There are disappointments in the life of a cinephile that cause her to sigh and shrug. Say the implosion of MoviePass and a film-a-day deal that always seemed too good to last. And then there are injustices so great they make her rail against the heavens like Howard Beale in Network: FilmStruck is shutting down […]
Frank Oz at The Museum of the Moving Image
Miss Piggy made a guest appearance in Queens last Friday. So did Fozzie Bear, Bert, Animal, Grover, Cookie Monster and Yoda. Frank Oz, the man behind some of the world’s most beloved puppets, encompasses multitudes, his voice (or rather voices) familiar to anyone who has ever spent time on Sesame Street, at the Muppet theatre […]
Not-so-silent cinema: The Art of Silent Film Music
This article was originally published on Starring NYC (now sadly defunct) and has been dusted off and spruced up for its Retro Movie Buff debut. Ben Model believes silent cinema is the worst name for a film genre. Not only is it patently misleading, it’s also a little dull. “It sounds like you’re going to […]
Hollywood East
This article was originally published on Starring NYC (now sadly defunct) and has been dusted off and spruced up for its Retro Movie Buff debut. The thumbnail history of American cinema goes something like this: In the beginning, there was Edison. In the 1890s, Thomas Alva Edison—or rather his employee, W.K.L. Dickson—developed the Kinetograph, […]
Biography of a Hit: The Success of ‘My Man Godfrey’ (1936)
This essay was originally published on ArtsandCrit.com (now sadly defunct) and has been dusted off and spruced up for its Retro Movie Buff debut. In 1936, the Great Depression was in its fifth year, the average movie ticket cost $0.25 and a film review in trade magazine Variety made history by christening a new genre: […]
Through the (Feminist) Looking-glass
And now for something completely different: a review of one of my favourite film books. Enjoy! “A woman’s intelligence was the equivalent of a man’s penis: something to be kept out of sight.” So writes Molly Haskell in From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies: a fusillade of feminist film criticism that’s […]
Glitz, Glamour and Grit: ‘Footlight Parade’ (1933)
James Cagney: tough guy, song-and-dance man. Singing and dancing in a bar-cum-opium den? Welcome to the wonderful world of the 1930s Warner Bros. musical- where women are dames, wisecracks whistle back and forth backstage and anything goes if it can just dodge the censors. Musicals are my favourite genre. I grew up loving the crème-de-la-crème […]
Everyone’s Fifteen Minutes: ‘Nothing Sacred’ (1937)
I have a confession to make: I haven’t always enjoyed screwball comedy. The Philadelphia Story was probably the first I watched. Though drawn by the considerable wattage of Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, gloriously united in one movie, I winced at too many scenes to see the humour in them. Yes Tracy Lord […]
Why Classic Films Matter
“You like old films? Why?” The tone varies- anything from mild incredulity to genuine pity, or just plain old curiosity- but the sentiment is the same. What’s the point of watching an old movie? The special effects are outdated, the performances likely cheesy and the stars are actors only your parents might recognize. If you […]
Hooray for Hollywood
It’s eight o’clock on a Saturday night: a little girl huddles on the sofa, hands over her eyes, peering at the television. Rod Taylor is caught in a desperate battle against morlocks and if he doesn’t succeed, surely the monsters will break out of their cave to invade her living room. Yesterday she cheered as […]