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
Hollywood Victory: The Movies, Stars, and Stories of World War IIby Christian BlauveltRunning Press/Turner Classic Movies, 240 pp., Hardcover, $30.00 ($38.00 Canada), also available as an e-bookPublished Nov. 2, 2021 When America went to war in 1941, Hollywood followed suit. … Continue reading HOLLYWOOD VICTORY: THE MOVIES, STARS, AND STORIES OF WORLD WAR II
TCM’s Summer Under the Stars kicked off in high fashion with a day devoted to the work of Barbara Stanwyck, easily one of the best actors to ever grace the silver screen. To name her best performances would simply to … 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 