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If the score of Immortal Beloved is remarkable, that of The Madness of King George is no less so. With the clear strains of Handel's "Water Music" and "Zadok the Priest" in the background, The Madness of King George ascends to a level that it migh...

Maybe at some point, the idea sounded good. Funny, perhaps. Clever even. A fish-out-of-water comedy drenched in enough blood to earn it a solid R-rating. But if there was any potential in the initial inspiration, it was frittered away. J. Michael ...

The infamous background about the post-production woes of The Magnificent Ambersons is perhaps as interesting as the story told in the film. And, to add flavor to an already-spicy dish, movie critics and historians, in their zeal to lionize legendar...

Call it the law of diminishing results. Akira Kurosawa’s 1956 classic The Seven Samurai (the first time this story was made into a movie) is a great film - a contender for one of the best 100 motion pictures of all time. (It’s at #32 on m...

Modern American society doesn’t value age. In ways that are sometimes subtle but often overt, we discriminate against those who have lived the longest and seen the most because they have lost prized traits: youth, vigor, and physical attract...

Malena, the latest film from Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore, is a curious mix of whimsy and tragedy. Tornatore's blending of the divergent tones is not entirely successful - there are several jarring moments - but, on the whole, Malena works ...

The Maltese Falcon is among the most important and influential movies to emerge from the Hollywood system - as significant in some ways as its contemporary, Citizen Kane. In addition to providing the cinema with a new kind of private investigator ...

I’ve long since given up asking the question “Why?” when it comes to filmmakers turning to foreign language films for the storylines of new English-language films. Sometimes, in fact, the results can be quite satisfactory – take the 2022 r...

A Man Escaped is widely considered to be among French director Robert Bresson’s greatest achievements (if not his greatest achievement). Along with his other highly-regarded films, Pickpocket and The Trial of Joan of Arc, A Man Escaped emp...

Note: There is a "spoiler" in passing for Star Trek into Darkness. Not a big thing if you've seen the movie (or even if you haven't) but don't say you haven't been warned. I also refer in vague terms to the ending of this film. Khan has returne...