So we'll see how submissions go today, but my plan (which will stay fluid) is this: Each day, I'll post links to pieces submitted by other writers on some of the films I plan on covering that day. Occasionally I'll highlight a submission by a notable film writer with its own post. Lastly, at the end of each day, I'll to try to post links to other pieces that have cropped up recently around the net in honor of Nicholas Ray's Centennial.
Here's what I've got today:
They Live By Night:
They Live By Night by MovieNut14 at Defiant Success
They Live by Night by Jake Cole at Not Just Movies
They Live By Night: The Nicholas Ray Blogathon by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry at Shadows and Satin
Knock on Any Door:
Knock on Any Door (Nicholas Ray, 1949) by Jake Cole at Not Just Movies
A Woman's Secret:
A Woman's Secret (Nicholas Ray, 1949) by Jake Cole at Not Just Movies
Born to Be Bad:
Born to Be Bad (Nicholas Ray, (1950) by Jake Cole at Not Just Movies
In a Lonely Place:
Hooray for (Hating) Hollywood: In a Lonely Place by Joel Bocko at The Dancing Image
In a Lonely Place by MovieNut14 at Defiant Success
In a Lonely Place: An Ode to Romantic, Cynical Noir Love by the Film Noir Blonde
In a Lonely Place by thevoid99 at Surrender to the Void
In a Lonely Place by Jake Cole at Not Just Movies
Classic Noir: In a Lonely Place (1950) by Ray Banks at Norma Desmond's Monkey
In a Lonely Place by Rich Watson at Wide Screen World
UPDATED 9/6: Born When She Kissed Me: Nicholas Ray Blogathon, 2011 by Ariel Schudson at Sinamatic Salve-ation
UPDATED 9/7: "I was born when she kissed me... I died when she left me... I lived a few weeks while she loved me..." by Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. at Edward Copeland on Film... and more
General:
Centennial Tributes: Nicholas Ray, Part 1 and Part 2 by Kevin J. Olson at Edward Copeland on Film... and more
Hey Tony, thought you might like to know I just now put up a link to the blogathon on Dancing Image & included a couple thoughts on Ray. I'll reprint them here:
ReplyDelete"Ray is an interesting director. Martin Scorsese came up with several different terms for filmmakers in Hollywood: the illusionists, the smugglers, and the iconoclasts. In this system, Scorsese classifies Ray as an iconoclast - someone openly challenging the status quo in terms of subject matter and style. But to me he's a bit more ambiguous, dwelling in a kind of no man's land between the smuggler (who subverts Hollywood from within) and the iconoclast.
His famous films from the 1950s clearly exist within the framework of Hollywood conventions - a filmgoer at the time could attend a Ray movie without being startled and taken to an entirely personal universe, the way a Welles or Kubrick film was bound to do. Yet no doubt, there must have been a lingering sense of unease, moreso than with the strong but concealed personalities of a Ford or Hitchcock ("concealed" in terms of genre and entertainment devices providing cover for personal expression).
Ray's films are works of slow emotional exposure, potent enough to reach and affect the viewer but restrained enough to to break the fabric of the film, maybe to saturate it. That's a rather abstract definition of concrete effects, but hopefully I can rectify that with my upcoming piece."
Suffice to say that reading the opening salvos of They Live By Night (and thus revisiting the film) has made me wonder if I understated the startling effect of his cinema, so it's going to be an interesting blogathon.
I'll let you know via email when I've got a piece ready. Hopefully by tonight or tomorrow. (and thanks for the link above)
Thanks, Joel. I'm already behind on my reading, but I'll get to everyone's, I promise.
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