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, January 15, 2025

Afire (Christian Petzold, 2023)

Cast: Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Ehno Trebs, Matthias Brandt. Screenplay: Christian Petzold. Cinematography: Hans Fromm. Production design: Hans-Dieter Gruber. Film editing: Bettina Böhler.

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

It's Not Me (Leos Carax, 2024)

Cast: Leos Carax, Denis Lavant, Nastya Golubeva Carax, Loreta Juodkaite, Ana-Isabel Siefken, Petr Anevskii, Bianca Maddaluno. Screenplay: Leos Carax. Cinematography: Caroline Champetier. Production design: Pascaline Chavanne.

Monday, January 13, 2025

The Crimson Kimono (Samuel Fuller, 1959)

Cast: James Shigeta, Victoria Shaw, Glenn Corbett, Anna Lee, Paul Dubov, Jaclynne Greene, Nyle Morrow, Gloria Pall, Pat Silver, George Yoshinaga, Kaye Elhardt, Aya Oyama, George Okamura, Ryosho S. Sagabe, Fuji. Screenplay: Samuel Fuller. Cinematography: Sam Leavitt. Art direction: Robert F. Boyle, William Flannery. Film editing: Jerome Thoms. Music: Harry Sukman.

Sunday, January 12, 2025

The Hop Pickers (Ladislav Rychman, 1964)

Cast: Vladimir Pucholt, Ivana Pavlová, Milos Zavadil, Irina Kacirková, Josef Kemr, Libuse Havelková, Vladimir Klos, Vladimir Kloubek, Josef Koicek, Josef Laufer, Petr Musil. Screenplay: Vratislav Blazek, Ladislav Rychman. Cinematography: Jan Stallich. Art direction: Oldrich Bosák. Film editing: Miroslav Hájek. Music: Jirí Bazant, Vlastimil Hála, Jirí Malásek.

Ten Cents a Dance (Lionel Barrymore, 1931)

Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Ricardo Cortez, Monroe Owsley, Sally Blane, Blanche Friderici, Phyllis Crane, Victor Potel, Al Hill, Jack Byron, Pat Harmon, Martha Sleeper, David Newell, Sidney Bracey. Screenplay: Jo Swerling, Dorothy Howell. Cinematography: Ernest Haller, Gilbert Warrenton. Art direction: Edward C. Jewell. Film editing: Arthur Huffsmith.

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Bleak Moments (Mike Leigh, 1971)

Cast: Anne Raitt, Sarah Stephenson, Eric Allan, Joolia Cappleman, Mike Bradwell, Liz Smith, Malcolm Smith, Donald Sumpter, Christopher Martin, Ronald Eng, Reginald Stewart. Screenplay: Mike Leigh. Cinematography: Bahram Manocheri. Art direction: Richard Rambaut. Film editing: Les Blair.