
Preston Sturges was one of the greatest writer/directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age. His scripts are beautifully structured and if you want a master class in comedy dialogue, read his screenplay for The Lady Eve (1941) where con woman Barbara Stanwyck observes about Henry Fonda: “I need him like the ax needs the turkey.”
Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is one of the greatest artists who ever lived. His life is also something of a mystery. Author Daniel Arasse suggests that Vermeer was a revolutionary painter who was attempting to conceptualize a new pictorial space within the classical tradition of art. A fascinating analysis of my favorite artist.