Michael Casey

1 week ago | boulderweekly.com | Michael Casey

Never get out of the boat. Good advice for all involved in 1979’s Apocalypse Now, which screened the 16th TCM Classic Film Festival on 70mm. Courtesy: Zoetrope Studios They don’t make ’em like they used to. That’s a line you’re bound to hear anytime you talk to someone fixated on the yesteryears of cinema. Their position: Movies are a paradise lost. But if you know even the surface lore of some of these projects, then you know they barely got made, even then.

2 weeks ago | boulderweekly.com | Michael Casey

Vincent Cassel and Guy Pearce survey the damage of a voyeuristic graveyard in David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds. Courtesy: Janus Films It’s been four years since Karsh lost his wife. It probably feels less, considering Karsh (Vincent Cassel) owns both the graveyard where she is buried and the restaurant next door. That’s where he takes dates and discloses that his beloved resides nearby. It’s also where he points out the plot next to her that’s reserved for him. I’ll say this: at least he’s upfront.

3 weeks ago | boulderweekly.com | Michael Casey

Edna Purviance falls for Adolphe Menjou and the high life in 'A Woman of Paris.' Courtesy: The Criterion Collection The year was 1919, and Charles Chaplin, along with Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith and Mary Pickford, formed the distribution company United Artists. Four years later, made with his own money and on his own schedule, Chaplin released his first film for UA, A Woman of Paris — which was neither a comedy nor starred the world-famous actor.

4 weeks ago | boulderweekly.com | Michael Casey

Gutter punks ask for handouts on the streets of Los Angeles in The Decline of Western Civilization Part III. Courtesy: Shout! Studios “Concerned about what?”That was the question an attendee at the Conference on World Affairs posed after hearing about the theme of the ongoing Boulder Weekly special issue series: A Survival Guide for Concerned Citizens. “Concerned about the planet?” he added. “About the country? About other countries?”I gave it a thought.

1 month ago | boulderweekly.com | Michael Casey

Who killed the world? Anya-Taylor Joy in Furiosa. Courtesy: Warner Bros We’ve been here before. Sure, it seems worse, and some of the problems we’re facing are novel, but you don’t have to look hard to find analogs and parallels from the past. As Mark Twain put it: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”But then why do we keep ignoring the story, forgetting the message? That’s more a question for philosophers and psychiatrists.