Mike Wallace talks to ‘Brave New World‘ author Aldous Huxley, focusing on the danger of slipping into totalitarian government as a result of overpopulation, increasing hierarchical organization of people in corporate structures, and improper use of television and subliminal advertising. He continually refers to the similarity between the methods of advertising agencies and those of [...]

Spanish film director and original member of the Surrealist movement, Luis Buñuel, directed this version of Daniel Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe‘ in 1954. It’s a very good and straightforward telling of the story with a totally convincing island locale. The Defoe novel is now more important reading than it’s ever been. That’s because it is the [...]

This is a 2004 film compilation by Gábor Zsigmond Papp that presents a ‘best of’ series of clips from thirty years of Hungarian secret police training films geared toward protecting the socialist regime. Subjects covered include: how to place a bug, how to film people from handbag cameras, how to follow someone, how to secretly [...]

I have very mixed feelings about the core group of writers known as ‘The Beats.’ They were Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg. Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ is one of the milestones (or millstones, depending on point of view) of American literature. Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ is one of the great twentieth century poems, and [...]

A 1954 Castle film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Match Girl.’

This short documentary seems to be from the late 1940s or early 50s. It was produced by the Turkish Broadcasting and Tourism Department to explain the connection between Saint Nicholas of Myra, which is in present-day Turkey, and the modern conception of the gift-giving Santa Claus who lives at the North Pole.

This is the last interview Marilyn Monroe ever gave. It was for Life Magazine in 1962. The interviewer is editor Richard Meryman. The film includes various pieces of Monroe documentary and news footage. As she speaks, she seems delicate and somewhat forced in her cheerful girlishness. I’ve never given much a damn about Monroe. I [...]

Here’s a Mexican take on the story of Santa Claus. It was released in 1959 and then dubbed into English for a 1960 release. It was directed by René Cardona. The story has Santa working in space and relying on his assistant, Merlin the Wizard, to battle with the Devil’s minion who is sent to [...]

While I was running through the Getty Center’s flagship portion of the massive citywide ‘Pacific Standard Time‘ art exhibit, I was struck by just how great this Wallace Berman fellow really was. Known primarily as the ‘father’ of assemblage art, he was also a member of the Beat Movement. He made a single film which [...]

Pacific Standard Time is a massive overview of Los Angeles art from 1945 to 1980. At least sixty galleries and museums are taking part over the next few months. I have already been to the largest exhibits at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Getty Center. The whole [...]