The great Swedish actress has died. It’s hard to overstate how wonderful she was in so many Ingmar Bergman films (as well as how skilled he was at getting amazing performances and writing meaty
The brilliant and pioneering filmmaker Agnès Varda has died. In my view, the second greatest living director, behind only Scorsese, Varda’s career is a tribute to the glory of film as a medium,
This is the grave of James Cagney. What to even say about someone like Cagney? A true great of the early sound era. Everyone knows him for his gangster pictures–and they are amazing, real gritty
FFS: Bill Cosby may be in jail. Harvey Weinstein may be in hiding. But Roman Polanski is alive and well, and planning his first movie in the #MeToo era. He even has an Oscar-winning actor attached. Fr
This is the grave of Simone Signoret and Yves Montand. Both born in 1921 and both leading lights among postwar French acting, even though neither were born in France, Signoret was born Simone Henriett
This ranking of Gus Van Sant movies reminds me of two things. First, Drugstore Cowboy should be #1 because it’s an astounding film. Second, it’s highly unlikely Van Sant has a good movie l
I was lucky enough to be on The Sound and the Furious Podcast last week, with scholars seeking to combine academia and pop culture in ways that reach out to a broad audience. The subject was “Th
This is the grave of Preston Sturges. Arguably the greatest comedic director since Chaplin, Sturges was born in 1898 in Chicago. His mom was an artist-type and pretty eccentric. She left her husband w