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MATINEE IDYLLS

Name: MATINEE IDYLLS
Author: Richard Schickel
ISBN: 1-56663-260-9

REFLECTIONS ON THE MOVIES

by Richard Schickel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

Though some arguments reveal their armature and a few essays read long, Schickel lays his words out cleanly and is ready for...

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Garbo to Fargo spans the range of this prickly grab bag by the Time reviewer.

In the introduction to this collection of essays (his favorite form), Schickel (Clint Eastwood: A Biography, 1996; Brando: A Life in Our Times, 1991; etc.) cites his purpose and method. As collective movie memory erodes through deaths and the transience of popular culture, Schickel aims to preserve parts of the move past by examining film with “the same kind of rigor and passion…that any good historian will bring to explorations of other aspects of the past.” Rather than constraining him, this goal opens him to easy, informed pieces that re-create the film world. Among the most free and revealing are the profiles of Charles Laughton and Andrew Sarris, the former for explicating Laughton’s joyful artistic flamboyance, the latter for recalling the battles incited by the American Cinema and the unaffectedness of its creator. All of the profiles share an urgency and sureness befitting a man who, like profile subject Clint Eastwood, is “on the back nine” of life. They exhort readers to remember Irene Dunne or Satyajit Ray or King Vidor – and Schickel will tell you why. Less convincing (but ripe for debate) are the thought pieces. The observations (such as the reasons behind the AFI best-of-the-century list tilt toward midcentury films) are pithy, but some arguments are weak (like the speculation on how the absence of censorship might have made the Golden Age of movies even more golden – yes, and what if Napoleon had an Uzi…). But he prefers Notorious to Vertigo and so is redeemed.

Though some arguments reveal their armature and a few essays read long, Schickel lays his words out cleanly and is ready for the parry. Read it when you want a conversation with an ideal common viewer.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 1-56663-260-9

Page Count: 305

Publisher: Ivan Dee/Rowman & Littlefield

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
KEEPERS
by Richard Schickel

- BOOK REVIEW
CONVERSATIONS WITH MARTIN SCORSESE
by Richard Schickel

- BOOK REVIEW
FILM ON PAPER
by Richard Schickel

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.