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

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Weary River (Frank Lloyd, 1929)

Weary River (Frank Lloyd, 1929)

Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Betty Compson, William Holden*, Louis Natheaux, George E. Stone, Ray Turner, Gladden James. Screenplay: Courtney Ryley Cooper, Bradley King, Paul Perez, Thomas J. Geraghty. Cinematography: Ernest Haller. Art direction: John Hughes. Film editing: James Gibbon, Edward Schroeder. Music: Louis Silvers.

*b. 1862, d. 1932

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki, 2011)

Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki, 2011)

Cast: André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darrousin, Blondin Miguel, Elina Salo, Evelyne Didi, François Monnié, Little Bob, Pierre Étaix, Jean-Pierre Léaud. Screenplay: Aki Kaurismäki. Cinematography: Timo Salminen. Production design: Wouter Zoon. Film editing: Timo Linnasalo.

Monday, April 8, 2019

Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010)

Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010

Cast: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Dan Byrd, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Lisa Kudrow, Aly Michalka, Cam Gigandet, Malcolm McDowell. Screenplay: Bert V. Royal. Cinematography: Michael Grady. Production design: Marcia Hinds. Film editing: Susan Littenberg. Music: Brad Siegel.

Sunday, April 7, 2019

A Single Man (Tom Ford, 2009)

A Single Man (Tom Ford, 2009)

Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode, Jon Kortajarena. Screenplay: Tom Ford, David Scearce, based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood. Cinematography: Edward Grau. Production design: Dan Bishop. Film editing: Joan Sobel. Music: Abel Korzeniowski.

Saturday, April 6, 2019

That Uncertain Feeling (Ernst Lubitsch, 1941)

That Uncertain Feeling (Ernst Lubitsch, 1941)

Cast: Merle Oberon, Melvyn Douglas, Burgess Meredith, Harry Davenport, Eve Arden, Olive Blakeney, Alan Mowbray, Sig Ruman. Screenplay: Donald Ogden Stewart, Walter Reisch, based on a play by Victorien Sardou and Emile DeNajac. Cinematography: George Barnes. Film editing: William Shea. Music: Werner R. Heymann.

Friday, April 5, 2019

Game Night (John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, 2018)

Game Night (John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, 2018)

Cast: Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Kyle Chandler, Sharon Horgan, Billy Magnussen, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, Jesse Plemons. Screenplay: Mark Perez. Cinematography: Barry Peterson. Production design: Michael Corenblith. Film editing: David Egan, Jamie Gross, Gregory Plotkin. Music: Cliff Martinez.