Biff's Best Vintage Films Viewed in 2025

        1)   Red Rose White Rose                                    Stanley Kwan             1994

        2)   So This Is Paris                                              Ernst Lubitsch            1926

        3)   La Collectionneuse                                         Éric Rohmer              1967

        4)   Ensayo de un Crimen                                     Luis Buñuel               1955

        5)   Les Favoris de la lune                                    Otar Iosselini             1984

        6)   Pursued                                                           Raoul Walsh              1947

        7)   The Legend of the Holy Drinker                  Ermanno Olmi             1988

        8)   What Did the Lady Forget?                           Yasujirō Ozu              1937

        9)   The Edge of the World                                  Michael Powell           1937

       10)  The Flesh                                                        Marco Ferreri             1991

     I also thoroughly enjoyed...

             La bestia debe morir, Letter of Introduction, Hell Bent, Pale Flower,

            Vivacious Lady, Canoa: A Painful Memory, La dos au mur,

              Where is the Friend's House?, Ivan's Childhood, Colorado Territory,

            Don't Play Us Cheap, La Otra, Scream of Fear, Reap the Wild Wind,

            Demon Pond, Number Seventeen, Tramp Tramp Tramp and 

            Springfield Rifle.

       

The Best of Rob Reiner

1947-2025

          A lot of times I'll make character driven films -- stories that involve people.

           1).      The Princess Bride                                                       1987

           2).      Misery                                                                            1990

           3).      The Sure Thing                                                             1985

           4).      This is Spinal Tap                                                         1984

           5).      When Harry Met Sally                                                 1989

           6).      The American President                                              1995

           7).      Stand By Me                                                                 1986

           8).      LBJ                                                                                2016

           9).     Albert Brooks: Defending My Life                              2023

          10).    Rumor Has It                                                                 2005

The son of producer, director, writer, and comic genius Carl, Rob Reiner quickly shed the nepo baby rubric After bit parts in his Dad's films Enter Laughing and Where's Poppa?, Reiner landed the role of Mike "Meathead" Stivic on what would prove to be the most popular sitcom of the early 1970s, All in the Family. There he would mouth the the liberal pieties of producer Norman Lear in response to the reactionary rants of series star Carrol O'Connor who played America's most beloved bigot, Archie Bunker. After the long run of this series, Reiner would pretty much abandon acting for the director's chair. Besides All in the Family, the best example of Reiner, as an actor, is a little seen television movie he made with his first wife Penny Marshall, More Than Friends. 

Overall, Reiner proved to be a versatile middlebrow director with more misses than hits. I think a good comparison as a director is Ron Howard, another Hollywood scion whose best films are pleasant enough, but lack personality. Reiner could get playful performances even from humorless bricks like Michael Douglas, but had little visual flair or sense. Even Reiner's best film could have used a little more visual pixie dust. I find A Few Good Men to be Oscar bait grandstanding, a charge that could be leveled at a number of his lesser efforts. His career fell off a cliff both artistically and commercially after The American President. His only hit this century was the odious Christmas cash-in The Bucket List. Still, he was largely responsible for a handful of films that will entertain audiences as long as cinema exists.

Book Review: In Love With Movies by Dan Talbot

Dan Talbot and Alfred Hitchcock circa 1965

Dan Talbot was one of the most important distributors of international films in the US during the 20th century. Along with his wife Toby, Talbot founded the New Yorker Theater in 1960. It became New York's premiere repertory film house and a haven for those seeking adventurous foreign cinema. Frustrated by the absence of many of his favorite international films on domestic screens, Talbot founded New Yorker Films in 1965 in order to rectify this situation. Films distributed by the company included older films by directors like Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Vigo that, at the time, were relatively unseen in America. Soon, the company was successful enough to distribute contemporary films by such cinematic titans as Bertolucci, Godard, Resnais, Varda, Herzog, Fassbinder, Sembène, Itami, Yimou, and scores more. After the New Yorker Theater closed, Talbot and his wife ran several more repertory theaters in New York, most significantly the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. Talbot died in 2017, but not before leaving behind this memoir which was published in 2022.

This memoir succeeds on a number of levels. Foremost, it is a love letter to cinema. Talbot's affection for the liveliest art permeates each page. He had a warm relationship with pretty much every major non-American auteur of the era and the book is dotted with indelible impressions of these titans. Even when he was taken aback by the demeanor of a figure, he still treats them with warm regard and humor. Of the frosty Robert Bresson he writes, "He and his wife had no children--thank God." The book offers interesting vignettes of the many important critics who passed through the doors of his theater: including Manny Farber, Pauline Kael, and the relatively neglected Vincent Canby. The book also serves as a celebration of the polyglot glories of the Talbot's neighborhood, the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Additionally, the book is a excellent primer for the rare soul who wants to open a repertory film theater. Good luck, brave souls! An ideal yule time gift for your favorite cinephile, In Love With Movies is a witty and avuncular reminiscence.