Classic Cinema

HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI — SHOCKTOBER!

Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Japanese Cinema, Martial Arts, SHOCKTOBER!, , Video Essay

October 13, 2023

Takashi Miike maintains his reputation as a prolific international filmmaker of considerable talent. A 52-year-old director with 88 films to…

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER — SHOCKTOBER!

Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Crime Drama, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Gothic, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Noir, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, , Video Essay, Women's Cinema

October 13, 2023

Charles Laughton, a consummate British actor of stage and film, directed only one film during his lifetime, but he made…

FRANKENWEENIE — SHOCKTOBER!

Animation, Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Children's Cinema, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, , Video Essay, Women's Cinema

October 13, 2023

Looking back at Burton’s flawed 1984 version of “Frankenweenie” is informative for the many layers of corrective narrative tissue the…

DJANGO UNCHAINED — SHOCKTOBER!

African American Cinema, Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Political Satire, SHOCKTOBER!, , Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women's Cinema

October 12, 2023

You know from Tarantino’s audacious choice of intro music — the haunting theme song from Sergio Corbucci’s iconic 1966 Spaghetti…

IN COLD BLOOD — SHOCKTOBER!

Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, True Crime, Video Essay

October 12, 2023

Screenwriter-director Richard Brooks’s faithful adaptation of Truman Capote’s innovative 1966 “non-fiction novel,” about a 1959 multiple homicide in Holcomb, Kansas,…

CALIGULA — SHOCKTOBER!

Art Film, BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, LGBTQ, Political Satire, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, , Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema

October 12, 2023

However distracting the film’s titillating use of nudity, and outrageous set pieces of sexual conflagrations, “Caligula” remains true to the…

EVIL DEAD — SHOCKTOBER!

Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Grindhouse, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!,

October 12, 2023

For a movie that’s nothing if not a bloodbath, “Evil Dead” is as dry as the Sahara. That Sam Raimi…

TAXI DRIVER — SHOCKTOBER!

Agitprop, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Neo-Noir, Political Thriller, Porn, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, , Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay

October 12, 2023

So much of American popular culture, and modern Cinema’s urban aesthetic, owes a debt to Martin Scorsese’s groundbreaking fourth feature…

NEKROMANTIK 2 — SHOCKTOBER!

BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, Exploitation, FOUR STARS, German Cinema, Horror, Magical Realism, New German Cinema, Political Satire, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, , Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema

October 12, 2023

In the brainwash of modern ideologies it seems apropos that Jörg Buttgereit’s follow-up to his banned 1987 horror film “Nekromantik”…

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME — SHOCKTOBER!

Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Neo-Noir, SHOCKTOBER!, Women's Cinema

October 12, 2023

As much an essential missing piece for audiences of David Lynch’s groundbreaking 1991-’92 television series (“Twin Peaks”) to gain closure…

BREAKING THE WAVES — SHOCKTOBER!

Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Dogme 95, Dutch Cinema, FIVE STARS, Horror, Magic Realism, Neo-Realism, Political Satire, SHOCKTOBER!, , Women's Cinema

October 11, 2023

Here is a film that makes you feel like you’ve read the novel, seen the movie, and lived the life…

FREAKS — SHOCKTOBER!

Banned Films, Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!

October 11, 2023

Informed by Browning’s youthful experiences working as a performer with a traveling circus, “Freaks” broke cinematic ground by being the…

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH — SHOCKTOBER!

Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, , Women's Cinema

October 11, 2023

Roman Polanski’s cinematic riposte to the heartbreak he suffered in 1969, when his pregnant wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered…

MONSIEUR VERDOUX — SHOCKTOBER!

Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Serial Killer, SHOCKTOBER!, Women's Cinema

October 11, 2023

Charlie Chaplin bought and adapted the story idea for his 1947 black comedy from Orson Welles, who wanted to cast…

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE — SHOCKTOBER!

Banned Films, British Cinema, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Political Satire, SHOCKTOBER!,

October 11, 2023

There’s Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange,” and then there’s everything else. Kubrick’s 1971 adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s complex literary satire…

DON’T LOOK NOW — SHOCKTOBER!

Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema

October 11, 2023

It’s a wonder that Alfred Hitchcock didn’t lay claim to Daphne du Maurier’s short-story “Don’t Look Now.” Cole Smithey.

DIABOLIQUE — SHOCKTOBER!

Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, Suspense, Women's Cinema

October 10, 2023

Henri-Georges Clouzot was termed “the French Hitchcock” for good reason. Cole Smithey.

ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS — SHOCKTOBER!

BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Grindhouse, Independent Cinema, LGBTQ, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women's Cinema

October 10, 2023

Don Edmonds’s 1975 classic “Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS” is one of the most outrageous additions to the sexploitation…

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? — SHOCKTOBER!

Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, FIVE STARS, Hollywood, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, , Women's Cinema

October 10, 2023

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford own their diabolically self-destructive roles with virtuosic authority. The self-referential undertow of their career identities…