Bonham’s Auction: Hollywood Treasures from Mitzi Gaynor, William Wellman, and More

Posted on December 8, 2019 at 9:59 pm

Bonham’s has a dazzling array of Hollywood treasures for sale in their latest auction, including Mitzi Gaynor’s costume collection, artifacts from “Gone With the Wind” (you can get an annotated screenplay, costume sketch, Scarlett’s necklace, Rhett’s vest, or even Margaret Mitchell’s contract with MGM!), and the bodice from Theda Bara’s “Cleopatra” costume! There’s an “Adventures of Robin Hood” book signed by the cast, Paul Henreid’s jacket from “Casablanca,” a dress worn by Barbara Stanwyck and Teresa Wright in two different films, a vest worn by Bob Hope in “The Princess and the Pirate,” and a prop poster for “Springtime for Hitler” from “The Producers.” There’s even a pair of Darth Vader gloves from the original “Star Wars” (now known as “A New Hope”).

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Trailer: The Movies That Made Us on Netflix

Posted on December 3, 2019 at 6:03 pm

The only think I love to watch as much as a great movie is some behind the scenes looks at great movies. The films in “The Movies That Made Us,” a new Netflix series that is a spin-off of their popular “The Toys That Made Us,” may not be “great,” but they are deliciously watchable and deeply beloved, including “Home Alone,” “Die Hard,” and “Dirty Dancing.”

Scout Tafoya on Martin Scorsese and “Late” Movies

Posted on November 24, 2019 at 8:00 am

My friend and fellow critic Scout Tafoya has written my favorite piece of movie criticism I’ve read in a long time. I have mixed feelings about Martin Scorsese’s new epic film, “The Irishman,” but the part I liked best is exactly what he describes here.

Fear of death and refusal of old age in movie-making are as old as the moving image itself. Movie stars date appallingly young, and directors sew bone-deep terror of mortality into their images. Film critic André Bazin famously defined the ontology of cinema according to its “mummy complex,” its embalming of time and space. And true to form, something uniquely bizarre occurs when film directors near the death at which they’ve been thumbing their nose by preserving slices of life for one and all to experience. The “late film” has become a class unto itself: what happens to your work if you know this will be one of the last times you point a camera at someone and yell, “Action!”?

It’s a pleasure to read, so wise about movies and about life.

Scorsese’s Greatest Shots

Posted on November 23, 2019 at 3:08 pm

The Ringer picks out some of Martin Scorsese’s most striking — and most influential shots.

And the Runner-Up Is: Podcast Discussion of Picnic and the Best Films of 1955

Posted on November 20, 2019 at 8:56 am

Oscar-ologist Kevin Jacobsen’s delightful “And the Runner-up Is” podcast looks back at the Academy Awards and considers which films that did not win have better stood the test of time than the ones that brought home the gold. Spoiler alert: We agreed that “Marty” is still at the top of the 1955 list, but we had a great time talking about the runner-up, Joshua Logan’s “Picnic,” starring William Holden and Kim Novak and based on the play by William Inge.