In 2019, legendary film director Martin Scorsese became a top news story for a few weeks when he was asked by an interviewer if he had any opinion about the Marvel superhero franchise , which was at the time unchallenged and secure at the top of the box office food chain. Scorsese opined that these movies felt closer to theme park attractions than they are to movies, and that "in the end, I don’t think they’re cinema." His remarks ruffled more than a few feathers, especially amongst the millions of movie-goers who were enthusiastically making Marvel's movies some of the most (financially) successful films of all time. (It's actually not that difficult to break financial records when the ticket prices keep going up. If you adjust for inflation then one of the most successful films of all time was The Wicked Lady in 1945, starring Margaret Lockwood; a film that has nothing to do with either Martin Scorsese or Marvel.) Bigger than Captain America ! Also Taxi Driver ... ...
Wednesday, 4th February, 2026 Dear ChatGPT, I have been thinking recently about the film "Desk Set"; Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy's penultimate film together. Written by Henry and Phoebe Ephron (the parents of Nora) Desk Set presents as a romantic comedy in the classical tradition. Hepburn is Bunny Watson, head of the "Research and Reference" department of a major television network (portrayed as fiercely independent and staggeringly good at her job) while Tracy is Richard Sumner, an "efficiency engineer" contracted to install a cutting-edge computer system (named EMERAC) which the reference team is afraid will put them all out of work. Desk Set is a film that works on many levels. It's a delightful, engaging and very funny comedy of manners that makes exceptional use of the specific talents of its stars (real-life couple Hepburn and Tracy had tremendous chemistry onscreen and off, and ultimately made nine films together) but it also serves ...
Consider Hamlet . I'm sure you remember Hamlet. Gloomy guy. Wears black a lot. Talks to himself. Likes to hang out in cemeteries. Now, imagine for a moment that you are Hamlet. You are the Prince of Denmark (congratulations!) and heir to the throne. While you're off at University doing the "student" thing, you receive word that your beloved father (the King) is dead; murdered, it turns out, by your horrible Uncle, who then promptly marries your mother (eww) and usurps the throne, snatching it away from you before you even have a chance to catch the next train home. Your father's ghost (who is, you learn, burning endlessly in some harrowing Purgatory, suffering torments beyond imagining) confirms all this, and urges you to take revenge on his behalf. You're not really the right guy for this sort of thing; you're more the academic type. Revenge isn't your natural style; your first instinct would probably be to write an essay at them or something... bu...
Regular attendees of my Thursday-night film screenings might remember the season I presented back in 2022 dedicated to Ordinary Ladies . The idea behind the Ordinary Ladies season had been to showcase films featuring female characters who did not fit into any of the usual cinematic "feminine" tropes. They were not the customary sex goddesses or temptresses or damsels in distress; they were (to coin a phrase) Ordinary Ladies with their own personalities and motivations and story arcs. They were (I argued at the time) distinct from the "vixens & floozies & sexy chanteuses" that one often encounters in classic cinema. I selected a dizzying variety of films for the Ordinary Ladies series (and had a lot of fun doing so) but one title I did not screen under that banner is the one I plan to show this week. Gilda is many things, but ordinary is not one of them. As a film it positively drips with sexuality and subtext. As a character , she... positively drips with ...
Gather around, everyone, and make yourselves comfortable. I'm going to tell you a little story. There once was a guy; oh, let's call him "Pygmalion". He was unhappy with all the women of his community, and refused to have anything to do with them (I'm sure they had their own opinions about him , but whatever they said amongst themselves has not been recorded by posterity) so he decided to take matters into his own hands. To be precise, he took matter into his own hands, and sculpted himself a woman of his very own. His creation was absolutely everything he wanted in a woman... and nothing he didn't want. She was the perfect companion, the perfect sexual partner; the perfect wife. But that of course is just the beginning of the story. Because now Pygmalion didn't just have a wife; he had a business model . If he could manufacture a perfect partner for himself, why couldn't he do the same thing for everyone else? So, Pygmalion opened up a little shop,...
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