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         It is quite common for directors to work with a consistent set of actors over the course of their careers. Looking over a director’s filmography one will often find evidence of these collaborations, and, indeed, using the same acting talent over and over again is one of the signs of an auteur. The actors and actresses often build a relationship with a director; they draw inspiration from one another, and push the other’s limits. There are a few directors who narrow this number, and end up working with one specific actor or actress over and over again, until they begin to be permanently identified with one another in the public consciousness. Think Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski or, if you prefer, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. These relationships have highs and lows, just as any other relationship, but the more films you watch by these collaborators the richer the experience becomes.             Ta...

        During the Third Reich, several actors and filmmakers moved to Hollywood to escape having to make propaganda films for the Third Reich. Fritz Lang, the director of Metropolis and M , two extremely influential early films, came to the US and made a few westerns; Marlene Dietrich, an early sex symbol, renounced her German citizenship and starred in many Hollywood films. Before the War, Hollywood was competing with Germany to make the best films in the world – before sound it didn’t matter what language movies were in, and the first actor to win the Best Actor Oscar was German. Fast forward to the present day, and we see that Hollywood still has an appetite for German talent. Little known fact, some of our favorite movie stars tried to defect to the Nazis.            In 1981, Wolfgang Peterson wrote and directed Das Boot , a film about forty Nazi soldiers on a submarine. Unusual for a Nazi film, we are not supposed to hat...

“The attack yesterday morning was no stain on the honor of France, and certainly no disgrace to the fighting men of this nation. But this court martial is such a stain, and such a disgrace. The case made against these men is a mockery of all human justice. Gentlemen of the court, to find these men guilty would be a crime, to haunt each of you till the day you die. I can't believe that the noblest impulse of man-- his compassion for another-- can be completely dead here. Therefore I humbly beg you...show mercy to these men.” - Colonel Dax, Paths of Glory            Stanley Kubrick was the greatest auteur to ever stand behind a camera. He is certainly considered by many critics and other filmmakers to be the definitive director, mastering each genre with a single film before moving on to the next. Kubrick was notorious for his perfectionist approach to filmmaking, spending years on a single film, and was equally notorious for his supposed curt and...

“When I have the Map, I will be free, and the world will be different, because I have understanding...of digital watches. And soon I shall have understanding of videocassette recorders and car telephones. And when I have understanding of them, I shall have understanding of computers. And when I have understanding of computers, I shall be the Supreme Being! God isn't interested in technology. He knows nothing of the potential of the microchip or the silicon revolution. Look how he spends his time! Forty-three species of parrot! Nipples for men! Slugs!! He created slugs. They can't hear! They can't speak! They can't operate machinery! I mean, are we not in the hands of a lunatic? If I were creating a world, I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, day one!” -The personification of evil in Time Bandits Terrence Vance Gilliam was born in Medicine Lake, Minnesota, on November 22 1940. As a child, Gilli...

“And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any others. Yes, you even die for them. Like a man we both knew, Mr. Paine. You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked. Well, I'm not licked, and I'm gonna stay right here and fight for this lost cause even if this room gets filled with lies like these, and the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place! Somebody'll listen to me!” -Jefferson Smith, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington These lines, delivered as Senator Jefferson Smith was on his last legs after a heartbreaking filibuster, represent everything that is Frank Capra. It represents the ideal that if you keep trying you can make a difference, the ideal of never giving up, and the ideal that that the common man can rise above the elite. Jefferson Smith was not a superhero; George Bailey was not a man who suffers from a deep disturbing secret past, and somehow New York is spared from explosions or insidious plots when Lo...