Sherlock Jr. @100: For the love of Cinema

by Cláudio Alves

This week, one of the best comedies ever made and a silent film masterpiece celebrates its centennial. It's none other than Sherlock Jr., Buster Keaton's 45-minute miracle of stunt work and cinematic considerations about cinema as materialized dream and broken escapism. A meta-movie for the ages, I consider it the old Stone Face's crowning achievement. Sure, The General is much more complex and Steamboat Bill, Jr. trumps it in sheer iconography. As for technical innovation, something like The Play House is probably Keaton's peak. However, there's something special about the 1924 lark, a simplicity that bolsters perfection, an ingenuity that rekindles my love for cinema whenever I set my eyes on it…

Click to read more ...

Stanley Donen @100: The Most Charming Speech of All Time

by Baby Clyde

With their increasingly bizarre choices and lamentable decision to move recipients from the main telecast, long gone are the days when the Academy’s Honorary Awards made any cultural impact. We’re all the losers, because not only did truly deserving legends of the industry being belated rewarded give deep satisfaction to the Oscar nerds at home, from an ailing Myrna Loy and triumphant Charlie Chaplin to a sprightly Lillian Gish and a regal Deborah Kerr, they created some of the most memorable and moving moments in Academy history.

None more so than the man who celebrates his centenary yesterday, Stanley Donen. The master of the movie musical was unaccountably never nominated for a competitive Oscar during his illustrious career but took his opportunity at the 70th Annual Academy awards to give the most charming speech of all time...

Click to read more ...

Over & Overs: "Singin' in the Rain" (1952)

by Cláudio Alves

It's been a while since the Over & Overs series has shown up on The Film Experience's timeline, and it's as good a time as any to rectify that. Indeed, revisiting a beloved picture one has seen more times than one can count is the perfect idea for today's celebration. You see, a century ago, Stanley Donen was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the son of a dress shop manager and future movie lover. He'd also be a movie magician, capable of turning the screen into materialized joy, like an alchemist who used the camera to transform and transport his audiences. Though one finds several titles are worth appraising in his filmography, a single picture stands above all others, the musical to end all musicals. It's Singin' in the Rain, of course…

Click to read more ...

The Way He Looks @ 10: Unlocking Queer Joy

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Hear ye, gays and allies!

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the Brazilian coming-of-age rom-com The Way He Looks (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho, lit. Today I Want to Go Back Alone), written and directed by Daniel Ribeiro. Since its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014, the film - and the short film that it was based on - has attracted warm response from viewers since. Released in Brazil on April 10, the film tells the story of a visually impaired high school student named Leonardo (Ghilherme Lobo) who befriends and later on becomes attracted to his new classmate Gabriel (Fábio Audi). It’s now heralded as one of the modern gems of queer cinema and rightfully so.

Given the event that we’re celebrating, I think this is an opportune time to finally put on the record how I came across this warm hug of a film...

Click to read more ...

All About MY Mother and Almodóvar

by Cláudio Alves

How did you get into Almodóvar? For me, it was a matter of maternal influence. Ever since catching Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown during its 1989 Portuguese release, she's been a devotee to the Spanish director. Even as her movie-going habits diminished, a new Almodóvar was always a reason to go to the theater, attend local festivals, and purchase physical media for re-watches down the road. Through those latter ones, I became acquainted with the filmmaker in my teens, learning to love his melodramas as much as my mom did. Though, of course, as a queer man, mine was a different connection to Almodóvar's cinema of complicated women and melodrama, bright colors and hot men.

To celebrate All About My Mother's 25th anniversary today, I revisited the film with the person responsible for turning young Cláudio into a fellow fan…

Click to read more ...