1948, produced and directed by Carol Reed, story and screenplay by Graham Greene, starring Michèle Morgan, Ralph Richardson, and Sonia Dresdel. Cover blurb: ”Elegantly balancing suspense and farce, this tale of the fraught relationship between a boy and the beloved butler he suspects of murder is a delightfully macabre thriller of the first order and a visually and verbally dazzling knockout.”
2008-present. Worth subscribing to and keeping. When Lewis Lapham was editor of Harper’s, it was a great magazine. Now he has turned his scholarly depth and eclectic interests to Lapham’s Quarterly, which “embodies the belief that history is the root of all education, scientific and literary as well as political and economic. Each issue addresses a topic of current interest and concern––war, religion, money, medicine, nature, crime––by bringing up to the microphone of the present… read more →
One of the funniest, cleverest movies I have seen. 1986 Danny DeVito, Bette Midler. The title-role lovable kidnappers are Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater. Cleverly written by Dale Launer. Meticulous construction; every scene counts, good pace.
Ballet and opera 1951 “Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger create a phantasmagoric marriage of cinema and opera in this one-of-a-kind take on a classic story. In Jacques Offenbach’s fantasy opera The Tales of Hoffman, a poet dreams of three women––a mechanical performing doll, a bejeweled siren, and the consumptive daughter of a famous composer––all of whom break his heart in different ways. Powell and Pressburger’s feverishly romantic adaptation is a feast of music, dance, and… read more →