Continue your education, amusement and appreciation with the following:
Directors in Their Magic Hour IT is a truism that artists in their last years confront the waning of their powers and undertake the work of valediction. Prospero, drowning his book of spells at the...
Ramping up remakes! The impressive opening of "Fast & Furious" during the weekend not only proves there's gas in that franchise, it also gives fuel to Hollywood's obsession with movies based on, well,...
The Sultan of Suave Fred Astaire was definitely an odd bird, at least by Hollywood standards. He despised publicity, appears to have been a fierce monogamist, was a regular churchgoer and decidedly Republican in...
'Rio Bravo,' Still Hip at 50 It wasn't nominated for any Academy Awards. It was scarcely taken seriously by the critics on its release, and it's never made into the American Film Institute's top 100. But...
Scripts today 'are garbage' You know that line in "Dirty Harry" in which Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan describes the power of the .44 Magnum? John Milius wrote that line.
The interview: David Lynch With his enigmatic masterpieces Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, the director created a dark, disturbing vision of America. Now, he says, he is done with films in favour...
Cheap thrills If you stand on Gower Street in Hollywood just south of Sunset Boulevard and look north, the white lines on the tarmac rush horizon-wards and reach their convergence point a...
Benjamin Button There are few careers in big-time modern American moviemaking like David Fincher’s. Where almost everyone else in the last two decades has felt obliged to define him- or herself right...
Running on Empty Screenwriters love to complain. They are disrespected by producers, deemed dispensable by directors, not duly credited by critics, treated like employees by actors - although few complain about being historically...
An Offer He Almost Refused What was the formula that made "The Godfather" one of the most successful films of all time? Surely it would take an unusually harmonious combination of talents working in concert,...
Even legendary directors like Alfred Hitchcock don’t always get their way. Over the course of his illustrious career, Hitchcock had to abandon quite a few projects due to...
Howard Hawks & Chivalry Howard Hawks took legitimate pride in a certain professionalism, but "artist" and "work of art" were alien terms for him. He appreciated the wit of Faulkner's saying to him the...
