Blog Archives
April 2021 In Films
In April my freelance writing kept on keeping on. I’m going to recap it all here in case you missed it! Since it was a five Friday month, I spoke to five different women directors (and two men) for my Moviefone column: Emma Seligman, Charlène Favier, Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher, Marilyn Agrelo, and Shari Spring Berman and Robert Pulcini. I also took a look back at the career of Joan Micklin Silver. A few Old Hollywood nerds got together and launched the Classic Film Collective on Patreon. Join at any level and you can read out monthly film recs and each month I’ll be contributing a poem. In April I wrote a poem about Lana Turner! I was a guest again on the Zodiac Chronicles podcast. And speaking of podcasts, the first two episodes of Prog Save America are out! In episode one Arianny Pilarte joins me to talk about Bruce Springsteen and New Jersey. In episode two I’m joined by Jill Blake as we count down our top ten rock flute tracks! For Nerdist I wrote about unicorns, Lina Wertmüller, and movie stunts. Lastly, I made my debut at Bright Wall Dark Room with a very personal essay about The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) and forgiveness.
Of course, aside from all that writing I also watched a metric ton of movies! Yes, you will see after the cut that I watched a whopping 123 new-to-me films in April! How? Why? Click on the cut to find out!!
September 2019 in Films
September has been a crazy month. I started the month in Toronto for TIFF, then I was in Austin for Fantastic Fest, and finally I’ve been in NYC for NYFF. I didn’t really get to see many films during these festivals (fun fact: when you work in the industry, you don’t get to see as many films cuz you’re working during the screenings!). I did, however, manage to get a few films watched during the month, so, as always, after the cut please find everything I watched this month plus some favorites.
August 2018 in Film
This monthly recap is a few days late because the month changed during DragonCon here in Atlanta and I was just too damn tired to get it written. This year I was on four panels and attended several more featuring my amazing coworkers at TCM/FilmStruck. I also wore five cosplay outfits. It was a lot. But also so so much fun. As for my watching in August, I had intended to watch a lot more Summer Under The Stars films on TCM in August, but somehow only managed to really tackle Barbra Streisand. I did, however, catch up on a ton of films about to expire on FilmStruck and saw several great new releases (including my favorite movie of the year so far). I also found myself finishing up my Downton Abbey binge that I started in July. More thoughts on that to come. As always, you can see everything I watched, a breakdown by year, and some favorites after the cut.
Movie Quote of the Day – Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero ‘stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza… (Love and Anarchy), 1973 (dir. Lina Wertmüller)
Tunin: Many people will never have two days of love. Don’t throw it away like this.
Movie Quote of the Day – Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto (Swept Away. . .by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August), 1974 (dir. Lina Wertmüller)
Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti: Why don’t those shits come and get us? Why haven’t they come to get us? What have they been doing all night? Nothing! The sea is vast but it’s nothing compared to the stupidity of people.
A Year With Women: July 2015 in Films
Although I was gone for almost a whole week for San Diego Comic-Con (my third year in a row for work!), I managed to watch more new-to-me films in July than I have any other month this year. Most of those films, however, were short films (I will always go to bat for short films). I watched the films in the Twilight Storytellers competition (several of them were better than the films in the actual Twilight Saga film series), as well as all the films in Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales series. Both are available to watch for free online and both are well worth your time! That said, I also watched several films that have had a very large impact on cinema’s history, so I think the month balanced out. As always, the full list of what I watched is after the cut, as well as a few favorites.
Movie Quote of the Day – Pasqualino Settebellezze, 1975 (dir. Lina Wertmüller)
Pasqualino: I appeal to the ladies. I used to appeal to them. The fact is without any exaggeration I haven’t looked at the mirror in years. And since I know from the beginning that I’ve always been an ugly man I’ll admit it’s been bothering me. How have I turned out? My teeth have become loose. I can’t keep my eyes open. My ass has dropped. Look at me and tell me honestly. How do I look?
Francesco: Awful, to be quite honest.
the diary of a film history fanatic 