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
Cinematographer Michael Chapman died on Sept. 20, 2020. He was 84. We hadn’t heard or seen much of Chapman recently (his last credit was Bridge to Terabithia in 2007), but Chapman was king in the 1970s and ’80s. Chapman’s first credit as … Continue reading TAXI DRIVER
Movies echo movies. Sometimes in the minds of the filmmakers: Conversations in sound and image across time and space. Sometimes in the viewer’s minds: Stories ping-ponging their way through a couple of thousand years of recorded history. More often than … Continue reading AMERICAN BOY: A PROFILE OF STEVEN PRINCE
As the coronavirus pandemic approaches its projected peak, the need to stay indoors takes on a renewed urgency. But, for a good many, self-isolation is less than a luxury. Escape is needed, and there are fewer art forms that offer … Continue reading On Familiar Ground: Paul Schrader and the Death Impulse
Each film is interlocked with so many other films. You can’t get away. Whatever you do now that you think is new was already done in 1913. When I first went to L.A. in 1970, there was a little bit … Continue reading Born On This Day — November 17, 1942
I wrote Taxi Driver as personal therapy, not as a commercial project. —Paul Schrader Continue reading Born On This Day — July 22, 1946
Other college kids had to vandalize government buildings. All we had to do to rebel was go to movies. —Paul Schrader Continue reading In Their Words — Tuesday, May 28, 2013
There was always a part of me that wanted to be an old-time director. But I couldn’t do that. I’m not a pro. —Martin Scorsese Continue reading In Their Words — Saturday, May 25, 2013
Michael J. Cinema 