My Neighbors the Yamadas is another in the non-Miyazaki Ghibli series. Unlike the other films, it was based on a comic in what we here in America would call a standard newspaper style four-blocker.

There are many ways to turn a four-blocker into a longer format. In this particular case the director (Isao Takahata, who directed the execrable Only ( Read more... )

My second movie on February 10 (and fourth of the weekend) was Whisper of the Heart, another film in the Studio Ghibli non-Miyazaki series. The Cinematheque description was excellent: "...tells of a well-read teenage girl who discovers that all the books she checks out from the library have previously been borrowed by another individual. She sets ( Read more... )

Some of you may recall the 2007 animated film Persepolis, which was based on Marjane Satrapi's auto-biographical comic of the same name. Satrapi co-directed the film with Vincent Paronnaud; the severe black & white artfully transferred the comic to film and won much critical acclaim, including the jury prize at CannesI personally enjoyed Persepolis ( Read more... )

I generally enjoy film noir, and it doesn't get much more noirish than Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. This hard bitten private eye has been played by many actors, most famously by Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep. I'm willing to bet that none of those interpretations are quite as strange as Lady in the Lake.

Robert Montgomery played Marlowe, ( Read more... )

The Mercenary (also known as A Professional Gun) is the third Sergio Corbucci spaghetti western I've seen in four months, following Django back in January and The Great Silence late last year. As with The Great Silence, the music was composed by the great Ennio Morricone. As with Django, Franco Nero took the lead role ( Read more... )

Last fall the Cinematheque did a series on the films of Hiyao Miyazaki. I enjoyed that a great deal, so when the Cinematheque booked a series of Studio Ghibli films by other directors I jumped right in. First up was the film Only Yesterday, directed by Ghibli co-founder Isao TakahataTo be honest, this was not an auspicious beginning to the series. ( Read more... )

I first recall hearing about the film Harvey when he is referenced in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. Naturally, when it came to the Capitol Theater's Sunday morning classic film series I had to see it.

James Stewart had played the lead role of Elwood P. Dowd on Broadway for three years, and earned a Best ( Read more... )

So you've likely all heard about Quentin Tarantino's most recent release, Django Unchained, which naturally featured Tarantino's over the top violence, great dialog and love of homage. This time it was set in the United States prior to the Civil War, mostly in the Deep South and Texas, with a brief sojourn in the west. Most of the homages are to ( Read more... )

I don't think it's a big secret that I greatly enjoy the work of Quentin Tarantino. I've seen every full length film that he's directed, but due to my "only watch it in a movie theater" rule I had not seen the three films that he has written that were directed by other people. Fortunately, I had the chance to correct that when the Cinematheque ( Read more... )

Based on my long experience, the great old movies fall into two categories. First, there are the many great films that are still lots of fun to watch. Casablanca comes to mind immediately as a great example of this. And then there are the great old movies that are mostly great because they did something first, not because they are still lots of fun ( Read more... )