Black Widow (1954) Van Heflin returns. This time it’s all about the New York theater world, and he is a Broadway producer who allows an aspiring playwright to use his apartment while he and his wife (Gene Tierney) are abroad. When they return, they find the girl hanging from a noose. George Raft shows up … More Black Widow (1954)
Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis (2001) Based on Tezuka’s manga, directed by Rintaro, written by Katsuhiro Otomo, this feature-length anime dramatizes the upcoming conflict between AI and humans, to warn against the rise of ultranationalism. SPOILER ALERT: At the climax of this movie, Tima, created by Dr. Laughton for the oligarch Duke Red who mourns the loss … More Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis (2001)
Twelve Angry Men (1957) Sidney Lumet directed this Studio One drama that purports to take audiences behind the scenes into a jury room to witness how Americans deliberate over a murder trial where the accused is a minority. Henry Fonda plays the bleeding-heart liberal and Ed Begley acts the bullying racist. All the jurors begin … More Twelve Angry Men (1957)
Utamaro and His Five Women (1946) Made under the American occupation, Kenjii Mizoguchi directed this fictional account of the famous printmaker Kitagawa Utamuro, some of whose depictions of the ‘floating world’ of geishas so incensed the magistrates that Utamoro was handcuffed for 60 days. Film scholars claim that Utamuro is really Mizoguchi’s self-portrait as a … More Utamaro and His Five Women (1946)
This Is Not A Film (2011) Jafar Panahi, sentenced by his government to six years in prison and banned for 20 years from making any more movies, reacted by inviting a fellow filmmaker, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, – with camera – to visit him in his home, and film him describing the movie he had wanted to … More This Is Not A Film (2011)
Until the End of the World (1991) Not all movies benefit from having an extended version. CRITERION, however, has issued the director’s cut, all 287 minutes in two Parts, of this romantic jet-set across multiple countries, where making a film becomes an act of mapping the mind. Watching such a film requires a different … More Until the End of the World (1991)
Monkey Business (1931) There were FOUR Marx Brothers? S. J. Perelman and Will B. Johnstone were excited to be writing a script for the Marx Brothers. They would have been lucky to find one line of their dialogue in the finished film after five months of rewriting by over twelve gagmen and anybody who might … More Monkey Business (1931)
Swing Time (1936) George Stevens directed what is now regarded as the best Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance film. “The Way You Look Tonight” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but I still sing “Pick Yourself Up” which strikes me as quite relevant these days. The “Bojangles of Harlem” number, more a … More Swing Time (1936)
A Woman Is A Woman (1961) Godard’s view is that a woman will sleep with anybody to have a child. Jean-Claude Brialy as Émile, and Jean-Paul Belmondo as Alfred, compete over Anna Karina’s body in Godard’s first Cinemascope color feature, a parody of Hollywood musicals. Anna Karina won a Silver Bear for her performance in … More A Woman Is A Woman (1961)
The Russia House (1990) Tom Stoppard wrote the scintillating screenplay, based on John Le Carré’s spy thriller. A British publisher (Sean Connery) is caught up in an espionage game among the CIA, the British M16, and the Soviets, over a list about strategic war plans. The matter is complicated by Connery’s developing love for Katya … More The Russia House (1990)
