If you are wondering what this is all about, please read this Introduction. These are the unsung directors with difficult styles or unfashionable genres or both. Their deeper virtues are often obscured by irritating idiosyncrasies on the surface, but they are generally redeemed by their seriousness and grace. (Notable films
No, Sight and Sound magazine did not call, but here is a ten favorite films list from me anyway. To get to know me. The Sweet Smell of Success, directed by Alexander Mackendrick. High and Low, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Nothing But a Man, directed by Michael Roemer. The Passenger,
A weekly feature here on Big Heads that looks forward to the week ahead on the mighty Turner Classic Movies, for your viewing and recording pleasure. Friday, May 8 09:30 p.m. PST Duel in the Sun. King Vidor's whacked-out western is, despite its bouts of
Birds of Prey (1968), directed by Jose Giovanni. The more movies I see starring Lino Ventura the more I think he may be my favorite movie actor. With a face like a Claw Hammer and the demeanor of a Mastiff (though he can be tender and funny, too), he plays
A weekly feature here on Big Heads that looks forward to the week ahead on the mighty Turner Classic Movies, for your viewing and recording pleasure. Saturday, May 2 10:00 p.m. PST Inside Moves. Richard Donner was coming off the massive success of Superman (1978) and used the
A weekly feature here on Big Heads that looks forward to the week ahead on the mighty Turner Classic Movies, for your viewing and recording pleasure. Friday, April 24 06:15 a.m. PST A Damsel in Distress. George Stevens and Fred Astaire made a nice pair. I know almost
Remember when at the beginning of certain prestige pictures, usually big budgeted epics, they used to start the film with an overture, a bespoke classical piece set over illustrations representing the film? Something borrowed from symphonic music, as a way of classing up the joint. Presumably a way of providing
A weekly feature here on Big Heads that looks forward to the week ahead on the mighty Turner Classic Movies, for your viewing and recording pleasure. Friday, April 17 08:00 p.m. PST Targets. Probably the greatest artistic achievement of the Roger Corman production method, leveraging up and coming
In The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929 - 1968, Andrew Sarris provided an extremely useful and entertaining appendix he called "Directorial Chronology." It was basically a best American film of the year list with a highly auteurist, idiosyncratic bent. So you would see things like Man's
A weekly feature here on Big Heads that looks forward to the week ahead on the mighty Turner Classic Movies, for your viewing and recording pleasure. Friday, April 10 08:00 p.m. PST The Masque of Red Death. From that strange era when Roger Corman and company cheaply adapted
In The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929 - 1968, Andrew Sarris provided an extremely useful and entertaining appendix he called "Directorial Chronology." It was basically a best American film of the year list with a highly auteurist, idiosyncratic bent. So you would see things like Man's
A weekly feature here on Big Heads that looks forward to the week ahead on the mighty Turner Classic Movies, for your viewing and recording pleasure. Friday, 04/03 TCM featuring the films directed by Roger Corman today, including... 09:00 p.m. PST Bucket of Blood. Kooky, way out