The Crank (2006-2008)
Some of the most fun we had in grad school was running The Crank, a film society of which I was a founding member and served as program notes editor for its first few years. It was our way of tapping into the precious 35mm and 16mm prints at the UCLA Film Archive and presenting them semi-publicly to classmates and the UCLA community. This was my first real foray into film programming, from understanding film prints, to packaging programs, to writing notes, to doing film introductions.
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Preston Sturges has a knack for comedic dialogue so absurd that it’s borderline Brechtian. Consider Barbara Stanwyck’s famous quip against the hapless Henry Fonda in THE LADY EVE, “I need him like the ax needs the turkey!” – a line that at first you think makes perfect sense, before you realize how grotesquely weird it
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Poor Evelyn Todd. “I’m innocent and you won’t even let me explain!” she cries, but it’s much too late. On the same day she’s fired as a New York chorus girl, she’s evicted from her apartment and nearly prostituted at a socialite party where she’s promised a quick fifty bucks for “looking pretty.” By the
Brian Hu 