I was never particularly against Mr Székely myself, although I couldn’t help but notice he was beloved by certain pretty noxious people I knew who also happened to be white and male, but I couldn’t help but notice how adroitly he manipulated his identity on a number of fronts. How many goofball, befuddled American…

I’m from France, so seeing Amalric (and Kurylenko, for that matter) was probably like somebody enjoying Lonsdale and Corrine Cleary in 1979.

Yeah I did not mind Skyfall’s story. I think we’ve entered a weird, post-Save the Cat world similar to the way sonata form crystallized into rote in the 1790s: you can subvert it…

I like the Craigs, Spectre excepted. I don’t understand why people dislike Quantum so much — it’s supposed to be a part two scherzo — and Skyfall finally gives people who love the series but also love film a chance to see an episode with a real director and DP.

But Spectre, to paraphrase a recent article I read on…

That’s what’s so fascinating about them. Sometimes he’s a widower; sometimes he’s not.

Fleming created the character as fantasy escapism for the austerity of postwar Britain, which is why the early books spend half the narrative describing food — a rationing daydream.

Moore was not cast in 1963 because he looked too young. The phrase was something like, “How will we find a girl prettier than James Bond?”

They waited for him much like they waited for Brosnan (for a different reason).

You’ve effectively described the 1967 Woody Allen / David Niven / Peter Sellers Casino Royale

No. The producers and studio execs decide (almost always very early in development if not before development — that is, in the concept stage itself) which films will be nominated. A massive portion of the industry is strictly devoted to the specific goal of getting nominations and wins.

It’s like running an election…

Oscar contenders aren’t released until the end of the year.

The minor third vacillations? It makes police sirens refreshing.

Walter’s right, Dude. McCartney once said of his late bandmate, “All John really ever wanted to be was Marlon Brando.”

Return of Return of Bruno?

My unpopular opinion: TG’s only (truly) great film.

The ending is actually moving.

But I’ve got problems with maximalism in general and wide-angle lens in particular.

I love the whole damn thing.

Really? She’s the ingenue par excellence. Young, pure, good-natured, optimistic, idealistic. She inspires protective feelings in older heroic characters (Leia, Han, Finn, whose first instinct upon awakening is to rescue her, and Luke, in particular, who is moved enough to decide to train her). Naive enough to bust…

I wish I did. I want to like it.

I think it’s trying to do two things at once. It wants to be Empire, since it’s the second act. But it also wants to be (uh-oh, gender studies alert) a romance novel, complete with the tropes so brilliantly delineated by Janice Radway in her classic 1984 text Reading the Romance. (Someon…

Ça, c’est l’histoire de ma vie.

Mais merci, bien sûr. 

The relationship with Marquand sure was as you describe. From all accounts I’ve read and heard, a truly nice guy, but not exactly a ball of fire.

In terms of the breakdown from Empire to Jedi, I’m of course more familiar with the collapse of Lucas and Gary Kurtz’s partnership. As I’m sure you know, Kurtz has openly…

I didn’t know that. Lucas and Kersh talked about ROTJ? 

Harry Lime