It’s a Rockabilly World!
According to this documentary by director Brent Huff (Chasing Beauty), another rockabilly revival has swept the world, fueled mainly by Millennials bored with the shoddy aesthetic of now and the pathetic state of contemporary pop music. Many of the interviewees are in search of a golden age from before their time, a final flowering of chivalry and courtesy expressed in anthems of self-reliance amid the upright string basses, hollow-body guitars and commodious cars with tail fins.
Being Canadian
TV comedy writer Rob Cohen embarks on a cross-Canada journey, searching for his homeland in the whimsical documentary Being Canadian. Driving from Nova Scotia to Vancouver, he interviews everyday citizens along with famous countrymen such as Eugene Levy, William Shatner, Michael J. Fox and the members of Rush. He finds a nation as polite as its stereotype but considerably more diverse. Great moment in Canadian history: “We burned down the White House and it felt good!”
The Captive
Cecil B. DeMille plausibly recreated the Balkans on the Los Angeles hills in this 1915 film, released for the first time for home video. DeMille is remembered for grand epics of both the silent and the talking screens. But here, in only his second year as a director, young DeMille’s ambitions were modest—telling a love story between enemies through narrative developments that seemed natural and a cast that seldom emoted more than was absolutely necessary.
“Thanks for the Memories: The Bob Hope Specials”
The opener on this six-DVD set, 1975’s “Highlights of a Quarter Century of Bob Hope on Television,” summarizes what’s to come. Snippets from Hope’s TV career show that he never altered his format. His monologues were a string of often self-deprecating one-liners (most with topical references). His skits allowed him to cut up with the stars of the day from Hollywood (John Wayne, Lee Marvin), music (Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand) and politics (Harry Truman, Bill Clinton).
