omaha's own

marlon age 7

three coins in a fountain of youth

Julie Christie, Ursula Andress and Catherine Deneuve attend a Royal Film Performance of 'Born Free' at the Odeon, Leicester Square, 14th March 1966. Photo by George Freston. lion love!

return to the big screen

there are subterranean rumblings regarding a bio pic on bardot.

it happened one night

The Great White Way, c. 1954 Louis Stettner

eli's comin' (hide your heart girl)

longevity with a smile. eli wallach still rockin'.

quiet time

it is so nice to see an image of garbo looking relaxed. her emotional life onscreen is sublime but most often she is mentally wringing her hands. from the little i know of her life offscreen, which includes images of her smoking and walking the upper east side of manhattan, it did not seem particularly peaceful.

that being said, when garbo laughs it is as though the world hasn't a care.

matching moods

simone signoret and marcello mastroianni look pretty cozy first thing in the morning, late afternoon, or night. i'd love to see this movie.

'you're a pearl'

photos: actress louise brooks: Portrait by Eugene Robert Richee, 1928/Woman with long pearls, ca 1936 -by Ryukichi Shibuya

the divine spark

the beautiful and brave ian mckellen. i know he is making huge films but i am most familiar with his moving portrayal in 'Gods and Monsters' (1998) as 'frankenstein' director James Whale. his skit for the ricky gervais show is hands down hilarious and can be seen on youtube right this very minute. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqU5-2o-9cM

silent love

“The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema; the only thing they lacked was the sound of people talking and the noises. But this slight imperfection did not warrant the major changes that sound brought in…In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call ‘photographs of people talking.’ When we tell a story in cinema, we should resort to dialogue only when it’s impossible to do otherwise.


-Alfred Hitchcock, excerpted from Francois Truffaut’s & Helen G. Scott’s Hitchcock (1967)

image: francois truffaut/Jean-Pierre Léaud and Jacqueline Bisset being directed by Truffaut in 'day for night.' critic Roger Ebert described it as the best film ever made about the movies.

what makes a legend most

makin' movies

that touch of sunscreen. cary and doris day on the set of 'that touch of mink.' this is a delightful movie chock full of chemistry between a perpetually breathless working girl, played by doris, and cary grant's suave successful businessman. both are tops at their respective game.

eternal starlet

barbara bates has over thirty screen credits, but it is her turn as the student who sneaks into eve harrington's room at the end of 'all about eve' that has cemented her place in film history.

ms. bates was perfectly cast, as was everyone else in this biting, revealing, and acted to the hilt classic.

forever lulu

louise brooks made films for a mere 13 ears but she is a true icon. one of the reasons i relate to her is that she had a serious crush on leslie howard. (sorry girls, he's married)

Beggars of Life (1928) is one of her most known movies. louise had style for miles and even though she was meant to look like a hobo, these garments are very chic. tab collar!

no truer word

don't ya just love that moment in 'east of eden' when the woman hanging out on her porch calls out: 'hello, pretty boy' at 'cal'?

for art's sake

may la lohan derive some enjoyment from these beautiful watercolors.

make my day

i cannot know if chaplin pulled a 'robert johnson' (pact with beelzebub) to insure that he would be able to successfully tickle the funny bone of everyone whose attention he commanded, but i would not be surprised. daytime, nighttime, anytime you want, charlie will get you on the road to a fresh perspective full of laughter.

carey mulligan

this gal is just so dang darlin'. the trailer for 'never let me go', based on the novel written by the heavenly novelist, Kazuo Ishiguro,
looks good.

making monochrome dreams

jean-luc godard with wife/muse anna karina.

garbo and her guys

garbo may have preferred to play opposite john gilbert but he was not the only one who was awarded the privilege. they surely had gorgeous chemistry and 'flesh and the devil' is a stunning film. however, when it comes down to pure drama, actor conrad nagel sweeps me off my feet. his silent expressions of love are tenderly heartfelt and when his disillusion spirals into pure agony, it is painful.

however, once i saw 'the single standard', co-starring nils asther, the contest was over.



photos: garbo with conrad nagel

the laugh is not on him

'home? i have no home...'-bela in 'ed wood'


“When I am given a new role in a horror film, I have a character to create just as much as if I were playing a straight part. Whether one thinks of films like Dracula as ‘hokum’ or not does not alter the fact; the horror actor must believe in his part. The player who portrays a film monster with his tongue in his cheek is doomed to fail.



photo: Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931, dir. Tod Browning)

marlon moment

you just know he'd wrap his arms around someone's yiddishe mama.

i never knew ya

look at these beloved actors. flaming youth!

photos: paul newman/bobby de niro

the subject of hands

filmmaker jean cocteau knew a thing or two about beauty and poetry of motion. his films are unique, pure, and monochrome. although this photo of italian actress anna magnani looks like it might be taken from her performance in cocteau's play, 'the human voice', it is from the incredible film 'mama roma.' not only did these two people have great artistic gifts, they both had such beautiful hands.

painting by Rogier van der Weyden

kate winslet

great photo. alas, photographer unknown.

keep listening

“Today, for the good of my own health and because I love my family more than anything, I am checking myself into a rehabilitation center to help me in my battle with alcoholism and its unhealthy interaction with pain medications I have been prescribed for many years."-john garfield

his life was short, sweet, tough, and hopefully complete. john garfield was kind enough to offer these words.

smart for her age

she is 13 years old and has over 30 screen credits with a handful of films lined up. chloe moretz is a heady concoction of young /old that is just a tiny bit reminiscent of scarlett johnasson in 'manny and lo.' look where that took scarjo.

“I have learned never to judge any of the characters that I portray. Sometimes that is difficult to do because as a human being we tend to make judgements when we find out information about people and situations. In order to bring a character to life, though, I find that I cannot judge her or I won’t be true to her.”-chloe moretz

a tale of two cities

even though actresses brigitte bardot and cathy o'donnell resembled one another in their early years, their respective careers turned out so differently.

brigitte became the sex kitten who romped her way through french comedies and pouted her way through dramas. 'american as apple pie' cathy maintained her wholesome quality which was a lovely compass in the several noir films she made.

photos: cathy/brigitte

the wealth of wisdom

'Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.'-Albert Einstein

this driver and the pretty girl may have never met in real life but director nicolas roeg found a way for them to meet on screen in his film 'insignificance.'

adventures of the skin

i am not trying to be funny when i say that marilyn had beautiful hands.

life of the party

the mcqueens

beauty and the beast who was also beautiful!

sweet seventeen

considering elizabeth taylor looked like a tiny adult at age 6, it is easy to forget just how young she was in 'a place in the sun.'



images: elizabeth and co-star montgomery clift/dress designer Edith Head’s sketch for Elizabeth Taylor’s iconic dress in A Place In The Sun.

the tramp revealed

'I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.'- chaplin's discovery of 'the tramp.'

photo: absolutely delightful scene with Charlie Chaplin and Merna Kennedy

Greta Garbo by Cecil Beaton, 1946

help mate

actress betsy drake was the third of cary grant's five wives. the fact that his marriages continually failed was of serious concern to him and it was betsy who encouraged cary to seek therapy which involved taking lsd under supervision. the fact that this tirelessly wholesome and charming actor dropped acid is well known. what i found out, while watching a special feature included with the film 'an affair to remember', is that he took it about 100 times. dang.

photos: 'sure doctor, five o'clock tomorrow!/'wow! i REALLY LOVE the sun and i am REALLY TAN. don't fret, you are tan within!'

subtlety

actress julianne moore can walk through just about any door and be well received. i am sure she is careful in her choices of which films to accept so why ever does she not apply this savvy to the advertising campaigns she graces? this homage to a great work of art is miles classier than the merchandise she lends her body to.


images: 2008, Julianne Moore by Michael Thompson- The Grand Odalisque/1814, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres- The Grand Odalisque

poor little rich girl

i figure lindsay lohan will never quite live down how much people loved her early movies. no matter how far she falls in her personal life, she arouses sympathy. she stands perched like venus on a shell, hidden in some dark seascape as her public attentively waits for the fog to lift.

man of the people

handsome is as handsome does. gregory peck may have played a liar (amnesia claimed his morals) in hitchcock's 'spellbound' but the man really does look like honest abe. lovely photo.