Author: Jonathan Eig
The Beautiful People: Is Hollywood Getting Too Pretty?
In 1991, Garry Marshall filmed an adaptation of Terrence McNally’s play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune. Off-Broadway, Kathy Bates had great success portraying the plain-Jane middle-aged waitress Frankie, but she did not get a shot at the movie. Instead, Marshall cast Michelle Pfeiffer. Some were outraged, but most just wrote this off…
Perceiving Film: The Cinematic Rorschach Test
We’ve been talking a lot about favourite films recently. Were I to make a list, John Sayles’ 1994 movie The Secret of Roan Inish would rank fairly high. But if you want to discuss and analyse that movie, you would find me useless. I’ve seen it once, and though “never” is a long time away,…
Strangers When We Meet: Getting to know Richard Quine
Fifty years from now, when they update the film history textbooks, which current directors will merit a section? Some of the older vets are obvious. Scorsese and Spielberg. Almodovar and Von Trier. Zhang Yimou. Household names to film connoisseurs. What about Francis Lawrence, Shane Black, Chris Buck, Pierre Coffin, and Zack Snyder? They directed (or…
Young Talent: Recognising the great child actors
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded twelve special “Juvenile Oscars” between 1934 and 1960. The recipients included some of the biggest names in Hollywood, such as Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, and Mickey Rooney. In more recent years, it has become almost commonplace for actors in their teens or even younger to receive…
American Memories: The Great Depression and Cinema
I love My Man Godfrey (1936). How could you not? It has William Powell at his most suave, Carole Lombard at her most adorable. It’s got Eugene Pallette, for crying out loud. But I wouldn’t hold it up as an incisive and accurate depiction of America in the 1930s. Though it actually is one of…