Jonathan Crow
Open Culture
Los Angeles, CA, United States
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Past articles by Jonathan:
The Paintings of Filmmaker/Visual Artist David Lynch
David Lynch It was 1967, and David Lynch, a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, was up late in his studio when he had a vision. → Read More
Winston Churchill's Paintings: Great Statesman, Surprisingly Good Artist
Winston Churchill is one of those colossal figures who readily qualifies for that unfashionable moniker of The Great Man of History. This was a guy who warned of Hitler’s threat long before it seemed polite to do so. → Read More
The 5 Essential Rules of Film Noir
Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you.” – Al Robert (Tom Neal), Detour Film Noir. When you think that phrase, the mind is immediately drawn to images of leggy ice queens, rumbled losers in fedoras, guns, neon and certain deadpan cynicism. → Read More
R. Crumb Describes How He Dropped LSD in the 60s & Instantly Discovered His Artistic Style
As Nancy Reagan and my junior high school health teacher will tell you, LSD is illegal and illegal drugs are bad. Unlike other drugs, however, LSD can blow open - as Aldous Huxley described it - the doors of perception and remove the filters of conventional thought. → Read More
Raymond Chandler’s Ten Commandments for Writing a Detective Novel
Promo portrait photo of author Raymond Chandler, via Wikimedia Commons Raymond Chandler – along with his hardboiled brethren like Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain – sandblasted the detective novel of its decorousness and instilled it with a sweaty vitality. → Read More
Dumbland, David Lynch's Twisted Animated Series (NSFW)
David Lynch’s cult masterpiece Eraserhead freaked me out the first time I watched it back in high school. Few movies I’ve seen managed to operate so purely on dream logic, and fewer still had such an ability to stir the murky waters of my subconscious. → Read More
Moebius’ Storyboards & Concept Art for Jodorowsky’s Dune
A decade before David Lynch’s flawed but visually brilliant adaptation of Dune hit the silver screen (see our post on that from Monday), another cinematic visionary tried to turn Frank Herbert’s cult book into a movie. And it would have been a mind-bogglingly grand epic. → Read More
Huxley to Orwell: My Hellish Vision of the Future is Better Than Yours (1949)
In 1949, George Orwell received a curious letter from his former high school French teacher. Orwell had just published his groundbreaking book Nineteen Eighty-Four, which received glowing reviews from just about every corner of the English-speaking world. → Read More
Jorge Luis Borges Selects 74 Books for Your Personal Library
“Jorge Luis Borges 1951, by Grete Stern” by Grete Stern (1904-1999). Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. Jorge Luis Borges’ terse, mind-expanding stories reshaped modern fiction. → Read More
Future Shock: Orson Welles Narrates a 1972 Film About the Perils of Technological Change
The beginning of the 1972 documentary Future Shock, directed by Alex Grasshof, shows Orson Welles, bearded and chomping on a cigar, standing on an airport people mover. → Read More
10 Great German Expressionist Films: Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari & More
In 1913, Germany, flush with a new nation’s patriotic zeal, looked like it might become the dominant nation of Europe and a real rival to that global superpower Great Britain. Then it hit the buzzsaw of World War I. → Read More
William Faulkner's Review of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
Images via Wikimedia Commons In the mid-20th century, the two big dogs in the American literary scene were William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. Both were internationally revered, both were masters of the novel and the short story, and both won Nobel Prizes. → Read More
Early Japanese Animations: The Origins of Anime (1917-1931)
Japanese animation, AKA anime, might be filled with large-eyed maidens, way cool robots, and large-eyed, way cool maiden/robot hybrids, but it often shows a level of daring, complexity and creativity not typically found in American mainstream animation. → Read More
Derek Jarman’s Jubilee: “It’s the Best Film about Punk” (1978)
Derek Jarman was too old and too accomplished to be a punk. → Read More
Mahatma Gandhi’s List of the 7 Social Sins; or Tips on How to Avoid Living the Bad Life
In 590 AD, Pope Gregory I unveiled a list of the Seven Deadly Sins – lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride – as a way to keep the flock from straying into the thorny fields of ungodliness. → Read More
The Mastermind of Devo, Mark Mothersbaugh, Presents His Personal Synthesizer Collection
Mark Mothersbaugh’s studio is located in a cylindrical structure painted bright green - it looks more like a festive auto part than an office building. → Read More
The Ten Greatest Films of All Time According to 358 Filmmakers
Every ten years, film journal Sight and Sound conducts a worldwide survey of film critics to decide which films are considered the best ever made. Started in 1952, the poll is now widely regarded as the most important and respected out there. → Read More
Martin Scorsese Makes a List of 85 Films Every Aspiring Filmmaker Needs to See
Before the rise of institutional film schools—ensconced in university walls with all the formality that entails—those seeking to learn the craft did so by apprenticing themselves to studios and master directors, and by watching lots and lots of movies. If we take the example of some of the most interesting filmmakers working today, this still may be the best way to become a filmmaker. Werner… → Read More
Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (Circa 1490) Is Much Cooler Than Yours
Most people’s to-do lists are, almost by definition, pretty dull, filled with those quotidian little tasks that tend to slip out of our minds. Pick up the laundry. Get that thing for the kid. Buy milk, canned yams and kumquats at the local market. → Read More
The Films of Alice Guy-Blaché: The First Female Director & the Cinematic Trailblazer
Alice Guy-Blaché (1873 –1968) is the great trailblazer of early cinema you probably never heard of. She was film’s first female director. She made one of the first narrative movies ever at age 23. She wrote, directed and produced over 700 films. → Read More