Rhinoceros (1974) Tom O’Horgan directs Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel in what could have been a wacky and illogical production of Eugène Ionesco’s play. Instead, opening it out, the pacing falters, with only one claustrophobic café scene still effective as theater of the absurd. Part of the American Film Theater’s series. When is a … More Rhinoceros (1974)
Triumph des Willens (1935) Leni Riefenstahl changed the documentary with this propaganda film that chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party congress in Nuremberg. By the end, through innovative camera techniques and edting, there can be no doubt who is the master race. “The media represents a world that is more real than reality that we … More Triumph des Willens (1935)
Francis the Talking Mule (1950) In 1946, former U.S. Army Captain David Stern III wrote short sketches about Francis, a talking Mule in Burma during the war against the Japanese. Donald O’Connor plays the naive lieutenant and Francis is voiced by the Western twang of Chill Willis. Arthur Lubin directed from Stern’s original screenplay … More Francis the Talking Mule (1950)
Bulworth (1998) In a despondent moment, Democratic Senator Bulworth (Warren Beatty) makes a deal with the Insurance Lobby for a ten million dollar policy and then hires an assassin to kill himself. Along the way, from lack of sleep and food, he become delirious and begins to tell large crowds the truth about the … More Bulworth (1998)
Zeitgeist Welcome to the becoming. Pale green Afros burnish trees. There is so much water beneath The sand, it could be another island. Sometimes seeing the world upside down Helps the sun go where it belongs. Blood flows to the volcano at the center Of the earth, a hive … More Zeitgeist
A Dog’s Life (1918) Silent. Chaplin’s first written. produced, and starring film for First Nation Films, with “Scraps” the dog and Edna Purviance as the love interest. Action-packed and full of surprising comic skits that all connect to a solid plot. The slums were never better photographed, nor the crime in American cities better … More A Dog’s Life (1914)
Silver Streak (1976) The first film to pair Gene Wilder with Richard Pryor is an homage to Alfred Hitchock’s train sequence in North By Northwest. Gene Wilder plays a publisher who is aboard the Silver Streak on a Los Angeles-to-Chicago train journey in order “to rest and get a lot of reading done.” Jill Clayburgh … More Silver Streak (1976)
Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959) Alain Renais directs this original screenplay by Marguerite Duras explores survivor guilt between a French nurse and a Japanese married man through their brief affair, tainted by memories of WWII. Using documentary footage of the aftermath of the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Renais suggests a collapse of … More Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959)
La Morte negli Occhi del Gatto (1973) Also known as “Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eye.” Anthony M. Dawson [Antonio Margheriti] directed this cult classic, a collage of horror motifs intercut with images of a cat, just before claws slice the next victim’s neck. Gallo films revel in the charm of an illogical nightmare. Jane … More La Morte negli Occhi del Gatto (1973)
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (1998) Michael Apted directs Walter Mosley’s adaptation of his own novel, with Laurence Fishburne as Socrates Fortlow, an ex-con convicted for murder, who wants to set his life straight in Watts. One day at a time, picking up cans For recycled change, a recycled con Looking for any job he … More Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (1998)
