389: Saul Bass & Oscar

Archival Spaces 389: Saul Bass wins an Academy Award Uploaded 26 December 2025 Ten years ago, in 2015, I published Saul Bass: Anatomy of Film Design, a University of Kentucky Press book, a French edition arriving seven years later.  Not many people know that George Lucas worked for Saul and accompanied him to the 41stContinue reading “389: Saul Bass & Oscar”

385: Tod Browning

Archival Spaces 385: Dark Carnival. The Secret World of Tod Browning Uploaded 31 October 2025 Beginning with D.W. Griffith, but certainly after the Supreme Court’s decision in Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915), American film directors and studios were obsessively and aggressively optimistic in their depiction of an American imaginary. In thatContinue reading “385: Tod Browning”

383:  Weimar Comedies

Archival Spaces 383: Four German Comedies (1931-32) Blu-Ray Uploaded 3 October 2025 Flicker Alley has released a two-disc blu-ray set, “Champagne & Caviar: Four Weimar Comedies (1931-1932),” which for all the many merits of the presentation, is somewhat of a misnomer. Produced during the depths of the world-wide Depression, these are not frothy Hollywood comediesContinue reading “383:  Weimar Comedies”

369:  Chełmno Holocaust Film

Archival Spaces 369: The World Will Tremble (2024) Uploaded 21 March 2025 A Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival screening of The World Will Tremble (2025) preceded its L.A. run this week at the Laemmle Theatres in Beverly Hills and Encino. The title is a quote from a village Rabbi in Rzuchow, Poland who has justContinue reading “369:  Chełmno Holocaust Film”