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I consider myself something like a student, autodidact or otherwise, of cinema and––even still, must confess––had not ever grasped the concept of Argentine noir. Credit to Criterion Channel, who’ll expand my horizons with February’s program (concisely titled “Argentine Noir”) that includes one known title––Pierre Chenal’s Native Son, an Argentine film from a French director adapting an American novel about the African-American experience in Chicago––and five I look forward to discovering. Retrospective-wise, their wide-reaching Claudette Colbert program could double as a lesson in Old Hollywood, between Capra, Stahl, DeMille, Lubitsch, Sirk, and Sturges. February, of course, brings Black History Month and Valentine’s Day: the former engenders a series featuring films such as Nothing but a Man, Portrait of Jason, and Losing Ground; the latter brings “New York Love Stories,” from Carol to Crossing Delancey to, curiously, Annie Hall, which likely would not have...

With the elections less than two months away and the highly anticipated debate between former President Donald Trump and current vice president Kamala Harris on Sept 10, it’s time to revisit classic political movies. TCM is currently presenting a nine-week series “Making Change: The Most Significant Political Films of All Time.” Political films run the gamut from thrillers, to dramas (“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”), to the historical, to satirical comedies.

Speaking of satires, Preston Sturges received his one and only Oscar for his screenplay for 1940’s “The Great McGinty,” his smart, funny comedy about a hobo (Brian Donlevy) who rises to governor only to lose it all. Sturges had originally written a piece “The Story of Man” in 1933 with Spencer Tracy in mind. Tracy had just starred in 1933’s “The Power and the Glory,” which marked Sturges’ first film script. He attempted to sell it to Universal which also turned the story down; so,...

The Criterion Channel has unveiled its streaming lineup for August 2024, which features an eclectic mix of independent films showcasing the work of auteurs from around the world.

The boutique service will become the exclusive streaming home of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2021 comedy “Licorice Pizza,” and will celebrate the occasion by adding four more of his films to the channel: “The Master,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Punch-Drunk Love,” and “Magnolia.” Anderson’s frequent collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman will additionally be celebrated on the streaming service as part of a larger retrospective. Many of the late actor’s most iconic roles, including “Capote” and “Synecdoche, New York,” will be included, along with his sole directorial outing “Jack Goes Boating.”

The channel will also highlight several other prominent filmmakers including Preston Sturges, who helped pioneer the modern rom-com through films like “The Lady Eve” and “The Palm Beach Story,” and prolific Egyptian auteur Youssef Chahine.

The Criterion Channel’s August lineup pays tribute to auteurs of all kinds: directors, actors, and photographers, fictional or otherwise. In a notable act of preservation and advocacy, they’ll stream 20 titles by the Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine, here introduced by the great Richard Peña. More known (but fun all the same) is a five-title Paul Thomas Anderson series including the exclusive stream of Licorice Pizza, as well as a Philip Seymour Hoffman series that overlaps with Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love (a Criterion Edition this month), and The Master, plus 25th Hour, Love Liza, and his own directing effort Jack Goes Boating. Preston Sturges gets five movies, with Sullivan’s Travels arriving in October.

Theme-wise, a photographer series includes Rear Window, Peeping Tom, Blow-up, Close-Up, and Clouzot’s La prisonnière; “Vacation Noir” features The Lady from Shanghai, Brighton Rock, Kansas City Confidential, Purple Noon, and La piscine. Alongside the aforementioned PTA and Antonioni pictures,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

Our House of Tolerance 35mm presentation returns Friday; prints of Night Tide and Eddie Murphy: Raw show Saturday; The Last of the Mohicans and Thief play on 35mm this Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

A massive overview of Bulle Ogier has begun, this weekend bringing Fassbinder, Rivette, Buñuel, Duras, and more.

Museum of the Moving Image

America’s largest-ever Hiroshi Shimizu retrospective begins (watch our exclusive trailer debut); The Abyss screens on Sunday.

Anthology Film Archives

A new Marguerite Duras retrospective begins, while “Cinema of Palestinian Return” continues.

Bam

“Uncharted Territories” highlights Black British cinema from 1963 to 1986.

Film at Lincoln Center

“Seeing the City” presents an avant-garde vision of New York.

Metrograph

“’90s Noir” brings Bound and Deep Cover, while Euro-Heists, a Jane Schoenbrun curation, Dream with Your Eyes Open, Ethics of Care, and Animal Farm all start; meanwhile,...

Much has been made about the smoky sexiness of Luca Guadagnino's "Challengers," notably the brief threesome scene near the beginning of the movie. While the scene is plenty sexy, it constitutes the bulk of the on-screen physicality of "Challengers," and it is, perhaps disappointingly, relegated to about 90 seconds of tongue kissing; Guadagnino's film is not the bisexual throuple film the ad campaign would have you believe it is. 

Instead, it's a soapy, recognizably classical love triangle about three bitter souls who were never able to get over that fateful make-out session. The three players involved were promising tennis champions in high school. There's Tashi (Zendaya), the hotshot celebrity that is already being courted by marketers. There's Patrick (Josh O'Connor), the rough-hewn, stubble-encrusted stud. And there's Art (Mike Faist), the talented jokester whose magic shell quickly hardens into a crunchy layer of jealousy. "Challengers" follows them, via flashbacks, through their...

Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson’s ’Mother Vera’ and Sarah Lewis’ ’No Ifs Or Buts’ honoured in festival’s works-in-progress section.

Documentary filmmakers scooped the prizes in Locarno Pro’s First Look work-in-progress section, which is dedicated to UK films this year.

Mother Vera, co-directed by Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson, won the new Creativity Media First Look Award covering services towards the completion of films in post-production up to the value of € 50,000.

Mother Vera follows a young Orthodox nun making her way from the thick snow of the Belarusian forest to the heat of the reeds in the French Camargue.

Belarusian-set pic Mother Vera has picked up Locarno’s Creativity Media First Look Award, the biggest prize handed out by the festival’s industry section.

The award comes with a €50,000 cash prize that covers services towards the completion of films in post-production. Filmmakers Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson co-directed the pic with producer Laura Shacham.

Discussing their choice, the Locarno Pro jury — comprised of Ava Cahen, Gaia Furrer, and Eugene Hernandez — said: “From the opening moments of this film, we were immediately drawn to the strikingly photographed stark portrait of a fascinating nun in Belarus who makes a journey to France. We congratulate filmmakers Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson and wish them the best with this new film, Mother Vera.”

Embleton is a London-based filmmaker who has predominantly worked in docs. Her debut film,...

It was a good day for female filmmakers – and documentaries – at Locarno Pro, with “Mother Vera” by Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson winning the Creativity Media First Look Award on Sunday at Locarno’s pix-in-post competition, dedicated this year to the U.K.

Dedicated to a young Orthodox nun, “Mother Vera” shows her turbulent past and fragile future as she faces inner conflict after 20 years as a monastic.

“From the opening moments of this film, we were immediately drawn to the strikingly photographed stark portrait of a fascinating nun in Belarus who makes a journey to France,” said jurors Ava Cahen, Gaia Furrer and Eugene Hernandez.

The award covers post production services up to the value of €50,000. Laura Shacham produces “Mother Vera” for She Makes Productions.

“About six years ago, they were working together on Alice’s photographic project documenting Christian pilgrimage sites in Eastern Europe. They saw this striking woman,...

VFX artists are baffled by how The Palm Beach Story pulled off its closing scene without the use of motion control, which didn't exist when the film was made. The Palm Beach Story is a romantic comedy from 1942 which follows married couple Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) and Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert). The couple's financial woes lead to them splitting up and ending up on a wild adventure in Palm Beach, where they get mixed up with a billionaire and his sister. After some re-evaluation over the years, the screwball comedy has been accepted as a comedic American classic.

When the Corridor Crew tackled The Palm Beach Story, though, they found themselves baffled by one end shot.

The segment, which starts around 10:25, questions a final scene that sees a wedding taking place with two sets of twins. Hence, there's a duplication effect going on, but the big mystery is how...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film Forum

A Preston Sturges retrospective continues, with The Palm Beach Story, The Lady Eve, and Sullivan’s Travels all playing on 35mm this weekend.

Roxy Cinema

35mm showings of Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse begin a Todd Solondz retro; the Leonard Cohen concert film Bird on a Wire screens this Saturday, as does Jonas Mekas’ Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol.

Museum of Modern Art

Always a highlight of the repertory year, To Save and Project presents the best in restored cinema; a Guillermo del Toro retrospective of his features and inspirations has its final weekend, marking your last chance to see Puss In Boots at MoMA.

Museum of the Moving Image

A series on awards-snubbed films continues with Sirk, Ray, and McCarey; the rare Greek feature My Friend, Lefterakis screens this Sunday.

IFC Center

28 Days Later,...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)

Superlatives are fatuous, but Mads Mikkelsen’s final dance in Another Round was possibly one of the finest scenes of the year. It is here that Thomas Vinterberg tips his hand: in turns devastating and rambunctious, his latest neither glorifies nor condemns the magic––and sorrows––of day-drinking, but conjures a surprisingly sober study of a midlife crisis, climaxing in this moment of blissful catharsis. As a character-defining moment, it’s up there with Denis Lavant’s pirouettes at the end of Claire Denis’ Beau Travail. – Leonardo G.

Where to Stream: Hulu

Audrey (Helena Coan)

Despite her status as one of the most iconic movie stars in history,...

The Criterion Channel has unveiled their March 2021 lineup, which includes no shortage of remarkable programming. Highlights from the slate include eight gems from Preston Sturges, Elaine May’s brilliant A New Leaf, a series featuring Black Westerns, Ann Hui’s Boat People, the new restoration of Ousmane Sembène’s Mandabi.

They will also add films from their Essential Fellini boxset, series on Dirk Bogarde and Nelly Kaplan, and Luchino Visconti’s The Damned and Death in Venice, and more. In terms of recent releases, there’s also Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century and Claire Denis’ Let the Sunshine In.

Check out the lineup below, along with the teaser for the Black Westerns series. For weekly streaming updates across all services, bookmark this page.

The Adventurer, Charles Chaplin, 1917

Bandini, Bimal Roy, 1963

Behind the Screen, Charles Chaplin, 1916

Black Jack, Ken Loach, 1979

Black Rodeo, Jeff Kanew, 1972

Blood Simple, Joel and Ethan Coen,...

Now for a real treat for musical fans, a core MGM dazzler with top stars, fully restored and looking incredibly good. Vincente Minnelli’s snappy, funny 1948 show isn’t ranked among producer Arthur Freed’s best but it ought to be. Silly farce gets a high-toned, technically amazing workout as Judy Garland’s demure señorita secretly lusts after the ruthless corsair of the title, Mack the Black! Gene Kelly’s slippery carny womanizer impersonates her piratical fantasy sex object, and it all ends in clowning and killer musical numbers. Cole Porter’s smart songs attest to the great orchestrators and arrangers in MGM’s world-class music department; the new full digital restoration makes the movie look and sound better than I’ve certainly ever seen it.

The Pirate

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1948 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 102 min. / Street Date November 24, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Walter Slezak,...

The Lady Eve

Blu ray

Criterion

1941/ 94 min.

Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest

Cinematography by Victor Milner

Directed by Preston Sturges

In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.

Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.

The Great McGinty

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1940/ 1:33:1 / 82 min.

Starring Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff

Cinematography by William C. Mellor

Written and Directed by Preston Sturges

If the story of a unscrupulous crook who rises to great political power hits a little too close to home these days, consider that in 1940’s The Great McGinty the mobster in question is a fundamentally decent gent who sacrifices his career to do the right thing. When the jig is up he high-tails it to the border, penniless but with a clean conscience. Current events require that Preston Sturges’ bittersweet political satire be filed under Fairy Tales.

The movie opens in a rowdy little dive in South America where the once and future lowlife Dan McGinty has made his new home, lording over the bar while dispensing equal amounts booze and wisdom. One poor fellow wanders in who could use a little of both.

Mubi's series Screwball Now & Then is showing November 21–December 21, 2019 in the United Kingdom.Preston Sturges was a writer and director who could pass muster as a percussionist; his deliciously black-hearted screwball comedies of the forties moved at a clip that would tongue-tie most screen performers today. Rhythm is integral to Sturges’ comedies and his characters move and speak so quickly they can get away with all kinds of things. In his beloved series of films of that decade—The Lady Eve (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero (both 1944), among others—Sturges would help to perfect a very particular form of romantic comedy. That venerated form, known as screwball, reached its apotheosis in the late 1930s and early ‘40s, characterized by sharp verbal sparring, chaotic plot twists, and snappy pacing that veered from witticism to pratfalling as it pleased. In The Palm Beach Story,...

After polling critics from around the world for the greatest American films of all-time, BBC has now forged ahead in the attempt to get a consensus on the best comedies of all-time. After polling 253 film critics, including 118 women and 135 men, from 52 countries and six continents a simple, the list of the 100 greatest is now here.

Featuring canonical classics such as Some Like It Hot, Dr. Strangelove, Annie Hall, Duck Soup, Playtime, and more in the top 10, there’s some interesting observations looking at the rest of the list. Toni Erdmann is the most recent inclusion, while the highest Wes Anderson pick is The Royal Tenenbaums. There’s also a healthy dose of Chaplin and Lubitsch with four films each, and the recently departed Jerry Lewis has a pair of inclusions.

Check out the list below (and my ballot) and see more on their official site.

100. (tie) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese,...

Lost In America

Blu-ray

Criterion

1985 / 1:85 / Street Date July 25, 2017

Starring: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty

Cinematography: Eric Saarinen

Film Editor: David Finfer

Written by Albert Brooks, Monica Johnson

Produced by Marty Katz and Herb Nanas

Music: Arthur B. Rubinstein

Directed by Albert Brooks

According to a Newsweek cover story published that same year, 1984 was “The Year of the Yuppie”, referring to those ferociously materialistic young professionals whose numbers blossomed during the Reagan administration. The following year director Albert Brooks and his co-writer Monica Johnson delivered Lost In America, an acerbic road movie detailing what happens when one of those upwardly mobile hot-shots decides to get back to nature and “touch Indians”.

The result is one of the great American comedies, a mile-a-minute talk fest worthy of writer-directors like Billy Wilder, Woody Allen and in particular Preston Sturges, whose The Palm Beach Story told a similar tale about two young-marrieds who find...

Just back from the 2017 TCM Classic Movie Festival with a few thoughts and thoughts about thoughts. I certainly held my reservations about this year’s edition, and though I ultimately ended up tiring early of flitting about from theater to theater like a mouse in a movie maze (it happens to even the most fanatically devoted of us on occasion, or so I’m told), there were, as always, several things I learned by attending Tcmff 2017 as well.

1) TCM Staffers Are Unfailingly Polite And Helpful

Thankfully I wasn’t witness, as I have been in past years, to any pass holders acting like spoiled children because they had to wait in a long queue or, heaven forbid, because they somehow didn’t get in to one of their preferred screenings. Part of what makes the Tcmff experience as pleasant as it often is can be credited to the tireless work...

Broadway’s delightful — but wickedly accurate — satire of big business was brought to movie screens almost intact, with the story, the stars, the styles and dances kept as they were in the long-running show that won a Pulitzer Prize. This is the place to see Robert Morse and Michele Lee at their best — it’s one of the best, and least appreciated movie musicals of the 1960s.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Robert Morse, Michele Lee, Rudy Vallee, Anthony Teague, Maureen Arthur, Sammy Smith, Robert Q. Lewis, Carol Worthington, Kathryn Reynolds, Ruth Kobart, George Fennemann, Tucker Smith, David Swift.

Cinematography: Burnett Guffey

Film Editor: Allan Jacobs, Ralph E. Winters

Original Music: Nelson Riddle

Art Direction: Robert Boyle

Visual Gags: Virgil Partch

From the play written by Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows,...

With the new release of Mildred Pierce, the Criterion Collection appears to be solidifying a trend over the past couple years of providing a showcase for some of the greatest female actors from Hollywood’s Golden Age. Since late 2014, stars like Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night, The Palm Beach Story), Rita Hayworth (Gilda, Only Angels Have Wings) and Rosalind Russell (His Girl Friday) have made their first appearances in the Collection, in what can be considered career-defining roles. These additions seem to be addressing a notable blind spot for Criterion. As impressive as their reach has been in bringing many of the most iconic women from the past hundred years of world cinema to the forefront, the continuing absence of silver screen legends like Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Greta Garbo and Elizabeth Taylor, just to name a few, seems like a lingering oversight, a problem yet to be...

Nostalgia just ain’t what it used to be.

When the poster for American Graffiti (1973) asked the question “Where were you in ’62?” it was marketing a trend, spiked by the increasing popularity of the theatrical musical Grease, for audiences of a certain age to look backward to a time when life wasn’t ostensibly so complicated, when your life was still out there waiting to be lived, to a time when America hadn’t yet “lost its innocence.” The demarcation point for that alleged loss is often assigned to the upheaval of grief and national confusion experienced in the wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, so it was no accident that the setting for American Graffiti’s night of cruising, romancing and soul-searching was placed a little over a year before that cataclysmic event. The interesting thing about Graffiti was the aggressiveness with which that...

Stanley & Iris

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1990 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date January 17, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro, Swoosie Kurtz, Martha Plimpton, Harley Cross, Jamey Sheridan, Feodor Chaliapin.

Cinematography: Donald McAlpine

Original Music: John Williams

Written by: Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank, Jr. based on a novel Union Street by Pat Barker

Produced by: Arlene Sellers, Alex Winitsky

Directed by Martin Ritt

There ought to be a place on a screen for every kind of film story. True, old movies fronted a mostly false consensus picture of the world, claiming that there was a ‘normal’ baseline for our lives. The reality of most social issues was ignored in favor of pleasant fairy tales where all conflicts could be solved on a personal level. After all, movies were considered entertainment first, and carriers of vital social truths maybe about 97th. But then and now, there...

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Need a good laugh, but only got an hour and a half? Might we recommend this little lot...

I’m of the firm belief that films work most effectively when their runtime is 90 minutes or less. It forces an economy of story and dialogue which propels the film into its best self. No bloated middle, extended ending, or wasted stories here. This goes double for comedies. They should never outstay their welcome. But they seem to be getting longer, as we recently pointed out here.

So to refresh your movie comedy palette, here are 25 films that are 90 minutes or under. I’ve tried to avoid the more obvious ones, and shine a light on those comedies which might have gone a bit unappreciated over the years, but are well worth a hour and a half of your time. This lean runtime isn’t a guarantee of greatness of course,...

Sturges’s screwball comedies play with big ideas and serious themes. So what makes them some of the funniest films ever made?

It was a sprint worthy of his greatest farces: between 1937 and 1944, Preston Sturges made some of the funniest films Hollywood ever produced, including The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, Sullivan’s Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, and Hail the Conquering Hero. Then suddenly, as if his frantic, frenzied comedies had exhausted not only himself but his form, Sturges ran out of steam. Blending the comical and serious, farcical and cerebral, high and low, Sturges found catalytic energy in mixing formulas like a madcap scientist; as if he had released actual kinetic energy, he went ricocheting through Hollywood cinema, until he fell to earth with a thud. Happily, the BFI season celebrating Sturges offers audiences the chance to rediscover golden-era Hollywood’s minister of misrule.

Let All The Children Boogie | Unfaithfully Yours: The Comedies Of Preston Surges

Few directors wrote their own material in the 1940s, but Preston Sturges was an exception in every way. He sold his script for The Great McGinty for $10 in exchange for the chance to direct it, and he clearly knew what he wanted, which is about the same things audiences today want: polished repartee, energetic screwball comedy, cheese-free romance and sharp social satire. This season showcases his work, from his masterpiece, Sullivan’s Travels – as fine a film about film-making as has ever been made – to those that tested the boundaries of the era audaciously. In The Miracle Of Morgan’s Creek, a woman can’t remember who she’s married (and she’s pregnant). In The Palm Beach Story, a woman marries someone richer in order to bankroll her first husband; and in McGinty itself, a homeless...

Let’s end the year with a celebration of the funniest comedy scripts ever written. The Writer’s Guild of America has chosen the 101 best laugh-getting screenplays. Keep in mind that this is all about the writing, not the cast or the director.

1.Annie Hall (1977)

2. Some Like it Hot (1959)

3. Groundhog Day (1993)

4. Airplane! (1980)

5. Tootsie (1982)

6. Young Frankenstein (1974)

7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

8. Blazing Saddles (1974)

9. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

10. National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)

11. This is Spinal Tap (1984)

12. The Producers (1967)

13. The Big Lebowski (1998)

14. Ghostbusters (1984)

15. When Harry Met Sally (1989)

16. Bridesmaids (2011)

17. Duck Soup (1933)

18. There’s Something About Mary (1998)

19. The Jerk (1979)

20. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

21. His Girl Friday (1940)

22. The Princess Bride (1987)

23. Raising Arizona (1987)

24. Bringing Up Baby (1938)

25. Caddyshack (1980)

26. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)

27. The Graduate (1967)

28. The Apartment (1960)

29. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

30. The Hangover (2009)

31. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)

32. The Lady Eve...

Perhaps the most subjective genre in cinema, the same comedy can cause one viewer to have tears of laughter and another to not crack a smile. So, while knowing there can be no definitive list of the finest in the genre, the Writers Guild of America attempted to narrow down the 101 funniest screenplays. Noting the distinction from the best in the genre, these 101 films should simply produce the most laughs.

Topping the list is Woody Allen‘s Best Picture-winning Annie Hall, a choice difficult to argue with. Rounding out the top five were Some Like it Hot, Groundhog Day, Airplane! and Tootsie, while films from the Coens, Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson, and Edgar Wright were also mentioned. There are also some genuine head-scratching inclusions, including The Hangover at 30, and, as much as I enjoy the film, Bridesmaids nearly making the top 15, but overall, if one is looking to brighten their mood,...

G.W. Pabst's silent German classic is intact, restored and looking great. Louise Brooks is the virginal innocent betrayed on every level of the sexual double standard. Brooks is nothing less than amazing, with a performance that doesn't date, and Pabst only has to show how things are to make a statement about societal hypocrisy. German cinema doesn't get better. Diary of a Lost Girl Blu-ray Kino Lorber Classics 1929 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 112 min. / Tagebuch einer Verlorenen / Street Date October 20, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Rasp, Valeska Gert, Franziska Kinz, Edith Meinhard, Andrews Engelmann, Kurt Gerron, Siegfried Arno, Sybille Schmitz, André Roanne. Cinematography Sepp Allgeier, Fritz Arno Wagner Art Directors Erno Metzner and Emil Hasler Original Music Javier Perez de Azpeitia (Piano) Written by Rudolf Leonhardt from the novel by Margarethe Böhme Produced by Directed by G.W. Pabst  

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The universally revered Louise Brooks...

When we think about the “writer/director” we often think about the works of Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jean-Luc Godard or Lars Von Trier. The auteurs who charge into the uphill battle of putting their own story to film. It’s more than a credit, it’s a type of filmmaker – one that more often than not starts outside of the studio system, one that more often than not considers themselves a writer first and a director second, one that falls in love with their own dialog. It’s very common now but it didn’t used to be.

75 years ago this week a film was released with the first “Written and Directed by” credit, making official something that had been going on in movie making since the evolution of narrative filmmaking and giving birth to the modern day writer/director. The first credited writer/director: playwright Preston Sturges,...

We've all been there - waiting impatiently at the ticket office queue, glancing up anxiously at the clock and hoping that the trailers are playing for even longer than usual, because otherwise you've got no chance of making it for the start of the film.

In most cases you can piece together what you missed in the first few minutes; but sometimes it's essential to catch the film from the very start, whether for crucial plot details, later call-backs, or simply because it's the best part.

Here's our pick of 11 films you can't afford to miss the start of.

Up

It takes a hardened soul not to well up watching Carl Fredricksen lose his beloved wife Ellie to a sudden illness in the opening montage of Up.

Not only is it probably the best sequence in the film, but it makes the crotchety Carl immediately sympathetic by showing his softer...

The Conversation is a feature at Sound on Sight bringing together Drew Morton and Landon Palmer in a passionate debate about cinema new and old. For their fourth piece, they will discuss David Lynch’s film The Straight Story (1999).

Drew’s Take

I am in the midst of my 1999 class and I assigned two films I had yet to see from the acclaimed year – the year that Entertainment Weekly claimed to “change movies” – Kimberly Pierce’s Boys Don’t Cry and David Lynch’s The Straight Story. I like doing this as a Professor, because it varies the class and keeps me from getting too settled into a comfort zone. It challenges me to be more spontaneous and in the moment, a zone I typically find stimulating and energizing. Needless to say, the sixteen year old legacy of Lynch’s The Straight Story created a certain predisposition. Having seen all of Lynch’s other films,...

Above: David Bordwell drops science on that horrific and longstanding practice we know as "Pan & Scan." Joining President Darren Aronofsky on the International Jury at the Berlinale next month are the following: Daniel Brühl, Bong Joon-ho, Martha De Laurentiis, Claudia Llosa, Audrey Tautou, and Matthew Weiner. For Grantland, Steven Hyden has written a wonderful article on Gene Hackman:

"He couldn’t have planned it this way, but Hackman had aged into a screen persona — he looked like he had spent years driving a truck or working as a doorman before lucking into the movies, because that’s basically what had happened. Hackman might’ve studied the Method under Lee Strasberg (“He played with people’s heads a lot,” he recalled derisively of Strasberg in 2001), but he could just be and be authentic onscreen."

Jafar Panahi's Taxi, the third film of his to premiere since he was banned from directing in Iran,...

A new issue of Jump Cut is always a thumper and #56 is no exception: Mike Budd on Disney "in the era of corporate personhood," Douglas Kellner on 12 Years a Slave and Amistad, Heather Ashley Hayes and Gilbert Rodman on Django Unchained, Milo Sweedler on class warfare in the Robocop movies and Robert Alpert on the "artificial intelligence of Her." And more. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Richard Brody on Amos Vogel, James Schamus's speech "23 Fragments on the Future of Cinema," Stephanie Zacharek on The Palm Beach Story, an exhibition of work by James Benning and Peter Hutton, early word on future projects from Don Hertzfeldt and Jesse Eisenberg and more. » - David Hudson...

A new issue of Jump Cut is always a thumper and #56 is no exception: Mike Budd on Disney "in the era of corporate personhood," Douglas Kellner on 12 Years a Slave and Amistad, Heather Ashley Hayes and Gilbert Rodman on Django Unchained, Milo Sweedler on class warfare in the Robocop movies and Robert Alpert on the "artificial intelligence of Her." And more. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Richard Brody on Amos Vogel, James Schamus's speech "23 Fragments on the Future of Cinema," Stephanie Zacharek on The Palm Beach Story, an exhibition of work by James Benning and Peter Hutton, early word on future projects from Don Hertzfeldt and Jesse Eisenberg and more. » - David Hudson...

One of the greatest, wildest comedies ever made, Preston Sturges's 1942 classic The Palm Beach Story, hits Criterion today in a beautiful new edition packed with extras. The story of a husband and wife (Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert) who, having hit a rough financial patch, agree to separate but then are thrust back together after she heads to Florida and begins to romance a wealthy playboy (Rudy Vallee), the film is remarkable for its inventive, freewheeling story line; it's the kind of movie that can digress into a 20-minute tangent about a gun-happy hunting club wreaking havoc on a passenger train without batting an eye. One of the most intriguing extras on Criterion's edition features SNL's Bill Hader, who is a huge Preston Sturges fan, discussing what makes the film so special and even reading through parts of the script. We spoke to him about his love of...

The Drop I really liked The Drop and it was a little frustrating Fox Searchlight didn't show much interest in raising the film's awareness after the lukewarm response in Toronto. I think this still could have been a hit of sorts if they had shown a little more enthusiasm, but I guess once it was clear it wasn't going to be an Oscar contender they just figured "what's the usec" Nevertheless, check it out now that it's on DVD and Blu-ray, and for my theatrical review click here.

Lucy Solid movie, fun and certain to be quite enjoyable from the comfort of your own home. I have a Blu-ray copy here and I'm going to check it out a second time... at some point.

My Winnipeg (Criterion Collection) It was nice to get back to reviewing some Blu-ray titles recently as Criterion's release of Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg was...

I recognized the greatness of Preston Sturges when I first saw The Lady Eve (1941). Sturges realizes the absurdity of his stories and he owns those absurdities for the sake of entertainment rather than attempting to twist them into something they aren't. In the case of romantic comedies, today's attempts at the genre find filmmakers over looking their absurdity and to do so, as a filmmaker, is to make a movie that's too heavy-handed, ignoring the necessary tone of such a film. How many times have you been watching a romantic comedy and things are bouncing along -- a joke here, a sexual escapade there -- all leading up to the inevitable misunderstanding or break-up of the central characters you knew was comingc At this point our minds have pretty much been trained to expect these moments and all that comes after them. We know the characters are going to get...

The Criterion Collection has announced the selection of six titles to be released on Blu-ray and DVD in April, 2015. The Criterion editions will feature non-compressed audio files, digital picture restoration and each is accompanied by an essay from a prominent critic. Special edition interviewees and commentators include Martin Scorcese, Noah Baumbach and more. Synopses of the films below are courtesy of Criterion: "Sullivan's Travels"Tired of churning out lightweight comedies, Hollywood director John L. Sullivan ("The Palm Beach Story's" Joel McCrea) decides to make "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"—a serious, socially responsible film about human suffering. After his producers point out that he knows nothing of hardship, Sullivan hits the road disguised as a hobo. En route to enlightenment, he meets a lovely but no-nonsense young woman ("I Married a Witch's" Veronica Lake)—and more trouble than he ever dreamed of. This comic...

I'm just slowly working my way into movie watching for the new year it would seem. Once again this more of a laid back week with only three movies watched, the first of which was showing my wife The Usual Suspects for the first time. I'm not entirely sure she was awake for the whole thing, but by the end she was like, "I knew it was him a while ago." I asked if she liked the movie, she said she did, but I was a little disappointed she didn't seem to like it as much as I did the first time I saw it... oh well. After that I saw Taken 3 and we all know how that turned out and then just last night I watched Preston Sturgess' The Palm Beach Story on the new Criterion Blu-ray coming out on January 20. I'd never seen it before and will...

How would you program this year's newest, most interesting films into double features with movies of the past you saw in 2014?

Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2014—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2014 to create a unique double feature.

All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2014 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...

Perhaps Criterion has been paying attention to my Best Movies posts. Next week sees the release of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita on Blu-ray, which was the first installment in my Best Movies feature and a title I'll be reviewing later this week, and now my third installment, Kihachi Okamoto's The Sword of Doom will be arriving on January 6 with a new high-definition digital restoration. Unfortunately the Sword of Doom release won't come with any new features, though the film, Hiroshi Murai's cinematography, Masaru Sato's score and an audio commentary from Stephen Prince will do for me as that is a title that simply must be part of my collection. Also coming in January is Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant on January 13, Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg on January 20, Preston Sturges's 1942 comedy The Palm Beach Story starring Claudette Colbert...

Bill Hader has come a long way since his stint on Saturday Night Live, creating many popular characters and impersonations such as Stefon, Vincent Price and CNN’s Jack Cafferty. He is one of the highlights in such films as Adventureland, Knocked Up, Superbad and Pineapple Express, and so it is easy to see why author Mike Sacks interviewed him for his new book Poking A Dead Frog. In it, Hader talks about his career and he also lists 200 essential movies every comedy writer should see. Xo Jane recently published the list for those of us who haven’t had a chance to read the book yet. There are a ton of great recommendations and plenty I haven’t yet seen, but sadly my favourite comedy of all time isn’t mentioned. That would be Some Like It Hot. Still, it really is a great list with a mix of old and new.

To mark the release of Sullivan’s Travels on 24th May, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.

Director John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) is one of Hollywood’s hottest talents, with an uncanny gift for getting audiences rolling in the aisles. But he’s dissatisfied: he wants to abandon comedy for Serious Statements, and buys the rights to celebrated social-realist novel ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’

To make his masterpiece as realistic as possible, Sullivan naturally has to understand how the book’s downtrodden characters must have felt, so he takes to the road as a hobo, is taken under the wing of a failed actress (Veronica Lake), and learns several valuable home truths about the importance of not patronising his audience.

Writer-director Preston Sturges had an inspired run in the 1940s, turning out some of the funniest American comedies ever made (The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story,...

Update! Get all of today's deals right here! Amazon's week long deals for 2013 Black Friday and Cyber Monday started today and I have the schedule of deals for Sunday, November 24 directly below and will be updating throughout the week. As of now I have a few deals outside the scheduled events you may be interested in, but other than that pay attention to the deal start times so you don't miss out. Today's deals include a great price on the complete "Sex and the City" and "The Wire" collections, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas on Blu-ray and the Godzilla collection seems particularly intriguing at the end of the day. Outside of what's below you can find the current upcoming scheduled deals for the week right here, which I will be updating as more titles and deals are announced. Otherwise, start shopping. Right Now! The Brady Bunch...

Amazon's week long deals for 2013 Black Friday and Cyber Monday started today and I have the schedule of deals for Sunday, November 24 directly below and will be updating throughout the week. As of now I have a few deals outside the scheduled events you may be interested in, but other than that pay attention to the deal start times so you don't miss out. Today's deals include a great price on the complete "Sex and the City" and "The Wire" collections, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas on Blu-ray and the Godzilla collection seems particularly intriguing at the end of the day. Outside of what's below you can find the current upcoming scheduled deals for the week right here, which I will be updating as more titles and deals are announced. Otherwise, start shopping. Right Now! The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy Blu-ray...

No newsroom has ever been so dazzling, no whipsmart dialogue sharper than that between Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant. It's so good, in fact, the rest of the movie can't keep up

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It begins with a necessary disclaimer:

"It all happened in the 'dark ages' of the newspaper game – when to a reporter 'getting that story' justified anything short of murder. Incidentally, you will see in this picture no resemblance to the men and women of the press of today. Ready? Well, once upon a time …"

Once upon a time, Howard Hawks directed the first shot of the first scene of His Girl Friday, which is almost the-Copacabana-in-Goodfellas-esque in its beautiful glide through a clacking, clattering, hot-metal newsroom. There are men in gambler's eye-shades and waistcoats, there are hurtling secretaries and there are cries of "Copy boy!"

There is a switchboard,...

Cher, the Oscar®, Emmy®, Grammy®, Cannes Film Festival and three-time Golden Globe® award winner is set to be the first host of Friday Night Spotlight, a brand new film showcase launching April 5 on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). TCM host Robert Osborne will join Cher to kick off the franchise with A Woman’s World: The Defining Era of Women in Film, a collection of 17 films handpicked by Cher to illustrate the evolving roles of women from the late 1930s to the early ’50s. Each month thereafter, Friday Night Spotlight will feature a celebrity or expert host who will take viewers through a collection of films focusing on a specific topic.

A Woman’s World: The Defining Era of Women in Film will start Friday, April 5, at 8 p.m. (Et) with Cher and Osborne hosting a night of movies focusing on motherhood, beginning with Joan Crawford’s Oscar®-winning performance in...

This weekend brings what may be the year's ultimate clash of cinematic titans: Steven Spielberg's Lincoln battles The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 for the hearts, minds and wallets of America's moviegoers. Which one will take home the box-office gold? I think we all know the answer. Which one will take home the critical acclaim? We all know the answer to this question, too. Which one will your teenage daughter see? Hopefully, Lincoln. (Tell her that those who do not remember the past are condemned to fail their history exams.)

If you don't know Team Edward from Team Jacob and think the Civil War is so 19th century, how about a little French New Wave? On Saturday and Sunday at the Alamo South Lamar, the Austin Film Society presents Jacques Rivette's celebrated 1974 experimental narrative, Celine and Julie Go Boating (pictured above). This surrealistic tale recounts the adventures of two women who,...