NinadeL

A very good documentary about Marion Davies produced by Timeline Films and the UCLA Film and Television Archive, distributed separately on TCM and on Milestone Film & Video. The first topic to be answered is the question surrounding Citizen Kane, which has done great harm to the legacy of this great classic actress. Next, a cohort of historians, scholars, and otherwise allied individuals examine the career and life of one of MGM's first great stars. The original Ziegfeld Girl has successfully played mostly leading roles for 20 years, produced films, and several times films based on her scripts have also been made. For many years she was the partner of media mogul W. R. Hearst. She wore cute Mary Pickford-style curls, starred successfully in modern screwball comedies, was the first Patsy, but Hearst liked her best in expensive costume dramas. However, audiences loved her parodies of contemporary celebrities and roles in disguise. Generationally, Marion was replaced by Norma Shearer and Norma by Joan Crawford... and life went on in Hollywood. Ideally, to accompany the documentary I recommend opening Davies' memoirs, published posthumously as "The Times We Had."

An HBO film about the behind-the-scenes making of one of the most problematic films of the 1940s. Sometimes it may seem that Citizen Kane is the most important film of the 20th century, but that would really be doing the whole dream factory a disservice. RKO 281 tells the story of many events and many people in a very brief way. I'd love it if everyone who is familiar with this phenomenon would at least read the biographies of all the Welleses, Hearsts, and Mankiewiczes, as well as Marion Davies, Louella Parsons, Hedda Hopper, and Carole Lombard. That time period was not black and white. In terms of the acting, this trip back to the days of the powerful studios is rather surprising. Liev Schreiber is not ideal, James Cromwell is too thin, Melanie Griffith didn't even bother to act any differently than she has many times before and forgot to study at least one detail that would tell us that she was playing a real person and not just another character with Melanie Griffith's face... by contrast, John Malkovich is very good and David Suchet is really nice, but that's not all that much for a feature film. On the other hand, I have to recommend another project that focuses on the 1924 event in which Thomas Ince died on the Hearst cruise ship in the presence of Davies, and that is The Cat's Meow (2001).

Beautiful. Even the addendum about the return of the semicircular wall of Makassar Eben, which until 2011 was in the cafeteria of the Brno Faculty of Law (where the Gestapo had its bar during the Second World War). Life writes novels.

I love John Candy movies. Him and other dudes like Jim Belushi, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Pullman. Their films from the 70s-90s are absolutely classy. Banal situations played out to perfection. I wouldn't even be afraid to call Candy the Fatty Arbuckle of the post-war era. He's that close to my heart. And in Uncle Buck, we see a very small and already very smart Macaulay Culkin.

If it weren't for Kidman, I wouldn't be coming back to the series. She may have matured and purposely chosen a rather interesting counter-role this time as a bisexual adoptive mother in an unusual mask, but someone like her doesn't need television - she's just lending her personality to a project that needs a kick to the backside after all these years. The extremely slow pace of the first series did not leave a good impression. The beautiful landscape of New Zealand was replaced by a more routine Australia and the detached crime drama could continue. While I'm glad that the basic story of the once-raped police officer Robin Griffin was finished, watching the drama with surrogate mothers and the manipulation of minors was again very challenging. Top of the Lake has once again left me with many questions about the modern family, motherhood, marriage, guilt, and forgiveness, but I sincerely hope that if there is ever another series, I won't be a part of it. The mentality on this side of the world is too different.

Wonderful television work. Kidman and Owen shine and play some of their best roles. And the story of Gellhorn and Hemingway's marriage is an excellent subject for them. Despite the minimal budget, there are many very creative ideas to relive the ups and downs of 1936-1945 in a very authentic way. There's no need to simulate all those war conflicts because there's a lot of documentary footage mixed in with the new footage and it works. The blending of color and sepia is very effective. Sometimes it's really great to see those big movie faces in more intimate TV productions. For Kidman, the path from Gellhorn to HBO was to Big Little Lies, and that was and is another triumph. If you are also tempted by this marriage in book form, I recommend Paula McLain's novel "Love and Ruin"; it is the next book in the series, the author having previously covered another of Hemingway's wives, Hadley Richardson, in her novel "The Paris Wife."

Gotham by Gaslight is definitely a breath of fresh air after a decade of DC adult animation. The first comic in the "Elseworlds" series in 1991 was one of Mike Mignola's last works before "Hellboy". And Victorian Batman/Jack the Ripper is still one of the best things to come out of that decade. I'd still appreciate an adaptation of "Amazonia,", a similar Victorian comic featuring Wonder Woman, and then I would be completely satisfied.

As a report on a part of Michael Jackson's private and public life, Leaving Neverland is obviously an important piece of work. I'm glad the former victims spoke up and were heard, especially if they had to relive their unequal relationship with Jackson over and over again and only collapsed after their own children were the same age as they were when Jackson first welcomed them to Neverland. The length and exclusive HBO distribution are problematic. The downside is the attempt to retroactively censor the pop culture of which Jackson was a part for so many years.

Season 4 is based on "Drums of Autumn" and gives us Claire and Jamie's stories from America. It's not exactly easy to get used to a completely new environment after the hardships of Europe. Not to mention the fact that it used to be all based on the feel of a female Highlander, but now it's a full-on Angelique (in Quebec). Most importantly, this is Brianna’s first role, and her Roger, Claire, and Jamie are already playing the roles of a generation with their best behind them and not many prospects ahead of them. Their strong romance thus can't be the reason to keep coming back to Outlander. That’s too bad. But of course the saga continues.

I have a fundamental problem with Shea Fontana's idea for DC Super Hero Girls. The intention is clear and economically logical. DC needed to get more out of their characters and wanted to indulge a segment that has long been neglected. So okay, girls need as much new and modern content for their age and lots and lots of potential role models, and DC high school girls are actually very colorful and fun... but is it okay to have child versions of characters in adult comics who impersonate the goddess of war, don't hesitate to rob, murder, etc.? To make my example clearer, would you really want a children's version of Hannibal Lecter? DC is a strange world in which there are such things as preschool versions of their heroes, the Tiny Titans, but who is their target audience really? Real kids or enlightened mature fans? Despite this paradox, the DC Super Hero Girls are occupying toy stores and now also the DVD market. And after all, I have to admit that their 2D films are better than the Lego versions. Still, I'd rather have little girls have someone other than teen Harley Quinn or Katana and Catwoman as role models.