Marshalltown Jean Seberg was born in Marshalltown, Iowa in 1938, the second of four children born to Ed Seberg, the town pharmacist, and his wife Dorothy. Marshalltown was a quintessential mid-western American town whose adult inhabitants were, according to Jean, “grim, kind, dried up people who were afraid to open up.” In this church-going, conservative … Continue reading The Life of Jean Seberg
Author: simonhitchman
Le Beau Serge
Le Beau Serge (Handsome Serge, 1958) Directed by Claude Chabrol. 99 mins. Essentially, in Le Beau Serge two films are juxtaposed against each other: one in which Serge is the subject and François the object; the other in which François is the subject, Serge the object. By definition, it’s the first of these films which … Continue reading Le Beau Serge
Lost in Catland: the life of Louis Wain
Louis William Wain was born on the 5th of August 1860, under the astrological sign of Leo, in Clerkenwell, London, the eldest of six children born to William Wain, a textile trader and embroiderer, and his French wife Julie. His birth was followed by that of five sisters: Caroline in 1862, Josephine two years later, … Continue reading Lost in Catland: the life of Louis Wain
The Pursuit of Freedom: The New Wave, Jazz and Modernism
Introduction In the late 1950s and early 1960s, cinema and jazz were at the forefront of an artistic revolution – one of improvisation, immediacy and invention. Both were born around the turn of the century, came of age in the 1910s and 20s, and attained a ‘Golden Age’ of mass-popularity in the 1930s and 40s. … Continue reading The Pursuit of Freedom: The New Wave, Jazz and Modernism
Elevator to the Scaffold
Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows, 1958) Directed by Louis Malle. 91 mins. "I was split between my tremendous admiration for Robert Bresson and the temptation to make a Hitchcock-like film" – Louis Malle Plot Ex-paratrooper Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) and his lover Florence (Jeanne Moreau) devise a plan to murder her husband Simon … Continue reading Elevator to the Scaffold
From Master of Suspense to Auteur: The Battle for Hitchcock’s Reputation
James Stewart and Kim Novak in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo When, in September 2012, Sight and Sound magazine announced that Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1957) had been voted the greatest film of all time in its poll of critics, it caused an immediate media response. Newspapers, trade magazines and websites all reported that for the first time … Continue reading From Master of Suspense to Auteur: The Battle for Hitchcock’s Reputation
Buried Treasure: Rediscovering Britain’s Film and Television Past
Introduction For many decades, Maclean Rogers’ Hammer the Toff (1952) staring John Bentley was a lost film. Unlike some others of its era, it had not been completely forgotten. For years it appeared on the BFI’s 75 Most Wanted List of lost films. Contemporary audiences, by all accounts, had loved it. One review called it … Continue reading Buried Treasure: Rediscovering Britain’s Film and Television Past
Simon Hitchman 