CREATIVE COLLABORATION: JANE B. PAR AGNÈS V. (1988)

When Jane Birkin (Blow-Up [1966], Wonderwall [1968], La Piscine [1968], Don Juan (or If Don Juan Were a Woman) [1973], Je t’aime moi non plus [1976], Death on the Nile [1978], La Belle Noiseuse [1991])) was getting ready to celebrate her 40th birthday in 1986 she confessed to filmmaker Agnès Varda, that she had reservations about growing older. Varda, who was almost 60-years-old at the time, told Birkin …

Folk Horror & Filmmaking: An Interview with Sean Garland

I recently got the opportunity to ask director Sean Garland (BANSHEE BLACKTOP, AN IRISH GHOST STORY [2016] and NOKOTAHEART [2011]) a few questions about his filmmaking career. He also generously shares some Halloween streaming recommendations for FilmStruck subscribers that should appeal to discerning horror enthusiasts. FILMSTRUCK (KIMBERLY LINDBERGS): Could you tell readers a little bit about …

Orson Welles’s Irish Ghost Story

I love a good ghost story and some of the best ones ever written have come from the hearts and minds of Irish authors but very few of them have been adapted for the screen. Horror movies set in Ireland that feature an Irish cast are a rare commodity, which makes RETURN TO GLENNASCAUL (1953) all the …

JOAN BENNETT: FRITZ LANG’S MUSE

Joan Bennett got her start in Hollywood as a lovely, demure, fair-haired ingénue but made her mark as a sexy, feisty, dark-haired femme fatale. Her transformation was atypical in Tinseltown where many natural brunettes such as Carole Lombard, Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe, and Jayne Mansfield, found success after becoming bottle blonds. Bennett’s makeover happened during …

ANGRY CINEMA: THE BRITISH NEW WAVE

In the late 1950s, Britain was a country in transition. The destruction caused by two world wars remained evident but the economy was booming and unemployment was at an all-time low. Popular music was bringing diverse groups of individuals together and creating a sense of unity among the youth. Despite the overall prosperity, the stark …

REIMAGINING A CLASSIC: WERNER HERZOG’S NOSFERATU

We live in the age of remakes and prequels. Every month Hollywood rolls out an easily recognizable title that’s been repackaged and recast with a plot that’s all too familiar. The horror and science fiction genre has been hit the hardest by these reimagined movies that all too often fall extremely short of the original …

Surrealist Cinema: PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (1951)

“There was more surrealism rampant in Hollywood than all the surrealists could invent in a lifetime.” – Man Ray   In 1940, Man Ray fled war-torn France and arrived in Hollywood. The acclaimed surrealist, who was born in the United States but relocated to Paris in 1921, spent the next eleven years in California making …

Favorite Film Books of 2017

With the holidays fast approaching I thought I would recommend an eclectic selection of my favorite film books released in 2017 in case you’re looking for gifts to please the cinephiles in your life. My picks include a variety of reading material for all budgets and tastes including many titles that are closely linked to …

Looking for Fellini: HOW STRANGE TO BE NAMED FEDERICO (2013)

Ettore Scola might not be as renowned as his lifelong friend and fellow filmmaker Federico Fellini but before he died in 2016, Scola’s work had earned him ample critical acclaim and numerous Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Language Film. Four of Scola’s films are currently streaming on FilmStruck including UGLY, DIRTY AND BAD (’76), …

RIP Ted V. Mikels 1929-2016

Heartbroken to learn that Ted V. Mikels has died. I loved his work, warts and all, and have written about my appreciation for the man in the past. He was an incredibly colorful character and one of Hollywood's last real showmen. I had the opportunity to exchange brief notes with him once and he was …

Celebrating Gay Pride

As a film journalist I have often tried to focus my attention on underappreciated films, actors and directors. Unsurprisingly, this has led me to write about a number of gay/LGBT films as well as gay/LGBT filmmakers and actors. So in celebration of Gay Pride weekend and the Supreme Court decision that now makes gay-marriage a …

August & September at the Movie Morlocks

The last couple of months have been extremely difficult. In between doctor's appointments while dealing with some eye problems I suffered a major shake up in the Napa earthquake, which did a lot of damage to my home & neighborhood. Naturally this impaired my writing but I still managed to compile a few articles for …