REMEMBERING DOUGLAS TRUMBULL
DOUGLAS TRUMBULL’S GREATEST VISUAL EFFECT Sometime in the late 1980s my wife and I were invited to a warehouse-type building in Marina del Rey for a demonstration of Douglas Trumbull’s Showscan. A new film format from the man who…
WHAT DID THE RKO LOGO HAVE THAT LEO THE LION LACKED?
Enough is enough: I’ve been watching old movies my whole life and never understood why the end card of every RKO Radio Picture included the words “Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.” With pandemic time on my hands I set out…
LUBITSCH-LIKE: A NINETY-YEAR OLD DISCOVERY
When I was a freshman at NYU the Museum of Modern Art held an Ernst Lubitsch retrospective. Every day after classes I took the subway uptown in time to catch the 5:30 pm show, and every day I left…
REMEMBERING SIDNEY POITIER
Sidney Poitier’s milestone achievements are so numerous they scarcely need repeating here. But I would like to pass along a personal reminiscence. Meeting The Man for the first time made a deep impression on my wife and me. His…
THE HAND OF GOD: AN INSPIRED IMPORT
Paolo Sorrentino has made some exceptional films, including ‘Il Divo’ and ‘The Great Beauty’ (my favorite) but he says it took twenty years—and the courage he derived from watching Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma—to tell his own coming-of-age story in The…
REMEMBERING PETER BOGDANOVICH
Anyone who loves movies, and movie history, owes a giant debt of thanks to Peter Bogdanovich for interviewing, chronicling, and bearing witness to so many veterans of Hollywood’s golden age. Listening to the audio version of his fascinating book This…
JOCKEY: BETTING ON CLIFTON COLLINS, JR.
Many character actors never land a leading role, despite having proven themselves in film after film (from The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit to Traffic and Capote). Clifton Collins, Jr. has been handed a golden opportunity in Jockey by director Clint Bentley and his co-screenwriter Greg Kwedar.…
