Posted on November 28, 2009 by roberthorton
It begins in the gutter…but of course. A street name, Sunset Blvd., painted on the curb above the sewer drain is a convenient way to present the film’s title, but it also tells us where we’re going: down. Even the abbreviation gives it a kind of slangy, tabloid grit. The title refers to one of [...]
Filed under: On Classics, On Directors | Tagged: Billy Wilder, Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard, William Holden | Leave a Comment »
Posted on November 20, 2009 by roberthorton
First published in the May-June 1996 issue of Film Comment, in time for the broadcast bow of Adam Simon’s The Typewriter, The Rifle and the Movie Camera; offered now as a new Sam Fuller DVD box set hits the streets.–Robert Horton
“Who’s Griff?”
The question has to be asked. If the subject is Samuel Fuller, and the [...]
Filed under: On Directors | Tagged: Adam Simon, Pickup on South Street, Samuel Fuller, The Steel Helmet, The Typewriter The Rifle and the Movie Camera, Tim Robbins | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 14, 2009 by roberthorton
A piece I wrote on The Manchurian Candidate for a web encyclopedia, and thus meant to be an introduction to a classic. It’s one of the ten best movies of 1962, a list seen here. –Robert Horton
I love Yen Lo. Perhaps you don’t recognize the name? Well, the brain can easily play tricks on a [...]
Filed under: On Classics, On Directors | Tagged: Frank Sinatra, John Frankenheimer, The Manchurian Candidate | Leave a Comment »
Posted on November 7, 2009 by roberthorton
Jules and Jim
I wrote this piece for a program note at a college film series in 1983 and subsequently published it in The Informer. I am amused now by the worldly opening phrase, since I was a kid at the time and over 25 years have passed since then. Jules and Jim is one of my [...]
Filed under: On Classics, On Directors | Tagged: Francois Truffaut, Jules and Jim | Leave a Comment »
Posted on October 10, 2009 by roberthorton
L’Atalante
by Robert Horton
Somewhere on the criss-crossed, free-flowing canals and waterways of world cinema, a small barge called “L’Atalante,” launched in 1934, glides along even today. It always will; the permanence of movies bestows immortality on the vessel, and on the motion picture that carries its name, and on the fevered young director who gave himself [...]
Filed under: On Classics, On Directors | Tagged: Jean Vigo, L'Atalante, Michel Simon | Leave a Comment »
Posted on September 4, 2009 by roberthorton
(This piece was presented as lecture to a general audience at the Seattle Art Museum following a screening of Aguirre, the Wrath of God. I left it as is, so it might feel more spoken than written, which was the original idea. It’s co-published with Parallax View.)
by Robert Horton
Near the end of Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog’s [...]
Filed under: On Classics, On Directors | Tagged: Aguirre the Wrath of God, Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 18, 2009 by roberthorton
Here is a 1990 piece written for a film series program note, complete with contemporary references to Dances with Wolves. (Remember that? It won a lot of Oscars.) I revive it in anticipation of tomorrow’s posting: the ten best movies of 1956.
The Searchers
by Robert Horton
“You fit a lot of descriptions,” says Captain Reverend Samuel Johnson [...]
Filed under: On Classics, On Directors | Tagged: John Ford, John Wayne, The Searchers | Leave a Comment »
Posted on April 6, 2009 by roberthorton
Bad Company
by Robert Horton
About a decade ago the early 1970s were officially enshrined as the last golden age of Hollywood, especially (probably not coincidentally) by the filmmakers and critics who came of age during that time. This view has some nostalgia attached to it, and at times it distracts people from appreciating some of the [...]
Filed under: On Classics, On Directors | Tagged: Bad Company, Barry Brown, Jeff Bridges, Robert Benton | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 14, 2009 by roberthorton
The Bitter Tea of General Yen
by Robert Horton
It was 1932, and Frank Capra was frustrated. True, he’d had some measure of success: nearly single-handedly, his movies were pulling punk Columbia Pictures out of the second (or maybe third) tier of Hollywood studios. The legendarily boorish mogul Harry Cohn trusted him with Columbia’s A-list productions, such [...]
Filed under: On Classics, On Directors | Tagged: Barbara Stanwyck, Bitter Tea of General Yen, Frank Capra | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 1, 2009 by roberthorton
The Night of the Hunter
by Robert Horton
“I’ll be back,” the man calls out, “when it’s dark.” Those words are the warning, and the credo, of every monster that ever slouched through fairy tale or film. Toward the end of The Night of the Hunter, they are uttered by Harry Powell, the evil preacher who burns [...]
Filed under: On Classics, On Directors, On Horror | Tagged: Charles Laughton, James Agee, Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, The Night of the Hunter | 3 Comments »