ptklein
@ptklein.com
Film historian and cultural critic. Movie theaters, cinema spaces, and filmgoing cultures. Radically optimistic. Writing at www.howtoreadmovies.com, Metro Weekly, Film Atlas, and elsewhere. Cohost @ColdWarCinema.com. He/Him/His.
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ptklein
@ptklein.com
· 25d
“Some day this country’s gonna be a fine, good place to be…Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come.”
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
I’m back on @coldwarcinema.com talking about a skeleton key for understanding America, and of the greatest films ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.
Give us a listen:
1. Now, Voyager
2. Johnny Guitar
3. The Awful Truth
4. Sabotage
2. Johnny Guitar
3. The Awful Truth
4. Sabotage
"Every man has a go-to McConaughey film, a go-to Pitt film, a go-to DiCaprio film, and a go-to Gosling film."
Every man has no such thing.
Every man has a go-to Bette film, a go-to Joan film, a go-to Irene film, and a go-to Sylvia film.
Every man has no such thing.
Every man has a go-to Bette film, a go-to Joan film, a go-to Irene film, and a go-to Sylvia film.
February 9, 2026 at 6:52 PM
1. Now, Voyager
2. Johnny Guitar
3. The Awful Truth
4. Sabotage
2. Johnny Guitar
3. The Awful Truth
4. Sabotage
Good morning, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
The Beatles made their American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show 62 years ago today. 50,000 people requested tickets to see the taping at CBS’s Studio 50 and more than 73 million viewers tuned in. A watershed moment in broadcasting history and Beatlemania!
The Beatles made their American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show 62 years ago today. 50,000 people requested tickets to see the taping at CBS’s Studio 50 and more than 73 million viewers tuned in. A watershed moment in broadcasting history and Beatlemania!
February 9, 2026 at 12:58 PM
Good morning, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
The Beatles made their American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show 62 years ago today. 50,000 people requested tickets to see the taping at CBS’s Studio 50 and more than 73 million viewers tuned in. A watershed moment in broadcasting history and Beatlemania!
The Beatles made their American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show 62 years ago today. 50,000 people requested tickets to see the taping at CBS’s Studio 50 and more than 73 million viewers tuned in. A watershed moment in broadcasting history and Beatlemania!
Finding out which oomfs remain pro cheating and which believe in good faith conduct in real time
February 9, 2026 at 3:20 AM
Finding out which oomfs remain pro cheating and which believe in good faith conduct in real time
Today is John Williams’ 94th birthday. I have been thinking about what it means that one man wrote the score for so much of our collective childhood, and it occurred to me that he was seven years old when Wizard of Oz was released.
February 9, 2026 at 12:44 AM
Today is John Williams’ 94th birthday. I have been thinking about what it means that one man wrote the score for so much of our collective childhood, and it occurred to me that he was seven years old when Wizard of Oz was released.
The nap I am about to nap
February 7, 2026 at 5:41 PM
The nap I am about to nap
Chaplin’s Tramp, that Little Fellow, debuted 112 years ago today in the split-reel Kid Auto Races at Venice. However light on narrative, it’s fascinatingly reflexive proof that someone has always turned into a goof in the presence of a camera, and that we love making movies about making movies.
February 7, 2026 at 2:10 PM
Chaplin’s Tramp, that Little Fellow, debuted 112 years ago today in the split-reel Kid Auto Races at Venice. However light on narrative, it’s fascinatingly reflexive proof that someone has always turned into a goof in the presence of a camera, and that we love making movies about making movies.
Who wants to come over and listen to the empire records soundtrack all day
February 6, 2026 at 1:06 PM
Who wants to come over and listen to the empire records soundtrack all day
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
February 6, 2026 at 10:42 AM
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Really love this:
“I can carbon date eras of my solitary childhood cinephilia by the release dates of Jason X…this isn’t an aesthetic throughline I’ve carried with me into adulthood…But sometimes a movie comes along that speaks directly to this dormant part of my sensibilities...”
“I can carbon date eras of my solitary childhood cinephilia by the release dates of Jason X…this isn’t an aesthetic throughline I’ve carried with me into adulthood…But sometimes a movie comes along that speaks directly to this dormant part of my sensibilities...”
In this next favorite, I went long meditating on my childhood relationship with horror movies, how recent films by Oz Perkins and M. Night tackle mortality and anxiety, the weird ways cinephilia takes root, etc.
“It’s not if or even how…it’s only when.”
or: “oh, so you have anxiety” // or: on the high and low sources of cinephilia // or: on Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey & M. Night Shyamalan’s…
medium.com
February 5, 2026 at 3:44 PM
Really love this:
“I can carbon date eras of my solitary childhood cinephilia by the release dates of Jason X…this isn’t an aesthetic throughline I’ve carried with me into adulthood…But sometimes a movie comes along that speaks directly to this dormant part of my sensibilities...”
“I can carbon date eras of my solitary childhood cinephilia by the release dates of Jason X…this isn’t an aesthetic throughline I’ve carried with me into adulthood…But sometimes a movie comes along that speaks directly to this dormant part of my sensibilities...”
When the bench and barbell don’t line up with the ceiling <<<
February 5, 2026 at 2:35 PM
When the bench and barbell don’t line up with the ceiling <<<
What if new muppets show but it’s Beyoncé and Kermit singing Southern Nights
February 5, 2026 at 1:30 PM
What if new muppets show but it’s Beyoncé and Kermit singing Southern Nights
Feels like 12 degrees but the sky is blue and the sun is shining it’s a beautiful day!!!
February 4, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Feels like 12 degrees but the sky is blue and the sun is shining it’s a beautiful day!!!
In the future someone is gonna watch the credits to a film like Empire Records and wanna write that he was a truly dominant force in our society decades before his ascendency to the highest order of power, and I want them to know that he was loser and a laughingstock then, too, and we all knew it.
February 4, 2026 at 1:47 AM
In the future someone is gonna watch the credits to a film like Empire Records and wanna write that he was a truly dominant force in our society decades before his ascendency to the highest order of power, and I want them to know that he was loser and a laughingstock then, too, and we all knew it.
West End Girl but staged as a musical
February 3, 2026 at 1:49 PM
West End Girl but staged as a musical
I brought home some hyacinths this weekend and whenever I catch a breath of their sweet perfume I am filled with the hope of spring.
February 3, 2026 at 12:41 PM
I brought home some hyacinths this weekend and whenever I catch a breath of their sweet perfume I am filled with the hope of spring.
Reposted by ptklein
It's one thing to read that John Williams got inspiration from Korngold, it's another thing entirely to listen to the latter's score for "Kings Row" and realize that audiences were essentially getting Star Wars music back in 1942
Erich Wolfgang Korngold : Kings Row, Symphonic Suite from the film music (1942) - part one
YouTube video by Rodders
www.youtube.com
February 3, 2026 at 7:35 AM
It's one thing to read that John Williams got inspiration from Korngold, it's another thing entirely to listen to the latter's score for "Kings Row" and realize that audiences were essentially getting Star Wars music back in 1942
A hot dog would fix me rn
February 2, 2026 at 11:18 PM
A hot dog would fix me rn
Good morning
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
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Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
February 2, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Good morning
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
Good morning
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
February 2, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Good morning
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
Good morning
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
February 2, 2026 at 1:54 PM
Good morning
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
—
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)