By John H. Foote Having always maintained that 1974 was and remains among the greatest movie years in the history of film, I was delighted to find this book which explores the arts scene in L.A. Not just film, which is exciting enough, but music which was about to undergo a massive change and television,…
By John H. Foote Jay Glennie, if you were standing before me, I would look you in the eyes, offer my hand and say to you, “Mr. Glennie, you are an artist, sir.” I mean that with every fibre of my being. Each year I see more than 300 films and read about 50 books…
By John H. Foote (**) Two stars for Adams, nothing more. Streaming on Netflix Never have I been a fan of the work of Alfred Hitchcock (gasp…scream…the horror). Well retract that. Psycho (1960) was positively ground shaking and genre altering, a masterpiece of horror that dared to say monsters could exist in today’s world. Vampires,…
By John H. Foote 3. PULP FICTION The two bandits in a donut shop make the decision to rob restaurants, though I bet this is the last one they attempt, and draw their weapons screaming their threats. Freeze frame, the surfer guitar music comes in with a roar, the screen goes black and the words…
By John H. Foote 4. UNFORGIVEN (1992) By the late eighties, actor Clint Eastwood had established himself as a fine director, even causing Orson Welles to comment that “Eastwood is the finest director in the cinema” on the popular “Mike Douglas Show”. Having proven himself behind the camera right off the bat with his first…
By John H. Foote 5. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) It has been more than 75 years since Allied forces stormed that beach, dubbed Omaha, leaving it blood soaked, littered with bodies torn to pieces by heavy machine gun fire from the many nests above the beach. There are fewer and fewer veterans each year to…
By John H. Foote 6. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) From the time I first screened The Silence of the Lambs I have maintained the great strength of the story, the secret weapon if you will, is the superbly empathetic performance of Jodie foster as FBI trainee Clarice Starling. I am aware that Anthony…
By John H. Foote Personally I enjoy remakes. People say they are unnecessary, but I pose the question, how many productions of Hamlet, Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet have there been around the world? How many productions of The Crucible or The Glass Menagerie have been staged? What about the great comedies of Neil Simon: The…
By John H. Foote 7. L.A. Confidential And back to the counting down of the greatest films of the nineties, we are almost there. The Oscars interrupted us! At the end of 1997, while audiences were lining around city blocks to see Titanic, James Cameron’s massive love story set aboard the doomed ship making its…
By John H. Foote The casting of Nicole Kidman in a new film as television icon, the beloved Lucille Ball, known simply as Lucy, is drawing the wrath of Ball’s fans online. People are wondering why Kidman, best known for her work in intense drama, was cast as the hilarious comic, who proved to be…