Notes from the sketch book

History whispers its secrets in unexpected places. Sometimes, it's not the leaders or the politicians who hold the fate of the world in their hands, but the quiet individuals, the ones who stand firm when shadows loom large. Vasili Arkhipov was such a man, a Soviet submariner who faced down not one, but two potential nuclear catastrophes.   His story, often overlooked, is a precarious dance of survival on the edge of annihilation. Born in 1926, he witnessed the Soviet Union rise from the ashes of revolution, a nation forged in hardship and fueled by the promise of a brighter future....

Director David Lynch has sadly passed away at the age of 78.  David Lynch, the cinematic visionary who captivated and confounded audiences for decades, has left us. But the films he created, those mesmerizing journeys into the darkest corners of the American psyche, remain as potent and unsettling as ever. He wasn't a filmmaker for the faint of heart; he dared you to look away, even as he held you captive with his strange, singular beauty. His journey began with Eraserhead, a film that seemed to crawl out of the industrial grime of Philadelphia like a creature from a nightmare....

After For a Few Dollars More proved a hit, United Artists wasted no time. They approached Luciano Vincenzoni, the film’s screenwriter, eager to lock down the rights not just to that film, but the next one in the series. The problem was, there was no next film—not yet. Vincenzoni, along with producer Alberto Grimaldi and director Sergio Leone, didn’t have a plan. But on the spot, Vincenzoni pitched what would become the backbone of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: three rogues on the hunt for treasure, set against the backdrop of the American Civil War. United Artists liked...

Sergio Leone, born on January 3, 1929, in Rome, came from a family steeped in the early days of Italian cinema. His father, Vincenzo Leone, a pioneering filmmaker known professionally as Roberto Roberti, and his mother, silent film actress Bice Valerian (Edvige Valcarenghi), instilled in him a passion for the screen. Leone's upbringing in this creative environment set the stage for his later innovations in film. Interestingly, as a child, he shared a classroom with Ennio Morricone, who would go on to be his most important musical collaborator, shaping the soundscapes of his most famous films.   Leone's foray into...

By 1965 and after the success of a fistful of dollars in Europe, Clint was a superstar in Italy and despite only seeing an Italian version of the first film, so impressed by the visuals he agreed to make a sequel. With the success in Europe the budget was increased and the Leone partnership with Alberto Grimaldi began. Sergio Leone’s For a Few Dollars More marks a significant moment in the director’s evolution after his debut, a film that is both a gritty, violent Western and an exploration of vengeance and redemption.  Often overshadowed by A Fistful of Dollars and...