The Vienna depicted in Carol Reed’s The Third Man no longer exists. It is a maze of sewers, back alleys, political gamesmanship, and lies. Nothing remains except for abandoned bourgeois flats, decrepit buildings and an amusement park devoid of any…
The Film Canon: Jane Eyre (1943)
The turning point of women writers, the provoking of traditional ideas, the suffering of high school students everywhere– these are all terms used to describe Jane Eyre, a book written by Charlotte Bronte, who wrote under the pseudonym Courier Bell…
The Film Canon: Do the Right Thing (1989)
It’s sweltering. Radio DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) is proclaiming it to be one of the hottest days of the summer. It’s too hot to work, but Mookie (Spike Lee) makes his way to Sal’s Pizzeria anyway. As…
The Avengers and the Survival of the Cinema
Every few weeks, an article entitled “Death of the Cinema” or “Death of Film Criticism” materializes on some film blog. “The cinema is dying! Young people don’t go to the movies! They’re not made like they used to be,” they…