Beginner’s Guide: Dorothy Arzner, Director
byMention the name Dorothy Arzner and even the biggest movie buffs can often respond with blank looks; this guide is an intro into her legacy.
Resources
Beginner’s Guide: Psychological Horror
byPsychological horror films are designed to be more like vivid nightmares, sending the conscious mind an important message or warning of something that hasn’t been acknowledged.
The Beginner’s Guide: Louise Osmond, Director
byYou won't find out much about Louise Osmond if you look online. She is an Oxford history graduate who joined ITN as a news journalism trainee, and that's all I or probably any other writer could know about her. But the personal details are irrelevant in the face of such a sturdy, and increasingly successful career as a documentary maker.
The Beginner’s Guide: Buster Keaton, Actor & Director
byWhen I was younger and just starting to get into classic film, I found a copy of The General at a local DVD store. Watching it later, I still remember the exact moment when I was captivated by Buster Keaton's unique charm and screen presence. In the film's first extended action sequence, Keaton is chasing after a troupe of Union soldiers who had infiltrated and stolen his train, and in a series of fast-paced, whirring motions, he narrowly escapes one mishap after another.
The Beginner’s Guide: Screwball Comedy
byScrewball comedies came around in the 1930s, due to the Motion Picture Production Code. The genre is still popular today, and some filmmakers try to recreate the themes and techniques in modern films. By 1934, the production code was being enforced in the motion picture industry.
The Beginner’s Guide: Sofia Coppola, Director
byIt seems strange that a body of work which has largely focused on the female experience without pontificating, should prove to be so contentious. And yet, Sofia Coppola’s viewers seem to fall largely within two extremes: the devoted and the apathetic.
Book Adaptations And The Fidelity Argument
byLast month it was announced that Kirsten Dunst, in her directorial debut, will be directing Dakota Fanning in an adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. In an interview, Dunst has noted that her approach in adapting the seminal text has been to avoid the ‘didactic’ and instead ‘make a life of something … you really need to make your own scenes up’. Such an approach, while entirely refreshing for me, is one that regularly receives criticism from those that view the source text as somehow sacred, and thus static and intractable.
Actor Profile: Clea DuVall
byYou may not know her by name, but you’ve definitely seen her face and are familiar with her work. She’s been on your small screen and silver screen starring along side Angelina Jolie, Christina Ricci, Zachary Quinto, and Natasha Lyonne to name a few. She may not look as glamorous as your traditional Hollywood starlet and she doesn’t often play the leading role, but Clea DuVall’s natural beauty and talent first grabbed my attention about fifteen years ago on a day I vividly remember.
The Beginner’s Guide: Film Noir
byYou probably already know what you'll see in a film noir. Guys who talk out of the sides of their mouths, calling women "broads" and "dames." Detectives, crime, forbidden love, doomed lives.
The Beginner’s Guide: David Fincher, Director
byYou may be surprised to learn that David Fincher's career almost never got off the starting grid. 1992's Alien 3, a poisoned chalice if ever there was one, turned out to be a torrid experience for the former music video director (he had helmed videos for luminaries such as Jermaine Stewart & Madonna, most famously 'Vogue'), to the point he genuinely considered giving up filmmaking. What a loss to cinema that would have been.