Loving cinema is a one-way street. Oh, I love movies. Hell, I love certain movies more than some of the people in my life. But I realize that adoration isn’t reciprocated. I Know Where I’m Going! doesn’t give a damn … Continue reading MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER
The wonderful world of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Continue reading
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
Made in 1925, Charlie Chaplin’s greatest comedy is also his most recognizable. From the Little Tramp (Chaplin) woefully underdressed in the Klondike to hunger so intense he envisions his cabin-mate as a large roast chicken. But it’s the dance of … Continue reading THE GOLD RUSH
It’s mid-June, which means we ought to be full swing into Chautauqua’s Summer of Silents—the annual celebration of cinema sans dialogue. And whether they’re accompanied by the incomparable Hank Troy or the impressive Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, spending a … Continue reading Home Viewing: Silent Clowns
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 10 from Cardiff
Why do you want to dance?Why do you want to live?Well, I don’t know exactly why, but I must.That’s my answer too. —Boris Lermontov and Vicky Page, The Red Shoes Born March 17, 1938, in Irkutsk, Russia, Rudolf Nureyev was a … Continue reading NUREYEV
Why do you want to dance?” the man asks the girl. The girl pauses and answers his question with a question, “Why do you want to live?” “I don’t know exactly why,” the man responds with a smile. “But I … Continue reading THE RED SHOES
I think that a film should have a good story, a clear story, and it should have, if possible, something which is probably the most difficult thing—it should have a little bit of magic. Magic being untouchable and very difficult … Continue reading Born On This Day — December 5, 1902
Michael J. Cinema 
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