@benjbrantley.bsky.social
Watching "Casablanca" again and fascinated, as always, to watch how it confirms Humphrey Bogart as a brave new romantic lead. Everything feeds this perception: its not just how Ingrid Bergman looks at him (as he has said): it's how everyone, including Claude Rains, looks at him.
November 10, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Watching "Casablanca" again and fascinated, as always, to watch how it confirms Humphrey Bogart as a brave new romantic lead. Everything feeds this perception: its not just how Ingrid Bergman looks at him (as he has said): it's how everyone, including Claude Rains, looks at him.
"Isn't this wine a little bitter?" asks Joan Caulfield, a blur of blondeness. "Dry is the word," answers Claude Raines, who has poisoned her. Why did nobody tell me about "The Unsuspected"? It exaggerates the formula of "Laura," and out-camps camp. Why, here's Audrey Totter and Hurd Hatfield!
November 10, 2025 at 9:04 PM
"Isn't this wine a little bitter?" asks Joan Caulfield, a blur of blondeness. "Dry is the word," answers Claude Raines, who has poisoned her. Why did nobody tell me about "The Unsuspected"? It exaggerates the formula of "Laura," and out-camps camp. Why, here's Audrey Totter and Hurd Hatfield!
And now, Manhattan, wrapped in mist at midnight. The view from the 64th floor.
November 10, 2025 at 6:45 AM
And now, Manhattan, wrapped in mist at midnight. The view from the 64th floor.
This is where the curfew tolls the knell of parting day, and all that...
November 6, 2025 at 8:38 PM
This is where the curfew tolls the knell of parting day, and all that...
Now here's a quartet of faces to smile for. The team for the new Miss Piggy movie.
November 6, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Now here's a quartet of faces to smile for. The team for the new Miss Piggy movie.
I woke up to headlines that somehow made me flash on Cyd Charisse singing (or lip syncing) "I see a new sun, up in a new sky" in "The Bandwagon." Savor the moment.
November 5, 2025 at 2:19 PM
I woke up to headlines that somehow made me flash on Cyd Charisse singing (or lip syncing) "I see a new sun, up in a new sky" in "The Bandwagon." Savor the moment.
Trending: retrospective rue. "I regret everything I've ever done or said," says Jennifer Lawrence in a NYT interview. The restaurateur Keith McNally has entitled his (excellent) memoir "I Regret Almost Everything." Why all the remorse? Would Edith Piaf feel the the same today?
November 3, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Trending: retrospective rue. "I regret everything I've ever done or said," says Jennifer Lawrence in a NYT interview. The restaurateur Keith McNally has entitled his (excellent) memoir "I Regret Almost Everything." Why all the remorse? Would Edith Piaf feel the the same today?
And now: November.
November 1, 2025 at 10:22 PM
And now: November.
But where are the ghouls? There ought to be ghouls.
Don't bother, they're here.
Don't bother, they're here.
October 31, 2025 at 4:35 PM
But where are the ghouls? There ought to be ghouls.
Don't bother, they're here.
Don't bother, they're here.
Oh, it's evidently National Cat Day. So I suppose it's a good moment to say how much I have come to cherish and admire cats. They are so very companionable and, like us, perverse and capricious. And the luxury of just looking at a cat...A cat's acceptance of one is always flattering.
October 29, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Oh, it's evidently National Cat Day. So I suppose it's a good moment to say how much I have come to cherish and admire cats. They are so very companionable and, like us, perverse and capricious. And the luxury of just looking at a cat...A cat's acceptance of one is always flattering.
As perfect a fall day as a body could ask for.
October 26, 2025 at 5:50 PM
As perfect a fall day as a body could ask for.
"Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang." I'm in a Sonnet 73 state of mind today.
October 23, 2025 at 7:10 PM
"Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang." I'm in a Sonnet 73 state of mind today.
Happy birthday to Catherine Deneuve, whose presence in film often suggests that the imp of the perverse is never more unsettling than when it hijacks classic beauty. See: "Belle de Jour," "Tristana" (Bunuel), "Mississippi Mermaid" (Truffaut), and - shudder -"Repulsion" (Polanski).
October 22, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Happy birthday to Catherine Deneuve, whose presence in film often suggests that the imp of the perverse is never more unsettling than when it hijacks classic beauty. See: "Belle de Jour," "Tristana" (Bunuel), "Mississippi Mermaid" (Truffaut), and - shudder -"Repulsion" (Polanski).
It's the birthday of the atomic Rita Hayworth, whose glamour blazed through the 1940s. When she was in "Gilda," my father, a night editor at an N.C. paper, arranged with the cinema across the street for his staff to drop in each evening to watch Hayworth sing "Put the Blame on Mame."
October 17, 2025 at 6:02 PM
It's the birthday of the atomic Rita Hayworth, whose glamour blazed through the 1940s. When she was in "Gilda," my father, a night editor at an N.C. paper, arranged with the cinema across the street for his staff to drop in each evening to watch Hayworth sing "Put the Blame on Mame."
And it is the birthday of Oscar Wilde, who wrote the most perfect comedy in the English language (with "Earnest") and asked us to celebrate our contradictions. He anticipated so much: the ascendance of the autonomous public image, the cult of celebrity, the religion of style.
October 16, 2025 at 6:38 PM
And it is the birthday of Oscar Wilde, who wrote the most perfect comedy in the English language (with "Earnest") and asked us to celebrate our contradictions. He anticipated so much: the ascendance of the autonomous public image, the cult of celebrity, the religion of style.
It's the birthday of Angela Lansbury, whom I first saw hurrying down the aisle of the Winter Garden, looking like alacrity incarnate. She said, "Sing out, Louise!" And suddenly there were tears of delight in my eyes. It was my first "Gypsy," and my first encounter with its peerless star.
October 16, 2025 at 6:14 PM
It's the birthday of Angela Lansbury, whom I first saw hurrying down the aisle of the Winter Garden, looking like alacrity incarnate. She said, "Sing out, Louise!" And suddenly there were tears of delight in my eyes. It was my first "Gypsy," and my first encounter with its peerless star.
Burning bush now approaching full flame. We are surrounding it with microphones, just in case this is the year it finally speaks up.
October 16, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Burning bush now approaching full flame. We are surrounding it with microphones, just in case this is the year it finally speaks up.
A silver kind of day: The view from a Metro North train window along the Hudson. Ah, the blessed quiet that awaits me after the jangle of Manhattan.
October 15, 2025 at 8:02 PM
A silver kind of day: The view from a Metro North train window along the Hudson. Ah, the blessed quiet that awaits me after the jangle of Manhattan.
Farewell to Diane Keaton, who brought a new. awakening rhythm to every performance she gave, with cadences, inflections and reactions that hadn't been seen in American film. Her charm and her style were original; her emotions ran deep. This will feel personal to many people.
October 11, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Farewell to Diane Keaton, who brought a new. awakening rhythm to every performance she gave, with cadences, inflections and reactions that hadn't been seen in American film. Her charm and her style were original; her emotions ran deep. This will feel personal to many people.
Feeling happy shivers as I romp through recent seasons of "Inside No. 9," the Pemberton and Shearsmith anthology show. Love its creators' giddy avidity in sampling the darks arts of storytelling, from true crime docs to commedia dell'arte, in pursuit of the "gotcha!" punchline.
October 10, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Feeling happy shivers as I romp through recent seasons of "Inside No. 9," the Pemberton and Shearsmith anthology show. Love its creators' giddy avidity in sampling the darks arts of storytelling, from true crime docs to commedia dell'arte, in pursuit of the "gotcha!" punchline.
Stumbled tonight into the 1967 "Camelot," and whoa! -- it's a Harper's Bazaar fashion shoot, with an elfin Arthur and a mod Guenevere striking rueful, sensual poses against snowfalls and castle walls. What I retained from childhood: Redgrave's raw, tear-blotched face at the end.
October 8, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Stumbled tonight into the 1967 "Camelot," and whoa! -- it's a Harper's Bazaar fashion shoot, with an elfin Arthur and a mod Guenevere striking rueful, sensual poses against snowfalls and castle walls. What I retained from childhood: Redgrave's raw, tear-blotched face at the end.
They've both been given impossible roles. The instinctive Bergman can't help acting anyway; Peck's part lets him stay blank. And yes, there's the bilge of Hecht's psychobabble script. But to be allowed to feast on those faces, in shadow, in black and white... "Spellbound" is on TCM.
October 6, 2025 at 3:57 AM
They've both been given impossible roles. The instinctive Bergman can't help acting anyway; Peck's part lets him stay blank. And yes, there's the bilge of Hecht's psychobabble script. But to be allowed to feast on those faces, in shadow, in black and white... "Spellbound" is on TCM.
Taking on the state of the nation and the state of the theater, the already notorious little musical "Slam Frank" may be the most important new show around. It rides one sacred cow to skewer a herd of others, ranging wildly and widely through the land mines of identity politics.
October 5, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Taking on the state of the nation and the state of the theater, the already notorious little musical "Slam Frank" may be the most important new show around. It rides one sacred cow to skewer a herd of others, ranging wildly and widely through the land mines of identity politics.
I had to turn off Fosse's "All That Jazz" on TCM. (Its self-regard does try the patience.) But I did stick around long enough to reexperience the high delight of "Everything Old Is New Again," danced by Anne Reinking and Erzsebet Foldi.
October 5, 2025 at 3:59 AM
I had to turn off Fosse's "All That Jazz" on TCM. (Its self-regard does try the patience.) But I did stick around long enough to reexperience the high delight of "Everything Old Is New Again," danced by Anne Reinking and Erzsebet Foldi.