Author: Kathleen Blair
Revisiting a classic: The Grand Hotel
Grand Hotel (1932) isn’t a perfect, or even great movie, but it is an interesting one. By most accounts, Grand Hotel was the first movie to have multiple headlining stars, rather than just one or two. Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore and Wallace Beery all shared the headlines for this film. Directed…
Seeing with the ear: Meditations on the use of sound in the films of Dario Argento
It may seem odd to make an argument about the supremacy of sound in the films of Dario Argento, which bear such a recognisable visual flair. While it’s impossible to discount Argento’s expressive imagery, his creative use of sound is an often overlooked element of his style. This isn’t too surprising, since I believe sound…