Lily, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off her feet...
Today is the feast of Epiphany, the last day of the traditional Christmas season; the day also when the Misses Morkan held that grand affair, their annual dance, in James Joyce's
"The Dead." [more inside]
posted by Iridic
on Jan 6, 2012 -
71 comments
Leonard Michaels' "The Zipper":
Rita Hayworth is never seen disrobed in the movie, though it is threatened more than once. The atmosphere of dark repression and mysterious forces – the mood or feeling of the movie – might be destroyed by the revelation of her body. It scared me as she began her striptease dance in the nightclub. I didn’t want everybody to see her body, or even to see that Rita Hayworth had a body. [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Sep 5, 2011 -
14 comments
Waggish would be one of the choicest blogs around if he updated more, but I suppose I can settle for what there is. If you've never read it, you'll know how good it is when I tell you about a few of the coolest posts: an
inquest on "left-brained" literature, a
short review of John Williams'
Stoner, an
appreciation of the great Shohei Imamura and
three part coverage of the ultimate film, Béla Tarr's
Sátántangó.
posted by colinmarshall
on Oct 19, 2008 -
23 comments
The Guardian has compiled a list of their
top fifty arts videos, the majority being from either rare or obscure sources and uploaded onto YouTube.
posted by djgh
on Aug 30, 2008 -
13 comments
I first read "Ask the Dust" in 1971 when I was doing research for "Chinatown". I was concerned about the way people really sounded when they talked, and I was dissatisfied with everything else I had read that was written during the '30s. I wanted the real thing, as Henry James would say. When I picked up Fante's "Ask the Dust," I just knew that was the way those kids talked to each other—the rhythms, cadences, racism.
Robert Towne on
adapting John Fante's novel
for the big screen. More inside.
posted by matteo
on Mar 4, 2006 -
17 comments
Did The Wizard of Oz inspire Lord of the Rings? "The first film version of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz was released in the summer of 1939, less than a month before World War II officially began. Though started as early as 1937, The Lord of the Rings was largely composed during the war years, but not published until somewhat later. Therefore, it is by no means impossible that J.R.R. Tolkien saw the magnificent MGM movie before he wrote most of his magnum opus. Could Oz have influenced his tale somehow, consciously or unconsciously?"
posted by Joey Michaels
on Apr 7, 2005 -
35 comments
Everyone is talking about Clint Eastwood's new movie,
Million Dollar Baby (
trailer). What you may not know however is that the movie was based on a short story in a book by the name of
Rope Burns: Stories From The Corner by the late F.X. Toole (aka Jerry Boyd). The book by the way was called, "...the best boxing short fiction ever written," by
James Ellroy of L.A. Confidential fame. Back in 2000 Toole gave an amazing
interview on Fresh Air about spending the last 20 years of his life as a cut man and the last 40 years of writing while trying to overcome his fear of rejection before getting his first book published at age 70.
posted by pwb503
on Jan 18, 2005 -
19 comments
"
Stone Reader makes you want to pick up a
great novel and consume it in one long gulp. It’s a love letter to literature and literacy, a bibliophile’s dream film, dedicated to the joys of fiction and the passions of those who need books like they need food, water and air."
(The Dallas Morning News)
posted by rushmc
on Aug 13, 2004 -
17 comments
The Dance of Death. Die Totentanz: A German-language
site spotlighting, for example, the dance of death in
literature,
graphic art,
music and
film. For those, like me, whose German is not so good,
this page offers an English-language history of the phenomenon, and the Catholic Encyclopedia has an
article too. See also
Holbein's Dance-of-Death;
Lübeck's Dance-of-Death; and umm,
this.
posted by misteraitch
on Jul 3, 2003 -
14 comments
Alexandre Dumas on film This AP/CNN article says Dumas’ books make good movies, but aren’t being read as much as they used to be. Do the changes the movies make improve the books, or would more faithful adaptations be better?
posted by kirkaracha
on Feb 2, 2002 -
15 comments
Police Boycott "Harry Potter" Police in Penryn, PA (near Harrisburg) have refused to direct traffic at a YMCA event. The police claim that because the YMCA reads "Harry Potter" to local children that they are promoting witchcraft. Fire Police Capt. Robert Fichthorn says "I don't feel right taking our children's minds and teaching them (witchcraft). As long as we don't stand up, it won't stop. It's unfortunate that this is the way it has to be."
posted by terrapin
on Jan 24, 2002 -
47 comments
Don't make Hunter mad. Hunter S. Thompson doesn't think the production company that optioned
The Rum Diaries is doing a very good job. And he tells them. Man, does he tell them.
posted by cfj
on Mar 10, 2001 -
14 comments
