Category Archives: movies

Red Sorghum: the Sedan of Ecstatic Liberation

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Reverend

The celebrated tossing-the-bridal-sedan sequence could superficially be taken as a scene of vulnerable woman at the mercy of lusty men. Yet the womb-like interior of the sedan, the condition of the Freudian ‘oceanic self’ where she floats as an effect … Continue reading →

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Le Trou: the Labor of Cinematic Love

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Reverend

When I was in graduate school I took a course about labor and cinema that had a wide range of post-war films coupled with readings from critical film studies, post-structuralist Marxism, etc. —you get the general late 1990s grad school … Continue reading →

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Homeboiled: Touchez pas au grisbi

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Reverend

Thanks to my special lady friend, our focus on French noir continues, this time with a quiet mediation on growing old in the 1954 film Touchez pas au grisbi (“Don’t touch the loot”) by Jacques Becker starring Jean Gabin. The Criterion Collection’s synopsis for the film … Continue reading →

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Maybe I like to be cheap once in a while….

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Reverend

….maybe everybody does. The following scene is a classic Hollywood moment from Vincente Minnelli‘s 1952 melodrama The Bad and the Beautiful between Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas —and both prove why they are masters, though Douglas steals this one at … Continue reading →

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Cinema Retro: A Primer for Italian Crime Films and more

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Reverend

When Anto was in New York City a couple of months ago she picked me up the latest issue of Cinema Retro, which is similar to my favorite film magazine Filmfax. The main differences being it’s a British publication and it … Continue reading →

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Assault on Precinct 13 Trading Cards: The Ice Cream Truck

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Reverend

Here is another addition to the “Movie Trading Cards—now with more animation!” assignment. Sorry for the dark subject matter of this one, but John Carpenter’s vision of urban gangs and thug life in Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) was even … Continue reading →

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The Red Detachment of Women (1961)

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Reverend

This semester Sue Fernsebner is teaching a Chinese History through Film class at UMW, and after looking at the syllabus I couldn;t help put take the course. I was in Los Angeles in the early 1990s during the apex of … Continue reading →

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Le Professionnel (1981)

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Reverend

Anto and I continue our focus on French films, this time we moved from the early 1970s to the early 1980s, and I must admit that the 80s aesthetic is far cheesier—which is one of the many reasons I loved … Continue reading →

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1970s French Noir Double Feature: Un Flic and Le Voyou

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Reverend

If you’re looking for a good, theme-based double feature I have a treat for you, and if you have access to streaming Netflix in the U.S. (or can get your hands on a proxy) then you can get some instant … Continue reading →

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Blast of Silence

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Reverend

A while back Anto and I watched the Criterion Collection release of Blast of Silence (1961) which is a low-budget, independent noir narrated in the second person. That’s right, this film is narrated in the second person. How many films … Continue reading →

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