Encore Cinema Out Takes

New looks at yesterday’s films - DVD’s and cable re-runs promise eternal life to movies, compressing a century of filmmaking, so that last year’s release sits next to that old one you vaguely recall. See it again, remember those black and white flickers, the stuff that dreams are made of ...

Sunday, May 28, 2006

KING KONG 1933-2005 - who really killed the beast?

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Kong has always been more than a monster to me. Not implacable, mechanical, heartless, like those in ALIEN, JAWS , or THE TERMINATOR . He is...
Tuesday, May 23, 2006

SHOPGIRL - a pop quiz

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1. Steve Martin is either: (a) a first rate artist and thinker who has made the almost impossible jump from lightweight comic to satiric ge...
Monday, May 22, 2006

ALEXANDER - revising the revisionist vision

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As Oliver Stone begins his softening campaign to prepare the world for his 9/11 movie, WORLD TRADE CENTER , I thought it timely to re-evalua...
Saturday, May 20, 2006

BOX OFFICE Q&A

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Movie executives are always looking for catchy titles to insure success. The length of marquees has always been of concern making problems f...
Friday, May 19, 2006

THE NEW WORLD - no hit and all myth

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Part of the mystique of Stanley Kubrick was his meager output (7 films directed in @30 years). Writer / director Terrence Malick is even le...
Monday, May 15, 2006

The Thriller - Its Fall and Rise

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Alfred Hitchcock, we are told, was “the master of suspense.” The plots of his movies were filled with tension and sardonic wit, ironic twist...

THE SQUID AND THE WHALE and BEE SEASON - endangered species

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These two recent films are a matched set. Both depict families in crisis, both setting the blame squarely on the shoulders of the fathers, s...
Friday, May 05, 2006

MATCH POINT - postmod woody allen

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I had just been surfing for “art & morality,” and “postmodern films” and come across an article calling Woody Allen “the quintessent...
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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

THE MISFITS - an accidental pop culture classic

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Some movies are oxymoronically dubbed Instant Classics . The passage of time is required to achieve classic status, in my book. Later critic...
Tuesday, May 02, 2006

THE MALTESE FALCON and the origins of pulp film

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In the 1960's, I discovered Raymond Chandler’s books. I bought and read everything I could get my hands on. That led me to his predecess...
Sunday, April 16, 2006

SHATTERED GLASS

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The movie is going to be placed in a line of films about journalism and journalists that goes back to the beginning of talkies. The wise cra...
Monday, April 03, 2006

THE DREAMERS

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This recent Bernardo Bertolucci film (US theatrical release,, 2003) was an extraordinary experience for me. Felt as if I was watching somet...
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Mortimer
hard boiled, sentimental, sarcastic, sincere, stupid, serious, north/south polar,
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