I get the majority of my musical rentals from Netflix nowadays, which means I have to make the decision on my weekend viewing earlier in the week… so by an eerie coincidence, by the time I found out Esther Williams had died, Million Dollar Mermaid was already on its way to me for weekend viewing.
I’ve owned a box set of Elvis Presley movies for about the past three years, yet as of this weekend I’d only watched ONE of them, and even that (Jailhouse Rock) was only within the past few months–on some weekend I hadn’t rented a musical and needed something for my weekend morning project. I actually may have watched more of them sooner had I not owned them, because I was lulled into the complacency of always having them right there, waiting for me–instead of a rental with a due date or a friend tapping on their wrist waiting for a disc’s speedy return.
Not, strictly speaking, a vintage film, but instead a short recap of an event at a local repertory theater: Recent Spanish Cinema’s vino and queso festivity in the courtyard of the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Packed with colorful and stylish people, the courtyard party offered all manner of Spanish delicacies, and was followed by a …
I love watching great movies with great commentaries, because it’s something I can keep with me every time I watch or think about the movie afterward. But sometimes they’re not so great–and I recently found one of these unfortunate entries quite unexpectedly on a Criterion bluray. On the surface, it may not have seemed outright …
I’ve been happily chugging along with my Moviepass usage for the past few months, cheerfully heading off to see all manner of misguided summer sequels, questionable comedies, and, yes, even a few mainstream gems I probably wouldn’t have bothered to see otherwise, had I been paying for each one rather than seeing them all under …
Man, Busby Berkeley really is on another level, isn’t he? He certainly had an eye for film, which I think really distinguishes him from other choreographers, both of his era and of any time. His most famous set pieces simply can’t be replicated in any other medium–not only are the dancers choreographed, but the cameras as well… and you can’t get one of those great Berkeley overhead geometries seated in a theater.