RACCORD by Lia Pradas

Raccord

September vol. 09

Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Emma Swann New Editor Sarah Jamieson Art Direction and Design Lia Pradas Head of Marketing and Events Jack Clothier Managing Editor Lilly Chow Online Editor Jamie Milton Assistant Online Editor El Hunt Contributing Editor Margaret Russell Contributors Artur Martinez, Alex Lynham, Danny Wright, Henry Boon, Laura Studarus, Liam McNeilly, Mathew Davies, Ross Jones, Sean Stanley, Tom Connick, Tom Walters, Will Moss, Will Richards Photographers Abi Dainton, Carolina Faruolo, Mike Massar, Sarah Louise Bennett Executive Publisher Jonathan White Brand Manager Iain Shaw

EDITOR’S LETTER — Margaret Russell, Editor in Chief

Since its founding, in 1988, Public Culture has become a premier outlet for research on cultural globalization, cosmopolitanism, transnational politics, the public sphere, and the circulation of new cultural forms. By 2001 incoming editor Elizabeth Povinelli could write, without exaggeration, that the journal’s innovative interpretations of modernity at large had become “the tacit assumptions of most studies of public cultural phenomena.” In 2006 Claudio Lomnitz could use his inaugural editorial statement to quite legitimately report that “the journal, in short, gave shape, form, and verve to an entire field.” Naturally, the first question for the new editorial group of Public Culture is, what next? Or, more specifically, what can a new generation of cultural scholars contribute to the legacy of this publication and to the field it helped establish? One simple way is to focus our critical attention on cultural problems that have emerged or become more pressing since the late Carol Breckenridge and Arjun Appadurai founded the journal. After all, in 1988 hardly anyone used the Internet or mobile telephones. The Berlin Wall and the twin towers of the World Trade Center were still standing. The Soviet Union and the apartheid regime in South Africa were still intact. Iran and Iraq were at war with each other, and the Soviet army was winding down its campaign in Afghanistan. Not until that summer did NASA scientist James Hansen warn the US Congress that “greenhouse warming” could have a major impact on the earth’s climate. There was no way to know how prescient he was. Today the most urgent cultural question for our species may be whether and how we can

change our relationship to the environment — and I call this a cultural question because engineers and policy makers cannot effect this change on their own, nor can they operate without doing their own cultural work. How will states, corporations, and citizens on different continents, with divergent trajectories and distinctive histories, change their modes of production and patterns of consumption to sustain human life on this planet? How will they manage the struggles over basic resources, such as food, potable water, and durable shelter, and the related security threats that now appear to be inevitable consequences of climate change? Who or what will persuade global leaders that the way we live now is unsustainable? Will it happen before it’s too late? Climate change is only one of our contemporary crises. We also inhabit a world in which militarism has penetrated into the cultural fabric, leading historically open and democratic nations to compromise and even violate their founding principles and turning “security” into a key problem of our time. The US war on terror, which has no clear goal or foreseeable end point, has underwritten repressive and violent activities around the globe while contributing to a debt crisis in the federal government and creating rampant insecurity at home. In Israel, fear of terrorist violence led the government to build a snaking fence around the territories, locking out Palestinians but walling in itself. Where will this mounting anxiety take us? How will different states or communities “do” security, and what will such projects require citizens to give or give up.

COntents Sept. 1st Tuesday Dienstag | Martes | Mardi How expensive would be going to Hogwarts? Page 06 —13 Sept. 3rd Thursday Donnerstag | Jueves | Jeudi How Clueless Became a 90’s Classic. Page 14 — 15

Sept. 10th Thursday Donnerstag | Jueves | Jeudi Checks and Whales and Conventions. Page 20 — 21

Sept. 12th Saturday Samstag | Sábado | Samedi Surviving Picasso; A Review. Page 23

Sept. 13th Sunday Sonntag | Domingo | Dimanche Roald Dahl’s 99th Anniversary. Page 24 — 27

Sept. 6th Sunday Sonntag | Domingo | Dimanche Goodfellas; A Review. Page 17

Sept. 8th Tuesday Donnerstag | Martes | Mardi Batman Day. Page 18

Sept. 9th Wednesday Mittwoch | Miércoles | Mercredi Citizen Kane. Page 18 — 19

Sept. 11th Friday Frietag | Viernes | Vendredi Apollo 13; A Review. Page 22

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Sept. 4th Friday Frietag | Viernes | Vendredi Roald Dahls 99th anniversary. Page 15

Sept. 5th Saturday Samstag | Sábado | Samedi A History of Violence; A Review. Page 16 Sept. 7th Monday Montag | Lunes | Lundi The Celebration of Hobbit day. Page 17

Sept. 2nd Wednesday Mittwoch | Miércoles | Mercredi How Clueless Became a 90’s Classic.

Sept. 14th Monday Montag | Lunes | Lundi How expensive would be going to Hogwarts? Page 27

Sept. 15th Tuesday Dienstag | Martes | Mardi Agatha Christie’s Death Anniversary. Page 28 — 29

Sept. 16th Wednesday Mittwoch | Miércoles | Mercredi How expensive would be going to Hogwarts? Page 29

Sept. 17th Thursday Donnerstag | Jueves | Jeudi How expensive would be going to Hogwarts? Page 30

Sept. 19th Saturday Samstag | Sábado | Samedi Spider-Man; A Review. Page 31

Sept. 20th Sunday Sonntag | Domingo | Dimanche The Girl With The Dragon Tatto. Page 32 — 33

Sept. 21th Monday Montag | Lunes | Lundi Hobbit Day. A Celebration. Page 34 — 35

Sept. 23th Wednesday Mittwoch | Miércoles | Mercredi How expensive would be going to Hogwarts? Page 36

Sept. 22th Tuesday Donnerstag | Martes | Mardi How expensive would be going to Hogwarts? Page 35

Sept. 24th Thursday Donnerstag | Jueves | Jeudi How expensive would be going to Hogwarts? Page 36

Sept. 25th Friday Frietag | Viernes | Vendredi Batman Day. Page 36 — 37

Sept. 27th Sunday Sonntag | Domingo | Dimanche Rock Star; A Review. Page 44

Sept. 18th Friday Frietag | Viernes | Vendredi Shaun of the Dead; A Review. Page 30

Sept. 26th Saturday Samstag | Sábado | Samedi Clara Bow and the Silent Queens. Page 38 — 43

Sept. 28th Monday Montag | Lunes | Lundii The Princess Bride; A Review. Page 45

Sept. 29th Tuesday Dienstag | Martes | Mardi The Usefull Uslessness of a Narrator Page 46 — 47

Sept. 30th Wednesday Mittwoch | Miércoles | Mercredi James Dean: 60 year Death Anniversary Page 48 — 49

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwup, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr Potter, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall Deputy Headmistress

How expensive would be going to Hogwarts The dream of one day getting a letter inviting us to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry doesn’t fade away in adulthood. We can still hope of attending Transfiguration classes and verbally sparring with our Potions professor, yes? If that’s still the dream, the price tag is one hell of a wake-up call. The idea of money is not particularly present in the Harry Potter series, largely because Harry himself has a near-infinite amount of it (he inherited a fortune from his parents). Any real concerns about financial status, usually examined through the Weasley family, get dismissed rather quickly. But with seven kids having gone through Hogwarts, the Weasleys were paying a small fortune.

“A Galleon would value at approximately seven dollars”

Exactly how much money would it cost to attend Hogwarts in American dollars? Thanks to J.K. Rowling, Pottermore and the Internet at large, we can figure out how much Muggle money you’ll be spending on your first year learning how to cast spells and look cute in a wizard’s hat. The answer: about $43,301 USD per year. Rowling once said one Galleon converts to “about five pounds.” Thanks to some sharp work by the team over at the Harry Potter fan wiki, we know that, converted to American currency, a Galleon would value at approximately seven dollars, and that will be our primary measurement. The hardest thing to figure out is tuition. Some insist tuition at Hogwarts is free, though the books are unclear either way. For the sake of this exercise, we’ll say that tuition must cost something. Multiple figures place the price around $42,000; we’ll take that number at face value. A first-year Hogwarts student is given a supply list for what to buy in Diagon Alley. Thanks to prices primarily found on Pottermore, Rowling’s expansion of the Potter universe, we can calculate the price of each individual item. Some are easy finds, like the price of Harry’s wand (seven galleons, $42) and a cauldron (15 galleons, $105). Others are cheap gets, like the $21 brass scales and glass phials (each 3 galleons), or the $35 telescope (5 galleons).

Cauldron, Find in: Potage’s Cauldron Shop

For the books, we have to use Pottermore’s inventory listing, calculating a first-year’s reading list to 13 galleons, or $91. There’s no reliable data about clothing, so we’ll use a Visually estimate based on comparable items on Amazon to price it at $576. Finally, while other owls’ prices are listed on Pottermore, Harry’s rare snowy owl isn’t priced. Judging by the fact that it seems quite a bit rarer than the 10- and 15-galleon birds, we’ll estimate it at 20 galleons, or $140. Combined with the $42,000 tuition estimate, the total cost to attend Hogwarts as a first-year comes to $43,031. That’s quite a bit of cash for the Weasleys to have spent seven times over. Even for someone like Hermione Granger, whose parents were dentists, $43,000 a year is a hefty number, placing Hogwarts among the 50 most expensive schools in the United States. We have to assume that if Hogwarts does charge tuition, it offers some kind of financial aid to let all these students attend. Maybe a special program for Muggles to attend, or a legacy rate for the Weasleys? Without it, wizards-in-training and their parents would be left shouting “Accio scholarship.”

Doing the Math: How many kids are at Hogwarts When a student asked, Rowling “How many students attend Hogwarts, and how many students per year per house?” she replied, simply, “There are about a thousand students at Hogwarts.”And because she said it, this has persisted as the proper answer accepted by most fans. But I don’t see how that could be correct. So, let’s do the math. There are four houses at Hogwarts, so if there are 1000 students, that means each house has 250 students in it (1000 divided by 4). There are 7 years at Hogwarts. So, if there are 250 students in each house, that means there are approximately 36 students in each year in each house (250 divided by 7 equals 35.7). That means, if we assume there are approximately the same number of boys and girls in each year, that there are approximately 18 boys in Harry’s year. But besides Harry, throughout all seven books, we’ve only ever seen four others (Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean).And, we’ve Plain Black Pointed Hat, Find in: Second-hand Robes

seen McGonagall call all her students into the Gryffindor common room for important announcements. I can see 70 kids stuffed into that room, but 250?

“But I don’t see how that could be correct.”

There is an image from Sorcerer’s Stone, from the sorting feast, the second before food appears on the table, and on some of the rows you can quite clearly count the number of empty plates on the tables. In the rows that can be completely counted, there are 33 plates on each side of the table, which would make 66 students per table. Even if that shot is not of the complete dining hall floor, it is certainly most of it, and even if there are few plates in the foreground that we cannot see, it still places the number of students per table in the 66-70 range. I believe there are, indeed, 70 students at each table. Here is how I calculate the Hogwarts math: We know that there are, including Harry, five Gryffindor boys in Harry’s year at Hogwarts. Assuming that there are the same number of girls as boys, that means there are 10 students in Harry’s year in Gryffindor at Hogwarts. Since there are 7 years, that means there are 70 Gryffindor students total at Hogwarts, and since there are 4 houses, that means there are only 280 students all together at Hogwarts. Quite a different number than J.K.’s thousand. The number of students in our double potions class now makes a lot more sense, 10 Gyrffindors and 10 Slytherins makes 20 students, a very normal student class size, especially for a “lab” kind of course. Another scene in the movie kind of agrees with my Hogwarts math. This is the scene where the first years are following Percy up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower for the first time. If you look closely, not counting Percy who is right-most in the picture, there are 13 students. A few more than the 10 in my math, but a lot closer to my number than the 36 in J.K.’s count.So, if there are only 280 students at Hogwarts, how does that speak to the general population count of Wizards to Muggles? If there are only 280 kids in Hogwarts, how many wizarding families could there be in Britain? Or is it possible there are other wizarding schools besides Hogwarts?

Dark Arts Defence: Basics for Begginers, Find in: Obscurus Books

Charms | First year Taught by Filius Flitwick

Dance Class | Fourth year Taught by Minerva Mcgonagall

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“Yeah, you could help me with something. Come over here. Every time that you see a telephone conversation that took place on September third, highlight it. Just September third.” —Mel Horowitz, Clueless

How Clueless Became an Iconic 90s Classic — Artur Martínez Clueless was a movie mean to become iconic. Amy Heckerling’s high school flick became a staple for this subgenre and created barely all of the troopes that are still today used in high school fiction, wheter it’s tv or movies. It’s protagonist was already iconic: Heckerling saw Alicia Silverstone on the Aerosmith videoclip for Cryin’ and choose her inmediately for the role. Silverstone and Heckerling built the most over the top teenager movie to date, and filled it with extremely original scenes that defined the bizzare world that is private school. It’s really interesting to watch this movie looking up to find theese troopes that have become musts in similar works. My personal favourite is the walk throught recess pointing out the diferent tribes that inhabit the school, the AV nerds, the useless stoners, the drama club...and then the popular girls who are, almost literally, too cool for school. There’s also the classic debate class, which usually works fine for exposition on the characters ways to think, the alchohol-and-drugs flooded parties in two stories houses with high ceilings and a pool, the driving exam crisis and the rich kids having surgery on their noses. Clueless also got to encapsulate en era. On it’s form, on it’s way, and on it’s aspirations, this movie breathes the ninetees and fed from it, while also helping define a part of it’s youth. An astounding symbiosis that used 53 diferent kinds of plaid to take the movie to the hall of fame in which is preserved now.

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2005 A History of Violence David Cronenberg David Cronenberg says his title A History of Violence has three levels: It refers to a suspect with a long history of violence; to the historical use of violence as a means of settling disputes, and to the innate violence of Darwinian evolution, in which better-adapted organisms replace those less able to cope. “I am a complete Darwinian,” says Cronenberg, whose new film is in many ways about the survival of the fittest. A History of Violence seems deceptively straightforward, coming from a director with Cronenberg’s quirky complexity. But think again. This is not a movie about plot, but about character. It is about how people turn out the way they do, and about whether the world sometimes functions like a fool’s paradise. I never give a moment’s thought about finding water to drink. In New Orleans a few weeks ago, would I have been willing to steal from stores or fight other people for drinkable water? Yes, if it meant life for myself and my family. But I probably would have failed.

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1990 Goodfellas Martin Scorsese

GoodFellas is a memoir of life in the Mafia, narrated in the first person by Henry Hill, a kid whose only ambitionwas to be a “wise guy,” a Mafioso. There is also narration by Karen, the girl who married him, who absorbs the Mafia values once she’s in. Scorsese is the right director for this material. He knows it inside out. The great experience of his life was growing up in New York’s Little Italy as an outsider who observed everything - an asthmatic kid who couldn’t play sports, whose health was too bad to allow him to lead a normal childhood, who was often overlooked, but never missed a thing. A tale about guilt more than anything else. But it is not a straightforward morality play, in which good is established and guilt is the appropriate reaction toward evil. No, the hero of this film feels guilty for not upholding the Mafia code - guilty of the sin of betrayal. And his punishment is banishment, into the witness protection program, where nobody has a name and the headwaiter certainly doesn’t know it.

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DISSOLVE IN: INT. CITY ROOM - ENQUIRER BUILDING - DAY The whole floor is now a City Room. It is twice its former size, yet not too large for all the desks and the people using them. The windows have been enlarged, providing a good deal more light and air. A wall calendar says September 9th. BERNSTEIN (with a hopeful look in his eyes) Well, he’ll be coming back in September. The Majestic. I got the reservations. It gets in on the ninth. LELAND September the ninth? Leland puts his hand in his pocket, pulls out a pencil and small engagement book, opens the book and starts to write. Leland’s pencil writing on a page in the engagement book open to September 9: “Rector’s 8:30 p.m.” DISSOLVE:

Checks and Whales and Conventions When Jeffrey Lebowski went to buy milk, he payed the 69 cents it costed on a check, meant to be cashed on 9/11. Little did the Coen Brothers know how important that date would become, and how that would twist the meaning of their joke. In a similar fashion, little knew the public how important this movie would become with time. This apparently dumb comedy became one of the biggest movies on the directors carreer, and a massive hit. Part of this success comes from it’s obsessive attention on details, all serving some purpose. Many of theese details define the main character. Jeff Bridges wore his own clothes to be as easygoing as The Dude, and he would change his acting depending on wheter the character had smoked on the scene or not, rubbing his eyes to simulate the bloodshot. The movie is full of characters, all of them are extremely detailed. John Goodman’s Walter proves his militar attitude by not removing his glasses more than once, and by running a company called Sobchak Security. Steve Buscemi’s character is ignored in such a level, The Dude only actually speaks to him twice. He’s constantly told to shut up due to his interpretation in Fargo, where heis a chatterbox. Even John Turturro’s character Jesus, which appears only twice, is carefully defined, showing a generous buldge when he tells his neighbours he’s a sexual offender. All theese details allowed the Coen to create a universe so strambotic and rich that allowed it’s crazy characters to make a sense of themselves, thus making a movie that is celebrated by fans every year in a convention only for one film, the “Lebowski Fest”.

The Big Lebowski The Coen Brothers

1995 Apollo 13 Ron Howard Apollo 13 never really states its theme, except perhaps in one sentence of narration at the end, but the whole film is suffused with it: The space program was a really extraordinary thing, something to be proud of, and those who went into space were not just heroes. Ron Howard’s film of this mission is directed with a single-mindedness and detail that makes it riveting. He doesn’t make the mistake of adding subplots to popularize the material; he knows he has a great story, and he tells it in a docudrama that feels like it was filmed on location. He’s become a director who specializes in stories involving large groups of characters but paid attention to the individual human stories involved; they were a triumph of construction, indeed, in keeping many stories afloat and interesting. This is a powerful story, told with great clarity and remarkable technical detail, and acted without pumped-up histrionics. It’s about men trained to do a job, and doing a better one than anyone could have imagined.

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1996 Surviving Picasso James Ivory

Pablo Picasso was one of the more notorious lovers of the century, a man who did not disrespect women so much as value them highly as replaceable possessions. His first love was art, his second love was himself, his third love was what women could do for him. During the decades of his greatness there was no shortage of women eager to see it his way. One of the perennial dilemmas of movie biographies is that it is easy to film gossip and hard to film art. Thus we get great artists who spend vast quantities of time in bed, leaping up occasionally to dash off a painting, when in real life it was probably more a case of hours spent at work, and then a quick leap into the sack. There is much to admire in Surviving Picasso, especially in Hopkinsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performance and in the flashes that all of the supporting characters bring. But when it is over we are left with the conclusion that if Picasso had not been a great artist, this story would not have much mattered; as a beast toward women, he was nothing special.

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Roald Dahl 99th anniversary

Roald Dahl inspired so many people to create their own magic, whimsical, kid-friendly worlds. And we have reasons to believe it will keep inspiring more generations, as a new version of Mathilda, based on the musical, based on the book, is scheduled for 2019.

On this date we celebrate Roald Dahl birth’s century. When he was 13, back in Repton School in Derbyshire, his English teacher reported that they had never met anybody who so persistently wrote words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended. Little did they know back then that he would become one of the most recognizable and multifaceted writers on modern times. Even if back then he was getting the biggest inspiration on his work: his childhood memories. Most of his literature is based around his childhood, his friends, his mother, his education...even his love for chocolate would turn into a novel and two features, one during his lifetime, and one after his death. Even stranger was the way his work, that started in poetry and novels, ended up in movies and TV shows, how his characters became alive, not only in the imagination of his readers, but in film. Roald Dahl had a career on visual narrative himself. He worked on several tv shows, on satirical programs like That Was the Week That Was, on horror shows like Way Out, that aired before Twilight Zone, or even on adaptations of his own shorts like Tales of the Unexpected. Probably, his most famous work in TV was collaborating on some Alfred Hitchcock Presents’s chapters. After all, Dahl was as good creating whimsical 24

stories for kids as humorously cruel tales for adults. But the most bizzarre part of his career is his work as a screenwriter for some major Hollywood films. It’s also mostly unknown. For starters, Joe Dante wasn’t the first person to concieve a movie about gremlins. 40 years before, Walt Disney Productions and Roald Dahl were working on a movie that never came to be. Even if the movie never happened, there was a book, one of the first pieces he wrote for kids. He also did the whole script for You Only Live Twice, completely rethinking the plot using mainly only characters and locations from the original novel. Part of the team of the movie also worked with him on the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, also loosely inspired on a Ian Fleming’s novel. The movie was as inoffensive as uninspired, but one of the most praised parts was Dahl’s script, already showing his hability to appeal children with his quircky imaginery. It seems he was confortable vaguely adaptating other people novels, since he’s next movie screenplay was exactly that. The Road Builder was his version of Nest in a Fallen Tree by Joy Cowley, and it was also pretty forgettable. So we can only assume at this point he throught, if he wanted to make something big, he had to use some of his own movies: cue Willy Wonka

and the Chocolate Factory, the first feature of one of his novels. Actually it wasn’t even his idea. Director Mel Stuart’s daughter read the book and told his father it was good. His producer was working with a candy brand at the time to introduce a new candy and they decide to buy the rights for the book and use it to sell chocolates. That’s why they changed the name to Willy Wonka instead of Charlie, and that’s why Dahl ultimately dissed the movie. He disagreed on the change of focus, and decided to never again do a film of his books. But his work was so strong, and his characters, so memorable, it was a matter of time someone would try to make movies of his novels. In 1989, Anjelica Huston gave life to the Grand High Witch in Witches. The dark tone in the movie didn’t appeal Dahl and he asked fot the title to be changed, as well as his association to it, but finally allowed it’s screening under that name. It was screened on september 1990, barely 3 months after the death of Roald Dahl. This would be the last movie made during his lifetime, but there was still plenty of potential in his work to make cinema history. It wouldn’t be until 6 years later that we would see another Dahl movie. It’s considered to be one of the best versions of his books, and probably the best example of most of his tropes. Matilda, fitingly directed by Danny DeVito showcased the contrast between the imaginative and smart kids and the flat, almost tyranic adults. It was whimsical, original, and as quircky as it could. Even if the movie gets a lot of backlash nowadays (as anything goofy from the 90’s), it exploded on it’s moment, and it’s greatly admired between Dahl’s fan. That same year, Nightmare Before Chirstmas’s director Henry Selick made a live version/stop motion version of James and the Giant Peach. Dahl himself knew about this movie and even wrote the lyrics for the songs, although he didn’t believe it would ever be done, taking over 12 years in production. 6

years after Dahl death, Selick finished the movie, and the result was... interesting, to say the least. The trailer praises “a bizzare world, where anything can happen”. And that’s pretty much it, impressive character and world design, but little to no sense made in all the movie. Roald Dahl’s legacy goes further than his books, or his scripts. He created an imagery that has inspired kids and adults for years. As cliché as it might sound, the implementation of his work on basic education turns his ideas into concepts all kids in the world celebrate now. In a similar manner.

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Matilda

Willy Wonka

1996 Matilda by Dani Devito

1976 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory by Mel Stuart

Eva Ernst 1990 The Witches by Nicolas Rohel

Willy Wonka 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Tim Burton

James 1996 James and the Giant Peach by Henry Selick

Mr Fox 2006 Fantastic Mr. Fox by Wes Anderson

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Agatha Christie’s anniversary Hercule Poirot made his debut on film in the 1931 movie Alibi, based on the stage play of the same name. The play was adapted by Michael Morton from the novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Poirot was played by Austin Trevor as a tall handsome detective, the most complete opposite in appearance from Agatha Christie’s creation. Interestingly enough, Trevor played Poirot two more times, in Black Coffee -again in 1931- and Lord Edgware Dies in 1934. Black Coffee was originally a play Agatha Christie wrote herself after Morton had done Alibi. The next time we see Poirot is in the cinema with The Alphabet Murders in 1966, starring Tony Randall as Poirot. The role of Poirot was to be for Zero Mostel, but Agatha Christie objected to his casting and the script, which even called for a bedroom scene for the dapper detective! On a better note, Austin Trevor visited the set during filming and Margaret Rutherford made a cameo appearance in the film. Peter Ustinov returned as Poirot in another production, this time by Universal of Evil Under the Sun, premiering in 1982. The movie also starred Diana Rigg, James Mason, and Roddy McDowall. The director of the movie was Guy Hamilton, also director of Bond movies like Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, and Live and Let Die. Another theatrical release of a Poirot movie came in 1988, starring Ustinov again as Poirot. This was Appointment With Death, this time an EMI production, also starring Carrie Fisher and Lauren Bacall. Ustinov wasn’t done, however, with portraying the Belgian detective. He appeared as Poirot in three made-for-television movies: Thirteen at Dinner, Dead Man’s Folly, and Murder in Three Acts. The next TV movie of Ustinov’s was Dead Man’s Folly, again by Warner Bros. and shown in 1986. The last of the Ustinov movies was Murder in Three Acts in 1986 (based on Three-Act Tragedy). It starred Jonathan Cecil and Tony Curtis. Instead of the setting being in England, it was changed to Acapulco. The most recent actor portraying Hercule Poirot is the English actor David Suchet, with many agreeing his portrayal of the Belgian detective as the definitive one. Suchet began filming in 1988 the program Agatha Christie’s Poirot for London Weekend Television. In preparation for his portrayal of Poirot, Suchet read every short story and everything Christie wrote about the detective. He has done an exceptional job in being faithful to Poirot’s character. David Suchet was television’s Hercule Poirot from 1989 to 2013, in 70 episodes of Agatha Christie’s Poirot. He is shown here from the televised adaptation of Three Act Tragedy. 29

18 2004 Shaun of the Dead Edgar Wright

The movie is a new British comedy about clueless layabouts whose lives center on the pub; for them, the zombies represent not a threat to civilization as we know it, but an interference with valuable drinking time. Best buddies Shaun and Ed lead a band of survivors to the obvious stronghold: the Winchester, their local. It has its pleasures, which are mild but real. I like the way the slacker characters maintain their slothful gormlessness in the face of urgent danger, and I like the way the British bourgeois values of Shaunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mum and dad assert themselves even in the face of catastrophe. There is also that stubborn British courage in times of trouble. Good thing the movie is about more than zombies. I am by now more or less exhausted by the cinematic possibilities of killing them. George Romeo, who invented the modern genre was essentially devising video game targets before there were video games: They pop up, you shoot them or bang them on the head with a bat. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more fun sitting in the dark eating peanuts.

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1987 Spider-Man Rob Reiner

Imagine Superman with a Clark Kent more charismatic than the Man of Steel, and you’ll understand how Spider-Man goes wrong. Tobey Maguire is perfect as the socially retarded Peter Parker, but when he becomes Spider-Man, the film turns to action sequences that zip along like perfunctory cartoons. Remember the first time you saw the characters defy gravity in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? They transcended gravity, but they didn’t dismiss it: They seemed to possess weight, dimension and presence. Spider-Man as he leaps across the rooftops is landing too lightly, rebounding too much like a bouncing ball. He looks like a video game figure, not like a person having an amazing experience. I have one question about the Peter Parker character: Does the movie go too far with his extreme social paralysis? Peter tells Mary Jane he just wants to be friends. “Only a friend?” she repeats. “That’s all I have to give,” he says. How so? Impotent? Spidey-sense has skewed his sexual instincts? Afraid his hands will get stuck?

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The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo David Fincher Sometimes, but not often enough, American directors get European remakes right. Such is the case with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, in which filmmaker David Fincher revisits twisted serial-killer turf in a hypnotic land of ice and snow. Fincher’s electrifying storytelling makes the most of unsettling visuals, large casts, complex plots and sharp dialogue. His fascination with dark material and masterful technical skills serve him well in the remake of 2009’s Swedish-language Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, based on the popular pulp thriller. This first in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy was the best of the three Swedish-made films, and the tautly stylish American version compares favorably with the original adaptation. Even though the story is familiar — the book sold 65 million copies — Fincher’s take on the creepy yarn has his unmistakable stamp, starting with the opening credits. An evocative mood, haunting music and exceptional ensemble cast — is superbly sinister. Fincher handles the most lurid aspects deftly, capturing menace and grim despair in the frosty Scandinavian landscape.

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21 Hobbit Day

Happy Birthday to Bilbo and Frodo Baggins! Celebrating defines the Hobbits way of living. Want to know how to live it up like they do?

Food

A Hobbit eats seven times a day -the breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner and supper-, so they spend most of their day either eating or geting ready to do so. On celebrations, meals become more copious, heavier, longer, and sometimes they become just one impressive meal that takes all day long. They live from the earth, and enjoy simple foods, such as vegetables, potatoes, meat, and so. They also like wheat products, biscuits, cakes, and a lot of bread. But none of these compares to the Hobbits favourite food: mushrooms. They live in moisty areas, so their diet include a lot of fungus. If you take care of them, they can be really tasty, and Hobbit’s take a lot of care in their crops. Overall, farm life is one of the things they enjoy the most, since it’s just a really peacefull activity. The young ones also like to hunt them in nature, and cook them. Just because they like simple food doesn’t mean they don’t elaborate it. Hobbits enjoy cooking as much as eating: remember that conversation between Gollum and Sam on how to eat the rabbits they hunt? Sam isn’t ready to eat undercooked food even on their way to Mordor. With all these, the Hobbits are almost ready to party. There’s only one last element to get into the celebrating mood: the alcohol. Even if they aren’t as heavy drinkers as the midgets or the elves, they still enjoy it, and brew ale and other kinds of beers and low grade alcohol. With all these ingredients, one can feast just like in the Shire, in honor to the most famous Hobbits on history.

Pipe-weed Mathom

Birthday’s are special days, for both the celebrated and their guests. This is why, in The Shire’s tradition, it’s usual for the birthday boy to give something to their close ones. This little gifts, the mathoms, are usually little objects that are just a little too unusual or interesting to throw away, but have little to no practical use. Items in this situation are usually gifted as a sign of good will, and cluttered the hobbits lairs. Because they recieved many mathoms a year, everyone owned lots of them, and it was frequent to give the mathoms you recieved to someone else on your birthday. Eventually, this items that traveled through many houses ended up on the House of Mathom, a sort of museum where everyone could enjoy theese popular items. Some examples of good mathoms were small weapons, carved toys, smoking paraphernalia like pipes, and at some point Bilbo’s mithril coat.

Crops in The Shire aren’t just for food and beer. Even since Tobold Hornblower imported Halflings’ Leafs in the year 1070 -Shire Calendar-, these dry leaves became part of the Hobbits culture. Halflings Leafs are very similar to tobacco leaves, but famous around the world for their really sweet scent and flavour. Of course it’s not only a great scent, it also has relaxing properties which are very appealing to the calm Hobbits. On the other hand, they are really good at gardening and farming, so the whole process of producing and consuming these weeds on a pipe really stuck all across the Shire. As it became more and more popular, diferent species of leaves were discovered, such as Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby (in honor to Tobold Hornblower), Southern Star, and Southlinch. It got so integrated into the Hobbit’s life, it even passed to their mage friend, Gandalf, and later to Saruman. Gandalf was so close to them and to their parties, he became a key on the traditional celebrations. As a mage, he brought amazing fireworks to end the day, and he also learned to make impressive rings with the smoke of the pipe-weed, which was amusing to the Hobbits.

BATM DAY More than 70 years ago on 1939 Batman appeared for the first time on a comic book. Fans around the world reunite to celebrate one of the most famous vigilantes in fiction.

Burton’s Era

If we take Batman as an over the top character by nature, Burton’s probablly the most equilibrated one. Burton did his best and created a neogothic Gotham with an expressionist feel that really set the mood for the whole thrilogy. At it’s time, it was considered too much gritty and violent for a comic character. It also showed us what made Batman interesting: his charismatic enemies. Jack Nicholson’s joker DeVito’s Penguin, and Michelle Pfeiffer’s catwoman were the choosen antagonists for his movies, and had some awesome, grim designs They actually felt like an extension of the city itself, which was reshaped when they attacked, getting frozen when the Penguin attacked, or just trashed by the Joker’s harlequins. Even if Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne wasn’t very charismatic, he still played the role with dignity. On Roger Ebert’s words: “Batman is a triumph of design over story, style over substance, a great-looking movie with a plot you can’t care much about.” Such a great design was rewarded with an Oscar to Batman’s Art Directors Anton Furst and Peter Young, and and also 2 Oscars for Batman Returns, to Visual Effects and Best Make Up.

Schumache E 36

MAN Nolan’s Era

er’s Era

If Schumacher wen’t fully over the top, Christopher Nolan went full serious on his try to breath new life to the franchise. His trilogy was much more sober, with simpler designs, way cleaner than the anterior versions. The city is dark, but it looks fairly similar to any real actual city. They also have less characters and tends to explore all of them a little more. Nolan’s vision of Batman is widely considered the best one, since it has a more evolved plot, closer to the thriller rather than to a superheroes movie. But it isn’t without it’s flaws. The Batman universe is a little goofy, so taking it too seriously creates some weird swifts in tone, and it’s action scenes can be hard to follow, and not as obvious as the ones in the first movies. To the very least, it’s clear The Dark Knight thrilogy was a great success and revamped Batman’s image. Specially The Dark Knight, which won two major Oscars: Best Suporting Role, to Heath Ledger’s Joker, and Best Sound Editing.

Schumacher followed the saga, and answering to the critics saying it was too violent, he turned the movies to a more cartoon-style tone. Other than that, he followed Burton’s path, but taking everything extremely over the top. And we mean extremely. Gotham became a monolythic monster filled with gigantic statues made of cardboard and outdated CGI. Theese movies had a huge amount of antagonists, and added Robin and a Batgirl. Everyone had more extreme designs, and acting. That includes casting Jim Carrey and a punfull Arnold Swarzenegger. And let’s not forget the infamous adition of Batnipples on the suit! The corny jokes and gravity-defying stuns added to the cheap feel of the flick. Overall, Batman Forever and specially Batman & Robin were widelly considered a failure, although it’s a big guilty pleasure to many, it’s so dumb it’s good! That didn’t save them to be nominated to the Razzie Awards: Worst Original Song for Batman Forever and Worst Movie, as well as prizes to half the cast, for Batman & Robin.

Clara Bow and the Silent Queens In a day like today we lost an actress who helped to stablish women in Hollywood, and to define stardoom as a concept. But she wasn’t the only one: all these names were fundamental to stablish Hollywood’s star system.

Destined to become the flapper of the 1920’s, Clara Bow was born and raised in poverty in Brooklyn, New York, on July 29, 1905. Her family was also beset with violence. Her mother tried to slit Clara’s throat when she attempted to enter the film industry. She won a photo beauty contest which launched her movie career that would eventually number 58 films, from 1922 to 1933. It was the movie It (1927), which was to define her career. She, too, was probably the most overworked and underpaid star in the industry. After that, she made a couple of attempts to get back in the public eye after a couple of battles in court. One was Call Her Savage in 1932. It was somewhat of a failure at the box office and her last was in 1933 in a film called Hoop-La. She married Rex Bell and retired from at the age of 28. She was a doting mother of her two sons and would do anything to please them. She never entered show business again. Clara was confined to a sanitarium from time to time, and died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on 1965. She was 60 years old. Today she is finding a renaissance among movie buffs.

Lillian Gish

October 14, 1893 — February 27, 1993 Lillian Gish was born into a broken family where her restless father James Lee Gish was frequently absent. Mary Gish, her mother, had entered into acting to make money to support the family. As soon as Lillian and her sister Dorothy were old enough, they became part of the act. In 1912, they met fellow child actress Mary Pickford, and she got them extra work with Biograph films. Director D.W. Griffith was impressed by Lillian, who he saw as a exquisitely fragile, ethereal beauty. Lillian became one of Griffith’s greatest stars. She appeared in features such as The Birth of a Nation or The Yellow Man and the Girl. She was known as ‘The First Lady of the Silent Screen’. After 13 years with Griffith, Lillian went to MGM. Her new contract gave her control over the type of picture, the director, the supporting lead and the cameraman. In the late 20s, Lillian’s star began to wane and sound pictures became the rage with the viewing public. Lillian would resist the new sound pictures as she believed that silent pictures had a greater power and impact on audiences. So Lillian was released by MGM in 1928 and went back to the stage and was a great success. Lillian never forgot D.W. Griffith, even when everyone else in Hollywood did. She helped care for the ailing Griffith and his wife until Griffith died. In the forties she again appeared in a handful of ‘talkies’ and received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as Laura Belle McCanles in Duel in the Sun. In 1970 she received a special Academy Award ‘for superlative artistry and distinguished contributions to the progress of motion pictures’. Her last film was The Whales of August in which she shared the lead with Bette Davis.

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Theda Bara

July 29, 1885 — April 7, 1955 The origin of Bara’s stage name is disputed; The Guinness Book of Movie Facts and Feats says it came from director Frank Powell, who learned Theda had a relative named Barranger, and that Theda was a childhood nickname. In promoting Cleopatra, Fox Studio publicists noted that the name was an anagram of Arab death, and her press agents claimed inaccurately that she was “the daughter of an Arab sheik and a French woman, born in the Sahara.” Bara is often cited as the first sex symbol of the movies. She was well known for wearing very revealing costumes in her films. Such outfits were banned from Hollywood films after the Production Code started in 1930, and then was more strongly enforced in 1934. It was popular at that time to promote an actress as mysterious, with an exotic background. The studios promoted Bara with a massive publicity campaign, billing her as the Egyptian-born daughter of a French actress and an Italian sculptor. They claimed she had spent her early years in the Sahara Desert under the shadow of the Sphinx, then moved to France to become a stage actress. They called her the Serpent of the Nile and encouraged Bara to discuss mysticism and the occult in interviews. Some film historians point to this as the birth of two Hollywood phenomena: the studio publicity department and the press agent, which would later evolve into the public relations person. Bara is one of the most famous completely silent stars – she never appeared in a sound film, lost or otherwise. A 1937 fire at Fox’s nitrate film storage vaults in New Jersey destroyed most of that studio’s silent films. Bara made more than forty films between 1914 and 1926, but complete prints of only six still exist.

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Louise Brooks

November 14, 1906 — August 8, 1985 Mary Louise Brooks, also known by her childhood name of Brooksie, was born in the midwestern town of Cherryvale, Kansas, on November 14, 1906. She began dancing at an early age with the Denishawn Dancers (which was how she left Kansas and went to New York) and then with George White’s Scandals before joining the Ziegfeld Follies, but became one of the most fascinating and alluring personalities ever to grace the silver screen. She was always compared to her Lulu role in Pandora’s Box, which was filmed in 1928. Her performances in A Girl in Every Port and Beggars of Life, both filmed in 1928, proved to all concerned that Louise had real talent. She became known, mostly, for her bobbed hair style. Thousands of women were attracted to that style and adopted it as their own. As you will note by her photographs, she was no doubt the trend setter of the 1920s with her Buster Brown-Page Boy type hair cut, much like today’s women imitate stars. Because of her dark haired look and being the beautiful woman that she was, plus being a modern female, she was not especially popular among Hollywood’s clientle. She just did not go along with the norms of the film society. Louise really came into her own when she left Hollywood for Europe. There she appeared in a few German productions which were very well made and continued to prove she was an actress with an enduring talent. Until she ended her career in film in 1938, she had made only 25 movies. After that, she spent most of her time reading and painting. She also became an accomplished writer, authoring a number of books, including her autobiography. On August 8, 1985, Louise died of a heart attack in Rochester, New York. She was 78 years old.

Marion Davies

January 3, 1897 — September 22, 1961 Marion Davies, born Marion Cecilea Douras on January 3, 1897, was one of the great comedic actresses of the silent era and into the 30’s. She began as a chorus girl in New York, first in the pony follies and later in the Ziegfield Follies. Her stage name came when she and her family passed the Davies Insurance Building. One of her sisters called out “Davies!!! That shall be my stage name,” and the whole family took on that name. When Marion moved to California, she was already involved with William Randolph Hearst. They lived together at Hearst’s San Simeon castle, a very elaborate mansion. At San Simeon, they threw very elaborate parties, many of them costume parties. Frequent guests included Carole Lombard, Mary Pickford, Sonja Henie, Dolores del Rio - basically all of top names in Hollywood and other celebrities including the mayor of New York City, President Calvin Coolidge and Charles Lindbergh. When Hearst died, Marion did not really know what was going on. The night before, there had been a lot of people in the house. Marion was very upset by the large crowd of family and friends. She said it was too noisy and were disturbing Hearst by talking so loud. She was upset and had to be sedated. When she woke, her niece, Patricia Van Cleve Lake, and her husband, Arthur Lake, told her that Hearst was dead. Upon Patricia’s death, it was revealed she had been the love child of Davies and Hearst. Marion was banned from Hearst’s funeral. Marion started lots of charities including a children’s clinic that is still operating today. She was very generous and was loved by everyone who knew her. She went through a lot, even getting polio in the 1940’s. She developed cancer of the jaw and died in 1961.

Mary Pickford

April 8, 1892 — May 29, 1979 Pickford was married three times. She married Owen Moore, a silent film actor on 1911. The couple lived together on-and-off for several years. Pickford became secretly involved in a relationship with Douglas Fairbanks. . Pickford divorced Moore on 1920, after she agreed to his $100,000 demand for a settlement, and married Fairbanks shortly after. They went to Europe for their honeymoon; fans caused riots trying to get to the famous couple. The Mark of Zorro and other swashbucklers gave the popular Fairbanks a heroic image. Pickford continued to epitomize the virtuous but fiery girl next door. She and her husband were often referred to as “Hollywood royalty”. Heads of state who visited the White House often asked if they could also visit Pickfair, the couple’s mansion. Dinners there included a number of notable guests, like Charlie Chaplin. The public nature of Pickford’s second marriage strained it to the breaking point. They were also constantly on display as America’s unofficial ambassadors to the world, leading parades and making speeches. When their film careers both began to founder at the end of the silent era, Fairbanks’ restless nature prompted him to overseas travel. When Fairbanks’ romance with Lady Ashley became public in the early 1930s, he and Pickford separated. They divorced in 1936. On 1937, Pickford married her third and last husband, actor and band leader Buddy Rogers. They adopted two children: Roxanne and Ronald Charles. Pickford’s relationship with her children was tense. Both children later said their mother was too self-absorbed to provide real maternal love. In 2003, Ronnie recalled that “Things didn’t work out that much, you know. But I’ll never forget her. I think that she was a good woman.”

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2001 Rock Star Stephen Herek Rock is a business like any other, and musicians are businessmen, and what goes on behind the scenes isn’t always pretty. We know this, and we don’t want to know this. Rock Star is a movie about a copy machine repairman who becomes the lead singer in a famous heavy metal band, and somehow with that premise it should be more fun than it is. Instead, it’s a morality play with morose undertones, and for the second movie in a row after Planet of the Apes. Here is Mark Wahlberg looking like he doesn’t enjoy being out front. We follow Izzy’s adventures as a lead singer; he falls down a flight of stairs on his first entrance, and makes a good impression by singing while blood runs down his forehead. Eventually we, and he, understand that who can be hired can be fired. Timothy Spall anchors this section of the film with his observant, solid performance as the manager, who sees all, knows all, tolerates all until it affects the box office.

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1987 Princess Bride Rob Reiner

The Princess Bride begins as a story that a grandfather is reading out of a book, but his voice seems to contain a measure of cynicism about fairy stories, a certain awareness that there are a lot more things on heaven and Earth than have been dreamed of by the Brothers Grimm. The movie reveals itself as a sly parody of sword and sorcery movies, a film that somehow manages to exist on two levels at once: While younger viewers will sit spellbound at the thrilling events on the screen, adults, I think, will be laughing a lot. In its own peculiar way, The Princess Bride resembles This Is Spinal Tap an earlier film by the same director, Rob Reiner, who does justice to the underlying form of his stories. The Princess Bride is an adapteation by William Goldman from his own novel, inspired by the memories of the novels he read as a kid. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s filled with good-hearted fun, with performances by actors who seem to be smacking their lips and by a certain true innocence that survives all of Reinerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s satire.

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29 ‘‘

September 29th, 1997. It is exactly 11am. At the funfair, near the ghost train, the marshmallow twister is twisting. Meanwhile, on a bench in Villette Square, Félix Lerbier learns there are more links in his brain than atoms in the universe. Meanwhile, at the Sacré Coeur, the nuns are practising their backhand. The temperature is 24°C, humidity 70%, atmospheric pressure 990 millibars.

’’

— Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Le fabulex destin d’Amelie Pouland

The useful uselessness of a narrator With those words Jean Pierre Junet closes the epic tale that is Le Fabulexes Destin d’Amelie Poulain. A history of self-discovery, the narration of an epiphany. In a way, a movie about nothing. If we take a classic screenwriting approach when looking into Amelie, we may find trouble defining it’s estructure and narration, it feels messy and pointless. The same happens if we try to explain to a friend what the movie is about; if we only look to the plot points, we’re probably running short. But it still works on film, and probably it’s the only medium where this story could have worked. Amelie is a movie that explores the psyque of a young girl, and uses every possible way to emphatitze it. Amelie is kind, quirky, imaginative, overall warm-hearted. But she’s also calculative, unfocused, and manipulative. Or so she belives, blinded by her characteristic innocent gaze. The movie also forgets about it’s narrative and creates instead a portrait of how she sees the world. It’s a big sacrifice, but you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. And it uses all it’s tricks to get the point across: the way the photography contrasts bright colors shows her cheerful vision; the way Audrey Tautou plays the character, meticulous when she moves, always excited and expecting on what’s next; the whimsical and charming OST, etc. But one of the most surprising tools used in this move is a narrator that doesn’t add up to the story. Usually used to tell us things the director can’t show, this one abuses his ominiscence. He exposes bits of information on the past of the characters and sometimes he’d just take the wheel to stress the feelings of one of the characters, what are they thinking, why are they feeling the way they are. The director shows us, but he also tells us. This contradiction of the golden rule in cinema -show, don’t tell- is what makes the movie, and this character, so special. The narrator is a projection of Amelie’s imagination and way of thinking. An ulterior personality that turns the every day life into grandiloquent events, that elevates the ordinary to awe-inspiring. Sometimes a simple life is big enough for an apassionate mind.

30 James Dean 60 year death anniversary

1955

James Dean’s place within American pop culture finds itself teetering past the point of golden aged nostalgia, and into the realm of iconicism. With regards to the younger generations, however, James Dean has transcended the man he was into a symbol. James Dean’s place within American pop culture finds itself teetering past the point of golden aged nostalgia, and into the realm of iconicism. With regards to the younger generations, however, James Dean has transcended the man he was into a symbol. The only issue is, is there going to be anyone to remember who the man truly was, and what started a nationwide adoration of the lost star? For the film industry as a whole, the burgeoning career of James Dean represented a dynamic shift. Along with contemporaries such as Marlon Brando, the acting ability of Dean, and the inner turmoil he so often emoted was a stark contrast to the male stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Instead of the stoic masculinity that defined classic heroes of cinema, think Humphrey Bogart in essentially any of his roles, Dean was able to, and quite possibly even more important, willing to show a vulnerability. He was not afraid to show the emotional pain that his characters felt. There was an innate sensitivity within his gestures and gesticulations, a softness within his voice. With his portrait of a troubled youth in the quintessential 1955 film RebelWithout a Cause, James Dean was able to capture the anxiety of a post war adolescence. As cinema’s Holden Caulfield, Dean was able to highlight the idea of teenage angst, of youthful indecision. With this in mind, it’s ironic that these are not the traits that James Dean is remembered for by today’s youth. In a quick survey of Florida State students, it is not the actor’s abilities that are remembered, but his image. Students remember the fashion sense, the

other worldly beauty, and the windswept hair that has dazzled generations. Women know the smoldering looks while men know the wild streak, the dynamic edge to a shining exterior. Yet, despite this limited knowledge of Dean, the tremors of his influence are still felt. Look around a college campus and you’ll see many men sporting the swept hair. Watch an early Brando film, a DiCaprio, a River Phoenix film, and understand the reverence, the gratitude they felt towards an actor that changed the way male characters could be portrayed. Maybe the most pertinent discovery when discussing James Dean is the infamy of his death. What does this mean, when the maybe most memorable part of someone’s life was his death, even sixty years later? Does it mean that we’ve lost the true sense of who the man truly was, or has it always been this way? With two of his three theatrical films released posthumously, was Dean’s legend built on the idea of what could have been? A fleeting talent, a voice cut short, James Dean represented the possibilities of a new future and cinema.Yet, though his talent was fleeting, his importance never was. It is here, on the 60th anniversary of the death of James Dean at only 24, that we are reminded of the legendary figure. Though his fame has grown past his acting talent, into that of a cultic figure, the legacy of his abilities still remains. His opus, Rebel Without a Cause, is a showcase of the man, the figure, the icon, and allows even modern audiences to realize the timelessness of James Dean. There is a man behind the image, a talent behind fame, it’s just up to us to remember it.

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