Paul Duncan

Long before he was Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra was a child of the jazz age and its free-wheeling approach to life. In the course of a meteoric rise from singing waiter to the world's first pop star, Sinatra relied on his own version of keeping it simple: "I'm not one of those complicated, mixed-up cats. I'm not looking for the secret to life or the answer to life. I just go...

How do we even describe the alienated beauty of Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow, Donnie Brasco, Don Juan DeMarco, Captain Jack Sparrow and Sweeney Todd, apart from the prodigious gift of Johnny Depp? How do we even name these great characters in one sentence, except under the heading of his contrary, heat-seeking curiosity, and imagination? If he didnt exist, you would...

Forever a circus ringleader at heart, Federico Fellini (1920-1993) is remembered as one of cinema's greatest storytellers. From bittersweet, heart-wrenching tales (La Strada and Nights of Cabiria) to semi-autobiographical classics (La dolce vita and the much-imitated 8 1/2) to ambitious period-pieces (Satyricon and Casanova) to dreamlike pseudo-documentaries (The Clowns, Roma, and Intervista)...

From The 400 Blows to Jules and Jim to The Last Metro, Francois Truffaut (1932-1984) practically defined the French cinema of his era and was one of the founders of the New Wave which took the industry by storm in the late 1950s. His endlessly touching and romantic films- always tinged by a touch of reflective sadness-made him one of France's favorite and most successful directors. This bo...

Loving the alien Behind the scenes of Nicolas Roeg's 1976 sci-fi masterpiece starring David Bowie Upon its release The Man Who Fell to Earth, a tour de force of science fiction cinema as art form, brought not only hallucinatory visuals and a haunting exploration of contemporary alienation, but also gave glam-rock legend David Bowie his first lead role, with a beguiling performance as para...