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. …

A Tale of Two Films: THE PICASSO SUMMER (1969)

My latest post at the Movie Morlocks takes a look at the making of THE PICASSO SUMMER (1969) starring the fabulous Albert Finney & Yvette Mimieux. Here’s a brief excerpt from my post...

Vincente Minnelli’s Metaphysical Musical

Barbra Streisand in On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) Last week I had planned on writing about some romantic films in honor of Valentine's Day but I never got around to it. I'm still fighting off that cold bug but this week I decided to share some thoughts about one of my …

Seduced by Pierre Clémenti

Pierre Clémenti in Listen, Let's Make Love (1967) Regular Cinebeats' readers are undoubtedly familiar with my fascination with the French actor and filmmaker Pierre Clémenti. I've written about him enough that he's earned his own blog category so you can imagine my surprise when I came across one of the little seen films that he …

Courage Conquers Death

Katharine Hepburn in Christopher Strong (1933) On Friday, August 20th, TCM is devoting the day to the celebrated actress Katharine Hepburn as part of their ongoing Summer Under the Stars event. I really enjoy Summer Under the Stars and this year some of my favorite actors and actresses have been featured. I thought it would …

The Subterraneans (1960)

Tomorrow would have been Jack Kerouac's 88th birthday and in honor of the event I decided to write about the 1960 film adaptation of his novel The Subterraneans over at the Movie Morlocks blog. The movie has a lot of problems including beatnik parodies and a terrible script but I still appreciate some aspects of …

Modern Mondays: Love Songs (2007)

When I first mentioned that I was going to start "Modern Mondays" at Cinebeats I briefly discussed how much I liked musicals so I thought I'd share a few thoughts about the best musical I've seen in recent years, Love Songs (aka Les chansons d'amour; 2007). Love Songs was directed by the talented French filmmaker …

Ash Wednesday (1973)

Yesterday was Elizabeth Taylor's 77th birthday. Last year I wasn't able to properly complete my tribute to Taylor and I never finished writing about a few of her films that I want to cover here sooner or later, but today I thought I'd offer up a few brief thoughts about her 1973 film, Ash Wednesday. …

Rethinking Romance

Even though I'm a lady, I don't often watch what many critics refer to "women's films" and typical romantic films tend to bore me to tears. It's always bothered me that I'm supposed to enjoy An Affair to Remember (1957) more than The Dirty Dozen (1967) simply because of my gender. Apologies to the film's …

DVD of the Week: The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970)

In 1969, the talented British director Ken Russell impressed critics and audiences with his excellent film adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love. The film would go on to win many awards and inspire greater interest in D.H. Lawrence. It would also inspire other directors to try their hand at adapting Lawrence’s work. One of …