MELVIN VAN PEEBLES: THE STORY OF A THREE-DAY PASS (1967)

In the late 1950s, Melvin Van Peebles went to Hollywood after completing a number of short films. He had aspirations of becoming a director’s assistant but an agent quickly squelched his ambition after telling him, “If you can tap dance, I might find you some work. But that is about all.” When he couldn’t find …

“A FILM IS A PETRIFIED FOUNTAIN OF THOUGHT.” – JEAN COCTEAU

When Jean Cocteau’s name surfaces most of us think of the visionary artist, poet and director who made films such as BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946), BLOOD OF A POET (1930), LES PARENTS TERRIBLES (1948) and ORPHEUS (1949). Cocteau is all these things and more but he also happens to be one of my favorite film critics. I hesitate to call …

MY MELANCHOLY VALENTINE: DANS PARIS (2006)

Love is complicated. Some see it as a priceless gift or blessing while others describe it as an unshakeable disease. It can be comforting, enriching, elevating, thrilling and divine. It can also be messy, unruly, feral, ferocious and cruel, particularly if you are suffering from acute depression. In Dans Paris aka In Paris (2006), French filmmaker Christophe Honoré (Ma …

CRIME & PUNISHMENT: LE CERCLE ROUGE (1970)

August 10, 2017: FilmStruck is currently streaming 11 films featuring Alain Delon as part of their “Icons: Alain Delon” theme and for the next 4 weeks I’ll be spotlighting a few of my favorite titles in this collection. To learn more about the French actor please see a previous post I wrote in 2010 to celebrate …

HONOR AMONG THIEVES: FAREWELL, FRIEND (1968)

In the tradition of classic French heist films such as Touchez pas au grisbi (1954), Rififi (1955) and Bob le flambeur (1956), Farewell, Friend (aka Honor Among Thieves, 1968) takes viewers on a treacherous adventure where femme fatales lurk around every shadowy corner and crime rarely pays. But that doesn’t stop some fortune hunters from risking everything to make a quick buck or in …

The Ice-Cold Angel: Alain Delon

I am not a star. I am an actor. I have been fighting for years to make people forget that I am just a pretty boy with a beautiful face. It’s a hard fight, but I will win it. I want the public to realize that above all I am an actor, a very professional …

My Favorite Films of 2017

I contributed a list of my 20 Favorite Films seen in 2017 to the annual Senses of Cinema World Poll in the form of an illustration scanned & cleaned up in Photoshop. I wanted to have fun with the process this year and didn't feel much like writing about all the films on my list …

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 …

The Return of Modern Mondays

I've been inspired to write brief bits about some of the new films I've seen recently. I normally post my thoughts on Letterboxd but thought I'd start compiling them here every month or so depending on how much I write and if I have anything worthwhile to say. Breathe (2015) The worst bullies I've encountered …

Like Father, Like Son – Doppelgangers

One of my most interesting recent discoveries is a short film made by director Julien Landais. It's titled DER DOPPELGANGER (2014) and stars Alain Delon's youngest son, Alain-Fabien Delon Jr. who was just 20-years-old at the time. What fascinates me about Landais’s film is that it seems to borrow some visual motifs from my favorite horror …

June & July at the Movie Morlocks

I haven't been online much the last few months for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I've been having some medical problems with my left eye and spending lots of time on my computer reading, watching vids and writing can often be problematic. My eyes get easily irritated and I'm prone to headaches, etc. …

Pierre Cardin: A Career in Movies

Today Pierre Cardin is celebrating his 89th birthday. The French designer has had a surprisingly rich and varied career that's included creating costumes for many films and television programs such as Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946), Anthony Asquith‘s The V.I.P.s (1963) and The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964), Louis Malle’s Viva Maria! (1965), Roger Vadim‘s …

Comic Book of the Week: Angelique (1978)

Toshie Kihara's Angelique series was originally published in 1978 by Princess Comics. Angelique is a Japanese manga (comic book) based on the historical novels by Anne and Serge Golon published between 1957 and 1976. These historic novels focus on the romantic adventures of Angelique de Sancé de Monteloup as she braves misfortune and tragedy in …

Monsieur Hulot vs. The Modern World

Images from Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle (1958) I recently caught up with Jacques Tati's delightful French comedy Mon Oncle (aka My Uncle; 1958). I had previously only seen one Tati film, Les Vacances de M. Hulot (aka Mr. Hulot's Holiday; 1953) and frankly it didn't engage me as much as I wished it had so …

BELMONDO LEAVES ME BREATHLESS

Like many people, I fell in love with Jean-Paul Belmondo while watching BREATHLESS (1960) and I can still remember when he first won my affection. It happened during a lengthy scene between Belmondo and his beautiful costar Jean Seberg that takes place in a hotel room. After turning a poster into a makeshift telescope Seberg looks through it to …