Orson's Birthday

Today would have been Orson Welles's 100th birthday. I'm doing a series over at Criminal Element looking back on his films, and I included my long exploration on his influence on film noir in my book THE BLIND ALLEY, but I don't know that I'll ever run out of things to say about the big guy. Some artists just connect to us too deeply--or is it that we connect to them? Either way, the connection, once made, is seemingly permanent. 

Here's all I want to say about Orson today: while he's often praised (even overpraised) as a stylist and an innovator, I'm not sure he's ever been given his due as a thinker. I don't know if there is a deeper, more profound filmmaker than Orson Welles. Ozu, Bergman, Kieslowki--they would be his equals. But no one is better, deeper, more true. I'm not saying he was always right, not saying that he didn't have his blind spots. He was a human mammal like the rest of us, and as such he was a flawed artist. But, as the man himself would have been quick to point out, all artists are flawed. Their flaws are part of what make them distinctive. Their flaws, in the end, are part of what feeds whatever wisdom they have because wisdom is only arrived at through failure. Few filmmakers were as fearless in risking failure than Orson, and fewer still put as much profound humanity on the screen.

One hundred years of Orson Welles is a beautiful thing. Here's to a hundred more.

Orson Welles at 100: THE STRANGER (1946)

Over at Criminal Element I have a new installment up in my series on the centennial of Orson Welles. This time around I'm talking about THE STRANGER, which is widely acknowledged as one of Welles's failed films. Welles himself treated the film like an unloved child because it was the one that he "did for the studios." It was the one time he tried to make a Hollywood film in a way that would impress the studios. The funny thing, of course, is that the film is entertaining from beginning to end. I never tire of watching it. So if it is a failure, then we have to say it's a failure that only Orson Welles could have made. Which, I suppose, is another way of saying that it's a failed experiment which shows us exactly why Welles was never a good fit for the Hollywood system.

Click here to read my piece on THE STRANGER.

Orson Welles At 100: CITIZEN KANE (1941)

I'm over at Criminal Element with the new installment in my series on Orson Welles At 100. Time to tackle the big one: CITIZEN KANE.

NOIR CITY: The Comix Issue

The new issue of Noir City is here, and it is a beauty. Great contributions from Steve Kronenberg, Imogen Sara Smith, and Eddie Muller--and some really standout work from art director and designer Michael Kronenberg. The focus of the issue is comix and noir, and features a big interview with Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the team behind the brilliant series THE FADE-OUT.

The book also features a couple of articles by yours truly: first up,  a piece on BATMAN: YEAR ONE which might be the most noir Batman story ever. 

My other article is the newest installment in my series on Poverty Row Professionals: a career overview of director W. Lee Wilder. Wilder was the older brother of Billy Wilder, and he's been overlooked for years, but he's a really fascinating figure. He stayed an independent on Poverty Row his entire career, and while his films are bargain budget productions, they have a theme so unified that it counts as an obsession: the predatory older man who stalks an impressionable young woman.

Check out Noir City Spring Issue 2015.

Nice review of THE BLIND ALLEY

Scott Adlerberg has written a really smart review of THE BLIND ALLEY for the great new website The Life Sentence. Check it out. While you're there, you should also read Lisa Levy's insightful interview with Laura Lippmann. No one is better that Lippmann, and this is one of the best interviews I've ever read with her.

Letter From Lyon

above: A Couple of Goons

I wrote about my adventures with Benjamin Whitmer​ at the Quais Du Polar​ in Lyon, France.

You can read "Letter To Lyon" over at Criminal Element.

Noir At The Bar: CHICAGO

I lined up some kick ass talent for the newest edition of Noir At The Bar Chicago. If you're in Chicago or a surrounding area, make sure to come out for booze and crime.