Film4 Comments

Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Thirty-One

Dan Seeger

#31 — The Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey, 1968) There are few greatest pleasures in film than watching great actors–and I mean truly great actors–feast on wonderful words. In a way, that’s a counterintuitive statement, or at least one that bucks harshly against a more accepted conventional wisdom, one which venerates film as a visual medium, first and foremost. Happy as I am to celebrate the pristine, deeply considered imagery of the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Terrence Malick, even those directors reached their greatest heights in films that were equally beholden to language (the latter’s Days of Heaven, for … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Thirty-One

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

The Memorial Day holiday made for a truncated week at Spectrum Culture, but a convergence of minor issues meant that I had the rare instance of two different new movie reviews go up. First, I wrote on Hannah Arendt, about a writer and intellectual who covered the Adolf Eichmann trial for The New Yorker. Keeping with the heavy subject matter, I reviewed Shadow Dancer, centered on the The Troubles in Ireland, its own sort of period piece, taking place in the mid-nineties. Probably the most notable aspect of this film is the director, James Marsh. He won the Best Documentary … Continue reading Spectrum Check

MusicLeave a comment

One for Friday: Robyn Hitchcock, “Sinister But She Was Happy”

Dan Seeger

I remember finding it bizarre when the first Robyn Hitchcock album on Warner Bros. Records arrived in 1996. He had been on a major label before, having released four albums on A&M through the late eighties and early nineties. Still, there was something about seeing that iconic WB logo–about as major as a label could get at the time–affixed to a record by college radio’s resident warped genius. It was hard to conceive of their promotions department having any idea whatsoever as to how to market this thing, and Hitchcock’s relatively brief stay with the label seemed to confirm that. … Continue reading One for Friday: Robyn Hitchcock, “Sinister But She Was Happy”