A Beneficial Reconsideration: The Original Ending of ELECTION

Over ten years ago, I blogged my thoughts about the film ELECTION (scroll down to July 30, 1999 — this was when I maintained the site by hand!), which was easily among my favorite films of the 1990s. I haven’t seen the movie since then, so I don’t know how it holds up. What I [...]

Are we running out of movie stars?

Perhaps all my blog posts will be spurred by listening to podcasts. The most recent B.S. Report features screenwriter William Goldman. In their wide-ranging discussion, Goldman points out that, for this first time in film history, there’s only one certifiable, bankable movie star left, one actor who can open a picture — Will Smith. This [...]

Errol Morris and Werner Herzog chat

On the plane ride to New York, I finally got around to watching the ~hour-long conversation between Errol Morris and Werner Herzog at the Toronto International Film Festival, as blogged by Roger Ebert. It’s great stuff, and worth your time. They have a remarkably casual candor (considering they’re speaking before what is undoubtedly a sizable [...]

David Byrne at TED – The venue determines the music

I enjoyed David Byrne’s talk at TED today. He put forth a theory of creativity that runs contrary to the romantic model. Instead of thinking of creativity as a thing that emerges from the force of soemone’s specific artistic bent, he walked through the history of music and showed how music styles have been highly [...]

Do People Ever Tire of Being Wrong?

Last April, there was a flurry of “news” coverage on concerns about Up, and whether it not commercial enough. Well, it has currently grossed more money than any other film this year (though Transformers 2 will blow past it soon. Still…) Is anyone going back to the “analysts” and upbraiding them for their shortsighted work? [...]

And Oskar Werner as Jules

Something I hadn’t realized until now is that Jules et Jim (perhaps my favorite Truffaut film) has been on my Tivo for two years now (don’t ask). I first saw the film in college, and what I remembered most was Oskar Werner’s remarkable performance. I didn’t recall if he played Jules or Jim, but watching [...]

New HIGH AND LOW DVD

In my post “Crime dramas shot in the city,” I mention my love for High and Low (my personal favorite Kurosawa flick.) Well, I just found out that on Tuesday Criterion releases a new 2-disc special edition of the film. Their prior DVD release was just the film, no frills. The new one’s got all [...]

Crime dramas shot in the city

A few posts back, I linked to a video of Bullitt‘s famous car chase geocoded. As a near-San Franciscan, one of the things I love about Bullitt is the use of real San Francisco locations. I recently rewatched the mother of all shot-on-location crime pictures, The Naked City. I strongly recommend viewing the Criterion Collection [...]

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