‘Arts’ Archives
Remembering Cinephile Al Milgrom, 1922-2020
MOVIE CORNER By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Al Milgrom was a milestone for film in Minnesota, namely so-called art house films and foreign films. He established the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival in 1981 held every April. The Festival draws an amazing 50,000 or more, cur- rently centered at St. Anthony Main Theatre. Nobody fostered films the way he did leaving no doubt he was a true cinephile. Back in 1962, Mr. Milgrom founded the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Society at the University of Minnesota where he started a curriculum for teaching film cinema. It was not long before he created the Rivertown Film Festival in Stillwater that in time would become the acclaimed Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. I considered him a mentor and an inspiration as a film critic. He loved conversation and many times I would see him mingling among the crowds at the MSP Film Festival and around St. Anthony Main. He didn”™t let his age get in the way of moving [...]
Chadwick Boseman: The Bronze Man (1976-2020)
Movie Corner By HOWARD McQUITTER IIÂ “The worst is Death, and death will have his day.” --William Shakespeare The day I heard Chadwick Boseman died, his death shocked my system. What”™s more he was only 43 years old, dying of colon cancer. ( I”™m all too familiar with colon cancer, thanks be to God I”™m still here to talk about it.) Young, gifted, Black and handsome Mr. Chadwick came into the world on November 29, 1976, born and raised in Anderson, SouthCarolina, to Carolyn and Leroy Boseman. The likes of a Boseman-- his voice, his expertise, his persona, his reverential treatment of scripts as a thespian not only causes little Black boys and girls to dream, but to do what God gives them as upcoming thespians: talent. Boseman leaves lasting marks in cinema by acting in biopics of African American icons such as playing baseball star Jackie Robinson in “42”(2013); college football great Vontae [...]
“Walkabout” (1971) ***** 5 out of 5 stars 20th Century Fox
Movie Corner By HOWARD McQUITTER II A riveting film by Nicholas Roeg in which a teenage girl, (Jenny Agutter), and her younger brother, Lucien John, (Luc Roeg), find themselves in unforeseen circumstances in the Australian Outback. The two youngsters and their father are supposedly on their way to a picnic. Without warning, the father (John Meillon), stops the car and starts shooting at the children who seek refuge behind a rock. Then, the father sets the car on fire before shooting himself in the head. The teenage girl, witnessing the horror, shields her brother from seeing the incident. Out in the middle of nowhere in scorching heat, crawling with scorpions and snakes and seemingly endless sand, the two English children walk for miles. Tired and hungry, they come upon a watering hole. It is here they meet the Aboriginal Boy, (David Gulpilil), who knows the Outback backwards and forwards. Gulpilil”™s [...]
