The Media Funhouse has an excellent post that mines the YouTube archives for highlights of Nicolas Ray’s career. There are a number of his films I haven’t seen, like In a Lonely Place (1950) and Bitter Victory (1957) that I am adding to my queue currently. But most exciting for me comes from Ed Grant’s description of Bigger than Life:
Bigger Than Life (1956) is perhaps the ultimate statement on the American family in the Fifties (and an amazing template for The Shining, minus the violence),
Can you imagine that? A “template for The Shining, minus the violence”—this is now on my must see list, especially after watching the trailer.
And as an added insane bonus, check out the short film by Ray linked to at the end of the Media Funhouse post called The Janitor (1974)—let me re-iterate that it is insane! Note: Use the CC setting on YouTube to see the subtitles.
