Tuesday 30 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: Aatsinki: The Story Of Arctic Cowboys

Aarne and Lasse Aatsinki are cowboys in Finnish lapland. Well, they tend herds of wild reindeer but I suppose "Reindeer boys" doesn't have the some ring.  Aatsinki: The Story Of Arctic Cowboys is the story of one year in the...

Pam's Top 5 Canadian Documentaries

Canada has a long tradition of documentary filmmaking excellence, and many Canadian directors have been very influential on the genre - Allan King, Michel Brault, and Alanis Obomsawin, to name just three. The best documentary films, to my mind, are t...

Hot Docs 2013: Interview with Chimeras Director Mika Matilla

I have a secret theory about documentary filmmaking: it is the most personal kind of filmmaking. Even when a doc isn't a first person film, the filmmaker is often drawn to a story that illuminates some part of their own life or own concerns. And so i...

Hot Docs 2013: Interview with Massey Whiteknife from Oil Sands Karaoke

As watchers and critics of films, we focus almost solely on the filmmaker. But in the case of documentaries, there are real people behind the stories. I often wonder why a subject submits to the camera. Why tell such tough and personal stories? For o...

Hot Docs 2013: Interview Charles Wilkinson, Director of Oil Sands Karaoke

One of the most powerful aspects of documentary filmmaking is the ability to bring a depth of opinion and examination to a topic. Often, some of the most pressing contemporary concerns become rendered as black or white, this or that in our fast paced...

Monday 29 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: Good Ol' Freda

The moment that I saw Good Ol' Freda listed in the Hot Docs program, without reading the description, I knew exactly who this doc was about. That's good ol' Freda Kelly, once called the luckiest girl in the world by newspape...

Pam's Top 5 Documentaries

Gotta love documentaries. The best ones teach you something, but I enjoy them so much more when they make me think. Or when they entertain me. Or fascinate me. I especially like documentaries that do all those things at once. And since Toronto's in t...

Hot Docs 2013: Eufrosina’s Revolution (2013)

Eufrosina's Revolution is a documentary following the determined and ever-defiant Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza, a woman working to correct the wrongs endured by women in indigenous Mexican communities like Santa Maria Quiegolani. ...

TCM Classic Film Fest 2013: The Donovan Affair (1929)

You can't really review The Donovan Affair without discussing the unique way it's presented.  Frank Capra's first talkie is a creaky parlor-room mystery with some tongue-in-cheekiness to it that still works today. But the bi...

Sunday 28 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: Alcan Highway (2013)

Hese is a man with a mission and Alcan Highway is a document of that mission. After purchasing an antique rusty bucket truck in Alasks, he leaves his home in Finland, recruits some buds, and intends to make this contraption ...

TCM Classic Film Festival 2013: The Twelve Chairs (1970)

You know you're in the right place when Robert Osborne strides out - so I am overjoyed when he personally introduces Mel Brooks.  And Brooks, at 87, still has it.  After the TCM representative reminds the audience that one of the sponsors is Porsche,...

Hot Docs 2013: Northern Light (2013)

Northern Light is a cinema verite documentary set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s a slow paced, but powerful look into the lives of three snowmobile racers and their families. Snowmobile racing is the glue holding this l...

TCM Film Festival 2013: Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Writer/director Robert Benton spoke before the Festival's screening of Bonnie & Clyde in the big, bad Grauman's Chinese Theatre (I refuse to call it the TCL Chinese Theatre) and he really painted a surprising picture of ...

Saturday 27 April 2013

TCM Classic Film Festival 2013: The Swimmer (1968)

The Swimmer as aptly introduced by indie filmmaker Alison Anders, is a perfect movie for our times, just as Mad Men is a series about the past, but prescient as part of our current collective consciousness.  In fact, it's An...

TCM Classic Film Fest 2013: From Russia with Love (1963)

Screened from a newly resorted and digital print, the images were sharp, with deeply saturated colors and tones. The sound, crisp and bright. And Sean Connery, as always, the strongest of Bonds.  However, sometimes you can have too much of a good thi...

Hot Docs 2013: Buying Sex (2013)

The premise is simple. Progressives argue that prostitutes would be safer if the prostitution is decriminalized in Canada. Recently, the Ontario Superior Court struck down the existing laws. Of course, the fallout of such things is not nearly as simp...

Mighty Mouse

As I've detailed in past columns, there is no shortage of anthropomorphic characters in cartoons. From Bugs Bunny to Secret Squirrel, we can easily spot members throughout the animal kingdom popping up all over the screen. One such character (and a f...

Hot Docs 2013: I Am Breathing (2013)

I AM BREATHING is the end tale of Neil Platt, a totally ordinary man who inherits his father’s terminal illness 20 years before its due date, mere months after the birth of his own son Oscar.  Neil tells it himself, literally and as scr...

Friday 26 April 2013

TCM Classic Film Fest: Road to Utopia (1946)

My first screening of the festival, and I quickly learned it's sometimes great to see something that may not be on everybody's hit list. The theatre was half full as festival-goers jammed in to see "Funny Girl" and "The Killing" and "Ninotchka." The ...

Hot Docs 2013: The Auctioneer (2013)

It's no secret that family farms are struggling and failing. But how often do we think of the specifics of what that means, in practical terms? The Auctioneer is a glimpse into a rapidly vanishing prairie life, viewed throug...

Hot Docs 2013: I Will Be Murdered (2013)

In 2009 Guatemalan lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg was shot to death with out for a Sunday morning bike ride. Rosenberg may have been chalked up as yet another victim of Guatemalan violence and extraordinary murder rates - until his friend stood up at his f...

Top 5 Docs to See at Hot Docs on Friday April 26

Today is the first full day of Hot Docs screening and it's time to get into gear. To help guide you through the choices - so many choices! - here are the top 5 docs to see at Hot Docs on Friday April 26.

Hot Docs 2013: Brave New River (2013)

When Hydro Quebec began to build phase I of a huge hydro-electric power system on the Ruper River in 1973, no one could be sure how it would change the land or the lives of the Cree people living in the region. Brave New River

Thursday 25 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: Tiny: A Story About Living Small (2013)

Ever wanted to live small? For many people across the US, living in homes anywhere from 65 to 870 sq feet is a reality. Fuelled by the recession and an increased interest in eco-living, the tiny housing market has exploded in the US, and many are mak...

Hot Docs 2013: Here One Day (2013)

With Here One Day, director Kathy Leichter has created a lyrical, if searingly painful, documentary detailing the suicide of her mother, Nina. Married to New York senator Franz S. Leichter, Kathy's mother had been dealing wi...

Hot Docs 2013: Menstrual Man (2013)

Amit Virmani’s Menstrual Man is an exemplary documentary that explores the hard work and extraordinary vision of A. Muruganantham. A business man and inventor, Muruganantham’s story is as empowering as it is unique. He is responsible fo...

Hot Docs 2013: Alphée Of The Stars (2013)

Alphée of the Stars documents one family's journey to prove the world incorrect about their lovely 5-year-old daughter Alphée. Though she is like most girls her age, Alphée also has a rare genetic disorder—Smith-Lemli-Opitz ...

Hot Docs 2013: Mercy Mercy: A True Story of Adoption (2013)

The heart warming version of adoption goes like this: a child in need is accepted into the loving arms of a caring family and everyone lives happily ever after. But life isn't a fairy tale, ...

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: Mary & Myself (2013)

Mary & Myself is a delightful  animated documentary snack. Clocking in at just over 6 minutes, the film delivers a sweet and charming story about Jia Tsu Ye-Thompson and Mary, both over the age of 70, as they support eac...

Betty Grable: Pin Up Girl (1944)

Still image from "Pin Up Girl"

Hot Docs 2013: Just As I Remember (2013)

Just As I Remember It is a brief but powerful look into in the life of a family whose young father has been diagnosed with ALS and is seeing his own rapid decline. This short doc is made all the more potent because the young...

Hot Docs 2013: Softening (2013)

When Kelly O'Brien gave birth to her second child Teddy in 2007, she learned that her son had contracted a flu-like infection in utero and suffered brain damage as a result. The prognosis was not bright for Teddy and Kelly was encouraged to adapt her...

Hot Docs 2013: NCR: Not Criminally Responsible

In a delusional state, a previously non-violent man attacked a woman in the parking lot of a shopping mall, stabbing her multiple times. Fast forward 12 years, and director John Kastner brings us NCR: Not Criminally Responsible

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: Chi (2013)

Chi, from director Anne Wheeler, gives us an intimate look into the final days of Canadian actress Babz Chula, as she succumbs to the ravages of cancer. The film starts with Wheeler (she's not only a director, she's a friend...

Hot Docs 2013: Chimeras (2013)

Artists can serve as sort of cultural antennae, picking up subtle vibrations in the atmosphere long before the rest of us do. So it only makes sense that, in the global cultural shift in what's now being called the "Chinese century," Chinese artists ...

TCM Classic Film Fest 2013

*Editor's note - I am delighted and NOT AT ALL envious that Wade Sheeler will be running around the TCM Classic Film Fest in sunny L.A. while I'm wading through Hot Docs in Toronto. Wade will not only be watching movies and posti...

Spork (2010)

Spork is like High School Musical on acid. It’s a coming of age story that pushes boundaries, but definitely feels more authentic than a lot of films geared towards tweens today. Spork (Savannah Stehlin) is a hermaphrodite t...

Monday 22 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: The Ghosts in Our Machine (2013)

The Ghosts in Our Machine follows Jo-Anne McArthur, a highly skilled and empathetic photographer as she pursues her own personal brand of animal rights activism – photographing the animals farmed en masse for food, clothing,...

Hot Docs 2013: The Burger and the King (1996)

There's a little joke that floats around the American South that goes something like this: During the Depression, you ate anything that didn't eat you. This joke is repeated a couple of time in James Marsh's The Burger and the King

Hot Docs 2013: Furever (2013)

When a human dies there are some pretty specific things that happen (just see Dead...

Hot Docs 2013: Remote Area Medical (2013)

After an accident in the Amazon, Stan Brock was told it would take 26 days travelling on foot to get him to the nearest clinic. When telling that story to the 8th astronaut to walk on the moon, Sam learned it only takes three days for an astronaut on...

Sunday 21 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: Oil Sands Karaoke (2013)

We hear a lot about Alberta's oil sands these days - the controversy over their environmental record, and bitter debates about building the Keystone Pipeline. But how often do you hear about the people who live and work at the oil sands epicentre? Th...

Hot Docs 2013: Dead or Alive (2013)

As portrayed in director Mathieu Fontaine's Dead or Alive, embalmers, pallbearers, and funeral directors want you to know one thing - they are human beings. And this doc goes a long way in rehabbing the image of the ghoulish...

Hot Docs 2013: Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013)

Do you actually read the "Terms and Conditions" before you check off at that little box that says you did? Modern humans are confronted with that check box everyday, and Terms and Conditions May Apply, from director Cullen H...

Saturday 20 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: We Always Lie to Strangers (2013)

In the United States, Branson, Missouri is either a sequined dream that one aspires to visit or the butt of a kitschy joke. As directors AJ Schnack and David Wilson demonstrate in We Always Lie to Strangers, the truth about ...

Hot Docs 2013: After Tiller (2013)

After Tiller explores one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States- being a doctor who performs abortions. Controversy surrounding abortion clinics is nothing new, as we've all seen news pieces focused on lengt...

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

In last week's column I briefly mentioned how Walt Disney lost the rights to a cartoon character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit...

Friday 19 April 2013

5 Remakes That Are Better Than The Originals

As a classic film fanatic, or as PCF likes to call us, “Cinemaniacs,” we tend to be purists, and somewhat of a traditionalist bunch. So it’s rare that we ever take a risk and determine a remake as superior to its predecessor. But I’m nothing if not c...

Hot Docs 2013: Wildwood, NJ (2013)

Before there was Snooki and The Situation and The Jersey Shore, there was the boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ - "down the shore" as any self-respecting tri-stater would say. In 1994, directors Carol Weaks Cassidy and Ruth Leitman prowled that boardwalk wit...

Hot Docs 2013: The Devil's Lair (2013)

Director Riaan Hendricks' The Devil's Lair follows a story so revealing it's like watching a feature length drama. But,this is a doc, and what we see is the at times mundane, but always captivating, tasks of...

Hot Docs 2013: The Last Black Sea Pirates (2013)

Picture a pirate. It involves a ship and adventures on the high seas, right? But as director Svetoslav Stoyanov demonstrates in The Last Black Sea Pirates, piratedom is really all about the gold. Meet "Captain Jack" (yes), a...

Thursday 18 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: The Garden of Eden (2013)

In Israel, a country not known for its serenity, you'll find a peaceful and lush oasis in a park called Sakhne. Director Ran Tal set up his camera in the middle of this park and create...

Review: Fifty Pence

Modern short films are a tricky lot. They are generally made as calling cards for the director, cinematographer and actors to show their stuff, with the hopes of landing a feature, or as trailers to whet appetites and open wallets. Therefore, it’s ha...

OCD Viewer

I clicked a link to this blog yesterday and when I saw the subhead, I came perilously close to snorting coffee out of my nose. What you have here is OCD Viewer: Chronicling Popular Entertainment from Exactly 64 Years Ago.

...

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Blake Edward's iconic film Breakfast at Tiffany's is what many describe as a classic. It features the lovely, iridescent Audrey Hepburn, and is probably one of the most fashion-forward films ever made. It is...

Wednesday 17 April 2013

The Cloche: One Hell of a Modern Hat

THE hat of the 1920‘s, the cloche has seen a revival in the past few years and why not? It’s worn close to the head and tilted to one side. Plus it can be pulled down over the forehead as far as you’d lik...

Once Upon a Screen

What is Once Upon a Screen? Why it's "A WORLD OF GODS AND MONSTERS…AND THE RAMBLINGS OF A CLASSIC FILM FAN" of course. Silly question.

Once Upon a Screen is a fabulous little movie Tumblog. Typic...

Review: The Giant Mechanical Man (2012)

The Giant Mechanical Man is a clichéd love story filled with character actors masquerading as leads. It feels like a very good student film - meaning it’s a fine piece of work, but something’s missing. There’s a very obvious...

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer

It's challenging for North Americans to grasp that there's still danger in speaking your mind in many places in the world. So while we all knew of Russian punk collective Pussy Riot and we all heard about the arrest and prosecution of three of its me...

Run Lola Run (1998)

Run Lola Run is a film with a pulsating heartbeat that keeps the viewer utterly intoxicated under its spell. It's as fiery as its red-maned protagonist, and as catchy as its musical score. Directed by Tom Tykwer, the film fo...

The Movie Projector

Hey, do you want to read about White Heat, followed by R.D. Finch's 10 Favorite Classic Foreign Film Actresses, followed by a review of The Breaking Point? Sure you do, or you wouldn't be here right now.

Which is why I'm going to...

Review: The Suicide Shop (2012)

In The Suicide Shop, in a sprawling metropolis not entirely unlike Paris, the Tuvache family are the proprietors of a quaint little boutique which specializes in the procurement of upscale and designer method...

Monday 15 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: Muscle Shoals (2013)

Have you ever heard of Muscle Shoals, Alabama? Let me rephrase the question - have you heard an Aretha Franklin song? Have you ever grooved to Wicked Wilson Pickett's Land of 1000 Dances? Have you ever thought "Yes Percy Sledge, that is EXACTLY what ...

Hot Docs 2013: Continental (2013)

The new documentary Continental from director Malcolm Ingram explores the importance and impact of New York City's Continental Baths in the gay rights movement of the late 60's and early 70's. In 1968 New York City's gay sce...

Twenty Four Frames

 Twenty Four Frames is pretty straightforward - notes on film by one John Greco. And it's the best kind of film blog, i.e. just notes on film. Want to know about a movie, either contemporary or classic? Here ya go.

And th...

Sunday 14 April 2013

Review: Double Indemnity (1944)

The setting: Los Angeles, 1938. The Situation: Walter, an insurance claims agent (Fred MacMurray) falls under the spell of a bored, lonely femme fatale, Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck). The two conspire against her doomed dupe of a husband, taking out a n...

Saturday 13 April 2013

Sagebrush Trail (1933)

Sagebrush Trail is a 1933 American modern day Western film with locations filmed at Bronson Canyon starring John Wayne and featuring Lane Chandler and Yakima Canutt. It was the second Lone Star Productions film released by Monogram Pict...

Steamboat Willie

There are many reasons why Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie cartoon has remained a staple in American animation. Sure, there were cartoons that featured sound in the early 1920's - Fleishcher's Inkwell Studios did it with ...

Friday 12 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: The Manor (2013)

Move over Friedman's - there's a new dysfunctional family in town. Toronto filmmaker Shawney Cohen's debut doc feature The Manor is set to open the Hot Docs 2013 festival and it's a d...

Wonders in the Dark

Wonders in the Dark is a blog for"everyone everyone out there ruining their eyesight voluntarily sat in a movie theatre or in front of their large widescreen TVs at home mesmerised by the images floating by in front of you."...

My Favorite Film: Walter Huston's Dodsworth

TCM will air Dodsworth & The Treasure of the Sierra Madre this Sunday, April 14, 2013

I was a weird kid. I could make a list a mile long “why.” But for now, the example I’ll give is the first two movi...

Thursday 11 April 2013

Hot Docs 2013: 15 Reasons to Live (2013)

Welcome to Alan Zweig 2.0. While you may know (and possibly love) Zweig as a curmedgeon about town, he returns to Hot Docs 2013 with the decidedly more upbeat and positive 15 Reasons to Live. Intrigued when a record store ac...

Hot Docs 2013 is Upon Us

It's that time of year, again. The air is warming, the snow is thawing, and facts are in the air. That's right - it's time again for Hot Docs.

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival will take over Toronto from April 25 to May 5. This...

Watch It: The Tramp (1915)

The Tramp, released on April 11, 1915, turns 98 today. This is it - the movie that launched Charlie Chaplin's character The Tramp into movie history. It's not his first film - it's his 6th in the Essanay series. It's not eve...

Thrilling Days of Yesteryear

Invariably when you tell another human person that you have a blog, the next question is, "What's it about?" This question is fine, and better than the one that most writers get, which is "Where do you get your ideas?" (I would say - at the 7-11 dumm...

Review: Bachelorette (2012)

It’s hard to not compare Kristen Wiig’s mid-life, coming of age comedy Bridesmaids to Lesley Headland’s raunchy, dark comedy Bachelorette. For starters both films revolve around a Maid of Honor’s desperate struggle to h...

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Watch It: Meet John Doe (1941)

I'm in a Capra kind mood, I guess. Actually, I'm sitting in press screenings for Hot Docs at the moment, watching movies. You should totally be watching movies too. Which is why I will now suggest that you angle your monitor so your co-workers can't ...

Dr. Film

I first discovered the Dr. Film Blog a couple of weeks ago and I was really excited to share it. Then Eric Grayson, the mastermind behind this delightful site, posted an OBVIOUS April Fool's prank about Lon Chaney's Lond...

Review: Nine (2009)

 Nine is a musical film about Guido Contini, a famously infamous film director whose addiction to women leads him on a life of enchantment and adultery. He is, at best, a man in search of inspiration, but pressured with the ...

Tuesday 9 April 2013

Watch It: Long Pants (1927)

Long Pants (sometimes known as Johnny Newcomer) is not only a vehicle for silent comedy star Harry Langdon, it's one of Frank Capra's earliest films.

Released in 1927, Long Pants centers around H...

Other Reviews: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

I've had a somewhat tortured history with Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc. While being fully cognizant of the fact that the rest of  the cinephile world loves and respects this film, I hated it. Basically, w...

10 Things You Didn't Know About Cary Grant

Ok, typically I wouldn't do this, but this list from Fox to promote the dvd release of The Cary Grant Collection was too fun to pass up. We know wevlove suave and debonair Cary Grant, but what do we really know about him? If you've ever wondered what...

Northwest Chicago Film Society

There are very few things in this world that make me think, "Gee, I wish I lived in Chicago" but the frequent email updates I get from the Northwest Chicago Film Society is one of them. (Also, I like bacon.) While subscribin...

Review: Buffalo '66 (1998)

Buffalo ‘66 is really interesting in the most unconventional way. It seems to have quite a delicate rhythm to it that makes its direction unclear at times (something I personally love) but has a certain intentionally dim brilliance that...

Monday 8 April 2013

Mary Pickford: Style Icon

I know what you’re going to say, “What!? Mary Pickford a style icon, really? Honestly? Have you gone mad?”  Well no, I haven’t gone mad, but yes, I honestly think Mary was a style icon beyond her “America’s Sweetheart” image. In honor of her...

100 Year Old Movies

Film blog 100 Year Old Movies has a simple but ambitious mission. As the about section puts it, "Dedicated to celebrating the 100th birthday of one movie every day … or as often as I am able."

And that's what you get here...

Saturday 6 April 2013

Review: A Liar’s Autobiography – The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman

Its title notwithstanding, A Liar’s Autobiography - The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman is a mostly factual, and mostly animated, account of the life of British comedian Graham Chapman; the co-founder of the groun...

Friday 5 April 2013

Alternate Top 5 Cary Grant Films

We all love him; one of the greatest movie stars of all time. And we’ve seen the famous and favorite films of Cary Grant. Quick – how fast can you list them? Go! His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, North by Northwest, The Philadelphia Stor...

Bette Davis is a Bad Ass

I totally cribbed this photo from the fabulous iloveoldhollywood tumblog. I was completely arrested by this photo when it...

CartoonsOnFilm

If you have any interest in early animation, then CartoonsOnFilm from Tom Stathes is the place for you. As the man himself puts it: I’ve had an almost lifelong interest in early animation and silent film. With the help of this blog, ...

Thursday 4 April 2013

At the Back

Here's what Tom from At the Back has to say about his own site:

"I'll review every film I watch and will watch just about anything. I have no favourite genre but enjoy Korean cinema and Silent Comedy the most. On my blog ...

A Silent Film Diary

A Silent Film Diary is pretty much what it sounds like, one dude's diary about the silent films he watches. How awesome is that? In the interest of full disclosure, A Silent Film Diary hasn't been updated since October 2012. Typically I don't like to...

Review: Samsara (2011)

Director and cinematographer Ron Fricke is undoubtedly a master of his craft. Having developed specialized time-lapse camera systems for past documentary projects like Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1982) and after honing his visual an...

Dapper Gents

“I’ve just got an invitation through the mail. You’re presence’s requested, this evening, it’s formal, top hat, white tie and tails” Fred Astaire, Top Hat, 1935

http://youtu.be/RZOJoV6H2UM


Blame Mame

 Blame Mame is just a beautiful little classic movie blog, period. Owned and operated by Craig, the thing that really sets this site apart is the gorgeous design.

For more classic movie goodness than you can shake a stick...

Review: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Wes Anderson does it again in Moonrise Kingdom, an endearing film following a pair of young lovers as they escape into the gaping wilderness to to be together. It's a sweet film that is beautifully conducted and endearingly ...

Wednesday 3 April 2013

Top 10 Rock Documentaries

As Jessica Finch's review of Searching for Sugar Man indicates, t...

A Silent Film Diary

A Silent Film Diary is pretty much what it sounds like, one dude's diary about the silent films he watches. How awesome is that?

In the interest of full disclosure, A Silent Film Diary hasn't bee...

Searching for Sugar Man (2012)

Sixto Rodriguez was the quintessential 70s folk rock icon. And despite two albums and catchy tunes with timely lyrics, no one – not even his diehard fans – knew who he was. His music fell on deaf ears in the States, but in South Africa his albums (or...

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Dapper Gents: Men's Film Fashion

“I’ve just got an invitation through the mail. You’re presence’s requested, this evening, it’s formal, top hat, white tie and tails” Fred Astaire, Top Hat, 1935

http://youtu.be/RZOJoV6H2UM


Watch It: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)

Watch the creepy 1920 silent version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde online at YouTube. The incomparable John Barrymore takes the lead.There are countless stage, screen, radio, you name it adaptations of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, ...

Congrats to Owen Dovenor!

Congratulations to Owen Dovenor of Oakville, Ontario - the winner of the fabulous LomoKino Prize Pack from Pretty Clever Films and Lomography Canada!


Thanks to everyon...

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Wes Anderson does it again in Moonrise Kingdom, an endearing film following a pair of young lovers as they escape into the gaping wilderness to to be together. It's a sweet film that is beautifully conducted and endearingly ...

Blame Mame

Blame Mame is just a beautiful little classic movie blog, period. Owned and operated by Craig, the thing that really sets this site apart is the gorgeous design and graphics all created by the man himself.

But it's not al...

Monday 1 April 2013

Lon Chaney YouTube Festival

Thanks for hanging around Pretty Clever Films for the Lon Chaney birthday festivities. Just in case you couldn't stay home all day to watch Lon Chaney on TCM or you just didn't get enough Lon Chaney, I've put together a little Lon Chaney YouTube fest...

Top 5 Lon Chaney Movies

Today is the birthday of Lon Chaney, Sr. - "The Man of  a Thousand Faces." Chaney was not only one of early cinema's most powerful actors, he's famous for the transformative makeup, costumes, and sometimes outright brutal physical self abuse he emplo...

Lon Chaney, "The Man of a Thousand Faces"

To celebrate the amazing Lon Chaney, I've put together a slideshow of a few of his most famous characters. Consider these images a teaser, because still images do not do justice to Lon Chaney's tranformative performances. For example, in Mr. Wu

The Lon Chaney Home Page

See as how it's Lon Chaney's birthday (born Apri 1, 1883) I thought it only fitting that today's movie site of the day be a fabulous Lon Chaney resource. And that's precisely what The Lon Chaney Home Page is!

There is absoultely nothing fancy at T...

Review: The Ace of Hearts (1921)

Lon Chaney's The Ace of Hearts is pretty heavy stuff for 1921. In the Chaney filmography, it appears shortly after truly twisted  The Penalty, the movie which earned Chaney the reputation for both g...