady stream of artistic-minded European refugees. Then, when the war got going, the U.S. government discovered that nothing caught the public’s attention quite like the seventh art. And the studios learned nothing engendered goodwill toward their stable of actors than them either in uniform over there or working with the boys back here. The country had come together with a shared goal. “The United States was never as, well, united as it was during World War II.” Continue reading HOLLYWOOD VICTORY: THE MOVIES, STARS, AND STORIES OF WORLD WAR II
Film noir gained popularity in the early 1940s, just as America entered the war, and the moviegoing public was looking for something darker to sink their teeth into. Lucky for them, Hollywood recently gained an influx of European émigrés fleeing … Continue reading DOUBLE INDEMNITY
Some pictures play wonderfully to a room of eight people. I don’t go for that. I go for the masses. I go for the end effect. I love to shoot elegantly and I pride myself that it’s not whacked together … Continue reading Born On This Day — June 22, 1906
I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut. —Billy Wilder Continue reading In Their Words — Thursday, July 18, 2013
A bad play folds and is forgotten, but in pictures we don’t bury our dead. When you think it’s out of your system, your daughter sees it on television and says, “My father is an idiot.” —Billy Wilder Continue reading In Their Words — Saturday, June 22, 2013
A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard. —Billy Wilder Continue reading In Their Words — Sunday, May 5, 2013
Making movies is a little like walking into a dark room. Some people stumble across furniture, others break their legs but some of us see better in the dark than others. The ultimate trick is to convince, persuade. —Billy Wilder Continue reading In Their Words — Thursday, December 20, 2012
I’m accused of being vulgar, so much the better. That proves I’m closer to life. —Billy Wilder Continue reading In Their Words — Monday, October 29, 2012
Michael J. Cinema 