Ziad Shihab

Showing all posts tagged "History Of Film"

Aggravating plot holes in otherwise great movies - a list of 15

March 17th, 2023

There’s nothing worse than a smart-alec film fan.We’ve all done it, of course. Picked apart a cheesy blockbuster for its perceived flaws. Poked holes in some sloppy plot logic. Proposed another ending that would have made oh so much more sense.The fact is, though, we’re often not as smart as we think we are. Often, films are simply more interested in telling a story than in bulletproofing themselves against pedants.Sometimes, even widely circulated complaints are totally fatuous. People watch...

Films and TV shows that cleverly teased their big twist early on

March 12th, 2023

Sometimes, there’s just no beating a good plot twist. David Fincher’s grisly 1995 noir Se7en, which marks its 25th anniversary today, is celebrated for many things, among them its shocking final twist.But even upon repeat viewings, many people don’t notice the subtle clues left earlier in the film, which tipped their hand towards Se7en’s climactic reveal.Foreshadowing can be a fine art, leveraged for great tragic or satirical effect – or it can simply be playful, a way of rewarding obsessed v...

True Lies Reboot Fails to Deliver the Intrigue and the Lies

March 1st, 2023

When James Cameron’s "True Lies" hit theaters in 1994, the story of a muscly spy (Arnold Schwarzenegger) moonlighting as a computer salesman while his bored wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) found secretive ways to pursue purpose was fun, fresh and provocative. Fast-forward nearly 30 years, and many of the film’s tropes and stereotypes just don’t hold up. So when it came to adapting the film into a TV show, changes were necessary. Unfortunately, in updating the material, showrunner Matt Nix fail...

British Erotica

February 22nd, 2023

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history. Women in Love (Ken Russell, 1969). "British erotica" has long been considered an oxymoron, and this distinction is not entirely unfounded. While European auteurs like Jean-Luc Godard, Tinto Brass, Walerian Borowczyk, and Luis Buñuel were treating copulation as a springboard to philosophical ruminations, the British were paying to see Barbara W...

Tomu Uchida | 警察官 (Keisatsukan) (Police Officer, aka Policeman)

February 16th, 2023

Tomu Uchida | 警察官 (Keisatsukan) (Police Officer, aka Policeman)SourceURL: http://internationalcinemareview.blogspot.com/2023/02/tomu-uchida-keisatsukan-police-officer.html looking homeward by Douglas Messerli Eizo Yamauchi (screenplay, based on a story by Toshihiko Takeda), Tomu Uchida (director) 警察官 (Keisatsukan) (Police Officer, aka Policeman) / 1933 Only this film of the several of the several Tomu Uchida made in pre-war Japan has survived intact. But Keisatsukan...

Doctor Who - The Mythmakers 1965

February 13th, 2023

In late 1965 Doctor Who featured a four part story about the end of the Trojan War. All four episodes are lost, though the audio track survives intact, along with a selection of photos and video snippets. In spite of that The myth makers, by Donald Cotton, is widely regarded as a highlight of Doctor Who’s early years. My aim here is to highlight how it plays on prior models. One target is Homer, of course, but it also plays on the 1956 Hollywood epic Helen of Troy starring Rossana Podestà,...

Miró: Theatre of Dreams

February 7th, 2023

More old TV, and something you might call Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man. Miró: Theatre of Dreams is a documentary about the Spanish (or as he might have preferred, Catalan) artist Joan Miró. This was broadcast by the BBC in 1978, and again in 1984, but it’s one I hadn’t seen until now. Robin Lough’s film was the first television profile of the artist in which Miró talks at length with his British friend, Roland Penrose, an artist and writer who did much to champion Surrealism in its ea...

The creepy Pennywise reference in Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’

January 29th, 2023

Since the 1970s, Hollywood has looked to Stephen King’s work as a go-to source of adaptation material. As a writer of horrors, thrillers, supernatural fiction, crime and sci-fi, King’s work has proved to be the perfect fit for the big screen, with over 50 of his stories receiving cinematic treatment. Some of the most successful adaptations of King’s work include Carrie, The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, and The Green Mile. However, none are as belove...

The Chaotic B-Movie Retro Charm of Gerard Butler

January 25th, 2023

It’s only right that Gerard Butler is starring in a film called Plane. That title lets you know everything you need to, much like Geostorm or Butterfly on a Wheel. There’s no better film for a cold and empty January quite like an airplane disaster film starring Scotland’s third or fourth-finest as a totally believable pilot saving the day as shit goes down. The only thing that’ll make it better is if Butler tries to punch the plane.  Butler’s career has followed a fascinating trajectory si...

Exploring the feud between John Huston and John Wayne

January 17th, 2023

(Credit: Far Out / Wikimedia) Exploring the feud between John Huston and John Wayne Wed 28th Dec 2022 18.30 GMT John Huston, the director of unforgettable masterpieces such as The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of Sierra Madre, has often been called Hollywood’s renaissance man and rightly so. One of the greatest pioneers of American cinema, Huston worked with the biggest icons of t...

Overlooked Groundbreakers by Female Directors

January 17th, 2023

In film industries both domestic and abroad, there is one universal truth when it comes to filmmakers: Femme directors are underrepresented. They are provided fewer opportunities, and most film canons studied in higher education ignore them. While you may find The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993), Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2004)  or The Hurt Locker  (Kathryn Bigelow, 2009)here or there alongside 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) or Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967), the thr...

Exploring David Lynch obsession with crashing cars in his movies

January 6th, 2023

Since his feature film debut Eraserhead was released in 1977, David Lynch has cemented himself as one of cinema’s most innovative minds. Master of the surreal, his movies often confuse viewers with their use of unconventional cinematic devices, such as nonlinearity and reversed dialogue. However, all of Lynch’s films have one primary concern – the destruction of the American Dream – and recognising this theme makes his work easier to detangle.  Lynch’s distinctive visual aesthetic direc...

Biggest Turkey in Game Show History

January 1st, 2023

By Adam Nedeff, Researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History You bring the stuffing, the cranberry sauce, and the pumpkin pie. For Thanksgiving, we’ll bring you the biggest turkey in the history of game shows: You’re in the Picture By 1961, Jackie Gleason was already a bona fide show business legend. His Cavalcade of Stars had made him one of the first superstars in the young medium of television. The classic 39-episode season of The Honeymooners had been icing on the cake....

Violent murder scene Brian De Palma calls his favourite

December 28th, 2022

When Quentin Tarantino met his hero Brian De Palma, he was quick to ask him why they have both seen themselves tarred as violent perverts. In the reams that have been written about their work, the pull quotes nearly always pertain to courting controversy in one bloody way or another. While that isn’t all that surprising given the blood-soaked celluloid they have both offered up, we’re dealing with the realm of visual fantasy so some of the condemnation seems fancifully misguided.  De Palma be...

Film at Lincoln Center Announces Jordan Peele Curation - Broadway World

December 23rd, 2022

Film at Lincoln Center announces The Lost Rider: A Chronicle of Hollywood Sacrifice, from January 5-14. Widely hailed as one of this century's great directorial debuts, Jordan Peele's era-defining Get Out injected new life into horror with its witty subversion of racial politics and elitist social mores. Two years later, his wildly entertaining Us plumbed everything from isolationist fears and late-capitalist power structures to the rich lineage of the doppelgänger motif and home-invasio...

The Best Modern Noir Movies, Ranked

December 21st, 2022

HomeMovie ListsThe Best Modern Noir Movies, RankedThe Best Modern Noir Movies, RankedBy Rudransh BundelaPublished 2 days agoFrom moody visuals, to somber narratives, here are some of the best modern noir films, ranked. Paramount PicturesFilm noir is a sub-genre of filmmaking that predominantly focuses on stylistic visual elements like the interplay of shadow lighting along with black and white motifs. Film historians believe that noir films have their roots in German expressionist cinematogr...

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Decoding Marilyn Monroe and her legacy in film and culture

November 29th, 2022

When it comes to Hollywood icons, very few have obtained the level of fame and success that Marilyn Monroe reached. Even after all these years, Monroe is undoubtedly one of contemporary culture’s most legendary stars. Born Norma Jean on June 1st, 1926, the actor cemented herself into pop cultural DNA through her onscreen performances of comedic ‘blonde bombshell’ characters, a term synonymous with Monroe. From this, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s. ...

CFP: Exhibition in Crisis, Aniki 10, no. 2

October 12th, 2022

Hi all, Along with my colleagues Ross Melnick and Rafael de Luna, I am co-editing a special section of the July 2023 issue of Aniki: Portuguese Journal of the Moving Image on the topic of "Exhibition in Crisis." We seek to draw attention to the transformative effect that crises past and present have had on film exhibition as a mode of cultural practice, a set of institutions and actors, and an object of research in film and media studies. In this dossier, we hope to investigate the concept ...

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Pretty Baby (1978)

September 14th, 2022

"I run a good old-fashioned whore house, monsieur." Synopsis: Just prior to the end of World War I, photographer E.J. Bellocq (Keith Carradine) visits a New Orleans whorehouse run by an aging madame (Frances Faye), and takes artistic portraits of a mother (Susan Sarandon) whose virginal 12-year-old daughter Violet (Brooke Shields) will soon be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Barbara Steele FilmsDeep SouthHistorical DramaKeith Carradin...

How ‘GoodFellas’ gave us the greatest cooking scene of all time

July 26th, 2022

The world of film has no shortage of brilliant cooking scenes. If you don’t believe us, just check out our list of the top ten greatest celebrations of food in cinema. From Pixar’s Ratatouille to Stanley Tucci’s mouth-watering Big Night, directors have depicted the ritual of cooking and eating together time and time again. This scene from the 1990 gangster film Goodfellas, in which mobster Henry Hill recalls how he and his gang made dinner in prison, is perhaps one of the most strangely heart...

The Best Years of Our Lives (US 1946)

July 25th, 2022

The sailor, the flyer and the soldier, heading home It’s close to time for Sight and Sound‘s decennial list of international critics’ ‘best films’. I’m not very keen on these lists but they seem to amuse a lot of cinephiles. I’m intrigued as to what criteria the selected critics use for their personal choices (i.e. outside of the guidelines they are sent by the journal) and why they end up with mainly the same kinds of films from the same directors. I’ve seen the majority of the 2...

Männer (thing) by Heisenberg - Everything2.com

June 28th, 2022

Männer (thing) See all of Männer, no other writeups in this node. (thing) by Heisenberg (2.2 mon) Rep: 17 ( +21 / -4 ) (Rep Graph) (+) Wed Sep 24 2003 at 8:27:24 Successful German comedy about the weaker sex: men "Männer" (Men) hit a few german cinemas in 1985 as just another independent movie by some obscure german female writer/director. At that time, nobody really went to see german productions although the audience eagerly lapped up British and American films, mainly du...

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20best film noirs: From Double Indemnity to Shadow of a Doubt

June 17th, 2022

The phrase film noir was first coined in 1946 by a group of French critics to describe the emerging movement of mainly black and white Hollywood films with dark, pessimistic themes and signature motifs such as alienated antiheroes, rain slicked streets, dark shadows and seductive femme fatales.Borrowing heavily from the hard-boiled but literary detective novels of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, film noir attracted some of cinema’s greatest craftsmen including Orson Welles, Howard Hawk...