Vampyr (1932)

 

VAMPYR  (1932)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Carl Theodor Dreyer

    Julian West, Maurice Schultz, Rena Mandel,

    Sybille Schmitz, Jan Hieronimko, Henriette Gerard

A man checks into an isolated inn, where the first thing he sees out the window is a figure with a scythe getting into s boat, like Death about to cross the River Styx. An omen? Well, yes, and it's only the beginning. A one-of-a-kind vampire movie, eerie and dreamlike, shot as a silent and dubbed into various languages. Most of the actors were amateurs. Baron Nicolas de Gunzberg, who plays the lead role under the pseudonym "Julian West," appears to be sleepwalking. (He never made another film.) The vampire is not the elegant, caped figure played elsewhere by Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee. And what happens to the vampire's chief disciple, a doctor, is truly horrifying. Based on a couple of stories by Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu, but the creative sensibility behind it was definitely the director's. This was Dreyer's followup to "The Passion of Joan of Arc", and he was hoping for a hit. (Lugosi's "Dracula" had come out the previous year.) But the picture lost money, and Dreyer's reputation for being demanding and difficult made him unemployable. He went back to journalism for a while, and didn't make another movie for ten years. 

TRICK OR TREAT

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (2018)

 

WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL  

    D: Rob Garver                                                 (2018)  ¢ ¢ ¢

These are the words I wrote down to describe Pauline Kael while I was watching this documentary about her on TCM: cruel, caustic, controversial, full of herself, a snob. Kael was also, without a doubt, the most influential film critic in America in the last decades of the 20th century. (Her review of "Bonnie and Clyde" in the New Yorker in 1967 helped turn a flop into a landmark.) She comes across like a brilliant little kid who demands attention and evolves into a grownup who knows how to get it. She doesn't mind it when her reviews are admired, but she loves it when they're despised. She picks fights, antagonizes other critics (like Andrew Sarris), and always seems happiest when she's pissing people off. The movie is mostly Kael in her own words, and along with a passion for film, she always had plenty to say. Others who turn up to talk about her include Paul Schrader, John Boorman, Robert Towne, Camille Paglia and Quentin Tarantino. David Lean, Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis and Peter Bogdanovich appear in archive footage. 

For Love of the Movies (2009)

 

FOR LOVE OF THE MOVIES: THE STORY OF AMERICAN FILM CRITICISM  (2009)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Gerald Peary

A documentary on the first century of film criticism, from the early silent era to the digital age. Witnesses include some of the best reviewers around, and (like a good movie review) what they have to say is both accessible and informative. For anybody with an interest in the subject - and who doesn't like movies? - these people are worth listening to. Kenneth Turan, Roger Ebert, Elvis Mitchell and Michael Wilmington are among those who appear. 

Listomania / Take 12

 

Some women whose movie careers 

have lasted more than 50 years:

                                     Charlotte Rampling
                                     Geraldine Chaplin
                                     Vanessa Redgrave
                                     Sophia Loren
                                     Helen Mirren
                                     Jane Fonda
                                     Claudia Cardinale
                                     Faye Dunaway
                                     Eva Marie Saint

                                     Catherine Deneuve

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

 

BRINGING UP BABY  (1938)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Howard Hawks

    Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charlie Ruggles,

    Walter Catlett, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson,

    Fritz Feld, George Irving, Virginia Walker

The screwiest screwball comedy ever. A golf ball, a leopard and a dinosaur bone. The dizzy self-assurance of Katharine Hepburn and the flustered perfection of Cary Grant.

The Song Remains the Same (1976)

 

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME  (1976)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Peter Clifton, Joe Massot

Led Zeppelin takes the stage at Madison Square Garden, and art and pretension get all mixed up. A music doc that combines concert footage with fantasy sequences featuring the members of the band. A must for Led Zeppelin fans. More iffy for everybody else. At 2 hours and 16 minutes, it's a whole lotta Led Zeppelin. Highlights: three teenaged boys who can't believe their luck when a security guard lets them into the hall for free, and Jimmy Page playing an electric guitar with a bow.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES  

    D: Terence Fisher               (1959)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    Peter Cushing, André Morrell, Christopher Lee,

    Maria Landi, David Oxley, Francis De Wolff

Sherlock Holmes investigates a murder out on the moors in one of the Hammer Studio's best movies. Peter Cushing makes a great Sherlock.