Category Archive: Classic Film
21 August – Birthday Cake for Filmfolk
Image by Kgayhart
We don’t suggest film-makers are horses, but several interesting players celebrate birthdays today… 1892: Charles Vanel Charles was the whispery menace of films of the 1940s and 1950s, most memorably in The Wages of Fear (above) and To Catch a Thief (below). 1924: Jack Weston His career didn’t have many highlights, but as Elaine May’s corrupt and needy attorney in A New Leaf, he was sensational. 1930: Frank Perry He had more misses than hits, but The Swimmer, based on a story by John Cheever, was out of the top drawer: 1944: Peter Weir Probably the greatest Australian director, whose films…
Continue Reading →18 AUGUST – COLLECTIVE BIRTHDAY CAKE
18 August 1750 – Antonio Salieri His work has faded, leaving behind a (probably unfair) reputation of the poisoner of Mozart… 18 August 1920 – Shirley Schrift (Shelley Winters) The needy, blowsy slattern with a heart of gold and born to lose – Shelley’s specialty. Her great film moments: The Great Gatsby (1949), A Place in the Sun (1951), The Night of the Hunter (1955), The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), and especially Lolita (1962). 18 August 1933 – Roman Polanski His reputation has taken a battering of late, but he gets a plea in mitigation for films such as…
Continue Reading →“The Party of the First Part” – Jean Hagen
Jean Hagen (born 3 August 1923) gave the performance of a lifetime as Lina Lamont in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Lina might look dumb but she’s formidable, in fact, and a scrapper! Witness her resistance to replacement by actresses without her fog-horn / breaking-glass voice, when she reminds the studio head of Monumental Pictures about relevant clauses in her contract:
Continue Reading →Our 20 Finest Films
The Varnished Culture has not been hibernating these few weeks in late June and early July. We have convened, and over many screeching, shrill, shrieking debates, several pots of coffee and several bottles of fine Jeanneret riesling from the Clare Valley, we have, with some dissents, compiled our list of the Greatest. We hope for, but do not expect, tolerance from film buffs out there. But if you can bottle the acid and lower the static, please let us have your thoughts (but be prepared to defend them!) There’s no mileage in exhaustively setting-out our Committee’s criteria, or allowing too…
Continue Reading →Wings of Desire
(Directed by Wim Wenders) (1988) Having recently seen the great Bruno Ganz In some OK and under par films, TVC decided to attend the closing night of the German Film Festival in Adelaide and get amongst the champagne and canapés (and we should confirm that we did not, and do not make a habit, of accepting free tickets or hospitality). Wings of Desire is Wenders’ great masterpiece, in which two “recording” angels, Damiel (Bruno) and Cassiel (Otto Sander), swan about Berlin (an historic and increasingly bizarre town, described by its Mayor a while ago as “poor but sexy.”) The photography of the city…
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