In a September 12, 1997 piece for The Wall Street Journal titled “Gridiron Feminism,” Camille Paglia argued that not only is football “congruent with an enlightened feminism,” but that the sport “is one of the best educational tools for showing women how to advance in the ‘hostile workplace,’—which current sexual harassment regulations try to control through intrusive, after-the-fact legal remedies.”
Karyn Kusama’s feature-length directorial debut, Girlfight, maps out a similar argument using the template of a boxing film, as high school student Diana (Michelle Rodriguez), perpetually surrounded by men who belittle her, including her patronizing father Sandro (Paul Calderón), trains to become an amateur fighter. Near the film’s end, as Diana prepares for a bout billed as “New York’s first gender-blind amateur boxing event,” it’s evident that Kusama’s film is tinged with a certain hard-nosed fantasy, one in which female equity extends to being able to...
Karyn Kusama’s feature-length directorial debut, Girlfight, maps out a similar argument using the template of a boxing film, as high school student Diana (Michelle Rodriguez), perpetually surrounded by men who belittle her, including her patronizing father Sandro (Paul Calderón), trains to become an amateur fighter. Near the film’s end, as Diana prepares for a bout billed as “New York’s first gender-blind amateur boxing event,” it’s evident that Kusama’s film is tinged with a certain hard-nosed fantasy, one in which female equity extends to being able to...
- 5/22/2024
- by Clayton Dillard
- Slant Magazine
Spoiler Alert: This article continues spoilers for the film “Drive-Away Dolls.”
In Ethan Coen’s “Drive-Away Dolls,” an homage to the colorful, brash world of exploitation cinema, there’s a notable cameo from none other than Miley Cyrus. Cyrus appears in a psychedelic swirl of flashbacks as Tiffany Plastercaster, seen titillating a college-aged version of Matt Damon’s character, who will come to be a conservative Senator in Florida. Plastercaster does as her name implies, crafting a replica dildo for the aspiring politician’s stimulated member.
It may sound far-fetched, but Cyrus’ cameo is inspired by Cynthia Plaster Caster — real name Cynthia Albritton — the artist and groupie who famously cast the genitals of musicians and others in plaster, from Jimi Hendrix to The Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra.
Albritton, who died in 2022, also cast female breasts in later years in an effort to even the playing field, with subjects including Karen O,...
In Ethan Coen’s “Drive-Away Dolls,” an homage to the colorful, brash world of exploitation cinema, there’s a notable cameo from none other than Miley Cyrus. Cyrus appears in a psychedelic swirl of flashbacks as Tiffany Plastercaster, seen titillating a college-aged version of Matt Damon’s character, who will come to be a conservative Senator in Florida. Plastercaster does as her name implies, crafting a replica dildo for the aspiring politician’s stimulated member.
It may sound far-fetched, but Cyrus’ cameo is inspired by Cynthia Plaster Caster — real name Cynthia Albritton — the artist and groupie who famously cast the genitals of musicians and others in plaster, from Jimi Hendrix to The Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra.
Albritton, who died in 2022, also cast female breasts in later years in an effort to even the playing field, with subjects including Karen O,...
- 2/23/2024
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
The tension between uncovering hidden aspects of film history and respecting the lives of those contained within it form the undergirding conflict of Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman, a film of such multitudinous interests and storytelling pursuits that it replicates the ecstasy of newfound romance. The film’s crux, beyond the blossoming lesbian relationship at its core, is Dunye’s aligning of hidden historiographies with the hassle of dating—of searching for something (or someone) that, at the surface, cannot be immediately seen with the naked eye.
Dunye establishes the problem of incomplete histories as Cheryl (Dunye) and Tamara (Valarie Walker) debate the value of, as Tamara puts it, watching “mammy shit from the ’30s.” They do so from behind the counter of a Philadelphia video store, where their employ is less driven by cinephilia—though Cheryl clearly knows her shit—than economic necessity. Unlike Kevin Smith’s Clerks,...
Dunye establishes the problem of incomplete histories as Cheryl (Dunye) and Tamara (Valarie Walker) debate the value of, as Tamara puts it, watching “mammy shit from the ’30s.” They do so from behind the counter of a Philadelphia video store, where their employ is less driven by cinephilia—though Cheryl clearly knows her shit—than economic necessity. Unlike Kevin Smith’s Clerks,...
- 7/14/2023
- by Clayton Dillard
- Slant Magazine
In the Andrew Llloyd Webber musical Evita, there is a plaintive number sung by a character known only as the Mistress, shortly after Eva has taken her place in Juan Peron’s affections. “I don’t expect my love affairs to last for long/Never fool myself that my dreams will come true,” the Mistress bemoans, adding, “all my words desert me/So anyone can hurt me and they do.” It’s the cri de coeur of the eternal sidepiece, the woman who constantly invests her hopes and dreams in powerful,...
- 5/24/2023
- by Ej Dickson
- Rollingstone.com
Star who shot to global fame in the 1960s in One Million Years BC and whose later roles showed her aptitude for comedy
Raquel Welch, who has died aged 82, had only three lines as Loana in the 1966 film fantasy One Million Years BC but attained sex-symbol status from the role, in which she was dressed in a fur-lined bikini. The image made its imprint in popular culture and the publicity poster sold millions. The feminist critic Camille Paglia described the American actor’s depiction as “a lioness – fierce, passionate and dangerously physical”.
The tale of cavepeople coexisting with dinosaurs was Welch’s breakthrough film – and the beginning of a largely unsuccessful battle she waged to be taken seriously as an actor. When she arrived on set, she told the director, Don Chaffey, she had been thinking about her scene. She recalled his response as: “Thinking? What do you mean you’ve been thinking?...
Raquel Welch, who has died aged 82, had only three lines as Loana in the 1966 film fantasy One Million Years BC but attained sex-symbol status from the role, in which she was dressed in a fur-lined bikini. The image made its imprint in popular culture and the publicity poster sold millions. The feminist critic Camille Paglia described the American actor’s depiction as “a lioness – fierce, passionate and dangerously physical”.
The tale of cavepeople coexisting with dinosaurs was Welch’s breakthrough film – and the beginning of a largely unsuccessful battle she waged to be taken seriously as an actor. When she arrived on set, she told the director, Don Chaffey, she had been thinking about her scene. She recalled his response as: “Thinking? What do you mean you’ve been thinking?...
- 2/16/2023
- by Anthony Hayward
- The Guardian - Film News
Raquel Welch, the almond-eyed sex symbol who turned a doeskin bikini into one of the most iconic cinematic images of the 1960s, has died. She was 82.
Welch’s management company told The Hollywood Reporter that she died Wednesday morning following a brief illness. Her son, Damon Welch, confirmed that she died Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles.
Her success in Hollywood was due partly to talent, partly to perseverance, but mostly to hitting the genetic jackpot. Although she turned in several respectable performances — as a scientist’s assistant in Fantastic Voyage (1966), as Lilian Lust in Bedazzled (1967), as a transgender revolutionary in Myra Breckinridge (1970) — it was her strikingly photogenic features and voluptuous figure that catapulted her to international stardom.
“The indelible image of a woman as queen of nature,” is how cultural critic Camille Paglia once described Welch’s onscreen appeal. The actress herself put it more succinctly. “I became,...
Welch’s management company told The Hollywood Reporter that she died Wednesday morning following a brief illness. Her son, Damon Welch, confirmed that she died Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles.
Her success in Hollywood was due partly to talent, partly to perseverance, but mostly to hitting the genetic jackpot. Although she turned in several respectable performances — as a scientist’s assistant in Fantastic Voyage (1966), as Lilian Lust in Bedazzled (1967), as a transgender revolutionary in Myra Breckinridge (1970) — it was her strikingly photogenic features and voluptuous figure that catapulted her to international stardom.
“The indelible image of a woman as queen of nature,” is how cultural critic Camille Paglia once described Welch’s onscreen appeal. The actress herself put it more succinctly. “I became,...
- 2/15/2023
- by Benjamin Svetkey
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It Could Happen To You: Nagy Recuperates the Resiliency of Women in Sophisticated Melodrama
Camille Paglia, with her signature dramatic panache, might be among those who phrased it best concerning not just the right but the necessity of women’s reproductive rights, “it is our right and even obligation as rational human beings to defy nature’s fascism.” Arriving in the midst of a myriad of abortion rights regressions in the US, making it feel more startlingly relevant than ever, is Call Jane, the directorial debut of Academy Award nominated scribe Phyllis Nagy, which takes a steely magnifying glass to the clandestine group of feminists known as The Jane Collective (or The Janes), an underground group of Chicago women who assisted in abortion escorting.…...
Camille Paglia, with her signature dramatic panache, might be among those who phrased it best concerning not just the right but the necessity of women’s reproductive rights, “it is our right and even obligation as rational human beings to defy nature’s fascism.” Arriving in the midst of a myriad of abortion rights regressions in the US, making it feel more startlingly relevant than ever, is Call Jane, the directorial debut of Academy Award nominated scribe Phyllis Nagy, which takes a steely magnifying glass to the clandestine group of feminists known as The Jane Collective (or The Janes), an underground group of Chicago women who assisted in abortion escorting.…...
- 10/28/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The Roman Spring of Emma Thompson: Hyde Demands Over Time in Sex Work Dramedy
One wonders what Camille Paglia might have to say about Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, the third feature from Australia’s Sophie Hyde, which formulates an earnest, sex-positive portrait of a mature woman’s humble quest for sexual satisfaction. Of Paglia’s many musings on sexuality, she posited ‘pursuit and seduction’ were necessary components constituting the ‘sizzle,’ both elements absent from this sometimes refreshingly blunt tackling of women pursuing pleasure.
Written by Katy Brand, who’s heretofore mined her talents in comedy, this sobering treatment of what some women may want takes a while to hit its stride, and features a winsome Emma Thompson, managing to land the fluctuations of her characterization even when the narrative feels like a lasso.…...
One wonders what Camille Paglia might have to say about Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, the third feature from Australia’s Sophie Hyde, which formulates an earnest, sex-positive portrait of a mature woman’s humble quest for sexual satisfaction. Of Paglia’s many musings on sexuality, she posited ‘pursuit and seduction’ were necessary components constituting the ‘sizzle,’ both elements absent from this sometimes refreshingly blunt tackling of women pursuing pleasure.
Written by Katy Brand, who’s heretofore mined her talents in comedy, this sobering treatment of what some women may want takes a while to hit its stride, and features a winsome Emma Thompson, managing to land the fluctuations of her characterization even when the narrative feels like a lasso.…...
- 6/17/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
One of the key character traits of snotty college duo Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) and Paula (Brittany O’Grady) on HBO’s “The White Lotus” is their choice of poolside reading material. They’re skimming through Nietzsche and Freud when not casting side eye and throwing withering commentary about the people around them.
Later, they also pick up Frantz Fanon, Camille Paglia and Aimé Césaire. But Sweeney, speaking Saturday at the Atx TV Festival in Austin, revealed something more about that character: She believes it’s all an act. “Oh, she was not actually reading any of these books,” Sweeney told moderator Danielle Turchiano.
Sweeney said that that at the very least she was excited to read those books on set — only to learn they were props. “They were blank!” she said. The overall series experience, especially the show’s heavy dose of humor, was a delight for the actor. ““Jennifer Coolidge...
Later, they also pick up Frantz Fanon, Camille Paglia and Aimé Césaire. But Sweeney, speaking Saturday at the Atx TV Festival in Austin, revealed something more about that character: She believes it’s all an act. “Oh, she was not actually reading any of these books,” Sweeney told moderator Danielle Turchiano.
Sweeney said that that at the very least she was excited to read those books on set — only to learn they were props. “They were blank!” she said. The overall series experience, especially the show’s heavy dose of humor, was a delight for the actor. ““Jennifer Coolidge...
- 6/4/2022
- by Michael Schneider
- Variety Film + TV
At 23, Sinéad O’Connor was a chart-topping international superstar. By the time she turned 26, she was fodder for jokes. She was hardly the first and wouldn’t be the last female pop artist to be derided for coloring outside the lines, but as a sympathetic and perceptive new documentary reminds us, O’Connor wasn’t vilified simply for being erratic or unclassifiable, though that surely didn’t help.
“Everybody felt it was Ok to kick the shit out of me,” O’Connor recalls in a new interview for Kathryn Ferguson’s Nothing Compares. “I regret that I was so sad because of it,” she adds, her crystalline voice deepened by the years. The fallout from what she endured, and her retreat from the limelight and ensuing struggles, are alluded to but not explored here; the focus of Kathryn Ferguson’s first feature-length film is O’Connor’s ahead-of-the-mainstream courage, and her outrage.
“Everybody felt it was Ok to kick the shit out of me,” O’Connor recalls in a new interview for Kathryn Ferguson’s Nothing Compares. “I regret that I was so sad because of it,” she adds, her crystalline voice deepened by the years. The fallout from what she endured, and her retreat from the limelight and ensuing struggles, are alluded to but not explored here; the focus of Kathryn Ferguson’s first feature-length film is O’Connor’s ahead-of-the-mainstream courage, and her outrage.
- 1/26/2022
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There’s alchemy at work in Dasha Nekrasova’s debut film “The Scary of Sixty-First,” the kind that can turn what’s old into what’s new. Equal parts ’70s-style paranoia thriller, Polanski-infused apartment horror, “Eyes Wide Shut” homage, and empathetic critical commentary on the conspiracy theories craze, this hallucinatory pastiche is even more than the sum of its cinematically riveting parts.
Addie (Betsey Brown) and Noelle (Madeline Quinn) are apartment-hunting in New York City. That alone is the stuff of horror. But in their case they find an ideal place right away — a shockingly cheap flat on the Upper East Side. They commit to it on the spot, despite an odd tarot card being left behind that suggests some ominous symbology. (Anyone who’s moved into a Manhattan pad and discovered a Pentagrama Esoterico sign on the wall and thought “What’s that about?” can relate.)
One day, an...
Addie (Betsey Brown) and Noelle (Madeline Quinn) are apartment-hunting in New York City. That alone is the stuff of horror. But in their case they find an ideal place right away — a shockingly cheap flat on the Upper East Side. They commit to it on the spot, despite an odd tarot card being left behind that suggests some ominous symbology. (Anyone who’s moved into a Manhattan pad and discovered a Pentagrama Esoterico sign on the wall and thought “What’s that about?” can relate.)
One day, an...
- 3/2/2021
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
What She Said: The Art Of Pauline Kael screens at Webster University ‘s Moor Auditorium (470 E Lockwood Ave) screens Friday February 21st, Saturday February 22nd, and Sunday February 23rd. The film begins each evening at at 7:00pm. A Facebook event can be found Here
Regarded by Roger Ebert as having “a more positive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades,” film critic Pauline Kael reigned, from the late 60s to the early 90s, as one of the most well-known, clever, and controversial figures in the industry. Having been one of the few female critics in a sea of men, unapologetic about her (often scathing) opinions, and underpaid for the influential work she did, Kael fought endlessly to preserve her title.
Pauline Kael, the New Yorker film critic for 25 years until the early 1990s, was a lightning rod of American culture.
Regarded by Roger Ebert as having “a more positive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades,” film critic Pauline Kael reigned, from the late 60s to the early 90s, as one of the most well-known, clever, and controversial figures in the industry. Having been one of the few female critics in a sea of men, unapologetic about her (often scathing) opinions, and underpaid for the influential work she did, Kael fought endlessly to preserve her title.
Pauline Kael, the New Yorker film critic for 25 years until the early 1990s, was a lightning rod of American culture.
- 2/18/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It’s hard to believe with all the divergent opinions floating around today about movies on Twitter, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and dozens of other outlets, that there was a time when a handful of influential film critics wielded the power to make or break a movie.
And the most powerful of those critics was Pauline Kael, who held sway with a sharp tongue and corrosive wit at the New Yorker from 1967 to 1989. To see Rob Garver’s affectionate documentary about her career, “What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael,” is to be once again swept away by the excitement of cinema as she experienced it.
Born on a chicken farm in Northern California and raised in San Francisco, Kael was an outsider to the New York art scene, and that otherness gave her the temperament and cocksure confidence to find her own voice. She desperately wanted to be an artist,...
And the most powerful of those critics was Pauline Kael, who held sway with a sharp tongue and corrosive wit at the New Yorker from 1967 to 1989. To see Rob Garver’s affectionate documentary about her career, “What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael,” is to be once again swept away by the excitement of cinema as she experienced it.
Born on a chicken farm in Northern California and raised in San Francisco, Kael was an outsider to the New York art scene, and that otherness gave her the temperament and cocksure confidence to find her own voice. She desperately wanted to be an artist,...
- 12/13/2019
- by James Greenberg
- The Wrap
If the original 1974 “Black Christmas” had to obscure its feminism with subversion, subtlety, and a flirtatious Margot Kidder, the latest remake of the classic slasher film wears it proudly on its crop-top sleeve. When #MeToo launched an international conversation around rape and sexual assault in 2016, survivors breathed a collective sigh of relief that people finally believed them. Women knew about the domination of toxic male behavior for years; it didn’t take a genius to see that the calls were coming from inside the house.
In her gutsy and glossy remake, director Sophia Takal builds a timely horror out of the gaslighting and disbelief many survivors know all too well. Using the hyper-gendered spaces of college Greek life as a fertile palette, Takal and her co-writer April Wolfe skewer toxic masculinity, the white male literary canon, rape culture, patriarchy, and white male rage — all wrapped up with a bow in...
In her gutsy and glossy remake, director Sophia Takal builds a timely horror out of the gaslighting and disbelief many survivors know all too well. Using the hyper-gendered spaces of college Greek life as a fertile palette, Takal and her co-writer April Wolfe skewer toxic masculinity, the white male literary canon, rape culture, patriarchy, and white male rage — all wrapped up with a bow in...
- 12/13/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Who killed the sex symbol?
It's no mystery that in the era of #MeToo, the rules of combat have changed on the sexual battlefield. Women will no longer tolerate condescending or degrading treatment that was once business as usual in the workplace or dating arena. But in this long overdue push-back against sexual coercion and exploitation, has something valuable been lost?
The sex symbol was arguably Hollywood's most brilliant artifact, propelling the young movie industry to world impact from the moment that Theda Bara flashed her coiled-snake brassiere in Cleopatra (1917). Sex was great box office. With its impudent populism,...
It's no mystery that in the era of #MeToo, the rules of combat have changed on the sexual battlefield. Women will no longer tolerate condescending or degrading treatment that was once business as usual in the workplace or dating arena. But in this long overdue push-back against sexual coercion and exploitation, has something valuable been lost?
The sex symbol was arguably Hollywood's most brilliant artifact, propelling the young movie industry to world impact from the moment that Theda Bara flashed her coiled-snake brassiere in Cleopatra (1917). Sex was great box office. With its impudent populism,...
- 12/6/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
In today’s film news roundup, “I Love Lucy” draws nostalgic fans to theaters, “Desolation Center” is set for release and “What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael” and “American Dharma” are sold.
Box Office
Fathom Events reported a Tuesday night showing of “I Love Lucy: A Colorized Celebration” drew more than 60,000 attendees with an estimated $777,645 at 660 North American sites.
The take left the one-night showing in sixth place for the day at the domestic box office. “I Love Lucy: A Colorized Celebration” featured five episodes of “I Love Lucy,” along with a featurette on the colorization of the shows.
The showing took place on Ball’s 108th birthday. Fathom, which is operated by the AMC, Cinemark and Regal chains, said some locations adding showtimes and auditoriums to meet fan demand.
Fathom Events CEO Ray Nutt said, “The incredible performance of ‘I Love Lucy: A Colorized Celebration’ demonstrates the...
Box Office
Fathom Events reported a Tuesday night showing of “I Love Lucy: A Colorized Celebration” drew more than 60,000 attendees with an estimated $777,645 at 660 North American sites.
The take left the one-night showing in sixth place for the day at the domestic box office. “I Love Lucy: A Colorized Celebration” featured five episodes of “I Love Lucy,” along with a featurette on the colorization of the shows.
The showing took place on Ball’s 108th birthday. Fathom, which is operated by the AMC, Cinemark and Regal chains, said some locations adding showtimes and auditoriums to meet fan demand.
Fathom Events CEO Ray Nutt said, “The incredible performance of ‘I Love Lucy: A Colorized Celebration’ demonstrates the...
- 8/7/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
A Star Is Born, with its symmetrical plotline of rising and falling stars, is Hollywood's canonical myth-saga, capturing both the glory and cruelty of the modern entertainment industry.
The fourth version of A Star Is Born, directed by Bradley Cooper and starring himself and Lady Gaga, has been nominated for eight Oscars at this year's Academy Awards. How does this movie treat our red-hot theme of women's aspirations and achievement? Surprisingly, despite its progressive gestures toward masculine sensitivity and transgender inclusiveness, this A Star Is Born is the most sexist film of the entire series.
In Cooper's film, the ...
The fourth version of A Star Is Born, directed by Bradley Cooper and starring himself and Lady Gaga, has been nominated for eight Oscars at this year's Academy Awards. How does this movie treat our red-hot theme of women's aspirations and achievement? Surprisingly, despite its progressive gestures toward masculine sensitivity and transgender inclusiveness, this A Star Is Born is the most sexist film of the entire series.
In Cooper's film, the ...
- 2/20/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
If I could demolish any one idea in the history of film criticism, I think it would be the often stated canard that Pauline Kael wrote flashy exuberant prose, spilling her gut reactions to a movie all over the page — but that she wasn’t an “analytical” writer. That opinion is miles-out-of-the-ballpark wrong, and it’s almost certainly sexist. Yet what’s most annoying about it is that it’s based on the whole second-rate, boring-college-seminar idea of what “analysis” is: a quality that somehow exists apart from emotional excitement. When Pauline Kael reviewed a movie, any movie at all, her writing pulsated with life, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t parsing everything with supreme braininess and reasoning and inquiry. The analysis was seared into every word, woven into the expressive power of her free-style flow. Her thoughts — incisive, incantatory, indelible — occupied the other side of the coin from her feelings.
- 2/10/2019
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Star Wars Dialogue is a 5-part dialog between Mike Thorn, Isiah Medina, Chelsea Phillips-Carr, Isaac Goes, and Neil Bahadur about George Lucas's first six films in the Star Wars franchise.Mike Thorn: In her chapter of Glittering Images (2012) on Revenge of the Sith, Camille Paglia argues that, more than any other artist, George Lucas closes the gap between art and technology. How do you feel about this idea? In what ways are art and technology interacting with each other in these films, and how is Lucas cultivating that interaction? How has his innovation in this regard affected cinema since?Isiah Medina: Lucas claims that all art is, is technology. So the claim only works if we assume a gap to begin with. But more precisely, he says that one has an artistic problem, and then one invents a technology to solve it. In Heidegger’s Ponderings X he claims...
- 1/17/2018
- MUBI
Twenty years ago, Cheryl Dunye made history as the first African-American lesbian to direct a feature-length film. Now that film, The Watermelon Woman, has finally been given a proper DVD release, courtesy of First Run Features. To mark the occasion, we spoke on the phone with Dunye about the film, history, performance, and authenticity.
The Film Stage: Both The Watermelon Woman and the short that’s included on the new DVD, Black Is Blue, express a high level of commitment and detail in the recreation of documentary form. What documentaries and / or mockumentaries influenced you?
Cheryl Dunye: I’ve been working in this practice since the late ‘80s. I went to Rutgers and had a studio practice there, got my Mfa, and that’s where I discovered what was becoming the queer film world. There was a lack of identity, representation — in the work that was being seen — by,...
The Film Stage: Both The Watermelon Woman and the short that’s included on the new DVD, Black Is Blue, express a high level of commitment and detail in the recreation of documentary form. What documentaries and / or mockumentaries influenced you?
Cheryl Dunye: I’ve been working in this practice since the late ‘80s. I went to Rutgers and had a studio practice there, got my Mfa, and that’s where I discovered what was becoming the queer film world. There was a lack of identity, representation — in the work that was being seen — by,...
- 2/6/2017
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
Taylor Swift, who was recently likened to an "obnoxious Nazi Barbie" for her "regressive" public persona by feminist scholar Camille Paglia, has been pretty johnny-on-the-spot with trademarking simple phrases used in her songs ("this sick beat"; "And I'll write your name"). She is now trying to trademark the year in which she, and many other people, were born. The singer is trademarking "1989," "Swiftmas" (her annual gift-giving for superfans), and "A Girl Named Girl," the title of a book Swift has yet to write. These will mostly apply to clothes. Expect Swift, who is slowly but surely taking over the entire English language, to apply for trademarks on the letters "T" and "S" next year.
- 12/12/2015
- by Greg Cwik
- Vulture
Girl Meets World star Rowan Blanchard gave an eye-opening interview to Just Jared Jr. this week, and the subject of Taylor Swift and her now-infamous squad came up. The 14-year-old, who has impressed the public in the past with her candid, thoughtful quotes on gender politics and intersectional feminism, said of the singer's group of gal pals, "It makes feminism look very one dimensional. Feminism is so multilayered and complex that it can be frustrating when the media and the celebrities involved in it make feminism and 'squads' feel like this very happy, exclusive, perfect thing. There's so much more than that. 'Squad goals' can polarize anyone who is not white, thin, tall and always happy." The actress went on: "Of course female friendship is a beautiful thing. It's insanely powerful," adding, "Sisterhood is something so valid and important when you are growing up that I literally think the essence...
- 12/11/2015
- by Brittney Stephens
- Popsugar.com
The eighth entry in an on-going series of audiovisual essays by Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin.***Cinephilia—in the form in which it can be shared by spectators and filmmakers alike—has two extreme poles, and both of them are associated with fierce, intense drives. There is the cinephilia aligned with love in all its manifestations: romanticism, desire, tenderness, hope. And then there is the cinephilia aligned with aggression, violence, a death-drive. Neither, in an important sense, should be regarded entirely literally: many things on the face of this earth slip under and between love and aggressivity, and these metamorphosing states can stand for, or become attached to, every kind of social, political situation. Samuel Fuller knew the score, in his famous pronouncement for Pierrot le fou (1965): “Film is like a battleground. Love. Hate. Action. Violence. Death. In one word…emotion.” And emotion can be never constrained or...
- 9/5/2015
- by Cristina Álvarez López & Adrian Martin
- MUBI
The crowded Gop debate ended on Thursday and the analysis is coming thick and fast. The Hollywood Reporter asked noted social critic and author Camille Paglia for her thoughts on the debate and she didn't disappoint. Dear Hollywood Reporter, Ten Gop candidates turned up for the presidential audition tonight at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena. They need some work. Where's Max Factor and Sydney Guilaroff when you need them? Here's my report. Best, Camille Donald Trump What's with the carpet-bombing Don Rickles routine? Does Trump have any facial expression beyond knotted, squinting scowl? It's a strain even to look at
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- 8/7/2015
- by Camille Paglia
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Author and critic Camille Paglia has previously chronicled, in the pages of The Hollywood Reporter, how Joan Rivers has "shown generations of women how to command a stage and make it your own." Upon the news of Rivers passing on Thursday, THR asked Paglia to elaborate about a comedienne she calls one of her "primary role models" and address criticism that had been leveled the groundbreaking celebrity. THR: What does Joan Rivers mean to you? Joan had a huge influence on me for over four decades. She was one of my primary role models as a public figure. Not since Dorothy Parker
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- 9/5/2014
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
1. Wonder Woman is a larger-than-life icon, a character who has existed for more than 70 years. She will probably still be important when everyone breathing now is dead. But for the last decade, she has existed most prominently as a casting rumor. They tried making a movie out of her, or several movies, or a Justice League movie that would’ve produced a Wonder Woman spin-off — a process that engulfed geek demigod Joss Whedon in a mid-’00s Dark Period so painful he has (maybe accidentally, maybe not) devoted years of his life to DC’s comic-studio archnemesis. They tried making...
- 12/4/2013
- by Darren Franich
- EW.com - PopWatch
London, Oct 1: Rihanna has hailed Princess Diana as a "stylish Gangsta", who has become the singer's biggest fashion influence.
The 'Umbrella' hitmaker made her astonishing revelation just months after she was dubbed "the new Diana" by a leading feminist.
The Barbadian popstar, sporting a new short curly hairstyle and striking a defiant pose on the cover of Us magazine, Glamour, claimed that the Princess of Wales was a true fashion queen, the Daily Star reported.
American feminist writer Camille Paglia, 66, sparked controversy this year by branding Rihanna the new Princess Diana because both shared a "ravishingly seductive flirtation" with the press.
She said Diana and the singer were both adept at using.
The 'Umbrella' hitmaker made her astonishing revelation just months after she was dubbed "the new Diana" by a leading feminist.
The Barbadian popstar, sporting a new short curly hairstyle and striking a defiant pose on the cover of Us magazine, Glamour, claimed that the Princess of Wales was a true fashion queen, the Daily Star reported.
American feminist writer Camille Paglia, 66, sparked controversy this year by branding Rihanna the new Princess Diana because both shared a "ravishingly seductive flirtation" with the press.
She said Diana and the singer were both adept at using.
- 10/1/2013
- by Ketali Mehta
- RealBollywood.com
The golden age of porn, otherwise known as the porno chic era, was to last between the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The industry was free from the threat of AIDS and porn directors could make their performers copulate any which way but loose.
It became the fun thing to do among middle class adults – to go and watch a porno movie in a theatre. Previous to the golden age era of porn, theatres were filled with lone men in long coats shaking hands with the bishop. They were seedy and grimy places but now it was daring and chic for people to go and watch pornos. A new era of feminism was ahoy in which intellectuals like Camille Paglia, praised the porn movie.
The invention of the Vcr ruined decent hardcore movies. Many new movies were made for peanuts and the legendary age of the porno slipped into oblivion,...
It became the fun thing to do among middle class adults – to go and watch a porno movie in a theatre. Previous to the golden age era of porn, theatres were filled with lone men in long coats shaking hands with the bishop. They were seedy and grimy places but now it was daring and chic for people to go and watch pornos. A new era of feminism was ahoy in which intellectuals like Camille Paglia, praised the porn movie.
The invention of the Vcr ruined decent hardcore movies. Many new movies were made for peanuts and the legendary age of the porno slipped into oblivion,...
- 7/19/2013
- by Clare Simpson
- Obsessed with Film
Celebrity Wife Swap returns to ABC this Sunday with perhaps their most daunting domestic shake-up yet: The Rivers, as in Joan and Melissa, have been airlifted out of their blue-state bubble and dropped with a thud into the moose-dressing lives of the Palins, as in Bristol and Willow, daughters of Sarah Palin. Guest Column: Camille Paglia Pens Love Letter to Joan Rivers, 'Iconic Feminist Role Model' While Joan, who recently turned 80, and Sarah, newly reinstated at Fox News, may seem at first blush to be polar opposites, in many ways they are just bizzarro versions of each
read more...
read more...
- 6/21/2013
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When we celebrated David Bowie's 65th birthday last year, we never would have dreamt of what would happen 12 months on. Back from the (as good as) dead, Db returned with The Next Day and we're only just getting over the shock.
To celebrate his unexpected comeback, BBC Two presents a brand-new documentary about our greatest popstar, and having had a sneak preview, Digital Spy gives you five compelling reasons to watch Five Years.
> Ten Things About... David Bowie
1. Golden Years
The structure of Five Years makes it a lot more interesting than your usual pop doc. Rather than try (and fail) to talk about 50 years of pop superstardom in two hours, the film gives us five year-long snapshots. Year One: 1971-1972 (Hunky Dory to ...Ziggy Stardust), Year Two: 1974-1975 (Young Americans to Station to Station), Year Three: 1976-1977 (Low to "Heroes"), Year Four: 1979-1980 (Scary Monsters... And Super...
To celebrate his unexpected comeback, BBC Two presents a brand-new documentary about our greatest popstar, and having had a sneak preview, Digital Spy gives you five compelling reasons to watch Five Years.
> Ten Things About... David Bowie
1. Golden Years
The structure of Five Years makes it a lot more interesting than your usual pop doc. Rather than try (and fail) to talk about 50 years of pop superstardom in two hours, the film gives us five year-long snapshots. Year One: 1971-1972 (Hunky Dory to ...Ziggy Stardust), Year Two: 1974-1975 (Young Americans to Station to Station), Year Three: 1976-1977 (Low to "Heroes"), Year Four: 1979-1980 (Scary Monsters... And Super...
- 5/24/2013
- Digital Spy
Tags: Morning BrewKatee SackhoffMena SuvariStalkerslesbian stalkersIn the DeepAndrea SilverLifetimeIMDb
Morning!
A new web series called In the Deep follows four friends in London's East End, including Emilia, who "has a confusing ‘thing’ with Riley, her straight best friend who also has a boyfriend."
Here's the first episode.
The Ultimate Fighter is finally putting women on their show and current Ufc contender Miesha Tate said she thinks it's going to be "wild."
I think it's going to be Real World meets Tuf, and I don't know, I have this idea or joke actually that all the girls are going to be like lesbians or hooking up with all the girls, and all the boys are going on there with hope thinking like, "we're gonna be the first guys that have chicks on the show and this is going to be awesome." And the girls are going to be like, "no boys allowed.
Morning!
A new web series called In the Deep follows four friends in London's East End, including Emilia, who "has a confusing ‘thing’ with Riley, her straight best friend who also has a boyfriend."
Here's the first episode.
The Ultimate Fighter is finally putting women on their show and current Ufc contender Miesha Tate said she thinks it's going to be "wild."
I think it's going to be Real World meets Tuf, and I don't know, I have this idea or joke actually that all the girls are going to be like lesbians or hooking up with all the girls, and all the boys are going on there with hope thinking like, "we're gonna be the first guys that have chicks on the show and this is going to be awesome." And the girls are going to be like, "no boys allowed.
- 4/9/2013
- by trishbendix
- AfterEllen.com
The beach party film featuring bikini-clad girls and beefcake guys became a B-movie Californian genre in the 1960s and ultimately led up to TV's vacuous Baywatch. It's generally thought to have been launched in 1960 with MGM's highly popular Where the Boys Are, based on a sober, sociological novel by Glendon Swarthout about a quartet of female midwestern students spending their spring break in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It had a title song by Connie Francis and was produced by the prolific Joe Pasternak, now best remembered for saying of Esther Williams, "Wet she was a star."
Camille Paglia regards Where the Boys Are as a significant and truthful comment on changing social and sexual mores in the 1960s, and Harmony Korine's brash homage to Pasternak's film has attracted similar, if rather more equivocal tributes. Korine made his name as screenwriter on Larry Clark's dubious 1995 film Kids about the spread...
Camille Paglia regards Where the Boys Are as a significant and truthful comment on changing social and sexual mores in the 1960s, and Harmony Korine's brash homage to Pasternak's film has attracted similar, if rather more equivocal tributes. Korine made his name as screenwriter on Larry Clark's dubious 1995 film Kids about the spread...
- 4/8/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
London, Feb 18: A leading feminist writer has called Rihanna the new Princess Diana as she uses every opportunity to convey "allure, defiance or revenge."
In a highly controversial article, Camille Paglia, an American author and lecturer, argues that the messages are drawn from the pair's turbulent romantic life, then targets their respective partners Prince Charles and Chris Brown, the Daily Mail reported.
Writing in The Sunday Times magazine, she added that the pair were victims of a "festering romantic triangle and had transformed themselves from sensitive, wounded, but appealingly bubbly and good-natured provincial girls".
In a highly controversial article, Camille Paglia, an American author and lecturer, argues that the messages are drawn from the pair's turbulent romantic life, then targets their respective partners Prince Charles and Chris Brown, the Daily Mail reported.
Writing in The Sunday Times magazine, she added that the pair were victims of a "festering romantic triangle and had transformed themselves from sensitive, wounded, but appealingly bubbly and good-natured provincial girls".
- 2/18/2013
- by Ketali Mehta
- RealBollywood.com
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith has more "inherent artistic value" than anything by contemporary artists, Camille Paglia has claimed. The controversial art critic has sung the praises of the concluding film in George Lucas's reviled prequel trilogy. "Creative energy has migrated into industrial design and digital animation - video games, for example, are booming," she told Vice. "Commercial architecture is also thriving, as shown by amazingly monumental new buildings everywhere from Dubai to Beijing. "But the fine arts have become very insular and derivative. There is good work being done, but it too often reminds me of ten other sometimes better things over the past 100 years. The main (more)...
- 11/30/2012
- by By Hugh Armitage
- Digital Spy
Rapture, Blister, Burn (at Playwrights Horizons through July 1)The topography of postfeminism is treacherous, cratered with gaping generalizations, dangerous reductions, half-baked sociobiology, and old-fashioned shame. Thank the goddess, then, for Gina Gionfriddo (Becky Shaw, After Ashley), who has a habit of charging in with absolutely no regard for her own safety or that of her audience. Rapture, Blister, Burn, a fiercely funny, rapidly unspooling chaos of warring sexual and romantic ideals, might be her most gleefully heedless and hilariously uncalculated foray into the un-politically-correct thus far. “You want to fall back on your flawed, tired marriage? Join the fucking club!” spits Catherine (Amy Brenneman), a Gen-x Camille Paglia, “sexy scholar,” and TV talking head. Her specialties: porn, slasher flicks, and progressive revisitations of Phyllis Schlafly. (Yeah, she’s done Real Time.) Her theories on love, sex, marriage, and gender roles range from the porno-libertarian to the meta-reactionary, and none is...
- 6/21/2012
- by Scott Brown
- Vulture
Naomi Watts takes leading role in Caught In Flight, the first serious feature biopic about the princess
There have been many films about 9/11, but surprisingly few about 8/31, Britain's own day of trauma – when Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed.
The announcement of a new film, Caught in Flight, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (who made Downfall) and starring Naomi Watts in the leading role, is the first serious feature biopic about the princess. It reportedly focuses on the last two years of her life.
Cinema has not been entirely silent on this subject. Stephen Frears' The Queen (2006) was all about the media-constitutional crisis in that frantic week between the princess's death and the funeral, but the focus was not on Diana: it was on Helen Mirren's shrewd yet troubled monarch and Michael Sheen's callow prime minister Tony Blair, the heroic survivors of this trauma.
There have been many films about 9/11, but surprisingly few about 8/31, Britain's own day of trauma – when Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed.
The announcement of a new film, Caught in Flight, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (who made Downfall) and starring Naomi Watts in the leading role, is the first serious feature biopic about the princess. It reportedly focuses on the last two years of her life.
Cinema has not been entirely silent on this subject. Stephen Frears' The Queen (2006) was all about the media-constitutional crisis in that frantic week between the princess's death and the funeral, but the focus was not on Diana: it was on Helen Mirren's shrewd yet troubled monarch and Michael Sheen's callow prime minister Tony Blair, the heroic survivors of this trauma.
- 2/10/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
By focusing on gender and class, the biopic The Iron Lady paints Margaret Thatcher as a feminist icon. But was she? We asked a number of influential women
Natasha Walter, writer and campaigner
Thirteen years ago, in The New Feminism, I wrote: "Let's start with Margaret Thatcher. No British woman this century can come close to her achievements in grasping power. Someone of the wrong sex and the wrong class broke through what looked like invincible barriers to reach into the heart of the establishment. Women who complain that Margaret Thatcher was not a feminist because she didn't help other women or openly acknowledge her debt to feminism have a point, but they are also missing something vital. She normalised female success. She showed that although female power and masculine power may have different languages, different metaphors, different gestures, different traditions, different ways of being glamorous or nasty, they are equally strong,...
Natasha Walter, writer and campaigner
Thirteen years ago, in The New Feminism, I wrote: "Let's start with Margaret Thatcher. No British woman this century can come close to her achievements in grasping power. Someone of the wrong sex and the wrong class broke through what looked like invincible barriers to reach into the heart of the establishment. Women who complain that Margaret Thatcher was not a feminist because she didn't help other women or openly acknowledge her debt to feminism have a point, but they are also missing something vital. She normalised female success. She showed that although female power and masculine power may have different languages, different metaphors, different gestures, different traditions, different ways of being glamorous or nasty, they are equally strong,...
- 1/6/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
The Brontës are often dismissed as up-market Mills & Boon. But with the release of two films this autumn, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, they look set to rival even Jane Austen in the public's affections
Ours is supposed to be the age of instantaneity, where books can be downloaded in a few seconds and reputations created overnight. But the Victorians could be speedy, too, and there's no more striking example of instant celebrity than Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë posted the manuscript to Messrs Smith and Elder on 24 August 1847, two weeks after the publisher had expressed an interest in seeing her new novel while turning down her first. Within a fortnight, a deal had been struck (Charlotte was paid £100) and proofs were being worked on. In the 21st century a first novel can wait two years between acceptance and publication. Jane Eyre was out in eight weeks, on 17 October, with Thackeray...
Ours is supposed to be the age of instantaneity, where books can be downloaded in a few seconds and reputations created overnight. But the Victorians could be speedy, too, and there's no more striking example of instant celebrity than Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë posted the manuscript to Messrs Smith and Elder on 24 August 1847, two weeks after the publisher had expressed an interest in seeing her new novel while turning down her first. Within a fortnight, a deal had been struck (Charlotte was paid £100) and proofs were being worked on. In the 21st century a first novel can wait two years between acceptance and publication. Jane Eyre was out in eight weeks, on 17 October, with Thackeray...
- 9/9/2011
- by Blake Morrison
- The Guardian - Film News
The 49th New York Film Festival has announced their Masterworks and Special Anniversary screenings that will show between the festival’s seventeen days, September 30th – October 16th. The Masterworks program and the festival’s additional programming will provide audiences with exciting opportunities to explore new film-making styles and storytelling events. To learn more about the Masterworks and Anniversary films, please check out below for full synopsis and details.
Masterworks And Special Anniversary Screenings
Masterworks: The Gold Rush
Chaplin’s personal favorite among his own films, The Gold Rush (1925), is a beautifully constructed comic fable of fate and perseverance, set in the icy wastes of the Alaskan gold fields. Re-released by Chaplin in 1942 in a recut version missing some scenes, and with added narration and musical score, The Gold Rush will be presented in a new restoration of the original, silent 1925 version. In this frequently terrifying and always unpredictable universe of...
Masterworks And Special Anniversary Screenings
Masterworks: The Gold Rush
Chaplin’s personal favorite among his own films, The Gold Rush (1925), is a beautifully constructed comic fable of fate and perseverance, set in the icy wastes of the Alaskan gold fields. Re-released by Chaplin in 1942 in a recut version missing some scenes, and with added narration and musical score, The Gold Rush will be presented in a new restoration of the original, silent 1925 version. In this frequently terrifying and always unpredictable universe of...
- 8/28/2011
- by Christopher Clemente
- SoundOnSight
25 special programs and screenings have been added to the lineup for this year's New York Film Festival, running September 30 through October 26. The only secrets left are the 2011 Views from the Avant Garde lineup and a few free forums in the works.
Because this round is so heavy on the documentaries, I want to first revisit the lineup for Toronto's Real to Reel program in another entry and then return here to add further notes and linkage. For now, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Eugene Hernandez has a few more details, but here's the gist of today's announcement:
Masterworks Screenings
Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925), restored.
Hugo Santiago's Invasión (1969), restored.
Sara Driver's You Are Not I (1981), restored.
Special Presentations: Documentaries
Xan Aranda's Andrew Bird: Fever Year.
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory.
Nelson Pereira dos Santos's Music According to Tom Jobim.
Because this round is so heavy on the documentaries, I want to first revisit the lineup for Toronto's Real to Reel program in another entry and then return here to add further notes and linkage. For now, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Eugene Hernandez has a few more details, but here's the gist of today's announcement:
Masterworks Screenings
Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925), restored.
Hugo Santiago's Invasión (1969), restored.
Sara Driver's You Are Not I (1981), restored.
Special Presentations: Documentaries
Xan Aranda's Andrew Bird: Fever Year.
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory.
Nelson Pereira dos Santos's Music According to Tom Jobim.
- 8/24/2011
- MUBI
On this day 53 years ago in Bay City, Michigan, pop royalty was born in the form of Madonna Louise Ciccone, the third child of Silvio Ciccone and her namesake mother, Madonna Louise Fortin Ciccone.
Madonna’s rise to stardom is legendary. She briefly attended the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship before dropping out to move to New York City in late 1977. She famously arrived in NYC with just $35 in her pocket and worked briefly at a Dunkin’ Donuts before taking on odd jobs as a backup dancer and model (which came back to bite her in the butt after she got famous and some nude pics taken in ’78 were published in Penthouse and Playboy in ’85).
She was playing in a NYC-based band with an ex-boyfriend when a demo landed in the hands of then-Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, who famously signed Madonna to the label from his hospital...
Madonna’s rise to stardom is legendary. She briefly attended the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship before dropping out to move to New York City in late 1977. She famously arrived in NYC with just $35 in her pocket and worked briefly at a Dunkin’ Donuts before taking on odd jobs as a backup dancer and model (which came back to bite her in the butt after she got famous and some nude pics taken in ’78 were published in Penthouse and Playboy in ’85).
She was playing in a NYC-based band with an ex-boyfriend when a demo landed in the hands of then-Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, who famously signed Madonna to the label from his hospital...
- 8/16/2011
- by John Mitchell
- MTV Newsroom
Happy Mother’s Day everyone!
The big news seems to be that The X Factor: USA has named Nicole Scherzinger (whose breasts can compete with Cheryl Cole) and a Brit named Steve Jones as hosts of the show. With the already confirmed judges Cheryl Cole (zero name recognition in the States), and L.A. Reid (great cred, but not exactly a big name), Simon better hope that he can iron out a deal with Paula Abdul by Sunday.
Thomas Roberts sits down with Towleroad to talk about his new gig on MSNBC, being out, and just generally being a hunk.
Usoc official Peter Vidmar has resigned his position after having his anti-gay past brought up by activists and athletes alike.
Nick At Night is developing an original sitcom called Daddy’s Home about a stay-at-home dad, starring Scott Baio. After his reality show and his Twitter gaffes, I’m stunned...
The big news seems to be that The X Factor: USA has named Nicole Scherzinger (whose breasts can compete with Cheryl Cole) and a Brit named Steve Jones as hosts of the show. With the already confirmed judges Cheryl Cole (zero name recognition in the States), and L.A. Reid (great cred, but not exactly a big name), Simon better hope that he can iron out a deal with Paula Abdul by Sunday.
Thomas Roberts sits down with Towleroad to talk about his new gig on MSNBC, being out, and just generally being a hunk.
Usoc official Peter Vidmar has resigned his position after having his anti-gay past brought up by activists and athletes alike.
Nick At Night is developing an original sitcom called Daddy’s Home about a stay-at-home dad, starring Scott Baio. After his reality show and his Twitter gaffes, I’m stunned...
- 5/8/2011
- by Ed Kennedy
- The Backlot
If we believe all the eulogies to the Hollywood star, how can we say that only thin women are truly beautiful?
At the time of writing, the death of Elizabeth Taylor has yet to feature on Goop, the lifestyle website founded and run by another movie star, Gwyneth Paltrow. Admittedly, the older actress's weakness for bourbon, hot dogs and prescription drugs are not a natural fit with Gwyneth's tips for eternal life – how differently Taylor's career might have ended had she stuck to morning draughts of kale juice, "full of calcium and antioxidants" – but in the tributes following her death, many varied, usually dissonant voices have agreed that the woman, with all her fleshly vices, was a goddess and an inspiration of the sort we shall not see again.
We find Julie Burchill, for instance, who once addressed Camille Paglia as a "crazy old dyke", in full agreement with the...
At the time of writing, the death of Elizabeth Taylor has yet to feature on Goop, the lifestyle website founded and run by another movie star, Gwyneth Paltrow. Admittedly, the older actress's weakness for bourbon, hot dogs and prescription drugs are not a natural fit with Gwyneth's tips for eternal life – how differently Taylor's career might have ended had she stuck to morning draughts of kale juice, "full of calcium and antioxidants" – but in the tributes following her death, many varied, usually dissonant voices have agreed that the woman, with all her fleshly vices, was a goddess and an inspiration of the sort we shall not see again.
We find Julie Burchill, for instance, who once addressed Camille Paglia as a "crazy old dyke", in full agreement with the...
- 3/27/2011
- by Catherine Bennett
- The Guardian - Film News
Little White Lies talks to French actor Tahar Rahim (A Prophet, The Eagle)
The Wrap Warren Beatty wins Dick Tracy rights lawsuit. Y'all know I love my Beatty but this decision seems ridiculous to me since the rights were only supposed to stay with Beatty if he was actually using the character but he Never Works. I would love for him to act again but it is obviously not a top priority for him.
Cinema Blend the absurd Face/Off duo (I like that movie) Nicolas Cage and John Travolta may reunite onscreen. May not. The crystal ball is cloudy.
Basket of Kisses Mad Men rumors continue.
Cinema Blend also reports that Josh Hutcherson auditioned yesterday for that Hunger Games role he wants so badly. If you ask me he's already doomed despite fans of the property thinking he's right for it. He seems so much younger than Jennifer Lawrence,...
The Wrap Warren Beatty wins Dick Tracy rights lawsuit. Y'all know I love my Beatty but this decision seems ridiculous to me since the rights were only supposed to stay with Beatty if he was actually using the character but he Never Works. I would love for him to act again but it is obviously not a top priority for him.
Cinema Blend the absurd Face/Off duo (I like that movie) Nicolas Cage and John Travolta may reunite onscreen. May not. The crystal ball is cloudy.
Basket of Kisses Mad Men rumors continue.
Cinema Blend also reports that Josh Hutcherson auditioned yesterday for that Hunger Games role he wants so badly. If you ask me he's already doomed despite fans of the property thinking he's right for it. He seems so much younger than Jennifer Lawrence,...
- 3/26/2011
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
From The Fountainhead to Blade Runner, the way films portray buildings and architects has nothing to do with reality, right? You'd be surprised
Howard Roark is, up to a point, a plausible name for an architect, but I am less convinced by Stourley Kracklite. Roark, played by Gary Cooper in King Vidor's schlockfest The Fountainhead is a picture of toned muscle and angst, handy with a rock drill and brutal in his wooing. In contrast Kracklite, played by Brian Dennehy in Peter Greenaway's The Belly of an Architect, has a waistline that authentically overwhelms his belt in the manner pioneered by the 20-stone James Stirling.
Both films have always fascinated me. In the case of The Fountainhead, it's not so much Roark – a tortured genius somewhere between Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright – who's the special attraction, although it's hard not to warm to an architect who, rather than see his work compromised,...
Howard Roark is, up to a point, a plausible name for an architect, but I am less convinced by Stourley Kracklite. Roark, played by Gary Cooper in King Vidor's schlockfest The Fountainhead is a picture of toned muscle and angst, handy with a rock drill and brutal in his wooing. In contrast Kracklite, played by Brian Dennehy in Peter Greenaway's The Belly of an Architect, has a waistline that authentically overwhelms his belt in the manner pioneered by the 20-stone James Stirling.
Both films have always fascinated me. In the case of The Fountainhead, it's not so much Roark – a tortured genius somewhere between Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright – who's the special attraction, although it's hard not to warm to an architect who, rather than see his work compromised,...
- 1/21/2011
- by Deyan Sudjic
- The Guardian - Film News
Heading into its 18th year in 2011, the Chicago Underground Film Festival is the longest-running underground film festival in the world. It used to be tied with the New York Underground Film Festival — both were started in 1994 — until Nyuff closed up shop in 2008.
In 1994, the Internet wasn’t the big promotional tool it is today so neither Nyuff nor Cuff that year had a website; or, if they did, those pages have since vanished off the web. So, details about what these fests screened in their first years have been sketchy. Well, until now for Cuff.
I’m not sure how I stumbled upon it, but I recently discovered that the alternative newsweekly the Chicago Reader had posted up the entire, full lineup of the first annual Chicago Underground Film Festival.
So, I copied that info and reformatted it into the style of Bad Lit’s traditional film festival lineups, which...
In 1994, the Internet wasn’t the big promotional tool it is today so neither Nyuff nor Cuff that year had a website; or, if they did, those pages have since vanished off the web. So, details about what these fests screened in their first years have been sketchy. Well, until now for Cuff.
I’m not sure how I stumbled upon it, but I recently discovered that the alternative newsweekly the Chicago Reader had posted up the entire, full lineup of the first annual Chicago Underground Film Festival.
So, I copied that info and reformatted it into the style of Bad Lit’s traditional film festival lineups, which...
- 12/9/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
You asked us to shine the spotlight on DVD commentaries that enhance the viewer's enjoyment of films, good or bad
There are plenty of bad DVD commentaries out there but some really do add to the enjoyment of a film, often in surprising ways, as Haigin88 points out. Here are five of my favourites, each one taking a different slant on the act of commenting. Feel free to suggest your own faves.
The Matrix Trilogy
Commentary by Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson
The first film is great, but the sequels display the same lack of understanding about what made it great that George Lucas showed with his Star Wars prequels. Unlike Lucas, though, the Wachowskis (or Warners) are good enough sports to let the critics have their say. The commenters here are three well-respected critics who make smart, incisive remarks about the first film, then just tear the...
There are plenty of bad DVD commentaries out there but some really do add to the enjoyment of a film, often in surprising ways, as Haigin88 points out. Here are five of my favourites, each one taking a different slant on the act of commenting. Feel free to suggest your own faves.
The Matrix Trilogy
Commentary by Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson
The first film is great, but the sequels display the same lack of understanding about what made it great that George Lucas showed with his Star Wars prequels. Unlike Lucas, though, the Wachowskis (or Warners) are good enough sports to let the critics have their say. The commenters here are three well-respected critics who make smart, incisive remarks about the first film, then just tear the...
- 10/14/2010
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
Lesbian social critic and feminist Camille Paglia revisits her classic op-ed that declared Madonna “the future of feminism” on the 20th anniversary of its publication in The New York Times. In a video interview Paglia stands by her assessment of the pop icon in 1990 during the era of the controversial and sexually charged “Justify My Love” video. She calls the op-ed “prophetic” and warns that feminists today dismiss Sarah Palin, whom Paglia considers a harbinger of a new kind of feminism, at their peril. “All those tyrants, all those Puritans, all those prudes that I was attacking in that piece — indeed, they, like, wither away like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz,” shouts Paglia. “They're completely gone and I'm still here, and so are all the other pro-sex feminists."Watch Paglia defend the piece.
- 9/27/2010
- The Advocate
Lesbian social critic and feminist Camille Paglia revisits her classic op-ed that declared Madonna “the future of feminism” on the 20th anniversary of its publication in The New York Times. In a video interview Paglia stands by her assessment of the pop icon in 1990 during the era of the controversial and sexually charged “Justify My Love” video. She calls the op-ed “prophetic” and warns that feminists today dismiss Sarah Palin, whom Paglia considers a harbinger of a new kind of feminism, at their peril. “All those tyrants, all those Puritans, all those prudes that I was attacking in that piece — indeed, they, like, wither away like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz,” shouts Paglia. “They're completely gone and I'm still here, and so are all the other pro-sex feminists."Watch Paglia defend the piece.
- 9/27/2010
- The Advocate
Lesbian social critic and feminist Camille Paglia revisits her classic op-ed that declared Madonna “the future of feminism” on the 20th anniversary of its publication in The New York Times. In a video interview Paglia stands by her assessment of the pop icon in 1990 during the era of the controversial and sexually charged “Justify My Love” video. She calls the op-ed “prophetic” and warns that feminists today dismiss Sarah Palin, whom Paglia considers a harbinger of a new kind of feminism, at their peril. “All those tyrants, all those Puritans, all those prudes that I was attacking in that piece — indeed, they, like, wither away like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz,” shouts Paglia. “They're completely gone and I'm still here, and so are all the other pro-sex feminists."Watch Paglia defend the piece.
- 9/27/2010
- The Advocate
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