Saturday, May 2, 2015

New York


Model of Manhattan for the 1939 New York World’s Fair

Julie Newmar


First Lines: Philip K. Dick - VALIS


Horselover Fat's nervous breakdown began the day he got the phonecall from Gloria asking if he had any Nembutals.

Amanda Charlwood


A day in the life, Apr 30


A day in the life, Apr 30, Regensburg by night

Shay Mitchell


The Movies I Watched in April

Afterwards 2008  6
Alien: Resurrection 1997  7

Attack on a China Mission 1900  8

Brave 2012  6 
Bronson 2008  6
Confidence 2003  6
Cromwell 1970  6
Dirty 2005  7

Drive 2011  7

Europa Report 2013  7

Fever Mounts at El Pao 1959  6
Flying Leathernecks 1951  5
Godzilla 2014  6
Greenberg 2010  6
Interstellar 2014  6
Jeremiah Johnson 1972  8

Le Jour se Leve 1939  8

Made in Dagenham 2010  6
Night Train to Lisbon 2013  6
Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding 2011  5
Robot & Frank 2012  7

Shoot the Piano Player 1960  8

Star Trek Into Darkness 2013  6
The Big Knife 1955  6
The Bone Collector 1999  6
The Colony 2013  5
The Devils 1971  6
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec 2010  5
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 2014  6
The Naked Island 1960  8
The Paradine Case 1947  7

The Proud and the Beautiful 1953  6
The Silence of the Lambs 1991  9

To Have and Have Not 1944  8

Without a Clue 1988  6

Charlotte Reboutier


Robot & Frank (2012)


An ex-jewel thief receives a gift from his son: a robot butler programmed to look after him. But soon the two companions try their luck as a heist team.

Amiable sci-fi tale, very touchingly told with subdued humour.

Maltin***: "Quirky, low-key social satire with a sci-fi touch..."


Josephine Skriver


The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)





Bilbo and Company are forced to engage in a war against an array of combatants and keep the Lonely Mountain from falling into the hands of a rising darkness.

Despite the usual excellence in production this is a confusing and unexciting finale disappointedly inferior to the previous parts of the trilogy.


Friday, May 1, 2015

Who's That Girl?


Photographer: Daniel Barth

Marta Placzek


A day in the life, Apr 29


A day in the life, Apr 29, the thing in front of our house

Natalia Vodianova


From my vaults: Samuel R. Delany

Marina Streb


ph: Eugenio Recuenco

New York


Scarlett Johansson


First Lines: Neal Stephenson - Anathem


Do your neighbours burn one another alive? was how Fraa Orolo began his conversation with Artisan Flec.

Zhang Xue


ph: Man Tsang

A day in the life, Apr 28


A day in the life, Apr 28, see our kitty (Susie)?

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Cate Blanchett


ph: Willy Vanderperre

Le jour se lève (1939)


After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events the led him to the killing.

A classic of French cinema, a masterpiece of flashback storytelling, poetic b/w cinematography and a melodrama with existentialist overtones.

Halliwell***: "A model of French poetic realism, and a much-praised film which was almost destroyed when it was bought for an American remake (The Long Night)."

Maltin***1/2: "A staple of French cinema...Generally holds up, while going a long way toward defining Gabin's screen persona."


Sophie Marceau


Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)


An adventure set in the early part of the 20th century and focused on a popular novelist and her dealings with would-be suitors, the cops, monsters, and other distractions.

Deliberately silly, but not so funny fantasy; it does have the usual Luc Besson excellence in production details.


Luize Salmgrieze


New Stuff: The New Yorker


(art: Frank Viva)

Sasha Pivovarova


ph: Karim Sadli

The Colony (2013)

Forced underground by the next ice age, a struggling outpost of survivors must fight to preserve humanity against a threat even more savage than nature.
OK doomsday drama with some nice ice-age settings, but otherwise this is quite routine fare.