Tag: Howard Hawks
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Viewing Log, Week of 9/2/2012
The Dark Knight Rises (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2012) – Thought it was funnier than the first two in the series, with a decent number of those little comic-book influenced zingers. Nolan tried this once or twice in Inception, but they fell flat. It actually seems like Mr. Serious is starting to develop a sense of…
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Viewing Log, Week of 7/8/2012
Sometimes you just need, like, a year-long break, you know? Drive (dir. Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011) – It has the kind of pacing that rewards patience, and even assumes it from its viewer, which is nice. Someone called it 2011’s The American, and one can see why. It’s one of those “art-house” films that prioritizes…
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Quickies, Vol. XXX
The Stranger (1946, dir. Orson Welles) – Deserves more space, obviously. Suffice it to say, Welles’ camera rewards the viewer’s careful attention. Every movement is so deliberate, and the long takes don’t draw attention to themselves as a result of competence in front of and behind the lens. This would be great for a study…
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Ball of Fire: Growing a Pair
Ball of Fire is straight-up Howard Hawks: the middle child bearing strong traits of the earlier Scarface and the later Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Have to love the tool of language as an explicit and implicit symbol of miscommunication among the characters. Hawks here is toying with the effect of a single woman upon a group…
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Only Angels Have Wings: Learnin’ to Fly
Another one from Stanford Theatre with the unsurpassed combo of Cary Grant & Jean Arthur; this one with the bonus of Rita Hayworth before she realized how sassy she was. This is a film at least as good as its reputation suggests, refreshing for the old-school themes of memory and the past, concerning which the…
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: A Practice Round in Subversion
Howard Hawks is noteworthy in cinema for lots of reasons; he’s infamous for just a few. Among them is Hawks’ history of battling the censors. Before the Hays Code came into official effect, he directed the classic Scarface, that great old violent mobster movie that shook things up long before Brian DePalma and Al Pacino…
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The Big Sleep
Recently made the effort to indulge in another pleasure of the film noir variety, only to be challenged as to the nature of that very unique genre. Right up front, it’s worth acknowledging the obvious: there is such a thing as “film noir.” Indubitably. However, it’s fascinating to see the diversity within the genre as…
Precious Bodily Fluids 