Know the Cast: ‘Stagecoach’
‘Stagecoach’ Cast: A Vague Visages guide for every actor and character in John Ford’s 1939 film.
Collecting Movies with Raymond Rea
Raymond Rea Interview: Greg Carlson and the filmmaker/educator discuss movie collecting.
Pre-Code Prime Cuts: Women-Led Films at Cinema Rediscovered
Cinema Rediscovered Essay by Fedor Tot | Women-Led Films of the 1930s | Jewel Robbery (1932) | Red-Headed Woman (1932) | Baby Face (1933)
Berlinale 2022: ‘No Angels’ Retrospective and Carole Lombard
“Carole Lombard’s performances — even when placed in manic films such as ‘Twentieth Century’ — are so often understated that you barely even notice half of the choices made.”
The Light of Human Love and Community: On ‘Moontide’ and ‘Port of Shadows’
“‘Moontide’ and ‘Port of Shadows’ offer a fascinating study into key differences in Hollywood and European filmmaking and storytelling during the 1930s and early 1940s, a time when the studio system reigned supreme…”
Mythic Conduits for Intimate Pain in Edgar G. Ulmer’s ‘The Black Cat’
“While ‘The Black Cat’ does not share many explicit connections with Poe’s 1843 story, both texts use archetypal symbolism to explore painfully intimate experiences (in Poe’s case, addiction and mental disarray, and in Ulmer’s case, psychological trauma).”
World Cinema Project: The Sights and Sounds of a Nation – ‘Trances’ and ‘Redes’
“As with the underlying creed of Trances, the unambiguous intent of Redes’ communal message resonates in its country of origin and around the world, communicating the pleas for justice, egalitarianism and independence that are vital facets of life and are so often central to the best of all cinematic documentaries.”
World Cinema Project: Beyond the Bounds of Narrative – ‘Limite’ and ‘Mysterious Object at Noon’
“Abstract and disjointed, the narrative of ‘Mysterious Object at Noon’ is progressively piecemeal, and what occurs in ‘Limite’ is even more inconclusive.”
Peter Lorre: The Foundations of the Stranger
“Lorre brought to his strangers the psychological wounds carried by the exile.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: ‘Twentieth Century’
“Screwball comedies don’t get much funnier, or screwier, than Howard Hawks’ ‘Twentieth Century.'”
‘Modern Times’: Charlie Chaplin Finds Freedom in the Age of Industry
“‘Modern Times’ is emblematic of a ‘Hollywood realism,’ with a rather immaculate industrial setting, strategically tattered clothing and deliberately designed destitution.”