Dear Moviegoers,
It is NOT okay to come in after the lights have gone down and ask those who are already comfortably settled in to change their seats when there are plenty of STILL EMPTY seats to choose from.
Thanks!
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Friday, July 01, 2011
Foreign Correspondent
Someday I'm going to write about my all-time great movie-going experiences and Foreign Correspondent is going to be near the top of my list, along with The Empire Strikes Back and Forbidden Planet!
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940, Foreign Correspondent is one of my favorite movie-going experiences not so much because of the theater where I first saw it some thirty years ago - the Valley Art in Tempe, Arizona - but because it was an absolutely dazzling print! I would not consider it an exaggeration to compare the quality of the print to that of a well-cut diamond. I could not possibly begin to convey just how sharp and crisp it was, or the range of contrast which gave it an illusion of depth that made it almost three dimensional. I'll never forget the sheer lucidity with which Rudolph Mate's cinematography conveyed the sense of space in the interior of the windmill, nor the sparkling elegance of the hotel conference scenes at the beginning. It's too bad those qualities don't come through on video, but Hulu does have a pretty good copy. I watched it - again! - last night - which is why I'm writing about it this morning!
Whether you watch it online or on DVD it's a great movie for the 4th of July weekend! It's one of those movies - along with Casablanca - that perfectly captures the mood of a world on the brink of war. The ending - where Joel McCrea delivers a great patriotic speech in a London radio studio while bombs are falling and the lights are going out, and yes, the chorus does start singing "The Star Spangled Banner" - always gets to me.
So if you're looking for an example of genuine, cynicism-free patriotism, here ya go!
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940, Foreign Correspondent is one of my favorite movie-going experiences not so much because of the theater where I first saw it some thirty years ago - the Valley Art in Tempe, Arizona - but because it was an absolutely dazzling print! I would not consider it an exaggeration to compare the quality of the print to that of a well-cut diamond. I could not possibly begin to convey just how sharp and crisp it was, or the range of contrast which gave it an illusion of depth that made it almost three dimensional. I'll never forget the sheer lucidity with which Rudolph Mate's cinematography conveyed the sense of space in the interior of the windmill, nor the sparkling elegance of the hotel conference scenes at the beginning. It's too bad those qualities don't come through on video, but Hulu does have a pretty good copy. I watched it - again! - last night - which is why I'm writing about it this morning!
Whether you watch it online or on DVD it's a great movie for the 4th of July weekend! It's one of those movies - along with Casablanca - that perfectly captures the mood of a world on the brink of war. The ending - where Joel McCrea delivers a great patriotic speech in a London radio studio while bombs are falling and the lights are going out, and yes, the chorus does start singing "The Star Spangled Banner" - always gets to me.
So if you're looking for an example of genuine, cynicism-free patriotism, here ya go!
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