General Film

Clinton Olsasky: Remembering Sidney Poitier in Five Legendary Performances

Trailblazer. Icon. Legend.   Those are just some of the words that have been used to describe Sidney Poitier since his passing at the age of 94 last month.   But truth be told, words alone could never fully convey the sheer impact that Poitier had on the American film industry and, more importantly, on American culture at large.   Often starring in movies that either directly or indirectly addressed race relations in America, Poitier was the only regularly cast Black...

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Clinton Olsasky: Remembering Kirk Douglas: Five Legendary Performances

Last month, the red-hot glow of one of the film industry’s brightest (and longest) burning stars was extinguished.   That star was the incomparable Kirk Douglas, who, at the age of 103, became one of the oldest living and last surviving icons of the Golden Age of Hollywood.   The fact that Douglas’ life burned so bright and so long is appropriate, as many of the screen legend’s best performances were marked with a fiery intensity that was rarely...

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Blaxploitation Films: Sticking It to the Man!

Few film movements elicit a sly smile from one’s lips as quickly as that of the blaxploitation films of the 70s. In a reversal of the standard cliché, the whole often proved greater than the sum of its parts. These films were not the typical glossy, seamless, high production value fare of mainstream Hollywood, but usually the flip side: down-and-dirty, in-your-face, doing-the-best-we-can-on-a-limited-budget product designed for a demographic that had been all but ignored to that...

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World War I: Great Films About The Great War

April 2017 marked the one-hundredth anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War I (or The First World War). In much of Europe it was originally referred to as The Great War, a tag that was also common in America. Here in The States, as early as 1918, it was frequently referred to as The World War. And there were more names: “The War to End War,” as well as the “War to Make...

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There’s More to Kurosawa Than Samurai Films

Recently, thanks to Turner Classic Movies (and my DVR), along with an assist from the Des Moines Public Library, I was able to view several films by Akira Kurosawa for the first time. Not only is Kurosawa in the group of Japanese directors known as The Big Three (along with Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujirô Ozu) he is, without question, in the international pantheon of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Known primarily for his talent...

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The Olympic Games Documented on Film: 1938-1986

There are few, if any, events on the worldwide stage that can match the excitement, scope and grandeur of the Olympics. My earliest Olympic memories are from 1968, when the Winter Games were held in Grenoble and the Summer Games were in Mexico City. Both festivals (held in the era when both games were contested in the same year) were broadcast by the ABC Television Network. They were the first Olympics to be televised in...

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Chimes at Midnight

Like Falstaff, Orson Welles burst onto the cinematic scene seemingly fully formed. 1941’s Citizen Kane, frequently thought of as the greatest film ever made, has everything we think of as Wellesian--brilliant audio, dramatic filmmaking, emotional heft underpinned by an element of tongue-in-cheek camp. Welles, who was 26 when the film was made, had been a dramatic force since at least his teens and gives an utterly convincing performance in which is character spans decades. When...

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Talking DMFS with IMPA

A few months back, DMFS co-founder Ben Godar spoke about the organization with representatives of the Iowa Motion Picture Association outside their Golden Globes event at Fleur Cinema.   If you're new to DMFS or would like to hear more on what the organization is all about, this interview covers the basics. Thanks, IMPA....

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2016 DMFS Oscar Pool

Think you know who will win at the 2016 Academy Awards? Compete in the Des Moines Film Society Oscar Pool and you can win fabulous prizes.   What will those fabulous prizes be? Why, free movie tickets of course. The winner will receive two free passes to Fleur Cinema and two free passes to Varsity Theater.   Simply (and clearly) mark your ballot, predicting the winner in each category. The entrant who selects the most correct winners will be...

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Goodnight Mommy: DMFS Best of 2015

Des Moines Film Society asked some of our favorite local writers and film fanatics to pick their favorite film of 2015. You can read them all at DMFS: Best of 2015.   Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s G​oodnight Mommy i​s a film that came out of, seemingly, nowhere. I went into it cold. Hadn’t heard a thing about it, hadn’t seen a trailer. I knew it existed and, for some reason, that I had to see it....

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