Since its debut in 1976, Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER has been hailed by critics and film lovers as a masterpiece of cinema. It’s become one of the most popular films online as well. Go on Twitter and you’ll see the movie being celebrated often. The brilliant soundtrack by legendary composer […]
Bernard Herrmann
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“Ladies and gentlemen, because of the controversy already aroused, the producers of this film wish to re-emphasize what is already stated in the film, that there is no established scientific connection between Mongolism and psychotic or criminal behavior.” Here’s a late 60’s gem that I first became aware of thanks […]
Director Brian DePalma began his film career in the late 60s making indie counterculture comedies like The Wedding Party, Greetings and Hi Mom!. In 1973 he took his first step into the realm of horror/thrillers (which he would become best known for) with SISTERS. The idea for the movie was […]
PSYCHO (1960, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock) When the “Master of Suspense” set out to make this movie it was to be a modest, low budget thriller shot by the crew of his popular TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. As with almost all of his projects, it soon became something much more […]
INTRODUCTION Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1915, Orson Welles was a childhood prodigy who had dazzled those who knew him with such things as Shakespeare puppet shows, paintings and poetry. He had even taken solo trips to far off lands when he was at the age most kids would be […]
FILM REVIEW When we first see Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) he walks into a taxi cab stand as a ghostly cloud of steam evaporates around him. It’s an entrance of some kind of angel from hell. Travis suffers from insomnia, so he rides around on buses and subways at night. […]
There have been several important director/composer collaborations throughout cinema history and one of its most well established and unique was Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann. For Psycho (1960), coined the “godfather of slasher films” by cineasts, Herrmann created a rapidly paced, macabre masterpiece of bright shrieking strings and brass cues […]