#THIS ONES FOR YOU CINEPHILE ST FANS

[sinclairstarz]

for the cinephile byler truthers. i made the party’s modern au letterboxd accounts

in my head mike wheeler is the film bro cinephile of the party. hes a big brad pitt fan and fincher is his favorite director if you even care.. dirty dancing would be in his top 4 if he was honest. he went to see dune cause hes a scifi nerd, ended up hating it so much and complained about it to will but still gave it 2 stars cause it was pretty. did leave a very mean review. very critical rater but mostly leaves high ratings because he just doesn’t watch things he doesnt wanna see.

alternative movies i considered putting: pulp fiction (5 stars), the killer (1 star), se7en (5 stars), across the spiderverse (5 stars), nope (5 stars) , the batman 2022 (4 stars), once upon a time in hollywood (5 stars), inglorious basterds (5 stars), the matrix (half a star)

the thing is so good and he has a poster of it on his wall in canon so it felt right. it just feels wrong not to do ghostbusters (plus its one of my favorite movies…) and yall need to hear me out on brokeback 😭😭😭 ur telling me he wouldnt bawl his eyes out??? ur wrong. will byers is a jake gyllenhaal lover. he watches dirty dancing a lot for mike, and loves ghibli movies a lot. he cried during rain man. honest rater but doesnt take it too seriously, mostly 4/5 star ratings

alternatives: saltburn (half a star), asteroid city (5 stars), blackkklansman (5 stars), the force awakens (3.5 stars), the perks of being a wallflower (4.5 stars), back to the future (5 stars)

rogue one because lucas has taste. its the best star wars movie, if u care. he would love how fun and goofy ghostbusters 2 is. in my head Wes Anderson is like the party’s claimed director and they all watch his movies together and do marathons because the weirdness, comedy, and emotional commentary is a perfect mix for them. so. bottle rocket. lucas’ favorite wes anderson is the grand budapest hotel if u wanted to know. he rates things pretty highly and isn’t super critical.

alternatives: dodgeball (5 stars), scream 5 (4 stars), the matrix (3 stars), good will hunting (5 stars), jurassic park (5 stars), die hard (5 stars),

likes making lucas watch gone girl on valentines day and telling him shes gonna do that to him next time he annoys her. v for vendetta is her favorite romance movie and shes a big marvel fan (in a cool way. kind of .) but thor ragnarok is probably one of her fav marvels, along with spiderman far from home and iron man. i just know she watches Casino Royale and decided she hated James Bond and then ended up watching all the Daniel Craig Bonds with Mike and loved Skyfall so much. the song is on her playlist and she did cry after No Time To Die.

Alternatives: Superbad (5 stars), baby driver (5 stars), bottoms (5 stars), 10 things i hate about you (3.5 stars), scream (5 stars), kill bill (5 stars), lord of the rings: the return of the king (1.5 stars)

also a bit of a film nerd. i considered giving him a star wars and i know in my heart he’d probably have empire somewhere in his top 4. but star wars is lame and i wanted to give him se7en so he fucking gets se7en. he knows john wick is objectively dumb but he doesnt care hes just here for a good time. the party probably watched saltburn together and all fucking hated it. I just know hes a kurosawa nerd and always goes when the local theatres do very rare special showings of his movies.

alternatives: baby driver (4 stars), the ewok adventure (5 stars) hot fuzz (5 stars) harry potter and the sorcerers stone (4 stars) legally blonde (5 stars) spirited away (5 stars) dazed and confused (5 stars)

she likes movies that make her feel all warm and fuzzy and hopeful. i wanted to give her breakfast club, but i think she’d honestly like sixteen candles more (even though breakfast club’s better). she cried at almost every movie in her top 4 and makes max rewatch juno with her like once a month. she gives most movies 5 stars unless she really hates them, and loves any movie thats fun to watch, even if its bad. she likes movies with pretty girls and fun colors.

alternatives: barbie (5 stars), legally blonde (5 stars), inception (2 stars), heathers (5 stars) pretty in pink (4.5 stars (she was mad andi didn’t end up with ducky)) my neighbor totoro (5 stars)

in conclusion if you haven’t seen They Cloned Tyron (2023) go watch it it deserved the oscar

[holidays-events]

The GIF Calendar: March 2023

3.3: Music fans, get ready! After a six-year hiatus, Grammy-winning artist Macklemore debuts his third solo album, Ben. Also, don’t forget to hit the theaters to check out Michael B. Jordan in his directorial debut of the next film in the Rocky series: Creed III (also, step into the ring…er…our official page for the film).

3.6: We’re celebrating the start of Purim, a two-day holiday celebrating the survival and strength of the Jewish people. Join in the celebration with festive meals, carnivals, and gifts!

3.8: We never need an excuse to celebrate women worldwide, but we can do *even more* celebrating this International Women’s Day. Started by the Socialist Party of America over a hundred years ago, this global holiday is an excellent way to celebrate the great women of the past, like trans rights activist Sylvia Rivera and feminist activist Gloria Steinem. To quote Beyoncé’s line in the chorus of her 2011 hit song: “Who run the world? Girls!”

Also happening on this date is the Festival of Love, the Festival of Colors, the Festival of Spring: It’s the Hindu holiday of Holi! Honor the eternal and divine love of the God Radha Krishna with community and colors!

3.10: Horror fans rejoice: the next installment in the popular Scream series, Scream VI is here! This time, our heroes face off against Ghostface in the Big Apple (and, yes, we have an official page for this movie too).

Also, don’t forget to listen to pop star Lana Del Rey’s new album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd because it’s out today!

3.12: Cinephiles, it’s the most important day of the year: it’s the Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars! First presented in 1929, this ceremony celebrates the best of filmmaking — and we’re all excited to see who wins this year.

But before the show, don’t forget to fix your clocks because Daylight Savings begins!

3.14: It’s the best time of the year for college basketball, March Madness! The 2022–2023 NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament begins today and concludes on April 3. Who do you have your money on?

While you pick your favorite team, why not enjoy a slice of pie to celebrate the mathematical holiday, Pi Day!

3.17: St. Patrick’s Day, the world’s favorite Irish holiday, falls today and honors the Patron Saint of Ireland. Enjoy the day with some four-leaf clovers or with a corned beef sandwich — and remember to wear green or you will get pinched! After you celebrate the holiday, check out the new DC Extended Universe film Shazam! Fury of the Gods, where the original cast is joined by Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren (who you can get a glimpse of on the official page for the action flick).

3.20: C’mon get happy! This International Day of Happiness, don’t forget to acknowledge the things that make you happy and how important it is in your life. Better yet: Celebrate this holiday every day!

3.21: Happy Nowruz! Also known as the Persian New Year, this festival celebrates the beginning of a new year on the Iranian Solar Hijri calendar. World Poetry Day also happens today, so celebrate by reciting a limerick or coming up with a haiku.

3.23: Prepare yourself for a cuteness overload as National Puppy Day arrives today. Celebrate pups by adopting a new dog, treating the one you already have, or maybe just petting a new friend while you’re out and about!

3.24: After four years, Japanese kawaii metal band BABYMETAL returns with their fourth studio album, The Other One. Also returning is our favorite assassin, played by Keanu Reeves, in the long-awaited John Wick: Chapter 4 and, yes, there is an official page full of GIFs from the entire franchise.

3.25: Today the world gathers together for Earth Hour, a day to honor the globe by turning off non-essential electric lights for one hour, from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM. Join in this last Sunday of the month as a symbol of commitment to the planet!

3.31: This Transgender Day of Visibility, make sure you are uplifting and highlighting trans people and their stories. Then, fly to theaters to check out the new movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves based on the popular roleplaying game. Follow a group of thieves as they stop a great evil from taking over their fantasy world!

Happy March from Tenor! What are you most looking forward to?

[7starmovies]

Naseeruddin Shah: The Versatile Actor of Indian Cinema

Naseeruddin Shah is a name that resonates with every cinephile in India. With a career spanning over four decades, Naseeruddin Shah has cemented his position as one of the most versatile actors in Indian cinema. He has essayed a variety of roles with finesse, from the charming anti-hero to the gritty protagonist, and everything in between. In this blog, we delve into the versatile acting prowess of Naseeruddin Shah.

Early Life and Career

Naseeruddin Shah was born on 20th July 1950 in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his schooling from St. Anselm's Ajmer and then pursued his graduation in arts from Aligarh Muslim University. It was during his college days that Naseeruddin Shah developed a keen interest in theater. After completing his graduation, he moved to Delhi and joined the National School of Drama (NSD), where he honed his skills in acting.

Naseeruddin Shah made his debut in the film industry with the 1975 film, "Nishant". He was widely praised for his portrayal of a schoolteacher in a rural setting, and the film went on to win the National Film Award for Best Feature Film. This was just the beginning of an illustrious career that would span over four decades.

Versatility in Acting

One of the key factors that sets Naseeruddin Shah apart from his contemporaries is his versatility in acting. He has seamlessly transitioned from one genre to another, essaying a variety of roles with ease. From his portrayal of the suave antagonist in "A Wednesday" to the nuanced character of a retired army officer in "The Lunchbox," Naseeruddin Shah has proved time and again that he is a force to be reckoned with.

One of his most notable performances was in the film "Sparsh," where he played the role of a blind school principal. The film, which dealt with the theme of blindness, was widely acclaimed for its sensitive portrayal of the subject. Naseeruddin Shah's performance in the film was praised by critics and audiences alike, and he went on to win the National Film Award for Best Actor for his portrayal.

Another notable performance of Naseeruddin Shah was in the film "Paar," where he played the role of a boatman struggling to make ends meet. The film dealt with the theme of poverty and social injustice, and Naseeruddin Shah's portrayal of the character was both poignant and powerful.

Legacy in Indian Cinema

Naseeruddin Shah has not only made a mark in Indian cinema but has also left an indelible legacy. He has been a part of some of the most iconic films in Indian cinema, including "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro," "Masoom," and "Ijaazat." He has also been associated with the parallel cinema movement in India, which was a new wave of films that dealt with social issues and featured unconventional storylines.

In recent years, Naseeruddin Shah has also made a mark in the digital space, with his performances in web series such as "Delhi Crime" and "Bandish Bandits." His portrayal of a police officer in "Delhi Crime" was widely praised, and the show went on to win the International Emmy Award for Best Drama Series. His recent work is in the web series Taj:Divided by Blood. You can watch Taj: Divided by Blood online.

Conclusion

Naseeruddin Shah's versatility in acting has earned him a legion of fans and admirers. His ability to seamlessly transition from one genre to another and essay a variety of roles with finesse is what sets him apart from his contemporaries. He has been a part of some of the most iconic films in Indian cinema and has left an indelible legacy.

[aion-rsa]

Best Jane Austen Adaptations on Screen So Far

https://ift.tt/37Zvey7

With Emma and Sanditon making waves (seaside resort pun!), we're listing up the best screen adaptations of Jane Austen's work.

facebook

twitter

tumblr

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every Jane Austen novel must be adapted an infinite amount of times and we will be grateful for all of them. (Yes, even the Pride & Prejudice & Zombies film, the best part of which was not the movie itself but a supercut of Matt Smith as Mr. Collins eating scones.)

There have been a lot of adaptations of Jane Austen's six major novels and some of her other works, including the recently-released Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy. These are the ones we recommend watching.

Best Pride and Prejudice Adaptations

Easily the most adapted of Jane Austen's works, Pride and Prejudice is a foundational work in the broader romantic comedy genre and in so much of our mainstream storytelling. People tend to have opinions about which of the P&P adaptations are the best. (Who is the best Elizabeth? Who is the best Darcy? Which is the most faithful? Does it matter?) Here are the ones we think are worth checking out...

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

There’s nothing more iconic Austen than BBC/A&E’s 1995 miniseries adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, starring Jennifer Ehle as proud Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as prejudiced Mr. Darcy. The six-part serial was adapted by Andrew Davies, who would go on to pen many more Austen adaptations, and was the project that shot Firth to stardom. The scene of Firth’s Mr. Darcy coming out of the lake, long shirt soaked through, has been riffed on countless times (a personal favorite? St. Trinian’s), and for good reason. Mr. Darcy has never been so begrudgingly sexy.

Bridget Jones' Diary (2001)

An adaptation of the book of the same name which is a contemporary reimagining of Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones’ Diary has Colin Firth reprising the Mr. Darcy role (here, Mark Darcy) alongside Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones, a 32-year-old woman looking to stop smoking, lose weight, and find Mr. Right—who most definitely is not snooty barrister Mr. Darcy.

Written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually), Andrew Davies (screenwriter of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice), and source material author Helen Fielding, this script has it all: romance, comedy, and plenty of heart. The film spawned two sequels—neither of which are as good as the original, but neither of which is terrible either.

Bride & Prejudice (2004)

This Bollywood-style contemporary adaptation from Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) stars Aiswarya Rai as Lalita Bakshi, a young Indian woman who lives in Amritsar with her parents and three sisters. When Lalita and her sister meet British-Indian lawyer Balraj (Naveen Andrews) and well-off American Will Darcy (Martin Henderson) at a wedding, strong feelings ensue. A great cast and a fresh cultural setting make this adaptation a must-watch.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Basically a masterpiece, Joe Wright’s first feature film has a great cast (Kiera Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan, Jena Malone, Judy Dench, Talulah Riley, and Donald Sutherland), but it’s the director’s interest in getting the setting right that makes this adaptation special. Using his trademark long shot, Wright invites viewers into the world of the Bennets: from the homey, organic mess of the Bennet house to the cheerful chaos of a dance hall, Pride and Prejudice has never felt so lived-in.

Lost in Austen (2008)

If you like your Austen with a speculative fiction twist, might I recommend Lost in Austen? This 2008 ITV miniseries stars Jemima Rooper as Amanda Price, a huge Jane Austen fan who gets pulled into the world of her favorite Austen novel and must make choices accordingly. This four-part story doesn't totally stick the landing, but it's well worth the quick watch for its humor, creativity, and meta fun, as well as to see Gemma Arteron as Elizabeth Bennet. 

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012)

Who knew Austen was so well-suited for the vlog style? Hank Green and Bernie Su, apparently, who were the creators behind this Emmy-winning adaptation, which reimagines Elizabeth Bennet as a mass communications grad student still living at home with her parents and two sisters.

The story is told chiefly through a series of vlogs (as well as through supplementary social media accounts for the world’s characters, making this a transmedia storytelling experience). In universe, Lizzie (Ashley Clements) begins a vlog series chronicling her life as a thesis project, an event that just happens to coincide with the moving in of a wealthy medical student Bing Lee (Christopher Sean) and his even wealthier friend, William Darcy (Daniel Vincent Gordh), next door. Told in real-time over the span of year, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was a truly special storytelling experience, and is still well-worth watching even without the real-time aspect.

Best Emma Adaptations 

While slightly less well-known than Pride and Prejudice, Emma has had its fair share of on-screen adaptations. The story of the spoiled 21-year-old Emma Woodhouse, Emma follows Emma on her matchmaking adventures, which are more the ego-driven meddling of a bored, rich girl with too much time on her hands than anything else. With Emma, Austen set out to tell the story of an unlikable protagonist, but Austen never intends for us to root against her, making Emma’s realistic journey of self-growth that much more cathartic.

Clueless (1995)

If you’ve seen one Emma adaptation, it’s probably this one. A contemporary retelling of Emma Woodhouse’s story, Clueless’ reimagining of Emma as bratty Beverly Hills teen Cher is downright genius. Starring Alicia Silverstone in the main role and Paul Rudd as ex-step brother and unassuming love interest Josh, Clueless is more than just one of the best Austen adaptations out there—it’s one of the best teen comedies of all time.

Emma (2009)

If you’re looking for a faithful miniseries adaptation of Emma, we recommend this 2009 version. Starring Romola Garai as Emma, Jonny Lee Miller as Knightley, and Michael Gabon as Mr. Woodhouse, and written by Sandy Welch (who also gave us the glorious North & South adaptation), this four-part serial will give you more bang for your buck than any of the feature film adaptations.

Emma Approved (2013)

From the web series company that brought you The Lizzie Bennet Diaries comes this similarly-structured Emma adaptation. Recontextualizing Emma Woodhouse as a young lifestyle coach and matchmaking entrepreneur, Emma Approved comments on YouTube/influence culture in insightful, empathetic ways. While not as good as its predecessor, Emma Approved is still a delightful adaptation worth the watch if you're into this form of storytelling.

Emma. (2020)

Bright, colorful, and at times absurdly pretty, this highly-stylized adaptation of Emma highlights the comedy of Austen’s classic tale without sacrificing any of the drama or romance. Anya Taylor-Joy delivers a masterful performance, as we watch Emma go from the rigidly-controlled noble to a more empathetic, thoughtful version of herself, but it’s Bill Nighy and Miranda Hart in supporting roles who really get to chew the scenery.

Other Best Jane Austen Adaptations

Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Emma Thompson. Kate Winslet. Hugh Grant. Alan Rickman. Need I say more? Written by Emma Thompson and directed by Ang Lee (his first English-language feature film), this faithful adaptation of Austen's Sense and Sensibility is a classic. Whether you're a fan of the film or simply a cinephile, I highly recommend checking out Thompson's "screenplay and diary" chronicling the making of this film.

Persuasion (1995)

If you're going to go for an adaptation of Austen's final novel (published after her death), try to find this 1995 made-for-TV film. Starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds as Anne and Captain Wentworth respectively (not to mention Killing Eve's Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Croft!), Persuasion is not the story of two people coming together for the first time, but two people reuniting after eight years apart. We mentioned 1995 was a good year for Austen fans, yeah?

Mansfield Park (1999)

Mansfield Park doesn't get a lot of love when it comes to the adaptation, but this 1999 film starring Frances O'Connor and Jonny Lee Miller is one of the best Jane Austen-inspired films out there. A looser adaptation of the novel that also incorporates elements of Jane Austen's life into the story, Mansfield Park has all of the swoon-worthy romance, sharp social commentary, and relatable female protagonist you could want from an Austen adaptation.

Northanger Abbey (2007)

Andrew Davies is back at it again with this 2007 television movie, starring Felicity Jones as protagonist Catherine Morland (Carey Mulligan also pops up as friend Isabella Thorpe). One of the OG stories about fandom, Northanger Abbey follows young, naive Catherine as she visits Bath, becomes the object of two men's affections, and begins to confuse real life with the kind of things that might happen in the Gothic romance novels she obsessively reads. If you've never engaged with this most meta of Austen's works, we recommend checking out this adaptation.

From Mansfield With Love (2014)

If you're a fan of the vlog diaries adaptation format (if you can't tell by now, I am), then I also recommend this endearing adaptation of Mansfield Park. Created by Foot in the Door Theatre, what this production lacks in budget, it makes up for in heart. From Mansfield With Love reimagines the story of 19th-century protagonist Fanny Price to modern-day Britain where Frankie Price is working as a housekeeper at a hotel owned by the Bertrams. In an effort to keep in touch with her brother Will, she begins to send video diaries chronicling her life at Mansfield and with the Bertram family, in particularly with friend Edmund. Austen has never felt so real.

Love and Friendship (2016)

Austen in the style of Armando Iannucci (this film is actually written and directed by indie filmmaker Whit Stillman), Love and Friendship is an adaptation of Austen's epistolary novel Lady Susan, which follows the recently-widowed Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale, having so much fun) in her efforts to secure advantageous marriages for both herself and her daughter.

Sanditon (2019)

The new kid on the block, Sanditon just wrapped up its first (and hopefully not only) season on PBS. Based on the unfinished Austen novel, it follows country gentlewoman Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) into the relatively more exciting world of Sanditon, a fishing village with aspirations of being a seaside resort.

While Sanditon isn't without its indulgent plotting, it is beautiful to look at, and includes some memorable performances from Theo James, Charlotte Spencer, and a massively underutilized Crystal Clarke, playing a rare character of color in Austen adaptations. More than anything, it's interesting to see Andrew Davies (yep, he's back) extrapolating out Austen's unfinished novel. Perhaps, fittingly, we most likely will never find out what happens next in this on-screen adaptation.

What is you favorite Austen adaptation? Let us know in the comments below...

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

facebook

twitter

tumblr

The Lists Kayti Burt

Books

Feb 26, 2020

from Books https://ift.tt/2HYLtkM

[wikitopx]

What do the films American Psycho, Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Repo Men have in common? Well, they were all set in the city of Toronto!

You don’t have to be a cinephile to appreciate this Canadian city, though. Here lies all the glittering modernity of cities further south in the USA, with just a fraction of the gun violence, and a hearty boost of ethnic and cultural diversity.

So if you don’t mind the slightly strange accents or a bit of northern wind-chill, perhaps this Ontarian capital may be the vacation destination for you. In which case, you’ll probably be looking for things to do in Toronto. What a total coincidence that you’ve stumbled across this article then!

1. Toronto Reference Library

This is not a tourist attraction in the same sense that some other entries on this article are. That is, it isn’t a place where you go in with and come out having accomplished an act of Tourism.

This is the type of attraction that strikes a similar chord to St. Andrews Church. Come here for a love of books, knowledge and learning. This complex is vast, with students and casual readers scattered all around. Expect light background noise in the lush sound of pages flipping, fingers typing and the hum of air-conditioning.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes might be interested in the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection of this library, considered one of the most comprehensive in the world. Marvel at the first edition of Sherlock’s adventures, or pick up a copy of Doyle’s other, less well-known books.

2. Casa Loma

Originally built for Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, a Canadian financier who was credited with pioneering hydro-electricity in Canada by building a plant to harness the power of the Niagara Falls, Casa Loma is stunning.

A house built in the Gothic Revival style, sitting at 140m above sea level and overlooking the rest of Toronto, Casa Loma has been the setting for many a famous film, no doubt because of it’s otherworldly architecture. Jutting turrets, exposed grey brick and grand glass windows, it plays to every gothic fantasy there ever was.

The attraction here, however, doesn’t end with just the castle itself. Casa Loma is also known for its enchanting gardens. Wandering around the immaculately groomed grounds will leave you feeling like you’ve stepped back into a place far, far away, from a long, long time ago. Fr those wishing to learn more about the history behind this building, self-guided tours are available here in several languages!

The original X-Men movie was actually filmed here!

3. Queen Street West

New York has Soho, Toronto has Queen Street West - known by locals as Queen West.

You won’t be able to mistake this type of area. Every metropolis has something like it. Instead of plaster and paint, you find brickwork and graffiti. For tourists, this is the land of Chinese restaurants and antique stores. You can even swing by after the sun goes down for a drink with live jazz music at The Rex.

If hipster adventures are your thing, this is the street for you. And what meal could really be more hipster than brunch? For those seeking a less conventional meal experience, give our recommended King and Queen West Brunch Walking Tour a shot. Link below!

4. Toronto Zoo

Almost every major city has a zoo of some sort. However, not every zoo can claim to have the same number of species in its care as the Toronto Zoo. As of now, it has over 5000 individual animals in its care, totalling more than 500 species!

Even if those numbers seem abstract to you, at least know this about the Zoo. It is one of only 13 Zoos around the world that has the privilege of hosting Giant Pandas. They are further distinguished by the fact that they, in fact, have 2 Giant Pandas! Who on earth could possibly resist these charming fuzzy creatures?

5. Ontario Science Centre

You’re never too old to learn something new! Whether you’re 6, 16 or 60, there’s sure to be something interesting in the Ontario Science Centre for everyone.

For the older ones among you, there are the typical science exhibits you may remember from middle school excursions. Think planetariums, practical physics exhibits and fun science shows demonstrating the seemingly impossible!

If pure science doesn’t quite seem to be your cup of tea, take a walk around and admire the many art displays around the museum. Ogle at The Maple Museum Forever Tree or consider the significance of climate change with the Portraits of Resilience photo exhibition.

In the spring and summer season, there’s even an outdoor park section of the museum where one can see live moss graffiti and take a ride on a tree slide made of 125-year-old Eastern White Pine.

6. St Lawrence Market

St Lawrence Market can look like a stern - even boring - structure from the outside, but appearances can be deceiving. Step inside, and you’ll find yourself whisked away into the delightful mess of one of the world’s best farmer’s markets.

To clarify, know that St Lawrence Market is actually split into three distinct sections, namely The South Market, The North Market, and St Lawrence Hall. Depending on when you drop by St Lawrence Market, the mix of shops will be different. Weekends would really be the best time to come, as The North Market holds two special events on each day.

Saturdays are for Saturday’s Farmer’s Market, a centuries-old tradition where Ontarian farmers bring their finest seasonal produce down to Toronto, where Sundays are when The North Market floods with antique sellers hawking their wares.

Fresh produce is not all there is to the Market, however. If you do come down, be sure to come down with an empty stomach, as St Lawrence Market is also home to hawkers selling the best of Ontarian comfort food. If you’re looking for a good Portuguese egg custard tart or a proper Canadian peameal sandwich, St Lawrence Market is your place!

7. Distillery District

Where Kensington Square may have piecemeal sections of Victorian-era architecture splintered across the neighbourhood, the Distillery District rocks the Victorian vibe through and through.

As the name suggests, this area was first developed as an industrial complex to support the distillation of whisky. At one point, this neighbourhood held the biggest distillery in the world, exporting more than 2 million gallons (7.6 million litres) of whisky a year. When alcohol was no longer enough to keep this busy industrial area afloat, the district did undergo a period of abandonment.

In the modern-day, however, the Distillery District has been yanked back to life. Now a pedestrian-only area, the industry that’s come to wash over this area is art. Expect galleries and theatre shows here, and stop for a bite to eat in one of the District’s many award-winning restaurants and cafes.

8. Niagara Falls

What can be said about the Niagara Falls that has not been said before? It is an awesome sight, in the most original sense of the word. It is a vivid display of Mother Nature’s might, flowing at up to 68km/hour (41 mph).

For those not familiar with North American geography, did you know that the Falls actually span across both the US and Canada? However, if you were to visit Niagara Falls from New York, you’d be seeing a completely different Falls than from Ontario. The good news here, though, is that the Ontarian end of the Falls is the grander one, with a much wider brink and more powerful stream. Score for Canada!

While it is about a 1.5-hour drive away from Toronto, it is definitely a must-see for anybody in the southern region of Ontario. In addition to the falls proper, there is also the Niagara History Museum, two different waterparks, as well as the World’s Largest Free-Flying Aviary - Bird Kingdom. For those who feel the prospect of planning an entire day trip out to the falls is too overwhelming, perhaps an organised tour might be the option for you! Check it out in the tour link below.

9. Ripley's Aquarium of Canada

Ripley’s, an American franchise better known for their Believe It Or Not! museums all over the world, has an aquarium in Toronto. Rather than the usual exhibits on strange phenomena from all over the world, the focus of this museum is on the somewhat more standard topic of aquatic life.

That is not to say, however, that this aquarium is in any way lacking intrigue. Featuring a total of 10 different galleries, a day in this aquarium can see you through a mind-boggling number of activities. From a journey on North America’s longest moving walkway - with some of the ocean’s most dangerous animals swimming around you - to a swim with real stingrays, you can look forward to a truly immersive experience with Ripley’s. For those who cannot stand queues at popular attractions like these, pre-booking your ticket is an absolute must! Look in the below for where you can book tickets online.

10. Royal Ontario Museum

Located right in the middle of downtown Toronto, no visit to the city is complete without at least a brief visit to the Royal Ontario Museum. It is the largest museum in Canada, and certainly one of the largest in North America.

The Royal Ontario Museum covers more than just art. Let sheer curiosity be your guide, and you’ll find yourself seeing everything from Near Eastern and African cultural artifacts to the world’s largest collection of fossils (more than 150,000 specimens!). There’s even a gallery that’s a life-size mock-up of the St Clair Cave in Jamaica, complete with 20 bat specimens and over 800 models.

Just don’t expect yourself to be able to finish the whole museum in a day (or even a whole week), as there are over 40 galleries in this museum, totalling more than 6 million artifacts. If you took only a second to look at each artifact, that would still amount to almost 70 straight days of browsing!

Read also: Top 9 things to do in Nagoya, Japan

From : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-toronto-2-705721.html

[smilystore]

Why Are You Still Doing Bikram Yoga

While disgraced yoga guru Bikram Choudhury hides out in Mexico amid allegations of rape and harassment, women all over the world are still giving him their money.

In the southwestern Spanish town of Murcia, some 60 yogis spent nine weeks last spring in sweltering heat learning the 26 postures and 2 breathing practices of Bikram yoga, so that they might go home and teach it. The guru himself sat onstage, broadcasting instructions with his microphone headset. Bikram Choudhury, often wearing nothing except a black Speedo and a gold Rolex, is notoriously brutal at his teacher training, but his devoted followers embrace and value his methods so much so that they all paid between $12,500 and $16,600 to be there.

This fall, dozens more will pay the same amount for a teacher training in Acapulco, Mexico. Choudhury and his students the majority of whom are women will spend nine weeks at a Sheraton resort on Mexico’s Pacific coast, equipped with an 18-hole golf course, pools, bars, restaurants and “an outstanding wellness area,” according to the program description.

Acapulco is a convenient place for Choudhury he decamped there following several lawsuits, an arrest warrant and allegations of rape and harassment against him. This raises the question of why so many people worldwide continue to give him their money. For many, it appears to still be the highlight of their yoga careers. For others, those nine weeks with Bikram Choudhury were the most horrific experiences of their lives.

Jill Lawler, a former student of Choudhury’s from a 2012 training, filed a civil suit against him for rape and harassment in July after her first complaint in 2016 was held up in Choudhury’s company’s bankruptcy lawsuit. Lawler and her legal team are going straight for the jugular in a civil suit, seeking punitive damages from Choudhury himself.

“Teacher Training was intense and demanding,” the lawsuit says. “Unbeknownst to [Lawler], Bikram Choudhury referred to them as ‘one big brainwashing session.’”

While some in the yoga community specifically the Bikram yoga community have taken lengths to distance their practices from the man himself, others have ignored the allegations altogether, or shrugged them off and given him thousands of dollars. In fact, the majority of his students are women, and the bulk of his wealth has come from them, despite his alleged predation.

“It’s bizarre to me that people still go to these trainings. I find it very hard to understand how someone could look [at the allegations of rape] and have questions about what happened,” said Jessamyn Stanley, a yoga instructor whose presence in the industry has inspired more diverse bodies to pick up the practice. “We as a community need to recover from this and look at this.”

The Money That Flows To The Guru

Choudhury developed what he has since called his own practice of doing yoga in the late 1960s the now-notorious 26 postures and two breathing practices that must be performed in a carpeted, 105-degree room. He brought it to San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood in 1973, and in the decades since, America experienced what Stanley referred to as “the Bikram craze” a global franchise led by teachers who had to be trained by Choudhury himself to obtain certification. The cost of this recertification is between $750 and $1,200, and it must be repeated every three years. The locations and trainings became increasingly lavish in the 2000s as celebrities and public figures began to flock to his studios. At the height of the Bikram craze, there were 650 studios in America alone, and as the franchise expanded, so did Choudhury’s wallet.

Initially, Choudhury didn’t franchise the studios he just controlled every aspect of their development with specific contracts that studio owners had to agree to. Certified instructors are required to teach “The Dialogue,” a word-for-word replica of Choudhury teaching a class. Later, Choudhury began to franchise the studios, and per a 2015 report, the cost of opening a Bikram studio is $10,000. There are hundreds of studios in the U.S. alone, and in Europe, Asia and Australia, too. Beyond that start-up fee, Bikram is also owed a percentage of sales, a 5% gross revenues royalty fee, and a 2% gross revenue advertising fund fee per studio. (HuffPost reached out to the Bikram team several times for comment and an update on the franchise fees and received no response.)

It was at the height of this craze that Choudhury allegedly began taking advantage of his more vulnerable students, many of whom seek out the practice due to mental health issues or physical injuries.

Lawler was 18 years old when she spent her college tuition money on a 2012 Bikram yoga teacher training in Las Vegas. She wrote to Choudhury, asking if she could attend despite being three years under the required age, and she was quickly accepted, according to her lawsuit.

“At the time, Jill was proud to be the youngest student at [teacher training], not realizing that her youth and indebtedness to [Choudhury] made her vulnerable and of interest,” the lawsuit reads.

The next several months would include humiliation and degradation at the hands of her guru, the lawsuit alleges, starting with requests for hourslong foot and body massages and culminating in being raped in his hotel room more than once. Because of her financial situation, of which Choudhury had been aware since she reached out to him, Lawler could not simply pack her bags and fly back home.

The lawsuit alleges that Choudhury “has a practice of singling out individual students, both for negative and positive attention. In particular, he singles out female students, compliments and insults them, and requires them to brush his hair or massage him. [He] also manipulates his students, particularly vulnerable women in whom he has a sexual interest.”

In 2016, a Los Angeles jury awarded Choudhury’s former legal adviser, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, $6.4 million for sexual harassment. A 2016 HBO documentary hosted by journalist Andrea Kremer explored allegations of rape from Lawler and two other women. In the documentary, Kremer visits Choudhury at his Beverly Hills home, where he tells her that his accusers, his former students, are “trash.”

“Why would I have to harass women? People spend 1 million dollars for a drop of my sperm,” he said.

In some ways, he’s not wrong.

“He was my guru,” Lawler said. “I really, really loved him.”

In the midst of several legal battles, including his wife’s filing for divorce for “irreconcilable differences,” Choudhury’s company, Bikram Yoga Inc., filed for bankruptcy in 2017.

But none of these allegations and legal challenges have fully deplatformed him. He has dodged criminal charges and made a comfortable home for himself in a resort town just out of reach from prosecution. In two months, women from all over the world will pay five figures for the opportunity to rub his feet until their fingers are raw.

Separating The Practice From The Guru   

In my first Bikram yoga class, I nearly threw up twice: first from the smell of the carpet and again because I had underestimated how very dehydrating the practice can be. (I nearly threw up a third time reading Lawler’s July lawsuit against the predatory guru.) The sweat is no joke, nor is the actual work of the practice. If you must rest, you’re meant to do so staying upright. Drinking water during practice is discouraged except when the instructor permits it. It’s not uncommon for students to get up and walk out of the class for air, or because they hate it.

For some, the practice is invigorating and healing, and for others, it’s 90 minutes of trying not to vomit or pass out. Often, it is both. Many yogis are attracted to it for its consistency no matter what studio you’re in, because of The Dialogue, you will do the same routine. Though the practice wasn’t for me, there is no shortage of praise for what Bikram yoga has done for people with injuries or respiratory, mental or spiritual health issues, and that praise is valid.

But ignoring the dark side of the guru behind it is irresponsible.

Beyond the many accusations of rape and harassment, Choudhury has claimed that Bikram yoga can cure AIDS and Parkinson’s disease. When a Black woman called him out for making homophobic statements, he told his assistants to “get that Black bitch out of here” and called her “cancer.”  He has also said that “Blacks don’t get my yoga.”

Last year, in ESPN’s “30for30” podcast, reporter Julia Lowrie took a deep dive into Choudhury’s past and met with a relative of Choudhury’s guru, Kavya Dutta, who told her that the routine Choudhury has been trying to copyright all these years is actually a routine her family grew up practicing.

“It’s not his,” Dutta said. “I’m sorry to say that.”

Many studios have begun to change their affiliations with Choudhury, “de-branding” from the guru and referring to their classes as “hot yoga” or “Bikram-style” instead of just “Bikram yoga.” This, on top of his company’s bankruptcy and his many legal battles, has understandably hit Choudhury hardest, in his ego and in his bank account. Choudhury has long been aggressive about owning the practice in 2012, he filed an unsuccessful copyright lawsuit against Yoga to the People, a New York City studio run by a former student, for using his teaching style in his practice. Before that, he had for years been trying to copyright the poses or asanas. 

Nevertheless, the yoga community (marketed to and driven predominantly by women) continues to enjoy his practice much like the many cinephiles still drawn to the catalogs of Woody Allen or Kevin Spacey, or the die-hard fans who will defend Michael Jackson (reportedly a Bikram enthusiast) to their graves.

This speaks to the personality culture of yoga, on the one hand. “It’s celebrity culture on overdrive,” said Stanley. “It comes down to the internalized misogyny and rape culture that the American style yoga community has always been about.”

Stanley still practices Bikram, if not as often as she used to. “He has very little to do with the power of yoga itself. No one owns yoga,” she said.

By Jenavieve Hatch

The post Why Are You Still Doing Bikram Yoga appeared first on Smile store.

source https://smilystore.com/2019/08/10/why-are-you-still-doing-bikram-yoga/

[theantisocialcritic]

This AntiSocial Life: My Top Fifteen Criterion Collection Recommendations

One of the most interesting things I find about other people is what kinds of entertainment they stock their personal library with. Perusing people’s collections is a great way to immediately sum up a person’s tastes, beliefs and priorities because it shows you what a person is willing to pay for to have next to them in their house. I’d judge a person with the complete collection of Jane Austin’s published works differently than someone with a complete collection of Chuck Norris’s filmography. I feel this fascination is shared by a number of people on the internet. This is the reason why videos of popular film reviewers sharing their entire movies collections are so popular on YouTube. People want to know what kinds of movies the people whose opinion they respect personally go out of their way to purchase and put on display. 

I’m bringing this up now because July is one of the four times a year that the Criterion Collection goes on sale. If you’re not familiar with it, I applaud your money saving ignorance. The Criterion Collection is a collection of hundreds of critically acclaimed and culturally influential movies that are curated by a small group of industry professionals for the purposes of helping historically and artistically vital films find distribution. The collection prides itself on providing the highest available quality video transfers, commentary tracks, essays and collections possible to best fully make your purchase of one of their movies worth the expense. That’s important because Criterion Collection DVDs and Blu-rays can run you a pretty penny. At the normal price, DVDs run an average of $30 and Blu-rays an average of $40. Special collections in the Criterion Collection of multiple movies can run anywhere between $100 and $300 at a normal price depending on the size of the set. Criterion has no choice but to make every release they make worth the full price purchase. Thankfully most fans of the Collection rarely have to buy at full price. Four times a year, the Criterion Collection’s website and Barnes and Noble run sales each February, July, September and November where all Criterion movies are sold as 50% off. This tends to be the time when most people who purchase from the collection binge purchase multiple movies they want. 

I’ve been a long term fan of the collection since approximately 2014. In the leadup to Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, I purchased my first Criterion Blu-ray which was a copy of his first film Following. Since then I've lined nearly two full shelves on my DVD shelf with Criterion Collection movies. As the July Barnes and Noble sale is currently in full steam until August 4th, I wanted to offer a quick shoutout to the collection and offer a quick starting place of some of my favorite titles to begin seeking out if any of this sounds interesting to you. I’m offering these recommendations now not because I owe anything to the Criterion Collection. I’m doing this out of brand loyalty. The Criterion Collection has delivered consistently in terms of quality and detail since I’ve begun supporting them. There have been only a few rare occasions where the film I bought was something I didn’t like (cough cough Traffik) and often the films I don’t enjoy the first time improves upon multiple viewings. For anyone who regularly follows me on Geeks Under Grace and Legal Insurrection, I hope this offers a brief look into my tastes as a cinephile and offers a glimpse into what it is I prioritize in my favorite movies. 

I should note though that this is not a definitive MUST OWN list of great and culturally significant movies in the Criterion Collection. If I were making that list I’d be recommending films like 81/2, Breathless and Seven Samurai. There are also a ton of movies in the collection I enjoy and recognize for their importance that doesn’t make this list. Certainly, every Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and great silent film in the collection deserves a watch too (see: The Passion of Joan of Arc). Similarly, there are movies in the collection I haven’t been able to purchase because they’re out of print. The Third Man and Diary of a Country Priest are great films in the collection but some older DVDs are so rare that they’re effectively impossible to attain. 

Without further ado, here are fifteen of my favorite Criterion Collection releases in my collection (in alphabetical order)! 

1. 12 Angry Men

I owe the venerable Chris Stuckmann credit for this first recommendation as he recommended it on his youtube channel years ago. This wonderful small scall drama is far from an accurate representation of an actual jury proceeding (as I’ve been told, it would’ve been thrown out for relitigating the case) but it is an enthralling thriller that makes the most of a room full of characters we never fully learn the names of. Despite that, its a movie that lives and breaths and lets the prejudices and beliefs of each character bounce off one another until the final harrowing minutes. What’s at stake isn’t merely one man’s life but the process of justice itself played out in a cramped, boiling hot jury room. 

2. Blow Out

Brian De Palma is often considered the successor to Alfred Hitchcock. As much as I love his films (Untouchables, Scarface, etc), I find his work to be excessively pulpy at times. They’ve definitely got their heart on their sleeves at times. Of his filmography though, Blow Out is one of my favorites. This beautifully made conspiracy thriller and a remake of Antonioni’s Blow Up represents one of his most thematically complex and dense works ever; a satire of both Hollywood and 70s politics led by a spectacular John Travolta performance. 

3. Brazil

I could’ve put any Terry Gilliam film on this list and been just as justified but what beats out Brazil as his enduring masterpiece? I almost put The Fisher King on the list in its place since that one is growing to be my favorite film in his filmography but his first breakout dystopian science fiction film is the one that people remember his for. At once a merging of his impulses as the former animator of Monty Python, a dark comedy riffing on 1984 and an art deco masterpiece featuring some of the best production design in film history, Brazil is worth adding to your collection. 

4. Chimes at Midnight

Orson Welles once said that if he ever had to use a film as his excuse to get into Heaven, Chimes at Midnight would be the film he used to make his case. Despite the film’s criminally low budget (the crew couldn’t even afford to hire audio techs), the movie’s brilliant lighting, energic cinematography, excellent lead performance by Welles merges into a near singular vision. This is a story about revelry, the tragic story of a young adventurous prince who must learn to put his life of hedonism and joy behind him for the sake of his destiny. If you can get past the occasionally impenetrable dialog, the movie opens up into one of the most exciting and well made Shakespeare adaptations of all time. 

5. A Face in the Crowd

Elia Kazan is a name every film buff should know from On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Name Desire alone. Kazan was a daring and masterful filmmaker by the standards of any time with the bravery to buck social stigmas and take stands against the powers that be even when it was difficult. Of all his films though, this unassuming Andy Griffith film stands as one of his most contrarian and cynical films. This story of an ex-criminal turned populist celebrity with a massive cult of personality wasn’t popular in its day but is receiving a massive critical reanalysis in a time when actual populists and cults of personalities are quite normal. 

6. The Flowers of St. Assisi

As a non-catholic, I’m sure this unassuming episodic film about the life of one of the church's most famous saints is less vital and emotionally affecting to me than it would be to someone who has undergone confirmation. Still, this rather unassuming little film is one I can’t deny enjoying. It’s not showy, it’s not grand, and it doesn’t even have an overarching narrative beyond the basic setup of watching a group of priests form a convent to purposely live in poverty as to better connect with Christ. At the same time, it’s more charming and approachable than most films about faith. It’s better to live out faith than preach to the choir (cough cough Pureflix).

7. Following

The first films of great filmmakers are always exciting. With these, you get to see how great minds were able to work within practical limitations. Christopher Nolan’s first film, shot with only a few thousand dollars, bears a remarkable similarity to his later time stretching, existential, neo-noir thrillers like Memento and Inception. Additionally, the criterion collection copies of this film come with Nolan’s student films. For fans of modern cinema’s favorite spectacle filmmaker, this is required viewing for completionists. 

8. Gojira

It may surprise you to learn that the original Godzilla film and it’s American remake Godzilla: King of the Monsters are in the Criterion Collection. As a fan of the series, this is a must own if just for the commentary tracks on the movies. Having high-quality transfers of one of the best films in the series is great but getting to learn the ins and outs of the series from a legitimate film scholar is what cinches the deal on this excellent Blu-ray set. 

9. House of Games

The more you watch David Mamet, the more you’ll learn to love his very specific niche of storytelling. Untouchables is easily his most accessible film but this moody, atmospheric con-man thriller is easily one of his masterpieces. Though a recent addition to the collection for me, after a single viewing it’s already nearing the top of my favorite films in the collection. House of Games is a masterful, hypnotic, low boiling thriller full of smart characters that you love to watch interact with one another. 

10. Inside Llewyn Davis

For shame. There are only two Coen Brothers films in the Criterion Collection. Of the two, Inside Llewyn Davis is my favorite (the other one being Blood Simple). Though one of the less showy and popular of the Coen Brother’s impressive filmography (Big Lebowski, True Grit, No Country for Old Men, etc) it's arguably one of their strongest films. This tragic tale of a failing folk singer still grieving over the suicide of his musical partner is lead in one of Oscar Isaac’s greatest performances and one of the more painfully somber films in their filmography. 

11. Le Samurai

Style is the key word of this classic French crime film. The movie, much like it’s lead character’s apartment, is immensely sparse but purposeful. Our enigmatic lead is a deeply focused and committed assassin who gets caught in a situation wherein he must evade authorities and survive. The movie is gorgeous to look at, engaging and supremely satisfying to watch. 

12. The Night of the Hunter

Charles Laughton’s sole directing create is one of the most haunting and quietly unsettling films of all time. Settling in a strange niche between a horror film and a noir morality tale, the film portrays the great Robert Mitchum as a fanatical priest (of sorts) who seeks to marry his way into wealth before killing his new bride and riding off into the sunset with his fortune. Unfortunately for him, this task is stopped by the woman’s children who seize the money and proceed to flee from the stalking figure of the priest. It’s a strange but powerful parable, unlike anything you’ve probably seen. 

13. Red River

Tarantino once said that Howard Hawkes was one of the few directors who never stopped making good movies. It’s hard to argue with that. Hawkes’ style and consistency are tangible across his career. Amusingly this might actually be one of the only westerns I’ve seen yet that actually deals with the history of the short-lived but real career of the cowboys. The story details one of the first cattle drives from Texas to Oklahoma before the railroads rendered that career pointless. It also represents one of the rare antagonist roles John Wayne sparsely portrayed in his long career. 

14. Stagecoach 

It’s strange that only 3 of John Fords hundreds of films are in the Criterion Collection. Certainly, some of his rare or early work like The Iron Horse or They Were Expendable deserve a proper transfer into the collection. Alas, the three we have are excellent transfers. My Darling Clementine, Young Mr. Lincoln and his enduring masterpiece Stagecoach are all part of the collection. Of those three, his 1939 classic western is my favorite. This was the movie that established by John Ford and John Wayne as part of the Golden Age of Hollywood’s greatest artists and myth makers. 

15. To Be or Not to Be

Those who are fans of Mel Brook’s The Producers will understand right away why this is one of the films that most influenced him. Set against the Nazi invasion of Poland in September of 1939, a troupe of actors finds themselves part of a resistance movement against the occupation who must use their unique talents to escape to England. It’s a dark film at times but it comes with some of the funniest comedy you’ll see in a movie about the Second World War. 

How about you? Are you a Criterion Collection Fan too? What are some of your favorites? Comment down below or Tweet me @AntiSocialCriti with some of your favorite films in the collection! 

[mrmichaelchadler]

Thumbnails 11/2/18

Thumbnails is a roundup of brief excerpts to introduce you to articles from other websites that we found interesting and exciting. We provide links to the original sources for you to read in their entirety.—Chaz Ebert

1. 

"CIFF 2018: 'The Hate U Give' and 'Widows' on the Red Carpet": My interviews with filmmakers Steve McQueen and George Tillman Jr., author Gillian Flynn and actors Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Amandla Stenberg at the Chicago International Film Festival, published at Indie Outlook.

“There’s no question Tillman Jr.’s film would make an essential double bill with Carlos López Estrada’s ‘Blindspotting,’ another powerful illustration of modern-day prejudice amplified shamelessly by our president. ‘What I want to illuminate for audiences is the importance of having empathy instead of sympathy, of having understanding as well as the ability to listen to each another,’ Tillman Jr. told me. ‘We must have the tough conversations provoked by this film, and I’m very excited for audiences to take it all in.’ Among the most potent truths illuminated by ‘The Hate U Give’ is the tendency for white people to mistake ‘color blindness’ as a form of acceptance. Having been open about her own sexuality in recent years, Stenberg told me that the importance of acknowledging one’s identity extends far beyond the realm of race. ‘Whether it’s your blackness, your gayness, your trans-ness or whatever it is, I think it is always so important to acknowledge the components of self that make us us,’ stressed Stenberg. ‘The premise of ‘I don’t see color’ is one that rests upon the idea that we live in a post-racial or post-identity society, which is not true. When we relate to one another and see, hear and regard each other, I think it’s really important to be inclusive of all the different facets of self that contribute to one’s own experience. You have to make sure that when you are seeing someone, you are seeing them not despite of who they are, but including and because of who they are.’”

2. 

"The Many Faces of Women Who Identify as Witches": Including Deborah Kampmeier, the exceptional filmmaker pictured above, in an article by The New Yorker's Naomi Fry. Catch the exhibit at NYC's ClampArt before it closes on November 24th.

“In her portrait series ‘Major Arcana: Witches in America,’ which will be shown at the ClampArt gallery, in Chelsea, beginning October 4th, the photographer Frances F. Denny seeks to explore the figure of the contemporary witch beyond the cultural chestnuts that have shrouded and obscured it. In the course of the past two years, Denny, who holds an M.F.A. in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design (where I taught her for a semester a number of years ago), has travelled in California, Louisiana, and along the East Coast, taking the portraits of dozens of women who identify as witches. Her subjects are of diverse age, social class, and ethnicity, and practice a range of rituals, often drawing on ‘mysticism, engagement with the occult, politically oriented activism, polytheism, ritualized ‘spell-work’ and plant-based healing,’ according to Denny’s exhibition notes. Among them are ‘self-proclaimed green witches, white witches, kitchen witches, hedge witches, and sex witches.’ The series as a whole aims to avoid easy formulas and, instead, to exhibit the heterogeneity and individuality of modern-day witches, Denny told me recently, adding, ‘I’m not pinning these women down.’”

3.

"Fare Thee Well, Filmstruck": Our critic Monica Castillo eulogizes the irreplaceable streaming service in her latest Tiny Letter newsletter, which you can sign up for here.

“I don't need to tell you the news has been bad lately. But to lose a source of comfort in these trying times? It feels especially cruel, almost personally so. Last week, Time Warner pulled the plug on FilmStruck, the streaming service that offered treasures from the TCM vault and the Criterion Collection. As far as I know, there is no other streaming service that takes programming and extras so seriously. FilmStruck started the season after I began at The New York Times. It was exciting news to cover, and I felt especially attached to FilmStruck because of the timing. I picked movies from its collections after work to de-stress. Later, I came up with ideas on how to cover some new discovery I just HAD to write about. I cried my way through the early films of David Lean during a few rough patches, and I threw on old favorites like the movies of Peter O'Toole while doing chores to keep me company. FilmStruck proved the streaming world wasn't all bad news for classic movie fans, but that it could be a curated resource useful to diehard cinephiles and newcomers alike.”

4. 

"The Halloween Tree": Andrea Thompson revisits the 1993 animated gem at The Young Folks.

“Yes, Halloween has lasted, but everything mentioned above is mere window dressing. What has kept this holiday going is one of the universal truths of humanity which unites us all, and that is our fascination with fear and the individual horrors that shake us to our core. Few movies understand this, but the Emmy-winning 1993 TV movie ‘The Halloween Tree’ does. I discovered this little gem as a kid because I had the childhood most writers have, the kind with a nose fully inserted in a book. And the author of many such books was one of the great masters of sci-fi himself, Ray Bradbury, the author of the novel of the same name, as well as other books such as The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Fahrenheit 451. For the film adaptation, Bradbury actually penned the screenplay and serves as narrator, which means much of his poetic prose is preserved. The movie takes place on Halloween Night, and follows four preteen kids, Jenny, Ralph, Tom, and Wally, all costumed up as a witch, a mummy, a skeleton, and a monster respectively, and eager to join their best friend Pip. As ‘The Halloween Tree’ puts it, ‘Some say that on the day he was born, all the soda pop bottles in the world fizzed over. Pipkin, who could yell louder, sing better, and eat more popcorn. Pip, the greatest boy who ever lived.’”

5. 

"'Bohemian Rhapsody': A Disservice to Freddie Mercury": Solzy at the Movies critic Danielle Solzman eloquently explains why the hotly anticipated biopic is a missed opportunity. 

“While the band’s popularity is the large focus of the film, it’s hard to discuss Freddie Mercury without knowing what we know about his sexuality. There were the rumors in the tabloids during the band’s heyday. The film doesn’t ignore it per se. There’s a montage of clips where Freddie and personal manager Paul Prenter walking into gay clubs. Even though we see him clearly hitting on guys, there’s not much outside of the relationship with Paul and even Jim Hutton (Aaron McCusker). This is it. Nothing to say of Freddie’s relationship with radio DJ Kenny Everett (Dickie Beau). There’s not even any sex scenes between them! I liken it to social media in that they’re only showing us what they want us to see. The biggest worry obviously has come true. It really does a disservice to the singer. When Freddie receives his AIDS diagnosis, the moment is not as emotional as it could be. This is a serious disease that killed many people. It led to his passing at the age of 45 years old on November 24, 1991. Here it is, the film misses an opportunity to have a bigger focus on his battle with the disease. To make matters worse, Freddie was diagnosed two years AFTER the Live Aid performance and yet as they rehearse for the gig, he opens up about his battle with AIDS! If you’re going to tell the story, tell it the right way.”

Image of the Day

Chicago's indispensable "cine-club," Filmfront, 1740 W. 18th St., is celebrating its first three-and-a-half years of free film and education programming with a fundraising party on Saturday, November 3rd. For more information on the event, visit Filmfront's official Facebook page. You can make a donation here and sign up for its monthly newsletter here. Also be sure to check out my article on Filmfront from 2016. Poster courtesy of Jacob Lindgren.

Video of the Day

The streaming platform Kanopy recently teamed up with the Goethe-Institut to showcase 48 acclaimed German features on its streaming platform. View the complete list here.

from All Content https://ift.tt/2CW9wiK

[iamnotthedog]

ST. LOUIS: FALL 1999

Once I graduated from high school, I had been reading road books and travelogues pretty much exclusively for quite a while. After I read On the Road at Jim’s place, I caught the travel bug, and read Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Bashō’s Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which came at the suggestion of Mrs. Frame, who really knew me better than just about anyone at the time. Those books all lit a fire under me, and I couldn’t wait to get out of Morrison and experience more of the world, as well as a whole new life out from under my parents’ roof.

I wanted to travel more than anything, but I was determined to go to college first, and I sort of ended up fucking that whole thing up, to be completely honest. I mean, it wasn’t bad or anything, it just isn’t what I should have been doing. I got accepted to a writing program at a private school called Webster University.1 Webster’s a nice school and all, I just say that I fucked up because of all the places in the world that I could have gone after finally getting out of Morrison, I ended up in a suburb of St. Louis, which isn’t exactly the most exciting place in the world. I mainly ended up there because I was lazy with the whole “preparing for college” thing, and I hadn’t even applied anywhere else.

All that aside, I was excited to meet some new people when I arrived at Webster for the first time—as most college freshmen are. But then my first roommate in the dorms at Webster was a total dick. His name was Brett or Brent, and he was one of the several people on my floor who had barely even put their suitcases down before they started complaining that Webster University was too small, and threatening to transfer to UMSL (“threatening,” as though any of us would actually care if they left), where they could live downtown and go to football games and frat parties and chug beer out of holes punched into the sides of cans and maybe even videotape themselves fucking somebody.

That wasn’t my scene. Sleepy Webster Groves with its narrow tree-lined streets and long-haired, grey-bearded writing professors was more up my alley. And after about a week in the dorms, I managed to find a few like-minded people to spend some time with. I met the friend I would eventually end up taking to California with me—John—and John’s roommate and lifelong companion (at least up to that point), Marc.

I was walking down the hall completely aimlessly one afternoon when I heard Bob Dylan crooning through a door that was open a crack, and I smelled incense, so I gave a little knock. John came to the door and peeped out at me with his red eyes, his long brown caveman hair and unshaven chin. He was wearing a tie-dyed t-shirt with a stretched out collar, and baggy sweatpants with a bunch of pockets on the legs. And he was barefoot. He looked at me skeptically, furrowing his brow. “Yes?” he said.

“Hey,” I said, awkwardly. “Uh...what’s going on?”

He opened the door a little wider. Marc was behind him, sitting on a futon with long red hair flowing down over his pale, shirtless torso and a fuckin’ three-foot tall glass bong in his lap. He lifted a lighter in a sort of wave.

“Nothing much,” John said. He kind of tilted his head to the side a little and looked into my eyes. He still looked skeptical.

I stuck a finger in the air in an attempt at pointing at the music playing, as people do. “Blonde on Blonde,” I said. I wasn’t exactly sure how to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish. Then I saw a couple guitars in the corner of the room, back behind Marc. “You guys play? I can play pretty much this whole album.”

That seemed to work, for whatever reason.

“C’mon in,” John said.

John and Marc lived in their own little hippie heaven there in the dorms. Their walls were plastered with tapestries and black light posters and pictures of Led Zeppelin and the Doors and Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead. They always had incense burning and music on the stereo. They would sleep to some of the weirdest shit, too. If you walked by their room late any night—say you were stoned and wandering down the hallway to hit up the vending machines for a Snickers or whatever—you could often hear some Miles Davis piping out through their door. It was the weird Miles, too. Not Kind of Blue Miles, but Bitches Brew or sometimes even On the Corner Miles. Even being a huge Miles Davis fan, as I was at the time (and still am), I couldn’t understand how anyone could actually fall asleep to On the Corner.

After I started hanging out with John and Marc, I ended up spending a hell of a lot more time in their room then my own. The amount of drugs those two smoked was comical. They would literally wake up in the morning and smoke opium. Opium! At, like, nine o’clock in the goddamned morning. Then they would go back to sleep for a couple hours, wake up, and smoke some weed to start their day.

John and Marc were great for me, though—at least at the start—because they were from St. Louis. Born and raised. They were the first people to take me out on the town and show me around. They showed me where to buy my weed—which was actually pretty hilarious, because they got all their shit from a fat black dude named Q who worked in the drive-thru of a local Steak ‘n Shake—and they took me to see shows at the local venues, and they’d drive me out to Marc’s parents house in the outer ‘burbs, which was huge.2 We’d have parties out there whenever Marc’s parents were out of town, which was actually quite a bit because they were getting ready to move down south somewhere, and were always going down there to look at property.

The thing was, though, that after a while John and Marc’s circle of high school buddies that were always hanging around started to wear on me a little—I mentioned that earlier. They had all that history together—all those inside jokes and anecdotes and all that loyalty that seems really nice at first, but really ends up making people lazy and afraid of change after a while. I started to feel like I had actually never left high school myself. So I started seeking out other circles with which to insert myself. These guys who came around to Marc and John’s room every once in a while to score some weed were pretty laid back, and they lived on the floor above us. Their names were Phil and Isaac. Phil was a California boy who had grown up in Salinas, on the Pacific coast, which prompted all of us who had never travelled west and had our ultra-idealized fantasies of California in our heads to ask him why the hell he had come to the Midwest. (His mother worked for the university and got him a really good deal on tuition, or something like that). As for Isaac, he was a classic cinephile type, born and raised in St. Louis, and he resembled the Dude from The Big Lebowski—always stoned, always in sweatpants. He even drank White Russians almost exclusively.

Anyway, I started hanging out with Phil and Isaac more, and Phil and I totally hit it off. He needed a roommate, as his previous roommate was not unlike Brett or Brent—one of those jock types who decided that he needed to drop out of Webster and go to a school with a fraternity and more “loose chicks.” So I said sayonara to Brett or Brent, and I moved into Phil’s room.

Phil was a handsome kid with a neatly trimmed goatee, a friendly smile, and a southern California sense of style. He and I started cruising around together in his tricked out BMW with black lights under the dash, flashy rims, and a lowered suspension. I was at the height of my adolescent kleptomania at the time, and when I got off work at this little deli I had been rolling burritos for, Phil would pick me up and I’d go steal us a big bottle of good liquor from the local big-box grocery store down the street, Schnucks.3 We’d bring the bottle back to the dorms and have some drinks with a joint or two before hitting up some of the other kids on the floor, seeing if they wanted to go drive around and find some shit to get into.

It was around then that I met Leah.

Leah lived right down the hallway from Phil and I, along with her friend, Lilith. Lilith and Leah were both into a lot of the same music as I was, and they were down to party pretty much whenever Phil and I were. The first time Leah came around to my room alone, I was probably listening to some Bob Marley or something cliché like that and working on a paper for one of my classes, and she came in wearing this tight tube top without a bra. She totally took me off guard.

“Hey,” she said, leaning on the doorframe in the open door. I looked at her tube top, her pale, flat stomach, then quickly caught myself, shifting my gaze up to her eyes and smiling.

“What’s going on?” I stammered. “What...uh...what are you doing?”

I had already thought Leah was cool and everything—she was hyper smart, funny, and had great taste in music and books and all that—but after that entrance—after she stood right there next to me and leaned over me and asked about my paper, with her nipples in my face and her sweet breath surrounding me—well, after that she had my attention pretty much all the time. Then one night, we were alone in her room listening to records, and she asked me to give her a massage. She slipped my hand down between her legs and put her hand between mine, and then she got me up into her bed and unbuttoned my jeans and slipped off her shorts and took my virginity. Just like that. It took all of three minutes, tops. I made some excuse that she was way too good and that my last girl had been a dead fish, but in all honesty, I had never even come close to getting laid in high school. My high school experience, as I mentioned earlier, had been nothing but one long dry hump.

So after that night, Leah and I were pretty much attached at the hip for the next few weeks. She was all I needed, really. But we weren’t even one month into our relationship before the honeymoon ended—as they do—and things got real.

It turned out that Leah was clinically depressed. She managed to hide it from me for our first few weeks together, but then she just couldn’t do it any more. It started to show itself—mostly in her retreating to her room, turning the lights off, and refusing to come out for anything.

It always happened the same way. A couple weeks into the semester, Leah had moved out of the dorms to the university apartments where kids with rich parents could afford to live. I’d go over there and Leah would turn off the television. We’d sit on her couch and smoke a bowl. I’d put a record on. She’d walk to the kitchen, right there in the same room, and put on a pot of water for tea. Then she’d come back over to me, stripping some of her clothes off, and we’d mess around a little, go into her bedroom for a while, and then take a nap or shower. Then we’d be talking and thinking about going out and finding Phil or Lilith or something and she’d turn off. Like someone pulled a plug.

And those were the good nights. On the bad nights the plug would get pulled far earlier. Sometimes before I even got over to her apartment. Sometimes I’d be walking around the black asphalt parking lot on that white cement sidewalk around those neatly trimmed bushes by the hot tub that Phil and I used to break into after hours, and I’d be all excited to see my girl, and then I’d look up at her window and see that it was dark and the shades were drawn. After a while I learned to not even try knocking when that was the case. She’d be in her huge bed with her thick white down comforter up over her head, and she wouldn’t come to the door for anyone.

On those nights, I would get so down on everything that I would avoid everyone and leave campus altogether. I’d walk for hours down Big Bend Boulevard, through Richmond Heights, and sometimes all the way through Forest Park to the Central West End—a good twelve miles round trip. I would just walk and maybe smoke some weed, and I’d think of all those travel books and all my favorite characters, and I’d think about how as soon as I just couldn’t take school anymore—as soon as I started to get bored with everything—I’d just get up and leave. I thought about how I had to do that at some point—how I had to do it while I was still young, before the university life managed to scoop up whatever was left of my spirit and funnel me into the downward spiral of some sort of career pursuit or another. What was I in school for writing for, anyway? Screw being taught an art, I wanted to turn myself into art—make myself into the project I would work on for the rest of my life.

I would think about all that while walking and seeing the city at night—piece by piece, building by building—and I loved those walks, even if the part of the city I was walking through was just boring ol’ Richmond Heights. Back on campus, though, I have to admit that I’d always walk by Leah’s place before walking back to the dorms. Sometimes her light would be on, and I’d go over there and we’d run our whole routine, just a few hours later than usual. Other times, though, she wouldn’t even come to the door. And sadly enough, thinking back on all that now that I am more than a dozen years removed from the situation, that depression is still what I remember most about Leah—the way it would consume her, over and over again.

 Webster University is named after the place in which it resides—a mellow, inner-ring suburb of St. Louis called Webster Groves. It’s got a nice campus, with lots of old buildings and trees—some nuns founded it as a Catholic women’s college in 1915 before the first male students were admitted in 1962. ↩︎

 When Marc’s parents finally sold the house, they ended up selling it to some hot shot rookie for the St. Louis Cardinals. ↩︎

 When I say I was “at the height of my adolescent kleptomania,” what I mean is that it was pretty bad right around then. I would have never stolen from an individual person, or from a mom and pop sort of store, but big box department stores and grocery chains were like all-you-can-eat buffets to me. Nothing was off limits. I actually used to go into department stores in the mall or wherever and take like five t-shirts into the dressing room, put ‘em all on, then put my own shirt on over ‘em, cover up with a jacket or a hooded sweatshirt, and walk right the fuck out. I’d never have the balls to do that sort of thing nowadays. ↩︎

[cinephiled-com]

New Post has been published on Cinephiled

New Post has been published on http://www.cinephiled.com/seven-surprising-discoveries-2017-tcm-classic-film-festival/

Seven (Surprising) Discoveries at the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival

My eyes are still recovering from watching back-to-back movies from 9 am to midnight for days on end at the eighth annual TCM Classic Film Festival last week in Hollywood. But, eye strain aside, it is an exciting, joyous event for the thousands of classic movie lovers who come to town from all over the world for the festivities. I can’t even tell you how much I look forward to this four-day festival. Taking place in two historic 1920s movie palaces, Sid Grauman’s stunning Chinese and Egyptian theaters on Hollywood Boulevard, as well as the neighboring TCL Chinese Multiplex and a few presentations at the nearby Cinerama Dome, there are up to five concurrent presentations taking place in every time slot (totaling more than 100 films) over the course of the festival. Choosing what to see when there are so many great options is part of the agonizing fun.

I’ve attended every TCM Festival since it began in 2010 and this year’s was especially poignant following the death last month of the beloved TCM host and father figure Robert Osborne at the age of 84. Getting a chance to meet Osborne at the festival and hear him introduce films and interview the actors and filmmakers he knew so well was every bit as exciting as meeting our favorite stars. This year, the entire festival was dedicated to Robert Osborne and there were many tears at various remembrances. Also many laughs, as this year’s overall theme was comedy in the movies. Sadly, many of the people who attended the festival in years past are no longer with us. I have so many wonderful memories of hearing stars such as Debbie Reynolds, Tony Curtis, Maureen O’Hara, Luise Rainer, Mickey Rooney, Betty Garrett, Esther Williams, and so many others talk to us about their work. This year’s special guests included incredibly talented folks such as Carl and Rob Reiner (who became the first father and son to get their footprints immortalized in cement in the famous Grauman’s Chinese forecourt), Sidney Poitier, Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas, Peter Bognonavich, Lee Grant, Buck Henry, Keir Dullea, Richard Dreyfuss, Dick Cavett, Ruta Lee, and Mel Brooks. Taking up hosting duties in Robert Osborne’s absence were movie experts and TCM family members Ben Mankiewicz, Illeana Douglas, Cari Beauchamp, and Leonard Maltin, among others.

In addition to seeing great movies the way that should be seen and meeting some of the people who made them, one of the best parts of the festival is getting a chance to hang out with fellow movie lovers of all ages and from all walks of life. I have made many friendships at the festival which continue online throughout the year as we share notes and gab about our hopes for the next year’s offerings. The night before the festival, the online TCM group I am a part of gets together at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (site of the very first Academy Awards and the festival headquarters) and we often bring in a special guest. This year I interviewed the glamorous and talented Barbara Rush who regaled us for over an hour with stories of her amazing films and co-stars including Frank Sinatra, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, James Mason, Montgomery Clift, Richard Burton, Kirk Douglas, and many others. Barbara, who turned 90 in January, was so full of energy she was still going strong hours later across the street at Musso & Frank’s, holding court with an adoring crowd over dinner and sharing poignant stories of her close longtime friendship with Robert Osborne. I also got the chance to spend some time at our gathering with Cora Sue Collins, renowned child star of the 1930s who was handpicked by Greta Garbo to play Garbo as a child in Queen Christina (1933) and also appeared with the great Swedish star in Anna Karenina (1935). As a young girl, Cora Sue acted in many other well-known films such as Treasure Island (1934) with Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper and  Evelyn Prentice (1934) in which she played the daughter of Myrna Loy and William Powell. She so enjoyed visiting with us two years ago that she came back to see us this year and had a mini-reunion with Barbara Rush (Cora Sue had appeared in the 1935 version of Magnificent Obsession with Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor while Barbara was in the 1954 Douglas Sirk version of the story with Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson).

Sitting in movies from early morning until midnight for several days in a row is a thrilling treat that requires stamina and an understanding family, but I wish I could do it all over again just to see some of the films I missed at this year’s festival. Films such as Jezebel (1938), Born Yesterday (1950), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1967), Broadcast News (1987), Laura (1944), Twentieth Century (1934), The China Syndrome (1979), The Last Picture Show (1971), David and Lisa (1962), The Great Dictator (1940), Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), King of Hearts (1966), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Postcards from the Edge (1990), Casablanca (1942), and so many others. Oh, the pain! And yet I don’t regret ANY of my choices, from the films I’ve seen dozens of time to the new discoveries. Despite being a classic movie fanatic, there are some surprising holes in my movie repertoire — I can’t tell you how many times I heard my TCM friends exclaim, “You’ve NEVER seen The Awful Truth or The Palm Beach Story? What the hell is wrong with you?!” I can’t explain why I’ve missed some of the classics, especially when I’ve seen so many other films such as The Philadelphia Story, Meet Me in St. Louis, and All About Eve at least 50 times each. Here’s a rundown of seven films I saw at the festival this year for very first time (in alphabetical order so I don’t play favorites):

1. The Awful Truth (Columbia, 1937). Such utter joy with Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, and Ralph Bellamy at their screwball best. Leo McCarey won his first of three Oscars for this film (although he personally felt that he deserved it more for his drama that came out earlier that year, Make Way for Tomorrow, that screened at the 2014 festival). I have no idea how I missed The Awful Truth all these years but seeing it with a big audience on a huge screen was a great introduction and we all laughed ourselves silly at the story of Jerry and Lucy Warriner — a loving couple that splits up early in the film and then keep sabotaging each other’s relationships before their final divorce kicks in. Grant was reportedly very unhappy with McCarey’s directing style during this film, which included a fair amount of improvisation (rare for the 1930s), and tried to get off the film. Thank goodness he didn’t succeed since his performance set the stage for many of his best comedies to come including three more films (The Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, and My Favorite Wife) that featured divorced couples who rediscover each other and fall back in love. The best screwball comedies always include a bunch of perfectly played smaller roles and here I’d like to call out Egyptian actor Alexander D’Arcy as Irene Dunne’s questionable companion, Armand Duvalle, and Joyce Compton as Cary Grant’s showgirl squeeze, Dixie Belle Lee. My favorite part of The Awful Truth may be when Irene Dunne crashes a party at the home of Grant’s new fiancée, heiress Barbara Vance, and poses as his gum-chewing sister, performing one of Dixie Lee’s risqué nightclub numbers we saw earlier. The film also features Nick and Nora Charles’ dog Asta in the key role of the Warriners’ pooch, Mr. Smith. Grant and Dunne would go on to co-star in two more great movies, My Favorite Wife (1940), and Penny Serenade (1941).

2. The Court Jester (Paramount, 1955). Danny Kaye seems to be an acquired taste, I’ve spoken to many classic movie fans who are lukewarm on Kaye and his films. As a young kid I loved Kaye’s TV variety show, and I remember enjoying him in perennial broadcasts of White Christmas and Hans Christian Anderson. But I approached this film with a fair amount of trepidation myself, I really didn’t know what to expect, and have to admit I was flabbergasted by how much I loved it. Seeing a glorious Technicolor restoration on the huge Grauman’s Chinese screen didn’t hurt, nor did the fascinating discussion of the film and Danny Kaye’s work between Illeana Douglas and actor Fred Willard (a huge Danny Kaye fan) before the screening. Kaye is just brilliant in the triple role (sorta) of Hubert Hawkins and his masquerade as Giacomo the Jester in order to gain entry into the royal palace so that he and his friends can reinstall the rightful heir to the throne, a baby with a telling birthmark on his butt, the “purple pimpernel.” Confused? Don’t worry, it’ll all make sense when you watch the crazy fun, including Kaye’s “third” role as a much more menacing Giacomo after he’s hypnotized by Griselda (Mildred Natwick). With beautiful Glynis Johns as Kaye’s fellow rebel and eventual love interest, Maid Jean, and a young and gorgeous Angela Lansbury as the recalcitrant Princess Gwendolyn who falls in love with the hypnotized Kaye, the film provides lots of color, music, and howls from beginning to end, especially with great actors such as Basil Rathbone, Cecil Parker, and John Carradine playing it completely straight during the nonsense. Danny Kaye’s particular style of wordplay is at its peak here: “The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!”

3. Lady in the Dark (Paramount, 1944). Introduced by actress Rose McGowan, the final film I saw at the festival on Sunday night was a rare screening of the nitrate Technicolor print of Mitchell Leisen’s Lady in the Dark starring Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Warner Baxter, and Jon Hall. To say that this is one CRAZY-ASS film is an understatement. Loosely based on the successful Moss Hart-directed Broadway musical of the same name with songs by Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill, the film stars Ginger Rogers as the no-nonsense editor-in-chief of Allure, a successful fashion magazine. The repressed Ginger is dating her older publisher (Baxter) despite the fact that his wife won’t give him a divorce and she is constantly battling with one of her top editors (Milland) in such an irritated way that you KNOW they will ultimately end up together. But poor overworked Ginger is plagued by strange nightmares (which we see in all their bizarre Technicolor glory) and is finally persuaded to visit a shrink (Barry Sullivan) who convinces her that something traumatic from her past is responsible for her decision to eschew all glamour and femininity (a ridiculous assertion given Ginger’s beauty and her allegedly “plain” clothes that any woman I know would kill for). Enter visiting hunky movie star Randy Curtis (Hall) who everyone in the magazine’s office (except for Ginger, of course) goes GAGA for, including the openly gay photographer (Mischa Auer in the part that made Danny Kaye a star on Broadway) and the male assistants at the magazine (I guess in 1944 it was okay to show male-to-male attraction in the context of employees at a fashion magazine). But Curtis only has eyes for Ginger, and her dreams take an even odder turn. The costumes in this film (by Edith Head, Raoul Pene du Bois, and Barbara Karinska) are miles over-the-top, including a bejeweled mink-lined number (now in the Smithsonian) that was so heavy Ginger needed a second, lighter version of it made for the dance sequence. What this movie says about psychotherapy, femininity, and relationships is so outrageous and politically incorrect that one friend of mine at the screening immediately pronounced the film “monstrous.” But it is fascinating time capsule of another time and place, and definitely worth seeing even though it’s so weird I now feel like I may need a visit with Rogers’ psychiatrist.

4. Love Crazy (MGM, 1941). This was the first film I saw at this year’s festival, introduced by the wonderful actress Dana Delany who is a classic movie lover and has appeared with Robert Osborne on TCM. And what’s a comedy-themed film festival without William Powell and Myrna Loy? This was the tenth of fourteen films the two made together (including the six Thin Man films) and one of the few I’d never seen. In true screwball style, Powell and Loy play the married Steve and Susan Ireland, a deliriously happy couple celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary until Susan’s overbearing mother (Florence Bates) arrives to mess up everything. Next thing we know, Powell runs into his old girlfriend (the beautiful and snide Gail Patrick, a favorite of mine in Stage Door and My Man Godfrey) who has just moved into their swanky apartment building. Alas, a series of zany misunderstandings involving Patrick, her husband, and a random neighbor who is a world champion archer (Jack Carson) lead to Powell and Loy’s impending divorce. After a few additional escapades, the hapless Steve ends up being committed to a sanitarium by the City Lunacy Commission who mistakenly believe he is a homicidal maniac. We even get to see Powell in drag when, hiding from the police, he disguises himself as his own sister (which forced the actor to temporarily shave off his signature mustache). I know I don’t need to tell you that Powell and Loy eventually come to their senses and continue on in wedded bliss. The film, directed by underrated MGM director Jack Conway, includes some funny inside jokes such as a drunken William Powell singing “It’s Delightful to Be Married” at the beginning of the film,  a song sung by his on-screen wife Luise Rainer several years earlier in The Great Ziegfeld.

5. The Palm Beach Story (Paramount, 1942). Of all of my discoveries at this year’s festival, it’s especially hard to believe that I had never seen this film, given my love of Preston Sturges and every single member of the glittering cast. I’m happy to say that the movie surpassed my high expectations and immediately leapfrogged to my list of all-time favorites. Preceded by a discussion between film scholar Cari Beauchamp and Wyatt McCrea, star Joel McCrea’s oldest grandchild, we were also introduced to several of Mary Astor’s great-grandchildren who were present at the screening, including Andrew Yang who wrote the foreword to the fascinating book I just finished reading, The Purple Diaries: Mary Astor and the Most Sensational Hollywood Scandal of the 1930s by Joseph Egan. In the brilliant comedy, McCrea and Claudette Colbert play Tom and Gerry Jeffers, a married couple in New York that is down on their luck financially — way down. I don’t even want to explain the rest of the plot because if you’ve never seen the film it will be fun to come to it fresh as I did, but let’s just call out a few of the crazy folks that McCrea and Colbert come into contact with during their adventures, from the Wienie King (Robert Dudley) to clueless zillionaire John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee) who wants to shower Colbert with riches, to Hackensacker’s eccentric sister, The Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor) who wants to do the same to McCrea. Carole Lombard was originally slated for this film before her tragic death in a plane crash that year, but Colbert does a brilliant job in the role. Astor was apparently insecure about her comedy chops and terrified that she wasn’t giving Sturges what he wanted, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s one of the best things in the film. The Palm Beach Story is a delightful antidote to Palm Beach’s current place in our consciousness as the home of Mar-a-Lago.

6. Rafter Romance (RKO, 1933). It’s always great fun to see pre-code films at the festival, those films that were made in the early 1930s before the Motion Picture Production Code put an end to many of the risqué plot lines that were once commonplace in the movies. The rarely seen Rafter Romance starring a young Ginger Rogers (just before she was first teamed with Fred Astaire in Flying Down to Rio) was a wonderful example of all that pre-codes have to offer. Caught up in a copyright battle for decades, our host Leonard Maltin explained that this was one of the first public screenings of the film since its release in 1933. Ginger plays a young woman who moves to New York to find a job but is having a terrible time making ends meet. Her landlord, Max Eckbaum (George Sidney, a Jewish immigrant from Hungary who was the uncle of the younger George Sidney, a director of many musicals including another of this year’s festival offerings, Bye Bye Birdie), suggests a solution. Ginger can share an apartment with another tenant in his building, a man she doesn’t know who is an artist but works as a night watchman so they will never be around at the same time. But that doesn’t keep the two from endlessly fighting via sharply worded notes left around the apartment. Of course confusion and hijinks ensue when the two meet, unaware that they are each other’s hated co-tenant. Added to the mix are Robert Benchley as Ginger’s lecherous boss and Laura Hope Crews (years before she appeared in Gone With the Wind as Scarlett’s Aunt Pittypat) as Foster’s sex-starved art patron. One interesting thing that Maltin pointed out to us was how, in addition to changes in language and depictions of sex, the dreaded Production Code also curtailed the existence of ethnic characters in mainstream movies to a large extent, such as the character of Ginger’s Jewish landlord and his Yiddish-speaking wife (played by Ferike Boros who nevertheless appeared in small parts in several subsequent Ginger Rogers films including Bachelor Mother, Fifth Avenue Girl, and Once Upon a Honeymoon).

7. Red-Headed Woman (MGM, 1932). Historian and author Cari Beauchamp introduced us to another delicious pre-code that I’d never seen, the fabulous Jean Harlow vehicle, Red-Headed Woman, directed by Love Crazy’s Jack Conway. This one is so out there and provocative it makes Rafter Romance look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. With a sizzling screenplay by Anita Loos (Gentleman Prefer Blondes), Jean Harlow plays “Lil” Andrews, a woman who will do anything to get ahead — and I mean anything. She seduces her married boss (Chester Morris), causing him to divorce his devoted wife (Leila Hymans) who he really loves only to eventually throw him over for one of her new husband’s even richer clients (Henry Stephenson). The beloved character actress Una Merkel (whose opening credit elicited as much applause as Harlow’s in our classic movie-obsessed crowd) stands by Jean throughout the film, even during Lil’s dangerous affair with her poor but sexy French chauffeur (a young and almost unrecognizable Charles Boyer). Only someone with the incredible warmth, charm, beauty, and screen presence of 21-year-old Jean Harlow could make us root for a character that, when you think about it, is completely devoid of any human decency. Once the Production Code took full effect, someone who caused such destruction to so many lives would never be allowed to get away with it. But in 1932, she does, and I found myself cheering the surprising happy ending for the unrepentant but hugely charismatic Harlow. So tragic that the actress would die just five years later at the age of 26. Considering she’s been gone for a whopping 80 years, her impact on audiences, even today, is pretty remarkable.

Lots more great films this year, I could go on indefinitely. Is it too soon to start obsessing about next year’s festival? Being the total movie geek that I am, one of my proudest moments this year was realizing the close family connection between actors in two wildly different films that were made decades apart. Remember the Jewish landlords in 1933’s Rafter Romance? Their son, Julius Eckbaum, was played by young actor Sidney Miller. Sidney is the father of actor Barry Miller who I saw as Bobby C. in the screening of 1977’s Saturday Night Fever (with director John Badham and actress Donna Pescow in attendance). Can you believe the close resemblance between father and son? See you next year at the movies!