Monthly Archives: August 2011

Beware the children!

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Kenneth George Godwin

In the past year or so I’ve seen five “evil kids” horror movies. Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan (2009) uses the classic “cuckoo” storyline: a couple with one young child decide to adopt a needy orphan, in this case a strangely moody … Continue reading →

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Gualtiero Jacopetti (1919-2011)

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Kenneth George Godwin

Italian journalist and filmmaker Gualtiero Jacopetti died August 17, at age 91. Together with co-director Franco Prosperi, Jacopetti invented what became known as the “mondo” movie – after the title of their first collaboration, Mondo Cane (Dog’s World, 1962). The … Continue reading →

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Background detail

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Kenneth George Godwin

If I’m in a room talking to someone and there happens to be a bookcase nearby, or a shelf of DVDs, I become easily distracted from the conversation as I try to read titles to get some idea of the … Continue reading →

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The myth of Orson Welles’ failure

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Kenneth George Godwin

Forty years after Pauline Kael wrote her hatchet job Raising Kane (The New Yorker, Feb. 20-27, 1971), the myth of Orson Welles’ arrogance and failure is apparently still alive and kicking. In his August 13 column, Glenn Erickson over at … Continue reading →

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Andrei Tarkovsky

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Kenneth George Godwin

Criterion’s recent Blu-ray release of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) spurred me to watch the film again for the first time in almost a decade. I originally saw Solaris in London in 1975, my initial experience of Tarkovsky, and while I … Continue reading →

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Reviewing documentary

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Kenneth George Godwin

A while back, I signed up with BlogCritics. The idea was that writing regular reviews for them would keep me from getting lazy; in addition, cross-linking with my blog would, I hoped, boost traffic for my own site. But I’ve … Continue reading →

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