Category: Film
Will the cinema experience survive?
In the past month, I have written 15 articles about American professional football. That fact may not be of interest to readers of a movie blog – especially an international one like Curnblog whose readers probably think American football is the equivalent of Tom Hooper’s Cats, overblown and silly, spectacle over substance, with the odd…
Five legendary directors who made their debut 50 years ago
1968 was a dynamic year in cinema. French cinema. Important new movies from Godard, Truffaut, and Chabrol. Even more revolution happening off screen. Many young French directors staged a revolution at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. One of the godfathers of the French New Wave, Henri Langlois, was fired from his long-time post as head…
The Color of Blood: Why Gore’s Hue Might Affect Cinematic Believability
Does the color of blood in a violent scene affect a movie’s credibility? I’ve been asking this question for a while after mulling a variety of great films that feature unrealistic-looking hemo-splatter yet remain some of the most believable pictures of all time. The Godfather (1972) has a scene in which the crime-family head Vito…
You Ain’t Heard Nothing Yet: 20 Obscure Movie Lines We Just Can’t Shake
From the moment Al Jolson ad libbed “Wait a minute folks, you ain’t heard nothing yet!” in The Jazz Singer, movies have been filled with great dialogue. There have been speeches like Orson Welles’ “Cuckoo Clock” lecture in The Third Man and Robert Shaw’s USS Indianapolis story in Jaws. Ingrid Thulin’s lament on life and…
Forget the Oscars: Here are 2014’s Best Films and Performances
Show of hands, how many of you have seen Cavalo Dinheiiro? Maybe you know it is as Horse Money. The Portuguese documentary from director Pedro Costa tied for third in the 2014 Sight & Sound critics poll, making it the highest-ranking documentary on this respected list. Didn’t catch it? How about Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to…