Happy Dysfunctional Xmas

Had enough of It's a Wonderful Life? Here's tonight’s movie lineup on Turner Classic Movies. I’m not kidding.

8:00pm THE LION IN WINTER (1968)
Christmas 1183--an aging and conniving King Henry II plans a reunion where he hopes to name his successor. He summons the following people for the holiday: his scheming but imprisoned wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine; his mistress, Princess Alais, whom he wishes to marry; his three sons (Richard, Geoffrey, and John), all of whom desire the throne; and the young but crafty King Philip of France (who is also Alais' brother). With the fate of Henry's empire at stake, everybody engages in their own brand of deception and treachery to stake their claim.


10:30pm WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966)
A bitter aging couple with the help of alcohol, use a young couple to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other.


1:00am CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958)Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.


3:00am ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980)The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son.

Greetings From Maine!

June is Bustin' Out All Over, from Roger and Hammerstein's Carousel, 1956.
Internet access here is very, very slow. Regular posts next week ...

Jean-Luc Godard: A Bout de Souffle

The 50th Anniversary of the classic film "A Bout de Souffle".

Fifty years after its release, Jean-Luc Godard's revolutionary film A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) still lives up to its name. The director launched the New Wave of French cinema with this tale of small-time gangster played by Jean-Paul Belmondo and his hip American girlfriend, Jean Seberg.

To accompany the re-release of the film, the Rodarte sisters have designed a host of items, tees and signed posters, a fashion tribute to the classic film. These pieces can be found in Barneys New York, Colette Paris and Dover Street Market London.

Postcard by Yoko Komura

Watch the trailer

“Those aesthetic hiccups, the way it moves along, the sheer coolness of Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo—Breathless doesn’t feel like a movie about youth; it feels like youth itself! Godard thought he was a filmmaker, but he’s really a poet, and this work opened the breach. Freedom rushed in after that.”
—Olivier Assayas, director, Summer Hours

Miral by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel won't be screening his latest film at Cannes this year, instead Miral will be premiering at the Venice Film Festival.

Miral is a chronicle of Hind Husseini's effort to establish an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel.
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Production shots

Miral, the official trailer, added on September 2, 2010

Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston

Tribeca Film Festival - New York


The documentary focuses on the life and times of Roy Halston Frowick, the Iowa-born designer who as a milliner in Chicago in the 1950s made hats for Kim Novak andDeborah Kerr. Later, as confidante to celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minnelli, Halston became a star in his own right, the epitome of Studio 54 glamour. The film touches on the designer’s drug use and his business misfortunes. He lost control of the Halston name in the 1980s, and died of complications from AIDS in 1990.

About the Film

Women without Men

Women without Men is Shirin Neshat's independent film adaptation of Shahrnush Parsipur's magic realist novel. The story chronicles the intertwining lives of four Iranian women during the summer of 1953; a cataclysmic moment in Iranian history when an American led, British backed coup d'état brought down the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, and reinstalled the Shah to power. Shirin Neshat's first feature film.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Street artist Banksy turns the camera on Frenchman Thierry Guetta."Exit" tells of Guetta's infiltration of the secretive world of street artists and a video-camera obsession.....