Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings

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

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Intolerable Cruelty (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2003)

Intolerable Cruelty (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2003)

Cast: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Geoffrey Rush, Cedric the Entertainer, Edward Herrmann, Paul Adelstein, Richard Jenkins, Billy Bob Thornton, Julia Duffy. Screenplay: Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, John Romano, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. Cinematography: Roger Deakins. Production design: Leslie McDonald. Film editing: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. Music: Carter Burwell.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Torch Song Trilogy (Paul Bogart, 1988)

Torch Song Trilogy (Paul Bogart, 1988)

Cast: Harvey Fierstein, Matthew Broderick, Anne Bancroft, Brian Kerwin, Karen Young, Eddie Castrodad, Ken Page, Charles Pierce. Screenplay: Harvey Fierstein, based on his play. Cinematography: Mikael Salomon. Production design: Richard Hoover. Film editing: Nicholas C. Smith.

Monday, April 1, 2019

Peg o' My Heart (Robert Z. Leonard, 1933)

Peg o' My Heart (Robert Z. Leonard, 1933)

Cast: Marion Davies, Onslow Stevens, J. Farrell MacDonald, Juliette Compton, Irene Browne, Tyrell Davis, Alan Mowbray, Robert Greig. Screenplay: Frank R. Adams, Frances Marion, based on a play by J. Hartley Manners. Cinematography: George Barnes. Art direction: Cedric Gibbons. Film editing: Margaret Booth. Costume design: Adrian. Music: Herbert Stothart.

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (John Hughes, 1987)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (John Hughes, 1987)

Cast: Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins, Michael McKean, Kevin Bacon, Dylan Baker, Martin Ferrero, Edie McClurg. Screenplay: John Hughes. Cinematography: Donald Peterman. Production design: John W. Corso. Film editing: Paul Hirsch. Music: Ira Newborn.

Saturday, March 30, 2019

The Great Lie (Edmund Goulding, 1941)

The Great Lie (Edmund Goulding, 1941)

Cast: Bette Davis, Mary Astor, George Brent, Hattie McDaniel, Lucile Watson, Jerome Cowan. Screenplay: Lenore J. Coffee, based on a novel by Polan Banks. Cinematography: Tony Gaudio. Art direction: Carl Jules Weyl. Music: Max Steiner.

Friday, March 29, 2019

Possessed (Clarence Brown, 1931)

Possessed (Clarence Brown, 1931)

Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Wallace Ford, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Frank Conroy, Marjorie White, John Miljan, Clara Blandick. Screenplay: Lenore J. Coffee, based on a play by Edgar Selwyn. Cinematography: Oliver T. Marsh. Art direction: Cedric Gibbons. Costume design: Adrian. Music: Charles Maxwell.

Thursday, March 28, 2019

The Florida Project (Sean Baker, 2017)

The Florida Project (Sean Baker, 2017)

Cast: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Rivera, Valeria Cotto, Aidan Malik, Patti Wiley. Screenplay: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch. Cinematography: Alexis Zabe. Production design: Stephonik Youth. Film editing: Sean Baker. Music: Lorne Balfe.