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I can’t think of any other couple that exemplified the pure nature of an old Hollywood romance other than Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. If you take a quick glimpse at their history together, the love they shared was palpable. Bacall was only nineteen when they met (twenty when they married), and Bogart was old enough to be her father.
November has reared its head, and that means it’s starting to get seriously cold (or seriously hot, depending on where you are) outside. We hope everyone enjoyed Halloween – did you watch anything good to celebrate it, and who did you dress up as, if you did? October was a great month for Film Inquiry, we published nearly 70 great articles, and we announced that Maria Giese is joining us to keep the world up to date on the unfolding EEOC investigation, and report on Hollywood’s response to the action.
Dalton Trumbo is not a household name today, but he was one of the most influential screenwriters in the old Hollywood studio system. Many of his films like Roman Holiday and Spartacus are beloved classics, but Trumbo is also a significant figure for his part in the Hollywood blacklist, a period of anti-Communist hysteria that swept through the United States in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Trumbo, like many Hollywood intellectuals, was targeted for his progressive politics in an unprecedented purge that saw many actors, directors and writers, lose their livelihoods, their freedom and even their lives.
It may be fair to say that in the film industry, any motion picture that is not spoken in the English language is tagged under ‘foreign’. As we all know, Hollywood cinema is dominant among the world of film due to technological advancements, box office strategies for blockbusters, and stardom. For this reason, audiences are usually very selective when it comes to watching ‘foreign’ films.
Over the course of history, Hollywood has given female filmmakers few chances to work on film projects. Fewer chances than their male cohorts, to be sure – no matter their experience or education. Male directors are hired invariably and without doubt, and they are featured and lauded in media frequently.
Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is focused on the year 1973.
It’s October, so things are getting pretty spooky here at Film Inquiry HQ. Pretty sure I saw a ghost in the water cooler the other day. We don’t have a water cooler, but that’s neither here nor there (though it does lead me to suspect that the water cooler itself was the ghost).
Today we would like to announce that Maria Giese and Film Inquiry are joining forces in championing women directors and promoting awareness about the systematic under-representation of women directors in Hollywood. Giese is a unique and important voice in the film industry today, and we are very excited to work with her. About Maria Giese Maria Giese, graduate of Wellesley College and UCLA’s Graduate School of Film & Television, is a writer/director.
Closely approaching Quentin Tarantino’s new film The Hateful Eight arises expectations not only because of the name he has created for himself, but also because we are aware of the repeating pattern of collaborators in his films. But this piece is not about the cast of the film nor about Tarantino’s specific style. It is about the collaborators behind the scene, specifically on his first time collaboration with Ennio Morricone as a composer of the film’s original soundtrack.
Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is focused on the works of genre director Joe Dante.
There are franchises that have their special days to commemorate their enduring legacy, usually ones which are directly implied from the films. Star Wars, for example, has its May 4th as a reference to the famous “may the Force be with you” quote, and the Back To The Future trilogy also has its own. As the series centres on time travel and that there are a number of dates which our heroes transport to, the one that arguably stands out as ‘Back To The Future Day’ is October 21st, 2015.
Every year I seem to arrive at an impasse with horror films. Like many other lovers of the genre out there, we will always have love for Jason, Freddy, and Michael Myers (just tell Rob Zombie to cut it out). But when you’ve seen one too many teens by the lake, and you hear Freddy say “bitch” one time too many, you realize there’s more to the genre than just blood lust and hockey masks.
The link between film and art is well-documented, especially how filmmakers are influenced and inspired by their favourite artists and paintings. One of the best and most famous examples is Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, where many scenes imitate classical paintings from the 1700s. There are plenty of contemporary examples too.
John Hughes had the innate ability of tapping into the voice of a generation unlike any other director I’ve seen. His movies continue to make a lasting impact on the film industry – and it’s easy to see why. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink and a plethora of other “teen” films that redefined the genre, gave thousands of hearts and minds a voice – something coveted if you were an angsty teen growing up in the mid-eighties.
Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is Great Remakes.