Mise-en-scène. Ring a bell? Unless you speak French, probably not. For a good portion of my formative years I was in the same boat–a sackful of mise-en-scène could’ve dropped from the sky, landed atop my head and still I would have been none the wiser. This changed my senior year of college. Somehow, despite drinking a goodly portion of all the Goebel® and Natural
Of this blog’s massive readership (19 and counting!) I’d hazard a guess that no more than two of you would have the slightest idea who I’m referring to when I drop the name John Frankenheimer. Which is quite amazing considering he was widely considered an auteur, his direction of four classics in succession back in the early 1960s–Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Seven Days in May (1964) and The Train (1964)–a singular run.
Back in late July 1996, my fiancé and I made the short walk from our apartment to the middling, yet convenient, 8-screen Webster Place Theaters in Chicago’s Lincoln Park to check out a flick that, since its release, had garnered wildly contrasting reviews. Entertainment Weekly felt it “blithely moronic,” while The San Francisco Chronicle called it “fair, at best.” Yet, back here in Chicago, the world’s most influential film critics (according to a June
The other night my 12-year-old son roped me into the first 30 minutes of Return of the Jedi, director Richard Marquand‘s 1983 conclusion to George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy.
And while I could dedicate an entire post to the movie’s shortcomings (one word: Ewoks), I only want to mention a quick moment as a springboard to another topic altogether, a moment that will forever have me and my kids nodding at each other knowingly.
GOLF GLEN THEATERS (Niles, IL)
Much like the aforementioned Evanston Five or the multiplexed General Cinema – Deerbrook Mall, the Golf Glen Theaters, located on Golf Road, was a theater of last resort, the one you went to when Point Break wasn’t playing
EVANSTON 5 THEATERS (Evanston, IL)
Located on Central Street just west of Northwestern University’s Ryan Field (forever Dyche Stadium to us traditionalists), this theater first opened its doors in 1937. And while I’m sure that at some point in its early history it was
Late last year, coinciding with the release of Interstellar, the Chicago Tribune ran an interview with Christopher Nolan, the movie’s director, in which he was asked by columnist Christopher Borrelli how the years spent in Evanston during his preteens (he later moved to England) informed his love of film. And here Nolan did something unexpected; rather than listing the