tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2449080515968676942012-02-09T10:26:40.647-08:00Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.comBlogger641100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-78711204466556798922012-02-07T20:15:00.000-08:002012-02-07T20:20:59.322-08:00

Anton Bruehl setting the mood. Photograph by Martin Bruehl. Edward G. Robinson Louis Armstrong Marlene Dietrich Anton Bruehl at work Ronald Coleman Peter Lorre

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-80891976212890485982012-02-02T12:41:00.000-08:002012-02-02T12:41:00.387-08:00

By virtue of at least being Chinese (though she was born in Los Angeles' Chinatown), actor & style icon Anna May Wong was one of the few touches of authenticity in Orientalisme product from early Hollywood. She was a striking, elegant presence in such opium-laced, ornately-designed fare as Daughter of the Dragon, Daughter of Shanghai, Toll of the Sea & Josef von Sternberg's deliriously exotic

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-81110788527270627492012-01-31T15:00:00.000-08:002012-01-31T15:07:47.225-08:00

Free mask given away at showings of The Mask of Fu Manchu Here's a post cautiously celebrating what William S. Burroughs called "the racist garbage of the insidious Sax Rohmer", which, while obviously a seething graveyard of fairly despicable stereotypes, was also a deliciously potent escape during my Nebraska childhood, inducing all manner of opium-hazed exotic reverie. Rohmer's accounts of

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-23764287180541836802012-01-30T14:24:00.000-08:002012-01-30T14:39:08.148-08:00

Shamefully, the source & gist of this work is a complete mystery to me, but I love the photographs. They remind me of the French girlie magazines from the 1930s, where the titillating photography was more than a little influenced by Surrealist collagists & photographers like Man Ray, Dora Maar, Otto Umbehr, Maurice Tabard & Karel Teige. It's quite possible that the final piece in this miscellany

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-91594341262255863112011-12-19T19:34:00.000-08:002011-12-19T19:34:06.951-08:00

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-39351114681824551942011-12-19T16:14:00.000-08:002011-12-19T16:14:50.117-08:00

Weegee Los Angeles casting call for The Black Cat Irish McCalla as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, 1955 Anne Francis

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-28781560201190900422011-12-14T14:08:00.000-08:002011-12-15T02:07:45.459-08:00

Korman was a flamboyant showman who used newspaper interviews and articles to his advantage to promote his photography studio in New York City during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.  Everyone, who was anyone, wanted Korman to be their photographer.  He became the authority on "beauty" at the time. His list of the most beautiful women in the world in 1935 included Beryl Wallace, Marion Martin, Hilda

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-53172392211188771442011-12-14T12:52:00.000-08:002011-12-15T02:08:58.511-08:00

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-1029018700433093332011-11-23T15:55:00.000-08:002011-11-23T16:51:27.787-08:00

1. Simone Chapeaux/Midnight (Mitchell Leisen, 1939) Just beneath Lubitsch in my infuriatingly adjustable pantheon of comedy directors is Mitchell Leisen & this sophisticated deco farce is one of his best. For those who insist that film progresses in sophistication as our society becomes more open-minded, I refer you to Lubitsch & Leisen, whose films, while beguiling in that eternally silvered

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-49190124901039214812011-11-07T13:33:00.000-08:002011-12-15T02:09:48.556-08:00

Well, we were discussing the telephone psychotic, which is generic, like saying 'animal'. It's a beginning, period. Then you start to break it down -- lion, giraffe, mouse. Some are fetishists, some are sadists, some are masochists...Then there are the simple voyeurs, the pedophiliacs -- but even that's too neat. So we have the combinations & I'm not talking about your Uncle Charlie who buys

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-48086325171025088412011-11-03T20:13:00.000-07:002011-12-15T02:10:33.069-08:00

Black Candle Envy I  kicked the shit out of Barney. It'll be a long time before he salutes Satan with his dick again. - from Suburban Satanists (1974) Unless your erotic proclivities run towards pasty, poorly-lit gynecological-grade sex scenes, most filmed from a point of view which emphasizes the hairy, pimpled asses of 70s ne'er-do-wells who were never professional

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-40673712942599213962011-10-26T12:58:00.000-07:002011-12-15T02:14:21.227-08:00

House of Wax (Andre de Toth, 1953)

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-26031675521915009822011-10-26T11:03:00.000-07:002011-10-26T11:03:39.935-07:00

These elegant, entertaining & concise closing credits for Castle's morbid small-town soap opera about a child buried alive in order to avenge past sins, were designed by the B-Movie effects superteam of Louis DeWitt, Jack Rabin & Irving Block.

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-87823103964383193042011-09-08T08:03:00.000-07:002011-09-08T08:42:25.220-07:00

Primarily known as an experimental filmmaker & as friend/Spanish Civil War comrade to the great poet Frederico Garcia Lorca, Jose Val del Omar was also a rigorous political & artistic theorist, photographer, inventor, essayist, educator, historian & revolutionary. Though his two most famous films, Fuego en Castilla & Acarino Galaico   seemed ecstatic & nearly Gothic in terms of imagery, beneath

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-67959031629427582522011-08-24T13:08:00.000-07:002011-08-24T13:58:36.970-07:00

A mind-bogglingly seedy It's a Wonderful Life for the Eat in Your Ketchup-Splattered Underwear from a Hobbled TV Tray Set, Essex's I, The Jury revels in ugliness, cheap shots & the rat-like lives of entirely indefensible human beings. It also sports the ugliest collection of interstitials in cinema history, a series of depressing Christmas cards "designed" by either Wiard Ihnen or Al St. Hilaire

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-32930479959321660392011-08-20T14:22:00.000-07:002011-08-20T14:22:11.906-07:00

Scans courtesy of Robert Weinberg

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-61581415054178067492011-08-04T12:53:00.000-07:002011-08-04T12:53:49.896-07:00

Photography by Haskell Wexler, Helen Levitt & Jack Couffer.

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-14613706364930083052011-08-04T12:12:00.000-07:002011-08-04T12:13:33.776-07:00

Photography by Haskell Wexler, Helen Levitt & Jack Couffer.

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-85098934252643481392011-08-04T10:26:00.000-07:002011-08-04T10:26:52.687-07:00

Photographed by Haskell Wexler, Helen Levitt & Jack Couffer. Barbara Baxley "False dream. To break the prison of the body, be what you never were, a dream of oils & unguents, of tender metamorphosis, nicotine heaven & the four winds of magic. And what if the magic turns -- as magic does -- into the cold & painful & fantastic? A dream of chemical skin,

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-30193475551983351862011-08-04T08:28:00.000-07:002011-08-04T08:28:54.345-07:00

Photography by Haskell Wexler, Helen Levitt & Jack Couffer. "The sky smelled of cigars & coffins."

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-52398443085295498632011-07-21T15:13:00.000-07:002011-07-21T15:13:58.815-07:00

"Blood."

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-67947859575714009662011-07-03T15:26:00.000-07:002011-07-03T15:40:59.359-07:00

"The wild smilax is the greatest acquisition of all. Just wound around pillars, covering ceilings, or on the outlines of arches, it is grand and becoming." "If they had been unpacked, the bunches laid out and a little damp sphagnum laid between each layer, this careless and ignorant mistake would not have occurred, but the cooler the cellar the better.      This instance of how not to

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-57103662128169921682011-06-30T14:47:00.000-07:002011-06-30T14:53:21.000-07:00

More a series of slow dissolves between several very bankable blacklight posters than a "trip sequence" per se, John Arthur Morrill's non-globular, doggedly pictorial cinematography makes it easy to dissect this into a series of potent still photographs, which cover the waterfront of paranoid, bad-acid hippie concerns & fetishes -- fascism, the death of our "natural" selves, arcane symbols, the

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-80717516877406262312011-06-23T18:04:00.000-07:002011-06-23T18:08:24.445-07:00

As a photojournalist she wasn't as flashy as Lee Miller, she was more the journalist, less the Surrealist. Yet her photographs of the Surrealists & their undertakings are more geared towards the works themselves than to the nether region between the work & those enigmatic personalities. Where Lee Miller's photography seems like a balancing act between her allegiance to Breton & his art movement,

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-56941788737385177282011-06-03T18:16:00.000-07:002011-06-23T14:13:36.350-07:00

1. The Doll Drawer/La Prisonniere (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1968) & The Strangler (Burt Topper, 1964) Two sinister drawers full of dolls & doll appurtenances, from two films whose pedigrees are worlds apart. One, The Strangler, is a seedy, but extremely effective, little B-picture starring dapper fat man Victor Buono (fresh from an Academy Award nomination for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?)

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-11774509571991363842011-05-11T16:28:00.002-07:002011-05-13T13:44:41.909-07:00

The absurd central conceits of If You Could Only Cook don't matter much when Leo Carrillo & Lionel Stander invade the film's finely appointed Art Deco mansions. It's a blast to watch Carrillo, Stander & Carillo's gangland henchmen steal every scene from notorious scene-stealers like Herbert Marshall & Jean Arthur, but the script simply isn't sharp enough for the two leads to get a foothold. At

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-30599945937774967312011-05-09T10:37:00.000-07:002011-06-03T18:06:45.832-07:00

Linen Pattern, 1947

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-83330058142389089912011-05-08T13:02:00.000-07:002011-06-03T18:11:19.053-07:00

1. The Grand Tour/Viaggio in Italia (Roberto Rossellini/Cinematography by Enzo Serafin, 1954) In standard neo-realist fashion director Rossellini used an actual tour guide for Katherine's (Ingrid Bergman) psycho-sexually prickly walk through the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Here is the wonderful guided tour in its entirety: This way, please... Many years ago this was a cavalry

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-26321899813268993652011-04-26T13:23:00.000-07:002011-04-26T13:28:39.048-07:00

Sculptures by Sicilian artist S. Cartaino Scarpitta (1887 - 1948). Unearthly, but ostensibly natural, beauty from Marlene Dietrich & cinematographer Victor Milner.

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-60703969912156035352011-04-21T11:40:00.000-07:002011-04-21T11:40:17.217-07:00

Francois Kollar - Hands of Coco Chanel 1937 Francois Kollar  Francois Kollar for Cartier 1935 Francois Kollar - Portrait of Marie Bell 1929 Francois Kollar - Photomontage de la figure de proue de l'Amphitrite 1948 Francois Kollar - Photomontage, Paris 1930 Francois Kollar - Self-Portrait With His Wife Fernande 1930 Francois Kollar - Chess Pieces & A Woman 1946 Francois Kollar -

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-51023696129965423682011-04-13T13:28:00.000-07:002011-04-14T11:37:40.977-07:00

1. The World's Sexiest Plug for a Difficult Book/Little Fauss & Big Halsy (Sidney J. Furie, 1970) It appears Lauren Hutton has always had a thing for William S. Burroughs. She introduced him lovingly on Saturday Night Live in 1981, excitedly offered to introduce him to Malcolm McLaren when the two were dating & she wags this vintage copy of the classic Naked Lunch in the faces of Michael J.

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-22773653592814057392011-03-24T16:04:00.000-07:002011-03-24T23:59:00.141-07:00

1. Dinosaur Park, Rapid City, South Dakota Growing up, there was always a thin line between vacationing & escaping. At the age of seven I was taken away from my mother & father because a Hall County, Nebraska judge & a lead-witted swarm of social workers decided they were unfit parents. And though they were far from perfect guardians, the court order had far more to do with the

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-68546686844320088902011-03-06T15:24:00.000-08:002011-04-16T07:31:31.307-07:00

J. L. Hudson Children's Barber Shop All photographs of Detroit's J. L. Hudson Department Store by Davis Hilmer “Keep Their Faith in Make Believe,” Christmas display window, Marshall Field & Company, Chicago 1951. Marshall Field Santa Room 1948 Marshall Field Window 1920s Marshall Field Young Chicago Shop Second Floor -- lingerie, pajamas, millinery, women & children's shoes, corsets,

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-73972771834712761992011-03-03T15:24:00.000-08:002011-03-04T02:09:30.005-08:00

1. Funeral Photograph/Sister Aimee Semple McPherson  On the morning of September 26, 1944, Rolf McPherson went to wake his mother, superstar radio evangelist Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, in her hotel room in Oakland, California. He found her unconscious on the bed, a half-full bottle of Seconal on her nightstand. While she'd been prescribed myriad medications for "tropical fever", no one knew

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-41910384003003864732011-02-22T14:53:00.000-08:002011-02-22T14:53:54.698-08:00

John Albok, Saks Fifth Avenue 1938 Flapper Wighead Henri Cartier-Bresson 1932 Surrealists at Work Ruth St. Denis

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-65943783576146928362011-02-15T20:39:00.000-08:002011-02-21T13:26:11.569-08:00

1. Jimmie Dodd, Elevator Boy/Sleep, My Love (Douglas Sirk, 1948) James Wesley Dodd is best-known as the imp-king of the Mickey Mouse Club TV show & author of its pied-piper theme song, but that hair -- resembling the tank on a 1940s Schwinn Auto-Cycle Deluxe -- appeared in several major films, including Easter Parade & The Jackie Robinson Story. My favorite Dodd cameo, however, remains this

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-47184968371193695342011-02-15T09:01:00.000-08:002011-02-15T14:57:08.441-08:00

Michael Powell's final full-length film isn't quite the dog the initial critical reception might lead you to believe, though its humor is strained & it does seem pretty disengaged from the cinematic zeitgeist of 1969. Not surprisingly for Powell, Age of Consent is a visual knock-out & the ingenue role is voluptuously filled by young Shakespearian actor Helen Mirren in her first major film role (

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-82403366152214664492011-02-10T18:41:00.000-08:002011-02-10T18:56:40.731-08:00

All the photographs in this post are used courtesy of Cara Rule, an expert on the strange, almost otherworldly Hollywood aerie known as The Spiderpool. From Cara: "A director of 1920's silents built himself a wacky house in the Cahuenga pass using old sets. His parties were supposedly legendary. He then built this pool on a hill next to it which also had a somewhat exotic design and was covered

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-26798070814170225802011-02-09T00:46:00.000-08:002011-02-09T00:46:03.254-08:00

Frank Johnson's Sketchbook:

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-14191407240251066242011-02-09T00:00:00.000-08:002011-02-09T00:00:07.564-08:00

1. Wolf-Whistle Lunch Hour/Drive A Crooked Road (Richard Quine, 1954) Mickey Rooney plays Eddie Shannon, "master mechanic at International Motors -- no family, few friends, lives alone & hates it". Or at least that's the way he's described by the very with-it crooks (Kevin McCarthy & Jack Kelly) who want to use him as a getaway driver. They throw lovely Barbara Mathews at him & between her

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-7301758766220069802011-01-27T13:50:00.000-08:002011-01-27T13:55:59.791-08:00

I've never been a big fan of Dali's major paintings. They always seemed a little too illustrative & literal-minded. Ironically, his actual illustrations (and other commissioned ephemera) for the works of Marquis De Sade & for a translation of Goethe's Faust contain everything I love about surrealism -- the disquieting distance between the dreamer & the dream, the occluded landscapes & the

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-5613754241284018492011-01-27T13:12:00.000-08:002011-01-27T13:15:02.774-08:00

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-31808546830122294572011-01-19T15:36:00.000-08:002011-01-19T22:04:43.688-08:00

1. Katherine Ross & The Phantom of Kenneth Anger/Games (Curtis Harrington, 1967) Nearly all of Curtis Harrington's fascinating films contain nods to the underground/experimental film community from which he emerged in the late 1950s. And though Harrington's relationship to Poete Maudit Kenneth Anger -- he worked with the iconoclast on Puce Moment (1949) & Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-38413584110854199702011-01-13T13:14:00.000-08:002011-01-13T14:56:42.732-08:00

1. Carlos (Olivier Assayas) This sprawling, sexy, violent, globe-trotting thriller based on the life infamous terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez ('Carlos the Jackal') mimics William Friedkin's stylish, gritty 70s international thrillers (with a little John Schlesinger here, a little Michael Winner there), but punches that up with some terrific exploitation bloodletting & even gratuitous sex ala

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-74985600264596692322010-12-28T12:58:00.000-08:002010-12-28T13:30:43.358-08:00

Here is some actual work by the fin-de-siecle French artist Henri-Gaudier Brzeska which shows up at the end of Ken Russell's typically loose & extravagant bio-pic, Savage Messiah. To be fair though, the movie isn't nearly as unhinged & anachronistic as Russell's gaudy, glam-rock portraits of Liszt, Mahler & Valentino. Until the camera begins slowly wheeling around these amazing sculptures,

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-38343014269506127832010-12-28T12:26:00.000-08:002010-12-28T12:27:40.285-08:00

Alcoholic atomic scientist Donald Flaherty (Paul Kelly) goes native on an isolated Pacific bomb-testing atoll & finally unleashes on his fellow scientists after a test spoils his afternoon of painting a couple of the island's lovebirds.  Professor Flaherty: You'll find out how to blow up this world all by yourselves! It won't be long now & blooey! Congratulations. I had a seat on a nice

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-5018228280449440762010-12-22T17:27:00.000-08:002010-12-29T08:14:23.173-08:00

 1. Portuguese Magazine Illustrations from the 1930s Thanks to Art Deco 2. A Bedspread/Track of the Cat (William A. Wellman, 1954) Wellman's Track of the Cat is a meandering, frustrating, downright mystical rural melodrama which, despite starring American stalwarts like Robert Mitchum, Tab Hunter, Beulah Bondi, William Hopper, Diana Lynn & "Alfalfa" Switzer, seems as if it's

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-16472549522964169352010-12-22T09:00:00.000-08:002010-12-29T08:10:50.712-08:00

1. Charley Varrick, the Musical/Charley Varrick (Don Siegel, 1973) For a no-nonsense neo-noir character study, Seigel's air-tight Charley Varrick has some surprisingly prolonged musical interludes. Matthau himself never gets to belt a tune, having gotten it out of his system mumbling a chorus of "Ain't We Got Fun" while on stakeout in Stuart Rosenberg's The Laughing Policeman (1973), but Joe Don

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-39816333378878922722010-12-07T17:09:00.000-08:002010-12-07T17:16:18.387-08:00

1. Monster Truck/Desperate (Anthony Mann, 1947) Easily one of the funniest noir films, Anthony Mann's Desperate strains credulity like scissors strain a rubber band. Raymond Burr's big crime organization hires a rental truck & driver (an old pal of his who might play along) at the last minute for a heist & things get progressively cock-eyed from there. That said, it's visually stunning at every

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-5632711716901399662010-11-23T13:54:00.000-08:002010-11-23T15:21:29.962-08:00

Because once you've directed films in Hollywood all other claims to posterity become secondary, Romanian-born Jean Negulesco is best known for his work as a screenwriter, production designer & director, even though he first came to America in 1929 for an exhibition of his paintings. Before giving himself over to the business of show, he was first & foremost a painter & designer. His marker

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-75325798044062479772010-11-15T14:21:00.000-08:002010-11-15T14:21:58.921-08:00

""You haven't hurt my painting, you've helped it. In a moment I'll show you what I mean. No work of art is complete until the element of chance has entered into it. The unexpected and the surprising are indispensable. Pandora was the first woman, the Eve of Greek legend, whose curiosity cost us our earthly paradise. I was wrong to portray her as a particular woman, no matter how beautiful.

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-59483217297309921562010-11-07T16:59:00.000-08:002010-11-07T17:01:52.509-08:00

1. 100 Views of Tokyo, 1928 - 1932 (Courtesy of  the Carnegie Museum of Art) Gotanda Station - Maekawa Senpan (1932)Hamarikyu Park - Kawakami Sumio (1931)Hibiya Open Air Music Hall - Onchi Koshiro (1930)Kyobashi - Fukazawa Sakuichi (1932)Lecture Hall, Tokyo Imperial University - Fujimori Shizuo (1930)Park at Hongo Motomachi - Henmi Takashi (1931)Ushigome Mitsuke - Henmi Takashi (1932)Movie

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-45259362263438346022010-10-23T02:31:00.000-07:002010-10-26T03:41:22.882-07:00

"Ah, the Cezanne of the psychos! This is your moment, make the most of it! You're on the assembly line of success. From now on, you'll hover between exhilaration & despair. I pity you! For a few moments of elation, a mass of inflamed nerve ends!" - Mr. Capp (Oscar Levant), The Cobweb (Vincente Minnelli, 1955)

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-55563196150890020342010-08-15T13:52:00.000-07:002010-08-15T13:52:56.769-07:00

Czech Photographer Tono Stano 2001 Gerhard Kiesling - Bertolt Brecht au Congres des Ecrivains, Berlin 1955 Tono Stano - Relation en froid 1987 Tono Stano Anonymous - Two Female Figures 1855 Shinoyama - Two Nudes From the Back 1968 Tono Stano Vaclav Chochola - Man Ray, Paris 1968

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-44444969396924054392010-08-14T09:53:00.000-07:002010-08-24T09:10:50.492-07:00

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-19529028916339005362010-08-14T09:27:00.000-07:002010-08-14T09:27:00.839-07:00

Dora Maar - Les années vous guettent (Nusch Eluard) 1932 Man Ray - Dora Maar 1936 Dora Maar - Sans Titre 1934 Mougins - Dora Maar, Picasso & Lee Miller 1937 Pablo Picasso - Portrait de Dora Maar 1937 Dora Maar - Magasin d'instrument de musique avec reflet de l'église Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs 1935 Dora Maar - Untitled 1940 Dora Maar - Nusch Eluard 1935

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-36880197955883389262010-08-11T12:34:00.000-07:002010-08-13T14:52:42.085-07:00

1. Cathartic Heartbreaker Of The Week/"Life in Vain" - Daniel Johnston, Austin City Limits Watch it here. 2. A Coffin Orgy For The Pentagon Boys/The Loved One (Tony Richardson, 1965) Pitch-black hilarity from Dr. Strangelove's blasphemously underrated stepbrother, The Loved One, a Hollywood Gothic (luxuriously expanded from Evelyn Waugh's caustically witty novel) that gives even Billy

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-62870151495571685682010-08-11T10:55:00.000-07:002010-08-15T13:54:04.165-07:00

British Wrestler, Gorgeous Terry Garvin British Wrestler, Gideon Gidea Aguirre "Wild Cat" Garcia (AKA Pancho Gonzales) George Steele & Blassie Anonymous Wrestling World, 1954 Anontino Rocca, High-Flying The Fabulous Moolah

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-42943657647814970172010-08-10T19:59:00.000-07:002010-08-15T13:54:36.782-07:00

No Love or the other thing/Only the impact of lighted bodies/Knocking sparks off each other/In Chaos - Mina Loy West Nile Virus Wolfram Flashbulb Wool Space Herbert Bayer - Lonely Metropolitan 1932 Herbert Bayer - Things to Come 1938

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-90733714752321273932010-08-03T14:16:00.000-07:002010-08-09T16:18:27.242-07:00

After meeting with James Joyce in Paris to discuss a film version of Ulysses, Russian cinema pioneer & master propagandist, Sergei Eisenstein, headed to America to meet with Jesse Lasky from Paramount Pictures. This worked out about as well as you'd imagine & Eisenstein wandered down to Mexico with $100,000 & spent the rest of his life trying, like Orson Welles, to make the singular masterpiece

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-46852787286783020402010-07-31T12:11:00.000-07:002010-07-31T12:11:44.899-07:00

Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski 1968) The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher 1968) The Mephisto Waltz (Paul Wendkos 1971)Note the cruel set of the jaw, the fashionable mink hat. The Mephisto Waltz (Paul Wendkos 1971) Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski 1968) Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski 1968) The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher 1968) The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson 1943) "Wrong? Who knows

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-5199467296452917472010-07-26T20:05:00.000-07:002010-08-09T16:15:58.638-07:00

1. Raymond Huntley as J. Miller, the elegant, alcoholic, chain-smoking Nazi spy/I See A Dark Stranger AKA The Adventuress (Frank Launder/Sidney Gilliat, 1946) While Hitchcock could pull off a mix of comedy, suspense & nightmare menace, Launder & Gilliat's film is completely tone-deaf. It flounces when it should creep, effervesces when it should scowl & guffaws when it should wink. Despite its

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-69131037733259193952010-07-24T10:00:00.000-07:002010-07-26T07:56:00.883-07:00

Seaside target practice with decadent Euro-scoundrel Erich Von Stroheim...Foolish Wives (Von Stroheim, 1922)

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244908051596867694.post-44302343705465557262010-07-22T10:56:00.000-07:002010-07-22T11:41:24.633-07:00

1. Bette Davis' Drunken Tour of Beverly Hills/The Star (Stuart Heisler, 1952) After a particularly humiliating day, Bette Davis grabs the dusty statuette off the shelf & barks, "C'mon Oscar, let's you & me get drunk!" The only thing comparable to the next five minutes of this movie is Warren Oates' drunken drive through Mexico, babbling fever-dream beat poetry at the severed head of Alfredo

Charles Lieurancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17577262960881627705noreply@blogger.com1