Category Archives: Movies

Moving pictures for snappers

Streets of Fire revisited

Movies

Still as good as movie making gets.

In a piece titled ‘Still movies‘ some dozen years ago I extolled the exceptional cinematography in Walter Hill’s ‘Streets of Fire’.

The film was a huge flop when it was introduced, poor publicity and strong competition from another tedious, puerile Star Trek movie damning it quickly.

Since that time in 1984 ‘Streets of Fire’ has rightly acquired cult status and – finally! – has been released in BluRay format.

Few movies can hold a candle to Andrew Laszlo’s photography or William Hill’s direction, and most of those were made by Stanley Kubrick or David Lean.

Here are a few more images from this visual and musical masterpiece:



The atmosphere of late-50s industrial America is perfectly captured.


A perfect fade, reminiscent of the Russian cinema.


Beautiful Diane Lane was just 18 when the movie was made. Her pouty performance is perfect.


As Raven Shaddock, leader of the biker gang, Willem Dafoe stars in one of his first roles.
Hopefully he will get the Oscar he so deserves this year.


Nearly all the cars are Studebakers. Here the cops’ gets trashed.


The dynamism of the cinematography and the performances in the final concert number remain stunning.


The back-up group, The Sorels, mime their music like everyone else.
The beautiful number ‘I Can Dream About You’ was written and performed by Don Hartman.


As the tough good guy Michael Paré gives a splendid low key performance.
Here he is shooting up the bad guys’ Harleys in The Battery, a rough after hours joint.


Chicago’s El serves as backdrop in this rain soaked scene.


Some of my closest friends.


Dafoe does not know how to act badly, raven haircut and all.
His sidekick is Lee Ving, who is best known as the frontman for the L.A. hardcore punk band Fear.


In one of the best fight scenes ever staged, Raven Shaddock meets his match in Tom Cody.


Amazon has the movie in the BluRay version. Snap it up before Universal does something as dumb as its roll out of the movie over 30 years ago and pulls it from distribution.

Kubrick at the CJM

Movies

A master’s work explained.

Stanley Kubrick made but twelve commercial movies and each is rated at the top of its genre.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum has a splendid show documenting the background to each, showing the man’s working method, deep research and painstaking attention to detail.


Winston at the entrance.


I touch the fabulous Zeiss f/0.7 lens used in ‘Barry Lyndon’ for the candlelight scenes.


Rescued from thrift shops, Kubrick used two of these Mitchell ciné cameras in ‘Lyndon’. The camera is beautifully engineered.


The wide lens mount throat of the Mitchell allowed adaptation of the Zeiss lens for full aperture use.


The exhibition is beautifully staged, with just enough detail to maintain curiosity.


Jack Nicholson’s Adler typewriter from ‘The Shining’


The chilling text.


Winston with the HAL9000 from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’


A selection of Kubrick’s lenses, mostly Zeiss.

You can read more about the ‘Barry Lyndon’ Zeiss lens here.

A highly recommended review of the master’s working methods. My son Winston, at the tender age of 14, knows all twelve of Kubrick’s masterpieces well, with the lush ‘Barry Lyndon’ his favorite, along with ‘Dr. Strangelove’. Indeed, his prep school application essay, which he wrote a year ago, addressed ‘Kubrick as a rôle model’, focusing on the master’s perseverance and what it teaches us about success in life.

All snaps using an iPhone 6.