I was intrigued watching the video interview on Huffington Post Live in which Tippi Hedren, star of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and “Marnie,” speaks of her complex relationship with the legendary director, which, when asked, she characterizes as “abusive.” She clarifies that it is sad the relationship went the way it did, as he was […]
Four Days and an Electric Train
Meal time and clean up had yielded to quiet time; company had headed home and my boys were off into the night to visit friends nearby. I settled in with 1949’s Holiday Affair, a simplistic romance between a war widow (Janet Leigh) and a sales clerk (Robert Mitchum). Sparks fly between these two over an […]
Excess
What we value… in abundance.
The Plague
From The Plague, by Albert Camus: I see no need to dwell on the manner of loving in our town. The men and women consume each other rapidly in what is called ‘the act of love’, or else settle down to a mild habit of conjugality… for lack of time and thinking, people have to […]
Killer Sheep, Dead Parrots, Crunchy Frogs
May I interest you in some Crunchy Frog? A cheeky delicacy, covered in chocolate of course, compliments of Monty Python. No? Perhaps you’d rather check your wainscotting for the presence of killer sheep? Might you seek to replace your dead parrot? You know the one – blue – returned to Bolton, and originally nailed down […]
Stella Dallas
It stopped me cold, and I couldn’t change the channel. It was Barbara Stanwyck, in 1937’s Stella Dallas, a film I hadn’t seen in years. It’s the story of a working class mother who manages to marry into money, leaves her husband, then raises her daughter under difficult (and questionable) circumstances. Years later, when the […]
Twinning (What Does it Take to Succeed?)
A Stolen Life In 1946, Bette Davis played a dual role in A Stolen Life, the story of identical twins with very different personalities. It’s a melodramatic film, predictable yet thoroughly enjoyable, and it’s one that has always stuck with me. I imagine it is a desire to call upon my own evil twin, to […]
Frankenstein, or Bride of Frankenstein?
Reinvention may be fine, for yourself. What about playing Pygmalion?
White Palace. Twisted Pleasure. Empties.
“Shall I get condoms?” Silence. “It’s like having band-aids in the house,” I say. “Good to have around. Just in case.” I turn to my son, see the grin, and make one of those critical parental decisions. The kind you feel in your gut. I’m long past embarrassment when I purchase anything. Well, almost. It […]