Christopher Saunders

LATEST ARTICLES ( 659 )

• The Terminator

  

  James Cameron scored his breakthrough hit with The Terminator (1984). Besides putting Cameron and star Arnold Schwarzenegger on the map, it remains one of the... Read more

  Posted on 30 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• New Article: On Herbert Selpin and Joachim Gottschalk

  

  New Sound on Sight piece, a coda to our previous Nazi viewings. Here you'll read the stories of Joachim Gottschalk and Herbert Selpin, two German film artists... Read more

  Posted on 28 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Paper Towns

  

  Besides Taylor Swift, young adult novel adaptations are the closest thing I have to a guilty pleasure. This summer features another John Green weepy, not... Read more

  Posted on 27 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Firm

  

  (1993) was the first of the Nineties' innumerable John Grisham adaptations. Thanks to an excellent cast and Sydney Pollack's slick direction, it's one of the... Read more

  Posted on 26 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Jew Suss: Rise and Fall

  

  Critics generally trashed Jew Suss: Rise and Fall (2010), Oskar Roehler's fictionalized telling of Nazi Germany's notorious propaganda epic, Jud Suss. Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Virgin Suicides

  

  Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides (1999) ranks high on the list of that year's 5,000 suburban angst dramas. Coppola's stylish, evocative direction makes a... Read more

  Posted on 21 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Groggy Writes: Leni Riefenstahl and Tiefland

  

  Perhaps you're wondering why I've been watching so many Nazi-era flicks recently. Mainly because I've been preparing an article on Leni Riefenstahl's Tiefland... Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Jud Suss (1940)

  

  "We can give money so we can take and take and take!"Before Jud Suss (1940), Veit Harlan was a modestly successful melodrama director. Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Great King

  

  "I stand alone."Nazi cinema naturally plumbed German history for Adolf Hitler's forbearers. Hence Herbert Selpin's Carl Peters (1941), idolizing German East... Read more

  Posted on 14 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Inside Out (2015)

  

  Usually I don't feel qualified discussing animation, but it's hard to avoid praising Inside Out (2015). Pixar's new feature is their best since Finding Nemo, a... Read more

  Posted on 12 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Kolberg

  

  "Death is overcome by victory... It is the greatest thing of all."Joseph Goebbels often confused cinema and reality, as Kolberg (1945) demonstrates. Read more

  Posted on 11 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Jurassic Park III

  

  I saw Jurassic Park III (2001) in theaters and once or twice on video, but barely remembered it. A rewatch showed why. The least ambitious Jurassic Park entry i... Read more

  Posted on 06 July 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Blue Light

  

  Leni Riefenstahl moved from B-list actress to director with The Blue Light (1932), a fairytale of temptation and tragedy. Like all of Riefenstahl films it's... Read more

  Posted on 30 June 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• A Time to Kill

  

  John Grisham's legal novels inspired countless '90s films, most entertaining, disposable thrillers (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, etc.). Joel Schumacher's A... Read more

  Posted on 28 June 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Tiefland

  

  Some films are more interesting to read about than to watch. Leni Riefenstahl's Tiefland is a prime example: shot intermittently between 1934 and 1945,... Read more

  Posted on 27 June 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Jurassic World

  

  After a decade of false starts, the latest Jurassic Park entry came roaring into theaters this year. Jurassic World (2015) replaces the original's mix of awe an... Read more

  Posted on 23 June 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Dirty Harry Article

  

  I apologize for my recent absence. Sound on Sight is doing an Action Movie Month, and I've been working on several articles on the Dirty Harry franchise. Read more

  Posted on 28 May 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Cleopatra (1963)

  

  The granddaddy of box office bombs, Cleopatra (1963) plays even worse now than it did fifty years ago. This overblown sword-and-sandal flick is gaudy, talky... Read more

  Posted on 17 May 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Spy in Black

  

  Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger first collaborated on this wartime melodrama. The Spy in Black (1939) shows the future Archers' penchant for humanizing... Read more

  Posted on 14 May 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• The Other Side of the Wind

  My Citizen Kane piece for Sound on Sight's doing well; I've received several friendly comments, re-posts by the fine folks at Wellesnet and The Projection Booth... Read more

  Posted on 12 May 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES