Monday, March 16 2009
French Connection 1 & 2
Watching the original with its sequel draws attention to the subtle but inarguably greater care Friedkin brought to the earlier film.
Friday, November 21 2008
Rebecca
If I had to pinpoint one reason for Rebecca’s prestige it is precisely this: the film’s interest in the natural over the supernatural and the emotional over the sensational.
Friday, July 18 2008
American Film Theatre
In what might be called the curse of Chekhov, the common setting is a living room, the common characters a family, and the common dynamic a stew of bitter backbiting and recrimination that ultimately gives the lie to Tolstoy, because here each unhappy family seems perfectly alike.
Friday, February 29 2008
The John Frankenheimer Collection
The rather complex ideological issues and unique sense of aesthetics that Frankenheimer infused in his films can be fully appreciated in this collection.
Monday, February 7 2005
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
The film's primary appeal is the bizarre turn by Noel Coward as Wilson (one of several 'eccentrics' the film trots out to otherize London even as it pathologizes at least one of the yanks).
Monday, July 12 2004
The Manchurian Candidate: Special Edition (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate throws into horrific relief a chaotic sense of U.S. national identity.
Tuesday, October 14 2003
Black Sunday (1977)
John Frankenheimer's 'Black Sunday' serves as something of a transition between 'New Hollywood' and the more spectacular films that came later.
Sunday, January 1 1995
Reindeer Games (2000)
The spirit of world class schlock-horror promoter William Castle was in the theater recently, during a preview screening of Pitch Black, as flashlights were given to a number of audience members.
