Bowie in Film
The news of David Bowie’s death has been like an all-day, slow-motion explosion. The man had such a pervasive hand in popular culture, music, style and film. There have been pop stars in movies before but how many have made anything like Bowie’s impact? Putting aside his own career in front of the camera for […]
BALL OF FIRE, Modern Ascendance Of A Screwball Comedy Classic
It’s interesting how some films can emerge from obscurity and muddy critical opinions to become recognized classics. Reading this fine essay on BALL OF FIRE by Jeremy Carr, reminds me that a few short years ago it was not considered one of Howard Hawks’ most enduring classics and it was not very well known by […]
An Exhaustive List of Everything Steven Soderbergh Read, Watched & Listened To in 2015
MODESTY BLAISE, viewed February 13, 2015 Steven Soderbergh has retired from filmmaking, kind of, but he is still updating his infrequent blog Extension 765. Yesterday he posted his annual Seen, Read list detailing which films, plays and television shows he has watched, what books or storied he read and what music he listened to. All […]
50 Years Ago: 1966 in Auteur Film
We all have our lists of filmmakers whose work we keep up with. There are 15 or 20 filmmakers I follow avidly, with an eager eye towards their latest film. But in 1966 that list would have been much longer. In fact, for me, all of the following films would have been must-sees. It’s a […]
Goodbye To Two Masters of Cinematography: Haskell Wexler and Vilmos Zsigmond
The past week has been hard on the art of cinematography. Two of its mightiest masters have gone. First, last week Haskell Wexler died, then a few days later Vilmos Zsigmond followed. They were both advanced in age and had done enough good work for ten normal lives, but they have left a mighty example […]
Listen Here! 21 Hours Of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater On The Air
Seasoned theatrical and radio impresario Orson Welles, aged 23 As a teenaged stage actor in the ’30s, Orson Welles helped pay the bills by lending his mellifluous baritone voice to scores of radio programs in New York. Before too long was a genuine radio star, making over $1500 a week in Depression dollars. In 1935 […]
Watch This: New Short Doc About the Genius Animator Behind JURASSIC PARK, STAR WARS, etc.
“I took LSD when I was working on RETURN OF THE JEDI. I could communicate with my cat Brian and Brian took me on a journey… I crawled into this cupboard with Brian the cat and we went to the center of the earth for like three billion years.” Friend of AFS Evan Husney has […]
Happy 78th Birthday to the Great Jane Fonda
New Yorker Film Critic Pauline Kael, so often prescient in her evaluation of talent and so precise in writing about performers, wrote in 1969 of Jane Fonda in THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY? “Fortunately, Gloria, who is the raw nerve of the movie, is played by Jane Fonda, who has been a charming, witty nudie […]
January’s Essential Cinema: Blake Edwards & Julie Andrews – Read All About It
Hot off the presses, here are the programming notes for this January’s much-anticipated Essential Cinema screening series. Screenings are open to the public. Click on links below for more information. LOVE IS A TWO WAY STREET: FILMS OF BLAKE EDWARDS & JULIE ANDREWS January 7 through 28 AFS @ The Marchesa Tickets available here […]
Carol Burnett’s 70’s Comedy Variety Show was a Film Buff’s Dream
It was announced today that Texas native and comedy legend Carol Burnett will inducted into the Texas Film Hall Of Fame at the Texas Film Awards on March 10. Her film credits are excellent in themselves, with great performances in PETE ‘N’ TILLIE (1972), THE FRONT PAGE (1974), Robert Altman’s underrated THE WEDDING (1978), Alan […]
Critic/Historian Wheeler Winston Dixon on the Lost Art of Black & White
Here’s a great interview with critic Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of the new book “Black & White Cinema: A Short History” on the pleasures, challenges and meaning of monochrome cinematography. Here are some excerpts: “If you go on Amazon and you see some great black-and-white film, and it’s going for $3, or any kind of […]
AFS Viewfinders Podcast: Author Bryan Connolly on Blake Edwards
The new AFS Viewfinders podcast is up. You can find it on iTunes or click here to listen. Our guest is Bryan Connolly, author and viral media celebrity. Bryan is joining us as co-programmer and co-host of our January Essential Cinema series, Love Is A Two Way Street: Films Of Blake Edwards & Julie Andrews. […]
