Posts tagged as:

dialogue

20 Movies: His Girl Friday (1940)

by Bill on August 17, 2010

I’ve always liked Howard Hawks and this movie, His Girl Friday, is one of my favourites from his long list of films. Apart from being a famously funny movie, it’s known for the incredibly rapid fire dialogue between Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. His Girl Friday (1940) directed by Howard Hawks It occurs to me [...]

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20 Movies: Sunset Boulevard (1950)

by Bill on August 4, 2010

I keep hearing a song on the radio that begins, “I want to be a billionaire so freakin’ bad…” Well, be careful what you wish for. That’s sort of William Holden’s problem in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard. Sunset Boulevard (1950) directed by Billy Wilder We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces! – Nora Desmond – [...]

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This cockeyed caravan: Preston Sturges defends fluff

by Bill on July 28, 2009

I watched Sullivan’s Travels (1941) yet again last night because, as the main character John L. Lloyd ‘Sully’ Sullivan (Joel McCrea) says: “There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that’s all some people have? It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan.” The words, of [...]

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His Girl Friday (1940)

by Bill on June 25, 2009

Directed by Howard Hawks It occurs to me that the best movies are of one of two types. They are visually compelling, like the recent Hero, where there almost seems to be no need for dialogue, the images communicate almost everything. Or, the movie relies heavily on great dialogue, the kind that is fun to [...]

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Thinking about dialogue

by Bill on June 20, 2009

It occurs to me that with a number of current movies, and I’m particularly thinking of action movies and romantic comedies (odd combination), there is often a dialogue problem. The problem is more or less that it is absent. I was thinking about this because I just wrote up reviews of two older movies, both [...]

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The Rainmaker (1956)

by Bill on June 20, 2009

Directed by Joseph Anthony The movie The Rainmaker is puzzling because its greatest flaw is also its greatest asset: it’s based on a play (by N. Richard Nash). It’s a flaw because it plays as a play, is shot as if it’s a play and even the sets look theatrical, as if for a play. [...]

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The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

by Bill on July 9, 2002

Directed by Wes Anderson What a great movie! While dysfunctional families are not new territory for films (in fact, it’s well worn ground now – the oddity would be a story of a healthy family), director Wes Anderson has given us wonderfully quirky film that manages to avoid falling into the trap of being a [...]

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