Not a misprint here- came out in 1935 the year before the title- common with this series of films It stars Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell, and Robert Taylor—debut of Buddy Ebsen as a dancer- long and lean, funny, wearing a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt (he’d go on to do quite a bit of business with Disney) Song “you are my lucky star”- you’d hear again in Singin’ in the Rain and other songs decades later A nice crane shot floating into a rooftop party A lively camera Awful snoring gag guy Superimposed surrealism sequence where Powell goes into a big

Kurosawa’s loose take on Hamlet (about corporate corruption in contemporary Japan) is simply one of the great master’s finest works. The first 20 minutes- the wedding reception- gives the opening reception in The Godfather a run for its money and may be the greatest 20 minute stretch in any Kurosawa film The first 20 minutes- the wedding reception- gives the opening reception in The Godfather a run for its money and may be the greatest 20 minute stretch in any Kurosawa film The story certainly is Kurosawa’s worldview- even the title- a dog-eat-dog nihilistic world. Cynical Kurosawa

Sam Fuller cinema- ferocious, visceral, sleazy – but clever as well Former infantry soldier and newspaperman- each Fuller film is part expose- uncovering and debunking – here it is organized crime, the vice rackets—not unlike 1955’s The Phenix City Story Fuller puts little easter eggs in his films- his world- there’s the sign of the Big Red One infantry in the office here just like the soldier in Pickup on South Street A very strong opening. Fuller jumps right into it- dingy streets, rolling drunks – has a nice effect The best shot in the film is the horrific

Both a moving love story (like The Piano, Call Me By Your Name) and a film about the artistic process (La Belle Noiseuse from Rivette) I think it shares a great deal with The Souvenir from Joanna Hogg (including the above) and a jaw-on-the-floor final shot Both a moving love story (like The Piano, Call Me By Your Name) and a film about the artistic process (La Belle Noiseuse from Rivette) Opens with Noémie Merlant in a blue dress flanked in blue background (clear care from Sciamma of what’s in the frame) before we go into the

A masterpiece of auteur-driven formal and aesthetic choices (wide angle lens, natural lighting, slow-motion photography, tracking shots down the corridor) featuring 2018’s best acting and equally remarkable writing It’s entirely Lanthimos—black, absurdist, profane—but it’s impossible to watch without thinking about Mankiewicz’s All Above Eve (the power-play with acidic wordplay- in one scene Stone even covets some earrings like Anne Baxter would do with the Davis character’s clothes), Birdman (a stylistic tour-de-force but also a three-headed acting monster (also featuring Stone)), Welles (those spectacular low-angle shots (a stunner at 34 min mark) capturing ornately designed ceilings), those spectacular low-angle shots (a stunner at

Certainly a very good film in its own right, Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress is also notable for its influence on George Lucas, and also Kurosawa’s first widescreen venture (TohoScope which was the Japanese equivalent to Cinemascope) Kurosawa’s first widescreen venture (TohoScope which was the Japanese equivalent to Cinemascope) Kurosawa’s dog-eat-dog nihilistic worldview, greed, is prevalent despite the fantasy/escapism/adventure genre and entertaining nature of the narrative (this is certainly one of his funnier films and a 180 from The Lower Depths- the film right before this in that respect). It’s there in that very first shot- the nice

Sam Fuller continues his life-long study of the seedy underbelly of society with this low-budget noir/mystery set in Los Angeles. Captivating opening- murder scene/sequence of the stripper These look like actual dingy streets—certainly not a studio backlot. Authentic- the casting of real Asian American actors (James Shigeta in his debut and he’s great here- fine acting by him as he plays the piano and talks about his father) when so many were still using white actors in costume- (see Mickey Rooney in Breakfast At Tiffany’s in 1961) by Fuller and using Little Tokyo and actual streets in LA are

Sunset confirms the László Nemes’ 2015 debut Son of Soul was no fluke or happy accident experiment. It was, instead, the debut of a bold new voice for 21st century cinema--- and Sunset is a remarkable companion The Hungarian auteur takes the same dogmatic approach here in his sophomore effort: point of view subjective cinema via the central character’s (Juli Jakab here) shoulder/neck/face/back— often in shallow focus – meaning the background is often blurred. The camera is tethered to her for the entire running time. This approach, though different (and historically unique) has similarities to first person POV cinema

So much talent involved that it’s hard not to see this as a bit of a failure- the whole does not add up to the individual pieces in this case Sinatra and Gene Kelly in front—Stanley Donen is the choreographer, and then Busby Berkeley (his last film) behind the camera (though the rumor is Donen and Kelly shot most of this with Berkeley (the great director in the early 1930’s) past his prime The second of three collaborations of Kelly and Sinatra—Anchors Away and On the Town (coming right after this in 1949 as well). This is the weakest

Forget Desmond Davis, this is Ray Harryhausen’s film and last venture as producer and stop-motion effects master This was an artifact even in 1981- I mean Empire Strikes Back was in 1980 Last archiveable film for Harryhausen and Laurence Olivier— both are better remembered in other films These are fine actors- Olivier, Claire Bloom, Burgess Meredith—all past their prime and this isn’t a resume-builder for any of them. Maggie Smith comes off the best of the supporting crew- Harry Hamlin is the lead as Perseus- looks the part- but not a great actor The plot is a soap opera

It is probably about the 40th best film of 1996- but enough elements to make it worthy of the archives It borrows a great deal from Jaws- substituting the lion(s) in the for shark (they even have a scene where they chum the waters so to speak for the lions) Val Kilmer (close or near the height of his star-power zenith—Batman Forever was the year before) and Michael Douglas (in the Robert Shaw role) as dueling great white hunters. Kilmer’s unbridled arrogance his great, and Douglas (who shows up about 44 mins in) has enough swagger and confidence to

Actor/director’s second effort as director after the first-person POV Lady in the Lake from 1946 year the before. He keeps the long takes but does away with the POV subjective camera Russell Metty is the director of photography. He’d work on Touch of Evil and, with Welles, capture one of cinema’s greatest single shots 11 years later (1958). This work here has some nice long languid takes including the dialogue-less opening of Montgomery guardedly pacing into and through the bus station Ben Hecht (Notorious) wrote the screenplay—one of the finest – gives the dialogue some punch The southwest setting,