Category Archives: cinema

the DVD player and me

I watched 27 minutes of The Plainsman (1936) and found it unpromising. Then I looked up Cecil DeMille and was a little surprised that I had never seen any of his work, other than his cameo in Sunset Blvd. The … Continue reading

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how do people talk?

When (American) TV actors utter the phrase “What are you doing here?”, as I must have heard dozens of times lately, they nearly always emphasize doing — and I nearly always think it would make more sense to emphasize either … Continue reading

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suspension renewed

In the movie Avatar, one of the floating mountains has a waterfall, at which my suspension of disbelief groaned: there’s not enough rain catchment area, and obviously there can’t be a spring. But now I thought of a possibility. There … Continue reading

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in black and white, and blue

Gotta agree with Greg Egan: Sometime in the next twenty years or so, the technology that enabled Avatar will become cheap enough to risk employing alongside a moderately intelligent script. It is mighty pretty, though. Among the details, I particularly … Continue reading

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more flickering images

What have I watched lately … The Lives of Others (2006). Liked it. The Philadelphia Story (1940). Didn’t like it as much the second time. Second Chorus (1940) – Astaire without Rogers. Forgettable. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). … Continue reading

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getting away with progress

In Before I Hang, Boris Karloff played Doctor John Garth, a scientist seeking a serum to “cure old age”. He tries a version of the serum on himself, and color returns to his hair — but he used a multiple … Continue reading

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I can’t be the first to ask

At one point in Blade Runner (not the book by Alan Nourse), Deckard, with two broken fingers on his right hand, clings to a parapet ornament. I wonder whether that was an intentional salute to Harold Lloyd, who made movies … Continue reading

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