All Jeff Kinney wanted to be was a cartoonist. While attending college at the University of Maryland, Kinney created a comic strip called Igdoof that ran in the campus newspaper. His dream was to graduate from school and draw a…
Read more →Monthly Archives: March 2010
Poll: What’s Your Favorite Irish-Themed Movie?
Well, lads and lasses, St. Patrick’s Day is here, which means it’s time for MovieFanFare readers to let us know which film about the Emerald Isle and its people–Darby O’Gill and the Little People, The Quiet Man,Ryan’s Daughter and more–is their favorite.
Read more →Thomas Mitchell: It’s a Wonderful Career
It’s an impressive body of work that most actors would love to have on their resumé: Gerald O’Hara, Vivien Leigh’s troubled father, in Gone with the Wind; Clopin, 15h-century Paris’ “King of the Beggars,” in The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Mr….
Read more →When the Best Picture Isn’t the “Best Picture”
Over the last six weeks or so MovieFanFare ran a trio of Academy Award-related polls–on non award-winning foreign films, films that failed to receive a Best Picture nomination, and Best Picture losers that may have deserved the award over the eventual winners–that…
Read more →Scary Times With 10 Fact-Based Films
There are Famous Monsters…and then there are famous monsters. Both Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre were inspired by the real-life crimes of mass murderer Ed Gein; The Silence of the Lambs, book and film, incorporated character traits of…
Read more →Rashomon (1950): Japanese Masterpiece
Guest blogger Alex writes: Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950, Japan) A forlorn priest curses the weakness of men who are cruel slaves to their own selfish desires. Director Akira Kurosawa cross examines four witnesses to a savage crime, a shadow of…
Read more →This Week In Film History 03-14-10
March 18, 1910: An important entry in the nascent horror genre is the Edison Company’s Frankenstein, with stage veteran Charles Ogle as the monster. March 14, 1930: With “give me a vhiskey with a ginger ale on the side–and don’t…
Read more →The Princess and the Frog (2009) Movie Review
“Hand-drawn” animation??? What’s that, grandpa? Don’t they do all that stuff with a Mac now? Didn’t hand-drawn animation go out with 8-Tracks, Saturday morning cartoons, and well-behaved audiences? The co-directors of Walt Disney’s Aladdin are back with The Princess and the Frog, animated in…
Read more →MovieFrightFare: Terror-ific Trivia!
What famous director was originally asked to direct the silent chiller classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? Which symphony of horror received its lavish premiere at a zoo? Can you guess the name of the legendary actor who was so dedicated he brought his…
Read more →10 Things I Hate About Casablanca
Okay, please let me get in a few words first. Starting from the age of 12 or so–between afternoon and late late TV broadcasts, a few screenings in repertoire cinemas (Remember rep theaters? That’s where college students and urban intelligentsia would flock to watch King…
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