Acteurist oeuvre-view – Daniel Day-Lewis – Part 6: THE CRUCIBLE (1996) & THE BOXER (1997)

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We return to our Daniel Day-Lewis Acteurist Oeuvre-view with 1996’s The Crucible (directed by Nicholas Hytner with a screenplay by Arthur Miller, based on his 1953 play) and 1997’s The Boxer, reuniting Day-Lewis with writer-director Jim Sheridan and writer Terry George from In the Name of the Father and returning to the subject of Northern Ireland and the Troubles. We discuss the ways in which The Crucible serves as a liberal allegory for McCarthyism and its depiction of the jouissance of hysteria and accusation, and then turn to The Boxer’s examination of an impossible personal/political situation, which leads us to consider Day-Lewis’s rare but memorable turns as a romantic hero.

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:    THE CRUCIBLE (1996) [dir. Nicholas Hytner]

0h 43m 01s:    THE BOXER (1997) [dir. Jim Sheridan]

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* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.

* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

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April Special Subject – Sex, Satire and American Culture – ARTISTS AND MODELS (1955) & KISS ME, STUPID (1964)

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This week’s Special Subject takes a look at Sex, Satire, and American Culture in Frank Tashlin’s Artists and Models (1955), starring Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, and Dorothy Malone, and in Billy Wilder’s Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), starring Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Ray Walston, and Felicia Farr. Tashlin uses comic books to portray American culture as a strangely sexless-yet-sex-obsessed idiot savant with an exuberantly violent imagination, while Wilder turns smut in a small town into an uncannily beatific examination of objectification and toxic masculinity in American popular culture. We also look at the way that Tashlin and Lewis turn signifiers of gender and sexuality into a richly indecipherable text that comments on the madness of heteronormativity and gender stereotypes. 

Further Reading:

Elise’s “Jerry Lewis and the Gender of Work.”

Elise’s “Billy Wilder and the 1930s Romantic Comedy”

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:    ARTISTS AND MODELS (1955) [dir. Frank Tashlin]

0h 45m 25s:    KISS ME, STUPID (1964) [dir. Billy Wilder]

+++

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.

* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

 

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

 

Check out this episode!

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – 20th Century Fox – 1939: YOUNG MR. LINCOLN & DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK

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Fox, 1939: the Greater and the Lesser John Ford Fox movies of 1939, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Drums Along the Mohawk, both starring Henry Fonda. We argue with Cahier du Cinéma about the politics of Young Mr. Lincoln and find continuities between Ford’s work with Will Rogers and his presentation of Lincoln, and discuss Edna May Oliver’s comic theft of an otherwise pretty standard, racist settler narrative. 

 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:                YOUNG MR. LINCOLN [dir. John Ford]

0h 35m 00s:                DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK [dir. John Ford]

 

Studio Film Capsules provided The Films of 20^th Century-Fox by Tony Thomas & Aubrey Solomon

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler

                                   

+++

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.

* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

 

Check out this episode!

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Acteurist oeuvre-view – Daniel Day-Lewis – Part 5: IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER (1993) & THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993)

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In this Daniel Day-Lewis Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode we look at two movies from 1993: Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father, about mid-70s English-Irish relations, anti-terrorist hysteria, and father-son relationships; and The Age of Innocence, Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel about social mores in New York at the end of the 19th century. We discuss Scorsese’s layered examination of romantic love and gender roles, and why Wharton’s novel is ideal Scorsese source material; as well as Sheridan’s layered examination of what it takes to challenge a corrupt system. If you’re looking for layers and examinations, you can stop looking right now. Day-Lewis brings an array of relevant qualities to the roles, from clownishness, boyishness, and mania to contempt, frustration, and idealism. 

 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:    IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER (1993) [dir. Jim Sheridan]

0h 42m 10s:    THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993) [dir. Martin Scorsese]

+++

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.

* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »