About two weeks ago, I found myself thinking of Stanley Donen. In the latest debacle surrounding this year’s Oscar ceremony, the Academy had just announced it would be dropping the presentation of four awards, including Best Editing and Best Cinematography, from the telecast—a decision so manifestly absurd and greeted with such derision that it was […]
Love on the Lower East Side: ‘Crossing Delancey’ (1988)
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, here’s the first instalment in my ‘New York State of Mind’ series. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jewish grandmother in possession of an eligible granddaughter and an enterprising disposition must be in want of a grandson-in-law. Such is the tale of Crossing Delancey, Joan Micklin Silver’s […]
The Riddle Called Married Life: ‘Two for the Road’ (1967)
Two for the Road begins with a love affair gone sour then cycles back to when it began, skipping back and forth in time and through different phases: flirtation, rancour, complacency and newly-wedded bliss. The film is a non-linear slide into heartache. Driving through a small town, Mark (Albert Finney) and Joanna Wallace (Audrey Hepburn) […]
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 […]