Farran Smith Nehme
@selfstyledsiren.bsky.social
Film critic; NSFC, NYFCC. Bylines at Criterion, Sight & Sound, Noir City, my own Substack, and wherever fine film geeks are found.
https://selfstyledsiren.substack.com/
https://selfstyledsiren.substack.com/
Pinned
It was such a pleasure to write the essay for Criterion's 4K+Blu Ray of CAPTAIN BLOOD, a movie I dearly love. And for friends who love commentaries, note that this has one from Curtiz biographer (and fount of knowledge) Alan K. Rode @thetallcinephile.bsky.social www.criterion.com/films/29013-...
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
Hi! There's been lots of doomscrolling lately because many things are awful. However, sleep deprivation makes everything worse. You still deserve time to rest and recover. Try not to stay up too late tonight. Max loves you.
November 14, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Hi! There's been lots of doomscrolling lately because many things are awful. However, sleep deprivation makes everything worse. You still deserve time to rest and recover. Try not to stay up too late tonight. Max loves you.
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
Leila Hyams on the cover of The New Movie Magazine, August 1930
November 14, 2025 at 4:10 AM
Leila Hyams on the cover of The New Movie Magazine, August 1930
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
Still pinching myself, ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ at the V&A is unmissable. Back later…
November 13, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Still pinching myself, ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ at the V&A is unmissable. Back later…
Love Black Gravel and this era, will be reading for sure.
I just dropped a special #Noirvember missive on my Substack. Free to read at the link below.
andrewnette.substack.com/p/helmut-kau...
andrewnette.substack.com/p/helmut-kau...
Helmut Käutner's Black Gravel and the lost decade of German cinema
I have written previously here about my love for German director Helmut Käutner’s 1961 noir, Schwarzer Kies, or translated into English, Black Gravel. It is without doubt my favourite German noir and ...
andrewnette.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Love Black Gravel and this era, will be reading for sure.
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Also Junius Matthews. (“Hey, that sounds like Archimedes from Sword in the Stone.”) … Here is where I also put a plug in for the noir series’ Guilty Bystander and J. Edward Bromberg’s very funny turn.
November 13, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Also Junius Matthews. (“Hey, that sounds like Archimedes from Sword in the Stone.”) … Here is where I also put a plug in for the noir series’ Guilty Bystander and J. Edward Bromberg’s very funny turn.
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I love Constance Dowling in this. She’s an incredibly nasty piece of work. She gets very little screen time but she makes a big impression, on me anyway. I’ll be grinding my teeth for days thinking about how rotten and lovely she was
November 13, 2025 at 8:25 AM
I love Constance Dowling in this. She’s an incredibly nasty piece of work. She gets very little screen time but she makes a big impression, on me anyway. I’ll be grinding my teeth for days thinking about how rotten and lovely she was
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Is anything noirer than a blackout? Than not knowing what you’ve done, or what you’re going to get for it? Blackout Noir is a brilliantly conceived programme on Criterion, thanks to @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social & @glennkenny.bsky.social. And Black Angel (1946) is aces, it really sucker punched me
November 13, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Is anything noirer than a blackout? Than not knowing what you’ve done, or what you’re going to get for it? Blackout Noir is a brilliantly conceived programme on Criterion, thanks to @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social & @glennkenny.bsky.social. And Black Angel (1946) is aces, it really sucker punched me
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The Johnny Cash song "Folsom Prison Blues", the paraphrasing of which has apparently caused a moderation kerfuffle in these parts, is so well known that when I've performed it in Spain, to audiences that don't even know English very well, they will sing along to that line about the man in Reno.
a man is playing a guitar in front of a microphone .
ALT: a man is playing a guitar in front of a microphone .
media.tenor.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:50 PM
The Johnny Cash song "Folsom Prison Blues", the paraphrasing of which has apparently caused a moderation kerfuffle in these parts, is so well known that when I've performed it in Spain, to audiences that don't even know English very well, they will sing along to that line about the man in Reno.
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
A father and his estranged son must come together to hand deliver his daughter’s wedding invitations to each guest as per local Palestinian custom in WAJIB, our next CINEMA ARABIYYA pick.
Screening next Wednesday at Nitehawk Williamsburg.
Screening next Wednesday at Nitehawk Williamsburg.
November 12, 2025 at 7:45 PM
A father and his estranged son must come together to hand deliver his daughter’s wedding invitations to each guest as per local Palestinian custom in WAJIB, our next CINEMA ARABIYYA pick.
Screening next Wednesday at Nitehawk Williamsburg.
Screening next Wednesday at Nitehawk Williamsburg.
Same, my friend, same.
[subtweet]
I have a very long memory and a very big mouth.
I have a very long memory and a very big mouth.
November 12, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Same, my friend, same.
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Gentle reminder that I am going to be on TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES (!!!!) on Monday for an evening of programming that we put together. I hope you'll be able to tune in. Love y'all.
My prime time program with TCM on November 17th covers Robert Altman's COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME and the Gay Bar Christmas Picture SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE. SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE doesn't screen anywhere very often and doesn't have a DVD in circulation.
November 12, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Gentle reminder that I am going to be on TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES (!!!!) on Monday for an evening of programming that we put together. I hope you'll be able to tune in. Love y'all.
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
The Lefrak Center ice rink at Prospect Park is only $10 (rentals are extra) on weekdays before 7pm and pretty empty during weekdays
November 12, 2025 at 6:05 PM
The Lefrak Center ice rink at Prospect Park is only $10 (rentals are extra) on weekdays before 7pm and pretty empty during weekdays
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
Watching Villain (1971) with a sketchy Richard Burton performance as an occasionally cockney mobster. You always know you’re watching a British mob movie because the mobsters are always drinking tea and reading the paper
November 12, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Watching Villain (1971) with a sketchy Richard Burton performance as an occasionally cockney mobster. You always know you’re watching a British mob movie because the mobsters are always drinking tea and reading the paper
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
Watched Kobayashi’s The Inheritance for Nakadai, who is a supporting character, and what a fantastically nasty noir. There’s not even a pretense of a twist, instead upfront having the seemingly innocent secretary narrating the story of her swindling her boss with unrepentant pride.
November 12, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Watched Kobayashi’s The Inheritance for Nakadai, who is a supporting character, and what a fantastically nasty noir. There’s not even a pretense of a twist, instead upfront having the seemingly innocent secretary narrating the story of her swindling her boss with unrepentant pride.
This reminds me that I usually donate to the Wolf Conservation Center around this time of year. They do good work.
We visited the Wolf Conservation Center in August and learned about their work to breed wolves and introduce them into the wild
www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley...
www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley...
Red wolf flown from Westchester sanctuary in effort to save species
A red wolf named Ginger was flown from Westchester County to North Carolina to breed and aid the recovery of her critically endangered species.
www.timesunion.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:21 PM
This reminds me that I usually donate to the Wolf Conservation Center around this time of year. They do good work.
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
"Mrs Valange, Reg Lumley, Monsieur Louis Montpelier, Minnie and Tom - all of whose lives have already been disrupted, sometimes violently. So too have the lives of innumerable lesser fry - spiders, mice, beetles - whose scuttlings, burrowings and terrified retreats are comparable..."
November 12, 2025 at 12:20 PM
"Mrs Valange, Reg Lumley, Monsieur Louis Montpelier, Minnie and Tom - all of whose lives have already been disrupted, sometimes violently. So too have the lives of innumerable lesser fry - spiders, mice, beetles - whose scuttlings, burrowings and terrified retreats are comparable..."
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Bill Watterson says Hobbes isn’t a doll who comes to life; Calvin sees him one way, everyone else another. He wrote about reality being subjective. This seems a main lesson of his hero Charles M Schulz. Only the kids know how complicated they are. Snoopy IS a writer.
November 12, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Bill Watterson says Hobbes isn’t a doll who comes to life; Calvin sees him one way, everyone else another. He wrote about reality being subjective. This seems a main lesson of his hero Charles M Schulz. Only the kids know how complicated they are. Snoopy IS a writer.
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Wonderful, wonderful writing.
My friend Imogen Sara Smith wrote several times about Tatsuya Nakadai's unique qualities, such as here in 2020 at Bright Lights Film Journal. brightlightsfilm.com/japanese-cin...
Japanese Cinema's Uncommon Man: Tatsuya Nakadai's Dissidents, Outcasts, and Shadow Warriors - Bright Lights Film Journal
"Like Hollywood's new postwar men, he offered a multifaceted, ambivalent masculinity far from monolithic wartime ideals."
brightlightsfilm.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Wonderful, wonderful writing.
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I don’t think any of us are fully prepared for the level of self-pity and absolution that’s going to be in Olivia Nuzzi’s (hilariously titled) “American Canto”
November 11, 2025 at 2:34 PM
I don’t think any of us are fully prepared for the level of self-pity and absolution that’s going to be in Olivia Nuzzi’s (hilariously titled) “American Canto”
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
Reposted by Farran Smith Nehme
Many years ago, Fleming's biographer, John Pearson, wrote a novel, "James Bond: The Authorized Biography." Its entertaining (and very meta) conceit was that there WAS a real James Bond; the novels and films were part of a huge British disinformation campaign to make the USSR think there wasn't.
November 11, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Many years ago, Fleming's biographer, John Pearson, wrote a novel, "James Bond: The Authorized Biography." Its entertaining (and very meta) conceit was that there WAS a real James Bond; the novels and films were part of a huge British disinformation campaign to make the USSR think there wasn't.
Oh sure, that's it. Can't possibly be runaway rents and landlords holding spaces empty rather than rent them for one cent less than the stratospheric rate they want. The villain of Trump Parc East wouldn't know anything about how that works.
Call in the troops to solve the commercial real estate crisis in our swanky downtown cores
You can’t make this shit up, folks
You can’t make this shit up, folks
November 11, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Oh sure, that's it. Can't possibly be runaway rents and landlords holding spaces empty rather than rent them for one cent less than the stratospheric rate they want. The villain of Trump Parc East wouldn't know anything about how that works.
You either state or heavily imply that James Bond is a name that goes with the 007 assignment, not a one-man identity. I thought that was what we were supposed to assume anyway?
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 1:48 PM
You either state or heavily imply that James Bond is a name that goes with the 007 assignment, not a one-man identity. I thought that was what we were supposed to assume anyway?
RIP Tatsuya Nakadai, one of the all-time great postwar actors. And, not for nothing, one of the most heart-stoppingly beautiful too.
November 11, 2025 at 1:28 PM
RIP Tatsuya Nakadai, one of the all-time great postwar actors. And, not for nothing, one of the most heart-stoppingly beautiful too.