The Directors: John Ford

He was as wily and irascible as Hollywood directors came.  A few others may get honorable mention, but Ford was the daddy of them all.  He was also one of the most talented and the most honored of all movie directors.  The only director still to have won four Oscars, he is chiefly known as a director of westerns and yet oddly none of his Oscars were for that genre.  He was a legend in his own time and he knew it and cultivated it.

Dancing Girls II

Leslie Caron and Cyd Charisse are two of the reasons why MGM musicals were so popular in the 1950s.  Both come from balletic backgrounds.  They are two of only six women to dance with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly (Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, Vera-Ellen and Debbie Reynolds are the others).  Caron danced with each in just one film while Charisse partnered with Astaire and Kelly in three each.

REVIEW: The Place Beyond the Pines

Directed by Derek Cianfrance
2013 Drama
2 hours 20 minutes
From Focus Features

Starring
Ryan Gosling
Bradley Cooper
Dane DeHaan
Emory Cohen
Eva Mendes
Rose Byrne
Ben Mendlesohn
Mahershala Ali
Ray Liotta
Harris Yulin
Bruce Greenwood