#maurice moscovitch

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[byneddiedingo]

Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore in Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937) Cast: Beulah Bondi, Victor Moore, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchell, Porter Hall, Barbara Read, Maurice Moscovitch, Elisabeth Risdon, Minna Gombell, Ray Mayer, Ralph Remley, Louise Beavers, Louis Jean Heydt. Screenplay: Viña Delmar, based on a novel by Josephine Lawrence and play by Helen Leary and Nolan Leary. Cinematography: William C. Mellor. Art direction: Hans Dreier, Bernard Herzbrun. Film editing: LeRoy Stone. Music: George Antheil, Victor Young. As the music ("Let Me Call You Sweetheart") swelled, and the train taking her husband to California pulled out of the station leaving Lucy Cooper (Beulah Bondi) alone on the platform, I muttered, "Please end it here. Please end it here." And so Leo McCarey, bless him, did. He could have, as the studio wanted, moved on to a mawkish conclusion, pulling a sentimental rabbit out of the hat in which their children relented and found a place where Barkley (Victor Moore) and Lucy Cooper could live together, but thank whatever gods preside over cinema, he didn't. I thought, before my reading confirmed it, that Yasujiro Ozu must have seen Make Way for Tomorrow -- or as seems to have happened, his scenarist Kogo Noda did. This is one Hollywood picture from the '30s and '40s that has its head on straight, keeping its heart in the right place. The film gives us complex, fallible characters instead of sugary and vinegary stereotypes: The elder Coopers are as much to blame for the predicament in which they find themselves as their children are for not finding a satisfactory way to resolve it. As an aged parent, one who once faced the problem of an aged parent, I find the film's willingness not to lay blame on anyone refreshing: Barkley Cooper should not have allowed himself to get in the financial difficulty in which he finds himself; he and Lucy should have come clean to the offspring about their money difficulties long before they did. And though it's easy to see the children as hard-hearted and selfish -- the film does tilt a little more in that direction than it might -- what we see on the screen makes clear that housing Lucy and Barkley is a little harder than it ought to be. She seems oblivious to the burdens she puts on George (Thomas Mitchell) and Anita (Fay Bainter), and he is a cantankerous handful for Cora (Elizabeth Risdon) and Bill (Ralph Remley), refusing to follow the doctor's instructions. McCarey and his wonderful cast handle all of this superbly, with McCarey not only stubbornly refusing to provide a conventional movie ending, but also withholding some information a lesser director would have made much of, such as what Rhoda (Barbara Read) did when she disappeared that night, or what Barkley said to his daughter on the telephone when he informed her that he and Lucy weren't coming to their farewell dinner. (I think it's better that we don't know what he told her to do with that roast she was planning to serve.) A small, surprising treat of a movie.

gifs from manderley

[mundaneandmagicalcreature]

Media consumed during 2023

Books

The Secret to Superhuman Strength (2021). Alison Bechdel. 7/10

Salomé (1891). Oscar Wilde. 10/10

The Vampire Lestat (1985). Anne Rice. 8/10

Time is a Mother (2022). Ocean Vuong. 3/10 (I feel like an asshole, but I didn't like it)

The Queen of the Damned (1988). Anne Rice. 9/10

Infinity (2017). Hannah Moscovitch. 8/10

Bomarzo (1962). Manuel Mujica Lainez. 10/10

Stone Fruit (2021). Lee Lai. 9/10

The Vampire Armand (1998). Anne Rice. 7/10 (I hate Marius)

Mémoires d'Hadrien (1951). Marguerite Yourcenar. 2/10 (How do you make a bisexual emperor sound like a boring old man, Marguerite, how?)

The Tale Of The Body Thief (1992). Anne Rice. 5/10

Poems (1931). Wilfred Owen. 7/10

La Sed (2020). Marina Yuszczuk. 8/10

Spinning (2017). Tillie Walden. 9/10

Movies

Emma (2020). Autumn de Wilde. 8/10

Minari (2020). Lee Isaac Chung. 10/10

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920). Robert Wiene. 7/10

Bones and All (2022). Luca Guadagnino. 7/10

Maurice (1987). James Ivory. 7/10 (the book's better)

Fucking Åmål (1998). Lukas Moodysson. 6/10

Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant (1972). Rainer Werner Fassbinder. 6/10

Le Fil (2009). Mehdi Ben Attia. 10/10 (I would marry this movie if I could)

37°2 le Matin (Betty Blue) (1986). Jean-Jacques Beineix. 7/10

Salomé (1922). Charles Bryant, Alla Nazimova. 4/10

Interview with the Vampire (1994). Neil Jordan. 8/10

The Addams Family (1991). Barry Sonnenfeld. 9/10

Addams Family Values (1993). Barry Sonnenfeld. 7/10

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022). Guillermo del Toro. 8/10

渺渺 (Miao Miao) (2008). Hsiao-tse Cheng. 5/40

La ley del deseo (1987). Pedro Almodóvar. 7/10

და ჩვენ ვიცეკვეთ (And Then We Danced) (2019). Levan Akin. 10/10 (so, so, so sweet)

Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice) (1971). Luchino Visconti. 7/10

Disobedience (2017). Sebastián Lelio. 8/10

Shiva Baby (2020). Emma Seligman. 7/10

X (2022). Ti West. 5/10 (maybe I just don't like slashers; the music was 10/10 tho)

Back to the Future Part II (1989). Robert Zemeckis. 5/10

Ammonite (2020). Francis Lee. 7/10

Colette (2018). Wash Westmoreland. 6/10

The Duke of Burgundy (2014). Peter Strickland. 8/10 (unnerving and visually stunning)

Summerland (2020). Jessica Swale. 7/10 (Studio Ghibli vibes in a live action movie; a bit saccharine-y at times)

The Handmaiden (2016). Park Chan-wook. 9/10

The Favourite (2018). Yorgos Lanthimos. 10/10

Nope (2022). Jordan Peele. 8/10

Renfield (2023). Chris McKay. 6/10 (I liked the Nicholas Cage scenes, everything else was kinda meh).

Professor Marston & The Wonder Women (2017). Angela Robinson. 7/10 (sweet, romantic, entertaining, but at times it felt fake and manufactured, the way "based on a true story" movies usually are).

The Terminator (1984). James Cameron. 4/10 (it could have been 45mins instead of 1h45mins...)

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). James Cameron. 6/10 ("If you didn't like the first why did you watch the second?" Because I love my sibling)

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989). Steven Spielberg. 6/10

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Francis Ford Coppola. 9/10

The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Jonathan Demme. 10/10

Sycorax (2021). Matías Piñeiro. 8/10

Black Narcissus (Passion of the Swamp) (2022). Peter Strickland. 8/10

Carta a Mi Madre Para Mi Hijo (Letter To My Mother For My Son) (2022). Carla Simón. 7/10

Is It Too Much To Ask (2019). Leena Manimekalai. 6/10

The Actress (2021). Andrew Ondrejcak. 9/10

Shakti (2019). Martín Rejtman. 6/10

El Silencio es un Cuerpo Que Cae (Silence Is A Falling Body) (2017). Agustina Comedi. 10/10 (so sad, so tender, so loving)

Meeting The Man: James Baldwin in Paris (1970). Terrence Dixon. 9/10 (Something tells me this is an excellent documentary; but there's a lot about "talk about certain things in a certain way" and "you know what I mean?" and no, I don't know what he meant or what things and ways were those).

Aftersun (2022). Charlotte Wells. 10/10 (who will lift this elephant off my chest now?)

Vers La Tendresse (Towards Tenderness) (2016). Alice Diop. 6/10

Silvia Prieto (1999). Martín Rehtman. 9/10

Camarera de Piso (Maid) (2022). Lucrecia Martel. 1/10 (the audio was unintelligible)

Contes Immoraux (Immoral Tales) (1973). Walerian Borowczyk. 4/10

Ojo Dos Veces Boca (Eye Two Times Mouth) (2023). Lila Avilés. 8/10

Az prijde kocour (The Cassandra Cat) (1963). Vojtech Jasný. 8/10

O Ornitólogo (The Ornithologist) (2015). João Pedro Rodrigues. 8/10

Uma Paciência Selvagem Me Trouxe Até Aqui (A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here) (2021). Érica Sarmet. 6/10

Squish! (2021). Tulapop Saenjaroen. 3/10

Fugue (2023). John Gianvito. 6/10

Η δουλειά της (Her job) (2018). Nikos Labôt. 8/10

Playback (2019). Agustina Comedi. 10/10

Maine Diil Nahin Dekha (I Am Yet to See Delhi) (2014). Humaira Bilkis. 1/10 (I have seen instagram reels with more argument and better structure)

Proyecto Fantasma (Phantom Project) (2022). Roberto Doveris. 7/10

El Vuelco del Cangrejo (Crab Trap) (2009). Oscar Ruíz Navia. 6/10

Ema (2019). Pablo Larraín. 9/10

Los Fuertes (The Strong Ones) (2019). Omar Zúñiga Hidalgo. 7/10

Phörpa (The Cup) (1999). Khyentse Norbu. 7/10

Նռան գույնը | Nran Guyne | Sayat Nova (The Color of Pomegranates). Sergei Parajanov. 10/10 (The weirdest movie I've ever seen, and one of the most visually stunning ones)

Voyage of Time: An IMAX Documentary (2016). Terrence Malick. 10/10

إن شئت كما في السماء (It Must Be Heaven) (2019). Elia Suleiman. 9/10

Potemkiniştii (The Potemkinists) (2022). Radu Jude. 2/10 (yes, I know the Russian government is evil, but please tell me something else)

Nr. 1 - Aus Berichten der Wach- und Patrouillendienste (From The Reports Of Security Guards and Patrol Services) (1985). Helke Sander. 8/10

Liborio (2021). Nino Martínez Sosa. 6/10

Sendiri Diana Sendiri (Following Diana) (2015). Kamila Andini. 6/10

Valkoinen Peura (The White Reindeer) (1952). Erik Blomberg. 4/10

Wadja (2012). Haifaa Al-Mansour. 10/10

La Femme Au Couteau (The Woman With A Knife) (1969). Timité Basori. 4/10

Tornar-se um Homem na Idade Média (Becoming Male In The Middle Ages) (2022). Pedro Neves Marques. 6/10

Un Garibaldino al Convento (A Garibaldian In The Convent) (1942). Vittorio de Sica. 6/10

Théo et Hugo dans le même bateau (Paris 05:59 Théo & Hugo) (2016). 7/10 (20 mins of porn followed by an hour and 10 mins about post-exposure prophylaxis and the importance of public health and transport systems)

Suplement (The Supplement) (2002). Krzysztof Zanussi. 7/10

天下乌��� (All The Crows In The World) (2021). Tang Yi. 6/10

L'Échapée (Escape) (2009). Katell Quillévéré. 8/10

An Exercise In Discipline - Peel (1982). Jane Campion. 1/10

La Amiga De Mi Amiga (Girlfriends And Girlfriends) (2022). Zaida Carmona. 2/10

Matka Joanna od aniołów (Mother Joan Of Angels) (1961). Jerzy Kawalerowicz. 8/10

Please, Baby, Please (2022). Amanda Kramer. 8/10

Magari (If Only) (2019). Ginevra Elkan. 7/10

Amansa tiafi (Public Toilet Africa) (2021). Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah. 5/10

Holy Spider (عنکبوت مقدس) (2022). Ali Abbasi. 10/10

Movies (II, 'cause I reached the character limit in a section)

Les Cinq Diables (The Five Devils) (2022). Léa Mysius. 8/10

Close (2022). Lukas Dhont. 10/10 (so, so, so sad)

Rien à Foutre (Zero Fucks Given) (2021). Emmanuel Marre, Julie Lecoustre. 7/10

Un Affaire De Femmes (Story Of Women) (1988). Claude Chabrol. 10/10

Serpentine (2022). Eva Doležalová. 2/10 (good photography, but the story is trite an shallow)

Strange Way of Life (2023). Pedro Almodóvar. 7/10

Belle (2013). Amma Asante. 6/10 (not terrible, but cardboard-y like it was written to teach middle schoolers history)

Series

Severance (2022-). Season 1. Dan Erickson. 7/10 (entertaining but i wanted more answers)

Atlanta (2016-2022). Season 1. Donald Glover. 9/10

Atlanta (2016-2022). Season 2. Donald Glover. 9/10

Atlanta (2016-2022). Season 3. Donald Glover. 8/10 (very uneven)

Atlanta (2016-2022). Season 4. Donald Glover. 8/10 (Mr. Glover, why was the last episode dedicated to product placement?)

The White Lotus (2021-2023) Season 1. Mike White. 6/10

The White Lotus (2021-2023) Season 2. Mike White. 7/10

The Last Of Us (2023-). Season 1. Craig Mazin. 9/10

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2013-2018). Season 1. Anthony Bourdain. 8/10

Six Feet Under (2001-2005). Season 1. Alan Ball. 9/10

Six Feet Under (2001-2005). Season 2. Alan Ball. 8/10

Six Feet Under (2001-2005). Season 3. Alan Ball. 8/10 (Nobody Sleeps is my favorite episode so far; so close to my own understanding of what love is)

Six Feet Under (2001-2005). Season 4. Alan Ball. 9/10

Gravity Falls (2012-2016). Season 1. Alex Hirsch. 8/10

Six Feet Under (2001-2005). Season 5. Alan Ball. 8/10

Good Omens (2019-). Season 1. Douglas Mackinnon. 8/10

Good Omens (2019-). Season 2. Douglas Mackinnon. 9/10

Gravity Falls (2012-2016). Season 2. Alex Hirsch. 9/10

The Bear (2022-). Season 2. Christopher Storer. 10/10

Dictaduras Latinoamericanas (2016). Pablo Gregui and Marcel Cluzet. 3/10 (the episodes were way to short to teach me anything beyond common knowledge)

What We Do in the Shadows (2019-). Season 5. Jemaine Clement (?). 7/10

The Newsreader (2021-). Season 2. Michael Lucas. 10/10

Our Flag Means Death (2022-). Season 2. David Jenkins.4/10

Over the Garden Wall (2014). Patrick McHale. 10/10

The Fall of the House of Usher (2023). Mike Flanagan. 9/10

Misc

Pokemon Leaf Green (2004) 3/10 (beating the pokemon league was a debt from childhood but it was so boring)

Escape From Monkey Island (2000) 6/10

HBO's The Last Of Us Podcast (2023). Season 1. 10/10

The Procession to Calvary (2020). 10/10 (I expected a fun, silly little game and got exactly that)

Stardew Valley (2016). 10/10

[wahwealth]

Irene Dunn, Charles Boyer | 💘Love Affair💘 (1939) | Romance Full Movie En...

Love Affair is a 1939 US romance film, starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, and featuring Maria Ouspenskaya. The movie was directed by Leo McCarey and written by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart, based on a story by McCarey and Mildred Cram.  The movie became a surprise hit of 1939, showing McCarey's versatility after a long career of comedic films, and launching the surprising team-up of Dunne and Boyer. Academy Award nominations include Best Actress for Dunne, Best Supporting Actress for Ouspenskaya, Best Original Song, Best Writing (Original), and Best Picture. Irene Dunne as Terry McKay Charles Boyer as Michel Marnet Maria Ouspenskaya as Grandmother Janou Lee Bowman as Kenneth Bradley Astrid Allwyn as Lois Clarke Maurice Moscovitch as Maurice Cobert, an art dealer Scotty Beckett as Boy on the ship Dell Henderson as Cafe Manager Lloyd Ingraham as Doctor Frank McGlynn Sr. as Orphanage Superintendent Ferike Boros as Terry's landlady Never miss a video. Join the channel so that Mr. P can notify you when new videos are uploaded: https://www.youtube.com/@nrpsmovieclassics

[letterboxd-loggd]

In Name Only (1939) John Cromwell

September 11th 2021

[chaplinfortheages]

Charlie, Paulette Goddard & Maurice Morcovitch (played Mr. Jaeckel) - 

Maurice Moscovitch was with the New York Yiddish Theatre for many years, then appearing in 13 films between 1936 - 1940.

He never go to see his biggest film role dying four months before the release of “The Great Dictator” October 15th 1940.

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940)

[jayfinch]

The Great Dictator

The Final Speech

[mundo-misterio]

Reseña de la película Place à demain (1937)

Reseña de la película Place à demain (1937)

En el querido apartamento de su hijo en Nueva York, Bark se resfría mientras duerme en el sofá. Se llama a un médico y su hijastra lo lleva rápidamente a la habitación de la pareja, arropando para que el médico no sepa la verdad. Recibe la visita del único amigo que ha hecho, un antiguo dueño de una tienda judía (Maurice Moscovitch) que mide la situación y cuya reacción es perfectamente resumida…

[illegalpeople]

Watched Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” at the City Reliquary Museum last night.  I’ve seen the movie at least 3 or 4 times and this was the second time I saw it with an audience.  It’s a powerful film and you can really feel the power of its final message in a group of people.

There are so many good laughs played against the tension of people’s lives hanging in the balance so when Chaplin gives the final speech there’s a palpable reverence that engulfs the audience.  There’s suspense wondering whether there will be any comedy in this moment.  Will anything be played for a laugh?  Will Chaplin do a bit to cut the tension?  

He doesn’t.  He plays it emotionally, intellectually, sincerely straight.  And its resonance rings.  Chaplin earns the moment and reverence and the words are so heartfelt and the truth of them is so real that they resonate almost as physically as laughter can jolt.  It’s a timeless performance.

It’s worth noting that the film is filled with indelible performances.  Paulette Goddard is funny, lovable, smart, heroic and tragic as Hannah.  Maurice Moscovitch is integrity incarnate.  And there’s a whole slew of supporting comedic characters that Chaplin lets shine.  Jack Oakie is hilarious as Napoloni, a brilliant take on Mussolini.  And a favorite is Garbitsch, played by Henry Daniell with clever malevolence.

“The Great Dictator” is part of a long line of “commoner being mistaken for important figure” comedies (The Prince and the Pauper, The Inspector General, Bananas, Dave, and more).  I wonder if there’s a name for that sub-genre.  But Chaplin doesn’t actually address that the Jewish Barber looks like the dictator Hynkel until the very end.  It’s genius.  The audience keeps wondering when someone will notice the resemblance and what will happen when they do.  In the meantime Chaplin distinguishes his characters as separate individuals in situation and attitude with truth and deft comedy.  It’s a masterful build up to that final speech.

I mention it here as aspiration.  Chaplin sets the standard for the kind of comedy that punctures power.

[byneddiedingo]

In Name Only (John Cromwell, 1939) Cast: Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Kay Francis, Charles Coburn, Helen Vinson, Katharine Alexander, Jonathan Hale, Nella Walker, Alan Baxter, Maurice Moscovitch, Peggy Ann Garner, Spencer Charters. Screenplay: Richard Sherman, based on a novel by Bessie Breuer. Cinematography: J. Roy Hunt. Art direction: Van Nest Polglase, Perry Ferguson. Film editing: William Hamilton. Music: Roy Webb. You have to feel a little sorry for Kay Francis in In Name Only, stuck there as the villain opposite two witty luminaries, Cary Grant and Carole Lombard. Their background as comic actors make Grant and Lombard even more appealing in this mostly serious drama about frustrated love. We see the potential for happiness in their characters even as Lombard's is suffering and Grant's almost dies, mostly because we've seen the actors be giddy and funny before. Poor Francis is stuck in full grim glower as her character, Maida Walker, tries to hold on to her husband, Alec (Grant). Maida's motives are impure, of course: She married Alec for his money, even though she was in love with another, less affluent man. Their marriage has long since gone sour, so when Alec finds himself falling for the pretty widow Julie Eden (Lombard), Maida has to pull out all stops to put a kibosh on their affair. In Name Only is one of the more cynical movies about marriage to come out of Hollywood under the Production Code, which while it didn't prohibit the treatment of married couples falling out of love with each other and even getting divorced to marry their true loves, tried, under the Catholic leadership of Joseph Breen, to discourage it -- or at least to make sure that it was as painful for the participants as possible. So Maida has to be as cunningly deceitful as possible in her attempts to hold on to her man. Naturally, in the end Maida gets her comeuppance and agrees to divorce Alec so he can marry Julie, but it's a long time coming. Alec even has to be on the brink of death before this can happen, which provides one of the weaker moments in the film: Grant is so typically full of life that it's almost beyond his considerable acting skills to seem to be seriously ill. In Name Only is no great film, but you probably can't even care about its defects when Grant and Lombard are on the screen -- they're that good.

[letterboxd-loggd]

The Great Dictator (1940) Charlie Chaplin

August 2nd 2020

[chaplinfortheages]

The Great Dictator 1940Mr Jaeckel (Maurice Moscovitch) advises the barber (Charlie Chaplin) to diversify and practice beauty treatments on Hannah (Paulette Goddard)