In 1985, Jean-Luc Godard—the enfant terrible of the French New Wave—and the Israeli producer Menahem Golan signed a contract on a cocktail napkin: the story of King Lear, written by Norman Mailer, filmed by Godard, ready for the following year’s … Continue reading KING LEAR
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
Released in 1989, New York Stories is an omnibus film, three shorts stitched together by a city. And though two of the directors’ oeuvres are inseparable from the city streets, tenements, and high rises that dot the New York skyline, it is … Continue reading NEW YORK STORIES
Set in New York’s Coney Island in the early 1950s, Wonder Wheel revolves around Ginny (Kate Winslet), a clam house waitress who lives above the amusement park’s shooting range with her second husband, Humpty (Jim Belushi), who runs the merry-go-round, and Richie … Continue reading WONDER WHEEL
What is there left to say about Woody Allen, the 79-year-old writer/director of 45 feature films, a dozen of them masterpieces? Better yet, what does Woody Allen have left to say? Averaging a little more than a movie a year … Continue reading IRRATIONAL MAN
I always wanted to be a foreign filmmaker. But I’m from Brooklyn so I couldn’t be because I wasn’t foreign. But all of a sudden, through happy accidents, I’ve become one, to such a degree that I’m even writing subtitles. … Continue reading Born On This Day — December 1, 1935
Fading Gigolo begins in a truly unexpected fashion: a pimp and his ho discussing business while packing up a used bookstore. The pimp, Murray (Woody Allen), offhandedly mentions that his dermatologist, Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone), and her friend, Selima (Sofía Vergara), are … Continue reading FADING GIGOLO
What the studios want now is ‘risk-free’ films but with any sort of art you have to take risks. Not taking risks in art is like not having sex and then expecting there to be children. Here’s a tip to … Continue reading Born On This Day — April 7, 1939
We took a tour of the Acropolis late in the morning, and I looked down upon the theater and felt a connection. I mean, this is where Oedipus debuted. It’s amazing for someone who’s spent his life in show business or worked in … Continue reading Born On This Day — December 1
Michael J. Cinema 
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