PicoBlog

When I was a child, I did not very much care for old movies. I found them stiff, theatrical and dull. For a kid raised on “Jaws,” “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Star Wars,” movies from the 1920s through 1950s just didn’t hold much appeal for me. I thought of them as “old people” films. In fact, “Cavalcade,” the winner of the Academy Award for the Best Picture of 1933, pretty much typifies exactly the sort of old-fashioned moviemaking I eschewed as a youngster.

I saw “Friend Green Tomatoes” when it came out and liked it, as did a healthy population of mostly female ticket-buyers who made it a decent hit in 1991. Recently I came across Fannie Flagg’s best-selling novel upon which it was based at the library and devoured it with relish — even trying out some of the down-South recipes in the back of the book, supposedly straight from the kitchen at the fictional Whistle Stop Cafe.

Here’s how dim I am: I watched the entirety of “Gigi,” the Best Picture Oscar winner for 1958, without realizing it was about a young girl training to be a courtesan. Set in 1900, the novella by author Colette is about the titular teenage character who is being groomed by her grandmother as a professional mistress — several steps up from a streetwalking prostitute, to be sure, but still someone who makes their living from sex.

"Machine Gun McCain" is an interesting, though rather nasty, emblem of its time. It's an Italian mob picture shot to seem like an American one set in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, with a few scenic layovers in San Fran. It stars John Cassavetes as the titular figure, a seasoned criminal who has just been released from prison after 12 years to take part in a casino heist. He spends most of the movie furiously treating everyone like crap, including his own son and every woman he encounters, resulting in one of the most hard-bitten screen antiheroes of this era.

Hoo boy. I’m probably going to get in trouble with my old film school colleagues on this one. That’s fine. “The Conformist” is exactly the sort of movie that’s made for film school professors rather than regular people who, y’know, like movies and buy tickets to see them. It’s one of the most venerated films of all time, and frequently appears on GOAT list polls of critics and academics. It’s now out in a splendid 4K restoration from Kino Lorber.

Get 30% off forever Warwick Davis was just 17 years old when they shot “Willow,” a fantasy film George Lucas had been thinking about since 1972. He wanted to make a picture exploring the theme of the little guy standing up to the big bully, and had the idea of using Little People actors to lend a literal visual cue within a sword-and-sorcery setting. Lucas actually pitched the idea to Davis when he was just 11 and playing the Ewok Wicket in “Return of the Jedi.

Refashioning fame. Is there a perfect formula? When artists suddenly skyrocket to fame seemingly out of nowhere, is it merely luck, or is there a meticulously crafted formula behind their success? In the dynamic world of music and entertainment, many artists employ a strategic blend of smart marketing tactics, a strong media presence, engaging storytelling through their music, and even their fashion endeavors to construct a well-defined personal brand that captivates a massive audience.

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In 2021, Paul Skallas (aka LindyMan) coined the term “refinement culture”: the trending of everything toward sameness and optimization, from fashion to architecture to sports and everything in between. His work is primarily focused on the modern forms of this effect, such as the optimization of professional sports via statistics, or the unending sameness of ultra-modern apartment buildings. But refinement culture isn’t a new phenomenon – in fact, it’s quite Lindy itself.