Trailer for Eclipse (1962).
“Modern Life is Rubbish: Antonioni on DVD,” Benjamin Strong in Fanzine
“A Chronicler of Alienated Europeans in a Flimsy New World,” Stephen Holden in The New York Times
“Hold That Shot: The languorous, achingly hip films of Michelangelo Antonioni,” Dennis Lim in Slate
“One of the most hauntingly beautiful shots in the history of film,” says a YouTube viewer:
Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson in Persona.
Ingmar Bergman (IMDB)
Swedish director Ingmar Bergman dies at 89 (LA Times)
Ingmar Bergman, Famed Swedish Director, Dies at 89 (NY Times)
“Smorgasbord,” Anthony Lane’s profile in The New Yorker, June 14, 2004
French and Saunders
Persona Grata, Melissa [...]
Jim as Jack Bolton in Poison
I was very sad to learn that Jim Lyons died last Thursday. Known largely as a film editor, Jim was also an actor and a writer. He was a true and passionate cinéaste and a deeply generous man. It is difficult to put words to this tremendous loss, and so [...]
Betty Hutton was considered “a brassy, energetic performer with a voice that could sound like a fire alarm,” but here’s a clip of the late chanteuse at a much different register:
For more characteristic mania, see Betty with Dinah Shore.
Betty Hutton, Film Star of ’40s and ’50s, Dies at 86 (NY Times)
Hollywood lyricist Ray Evans passed away last week. With songwriting partner Jay Livingston, he penned the lyrics to “Mona Lisa,” “Que Sera, Sera,” “Silver Bells,” and the timeless words, “The ole hooty-owl hooty-hoos to the dove.” As sung by Debbie Reynolds in Tammy and the Bachelor:
Ray Evans, Lyricist of Hit Songs From Movies, Dies at [...]
“Prisoner of Love/Please, Please, Please,” The T.A.M.I. Show
From Rick Rubin in Rolling Stone:
I remember going to Minneapolis to visit Prince years ago, sitting in an office waiting for him — and there was an endless loop of James Brown’s performance in the 1964 concert film The T.A.M.I. Show running on a screen. That may be [...]
Ruth Webb, a talent agent who specialized in comebacks, died on December 4. Her client list included Gloria Swanson, Mickey Rooney, Tonya Harding, Phyllis Diller, and Divine Brown. She was also fond of raccoons.
There, in a cloud of white satin bedsheets, Ms. Webb tirelessly worked the phones, persuading and cajoling, often nursing a live baby [...]
Belated: In a week that saw the passing of Ruth Brown, Anita O’Day, and Robert Altman, the death of Betty Comden seemed like one more sign that the twentieth century insists on slipping away. Thanks, then, to some twenty-first-century technology: a clip of Comden and Green singing “Carried Away” from On the Town at Art [...]
Gene Krupa Orchestra with Anita O’Day on vocals and Roy Eldridge on trumpet.
I’m not a singer because I have no vibrato…. If I want one I have to shake my head to get it. That’s why I sing so many notes — so you won’t hear that I haven’t got one. It’s how I got [...]
Director Robert Altman dead at 81 (LA Times)
Robert Altman, Leading Director, Dies at 81 (NY Times)