Counter-programming Easter done right:

I finally watched the 2022 partial restoration of what may be the greatest Tod Browning/Lon Chaney movie and wrote about some of the differences between this and previously available versions. No spoilers though.

This is also coming to the Portland Museum of Art this month too! I caught it in 35mm at the Harvard Film Archive last May, and am ready to see it again!

If you see this, post a bassist that starts with P

# I’ve seen in 35mm at a Noir City event: 13 # I’ve seen in 35mm, period: 19 # I haven’t seen at all yet: 2

Join us tonight for a free open screening! If you have something to show in the program, email us at [email protected].

Looks like the 35mm PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC showing is sold out, but they’re still advertising it so maybe they expect to be able to get RUSH line folks through the door?

The nicest I’ve ever seen the comments section for one of Odie’s Boston Globe pieces. Though there are of course a couple people cheekily disputing his claim that he’s the greatest Looney Tunes fan.

Go back to a time when April 1 was enjoyable. Before you knew it was Lon Chaney, Sr.’s birthday:

Noteworthy first views of March 2026 older films: Born Yesterday (George Cukor, 1950) A Journey (Bogdan Žižić, 1972) Heat Lightning (Mervyn LeRoy, 1934) newer films: Tulsa (Scott Stark, 2024) Sirāt (Óliver Laxe, 2025) Hiatus B (Jenelle Stafford, 2024)

Happy Trans Day of Visibility! 🏳️‍⚧️ Today’s a good day to pick up a copy of Corpses, Fools, and Monsters, the terrific book by @willowcatelyn.bsky.social and Caden Mark Gardener. mzs.press/Corpses-Fool...

Oh dear.

“And that, gentlemen, is why THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC is too strong to be defeated by our browbeating.”

Rewards Program is back tonight with Sour Grass, a live-scored three-projector celluloid meditation on suburban wanderings and Californian rebirth, with visuals by Ellie Vanderlip in collaboration with musician and artist Kati Mashikian.

I voted Tony Scott mostly because I worry they’ll do episodes on THE DARJEELING LIMITED and ASTEROID CITY with people who haven’t even seen DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST yet.

For the weekday crowd:

www.maptap.gg March 30 99🎯 99🎯 94🏅 99🎯 99🎯 Final score: 980

Wrote about a little “discovery” I made about oblique messages about Anti-Communist smear campaigns, being smuggled into one of the most beloved cartoon shorts of all time. boxd.it/dIoSZb

After watching a bunch of Mervyn LeRoy pre-codes in the past month or so, I’m a little curious to delve into some more of his post-WWII work (of which I’ve only seen THE HOUSE I LIVE IN) despite its stodgy reputation. If I was anywhere near Palo Alto, CA I’d go see QUO VADIS in 35mm this weekend:

Bringing this up in relation to the man who specifically said “keep Ted Turner and his damn crayons away from my movies” is…a choice

Rubbish from the first sentence: "In 1986, The New York Times ran a screed against a film-restoration trend gaining steam." Colorization was never restoration. Neither is using AI to take a stab at what Orson Welles (and Stanley Cortez, they never mention him, which is alarming) might have wanted.

I'll never not reshare this

I don’t think I’d heard a note of either of these* until this bracket was forming, but they’re probably the two best albums competing this week. Went with the underdog because it’s more likely my last chance to vote for them. (though that made them only one vote behind - could this stay close?)

I wrote a bit more about The Big Parade, because it’s really good and I had more to say. Thoughts on the midpoint departure scene and the ending: fcardamenis.substack.com/p/the-big-pa...

Portland, Maine’s 16mm microcinema has its next schedule up! The ones I’ve never seen: HOBSON’S CHOICE, SATURDAY NIGHT & SUNDAY MORNING, THE WITCH and THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS. Most tempting rewatches: THE VIRGIN SPRING, MON ONCLE and (partly shot in Maine) WR: THE MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM.

I didn’t realize Criterion gift codes now expire, so I was only able to use the one that they sent Channel subscribers yesterday and the one they sent around the holidays (which expires in June- check your email for this one if you’re thinking of participating in the flash sale today).

I’m told Lucas is still in the composer hunt…

In the sequel to ROOM 237 the stakes are a helluva lot higher.

First battle of the new bracket is between neighboring states. As is my tradition when the #128 seed isn’t the Red Hot Chili Peppers I gave my vote to the extreme underdog. How could I not, when they named their album after the state where I saw my first Uncle Tupelo concert?

THE IMPATIENT MAIDEN (James Whale, 1932)

The zaniest of the films in the Mervyn LeRoy pre-code set expiring from @criterionchannl.bsky.social in ten days:

Was contemplating going down to Harvard Film Archive for this today but I can’t justify a trip down, not with gas this expensive and no other good reason to be in Massachusetts this weekend. Hope it’s not my last-ever chance to see in 35mm… harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/one...

I didn’t dignify this article with a click but was curious about the other two (apparently anti-capitalist?) rappers on Mamdani’s list, so I watched the original video and learned it was Lupe Fiasco and Common.

All true!

Should this become the first MST3K episode I ever watch?

I wrote a few paragraphs on this Mervyn LeRoy movie with an unusual setting and a great cast. boxd.it/dBeteB

My last four…

Hearing Chuck Norris died is one of the few things make me want to rewatch THE GREEN FOG. But what I probably should watch instead is SLAUGHTER IN SAN FRANCISCO and AN EYE FOR AN EYE, the Norris films Guy Madden and co. repurposed for their plunderphonic VERTIGO remake.

every so often I like to look at my notes from when we discovered the uncensored BABY FACE in the @librarycongress.bsky.social collections

Southland Tales is the only movie stupid enough to actually be prophetic about 2026

They razed low-income housing to create this non-neighborhood.

A couple of these, the excellent, creepy WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR and the San Francisco-made MAGGOTS AND MEN (which I can’t believe I still haven’t seen!) are already available on the Criterion Channel, for those subscribers so jazzed about this series they can’t wait for April…

Time to rename San Francisco’s former Army Street to Dolores Huerta Street.

Revisiting a film I wrote about in the earliest days of my online publication history before it departs the Criterion Channel in a couple weeks…

I know I saw this in a San Francisco theatre at age 10. But I doubt it was on its 70mm run at the Regency 3; my dad usually avoided downtown theatres so we probably saw it at the Parkside, Empire or Serra. Or maybe the Balboa? (Probably not the Alhambra.)

Congrats to a movie whose ticket stub indicated it was named THE BATTLE OF BAKTAN CROSS when I bought it…

Autumn Cheyenne Durald Arkapaw’s win in the Best Cinematography category means the only remaining active non-gendered Oscar category whose winners have all been the same gender is… Best Casting!

A GLASS CEILING SHATTERED #Oscars

As predicted… no Ken Jacobs.

Ha he skipped NORTH.