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

Friday, April 19, 2019

A Farewell to Arms (Frank Borzage, 1932)

A Farewell to Arms (Frank Borzage, 1932)

Cast: Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Philips, Jack La Rue, Blanche Federici, Mary Forbes, Gilbert Emery. Screenplay: Benjamin Glazer, Oliver H.P. Garrett, based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway. Cinematography: Charles Lang. Art direction: Roland Anderson, Hans Dreier. Film editing: Otho Lovering, George Nichols Jr.

Thursday, April 18, 2019

A Canterbury Tale (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1944)

A Canterbury Tale (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1944)

Cast: Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price, John Sweet, Esmond Knight. Screenplay: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Cinematography: Erwin Hillier. Production design: Alfred Junge. Film editing: John Seabourne Sr. Music: Allan Gray.

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.