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      The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"

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      Now Playing: "From Nowhere"

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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"

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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"

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    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"
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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"

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Movie Mezzanine
  • Home
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    • Defanging the Unthinkable
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      Defanging the Unthinkable

      8 years ago
    • A Fitting, Impressive Goodbye
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      A Fitting, Impressive Goodbye

      8 years ago
    • The Ambivalent, Bittersweet "My Life as a Zucchini"
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      The Ambivalent, Bittersweet "My Life as a Zucchini"

      8 years ago
    • The Complex Morality of "No Country for Old Men"
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      The Complex Morality of "No Country for Old Men"

      8 years ago
  • Interviews
    • A New Way of Telling Love Stories
      more
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      A New Way of Telling Love Stories

      8 years ago
    • Breaking Standards with Julian Rosefeldt of "Manifesto"
      more
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      Breaking Standards with Julian Rosefeldt of "Manifesto"

      8 years ago
    • Indulging Mightily with Alex Ross Perry and the "Golden Exits" Cast
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      Indulging Mightily with Alex Ross Perry and the "Golden Exits" Cast

      8 years ago
    • The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"
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      The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"

      9 years ago
  • Critic-At-Large
    • Now Playing: "From Nowhere"
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      Now Playing: "From Nowhere"

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    • Now Playing: "Fifty Shades Darker"
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      Now Playing: "Fifty Shades Darker"

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      Now Playing: "War on Everyone"

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    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 287: "Kundun"
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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 287: "Kundun"

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    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"
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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"

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    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"
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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"

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    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"
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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"

      8 years ago
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      Defanging the Unthinkable

      8 years ago
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      A Fitting, Impressive Goodbye

      8 years ago
    • The Ambivalent, Bittersweet "My Life as a Zucchini"
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      The Ambivalent, Bittersweet "My Life as a Zucchini"

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      The Complex Morality of "No Country for Old Men"

      8 years ago
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    • A New Way of Telling Love Stories
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      A New Way of Telling Love Stories

      8 years ago
    • Breaking Standards with Julian Rosefeldt of "Manifesto"
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      Breaking Standards with Julian Rosefeldt of "Manifesto"

      8 years ago
    • Indulging Mightily with Alex Ross Perry and the "Golden Exits" Cast
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      Indulging Mightily with Alex Ross Perry and the "Golden Exits" Cast

      8 years ago
    • The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"
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      The Ultimate Meta-Performance: Kate Lyn Sheil on "Kate Plays Christine"

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    • Now Playing: "From Nowhere"
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      Now Playing: "From Nowhere"

      8 years ago
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      Now Playing: "Fifty Shades Darker"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "War on Everyone"
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      Now Playing: "War on Everyone"

      8 years ago
    • Now Playing: "The Salesman"
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      Now Playing: "The Salesman"

      8 years ago
  • Podcast
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 287: "Kundun"
      more
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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 287: "Kundun"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"
      more
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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 286: "Pinocchio"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"
      more
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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 285: "That Darn Cat"

      8 years ago
    • Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"
      more
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      Mousterpiece Cinema, Episode 284: "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"

      8 years ago
Warner Archive Instant Picks (10/25/13—10/31/13)
  • Home Video

Warner Archive Instant Picks (10/25/13—10/31/13)

  • by Jake Cole
  • October 27, 2013
  • 0
  • 3051

As streaming services increasingly proliferate online, it can be difficult to determine which sites are worth your money. One such upstart definitely worth a cinephile’s time (and money) is the Warner Archive’s Instant service, supplementing Warner’s made-to-order DVD program for their extensive, esoteric back-catalog with a cheaper, easily accessible online platform. Every week, we at Movie Mezzanine will spotlight some of the best films the archive has to offer, from all-time classics to obscure gems fostered during the studio’s golden age.

Cat People (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1942)

cat_people_swimming-pool

The oft-cited notion that the days of the Production Code and other forms of censorship ultimately helped movies is one that should be answered with only the most open contempt, yet it’s true that limitations of a sort are often a prerequisite of great art. The restrictions of Cat People, like all of Val Lewton’s classic productions, are self-imposed, with its monster kept largely off-screen and its carnage almost elegantly played out in the mind. In Jacques Tourneur, Lewton found his ideal shooter, a director who made absence his trademark, be it his icy and barren frames or the sense that all the characters in his films—regardless of their writers—are missing something. In Cat People, it’s the absence of physical affection, indeed the fear of it, that ultimately creates danger. A scene in which a potential victim is trapped in a pool by the shadow of an unseen creature is one of the genre’s most enduringly gripping sequences. Very possibly the greatest American horror film ever made, Cat People is a must-see for the uninitiated, and its deceptively spare execution reveals more nuance with each revisit. — Jake Cole

Demon Seed (dir. Donald Cammell, 1977)

demon seed
Donald Cammell’s Demon Seed barely bypasses its routine silliness to become little more than an effective sci-fi-thriller/body-horror entry. Based on a novel of the same name by Dean R. Koontz, the film functions as a close relative to the later works of David Cronenberg, but Demon Seed suggests a slight removal from that filmmaker’s gratuitousness, as the face of its horror is inhabited by an organic super-computer called Proteus, certainly not far removed from 2001’s HAL 9000. Both cold and calculated, Demon Seed details the negative implications surrounding man and his everlasting ambition. It’s always preposterous, but far from boring. — Ty Landis

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