VISIONS OF THE SOUTH and 50s Cinema Morality
Dear Belcourt Theatre, I hate you. Your VISIONS OF THE SOUTH series is eating up every available moment of my spare time. Should I write a Film Talk blog or go watch THE PHENIX CITY STORY? Sorry, Film Talk.
KABOOM, ENTER THE VOID Director’s Cut, VISIONS OF THE SOUTH, and the OSCAR Snorefest
So, the 83rd annual Academy Awards happened. I think. The effort to revitalize the franchise for the “young and hip” demographic failed miserably. Twitter was abuzz with grand pronouncements of “most boring Oscars ever.” The historically-inaccurate THE KING’S SPEECH robbed the historically-inaccurate THE SOCIAL NETWORK of all the highest honors. The most entertaining part of [...]
MARWENCOL, THE KING’S SPEECH & A Leader Tragically Ousted!
A great injustice occurred this week. This heavy blow strikes me breathless, but I must find within me the lung capacity to cry out! A leader has been ousted from his place of rule, leaving unrest, upheaval, and the ashes of what once were. No, I’m not talking about what’s been happening in Tunisia. No, [...]
From THE KID to LIMELIGHT: The Humanism of Charlie Chaplin
“Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.” — Charlie Chaplin’s unnamed protagonist in THE GREAT DICTATOR. There’s always been an air of humanism in Charlie Chaplin’s films. The sentiment is perhaps best summed up by the above quote from THE GREAT DICTATOR. [...]
Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie and The American Dreamer
Maybe I misunderstood Joaquin Phoenix’s I’m Still Here when I called it an over-privileged aping of Andy Kaufman and Borat. (See my The Film Talk review here.) As I watched the 1971 documentary The American Dreamer — about Dennis Hopper and the making of his ill-fated The Last Movie – I had an epiphany. Phoenix [...]
Leave Her to Heaven: Hollywood Chauvinism or Feminist Masterpiece?
To discuss John M. Stahl’s 40s Technicolor noir Leave Her to Heaven in any great detail would be to give too much away, and I don’t want to rob you of the film’s many pleasures. I’ll tell you this much: Fiction writer Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) meets the beautiful and mysterious Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) [...]
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia
More and more I wish for some sort of universal copyright/left system that would allow for easy re-use of existing material: Why Not Re-Hab Films Like We Do Houses? This occupied my mind yesterday when I screened the extremely watchable doc THE WILD AND WONDERFUL WHITES OF WEST VIRGINIA. Documenting a year in the life of [...]
Youngblood on Film: Kurosawa Centennial at the Belcourt Part 2
The Kurosawa Centennial continues at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee. Here’s the second part of my preview of the retrospective. (Part one here.)
Youngblood on Film: Interview with Belcourt Programming Director Toby Leonard
Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre has lived a long and fruitful life, first opening in 1925 as the silent movie house The Hillsboro Theatre. Since then, the Belcourt has housed the Grand Ole Opry, The Children’s Theatre of Nashville, the Nashville Community Playhouse, and the Belcourt Cinema. In 1999, the theatre was forced to close, and a [...]
Youngblood on Film: Kurosawa Centennial at the Belcourt
Nashville historic Belcourt Theatre continues to impress with astute scheduling choices. Consider last Sunday’s rare screening of Jean Eustache’s 3 1/2 hour The Mother and the Whore, Tarr Bela’s nearly 8 hour Satantango screening from a few years back, and the upcoming Akira Kurosawa 12 film retrospective.
If Kurosawa were alive today, he would be 100 years old; and that is reason enough for the Belcourt to screen 12 of his films. There’s nothing necessarily astute about a Kurosawa retrospective –after all, he’s the undisputed king of art house cinema. What makes the Belcourt’s summer-long retrospective so special is the films they selected. . . and the films they left out.
TFT 130 – TRASH HUMPERS / Harmony Korine Interviewed
TFT 130 – TRASH HUMPERS / Harmony Korine Interviewed – – – TFT 130 running time: 31 minutes 43 seconds TRASH HUMPERS starts at 3 minutes 15 seconds Harmony Korine Interview starts at 14 minutes 48 seconds – – – TRASH HUMPERS is at the Belcourt Theatre May 28th TRASH HUMPERS – Official Site
Harmony Korine Picks the Films You Need to See in Nashville
UPDATE: You can listen to our Harmony Korine interview here: TFT 130 – TRASH HUMPERS / Harmony Korine Interviewed – – – We’ll be interviewing Harmony Korine on today’s show – if you’re a fan of his aesthetic world view than you’ll want to check out two films he’s picked to screen at the Belcourt [...]
TFT Introduces NIGHT AND THE CITY This Monday at The Belcourt
Love Film Noir? In Nashville this Monday? Then you have no excuse not to see the delirious NIGHT AND THE CITY at The Becourt Theatre at 4:50 or 7:00 pm. If you’re at the 7pm screening you’ll get to see yours truly introduce this fever dream of a film – a pic that has what [...]
'My Son My Son What Have Ye Done' – Starting Tomorrow at The Belcourt
It’s a story of crime inspired by a real crime story. A young man does something terrible one morning in suburbia – in the hostage situation that follows, the police and the young man’s friends struggle to understand his actions. That could be the plot of some witheringly tired corporate product – yet look at [...]
Belcourt Screenwriter Membership Up for Grabs
If ya haven’t listened to this week’s podcast: TFT 104 – EVERYBODY’S FINE / PAPER HEART you may not know that the fine folks at that great repertory cinema The Belcourt Theatre here in Nashville, are offering an absurdly wonderful gift to a new ‘The Film Talk’ Member this week, (it could be you!). As [...]
TFT 101 – 2012 / ANTICHRIST / GAIA
TFT 101 / MP3 30.2mb / 1hr 3min / DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: 2012: IMDB / on TFT: Oh 2012, What Is It About You That Makes Me Love You So? – 2012 – Raising Arizona Mashup ANTICHRIST: IMDB / on TFT: Antichrist Poster Mashup / at The Belcourt GAIA: IMDB / OFFICIAL SITE / [...]
'Antichrist' – Part 1
We’ll be covering the now notorious new film by Lars von Trier: ‘Antichrist’ in an upcoming show. In the meantime I provide a little taster – an ‘Antichrist’/ ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ mashup by SamsMyth. – – – The Belcourt Theatre here in Nashville will be screening ‘Antichrist’ for four days, starting this Friday
TFT 100 – An Interview with Ben Foster on 'The Messenger' / 'The Box' / Our Favourite Films of the Past 100 Episodes
[I'll be introducing 'The Messenger' at its 7:30 Premiere this Friday here in Nashville at The Belcourt Theatre] In this week’s action-packed, adrenaline-fueled thrill-ride of an episode Gareth and I talk with actor Ben Foster about his experience of making the extraordinary new film The Messenger’, why he wants listeners to write a romantic comedy [...]
Sundance at the Belcourt, The Film Talk on Facebook and Schwarzenegger in Star Wars
My posts are a bit thin this week has have been busy cobbling together ‘The Film Talk Project X’ which Gareth and I have alluded to these last few weeks on the show, (ahhh…the mystery). We’ll be unveiling it on the next episode so make sure to listen in – there are fabulous prizes to [...]
What to Watch this Halloween
Halloween’s soon upon us Dear Listeners, so it is incumbent upon me to make recommendations for that most scary and spooktacular of nights! First off – let’s say you’re staying in and can’t be bothered with all the boisterous bewitching out there. Then you have no choice but to turn off the lights and watch [...]
TFT 97 – A Serious Man / Amelia / On Nostalgia / The Room
In this week’s action-packed, adrenaline-fueled thrill-ride of an episode Gareth and I review what I think is the Coen Brother’s best film: ‘A Serious Man’; ‘Amelia’ – a pic with the all the excitement of small town cattle auction, the Escapism Film Festival in Durham and the astonishing ‘The Room’; (special thanks to DJ Mark [...]
The Teeth of Gilgamesh
It was another special edition at TFT Central this afternoon when Jett had his first experience of ‘Jaws’, and I saw it in a cinema for the first time, having grown up afraid of swimming due to repeated pan-and-scan broadcasts on probably all four of the terrestrial channels granted me in childhood, but never having [...]
'The Room' – Screening at Midnight this Friday and Saturday in Nashville – Is it Right to Laugh at Others Dreams?
Ok, so I couldn’t wait to see ‘The Room’ tonight at The Belcourt right? This bad film to end all bad films is supposed to be a riot, with Midnight audiences across the Country and Europe erupting in peals of laughter at its shoddy writing, one-dimensional acting, multiple plot strands that go nowhere and just [...]
Mental Illness and the Movies
Just a brief post from me as I’m on my way to Nashville to, among other things, meet up with the maestro for a screening of recent cult film ‘The Room’ at the glorious Belcourt Theatre. Meantime, I’d like to recommend the gutsy article at the Huffington Post from Glenn Close on the cinematic portrayal [...]
