8½ (1963)

Ralph Fiennes in Oscar nominee (but not DGA nominee) Stephen Daldry’s The Reader. In 1948, the 12-year-old Directors Guild of America (DGA), then known as the Screen Directors Guild (SDG),…

Amarcord 1974. Federico Fellini’s Amarcord has often been linked with Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander as films made by old men looking back on their youth. While this is true,…

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror thriller Psycho caused a sensation when it opened in June about fifty years ago. There were a number of reasons for that, one of them being…

Claudia Cardinale: Screen legend at Cannes Film Festival. Claudia Cardinale: The Leopard premiere at Cannes Claudia Cardinale arrives at the premiere of the new restoration of Luchino Visconti’s 1963 Palme…

Super 8½. After Federico Fellini’s 8½ but before Rob Marshall’s Nine there was Bruce La Bruce’s “8 3/4” – better known as Super 8½, La Bruce’s no-budget mix of cleverness,…

8½ with Marcello Mastroianni: Federico Fellini 1963 classic stars his alter ego. In conjunction with its exhibition “Fellini’s Book of Dreams” – which is definitely worth a visit – the…

‘The Shifting Fog’ a.k.a. ‘The House at Riverton’ book cover featuring 1930s and 1940s Hollywood actress Miriam Hopkins. Kate Morton ‘The Shifting Fog’ book cover featuring (unbilled) Hollywood star Miriam…

Jan Troell Swedish Oscars honor: Best Film Guldbagge Award winner Everlasting Moments with Maria Heiskanen. A feature film director since the mid-1960s (Here’s Your Life, Ole dole doff), Jan Troell –…

A Short Film About Killing with Miroslaw Baka. One of the films to be shown in the series “After Winter Comes Spring: Films Presaging the Fall of the Wall” is…

The 26th Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Outfest 2008, will take place between July 9-21 at seven venues in the LA area, from downtown’s historic Orpheum Theatre to…

Stardust Memories with Woody Allen and Charlotte Rampling. One of the interesting things about a great work of art is how, upon re-experience a) it holds up and/or b) deepens…

Brigitte Bardot: Douglas Kirkland’s pictures. One of the best-known subjects of celebrity (and later film set) photographer Douglas Kirkland was the iconic French star Brigitte Bardot. Long before she became…

Alfred Hitchcock classic: Mount Rushmore scene with Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant in North by Northwest (1959), a sort of The 39 Steps reboot that boasted Oscar-nominated art direction…

Contempt with Brigitte Bardot. Of the films I’ve seen so far of French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, his best is Le Mépris / Contempt (1963), adapted by Godard from…

Katharine Hepburn Oscars: Morning Glory with Adolphe Menjou. An RKO star in the 1930s and an MGM star in the 1940s, Katharine Hepburn won a record-setting four Best Actress Oscars.…