Bright Lights Film Journal

About me:

Bright Lights Film Journal is a popular-academic hybrid of movie analysis, history, and commentary, looking at classic and commercial, independent, exploitation, and international film from a wide range of vantage points from the aesthetic to the political...

Visit our website at www.brightlightsfilm.com. Our companion blog, Bright Lights After Dark, is at blog.brightlightsfilm.com. We're also on Twitter at twitter.com/blfj.

Bright Lights began life as a print journal in 1974, migrating to the web in 1996. Visit our About Us page for more info.

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SAMPLE ARTICLES

Betty Boop
With a head like a giant peanut, vast mascara'd eyes, too-kissable lips, baby-doll voice (courtesy of singer Mae Questel), flattened marcelled hair, and mere threads of a dress exposing miles of hot flesh, she was the perfect celluloid sex toy.

Alfred Hitchcock: A Hank of Hair and a Piece of Bone
A photo study of the Master's fetishes -- uh, motifs

"A Certain Slant": A Brief History of Hollywood Yellowface
The history of blackface has been well documented in American film criticism; the history of yellowface has received much less critical attention, and considerably less public censure

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Birds Do It, Bees Do It: Isabella Rossellini Talks About Bug Sex, Human Sex, and Green Porno
"A laugh and information!"

Chatting About Other Things: An Interview with Federico Fellini
The Master speaks on life, art, and Carlos Castaneda

When Is a Kiss Not a Kiss? When It's a Queer Kiss
What is it about the sight of two men kissing that drives Americans insane?

"They Ate His Genitals!": A Sampling of European Sex and Horror Films
These seminal sleazefests -- and a couple of arty classics -- will make you twist and shout

Carmen Miranda
The "lady in the tutti-fruitti hat" brought to American wartime audiences an extravagantly seductive surface: the exoticism of South America, a sensuality tempered by caricature, and outlandish costumes and fruit-laden "hats" that have an unsuspected origin in the black slums of Brazil.

Fuck Housework! The Bad Girls of M-G-M, 1932
Harlow, Bankhead, yes, even patrician, cross-eyed Norma Shearer “strayed” before the Hays Code ended their fun.

The Day the Bronx Invaded Earth: The Life and Cinema of the Brothers Kuchar
Major figures in the American Underground film movement of the 'sixties, George and Mike Kuchar are the acknowledged pioneers of the camp/pop aesthetic that would influence practically all who came after them, from Warhol and Waters to Vadim and Lynch.

Behind the Mask: Sadie Benning's Pixel Pleasures
What mysterious force lay behind the teenage grrrl's crudely drawn but strangely evocative masks?

See the current issue for the latest offerings...

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BRAGWARE

"Anyone who doesn't love Bright Lights doesn't love life." -- GreenCine

"This great site is devoted to exploring film in all its glory -- from indie, obscure and underground flicks to the great classics from cinema’s past. A serious and amazing site." -- Australian Broadcasting Corporation

"One of the best film journals on the Web" -- Images Journal

"Based in Portland, Oregon, this online quarterly brings sharp wit and in-depth knowledge to its politically attuned coverage of independent, exploitation, and international film, a sphere of activity that pays plenty of attention to Amerindie movies." -- The Rough Guide to American Independent Film

A 2003 Webby Award nominee for best film site.

A Forbes.com "Best of the Web" site.

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