Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: May 2019

A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold (Kazuo Ikehiro, 1964)

Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold (Kazuo Ikehiro, 1964)

Cast: Shintaro Katsu, Shogo Shimada, Machiko Hasegawa, Tomisaburo Wakayama, Tatsuya Ishiguro, Matasaburo Niwa, Hikosaburo Kataoka, Mikiko Tsubouchi. Screenplay: Shozaburo Asai, Akikazu Ota, based on a story by Kan Shimozawa. Art direction: Yoshinobu Nishioka. Cinematography: Kazuo Miyagawa. Film editing: Takashi Taniguchi. Music: Ichiro Saito.

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Houseboat (Melville Shavelson, 1958)

Houseboat (Melville Shavelson, 1958)

Cast: Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer, Harry Guardino, Eduardo Ciannelli, Mimi Gibson, Paul Petersen, Charles Herbert, Murray Hamilton. Screenplay: Melville Shavelson, Jack Rose. Cinematography: Ray June. Art direction: John B. Goodman, Hal Pereira. Film editing: Frank Bracht. Music: George Duning.

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Il Bidone (Federico Fellini, 1955)

Il Bidone (Federico Fellini, 1955)

Cast: Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart, Franco Fabrizi, Giulietta Masina, Sue Ellen Blake, Irene Cefaro, Alberto De Amicis, Lorella De Luca. Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli. Cinematography: Otello Martelli. Production design: Dario Cecchi. Film editing: Mario Serandrei, Giuseppe Vari. Music: Nino Rota.

Monday, May 27, 2019

Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)

Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)

Cast: John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Jean Simmons, Martita Hunt, Finlay Currie, Alec Guinness, Bernard Miles, Francis L. Sullivan. Screenplay: David Lean, Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Kay Walsh, Cecil McGivern. Cinematography: Guy Green. Production design: John Bryan. Film editing: Jack Harris. Music: Walter Goehr.

Sunday, May 26, 2019

Claire's Camera (Hong Sang-soo, 2017)

Claire's Camera (Hong Sang-soo, 2017)

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Kim Min-hee, Chang Mi-hee, Jung Jin-young, Yoon Hee-sun. Screenplay: Hong Sang-soo. Cinematography: Lee Jin-keung. Film editing: Hahm Sung-won. Music: Dalpalan.

Saturday, May 25, 2019

The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1949)

The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1949)

Cast: Ann Todd, Claude Rains, Trevor Howard, Betty Ann Davies, Isabel Dean. Screenplay: Eric Ambler, David Lean, Stanley Haynes, based on a novel by H.G. Wells. Cinematography: Guy Green. Set designer: John Bryan. Film editing: Geoffrey Foot, Clive Donner, Jack Harris. Music: Richard Addinsell.