35 Days of Me

It's been over a week now since The Noir Series 2011 came to a close. I had a great time, as evidenced by these photos:




But now that it's over, I'm trying to give myself a little space to breathe, a time to refresh and re-center. And I plan to do it watching a boatload of movies. I'll take about five weeks of time and catch up on TV shows and movies that I've borrowed, or that are expiring on NetFlix or Hulu, or knocking off a few notches on my queue or even catching up on things I've bought but haven't watched. And that doesn't take into account going to the movies. I'll try to keep you updated on what I'm watching, give you little reviews. The goal is 50 movies before April 1, but I'm already really behind. We'll see how I do. Meanwhile, watch the bar on the right to see what I've been seeing.

New Posts

I realize that I've been a bit sparse with posts lately. Hopefully this will prove worthwhile when the Noir Series comes around in January. I'm dedicating a lot of time to the program notes that accompany the films, the introductions that precede the films, and the interviews with my special guests for the series: Sean Chercover, Shannon Clute, Megan Abbott, and Charles Benoit. I'll make sure to give you peeks as they come up, but I hope these posts will suffice until I get everything sorted out.

The Noir Series, Part 3

The 2011 "Essential Film Noir" series continues on February 3 with a unique double feature. Both films feature the same star and same director, and were released in the same year, in addition to both being noir. The star was James Mason, the director Max Ophuls, the year 1949 and the films CAUGHT and THE RECKLESS MOMENT. In CAUGHT Barbara Bel Geddes is a woman trapped in a loveless marriage that she runs out on. In THE RECKLESS MOMENT, Joan Bennett is another mother who would do anything for her daughter, including hide a dead body. Neither of these films are on DVD, so make sure to take advantage of this opportunity to see them on the big screen.





On February 10 I will have the honor of welcoming noir author Megan Abbott to the Dryden Theatre stage. Her novels THE SONG IS YOU, DIE A LITTLE, QUEENPIN and BURY ME DEEP have won just about every major mystery award and have been optioned by Hollywood. Megan will be with me to talk about her writing and about the 1946 film Gilda starring Rita Hayworth. In between, she'll be signing copies of her books.