The Producers
Criminals, Scoundrels, and Other Lovable Types
Film essay by: Witney Seibold
I went to New York City with my mother in mid-October, 2001 to take in a few Broadway shows. Read more »
Casablanca
The Beauty of the System
A film essay by: Witney Seibold
I’m going to have the same problems writing about “Casablanca” that I did writing about “Citizen Kane” and “The Wizard of Oz;” How does one approach a film that has been endlessly talked about, analyzed, admired, and reviewed since its inception in 1942? It’s easily one of the most popular movies, ever. Read more »
Some Like It Hot
So Much Marilyn!
Film essay by: Witney Seibold
Most savvy followers of the famed Hollywood icon and sex symbol know about Marilyn Monroe’s famous drug-addled meltdowns, her drunken songs to JFK, her multiple marriages to terrible men, her tragic final hours of pill-popping hysteria. I’ve spoken to out-and-out admirers of Marilyn Monroe fans, and they openly acknowledge her vices and self-destructive tendencies, and blend them – in a Jackie Collins/soap opera kind of way – with her honest-to-goodness sultriness and sweet ditziness. Her bad behavior in real life has all but eclipsed the screen presence that made her an icon to begin with.
Bride of Frankenstein
A Word of Friendly Warning
Film essay by: Witney Seibold
“How do you do? Mr. Carl Laemmle feels it would be a little unkind to present this picture without just a word of friendly warning. We are about to unfold the story of Frankenstein, a man of science who sought to create man after his own image without reckoning upon God. It is one of the strangest tales ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation: life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So if any of you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now’s your chance to— well… we’ve warned you.”
Tokyo Story
What We Don’t Say
A film essay by: Witney Seibold
The journey on the road of cinema, if traveled long enough, will eventually lead you to the greats. Read more »
Shakespeare on Film
All the World’s a Screen
An essay by: Witney Seibold
The earliest Shakespeare-based film, according to the Internet Movie Database, is a two minute scene from “King John,” produced in 1899. It was intended merely as a showcase for the lead actor, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Read more »
The Shining
Memories…
An essay by: Witney Seibold
Every time I sit down to watch Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film “The Shining,” I think I’m going to regret it. Read more »
The Princess Bride
As You Wish
Film essay by: Witney Seibold
I can recite “The Princess Bride” almost entirely from memory. Read more »
The Orphic trilogy
The Everyday God
Film essay by: Witney Seibold
Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain tops that freeze,
Bow themselves, when he did sing:
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung; as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.
About the author.
When Witney Seibold was about 10 years old, he got in trouble for spitting on a new car. Witney wants his teachers and classmates to know that he was not a mean-spirited or unhappy child, and only did this to make his fellow classmates laugh. His classmates were, you see all merely pretending to spit on the line of new cars they were walking by, and Witney thought he could do them one better by actually doing it.
When thinking back on it, he realizes that some poor schmo working at the new car lot would have had to clean his spit off of the car. He apologizes to his classmates (who probably were more shocked than amused), his teacher (who was certainly not at all amused), and especially the unseen car lot attendant, armed with the Windex and paper towels, who was probably cursing his job as he had to lean over and touch a stranger’s saliva. I’m very sorry.
