David Cairns
@dcairns.bsky.social
Film maker, film critic, film teacher, film lover, fool for film
Man laughs at window.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/m...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/m...
February 5, 2026 at 5:44 PM
Man laughs at window.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/m...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/m...
Hippodrome Silent Film Festival is back and silenter than ever! dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/02/04/a... #HippFest
A Stately Hippodrome
Hippodrome Silent Film Festival in Bo’ness just announced their exciting programme (18th – 22nd March). You can attend some of it virtually if you can’t be there physically. Aside…
dcairns.wordpress.com
February 4, 2026 at 12:14 PM
Hippodrome Silent Film Festival is back and silenter than ever! dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/02/04/a... #HippFest
So, John Barrymore's son has raised a zombie army to attack Rome? What else have I missed? dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/02/03/b...
February 3, 2026 at 9:18 PM
So, John Barrymore's son has raised a zombie army to attack Rome? What else have I missed? dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/02/03/b...
HELL'S KITCHEN may be the best juvenile detention ice hockey movie I've ever seen. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/31/1...
January 31, 2026 at 10:11 PM
HELL'S KITCHEN may be the best juvenile detention ice hockey movie I've ever seen. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/31/1...
Someone's lost his head on the witness stand...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/30/m/
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/30/m/
m
Shadowy reflection on duckpond — a bad omen. Films about child murder are rare, thankfully — though not as thankfully rare as actual child murder. Truffaut’s suggestion that for a…
dcairns.wordpress.com
January 30, 2026 at 7:45 PM
Someone's lost his head on the witness stand...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/30/m/
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/30/m/
Disappointed to find Rod Serling doing a plagiarism. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/29/w...
Who’s on Faust?
My latest haul of second-hand stuff included THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA on DVD, DEATH OF A POET on Blu-ray, and two paperback collections of short stories by Henry Kuttner. One of the first stories I re…
dcairns.wordpress.com
January 29, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Disappointed to find Rod Serling doing a plagiarism. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/29/w...
Five desperate men! dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/28/s...
January 28, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Five desperate men! dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/28/s...
EA Dupont's KINDER DER FINSTERNIS reaches a dead stop. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/27/s...
January 27, 2026 at 6:22 PM
EA Dupont's KINDER DER FINSTERNIS reaches a dead stop. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/27/s...
Kanye West has denied he's a Nazi, even though he said he was a Nazi. "I'm not a Nazi, but I *am* a liar," he's effectively saying. And are you lying now, Herr West?
January 26, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Kanye West has denied he's a Nazi, even though he said he was a Nazi. "I'm not a Nazi, but I *am* a liar," he's effectively saying. And are you lying now, Herr West?
The auteur theory, revisited.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/26/k...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/26/k...
January 26, 2026 at 1:55 PM
The auteur theory, revisited.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/26/k...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/26/k...
You can sing "Jabberwocky" to the tune of "Across the Universe." And as in uffish thought he stood / The Jabberwock with eyes of fire / Came whiffling through the tulgey wood / And burbled as it came. What you do with the "Jai guru deva omm" bit is your own affair.
January 26, 2026 at 1:52 PM
You can sing "Jabberwocky" to the tune of "Across the Universe." And as in uffish thought he stood / The Jabberwock with eyes of fire / Came whiffling through the tulgey wood / And burbled as it came. What you do with the "Jai guru deva omm" bit is your own affair.
The abode of Mr. Puffy. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/25/t...
The Sunday Intertitle: Puffy!
I guess this is the second leg of my see-everything-by-Dupont phase. In my first, I appreciated VARIETE, PICCADILLY, THE SCARF, LADIES MUST LOVE, and MOULIN ROUGE, good films, as well as THE NEANDE…
dcairns.wordpress.com
January 25, 2026 at 7:56 PM
The abode of Mr. Puffy. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/25/t...
Something I haven't heard for forty years but am still annoyed by is Ray Charles' cover of Eleanor Rigby. I like Ray Charles, obviously. But he interpolates things like "He turned to me and he said -" thereby making "All the lonely people" into something *Father McKenzie* is saying. Whereas [cont.]
January 23, 2026 at 9:38 PM
Something I haven't heard for forty years but am still annoyed by is Ray Charles' cover of Eleanor Rigby. I like Ray Charles, obviously. But he interpolates things like "He turned to me and he said -" thereby making "All the lonely people" into something *Father McKenzie* is saying. Whereas [cont.]
Didn't recognise the leading man of THE ANCIENT LAW. Should've, though...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/1...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/1...
January 22, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Didn't recognise the leading man of THE ANCIENT LAW. Should've, though...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/1...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/1...
Try this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEmW...
george harrison - baltimore oriole
YouTube video by 17k92k
www.youtube.com
January 20, 2026 at 12:35 AM
Try this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEmW...
Do a version of Sympathy for the Devil but with Hugh Herbert doing the "woo woo"s.
January 19, 2026 at 11:53 PM
Do a version of Sympathy for the Devil but with Hugh Herbert doing the "woo woo"s.
Reposted by David Cairns
HBD Richard Lester! Beatles films & much more
[Seek out Petulia, w/Scott, Christie - Our take: midcenturycinema.org/node/151
More:
@meheuck.bsky.social: thenewbev.com/blog/2016/07...
@dcairns.bsky.social: www.criterion.com/current/post...
@petersob13.bsky.social: www.rogerebert.com/features/kee...
[Seek out Petulia, w/Scott, Christie - Our take: midcenturycinema.org/node/151
More:
@meheuck.bsky.social: thenewbev.com/blog/2016/07...
@dcairns.bsky.social: www.criterion.com/current/post...
@petersob13.bsky.social: www.rogerebert.com/features/kee...
Keep Moving!: The Films of Richard Lester. | Features | Roger Ebert
An appreciation of Richard Lester as a retrospective of his work is about to unfold in New York City.
www.rogerebert.com
January 19, 2026 at 4:26 PM
HBD Richard Lester! Beatles films & much more
[Seek out Petulia, w/Scott, Christie - Our take: midcenturycinema.org/node/151
More:
@meheuck.bsky.social: thenewbev.com/blog/2016/07...
@dcairns.bsky.social: www.criterion.com/current/post...
@petersob13.bsky.social: www.rogerebert.com/features/kee...
[Seek out Petulia, w/Scott, Christie - Our take: midcenturycinema.org/node/151
More:
@meheuck.bsky.social: thenewbev.com/blog/2016/07...
@dcairns.bsky.social: www.criterion.com/current/post...
@petersob13.bsky.social: www.rogerebert.com/features/kee...
Does Herzog's rejection of ideology just result in him becoming reactionary? I think maybe so. RESCUE DAWN.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/17/b...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/17/b...
Bale Out
I finally caught up with Werner Herzog’s RESCUE DAWN, which I’d always been mildly curious about — the only instance of Herzog turning one of his documentaries into a dramatic fea…
dcairns.wordpress.com
January 17, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Does Herzog's rejection of ideology just result in him becoming reactionary? I think maybe so. RESCUE DAWN.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/17/b...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/17/b...
Reposted by David Cairns
Impeccable taste in special features, too. Featuring former Lubitsch podcast guests @dcairns.bsky.social and Scott Eyman.
January 16, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Impeccable taste in special features, too. Featuring former Lubitsch podcast guests @dcairns.bsky.social and Scott Eyman.
Reposted by David Cairns
In which David reminds me of a story that #MikeHodges, of #FlashGordon fame, told me which I'd subsequently forgotten. Mike was full of amazing stories about other directors. The thing that makes me smile when I remember MH was how thoroughly bemused he was by the cult following FG had. Lovely man.
I want to talk about the feline glamour of Orano and Muti in Damiani's THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WIFE and the film's power and cleverness, but unfortunately I also have to talk about directorial abuse.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/15/r...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/15/r...
Right and Wrong
Poor Fernando di Leo — I paired MILANO CALIBRO 9 with Damiano Damiani’s THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WIFE (LA MOGLIE PIU BELLA, 1970) which just blew it out the water. And the pity of it is, comp…
dcairns.wordpress.com
January 15, 2026 at 11:26 PM
In which David reminds me of a story that #MikeHodges, of #FlashGordon fame, told me which I'd subsequently forgotten. Mike was full of amazing stories about other directors. The thing that makes me smile when I remember MH was how thoroughly bemused he was by the cult following FG had. Lovely man.
EA Dupont is symbolically banished to the Sahara.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/i...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/i...
In the belly of that steel beast
The subject of directors hitting kids, touched on in yesterday’s Damiani post, comes up again when we look at Ewald André Dupont, fired by Warners from the set of HELL’S KITCHEN (1939) …
dcairns.wordpress.com
January 16, 2026 at 9:29 PM
EA Dupont is symbolically banished to the Sahara.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/i...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/i...
I want to talk about the feline glamour of Orano and Muti in Damiani's THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WIFE and the film's power and cleverness, but unfortunately I also have to talk about directorial abuse.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/15/r...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/15/r...
Right and Wrong
Poor Fernando di Leo — I paired MILANO CALIBRO 9 with Damiano Damiani’s THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WIFE (LA MOGLIE PIU BELLA, 1970) which just blew it out the water. And the pity of it is, comp…
dcairns.wordpress.com
January 15, 2026 at 3:01 PM
I want to talk about the feline glamour of Orano and Muti in Damiani's THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WIFE and the film's power and cleverness, but unfortunately I also have to talk about directorial abuse.
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/15/r...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/15/r...
Give it the grin, Mario!
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/14/m...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/14/m...
Mobsters, Inc
MILANO CALIBRO 9 duly got watched at the weekend. It’s by some distance the highest rated film directed by Fernando di Leo, so by ticking it off my list I can say farewell to this maestro of …
dcairns.wordpress.com
January 14, 2026 at 10:07 PM
Give it the grin, Mario!
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/14/m...
dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/01/14/m...