Laird Cregar

Laird Cregar
Originally uploaded by vidalia_11

When I go on my noir film binges-- I have done this for the last month--Laird Cregar has been in three in a row! I Wake Up Screaming, This Gun for Hire, Hangover Square. Sure enough, he is this huge cult figure in Noir film history. He plays an awesome character- creepy as hell in This Gun for Hire.--(Which I am dying to ask an expert, did this influence Le Samourai)? I Wake Up Screaming turns out to be a proto-noir film according to Eddie Muller, who did the commentary track. (I am going to buy his book this time.) And Hangover Square I just got today in the mail.

Bruce Lee and his ultimate 70s shades

Bruce Lee
Originally uploaded by Sobibor

This picture shows the quintissential Bruce Lee 70s look he sported near the end of his life. He would have been a huge star and made huge films-- had he lived. Very parallel situation to James Dean---both men had many artistic interests and pursuits outside of acting. Like all geniuses, Bruce Lee did so many things very well. He had more years on James Dean, who at 23 was pursuing still photography and looking to direct. Lee would have almost certainly directed.

Bruce Lee

Bruce lee
Originally uploaded by greg11373

Okay--why hasn't this movie happened yet? It is an empty space.The biopic of Bruce Lee Conduct a huge search to play the lead. His life is fascinating and tragic. born in San Francisco, he and his parents returned to Hong Kong and the Japanese occupation when Bruce was 3 months old.
His father was a renowned stage performer, Bruce made about 20 films as a child actor in Hong Kong films. He also got in trouble in school and had fights. One story goes that he beat up a member of an HK mobster and that prompted his move at age 18 to SF invoking his US citizenship for the first time.
It would necessitate a big budget film to create the 1970s California.
I think his life story rights are tied up with his widow Linda Lee
and she would have script approval and probably not approve of a version she doesn't like. Where to find out about this?
I bet Quentin Tarantino would back a great Bruce Lee biopic.

Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Fiennes
Originally uploaded by PD Wylde

I have my at home movie nights and I did my annual Ralph Fiennes double feature. The English Patient and The End of the Affair. The two films have many similarites and so do his characters. In both films he is a man obsessively in love with a married woman. In both films the women die. Both set with the WW2 as the backdrop. The English Patient though is a much much stronger movie. That is a whole blog entry unto itself. The English Patient Revisted 12 years later. I have questions about why it was billed as an independent film by Mirimax, but it really wasn't technically an independent film. That was written up by the film writers at the time but I fail to remember the details.
Ralph is actually photographed better in the End of the Affair. He luminescent eyes with an intense stare and beautiful skin. that why these two movies are part of my larger category of films call Women's porn. That is yet another post or maybe a whole thesis. At least a New Yorker type article.

Basically it is that these two RF films seem to actually take the woman's point of view into account--which I don't see a lot in many contemporary films. Esp, from a sexual point of view.I do know that in some of the historical films of the 1930-50s, the studios realized there was substantial regular- going female( paying) audience So they did have "women's films." And had actors who they knew would appeal to some or many women in the audience...