Archive 2 - 2011

Previous Posts that appeared on the front page of cinemagraphe.com

Katharine Hepburn estate for sale

July 19, 2011: $28 million is the asking price for the actresses family home in Saybrook, Connecticut.

Updated Ann Sothern Page

July 6, 2011: Updated the page, corrected the "Southern" spelling in many instances (how confusing that must have been back in the beginning of her career); added much more written info, photo images and book info. Read More Ann Sothern

Suddenly, Last Summer

June 20, 2011: New page on the Joseph Mankiewicz / Elizabeth Taylor / Katherine Hepburn / Tennessee Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer from 1959.

Cinematical, adios

June 29, 2011: Though chiefly occupied with whatever was coming out next from Hollywood, the Cinematical web site was thorough and reliable. Owned by AOL, it's now merged into 'Moviefone' and is now following the Huffington Post model, which means writers don't get paid: therefore the Cinematical staff has dispersed and I guess is being replaced by new fingers on the keyboards. For a repudiation of the whole affair, there is this piece by Sean P. Means.

Film Critic Wars!

June 18, 2011: Seattle film critic N. D. Thompson was rejected for publication in the online journal Slate, and the result has been a frenzy of blog posts around the internet defending that film critics actually still serve a function (and that the critics at Slate are failing in this capacity) with the backdrop of a world where their services are no longer needed at innumerable newspapers. Get a look at the wordy warfare at mediatbistro.com.

Dim Movies: Digital Projection Woes

May 26, 2011: Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun Times Blog) unloads on the rush of digital projectors going into movie theaters, and how poorly they are being used, with lighting on screen being cut by 50% to even 85% from what was actually filmed:

"Driven by a mania to abandon celluloid in favor of digital, increasing numbers of chains are installing 3D-ready digital projectors. As everyone can tell simply by taking off their 3D glasses, the process noticeably reduces the visible light from the screen. I got emails from readers saying the night scenes in "Pirates of the Caribbean" were so dim they were annoying.

...Digital projectors have been force-fed to theaters by an industry hungry for the premium prices it can charge for 3D films. As I've been arguing for a long time, this amounts to charging you more for an inferior picture. The winners are the manufacturers of the expensive machines, and the film distributors. The hapless theaters still depend on concession sales to such a degree that a modern American theater can be described as a value-added popcorn stand."

The digital future is being trailed by a nagging doubt. There are genuine and significant cost savings in the digital world of virtual artists tools, but what will be the judgment in the future if a majority of consumers and artists alike compare the old analog images/sound with digital and find the latter lacking?

New Deborah Kerr Essay

May 12, 2011: There is a new 3,000 word essay about the career of Deborah Kerr at Bright Lights Film Journal. The article is by Penelope Andrew and is a shorter version of an 8,000 word piece by that author. Our Deborah Kerr page is here.

Karloff

In March 2011 a new Boris Karloff "Authorized Biography" was released from Tomahawk Press with a 598 page count.

Amazon.com : Boris Karloff More Than A Monster

Some significant personalities from the world of film have recently passed on:

JANE RUSSELL 1921-2011: The daughter of a US Army lieutenant who took his family to Canada after leaving the service. Howard Hughes put her under contract and built a publicity platform for his film The Outlaw (1941) by concentrating on Russell's voluptuous figure. She eventually graduated to films that included not just her physical appearance but her sardonic attitude, such as the film His Kind of Woman (1951) and The Las Vegas Story (1952). Read obit/bio online here.

TONY CURTIS 1925-2010: Star of many late 1950s films that featured his comedic skills and handsome looks, but probably most revered for his portrait of a self-destructive (and ethically-challenged) publicity agent trying to take on the infinitely more corrupt newspaper columnist J. J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) in the 1957 SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS. Father of Jamie Lee Curtis and former husband of Janet Leigh, Curtis turned out several books on his Hollywood experiences and his Bronx childhood. Read obit/bio online here.

Original Page 2011 | Updated Feb 2014