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, May 17, 2024

Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955)

Shirley MacLaine, Jerry Lewis, Dorothy Malone, Dean Martin in Artists and Models

Cast: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Shirley MacLaine, Dorothy Malone, Eddie Mayehoff, Eva Gabor, Anita Ekberg, George Winslow, Jack Elam. Screenplay: Herbert Baker, Hal Kanter, Frank Tashlin, Don McGuire, based on a play by Michael Davidson and Norman Lessing. Cinematography: Daniel L. Fapp. Art direction: Tambi Larsen, Hal Pereira. Film editing: Warren Low. Music: Walter Scharf; songs: Jack Brooks, Harry Warren.

The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)

Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story

Cast: Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Everett McGill, John Farley, Kevin Farley, Jane Galloway, Joseph Carpenter, Harry Dean Stanton. Screenplay: John Roach, Mary Sweeney. Cinematography: Freddie Francis. Production design: Jack Fisk. Film editing: Mary Sweeney. Music: Angelo Badalamenti.

Go (Doug Liman, 1999)

Timothy Olyphant in Go

Cast: Katie Holmes, Sarah Polley, Desmond Askew, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr, Timothy Olyphant, William Fichtner, Taye Diggs, Breckin Meyer, Jane Krakowski, Melissa McCarthy. Screenplay: John August. Cinematography: Doug Liman. Production design: Thomas P. Wilkins. Film editing: Stephen Mirrione. Music: BT, Moby.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

A Raisin in the Sun (Daniel Petrie, 1961)

Claudia McNeil and Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun

Cast: Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, John Fiedler, Louis Gossett Jr., Steven Perry, Joel Fluellen, Louis Terrel, Roy Glenn. Screenplay: Lorraine Hansberry, based on her play. Cinematography: Charles Lawton Jr. Art direction: Carl Anderson. Film editing: William A. Lyon, Carl Weatherwax. Music: Laurence Rosenthal.

Saturday, May 4, 2024

Italian for Beginners (Lone Scherfig, 2000)

Anette Støvelbæk, Anders W. Berthelsen, and Ann Eleonora Jørgensen in Italian for Beginners

Cast: Anders W. Berthelsen, Anette Støvelbæk, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Peter Gantzler, Lars Kaalund, Sara Indrio Jensen, Karen-Lise Mynster, Rikke Völck, Elsebeth Steentoft, Bent Mejding, Lene Tiemroth, Klaus Gerving, Jesper Christensen. Screenplay: Lone Scherfig. Cinematography: Jørgen Johansson. Production design: Jette Lehmann. Film editing: Gerd Tjur.

Friday, May 3, 2024

What a Way to Go! (J. Lee Thompson, 1964)

Shirley MacLaine in What a Way to Go!

Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Dick Van Dyke, Robert Cummings, Reginald Gardiner, Margaret Dumont, Lou Nova, Fifi D'Orsay, Maurice Marsac. Screenplay: Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Gwen Davis. Cinematography: Leon Shamroy. Art direction: Ted Haworth, Jack Martin Smith. Film editing: Marjorie Fowler. Music: Nelson Riddle.

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968)

Boris Karloff in Targets

Tim O'Kelly in Targets

Cast: Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly, Nancy Hsueh, Peter Bogdanovich, Arthur Peterson, James Brown, Tanya Morgan, Mary Jackson, Sandy Baron, Monte Landis. Screenplay: Peter Bogdanovich, Polly Platt. Cinematography: László Kovács. Production design: Polly Platt. Film editing: Peter Bogdanovich.

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Running Scared (Wayne Kramer, 2006)

Paul Walker, Alex Neuberger, Cameron Bright, and Vera Farmiga in Running Scared

Cast: Paul Walker, Vera Farmiga, Cameron Bright, Alex Neuberger, Chazz Palmenteri, Karl Roden, Johnny Messner, Ivana Micevic, Michael Cudlitz, Bruce Altman, Elizabeth Mitchell. Screenplay: Wayne Kramer. Cinematography: James Whitaker. Production design: Toby Corbett. Film editing: Arthur Coburn. Music: Mark Isham.

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky, 2000)

Cast: Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla, János Derszi, Doko Rosic, Tomás Wichmann, Ferenc Kállai, Péter Dobai. Screenplay: László Krasznahorkai, Béla Tarr, based on a novel by Krasznahorkai. Cinematography: Patrick de Ranter, Miklós Gurbán, Erwin Lanzenberger, Gábor Medvigy, Emil Novák, Rob Tregenza. Film editing: Ágnes Hranitzky. Music: Mihály Vig.

One Way Street (Hugo Fregonese, 1950)

James Mason, Dan Duryea, and William Conrad in One Way Street

Cast: James Mason, Märta Torén, Dan Duryea, Basil Ruysdael, William Conrad, Rodolfo Acosta, King Donovan. Robert Espinoza, Tito Renaldo, Margarito Luna, Emma Roldán, George J. Lewis. Screenplay: Lawrence Kimble. Cinematography: Maury Gertsman. Bernard Herzburn, Alfred Ybarra. Film editing: Martin Carruth. Music: Frank Skinner.