Movie Stuff

 Movies still rank high in my list of interests, so I have been checking movie related videos on YouTube.

This one became a too long an exposé of Cool Hand Luke  -a favorite I assume is trending towards obscurity - but it did have some bits I did not notice when I watched it decades ago for a film class at Ball State University.

This one has The Sand Pebbles, a move that always seemed to be on TV when I was young, and never quite made sense to me. It is interesting to see which one were flops that we saw continuously on TV. It might be that these were more influential than, say, Blow Up.

No, I do not think anyone seriously wants to remake these movies - unless it is to preserve a copyright.

I have always wondered why Hollywood - since it seems bent on remakes and sequels - has not reached back to solid stories that got mangled by the Hayes Code, or even to Pre-Code movies that could survive an update. Which brings me to this article from LitHub by Michael Koresky, Sodom and Gomorrah on Celluloid: How the Hays Code Took the Sex Out of Hollywood. It has a brief history of Lillian Hellman in Hollywood, and mentions her The Children's Hour; which has never been faithfully adapted to the screen. That would be a movie I think needing remade.

Also on the subject of the Hayes Code: Queer Representation in Pre-Code Hollywood (JSTOR Daily). Have we ever awakened from this brainwashing?

Hong Kong gangster movies! I got into them with John Woo's The Killer thirty years ago. The following describes how the style evolved.

I admit giving up on this one - the audio was too low, but since I saw The Lady From Shanghai before I saw another Orson Welles film, it has a special place in my heart.

This may seem light, even a foolish addition for anyone except a true Trekkie (which I am not), but I think it is a quick, clean explanation of acting and directing.

Some stuff that is more fun (?)

Adapting a novel to Netflix:

I would like to adapt Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op stories to Netflix. I just cannot see anyone letting me do that - I am the epitome of bad PR.

Maybe you can get some practical use out of that last video.

For another take on how to write screenplays, this time relying on David Lynch.

And some links from my bookmarks

Another Old Movie Blog

Classic Movie Hub (CMH) -Best Source for Everything Classic Movies

Criterion Channel: Stream the world's best movies

What is MUBI

Movie reviews and ratings by Film Critic Roger Ebert

itp Global Film – Page 3 – Films from everywhere and every era. (Formerly The Case for Global Film)

American Film Institute

The Film Noir Foundation

Closing out with David Lynch talking about Stanley Kubrick - I cannot think of two more dissimilar directors:

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Updated 6/27:

How Slow Motion Became Cinema’s Dominant Special Effect (The New Republic)

Our world is, obviously, ending. Oceans and carbon dioxide levels are rising with alarming, historically unprecedented swiftness; whole ecosystems are collapsing; authoritarian regimes are seizing power across the globe; borders are hardening; alienation and isolation have become commonplace; future pandemics beckon. Amid this jarring hurtle toward the abyss, slow motion has become not merely ubiquitous on screen but also a shorthand to express, or even a lens to view, our reality. “Slow motion,” writes Goble, “is what modernity looks like as it is dying.”

Call me one is certainly doubtful about Amazon gaining control of the James Bond movies. This does alleviate my bias, a little: Gun for hire: what does Denis Villeneuve joining as director tell us about the new James Bond? (The Guardian)

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