Jean-Luc Godard, Felicia Day, and the Guild of the French New Wave

3/31/10 1:04 PM

The French New Wave unofficially began with Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” in 1960. As Roger Ebert put it, “Modern movies begin here... No debut film since "Citizen Kane" in 1942 has been more influential.” Gone were the days of Classical Hollywood cinema, of a camera that was subservient to the action it was filming. The camera had become a character. The director had assumed a new level of aesthetic freedom. The theory of auteurism championed by the legendary critic Andrew Sarris was elevated to astonishing new heights.   Among the greatest breakthroughs of “Breathless” was the jump cut, indicative of the death of many cinematic conventions and formalities. The jump cut meant a scene was no longer bound to real time. The cinema...

Until Next Week, We'll be At The Movies

3/25/10 8:42 PM

A sad day indeed. The nationally syndicated television program "At the Movies" will end its 24 year run in August, leaving an increasingly complacent culture with one less form of engaging critical thought and discussion. It appears that the program was mortally wounded by the decision to take it in a new, shallower direction by hiring Ben Lyons of E! Entertainment and Ben Mankiewitz of Turner Classic Movies, two men who had never before written a printed review. Judging by the size and enthusiasm of the backlash against the two Bens, it might have seemed like replacing them with such highly decorated critics as Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott would guarantee a ratings spike, but the crippled program couldn't recover. Phillips and Scott can at least be credited with ushering the...

And the Evening Belongs To...

3/8/10 2:00 PM

Kathryn Bigelow, and I couldn't be happier. The fifty-eight year old director was the first female honored for directing by the Academy in its eighty-two year existence. Her acclaimed film, "The Hurt Locker", took home six total awards, including the top honor at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony, March 7 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. And seriously, does anyone else have a hard time believing that that vibrant beauty is fifty-eight years old? "The Hurt Locker" was also awarded for its achievements in editing, sound editing, sound mixing, and for its original screenplay by Mark Boal, who had previously worked as a journalist in Iraq. The film surprisingly matched James Cameron's epic "Avatar" in the technical awards. "Avatar" was thought...

Is The Tramp the Greatest Movie Character of All Time?

3/4/10 7:49 PM

I think he might be. He's certainly the most instantly recognizable, and yes I'm holding him above such company as Darth Vader and Indiana Jones. Show someone a picture of the Tramp and they know instantly what they're looking at. Even people who've never laid eyes on him before can sense his place in history, as though his image has been bred into the human instinct. But sure, we all know he's an iconic figure, but why? Is there just something about that visage that has lingered for nearly a century now in the spirit of the cinema and our imaginations? Or must we now return to the question at hand?Is it because he really is the greatest of all movie characters? Through a long series of shorts and a handful of features, Charlie Chaplin explored through the Tramp the complete spectrum of...

The Eternal Battle Rages On

2/25/10 2:01 PM

Chaplin or Keaton? It's a debate with which any cinephile must contribute. Is Keaton's minimalistic, modern style of performance superior to Chaplin's classical flamboyancy? Does Chaplin's bold and ambitious social commentary trump Keaton's technical innovations with adjusted frame rate and narrative composition? Is Chaplin too sentimental compared to Keaton's bleaker postwar-like worldview? It is also a debate where, encouragingly, both sides are right. And wrong. To take a side is in some way to discredit the other, and comparing Chaplin to Keaton is really an apples and oranges affair. The truth is they were both masters, geniuses, heroes, martyrs of the silent screen. They both benefit from sustained critique and analysis. Neither Chaplin nor Keaton has aged a day. If I had to pick?...