Monthly Archives: August 2013

Monsieur Verdoux

Posted on August 31, 2013 by John Grant

I always thought there was a dark underpinning to much of Charles Chaplin’s comedy, but some people that I meet at silent film festivals tend to dismiss him for being too light.  However, their complaints about his sentimentality will be … Continue reading →

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Ruggles of Red Gap

Posted on August 28, 2013 by John Grant

Before TV, jet planes and cell phones, there used to be a big difference between the city and the country.  Just look at the countless Hollywood movies that play on the misunderstandings between the sophisticated city dweller and the rube. … Continue reading →

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The Kid With a Bike

Posted on August 25, 2013 by John Grant

From Belgium and released in 2011, “The Kid With a Bike,” written and directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, gives us a slice of life about a boy abandoned by his father.  The boy, Cyril, played with unrelenting sternness … Continue reading →

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The Last Edition

Posted on August 22, 2013 by John Grant

Years ago, when I went to an interview to work for The Memphis Commercial Appeal, a large daily newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee, I walked through the room where a giant machine puts the newspapers together and shoots them out on … Continue reading →

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The Outlaw and His Wife

Posted on August 19, 2013 by John Grant

I love it when filmmakers during the silent era took their cameras into the wilderness, away from creeping civilization, to tell stories of hardship and survival against significant odds.  Victor Sjöström, an early pioneer of Swedish cinema, tells such a … Continue reading →

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The Joyless Street

Posted on August 16, 2013 by John Grant

Few films capture a time and a place like “The Joyless Street (Die Freudlose Gasse),” the 1925 silent film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst and starring Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen. The movie presents the human misery of poverty and … Continue reading →

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The House on Trubnaya Square

Posted on August 13, 2013 by John Grant

After seeing “The Girl With the Hatbox,” the 1927 silent Soviet film directed by Boris Barnet, I realized that laughs and funny situations can occur in any society and under any circumstances.  That film reminded the populace of the glories … Continue reading →

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Gribiche

Posted on August 10, 2013 by John Grant

I pulled out my trusty Harrap’s French dictionary to look up “gribiche,” but I could not find a definition.   A different source mentioned a French sauce called gribiche that consists of oil, egg yolks, mustard, capers and tarragon.  It’s … Continue reading →

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Blue Jasmine

Posted on August 7, 2013 by John Grant

Even though I try to see every Woody Allen film, I became particularly intrigued by “Blue Jasmine (2013)” because Allen filmed some of it in San Francisco. I’m used to seeing my city portrayed in many films as a romantic … Continue reading →

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Legong: Dance of the Virgins

Posted on August 4, 2013 by John Grant

The great thing about the “Process 2” technical process is that it produces a dreamy quality to films.  The Process 2 Technicolor method uses 2 filters, one red and one green.  The filtered exposures are developed and then cemented together … Continue reading →

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