One of Ken Russell’s best if nearly forgotten films, Savage Messiah opens with an artist sketching his hand. The skeletal image intimates mortality. Mid-film, this image is blown away by a shot of the man’s actual hand inside a woman’s affectionate hand: life, providing its own vibrant art. At the end we learn that the […]
Daily Archives: July 23, 2007
Dorothy Arzner was the only female Hollywood filmmaker of the early sound era. (She started out as a cutter and scenarist in the silent era.) The wonderful Dance, Girl, Dance is her finest achievement. In order to survive, Judy O’Brien must compromise her aspirations as a ballerina by becoming the opening act for stripteaser Tiger […]
Dennis Grunes 