SPIDERS AND WATER: Two random links to things I haven’t read (entirely) yet! First, “Spiders,” a terrific comic about one possible alternate-future scenario for the war in Afghanistan. Haven’t finished yet, but it looks really, really interesting. Plays on all kinds of relevant themes–dynamist war being the most obvious one. The view of Islam seems a bit simplistic, but whatever. Go read it! –uh, when you’re done working, that is. And the New York Times has been running front-page stories... Read more

TRUFFAUT ON HITCHCOCK: One of the charges frequently leveled at Hitchcock is that the simplification inherent in his emphasis on clarity limits his cinematic range to almost childlike ideas. To my mind, nothing could be further from the truth; on the contrary, because of his unique ability to film the thoughts of his characters and make them perceptible without resorting to dialogue, he is, to my way of thinking, a realistic director. Hitchcock a realist? In cinema, as on the... Read more

MORE MURNAU: Over the weekend, I realized that I’d completely neglected to give Murnau props for the astonishing technical/artistic achievement of “The Last Laugh” (scroll down to previous Murnau post if you want to find my disses of the master): TLL is a silent film with no title cards. (Maybe one or two, but no more than that.) This means that the entire plot, all the inner life of the characters, everything we typically expect from dialogue, must be expressed... Read more

“Well, I’ve had enough of the unknown for one afternoon.” –Mara Corday, after facing off with a giant spider, in “Tarantula” Read more

IF YOU CAME HERE BECAUSE AMY WELBORN said unnecessarily nice things about this page, you want to scroll down to yesterday’s posts, and start with the one headed, “Faith.” It continues through several posts ending with “Final thoughts.” Read more

LET US MURNAU PRAISE FAMOUS MEN: Sorry! Sorry! Anyway, I got this email from a friend, in re this post: Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but to describe the camera work in The Last Laugh as “nothing special” is factually incorrect. There are at least two great shots in the film: the opening ride down the elevator, through the lobby, and out onto the street (cameraman on a bicycle), and a view through a window, down to a courtyard,... Read more

“THAT’S A LOT OF MAN YOU’RE CARRYING IN THOSE BOOTS, STRANGER” (John Carradine to Sterling Hayden, “Johnny Guitar”): So what brings you to this fair website? Is it any of these search requests, perchance? (You can find tons of hilarious, though sometimes very VERY off-color, search requests here.) “jonah goldberg annoying arrogant” “haiku marriage” Keep your pants zipped up/Unless you can face shotgun/With a diamond ring. How’s that? Or, It’s a sacrament/Not an excuse for your fam/To eat lots of... Read more

INTERESTING SMACKDOWN OF MARTIN AMIS but gets one thing very wrong: Simon Carr opens his review with, “There are very few novelists of our generation (I’m assuming you’re 50) whom we can quote by heart. Perhaps there aren’t any. When you cast back over your reading list — Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan, William Boyd, Sebastian Faulkes, Salman Rushdie, David Lodge, Clive James, even — what are your favourite lines? Anything spring to mind? At all?” I’ve never read a single... Read more

“Once they were men. Now they are land crabs!” –“Attack of the Crab Monsters” Read more

FATHER TUCKER’S HOMILY on the Queenship of Mary, a feast that is very important to me, in part because of a reason you may find illuminated here. (If that link is broken, go here and scroll down to “On this day.”) It looks like there’s been an enormous amount of cool stuff on his site lately, but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. Read more