The Director, the Set, the Star, and Her Vibrator: Hollywood Lore from Yolanda and the Thief (Quote of the Day)
This entry is part 23 of 23 in the series Quote of the Day.Vincente Minnelli’s emphasis on visual effects and props sometimes led him to neglect the essential — namely the actor before the camera. The bathroom scene [in Yolanda and the Thief, 1945] was a case in point. Kay Thompson visited the set to watch the shooting, and recalls, “Lucille [Bremer] was in her elaborate bathtub, filled with soap bubbles and water, liquid soap and perfume. On the marble ledge of the tub was a telephone. It would ring, Lucille would pick up...
read moreWhy Steve Carell and I Dislike DVD Commentaries (Quote of the Day)
If someone asks me How do you go about [creating that joke or nailing that scene]? I find it very difficult to talk about — because doing so takes away all the joy. It’s pulling that curtain back. The viewer really doesn’t want to know what went into it. That’s why I don’t like DVD commentaries. I hate those and I hate doing them because, to me, it’s taking away the magic of it all. [Feigning a commentary] “I was so sick when I was shooting this scene, and, you know, I really had to pee. So you can see...
read moreEating Soul Food in Chicago
As I walked downstairs Sunday morning, the husband was furiously watching TV and typing notes into his phone. Now, those who know my husband personally (or who’ve seen any of my tweets about him) know that the fella is not prone to multitasking, especially while seated before the television: one thing at a time, folks, one thing at a time. But here he was simultaneously watching an episode of Chicago’s Best and giving his texting fingers a hefty workout. “What was he typing,” you ask? “Was it information about the...
read moreThe Oscars’ (Misleading, Dumb, and Revealing) 2012 Ad Campaign
This entry is part 32 of 32 in the series Essays / Analyses.This year’s Oscars ad campaign, “Celebrate the Movies in All of Us,” was devised by Academy Award co-producers, Brian Grazer and Don Mischer, and Tom Sherak, the reigning president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The 84 black-and-white ads (yes, 84!) are currently plastered all over digital billboards in Los Angeles and Times Square as well as on YouTube and Oscar.com to remind audiences, per Grazer, that with the popularity of...
read moreBackstage Musicals: For People Without Balls (Quote of the Day)
This entry is part 22 of 23 in the series Quote of the Day.The main reason why most film and TV musicals are backstagers is simple: it provides a ready-made excuse for people to sing. Just like a movie such as 42nd Street, Smash is a musical where most of the original songs (by the Hairspray team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman) are performed either as part of the show within a show, or as fantasy sequences where the characters imagine themselves performing. “I always think of backstage musicals as musicals for people who don’t have the...
read moreAmbitious, Creative, and Indispensable: RIP, Gene Kelly (Pic of the Day)
This entry is part 12 of 12 in the series Pic of the Day. Sixteen years ago today, the world lost one of Hollywood’s greatest entertainers, dancers, choreographers, innovators, cinematographers, and genuine stars. What follows is a brief tribute to Gene Kelly including an explanation of his death and the industry’s response(s) thereafter. In July 1994, Gene Kelly suffered the first of two strokes. Although doctors at UCLA’s Medical Center labeled it “mild,” the stroke kept him in the hospital for nearly seven...
read moreGettin’ My Culture On: The Clarke House Museum (Chicago)
Over the weekend, the husband and I got our culture on at the Clarke House Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (more on the MCA later). According to the pamphlet and our tour guide, the Clarke House (right) is “the oldest surviving domestic structure in Chicago” (fancy way of saying “oldest house around these here parts”). Built in 1836 before Chicago was even a city, the Clarke House belonged to Henry and Caroline Clarke and their six or seven children (the reading material says they had six; the tour...
read moreTCM’s 31 Days of Oscar Promo
In case you missed this year’s super-cool, seamlessly edited promotion for TCM’s upcoming 31 Days of Oscar (Feb. 1–Mar. 2), I’m embedding it here. Sure, the “trailer” features scenes from An American in Paris (1951) and Singin’ in the Rain (1952), reasons enough to showcase it, but they’re not even the most entertaining of the lot. Check it out, and then go clear out your...
read moreI’m Not Impressed: Elaborate CGI vs. Old-Fashioned Planning (Quote of the Day)
This entry is part 21 of 23 in the series Quote of the Day.The opening pre-title-card sequence in Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011) takes us through all the mechanisms of all the clocks in the colossal train station that Hugo, the boy who lives, orphaned, inside the clocks, maintains daily. It twists and winds its way through in a way that I know that camera actually couldn’t, so I know I’m not watching an actual set and scene presented on celluloid but a CGI construction. This is thoroughly unimpressive to me. The more...
read moreGene Kelly Fan vs. Scholar (Dancing in the Rain)
This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Dancing in the Rain. You set Gene Kelly Fans. What has the response to the site been? Overall, pretty good. Some days the site receives 100 hits, other days 500, and the day when one of our contributors’ essays comparing Astaire and Kelly made it on IMDB’s hit list, over 4,000 people visited. The Gene Kelly Fans Twitter account, which I began first, grows weekly as well. To date, there are almost 1,000 fans following and interacting with us. All in all, it’s nice to know so many people out there...
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Professor of film and Shakespeare. Advocate of social media. Lover of popular culture,