David Lehman

David Lehman, a contributing editor of the Scholar, is a poet, critic, and the general editor of The Best American Poetry annual anthology and author of the book One Hundred Autobiographies. He currently writes our Talking Pictures column.

What Hath Gable Got?

“Rhett Butler” romances Claudette Colbert in Frank Capra’s comic masterpiece It Happened One Night

By David Lehman | Monday November 28, 2022

The Allure of the Enigmatic

“Mod” London takes center stage in Michelangelo Antonioni’s mind-blowing Blow-Up

By David Lehman | Thursday August 25, 2022

Famous Last Lines

How many do you know by heart?

By David Lehman | Thursday July 21, 2022

The Last Cigarette

Cinema’s most seductive prop

By David Lehman | Saturday May 14, 2022

The Plot to Kill de Gaulle

Fred Zinnemann’s “clock management” in The Day of the Jackal

By David Lehman | Saturday March 5, 2022

The Prophecy of an Assassination

John Frankenheimer’s prescient 1962 film, The Manchurian Candidate

By David Lehman | Saturday January 22, 2022

Christmas Movies Beyond the Expected

Six films to shake up your holiday viewing

By David Lehman | Saturday December 18, 2021

The Highest Achievement of American Film Noir

Stanwyck, MacMurray, and Robinson at their best in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity

By David Lehman | Saturday November 6, 2021

To Dance an Exclamation Point

The case for An American in Paris as Gene Kelly’s best

By David Lehman | Saturday September 25, 2021

For Every Season, a Classic Holiday Movie

Three films fit for fall

By David Lehman | Saturday August 28, 2021

A Leap Without a Safety Net

By David Lehman | Monday November 10, 2025

Let’s Write a Villanelle

By David Lehman | Monday October 6, 2025

The Stolen Lines

By David Lehman | Monday September 1, 2025

“Dead Man’s Hand”

By David Lehman | Monday August 4, 2025

Why Go On?

By David Lehman | Monday July 7, 2025

Reasons for Living

By David Lehman | Tuesday June 10, 2025

“The Jester’s Magma”

By David Lehman | Monday May 19, 2025

“The Overture”

By David Lehman | Friday April 18, 2025

“The Nakedness of Woman”

By David Lehman | Friday March 21, 2025

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