La Nouvelle Vague (The French New Wave)
Included are my favorite thirteen films. Four are directed by Godard, three by Truffaut, two by Renais, and one each by Chabrol, Demy, Malle, and Varda.
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Category: Hitchcock and other great movie directors
The Films of Joseph L. Mankiewicz
All twenty JLM films rated to coincide with a retrospective at the Criterion Collection. This includes his masterpiece “All About Eve”.
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The Films of Sidney Lumet
Why did a great director make so many bad movies? How could the man who made “Dog Day Afternoon” make 24 unwatchable films?
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Woody Allen’s Oscar-Nominated Works
This is a good time to take a look at what is truly an incredible list: Woody Allen’s record-breaking sixteen Oscar Nominations for Best Original Screenplay.
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Ranking Martin Scorsese’s 27 Feature Films
One masterpiece (“Taxi Driver”). Seven near masterpieces including “Raging Bull”, “Innocence” and “Irishman”. Let’s hope he never stops.
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The Films of Elia Kazan
Because of his naming names at the HUAC, what you think of Elia Kazan’s oeuvre depends on whether you can separate the artist from the art.
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The Films of Edmund Goulding
For almost sixty years he was the ONLY director whose film WON Best Picture (Grand Hotel 1932) but he was NOT nominated for Best Director.
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Which 7 Films Did Hitchcock Make That Were “Perfect”?
Seven films in which every shot, every camera move, every editing sequence is perfect. Four of the seven movies star either Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart.
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The 42 Most Honored Directors in Cinema History
Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, John Ford, William Wyler, Billy Wilder, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese are listed.
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Best Final Movie Made by a Great Director
Although Charles Laughton made only one and, therefore, final film, based on this film alone, he is of the Great Directors.
Number One: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Sidney Lumet: 2007). Number Five: Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock: 1976).
My 50 All-Time Favorite Horror Movies
Here are my 50 all-time favorite horror movies from 1934 to the present.1. Psycho | 2. Midsommar | 3. The Exorcist | 4. The Shining | 5. Alien…
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Eleanor Perry Felt Violated As Husband Frank Took the Credit
Eleanor and Frank Perry’s last movie together was their best, a wonderful adaptation of Sue Kaufman’s “Diary of a Mad Housewife”.
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Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Film Review A+
Pacino is magnificent. With Michael Corleone in The Godfather movies, “Dog Day Afternoon” is his defining role.
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The Anderson Tapes (1971) Film Review D
Hamming it up and mincing all over the place, this is a cringe-worthy performance from Martin Balsam who is not referred to by his given name, just The Fag.
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Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) Film Review A+
Starring a luminous Carrie Snodgress, the last movie that director Frank Perry and his screenwriter wife Eleanor made together is their best.
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There Was A Crooked Man (1970) Film Review B+
Hume Cronyn and John Randolph are our happy and well-adjusted gay couple. Yes, they fight and bicker all the time. However, they are clearly madly in love with each other.
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Last Summer (1969) Film Review A
..but it is Hershey who is really stunning as the manipulative Sandy. Then, into their lives wanders Rhoda (Oscar nominee Cathy Burns)…
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The Swimmer (1968) Film Review B
With a near-great performance by Burt Lancaster as the title character who “swims his way home” through his “river” of backyard swimming pools…
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The Group (1966) A Lost Opportunity C
Sidney Lumet’s movie is like a microcosm of his career – he bites off more than he can chew. The dreadfully wooded Candice Bergen as lesbian Lakey.
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David and Lisa (1962) Film Review C
In fact, many of Theodore Isaac Rubin’s beliefs have now fallen out of favor. Despite the film’s sensitive moments, it often seems dangerously simplistic and naive.
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Psycho (1960) Film Review A+
Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates made him immortal while, at the same, time, ending his career in Hollywood. A masterpiece.
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North by Northwest (1959) Film Review A+
Eva Marie Saint gives Grace Kelly in “Rear Window” a run for her money as Hitchcock’s most elegant leading lady and the chemistry between the two leads is more palpable than in any Hollywood picture before or since.
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Suddenly Last Summer (1959) Film Review C-
The movie is risible, its few pleasures come from Hepburn’s regal (but very nasty) mother who will do anything to protect her son’s memory.
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Vertigo (1958) Film Review A+
Anchored by an incredible performance by James Stewart as Scotty Ferguson a private detective and ex-cop who suffers from vertigo (fear of heights) after a coworker fell to his death, and Kim Novak is spectacular in the dual role of Judy/Madeleine.
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Rear Window (1954) Film Review A+
Stewart, Kelly, and Ritter are all magnificent. Kelly, looking radiant, gets to deliver one of the big screen’s all-time sexy lines.
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Strangers on a Train (1951) Film Review A-
Hitchcock reverses himself here, having gay actor Farley Granger play the straight character and straight actor Robert Walker play the gay character.
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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Film Review A+
The best play to film adaptation of all-time with two of the greatest performances: Vivien Leigh as Blanch DuBois and Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski.
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All About Eve (1950) Film Review A+
Bette Davis in her greatest role with some of the best lines ever written. Both Addison and Eve are gay and he blackmails her.
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Rope (1948) Film Review A-
The story, which is based on the Leopold and Loeb case is irresistible. Granger and Dall are perfection and Jimmy Stewart is also amazing.
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Notorious (1946) Film Review A+
The term “MacGuffin” originated by Angus MacPhail for film, adopted by Alfred Hitchcock, and later extended to a similar device in other fiction. The MacGuffin here is the Uranium in the cellar.
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