There's Sometimes a Buggy

Universal, 1931: we discuss one of the greatest movies of the 30s, James Whale's WATERLOO BRIDGE, and William Wyler's Oedipal horror movie, A HOUSE DIVIDED. And in our Moviegoing in Toronto section: erotic pedagogy in Jacqueline Audry's OLIVIA (1951), Christian anarchism in Frank Capra's YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938), and more Bresson.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s: A House Divided (dir: William Wyler)

0h 29m 57s: Waterloo Bridge (dir. James Whale)

1h 03m 17s:

Winter cinemagoing:

Chronicle of the Years of Fire (1975; dir: Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina)/ OLIVIA (1951; dir: Jacqueline Audry)/ YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938; dir: Frank Capra) / LES DAMES DU BOIS DE BOULOGNE (1945), AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (1966), MOUCHETTE (1967) & PICKPOCKET (1959) – all dir: Robert Bresson.

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* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule

* Find Elise's latest published film piece "Making America Strange Again: Gangs of New York" in issue #80 Bright Wall/Dark Room*

*And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre

In this week's Jennifer Jones episode, we view our heroine in two new lights: as wife (in Nunnally Johnson's 1956 social problem epic, THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT) and spinster (in Henry Koster's GOOD MORNING, MISS DOVE 1955). Then, in our Moviegoing Section, we discuss Joseph Mankiewicz's THE GHOST & MRS. MUIR (1947) as the Hollywood Gertrud, along with Bresson and the pleasure of asceticism.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956; dir: Nunnally Johnson)

0h 36m 16s: Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955; dir: Henry Koster)

0h 50m 04s:

Winter cinemagoing:

The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1946; dir: Joseph Mankiewicz) @ The Paradise on Bloor; Week One of The Poetry of Precision – TIFF Cinematheque's Robert Bresson retrospective – Les anges du péché (1943); Journal d'un curé de campagne (1951); Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (1956); Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (1962); The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956; dir: Alfred Hitchcock)

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* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule

* Find Elise's latest published film piece "Making America Strange Again: Gangs of New York" in issue #80 Bright Wall/Dark Room*

*And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre

LONELY WIVES (dir. Russell Mack) meet KEPT HUSBANDS (dir. Lloyd Bacon) in our RKO 1931 episode of The Studios Year-by-Year. Edward Everett Horton sex farce or battle-of-the-sexes melodrama-played-for-farce—this one has got it all. And in our Moviegoing in Toronto section, a Mary Pickford and Clara Bow double feature has us thinking about feisty Victorian maidens and heroic modern gals.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s: Kept Husbands (dir: Lloyd Bacon)

0h 29m 44s: Lonely Wives (dir. Russell Mack)

0h 56m 04s:

Winter cinemagoing: ROSITA (1923; dir: Ernst Lubitsch) @ TIFF Lightbox; IT (1927; dirs: Clarence G. Badger & Josef von Sternberg) @ The Fox Theatre; THE NAKED SPUR (1953; dir: Anthony Mann) @ TIFF Lightbox; THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA (2010; dir: Manoel de Oliveira) @ TIFF Lightbox

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* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule

* Find Elise's latest published film piece "Making America Strange Again: Gangs of New York" in issue #80 Bright Wall/Dark Room*

*And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre

This time on our Jennifer Jones 'cast it's two movies based on novels by Communists, bafflingly made during the early Cold War era, one a failure and one a hit. We start with the failure, the original Dirtbag Left hang-out movie, John Huston's BEAT THE DEVIL (1953). It was based on a novel by Claud Cockburn (one-time Stalin apologist), with script contributions from Cockburn and a hot young novelist named Truman Capote. Then we turn to another critique of colonialism, Henry King's Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Han Suyin (future Mao apologist). It's a radical field day!

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s: Beat the Devil (1953; dir: John Huston)

0h 39m 59s: Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955; dir: Henry King)

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* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule

* Find Elise's latest published film piece – "Elaine May's Male Gaze" – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room*

*And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre

What better befits a Valentine's episode than a couple of films about star-crossed lovers. First, it's punk (Nicholas Cage, in his first starring role) meets prep in Martha Coolidge's low-key, surprisingly affecting teensploitation cult classic VALLEY GIRL (1983). Then, John Travolta in his sex symbol prime drifts up on the beach of middle-aged one percenter Lily Tomlin in MOMENT BY MOMENT (1978), the only movie directed by Tomlin's partner and collaborator, Jane Wagner. We find out whether it's really the unprecedented-in-cinematic-history disaster that the internet continues to claim it is.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s: Valley Girl (1983; dir: Martha Coolidge)

0h 45m 10s: Moment By Moment (1978; dir.: Jane Wagner)

1h 26m 44s: Winter cinemagoing: Angela Schanelec retrospective + our coverage announcement; NOW, VOYAGER (1942; dir: Irving Rapper); THE KILLERS (1946; Robert Siodmak); THE KILLERS (1964; dir: Don Siegel)

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* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule

* Find Elise's latest published film piece – "Elaine May's Male Gaze" – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room*

*And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre

Back to Borzage for Fox 1931 with the inaptly-titled BAD GIRL, plus Raoul Walsh's THE YELLOW TICKET. Deconstructed masculinity in Depression-era New York! Sex worker registries in czarist Russia! Boxing ring cuddles! Nude bathing in women's prisons! Lionel Barrymore chewing the scenery, James Dunn having male hysterics! This episode has got it all. And then Elise tries to suss out connections between I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943) and Maya Deren.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s: Bad Girl (dir. Frank Borzage)

0h 43m 19s: The Yellow Ticket (dir. Raoul Walsh)

1h 11m 17s: Winter cinemagoing at TIFF Lightbox: FILM SOCIALISME (2010; dir. Jean-Luc Godard); TAIPEI STORY (1985; dir. Edward Yang); I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943; dir. Jacques Tourneur)

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* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule

* Find Elise's latest published film piece – "Elaine May's Male Gaze" – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room*

*And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre

A transitional Jennifer Jones episode: from another summary of the Jones persona, King Vidor's RUBY GENTRY (1952), to a new era of filmmaking and a new kind of role in De Sica's TERMINAL STATION (1953). We give our verdict on the director's cut of the latter, the first time either of us has seen it. And in Moviegoing, Elise holds forth on PSYCHO and the Art of Hitchcock, and we briefly discuss Parajanov's THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES and what's not funny about Lubitsch's THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s: Ruby Gentry (1952; dir. King Vidor)

1h 29m 50s: Stazione Termini (1953; dir. Vittorio De Sica)

1h 01m 00s: Winter Cinemagoing: Gone to Earth (1950) at The Royal; Psycho (1960; dir: Alfred Hitchcock), The Color of Pomegranates (1969; dir: Sergei Parajanov) and The Shop Around the Corner (1940; dir: Ernst Lubitsch)

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* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule

* Find Elise's latest published film piece – "Elaine May's Male Gaze" – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room*

*And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre

The alpha & omega of Josef von Sternberg's oeuvre, 1925's The SALVATION HUNTERS and 1953's ANATAHAN, prompt us to consider whether the stormy marriage of auteur and system can sometimes be more conducive to artistic accomplishment than creative independence. Then, prompted by recent moviegoing, we announce upcoming episodes/series on Ritwik Ghatak and Margaret Sullavan.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s: The Salvation Hunters (1925)

0h 32m 39s: Anatahan (1953)

1h 01m 00s: Winter Cinemagoing: The Cloud-Capped Star (1960; dir. Ritwik Ghatak) and The Mortal Storm (1940; dir Frank Borzage)

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* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule

* Find Elise's latest published film piece – "Elaine May's Male Gaze" – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room*

*And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre

This week, for Warners Bros. 1931: THE MALTESE FALCON (dir. Roy Del Ruth) and THE LAST FLIGHT (dir. William Dieterle). Warners is an early adopter of Dashiell Hammett, but is his least political novel a good fit for the most political studio, or not? And Dieterle, in his first English-language film, turns Warners into Paramount and tackles the Lost Generation, introducing themes that he'll continue to explore in his WWII films with Joseph Cotten. Then, in our Moviegoing section: we exchange thoughts on a couple of new movies about young women becoming artists that couldn't be more different, Greta Gerwig's LITTLE WOMEN and Joanna Hogg's THE SOUVENIR.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s: The Maltese Falcon (dir. Roy Del Ruth)

0h 30m 47s: The Last Flight (dir. William Dieterle)

0h 59m 19s: Winter cinemagoing section: LITTLE WOMEN (2019; dir. Greta Gerwig); THE SOUVENIR (2019; dir. Joanna Hogg); VERTIGO (1958; dir. Alfred Hitchcock) and THE CRUCIFIED LOVERS (1954; dir. Kenji Mizoguchi)

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+++

* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule

* Find Elise's latest published film piece – "Elaine May's Male Gaze" – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room*

*And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre

The masterpieces keep coming in our Jennifer Jones series. This week it's Powell and Pressburger's Gone to Earth (1950), a meta melodrama that clearly gave Kate Bush some ideas, and William Wyler's Carrie (1952), a noirish costume drama about the precariousness of the American middle class. Then we say farewell to TIFF's Scorsese retrospective with our Top 10s and discussion of MEAN STREETS and AFTER HOURS.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s: Carrie (1952; dir. William Wyler)

0h 46m 24s: Gone To Earth (1950; dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)

1h 25m 16s: Winter Cinemagoing Audio Journal – Hasty Scorsese Top 10s

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* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule

* Find Elise's latest published film piece – "Elaine May's Male Gaze" – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room*

*And Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre