The Hollywood producer Robert Evans died Saturday and the world is a little less glamorous. You can read his remarkable obituary or better yet watch The Kid Stays in the Picture, the 2002 documentary based on his memoir. He was hired as the head of Paramount (with no producing experience), and had a hand in The Godfather, Chinatown and Serpico. He lived the life, married seven times and indulged an all-time cocaine habit.
Read MoreFor some reason my sister and I were members of the small, depraved cult devoted to Grease 2. In some ways this made sense, we had the original on video and had seen it about twenty times. My sister, in my absence, watched it about a hundred more. That is not an exaggeration If you text her any line, no matter how obscure, she will text back the next one.
Read MoreIt’s hard to believe now, but a DVD library was once a source of pride. They were lovingly arranged on shelves by director and genre, with perhaps a row of the Criterion Collection (still not sure how RoboCop made it into that rarefied club). I remember feverishly comparing prices for Yojimbo the day it came out. It goes without saying that the DVD is now entirely anachronistic.
Read MoreAugust is the perfect time for an Éric Rohmer film. They unfold in relaxed settings—lakeside resorts, borrowed, barely furnished country houses, beach towns. The characters are at leisure and, since they’re French, they tend to discuss their theories of love and morality.
Read MoreThis has always been my favorite shirt in any film. Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone has retired. He’s not in the darkened, wood-paneled office but in the sunlight of the garden. He’s forsaken the professional life for the pastoral life.
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