Like Peas in a Sci-Fi Pod: The 1978 Remake of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’
Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake of sci-fi pod people film Invasion of the Body Snatchers achieves a level of unease above and beyond the novel and the 1956 film.
film restoration
The Sexual Politics in Sexy Rudolph Valentino’s Silent Film, ‘The Sheik’
Eyebrows tilting and nostrils flaring and emanating pheromones of intoxicating effluvia, Foreigners like Valentino’s Sheik had un-American sex all over Hollywood.
Quick and Dirty Tales of Murder and Journalism in Hollywood
Flicker Alley’s set of Hollywood B-films from 1934 provide sociological snapshots of the limits of respectable cinema.
The Syllabus of ‘Filibus’ the Gentlewoman Thief
WWI was underway when silent film Filibus hit theaters, so this elegant, war-free escapism of immorality among the ruling class may have provided mass therapy.
When Golden Age TV Films Screamed About Gender Roles
In these three restored Gothic films from Kino Lorber, gender roles and their social undertones feed into the template of paranoid thrillers.
Film-Noir ‘A Life at Stake’ Is a Saucy Little Potboiler
Restored noir ‘A Life at Stake’ sets viewers smack in the middle of the sleek, seamy, sweaty, paranoid underside of the American ’50s, and it’s a nice trip.
The Way They Kiss in ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’
Julie Andrews’ 1960s musical Thoroughly Modern Millie does its anti-authoritarian, anarchic-chaotic thing in a different key.
Seaton’s What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? Thumbs Its Tucan-Size Nose at the Establishment
An airborne virus infects the cogs in the capitalist machine in George Seaton’s What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? and makes people subversively happy.
Life Irritates Art in These Stanley Kwan and James Cruze Talkies
Kwan’s art-house Center Stage and Cruze’s vulgar The Great Gabbo both touch on the tragic tropes of performers whose careers suck up their lives.
Paul Leni’s Haunting ‘Waxworks’ Comes to Life in This Restoration
Paul Leni’s silent film Waxworks (1924) is a brilliantly acted, engaging, and exhilarating example of German Expressionism on film.
James Whale’s Film, ‘The Kiss Before the Mirror’, Is an Elegant Pre-Code Treat
James Whale’s pre-Code The Kiss Before the Mirror subverts the assumption of women as deceitful property
Hungarian Drama ‘Sátántangó’ Wants To Make Viewers Uncomfortable
Is there an artwork that better evokes the grim feeling of the current state of the world than Hungarian drama, Sátántangó?