I’d like to tell you we stayed in the Peabody Hotel but we did not. It’s my favorite type of lodging: a grand old dowager of a place. Lovely bones but just slightly tattered by now. It’s also legendary for the family of ducks that live there. Every morning a ...
Three essential films set in New Orleans. A Street Car Named Desire (1951) WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Frayed Southern belle Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) arrives in a seedy quarter of New Orleans, where she's arranged to stay with her pregnant sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and coarse, hulking brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando). Right from ...
John Farr ventures south for three of the finest films about the region. Inherit the Wind (1960) WHAT IT'S ABOUT: In this courtroom drama based on the landmark Scopes Monkey Trial of the 1920s, defense lawyer Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy) and fundamentalist prosecutor Matthew Brady (March) face off when schoolteacher Bertram Cates (Dick ...
When you are on the road with the same people for so long the petty grievances build up. It’s simply unavoidable. I previously mentioned the difficulties we had agreeing on what music to listen to, and this remained a bone of contention. Darius, Stephane and I each ...
We wound up making a few more fruitless stops on the way, so it was late when we hit St. Louis. Once again Stephane took the wheel late and got us home. As it was an unexpected stop in a town I’d never been in our office booked the hotel. ...
One of the earlier things Kar Wai had said to me was that in order to get someplace it’s best to go in the opposite direction. Turns out this was true not only for the story he was telling, but in the story of his life as well. ...
John Farr's declassified dossier of essential war & espionage films. The Guns of Navarone (1961) WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Crack Allied team commanded by Peck is recruited for a top-secret, near-suicide mission: penetrate a remote fortress on a Nazi-held island and blow up the two enormous long-range guns which prevent the rescue of two ...
John Farr travels to Paris in search of fine films. Ninotchka (1939) WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Greta Garbo's first comedy, "Ninotchka" details what can happen-on a purely human, emotional level-when communism and capitalism collide. Three Russian comrades travel to Paris to sell an invaluable necklace with proceeds to benefit the party. The necklace's rightful ...
John Farr pays tribute to the unlikely Academy successes of Holly Hunter and Billy Bob Thornton. The Piano (1993) WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), mute since childhood, travels with young, precocious daughter Flora (Paquin) to a remote part of New Zealand to wed icy farmer Stewart (Sam Neill). A ferociously talented ...
