I don’t mind admitting, being an American makes Molière seem better than it actually is, for two reasons: first, most of us haven’t read any of Jean-Baptiste “Molière” Poquelin’s plays, or at most just The Misanthrope (I do not exempt myself), and second, the film is in French. Let’s be honest, foreign-language movies tend to […]

After a string of masterpieces between 1935 and 1937, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were ready for a break. Neither one of them had been looking for a partnership in the first place, and it was time to prove they didn’t need each other for success. Ginger ended up starring in three films without Fred […]

In 1934, a year after accidentally (or not) becoming a pair of stars in Flying Down to Rio, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were re-teamed for the first proper “Fred & Ginger movie,” The Gay Divorcee. “La Carioca” be damned: this is where most of the elements that we associate with their cycle of films […]

In an act of some heresy, I have to admit that I think Shall We Dance (Mark Sandrich, 1937) is a superior film to the widely regarded Fred and Ginger masterwork, Swing Time (and I like Top Hat better than either. Go figure). A small part of this might be because it was the first […]

I got back to Evanston a bit too late to get tickets for The 40 Year-Old Virgin. But sitting in the lobby of my apartment waiting for me was a copy of Warner and TCM’s new Astaire/Rogers box set. Which, love Steve Carell though I do, is clearly a trade-up. Anyway, expect for me to […]