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 17, 2019

Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007)

Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007)

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, Troy Garity, Mark Strong. Screenplay: Alex Garland. Cinematography: Alwin H. Küchler. Production design: Mark Tildesley. Film editing: Chris Gill. Music: John Murphy.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Victim (Basil Dearden, 1961)

Victim (Basil Dearden, 1961)

Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms, Dennis Price, Anthony Nicholls, Peter Copley, Norman Bird, Peter McEnery, Donald Churchill, Derren Nesbitt, John Barrie. Screenplay: Janet Green, John McCormick. Cinematography: Otto Heller. Art direction: Alex Vetchinsky. Film editing: John D. Guthridge. Music: Philip Green.

Monday, April 15, 2019

Deadpool 2 (David Leitch, 2018)

Deadpool 2 (David Leitch, 2018)

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Brianna Hildebrand, Eddie Marsan, Rob Delaney. Screenplay: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Ryan Reynolds. Cinematography: Jonathan Sela. Production design: David Scheunemann, Film editing: Craig Alpert, Michael McCusker, Elisabet Ronaldsdóttir, Dirk Westervelt. Music: Tyler Bates.

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Taipei Story (Edward Yang, 1985)

Taipei Story (Edward Yang, 1985)

Cast: Chin Tsai, Hsiao-Hsien Hou, I-Chen Ko, Su-Yun Ko, Nien-Jen Wu, Hsiu-Ling Lin, Shu-Fang Chen. Screenplay: T'ien-wen Chu, Hsiao-Hsien Hou, Edward Yang. Cinematography: Wei-Han Yang. Film editing: Fanchen Song, Qi Yang Wang. Music: Edward Yang.

Saturday, April 13, 2019

A Woman of Affairs (Clarence Brown, 1928)

A Woman of Affairs (Clarence Brown, 1928)

Cast: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Johnny Mack Brown, Lewis Stone, Dorothy Sebastian, Hobart Bosworth. Screenplay: Bess Meredyth, Marian Ainslee (titles), Ruth Cummings (titles), based on a novel and play by Michael Arlen. Cinematography: William H. Daniels. Art direction: Cedric Gibbons. Film editing: Hugh Wynn. Costumes: Adrian.

Friday, April 12, 2019

Senso (Luchino Visconti, 1954)

Senso (Luchino Visconti, 1954)

Cast: Farley Granger, Alida Valli, Massimo Girotti, Heinz Moog, Rina Morelli, Christian Marquand, Sergio Fantoni, Marcella Mariani. Screenplay: Luchino Visconti, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Carlo Alienello, Giorgio Bassani, Giorgio Prosperi, based on a novel by Camilo Boito. Cinematography: G.R. Aldo, Robert Krasker. Production design: Ottavio Scotti. Film editing: Mario Serandrei. Costume design: Marcel Escoffier, Piero Tosi.