In 2002, The euro was introduced; Queen Elizabeth II celebrated fifty years on the throne; The 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City; East Timor gained independence; John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo killed seventeen people in the DC sniper attacks; The SARS epidemic began; The Department of Homeland Security was created;… Continue reading Welcome to the world, Department of Homeland Security: A look back at 2002
Tag: Daniel Day-Lewis
Everything that follows is older than Hit Girl: A look back at 1996
In 1996, The murder of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman inspired the creation of the AMBER Alert system; Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov; Major League Soccer began its inaugural season; The Unabomber was arrested; The Nintendo 64 was released in Japan and the United States; Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill won the Grammy for Album of the Year; Dolly the sheep, the first cloned… Continue reading Everything that follows is older than Hit Girl: A look back at 1996
Best of the 1990s
Dreams (1990) Nearing the end of his life, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reflects on his childhood and finds inspiration for several beautiful vignettes. After a child stumbles upon a fox wedding during a sunshower, his furious mother demands he apologize. Their surviving commander orders the ghosts of Japanese soldiers returning from the second World War… Continue reading Best of the 1990s
Porgy, Dillinger, and the unbearable Bess
The Unbearable Lightnesss of Being (1988) When waitress Tereza (Juliette Bincohe) moves in with her lover, brain surgeon Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis), she’s confused by his Bohemian lifestyle. When Sabina, one of Tomas’s other lovers, gets Tereza a job as a photographer, she inadvertently photographs Soviet tanks invading Czechoslovakia, and, realizing their importance, smuggles them to… Continue reading Porgy, Dillinger, and the unbearable Bess
Get off my little plane
My Little Chickadee (1940) The thin plot about a masked coach-robbing bandit is merely an excuse to bring two aging vaudeville stars, W.C. Fields and Mae West, together for the first time on the big screen. I like the idea of W.C. Fields; a witty misanthrope who says what everyone else is too polite to… Continue reading Get off my little plane