Vintage

In 1918, there was a sensational court case in Hollywood in which a man, Guadaloup Martinez, was on trial for flinging his wife Rosa out of a window to her death. Actress Theda Bara was subpoenaed by the defense to give expert testimony that Mrs.

In 1995 Sandra Bullock was interviewed by the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press about While You Were Sleeping, a romantic comedy directed by Jon Turtletaub, in which she plays a Chicago Transit token collector who saved a man’s life. That performance earned her the first of five Golden Globe nominations as Best Actress.

Marion Robert Morrison might not be a name that resonates with audiences as a star in the galaxy of Hollywood, but, when according to legend, director Raoul Walsh advised the Winterset, Iowa native to change his moniker to benefit his career, the icon that is John Wayne was born. With a career that started in the 1920s and encompassed more than 175 film and television roles through the 1970s, Wayne epitomized the image of the rugged American male, especially in western and war films such as Stagecoach, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Searchers, The Quiet Man and the role that would land him a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Actor, True Grit.

Tokyo Story, Good Morning, Early Spring, Floating Weeds, Late Autumn, Equinox Flower, The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice are just a few of the most movingly memorable films directed by Yasujirō Ozu.   Besides a legacy of many unsurpassed masterpieces, the prolific filmmaker also left 32 pocket agendas in which he diligently recorded facts and events of his daily life, from 1933 until a few months before his death in December 1963, at age sixty.

Jean-Jacques Annaud occupies a unique position. A rare French director with international stature and reputation.

Published in 1987, ten years after his death at age seventy-one, “Fragments d’une Autobiographie” is Roberto Rossellini’s fascinating self-portrait and literary testament. A slim volume written in French, (“the first language I learned growing up before being taught Italian, or rather the Roman dialect.

Lumière cinematography was introduced to the fast-growing Latin American cities like, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro in 1896 and other Latin American cities soon after. By the 1910s all countries were making films locally, but Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil eventually develop to become large film industries in Latin America.

“I saw its birth, its golden era, and its declining years and I am convinced that Hollywood’s decline from glory is in no way the result of senility. On the contrary, it is a relapse (temporary, I hope), into the immaturity of adolescence.

Paris. Summer of 1928.

The Garden Court Apartments, at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard, are long gone, replaced by an ugly mini-mall with a drugstore, a fitness club, and a Fresh and Easy supermarket. Mack Sennett used to live there, just opposite the still standing Roosevelt Hotel when it was a fancy address.