Monday, December 04, 2006

Blogging Fox Before the Code
Earlier today, I wrote about Hoopla, which screened this weekend as part of Film Forum's Fox Before the Code series. I'm so excited about this series that I've completely rearranged my schedule this week in order to make screenings. Here's a list of other blog posts I've come across re: the series. I will update and repost this list as needed.

"Using dissolves, sound bridges, long takes, and character punctuating close-ups, Brown blessed Quick Millions with both gutter swagger realism and pulp expediency. It is the most undervalued directorial debut in the history of American film." -- Bruce Bennett (reposted from the NY Sun)

"Born to be Bad, (starring Loretta Young as a mother out of wedlock and Cary Grant as the married man who falls for her) and Coming Out Party (the arrival of a debutante carrying her immigrant boyfriend’s child) are just a few in the program demonstrating the racial and sexual quandaries present during the Great Depression -- not to mention the anxiety felt by many Americans over the changing depiction of urban life in America." -- Jessica Freeman-Slade @ The Reeler

Semi-related: Peoria Pundit reminds us what 30-something Norma Shearer looked like as Marie Antoinette.

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Wednesday, November 29, 2006



Above, a made-for-You-Tube Clara Bow clip reel. Below, selections from Film Forum's "Fox Before the Code" series that I'm going to try to attend, in order of priority. This is more of a "note to self" than anything else. For an actual summary of Film Forum's latest rep festival see Elliott Stein's take in the Voice. Cinematical's Ryan Stewart should have something soon, too.

SERVANTS’ ENTRANCE - (1934) "Bored heiress Janet Gaynor decides to “learn to be a housewife” on a lark (in a nightmare she’s put on trial by Disney-animated kitchen utensils), then meets Lew Ayres, a chauffeur with motor design ambitions, even as dad Walter Connolly’s fortunes yo-yo." Tuesday 12/5, 7pm

LILIOM - (1935) Fritz Lang. Saturday 12/16, 9:15 PM. With Zoo in Budapest.

CALL HER SAVAGE -- "Clara Bow returned to the screen with a vengeance (following a well-publicized nervous breakdown) as a Texas half-breed who takes a whip to childhood friend Gilbert Roland, brains the husband she married for spite with a stool, gets in a catfight with Thelma Todd, visits the screen’s first bona fide gay bar, and romps with an excited Great Dane — and we don’t mean Hamlet." Sunday 12/10, 1pm

AFTER TOMORROW - (1932) Frank Borzage. Thursday 12/7, 7:30 PM

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