By Alan Hurst Movie moms tend to fall into three categories. You have the self-sacrificing, almost saintly mothers as epitomized by Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver (1942), Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama (1948), and step mom Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965). Then there are the dark, edgy creations like Margaret Wycherly…
By Melissa Houghton Would we exist without mothers? That’s rhetorical. Real and fictional mothers- love, support, protect, nurture, provide for, shape and inspire us. But let’s not take mothers for granted; they also have needs and want some of the same things they selflessly give to their families and others. To all the moms, mom-dads,…
By John H. Foote (****) American outlaw Jesse James has been portrayed many times on the big screen by such actors as Tyrone Power, Robert Wagner, Robert Duvall, and Colin Farrell, but no one touches Brad Pitt’s performance as the gunman in this 2007 film. Pitt captures the unpredictability James was said to have possessed,…
By John H. Foote “They train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won’t allow them to write fuck on their airplanes, because it is obscene.” – Kurtz (Marlon Brando) The University Theatre sat on Bloor Street in Toronto, standing like a massive cathedral for cinema, a church to film buffs and…
By John H. Foote (****) John Frankenheimer was arguably the most underrated director in Hollywood through the sixties and seventies. His film Black Sunday (1977) remains among the finest movies ever made about international terrorism, and The Manchurian Candidate (1962) remains a seminal study of espionage and mind control. After The French Connection (1971), directed…
By John H. Foote (***) Fifteen years ago, Mel Gibson’s extraordinary, though troubling, Biblical film roared to massive financial success around the globe, bringing in more than 800 million dollars at the box office, and generally strong reviews. I first screened the film with press on a chilly morning and emerged from the cinema galvanized,…
By Alan Hurst Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman only made two films together, but that indefinable thing called “chemistry” was front and centre in both. They first partnered in Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious when they were both at their glamourous 1940’s peak. They were teamed again 12 years later in Stanley Donen’s Indiscreet where they’re both…
By Alan Hurst There’s very little to do with Easter in this 1948 musical, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a staple at this time of year. The film opens with Don Hewes (Fred Astaire) buying Easter gifts for his girlfriend (Ann Miller) and the film ends with Don and Hannah (Judy Garland) strolling…
By Melissa Houghton In Christian teachings blackmail is not one of the seven deadly sins. Yet in film, the protagonist’s actions or thoughts stemming from non-virtuous behaviours such as pride, greed, lust or envy may serve as the underlying drivers of her motivation to commit other immoralities. In other words, the protagonist’s bad behaviour is…
By John H. Foote (****) Reading the superb biography “Fosse”, written by Sam Wasson, which explores the remarkable life of dancer, choreographer and, most of all, director Bob Fosse, one cannot help taking note of his workaholic ways, his risks in finding new forms of dance, and his bold studies of life in show business…