Eat, drink and...watch movies

With Thanksgiving looming on the horizon,  my head has been filled with visions of food...and film. When the weather turned cooler a couple of weeks ago and Now, Voyager happened to be scheduled on TCM, I started thinking about my favorite recipe for gingerbread...and how a steaming cup of...

Read More

Max Ophuls' Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)

It is turn-of-the-century Vienna, the wee hours of a wet night. A man alights from a horse-drawn carriage and jokes with companions about the duel at dawn to which he has been challenged. Entering his flat alone he tells his manservant he will leave before morning, "Honor is a luxury only gentlemen can afford."...

Read More

COFFEE TIME!

Although Vincente Minnelli's 1945 musical Yolanda and the Thief is not one of his or Fred Astaire's most popular films, it contains a jewel of a musical number that has earned raves from day one...Coffee Time...When the film was released, none other than stuffy Bosley Crowther, critic for The New York Times,...

Read More

1st Film Noir Xmas coming to San Francisco…9th Noir Festival set for January

The San Francisco Film Noir Foundation has set its first-ever Noir City Xmas for Wed., December 15, at the Castro Theatre, and extends an invitation to “enjoy a Cruel Yule...”The double feature pairs Remember the Night (1940) and Mr. Soft Touch (1949).TCM has been airing Remember the Night regularly...

Read More

Van Nest Polglase ~ Architect Of Cinematic Dreams, Part II

by guest contributor WhistlingypsyThe emergence of those stylistic elements in American films later termed noir by critics is often debated and open to interpretation.Five years before the films that captivated French critics for their “dark” plots and visual style, John Ford directed an equally dark film for...

Read More

Van Nest Polglase ~ Architect Of Cinematic Dreams, Part I

by guest contributor WhistlingypsyThe artistry of classic films reveals a cinematic alchemy in melding talent both before and behind the camera. The actor/actress and director are the two most visibly recognizable artists who created the image on screen. A careful viewer can also learn to recognize the names...

Read More