Monday was Groundhog Day, the quirky winter holiday that’s also synonymous with Bill Murray, timeloops and Sonny and Cher. In honour of Phil Connors’ endlessly repeating day, here are a few films which prove just how much can happen in twenty four hours. On the Town (1949) “There’s just one thing necessary in Manhattan/ When […]
The Six People You Meet in a Screwball Comedy
Watch enough screwball comedies and you might notice a pattern: the same people turn up over and over again. I don’t just mean actors—though Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Jean Arthur and Melvyn Douglas were ubiquitous—but characters. Blame it on endless plot recycling or the assembly-line nature of the studio system, but in the thirties and […]
Love, Laughter and Lubitsch: ‘Trouble in Paradise’ (1932), ‘Design for Living’ (1933) and ‘Ninotchka’ (1939)
Red roses, paper hearts and pink, pudgy teddy bears. Valentine’s Day may have come and gone, but fear not. For those of you still in a romantic mood, might I suggest the work of legendary writer-director Ernst Lubitsch? Sly and sophisticated, the German émigré’s films offer an irresistible concoction of wit and intelligence- all delivered […]