Nick Nolte, beatific in “The Good Thief”

Film
We watched with pleasure “The Good Thief” — British director Neil Jordan‘s remake of Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic gangster film “Bob le flambeur” (1956). Nick Nolte forms the gravitational center of this whirling movie as Bob, the art-heisting junkie-gambler who rambles the Riviera plagued by bad luck and heroin. A really good flick in all elements: ...

Jack Cole rocks Rita Hayworth’s world in “Tonight and Every Night” (1945) 1

Dance · Film
The ditty she sings is inane (remember, it was the War!) and the costume is not her greatest. But Rita Hayworth does her thing prettily enough. Life changes when a monster-dancer joins her on stage — Jack Cole. Choreographers: Pay attention @ 1:43.  That is how to make an entrance — sliding in on your ...

Marie Bryant put a bun in Betty Grable’s oven 5

Dance · Film
The silken jazz dancer, Marie Bryant (1919-1978), seen here jiving with the great Harold Nicholas, was, for a time, rehearsal assistant to Jack Cole. That’s interesting. Cole’s performance group was all white. It wouldn’t be otherwise. But he clearly relied on Bryant for special tasks. Asked what she did for Jack Cole, Bryant replied,  “I ...

Dueling bio-pics: right-wing ladies on parade

Film
While delighting in Meryl Streep’s microscopic replication of Margaret Thatcher’s facial tics and bug-eyed pronouncements in “The Iron Lady,” do not neglect a prior film, “The Reagans,” which stars the great Aussie actress, Judy Davis. “The Reagans,” a hugely fun, educational and entertaining docu-drama, dates from 2003. The massively ambitious undertaking, a made-for-television movie, traces ...

John Singer Sargent dresses Rita Hayworth for “Put the Blame on Mame” 2

Dance · Fashion · Film
“The designer Jean Louis, supposedly inspired by John Singer Sargent‘s famous portrait of the décolleté Madame X, created for Miss Hayworth a fetishistic black satin strapless gown, with elbow-length gloves, and the dance director Jack Cole devised the strip-tease routine in which she flung those gloves to her audience. The director, Vidor, expected the filming ...

Remembering last December’s TCM Cruise

Film
This story first appeared in The Huffington Post. When Turner Classic Movies announced its first-ever “classic film cruise,” which took place early last December to the joy of 1,800 participants, combining a full program of movie mania with the pleasures of cruising — fresh air, glistening ocean, tropical cocktails — Graham Phillips, and his wife ...

Between “Pina” and a hard place 4

Dance · Film · Reviews
Heavy-hitting filmmakers are turning their cameras on dance and it’s an honor. It’s also a puzzlement, to the dance world. It surprises us. We thought that the only folk attending dance performances were fellow dancers, parents, and dance critics. But clearly we were wrong. Other artists – filmmakers – love dance too. With “Pina,” German ...

Preparing for “Pina”? Watch Sprockets.

Dance · Film
German filmmaker Wim Wenders’s sumptuous new film about the choreographer, Pina Bausch, is a wonder for the eyes — tucked though they are behind thick 3-D glasses. The film, “Pina,” opening in L.A. on 13 October, is marketed as a documentary. But aren’t ya ‘spozed to learn stuff from a documentary? Part of the film’s ...

Twenty-twelve!

Film
The world is one-one-one-two today. That is 1/1/12! Happy birthday world. Like this? Read more: 0ne-one-one-one

Next up for Meryl Streep: Maggie T. takes cooking lessons 1

Film
We’re just back from the local multiplex. Yes, we double-dipped. We first watched a reenactment of an historical movie moment. An American actress, Michelle Williams, portrays a prior thespian, Marilyn Monroe, in her struggle to collaborate with Sir Laurence Olivier in the filming of “The Prince & the Showgirl.” Kenneth Branagh plays Sir Larry in ...