Christopher Saunders

LATEST ARTICLES ( 659 )

• RIP Mickey Rooney

  

  Screen legend Mickey Rooney passed away Sunday at age 93. Rooney had an amazing screen career; he started as a child star during the silent era, gained fame wit... Read more

  Posted on 09 April 2014

• Morocco

  

  (1930) marked Marlene Dietrich's Hollywood debut. Her second collaboration with Josef Von Sternberg actually premiered in America before The Blue Angel;... Read more

  Posted on 04 April 2014

• A Foreign Field

  

  Today marks Alec Guinness's 100th birthday. One of his last roles came in A Foreign Field (1993), a top-shelf BBC ensemble drama. Read more

  Posted on 03 April 2014

• The Testament of Dr Mabuse

  

  ''When chaos has become supreme law, then the time will have come for the empire of crime.''Fritz Lang bade farewell to Germany with The Testament of Dr.... Read more

  Posted on 02 April 2014

• Hunted

  

  One of Dirk Bogarde's earliest roles, Hunted (1952) is a compelling thriller. Both crime story and character study, it's expressively shot, well-plotted and... Read more

  Posted on 29 March 2014

• Darling

  

  (1965) netted Julie Christie an Oscar the same year Doctor Zhivago made her a superstar. Too bad John Schlesinger's film isn't the sum of its parts. Read more

  Posted on 29 March 2014

• Blogathon With The Great Katharine Hepburn

  

  Our friend Margaret Perry invited me to participate in her upcoming Katharine Hepburn blogathon. I'm currently tapped to review Hepburn's version of The Glass... Read more

  Posted on 25 March 2014

• The Blue Angel

  

  Another touchstone in Weimar Cinema, The Blue Angel (1930) is Josef Von Sternberg's best-known film. It made an icon of Marlene Dietrich, who soon decamped to... Read more

  Posted on 23 March 2014

• M (1931)

  

  Fritz Lang's penultimate German film, M (1931) is rightly regarded as a classic. Lang's multilayered masterpiece works as crime drama, social statement and... Read more

  Posted on 23 March 2014

• Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

  

  Elio Petri's Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) has a formidable reputation, enhanced for Anglosphere viewers by unavailability. Recently given... Read more

  Posted on 22 March 2014

• Groggy on Moviepilot: More Nazi Movies

  

  Groggy's most recent Moviepilot article explores a familiar topic: the counterfeit profundity of fascist fetishism. This article was prompted by Godfrey... Read more

  Posted on 20 March 2014

• Leni Riefenstahl: Fabricating Fascism

  

  "I am an artist through and through. That is Leni!"Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003) was born to a businessman father and doting mother. Read more

  Posted on 18 March 2014

• The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks

  

  "A Yankee being punished and rewarded for his curiosity."As both filmmaker and theorist, Lev Kuleshov ranks among cinema's great pioneers. One of his... Read more

  Posted on 16 March 2014

• Schindler's List

  

  Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993) is a powerful yet problematic movie. Handsomely directed and impeccably acted, this adaptation of Thomas Keneally's... Read more

  Posted on 14 March 2014

• Groggy Watches TV: The Thick of It

  

  "You're not Josh, Ollie. Just write the fucking speech."Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing was a formative experience. That show's snappy dialogue, attractive cast an... Read more

  Posted on 09 March 2014

• The Pianist

  

  (2002) ranks among Roman Polanski's greatest achievements. Based on Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoir of Nazi-occupied Poland, it also draws heavily on Polanski's... Read more

  Posted on 08 March 2014

• Imagineering a Narrative

  

  Staying strictly macroApologies for the erratic schedule lately. I've spent the last month working sporadically on a fiction project, absorbing most of my free... Read more

  Posted on 07 March 2014

• Oscar Results 2014

  Oscars were last night. The winners, for the record:Best motion picture of the year“American Hustle” Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison and Jonathan... Read more

  Posted on 04 March 2014

• Massacre in Rome

  

  Before helming action flicks like Rambo III and Tombstone, George P. Cosmatos debuted with this sober historical drama. Massacre in Rome (1973) depicts an... Read more

  Posted on 03 March 2014