Last year in Paris, I went to a Chaplin exhibit at the Jeu de Paume. There were artifacts, stills, posters and very well done video projections of scenes from his films. One of the scenes being shown was the outtake from City Lights (1931), first uncovered by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, in which the Read More
Harold Ramis’ The Ice Harvest, from a screenplay by Richard Russo and Robert Benton, based on the novel by Scott Phillips, plays out as a blacker and bleaker film noir than anything Mr. Ramis, Mr. Russo and Mr. Benton have ever undertaken in the past. Mr. Ramis, in particular, came into prominence in the 70’s Read More
One-Man Show
The two-disc TCM Archives: The Buster Keaton Collection, released this week, picks up where our hero, one of the greatest comedians of silent film’s golden age, is about to pull off what presumably would be the crowning achievement in an already illustrious career: signing with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for a startling $3,000 a week. That Read More
Between 1914 and 1928, people laughed longer, louder and more often than at any other time in history. The reason why is that during those 14 extremely turbulent years around the world, a group of comic geniuses did things on the movie screen that were more elaborately conceived for comedy, more brilliantly constructed for laughs, Read More
Harold Lloyd (1893-1971) is about due for resurrection and revaluation now that the roaring 20′s have resurfaced as the booming 90′s and the Film Forum is obliging with nine Mondays dedicated to the “Third Genius of Silent Comedy.” There’ll be double bills of Lloyd’s golden-age silents (with Steve Sterner’s piano accompaniment), several brassy and underrated Read More
It’s now an absolutely perfect holiday season because the funniest and at the same time most beautiful comedian of the American screen will be represented by eight-count ‘em, eight!-of the most wonderful movies ever made (shown on AMC), mostly directed by, mainly written by, and all of them starring the one and only Buster Keaton. Read More
