Persona (1966) is written and directed by the great Swedish filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman, with cinematography by Sven Nyquist, and it currently occupies number 17 on the BFI Sight and Sound critics poll, 13th on the directors, (it received 3 mentions … Continue reading Double Features: Persona (1966) and 3 Women (1977)

Giallo is a major hole in my film viewing history. I’d estimate, working with the sporadic, incomplete lists I’ve kept over the years, that I’ve seen around 7000 films, as I’ve been adding about 500 a year for the last … Continue reading Double Features: Deep Red (1975) and Suspiria (1977)

I finally caught up with some of the more challenging and lengthy films of world cinema that had been high on my to do list the past year: the full 12h 40m cut of Jacques Rivette’s Out 1 (1971)  -it … Continue reading Double Features: The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) and The Duellists (1977)

Rolling Thunder (1977) is a great revenge drama co-written by Paul Schrader and Heywood Gould from an original story by Schrader, and directed by John Flynn. Flynn had a pretty solid career, working his way up to director under Robert … Continue reading Double Features: Rolling Thunder (1977) and Blue Collar (1978)

Fred Zinnemann’s films received 66 Oscar nominations and were awarded 26 statues, he personally won best director twice for A Man For All Seasons (1967) and From Here To Eternity (1954), won another two for short subject films he directed, … Continue reading Double Features: The Day Of The Jackal (1973) and Julia (1977)

  Any article or interview about Paul Verhoeven invariably refers to him first as a provocateur, a man whose work is characterized by explicit violence and sexual content, and while larger themes are usually explored, the low hanging fruit never … Continue reading Double Features: Soldier of Orange (1977) and Flesh + Blood (1985)

Henri-Georges Clouzot, the director of The Wages of Fear (1953), specialized in suspense thrillers and was even considered a rival of Alfred Hitchcock for a time, securing the rights to the source material for his most celebrated film, Diabolique (1955),  just … Continue reading Double Features: The Wages of Fear (1953) and Sorcerer (1977)

I watched Performance (1970) the other night after it had sat in my queue for a few months. I caught it on cable back in the early 80’s when the movie channels still played esoteric stuff like that and it was … Continue reading Double Features: Performance (1970) & Demon Seed (1977)